Toms Youtube Battle Reports

[willowdark]

I always thought Branchwraiths should get wildform, or bear's anger before, as a bound spell. Or maybe even access to Lore of Beasts to represent the primal anger of the dryad on the warpath. I think that would go a long way to improving Branchwraiths and WE in general.

[Graxy]

1st day double skaven, second day empire and lizards? What did you do to p*** God off tom?! But in all seriousness, considering the lineup that you had to play, 72 points isn't too bad. Obviously the mistake of actually playing the empire army did cost you quite a bit, but hey, go big or go home really. You're paying for the event so might as well get your moneys worth.

Keep up the good work mate

[tmarichards]

Thanks

First post has been updated with the SCGT 2012 preview, games and summary.

[DragonArmy]

Thanks for all time and effort you put into these! Very well written.

And here is a comment I would make over the internet, but not to a mate i know and play regularly:

you've become very good player and self aware--honest reflections on why you lost. However, you are now held back because you've developed this sense of "fairness."

I walked away from your battle reports with this comment in mind, "the games he won he feels he really didn't deserve, and the games he lost, he feels were unfair situations." Too often warhammer players develop a since of fairness that I don't actually feels reflects the way you win the game, and then they express discouragement when their perceived fairness does not come to pass.

Anyway, keep posting these. We really enjoy them!

[TsukeFox]

So-do you Reaally need the BSBs rerolls?? Without the BSB the hail of doom noble could be the general for much cheaper. And you would not need to waste points on a magic bow.

[tmarichards]

The re-rolls are pretty useful, and I'm a big fan of the HoDA. I've gotten a lot better at picking targets for it, so I'm getting more use out of it. I could move it onto the general, but a big part of how useful it is comes from the BS6 of the BSB, as opposed to only the BS4 of the general.

[tmarichards]

This. This thread. This thread is why we can't have nice things http://www.warseer.com/forums/showth...n-Mage-Priests

The rampant stupidity makes me want to cry with despair at the human race. I am unsure how some people manage to operate their lungs without outside help.

[Rosstifer]

I agree. Problem is, people like that have massive post counts, but never play games, and certainly not competitive ones. They beat a 13yr old kid using a Life Slann one time, and then pop on the internet and declare Slann rubbish. I've seen people say the same about Scar Vets, Chaos Knights, Destroyer, Skaven in general.... Makes me slap my forehead on my keyboard.

[Djekar]

It's a madhouse in there. But seriously - Lizards are filth.

[tmarichards]

I may have sourced a Lizardmen army to take to Call to War (ETC comp). I am unsure whether to go through with this or not lol.

[Djekar]

I say go for it. It can only make your game better to see how the enemy plays, and what it's weaknesses are. That way you can steamroller a few games with a light/death slann combo and crappy SKrox units to lift your spirits and when you go back to playing another army you'll have fresh insight into defeating the completely balanced book that is lizardmen.

Or, and here's the negative, you could love it so much that you sell all your toys and start a lizardmen army.

Tough call, that.

[Clockwork]

I don't think you had many games against them on the channel with your Dark Elves, so I'm curious - do you think Lizardmen are a tough match up for WE, or in general? How would you face them with Dark Elves?

[tmarichards]

I don't really like playing them with anything, the Death Slann especially is an absolute nightmare to face but then again so is the double frog as they just have too much good magic for me to deal with

I never really got my head around how to play against them with Dark Elves, my usual plan was always to back off and shoot/magic the chaff away then go to work on the blocks after weakening them as well.

With Wood Elves, it's very similar. I tend to go for a very refused flank deployment and work on picking off the chaff. Treekin can sort of deal with the blocks (a unit of 6 can take Saurus, but 4 needs Wildform), and the SKrox do NOT like getting shot at all, but I don't start on them until there is nothing left to shoot. Other than that, I run the characters away to save them from Scar-Vets/Death snipes and avoid the blocks as best as I can. If I play it right and get a bit of luck, I can pull out a small win but a minor loss is more likely as it only takes a couple of small errors and everything can fall apart fairly quickly.

As a general rule, making the Salamanders die as quickly as possible is a priority.

[tmarichards]

On a side note, a mate of mine has started doing his own Youtube battle reports- also with Wood Elves . Please have a look at his channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/outridersgaming

[Clockwork]

Will do! Whilst we are on the subject, can you recommend any other good channels?

I say go for the Lizardmen. You might pick up on some weaknesses to exploit.

[vcassano]

On a side note, a mate of mine has started doing his own Youtube battle reports- also with Wood Elves . Please have a look at his channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/outridersgaming

I've been watching these; they are very good and I'd like to see more. A couple of things though: he should give us a name. I know it is outriders gaming but that isn't a useful reference point really. I can say Tom's battle reports or Malorian's or Brother Maynard's and it is obvious what I mean, outriders gaming just doesn't work as well and lacks the personal touch (even if it isn't their real name). It is also nice to hear more Southern representation. Oh and he should promote the videos more because they are very much worth watching. If you could pass on the feedback that would be much appreciated

[eomir4122]

Cheers for the plug Tom!!

I've been watching these; they are very good and I'd like to see more. A couple of things though: he should give us a name. I know it is outriders gaming but that isn't a useful reference point really. I can say Tom's battle reports or Malorian's or Brother Maynard's and it is obvious what I mean, outriders gaming just doesn't work as well and lacks the personal touch (even if it isn't their real name). It is also nice to hear more Southern representation. Oh and he should promote the videos more because they are very much worth watching. If you could pass on the feedback that would be much appreciated

i'm glad you like them. I realise i only mention my name briefly in the short intro video. Started this from scratch yesterday afterwork so, a b it hodge podge here and there.
The name is Nick and i reckon i will be the main contributor but hopefully there will be some dwarf, chaos dwarf and high elf vids up at some point as my colleagues get their arses into gear and put stuff up.

On that note, off to start my own thread for these darn things

[tmarichards]

Right, time for a Warhammer update!

I played 2 games yesterday vs Nick (eomir4122) under the ETC comp, one was my Dark Elves vs his Wood Elves (17-3 win to me) and then a Wood Elf off (14-6 win to him). I'm not going to go into the Wood Elf lists in too much depth, but suffice to say they really just don't do it for me with the comp pack. So, I'm going to be taking my Dark Elves to Call to War. I'll run over my list that I used against Nick briefly, it is my ultra-defensive list of deploy in a corner and go ruin hobbies with pegasii/magic

Fire level 4 (general), Stabby Dagger, Lifetaker

Death level 4, Dispel Scroll

CloakStone pegasus with lance

Pendant/Dragonhelm pegasus

Cauldron BSB

20 xbows, musician

14 xbows, musician

10 Corsairs, musician, handbows

21 Warriors, full command, Standard of Discipline

5 harpies

20 Black Guard, musician

20 Black Guard, musician


My thoughts:

Death magic is AMAZING. Such good spells, and such good casting values. Soulblight + xbows is ruinous, as the board control by basically creating a 34" bubble that most enemy characters can't come into, which was especially good because he wanted to try and cast Dwellers at me. I didn't roll it in this game, but Doom and Darkness has a great synergy with the Pegasus heroes- run them into something, cast Doom and Darkness and watch that Steadfast break test drop by 3. I didn't actually use the snipes much against Nick other than to work on Treemen, but overall I think Death is a great deck. Definitely one I should use more often.

Fire magic was very nice indeed- Fireball is a great spell, and so is Flaming Sword. Both are outrageously easy and safe to cast with the Sacrificial Dagger. Flame Cage is another good spell in there. It also lets me reach out and hurt people from across the board, which I am a big fan of being able to do in the magic phase. It's also the only way really that my list can stand up to an Abomb, and given that Skaven are essentially uncomped under the ETC rules (comping Skaven would just be silly, same as putting any meaningful restrictions on Lizards/Ogres. Thank goodness they capped Glade Guard though, imba filth) there will likely be a few of these. However, an alternative would be to take Metal magic- I lose out on the Abomb coverage, but Mournfangs, Ironblasters and Demigryphs (I think these will be among some of the more common models at Call to War) among others all become easy picking. Final Transmutation is an awesome spell for killing stuff (against a lot of things it's an easier to cast Dwellers with a longer range and creates a Stupidity bubble on the other end), and it also synergises well with Doom and Darkness to make them fail those Stupidity tests. Enchanted Blades are of course great, so are the Glitterring Robes- power armoured Black Guard ftw? Plague of Rust also helps out a fair bit with the otherwise desultory xbows. Overall, I'm not sure which might be better- Metal/Fire on the general? I have a hunch that says Metal, but what do you think? Also, even with the max +2 power dice and the 5 dice cap, the Sacrificial Dagger was still golden (I'm not sure anyone ever had any doubts about that though lol) just for the safety option.

I have said many times that I don't rate the core xbows, and even after using 34 of them I still don't think much of them without magic support. However, with the 4 dice cap on Shadow, Corsairs just aren't really optimal and neither are Warriors, so xbows it is to fill my core. It's a bit of a shame to not have any shades, but tbh they don't really fit in and have the potential to bleed a lot of points which is something I want to avoid.

The last thing I want to talk about is my hero set-up- pegasus heroes are utterly absurd. They killed so much stuff, and were very hard to kill in return (one got killing blowed by Wardancers, but not before it ran over 10 Glade Guard and a level 4 general, and the other killed Nick's level 3 and survived) but the Cauldron didn't really do very much for me- the xbows picked off anything that got too close, and the Pegasus heroes dealt with all the light shooting so I am not convinced it is entirely worthwhile. I'm very tempted to drop it outright, and instead go for a third Pegasus hero with the Armour of Eternal Servitude (heavy armour, regen), Relic Sword and the Dragonbane Gem, so that I have a third chap who is also stupidly hard to kill (1+ from shooting, 2+ in combat and then a regen with a 2++ vs flaming) unless you have Killing Blow/Metal magic. That would let me upgrade the Pendant chap to be the BSB (he is basically the hardest to kill) and to give him the Biting Blade leaving me with 15pts left over. Not having Killing Blow does make me a little wary against Knights/Scar-Vets/other Pegasus heroes, but if I do swap to Metal then combined with Death I have pretty good coverage against them. However, not leaving home with a Cauldron seems churlish, despite me having some sound reasoning for doing so :/ again, what do you think?

One option I am considering is taking the flaming banner on a unit of Black Guard- if I can nick a few wounds off an abomb on the way in then they should be able to finish it off, but I just don't think it's worthwhile for what I'd have to drop. It might come back to bite me, but I think I'm going to go with my same logic that I use when creating a Pokemon team- I am fully aware that there are parts of the game that I am weak against, but trying to shore up against them would compromise the overall integrity of the team and so might not be worthwhile. And, I mean, it's not like I ever get drawn against Skaven in tournaments much...

[vcassano]

Death magic is AMAZING. Such good spells, and such good casting values. Soulblight + xbows is ruinous, as the board control by basically creating a 34" bubble that most enemy characters can't come into, which was especially good because he wanted to try and cast Dwellers at me. I didn't roll it in this game, but Doom and Darkness has a great synergy with the Pegasus heroes- run them into something, cast Doom and Darkness and watch that Steadfast break test drop by 3. I didn't actually use the snipes much against Nick other than to work on Treemen, but overall I think Death is a great deck. Definitely one I should use more often.

It is really great. I'm currently toying around with my SI list and can't decide between the buffing power of Beasts or Death's brutality for my Ogres (trying to be a bit different to the usual builds - Stonehorns ahoy). Another synergy might be (and it is situational, no doubt) to snipe out unit champions which then means your Pegasus riders cannot be challenged out and neutralised in such a way. Also, don't forget that Death magic can pick out a single model, so is effective against war machines and Ironblasters too (I don't have the rules on me but I believe that is how it works, though I reserve the capacity to be wrong here).

Fire magic was very nice indeed- Fireball is a great spell, and so is Flaming Sword. Both are outrageously easy and safe to cast with the Sacrificial Dagger. Flame Cage is another good spell in there. It also lets me reach out and hurt people from across the board, which I am a big fan of being able to do in the magic phase. It's also the only way really that my list can stand up to an Abomb, and given that Skaven are essentially uncomped under the ETC rules (comping Skaven would just be silly, same as putting any meaningful restrictions on Lizards/Ogres. Thank goodness they capped Glade Guard though, imba filth) there will likely be a few of these. However, an alternative would be to take Metal magic- I lose out on the Abomb coverage, but Mournfangs, Ironblasters and Demigryphs (I think these will be among some of the more common models at Call to War) among others all become easy picking. Final Transmutation is an awesome spell for killing stuff (against a lot of things it's an easier to cast Dwellers with a longer range and creates a Stupidity bubble on the other end), and it also synergises well with Doom and Darkness to make them fail those Stupidity tests. Enchanted Blades are of course great, so are the Glitterring Robes- power armoured Black Guard ftw? Plague of Rust also helps out a fair bit with the otherwise desultory xbows. Overall, I'm not sure which might be better- Metal/Fire on the general? I have a hunch that says Metal, but what do you think? Also, even with the max +2 power dice and the 5 dice cap, the Sacrificial Dagger was still golden (I'm not sure anyone ever had any doubts about that though lol) just for the safety option.

Death and Flying units (even Harpies) are superb against Ironblasters (in the flank so the Rhinox cannot attack, particularly), so I wouldn't worry too much about them. You also have flying redundancy (not to mention Pendant + Cloak of Hag Graef)so they should not be a worry for you. Abombs can be killed quite efficiently (as efficiently as anything kills them) with Death magic if needs must. As I wrote this I was leaning towards fire, because it is a great lore, bu now that I think about it Metal might be better - Mournfang and Demigryphs are too common and too hard a counter for you to ignore, I'd wager.

That would let me upgrade the Pendant chap to be the BSB (he is basically the hardest to kill) and to give him the Biting Blade leaving me with 15pts left over. Not having Killing Blow does make me a little wary against Knights/Scar-Vets/other Pegasus heroes, but if I do swap to Metal then combined with Death I have pretty good coverage against them. However, not leaving home with a Cauldron seems churlish, despite me having some sound reasoning for doing so :/ again, what do you think?

I would drop the Cauldron. The Black Guard don't need buffing in most sensible match ups and I'm not sure it would turn your other blocks into killing machines. The Pegasus Heroes aren't an efficient use of your buffs (vs. a combat block) due to them being just one model. Thus, your heavy-lifting is being done by units that don't require or aren't substantially improved with the cauldron. At least, in theory. I think the cauldron dilutes your premise, but I don't play Dark Elves.

One option I am considering is taking the flaming banner on a unit of Black Guard- if I can nick a few wounds off an abomb on the way in then they should be able to finish it off, but I just don't think it's worthwhile for what I'd have to drop.

I'm loathe to suggest the flaming banners on main combat blocks but if you do go with Death-Metal then this might be a necessary evil. If you get tanked by a 2+ ward hero then so be it. You can't cover everything.

[TsukeFox]

Well there are so many low Int spell/items that is not the cauldron almost in the same ball park as the Hydra in the free points area?