Toms Youtube Battle Reports

[tmarichards]

Call to War tournament games going up shortly, second post has been updated with the CtW army preview video (let me know if you like this idea, or if you'd prefer it to be part of the first game)

[tmarichards]

First post has been updated with all 6 games from Call to War, as well as my tournament summary

[Toe Cutter]

Thanks for putting up the reports as they have been most educational. Your presentation has greatly improved over the reports as well. The investment in improved audio is very much appreciated.

A couple of quick points about your gameplay if I may.

You sometimes seem to lack a plan B. If your first plan goes off then everything goes well but if it doesn't then your play appears to unravel sometimes. Take your last game against the daemons for example. You were aware that his lord of change would be looking to pit of shades your hydra yet you rather let him do that and when he did, you didn't seem to have much of an answer to it. The range of pit of shades is only 24". If you have a bit nasty gribbly with a big sign saying 'pit me' stuck to his forehead then why not leave that in the corner of your deployment zone as bait, with your witches in a position to counter charge the chicken if he takes the bait. As you said yourself - a minor loss as a result of castling would have been acceptable yet you didn't seem to try for this. Instead the hydra died and then you committed your witches and lord character piece meal into combat with his fiends. If they'd gone in together then maybe they'd have done better. Yes your lord shouldn't have died so quickly but it was always a possibility. If you'd blocked his fiends charge with some harpies or the sacrificial warrior block for a turn then when the lord did charge in he could have been supported by witches if needed. Also if the witches look like they're going to get shot up on the way in then a skirmish screen of harpies will at least make it more difficult to hit them.

To return to the issue of a lack of plan B - you didn't have a dispell scroll or much in the way of magic defense in your list. Dark elves aren't bad at magic but they aren't the best. There will be armies that will dominate your magic phases - at present you don't seem to have much answer to that other than bemoaning the lack of okkams razor. Similarly your warriors seemed to default to horde formation. Fine when they're playing against less hitty stuff but against things like chaos warriors you're just gifting him extra attacks for no real benefit to yourself.

The other issue is you sometimes seem to lose focus on the route to the win. In your practice match prior to the call to war tournament against your mates warriors of chaos, you got into a position after turn two or three where you could have won easily yet it slipped away and you ended up with a draw. Similarly when playing the lizardmen, if you'd have found a way of shooting up the salamander that eventually stopped misfiring and killed off your level fours bunker before it figured out which way it was supposed to be pointing then you would have had a solid victory. As it was you got wooped. Similar story when playing against the dark elf army. Why were your shades and cross bows wasting time shooting up his unit of cross bows when the two units that mattered that they could have shot at were his hydra and his witches. If you'd have spent more time shooting his witches then again the outcome could have been different.

Sorry if this seems like a bit of a rant but listening to you get into a tiz at the end of the daemons game was frustrating and while I quite like your reports you need to find a way of sorting that kind of thing out mate.

[vcassano]

Thanks for the reports - they are very well done and informative. As Malorian indicated, they could be trimmed a bit, but you definitely have improved in no time at all.

[tmarichards]

Thanks for the feedback

[Malorian]

That's a good set of reports.

Your improving fast and pumping out a lot of reports

[tmarichards]

There's gonna be a hiatus of 2 weeks or so with maybe just one game, but then then end of the month will see another tournament.

Not quite decided what I'm taking yet, but there's a chance that... Here be Dragons...

[Frankly]

I really enjoyed your reports thanks for sharing.

[Tupinamba]

Hi mate, thanks for the reports!

I liked the games and the presentation, once the sound problems had been solved.

And a very nicely painted army you have there! The pictures in the BRs certainly do not do your minis any justice. As a suggestion, I´d say you put one or two close ups photos into the BRs to show them off! Plus I find that this kind of close ups increase the dramaticity of reports, making them feel more like a story.

As to your comments about changing the army and the boredom about moving forward and than buffing with okham´s or hexing the respective enemy with withering, I can only agree... but you know, that´s not the only way to play Dark Elves, right? I don´t like that whole 8th focus on massive hordes plus magic buffing and, IMHO, there´s still a place for more interesting manouvre and combined charges tactics, particularly with DE.

One thing I´d have expected would be combined charges with the Spearmen and Hydra/Chuck, using them in deep infantry blocks to get/negate steadfast and getting the hammer´s killing power. I was a little bewildered about the constant horde deployment for them too. Against warmachines, this makes sense. Otherwise, not so much.

[tmarichards]

Thanks for the kind words guys

I know it's not the only way to play Dark Elves, but I've found it to be the most effective. I don't know if you've listened to my Call to War summary videos, but in those I go over how it's relatively expensive for me to go to a tournament, so if I do I want to have the best list and playstyle I can go in with. However, having done with a few times now, it's starting to wear thin a bit.

This is why there's a stupid Lizards list in the works...

As to the spearmen, I think the main reason for the permanent horde is that I use them like that on the trays to carry them around, and then I never really think of making them shorter when I deploy them... this is part of the reason I don't pull off combo charge much either I think, because the wide blocks are harder to manoeuvre around.

Also, having them wide does suit their role, which is to try and control some space because of the threat of extra attack + Mindrazor.

[TsukeFox]

EtC rules harsh....Daemons harsher...
Good job all around-felt bad for dwarf and empire player.
I totatly would have ignored trying to kill Big Bird-seems hopeless unless you got a sure thing-like The war crime Dwellars.

[Artinam]

Nice reports, subscribed to your channel, you have been really improving

[Lukasz_VT]

Hooray! More youtube batreps that don't have shakey-cam syndrome, and from a fellow Brit! Keep up the good work

One suggestion: you sometimes get ahead of yourself and explain things that happen later in the battle before they happen (if that makes sense). This takes away the suspense and should just be described when it happens

[tmarichards]

I'll see what I can do.

Thanks guys

[steevn]

hi

can you post a picture of your converted witch elves ?

greetings
steevn

[tmarichards]

I'll get one up soon, I don't keep the pics after I've put the videos up.

However, there are a couple of decent pictures in this video at 12.00 onwards:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vaZJW1B8Pg

[tmarichards]

Second post has been updated with the Tempest: Ragnarok preview video.

Follow me on twitter @tmarichards to see how the dragon gets on! RRAAAAAAARGGHHHHHHHH

[tmarichards]

Tempest: Ragnarok reports uploading to Youtube now. Second post updated with first 3 games.

Dragons!

[TsukeFox]

Awe. Hard Luck. Donde esta el BsB ?? Ou est le bsb ??
With the performance of Your dragon lord it is clear he should be benched for a bsb-who would have served you better (most of all in that last battle-can dark Elve take a normal bsb?)
How are the lizards coming along or do you plan to stick it out with the dark elves and get some executioners (or convert some from reg spear elves-I have seen executioners with candy canes on once bittens reports)

[tmarichards]

I would've rather had a paraplegic mouse than that dragon...

Lizards will be getting started from scratch soon, either them or Wood Elves. I think Wood Elves would suit my playstyle better.