Toms Youtube Battle Reports

[tmarichards]

Indeed, he got top Ogre in the end I believe. I played him round 4. Nice chap, decent player but he made an awful lot of very basic errors in our game (not seeing obvious ways for me to avoid charges, letting me get Amber Spears into flanks and characters, leaving Sabretusks within 6" of multiple units when his general and BSB were both out of range. Not sure if he was hungover or just tired (first game of day 2) or realised that Ogres don't need to play well against Wood Elves to win (you literally just push it forwards and roll charge dice), but I expected more from a player with his reputation.

[Djekar]

Hooray for the ETC pack. Wait, no - that other thing...

Think they'll (finally) look a little more in depth at Skaven and Ogres in the next draft?

[tmarichards]

Hooray for the ETC pack. Wait, no - that other thing...

Think they'll (finally) look a little more in depth at Skaven and Ogres in the next draft?

Not a chance, they'll probably comp Glade Guard further. Ogre players are just that good yo.

[Djekar]

I really don't get the comp on wood elves when compared to the comp on some of the other armies. I mean, I get as angry as the next guy when my game is move and scoop for 5 turns followed by being fed some chaff, but I think that there are ways around that when writing lists and in good play, so I don't like to see a book comped to make games against them need less brainpower. I can't wait to see the reports from call to war. I don't use twitter so each game is always a surprise to me when it's up on Youtube - except for Ogre games. I know how those end.

Hey Tom, on an off topic discussion - if I were to be having my first games with my Dark Elves vs. Skaven this weekend, do you have any advice for me other than "bend over and bring the KY"?

[tmarichards]

I've never really been able to get my head around Dark Elves vs Skaven :/ kill the Abomb asap though, and don't let him Skitterleap Engineers if you have a Cauldron. Getting into the infantry and threshing them with multi-attack stuff seems to work relatively well. Also, hope their toys don't work :/

Amit Hindocha (who also watches my channel but doesn't use Warseer) got 3rd place at SCGT with his Dark Elves, including a couple of games against Skaven. He posted his battle reports in my TWF battle reports thread, so I'll copy and paste from there so you can see what he did:

"Game 6: Rob Hallam and his Skaven army on table 4! Odd list, mainly combat with some shooting/magic.

Game plan was to crush the centre and ignore the flanks. Get into the points and push through and see if I could panic off anything that got into my lines.

Essentially, it went to plan. 1 BG block being deleted in 1 round by DoomWheel and 30 PlagueMonks with banner wasn’t ideal and left my right flank weak, but when my other combat blocks were able to chew through c25 slaves a turn each, I was into the Clanrat and Stormvermin bunkers by turn 4. Managed to keep the magic quiet, and Rob focussed all of his shooting and what of his magic got through on the Hydra. Managed to killing Blow the Warlord and drop the BSB in the same turn (4), and killed the Grey Seer in a challenge with my level 1 Metal Mage (Gogogo Sea Serpent Standard for another attack!). The Oegmaster ground out the Abomb, who then came back to life with 6 wounds! It promptly lost combat again and bounced off the table. Meanwhile the Plague Monks got a seeing to mhen the charged the Cauldron and spent the rest of the game running off, finally leaving the board on 6. The Doomwheel (1 wound left)also went into the Cauldron, and the Hag rolled 4 6s to hit and took it off . Rob's dice throughout were poor to medium apart from the double 6 Hellpit ressurection, and mine were fairly average meaning I did have the "luck" advantage.

Result: 20-0"

[Djekar]

Thanks for the redirect there - I'll see if I can't digest it and adapt it to my own list. We play uncomped which is good for me and relatively not so great for the skaven, so hopefully that can go in my favor too.

[tmarichards]

One big thing is that after you kill his cannon, get your characters out of their unless they have to be in there- Dark Elves = small units + characters = brilliant targets for 13th...

[Jal]

I use Waseer every now and then Tom, the problem I have with it is that alot of the posters are ******!

My advice for DE vs Skaven is to break through the Slave lines asap - the quicker you're into the bunkers the more likely you are to win

Amit

[tmarichards]

True dat. Fortunately, my thread appears to have attracted a reasonably-minded crowd

[tmarichards]

Updated with Call to War.

[Akkaryn]

Unlucky with some of the matches there. The Ogre comp is a little excessive. I have never really had any issues with ogres (aside ironblasters but that's another story) Aside the comp for everyone just increased their power. I personally think they would be completely fine if Mournfang were limited. Or the ogre movement/ogre charge was reduced. I find the impact hits are what really screw over the combat especially when they get the D3 ogre charge ones.

I've never had the joy of playing daemons, but I agree with your summary. shooting the bloodthirster at the start was probably not the best.

Still top half finish is nothing to scoff at.

[TsukeFox]

Man-so what is the plan for future ogre match ups?? A dragon or a Treeman ancient ?

[TsukeFox]

Man-so what is the plan for future ogre match ups?? A dragon or a Treeman ancient ?

I can get behind glade riders-but maybe just 2 as 4 will block off fire lines to your glade guard. Maybe 2 glade riders & some warhawk riders so that the warhawks do not block LoS.

[tmarichards]

Man-so what is the plan for future ogre match ups?? A dragon or a Treeman ancient ?

I think, just accept that they're a bad match-up and play better

[Djekar]

Well, when they are comped a little more, it should be easier for you to deal with them since Wood Elves got a fair bit of comp themselves.

Not having done "the maths", how do wardancers do against mournfangs? What about a Wardancer Lord? Just trying to think of something that you can do to actually beat them in CC. I'm surprised that Treekin (if flanking or buffed) don't make short work of them, but then - I haven't done "the maths" or rolled it out.

Why not, instead of running 2 units of 6 Treekin, run 3 units of 4? Same price, can be in more places at once and don't give up as many points like you were worried about? Just a thought.

I like the idea of a few units of Glade Riders to double flee/harass. I think that while they aren't as good as glade guard, they will still be nice to help pick off that chaff which will hopefully allow the GG to get in an extra full round of shooting at the juicy bits.

[Jerry]

Nice videos!
Only nit-picking here but you do talk quite quickly at some stages.

[Artinam]

Nice reports Tom
Its amazing to see how you play tactically and get the most out of your army.
I guess your lucky that your cat picked the right armybook when you started them (instead of Dwarves).

[tmarichards]

Afternoon gents, the next tournament I am likely to be playing in will be an ETC comp 4 player team tournament in Plymouth early next month. We're still finalising lists, but at the moment it looks like I will be taking my Dark Elves with the aim of creating a very negative list that can take some bad match-ups and not give away too many points, which will allow our heavy hitting list to get a good match-up and bring us back the 20-0 every round (or at least, that's the plan...).

So, I wanted a very defensive list that could sit back and be very hard to run at, but could at the same time pick off a few points if my opponent does decide to try and also castle for the 10-10. It's pretty similar to the list I posted a couple of pages back, with a handful of changes:

Death Level 4 (General)- Lifetaker, Dispel Scroll

Metal Level 4- Sacrificial Dagger

Master BSB, Lance, Dark Pegasus, full mundane, Pendant, Dragonhelm, Potion of Foolhardiness

Master, Lance, Dark Pegasus, heavy armour, shield, Cloak of Hag Graef, Dawnstone

Master, Lance, Dark Pegasus, SDC, shield, Armour of Eternal Servitude (heavy armour, regen), DBane Gem

21 Warriors, full command, Standard of Derp

10 Corsairs, musician, handbows

20 Xbows, champion, musician

15 Xbows, champion, musician

5 harpies

5 harpies

20 Black Guard, musician

Chariot

Chariot


Aim is to sit back in the corner and essentially create a Zone Of Death where anyone who approaches will be chaffed up by harpies for a couple of turns whilst being shot at and then counter-charged by the chariot pair. In the meantime, I can 4 dice + Stab Final Transmutation every turn, and snipe any characters that try to run at me. In the meantime, I can send either all 3 pegs at the enemy's chaff, or I can send just 2 and sit back with the BSB. I'm actually tempted to make the regen chap the BSB, as in a few match-ups he's one of the easier ones to kill so he might end up sitting back more often than the others and so it would make sense to have him give me the re-rolls. Still, that's a fairly minor tweak and all in all I am pretty happy with the list. Seeing as it is a team tournament and we'll have some control over the match-ups (especially as I am Team Captain so I'll be dealing with the match-up process), I've given some though to the match-ups for my list- let me know what you think of them:

Very good (16+ points):

Wood Elves (unless they have lots of Waywatchers)
Empire (War machines can't touch 2 of the pegs who can get behind his knights, if he runs at me I chaff him up and take off his knights with Metal magic and if he is infantry heavy I shoot him off then put him through the Black Guard Blender)
High Elves (can't kill the pegs. Best build for HE under the comp is arguably the Star Dragon, and the Pendant Peg loves fighting them)

Good (12-15pts):

Daemons (Bloodletters can be shot up/chaffed off/Black Guarded, greater daemons hate the Pendant Peg, and the pegs clear their chaff really quickly)
Dwarfs (too slow to get to me, and can't kill the pegs so I can clear all their war machines)
Brets (can't kill the Pegs barring HKB Lord and I just don't go near him, Death and Metal magic ruins them. Peg Knights are a pain though)
Tomb Kings (too slow to get to me, can't kill the pegs unless I do something stupid with them. Can't get the big points off them though)
Beastmen (can't really get the big points off them unless they run into the Blender)

Neutral (9-11pts):

Lizards (horrible army, never got my head around how to play them with DE)
Warriors (the Knight bus is actually deceptively hard to kill with Metal magic- as it either has the 3++ very early on or is in combat from turn 2)
Dark Elves (too build dependant, but I know how the army works fairly well)

Bad (5-8pts):

Ogres (I can kill the Mournfangs, but the Gutstar is horrible. In theory, if I can get all 3 pegs into it and Doom and Darkness it then I can kill his BSB and break it in a round, but I don't have a reliable way of doing so with the 4 dice Death magic cap)
Skaven (can't reliably kill an Abomb, and I don't really have enough stuff to take off all the rats with a good rate of return. Death magic should keep the Seer away though, which keep the rest of the army away. Issue is if he has MR2 as well...)
VC (can't kill Crypt Horrors, and too many bodies in the infantry)
O&G- (their war machines and chaff will hurt then peg heroes, and a single casting of Foot can take off 2/3rds of my army with only a little luck)

Very bad (0-4pts):

Death Slann (nothing in my list can get to him before he kills 1200pts of my characters)

[Jal]

Tom, I'd consider Biting Blade rather than Lance on Pendant Peg, as of now with no Lore of Fire or Dark, you only have Lifetaker to deal with Etereals/Forest Spirits - otherwise looks very, very similar to the list I was thinking for ETC comp.

I'm still on the fence between 2*Chariot and a unit of Knights - altho the double Chariot is a bit more reliable

Also, Pendant Peg grinds out the Abomb, particularly as he's the BSB, he'll keep forcing ld 8 tests, and if you can create a 24" Seer no go area with the Death Sorc in a unit at the front of your army, you can keep the points castled up while the Pegs/Harpies kill off the Abomb/WLC/Rat Darts/Gutter Runners

[tmarichards]

Biting Blade is a good shout, I went with the lance just so that he hits a bit harder- I shouldn't be getting drawn against VC in the match-up process hopefully