Warhammer 8th Edition Battle Royale

That’s right, this week in our Mighty Empires Campaign it had been decreed by the store owner that everyone who showed up would take part in the Battle Royale Mission as per page 406 of the big red rulebook. I read the rules and knew right away I wasn’t winning. Even with some changes and additions to my army there are a lot better armies in our campaign and I always seem to get ganged up on whenever games like this are played.

The infamous Ogre Army

When we showed we were divided into two groups, those at the top of the campaign standings and those like me at the bottom. You’d think this would increase my odds, but some new players had joined including an Ogre army that was really nice and really intimidating sitting on the table top. I took a bunch of photos of the armies being unboxed to show the folks in Austin and Ron from From the Warp what painted armies look like. Apparently in places other than Vancouver, people can’t be bothered to paint their armies. In our campaign at the store I go to, if it ain’t painted you can’t use it. Not just primer either, painted, multiple colours and based or you play down points or not at all in the store. I’m sure people field partially painted models now and then, not me of course, and if you look at the armies and the photos from our game, you won’t see much that is undone.

Sidhu’s new Skaven Army

I volunteered to lead our table and keep the five player, unusual mission game, moving. I was better at that than I was at actually played the game. Our game went way smoother than the top players who had tonnes of Level 4 wizards and the more blood thirsty lists. I also think several of them spent gold to go over points in order to try and win. This week there was to be only two winners, though I think some other folks might have got an extra campaign point or two…

We rolled to see who went in the middle after setting up the terrain and objectives. I rolled one, but Ben also rolled one, so we rolled off, and I rolled one again. I deployed first in the centre of the table where everyone could see me and potentially charge me early and often. I set up so I could quickly secure three objectives. This seemed like a sound strategy and in 40K it probably is. But none of my Nurgle Daemons have any shooting attacks so standing around isn’t usually in their best interest, especially when magic spells are getting hurled at you.

My Deployment

Ben should have had to deploy second, but he had the Scouts campaign event which complicated things a bit. The ogres set up next and it turned out my entire army had their backs to the entire ogre army. I knew eventually the Plaguebearers would be charged in the rear, the question was when? Taking a huge unit of ogres up the ass was going to hurt.

Pavol, the Undead player, got to deploy last which has its own disadvantages but he rarely got charged as a result of always going last. The lizardman player wasn’t the best Warhammer Fantasy Battle Player and he was too conservative and indecisive he never wanted to cross the potentially mystical river and that hurt him. He hurled spells and did other annoying stuff but in general most of the game took place on the other flanks and it was the big battle surrounding the Plaguebearers that would determine the winner.

All five armies arrayed for battle

My first turn of movement

Warhammer Fantasy Battle is funny, I can tell you exactly where the pivotal battle will take place as soon as people start deploying their armies. I’m not even good at the game, so either I have some innate tactical ability or it is fairly obvious that the empty spot between certain units is where they will meet and the game will be decided. In this case it was between the Plaguebearers and the Beastmen. And due to the fact the ogre guy played it very conservative early on, the Plaguebearers and Beastmen beat each other up and the Ogres ran in and just pounded on the Plaguebearers from behind. The ogres would have won the game until the Undead player got involved and even the Lizardmen player started casting minor annoying spells his way.

The enemy armies advance in turn one

It wasn’t everyone versus the ogres, it was everyone versus me as I was in the middle. After five turns there was only two combats I didn’t take part in and they were both in the far corner of the table between units that never really did anything in terms of capturing objectives or killing generals, ie what the mission was all about.

The Big Hoe Down Round One

I kept the game moving and light hearted. I’m the one that was destined to get the shit kicked out of me and my legendary bad luck reared it’s head but I learned a valuable lesson. Don’t make your general a spell caster, especially if your general is a 300 plus point daemon prince. The one spell you get isn’t worth the potential miscast result. Making your BSB a spell caster is also unwise, but I believe Lizardmen players frequently do both, but they have 40 Saurus bodyguards for their Slann and Slann are not helpless they are tough old buggers.

So yeah I move, take some objectives. Magic and shooting are minor, but the undead player has some spell that does damage to every enemy unit on the board which is bad for us all, and it usually fell to me to stop him from casting it, using my Spellbreaker ability or all my dispel dice. I was a good team player even though people kept attacking me.

I decided to get more aggressive and with the ogres looming marched away from them to fight the Beastmen. I didn’t think I’d dispatch the beastmen, in fact I thought he’d charge me, but he waited to get flank charges, but Slime Trail negates that to some degree. The ogre guy continued to wait until he thought it was prudent to charge. The lizardman player had cast a bunch of spells at Slim. He took Lore of Heavens, which obviously he must like, but looking it over I don’t think it is that great, it does do extra damage against models that can fly though.

Nurgle VS Skinks

I didn’t like this so Slim and the Beasts charged the closest Lizardmen. One unit fled so both Slim and the Beasts of Nurgle hit into some Skinks. The Skinks stood and shot and managed through poison to kill a Beast of Nurgle they’d already wounded in the previous shooting phase. This only upset me more so Slim cast his one spell on the Cold One Knights with the fancy banner. It wouldn’t even do anything to them really, just weaken them for a turn that they weren’t even in H2H but some how I got it in my head to use my last three power dice having already tried to cast my Tzeentch spells or the Tzeentch spells that were in range. I promptly rolled two sixes.

After Slim Blows Up

No big deal I thought. BibbltyBobbltyBoo had already miscast the turn before and I made my ward saves and nothing happened. This time I rolled 3. This meant a Strength 10 hit, Slim is a big boy, he has four wounds, then the next part said I had a 50% chance of just plain disappearing. Oh it wasn’t a Strength 10 hit on all my spell casters. It was a Strength 10 hit on all models under the large template centered on Slim. This killed 5 skinks and wounded the Beast of Nurgle, but Slim was fine.

So I had to make one 4+ or Slim would die, I of course rolled a one.

All was not lost, the Beasts rolled up 14 attacks and crushed the skinks, then they fled into a unit of Sauruses who panicked and I wiped both the units out through the magic of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Both the Ogre and Beast player saw this coming and after losing my Daemon Prince I wasn’t crying any tears for the Lizardman player.

Who won this battle?

I ended up having to fight another unit of Saurus Warriors this time armed with spears. And if you have spears and someone foolishly charges you, well they get what they deserve. I didn’t foolishly charge, I pursued into them perhaps…

I just realized we might have forgot the new 8th Edition rule where you get +1 Combat Result bonus in the turn you charge. I charged many times and I know I never took that bonus. I gotta write down about a half dozen rules on queue card…

So with Slim dead and the big hoedown underway on the other flank a lot of dice were rolled. Even more dice were rolled when the ogres charged one turn later into the rear of the Plaguebearers.

The plaguebearers are dead men walking

In the first turn of the hoe down, the Plaguebearers actually won. The Centigures failed their fear test and then their break test and basically ran off the board. The giant jumped up and down on Plaguebearers for three turns killing about a dozen all told. The Beast Lord was always toughness 8 or something despite much talking up of him, the Beastmen lost combat every single round.

The Beastmen, the Giant, the Centigaurs, even the Ogres when they showed up all strike before Plaguebearers. It really is a huge disadvantage being initiative one.

None the less I knew all about it and after losing a bunch I got to return fire. I forgot my poison attacks against the Beastmen, but I remembered it against the Giant and Centigaurs. I won combat and the Centigaurs ran away.

Another uneven fight against me

After another turn of magic and shooting, BibbltyBobbltyBoo had to get into H2H too. I charged the Dire Wolves but I didn’t expect the Varghul to be able to run around the end of them and flank charge me. I still don’t have the subtleties of movement down. This was to be the end of my Herald of Tzeentch.

The end of Round 2 of the Big Hoe Down

The Plaguebearers had always been dead men walking. The Impact Hits, Thunder Stomps, regular Stomps, and the Tyrant, the Butcher and god knows what else killed about 14 Plaguebearers in one round. Despite that I survived, killed enough Beastmen so they had to take a break test and even with the general and battle standard reroll they ran. The Ogre player tried to claim he routed them as he won combat overall, but he never killed a single beastmen all game.

 

Anyway turn four or was it five, anyway the third turn of the big fight and the Undead joined in with a flank charge on the Rhinox unit. They didn’t do much but die in droves, but it was enough to hold up the ogres and allow the Undead player to do some other stuff and he ultimately won the game. The Plaguebearers were truly doomed this turn the Giant jumped up and down on them and then Ogres finished them off. The Ogre player challenged Harold and he couldn’t hide. I’d already sacrificed my unit champion fighting the Tyrant the turn before. The Beastmen player tried to kill Harold the turn before but at Toughness 5 he’s harder to kill then the rest of the unit…

He was no match for the Tyrant though. I think I did a wound though, he struck last as the Tyrant had a Great Weapon.

So I was out of the game now with one turn to go. Magic was causing less and less of an impact. The Beastman Bray Shaman had miscast earlier and lost a level and a spell. He also broke and ran for a while. The Undead Player either kept failing to cast stuff or had it dispelled. The Ogre player added and removed wounds and caused a panic test or two, but they weren’t game winners. The Lizardmen guy cast the most spells but all he killed with them were Gnoblars (the red coats) and Dire Wolves in the second half of the game.

The most contested objective

I determined it was a tie so in GW style we diced off and the Ogre player lost after the Undead player rolled a five. Darren was willing to have a tie but in the end it was decided Pavol was the big winner and the Ogre player got an extra campaign point too, as Darren felt generous I guess.

After the game I walked to the Five Point, had a beer and something to eat and revised my army list. I had gold to spend so I promptly started spending it. I went a little overboard with Daemonic upgrades for Harold and BibbltyBobbltyBoo. The first thing I bought Harold, even though I was very satisfied with the Banner of Unholy Victory, was an even more expensive magic standard. There is no limit on points for this so I opted for the Banner of Hellfire, reasoning that every game the enemy surround the Plaguebearers and beats them down eventually. They are just CORE troops after all, 12 point models.

I buff them up as best I can with a Herald of Nurgle, but they need to do more damage so the Banner of Hellfire can potentially kill a few models every magic phase. I also learned recently that you can use Breath Weapons in H2H. Previously I thought Stream of Bile was useless for Harold as no one was going to stand still in front of 35 or 40 Plaguebearers. But 2D6 extra hits in one round of H2H that could be a game winner.

Although having something to do in the shooting phase, was a novelty and technically I might have killed 25 points worth of Dire Wolves, there are other options for BibbltyBobbltyBoo’s daemonic reward points. Spellbreaker (dispell scroll) is handy but generally when someone really wants a spell cast they just giver and miscast. So after doing math I opted for no Slime Trail and Master of Sorcery for my Herald of Tzeentch.

Some people are convinced that every Lore in the big red book is better than every other magic spell list currently in print. I’m not so sure of this, but knowing six, neigh seven spells, sounds useful. I actually rolled a six and got the big Tzeentch spell but I don’t own any Horrors let alone have any painted up and with me at the store,  so I traded it in for the default. When I got home I looked through all the spells of all the lores, looking for stuff that was easy to cast, as I still only had a Level 2 magic user.

Having spent 405 points on heroes I needed to spend 120 extra points and baring being Fool’s Gold’ed I would have that much or more next time I show up for the campaign having saved 110 gold up already. So Slim could cost up to 405 points too, I considered all his options and gave him Wings (as he has them), Mark of Nurgle (which does nothing) and Trappings of Nurgle which I always wanted so he’d have an armour save, he also now had regeneration which isn’t as good as it used to be.

I then bought the three Beasts of Nurgle, they aren’t great, but they are better than Nurglings and I only had the three painted. If I buy another Nurgle Daemon ever, it’ll be another Beast of Nurgle.  I then figured out how many Plaguebearers I could buy and still have full command and the Icon of Eternal Virulence. It turned out to be 37.

When I got home I went through the spell deck. I like hexes as you cast them without line of sight on models in H2H. But mainly I was looking for easy spells to cast so BibbltyBobbltyBoo could get off a couple spells a turn. I had already gone over the evil half of the Lores thoroughly and although I like the Lore of Metal, it was not the winner. Lore of Light was an early favourite as there is a perverseness in taking it. Then I read Lore of Life, more specifically the Thrown of Vines spell. That seems awesome to me, you cast that and then you are safer from miscasts and almost all your spells are better.

Casting Speed of Light on the big unit of Plaguebearers and having them strike at Initiative 10 instead of Initiative 1 would be pretty awesome but when I got to the last set of spells in the deck I remembered Transformation of Kadon. This always seemed pretty cool but at 16+ to cast it wasn’t easy and BibbltyBobbltyBoo would obviously have to risk a miscast to pull it off. However it just so happens I have a fully painted Manticore sitting in my miniature case. The rest of the spells aren’t bad. Nurgle is supposed to be all about toughness so boosting that makes some sense.

The Beastmen player used this Lore and it didn’t accomplish much but he didn’t have ALL the spells. I could just cast “The Flock of Doom” every turn on a 4+ until I was ready to go for broke. BibbltyBobbltyBoo is not a H2H Juggernaut but turn him into a Monstrous Creature complete with Thunder Stomps… I thought the Manticore would have Poisoned Attacks, it doesn’t, but Killing Blow is possibly better.

So yeah next time I play in the campaign I will have 1600+ points on the table and I will be casting from the Lore of Beasts. I also decided that I need to keep my army tightly deployed like a fist. This mission was strange so spreading out to capture multiple objectives made sense, but since every game I’ve ever played with this army, the opposition tries to gang up and multi charge the big unit of Plaguebearers, I’m sticking Slim on one side, the Beasts on the other side, terrain willing of course, and I’ll hide BibbltyBobbltyBoo behind them or in some trees again and just annoy the enemy until I’m ready try to become a Monster. Maybe if this actually works I’ll have to get an even bigger monster to turn into. Or maybe like a lot of my plans, it looks good on paper but I’ll just get stomped.

Once again I’m sweating profusely while typing this up. It is 9pm and the sun has gone down. I haven’t painted a thing all day. With Astronomi-con Vancouver looming I have to finish a model a day for the next five days, despite the heat, and all the other things I need to accomplish.

I wish it wasn’t so hot that is for sure…

Game 2 & 3 of Warhammer 8th Edition

And two more losses. I’m beginning to think I’m the worst army list selector in the world.  Night Goblin mercenaries have leadership 4! Of course they were in range of both my general and the battle standard bearer when they panicked and ran in the first game, from Salamander fire. Didn’t know they shot that far and force mandatory panic checks. I don’t know much about the army lists I don’t own, playing something like 5 games since 4th Edition.

Anyway this was week two of the Strategies Mighty Empires campaign and I was tied with two other people for last. It was also mandatory mercenaries week and in my defense I didn’t have any options. I did Nurgle daemons as I own them from my 40K army the Diseased Sons, I just painted more, a movement tray, and ranked them up to give 8th Edition a go. The only other fantasy models I own besides one or two more chaos champions, mostly all on round bases, was my 4th Edition Night Goblin army.

Being unemployed and them being close to table ready, I grabbed one unit, which turned out to be 50 models, threw in a Night Goblin Shaman to help me in the magic phase, as in every game of 8th Edition I’ve played I’ve faced a Level 4 Sorcerer, that’s how I chose the army for this week. It is impossible for Chaos Daemons to have a level 4 magic user in a 1500 point game. If I make and save some gold in the campaign I can add up to another 250 points to my army. But that is going to have to wait two weeks, because I’m going to a cousin’s wedding reception next Sunday. Even the three fanatics I felt a little guilty about taking didn’t really do much, they killed a few Night Goblins and a Plaguebearer or two…

Deployment for game 1

I just realized I forgot my animosity rolls. Oh well I forget lots of rules…

This week I got to choose early, first even of the campaign events and took Building Boom and wanted to challenge Sidhu but he wasn’t there, so I ended up fighting Corey and his Lizardmen. He had a Slann, Temple Guard, regular Sauruses who were the mercenaries, some skinks with blow guns, the big triceratops lizard and three salamanders. Once again we rolled up lots of terrain and lots of it magical. I played the second game on the same terrain approximately we rolled what type of rivers and stuff were on the board. No one ever went in the mysterious forest.  I’m beginning to think I should hide behind the scenery, but the Nurgle Daemons don’t even have any ranged attacks and I generally lose during the magic phase, though this week was a bit better.

False Fanatic Release

Anyway I’ve been thinking a lot on what I could do to try to make this army competitive. It is tough at this points level, but I think the long term solution is another unit of line infantry and I’m thinking Daemonettes. Short term the Herald of Tzeentch will be added if for no other reason than defensive magic ability. I also hope to slowly build up some Fiends of Slaneesh, but until then the Beasts of Nurgle will get to come out and play. Nurglings just seems so much worse than other options, even Beasts are no prize. Nurgle appears to have the worst daemons in fantasy, but Plaguebearers are super popular in 40K, getting Feel No Pain and all.

Night Goblins run from fire

Here is the quick version of the two games, as neither went terribly long. In the first game, my small army in terms of units, finished deploying first and then my scouts didn’t really have any place to go in no man’s land. The mission was a modified version of “Hired Guns” which uses I think mission 4 deployment.

Nurglings bite off too much lizard

In the first game the Nurglings went on my far left flank as I figured they might have a chance at killing Skinks. The Plaguebearers went in front of the end of the river where the fighting would obviously take place. Fantasy is so predictable in terms of where H2H will take place, I even tried to cast a movement spell but it was mainly a failure, I didn’t get to move far enough to get into H2H and it was ruled I had to go through my own fanatics. I thought the Hand of Gork should pick up the unit, then put it down in a new place…

Dual charges into Plaguebearers

Anyway there is a good picture of deployment. The dreaded Stegadon, that’s what the big dino is called, rampaged towards the Plaguebeares and despite me trying the tricky magic spell charge, got the charge on me. The Plaguebearers of course held, but that thing is tough to wound. So eventually the Temple Guard got to flank charge the Plaguebearers. The reason the Plaguebearers got flanked charged was the mercenary Night Goblin archers got hit by Salamander flames, which can go surprisingly far. These cause auto panic checks and despite getting two tries to roll 8 or less the Night Goblins panicked and ran, never rallied and disappeared off the board leaving Slim and a lone fanatic at the end.

Before all that happened the Skinks advanced to within 8 inches of the Night Goblins so I remember to send out the fanatics, but one of the many rules is they can’t go through terrain. So I had to redo it as at first I sent two towards the Skinks and one towards the Temple Guard. I also peppered the Temple Guard with 35 arrows and some magic. Despite all the crap I threw at them, they still got the flank charge.

Slim and the Nurglings charged the Skinks. I beat them up and pursued and wiped them out, but this left Slim kinda out of it positionally. The Nurglings went on to charge the Sauruses in the side which obviously didn’t go well. Slim turned himself around and flew back to try and rally the Night Goblins and to charge the Temple Guard in the rear.

I can’t remember all the details, but basically Slim needed to make his leadership test on 8 or less as I lost combat by one after the Plaguebearers were weakened further. He failed, twice! This cost him his last wound. This kinda left my battle standard bearer and a few other Plaguebearers and of course one lone fanatic. I was not lucky with them, I think they killed more of my stuff than his.

Game 2 Deployment

After Slim died and the Night Goblins fled I conceded. I then had to wait around to try to get a second chance to win my first game. Eventually I did get to play Sidhu.

His army had a big unit of the elite Skaven with Halberds. That unit also had the Grey Seer, a chieftain and the battle standard bearer. I through a tonne of shots and spells at it, but couldn’t halt it in the end. He also had two Doom Wheels which again I hit with piles of arrows, fanatics, Plague Swords, well maybe none of those, but goblin fists, I think Slim had a go at them too. Both survived with one wound and two respectively. Those things are pretty sick, they get shooting attacks, move randomly but fast, so you can’t stand and shoot them, the rats get 2D6 hits, they get Impact hits which as they go before everything are making me think some chariots will get painted for the goblins eventually. I own one or two unpainted ones.

Game 2 Scout Moves

Anyway you can see deployment. He had mercenary Blood Knights as that was his other evil army. They did nothing effectively, though everything charged the Plaguebearers in the end and after they got hit by the Dreaded 13th spell I conceded. Before all that happened I deployed the Nurglings on the right flank and moved the Night Goblins away from the river so the Fanatics would have more room to go crazy. They didn’t do that great, Sidhu kept making saves with the damn Doom Wheels but I’d have to say they did better than game one.

Doom Wheels VS Nurglings

The Night Goblins got off one volley of 35 arrows and managed to hit the Doom Wheel a pile, but did zero wounds. Before that happened and despite setting up fairly far back, both Doom Wheels rolled very high, survived driving over the flaming barricade (the barbed wire) and smashed into the Nurglings wiping them out.

They overran and drew out the fanatics and ultimately made it into H2H with the Night Goblins.

Night Goblins fail to kill doom wheels

Night Goblins with Short Bows have no armour save at all. So even 50 die pretty quickly when anything hardier than a sneeze kills them. In my real Night Goblin army I’d have more of them, more fanatics too, and would have a Great Shaman leading that unit and my Warboss leading the other unit. Plus I’d have my huge block of spearmen to occupy the centre and take the charge. My goblin army is designed to stand around and shoot, the warmachines and magic do the damage and when the enemy gets frustrated he has to risk fanatics and lots of arrows and spears plus lots of goblin heroes.

Plaguebearers get stuck fighting in a river

So yeah two loses and no game next week for me. Eventually I will earn some gold and can add up to 250 more points more to the army which will allow Slim and my Heralds to buy fancier toys, but more Plaguebearers and Nurglings is not the answer. Maybe the Beasts can be useful, but I think I’d rather have 2 Fiends of Slaneesh than one Beast of Nurgle. Also the long term solution is another unit of line infantry. 10 Daemonettes with Full Command is 150 points which is 1.5 Beasts of Nurgle or basically 4.2 Nurgling stands. The Daemonettes will have more attacks at 21, the rank and standard bonus, and likely fight before the enemy helping to soften them up for the Plaguebearers. Nurglings have lots of wounds, but they are only toughness 3 and basically always lose combat and just disappear with their Leadership of 5, even 8 isn’t a big improvement.

Charged on all four sides

Nope next month maybe after I get a job if I seriously try to turn this army into something that maybe wins a game, I’ll have to do up at least 10 Daemonettes maybe even 15. Here is my army list, the best one I can make with the models I have painted:

• Daemon Prince with wings and level 1 magic ability 370pts
• Harold of Nurgle, Battle Standard Bearer, Slime Trail and the Banner of Unholy Victory 200pts
• Herold of Tzeentch, Flames of Tzeentch, and Spell Breaker 165pts
• 29 Plaguebearers, Full Command and a magic banner for 403pts
• 3 Beasts of Nurgle 300pts
• With my last 62 points I can buy five more Plaguebearers or if I get it painted, the Fiend of Slaneesh

About the only magic item I can take that might make a difference is switching from Icon of Eternal Virulence to the one that allows me to re-roll failed to wound rolls. I’ll have to think on that some more.  he Harold of Tzeentch will get painted, but after that I need to paint my 2010 Astronomi-con Vancouver army, or at least the remaining 5 or 6 models.

First Game of Warhammer 8th Edition

And I lost…

I actually did well. I got screwed over a little by the campaign getting nothing useful for an event and having no choice but to fight the guy everyone was afraid of, John and his Dark Elf army. My Plaguebearer horde preformed well, but everything else except Harold, the Herald of Nurgle performed poorly and suffered because of all the points invested in the 40 Plaguebearers lead by the army Battle Standard Bearer.

Making room for magnet

I’m back home but still sweating from carrying miniatures twenty plus blocks. My plan was to put together 1500 points of painted Nurgle Daemons, show up every week or so, play a game or two try to have a little fun. So much for my plan, next week is mandatory mercenary week in the campaign. Lucky for me I have a second army, luckily they can ally, unlucky for me that I will have to base them and make movement trays…

Late last night I was scheming up plans to re-base my troublesome Plaguebearer musician conversion and add some magnetic umph to my Battle Standard Bearer, I even had elaborate plans to make my big honkin’ banner even more over the top. I was also thinking of painting another plaguebearer, not terribly ambitious plans. Now it is in my best interest to finally base my goblin hordes and to bring some ranged fire power and increased offensive magic.

Magnet fits well

If I was doing a pure 1500 Daemon army, I’d definitely have a Herald of Tzeentch at 115 points for a level 2 wizard, the Nurgle Herald is 115 points too and he isn’t even a wizard yet, I spent 275 points on him for the game and although he helped me defeat three Dark Elf units I still lost the game. Nurgle has such low initiative and relatively few attacks it may be the weakest of the four powers, especially after regeneration was neutered some.

Model Sits Level

I did take a lot of pictures and I do have some thoughts for next week, but I’m just beat. I think I’ll save this as a draft and revise it later.  I think some down time, especially considering I’m operating on about 3-4 hours sleep is in order.

Well I’m back, I didn’t take a nap, but I got next week’s army list worked out and I got the funky drummer drumming so if I’m going to get this done this evening and impress my new blog network, I better get typing.

Here is the army I ended up running at Strategies today:

• LORD: Slim, Daemon Prince with Wing 320pts
• HERO: Harold of Nurgle, Herald of Nurgle, Battle Standard Bearer, Banner of Unholy Victory, Level One Wizard, Noxious Vapors, Slim Trail 275pts
• CORE: Netherworldly Mathematicians, 39 Plaguebearers, Full Command, Icon of Virulence 523pts
• SPECIAL: George Jr’s, 5 * Nurgling Stands 175pts
• RARE: Slimey and Esmaralda, two Beasts of Nurgle 200pts

Table Setup

So yeah I didn’t win but I had to play the dreaded Dark Elf player he had a Hydra, a level 4 Wizard, Cold One Knights with a Hero, Dark Riders, Witch Elves, and two squads of crossbowmen. I never saw his army list and although I did my best, it seems I remember rules that hurt me and perhaps a few turns of Fear checks or sixes from Poison never happened as they were supposed to.

Before I put all the pics up, I spent last night scheming how to re-base some models and now after a visit to the craft store on Main Street I’ve got enough magnets to make the two more movement trays I need, plus it appears I need to paint the bases of 54 Night Goblins by next Sunday, as it is mandatory ally day.

First of all Darren the store owner wanted us to play a random scenario with random terrain. This resulted in the Watchtower scenario with 7 pieces of terrain much of it magical and confusing. It also took a long time to set up the table and figure out what did what. I avoided maneuvering into the fancy terrain, but my opponent John who had the bigger army couldn’t and for a while the terrain had killed more Dark Elf models than my Nurgle Army. Eventually the Netherworldly Mathematicians found their mojo and hewed through three Dark Elf units. The rest of my army didn’t do much and I will be revising my list for next week and the week after accordingly.

My Army Deployment

Due to the mission I had to deploy first but go second. John had the “Scouts” campaign event which trumped my scouts, the Nurglings and the fact I should have gone first as I started with control of the Watchtower technically. The all CORE Horde Army which I ran and plan to run with my Orks and Goblins is disadvantaged here as only 20 models can fit in the watchtower according to the rules. This along with my inability to make key saves or unwillingness or naivete in not somehow buying better saves cost me the game.

I deployed sensibly. Slim my daemon Prince hid behind the Elven Way Stone and despite my caution with him all game, he eventually died to enemy shooting costing me the victory. Next week he was going to have the Trappings of Nurgle but I just remembered I made him a non-Nurgle daemon and then of course he can’t afford it anyway in a 1500 point game…  DAMN now I need to revise next week’s army list and I was so proud of it too. Too bad daemons can’t use common magic items. I’m not painting another daemon Prince and Slim would really benefit from the armour save and regeneration that the Trappings of Nurgle provides. If he didn’t have wings, I still couldn’t fit it in at 1500 points…  Back to the army books and redrafting next weeks list. At least I don’t have to redo my 375 points of mercenaries.

 

There isn’t a lot I can do at 1500 points using the Daemons of Chaos List, the best I can come up with while still spending less than 375 points on LORDs is to make Slim a Level One Wizard with the Lore of Metal and hope to get the one defensive spell, if I don’t get it, I still like the Lore of Metal’s offensive capabilities and plan to use it instead of Nurgle’s Lore and instead of Fire unless I play Wood Elves.

So after the enemy deployed my Nurglings showed up I put them just over 12 inches away from the dreaded War Hydra and the almost as dreaded Cold One Knights. They didn’t last long but they did allow the Plaguebearers to get the charge bonus and eventually wear down the Dark Elves. I didn’t have a good answer in the magic or shooting phase and I didn’t take on the War Hydra when I had the chance, next time I might be tempted to charge it just to keep it from using its’ breath weapon which killed 11 plaguebearers in a single shot later in the game.

Turn One Taking Charges

As you might have gathered, the Dark Elf player got first turn and took the bait. He charged the Nurglings with both the Hydra and the Cold Ones. The Hydra did not roll well enough but the Cold One Knights and their hero were way too much for the Nurglings dealing 15+ wounds counting instability rolls which accounted for the last six I think.

With the Nurglings gone there was nothing to be done but charge down the hill with the Plaguebearers. I think I need to roll 8 or higher and I rolled ten. The first round of combat didn’t go well, neither did the second. Harold my Herald refused to fight the Dark Elf hero in a challenge the second round, sulking at the back. He is much more valuable alive as he was my Battle Standard Bearer, my only wizard, and was worth D3+1 Combat Resolution. Despite looking there was no rule that said his banner didn’t work in the back rank. Harold had Pit of Slime and his unit was in H2H from the first turn until the last when I yielded pretty much. So he was strictly a defensive magician. Next time my Battle Standard Bearer won’t be my only wizard if at all possible.

Turn One Making Charges

I think a Herald of Tzeentch is the long term solution to this problem at 1500 points. But short term I’ll be bringing an allied hero wizard and giving Slim a go in the magic phase as a Level One Wizard in his own right.

I took a picture of how the Dark Elves deployed. His mysterious river, there were two, along with the Haunted Mansion gave him some grief, I think he would have been best just to ignore them and deploy wherever he wanted. The central watchtower and the speed of the Dark Riders prevented the Beasts of Nurgle from doing much. Their initiative of one ensured they ultimately died to the Purple Sun. Nurgle really suffers with the increased emphasis on initiative and presumably Slaneesh benefits.

After two turns of all out charging there was a period of a turn or so of maneuvering waiting to see who won the one H2H fight. The Plaguebearers prevailed and followed up catching the hero and killing it. Then I took an absolute beating in the shooting phase but still charged the crossbowmen and saw them off too, though by then I was down to a single row of Plaguebearers.

Cold One Knights are Routed

About now the Purple Sun finally got cast, but the first time it did nothing. The Witch Elves came out to play and the Crossbowmen who had taken control of the Watchtower got to meet Slim. I learned I couldn’t multiple charge the Watchtower which is lame and prevented the Beasts from charging for another turn. I should have marched then while maneuvering. I maneuvered them, but always moved at slow speed when I flat out didn’t have to. That’s inexperience for you.

Slim got to charge the Crossbowmen, despite them standing and shooting and bringing him ultimately down to one wound and me forgetting my Thunder Stomp! I won and chased those Dark Elves out of the tower. Slim being a monster couldn’t hide in the tower. The routing Dark Elves were ultimately charged by the Beasts, killed and the Beasts succeeded in escaping one Purple Sun only to be killed by another faster one, 30 inches of movement in one turn!

Dark Elves take the tower

After getting burnt, losing their regeneration for the remainder of the phase there were a lot less Plaguebearers. They were still more than enough for the unit of Dark Elf Crossbowmen in front of the Haunted Mansion. It was much more surprising when just two surviving Plaguebears both carrying magic standards managed to win a round of combat against the relatively fresh Witch Elves, who broke, were caught and killed.

Alas I didn’t have enough staying power and the crossbow bolts and Purple Suns eventually removed all my models but the aforementioned two Plaguebearers. I put their banners away during the game, but with my new supply of magnets and some more cinematic basing, they might stick around for more than a photo op. My DIY musician with my home-made Gong of Despair will hopefully be no problem once I make my custom 2 Plagubearers taking up four models worth of space mini movement tray.

A lot less plaguebearers than I started with

As I said next week is mandatory mercenary week, I’m probably not in last but with only one campaign point and being stuck in the jungle in the upper left corner, I’m close to the bottom. But I know I’m not trying very hard to win, played the toughest opponent almost to a draw, and with a lot of effort can probably field a better list. Luckily I’m unemployed so can devote say three days to making movement trays and basing goblins to produce this army list for next week:

• LORDs: Daemon Prince, Wings, Level 1 Wizard 370pts
• HEROs: Harold of Nurgle, Battle Standard Bearer, Banner of Unholy Victory, Slime Trail 200pts
• CORE: 29 Plaguebearers, Full Command, Icon of Eternal Virulence 403pts
• Mercenary HERO: Night Goblin Shaman, Level 2 Wizard, Mad Cap Mushrooms, Amulet of Protectyness 130pts
• Mercenary CORE: 50 Night Goblins with short bows, Full Command, 3 Fanatics 245pts
• SPECIAL: 4 Stands of Nurglings 140pts
• Leftovers: one more Plaguebearer 12pts

Two Plaguebearers Remain

There you go, that army hopefully has more offensive and defensive magic. Slim is still vulnerable but hopefully 50+ Night Goblins will cause some worry. I think the Plaguebearers will do better deployed in depth, it was the banners and the bonus points of combat resolution that won for me, not my extra attacks and the pitiful few kills I actually managed. Slime Trail is a really smart use of 10 points and makes Harold exactly 200 points which is more reasonable.

Next week I have the mercenary Night Goblin Shaman with the Little Waaagh magic, but future 1500 point armies will have a cheap Tzeentch Herald I think. I’ll just put him on foot and hide him behind some squad, say the Plaguebearers. I’ll give the Beasts of Nurgle another go someday, the Purple Sun was a bit of bad luck, more defensive magic might help, but just getting stuck in would help too. I also plan to assemble and paint a Fiend of Slaneesh for the speed. I think the model currently retails for about 35 dollars Canadian so that might be something to buy, though I already own one from a trade many years ago. Fleshhounds are the other option I own that will add speed and higher initiative troops quickly and easily to the army.

Victory against Witch Elves

Magnetic Sheets For Sale

First up is more basing, more movement trays, and yet another Plaguebearer. I also will get some non-Nurgle Heralds and my one Fiend of Slaneesh assembled and hopefully painted in the next two weeks.

While editing this post for the third time, to make it better and add a link to Urban Source where I got my sheets of magnets, I also thought since flamer template attacks are all the rage, Nurgle usually has one, but it is too many points to give to Slim at 1500. I’m going to have to paint more stuff or at least field more stuff and use a higher points value, maybe in week three if the campaign goes better.