8th Ed. Escalation League (1363 points) Empire battle

Re: Escalation League (405 points)

Hmm, I'll take a look at what I have under 81 points that is still on the "maybe" list for the 500 point reset. Also confirmed when we hit the 500 reset the list has to be fully legal.

 

Re: Escalation League (405 points)

it'd be an idea to try out 3 units and some kind of hero just to get a taste for it then, that's what you're stuck with some of the way up to 750 unless you're running chief + priest (which i won't advice).

 

Re: Escalation League (405 points)

81 points is exactly enough for a sally with an extra handler

This sounds like quite a fun way of getting into warhammer, reminds me of a gw campaign about 9 years ago that got me into brettonians

 

Re: Escalation League (405 points)

So we got a double update this week! I was able to get two games in and completely catchup. I decided to add the salamander hunting pack for this week and then prepare 2 lists depending on whether I won or lost. Both games were against Dark Elves.

The first game was pretty easy. He dad a unit of spearmen with a beast master, and two repeater crossbow units. He was terrified of the salamander so shot at it the entire game with both units. He killed 1 handler and did 2 wounds. The salamander burned the smaller unit entirely and a few of the other before the game was over. The skinks did a few wounds before the Saurus charged the spearmen. He challenged with his hero so they duked it out. The Saurus wiped out the spearmen. The challenge went two rounds and he managed to get my Scar Vet with all his rerolling. Saurus ran him down afterwards when he panicked after realizing he was the last elf standing.

 

Re: Escalation League (405 points)

So the first victory put me over 500 so I had to follow the full, regular rules. We would also finally be using the full table if both players were over 500 points. My list:

Scar Vet with shield, gambler's armor, sword of battle
14 Saurus with spears including champion
10 Skirmishers with blowpipes
1 Salamander
5 Chameleons

Unfortunately, the second DE player was still under 500, so we were still on 1/3 table. This really hurt my chameleons as there wasn't any good spot to scout them on such a small space. This DE player was the first's dad so they had very similar lists since they were painting together. He had a spearmen/beast master, a big block of crossbow men with a sorceress, and a smaller block of crossbowmen.

Chameleons shot at the spearmen. Killed 1 before getting charged and wiped out by the hero alone. The sorceress got a 4D6 strength 5 magic missile spell. Nuked the salamander first turn with double sixes. Lucky guy rolled a 7 on his miscast table and killed 2 crossbowmen in the unit. He had good shooting and took off a couple Saurus. My Skirmishers shot at his spearmen. Took down a couple before getting charged and wiped. But they left his spearmen in a position to be charged by my Saurus so that was ok. I managed to dispel the magic missile this time. Another round of his shooting took down a few more Saurus. I was starting to get worried about being down to just my big unit and he barely had removed anything.

My Saurus charged his spearmen. Like his son, his hero challenged me with his hero. This time, my Scar Vet did 4 wounds thanks to extra predatory fighter attacks. The rest of the Saurus wiped all of the spearmen with 7 extra predatory fighter attacks of their own. At this point we were the last game going and had quite a crowd. The sorceress' unit had to panic test and failed. Everyone went nuts as they ran off the table through the other unit of crossbowmen. They panicked and fled off the table, too. Victory Lizardmen!

This puts me at 632 points. I definitely need to get a Skink Priest, but don't have enough Hero points. I will after next week, though, for a Level 1. So, I need to build off my current list. I will definitely have the full table next week (everyone is over 500 now) and there should be plenty of war machines (from what I saw today) for the chameleons to have a better chance of earning their points. Still not enough Rare points to add anything but an extra snack for my Salamander. Suggestions?

 

Re: Escalation League (632 points) double update

Try the following Scarvet

General; Cold One; Gambler's Armour; Luck Stone; Sword of +1 to hit.

Its point cost is nearly 140 points.

1+ AS (you can reroll one failed AS) 6+ Ward
4 attacks hitting 2's against troops, 3's againts all (except nurgle on 4's)

Also you gain 2 attacks of the Cold One and fill your unit of saurus with 2 models instead of one.

 

Re: Escalation League (632 points) double update

I should be finishing up my CoC this week. If I do, the Scar Vet will definitely be getting a mount since I won't be able to field a minimal unit of 5 anyway.

 

Re: Escalation League (632 points) double update

So I decided to only bring 592 of my 632 points so I can save up for more next week. I ended up with the following list:

Scar Vet with Cold One, Gambler's Armor, Dawnstone, GW
18 Saurus spears FC
10 Skirmishers
5 chameleons
Salamander

I ended up facing one of my DE opponents (the son) from last week. Somehow, and he admitted he didn't know how the coordinator came up with this number, he had about 760 points this week. That is almost 300 more points than last week. When he saw the look on my face, he assured me he called the coordinator 4 times throughout the week to verify. I told him not to sweat it and I would try not to be too much of a road bump. He had (roughly)

Level 2 sorceress
Lord fighter with Dawnstone, sea dragon cloak
Big unit of corsairs for the Lord
10 crossbowmen for Sorc
10 crossbowmen
Hydra

So we were playing on a 4x4 table this week which made me happy for my chameleons. There was a woods in the middle and a tower on the border of his deployment zone. He wisely deployed his hydra on his har flank right against the tower so I couldn't scout near it. So the chameleons went into the woods on his other flank. I set up my Sally across from the hydra to try to get some flaming shots.

Well he went first. He Sorc got doom bolt and a -D3 to WS, BS, STR, I spell (don't know name). He did the high level doom bolt on my Saurus and killed 10 of them with the magic missile and normal shooting. Hydra moved maximum distance forward. Crossbowmen near the chameleons killed two and sent them fleeing 3 inches into the woods.

Given that half of my Saurus were gone, I changed my plans a little. I charged the hydra with my scar vet out of the Saurus block. Saurus marched. Salamander moved and shot at the Sorc bunker, but the flames were a couple inches short. Chameleons rallied. Skirmishers moved up along the Saurus flank. The Scar Vet rocked. He and the Cold One dropped the Hydra down to 1 wound without taking any. Unfortunately it regenerated up to 4.

He rolled poorly on his winds of magic so he only cast they'd the hex on my Scar vet dropping all of his fighting stats by 1. He hexed the Scar Vet every round. This forced me to take 4 turns to kill the damn hydra and was probably the deciding factor in the game. To speed this up, he shot all the chameleons down (they killed 3 elves), all the Skirmishers (they killed a few in the Sorc bunker), and all the Saurus except the champion on the stand and shoot (who then was killed in combat before attacking). The salamander over shot his second flames, then burned one elf in the Sorc bunker. He charged them and sent them running. Scar Vet and salamander both flanked the corsair bunker. Scar Vet was challenged by the fighter Lord and the salamander died. The Scar Vet only had one wound left from the hydra, but took the DE Lord down to one wound in the first round of challenge. The Sorc bunker had rallied for the second round and hexed him with -3 WS, BS, STR, I. The DE Lord tore him apart because of the hex.

I now have a 758 point allowance.

 

Re: Escalation League (632 points) double update

Dude.. ouch.
Being outnumbered by about 30% is never fun.

However I think your sally would have done better against his blocks and you could have screened against his hydra with skirmishers/chameleons (maybe). Actually thinking about it, how did he have a hydra? I assume they are over 200pts so you need an 800+ pt army to field one now you are playing proper rules.

 

Re: Escalation League (632 points) double update

Being the newbie that I am, I took his word for it that he could afford the hydra. He and his dad have been some of my favorite opponents in the league. I will also say, he skipped his magic 2 or 3 times and went straight to shooting. I let him go back and do his magic phase cause this is a learning league, not a super competitive tournament, ya know? And that was REALLY not in my favor, but it was the right thing to do.

Yeah, my rolling on the salamander was horrible. No snack breaks, but only 1 of 3 shots landed on a target. He earned his points in close combat actually this game. I have played 3 games with him now and I am still getting a feel for distance. So far he has been spectacular once (killing more than double his points) and okay twice. One thing to note on him, I have only used him against these 2 DE players who only took one medium size block and kept it far away from the salamander. He's only been able to really attack minimum size units of elves so far...

If that hex hadn't hit my Scar Vet, the hydra probably would have only takes 2 turns. The hex with all those negative modifiers basically turned my Scar Vet into a Saurus champion with an amazing save.

 

Re: Escalation League (632 points) double update

to be honest i really think you learn more when you're punished for your errors, after forgetting twice without remembering, i'd have went and instead said "you forgot your magic, too bad" - it's amazing how much people learn from being annoyed. Not saying you should be a nuisance, just be a hard learner if soft learning doesn't cut it (i can only hard - learn, and i always get mad at first - apologetic later)

 

Re: Escalation League (758 points)

Oh, I agree normally about the hard-learning. As I said, he and his dad have been some of the nicest/coolest opponents so far, so I was nice. Next time I play him (hopefully not again next week!) I won't be so easy-going if he forgets more than once.

Now the question is how to move forward with my list...will come up with a few ideas and post them up later this afternoon.

 

Re: Escalation League (758 points)

I would totally get a Bastilladon with Solar Engine so you actually can start using powerdice

With the rest of the points I'd either beef up your Scarvets gear or get more Saurus.

Btw, your opponant had 190 pts of Rare unit allowance. I'm pretty sure he actually can afford a Hydra for that. They are not that expensive.

 

Re: Escalation League (758 points)

I'm going to work on a few different options involving either a skink priest or a Bastiladon.

I have some wiggle room when it comes to my heroes. I can change their gear/mounts every time, but once I add a model it has to stay in the list until the next reset. This also means I can turn my Scar Vet into an Oldblood to free up hero slot points. Will post the ideas in a few hours.

 

Re: Escalation League (758 points)

Ok, so I have 758 points to play with. Here are three options I came up with for feedback:

Option 1:
Add a Bastiladon with solar engine
16 points left over

Option 2:
Scar Vet loses Gambler's Armor/Dawnstone/GW for light armor/shield/hand weapon (still 1+)
Add Level 1 Skink Priest
Add 4 more chameleons for total of 9
Add 1 more salamander and 2 handlers

Option 3:
Remove Scar Vet
Add Oldblood on Cold One with light armor/GW (1+ save)
Add Level 2 Skink Priest with Dispel Scroll
5 points left over

 

Re: Escalation League (758 points) advice wanted

Option 2 without skink priest. and keep your Scarvet as it is. You see last game what he did even being hexed.

With two salamanders you'll be fine, you have to learn to get a nice shooting position to maximize the effect of the tear template. A good tactic is to threat the front of their infantry units with yours. And move on the flank with the salamanders.

 

Re: Escalation League (758 points) advice wanted

Still rooting for Bastilladon!
Your Scarvet wrecks face as he is.

Adding a monster at these small point games always makes an impression (your opponant doesnt know the Basti is kinda weak in CC lol). The possibility to cause some terror is also nice since many opponants will not have a BSB. And against S3 T3 Infantry the Basti is actually kinda potent.

 

Re: Escalation League (758 points) advice wanted

I vote Bastiladon
As it is your scar vet is basically unkillable by basic infantry, which will be a decent chunk of the armies you will be facing. Monsters and other characters have a chance at least, but bringing a basti gives them another target for those models. Target saturation is your friend.
You have no other magic so you can 6 dice beam as much as you like (miscasts? Lol)
You can use the basti to anchor one end of your battle line if he brings any cavalry or chariots, they wont want to be on the receiving end of chotec (not many wounds in a cav unit in armies that size to soak up punishment) and if they do risk it, they hit a fear/terror causing monster with a 2+ save
Finally, dinosaurs are cool.

 

Re: Escalation League (758 points) advice wanted

Hi

Very interesting read every time! I'm gonna have and go with the flow, considering a Basti will take some preassure off your Scar-vet cowboy. Speaking of cowboys may I suggest two of my favorite Scar-Vet builds? (And maybe get some feedback myself!)


Scar-Vet 1: Cold One, Great Weapon, Glittering Scales, Dawnstone.

Glittering Scales means less hits going to wounds, which in turn means less wounds going to saves, almost everything will need 5's to hit. Why avoid getting wounds when you can avoid getting hit at all right? I know it's not +1 ++6 but rather +2, however I consider being hit less weighs heavier in most fights.

Scar-Vet 2: Cold One, Great Weapon, Light Armour, Sacred Stegadon Helm.

I guess this one is really more usefull as your second cowboy but I thought I'd write it down anyway since I still think it's viable. It's still +1 save, no rerolls though and no ++6. But! T6 is huge, S4 infantry will need 6's and stronger units will still have a headache taking it down. D3 impact hits on a riding character is just a bonus!



Good to know is that I always use them in CoC-units so I get the Look Out Sir, that keep them safer than in a unit of saurus. It's a bit too late for math hammer for me right now, maybe it doesn't even make much difference considering different match ups. Then it might just come down to preference and these two have worked very well for me often being MVPs! Anyway my two cents, I look forward reading your next report!

 

Re: Escalation League (758 points) advice wanted

Thanks for all the advice, everyone! I'm going to add the Bastiladon to the list this week. I'm looking forward to him taking some pressure off my Saurus block with the Scar Vet, zapping people with the Solar Engine, maybe getting a terror test on some chaff, and being something totally new for the League (no one has seen one on the table yet at our GW).

As for the Scar Vet, I am going to keep him as-is for now. I want to experiment with different builds when we get to some larger point values and I can put him in a CoC bus or have a 2nd cowboy to run around as well.

So, the new list will be:

Scar Vet: Cold One, GW, Gambler's Armor, Dawnstone
18 Saurus Warriors FC spears
10 Skirmishers
5 Chameleons
Bastiladon Solar Engine
1 Salamander

Looking forward to Sunday!