Escalation League 2012 Standings - Week 2

In an unexpected turn of events, we had more players participate in week 2 than week 1!  17 players on Tuesday night and 6 more on Wednesday.  This week players, fought amidst a haunted building in a special scenario.  Games tended to end quickly with the low points and scenario conditions.  Starting next week, we'll be up to 1000 points, and armies start to get more interesting.  Here's the overall standings after two weeks.

Rank	Total Score	Player
1	37	Ryan Odam
2	37	Josh Baughman
3	32	Tim Mote
4	32	Maurice
5	31	Michael Sauermilch
6	29	Brett
7	29	Taylor Flesch
8	29	Nate Jones
9	27	Wiley Kinyon
10	26	Storme
11	26	Chris Bailey
12	25	Chaz Bogner
13	25	Chris Born
14	22	Dustin Boyd
15	22	Matt Kinyon
16	22	Oliver
17	22	Vincent Shaw
18	20	Paul Willworth
19	19	David Douglas
20	19	Tony Bathke
21	19	Eli Kem
22	16	John Evans
23	14	Gustav
24	13	Ben Sathrum
25	12	Kate Hillig
26	12	Ryan Williams
27	2	Jeff DeRemmer

Remember, overall rankings are based on total points, so playing regularly keeps you in the running.  Starting next week, we'll also be publishing standings for top general, painter, and sportsman, which are based on averages.  See you next week with 1000 points!

Escalation League Week 2 Scenario

Foul weather, rough foraging, and sporadic fighting has drained your forces.   Seeing another large storm moving in, getting shelter has become a priority.   Fortunately your scouts have spotted a small building in which to take cover.   Unfortunately they have also reported that enemies are about the same distance away.  They also reported that the building has a weird feel to it and strange lights would blink in the windows.   But weird goings on or not, it looks to be a race to take cover before the storm hits.

Haunted Shelter

In the middle of each table is a building.   The player whose army has a unit in the building by the end of the game receives and additional 250 points.   This points bonus is increased by 25 for each character in the building.   The building is haunted, however, and during each magic phase, the poltergeists will inflict d6 strength 2 hits with no saves of any kind allowed to any unit inside the building.

The game will proceed for 3 turns, then at the end of the 2^nd players 3^rd turn, he or she will roll a d6 and add the turn number to it.  If the result is a 7 or higher, the game will end.  Otherwise, play one more full game turn as the storm hasn’t arrived yet.

Also, for this scenario, swift reform into a building will not be allowed.  

Norse vs. Skaven with Storm of Magic

On Tuesday, I pitted a 3000 point Norse army against Iraf's Skaven.  We played a standard battleline with Storm of Magic added in.  Iraf decided to use his extra points for a pact with the Vampire Counts, and I used mine for a couple wizards, some sabretusks, and a windcatcher prism that never got used.  For some reason, the Norse and Skaven found themselves battling it out in the jungles of Lustria!

To start off the game, the Terrorgheist flew forward to try and scream the Truthsayer off of his arcane fulcrum.  The attempt failed, and the Terrorgheist found him self surrounded by Valkyries, Berserkers, and Sabretusks.  All of my units also had +1 strength and toughness since I got off a sweet cataclysm spell.  Things were not going so well on the other side of the board for me though.  A skitterleaping warplock engineer blew up 14 of my marauders, and the Doomwheel weas heading my way.

With the Terrorgheist dead, my assaulting units were left in a bit of disarray, and the Sabretusks found themselves being slaughtered by a vampire and his small host of zombies.  My Ice Drake in the back on the picture to the left is hunting down a Warp Lightning Cannon.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, the Doomwheel creeps closer to my Zoat on fulcrum and other Valkyrie unit, and the Vargheists have charged into those Valkyries in a frenzy.

In a following turn, Iraf has started to get some cataclysm spells of his own off, summoning a pestilent swamp underneath my Ice Drake which could kill it with one failed toughness test when attempting to move.  Thankfully my Vitki was able to move the enchanted swamp under the plague monk unit with a cataclysm shadow spell, killing many of the monks but not the plague furnace as it moved out of it and towards the core Norse forces.

By this time, my core units which had been whittled down were revived back to full strength by a storm of renewal delivered by Zoat.  The core Skaven units were showing significant damage from the pestilent swamp, and some over-indulgence in Skaven brew by the Stormvermin.  Things were looking pretty good for the Norse, and this would have been a good point to charge forward.  Close by in the next turn though, the Doomwheel closed on the Valkyries who had finished off the Vargheists, and a unit of gutter runners entered the table right next to my Zoat on fulcrum.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, the vampire made is way to the fulcrum with the near dead Truthsayer on it and finished him off.  In a very short time, I found myself with no arcane fulcrums controlled, suffering from some serious magic deficiency.  Zoat was unbound and turned into a raging lunatic.  Iraf also summoned a Chaos Giant into the middle of the battlefield.

I used a small unit with my king in it to wipe some slaves out of my way which unfortunately left me in a bad position.  Because of this, I fled from a charge, planning to regroup and be in a better position.  The tide of battle decided to leave me like the tide of magic at that point though as another of my units decided to run of the board after being fled through.  Suddenly, the battle was lost, and the Skaven claimed victory.

Storm of Magic games are really fun.  Especially when you don't worry about keeping track of every spell you can cast, and just try to do cool stuff.  Even though my Norse lost... again (that's the one thing they seem to be good at so far), it was an epic and enjoyable battle.  And hey, since I was winning for the first half, in a way, I could call it a tie, right?

The Norse Fail List:

• King, 4+ Ward, Axe of impact hits every combat round
• Vitki, Level 4 Shadow, Poisonous Herbs, Breath Weapon Buckle.
• Skald BSB
• Another Skald
• Jarl on Fenrir Wolf
• Seer Level 1 Fire Magic
• 28 Huscarl
• 40 Marauders with Great Weapon
• 30 Marauders with xtra hand weapon
• 30 Bondsmen
• 10 Berserkers
• Ice Drake
• 3 Valkyries
• 3 more Valkyries
• Truthsayer
• Zoat
• 5 Sabretusks

It's Here!

Orc and Goblin Game 3
Versus Josh Cal and his Lannister Empire

Up until now, I have only played Paul with my Orc and Goblin force.   Then our friend Josh messaged me on Facebook and offered to play me up in Portland at Guardian Games.  Josh has an Empire army based on the Lannisters from the Game of Thrones.   He is also a co-host on the Deployment Zone, a podcast by some of our warhammer buddies.

Anyways, I tweaked my list up a bit as I wanted to try some new things.

 

Unit Name                                Equipment                                                                                     Points

25 gobbos                                  Shortbows, shield, 3x skulkers, full command                                      160

25 Orc Boys                               Extra hand weapons, Full Command                                                   210

20 Orc Boys                                                                                                                                         155

Spear Chukka                                                                                                                                         35

Spear Chukka                                                                                                                                         35

Spear Chukka                                                                                                                                         35

Rock Lobba                                                                                                                                            85

Doom Diver                                                                                                                                            80

Giant                                                                                                                                                     200

Black Orc Warboss                     Armor of Destiny, Sword of Anti-Heroes, Other Tricksters Shard, 

                                                   Dragonbane Gem, Boar, Shield                                                           287

Savage Orc Great Shaman           Level 4, Skull Wand, Power Stone                                                     300

Goblin Big Boss:                          BSB, Spider Banner,Light Armor, Shield                                            149

Night Goblin Shaman:                  Level 2, Feedback Scroll                                                                   135

Goblin Chariot                                                                                                                                        50

16 Black Orcs                             Full Command, Standard of Discipline                                                242

17 Savage Orcs Big'Uns              Full Command, additional hand weapons, big stabba, Big'Uns             242

                Total:                                                                                                                                 2400

Josh brought his Empire Force with large units of state troops, a couple cannons, and a hellblaster. He also had a war alter and a hurricanum.   His army was loaded up with characters ranging from an arch lector, witch hunter, and level 4 metal wizard.  He had a small unit of 5 Reiksguard, a small unit of 5 pistoliers, and a couple units of 5 detachments for his empire troops.   The one unit I was the most wary of was his large horde of 40 halberdiers.   This was the focal point of his army and hid his bsb, witch hunter, and warrior priest.  I knew I didn't have enough models in any one unit to go toe to toe with it, so figured I would have to dish out a ton of damage to it to even have a chance against it.

We played a battle line with him getting the first turn.  Not what I was hoping for as I really wanted to strike first against him.   He took a few pot shots at me with his artillery and did a few wounds.  I managed to dispel most of what was thrown at me and we moved to my turn.

I decided to sit back and shoot a bit so didn't move any of my models forward.  My magic phase saw me successfully getting off a powered up Foot of Gork.  I hit his War Altar but now as I am typing this realized I played the spell incorrectly.  We rolled d6 for number of hits rather than total under the template.   Fortunately I only did a few wounds to it, but didn't kill it.  I stomped it again, and then accidentally stomped my savage orc unit, losing 8 models. 

Shooting phase was slightly better, when one of my bolt throwers hit a detachment of 5 troops in the flank, taking them all out.  Most effective goblin shot ever!   One of the others missed and the third misfired.   My doom diver took out a full unit of Reiksguard knights.  But that was followed by my rocklobba blowing itself up.   My goblin archers took cover in a building, but failed to do a wound to his pistoliers.  That ended turn one.   

Turn two saw the death of my doom diver to a pistolier charge, my two functioning boltthrowers getting shot up by cannons, and half a unit of orcs turning to gold.   Not much happened on my side of things but positioning.   

The next couple turns things got interesting.  My giant got teleported into the middle of his army, I charged his huge unit of Halberds with the large unit of orcs and my savage orcs, and saw my last remaining boltthrower get killed by the war alter, which then went on to beat up my level 2 night goblin shaman.   I won the halberdier combat, but  he managed to just make his leadership roll so we were stuck in.   My giant charged his hurricanum, my black orcs failed a charge, and he got a big unit of swordsmen into the halberdier combat, along with the war alter.   Some memories are getting muddled here as to what happened when.  I do remember getting crushed in the halberdier combat, fleeing and losing the unit of orcs, but escaping with a few savage orcs and my shaman, though they were too few to rally.  

My final turn saw the giant win combat against a small detachment of troops, a large unit of swordsmen, and the hurricanum, all of which fled.   I decided to chase the swordsmen for more victory points, but managed to roll snake eyes versus his roll of 5.   My goblins fared better that turn taking out the hellblaster with 4 poisoned arrows.       

In the end, I lost by about 320 points or so.   I don't mind as the main goal right now is to learn how to play this army and all the special rules that accompany it.   As you can see, I still need to learn the spells so that I don't misplay them again.  And if you missed me talking about what my wolf chariot did, you didn't.  I forgot to put it on the table.  Like I said.  A learning game.   

I know this battle report is a bit of a cluster f.  I forgot to take any pics and didn't really keep notes of my game.  I will try to remember to do so next time I play.

Things I am thinking about changing:  

-Getting rid of the poison banner.  Possibly changing my BSB to an orc of some type.   The banner is cool and I love poison, but I need my bsb in an anchor unit.    

-Upping the numbers of Savage Orcs.  They are awesome and need to survive long enough to get into combat.

-Get some chaff fighters to protect my warmachines.   I need wolves or squig riders, or something.  Maybe a few more chariots.  Something to keep fast calvary, flyers and scouts from ruining my shooting phase.

Current goals: finish painting my forest goblin unit.  I am also watching an ebay auction for a command unit for the gobbos.   

I will try to have a better battle report next time I do one. 

Until next time.

Chris

First Post-OFCC game

VS.

So I went over to Paul's tonight to play a game of Warhammer with the armies that we will be working on for next year.   I threw together a quick Orc and Goblin force and face Paul's awesome Norsemen.  We agreed to play 2400 points. 
I don't really have Paul's list and am not really sure what everything was, but my list is as follows:

Lords

Black Orc Warboss:  Armor of Destiny, Sword of Anti-Heroes, Other Tricksters Shard, Dragonbane Gem, Boar, Shield            287

 

Savage Orc Great Shaman:    Level 4, Skull Wand, Power Stone            300

Heroes

Goblin Big Boss:   BSB, Spider Banner, Shortbow, Light Armor, Shield            151

Night Goblin Shaman            :   Level 2, Feedback Scroll            135

Core

25 gobbos:  shortbows, shield, 3x skulkers, full command            160

27 Orc Biguns            :  Extra hand weapons, Full Command, Banner of Discipline            302

12 arrer boyz            :  84

17 Savage Orcs:  Full Command, additional hand weapons, big stabba            208

Special

Spear Chukka            35

Spear Chukka            35

Spear Chukka            35

Goblin Chariot  50

16 Black Orcs            :  Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame            242

Rare

Giant:  200

Rock Lobba: Bully    95

Doom Diver:  80

Total Points:  2399

I don't really have a great turn by turn account of the game so I will hit up on some of the highlights.  

Did a few wounds during shooting phase, taking out a couple of Paul's dogs.  Also did a wound to his dragon with my doom diver.    Paul's turn saw him hitting my chariot with a level 2 fireball, but he managed a total of 2 wounds on the chariot while doing a miscast with his sorcerer and took out  a big chunk of that unit.   I killed the dragon with the rock lobber on my next turn and made a number of charges with my units.   My big'uns crushed the marauders they ran into, and went into his General's unit.   My savage orcs did some damage to another unit of marauders but two breath weapons in that unit cleared out most of my boys.  They decided to run, taking my shaman with them.   His unit then hit my Black Orcs, doing a ton of damage to them, but I stayed, rolling snake eyes.    My goblins spent all game assaulting a tower with 10 archers in it, finally getting in on turn 5.  Paul's Valkries ran around making a nuisance of themselves, killing my night goblin shaman, the orc arrer boys and black orcs.   A lack of magic items makes my army very vulnerable to ethereal.     My Big un's bus managed to destroy Paul's BSB, General and their unit, but by then were too far out of range to do much else.   The game ended turn 6 at 1200 to 2000 approximately with the green ones taking the win.   

Some observations:  

• Ethereal is tough.  I don't have enough characters equipped with magic weapons to deal with that special ability.
• Savage Orcs are good, but not enough on their own and in low numbers.    
• Big'uns are worth every point.   So are the warmachines.
• Don't forget to thunderstomp.
• Norse Ballads make the army tough.

Future Plans:  

• Try Night Goblins.  I would have this time, but forgot them at home.
• Get Painting.   I don't want to be painting this army at the last minute.
• Get another Doom Diver
• Get a few more cheap characters with magic weapons.

It was a pretty fun game and I want to play it again soon.  I don't really have much to purchase to make the army playable, but do want to get more metal night goblin models.
Til next time.
Chris

Norse vs. Daemons of Chaos

Yesterday I played my first game with my Norse army un-proxied.  I have gotten quite bit assembled now, so I was able to put together 2400 points to field against some filthy daemons.  Although it has been a long time since I played my other two practice games using proxy models for my Norse, I looked back at my previous post to refine my army list.  I also added some new units to try out, but still have not tried everything I would like to.

Another thing I did to prepare for playing with the Norse army again, was to make some helper tokens for their special abilities.  I made tokens for these three things:

• Berserkergang frenzy for the turn
• Seer/Vitki prophesizing unit buffs
• Skald songs unit buffs.

In my prior games, I found it difficult to keep track of all the buffs that were active on my units, so this was a must to be able to play the army again without my head spinning.  They helped a ton.  Unfortunately though, I completely forgot about the counter-charge ability, and didn't use it once this whole game!  I'll have to think up some aide to help me remember that one too.

Here's what I brought to the battle and the bonuses garnered by what I equipped them with:

• King - +1 Attack, 4+ Ward Save
• Seer - Level 2, Dispel Scroll, D3 bonus dice, but take a wound if fail toughness test.
• Skald - Battle Standard, 3+ Scaly Skin, 5+ Ward Save
• Skald - Extra Hand Weapon
• Jarl - Mounted on Fenrir Wolf, +1 toughness and Strength 3 breath attack
• 24x Huscarl - Razor Standard
• 38x Maraders - Great Weapons
• 10x Hunters
• 30x Marauders - Extra Hand Weapon
• 3x Valkyries
• 5x Giant Wolves
• 5x Giant Wolves
• Ice Drake

The first turn mainly consisted of me misusing my faster units.  I have not used fast redirectors much, which is the role filled by the wolves, so I ended up not using them as well as I could have.  The hunters and valkyries that I put to one side to deal with a unit of flesh hounds unfortunately did not fare well.  They could have done better if I played it a little differently.  Unfortunately for valkyries, their ethereal ability is worthless against an army full of magical daemons!  Not to mention flesh hounds are just deadly.

My ice drake ended up getting tied up with 3 fiends of Slannesh early too, so the rest of the battle consisted of a few big melee brawls of infantry in the middle of the table.  One unit I was interested in seeing perform was my jarl on fenrir wolf in the unit of marauders with extra hand weapon.  I set up the jarl with a magic item called the buckle of hagmar that gives him a breath weapon, and the fenrir wolf also has his own breath weapon, so I figured this would be pretty devastating to let loose in the first round of combat.  I charged them into a unit of daemonettes to find out.  The wolf's breath weapon was terrible against the deamonettes because it wounds when the model hit fails an initiative test, and the daemonettes are very high initiative.  Huh.  Didn't think of that.  So that was not as great as it could have been, but they did eventually take out the daemonette unit.

Magic went pretty bad, hopefully I can fit a higher level wizard into my next list.  I don't think I got a single spell off, even though I had a fireball with a tzeentch sorcerers name on it.  The huscarl unit with my king, battle standard bearer, and wizard in it ended up fighting two units of bloodletters in the front, and they fought very well I thought, but after my king died to a killing blow (bloodletters are awesome), the unit was doomed.  But just to make sure, my opponent brought the Bloodthirster of Khorne around into their flank.

In the end, the Norse suffered a minor loss, and I got to try some new things.  Good game!