Axemaster TO Wrap-Up and Results

Axemaster 2016 has come and gone. I just though I'd post a few of my thoughts and observations, as well as results.
On the day, I wasn't expecting to play as we had an even number of entrants. One player dropped out, meaning I was needed to step up and complete the draw! Whilst I don't at all mind playing more Kings of War, it meant I didn't get a chance to take any photos. Hopefully I can steal some off others when they post them up.

MikeCon 3 Wrap-Up

MikeCon 3 is done. It was my first MikeCon, and my second Kings of War Tournament. Mike has been running a series of simple, non-nonsense tournaments to try and rev-up the Kings of War community. Number 3seemed like a hit!


My goblin army army included:
A Regiment of Fleabag Sniffs with Caterpillar Potion
6 Regiments of Spitters
2 Hordes of Trolls
A Big Rock Lobber
2 War Trombones
A Giant
A Slasher
A Naked Biggit
A Mounted Flaggit
3 Wizes with Wind Blast, Lightning and Bane Chant. One had the Inspiring Talisman and one had the Fire-Heart Amulet

The army was what I could produce with the models I had a minimal effort to "fix up" (ie, convert from a Warhammer Army). I treated all of the Orcs in the army as Goblins, as I didn't have enough of either to make a main force with allies.

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Round 1- Invade
Opponent- Andrew Goodman
Army- Elves

I haven't played against elves before, but I'm told Andrew's list was pretty bog standard; A Dragon Lord, Drakon Hero, Mage, Drakon Riders, Horde of Archers, Two Regiments of Knights, A unit of Palace Guards and two Bolt Throwers

Andrew Set up with a bit of a fire base in the middle, and two hard-hitting components on either side. I set up in a similar fashion, but for some inexplicable reason deployed my spitters in two lines. My mages went in and around them. I put a monster, horde of trolls and an inspiring hero on each flank, backed by a trombone.

Pressure applied to the right

Andrew came right at me, and applied enough pressure on each flank to punch a hole in it so that I wasn't able to effectively counter-charge. My spitters floundered in the middle, unable to decide on a target so losing much of their effectiveness. Eventually Andrew crushed my flanks, and whilst I managed to take something out on each flank, my combat units buckled and he was able to feast upon my squishy spitter center.

Results: 2-18 Loss

This game (in fact, much of the tournament) was a bit of a learning experience for me. I realised that whilst my spitters had numbers, I still needed to pick a target early on and concentrate fire. A double-line was silly and basically wasted half of them. Hills were much more of a boon than I previously though, and luckily all my other games had ample hills in them. I had plenty of muscle in this army (despite the masses of spitters), but I had to use it carefully.

The trolls are surrounded on the left

Not looking good

There used to be trolls, but now just a dead trombone and flaggit

Why are they in two lines?!

Now you see the Drakon Riders...

...and now you don't!

Round 2- Loot
Opponent- Michael Bertrand
Army- Abyssals

Abyssals were another new experience for me. Michael's army had some Flame Bearers (two regiments, two troops), a Horde of Lesser Abyssals, Two Regiments of Succibi, Two Efreet on foot, and Abyssal Champion on foot and an Allied Regiment of Son's of Korgan. Virtually every unit had a magic item on it, but I can't remember what they all were.
I made a bit of a mistake in setup here; I allowed a loot counter to be placed just outside of a forest, and didn't choose that side. This made it easy for Michael to get a unit up to the counter, grab it, and run, all without being seen (due to the forest hiding him).

In this game, I set up with my spitters in the middle, in a single close-packed line. I then put a group of trolls+monster on each flank. The spitters sat guarding the central loot counter, and the combat groups went for each flank. Due to a big, tall rock stack, the game was effectively split into three smaller sections; a fight for each counter.

The spider was a bit cocky here.

On my right, I had Trolls, Slasher, Biggit, a trombone and Fleabags facing off with an Efreet, Regiment of Succubi, Troop of flame bearers and a somewhat distant regiment of Sons of Korgan. My stone thrower was on a hill on this side, too. The loot counter here was in the middle of a forest.

The right is won- now looking centrally

The succubi ignored the counter to begin with, and charged my slasher. Despite being inside the forest, and succubi routed the slasher in one charge. Fortunately, I countered with my trolls and fleabags, leaving me in a strong position. The trombone managed to get rid of the efreet, and the stone thrower took out the troop of flame bearers and the sons of Korgan with a bit of help from the trombone. One token secure.

Scrum on the left

Deployment and movement on the left

Meanwhile, on my left, I had a tough time spotting the enemy because of the aforementioned screening forest. My trolls and giant ran up to contest as best as they could, supported by the flaggit, whilst the spitters sat back on the hill and provided covering fire. The enemy had provided a Regiment of Succubi, Troop of Flame Bearers, Horde of Lesser Abyssals, Regiment of Flame Bearers (with the Jar of the Winds) and Abyssal Champion. My combat units pretty much mutually annihilated his Succubi and Lesser Abyssals, and I had a shooting match with the Flame Bearers (who were the last to hold the objective). Eventually I shot out the Flame Bearers, and the objective was uncontested at the end of the game.

Just before the last two loot tokens are dropped

Centrally, I had three Spitter Regiments and Wizes facing off against a Troop and Regiment of Flame Bearers and an Efreet. The shooting match was reasonably even, but when my Fleabags managed to come in after securing my flank, I was able to take the center objective.


Results: 17-3 Win

I feel that I concentrated fire a bit more effectively in this game, as well as using my combat detachments better as a formation. I brought more muscle to the flanks, and had enough chaff in the middle to clog it up. My first win- huzzah!

The horde is gone... but the giant is about to fall

The Sons of Korgan are shot to death

Round 3- Pillage
Opponent- Matthew Sellick
Army- Elves

 Matt's army was quite similar to Andrew's, but replaced the Dragon-mounted characters and a second unit of knights with a whole bunch of Trees; A Forest Herder, Horde of Shamblers and a Regiment of Hunters. Instead of a horde regular archers, Matt had taken sea guard. This army had much more of a Wood Elf theme to it, match my own. Matt had a Dragon amongst his models, despite not having one in his list, which really psyched me out (it shouldn't have, I had read his list!)

The table was quite devoid of difficult terrain. There was a forest on one flank, and a bunch of buildings on the other. All of the objective markers were scattered among the buildings. I deployed all of my spitters in front of the objective, supported by rock lobber, trombones and Wizes. Matt deployed opposite. I then put all of my fast-moving, hard hitting stuff on the other flank.

Matt ran forward with his tree-spirit vanguard moves, and the game was afoot. I had first turn, and managed to focus enough firepower on the Dryad/Hunters to route them. This became a bit of a recurring theme- each turn I would focus enough arrow fire, lightning and rocks to take out a combat unit; Dryads, Forest Shamblers, Drakon Riders. The fact that his army approached one-at-a-time meant I could do this quite effectively. Vanguard had worked in my favour, here.

Meanwhile, my trolls, giant and slasher moved up on the off-flank, and managed to get the knights and sea guard.

The spitters were able to walk forward and grab the objectives whilst the giant clashed with the Forest Herder in the the middle.

The sniffs and slasher take out some elf fast cavalry on the right

The dryads were to the right of this house, but didn't survive my first volley. The shamblers didn't survive the second

The Drakon Riders get amongst my lines...

...but only take one regiment before falling.

My heavy right flank shuts the door

Getting closer

The knights pounce, and take out a unit of trolls...

...And quickly get removed

The Herder approaches

And starts to mess up the joint

The sniffs saw an opportunity to charge the sea guard flank, but it didn't work out.

The slasher attacks the weakened Sea Gaurd...

...But is taken out in response.

The trolls take more revenge.

Results: 17-3 Win

I believe this was my army performing at its best; The spitters concentrate fire to take down threats one at a time and the combat elements managing to face the enemy's flank and hit coherently. Vanguard really didn't work in Matt's favour; I was able to take advantage of it and shrug off some units that could have really messed with me if they had managed to get stuck in.

ConVic Wrap-Up

ConVic is done for 2016. Here's a bit of a write-up. I must admit, I only thought to take photos from game 2, and I didn't' bother then because Greg was already taking them an he had an actual camera. I'm sure he'll do a write-up soon; I'll link it when he does. Enjoy my report!

ConVic Ready

One of the hordes (in Siege breaker mode)

If you read my blog and you're not aware that ConVic is this weekend, that puts you in an extremely small subset of the population. Nevertheless, ConVis this weekend, and having been on holidays from work I've been busy at the hobby table! I'll get some whole army shots when I've got some better light (probably at the event), but you can see what sort of progress I've made.

Decisions

ConVic 2016 is coming!

Much like the hiatus of '12 (brought about by Skyrim), this last summer has been a hobby write-off. This time, the culprit is Fallout 4 (A terrible Fallout game but really enjoyable as a stand-alone. Main story sacked. But this isn't a review). My last accomplishment was Dueling Paintbrushes, getting half of an Abyssal Dwarf army completed. Not much has happened since!

Bolt Action Melbourne in February

BAMF! February 8th saw The Old Man Morin running another of his Bolt Action tournaments, and he roped me into helping him run it. OK, truth be told; I have a bit of an obsession with Excel and any chance to over-engineer a spreadsheet to deal with players is an opportunity not to be missed. But I digress: the day was about the playing and the players.

Ready for paint

This week has seen my Wood Elf Orcs reach a point where I only need to put brush to model to finish (OK, a bit of glue for effect afterwards, but that's not modelling). A few snaps to fill you in on my progress towards Rockhamer:

Orcarus and Dorkaerus

Rockhammer lists are due tonight. At the time of writing, there are only two people paid up. I'm one of them. I think this has something to do with the fact that Face/Off is next week, and it's the biggest tournament Victoria has seen in a while. I'm not going to that; too time poor. Anyway, I need to submit my list tonight it seems. That means I'm committing to getting my army done in three weeks! Where am I so far?

Tournament Invite: DuelCon

 As a result of completing the Duelling Paintbrush Challenge, painting a Fantasy force (rather than the plethora of other games also entered into the competition), I have received my first ever invite-only entry into a tournament!

Axemaster Report

Bright, but not the scary...

Axemaster is done for another year. I ran the event last year, so it was nice to play this time. Axemaster is the longest continuously running event in Melbourne, and it usually plays in a very simple style. Very few bells and whistles.
After enjoying their performance at the World Series, I asked Greg if I could borrow his Wood Elves. There's something about how squishy they look; they just don't look threatening!

Put together, they didn't come across as intimidating. It could have been Greg's lurid paint job, but I suspect it was simply the thin line of unarmoured elves that made up my army.

Seeing How it's Done

With all this preparation for my Orcs and Goblin (Wood-Elf Themed) army, I thought I'd take some time to see how the professionals do it. After enjoying my game with the at the Warhammer World Series,  I've decided to take Wood Elves to Axemaster. Greg has kindly agreed to lend me his army for next weekend, so I got to writing a list last week. I've suffered extensively at the hands of the Wood Elves (primarily in 6th ed, but I still suffered), so I was keen to try a few tricks in the list.





Lords
Spellweaver (310 pts)
   1 Spellweaver, 250 pts = (base cost 215 + Level 4 Upgrade 35)
      1 Divination Orb, 25 pts If more than 3 dice are used to cast a spell, this gives me an extra dispel dice
      1 Moonstone of the Hidden Ways, 35 pts If I end my remaining moves in a forest, the bearer and unit can teleport to another forest

Spellweaver (305 pts)
   1 Spellweaver, 250 pts = (base cost 215 + Level 4 Upgrade 35)
      1 Wand of Wych Elm, 55 pts Re-Roll Dispell attempts

Heroes
Noble (132 pts)
   1 Wood Elf Noble (Battle Standard Bearer), 92 pts = (base cost 75 + Light Armour 2 + Battle Standard Bearer 15)
      1 Asyendi's Bane, 10 pts Re-Roll missed hits, if that fails then the shot hits the bearer
      1 Hail of Doom Arrow, 30 pts One use only. Fires 3D6 S4 shots

Core
Dryads (108 pts)
   9 Dryads

Dryads (108 pts)
   9 Dryads









Glade Guard (196 pts)
   14 Glade Guard,  Musician Mus 6 + Standard Bearer Std 12
      1 Banner of Eternal Flame, 10 pts Unit has flaming attacks

Glade Guard (138 pts)
   10 Glade Guard, Musician Mus 6 + Standard Bearer Std 12

Glade Guard (138 pts)
   10 Glade Guard, Musician Mus 6 + Standard Bearer Std 12

Special
Tree Kin (390 pts)
   6 Tree Kin

Rare
Treeman (285 pts)
  

Treeman (285 pts)
  

Great Eagle (50 pts)

Yes, the list has 8 levels of magic. No, I don't think that is particularly efficient, considering I can't generate extra casting dice (other than chanelling). It should be some fun to play, but perhaps not optimal. I played a game yesterday against a Dark Elf army. It featured a lord on a Dragon with a 1+ save and reverse ward. I don't know why they allowed such a combination.
It ended up a 13/7 loss, which I wasn't so upset about. However, I was cheating (at always) by using more rare than I was allowed. Army Builder didn't pick that up for some reason, but I've rectified it now with the TO and I'm just going to play with 50 pts down.

See you at Axemaster!

List Building and Theming

Last weekend saw Mark's idea of a Warhammer World Series realised. I had a blast, which you can already read about. It did, however, highlight a potential aspect of my game that I've never had any proof of before. Playing five games with armies that I didn't design seemed to do wonders for my game. I finished 5th out of 22 players, when my usual goal at tournaments is to simply break even on battle points (ie, score draws on average).

Warhammer World Series Report

I just finished playing at the first ever Warhammer World Series. Devised by Mark Skilton, the concept departs from the normal tournament format of of bringing an army and playing several games with it. Instead, you play five games with someone else's army (usually Greg Johnson's, AKA Hoodling), a new one each round.