Its winter in Athel Loren,but spring is around the corner

Well rumors of spring. Being a fan of the wood elves i am more than eager for a new wood elf army book (having said before playing with them that i liked the current edition, before playing them). So i was excited to see a thread about wood elf rumors on warseer. Now i know that there is a good chance that these rumors could turn out to be nothing like what the actual new book will be, but they do give you something to think about. This was taken from the blog:Faeit 212: Warhammer 40k News and Rumors (link here Here)

Wood Elves have a massive update coming. And they will be fine in the current and next edition with it.
I expect them late spring 2014.
Some of what Ive heard is:
Still a major guerrilla tactics army. Skirmishers are still prevalent.
New giant Treekin dual unit.
New Stag Monstrous Cavalry unit.
Best archers in the game.
Dryads having abilities to manipulate enemy unit structure.
New mpp wild rider kit
New mpp wardancer/waywatcher kit
Wardancers causing rank bonus to work against enemy.
New hawkriders kit.
WE wizards (spellsingers) have spells that manipulate environment, including making a new grove of trees and one causing an enemy unit to enter combat with the ground/terrain
WE have significant benefits within woods both stationary and moving.
Tree units able to start hidden in wooded terrain.

If even 25% of those rumors are true then things could be about to turn in the wood elves favor.

Until Next time
Rex

CTA Practice Vs Beastmen

This Thursday i had another game in preparation for the upcoming Call to Arms tournament. This time around it was against David, the club captain at my local gaming club, who was using Beastmen. The game was 1500 points in size (not exactly CTA size but any game counts as practice at this point). My list had

A level 4 lifeweaver w/ divination orb

A Noble BSB w/ the Hail of Doom Arrow

2 units of 10 Glade Guard with Musician

1 unit of 12 Glade Guard with Musician

1 unit of 14 Glade Guard with Musician

1 unit of 16 Glade Guard with Musician

1 (yes just one) treeman

David had (from memory)

A level 4 Great Bray Shaman w/ lore of the wild

A BSB with banner of etrnal flame

A level 2 Bray Shaman w/ Lore of beasts

2xChariots

2x 20 Gor w/ Full Command

15 Bestigor w/ Fullcommand

1 Cygor

The Battle field looked like this:

Deployment came up next with my elves forming a arrow line, and David's beasts deploying with the chariots hiding behind one of the gor blocks on the left flank and the rest of his forces on the right flank

Wood elf deployment

Beastmen deployment

I have learned throughout my time with warhammer to never internally declare victory until the game is over, and this game helped cement that point. The first couple of turns went well with my archers reaping a far toll. The treeman tried to solo the Bestigors but died, the glade guard avenged him and shot up the besitgors.

The right flank

The left flank showdown between glade guard, gors and chariots

The treeman holding back the bestigors

The Left flank went well, the glade guard their saw off 20 gors and 2 chariots only losing one unit of 12 glade guard when one of the chariots got into.

The left flank showdown.

With the gors out of the way the solo surviving chariot makes contact with the glade guard

With the wood elves dead the chariot is left exposed......

......And moments later is pin cushioned

Things were going well, the beastmen were in disarray. And then the great shaman got off savage domain and with a puff of beast smoke a gorgon appeared on my right flank.

Wait where did that come from????

So i deployed a time honored elven tactic and fled from the monster, double fled at times. As i had 4 units of glade guard remaining i could double flee and still bring two units worth of shots to bear. I managed to murder the first one, and then with his last breath the Great bray shaman summoned another. I kept on double fleeing and shooting until my opponent  realized that he needed to bre really lucky to catch the elves and very graciously conceded

The double flee in action.

David told me after the game that this was his first game of fantasy in a year, knowing that i would say he put up a very good fight and was a very pleasant opponent. With CTA only a week away at the time of writing every game of warhammer helps to hone my tactics with the wood elves.

Thank you for reading and unitl next time.
Rex

Fantasy and 40k: The Depolyment Phase

It is obvious that Warhammer and Warhammer 40k are different games, but it is only after you have played both games and understand both games that you begin to understand just how different they are.

Recently while playing 40k i began to notice these differences. Its not that one game system is better than the other, instead they both move at different speeds. I hope to highlight these differences, in a series of posts, by looking at each of the phases from a Fantasy and a 40k perspective.

The Deployment phase.
Both systems have a standard 12 inches from board edge setup for the deployment phase but that's where the similarities end. In Fantasy each player takes turns to place individual units. Player A places one unit, then player B places one unit, until both armies have deployed. This allows for counter deployment, where players can place units to face opposing units that they are strong against. This can also lead to strategies like the feinted flank, where you trick your opponent into placing his big scary units (or any units) facing your throw away units and not your actual army.

In this example the wood elves have tricked the undead into placing the grave guard and black coach on the opposite flank to the glade guard by deploying the one of the treemen and the dryads on the right flank.

In 40k each player take it in turns to set up their whole army at once. In 40k there is a actual advantage in going second for deployment, it allows you to know where the enemy has placed his big scary units and either avoid them or counter them with units of your own. In games of 40k tactics like feinted flank very rarely work, unless the battle field is exceptionally large or your opponent has a slow moving force.The tactic Refused flank is best used in games 40k where, if you go second, you can deploy your entire force on one flank and ignore half your opponents army. And if you have superior range you can snipe the opposing force as they march towards it.

In this example the space wolves have been left out of position and at the mercy of the tau guns as they deployed first, allowing the tau to set up as far away as possible

In a game of Fantasy a bad deployment can ruin your game however in a game of 40k a bad deployment usually delays your game plan for a few turns.  This is due to the mobile nature of 40k, which i will discuss more at a later date.

So lets examine the pros and cons of each system's deployment phase.

Fantasy
Pros

• One unit at a time allows for counter deployment
• Cunning use of the Feinted Flank tactic can throw enemy units out of position

Cons

• A bad deployment can cost you the game 
• Deployment phase can take longer

40k
Pros

• Deployment phase goes faster meaning more time for the game 
• The Refused Flank tactic can give your army valuable time, and gives you opportunities to whittle down your opponent before they reach you.

Cons

• There is a notable disadvantage to the player who deployed first. Their opponent is allowed to counter deploy at will and they can do very little about it. 

Conclusions
The Fantasy and 40k deployment phases are precursors for how the rest of the systems feel. The Fantasy deployment phase allows for more tactical deployment but if done incorrectly can ruin your game. The 40k deployment phase is quicker and more forgiving of a poorly planned deployment but does give the player who deploys second a chance to see their opponents deployment and plan around it.

Up next, in this series, i will look at the movement phase and how a 40k style of thinking cant be applied to the fantasy movement phase and visa versa.

Until next time
Rex

Weapons testing field

This last Sunday myself and a few friends decided to have a game of warhammer 40k. However this wasn’t really a game. You know those tutorial levels on video games where they give you the best guns just so you can get a preview for what things will be like later on? Well that was basically this game. My opponents where Ethan and Jayden (my fellow authors here on the NZ version of The Dice Odyssey), and my fellow weapons testing target was Arnold, a friend and member of the local gaming club.

The lists don’t matter, all that matters was that Ethan had recently acquired and built a Eldar Revenant Titan and wanted to try out .

The Eldar Grim Reaper

I was using my Space Wolves and Arnold was using Dark Eldar, and of course both Jayden and Ethan were using Eldar. The battle weapons testing field looked like this.

The Weapons Testing Field, complete with cardboard cover

Myself and Arnold (the weapons testing targets) attempted to deploy in a way that blocked the Titan's line of sight. However the Titan was the tallest thing on field and so this proved fruitless .

"So this Titan is big right?"

The eldar deployed gunline style. It was kind of a waste, they were only there to watch the show.

The Eldar cheer leading squads

We sized the initiative (yaay) and began to move forwards. I had in my army both Njal Stormcaller and a Rune Priest. The plan was to get Njal within 24 of the Titan and Jaws of the World Wolf it (it only has Initiative 2 so on a 4 or more it would die). Unfortunately Njal and the Rune Priest died before getting anywhere near 24 inches of the titian.  

The plan going wrong

I do think that Arnold and myself did as well as we could given the circumstances. His Raiders and Ravagers took a heavy toll on Jayden’s eldar (accounting for a squad of Striking Scorpions, in cover, and the majority of a howling banshee squad as well as other assorted eldar) his jetbikes ran over the shinning spears and killed 2 out of 3, and his flyer knocked the fight out of the shadow specters (and the life out of 3 of them).

A Dark Eldar hit-and-run is a violent thing

For my part I did some damage. Once again the Thunder wolves (accompanied by a wolf lord on a Thunderwolf) were the unit of the match of me, killing those pesky warp spiders, causing a squad of guardians to flee and being my last unit left alive. The wolf lord challenged Jayden’s Autarch and this time won, smunching the puny space elf with his thunder hammer. He then stood his ground as a horde of Eldar surrounded him and cut him down, a fitting end for a space Viking riding a monster wolf. 

The Thunderwolves eating some Eldar

The Eldar side murdered us. Ethan was the primary murderer, as he had a Titan, a Wraith Knight and a fire prism. The Titan reaped a horrifying toll as it could fire its two main weapons at different targets, it killed the raiders first then moved onto the space wolves. The Wraith knight was eventually brought low (thanks to Arnold's remaining vehicles) but not before killing poor Njal. The Eldar flyers took a toll, knocking out Arnold's flyer and then sowing death amongst our ranks. The Eldar infantry did very little, by the time they could do something my squads ( I was running forward while Arnold was being more tactical) had been whittled down by Wraith Knight and Titan fire

 

The Titan surveying its work

There was one huge and very important lesson to come out of this game, and that was Don’t use apocalypse models in a non-apocalypse game. But wait, you say , surely the Titan must cost a tonne points wise and if you have equal points to your opponents then you should be able to beat them. Not so. Apocalypse models have such powerful rules that even though it did cost a lot and we did have equal points to our opponents we still couldn’t beat it. Imagine if a Leman Russ Demolisher could take two Demolisher Cannons and fire them at different targets. That would represent a fraction of the fire power that the Titian could bring to bear on us.

Titan victory dance

So remember dear readers that fighting a titan without super heavy support is like bringing a knife to a gun fight, just that the knife is a mouldy stick and the gun is a mini-gun, that fires explosive shots, and has auto target lock, and is strapped to the back of a armoured fighting bear.

Until next time.

Rex