The Dice Odyssey 2013-2014 Stats

What with the one year anniversary of the Dice Odyssey having come and gone (the first post was on the 18/6/2013) i have decided to start a yearly tradition where, around the 18 of June, i will do a post covering the important stats of the past 365 days, so lets get to it, starting with:

Page Views

Total number of page views: 34,770

Month with the most page views: 7618 (this is probably due to my coverage of the Wood Elf release during this month)

Most Viewed Post:  Pierce the Armour! Wood Elf Review Part 1 with 2220 views

Top 3 Non Wood Elf Realated Posts:

1.  The Non Wood Elf Post with 701 views
2.  Mantic Games Vs Gamework Shop with 332 views
3.  The EA of Wargaming with 218 views

Let's Talk About The Orks

Its been about a week since my last post and one of the reasons for that was i wanted talk about the Wh40k Ork release. Ever since GW deicede to "Change" how they do releases we have had 4 (not counting the Orks) GW armies all with very different releases. We had the Imperial Knights (who, perplexingly, got their Codex in week 2 of their release which is odd as the Imperial Knight release consisted of about 2 items total), the Dwarfs (who not only had a incorrectly spelt army name but also had to wait until week 3 for their Army Book), the IMPERAIL GUARD (who got a new, silly and copyrightable name as well as a week 4 Codex release) and the Wood Elves (easily the best release out of all 4 of the armies with a  2 week release and the Army Book in week 1). So we finally come to the Ork release which has been a snorefest. I decided to start a 40k Ork army when i knew the army would be redone and its been hard to keep my interest up, and i am not the only one. So what do i think is the cause of this lack of excitement? To help answer that question lets look at what was released when during this release.

It took 4 weeks to get this Codex, lets hope its worth it

The Rumour Conundrum

According to the rumours we should expect WHFB 9th Edition in September, or we should expect it to be discontinued in December, or we should expect it to be replaced by a Mordhiem like skirmish game, or we should expect 9th edition in 2015. All of the above are rumours i have heard regarding the future of WHFB. From the outset i want to make clear that i think it highly likely that WHFB will get a 9th edition and find it highly unlikely that WHFB will be disconnected. I believe WHFB is in fact growing, its player base swelling with every new army book and GW would have to be declared insane if they dropped it. The point of this post is to address several issues all at once. Firstly i want to take a look at the state of rumours about GW's release schedule, why are there so many rumours about the same thing and how can we possibly tell a false rumour from a true one. Then i want to address the rumours/view that WHFB is a game system in decline, that its player base is dwindling and try to show that this is not the case. Finally i want to talk about 9th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles, what i hope to see i the new edition and what i think is likely to be in it. So grab a mug of your favourite hot beverage, sit back and read on.

Dont let its age deceive you, its not dead yet.

Rarely Disappointing: Wood Elf Rare Unit Tactics

Here we are the rare unit tactics post. The advantages of only doing two units in the post is that I can spend as much time as I won’t on each unit without having to worry about the post becoming ridiculously long. So let us begin.

Treeman

Oh the Treemen how you have deceived so many. When the news first hit that these guys dropped a wound and a point of strength many Wood Elf players dropped the Treeman, along with Treekin. Once more I refused to bow to the commonly held view and stood by the Treeman (the new model helped). And lo I was rewarded! Some of the things people missed about the new Treeman was the Increase to LD 9 (with Stubborn) and Treewhack. So what roles do I see this unit fulfilling?

Roles: Anvil, Monster Hunter, Monstrous Cavalry Hunter

Recommended amount in an army: 1

The 8th ed Treeman retains his 6th ed role of being the model you can rely on to hold up an enemy unit or monster and do some damage. But that’s not all he can do, with the addition of Treewhack (which can be targeted against any model in base to base contact, said model must pass a initiative test or suffer D6 Wounds with no armour save allowed) he is now better at killing big monsters and the dreaded monstrous cav. Confused? Allow me to explain. The big two MC units that Wood Elves fear the most are Demigryphs and Skullcrushers because they have good toughness and a 1+ armour save and all the toys we have to deal with these things are shooting orientated. However with the addition of Treewhack we now have a new way of dealing with these units. The Treeman simply needs to Treewhack the unit until it dies and hope that he doesn’t die before they do. Ok it’s not perfect but it’s what we have, and as such a Treeman should be considered when choosing units for your army. Now for a brief chat about Strangleroots. It’s a range 12 multiple shot attack on a model that will be moving, meaning a -3 to hit penalty. For this reason I suggest you pass on Strangleroots and spend that 20 points elsewhere. But the Treeman itself is still a good choice for your army. 

Balancing the Weave

It has been a while since i have done a non tournament battle report, and so i decided that my weekly game of WHFB would give me the perfect opportunity to do a battle report with the new Wood Elves. My opponent was Nick Jebson (from the blog HMS Distraction), Nick is a regular opponent of mine and this time he was using an army  that would ensure that neither of us would be re-rolling failed to hits: Dark Elves.  I was using what i am now calling my standard 2400 point list:

Level 4 High Mage on Elven Steed with Channeling Staff and Talisman of Preservation

Level 4 Life Mage

Shadowdancer with the Glittering Scales

Glade Captain with HODA and Great Weapon

Glade Captain BSB with Armour of the Slivered Steed and Great Weapon

20 Glade Guard with Musician, Standard and Trueflight Arrows

20 Eternal Guard with Full Command and Banner of Discipline

10 Wardancers with Champion

10 Wardancers with Champion

10 Wild Riders with Full Command and Shields and Banner of Swiftness 

10 Waywatchers

5 Waywatchers

Total Points: 2399

Nick took a list that managed to have more ranged attacks than mine did:

Dreadlord on Pegasus
lance, heavy armour, shield, sea dragon cloak, cloak of twilight, dragon bane gem
Supreme Sorceress
Power stone and the ring of hotek, lore of darkness

Master Battle Standard Bearer
heavy armour, enchanted shield, sea dragon cloak, dawn stone
Khainite Assassin
sword of striking, potion of strength

20 Corsairs
additional hand weapons, full command
10 Dark Shards
repeater crossbows, shields
5 Dark Riders
repeater crossbows, spears, shields, musician
5 Dark Riders
repeater crossbows, spears, shields, musician

24 Executioners
great weapons, heavy armour, full command
6 Shades
additional hand weapons, repeater crossbows
7 Shades
additional hand weapons, repeater crossbows
Repeater Bolt Thrower
Repeater Bolt Thrower

5 Doomfire Warlocks
Kharibdyss 

Total: 2396

From the moment i saw this list i knew i would have trouble with it. As i have said before Wood Elves have a strange phobia of armour, and the best way to beat them is too out shoot them. That being said my list wasn't without its bite, 10 Wild Riders can spoil anyone's day and the Wood Elf Archers, whilst not being as numerous as their Dark Elf counter parts, out matched the Dark Elf ranged units for accuracy and range.

Before i get into the battle proper i just want to write a quick paragraph about my plan. The general plan with this army is to stick all my characters ,bar the mounted high mage, into the Eternal Guard unit and then stick that unit in my forest. I would then proceed to lure my enemy to that forest and have the central combat there where i would have all my advantages. It turns out that this plan would work better if i had more archers in my list and it relies on my opponent not out shooting me.

Nick had the table set up and ready to go before i got there.

The Pyskic Game Winner

I was inspired to write this post after i listened the recent episode of the Jaded Gamer Cast where the topic of the new Wh40k Psykic phase was discussed. During the discussion a number of excellent points were made about the way the phase works, i want to repeat what i thought were the key points made during the show ,so that they reach a wider audience, as well as add my own thoughts about the Psykic Phase.

ZAAAAAP! Game Over