Stomped!

[genix]

Local store had an event today. I think it was the colossals release event. I am unsure - I just turned up expecting some casual games and the place was exceptionally busy. I signed up for the hell of it.

Given I can't really do an effective 50pt, it was always going to be just for fun. Now I'm not going to turn this post into a battle report, but more just musings on matchups.

Only having played one 50pt before this, it was a lot to keep track of. So much stuff on the opponents side of the board.

I played three games - pMorg vs Damiano, eMak vs Terminus, and Xerxis vs pButcher. The last of which kind of precluded more games since it took 3 fricken hours until we'd both attritioned each other down to just Butcher on Xerxis and a Savage.

Now I'm new to larger games, don't have optimal lists and am a relatively new player. So with some post-match thought of the matches, I've already realized a few things to improve on.

However heres the beef right: everyone else seems to do what they do astoundingly well. Looking through the models I could purchase to expand my collection, I'm just not seeing it. I won't complain about Khador since I find them the most fun to play against (Xerxis won vs Butcher btw - combo-smiting him for 4d6 into an objective!).

Against the mercs, I've got Nyss Hunters on one side who are unbelievably awesome - not sure what I can throw at them (Arcuarii? Reivers?). Cavalry with flanking bonus' making mince meat out of my poor beasts with ease. Just about everything sporting ridiculous MAT, and the Mule giving a beast a good kick every turn.

Against Terminus. Well Zaal would have been awesome to deny the feat (if I owned him). Even so I don't think he needed a feat to win. Such a ridiculous swarm of tough weaponmasters is just crazy. Tough is really the 'over the top' bit which stymies everything. Moreover its just the sheer number of models on the table - even if one made a custom rule where everytime I swung at a bane it died, I'd still wager he'd have a good chance of winning that matchup.

Against Butcher. As said earlier, I like Khador. Its a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of faction. Everything is just charge lanes, very few unexpected movements. Something which is good against infantry sucks against beasts generally, and vice versa. For this reason even with losses, I'm not often left with this feeling that I have no clue how I could have changed the outcome.

OK. Thats the rant. It was fun being in somewhat more competitive play, and also playing 50pt finally. Certainly a lot to think about. In a couple months, I should be able to pick up a bit more stuff and hopefully sport some more competitive lists. Now to work on how to use them effectively too

[Lord Tyrant peers]

Really think about your lists and how it works. Pmorghoul would probably have been better for terminus because you could put admonition on himself and tempt terminus to get into him and thusly dance out of the way and he feat can also shut down the spending of focus. Then just drop some heav beasts on him

[onthedownlow]

However heres the beef right: everyone else seems to do what they do astoundingly well. Looking through the models I could purchase to expand my collection, I'm just not seeing it.
In a couple months, I should be able to pick up a bit more stuff and hopefully sport some more competitive lists. Now to work on how to use them effectively too

..it is your responsibility to serve the Master Race better - and to subjugate you enemies to your will.

In all seriousness, Terminus is a horrible Warcaster for most players to deal with, whoever you use. Damiano too can make some nasty things happen with his Mercs, so don't feel too bad, especially if you're only just starting out. Good luck in the future!

[genix]

Thanks

I expected to fare poorly - it's a whole new ballgame. Still needing to work out a lot things though. Spent a bunch of time thinking about my positioning. Small errors cost a lot.

Also getting the most out of paingivers is something that needs thought. Many a time I want to do things in batches, so Ill activate the Gladiator, dole out Rush then activate the PGBH and take the fury off him while enraging the target who received Rush. Then charging with the Rush'ed beast.

After dealing with that combo to see where it gets me, I move on to another part of the army and decide what I need to do there. The downside is that this can lead to me wanting to generate a few more fury on other beasts which really could have been cleaned up by the paingivers. Instead I'm left wondering whether buying another attack is the best option given I'm now in the world of doing frenzy checks.

The PGBH could have cleaned the whole lot up, but they didnt. Too many frenzy checks for my liking.

[Demonster]

And that's why Bronzeback is so damn useful. Having him stay behind 2-3 other titans so they can go as hot on fury as they want is definately one of our meanest strategies.

[gaminguy]

Not that I play a lot of tournaments or anything but here is my take on the question.

Let's take a "hypothetical" list:
PButcher
Wardog
Demolisher x2
Kayazy + Underboss
Nyss Hunters + Valachev

This list is posing the question "can you deal with stealthy DEF 17 and ARM 24 in quantity?"

There are two ways to approach answering that question. One is to try to spam enough AoEs and effective MAT 11 to deal with the infantry reliably while still being able to break ARM 24, the other is to try to put together something that list can't deal with itself.

From a strategic standpoint the second approach is probably the better one. If you meta-build to deal with that high DEF / high ARM spam list what happens when you run into Bane Spam, a list full of DEF 14 ARM 18, EKaya, or whatever? You just can't build a list to handle any question that might be posed, or even two lists that can handle any question between them. Even if you could, you're letting the other guy dictate the terms of the game. On the other hand, if you're posing a question of your own (say, can you stop all three of these immune-to-free-strike Archidons from getting to your caster?) then it might not matter if you have answers to the particular list on the other side of the table.

(The other part of that is to analyze what shuts down your question-asking list and build your second list specifically to counter those bad matchups.)

[genix]

Well the event was more just for fun and people were rotating through different casters to get points for having played with 5 different casters, etc. But since points were being accrued and there was to be someone declared a winner, at least some folk were taking it a bit more seriously.

I haven't entered any proper tournaments thus far, and so haven't had to make lists with the restrictions they have (ie: no character repeats). At any rate, I need to get a few more pieces to be able to meet the restrictions. I can't keep throwing Orin Midwinter in every list to make it to 50. And putting a Void Spirit in everywhere just to fill a couple points is counter productive :P

Gaminguy makes sense though. Play to your strengths as best you can and do a better job playing to yours than the opponent does to his.

I don't have a large warmahordes budget, and my next purchases may very well be the last for a long while. So I want to make them count. Which is, once again, why I am looking closely at how I am playing and faring with what I own.

[onthedownlow]

When you do want to expand, take a look at the Cyclops Shaman. He can provide you with another way of handing out Rush without having to waste either the Gladiator or your Warlocks activation early, as well as a ranged attack which ignores LOS, and finally (situationally) a way of removing those horrible Cryx debuffs..