20 Games With Tomb Kings - Tactica pt 3

So, games 3 and 4 of the Prologue series, and a discussion of the set list that I will be running for the 20 games:

Game 3 Was against Orks and Goblins:
His list;
Black Ork Special Character with about 30 black orks.
Large unit of double choppa orks (25?) BSB in here as well
40 or 50 Night gobbos with nets and fanatics with a NG lv 4 Shaman
10 arrer boyz.
2 units of 3 wolf chariots (str 5? wow)
1 Aracknoc spider

My list had changed a bit from my previous game and now included muscitians where needed, no ushabti a bone giant and a a prince instead of a king as well as LV 4 and that was it for magic. Cloak of dunes and ward for the hiero.

HLP Lv4 Hierophant. Cloak, Earthing Rod, Opal Amulet - 300pts

Prince Glittering Scales, DB Gem and HW, SH- 132pts

Prince Armour of Fortune and GW- 139pts

6 Horse Archers

50 HW/Sh Skellies with FC

20 Bows with FC

10 Bows with Mus

3 Chariots, Banner, Eternal Flame

23 Tomb Guard - FC, BoUL

2 Swarms

Colossus extra HW

2 x SSC

Casket

Total - 2200pts

So, mission saw dawn attack once again, this time he was heavy on my right with big spider, hero black ork bunker, chariots and gobbos in the center and the small unit of archers (that did not to anything all game so I wont mention them again) on the left field.

All in all I was doing very well starting turn 3, my BG had eliminated a unit of chariots and had then moved into contact with the Black orks, stalling them... the horse archers got in the way of the big spider to prevent it from getting involved int he middle of the battle, the chariots and HW/sh skellies had broken the unit of orks in the middle and then held up the gobbos with the shaman... it all came down to the shaman casting his big spell bosted, irresistibly and killing 15 of the tomb guard that were about to fight the big spider, and about 30 of the skeletons... neutering any advantage that I had until then, the spider stomped all over the remnants of the tomb guard and then ate the rest of my army... one unit of wolf chariots had busted through my line by hitting the 10 man archer unit and going into the backfield to take out my casket and both catapults over the course of the game.

What a great turn around. The hierophant was alive thanks to the cloak of dunes, but I did not have much else as the last of the skeletons crumbled due to combat resolution.

So things that I noted from this game:
- Need to have a dispel scroll in my army... it would not have helped against any double sixes, but just in case it would prevent something like this from happening again.
- I was happy with the performance of my army in general... the swarms never showed up and the 10 man archer unit was not needed or useful in this game. Both catapults were good but they failed to wound the big spider.. over and over and over again...

So, on to game 4 that happened right after this game. Played the same Lizard player that I had faced in game 2, except this time he took the tried and true Lore of Life for his Slaan.

We played blood and glory. He deployed slaan centraly flanked by both saurus squads, steg on one side within 12 of all block for the ward save... and skinks on one side and sallies and skinks on my right... here i scouted the fast cav to force his skinks away of the sallies from the main battle. I went first and just advanced as fast as I could up the table. Firing at skinks I killed 7 form the unit on my right and the SSC opened up on the steg but failed to kill it.

He advanced and dwellers my 40 skellies, I had deployed my hiero on the far right with the 20 man archer unit to prevent becalming at least for a little bit. With the cloak he was later able to move closer to buff my main units.... so the battle raged on, my TG smashed into the saurus warriors on my right of the slaan and made them run, I was unable to run them down... the skellies tied up the slaan TG unit and the BG charged into the other unit of saurus on the left... the catapults smashed the steg and killed it to prevent it from helping the saurus against the colossus. The scouting cav took care of the skinks in my turn and on my third turn saw a boosted smiting go off ( even with becalming on my hiero) that saw my 20 archers become 40, the scout cav come back to full strength and hence the salamanders pack was reduced to one salamander...

We had to call the game due to time but it had been going very well for me. A few things that I noticed:

- the colossus was awesome but I think the list would benefit more from a hierotitan, a lv 4 is hard to stop (with the casket bonus) and +d3 to his power of spells would mean a lot more.

- still missing the dispel scroll, a secondary caster for more support across the board... sometimes the movement spell would be awesome but people know this and they shut it down, having a second chance at it would be great!

Anyway, here ends the Prologue series, I have written up my list and will now begin this journey.

So, just came back from my latest game, Game 1 of the Journey... we dusty foot legions taking the great watchtower that leads to the passage to the north. Held by the barbarian warriors clad in steel and writhed in magical energies of chaos. (for those not into the narrative, played a game watchtower scenario against warriors of chaos, he started the game in the tower) And this time... have pictures. I hope to have it up later tonight.

Rules'n WIP- Pics Kings

So, the colossus rules have changed from the last book quite a lot. They are tougher (t6 now) but they have also taken a hit on their armour save (5+ rather than a 3+). This is mitigated by the overall point cut the old Giant was 220pts (wow) and the new one with the same load out is about 50pts cheaper. There are a few options for the colossus and one of them is a GW... although already at str 6 not a primary option, as for the extra HW an extra attack will always come in handy (no pun intended, hehe), the last option is the large Bow, this is effectively a bolt thrower that hits on an unmodified 5+ and it is not super cheap but its not out of this world expensive either. I will be working on a conversion for a giant with a huge bow, what is not to like about that? At least he can have a few turns of potentially doing something until he hits combat and when he does, he still has the assault rule and only one less attack. Oh well.
On another note here is the colossus with the extra work I did for him yesterday:
Cheers!

Skari

Tomb Kings - WIP

Here are a few pictures of the Tomb Kings that I have been working on today. The Liche priest o foot and below him the Colossus (previously bone giant) with double hand weapon. C&C welcome. :D




Cheers!

Skari

20 Games With Tomb Kings - Tactica pt 2

On to the second game of my Epilogue series:

2200pts vs Lizardmen.
His list was:
Slaan (all the good stuff) Lore of Light
20-30 Guard
2 units of 24 warriors, one with spears.
2 units of skirmishing blowpipe skinks
Steg engine of gods, skink priest.
unit of 3 salamanders.

It is a very hefty list, and a tried and true contender for 8th edition.

My list had changed and this is what I took:

Casquet- Always take the casquet...
unit of 5 Ushabti
3 Chariots
30 Tomb Guard with King
HLP
LP (death)
Prince
Light horse (bunker for HLP)
16 Archers
10 Archers
50 HW/Sh Skeletons
Skullypult

- The mission was dawn attack. And from the begginging I was on an off foot... 6 of my units all ended up on my left flank... the
casket, the skeletons, the tomb guard, the ushabti, unit of archers, the chariots and the HLP's bunker.

So, I was unable to finish this game but here is the list of things that I learned:
-Musicians are fantastic... and needed. I had so much stuff crammed in that flank and no music...so my chariots and ushabti were out of pisition in respect to the rest of his army... If you want to get out of a tight spot, use the horns!
- Large skeleton unit with the prince was amazing once again.
- The ushabti died, easily and it is hard to bring them back.
- The casket was really nice.
- The position I was put into at the start of the game really stunk.
- I felt like I did not need the secondary caster... although he did roll up purple sun the damned becalming was really preventing me from doing it effectively.

So, back to the drawing board, but I can see a pattern emerging. Skelly block + prince = awesome.

20 Games With Tomb Kings - Tactica Series

So, with the new book in my hands and a few games under my belt I have decided to go on a quest hoping to find the key to success with the new army book in 8th edition. I shall be taking you on a journey for 20 games at 2200pts I shall be reporting on the battles played with general comments on the outcome and performance of my army. It is widely accepted that at -least- 20 games with a certain army against a plethora of opponents will give you insight as to the ebb and flow of an army list. And hence I seek the wisdom of the priests and hope that you can join me on this quest. So, I ask you to gain inspiration from these tales of battle as well as offering your insight to the path ahead. At the end of these 20 games we shall have a better understanding of the Tomb Kings legions and how to use them with tactical and strategical efficiency in game.

Epilogue:
I shall discuss my preliminary games that I have had with the Kings army and what I have learned from these games. This will give us the basic core for what we are looking for in a 2200pt army.
I have had 4 games at this point value, and and 2 games at the 1500pt value, but this is not about the skirmish sized games, this is the tale of great battles.
vs Empire:
My opponents list consisted of about 1500pts sunk into one unit, this unit was a huge unit of empire knights (40) + 3 characters (BSB, Karl Franz and Priest). 3 Great Cannon a Mortar and a Steam Tank. The army I ran was a basic list that was similar to my other lists, just with a few perks from the new book since I had no idea about the new book and had made the list in the few minutes that I had had the book in my hands.
King with Tomb Guard. HLP lv 4, Lp lv2, big skeleton block with tomb prince, casquet of souls, one screaming skull, 10 Light horse, 2 units of 20 bowmen and a Colossus. I had really spent on the characters and did not have too many supporting units.

Things that I learned from this defeat:
- The Skeleton horde I had actually survived quite a while against the huge death star. The prince needed something to keep him alive for longer in combat. I got too carried away and charged the tomb guard into the front of the horde of horsemen thinking that the skellies would loose soon, but I would have had time to flank the horde and in the long run that would have been better.
- I had taken WAY too many spell levels and bound items. Ruby Ring, Casquet, level 4, Level 2, Banner of Undying Legion... even with the casquet bonus I was finding it hard to use all the tools at my disposal.
- The bone giant died to mass cannon fire... so he did not have too good of a showing, the screaming skull did 6 wounds onto the steam tank turn 1... that was really nice. Maybe wanted to get a second one for anti monster shooting?
- The casquet was nice, but my opponent kept enough dice arround to always dispel it... Talking about magic... we totally played the Lore of Nehek all wrong, and were treating the augment spells as RIP spells... so during his magic phase he was dispelling them and I was loosing the bonuses that I had (KB, extra attack, ward.. etc)... Never again!
- The light horse... awesome. As soon as I saw that they had scout I was drawn to them... I always liked them before (as bunkers for my LP) but scout and cheaper makes them even better... the 10 took out all the warmachines. Totally worth it they had to stay in some shape or form.

This was the first game that I had had with the new book and the lessons that I learned I took back to the drawing table. For my second game I faced off against a lizardmen player. In my next post I shall explore the changes that I had made to the list and the situations that I found myself in during the game.

Keep posted for more content.

WIP - Tomb Kings

Now that the new book is upon us! I wanted to show off my latest project my Tomb Prince. The blue will become blended into a turquoise:So there you have it. I am hoping to post more often on the blog itself. Cheers!

Korean Konnection 4: The Return

Anyong Haseyo!

It's been near 11 months since my departure to the Land of Morning Calm. Thanks to a renegotiated contract (huzzah for raises!) and some strange timing, I'll soon be back in Canada and back with the SGU!

Alas, my return will not be for long. But, it should be long enough to play some games with my completed COBRA Guard.

It's been a LONG process getting this all together. Not everything came out the way I'd originally planned, but I am satisifed. Here are the results...


COBRA Commander, Tomax and retinue:
-Company Command Squad, officer of the fleet, voxcaster, regimental standard, 2 bodyguards, lascannon team
-Chimera with heavy stubber


Zartan and the Drednoks with the Thunder Machine:
-Veteran Squad, Sgt Harker, 3 meltaguns
-Chimera with dozer blade and heavy stubber


Crimson Guard:
-Veteran Squad, 3 meltaguns
-Chimera with heavy stubber


COBRA Blueshirts:
-Veteran Squad, 3 plasmaguns
-Chimera with heavy stubber


Toxovipers and Septic Tank:
-Veteran Squad, 3 flamers, voxcaster
-Chimera with heavy flamer and dozer blade


H.I.S.S. II:
-Leman Russ Vanquisher with lascannon and dozer blade


H.I.S.S. III:
-Leman Russ Demolisher with heavy bolter sponsons


M.A.G.G.O.T.:
-Medusa Seige Cannon with enclosed crew compartment and bastion breacher shells


ROKAF F-14C:
-Vendetta


Nightraven:
-Vendetta

This roughs out to about 1850 points, plus or minus upgrades. I'm looking forward to some good games while I'm home.

COBRA!!!

Da Wulf Boyz

Ok so it has been a long time again, as I say the tournaments I play in I have been trying to take my Blood Angels since I won't be taking my Ork Wolves to anything till September.

But I wanted to show you guys what the Razorback looks like that I will be using for Da Wolf Boyz.

Da Wulf Boyz

Well guys I know it has been a long time between Wulf Boyz updates but that is due to a few reasons, one I had to take a break from all that Grey armor. That does get dull after a while. As well I got heavy into some of my Malifaux stuff which was how I was taking a break from these boyz. The last reason you are about to see. I have a painting competition coming up and the model I chose to do for it was going to be my Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf, or rather Da Warboss on Da Thunda-Boar. SO I took a bit longer to work on him then the other boars.

So he took a lot longer then the other models for sure. I am happy with him I did some slight modifications. I took Gorbad Iron Claw as the base for the model. I however took his Shield and Spears off his back. As well I took the chain off his axe. I have my Arjak model with the chain so I wanted to keep him the only model with the chain on his axe. So I added two what I guess you would call throwing axes to my Wolf Lords back as well as I custom built him his own Storm Shield and put it on his back in place of the fantasy shield that was there. Obviously I also put him on a 60mm round base.

So I took this model...



And turned him into this...

Da Wulf Boyz

Well I have made it, Aarkon is now internet famous, you heard it I have made it to the big time. You know you have made it to the big time when you have been mentioned on a podcast and youtube. Now I have been so it must be true.


Just kidding but I did want to make this quick post thanking Miniwargamming.com for the mention.