Monday 11 July 2016

CanCon 2017 Project

With my Grand Company of Westhaven project just about finished, I've been thinking about my next army. This will be for Cancon 2017, so I have about 6 months to get it done. I really want to push myself this time to make a great-looking army. I also want it to be fun to play, but I'm mostly going to go for looks.

I wanted something that people don't play in my local meta. That cut out:

  • Dwarfs
  • Undead
  • Abyssal Dwarfs
  • Ogres
  • Orcs
  • Elves
  • Goblins
  • Brotherhood
  • Twilight Kin
  • Basileans
  • Forces of Nature

Leaving:

  • Forces of the Abyss
  • Salamanders
  • The Herd
  • Trident Realm
  • Empire of Dust
  • Night Stalkers
  • Ratkin
  • The Varangur

I also didn't want to buy a heap of old WHFB miniatures either, so that cut out a few more, specifically Ratkin, Salamanders, and Varangrrrrr. I also know some locals who have projects in the works, specifically Herd & Night Stalkers, and maybe EoD and Abyssals (if buying the mega armies counts).

So that left only one choice hey! The Trident Realm of Neritica! Since tentatively settling on them I've played a few proxy games, and I'm sold. They have a lot of opportunities for great hobby stuff, and I imagine most people will not have played them often.

My WIP 2k list


  • 2 x Regiments Tidal Swarm
  • Horde Placoderms
  • Horde Gigas
  • Horde Naiad Wyrmriders
  • Kraken
  • Coral Giant
  • 2 x Leviathan's Bane
  • Placoderm Defender with Wings of the Honeymaze
  • Siren
  • Trident King


Tidal Swarm: fantastic chaff. Unwavering, nimble, height 0, 75 points. I’ll use these to screen my flanks or to hold objectives. I'll either model up my own tentacle swarms coming out of water, or use Reaper Familiars, or both.



Placoderms: Def 6, 30 attacks, phalanx. I love this unit so hard. Will form most of the front line of my formation. Slow, but hopefully they will be able to take 3+ rounds of all but the most dedicated shooting before they pop. I would swap them for Naiad Ensnarers if I were playing a list I knew had no shooting, but my local meta is pretty shooting heavy so here we go. I will probably use regular Mantic Naiad models to represent this unit, but use some green stuff to make their armour look heavier, and model up a living coral barrier that moves around with the troops, explaining the high defence and low movement. I've never used green stuff before so will be a big learning curve.

Gigas: Slow, tough crab guys that will wreck face if you would just hold still for a minute. Maybe two.Will form the other half of my front line. Trying to clear Def 6 stuff with shooting is difficult, even if you’re using rifles or heavy crossbows. 12 crushing 3 attacks on 3s means most people won’t want these guys to reach melee. It's been hard to find cost-effective models for this unit, there just aren't that many scale-appropriate crabs out there! At this stage I'll get some 4" replica Chesapeake Bay blue crabs and see if I can paint and base them up nice.



Naiad Wyrmriders: A big hammer unit. 18 attacks on 3s with CS 1, TC 1 & pathfinder. I'll sit them behind my placoderm/giga front line so they get cover, and hopefully with their regen 4+ they will be able to survive any shooting long enough to get in. I'm having a hard time finding appropriate models for this unit. At this stage I'm leaning to an assortment of snakemen types: Snake Demon, Snakeman Warrior, but I'm open to suggestions.



Leviathan’s Bane: a great war machine, I think my favourite in the game. If I can get clear fire lanes for this one I’d expect it to consistently land wounds on enemy flyers, which will help a lot. Will keep my opponent honest while my deadly tide rolls up to their feet. I'm thinking of something different for this model, using an Evil Sea Priest to represent the war engine, rather than a balista looking thing. I'll try and do the base up something like this, with glowing runes and crashing water against the rocks. Will be awesome.



Coral Giant: will protect one flank. He's a giant, nothing too spectacular. The iron resolve and ensnare will make him a bit trickier to deal with, but he does have fewer attacks and lower nerve than regular giants. Reaper is bringing out an actual Coral Giant model with Bones 3, but it will be huge, way larger than the 50mm square base I want to put him on. I have a Reaper Marsh Troll already that I'm thinking of using, although he's a touch shorter than I'd like for a giant-sized model. Maybe I'll stack the base up so he's nice and high.








Kraken: honestly I’m mostly running this unit so I can use the very cool reaper model. Will cover my other flank. As long as it doesn't get flanked it will hang around for ages, noodling everything with it's noodly appendages. The model is enormous, and I'll have to get creative with my basing to make it fit up against other units, but I don't care. Look how cool it is.



Trident King: 12 P1 breath attacks is cool, very inspiring is very cool. I’ll sit him in the very middle of my formation and try to pop off individuals or turn and cover flanks/rears if something threatens them. Another unit that I'm struggling to find the perfect model for. I'm thinking a Reaper Goroloth with a mantic Naiad riding on top. The Goroloth model is a bit big really, about 20cm from tip to tail, and it needs to fit on a 50 x 100mm base. Maybe I'll be able to do something to the face tentacles to make them less obtrusive.



Placoderm Defender with Wings of the Honeymaze: shooting horde disruptor, war machine hunter, general pain in the arse. Defence 6 and 6 attacks on 3s make this a very powerful little individual. I saw this model in the cabinet at my FLGS and I just had to have it.



Siren: I love tricky stuff like Windblast, so this is right up my wheelhouse. I’ll use her to disrupt shooters, heavy cav, and enemy flyers (If playing the Clash of Kings comp pack). If we are not playing CoK, I’ll probably run a Thuul Mythician + Bane Chant and throw Brew of Strength on my Placoderms. There are a number of reaper banshee-type models that would be appropriate, still making up my mind.



For my bases, I'm going to use Green Stuff World textured rollers to make up rocks carved with dark runes and broken wooden planks to sit on top of dark rocks in stormy seas. Will have a lot to learn about water effects and resin casting, but I'm excited to learn.

The color scheme I'm still toying with. I want my army to have a menacing, cold & dark feel, none of this bright and flashy tropical stuff. I'm thinking dark scales, with glowing eyes and flashing teeth. I want to try some OSL effects too.









Thanks for reading, and and all suggestions welcome!

Wednesday 6 July 2016

Kings of June Game 2 - Kill & Pillage! vs Goblins with Orc Allies

Trolls, trolls, and more trolls
For Game 2 I drew Tony & his greenskins. I've played Tony at every tournament I've attended so far, with a record of two losses and one extremely narrow draw (seriously, I needed a roll of 2+ to win the game). This time he was running his army as Goblins with Orc allies.

His List:

3 x Regiment Rabble
3 x Troll Hordes, one with Brew of Sharpness, one with Blessing of the Gods, one with Brew of Strength
Regiment Fleabag Riders with Maccwar's
4 x War-Trombone
2 x Big Rocks Thrower
Flaggit with the Boomstick
Wiz with Bane Chant and Inspiring Talisman
2 x Mincer
Giant

Orc Allies:
Regiment Gore Riders with Brew of Haste
Krudger on Winged Slasher with Medallion of Life

A fairly elite list, as far as Goblins go. Those troll hordes were going to be tough to deal with unless I could get into their flanks. 4 war trombones and 6 rolls of lightning bolt each turn were another headache. And then there was his flying Krudger. My main reaction on looking at this list was 'gross'.

Deployment 

Deployment
He chose sides. I had 2 more drops than he did, much to his surprise. With the terrain and placement of the pillage tokens, we were effectively playing on a 4'6" wide table. It lead to some tight deployment. Learning from last game, I made sure I had my spears matched up against his TC cavalry. I was mostly worried about his 3 hordes of trolls, 4 war-trombones, and his Krudger on a Winged Slasher. So a lot to worry about. Instead of using his Rabble as chaff, he seemed to be setting them up to take pillage markers. I thought he would put the allied Krudger near his allied Gore Riders, to inspire them. Instead he used his last drop to put it out on the far flank, where it would ultimately cause a lot of headaches.

Turn 1

Goblins Turn 1
He moved up, his Big Rock Throwers trying to snipe my knights.

Westhaven Turn 1
I also moved up, hoping to get my second wave perfectly positioned to counterstrike when he inevitably crushed my first wave. I backed my General up, nervous about getting charged by his Krudger. Took out one of his rabble units with some shooting, and put some wounds on his War Trombones. They were inspired by that flaggit though, so they held steady.

Turn 2

Goblins Turn 2
Oooofft. When the charge came it came hard. My halberd troops routed on my left, as you'd expect. My shield wall took 15 wounds but were only wavered, thanks to my very inspiring Wizard. To be honest I would have rather they routed. My Greatswords took 9 wounds, also holding thanks to inspiring. My spearmen couldn't hold against the double charge from the Krudger and the Fleabag riders. His war trombones took out my Hero as well.


Westhaven Turn 2
My wavered Shield Wall really gummed things up here. All I could do was shift my knights about in what was the most frustrating stage of the game. My spears were also wavered from the previous rounds shooting (thanks to the tromboners). It wasn't all bad. I double charged his giant and took it out, I put some hurt on his Fleabag Riders and Gore Riders, I put more wounds on his war trombones with my rifles, taking out one finally. But it wasn't the devastating counter that I needed. If my purple knights, swordsmen horde, and spears could have charged maybe it would have been enough.

Turn 3

Goblins Turn 3
He predictably routed my swordsmen horde and greatswords. He put a ton of wounds on my steam tank but it held. His Krudger ignored my General to go for one of my rifle troops in the backline. His war trombones peppered my purple knights.

Westhaven Turn 3
I double charged his center troll horde with my two knights regiments and routed it, thanks to getting a flank in. My rifles finally took off a couple more of his war tromboners. I thought I'd play funny buggers with my General and fly into his backlines instead of going toe-to-toe with a couple of mincers.

Turn 4

Goblin Turn 4
This was basically it for me. His trolls charged my Steam Tank and purple knights, routing them. The knights had a bunch of existing wounds from the war trombones so they didn't need much. In the biggest stinker of the day though his Big Rock Throwers ~both~ hit my orange knights, put 9 wounds on them, and they popped. His Krudger continued to clean up my rifle troops, and his remaining war trombone and lightning users took out my spears.

The rest of the game was basically to see if I would get completely tabled or not. We went to turn 7, and I was. 20-0 to Tony.

Result

This was the only time I've ever been completely tabled in KoW. It was pretty brutal. I got a little unlucky with my swordsmen wavering in the absolute worst place, and losing a regiment of Knights to his rock lobbers was just rude as hell.

But I also played pretty poorly. I wasted my greatswords and both spear regiments. I should have held in place Turn 1, letting him come all the way across the table to me. It would have given me at least 2 full turns of shooting before he inevitably charged me. Instead I made it a easier for him. My General did his job ok, tying up a lot of points of troops in a pointless game of ring-around-the-rosy. 

But in the end it was his 54(!) Piercing 1 breath attacks that sunk me. I just had no answer to it.