Farewell and So Long!

Howdy all!

Its been a while as I've been lost to Dragon painting, alcohol and Rumblings but I'm back to say a not so fond goodbye to the old High Elf book.

It turns out High Elf Core was not the only Core to suck balls...

On the weekend, I had my last ever run out with the old book at the Rumble in the Bronx tournament in Geelong. The overall tournament was fraking ace! A bar on site at a tournament is something I've missed so very much from the UK. Not to get smashed, mind you, just its so good to have a nice Beer or two with your Warhammer. There is not much better in my opinion. It just lightens up the whole mood a bit, where often I think people get a bit too serious in tournaments.

As for myself, I had some pretty mixed results due to taking a pretty left field list, as I was struggling for enthusiasm to run the requisite 40 archer core... In the end I took a a Nullstone Lord (always amusing) with a Dragon Prince "bus", archers and some Bolt throwers and Eagles. I also made a massive mistake in taking High Magic on my Level 2, and proceeded to only once roll a spell other than Shield or Courage...

My results were:

11-9 Win vs Mark Skiltons Bugman scouting Dwarfs

Basically I avoided Marks big scouting Longbeard bus as long as I could while killing everything else but the Dragon Princes with BSB, decided they couldn't kill a Grudge Thrower in one round and got mashed. The severely unfair comp boost I received (I got +3 to final battle score) lifted a small loss to the win

12-8 win vs Empire

Dragon Princes somehow ground the two units of Knights off the table, despite wiffing on the charge (sadly one knight got away on T6...) but I couldn't finish the big infantry blocks off while losing too much on the way out. However a glorious last turn in which the Chaffmasters killed the Mage Lord, BSB and Paedohunter, and finally getting the Cannon and Helblaster with archers/reavers got me the win.

12-8 vs Lizards

Party Slaan and Friends. Despite losing my BSB to Final Transmutation T1 (seriously every bloody time!) I cleaned up all the Skinks by T2 and played avoid the Saurus Block and Stegadon for 4 turns. Nullstone came up big time charging into the Slaan and stopping his magic for 3 turns :-). Sadly however he decided to die to a bad touch from the frog on turn 6 (having lost two wounds to Rocks earlier) giving my opponent his Boast (his was to kill him, mine was him to live...) and the 4 bonus pts dragged me back.

Just wanna say, I seriously don't understand why people find Lizards so hard to beat? Maybe I need to write a "Lizardmen for Dummies" blogpost at some point

13-7 loss to High Elves

Nick ran 2 Sun Dragons, and had no sleep the night before due to the Champions League final, and somehow I still managed to play worse than he did... Made so many Muppet mistakes its not funny and got the beating I deserved. I was only saved by Nick going for the big points on the last turn to kill my Lord with the Dragon Mages Sun Dragon and taking its last wounds before he could strike.

13-7 loss to TKS

Just not a great matchup for my Elves. Greg had 2 Sphinx, a Bonegiant, 2x8 Chariots and 2 Scorpions. I either had to roll 6s to win or I'd struggle. I did not roll 6s... The Scorpions then ran riot through my Archers and while the Bus killed one block of Chariots, the Giant and a Sphinx I lost everything else. Such is the luck of the dice. Really fun game though and I gave Greg my Best Sports vote.

12-8 win vs Wood Elves.

Combat Archers ftw baby! In the process of trying to just hold up the Wildrider bus Johannes was running into my backline, one unit of archers somehow managed to first hold and then break the bus, much to the shear and utter astonishment of everyone and their dog (Okay the Nullstone and a Shield of Saphery may have helped but thats not the point here...). Johannes then ran away with everything else to keep me to a small win.


So overall I went 4-2, but only managed to get 61 Battle Pts which with help from an overly picky paint scoring system pushed me down to 22nd/36. Given I knew I'd taken a seriously bad list I was happy to get over half points, but I seriously need to run a list that can push for the big wins as I'm getting really tired of small wins and not being able to clean anything up... For all, I'm winning games and not losing very big if it happens, I can't recall the last tournament game I scored over 14 and it seriously impacts the overall position.

In general though, after a couple practice games with the new book, I just sat there thinking how constrained the whole army was by the core tax. To be honest, it seriously annoyed me by the end of game 6. But that's that, the last time I ever take more than 20 archers in a High Elf army, and the last time I ever get to re-roll a Great Weapon attack with a Swordmaster... Onwards and upwards, into the lands of choice and variety and fun. I can't wait to start playing with the Swedish comp rules for Convic, if they ever actually get released.

We'sa coming, okiday!

It's Game Time, Baby!!!

Hey gang, today's blog is gonna be a few disparate hobby thoughts and some HE gaming discussion, because that's what the internet is for at the moment.

My hobby time this week has been rather alot of Dragon painting time. Its slow going but one wing is done and looking great. Maybe in the far reaches of time the whole thing will be done and I'll have some photos for you guys...

No, Not this Dragon. Painting them would be creepy and weird...

So I've played a couple of games with very different lists this week, and its given me a couple of early lessons, and ideas.

Game 1 was against Ben Wadsworth, the Shirts Off guru himself.

I took a Monster Mash list with:

Star Dragon Lord,
Griffon Hero,
Eagle BSB
Scroll Caddy
4 x Reavers
Silver Helm bus
Frostie
Fiery
Small bunker of Sisters

Game went swimmingly until Turn 3. I killed all of Bens chaff and all Warmachines but 1 doom diver for the loss of only my BSB to a flying Goblin and was in perfect position to clean up the Savages with 4 monsters but the Giant Hairy foot of an Orc God came down and ruined me, killing the Star Dragon and Lord 10/11 Silver Helms (the champ then getting a DD to the face) and most of the Sister bunker sending them fleeing. To top it off the Griffon fluffed against a Boltie meaning he couldnt overrun into the Spider Gobbo with Flaming Ward who then ran down the Flame Phoenix. So I lost about 1200 odd points in one turn and was soundly crushed by T4... Never seen anything like it!

Lessons:
Love the list, and playstyle, it was crazy to have such a high speed army.
Its not as fragile as I thought it might be. Ben had two shooting phases and didn't do much. I can see it being very hit miss in gunline games but I think I can work around it. I like the Flame Phoenix for sitting in front of the other monsters to take the hits and possibly come back to life afterwards.
Frostheart Phoenix isn't a combat monster, its a combat buff. Mine got stuck against a Troll for several rounds because I kept fluffing. Was never in danger of death but it really struggles by itself, and need tos combo with other units. Yes I can see it being amazing with the Star Dragon but I'm just not sure that its worth 240 pts for the buff when you get a decent unit of something else for the same pts. Will continue to play though.
Reaver Core is everything I'd hoped for. Happy James is happy!!! the 4 units pretty much took control of the table and chaff game and still had a spare unit to go after Bens warmachines. Think it may be worth it to get Bows on them for more options though. I honestly see no need for Eagles in a HE army anymore...


Game 2 vs Elliot Yung with Dark Elves

I took a much more balanced army this time:

Level 4 Book of Hoeth
Loremaster
BSB with Reaver Bow/Potion of Strength
Griffon Noble
4 x 5 Reavers with Bow/Spears
20 Archers
19 White Lions
2 x 7 Swordmasters
3 Bolt Throwers
6 Sisters

Elliot had a pretty damn soft army led by Malekith in a horde of Spears and I dismantled it effectively killing everything but Malekith and the BSB, but I think I still learnt some things.

Magic was insane. Loremaster + Level 4 high was nuts. I rolled decently for magic phases and was casting 4-5 spells a turn. Book was a massive failure, as I kept rerolling 1s with 1s etc. but being happy to cast with 1-2 dice for spells I'd generally chuck an extra dice at is ace. I will happily say its pretty much about right for points to beneift though. Its really not any better than Banner of Sorcery/ +1 to dispel though.

Not entirely sure about High Magic over some of the Rulebook lores either. Didn't roll the Augments and had to go Direct Damage heavy. Worked a treat vs armourless elves (Tempest is Crazy vs light armour units for a 12+ cast) but against Monstrous Cav/Heavy armour armies, it will be pretty shit...

Loremaster is a brilliant Swiss army knife and will be the tournament go to choice. The huge range of spells meant he could debuff the world or turn into a gatling gun of magic missiles as needed. keep him cheap with just a Scroll to go with the Level 4 and you're set. No need to waste time on combat stuff or armour imo.

6 Sisters was great. Dirt cheap way to get the flaming shots to go with the Bolt Throwers and basically put the Hydra out of the game with the threat. -2 armour meant they killed a bunch of Cold One knights too.

Reaver Bow/Potion of Strength combo was a bit meh. Turn I used it I missed 2/3 shots. Save the points and just cast Wildform on his unit.

Griffon hero is a winner. Think I'm gonna take one in most lists. Cheap and cheerful, No magic items (or just Charmed Shield?) leave him on a flank and watch him go. Killing chaff and aiming for Mage bunkers; also needs a decent amount of attention from your opponent to deal with.

So thats the thoughts for now, more to come as I get games in.

I have also submitted my list for Rumble in the Bronx. Sadly I'm stuck using the old High Elf book, so I've decided totake a slightly wack job list as trying to play seriously with that shithouse army sounds painful. Can't wait to not take "Archer Core" ever again...

Prince on Barded Elven Steed, Great Weapon, Dragon Armour, Shield, Nullstone

Noble on Barded Elven Steed, Great Weapon, Dragon Armour, Shield, Helm of Fortune, Guardian Phoenix
Level 2 - High Magic, Scroll, Amulet of Light

11 Archers - Flame Banner
10 Archers
10 Archers
10 Archers

8 Dragon Princes Banner of Ellyrion, Potion of Foolhardiness
7 Swordies with Talisman of Loec
6 Reavers

2 Boltthrowers
2 Eagles

So yes, its a bit different and probably shit, but I really don't care... There's gonna be another Nullstone at the tournament too, as Aaron Graham has similar thoughts about the old book :-P Think this must be some kind of record!

Appreciate your thoughts on anything, and catch ya later boys and girls'

OMFG, ITS HERE!!! Initial list designs

Dragontime, baby!

So, its finally fucking here and the list building has begun. I'll break down the army later but here's the first of my brainstorming sessions. I'm going with 2400 pts as thats about standard tournament level. I'd love it there were some 2500 pt tournies around, as 25 pts makes the Star Dragon so much better, but such is life...

The All Mounted Funtimes:

Prince on Star Dragon, Lance, Heavy Armour, Lion Cloak, Charmed Shield, Talisman of Preservation

Sadly still a bit tight on the points to really do it right, but this gets decent protection on the Prince, to hopefully live long enough for for the Dragon to kill some shit. Sadly couldn't afford the Dragon Armour, but 1+/4++ vs shooting should get him there. 3+/4++ in combats still a bit iffy but this will be played around with after a few games.

Noble on Barded Steed, BSB, Dragon Armour, Enchanted Shield, Dawnstone, Sword of Might

1+ rerollable and an additional magic weapon, gives him some killing power to run around behind the Dragon.

Level 2 on Steed, High Magic, Dispel Scroll, Ring of Fury

Mounted to keep up, runs around blasting away with the Ring and whatever I get from spells, but mainly there to buff/heal the Dragon. Ethereal Dragontime anyone?

5 Reavers 
5 Reavers 
5 Reavers 
5 Reavers 

You all get the gist. Eagles that are from Core pts? Yes, please!

11 Silver Helms w/ Full Command

Was thinking of running all Reaver core, but I really need another supporting combat block for the Dragon and another Champ to take challenges.

7 Dragon Princes of Caledor w/ Full Command, Banner of the World Dragon

That banner is way to good to pass up so I could never leave it behind. The ability to utterly neuter large parts of many armies is silly good! Princes give me some damage punch too

Lothern Skycutter w/ Eagle Eye Bolt Thrower

Mobile Bolt Thrower that can scare the crap out of Knights/MC units by getting into the flanks. Some S5 impact hits are also nothing to complain about.

Flamespyre Phoenix
Flamespyre Phoenix

Just an amazingly versatile unit. They can smash deeply ranked units that could lock me up in combat, like Slaves/Empire blocks etc and otherwise can support charge with the Dragon or fly over to hit Warmachines. I know several players rate the Frostheart higher, and the stat boost for 15 pts is crazy, but Rebirth and killing ranks is important to this army.

So thats the first list and pretty much the one I'll be aiming to play at Convic if I can get it into the Swedish comp system and my Phoenix arrive in time.  Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!!!


Next up, we have a slightly more combined arms list that would probably be more solid but less enjoyable


Archmage, Level 4, High Magic, Book of Hoeth

Can 1-2 dice half the spells in the lore, yes please. Very tempting to go Light though.

Loremaster, Dispel Scroll, Armour of Caledor

Just so many uses...

Noble, BSB, Halberd, Dragon Armour, Shield, Reaver Bow

May as well be doing something from the back lines. Wildform makes it S6 shots too

Noble on Eagle w/ Swiftsense, Heavy Armour, Shield, Lion Cloak, Starlance, Dragonhelm

Quick, hard hitting Cavalry Killer. At 180 pts, I'm okay with him being killed too. Casting Ethereal and flying 20" behind the lines is all kinds of amazeballs too. Eagles getting Swiftsense is farking fantastic as they always get their attacks when he gets challenged out.

21 Archers w/ Muso, Standard

Bunker at the back, for some of the characters

5 Silver Helms w/Shields, Muso
5 Silver Helms w/Shields, Muso
5 Silver Helms w/Shields, Muso

 Just fantastic little units that can kill chaff easily and sweep the back lines of units like Terradons, chamo Skinks, Shades etc. Also work very well as chaff when needed

6 Shadow Warriors

Just a little cheap annoyance unit. Run them down the back line after Warmachines and other stuff like that.

7 Swordmasters
7 Swordmasters

Chaffmasters are still awesome regardless of losing ASF rerolls. 78 points for 12 S5 attacks is fantastic.

21 White Lions, w/ Full Command, Banner of the World Dragon. 

They still get 21 S6 attacks w/ Stubborn, and a 2+ Ward vs ridiculous amounts of stuff is crazy. Stubborn also makes them a pain in the arse. I still think they are great with or without rerolls.

2 Bolt Throwers
10 Sisters of Avelorn

Some solid pewpew vs armour and gives me the flaming attacks for Regen stuff.


So there we go, the first two lists that I've come up with off the bat. Theres probably a somethings I'm missing so let me know your thoughts.

Laters, guys!

Regarding Ward Saves and Wizards

Hey all, welcome to todays Warhammer tactics discussion!

Some tactics are simpler than others...

So I was reading a discussion thread over at Ulthuan.net posturing about the new Book of Hoeth (which will be amazing by the way, rerolling a single dice on a cast is crazy good with +5 to cast!) and what to run with it on a Level 4. The first answer was always "45pts fits a 4+ Ward perfectly!". Its not just with respect to High Elves though, it seems to be a pervading opinion everywhere. It made me wonder, why does everyone always say "Ward Save!" as the first option for a Level 4 wizard?

I personally haven't given my Level 4 a ward save since Guardcon last year, and in 6 games only ever used it to save against Miscasts... Yes, I have been known to take the Loremasters Cloak from time to time, but that's mainly for the unit effect rather than specifically the Wizards defense  Its certainly not gonna be an item I'll cry about when its gone in a week. That's reserved for the Helm of Fortune...

There are two things that account for the majority of my Level 4s deaths: Miscasts and Panic tests. The others are where I've either been losing horribly and she has nowhere left to go, or I've made a big time mistake.

Lets look through the ways to avoid losing a Wizard:

Combat: 

You should always avoid combat with Rays, Wizard or not...

A) Make possible Mage hunter units target priority one. They are always small and relatively easy points anyway, and they are often the same units that hold up my White Lions etc from getting into combat so I also need them gone for the big boys to do their job.

B) Always have secondary units to run to if the primary mage bunker is in trouble. That's half the reason I prefer MSU Archer core, (and its only gonna get better now my bunker will be Reavers :-) ) Often I see players with only one dedicated bunker for the wizard, and nowhere else to run to when the pressure is on...

C) Most units that can threaten a mage bunker have no ranks so you can, at a pinch, leave the flank facing the threat and hold them with Steadfast while your Wizard is safe on the far side, until support arrives.

D) This is the one that I generally find most players simply don't even consider; You can often just run your wizard around by herself perfectly safely giving her much greater maneuverability to avoid danger. Its game dependent of course, but many armies have no real ranged threat to worry a lone character, especially by turn 5-6 if you've focused on getting rid of them, so as long as you can whip out your trusty charge arc template, life is good.

Shooting:

The deadly sniper Cannon, bane of Vampire Lords everywhere...

Warmachines can always force those annoying LOS! tests and that's an issue you'll always have to live with. It is only a 1 in 6 though, so you can accept it and move on... but there are a couple options to avoiding it though:

1. Shoot them first. Archers/Magic missiles are surprisingly good at killing warmachines.
2. Hide. True line of sight hasn't made the table entirely visible, and no spells bar Magic Missiles actually need Line of Sight anyway
2. Make sure you always have enough models to avoid that awkward situation where magic/other shooting kills enough to leave you without a LOS!
3. Give them other targets to shoot at. Simple yet obvious!

Magic. 

This kind of Magic should be avoided at all costs...

Okay, there's not much you can do about the dreaded 6 dice monkey, but obviously make sure to spread the characters so its not such an obvious target. They also don't allow Wards anyway, so what does it matter?

Snipe spells are really not that dangerous, especially now you get your Generals Ld (or do you...?), and Caress also only averages 2 wounds to a S3 wizard, so you can risk it if needed but an important thing to think about, they all max out at 24". Its not hard to stay out of that range when most buffs nowadays have longer range.

So there you have it, a whole bunch of ways to avoid losing a wizard without a Ward Save involved in any way, shape or form. Hopefully, that gets my point across, about why I think Wizards should never ever need a Ward Save. Would love to hear your opinions on this though!

The Warhost marches forth

Here's your Dragon,  Daenerys.

Hello all!

As I was asked nicely by a friend from the old country, I thought I'd share some photos of my High Elf army so far. It also gives me a reason to skive off painting for a couple nights. I still need to put some snow on a number of bases but I'm holding off until I have a large chunk finished to do it all in one large batch. Anyway, I'm really happy with everything I've done so far, and I think the traditional Caledor colour scheme I'm going with works really nicely and has avoided the cliche colour X and white so many HE armies I see end up with at the moment. It also occurs to me that the lighting in my room is a bit shit for good quality photos so sorry if the colour's are a bit washed out.

This is also a nice way to show that I am not on the Bandwagon, before it arrives and sweeps us all up :-P

Without further ado, The characters.

Lord on Horsey:

Lord on Eagle from Coolminiornot:

I'm Immune to Killing Blow, SUCKAS!!!!!

The Everqueen, who generally stands in as my Level 4 but we shall see if it stays that way:

Booteh shot

BSB on foot:

BSB on Horse (I'm especially happy with this guy):

Hero on foot (or Alith Anar if he's broken :-D):

And now the Core. The reason the army stalled somewhat a few months back...

Archers finished so far (and probably all that ever will be finished now I don't have to have them...):

Maiden Guard, they've been standing in for archers recently as I just love this unit:

I'm sure I'll find a reason to include them in new armies, just because.

Close up of unit filler and standard bearer

Reaver unit 1,Yay they are core now!!!:

Reaver unit 2:

Next the Special choices, surprisingly little is done so far...

Swordmasters of win:

White Lions of fail:

It occurs to me the reason they fail so much is probably cause they aren't finished yet...

Dragon Prince Champion:

And finally the Rares

Sacrifices, or Great Eagles as they are more widely known:

Bolt Throwers:

Theres no crew done cause frankly who actually ever uses them... They'll be done one day but I'll wait til the end before I bother


So thats it, hope you all enjoy them!

New Shinys!

Seriously, where can I buy one of these models?

So the internet has been flooded with pictures of the new High Elves and frankly they all look gorgeous, even  the Flying Chariot, which I'll be honest, I never thought could never be better than a giant turd... I can't wait to flood my desk with new shiny toys!!!

Alongside this we've been given what seems to be a rundown of the overall layout of the book. A few things stand out to me:

• Reavers are still Special. BOOOO!!!! However Silver Helms and Tiranoc Chariots are now core so that's what High Elf core choices will look like. I can't imagine taking anything but 2-3 chaff Helm units supported by 1-2 Chariots and maybe a Bus, unless something crazy happens to Spears/Archers.
• Phoenix Guard to Rare. This does support the rumours of them getting Unbreakable, but I'm surprised they are moving them as the balance between them, Swordmasters and White Lions was fairly close to perfect in the last book imo. They'll need more boosts than Unbreakable though to justify taking them in this world of 1+saves.
• Riderless Phoenixes in Rare, and possible Dragon Princes on some kind of Monstrous mount. I was worried that Phoenixes might just be a character mount, but happily that's not the case. I somehow doubt the latter option will happen though as I feel we'd have seen models by now due to GW not releasing rules without models these days and not tending to be especially subtle about beautiful new models when they have them. 

Anyway, lets look through the new models, shall we.

Alarielle is back!

So lets start with the return of the Everqueen. Great news but I prefer the old model thanks, I just really don't like the head gear to be honest. Otherwise the model is lovely. Hope her rules are as awesome as they used to be. Die Daemons, Die!!!

Ninja Mage!! 

Some kind of Warrior Mage. Is this the return of Belannaer, or just a new hero class (hopefully both!)? The model looks cool, with a nice action pose. Of note, is the armour matches the plastic IoB Swordmasters, so clearly related but in what manner is the question. It would be pretty nice to have a mage that doesn't need to hide in a bunker at the back.

BSB Special character?

Probably my favourite model of the lot. Loving the power stance! Supposedly a Seaguard special character, with vague rumours of it being the Phoenix King himself. I seriously doubt the latter, as I can't see the King holding his own banner... but would be interesting to see a SC that might make Seaguard useful. I'd guess he'll get some kind of ambush rule or similar to represent ships landing behind the enemy forces or something.

Girls just wanna have fun?

My second favourite release. Captain of the Maidenguard maybe? I just love the fact it seems you can go heavy Avelorn theme in the new book. She'll fit nicely into my Maidenguard to.

Yay, they're back!

About bloody time! Look great with the bows, and should fit in with the old ones too, if you organised the unit with Bows in front and Spears supporting from behind. I'm intrigued to see what their supposed Water Bows do and hopefully they won't just end up as overpriced bowmen with similar effectiveness. Hate to see them go the way of Hellstriders, but GW doesn't have a great track record in pricing units with similar battlefield functions...

Well they can't get any worse can they?

Lets note the most important thing here, the champion has two swords. TWO SWORDS, PEOPLE!! Maybe they'll actually be able to do something this version! They've also wandered into Core which provides the interesting option of heavy scouting High Elf armies to mess with deployment. I look forward to them being ridiculous broken to make up for last edition.

Flap flap, Mutha Fucka!

So finally confirmation that we can take unridden variants, yay! I forsee my Rare having two at all times, because, yelling "FLAME ON!" is why. The models are really nice imo, apart from the god awful wing joint that stands out like a sore thumb. I thought GW were past this kind of basic design flaw, but oh well, I'd bet a number of companies will have beautiful  (and cheaper) alternates within a month or two.

And finally:

Seriously, the Eagle Workers Union really needs to sort their shit out.

I really want to hate this model, as lets be honest, the concept is a bit silly, but goddamn if GW hasn't made it a winner. The Eagle is great, and the chariot also looks sleek and elegant, like a beautiful yacht of the skies. I think they really channeled Battlefleet Gothic Eldar in the design and it really worked. Hopefully the rules back it up, but it doesn't look like there's a warmachine of any type on either picture of the Chariot that I can see? I'm also not sure how anyones supposed to fight combat from the back but hey, magic did it!

Overall I'm pretty damn happy with the upcoming High Elf release and can't wait for it hit the shelves. Sadly between this and my newborn Tau army, my savings are feeling very unloved right now... ah, screw it!

Empire in Flames Report

I was gonna write up a detailed Bat Rep for Empire in Flames but got bored halfway through, (I think I have issues with writing far too much detail) so slightly abbreviated one will have to do instead.

The gangs all here!

Game 1: My NZ ETC Brettonian replacement, Mark

This was Turn 2. As you can see the Knights are still way to close to the wrong board edge...

Mark was way to defensive for reasons unknown to anyone, as he would have ran over me if he went for it. Mass S3 bow shots vs armour is fail. I sat back like any good Elf Gunline does and picked up points where I could while using the White Lions as a deterrent (Mark was way too scared of them so I used that to my advantage) We traded about 300 odd points each but I got a comp boost at the end to give me the win. Playing the system baby!

Result: 10 all 
Comp Result: 11.5 -8.5

Game 2: Locky with TK/Dark Elf alliance

At the top you can see my silly White Lions trying to run off the table

I was a bit worried about this as the Casket could be a problem and TK shooting is bad for naked elves. I set myself the goal of shooting up the Heirophants bunker as fast as possible. It took a while but I got him T5. Sadly I lost a lot on the way, with Chariots cleaning out my Level 4/BSB bunker on Turn 5 as I had to leave them in range to get the Heirophant. My White Lions also had their first fail, panicking from some Dryads and costing me what would have been a game Destroying Flank sweep through Lockys army. I picked up the Break point first though and the 1000pts gave me the win.

Ouch...

Game Result: 15-5
Comp Result: 13.5-6.5

Game 3: Brendan with VC/Goblin Alliance

Brendan wasnt fast enough to avoid my ninja camera skills!

Brendan had an infantry heavy army with some Ethereal back up and Goblin toys. Unfortunately this just isn't fast enough to get to my army, and meant I could focus fire all the fast stuff first before moving onto the next wave. And thats pretty much what happened, though my stupid HoDA wasn't too helpful only killing one Hexwraith... Flame of the Phoenix nuked the Ghoul Horde, and I cleaned up everything but the GG with Vamp Lord and Night Goblin mass for a 15-5 win.

The Goblins were too dumb to know they should have run off.

Game Result: 15-5
Comp Result: 14-6

So a pretty good first day all in all but my list was struggling to get the big wins, as I couldn't really finish off things quickly like a heavy combat army. If this could continue, I'd do alright! It wouldn't though...

Game 4: Greg Johnson's Empire/Ogre Alliance

Gregs lovely Wolf themed army, including the amazing Mournewolf Cavalry he built in a week!

It all started well enough...

 Gregs written up this horrible debacle over at http://hoodlinghole.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/empire-in-flames-2013-report-part-2.html, so you can read it in all its gorey detail. Needless to say, with the Demi/Mournfang double team and all the armour on the table, I was pushing the boulder up hill to begin with and then my White Lion block decided the weight of expectations was too much and gapped it off the table Turn 3 with my Level 4 and BSB, and that was game...

And then there were none....

Game Result: 17-3
Comp Result: 16-4

Game 5: Andrew with Empire/Lizardmen Alliance

The Saurus have left the building!

I got away with this one by the skin of my teeth. I managed to panic Andrews Saurus out the building T1 (It does actually happen!) and snuck my Dryads in to the building and held everything off as best I could. My Level 4 cascaded T1, and the White Lions again sucked the big one, charging 3 Demis only to fail their fear test and do 1 wound before getting smashed up in return. I was pretty much up shit creek running out of ways to protect the building when the game ended on T4 and utterly robbing Andrew of the win that would have come had he 1-2 more turns. Score! (its a stupid way to end the game imo, but I'll take it. I'll discuss my thoughts on missions at a later date.)

How to finish a game in style! Its all skill, honest!

Game Result: 14-6
Comp Result: 14-6

Game 6: Daniel Bird with a beautiful Wood Elf/Empire army (My vote for best painted)

Operation: Stay Far Away from the Helblaster, in action.

Daniel had a fairly Tree heavy Wood Elf list alongside some Demis and a Volleyball Gun. I stayed outside the 24" bubble of Volleyball death and shot up the Wood Elf Bunker killing the BSB and Level 4 turn 3. Sadly the Demis cleaned out my Back Line, but the White Lions finally didn't disgrace themselves killing the Treekin. Was a bit messy but with my Characters and White Lions alive I got the win.


Game Result: 13-7
Comp Result: 13.5-6.5


So in the end I picked up 5 wins to 1 loss, for about 70 Battle Points. This put me into 6th place overall which I'm very happy with, considering I faced a combined 13 Demigryphs, 3 Mournfang and about 3 armies worth of Knights with my S3 shooting spam and White Lions of Fail. Its also a pretty good start my tournament gaming in Australia; Masters here I come? ;-)

As for the list, I think it worked nicely but really does leave you short against armour. Just a few overall thoughts

Winners:
High Magic was amazing all weekend (assuming she was still on the table...) and I've really fallen in love with it now. Hopefully it gets even better in a month! Just have to remember the short range of the spells which means you occasionally waste the first turn of magic.
Glade Guard are so god damn good. Just being able to move and shoot is a god send, and if High Elf archers get the same, life will be good.
Swordmasters. I love these guys 127 pts of win, talk about terror causing. They pretty much always kill more than there worth, and watching players consider whether putting a full bus into them is a good idea, is amazing

Losers:
White Lions. Supposedly the most bent thing in any High Elf army... I'm sorry but my White Lions are the biggest failure on a alarmingly regular basis. I think they're cursed, or I'm the exception that proves the rule or something. I know the terror they cause in opponents helps alot, but I'm honestly gonna be leaving them on the bench until the new book as they drive me nuts...
Hail of Doom Arrow. Again a supposedly awesome item, which did basically nothing in every game. I'm not sure I got the targets horribly wrong either, but it just fluffed every time. The highlight being it causing just 1 wound to the Hexwraiths, leaving me seriously short on ways to deal with them... Not sure I could ever justify dropping it for anything else though, at 25pts its crazy.


Anyway that's all for now. Next post, I shall discuss the sexy new High Elf pictures that have taken over the interwebs today.