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Post by rolandmurat on Jul 11, 2015 20:00:11 GMT
Yes its back, the thread everyone loves to ignore. This time with a new home.
Lets start with a new game - Age of Sigmar. We had a couple of games going on at the club today as we tried to get our heads around it. With only 4 pages of rules the game looked like it might be overly simplified and with the doubts ringing in my ears I wasn't sure it would be worth the effort. But I was wrong.
Although a skirmish game we decided to rank up our units on movement tray with formations breaking up as they hit combat. So it didn't feel that different on that from from 8th ed. What was different was the pace of the game. I don't think any of the matches we played really went past turn 3 or 4 before the result was pretty obvious.
Not all the units are as you'd expect. A big unit of high elf spearmen never really carried much threat without some serious support. So as they moved in to attack a block of knights in a game vs Jono I wasn't that concerned. The most they would do was tie up a unit, surely. The reality was that 20 blokes pumped out 41 attacks and slaughtered all the knights. Ooops.
The other things I learnt today are that nurgle demons are still broken. Horses are immense and the early (very early) indication is that shooting will be king.
I have my doubts about this game for Thursday night pick up games. Ensuring a balanced game that's fun for all involved will probably need some discussion and reasonably large number of figures to choose from. We might work out some form of comp to make this easier, but we might not.
My personal view is its a good weekend game that won't mean I'll need to drag a box of stuff through the rush hour. If two people with a similar mindset play each other then it should result in an entertaining battle. So far, so good.
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Post by rolandmurat on Jul 17, 2015 20:24:23 GMT
I was walking through the desert with a dwarf with no name - or maybe he was called Thengrim, I don't recall. After 39 weeks wandering the land of the dead a battered, bruised and somewhat treasure free party of brave questers arrived at their destination. The home of the dread king.
Much of the session was spent travelling, getting lost and getting caught in landslides. Which was more fun than it sounds. Having started in Barak Varr on the hunt for knowledge the party headed to Karaz a Karak to collect a mighty axe before pursuing a necromancer to the marshes of madness. From there the journey to the land of the dead began. After being jumped by bandits a couple of times, Helmut got it in his head to start collecting the teeth of the fallen. He isn't sure why but it seemed sensible. If only they hadn't gone missing somewhere in the desert....
On a separate note its been pointed out that my review of AoS is probably the most positive on the internet. Well I'll be playing the game some more tomorrow so I'll try and post up some further thoughts on it soon. Will I rage quit like the rest of the internet, or merely like Stevo? Only time will tell. Also its been pointed out that my posts here have nothing to do with modelling, collecting or painting. That's true, they haven't. But at some point I'll waffle on about those topics. Maybe.
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Post by suboptimaldan on Jul 18, 2015 15:18:41 GMT
I like these posts! Keep it up!
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Post by rolandmurat on Jul 18, 2015 20:20:34 GMT
Cheers Dan - I appreciate it.
We did some more AoS at the club today. It was bonkers as normal. With a cap of 50 wounds I ran 2 x 20 Archers, an Empire General and a Fire Wizard. Now imperial stuff lacks the go to hitting power of units available to the other races but you'd have thought a bunch of archers charged by a pack of Gors would be in trouble. But no, because they can shoot even though they are engaged in close combat they dish out some serious pain.
I lost both the games I played against beastmen and skaven, mainly because I couldn't deal with the big monster that was coming my way. However, the more normal troops died in droves so after a maximum of three or four turns only a couple of guys were left standing.
The plan seems to be trying out the channel 4 news comp next time out, with bigger forces than we used today. Overall, I still like the game but its important to approach it with the right mindset. Its broken, unbalanced and silly - accept that and play in the right spirit and the game is fun. Take it even slightly seriously and then the general wisdom is correct and the game sucks.
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stevo
Junior Member
Posts: 66
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Post by stevo on Jul 19, 2015 15:18:34 GMT
Nice reports Mike... Keep them coming
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Post by rolandmurat on Aug 4, 2015 14:51:16 GMT
So......collecting. There's been talk of a tale of X gamers for Hordes and after some consideration I thought 'why not'. Just to be different I'm going to try and throw some warmachine stuff together. More precisely, Khadorians.
I'm not sure how much needs to be build per month so I'll slowly work my way through the bits I have. First things first, I need to decide what jacks to build. I've got a choice of a demolisher/devestator/spriggan with two boxes of that kit. My warcaster is Sorscha.
Thoughts on a postcard to the usual address.
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Post by rolandmurat on Aug 4, 2015 20:07:43 GMT
whilst waiting for the learned (and by that I mean doubtlessly daft) feedback, I've thrown together some Winter Guard. My goodness they have some shocking mould lines - and they didn't fit together that nicely either.
I hope they are worth the effort when they are painted up. Now I just need to decide on a colour scheme...
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Post by rolandmurat on Sept 3, 2015 21:34:26 GMT
It was time for some X-wing this evening as my Imperials took to the table. I was soundly beaten by Sam but I'm getting to a point where I'm happier with my list. I really like Whisper in the phantom who is manoeuvrable enough to get into good positions whilst having decent guns and good defence. The problem was what else to fly.
I'd been using an interceptor ans 2 tie fighters but tried a tie defender and a single fighter tonight. I felt the balance was better due to the durability of the defender. But I went overboard in the kit. Next time I'll use a weaker pilot and less gear to try and free up the points for a fourth ship. Who knows I may even win a game.
Unlikely.
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Post by rolandmurat on Oct 10, 2015 17:24:04 GMT
Its been awhile. Time to rectify that.
On Thursday last I had an intro at Kings of War. The rules seem really simple without millions of little things to try and remember (a bit like AoS, I suppose) and the game is seriously brutal. In a classic orc v dwarf encounter I had the stunties and their mighty badger riders.
Early doors things didn't look good. A key warmachine was taken out and my lack of pace began to seriously tell. With half my army taken down fairly quickly for no loss I was in for a rough ride. If this had been warhammer the game would have been over. Then the badger riders got to work and chewed some stuff up with the help of a lord on an even bigger badger. Many things died but as the game to an end I was sure I hadn't done enough.
Turns out you need to keep a fair amount alive to get the win and I'd fought back to scrape a draw. If I play again I wouldn't use a cannon as they just aren't accurate enough with one shot per turn and a 33% hit rate. I also wouldn't use small units of missile weapons as they just don't do enough. That said I think having a missile advantage is a good thing as it forces the enemy to close, hopefully into range to give you the inital charge which seems really important.
Would I play KoW again? I think so. My initial thoughts are this is AoS as it should be: simple; ranked units; and with agic and warmachines being limited to supporting the main battle line.
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Post by rolandmurat on Oct 15, 2015 22:22:29 GMT
Two more games of KoW tonight, using largely the same forces as last time but with a couple of tweaks. It really is a simple game to pick up and although I'm yet to play a scenario I think I'm comfortable with the basic rules.
What next? I'm definitely going to pick up the rule book and sort myself an army out. Solid missile capacity does seem to be good and, having had a decent sized unit of crossbows with buffs I felt I got my points worth out of it rather than having an expensive speed hump. Flyers have the potential to be a problem, particularly the well armoured ones so I'd need a counter unit or tactic to deal with that. But I mustn't get ahead of myself, I need to get the book and choose a race/alignment first.
If anyone fancies giving the old warhammer models a run out its worth it. A 1,500 point game takes about an hour and a half to play once you get the hang of it so I think a full 2,000 game would take around two hours in total. SO it's fairly quick to play and the game does allow for a comeback rather than just turn one beatdowns, or so it seems so far.
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Post by suboptimaldan on Oct 16, 2015 8:23:21 GMT
I gotta have a look at my orc list - it definitely needs tweaking. I was forced to come to you because of your ranged superiority and expose my flanks to you.
However - the other scenarios in the rulebook involve controlling territory, so this dynamic will be altered when we play those, as you can't sit back or you'll lose....
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Post by underscore on Oct 16, 2015 8:59:12 GMT
Just out of interest, is it possible to do a mixed 'legally distinct but more or less the same as' Chaos army? Essentially mixing not-Warriors and not-Demons together.
I expect I'll be chucking out my Skaven stuff soon but wanted to keep a hold of my Chaos guys for any future forays back into this stuff.
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Post by suboptimaldan on Oct 16, 2015 10:19:42 GMT
There will be a 'Warriors' list coming out from Mantic in November, which can be allied with the Abyssal faction (demons) yes. There will also be a ratmen faction in the November book....
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Post by rolandmurat on Oct 23, 2015 18:15:25 GMT
Quest is back, huzzah. Helmut Goldstriver once again bestrides the world like a colossus - mainly because when the going gets tough he levitates out of the way. After helping kill a bunch of wights, wraiths and other gubbins the adventurers found themselves in a room full of gold a treasurer. The two elves were restrained and picked up a couple of choice items before pushing on, but this wasn't in Helmut or Thangrim's natures and they went gold crazy. Sadly greed was punished by the dungeon and it all disappeared, leaving a devastated dwarf and wizard shuffling after the rest of the party.
A quick battle with a tomb king and a bunch of mummies later and progress was proving to be slow.
In other news I've picked up the KoW book and just need to decide what force to use. Badger riders are amazing so dwarves might get a run out but then there all my humans and the ogres and.....
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Post by rolandmurat on Oct 25, 2015 9:13:58 GMT
This weekend I've been mostly considering KoW, the Kingdom of Men in particular. Now these guys just don't seem that good in small doses but they are cheap. Without bringing allies into the equation I'm leaning towards hordes bringing far more value to the table than small units, at the expense of tactical flexibility. Some missile cav troops and a flyer goes some way towards rectifying that but I'm looking at a solid battleline.
First thoughts of a list go something like this:
General on winged beast w/ diadem of dragonkind Wizard w/ fireball and heal (2) Cannon Horde Polearm w/blade of slashing Horde Footguard w/ brew of strength Horde Arquebusiers w/ brew keen-eyeness 2 x Horde Knights w/ 1x pathfinder, 1x mace of crushing Troop scouts w/pistol Troop scouts w/carbines
2,000 points
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