Tournament Tuesdays - Duelcon 2012 (Part 2)

Two more armies from Duelcon. I would consider both of them the top of the field for the tournament when it comes to appearance.

1000 Point Vampire Counts Cavalry Army

While my interest in this list will likely fade before I can actually start painting it, I wanted to talk about it in an article. What prompted my interest in this list was the discussion Chuck and I had during episode 8 about the Vampire Count book. I personally felt the book was the better of the two released in 2012 as it felt like it had more potential when it comes to themes and play-styles. I have also had a strong desire to create a cavalry army, though which book I would use for the army has changed throughout the year.

1000 Point Vampire Counts Cavalry Army 

Hero
Vampire with Barded Nightmare, Aura of Dark Majesty, Fear Incarnate, and magic items [~215 pts]

Core
Dire Wolves (6) [48 pts]
Dire Wolves (6) [48 pts]
Dire Wolves (6) [48 pts]
Dire Wolves (6) [48 pts]
Dire Wolves (6) with Doom Wolf [58 pts]

Special
Black Knights (5) with Barding, Lances, Musician, Champion and Standard [150 pts]
Black Knights (5) with Barding, Lances, Musician, Champion and Standard [150 pts]

Rare
Blood Knights (4) with Standard and Screaming Banner [235 pts]

Total Points: ~1000 points
Model Count: 45
Fortitude: 5

When it comes to deploying the army, it should have more drops than most armies at 1000 points, though I am sure rats and greenskins could have me beat at times. I would always begin with a few of the dire wolf units before switching over to the various flavors of knights. When placing the knights, I would look to either create a solid spearhead with them or place them such that if they jointly charge the same unit, one of them will hit a flank.

Generally speaking, I want the wolves to be chaff first, flankers second and warmachine hunters last. I expect them to die quickly, but that is preferable to black or blood knights being chewed up in the early turns. If any of them do survive into the later turns, I would look for them to grab objectives or hide in the enemy’s deployment zone for bonus points.

The blood knights are the hammer of the army. The combo of Screaming Banner, Aura of Dark Majesty, and Fear Incarnate should help them in close combat with units that can be influenced by fear. It could also be a huge detriment for the army if it gets matched up against an army that has ItP. Either way, the knights are tough and have a solid punch which is only better when I park the army’s general in the unit.

The black knights are an interesting unit as I am not certain how to best use them on the battlefield. My initial thoughts are that they would flank the blood knights and either support them on the charge or break-off and engage other units. Another option that I am considering is having one unit, supported by a pair of dire wolf units, sit on the opposite end of the deployment zone and provides a distraction for my opponent.

When it comes to magic, the army is clearly designed to not accomplish much during the phase. Since the lord is the only caster, he will be required to take the Lore of Vampires, which is fine. I will always roll for a spell, but unless I get Vanhel’s Dance or Hellish Vigour, I will swap it for invocation. Even when I do get dance or vigour, I will need to consider whether or not to swap them for invocation based on the opposition. Regardless of the spell, using it will need to be a desperate measure as the only way it will likely get off is by casting it with 4-6 dice.

Looking across various forums, I have not seen any similar lists, though I am sure they do exist if I search harder. Overall, I think the army would be fun to play with and against. The blood knights are tough but the small size of the unit means that they will not be able to weather much damage. The same could be said of the black knights. In the end, the list does have my interest, but whether it will continue to do so will be a matter of time.

Episode 10 - Chafing on Chaff

Greetings and welcome to episode 10 of the Unstable Dice Podcast, the fastest growing podcast recorded out of my office. Starting with this episode, we are now posting episodes about two weeks after they have been recorded, so a few of the references at the beginning are going to sound dated. The reason for doing this was to allow me to release two episodes a month that were reasonably sized instead of releasing one gigantic episode each month. It also gives me a chance to invite more guests onto the show and do a better job of editing each episode.

With regards to the audio quality of the show, I hope people are finding that the more recent episodes are sounding better. Thanks to some very helpful feedback from David Witek, I have been able to make some improvements to the sound quality. Our goal with the show is to improve the quality of it while still maintaining the feel of a couple of guys sharing their experiences and thoughts about the hobby.

Going into this episode, the main topic of this episode is chaff. We talk about what it means to have chaff in your Warhammer Fantasy army and how to use it. Once we define what chaff means to us, we explore the various army books and talk about which units from each book we would consider to be chaff. Before all of that though, we raise our standards and marshal the host once again.

Lastly, this episode has an additional audio section that is available to folks who subscribe to the podcast. These additional mini-episodes are intended to fill in little things that may be more time sensitive, such as tournament announcements and news about upcoming episodes.  Quick tip of the hat to Ben Curry and the Bad Dice Podcast for being the inspiration for these mini-episodes.


Episode Timeline
0:17 Opening Discussion
10:05 Marshaling the Host 
48:00 Chaff in Warhammer Fantasy
01:21:35 End of Episode Discussion



Download: Direct Download | iTunes

Download Bonus Episode: Direct Download
 
Andrew's Email: andrew@unstabledice.com
John's Email: equinox@unstabledice.com
Nerd Rage: nerdrage@unstabledice.com

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40K Combat Patrol Adepticon Primer [2/23 - Kenosha, WI]

The Unstable Dice Podcast Presents: 
40K Combat Patrol Tournament and Adepticon Primer 
Hosted at Rockhead's Comics and Games 
Date: Feb 23rd, 2013
Time: 11 am - 4 pm
Entry Fee: $5.00 in advance/$10.00 on the day of tournament (Paypal to equinox999equinox@yahoo.com) Registration: Email equinox999equinox@yahoo.com or post in this thread
Player Size: 16 (We will expand if we sellout by Feb 14th.)
Tournament Rules: The event will use the Adepticon 2013 Combat Patrol Rules. Painting and sportsmanship will scored as per the guidelines in the rules pack.
Painting Requirements: Players are required to field models that are painted. No bare plastic/resin or primed only models.
Beverages and Snacks: As part of the entry fee, players will be provided with an assortment of beverages and basic snacks


Registered Players
1. Andrew Karolus (Seahawk)
2. Ernie Hall
3. Tyler Cooley (Chubs)
4.
5.
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7.
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11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16. John Gaszak (Equinox)*

*As the TO, I will be playing in the tournament but will not be eligible for any prizes or awards.

Tournament Tuesdays - IWFB #4 (Part 1)

Did not get a lot of pictures from the first round. Murphy's Dark Elves vs John's Daemons of Chaos