HbE - The Burning Legion

I live in a one bed flat atm. That's my living room table!
Cavalry units, single models etc.

Tournament done and dusted. Much fun was had. A brief rundown of the games:

Game 1 v Guilermo Bardera's double tower, double dreadmill, double catapult VS:

Objective was breakthrough which....wasn't the best. I deployed back right to keep out of range of most things, using an impassible in the middle to try and break up the rat forces. Focus fired the dreadmill on my side down to 1w in turn 1, finished him off turn 2 with a Ryma Knight charge who overran off the table. The catapult on that side was taken down turn 2 leaving my seaguard and chaff facing off vs the two tower units. Meanwhile on the right side the vermin hulks pushed up with a dreadmill and a swarm for company. my Griffon Prince and swords threatened flanks on the hulks if they continued to push while my archers spotted a swarm that had strayed too close and charged in. It held up the swarm for a turn which allowed me a flank charge with the Griffon the following turn and an overrun into the dreadmill. I tried to block the hulks rear charging the Griffon with the archers but I couldnt do it and should have made him choose between the archers and the Griffon rear. Prince doesn't kill off the mill so Griffon attacks have to go into it too to finish it off. I figure the Griffon can take the hulks attacks, since he should do 1w on average. Wrong. Hulks splat the Prince and suddenly the objective has gone from in the bag, to questionable. The swordmasters, heavily depleted from catapult and magic, charged the hulks but died and the hulks now had free rein to tie up the objective. Back on the right side a comet had gone down in turn 3 but I couldn't move away from it without giving up the objective so I just planned to take the damage on the chin. I was focusing all magic and shooting into the Vermin Guard unit which was now getting quite light on numbers. However a very small positional error with the reavers left an 8" overrun from the plague unit into my seaguard bunker. Oops. Overrun is made, comet comes down same turn, I lose 11! Seaguard to the comet, also my reaver chariot and sloop, the Seaguard take a pasting in combat and break. I roll a 4 on the flee distance and poof - 2500 points lost in the last turn. Lost 16-4 but it really should have been a win.

I found out after the tournament there had been an administrative error when my round 1 score was input and I had been put down as a 16-4 winner. So I spent the rest of the day playing tougher opponents than I should have!

Game 2 was v Tom Udens UD. Godslayer chariot star, double sand stalker, shabti archers resurrecting shenanigans.

Objective was hold the centre and with Tom getting first turn and parking a unit of skellies and shabtis on it in turn 1 I had no hope of objective. I don't know UD particularly well so mostly had to wing it through this one. Not particularly well. Sand stalkers took 2w off the Griffon in turn 2 meaning I ended up suiciding him into the shabti's else he was just getting shot off. Ryma's got penned up by some chaff with some stalkers ambushing onto their flank so they killed the chaff and then fled 1" away from bouncing the Swordmasters, thus chaffing myself. The Godslayer star started taking off a unit a turn from turn 3 with only the swords giving them a run for their money. I called it at the end of turn 5 with only my general and one reaver standing any chance of survival and that was on the slim side.

Game 3 was v Tim Bochknechts triple cyclops, double giant BH. I was wandering at this point when I had ran over the draw gods cat....

Objective was spoils of war. I dropped early for first turn, once again using an impassible to protect my swords in their push to get the right marker while the Seaguard and Ryma's monitored activity on the other two markers. I had a golden first magic phase - enveloping embers sneaking through on a 45 strong mongrel unit, killing 28, despite TIm using all dice to try and stop it. I used my free rein to blast the closest giant, finishing the turn on 1w. Both giants charge the Seaguard and make it, the S+S chipping a couple of wounds off the healthy giant. The spear prince was locked in place by the heavily wounded one so he couldnt get at the healthier one so he settled for finishing the job on the one he could hit. The healthy giant didn't survive though as flaming swords helped me do enough wounds to finish the job on him. The large mongrel unit was sat between the middle marker and the right one the Swords were contesting but were now being threatened on both sides of the impassible by my two blocks. The Griffon Prince took out some guy on the hill on the right flank and now turned to face the BH backlines where the Cyclops were sitting - this did mean he had to eat a turn of cyclops fire though. Amazingly the Cyclops all missed, two of them taking wounds from misfires in the process giving the Griffon a run on at least one of the Cyclops. During that turn the crippled mongrel unit had claimed the middle marker and was now hightailing it back to their own lines. This gave me a choice - a 15" charge into the closest Cyclops or a 17" into the second one which gave me an overrun into the marker bearing mongrels. I opted for the latter but failed. Meanwhile the swords claimed their marker and retreated slightly while my mage was playing whack a mole burning off ambushing units. The reaver chariot had now moved over to aid the Rymas in zoning the third marker so on the following turn when a wildhorn unit tried to claim it the chariot and Rymas charged them and took them out. That marker was now safe and couldn't be claimed by the BH but due to some possible counter charges I had to overrun to get out of there too. Back on the right two cyclops now charged the Griffon but only one made it - Nova flare was activated and the Cyclops died. The Griffon then hunted down and wiped out the remaining marker carrying mongrels. The final mongrel unit was now getting peppered by small arms fire and pinned in by the Seaguard and Swords. To try and rescue the game they charged the swords, losing a rank to the Seaguards cover volley and the swords wiped out the unit leaving the characters alive. We called it there - Tim had some truly rough dice that game but it was good to get off the mark!

24 points at end of day 1 which was behind where I wanted to be but the good news was BiR was still in reach. I just needed a strong start to day 2......

After a redraw due to a few no shows on day 2 I played Alejando Garcia's Daemon Legions. He had the Courtesan, Harbinger of Father Chaos, Lemure Block, Succubi block, Hope Harvester, 4 Brazen Beasts, 2 Bloat Flies and some hounds. Now this is a match up I was well prepared for after spending most of my practice games playing our clubs Daemon player. Objective was secure target - one was set up right in front of my centre so I placed mine out on the right flank then deployed almost everything on that flank except the reaper, chaff and Rymas. He had his two blocks facing my heavy flank while all the mobile units deployed on the left of a hill in the centre to compete for the other objective. I dropped early for turn 1 as I needed to hit first and hard. My magic and shooting took the hope harvester down to 1w and halved the succubi block while plinking a wound off a brazen beast. The hope harvester's return fire rolled 1,1, killing two archers before dying to a charge from the Griffon who overran into a hound unit. The overrun left the Succubi with a flank charge on the Griffon but he handled it and ground them out. With the Spear Prince inside I wasn't concerned about the Lemure's charging the Seaguard so the unit turned to face the central action to provide cover fire for the upcoming chaff war. In the centre the other unit of hounds were chaffing the Ryma's so his mobile units could push up into the space behind them but the Reaver Chariot flank charged them, only killing one and the hounds held, reforming to face. What followed was a pillow fight where neither side could finish the job. This was ideal for me as this held up his Beasts for two turns which was ample time to take the unit off at range. In the end a sole Beast on 1w charged the annoying chariot to try and finish the job. While this was happening the Ryma's had backed off so as not to leave an overrun if the Beasts had charged the chariot fight. My reavers chaffed the Courtesan while the Swords now moved menacingly into the middle. Unfortunately the reavers failed their terror check and fled so the Ryma's had to eat a charge from the Courtesan - the fiends tried to join him but failed a long charge. The Ryma's only lost one from the Courtesan but failed the LD9 break test and fled. The Courtesan restrained but the Ryma's stayed on the table by an inch. The reavers rallied the following turn and reformed into a conga to chaff the Courtesan. The Swords charged the Flies who were chaffing them, wiped them out and reformed to face the Courtesan, protecting the Seaguard flank. It was now panic stations for the Daemons so a multi charge was declared into the Swords - Courtesan and Fiends to the front, Lemures to the rear. Both the fiends and Lemure needed 11s on dice, both failing so the Courtesan was left to go it alone and died. Game was called at that point as it was clear only the fiends had any chance of surviving.

Now up to 44 points and was now round about the same points total as the other HbE so a win was needed in the final round for that coveted BiR sword......

My score from the previous round accidentally got entered as a 0-0 so was slightly surprised to discover I was up on the bottom tables (upstairs in the warm!) drawn against my clubmate, Andrew Huntley's monster mash dread elves. Perfect! I had a lot of monster counters and the units he did have were susceptible to my small arms fire. However Drew didn't want to play a clubmate so we switched opponents with my last round opponent meaning I played Jordan Bladen's triple giant, Kadim, double mortar, pyro ID instead. Erk.

Objective was Capture the Flags. I dropped early with my deployment centred slightly to the right. Jordan deployed almost exclusively in the left corner where the mortars had vision of my two blocks but if I could get far enough over a hill could hide them. I needed to win so my intention was to push hard with the Griffon and Ryma's who were mostly immune to his ranged threat, get the swords and seaguard out of LOS of the mortars, then try to pick off a scoring unit for the objective. It started well as unerring strike and shooting toppled a giant in turn 1 and in turn 2 a second giant goes down after being trapped behind an impassible by the Griffon. My chaff was hiding out behind an impassible on the left flank waiting to be deployed to slow down the ID trying to break out of their corner. Meanwhile my swords were taking a pasting from spells and mortars and by end of turn 2 I was pretty much down to a rank. With the right flank now clear, the Griffon and Ryma's turned their attention to the units behind the hill and lined up the hobgoblin chieftain on a wolf and one of the Citadel Guard darts. Another unerring strike takes the final giant down to 1w and my chaff are now taking turns of being fed to a titan. With the swords now out of LoS of the mortars their attention now turns to the seaguard who take their turn at getting battered. A unit of Citadel Guard attempt to charge the Rymas but fail. With the Swords and Seaguards numbers beginning to dwindle I decide its time to try and beat a retreat to try and save the flags so I take the mage and Spear Prince out of the unit and hid them behind a hill where they cant be shot. Or so I thought. I made two mistakes here. The first was forgetting Cascading Fire was a hex so the mage wasn't safe. This wouldnt have been so bad if I had made a character unit out of the Prince and the Mage so the Prince could have eaten half the hits. But i hadn't and my mage was dead. The Spear Prince now charges the wolf chieftain, the Rymas, the Griffon flanks the Ryma combat and my last chaff is fed to the titan allowing my archers to join the retreat. The Griffon eats the Citadels, Spear Prince slays the Chieftain and the two characters and the Ryma's now eye up the last of the ID firebase. Crucially a mortar hits the Griffon and kills him meaning the Ryma's would have to go it alone. The Citadel bunker with his mage is now pursuing the fleeing Seaguard and Swords with what was now a race against time. Could pyro kill one or both of the units before turn 6? Sadly, yes as the Seaguard finally died in turn 5 although the swords made it. The Ryma's charged the third unit of Citadels who fled, before attempting a boxcars charge on one of the mortars which failed. After totting up the points the ID claimed a narrow 12-8 win. It was a really fun game and could have gone either way.

This left me on 52 points for the tournament which I was pretty happy with considering I had some bad matchups! I missed out on BiR by 3 points, 3 points I think I might have got if i'd taken the DE matchup in round 5. I hope Drew's happy

As is the norm i'll do a quick run down of the list shortly.

So the list review:

High Prince on Griffon - B

This mark would have been an A if he hadn't cost me the objective in round 1 when the hulks went beserk on him. Really fun to play but probably suffered more than he should since I wasn't running an MoCT.

Spear Prince Queens Companion - B

Quick to fire on the Seaguard was invaluable in helping me position them effectively. Only got into combat twice so clearly did his job as a deterrent for fighting the Seaguard.

Div/Pyro Essence Mage - A

Just about justified the inclusion of the essence in round 5 v the ID. Strong offensive magic won me game 3 and 4 and gave me a fighting chance in game 1+5. I didn't feel unduly hampered by the lack of channels but some more dice would have been nice

Seaguard - B

First tournament outing for them and I would definitely take them again. They seem to fit my playstyle quite well and the much maligned cover volley is a great tool for your opponent to work around, notably in game 3 when they halved the mongrel unit charging the swords. Marked down for crumpling in game 1 against an unfavourable opponent. Harsh, but this is my scoring system

Archers - C+

Were in the list as a back up bunker for the mage (was often in the Seaguard until the Seaguard were threatened) and emergency chaff. Chipped off wounds here and there but achieved little except holding up a rat swarm for a turn

Reavers - B+

Let me down in game 4, failing their terror check when they were chaffing the Courtesan. Also responsible for the overrun into the Seaguard bunker in game 1. I jest - that was totally my fault. They're chaff, they got in the way, thus, they did their job. However they were outshone by.......

Reaver Chariot - A+

Fulfilled the same job as the reavers (getting in the way) but with much more of a threat. Swung an already advantageous position in game 4, holding up the Hellhounds for 3 rounds, backing up the DL mobile forces for long enough to whittle them down. Also helped clinch the objective in game 3 in their combo charge with the Rymas.

Swordmasters - C+

In an entirely shocking review their susceptibility to big magic and catapults was cruelly exposed throughout the tournament (seriously, what are the chances of running into 7 catapults in one tournament?). On the plus side, since my opponents were shooting them, my Seaguard remained untouched so my counter-fire game was still strong. Failed miserably when attempting to kill the hulks in game 1, put in a strong effort in game 2 against the Godslayer star, had their best game in game 3 by clinching the onjective and obliterating the remains of the BH bunker, killed the Courtesan game 4 and their only achievement in game 5 was to survive while earning the most distance covered award. I love them but they really need some protective magic to help them out.

Ryma Knights - A

Probably the MVP of the list. They did most my heavy lifting with objectives, tying the objective in game 1 while killing a dreadmill, reclaiming the objective in game 3 while killing longhorns and zoning out half the board for the entire game. Threat range protected one of the markers against 3/4 of a DL army in game 4 and their resilience in game 5 meant they were the only unit I could reliably push with. They're arguably my best looking unit too

Sky Sloop - C+

Didn't really have a strong influence on any game, mostly just nicking wounds here and there against tougher targets. Has to be viewed in the context that it didn't face any of its preferred targets.

Reaper - B+

Mostly untouched for the weekend and it contributed fairly well to chipping wounds off tougher stuff. I feel they're better value for money than sloops but having both feels more flexible while also providing yet another backup chaff/chaff clear option

Overall this was a list I really enjoyed playing - it was active and reactive, had plenty of threat and competed in every phase. First time i've run without a BSB and really didnt miss him. The few leadership fails were in positions that were outside of a BSB's bubble should I have had one so it wouldn't have impacted the game. What I did miss though, was the MoCT. The aggressive magic performed excellently but there were occasions where a Beast Awakens or a Regen would have helped. I struggle to see what I would drop to make that happen though.

My next tournament is hopefully Firestorm Fours since its five minutes from my flat. I'll be taking something very different to that but once we're back into singles again I'll probably continue with this list or a derivative of it if I can come up with a way of changing it i'm happy with. I think the swords are essential in this for a few reasons:

1) They're such a threat that opponents have to neutralise them. If they do, the core element of the list - the Seaguard remain untouched. Wardens just aren't as threatening, Lions are threatening but suffer from a different problem, namely

2) Cost. The list has had pretty much all the spare points drummed out of it and the only way that other elite infantry options fit in is if they're in smaller numbers which is not ideal. Lion Guard lose effectiveness quickly as the model count depletes so starting at 21 means they can be neutralised quite quickly. Wardens really need any of Cosmo, MoCT, supporting character to boost their damage output to a level that performs the same function as the swords.

3) Damage per point is way higher than anything else we have. This does mean that even if an opponent spends 3-4 turns whittling them down, if they still have a rank their damage is still comparable to the Ryma's.


I think most of the HbE generals in the UK are still relatively inexperienced at tournaments. For me personally, that's only my third. Even the grizzled vet that is Hristo is still, by his own admission, finding his feet with HbE at tournaments. I expect the general level of the HbE generals to trend upwards over the coming years.

I like optimism

I've improved my points totals in all three tournaments i've played in, which is generally my aim and as i've played more games, more armies and more units i'm beginning to minimise some of the "wtf do I do against this" scenarios you get when you play something you haven't seen before (read Tom Udens UD :P). Once the knowledge hurdle is overcome, you start to focus more on cutting out the in game errors (reavers in game 1, mage game 5) which will accumulate extra points over the course of a tournament. Before you know it you're knocking on the doors of the top tables and then the real schooling begins

No - i'm pretty much a rookie to fantasy in general. I'm primarily a Blood Bowl player which I play at international level so fantasy can only ever have so much of my time. I enjoy the change in pace though.

With an end in sight for the HbE collection i've recently been mulling over the possibility of a second army. I firstly drew up a list of requirements:

• Something that wasn't commonly played in my local area. (WoDG, OnG, KoE, OK, SE, ID, DE)
  
• Something more resilient than Elves
  
• Something with sexy models
  
• Different playstyle (specifically something combat/magic oriented)
  

My initial shortlist threw up DH, SA, BH, UD and VC. SA and DH seemed to stray a bit too close to breaking my final criteria so they were removed. I was keen on UD but they failed the sexy model test - I really struggled to find something that really grabbed my attention. Which leaves me with my final two, BH and VC.

After spending a weekend tending a sick girlfriend I had plenty of time to browse miniature ranges and draw up a draft VC list to get a feel for what I would want to do. The GW range for Undead is currently really enticing - I love the look of the Nighthaunt range, the Black Knights, some of the individual models like the Dark Coach. The only downer was the hefty pricetag on the unit profile that really grabbed me - Vampiric Knights. There are some cheaper alternatives out there though. At some point i'll do the same thing with BH - they have the benefit of one of my clubmates possibly looking to shift an army which could save a lot of legwork (depending on price). This likely won't happen until at least Q3 due to saving for a house but the planning is certainly underway!

There was a little mishap this morning. After spending a bit of time writing up a shopping list of what I would need for my first VC list I popped on to eBay to see what prices were like and stumbled across an auction for 60 skellies, 49 zombies, 15 ghouls and 10 skeleton cav for £60. All painted and based too. I figured it was worth that in time saving alone so I didn't have to paint 100+ skellies and zombies

Long story short - project VC is a go!!