Hello All!

Welcome back to another battle report from the ETC 23. Apologies it has taken so long, I’ve got sucked into Red Dead Redemption 2 and trying to clear my painting back log which mostly consists of Knights for my KoE. Let’s face it though, I’m never clearing the back log of grey plastic really, but I can live in hope.
When I last left off I had just managed to sneak a small win against a slippery Sylvan Elf list in round 3. So now we move onto Round 4, where Team Scotland where drawn against fierce local rivals, Team Wales! This was always going to be a spicy game as we all know each other very well as we are always at the same tournaments here in the UK and are always playing against each other. To make the narrative even more intense my partner in crime on the Paired Weapons Podcast, @Mattyp, who was previously on Team Scotland was now playing for Team Wales! A real heel turn right there and if every other tournament me and Matt have ever attended were anything to go by, we were destined to play each other.

So the team captains sat down and did the draw, I was goading Matt incessantly as I knew I could smash his Empire list. However, it wasn’t to be. Instead I was drawn against the Warriors of the Dark Gods list being pushed about by a stalwart of the UK Ninth Age scene, Rory. We’ve played against each other a few times over the years and they’ve always been delightful games so I was looking forward to this game, but I was not looking forward to facing his list!

575 - Chosen Lord, General, Karkadan, Shield, Hand Weapon (Burning Portent), Talisman of Shielding, Gluttony
390 - Sorcerer, Wizard Adept, Evocation, Plate Armour (Ghostly Guard), Paired Weapons, Binding Scroll, Book of Arcane Mastery
380 - Sorcerer, Black Steed, Wizard Adept, Alchemy, Plate Armour, Paired Weapons, Magical Heirloom, Rod of Battle
659 - 23 Warriors, Gluttony, Standard Bearer (Zealots' Banner), Musician, Champion
243 - 9 Barbarian Horsemen, Shield, Musician, Champion
714 - 5 Chosen Knights, Gluttony, Standard Bearer (Wasteland Torch), Musician, Champion
610 - 10 Warrior Knights, Lance, Sloth, Standard Bearer (Flaming Standard), Musician, Champion
390 - Forsaken One
390 - Forsaken One
145 - 5 Flayers
4496

This is a horrific list and I had this down as a red, however it was one that no one else in our team wanted to face either. I think the Burning Portent scared a lot of our team as we had a lot of multi wound units on our teams, and then the rest of the army is tough too. The only thing I had going for me in this match up is the complete lack of ranged damage coming from the Warriors, without any ranged damage they would have to come in for a fight and with just one unit of chaff I had the potential to sit back and zone this list with my Chariots and Minotaurs.

The scenario we were to play was Refused Flank and Hold the Ground, so diagonal and centre. Diagonal doesn’t help me try and keep my opponent at arms length as we are going to be starting closer than normal but Hold the Ground may favour me as I can sit on it and zone with Minotaurs. My main worry now is the Forsaken Ones, I have no answer to these really as I have little ranged damage, I need the Cyclops to do some real damage this game. With their random movement they are almost impossible to sneak past and being unbreakable makes fighting them extremely treacherous because if you don’t kill them in one you can be left in a bad position and face some counter charges.

Deployment


Beast Herds 1


Warriors 1


BH2


Warriors 2


BH3


Warriors 3


BH 4


Warriors 4


BH 5


Warriors 5



Turn 6



We tote up the victory points, there’s not a lot from me really as i’ve only killed a Forsaken One and badly wounded another for half points. I’ve lost all 3 Cyclops, a pig and 2 Briar Beasts. That makes it a 12 - 8 loss on points but i won the objective to sneak an 11 - 9 win! Given that i had this as a red match up i am delighted to get a win. I started out with a plan of just scoring the middle and zoning my opponent and it worked a treat.

The game ended up being a bit of a damp squib but felt like the kind of game you would expect at an ETC, no one wants to risk anything too big and end up losing big because that may cost the team big in the end, so you have to play conservatively to try and keep losses to a minimum.

I think my opponent could have been a little braver personally. His Chosen Lord should have gone solo as he would have caused me a world of problems, instead he just stayed in the Chosen Knights. I think the Chosen Lord should have just ran out in front of my army and dared me to charge him. I’m not sure if 6 Minotaurs or the BSB could have gotten the job done. The Beast Lord vs Chosen Lord fight would have been interesting but still very swingy and could have ended badly for me. Even just lobbing the Chosen Lord down a flank would have caused much more of an issue than him just sitting in his unit.

My opponent should have been much more… [Read More]

Finally, some silence... Last months went by in a flash of organizing, training and strategizing. But the moment had come, tomorrow they would sail from Silexia towards Vetia. Lord Drakon was walking alone through a forest close to his encampment. His body was relaxed, calm, yet ever vigilant. His time in the wild had taken his eyes, but his trained ear-sight proved to be an effective replacement for his eye-sight. He could hear the trees vibrating, the far-away rabbit foraging and the songs of the cold wind howling through the forest. His senses were trained to perfection during his time with the clans of Caedhren. He had learned to respect the harsh supremacy of nature, of survival. Of the hunt.

Now his own hunt had come. He would avenge his betrayed father. It had taken him all his essence to deceive the Crimson Consuls he had been broken under their pressure. Without this deceit, he would never have recruited two full regiments of Judicators from Rathaen. He needed those elite killers, now more than ever. He had created an army as never seen before, the ideal combination of speed, resilience and strength. The way of the hunter. The way of Caedhren. The way of vengeance.

---

Greetings fellow general,

Welcome to my third army blog for the Ninth Age!

Principles of Blitzkrieg
In this blog it will all be about BLITZKRIEG, the mixed arms recipe for victory. Throughout military history there has been an army composition that somehow seems to be overpowering. A resilient deadly core of infantry, flanked by hard-hitting cavalry, and effective missile support that aims to disrupt the opposing core of infantry. The most successful general to have mastered this concept thus far was Alexander the Great. This blog honors the genius of Alexander and all that came after him, trying to imitate his approach to warfare.


A glorious charge of chariots, hopefully in many enemy flanks

Building the Army
When I applied the principles of blitzkrieg to my beloved Dread Elves I asked myself three questions:

- what is the most hard-hitting flanker?
- what is the most deadly infantry?
- what is the most agile and effective support?

Flank
This brought me to the Chariot Prince, as it gives me one of the most resilient DE characters, potentially quite cheap as Silexian Officers, with powerful impact damage. Inspired by the German Blitzkrieg I shall wield him into a formation I shall call 'the tank' where two chariot characters reinforce a chariot to create an unit of 3 DE chariots, an extremely potent unit. They are reinforced by another hard hitting yet resilient unit; the Thunder Pack. But we must remain aware of the principles of blitzkrieg. The tanks or heavy cavalry have a specific role to play: to flank the enemy battle line. We must have a resilient hard-hitting battle line of infantry ourselves as well to succeed.

Front
So what is the most deadly infantry of DE? I opted for the Judicators, which also happen to be my favorite models of all time. Two large units can be devastating. When they reach combat... So they are reinforced by Temple Exarchs with Divination for discipline upgrade, magic protection against ranged attacks, and helping them to hit better.

Disrupt enemy front
The most hard-hitting flanker and most deadly infantry are nothing without support, as they would be shred to pieces or chaffed to death before making it into combat. As my earlier choices are outside core, I must find this support within my core units. But there we have the perfect solution: Shadow Riders. They have never been so cheap as now in units of 10, and when you consider BLITZKRIEG you know it is all about disruption of the enemy plans and battle line, until you have double enveloped those opposing forces and they flee or surrender. I can field 3 large units of fast cavalry and still buy 2 units of beast breakers to give the chariots a movement boost and most importantly, to score the objectives. With my final points I can buy another unit of Thunder Pack, but I opt to go for a large-ish unit of Black Cloaks, for ideal synergy with so many Shadow Riders and again useful in already disrupting the enemy deployment phase. Furthermore, they are the best shooters DE (and thus annoying chaff hunters) have to offer. Furthermore, when the opponent does not anticipate well on scouts it can help me get to the bane of the Judicators or Chariot-star soon: war machines.

Negating weaknesses
This still leaves me with some points to upgrade the chariot characters with magic items, such as the King Slayer for potential duels with my protagonist the Chariot Prince, some juicy extra spells to deal with chaff or artillery, magic defense for the chariot-star in the form of MR (3) and most important of all; the Stalker Standard to negate the dangerous effects of terrain for the chariots.


Chariots and cavalry were the ancient tanks

The Chariot List
335 - Silexian Officer on Raptor Chariot (G), Great Weapon (King Slayer), Ghostly Guard, Lightning… [Read More]

On this show, Tony and Paul are joined by Ed Murdoch and Adam (Tanka) Jones to discuss the various weaknesses of the Warriors book.



Catch us on most podcast apps, Spotify or, for MP3 download, visit podomatic.com/podcasts/tfwp



Facebook Group – (Search for The Fantasy Wargaming Podcast)


Leave us a review on iTunes or your podcast provider!


Show Links:

Free rules for The 9^th Age – the-ninth-age.com/

9^th Age Tournament Updates - www.Tourneykeeper.net


Credits Due:


Music from the Freemusicarchive.org:

Into - Jan Morgenstern - Circling Dragons
Outro - BoxCat Games - Battle 'Special'
Sponsor music – Ice Man – SI-PML


Sound effects from FreeSFX.co.uk [Read More]

Round 0: Here is the hall before the tourney starts.
Round 1:The First game of the Day
Round 2: The first Time Highborn Elves from @'Nighty'
Round 3: The 2nd Time Highborn Elves from Nighty

Bestpainted Armies on Parade. [Read More]

Hi, @FloriGressConsulting and our Twitch Channel: twitch.tv/t9ainbavaria will stream live for mine and @Lakonas Tourney.
So if you have time on Saturday or Sunday and want to see @Klexe @berti @nighti @Scottish Knight @Henrypmiller @CasimirtheSwede and many more heroes from austria, bavaria, scottland, ireland, sweden and the whole world and from germany play, feel free to tune in. [Read More]

Episode 71 - WDG Pt1


On this show, Tony and Paul are joined by Ed Murdoch and Adam (Tanka) Jones to discuss the various strengths of the Warriors book.


Catch us on most podcast apps, Spotify or, for MP3 download, visit podomatic.com/podcasts/tfwp



Facebook Group – (Search for The Fantasy Wargaming Podcast)


Leave us a review on iTunes or your podcast provider!


Show Links:


Free rules for The 9^th Age – the-ninth-age.com/

9^th Age Tournament Updates - www.Tourneykeeper.net


Credits Due:


Music from the Freemusicarchive.org:

Into - Jan Morgenstern - Circling Dragons
Outro - BoxCat Games - Battle 'Special'
Sponsor music – Ice Man – SI-PML


Sound effects from FreeSFX.co.uk [Read More]

Casimir the Swede and Henrypmiller dig into the new DE and DH points updates. We also read and discuss the background snippets that have been added into the book.

We also talk a little about our lists for the Bavarian Tea, Championship coming up this month in Munich!

Things you can learn from this episode: How the Dread Knights decide who is the best at killing. Which parts of the Dwarven military can now be named "the iron curtain" and how the Rune Smiths really make those weapons sharp [Read More]

Please take a look at my preview of this thursdays release of T9As Dread Elve Supplement Dreadfleet: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1941536790 [Read More]

Hello and welcome back to my journey at the ETC!

Firstly i would just like to say a big thank you to all those nice comments that people leave on my Battle Reports, it means a lot and it’s good to know people are reading them and enjoying them, so keep the comments coming.

Previously i’d just finished game 2 against VC in a very closely fought loss and now we moved onto the Saturday and Game 3. This time Team Scotland were drawn against Team Luxembourg, certainly not a bad team and they had some nasty lists that I wanted nothing to do with and only one green in the form of a daemon army that they were never going to let me play.

Here’s my list for a reminder:

600 - Soothsayer, Raiding Chariot, Wizard Master, Shamanism, Light Armour (Trickster's Cunning), Hand Weapon (Ancestral Carvings), Talisman of Shielding
545 - Beast Lord, General, Razortusk Chariot, Shield (Dusk Forged), Heavy Armour (Basalt Infusion), Beast Axe (Fatal Folly)
430 - Minotaur Chieftain, Greater Totem Bearer, Battle Standard Bearer, Light Armour (Destiny's Call), Great Weapon
305 - 3 Raiding Chariots
290 - 30 Wildhorn Herd, Shield, Standard Bearer (Legion Standard), Musician, Champion
210 - 15 Wildhorn Herd, Shield, Ambush, Standard Bearer (Banner of Discipline), Musician
140 - 20 Mongrel Herd
631 - 6 Minotaurs, Shield, Standard Bearer (Banner of Speed), Musician, Champion (Totem Bearer (Black Wing Totem))
100 - Razortusk Herd
85 - Briar Beast
85 - Briar Beast
85 - Briar Beast
330 - Cyclops
330 - Cyclops
330 - Cyclops

In the end I was drawn against the Sylvan Elves. Not an army I enjoy playing against because they are just so good at everything and are a real struggle for Beast Herds I find. The Sylvan’s main weakness in my opinion is shooting and magic missiles and I have neither of those things really. Here’s my opponents list:

480 - Druid, Wizard Master, Druidism, Sylvan Longbow, Binding Scroll, Obsidian Rock
280 - Dryad Ancient, Wizard Adept, Divination, Toxic Spores
255 - Chieftain, Battle Standard Bearer (Aether Icon, Aether Icon), Sylvan Longbow (Watcher's Woe)
215 - Chieftain, General, Sylvan Longbow (Bough Of Wyscan)
440 - 20 Sylvan Archers, Standard Bearer (Banner of Discipline), Musician
320 - 15 Sylvan Archers, Musician
368 - 21 Dryads, Scoring, Champion
525 - 10 Wild Huntsmen, Sylvan Lance, Standard Bearer (Banner of Speed), Musician, Champion
445 - Treefather
445 - Treefather
95 - Forest Eagles
95 - Forest Eagles
187 - 6 Sylvan Sentinels
175 - 5 Pathfinders
175 - 5 Pathfinders
4500

I had this down as yellow, so a draw, a lot depended upon the objective and deployment so it’s hard to predict. This list having the 2 Treefathers meant I had a target for my Cyclops at least and if I can fell one of those Trees then i’m doing OK. The hardest part of this game is going to be whether i’m able to weather that storm of shooting that is coming my way. There’s 51 bow shots from the units plus the Watchers Woe and the Treefathers shooting, that’s enough bows to wipe out my army before I even get into combat if i’m not careful.

If I can get into a fight with the army then I think I should be OK but with the Wild Huntsmen free to do whatever they want then against me (as I have no real way of getting to grips with them besides frenzy baiting and counter charging) I may not be able to push up as aggressively as I like. My ace in the hole is the Briar Beasts, those little guys will cause no end of problems for the Sylvans if the scenery is right, but as the Sylvans always bring their free wood i’ll have somewhere I can pop up in their deployment. They can easily turn around and shoot it but if the Sylvans are doing that then they aren’t shooting the rest of my army, so that’s OK.

The deployment for this game is Frontline Clash and the Secondary is Secure Target. The objective is an interesting one, with Secure Target I always put my objective on a board edge so an ambushing unit can come and get it and I can focus on my opponents objective. With just the three scoring in the Sylvans list there’s only one of those units that’s coming out to try and contest it really, the Dryads. If I can zone them then I should be able to pick up both objectives but we will see.

I won the roll for picking sides and I decided to take the side with a forest and a building on, so I had somewhere to hide from the shooting and to deny my opponent the use of the forest. It also left a field in my opponents deployment zone and a water feature on their side too. Excellent places for the Briar Beasts to come on and should help me dictate the flow of the game.

I placed my objective on the right hand side of the board, just next to a building. I was expecting my opponent to be place his objective right in the middle but he surprised me and put it on the left hand side of the board.

For spells I chose Awaken the Beast, Swarm of Insects, Chilling Howl and Totemic Summon (it’s always tough to pick Shamanism spells against Sylvans because they are all so… [Read More]

Welcome back to an action packed 'Ammertime Podcast!
Henrypmiller and Casimir the Swede do list review and a rundown of the first round Amagerdak pairings, go over the results of the tournament AND (as if that wasnt enough) do a full KoE and OG book update review - we read it so you don't have to!
If listening to the entirity of this episode you may learn the following: If the Ammertime crew can sing, why a Fish is the best fantasy creature you could be if you had the choice and the importance of every inch in life and when playing the 9th age!
Enjoy! [Read More]