Come with me and take a short view on OnG Alpha 4 [Read More]

Greetings, dear reader!

Another year has come and gone, and another ETC is in the books! And what an adventure it was for all of us! In this series of reports, I will try to take you back to the ETC 2023, and share with you the exploits of Team Belgium and of the Beast Herds of yours truly. It has been a while since I wrote here, so do excuse the rustiness in my prose, and the inevitable tardiness of the reports to come. And the lack of pictures from time to time.

If you’re here reading this then you don’t need a long introduction about what the ETC stands for, but I’ll point out that this year’s event has set the bar very high for future events in terms of organization. The event was so well run and had no surprises in terms of infrastructure that we were left wondering at points whether this was a “real” ETC experience. Does it count as an ETC if you haven’t travelled for two days back and forth, if you haven’t braved shoddy accommodation and unreliable public transport arrangements, if you haven’t lost at least two teammates in an unknown city when walking to or from a restaurant? Have you really felt the ETC atmosphere if there were no broken chairs in the middle of a game, inciting a round of applause from all, or if the A/C hasn’t broken down on day 1 leaving all to deal with the sweltering heat as best they can?
Well, this year’s ETC felt like a convention, and very close to what Disneyland for adult geeks may look like. Others have done a better job describing that in detail, so I’ll just say that I liked it, but at times I’d have preferred it to feel more like a vacation (the Netherlands are neither very far from Belgium, nor known for their sunny weather).

But you didn’t come her for my travel impressions, did you? You came here to read all about the amazing group of players that is Team Belgium! And read you will, of the exploits of our Captain extraordinaire, Thomas, and of his co-captains Guy and Franck. And of the newbies that surprised us all with their resilience and cool headedness. And of the “boomers” (more like early millennials, but still) of our team, myself included, who try to counter lack of regular gaming by leveraging experience and the psychological factor.
This year our setup was as follows:

• Thomas with HBE: after a brief love affair with KoE, our captain was back to his beloved HbE. After close to 30 years of gaming, I still don’t know how the highborn elves work, or why they seem to win without even losing a single VP. But Thomas does, and that’s why we convinced him to take up the haughty elves again, if nothing else to challenge a bit the Polish supremacy for best in race.
  
• Guy with UD: Undying Dynasties were on our radar this year as being very strong again. We figured that people had forgotten how to play against the UD magic phase and that they would underestimate the ability of the skellies to come back again and again. Guy knows UD like the palm of his hand, and still maintains that they are not as strong as back in 2019. We agreed to disagree and were just happy we wouldn’t have to face his list during the tournament.
  
• Nico with WDG: Nico helped establish the Feldrak Ancestor as the powerhouse that it is, spotting its strengths early on during the year. Over the months leading up to the ETC he refined a strong pushy list revolving around single models with three big blocks of units to score and grind if needed. I’ll also note that he suggested a double Exalted Herald list and we foolishly deemed it not strong enough. The Italians would prove us wrong over the course of the ETC and would provide Nico with enough reasons to nag about.
  
• Merlijn with SE: aside from having the coolest name of us all, he is also a very experienced Sylvan general, having played exclusively the pointy ears for the past 5+ years. It did help that the Sylvans were amongst the strongest book this year. Merlijn brought as many bows as he could muster, plus a triad of strong combat units: Thicket Beasts, Dancers and Wild Huntsmen, all supported by the most recurring magic phase of the tournament: Master Druidism and double adept Shamanism/Cosmo. If you can’t beat them, join them!
  
• Jonathan with VC: footslogging vamps aided by the triple magical move wraiths, a big wall of 4++ Ghasts and everyone’s favorite – the big Bat Swarm. If there ever was a blocking list, that was it: Jon’s army could stop most opponents in their tracks. He’d had a great year with it, getting win after win against enemies that dared to underestimate the undead.
  
• Logan with DE: Logan has been playing DE exclusively for the past couple of years, and recording his successes and failures in his youtube channel (in French) that I heartily recommend. He was a pioneer in the creation of the Silexian SpearStar, and brought a very unique list that had a bit of everything. As it proved, this jack of all trades approach was capable of greatness.
  
• Geoffrey with DL: our former captain, a pillar of the ETC team and most experienced member of

… [Read More]

... and that is the reason I have prepared this short video on Twitch for you: twitch.tv/videos/1917567247. Have fun with it. [Read More]

Hello!

Welcome back to my battle reports from the ETC 2023. Hopefully you read my previous battle report from my first game at the ETC, where I managed to smash up some Vermin Swarm for a small win. Ifnot go and read that battle report because that was a good one.

This round Team Scotland were drawn against Team Argentina, who were also on the wrong end of beating. So we did the pairings and I was drawn against the Vampire Counts pushing about this list:

895 - Vampire Count, Shrieking Horror, Wizard Adept, Witchcraft, Halberd (Cleansing Light), Obsidian Rock, Crown of Autocracy, Strigoi, Mysteries of the Night
445 - Necromancer, General (The Dead Arise), Wizard Master, Evocation, Unholy Tome
290 - Vampire Courtier, Wizard Apprentice, Shamanism, Light Armour (Essence of Mithril), Paired Weapons (Shield Breaker), Nosferatu, Mysteries of the Night
485 - 35 Ghouls, Champion, Musician
215 - 20 Skeletons, Standard Bearer (Banner of the Relentless Company), Musician, Champion
145 - 4 Bat Swarms
142 - 23 Zombies, Musician
138 - 8 Dire Wolves, Champion
95 - 2 Great Bats
485 - 10 Wraiths, Champion
160 - 4 Phantom Hosts
510 - Shrieking Horror
494 - 5 Vampire Knights, Standard Bearer (Flaming Standard), Musician, Champion
4499

Here’s my list for ease of reference:
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

So with a big expensive character mounted on a flying monster with minimal save I was delighted to get this match up. I had this as green and was expected to bring back some big points for the team. The Cyclops are absolutely primed for this fight and if I can pull off a couple of hits in a turn that big expensive character is going down.

Having so many single characters as I do is going to be a little worrying with two Shrieking Horrors knocking about but i’m hoping the Cyclops will keep him honest and those Horrors will be hiding at the back. Apart from the two horrors there’s not much else in the list that scares me. Vampire Knights are a pain as they are really good for their cost (and put every single cavalry option for the KoE to shame). The magic setup is super strong with something like 11 spells knocking about. The Wraiths will be difficult to pin down thanks to the triple magic moves available and my lack of magic missiles.

The deployment was Dawn Assault and the secondary objective is king of the Hill. I won the roll for table sides and pick the side with Impassable in the middle so that my opponent couldn't take it to hide behind, plus I also wanted my opponent to have the forest and water in his deployment zone so that my Briar Beasts had somewhere to come on and threaten the VC army, particularly when it has some super squishy units like Skeletons and Zombies.

Deployment


Vampire Counts 1

Beast Herds 1

VC2

BH2


VC3

BH3

VC4

BH4


VC5

BH5


VC6

BH6


I played very poorly in this game and made a lot of big mistakes that cost me the game and I think that was straight from the start. I probably picked the wrong table side and should have give my opponent the side with the impassable in the middle and let him hide in the corner whilst I get the objective. I don’t think he could have dealt with the Minotaurs and my constant shooting would have eventually produced results. Letting him so easily hide his Vampire behind that hill turn 1 was a stupid error on my part. I’m not sure how I could have stopped it but i’m sure there’s some counters I could have had, even just putting a Cyclops further over on the left flank would have helped.

The Chariots failing to kill, or even hurt, the Vampire Knights was particularly upsetting as it gave me the faintest glimmer of hope when I made the charge but the dice decided to smash my hopes and dreams there. Failing to cast a spell with the Soothsayer in turn 5 was disappointing and could have seen me win the objective if he tied up the Vampire for another turn but I did feel like the Soothsayer was living on borrowed time anyway.

Minotaurs were my MVP, taking out the Ghouls, Phantom Hosts, Shrieking Horror and Zombies. Killing all that and only losing two models, amazing! LVP was probably the Beast Lord, but that was more my fault than his. The Briar Beasts weren't… [Read More]

Hi, here is what I had and still have to say about the Druidism Hotfix from last week: twitch.tv/videos/1905407171 [Read More]

Henrypmiller and CasimirtheSwede go live from ETC. We do a game by game recap between rounds of the games and happenings from this years ETC in Amsterdam.
Questions which may or may not be answered: how much a 14" strap on costs? What happens to team Poland when they loose their best player(turns out its a positive)? What happens to team Germany when they get one of the best Players? How team Scotland managed to take home a trophy? And what happens when you put British people in Viking dress? [Read More]

Hello and welcome to the first of my battle reports from the ETC 2023!

In the lead up to ETC I was initially going to be taking KoE and I used them in a lot of tournaments and had quite a bit of success with them but due to the constant changes I never found a list I was happy with. Also, judging by the KoE lists that were taken to the ETC there is essentially one build that revolves around single models and druidism, so boo to that! At around February time I decided it was time to switch back to my favourite army, the mighty Beast Herds. I know that they are considered weak by a lot of people but I absolutely love using them, and it is much more important to play with an army you enjoy than an army that you don’t.

So, for the ETC this is my list:

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
4496

We have the triple cyclops spam along with triple Briar Beast, I’ve got 4 scoring in total, which is more than I normally run but it should make objective play a bit easier. The Cyclops are great, not just for their shooting ability but they can fight and can crush blocks of infantry with their strength 6 stomps. Get all three into the same infantry unit and that’s one dead unit, I don’t care what it is. The Briar Beasts are fantastic since the new change to their special ambush rules (can now come out of fields, water and forest, rather than just forest) and as the maps will all be the official maps I know that I will be getting at least 2 of those terrain features.
There’s a big block of Minos where the Minotaur chieftain sits (hereby referred to as Mrs Mino) this is definitely my smash hammer but more often than not ends up as a Mrs Mino delivery system as the Minos just get shot to ribbons. There’s Chariots for running over monsters, big block of Wildhorn for some static combat res and helping break steadfast. The ambushing Wildhorn and small scoring block of Mongrels are there for objective play, I don’t see the ambushers fighting a lot if I’m honest. Normally I always run the Minotaur Warlord but the plan for this army was for the cyclops to do their shooting thing and then keep the opponent at arms length with the help of the Minotaurs and Chariots and the extra charge range from the Beastlord Chariot. I have also found that the Beast Lord Chariot gives the Beast Herds a useful tool against Wretched ones and Hoarders (things with lots of attacks but no AP). Without the Beast Lord to hold the up I really have no answer to Wretched Ones at all. The Soothsayer on the Shamanism is an absolute monster to fight against and I am hoping that he will still continue to take people by surprise with his inability to die (have to reroll to wound against him and with Scarification you can only wound him on 5+, he’s insane).

We arrived at the ETC on the Wednesday where the team had a couple of practice games against our antipodean friends, Australia and New Zealand. IN those games I played against the Australian Sylvan Elves and won 14 – 6 and then against the New Zealand and the Saurian Ancients where I managed to win 20 – 0 thanks to the Cyclops killing in The Alpha Carnosaur in turn 2.

Going into Game 1 I was on a bit of a hot streak and was raring to go. In the draw we had to play against Team Norway and in the pairings I was set to play against the Vermin Swarm. This was the list:

310 - Swarm Priest, Wizard Adept, Thaumaturgy, Book of Arcane Mastery, Rod of Battle, Holy Triumvirate, Caelysian Pantheon
290 - Swarm Priest, Wizard Adept, Witchcraft, Crystal Ball, Lightning Vambraces, Holy Triumvirate, Caelysian Pantheon
195 - Vermin Senator, General, Orator's Toga, Obsidian Rock
185 - House Prefect, Pistol, Cowl of the Apostate, Orator's Toga, Skorchit Alchemist
75 - House Prefect, Pistol, Fetthis Fleshmaster
75 - House Prefect, Pistol, Fetthis Fleshmaster
370 - 50 Vermin Legionaries, Spear, Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer with Eagle Standard
160 - 15 Vermin Velites, Sling, Musician, Standard Bearer with Eagle Standard
160 - 15 Vermin Velites, Sling, Musician, Standard Bearer with Eagle Standard
145 - 23 Giant Rats
145 - 23 Giant Rats
145 - 23 Giant Rats
553 - 46 Blackfur Veterans, Bloodfur Praetorians, Champion, Musician, … [Read More]

Hi, please enjoy my newest video about T9As soon to be released Alpha 3 for the Orcs and Goblins and about the Questionaire for the Saurian Ancients.

twitch.tv/videos/1893181524 [Read More]

@Kathal @Nighty @berti and @stifado are now up against Team Luxembourg. Here some impressions: [Read More]

Now @Furion @Dekadenz @Scrub clash with @Henrypmiller and Team Ireland. More here: [Read More]