Thursday, March 24, 2011

Down but Not Out


Apologies for the lack of posts since, well, forever. Nursing school owns me.

Fortunately, I am going to be able to make it to StillCon 2011.

The thing that sucks is that I will only be able to make it for one day this year, instead of two like I planned. I will be playing in the 2000 point WHFB tournament on Sunday, and will miss the 40k tournament Saturday. Having done a couple tournaments now, I know what to expect. The rub is that I've been playing Fantasy for all of 3 months with just under a dozen games under my belt (never playing any other mission than the standard 12" deployment). That and I'm not super solid on the rules like in 40k. Oh and I've played against or watched games with approximately 9 of the 14 armies.

Having said that I still think I will do well, though not as well as I did last year in 40k. I believe in setting realistic goals, and hopefully surprising the hell out of myself. The goal this year is to win one of the three games. Totally do-able.

I have play tested this army and it has done well. The only thing that was disappointing to me was how Light performed for me. I'm sure most of it is user error and not being 100% solid on all the mechanics. It's something I intend to try again sometime. That said, Life is incredibly easy to use, completely point-and-click. Let's do it:

Lords
Slann
General, BSB, Standard of Discipline, Cupped Hands of the Old Ones, Focus of Mystery (Life), The Becalming Cognition, Focused Rumination

Core
3 blocks of 20 Saurus Warriors
Full Command

Special
Temple Guard x 20
Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame

2 groups of 5 Chameleon Skinks

Rare
2 sets of 2 Salamanders
1 with 1 extra handler (to be placed on the flank with the most targets as an added insurance policy)

Total: 2000 Points on the nose.

Honestly, I'd love to include a Skink Priest on an Engine of the Gods, but at 2000 points it's kinda hard to squeeze in without dropping a block of Saurus (leaving me 3 groups that can fight with any sort of staying power). That and I won't be getting that model in from my FLGS until tomorrow at the earliest.

I have sort of tweaked it a bit, originally I loved the idea of have the Temple Guard block having a Razor Standard (-3 to opponents armor save) paired with Light to give me a Flaming Magic missile.
Initiative 10/ASF to eliminate those cringe-inducing re-rollable hits from High Elves and turn the Lizzie's weakness into a strength? Check.
Can deal with heavily armored/deathstar blocks? Check.
Flaming magic missile for the super lame Hydras/other Regen or Flammable creature? Check.

Seems like a match made in heaven, and probably is in point values over 2000 points or for people who know what the hell they're doing. Unfortunately the Banner costs 35 more points (2 Temple Guard, though not a big deal - I know) and the Razor Standard was also a bit overkill. Strength 5 is street sweeping whatever it's hitting anyway, and my Temple Guard have yet to come across something they couldn't at least have enough staying power to not get through a game.

The 2 small groups of Chameleons give me the flexibility of one maxed unit of 10, while being able to take out multiple targets if necessary. The Chameleon Brave is not worth the 6 points for 1 point better BS.

Anyways I've droned on for entirely too long, but I would be remiss without plugging Dethron's regular "column" Friday Night Internet Fight, every Friday. It's hilarious (and a good blog too!). Give it a read.