Played two back-to-back games at a friend's place today.
The first was a Black Seas game between my Russian fleet and his French. Russians have the issue of being something of a fleet of glass cannons, which doesn't go over well when you're using some of the slowest ships in the game against a fleet that prides itself in playing well in terms of manoeuvrability, nor does it help when you misjudge how close you are to a landmass so as to avoid becoming grounded (two of my 5th-Rates lost enough hull points through such accidents that they had to test to avoid "striking the colours" (tapping out). Even though my 1st-Rate somehow managed to survive being caught in a crossfire between two 3rd-Rates long enough to return fire both ways, I likely won't be using a 1st-Rate Ship-of-the-Line again in that fleet for some time. I may also have to consider dropping a good deal of my brigs in exchange for more 3rd- and 5th-Rate ships, though preferably not so much that it's monotonous.
The second was an Age of Sigmar game: my Skaven's first game under the new battletome versus my opponent's Ironjawz, using Contest of Generals (my opponent and I really don't care for the Seasons of War). It was a resounding table-wipe on my end at the hands of his Ironjawz by the end of turn 3. At best, I managed to kill off maybe a dozen heavily armoured orruks, most of which being done by my clawlord who almost put down my opponent's megaboss on his own in a round of combat. Apart from my own shortcomings of forgetting to bring my stormvermin, there's a couple of things that came out of that game. First, Rusted Spears on Clanrats (2"/1/5+/4+/-/1) are inexplicable garbage that are not worth taking due to how Strength in Numbers works (Melee attack range increases by 1" for every 10 models in the unit up to 3") and should have been merged with Rusted Blades (1"/1/4+/4+/-/1) instead like what happened with Deathrattle Skeletons. Second, Warp Lightning Cannons, let alone most war machines, are still overpriced garbage that you should avoid fielding at all costs. While it is still a cool model to have, you can't rely on it at all to put out the damage expected of a 150 point artillery piece.
