7th Ed. 2250 vs. WoC

[Stegadeth]

Hey my scaly friends. I have a game coming up this weekend against a friend who plays WoC. I have played him a couple of times at 1000 points and he tends to go Cavalry heavy and he admits that he likes HeroHammer. I came up with this, C&C most appreciated!


Stegadeth 2.25 Balanced

1 Slann Mage-Priest
General
Battle Standard Bearer
War Banner
Cupped Hands of the Old Ones
Dispel Scroll
Disciplines: The Becalming Cogitation, Focus of Mystery, The Focused Rumination
Lore of Metal

1 Level Two Skink Priest
Ancient Stegadon
Engine of the Gods
Plaque of Tepok
Dispel Scroll

16 Temple Guard
Musician, Standard Bearer

18 Saurus Warriors
Musician, Standard Bearer, Spears

11 Skink Skirmishers

10 Skink Skirmishers

4 Terradon Riders

1 Salamander
Extra Handler

1 Salamander
Extra Handler

1 Saurus Scar-Veteran
Light Armor
Burning Blade of Chotec
The Maiming Shield

5 Cold One Cavalry
Full Command, Scar-Vet goes here.

Total Roster Cost: 2248

I was considering dropping the Standard in the TG unit, because I really don't see them breaking, but that extra CR might make the difference between my bunker with general tying a combat or forcing a break test of their own. I plan on using the Cold One Cavalry Champion as challenge bait so my Scar-Vet can chew through rank and files if need be.

In the past my opponent hasn't used much magic to speak of though I have seen him field the Dragon Wizard. He really seems to like Knights and the Lord choice on on Juggernaut (no idea if either of those choices are really possible in 2,250 point game as I don't own the Chaos Army Book).

So, C&C and give any insight you can on WoC and what I might expect. Thanks for looking.

 

[JohnMavrick]

I would consider dropping something and taking Bane Head on your Slann w/ the Lore of Metal. Target his General and watch him crumble. I think the rest of your units are solid and I would definately keep the standard in your TG unit for that extra combat res. I also think you've got it good with your champ in your CoC unit. Overall an excellent anti-WoC list!

 

[Stegadeth]

Thanks for the feedback. I forgot to note that the Scar-Vet is on a Cold One himself, giving him a 1+ save and the extra movement and attack. I can get the Bane Head if I drop the extra Skink Skirmisher (only had 11 in one unit to fill out some points) and drop the musician from the TG unit. I could drop the burning blade of Chotec for biting blade but I would lose one negative to armor save and lose the flaming attacks, which I really want to keep in case he throws Spawn at me.

The musician is actually feasible because I do not expect to have any rallying problems with this unit but in a combat draw I may end up losing and having to test. Still, that test should be pretty easy, so I may go that route. Any thoughts about that (revised list below)?

Stegadeth 2.25 Balanced

1 Slann Mage-Priest
General
Battle Standard Bearer
War Banner
Bane Head
Cupped Hands of the Old Ones
Dispel Scroll
Disciplines: The Becalming Cogitation, Focus of Mystery, The Focused Rumination
Lore of Metal

1 Level Two Skink Priest
Ancient Stegadon
Engine of the Gods
Plaque of Tepok
Dispel Scroll

16 Temple Guard
Standard Bearer

18 Saurus Warriors
Musician, Standard Bearer, Spears

10 Skink Skirmishers

10 Skink Skirmishers

4 Terradon Riders

1 Salamander
Extra Handler

1 Salamander
Extra Handler

1 Saurus Scar-Veteran
Cold One
Light Armor
Burning Blade of Chotec
The Maiming Shield

5 Cold One Cavalry
Full Command, Scar-Vet goes here.

Total Roster Cost: 2249

 

[JohnMavrick]

I think you've got a solid list going. I usually always take at least a musician in all of my units but that's really just personal preference. Your justifications for leaving it out in your TG regiment shows good depth in your reasoning so I'd stick with what you have unless someone else has other suggestions.

Let me know how you fair in the battle, I'm interested to see how your list plays out.

 

[walach]

my only issue is that you have a LOT of points in the slann/TG and the skink priest/stegadon. though i guess they really need all thier items to retain thier effectivness.

perhaps drop some of the anti-magic? you have 2 scrolls, becalming cogitation, and 6 DD as it stands. does your opponent typically take a lot of magic?

then again, even if you trimmed a few points off them, i'm not sure where else you'd spend them...


anyways, i like the list!

 

[JohnMavrick]

If you trim, depending on how many points you get back I'd either put it in Skinks (another unit?) or perhaps buff out your saurus. That's the only places I could think of for now. But I think you should keep it the same, WoC can take a surprising amount of magic without taking dedicated casters and in the off chance he takes the Tzeench guy you'll need it.

 

[Stegadeth]

I spoke to my opponent tonight. I told him I was assembling like mad to get the 2250 points and he asked what I was working on and I told him. He knows what I am bringing so told me what he is bringing. Seemed fair enough to me. Now, I am unfamiliar with other armies as a rule, but he'll bring along a Lord on a Dragon, a couple of Tzeentch War Shrines, some knights, a couple of sorcerers, and 3 ten marauder units with great weapons. We'll both have some heavy point sinks and I know he'll really be torn between sending the dragon straight at my Slann bunker or Stegadon.

 

[Stegadeth]

Follow-up for John, since he asked.

We played today and it went ok. My friend is gearing up for a tourney and trying to tune his list, so it was a very friendly game.

He has 3 10 man marauder units with great weapons, 10 Chaos Knights in which there were two level two sorcerers, one on a regular Chaos Steed, one on a Daemonic mount. He had two war shrines of Tzeentch, Chaos Lord on a Chaos Dragon with Helm of Many Eyes and Hellfire Sword and Mark of Khorne. He set up like this with a hill in front of his two marauder units and a forest just on the edge of his single marauder unit. I won't post my setup as it was large. I screened my Slann/TG Bunker on my right hand side with ten skirmishers, right of that was a Salamander, placed my Cold One Cavalry in the middle un screened opposite his Chaos Lord, left of them was the Priest on EotG screened with the other skirmishers and left of them a Saurus Block, left of that a Salamander then Terradons.

MMMMM......KKKKKK...WS..CL..WS..MMMMM..MMMMM
MMMMM......KKKKSS...WS..CL..WS..MMMMM..MMMMM

He won the roll to go first and immediately moved his Dragon up, kept his warshrines within twelve, moved everything else up maximum. Then he got Unseen Lurker off and tried to charge so I scrolled it. He forgot to roll stupidity on his helm and when he did he failed, but since it was a friendly and he was trying to test a list for a tourney and I had nothing but time invested, I let it go. He tried another spell and I diced it down. His dragon uses its two breath weapons and takes out three skink skirmishers from one unit.

My turn I forget to move (duh) and he wasn't as friendly as I was so he didn't want to let me move after I had already started shooting. Fine, I end up pinned in my end of the table the entire game (this is where the clusterfreak begins). Forgot to move my Terradons even to get them ready to drop rocks. I open the magic phase with what else? A miscast on a three dice cast (I was forgetting my extra power die until turn four!) I am nice, use Cupped Hands and his Sorceror takes a wound and Magic Phase ends! My priest, my remaining casts for my Slann and my EotG are shut down.

So after this, his Chaos Lord gets nailed by several poisoned blowpipes, he took two wounds (darn, needed one more to end him) and the dragon took a couple of hits as well (four left). Since nothing moved my Salamanders, terradons, skirmishers and Priest on EotG are all out of position and I missed my chance to charge his Dragon with my CoC+Scar Vet. End of turn one.

After this, well it's this congested mass of close combats with my Terradons being highly ineffective, my Salamanders overshooting, misfiring three times (one unit ate itself to death) and his friggin' Warriors of Chaos Close Combat specialists of course eating me alive. My Priest got taken out on turn two with a challenge he couldn't refuse so no EotG at all, I forgot to use my Becalming Cogitation and Focused rumination until turn four. The Stegadon lost all its crew and fought on bravely, not getting killed until turn four when flanked my marauders and taking on 9 Chaos Knights and a Sorceror in front. My bunker was really effective. The screening I had done kept it safe from combat a long time and the Slann did some serious damage with his Lore of Metal. I imagine if I had remembered all of my disciplines I could have turned the tide earlier. The bunker group took out a warshrine when they were both in front of me.

In the end all I had left was a Salamander, 2 crew, 5 TG in front of a Slann who was charged in the back.
Opponent had Dragon, Lord, most of a Marauder unit, a Warshrine on its last legs, A sorcerer with 6 knights left.

Honestly, if my opponent had been as kind as me and let me move after I had burned down the first magic phase, it might have ended differently. In fact, if I had remembered to make him discard sixes for more than two turns on his one Sorceror, if I had remembered my free power die per spell, and if the first magic phase hadn't got shut down, his general would likely have been dead at the end of turn one. I don't mind the massacre, honestly, as I am helping a friend tool up a list.

The good news is we are playing next week as well and I won't forget everything I did this time. I know I can play better because if I make it out of my deployment zone and remember to get my terradons flying around, life is completely different. Things I can't change and wish I could: WoC hit friggin' hard. His heroes and lords always challenge. Even with 3+ saves on infantry and TG his strength pushes it back and he has a massive amount of attacks with better initiative. Of course, a burning alignment even once would have helped. I don't think I will change anything for next week, unless he does. Anyway, there's a half-hearted bat-rep full of fail on my part for forgetting how to play. Ten years off makes one rusty in WHFB!

If you read this far... why?

 

[Stegadeth]

Rematch this week. It went rather differently. I'll make it a real battle report.