8th Ed. How do we best deal with WoC?

[Pinktaco]

Dat mark of nurgle. Most of our troops hit on 5+, some even 6+. So what do I rely on? Impact hits and thunderstomps? I'm considering using ripperdactyls, but I'm not sure if they're strong anough.

I'm considering to use Tetto'Eko and no Slann. So dual OBs or is that nuts?

The times I've played WoC have been an uphill struggle lol.

 

[RipperDerek]

Could you be more specific? Which units in particular are giving you trouble?

There are a lot of ways to kit out Chaos Warriors, for example. The most common one is mark of nurgle w/halberds. Is that what you're facing? If so, how big is the block? Is there also a nurgle daemon prince?

 

[Pinktaco]

In my last game it was actually his two units of warrior units that cock-blocked me.

For whatever reason they killed roughly 5-6 models pr combat phase and the second I wasn't steadfast my saurus warriors fleed and died. I had two saurus units of 30 that died like this. AS3+ and mark of nurgle can be hard to deal with, but I did not expect for my guys to die this fast. Maybe I was just unlucky, I don't know.

I haven't yet faced any demon prince, chimera or hell canon, however, I just find all models to be incredible superior to anything we can put out.

I'm going to play him tonight with:

OB w/ GW, CO, armour of destiny, dawnstone.
Tetto'Eko.
Beast Priest w/ scroll.
*Maybe* a scar vet on foot with BSB, haven't decided yet.

30 saurus with swords.
10 skink cohort.
3 x 10 skink skirmish.

30-40 templeguards (if 40 = horde), with AP banner.
6 ripperdactyls.

2 ancient stegadons, at least one with horns.

I'm considering to run the stegs next to each other for dual impact hit. OB whereever I need him the most. I have 3 skirmish units to redirect, one cohort to put Tetto in. 2 blocks of saurus to hold up stuff and hopefully the guards can put some hurt on whateve they face. Ripperdactyls in the flank of saurus warriors will do well I hope (even AS3+ will be reduced to 5+ and 4+ to 6+).

The good thing about WoC Is that even though their units hit hard and comes with a lot of armour they cost a lot of points. With AS3+ rippers an potentially do 6 wounds on average (with 24 attacks) and more if theyh have halbard. Just doing this once will be quite damaging to the unit they're fighting.

His knights and skullcrusher i'm actually not THAT afraid of it's his lords and heroes.

 

[RipperDerek]

If they have shields instead of halberds, the Rippers have the potential to do fairly well. If they have extra hand weapons or halberds, however, the Rippers will do some damage, but even 6 will just all be dead after a couple rounds of combat. In the latter two cases, the Rippers need larger numbers or Wildform in order to compete. They're not likely to take down the unit, although they might kill off a rank or two.

Also, if they have shields for the 3+ armor save, searing doom is a good way to peel off some models. As always, Salamanders and big spells like Fiery Convocation or Final Transmutation are all good choices against infantry blocks. Even if the total number of models killed is low, they are very expensive.

Saurus aren't a good match up without heavy magic support. Neither is an equal-sized block of temple guard (a nurgle halberdier is basically a better temple guard, with higher weapon skill, initiative, and -1 to hit). However, temple guard are cheaper, and if you put them in a horde with no slann, the matchup shifts and you should beat them in a one-on-one fight. Although you'll trade off on who wins combats, the TG should slowly pull ahead.

The ancient stegadon is good against the shields or extra hand weapons, but substantially worse against the halberds. Kroxigors are similar.

Hope that gives you some food for thought!

 

[Pinktaco]

As always your words are wise oh Old One. Lol.

But yes, I appreciate the help. With your suggestions in mind I'll try out a horde of guards along with AP banner, if the points are there.

About the rippers - I was hoping (maybe naive?) that they can get off a flank charge once his blocks are engaged. with Tetto I can try and shift the combat phase in my favour with both wyssans wildform, harmonic convergence, curse of the midnight wind and iceshard blizzard. I have 2 hexes and 2 buffs to aid me. I'll also try and get off a comet - one thing though, do the normal comet do S4 or is it S5 initially? The text can be understood both ways, but so far we've played with S5 (S4 + the very first marker = S5). At any rate there's a decent chance it'll go off with Tetto and as long as I can just kill a few I suppose it is worth it.

Now I haven't had that much experience with WoC, but it feels as if every kill matters since their models are so expensive. A 45pts Chaos Knight is a rather steep price one they die, 18pts WoC is also high IMO. with units of 18-24 of WoC it's also easier to remove their rank bonus.

 

[VampTeddy]

As always your words are wise oh Old One. Lol.

But yes, I appreciate the help. With your suggestions in mind I'll try out a horde of guards along with AP banner, if the points are there.

About the rippers - I was hoping (maybe naive?) that they can get off a flank charge once his blocks are engaged. with Tetto I can try and shift the combat phase in my favour with both wyssans wildform, harmonic convergence, curse of the midnight wind and iceshard blizzard. I have 2 hexes and 2 buffs to aid me. I'll also try and get off a comet - one thing though, do the normal comet do S4 or is it S5 initially? The text can be understood both ways, but so far we've played with S5 (S4 + the very first marker = S5). At any rate there's a decent chance it'll go off with Tetto and as long as I can just kill a few I suppose it is worth it.

Now I haven't had that much experience with WoC, but it feels as if every kill matters since their models are so expensive. A 45pts Chaos Knight is a rather steep price one they die, 18pts WoC is also high IMO. with units of 18-24 of WoC it's also easier to remove their rank bonus.

The first marker IS indeed a marker

you are right to play it s5

 

[Pinktaco]

Victory.

my friend is more inexperienced than me (have roughly 10 games under his belt, mixed with skaven/WoC) so he still needs to learn how to properly play with WoC and in general.

Anyway I had:

OB w/Armour of Destiny, Dawnstone and GW.

Tetto'Eko.
Beast Priest /w scroll.

30 saurus with swords.
11 skink cohort with musician.
3 x 10 skirmish (javelins).

40 templeguards with armour piercing banner.
6 ripperdactyls

2 ancient stegadons, one with sharpened horns.

Next time I'll remove the AP banner and somehow fit in a skink chief with BSB.

My friend had:

Sigvald the Magnificient

lvl 2 nurgle wizard.
BSB on foot.
Mounted hero

2 units of 24 MoN warriors, one with GW other with sword/shield, BSB was with the swords.

1 unit of chosen warriors with MoN, shield/sword and some banner against my shooting. Sigwald was here..
9-10 Chaos Knights with magic sword, mounted hero was here.

Wizard was placed out in the open.

So he had 4 units to place. I think he wanted some sort of pince manouvre because he placed the knights on one flank and the chosen on the other. This, however, did not work because I had 4 skink units to place. So once that was done I had som skinks to mess with his chosen unit and placed the 2 stegs aiming for his knights (I put my OB there too).

My TG horde ate both his regular warriors with ease, my sword/shield saurus warriors fled after having lost 4 models and got overrun (yay!) so this is why you bring a BSB -.-

When my guards where done with his warriors they turned to face his chosen, who had finally come close enough after eating some skinks for dinner. They all died quickly (were already wounded due to magic and poison). On average I think my guards have killed 10 models/combat phase.

His knights turned tail when he saw the danger (2 x impact hit + OB? lololol). So my OB ran after him and because he failed hit swift reform I managed to charge into him soon after. Ate his hero, no wounds taken, had popped iceshard one them, they fled, I didn't catch them. He rallied soon after, I hit him again with iceshard and my OB. They failed the fear test (for added lulz), my OB ate some knights and the game was over.

Overall I really liked Tetto. I'm not fond of going heavy on magic (too unstable). You just have to be careful with throwing too many dice. In fact the reroll 1s made my IF chainlightning (which bounced through his two regular warriors + mage), but nothing really happened. The funny thing is though that my friend started and after 3 rounds of magic we had been through 3 miscasts <.< (2 on him, one on me). His mage died to the last giving me free reign. The sad thing is that none of us went full retard, we just had rolled ridiculous. He wanted to give a unit of warriors the 5+ regeneration with 3 dice. Resulted in IF haha.

Overall the game was super action packed. A lot of CC, magic that put a lot of wounds, 3 miscasts/IF.

I didn't use vanguard with Tetto because I think it requires some proper experience and a good strategy. Just putting units forward can be dangerous. I liked loremaster because it gave me 2 hexes, 2 augments, 2 magic missiles and 2 direct damage spells (with wyssans wildform that is). Also putting Tetto in a skink unit means that even a miscast will not hurt as much as when a slann does so in TG bunker.

This was the first time I've had below 700pts characters. OB + Tetto + priest = 526pts. You can still add a chief BSB, with cheap defensive equipment we can have him troll around near/with tetto and still only have used 600pts on characters. With 625pts core that leaves us 12-1300pts for special/rare.

 

[RipperDerek]

That's actually a pretty good list. It will fair well against even fairly competitive WoC lists. The only thing you can't really beat is a horde of trolls.

That said, I'm glad it worked out well for you. Congrats on the win!

And yes, skinks are awesome. They win many games during deployment.