8th Ed. Small Warbands game, need some help

[kugruk]

This may or may not be in the right place, and if it's not I apologize. Recently an escalation league has started at the local hobbytown here to try and get new players involved in fantasy. There seem to be an overwhelming majority of WH40k players in the area, with little interest in fantasy. Anyway, the league will start out at 250 points Warbands games using the Adepticon rules (which can be found here: http://www.adepticon.org/10rules/2010wfbwarbands.pdf )

My roommates and I have entered the league, me playing Lizardmen and them playing Skaven and High Elves (possibly WoC). I've been playing fantasy for well over a year, but have only ever played against my Skaven roommate. Our other roommate has only recently expressed interest in the game. Anyway, to the point:

I played a 250pt warbands game against skaven last night and was trounced. I'm worried about being able to compete at this level where every model means so very much. For so long I have relied on the ability to support my stalwart saurus blocks with magic, but it's just not possible at this level.

I would like some advice on how to approach other armies in an all comers list. The first list I made had 2 groups of 4 saurus, a skink chief, a group of 5 skink skirmishers and 2 Cold one riders. The riders seemed to do pretty well, but the rest of my list was lacking. Obviously I shouldve kept the saurus in one group instead of splitting them up. I'm going to have to rely on skinks to get things done for me here, but I'm worried about being able to survive (or at least recover from) close combat. Any immediate thoughts? Need any more information?

 

[TurdFurgason]

Hey, I am fairly new to the fantasy and the forums as well, so don't take my word for it, but here is my two cents.

- You said you were trounced by skaven? was this a result of them having too many wounds for you to take care of? If so I would suggest selecting a razordon or sally hunting pack as one of your special troup choices. Razordon may actually be better at this level as taking out 25% to panic shouldn't be too big of a feet.

- Chameleon skinks oppose to skirmishers have a little more survivability due to the extra -1 to hit, and you may be able to make up their points early so losing them may not hurt you too bad. Then again that takes up your final sprcial choice and may hurt you on the point totals.

- You don't usually see people using skink chiefs so i don't know exactly how viable they are, esecially on foot. I have however seen the SV do a lot of damage, then again never played low point games such as this so I don't know. I am also assuming your choice was as a result of lacking points.

- I also find myself wondering whether other players (or even your friends) were able to squeeze in some sort of mage, if so you would be quite hurting on magic defense.

- How well exactly did your SW units fair? One would think (being one of the better troop choices for their points) that they would do pretty well at this point level.

- a skrox unit is something different you could try, but I am not sure how well it would fair. Also, you would be relying heavily on one big block.

All in all at this point level (and with lizardmen) your choices are few I however believe that a sally or razordon pack would tear shit up especially for the low point cost. I would probably take out the two CO riders which would free up almost enough points for them. Then again I am not sure exactly how well your COs did.

Sorry if this reply isn't very helpful I am quite new myself

 

[rammramm]

Razerdon without handler,

8 saurus with musician,

skink priest with plaque of tepok,

You would get some range and some damadge and also a powerfull magic phase since many others wont have magic at all.

I might however drop the razordon for 2 groups of 4 skink skirmishers and 2 extra saurus.


I have never played these sort of games so i dont know if this would work, however I feel like it could do well since you get some heavy shooting (especially against small groups of enemies) from a unit who is resistant to booth charges (if you go with the razordon) and shooting (from being skirmishers), a fairly strong backbone of good troops and magic that could be devastating in these low point games (WoC brought 2 knights, an uranos thunderbolt later and their nothing more than dust).

Please tell us what you decide on and what the result is since I am very curious as to what works in these games.

 

[Arli]

Are the adepticon rules the most up to date rules for Warbands? I think I am going to organize a campaign like that.

Thanks

 

[kugruk]

To answer some of your questions, we are operating under the assumption that they will be enforcing 8th edition army composition rules while using the warbands rules. Which means, no more than 62 points spent on heroes/rares. Which eliminates salamanders/razordons and skink priests completely. The only army that I was able to find that could even field a mage under these conditions would be Orcs and Goblins.

 

[kugruk]

Also, concerning magic, they most they are going to be able to have is a level 1 wizard, which will know 1 spell. Magic in this case would almost not be worth playing, as he would throw the maximum dice at his 1 spell, and I would throw the maximum I could to dispell it.

 

[kugruk]

Are the adepticon rules the most up to date rules for Warbands? I think I am going to organize a campaign like that.

Thanks

I'm not sure, to be honest. I wasn't able to find any official alternatives. Only thing I was able to find was the skirmish rules from like the 6th edition.

 

[Cobra7]

I'm in the middle of a warbands campain myself after just completing a month of scrimishers. I play 500 points so it's not exactly the same, but close.


A few notes:
So far my MVP's have been units of 5 or 6 scrimished skinks.

Stay away from TG/Saurus warriors. They are too expensive to get large groups, and with low I, they will die before you can get your attacks back. Even if they do live and you get some attacks back, it's not likely to do much.

Possible list:
Skink Priest: Amulet of Topek
3x 5 Skink Scrimishers
2 Terradons

245 points.

Edit: Better hope no one plays HE's, they will not be able to bring a commander as the cheepest for them is 85 pts. IMO: the rules should allow for 50% to be used as a commander at this level.

 

[Lingbei]

This seems to be really unfair on some armies, there are multiple armies who won't even be able to field a hero with 62 points for example. Really the smallest you should be doing is 500 points so people don't get detered away from playing what they want and thus probably not wanting to continue playing in the future.