Follow-up

Follow up report:

Played the uber-tournament at GW on Saturday. List was:

Lvl 4 Prophetess (Life), Barded warhorse, Silver Mirror, Crown of Command

General: Lord,Gromril Helm, Holy Icon, Mantle of Damsel Elena, Shrieking Blade, Bwarhorse, shield, Questing Vow

Heroes (696): BSB: Paladin, enchanted shield, Relic Sword, Bwarhorse Virtue of Duty, Grail Vow

Paladin, Virtue of Confidence, Gauntlet of the Duel, Gold Sigil Sword, Bwarhorse, Questing Vow, Shield

Damsel Lvl 1 (beasts),warhorse, Dispell Scroll

Damsel Lvl 2 (beasts), Chalice of Malfleur

Paladin, Virtue of Heroism, Dragonhelm, Grail Vow, shield, lance, Royal Pegasus

12 Knights Errant, musician, standard, Lichebone pennent

11 KotR, musician, standard

20 Peasant Bowmen, musician, standard, braziers

20 Peasant Bowmen, musician, standard, braziers

16 Peasant Bowmen, musician, standard, braziers , skirmish

4 Pegasus Knights, musician

10 Questing Knights, musician, standard bearer, banner of swiftness

7 Grail Knights, musician, standard bearer

Trebuchet w. Yeoman Craftsman

Tournament started at 10:30, finished at 6:30. In that time, we fit in three BIG games comfortably, with plenty of time between for breaks, lunch, filling out game reports, taking on / putting off fluids, etc. The new version plays very smoothly.

The first game I played was against a veteran O&G player, in the meeting engagement scenario. This one is a diagonal deployment, with the two zones only 12" apart. It escalates very quickly to combat, with little time to manouvre, and equires the first dployer (me in this case) to deploy their entire army. This, I'm finding, is a bad thing for Bretonnians, where being able to pick the terms of combat is critical to success. I gave up a solid loss. As it happens, my opponent won prettiest army, primarily on the strength of the terrain peice he brought (as the entrance fee to the tourney). Fantastic job on his "Waaaghsteraunt - that's it in the background, but you'd need closeups to do it justice. Crazy amount of detail went into it - my fav was the snotling picking shrooms in the mushroom patch.




Second game was a minor loss to Dark Elves, which would have been a draw, except I misunderstood the secondary objectives for my side. It was the dawn attack scenario, which has a randomised deployment. I again deployed first, and again struggled with trying to control my army as well as I needed. Probably my most fun game of the day, against a fantastic opponent who went on to win favorite overall opponent. He got my vote. Visual highlights included his massive (60 strong) unit of spearmen, which take advantage of both the Horde rule in the new game, and the inherent rules for elves and spears, which meant most of his unit got to fight. One of the cooler exploits of a high-point game I saw. You an see it here, just as it was about to crash into my peasant bowmen - saved by the bell on that one. The knight unit in the picture was already gone.



Here you can see the situation on my right - the two hydras at the back had been killed, and my remaining knight lances were about to sweep across the table. It was actually a game where we both would have liked to see another turn or two, as things were very much still in the balance.



Last game, I massacred a high elf army in the Blood and Glory scenario. This one involves hunting banners (1 point each) and generals (2 points). I brought my opponent down to four points, while keeping a margin of nine, and met my secondary objective of keeping my general alive, while denying his (taking a banner). Bretonnian rules helped me here, as while he took a peasant banner, dirty peasants don't count. I think I played well this game, kept the scenario objectives in mind, and since I had more control over deployment, was able to plan, coordinate, and execute combined unit strikes with my knights. Which, when done well, hit like a train. Below you can see some lances about to shake off a unit of bowmen, and then finish off the units in the background, before swinging around to hit the spear unit in the right of the picture. That evenually was smashed by a combo of four lances.



Overall thoughts.

1) Brets are fantastic at focused violence - high armour and toughness aren't a huge issue. Where I struggled was against big units with lots of attacks. My O&G opponent just had too many blocks of high attack producing orcs on the table, and because we deployed so close due to scenario, I couldn't use my mobility to avoid / concentrate (which I did in the third game). Same problem against my second opponent, and his 60-odd, cauldron-buffed spear horde. Ordinarily I would drop rocks on it, but he was threatening with enough other killy stuff that I didn't have the option. I'm going to need to figure out how to deal with a threat saturating opponent.

2) Magic. I love it. I love the lore of life. I really love regrowth with Throne of Vines up, which allows me to reliably regenerate 2-3 knights. However, unlike every damn opponent I played, I don't seem to have access to multiple use items that grant power dice, extra spells, dispell bonuses, and general magic buffery. This means I only seem to get spells off on turns where a) I roll a crapload of power dice, and b), I generate a "boom" spell for my prophetess (like Dwellers Below, which can gut an entire unit), which prompts opponents to hold on to dice in order to dispell. I just don't have the tools to shut down opposing casting, or to force through my own. This makes me sad.

3) Trebuchet. God I love this thing. Hands-down MVP. Nuked at least two units per game, except in the second, where it was blade-winded to death in the first turn. Apparantly, my opponent was familiar with what they could do. Don't much care for this spell. Going to have to pick up another trebuchet soon.

4) Items that grant extra mobility - charge dice, movement, pursuit dice, are key for Brets. While our armour does give us lots of durability, it only takes one turn of bad dice (4 out of 6 ones on questing knights one turn - ouch!) to gut a unit. Widespread use of lances means we need the charge (one of the few armies in this edition for whom getting the charge remains critical), and if we do break the opposing unit, we must destroy in pursuit. Anything that mitigates the chance element here is huge.

5) Deployment is huge for Brets. There are things out there that I just haven't found the tools to deal with; see point one. I don't even know if we have the tools to deal with them. Other than trebs, how do we handle spammed high units with a high number of attacks? Winning for Brets seems to depend on being able to avoid those threats, and concentrate on ganking everything else in their army - to whit, my third game, where my opponent's swordmasters and white lions only saw combat with a unit of bowmen, while my treb and knights ganged up two or three to one against pheonix guard, spearmen, and bowmen. Scenarios where I have to put down my entire army first (first two games) are bad for Brets - if gives my opponent too much control over how the fight proceeds. Not sure what to do about this. Ordinarily, I'd look to use a tarpit unit (such as a deep Men at Arms unit or Grail Relique), but unless I can get that tarpit where it needs to go, it's a waste. I might try running some small units of mounted peasants. They're the cheapest option I have for quick speedbumps.

Overall, I had a really good time. Three good opponents, three fun games, learned lots, and improved each game. Looking forward to plenty more.

Last thing is a set of progress shots on the Brets. Some new knights to show.









FMB

Yeesh

Long time no post. Between getting a new job and moving to TO, I've had bery little time for either gaming or painting of late. As things settle down, however, I should be able to get back in the swing

Highlights of the last few weeks include a visit to the new location of the Dueling Grounds in TO. They continue to be one of the best stockists for Warmachine and FOW in the city, and in their new location, have a ton of gaming space. Only downside is all that gaming room is in the basement, and ventilation issues mean that one is faced with some serious gamer funk. I'm hoping things clear a bit as the weather cools, but we'll see.

I also trekked up Yonge St. to the new location of the Toronto GW store, and tbh, was pleasantly surprised. While there remains the contractually-mandated level of enthusiasm that marks most GW stores, the staff are solid, there's lots of tables, it's on street level, well-lit, and airconditioned. I was there yesterday for the kick off of their WFB 8th edition escalation league, got in three games against some extremely normal people, and generally had myself a good time.

The list I played was as follows:

10 KotR, musician, standard = 264
12 Knights Errant, musician, standard = 261 / 525
BSB: Paladin, enchanted shield, shrieking blade, Bwarhorse = 94 / 619
20 Peasant Bowmen, musician, standard, braziers = 140 / 759
General: Lvl 3 prophetess (life), warhorse, crown of command = 240 / 999

Lost my first game against a knight heavy Khorne WoC list, then won against orks and high elves. Bear in mind I'm only three games into 8th edition, but a couple of things jumped out at me.

1. Combat is very much a risk vs. reward dynamic. The new rule set provides incentive to bulk out one's units. It give more attacks, gives a better chance of decisive wins in combat, and makes one more resistant to leadership failure. The thing is, however, that means concentrating points into smaller numbers of unit. When a unit does go - breaks from combat, flees from a charge, etc., then the result is decisive. I won my second game when a unit of orks fled from my KotR charge, rolled high enough to run off the table, I sucessfully redirected into the flank of his other big unit, and reamed it. I won my third game when I beat his big unit of sword masters by one, he rolled just enough to break, and I ran him down, taking out his banner and general.

2. Scenario variation is huge. If you play the book scenarios, rather than line up and fight, it puts pressure on list design to bring in a wide range of army capabilities. I'm going to sit down with these and give them a closer look - there are elements I need to incorporate into my list designs.

3. Bretonnian knights are still viable - maybe not at the level of national tournaments, but locally, they do fine. They do need to be big, however. Lance formatin is a huge advantage, minimising the attacks that opponents can bring to bear. Charging for Brets is still critical, and the random element in charging means that any abilities or items that make chargin more reliable are at a premium for Bretonnians.

I'll post pics of what's been painted as soon as I unpack the camera ;)