High Elves in 8th Ed.

I'm not sure what the new format of games are going to be.  Everyone played 2250 in 7th Ed. and I think that the new format will be either 2k or 3k.  I'm leaning towards 2k because 25% percentages are pretty easy to figure out at this point level.  From what I've read so far, there must be 25% min core and probably 25% max rares and specials.  That leaves 25% for heroes or lords.  The good thing is that this will make things very balanced throughout Warhammer in general.  No more deathstars, lord and hero spam or other ridiculous cheese lists, but what does this mean for High Elves?  This means the death of Teclis and Star Dragon lists outside the 3k realm.  One of the biggest turn offs that I hear from people who play other wargames and not WHFB is that it takes too long to "get in it".  The fun doesn't start until 2k+ points and that means a lot of models, assembly and painting.  I don't know how I feel about this percentage stuff just to play your favorite looking models; such as a Prince on Star Dragon.

Percentages is perfectly fine with me.  The Star Dragon and Teclis lists were starting to get stale and I was getting tired of playing them competitively anyway.  What kind of hero setups we'll see instead?  I can see more of Korhil and Caradryan (these two were always awesome anyway), a mounted BSB carrying a Radiant Gem of Hoeth (battle wizard), or a normal mounted Prince with either Star Lance or carrying the White Sword on foot.  There's plenty of choices to go around and the fact that the current rumor says that wizards pick their spells instead of randomizing is pretty bad ass.  Why?  Because High Elf mages know all the lores in the game (in the BRB + High Magic) so they're extremely flexible in the realm of magic.  The only thing that sucks about magic in general is that spell casters are supposedly generating magic dice on rolls of 2d6.  I absolutely hate RNG.  It just doesn't make sense fluff wise how a scrub mage with a lucky roll of boxcars would ever outdo Teclis on a bad day.  Even if you add the wizard level to the 2d6, it still doesn't make sense this should ever happen.

Warhammer Fantasy 8th Edition

In case no one knew, I'm a big Warhammer Fantasy buff.  I own over 5k points of both High Elves and Dwarves (probably more Elves now).  The sad part is:  Both armies are sitting in the closet and haven't been played for months now.  The reason?  Warhammer just takes too long to play.  Recently, I've been taking a break from 40K to play Warmachine and the time and speed it takes to setup, play and cleanup is miles ahead of GW's games.  And this is just 40K.  Fantasy takes much more longer to play because the rules are more complicated, there's more models at 2250 (the norm point level) and there's generally just more phases in the game.

Don't get me wrong.. I've played GW for about 10 years now.  I've sat through all the ridiculous price hikes, the book imbalances and the neglection of certain armies, but I think it's time to try a new game.  Now that I'm in the land of Cygnar and Retribution, I've been looking back at my beards and non-beards sitting in the closet.  As most of you know, I'm a die-hard competitive player.  I own enough Elves to build most competitive combinations out there (Star Dragons, Teclis..etc) and Thorek Ironbrow is my best friend.  But 7th Ed. Fantasy just really put me off.  I played a lot at first because the guys at my old club loved it.. and I had fun for some time.  But once VC, DE and DoC gave me problems due to balance issues and not because of generalship, I started to get put off.  It's like any game that I've ever played, be it RTS or FPS.. once something gets too imba, I shy away from the game.  There's no point playing when the metagame turns stale and the battles get predetermined through bad matchups rather than player skill.

Then comes rumors of Fantasy 8th Edition.  I see some good rumors, I see some bad rumors and I see a ton of general BS floating around the webs.  I'm talking about threads on Whineseer, Dakka and other sites worth noting.  When something as game changing as 8th Ed. comes out, I think immediately of my armies and how they are effected while analyzing the current metagame and how it is being effected.  I'm looking at the big 3 right now:  VC, DE and DoC.  How does 8th Ed. solve these power-play armies?  How does it effect my High Elves?  How does it BUFF my Dwarves?  All of these things I have to keep in mind before I decide that 8th Ed. will respark my interest in playing Fantasy.

In the next couple of posts, I will go over my thoughts in a more indepth manner, but for now, this is all I got.

BR: 35pt Rahn vs. eVlad

So I played another game yesterday and this time it was against my friend's eVlad list.  Here are the two lists:

Points: 35

Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion (*5pts)

* Berserker (6pts)

* Berserker (6pts)

* Drago (8pts)

Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)

Man-o-war Demolition Corps (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)

Widowmaker Marksman (2pts)

Points: 35

Adeptis Rahn Shyeel (*6pts)

* Manticore (8pts)

* Phoenix (10pts)

Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)

* Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard (2pts)

House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)

Arcanist (1pts)

House Shyeel Magister (2pts)

House Shyeel Magister (2pts)

Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

The deployment was pretty standard.  I let him go first and he set up his army relatively close to eachother with Drago on this right side and everything on the left.  My deployment was basically a wall of infantry with my two 'jacks behind me.  The MHA advance deployed slightly further up from my infantry getting ready to head into terrain.

BR: 35pts Retribution vs. Protectorate

Before we begin, yes, I have a Retribution army.  I caved in, bought and assembled the army over the weekend.  My wife hates me a little.. but I promised her this is going to be my last big purchase in a long time!

Anyways, the game was 35pts, Retribution of Scryah vs. Protectorate.
It was Adeptis Rahn vs pFerora.

His list consisted for Ferora, max unit and full command of Errants, Templar 'jack, Vaquisher 'jack and the Avatar. Oh, and the standard Choir and a Vassal.

My list is as follows:

Points: 35
Adeptis Rahn Shyeel (*6pts)
* Manticore (8pts)
* Phoenix (10pts)
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
* Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard (2pts)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
House Shyeel Magister (2pts)
House Shyeel Magister (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

My favorite warcasters

Recently I've been playing with 3 main casters:  eHaley, Siege and eCaine.  I won't cover eCaine because I already did an article about him so I'll just focus on Haley and Siege.  The point range that the guys around here play is relatively low.  A lot of them play at 15 and 25 because they prefer faster games, but I think once they get more familiar with the unit rules and behaviors, 35 points will come rather naturally.  I mean after all, everyone on Vassal and on the forums say that 35 is the norm.  Not that I'm super pro at it already, but aside from all the different matchups and special abilities, the game mechanics is pretty easy to understand and get a hang of.

So let's analyze eHaley really quick.  The reason why I love her is because she's very mage-like in the way she plays.  She has amazing abilities and a amazing feat, but she has paper thin armor and very low armor.  Basically that means if she gets touched or shot at by anything worthwhile, she's going to die.  Here's what my current 35pt eHaley looks like:

Points: 35
Major Victoria Haley (*5pts)
* Thorn (8pts)
* Defender (9pts)
* Stormclad (10pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)

Currently playing SF4

With the help from some friends at work and the Shoryuken forums, I'm currently rocking some SF4 Super with my man Dudley.  I finally got my lazy ass a TE stick so I can practice at home on my friend's XBOX.

I've never really played fighting games (SF4 is the first game in the SF series that I've touched), but I was really tired of getting my ass kicked at work.  Being coined the term "free" as in "free points" is not something I'm going to settle for.  As a competitive player, this simply cannot happen.  Right now I'm still working on my execution and bread and butter combos, but I think I'm starting to get a hang on the basics.  Considering SF4 is the first fighting game I've touched since MvC2, I think I'm doing alright.  My biggest problem in this game right now is that I'm not patient enough with Dudley.  As a character with no real ranged attacks and a little under the slower side of the spectrum, he's a pretty difficult character to get started with in Street Fighter.  Don't get me wrong, Dudley is an amazing character and has tons of damage potential, but he's one of those guys who can really shine or straight up suck.

A big shoutout to my friends at work for coaching me on how to play.  Thanks to them, I am learning how to maximize damage while preventing damage; which is pretty much what SF is on a fundamental level.  One thing that irks me a little is how sometimes button smashing randoms can beat me in the game.  Against a very good player, this probably wont happen because he'll be patient, but I find myself running head first into these scrubs.  I need to work on that.

Well.. I'm finally off hardcore OT so I should be able to post more.  Stayed tuned for tomorrows post on Warmachine and Cygnar.  I've gotten quite a few games in and I'm eager to share my experiences with you guys!