A change of pace - Dwarfs

Everyone knows that I play High Elves.. but did you know I also play Dwarfs?  Yah.. I have a bunch of the beards in the closet and haven't played with them for a long time.  So without further ado, I give you my 2500 Dwarf list.

2477
Dwarves

LORDS:
Lord (SB, GW, RoStone, RoResistance, MRoSteel, MRoChallenge) = 281

HEROES:
Thane (BSB, MRoGromil, RoResistance, RoPreservation) = 155
Runesmith (Shield, GW, MRoBalance, RoSpellbreaking) = 151

CORE:
30x Warriors (FC, Shields, GW) = 355
25x Longbeards (FC, MRoGrungi, Shields, Great Weapons) = 425

SPECIAL:
30x Hammerers (FC, RoBattle, Shields) = 445
Grudge Thrower (2x RoPenetration, RoAccuracy) = 155
Cannon (RoForging, RoBurning) = 130

RARE:
Organ Gun = 120
Organ Gun = 120
Gyrocopter = 140

BR: 2500 High Elves vs. Dwarfs

The mission: Breakpoint, He wins the roll to go first.
I rolled for and got Mystifying Miasma, Withering Hex, Pit of Shades and Okkam's Mindrazor.

My army list:

2493

LORDS:
Lv.4 Archmage (Book of Hoeth) = 360
Noble (BSB, GW, AoC/GP) = 168
Korhil = 140

CORE:
30x Spears (FC, War Banner) = 320
25x LSG (FC) = 350

SPECIAL:
25x Phoenix Guard (FC, Banner of Sorcery) = 455
25x White Lions (FC, Banner of Eternal Flame) = 415
12x Sword Masters (Musician) = 185

RARE:
2x Great Eagles = 100


His army list:
Dwarf Lord
Great Weapon, Shieldbearers
RoStone, MRoSteel, MRoSpite, RoPreservation

Thane BSB, RoFury, RoCleaving
Runesmith, Great Weapon, MRoBalance, Scroll
Dragonslayer

Large unit of Warriors (FC)
Large unit of Longbeards (FC)
Large unit of Ironbreakers (FC)
Smaller unit of Warriors w/ Great Weapons
Small unit of Thunderers
Small unit of Quallerers
Grudge Thrower w/ 2x RoPenetration (S5), RoAccuracy, Engineer
Cannon w/ RoForging w/ Engineer
Organ Gun

Tactica: High Elves vs. Dark Elves

Dark Elves Army Analysis

Strengths:

• Fast, mobile troops, just like every Elven army
• Powerful magic users that can take potent magic lores
• Powerful Dragons and the dreaded Hydra
• Great selection of competitively priced and diverse units
• Some lists can offer a sick amount of shooting
• Powerful and unique magic items that can fill many roles
• They hate High Elves so much they re-roll hits always

Weaknesses:

• T3, 5+ save just like most Elves
• Ring of Hotek now only effects casters within 12" of it
• High Elves have a much better time in combat with DE thanks to ASF and re-rolls to hit at equal or greater Initiative.

BR: 2K Blood Angels vs. Tau

Today, I played my first game of 40K in months.  I finally decided to get my damn Blood Angels on the table and they played against my friend JR's Tau.  We played a Battle Mission game and there was 3 objectives 12" apart from eachother spread out on the map.  The first marker was placed in the middle, I placed the 2nd 12" directly to the left of that and the third one he placed by his deployment zone.

My army list looked like this:

Mephiston
10x ASM (PF/Infernus, 2x Meltaguns)
10x ASM (PF/Infernus, 2x Meltaguns)
5x ASM (RB TLAC, PW, Meltagun)
5x ASM (RB TLAC, PW, Meltagun)
Corbulo
Sanguinary Priest
3x Baal Predators (TLAC/HB)
2x Vindicators (DB)

His army had:

HQ Suit with BS5 and Missile Pods
3x 3x suits with Plasma/Missiles
2x units of Kroot
2x units of Fire Warriors in Devilfish
2x 2x Broadsides
1x Hammerhead with Railgun
2x 2x Piranhas with Fusion

He rolled for first and deployed.

Tactica: High Elves vs. Dwarfs

Dwarf Army Analysis

Strengths:

• T4, high armor values, Ld.9 across the board
• Powerful runic combinations on lords and heroes
• Strong anti-magic mechanics and lots of dispel dice
• Accurate and powerful shooting in both units and artillery
• Durable, reliable troops that will hold in combat when needed

Weaknesses:

• Slow, easily outmaneuvered
• Can be outnumbered (although not by High Elves)
• Reliant on shooting to be most effective

Island of Blood High Elves pics!

Got some pics off of Warseer, BoLS and Dakka.  These look quite amazing!  Oh, and if you're a rat lover, go here.  Click on the pictures to get a larger view.

Army specific strategy guides

I'm going to be staring my High Elves vs. X army tacticas sometime soon.  That's going to be a pretty big project that it'll probably take a long time to finish because there's 15 armies total (including the mirror match).  I'll also probably have to update it like crazy since the metagame in 8th Ed. will be constantly changing and new power builds will arise.

With that said, I need your help.  Which armies would you like to see me write about to get started (pick top 5)?  These guides will be competitive and thus will include the most optimal choices to maximize our win chances.  If you don't like it, too bad.  The entire purpose of strategy guides is to help others claim victory.

New 8th Ed. Army Predictions

I think most of you have read the article I posted over at BoLS some time ago detailing army tier predictions for 8th Ed.  If you guys missed it, here's the link.  Keep in mind that that particular article was written maybe a week or two before the FAQs were released.

Today's short blurb will be my predictions on what the army tiers are going to look like now that we have the FAQs and people have started playing games already.  Before I go any further, I'm going to use a different way to represent the tiers since there's no definitive tiers yet (lacking actual stats).

Here are the armies that stand out a good amount above the others:

Warriors of Chaos

The Empire

Skaven
Dwarfs

Special Characters in 8th Ed

To take them or not to take them.. that is the question.  The RTS player in my head screams an overwhelming YES!  In this post, I'll highlight the three SCs I take the most and why I take them.

Korhil
Ld. 9 Stubborn, Immune to Poison, Woodsman.
WS6, I7, 4 attacks with S6 Killing Blow and ASF.

Korhil is a challenge monster and his high WS, ASF and Killing Blow will leave most characters headless on the ground before they get the swing.  He has really crappy 4+ armor, so he's really a glass cannon that adds a nice Ld.9 Stubborn onto whatever unit that he's in.  Woodsman, sadly, is wasted when he joins a unit of Phoenix Guard, but that's just the price you pay for someone like him.  At 140 points, he's one of the biggest steals in the game and can really deter enemy characters from assaulting the unit that he's in.  Put him on a corner of a unit to minimize the amount of attacks he'll be taking back and challenge every chance you get.  Challenge puts him out of combat, can score you a +4 overkill (or kill the enemy hero/lord), while maintaining his awesome Stubborn in effect.  The strength of this character is that he's designed to be in a challenge.  If you're not doing that, you're doing it wrong.

What's wrong with this picture?

*Note that the Steam Tank only inflicts D3 Impact Hits rather
than D6 like other chariots (This will combine with the D3
Impact Hits per SP listed below).

Equipment
The Steam Tank is armed with a main cannon in the hull and a
steam gun in the turret. The Engineer Commander is armed
with a repeater pistol (see page 47).

Special Rules
Impact Hits (D3 per SP), Large Target, Terror, Unbreakable,
Steam Points (see page 51)

Page 51 – Steam Tank, Movement phase
Change to “Each SP allows you to move the Steam Tank 3".
To charge with a Steam Tank, first declare the charge as
normal, and then specify how many SP you are using to charge
with. The charge range of the Steam Tank is equal to 3" per SP
that is spent. In addition, each SP spent on the charge adds D3
to the number of Impact Hits inflicted by the Steam Tank in
the Close Combat phase. Note that you do not add the roll of
2D6 to the charge range when a Steam Tank charges, and that
the target unit may make a charge reaction as normal.”

High Elves in 8th - FAQ Review

You can find the FAQ on this page:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=1000018&pIndex=1&aId=3000006&start=2

Let's go over the big ones really quick (my comments in bold blue):

Q. The Speed of Asuryan special rule states that “all High Elves
have the special rule Always Strike First, regardless of the weapon
they are wielding.” How does this interact with a great weapons
Always Strike Last? (p43)
A. The army book will take precedence in this situation. For
example, a Sword Master would strike first with his great
weapon. If his Initiative value is equal to or higher than his
opponent’s, he will also benefit from a re-roll to hit.

Enough said.

Page 89 – Choosing an Army
Add “Elite Army
The High Elves are few in numbers, but their armies are
trained and equipped to standards so high that they are the
envy of all other races. To represent this, they have no limit to
the Duplicate Choices of their Special and Rare troops.”

The few, the proud, the elite.

Page 58 – White Lions, Special Rules
Add “Forest Strider”. Ignore the Woodsman special rule.

Yes, White Lions and Korhil now have the Forest Strider rule.  This means they can pass through terrain without harm or any other weirdness.

High Elves in 8th - Tactics

Fellow Princes, we are less than one week away from 8th Edition and there is still a lot to cover.  In this blog post, I will talk about the different tactics we'll use to maximize our army's potential.  I will also cover some units that are not featured in today's list and how we'll use them.

First, the list:

2478

LORDS:
Teclis = 475
Lore of Shadow

HEROES:
Noble (BSB, GW, AoC, GP) = 168
Caradryan = 175

CORE:
20x Spears (FC, War Banner) = 225
20x Spears (FC) = 205
20x Spears (FC) = 205

SPECIAL:
20x Phoenix Guard (FC, Banner of Sorcery) = 380
20x White Lions (FC, Banner of Eternal Flame) = 340
8x Dragon Princes (FC, Banner of Ellyrion) = 305

Before we dig into the list, let me tell you about this dilemma that I have:

What do I take for my core choices?  Right now, I have the following choices at 2500 points:  The choice I have listed above; 60 spears total broken up into 3 units of 20 with Full Command.  My second option is the 30x LSG unit with Banner of Eternal Flame and another unit of 20x Spears in Full Command.  The bonus of the first is that I have 3 units top play with instead of 2.  Body count is 10 higher and each spear unit is fighting in 5x4 formation and have a lot of attacks going back against the enemy.  The advantage of the LSG combat formation is that they have bows that can shoot from 24" away and do a decent amount of damage.  They only have 10 less guys than the Spear regiment, but each LSG is 13 points and each dead is very costly to my army.  Personally, I think the 3 units of Spears are the way to do it.  More bodies means more combat efficiency and more units gives my opponents more to shoot at than just 2.

8th Ed. First Impressions

So I finally got in some games today with Warhammer Fantasy 8th Edition.  I played against a good friend of mine and he played as Tomb Kings.  First, I would like to say that he's an excellent Tomb Kings player that really knows his stuff.  I really wanted to see how 8th Ed. will treat HE, DE and TK, so I brought both my Dwarven and High Elf army to test the waters.

Now I know most of you think Tomb Kings is pretty borked this edition.. and this might be true unless their magic phase works like this:

They still generate PD and DD during their magic phases.
Their normal Priests have a +2 to dispel and their High Priests have +4.
Their incantations work exactly the same as their army book suggests it does.

That's what we played today and we had a hell of a good time.  Keep in mind that the FAQ should be coming out in the next couple of days and we're really hoping for them to rule in this direction.  By using the above and not the +PD on every bound cast, Tomb Kings played very true to their 7th Ed. playstyle.  You had to carefully choose which incantations to let slide and which ones to dispel.  Even though my High Elves had a +5 to dispel on Teclis, he was sweating at every attempt to dispel because a single roll of 1 or 2 could mean that he stops entirely.  Imagine failing to dispel Smiting on one of his Screaming Skulls and for him to cast Urgency on a big units of Chariots that goes smacking into the side of your spears.  Yeah.. that's the way Tomb Kings should play, and they're a damn good army when played right.