End Times: New Bloodthirster model!

Here's what's coming to kill everyone.

Quick, everyone gang up on Chaos!

Tyrion is alive, Incarnate of Light?

Nagash, Elves, Humans, Dwarfs, everyone against Chaos..

The new Bloodthirster in all its glory.

Skaven: A more well-rounded list

So many rats, so many possibilities!

After exploring the prospect of fielding double Storm Fiends, I still feel that that particular configuration is not the better list.  If you think about all the weaknesses that Storm Fiends present, there's just too much risk in fielding two units of fatty gun rats.  What if someone brings a shooting dominated list and you're not playing the Storm Banner?  Chances are that you're going to get out-ranged, possibly out-gunned and that you'll have a bunch of dead fatties on the table before they even attempt to make their points back.  This is no good.  You never want to enter any kind of competitive environment where you're banking on your opponents not showing up with particular lists.  That's almost asking for trouble.

Enter the more balanced list:

2400 ETC

12 deploys

LORDS:
Grey Seer, Plague = 275
Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse, Gem
+Screaming Bell = 200

Grey Seer, Ruin = 320
Power Scroll, 4+ Ward

HEROES:
Chieftain, BSB = 124
Halberd, Shield, 4+ Ward Armor

Warlock Engineer = 45
Doomrocket

CORE:
46x Stormvermin, FC, Razor Standard = 392
50x Skaven Slaves, FC = 106
49x Skaven Slaves, FC = 104
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23

SPECIAL:
5x Gutter Runners, Poison, Slings = 90
5x Gutter Runners, Poison, Slings = 90

RARE:
3x Storm Fiends, Rattling Cannons = 255
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Doomwheel = 150

In this list, you basically take everything that's good about Skaven and stick it in one list.  All the characters minus the Doomrocket Caddy sits in the MR2 Stormvermin unit with the Razor Standard.  Depending on the matchup and what the map looks like, you either deploy tight with 5, 7 with 2 on each side, or a full horde with 10 across.  The objective here is that you have 2 Grey Seers slinging magic out from the Bell unit, ODing on Warp Tokens while you push up with Storm Fiends nearby the BSB.  This strongly compliments your already lethal magic phase since Skaven has some of the most brutal ranged magic spells.  I'm trying out the Power Scroll lately because I really want to capitalize on the power of magic so I can take full advantage of my double Grey Seers.  Everyone that matters has a 2++ ward save vs. magic attacks thanks to the Bell, and the 2x units of Gutter Runners will fend off any warmachines that stray too far from support.

The thing I like most about this list is having the 2x WLC and Doomwheel as support for the Storm Fiends.  There are a couple of things that Skaven fear more than anything else and one of them is big monsters and fatties getting into close combat.  If you haven't noticed by now, rats are not the best in close combat and the Skaven try their best to tie up good combat units with plebs while you blast them away with Rattling Cannons and Warp Lightning Cannons.  While the Stormvermin are pretty decent in close combat, Skaven prefer to win the dirty way.  As you can see, this list poses a stronger threat element against more list combinations than just double Storm Fiends.  The WLC gives you confidence that you can destroy clumped up infantry, counter-battery when needed, and provides you with a long-ranged answer to advancing monsters.  Of course, things typically goes to shit if a dragon manages to reach your lines, but that's why you have the Doomwheel to assist in such times.  When things get hairy, send in a spinning rat wheel powered by warp lightning.

Skaven: Storm Fiends and ETC Draft 2.5

Shoot everything that ever lived.

Well, it looks like ETC put some pretty sizable restrictions on Storm Fiends as predicted.  They were a little bonkers against certain list archetypes, but they were not without weakness.  You can find the latest copy of ETC Draft 2.5 here.

Here are my observations:

• They utterly changed the metagame because of their high impact ranged offensive ability.  A unit of 3 puts out 9D6 S5 AP magical shots that re-roll wounds and ignores almost all shooting penalties minus cover.
• They are fragile, and Ld.7 is death magic bait.
• Suffer vs. armies with superior shooting elements: WE, DE, HE, Empire, Dwarves, even Ogres with Leadbelchers. With 18" range and 24" threat total can be counter-deployed by longer shooting elements.
• Suffer vs. light councils, any army with magic missiles, Warlocks will draw dice every time and they cost less than half the points.
• They will do very well vs. knight-heavy armies with minimal shooting, to a point where if you roll well, you will earn at least 2x their points back if played well.
• They can do very poorly vs. armies that have more shooting elements than the Skaven player and thus, are a complete waste of points. A direct comparison can be made with the Abomination, which costs about the same points as 3x Rattling Cannons. In those cases, the Skaven player would rather have the Abom since it can absorb more damage.

Case in point -
Regular Skaven configurations in the Rare slot in ETC, all of which I have played so far:

• Abom, 2x WLC, Doomwheel
• 2x Doomwheel, 2x WLC
• 3x Storm Fiends, 2x WLC, Doomwheel
• Abom, 4x Storm Fiends

Look at what you give for Storm Fiends: The Abomination for its durability and power to kill entire units by itself while not being vulnerable vs. shooting, including cannons (bar the flaming ones). If you take the Abom and Storm Fiends configuration, you give up the ability counter-battery or heavily damage elite units because of the lack of WLC. You also miss out on the Doomwheel, so you lose the ability to deal with monsters that hit close combat.

To sum up Storm Fiends; they are fragile, they are hit and miss, literally, from their 3D6 shot variations to their effect in game vs. different comps. Killing one drops the power of the unit by a third, whereas something like the Ironblaster, Skullcannon, or Organ Gun maintains its power, lethality and ingame effect regardless of power inflicted onto the unit. They are also Rare so if Skaven players must sacrifice other powerful elements in their army to use Storm Fiends.

I can remember these of the top of my head:
2 Games vs. HE
3 Games vs. DE
1 Game vs. WE
4 Games vs. Empire
2 Games vs. Ogres
2 Games vs. Dwarfs
1 Game vs. VC
2 Games vs. WoC

Storm Fiends with Rattling Cannons did major work vs. 2 Empire lists with minimal shooting and knight buses, 2 games vs. Ogres because of 1 Ironblaster and 1 tiny unit of Leadbelchers, absolutely mauled a VC list because he has no shooting and my WLC destroyed the lone Terrorgheist, did serious work against the WoC because of limited shooting. They suffered vs. a light council Empire list and another with knights and heavy shooting, suffer horrendously vs. the Dwarfs because of 30" Organ Guns and super accurate cannons, and suffer vs. 35+ Archer, RBT HE lists with Shadow book, DE was just a pain to play against, possibly even more than WE.

Overall, the Rattling Fiends have some very swingy effects on the metagame.  They can either completely wreck unprepared armies or those with small shooting elements, or they can be utterly destroyed by the right kind of list composition.  This, is a problem in itself because it causes too much polarity in game balance.  No balanced army should show up to an event and just feel like Storm Fiends are uncounterable by their army.  I feel that Vampire Counts eats shit the most from the new gun rats.

With that said, let's explore the latest comp on these guys:

• Each Stormfiend in a unit after the first model 1 pool choice

This basically means that a unit of 3x will cost the army 2 points out of the 5 total that you can take.  I think in its current form, this is pretty fair as you are now locked out of the Storm Banner or other tricks if you take these guys.  This makes shooting armies that much better vs. the Storm Fiends because you can no longer pop banner on their turn after you get a round of successful shooting.  Of course, you can still take 2x units of 3x Rattling Fiends and the Storm Banner if you so choose, but only if you take nothing else.  So what does this mean?  This means that we should test just how truly these Storm Fiends are impacting the meta.  Are they absolutely destroying everything you face?

I want to try double Grey Seer for all the nonsense that you can throw out with enough Warp Tokens.  Essentially everyone important has a 2++ ward vs. magic and the double unit of Rattling Fiends will put down enough lead down field that your opponents' army will either fold, or do have the right elements to fight against it.  Jam up whatever you can with Skaven Slaves and continue to mow down your opponents' stuff while Gutter Runners takes out any warmachines.  The single WLC keeps fatties honest and the rest of the list speaks/shoots for itself.

Games and XCOM vision

Get ready for a deep article.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of game-related soul searching on how I view games in general.  For the most part, I play games to have fun.  A lot of old friends ask me if that's really the case because most of them don't believe me when I say I play to have fun in the game.  Why?  Because my definition of fun can be very different from theirs'.

For me, I have the most fun when I can maximize the effectiveness of whatever I'm playing and defeat my opponents with better use of strategy and tactics.  When it comes to looking at my personality, I am a Spike first and foremost, but I also relate primarily to the Tuner subgroup of this particular gamer archetype.  You probably won't find me as particular innovative, or the type of person to come up with "HERO's Winning Combo" or whatever, but you will find articles on this blog dealing with how to maximize your army for a particular purpose or ideal.

Before I even get to enter the strategy or tactical portion of the games I'm involved in, I try my best to maximize my chances of winning through list design.  In MTG, I look at mana curves, CMC, speed through playtests, and the quickest way to win through a certain combo.  In Warhammer, I maximize the chances that I can win with my list and I do that through numbers, different unit choices and effective bucket lists.  Most of you will believe me when I say that if I was to take a percentage of total time spent on Warhammer, it would be 70% list building, 20% playing and 10% putting new models together.  When there's nothing to put together, I still maintain a 70-30 ratio of army design to actually playing the game.  Does this seem crazy to anyone?  It shouldn't, especially if you're a competitive gamer before anything else because you understand just how important theorycrafting is.

Over the years, I've calmed down a fair bit when I'm playing my Warhammer.  The game has become a little more wild and there's generally a lot more craziness going on at any given time.  I used to take the units that are the strongest in the game, but for the last 6 years or so since I started this blog, I've been taking what I enjoy fielding.  This can be anything from fielding more models that are aesthetically pleasing to me, units that fit my particular playstyle or units that match my particular strategy.  That's why you see half-mech Mech BA, full Mech Space Wolves with Predator tanks, lance-heavy pure DE Kabal, Pure Grey Knights, Elite Imperial Interceptors, and now the Two Towers Skaven.  Once I latch onto an idea, I work as hard as I can to make it work to the best of my ability.  Sure, I dab into mixing other competitive options in to maintain variety or to maximize my chances at winning (e.g. splashing Eldar into Dark Eldar), but I get the greatest satisfaction in winning with something that I find thematically appealing.

After I maximize my lists, I put it on the battlefield.  Now, I don't know about most of you guys, but I figure the guys that enjoy reading my blog are gamers first and foremost.  I mean, all the shit I write are about list building, strategy and tactics, and you know by now that I haven't painted in god knows how long.  The reason for that is quite simple:  The time I could be painting can be better spent on maximizing my army lists and playing more games!  I really enjoy playing the game more than anything else, and that's the god honest truth.

When I do play the game, I look at the game in what I like to call, XCOM vision.  Let's just take a game of Warhammer for example, or even X-Wing.  The game is pretty much made out of numbers disguised over heaps of gorgeous plastic models.  When I look on the battlefield, I don't really think about the fantasy of the game I'm actually playing in the present.  What I mean by this is that I'm not actively forming a story behind the game that I'm playing, I do all that stuff in hindsight after the dice has been rolled and the game is over.  When I'm actually playing the game, I'm looking at percentages of me winning combat, the percentage of the enemy unit still being there and me overrunning, what's the chance to miscast on the next spell, and a thousand and one scenarios how my opponent will react if I choose option A, B, C, D..etc.  That is what my mind is doing when I'm playing the game and if you guys have played XCOM before, the game is basically a string of decisions presented by percentages that you, the player has to deal with based on how you maneuver.  A friend asked me once when I was playing eCaine why I am always moving around the table, measuring my control, looking at 30 different units, while constantly squinting my eyes and scratching my head.  I just told him that out of the 17 different assassination vectors I thought about, this is the best one.

I find that this style of playing the game to be a double-edged sword.  After all, am I really enjoying a game if I'm looking at the game like a complicated math problem with a thousand different answers?  The answer is yes, for me at least.  I just enjoy this kind of play because that's how my mind becomes challenged, and I need it to be challenged when I'm playing a game.  Unfortunately, this is very rare among table-top gamers and one of the reasons why I get frequently mismatched.

Harlequins are here!

Looks pretty sexy!

Check it out guys.  What do you think?  Worth picking for an Dark Eldar army?

Fancy!  You can find more here.

Skaven: Different list variations

Killing everybody.. yes, yes..

Having played a ton of games with my Skaven on UB so far, I've decided to try a few more list variations.  There's three of them..

Real quick, let's talk about list design in general.  Keep in mind that all of my lists have been designed with ETC Draft 2 in mind.  That's the new hotness where I play and the majority of players on UB are rocking that.  You can find a link to the ETC restrictions in some of my previous posts, and I really suggest you guys give this new version a go.  I was really hating on ETC a couple of years ago because the comp was much harder than I like, but now ETC is considered by most to be light comp with a few tweaks.  This is really good for players like me who likes minimal change to the game while preventing the most heinous power builds from occurring.  The 5 dice cap and LoS on killer death spells is also a blessing.

If you guys are reading this on the East Coast, get ready because ETC will be the main ruleset for majors over there.  Now, let's go over the lists that I've been tinkering with, check it out.

The Two Towers
2399 ETC
11 deploys

LORDS:
Grey Seer = 265
Lore of Ruin
Earthing Rod
+Screaming Bell = 200

HEROES:
Chieftain BSB = 82
Halberd, CShield, Ironcurse

Lv.1 Plague Priest = 129
Flail, Scroll
+Plague Furnace = 150

Warlock Engineer = 45
Doomrocket

CORE:
45x Stormvermin, FC, Storm Banner = 390
50x Skaven Slaves, FC = 106
49x Skaven Slaves, FC = 104
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23

SPECIAL:
32x Plague Monks, FC, Plague Banner = 279

RARE:
1x Hell Pit Abomination, Spikes = 250
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Doomwheel = 150

A few points tweaks here and there, but you'll see mostly good stuff on the lords/heroes selection.  The BSB is a little fragile in there for someone who's going to be on the front lines, but since the entire unit is Unbreakable I'm not all that concerned.  Yes, swinging at the Grey Seer is troublesome and yes, having two giant blocks of infantry will limit my deployment options, but so far I've been very successful vs. the Dwarfs, WoC, Empire and HE lists I've played against.  I don't think most of my opponents faced something like this in a long time and I'm happy to show them that old lists can still work.  The Plague Monks are especially effective against anything Elves once they hit combat, and they absolutely tear up things like BotWD blocks, Halberdiers, and even armor if I force enough wounds.  Even if you stay in there with heavy armor and S3 bounces off you, I don't care either because I'm Unbreakable and my Furnace will be denying combat res and dropping smack in your face every turn while forcing Toughness tests all day.

Rat Storm
2400 ETC
12 deploys

LORDS:
Grey Seer, Ruin = 275
Power Scroll
+Screaming Bell = 200

HEROES:
Chieftain BSB = 122
Halberd, 4+ Ward, Charmed Shield

Lv.1 Plague Priest = 129
Flail, Scroll

Warlock Engineer = 45
Doomrocket

CORE:
45x Stormvermin, FC, Storm Banner = 390
50x Skaven Slaves, FC = 106
50x Skaven Slaves, FC = 106
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23

SPECIAL:
29x Plague Monks, FC, Plague Banner = 258
5x Gutter Runners, Slings, Poison = 90
5x Gutter Runners, Slings, Poison = 90

RARE:
4x Storm Fiends, Rattling Guns = 340
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90

You can either set these Storm Fiends up in 2x2 or 4x1, it doesn't really matter.  You just walk these guys forward and let loose with 12D6 worth of S5 AP magical shots that ignores everything but cover.  Against some lists, they can be utterly fucking ridiculous since it outright murders knight-heavy Empire lists, most VC lists, and mostly any lists that doesn't shoot back or have weaker shooting elements.  They suffer against heavy-shooting armies from Elves and light councils in general, but otherwise they're horrible to deal with if your opponent knows what he's doing.  I'm missing out on the Abomination and Doomwheel in this list, but that's fine as long as I can pour enough hot lead into my opponents to make their points back.  If you think about it, if I eliminate all their shooting options and chaff, the Storm Fiends will walk around, utterly unopposed and kill everything on the board with their shooting.

Now that you guys see the lists, here's some brain cake to think about.  Skaven, being one of the older books, still sports some of the nastiest stuff out there  The biggest boon that Skaven has is their don't care attitude toward elite, heavy armor style armies.  If you're running a knight bus, you might as well pull it from the table when fighting most Skaven lists.  I know for a fact my current VC list will most likely auto-lose to my Skaven because I just have no way of dealing with their damage output from range.  Storm Banner is a luxury and it will seriously hamper armies that rely on ranged shooting, and if I don't need it, I don't need to use it.  In my Two Towers list, a Storm Banner is a huge boon since it can keep my hammer units alive until I reach combat.  In my Rattling Fiend list however, they are less useful because it also impacts my shooting.

Another really ridiculous thing about the new Storm Fiends is that they add another dimension of power and confusion for your opponents.  During list construction, do they build to fight something like the Abom, Wheel and 2x WLC configuration or do they anticipate facing the 4x Rattling Fiends?  What about 2x units of Rattling Fiends or a unit with Grinder Fist?  Do they anticipate the Gutter Runners which is generally weaker vs. heavy armor lists with minimal shooting, but can they risk drawing a Skaven running max shooting?  How will armies that rely on breaking enemies and minimal attrition handle 2 huge Unbreakable blocks that can potentially ignore armor saves?  What if I have that Assassin with Weeping Blade and Potion of Strength?  The only thing that's really apparent to me now since the release of the Storm Fiends is how much they're going to change how people view Skaven.  If they were Special like some people suggest, they would be utterly broken.

I suspect that we might see a +1 restriction for Storm Fiends and maybe even more if I take the Grinder Fist on one of them.  Having them come up on the backfield of my opponents and blast away his stuff after charging a WM is kinda ridiculous.  Regardless, if ETC comps them, I can just swap out the Storm Banner with Razor Standard and call it a day.

WHFB: It's official, I'm restarting Skaven

The feeling when WLC scores a direct hit..

I owned the army a few years back and I've had a lot of fun with it.  As times changed and I wanted to play something else, I eventually sold off the army and forgot about it.  Thankfully, a couple of weeks ago, I was digging through the garage and found a bunch of stuff left.  Lo and behold, The End Times are upon us now and I'm getting the urge to play the army again.  I seeked out some of my contacts and immediately re-purchased the elements I need, so if anyone has some leftover IoB rats that they're not assembling, let me know!

Here is what my current army looks like under the 2400 ETC format:

2399 ETC
11 deploys

LORDS:
Grey Seer = 265
Lore of Ruin
Dispel Scroll
+Screaming Bell = 200

HEROES:
Chieftain BSB = 74
Shield, Halberd

Lv.1 Plague Priest = 116
Plague Censer
+Plague Furnace = 150

Warlock Engineer = 45
Doomrocket

CORE:
45x Stormvermin, FC, Storm Banner = 390
50x Skaven Slaves, FC = 106
49x Skaven Slaves, FC = 104
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23
1x Giant Rat Pack = 23

SPECIAL:
35x Plague Monks, FC, Plague Banner = 300

RARE:
1x Hell Pit Abomination, Spikes = 250
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
1x Doomwheel = 150

If some of you remember, this is my Two Towers list and is a pretty old school army.  I maximize on what I view to be the best units in the book while keeping everything under restrictions.  No Gutter Runners are in this list so it's susceptible to enemy WM shooting, but the combat blocks are rock solid and the rare choices are maxed for dealing death.

At 2500 points and in unrestricted WHFB, that's when I add a few more nasty toys like Brass Orb and Death Globe, but for now, this is looking pretty good.  I've had a few games with this list on UB and I've been doing quite well with it.