Army Comparison: Warriors of Chaos vs. Daemons of Chaos

Battlereporter

This Fantasy Battles Army Comparison pits the forces of the Chaos Gods against each other in a battle royale.  Each of these armies fared rather well in 7^th Edition, where Daemons were widely considered one of the top tier armies.  In 8^th the Daemons have fallen from the top of the pedestal but are still considered quite strong.  The Warriors have had a rougher transition to 8^th Edition, as the units that were considered powerful or weak respectively are almost completely reversed.  This change took a while for players to understand, but it appears that Warriors of Chaos are also quite competitive.

Army Comparison: Brettonia vs. Wood Elves

Nikephoros here.  You wanted it, you got it: by popular request we have a comparison between two of the Warhammer Fantasy 8^th Edition whipping boys going toe to toe in the pillow fight of the year.  Do the heavily armored knights have what it takes, or do the Athel Loren All Stars crush them under the weight of their tree branches?  Let’s see.

Warhammer Fantasy Deployment Tactics Part 3

Hello again, Nikephoros here with more Fantasy deployment fun.  The final installment in this series is a deployment method that is used primarily with shooty armies with a large amount of war machines.  A tradition straight across the board deployment for a gunline/shooty is begging to be smashed by the Strong Flank deployment, so clearly there has to be a better way.  This deployment method, like the others I've detailed utilizes fast cavalry with vanguard moves to create the tactical situations it needs for success.  Guess what that means for Dwarves?  

The best army to use with this particular deployment is Empire, because they have the shooting, decent close combat counter charge units, and excellent Pistoliers to conduct the fast cavalry operation.  But it's practical with almost any shooty army besides Dwarves.

Warhammer Fantasy Deployment Tactics Part 2

Dakka

Hello, Nikephoros here.  In part one, I talked about a fairly basic deployment strategy, the Strong Center.  That deployment is fairly strong when you have powerful infantry units that can dominate in close combat and usually a magic bunker backing them up.

This article will be about a deployment near and dear to my heart, the Strong Flank.  As you might guess, this is a deployment where you stick your money combat units all crammed into one flank.  The goal is to quickly overwhelm one of your opponent's flanks with the full force of your army and destroy his army in detail.

Warhammer Fantasy Deployment Tactics Part 1

Dakka

Hey all, Nikephoros here.  I thought I would do a post about some basic Fantasy deployment tactics and strategies.  I originally posted these articles on my blog about two years ago, so I updated them a bit and thought they would be useful here.

Fantasy deployment is great, because of alternating unit deployment.  Each unit you deploy sends a message to your opponent about what your strategy will be.  The key, you'll see, is often times sending messages to your opponent that aren't correct, to trick them into making poor deployment choices.  It is a chance to game your opponent, and you ought to take advantage of it.

The Awesomeness of Being Totally Wrong

Hello, Nikephoros here with an editorial about critical thinking.  

I love, and I mean I absolutely love, when I am proven wrong about something in a competitive game.  Most people would think the opposite; that I would always want to be right, and get the validation of everyone telling me how right I am.  Maybe some folks do prefer that.  Personally, I love when I’m wrong about a conclusion. 

Why?  Simple really.  Let’s say I think a Unit A is great and Unit B sucks.  I play with A, and I win a lot simply because I’m a pretty good player.  Then one day I try using Unit B on a lark.  And I find out that not only does Unit B not suck, it is infinitely better than Unit A!  That’s the best feeling ever.  It’s akin to being one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, then having a coach ask you to change one small thing and after you do, you become an even better quarterback. 

40k Theory: Picking a Line Part II

Hello all, Nikephoros here to give you the long awaited (only long awaited because I was too lazy to write it quickly) second installment of this series.  

In part one I discussed how to evaluate the midgame game-state to determine game play line to take in order to get to the desired end game.  As an aside, that is a lot of uses of the word ‘game’ in one sentence.  As some commentators pointed out, the end game should ALWAYS be on your mind, but it was also astutely observed that you can’t change your plan every turn as the result of a couple of bad rolls that will inevitably occur. 

40k Theory: Picking a Line Part I

Hello all, Nikephoros back again.  The theorycraft will be heavy in this one, and it will be wordy, but hopefully you find it worthwhile.

In every game where skill usually (but not always!) beats luck, there comes a point in close matches where each player has to begin thinking about the end game.  In Warhammer 40k, and to an even greater extent Warhammer Fantasy, your opening moves are fairly rote; your deployment and opening turn or two tend to follow a fairly regular script.  At some point, however, the chaos of a closely fought battle will throw whatever your initial plans were into vapor.

New Empire up for Advance Order

Finally. Old news for most as these pictures have been circulating around the Interwebs for over a week now.

Games Workshop has put up the new Empire range on their website for advance order. For the most part it seems a lot of old metals have been re-done as finecast (yay?) with the main releases being characters and big beastie things rather than new unit sculpts. Here are the new things below and everything else can be seen on the Games Workshop advance order page.

Netlists and You

Something I've noticed a lot on the Internet is the disparaging remarks 'net-lists' get and specifically anyone who uses them is just being a douche-bag who wants to win no matter what. Whilst this of course is the crux of the ridiculus "how you should have fun" argument, something which is often lost is what the real purpose of most net-lists are and that's the optimisation of a list concept. This is where spamming and "how you should have fun" comes into things with lists such as RazorMarines, triple Fire Dragons/Long Fangs/Dreadnoughts/Ravagers/etc, Venom Spam, Immolator Spam, etc. etc. come into play. These lists are designed, generally, to be the most mathematically potent lists. This means, in theory, the list is good and it's maximised for potential on the tabletop to be able to give the controlling player the best chance at winning games against equally skilled opponents with good army lists.

Armies in 8th: Dark Elves Part Four: Lords and Heroes

CMON

Hello, Nikephoros here for the final installment of the Dark Elves in 8^th review.  This section will cover the Lords and Heroes for the DE, who have some pretty great options and builds.  Few army books have characters who are worth their points, so it’s definitely nice that the Dark Elf characters can pull their weight.   As always, I skip over the named characters because I don’t find them interesting and they are usually non-competitive.  There are occasionally some exceptions though, so be prepared…

Armies in 8th: Dark Elves Part Three: The Cavalry

Wizbangs

Despite the title, not every unit in this review will be cavalry.  I only titled it as such because the previous article was titled ‘The Infantry’ and this is everything else.  Titling it ‘The Not-Infantry’ might have been somewhat trite.  One of the things that make the Dark Elves unique is the oddball units that are scattered through the armybook.  It gives them a non-traditional aesthetic that is quite appealing.  Even better, many of the units are aggressively costed and help make the book quite competitive on the table top. 

Email In: Thinking About WHFB

Timff writes,

"Hello Kirby 

I've been combing through the internets, and have thus-far broken down what I think you need to run a good Fantasy list.

1. General with decent Leadership, and/or a BSB.

2. Wizards that can affect the battlefield in a manner that assists your army. If that's ranged firepower, great. If it's swinging melee in your favor, that's fine too, so long as it fits your army.

Armies in 8th: Dark Elves Part Two: The Infantry

Cult of Khaine

Dark Elf infantry has a reputation as being underpriced and overpowered.  While I certainly agree that some units are very points efficient, I feel this generalization ignores that there are several units that are not quite on the same level as the top notch units.  Fortunately for the Dark Elf general, you aren’t at all obligated to take the chafe in your lists.  It would be nice to have an 8^th Edition army book where all the choices are at least viable, but be careful what you wish for: a new army book is likely to take away many of the very things that make the power DE units so good.

Armies in 8th: Dark Elves Part One: House of Pain

Hi everyone, Nikephoros here to bring you the next installment in the Armies in 8th series, the Dark Elves. 

The Dark Elves were nearly universally considered to be the most powerful army book in 7^th Edition.  In those days, the War Hydra had no rival on the battlefield, their magic was among the best, if not the best, and they had magic items- like the Ring of Hotek- that could completely dominate the game.  They killed their enemies by using ASF Blackguard or Shade units to wipe out the front row (or two) and not suffer any casualties in return. 

2012 - What can we look forward to in 40k?

2012 is just around the corner... what does it hold for our favorite hobby?

2012 is rumored to be a big year for Warhammer 40,000. First, 3++con will be having it's inaugural year.... that's really it right? Moving beyond my egoistic ways though, 2012 is supposed to bring us some long awaited codex updates as well as an edition change. Two of these armies are personal favorites of mine and I will be very glad to bring them out, wipe the dust off and grab some new minis to paint! The new edition...well it could be great or it could be crap. Hell it could be somewhere in the middle, too! Let's take a look at what the rumor mill is telling us.

Armies in 8th: Orcs and Goblins: Part 5: Da Bosses

SW

In the third article in this series I said that the fifth final instalment of the OnG in 8^th series would focus on the Lords and Heroes, and I wasn’t lying.  I’m going to ignore special characters, and instead spend all my time on the generics.  Not because I personally hate SC’s, it’s just that by and large I don’t find them interesting.  They are either unplayable or incredibly broken.  Plus, in keeping with greenskin fluff, the generics are quite numerous.  As a result of their plurality, I’m going to keep each entry somewhat brief, sticking to a focus on their role in the army.

The first up will be the tried and true Orc Warboss.  This guy is a quite a beast for a mere 115 points.  He provides a nice leadership 9 aura, which is nothing to sneeze at in an army that suffers from Stupidity and/or Frenzy in a lot of it’s key units, and low leadership in the other.  His advantage is his cheapness, he is the cheapest Orc lord in the book.  In a chariot spam list, his cheapness when mounted on a chariot is pretty nice.  Mounted on a Boar, he becomes a pretty cheap killing machine.  You might want to avoid tooling him up with too much equipment and magic items, since you’re buying him for cheapness and leadership ability, not because of magic swords.

Armies in 8th: Orcs and Goblins: Part 4: The Shiny Bitz

The Boyz and the Toyz are the backbone of almost every Orc and Goblin list, but there are still a lot of miscellaneous units in the book that don’t fit into those categories.  The shiny bitz are the miscellaneous units that either add some spice to finish up balanced lists, or can be used to fill out theme lists, or create specialized competitive lists.  I’ll go through some of the best ones and discuss where and how they fit in with the rest of the book.

Armies in 8th: Orcs and Goblins: Part 3: The Toyz

In the previous entry in this series I discussed the heart and soul of the army, the Boyz, which make up the Core choices.  Now it’s time to discuss the proverbial potatoes to the Savage Orc meat: the toyz.  To continue the food metaphor, the Core choices are the food, and the warmachines are the seasonings.

Orcs and Goblins have some of the best engines of war this side of Dwarves, and their great variety allows them to cover the inherent weaknesses that a horde-ish army without tremendous offensive magic has.  Not only are their selection of warmachines a swiss army knife that can be optimized to take out any type of enemy, they are cheap enough to flood the battlefield.  If they have any drawback at all, it’s that the models themselves are quite expensive and fielding a full panoply would murder your wallet.

Armies in 8th: Orcs and Goblins: Part Two: The Boyz

In Warhammer Fantasy, typically armies are defined by their choices for a particular Force Allocation slot.  For example, Dark Elf armies are differentiated by their Specials.  The Rare and Core slots are usually very similar from army to army, with the Specials slot being the lynchpin.  Ogres are very similar in that their Specials and Rares are the flavor that dominates the soup.  High Elves are specifically designed to be defined by their Specials.

Orcs and Goblins are one of the ‘working class’ armies, which is to say they are one of the armies defined by the Core choices.  The theme/fluff, tactics, and strategy are determined in a very real way by the Core that fills out your list.  Since the Core is so important, I’ll go into the options and explain how each works.  I’m going to stick to the more competitive choices for the most part, but I will explain why the non-competitive choices are the way they are.