Some lessons learned from my game against Daemons:
1. Terradons can be really useful if properly protected. They are however quite vulnerable when left exposed.
2. The Shield Of The Mirrored Pool, while a cool item, isn't very great. It serves as a guarantee that your opponent will only ever cast one magic missile against the unit but that's all. It doesn't even guarantee that the one cast won't go off. If you only have one block worth protecting, it is quite good. If you have several, you need to have other protection on the rest of them or he'll just pick a new target.
3. Killing Blow is really good against my saurus of all varieties. I need to be a lot more wary of it in the future.
4. Bloodcrushers with a Herald are an incredibly scary unit. I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with it in the future. They have a huge move range which makes it really hard to divert them for long and I don't really have anything that can kill them effectively. They are well protected from my magic and they can killing blow any lord or hero I send into combat against it. Even getting the charge on them is no guarantee. A carnosaur and oldblood with blade of realities is really the only thing I think has a shot and that is only if it gets the charge. Even then it might not wipe them out and a single killing blow landed will finish off my general. I think my best bet is my Engine of the Gods and LOTS of poisoned shots. If the engine could set up a flank charge, it might be worth it. A flank charge from a Skink Warchief with Stegadon War-spear is also good but it would probably only ever work in one game.
5. Blue Scribes can really help an opponent's magic phase and should be sniped/assassinated as soon as possible.
6. Pink Horrors and Heralds of Tzeentch with the D6 + 1 hits, D6 + 1 S magic missile are not that great. Odds are one of the dice will be low and completely ruin the spell. The AE spell is a lot nastier but can be equally inconsistent.
7. That banner that does D6 S6 hits in an area is really scary. I need to make sure I alwasy have some dispel dice for that.
8. My temple guard really are useless in close combat. Striking last due to poor initiative really hurts them and killing blow effectively bypasses their armor save. Having them in combat without a good and safe way to negate my enemies ranks is not good.
9. I need to do a better job of getting the Plaque of Dominion out into the center of the table where it can be seen more easily. I also need to remember to use it and the Becalming Cogitation when I can.
Overall, I learned quite a bit and hopefully these lessons will help me improve my play.
With 4, I've gotta agree. For you, your best bet may be running non-ridden Stegadons into them. A regular Stegadon on the charge (or even two) might to enough damage to break them. I have ranged options (somewhat) with Empire, or the Steam Tank, but my Dark Elves really don't have a good counter to them. Assassins, maybe?
ReplyDelete5- Agreed. Ugh. I've actually assembled the parts for Pegasus characters for both Dark Elves and Empire for this purpose.
8- Add the special character! Challenge the good things out of the unit! Flank them with a 'Regadon'!
Gaming is all about learning of course. I learn every game. Maybe I'll get good at it some day ;)
The problem with the stegadon is it's only good if I get the charge and the thing I'd be taking it to stop has more movement than I do. The Herald gives the unit hatred and even if I kill one of the bloodcrushers, the remaining attacks hitting on 3s, wounding on 5s or 3s for the herald, will make quick work of the stegadon.
ReplyDeleteSo a unit of 2 bloodcrushers with a herald will have 6 Juggernaut attacks (WS5, S5), 4 Bloodletter attacks (WS5, S5) and 3 Herald attacks (WS7, S6). They are all T 4. My ancient stegadon does D6+1 impact hits at S6, 3 WS3 S5 attacks, and 5 WS2, S3 attacks. He is T6.
On average, if they charge me, they deal 3 wounds. I would attack back and deal 1 wound.
On average, if I charge them, I would deal 3.5 wounds.
So, if I charge them, I win combat on average, unless they target the skinks instead of the stegadon. In which case I don't want to bother with the math. If they charge me though, the best I can hope for is that they don't get lucky and blow through me the first round because they will then proceed to finish the stegadon off in the second round of combat.
In comparison, 12 skink skirmishers double shotting blowpipes into the unit will do 1.33 wounds on average per round for a fraction of the cost.
The stegadon is worth it if I can get the charge, otherwise it's throwing away points. Keeping in mind the regular stegadon performs even worse in the combat because he's only S5 (though he does have an extra attack).
The Blue Scribes are pretty easy to kill at least.
The special character is good but can still be killing blowed. It might be worth tossing a champion in the unit to fight in a challenge though.
I don't really want to add too many more stegadons to my army. They're a huge points sink and I feel like I'm giving up all of my units if I add more.
You have like the cheapest, easiest means of getting that charge in the game. Skinks!
ReplyDeleteInstead of using skinks to redirect a charger away from the lines, use it to draw something into position for a Stegadon (or multi-steg!) charge.
I'm not so sure that they are that much a waste, given how much offensive potential seems to be in all those Stegaspam lists. I'm sure you could get the points with some work, I know I've seen it done online somewhere...