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So I'm back...

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 12:46 pm
by Mr. anderson
G'day folks... Maybe someone here remembers me. It's been a while but I dusted off my dark elves and started playing again, and I must say I'm rather enjoying 8th edition after not being so fond of it at the start. That and a lack of opponents in WHFB led me to quit fantasy and get quite heavily into 40k (which I still am but fantasy has lured me back in it seems). It's been a year and a half or so and I seem to have missed a lot of changes (by not buying or even reading White Dwarfs I suppose), including several army books coming out. Looking forward to once again be a little bit involved here.

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 1:15 pm
by Dyvim tvar
Welcome back!

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:22 pm
by Calisson
Hey hey hey! :D
Long time!
Glad to see old folks coming back home.

8th edition shuffled all cards, no longer are DE among the top tier as such top tier no longer exists.
Sure, they are some armies which are still more difficult to play with than others, but it seems that GW made a very good job in leveling the armies' powers.

Magic has changed a lot, instead of going either no or all magic, you can only go average.
Troops tend to come in much larger blocks, MSU being much more difficult to play. Especially true for Execs.
Because of this trend, shooting is less useful.
Overall, more enjoyable IMO.

Storm of Magic is fun to play, with extreme importance of magic users, but it adds to complexity.

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 12:02 am
by Mr. anderson
8th edition shuffled all cards, no longer are DE among the top tier as such top tier no longer exists.


Yeah I noticed that too when, for the first time I remember, a new army book was actually rebalanced instead of just making it more powerful in 8th edition - talking about Empire here. I was extremely impressed. It's something they're yet to do in 40k, though I'm hopeful they're gonna start on that with the new edition.

What is this storm of magic thing I read about? I saw an article in the WD a while back but I didn't really read it because it didn't seem to explain much.

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 1:58 pm
by Calisson
Storm of Magic is another rulebook, adding to the BRB.
There's a specific scenario: fulcrum of arcane powers which are the game's objective, and which provide bonuses for magic.
=> magic users are much more useful than for normal games.
In addition, there are new spells, of increased magnitude.
Plus spells bonus with winds of magic determined with a specific wheel.
Besides that, there are rules to summon undead/deamons units, and to hire monsters (long list is provided).
All these rules can be selected or skipped according to your local gaming community's wishes.
That's a good fun IMO.

Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 9:06 am
by Layne
Oh there's that Anderson guy again...

Been well?

Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 11:34 pm
by Mr. anderson
Layne wrote:Oh there's that Anderson guy again...

Been well?


Been busy... spent several months in Canada and Germany.

So I played my first proper 8th edition game yesterday against VC... I really have to find another way of dealing with those damn undead units... I was reminded the hard way that we still can't take people hitting us back in combat.

I also noticed some sort of trend in the new army book to just give armies 5ish magical items and have the rest of what used to be in the book on special characters, though I've only seen VC and Empire so far. Does that hold true for other armies as well? If so, I'm dreading the day they give us a new book... :?

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 10:53 am
by Calisson
This trend started with O&G and has ever been confirmed since.
Still, the special character are likely to get the characterful magic objects.
The idea seems to converge all books towards a similar level of power.

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 1:23 pm
by Red...
I really have to find another way of dealing with those damn undead units... I was reminded the hard way that we still can't take people hitting us back in combat.


Crumble reallyhurts undead these days. Were you using an MSU approach (e.g. 14 black guard in two ranks of seven?) Those days are now gone: if you want to deal with massed enemy infantry, one of the best ways is to bring along your own massed infantry. A unit of 30 witch elves in horde formation will chew through almost any enemy horde (50 attacks base, even without including a champ, characters or gifts of khaine) before they even get to strike back (I6 is beautiful, as is poison). Even if they survive, the combat res will kill the remainder, hopefully letting you win in a single round of combat!

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 3:27 pm
by Mr. anderson
Calisson wrote:This trend started with O&G and has ever been confirmed since.
Still, the special character are likely to get the characterful magic objects.
The idea seems to converge all books towards a similar level of power.


Thing is, I don't tend to use special characters because they're either stupidly overpowered or forbidden at tournaments (and despite my currently rather pathetic skills, that what I'm aiming for in the long run)... I can see why they're doing it, but I'm not sure I like it. Most armies like vampires get their vampiric traits and things to make up for it but there isn't really anything in the fluff that would give us that. Then again, I hate doom mongering and it can't be worse than 6th ed so I'll just wait and see. I like what they did with the new empire book so its not all bleak and without hope for us :D

Crumble really hurts undead these days. Were you using an MSU approach (e.g. 14 black guard in two ranks of seven?) Those days are now gone: if you want to deal with massed enemy infantry, one of the best ways is to bring along your own massed infantry. A unit of 30 witch elves in horde formation will chew through almost any enemy horde (50 attacks base, even without including a champ, characters or gifts of khaine) before they even get to strike back (I6 is beautiful, as is poison). Even if they survive, the combat res will kill the remainder, hopefully letting you win in a single round of combat!


Mostly I think I didn't have either or. I was (sort of) aware of the whole horde tendency going on and I did have 35 spearmen with BSB that I was planning on combo charging with chariots to take out one horde. Only that plan got spoiled by a terrorgheist (or whatever that thing on the enormously gigantic base is called) who ate my cold one knights that fluffed all their flaming attacks and then stomped the chariots into the ground, then flank charged the spearmen. I really have to watch out for that next game.

The other combat I accidentally had 18 black guard with highborn get charged by the skeletons (damn those unlimited 2-dice Van Hels casting vampires, I just couldn't keep dispelling those) which went alright in the first few turns but then I fluffed my attacks quite horribly and everything went bad from there. I completely rewrote my list and I'm hoping it'll fare a little better next time.

On a side note - playing lots and lots of 40k really does you no favor when you're getting back into fantasy. I just wasn't used to the comparative inflexibility of units and having to plan ahead much further. And most of all - when something scares you in 40k, you just point your biggest guns at it... sadly there ain't no autocannons and meltaguns in my dark elf army. A problem, that :?

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 12:03 pm
by Demetrius
I had actually recently thought to myself that I hadn't seen Anderson around for a while.

Welcome back mate :D

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 5:28 pm
by Red...
Yeah, I hate terrorgheists, they're really nasty.

Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:29 am
by Mr. anderson
Red... wrote:Yeah, I hate terrorgheists, they're really nasty.


I just realised we played it wrong and they're only 6+ regen (if the GW website is correct). Makes them much easier to deal with. I like me crossbows, and it looks like they've just found their favorite target.

\
I had actually recently thought to myself that I hadn't seen Anderson around for a while.

Welcome back mate


Cheers - one question. Has anything major changed in terms of meta in the past year and a half? I heard people still like their deathstars a lot?

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:39 am
by Dark Alliance
One thing for sure, whilst I'm still not playing it myself, my tournament observations are that it is a lot more fun.

Welcome back dude.

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 11:29 am
by Omnichron
WB Mr. Anderson.

Mr. Anderson wrote:Cheers - one question. Has anything major changed in terms of meta in the past year and a half? I heard people still like their deathstars a lot?


"Oh, you are charging my spear elves Mr. SuperCloseCombatVampireLordWith2OtherVampiresInABlackKnightUnit? Still 20 of my spear elves left?! Oh well, KB from CoB, 6 attacks on your lord, one 6 to wound... oh, so sad that my 255 pts of spearelves took down your 400 pts general" :lol:

Yes, there's lots of deathstars out there still, but they are usually quite easy to handle from a DE perspective.

The monstrous cavalry units are somewhat painful though... Right now the best way to handle those is the hydra or mindrazor for my part. I guess I have to use Executioners if even more armies get such choices. Or I might go with more big blocks of spear elves and have a master in each with some hitting power.

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 6:43 pm
by Kinslayer
Welcome back. I'm only just getting back into 8th edition myself so I know where you're coming from, although I never left the forum since Layne and co are holding me captive. (not that I mind)