I took 3rd at the Alamo Indy GT with this Cauldron list!

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General kala
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I took 3rd at the Alamo Indy GT with this Cauldron list!

Post by General kala »

I just got back from the Alamo Indy GT in San Antonio. As usual, the SAGW guys put on an outstanding competition. Two days, five games, and beer served in the game hall. It was amazingly enjoyable. Everyone put forth their best sportsmanship and camaraderie. I'd have had a great time, even if I lost every game.

But I did not! :twisted:

I returned from the battlefield with a 4/0/1 record for the glory of Malekith and the Druchii. 85 out of a possible 100 battle points. They had sixty players, most of them tournament veterans. I had some tough match-ups, too. With this 2250 point list I am proud to say that I took Third for Best General. Best I've done at any tournament so far. Yay me!

Black Lotus Brigade 5th Division - Blood and Shadow Battalion

Command Group

General Kala riding Havoc
- Highborn, Lance, Hvy Armor, SDC, Shield, Heartstone, Black Dragon - 514

Kajima
- Sorceress, L2, Darkstar Cloak, Scroll - 175
- Using Lore of Shadows

Vix
- Sorceress, L2, Tome of Furion, Scroll - 170
- Using Lore of Shadows

Core

The Lightning Raiders
- 5 Dark Riders, Musician - 97
- 5 Dark Riders, Musician - 97
- 5 Dark Riders, Musician, RXBs - 127

Special

Fangs of Khaine
- 6 Cold one Knights, Full Command, War Banner - 244

Kurh's Creepers
- 7 Shades - 98

Kala's Honor Guard
- 12 Executioners, Full Command, Banner of Murder - 207

Brides of Khaine
- 18 Witch Elves, Full Command, Soul Shadow Standard - 314

Rare

The Altar
Caudron of Blood - 205

-----

Aside from the usual advice that I learned from Druchii.net, my tactics generally revolved around five things -

- A somewhat tight (but not tangled) deployment around the Cauldron, slightly offset form center. Only Kala or the Dark Riders ever deployed wide.

- Playing Kala very conservatively. I never had her going down the middle, and I didn't usually have her engaging until at least the fourth turn or so. Even then I only used her for important fights, targets of opportunity, or the coup de grace.

- Playing the Dark Riders very aggressively. I caused a Misfire Award to be handed out when two Dark Riders and seven Executioners caused a gigantic, 70 model goblin unit to be run off the board. The Executioners got in a flank shot, KBed the goblin general, broke them and then the Dark Riders ran them off the board. My Dark Riders BY FAR won MVP for the entire weekend by tying up flanks and being in the right place at the right time.

- Using my elites to create kill pockets and force bad choices on my opponents, making them hesitant to engage while Kala is floating around into their backfield.

- Lies and Deceit! Between the BoM, the SSS and two Sorceresses using Lore of Shadows, this list was very difficult to judge how far any one unit could reach or what areas of the battlefield was safe to enter.

There you have it. Feel free to plagarize the list and make the best use of it that you can.

May your blade stay wet,
Kala
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Post by Rasputinii »

Good stuff.

I would be interested to hear how effective the SSS on 2D6 fleeign witches is. How often did you use it? Did it work? Did you often get caught? Blah blah blah. Those sort of things.

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Post by Seanzala »

Congratualtions Kala!!! What armies did you cmoe up against?

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Post by Sha'a'alaar »

Many congratulations Kala. Sounds like you had a good and successful time.

cheers
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Post by Dyvim tvar »

Nice job!

I am very wary of Shadow Magic with level 2 casters since you can get stuck with some useless spells. How often did you get Unseen Lurker?

Did you play anyone from my gaming group (Leadership 2 from San Francisco/Oakland)? There were a number who went out, but I was unfortunately not among them . . .
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Post by General kala »

Thanks everyone. Yes, it was a really good weekend for me.

Ras - I got off the fleeing Witch Elves trick twice. Both times I placed the girls right at the tip of the enemy charge range. Worked like a charm.

First was against a big Beast Herd, which I then turned around and broke with eleven wounds (Witch Elves - the cuisinart of the Dark Elf army).

Second was against my last opponent, a VC player with several units of Ghouls. The scenario allowed him to move a piece of terrain, so he dropped a big forest right in front of my Cauldron. I moved the girls up to the visible edge of the forest. When he charged, they fled back through the forest and reformed so that if the ghouls followed through they would be exposed to the charge.

Seanzala - I played a punchy Ogre list with Rhinoxen, that massive Goblin horde list with Spear Chuckkas, ambushy Beastmen with a Giant and some Minotaurs, a prety conservative Cult of Slaanesh list and a ghoul-heavy VC list. I'm lucky that I didn't get a gunline, as that was my only real dread.

Shaal - Yes! I highly recommend both the Alamo and the Hillbilly (in Little Rock, Arkansas) as my most consistently enjoyable Indy GTs.

Dyvim - I got Unseen Lurker in 3 of 5 games. With five spell slots, you've got a good chance. But I wasn't relying on it 100%. I killed off a whole unit of Black Kights with Creeping Death and dropped an Ogre Tyrant with Pit of Shades. On that note, I find that people are VERY afraid of PoS. It makes a great spell to siphon off Dispel Dice and Scrolls so that you can get off the spells that you really want.

Unfortunatley, I didn't get to play any of the L2 guys. But your boys cleaned up on the painting awards. They had some beautiful armies, that's for sure. A very gregarious lot and they got along great with the SAGW guys.
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Post by - human »

Awesome work, Kala. Good to see a unique list with some sneaky tricks do so well!

I love giving a lance to dragon riders. Did you ever regret having a lance as opposed to a halberd/magic weapon/etc?
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Post by General kala »

Only once, when my VC opponent plopped a Banshee into close combat with her. It was only a nuisance, as the Banshee never did any wounds and died after two turns of combat rez. But it held me up from getting a rear shot into his General's Skeleton block. It was well played on his part, I will admit.

But aside from that I didn't regret it at all. When you're hittting most things on a 3, Strength 6 on the charge, and re-rolling wounds on the first round, it really makes the Gauntlet seem moot.
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Post by Benji »

well done mate. good to see you doing so well.

how many times did you end up having duff spells on your sorceresses? i think i have steed and the crown 4 times from 6 games at the weekend. i only got lurker twice but usually if i rolled badly on my dark star cloak age i would go for death on the 2nd one to ensure i had 1 useful spell.
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Post by Prince of arnheim »

Good to see someone else avoiding the mainstream and taking the good old Cauldron to bear in battle!!

I honestly think that every 2k army should have one...it is so good.

I also employ the tactic of a COB block in the middle of my deployment zone with Dark Riders on the far flanks. I also use harpies and Shadowblade. I take no magic users at all...nope...just shooting and CC. IT is much more effective.

I think you list could even be better than that still. I would like to see some harpies in there...very fluffy as they are usually picking at the scraps left from the sarcrifices....they might be a better choice than the Shades.

Good work!!
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Post by General kala »

Benji - I don't really consider anything from Shadow to be duff. For example - in one game I moved Sorceress One into an exposed position on a hill. Sorceress Two moved in about 10" behind her, safely hidden from enemy LOS. S1 drops Creeping Death, killing off a high value target. S2 then casts Steed of Shadows and whisks her off to safety. The same effect could easily be used with Crown of Taidron to fly up to enemy lines, cause wounds to everything (Banshees, Goblin Fanatics, etc) and then use the Sorceress' own Steed to bring her back to safety.

Prince - Actually the Cauldron didn't really help all that much. It was taken because a) I have a pretty nicely painted and converted model, and b) I usually have atrocious luck, so it was something to mitigate that. But it was a bitchin' model and it drew a lot of enemy attention. The Guardians dropped a Gorger and Giant. All it takes is one Guardian to survive to chew through most attackers.

You might want to reconsider that 'No Magic" thing if you hit a tournament. The new magic rules haven't really mitigated powerful magic use among the tournament set. Only in one game did I have magic superioirity with my modest, mid-level magic.

But I have considered Harpies. The only drawback is that they can't make an important round of shooting when necessary. There are a lot of Greenskins around here with Fanatics. That and I;m not too fond of the stock models. We'll see. I'll be playing around with both as time goes by.

Oh yeah! Double-Woot! Doesn't this mean I get a listing in the Hall of Fame thread? :D
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Post by Dyvim tvar »

General Kala wrote:Oh yeah! Double-Woot! Doesn't this mean I get a listing in the Hall of Fame thread? :D


Definitely.

And I have to clean it up anyway since all the listed armies are 6th Edition . . .
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Post by Xerasi »

Congreats Kala.

Im curious to hear if you missed chariots at any time in your games, I've lately come to the conclusion that DE really needs a couple, but it seems that you did fine, so any thoughts on them?

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Post by Benji »

General Kala wrote:Benji - I don't really consider anything from Shadow to be duff. For example - in one game I moved Sorceress One into an exposed position on a hill. Sorceress Two moved in about 10" behind her, safely hidden from enemy LOS. S1 drops Creeping Death, killing off a high value target. S2 then casts Steed of Shadows and whisks her off to safety. The same effect could easily be used with Crown of Taidron to fly up to enemy lines, cause wounds to everything (Banshees, Goblin Fanatics, etc) and then use the Sorceress' own Steed to bring her back to safety.


it requires alot of spells off in a row to get that though. usually the shades of death is pretty useful, especially on harpies and chariots
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Post by General kala »

Xerasi - The Chariots were not missed so much, but I wouldn't have hesitated to use them. They are part of most of my stock lists. However, I wanted to try a few new things and throw some surprises. People know how to handle Chariots. They don't know how to handle fleeing Witch Elves just yet. :twisted:

Plus, the Cold One Knights and Kala fulfilled a good portion of that punchy goodness that Chariots usually bring to the table. I'm still experimenting with this list for the Hillbilly in June, so we will see. Chariots may yet make the cut.

Benji - Yeah, it does require some forethought to bunch up the spells like that. Fortunetely, they are all really low casting values. You could use three dice to cast a Pit to soak up dispel and still have four dice left to do the Steed/Crown/Steed move.

But dude - a Chariot that causes Terror? That's brilliant. I'll have to test drive that one.
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Post by Frankthetank »

Wow i really like the list .Great job .Did the dark riders preform better with the COB ? I ask because there bin so many times that i hit a flank with my dark riders to help suport a unit and cause no wounds.
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Post by General kala »

Unbelievably, I never once flank charged with my Dark Riders. They only charged enemy support units in the face. The Cauldron did help them a bit. I recall one round I hit a unit of 7 Mounted Daemonettes, miraculously survived the tongues, and got two wounds that were multiplied to four from the Cauldron re-roll. Popped them back to the Four Hells and overran into a flock of Furies.

But mostly it was the threat of an 18" charge that allowed me to control my opponents. They don't want to charge the Dark Riders because they just flee. They don't want to get charged. If they DID charge me, I made damn sure that they were being dragged off into the most useless empty table corners. Even if they killed them, they're the most expendable units in the list.
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Post by Darthwald »

Well done and a very interisting list. Nasty tricks up your sleeve.
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