Throne of Skulls Discussion

Grandmaster ej · Post by **Grandmaster ej** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:18 am

Hay all, i just had an idea, because the UK GT is so very different this year it could be an idea to have a thread dedicated to discussing it and it alone. this discussion would be here permenently for those who want to read peoples views of how it went for them, i mean personally this would be quite useful because im going to heat 3, and i assume i am not alone. I would also put my own report on aswell for future reference and anyone else. so i ask 2 things:

1 - can a moderator please make this thread a sticky?

2 - can people who are planning on going to the throne of skulls UK GT please come back and post here of your experiences this year? or even of anything to do with the throne of skulls GT at all, if you like the idea/dont like it etc etc etc.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:46 am

I'm playing Heat 1 and i'll be on the ref team for heats 2 and 3.

The trick this year is to stay focused on the Scenario. Try to not get draw into a VP fight because it counts for nothing.

Slortor · Post by **Slortor** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:57 am

benji wrote: the trick this year is to stay focused on the Scenario. Try to not get draw into a VP fight because it counts for nothing.

unless you are confident of wiping out your opponent entirely - cause thats an auto win

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:51 am

It will never happen if your opponent has half a brain.

All it takes is 1 model (even a 2 pt slave) hidden in a wood.

Grandmaster ej · Post by **Grandmaster ej** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:27 pm

i wouldnt say it will NEVER happen, 450 (ish) gamers with 6 games each, it could happen a few times. but yes its taken a few games to wash out the idea of VPs thats been so well dug-in to the fantasy mind-set for years. its like 'wow now i really do have expendable units!'

Milney · Post by **Milney** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 4:51 pm

Whilst the message of "Don't get too caught up with VPs" is important, especially this year with the scenarios, I wouldn't rule it out.

Whilst it's true that even a single 2pt Slave (who isn't fleeing - so fairly unlikely) can prevent the "auto-win", by virtue of them not having an army left you'd have won the game anyway - even with just a US5 unit of your own to claim a Quarter/Objective Marker.

I'll be heading the Heat 1 this year, though I feel that I'm going to have a poor showing as I'm unable to paint all my Harpies in time (stupid friends wanting to go to Heat 1 instead of Heat 3 -.-) so I'm not going to have the necessary baiting/throw-away units to claim quarters/kill war-machines.

Still it'll be a good laugh and an interesting showing for the new list.

Drek · Post by **Drek** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:55 pm

I am not in the UK, but I want to add that here in my area of the US our local tournaments have all gone to non-VP scenarios. In that environment, staying focused on the scenario is critical if you're going to win. I can guarantee more than a few will end up shaking their heads when they realize they forgot to keep their eyes on the objective and lose even though they killed more than their opponent.

Grandmaster ej · Post by **Grandmaster ej** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:48 am

at the present time im going to heat 3 with my black guards list, il suffer against anything with a flying monster that has an armour save unless hes stupid enough to engage the black guards themselves but against infantry lists i should run right through them (vamps, TK, empire, infantry daemons, other infantry dark elves, high elves, O&G and ogres have all be tried against and at worst its a fair game).

back-up list incase i chicken out at the last moment... thorek lol, but i cant see me having to resort to that at the present time.

Grandmaster ej · Post by **Grandmaster ej** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 2:44 pm

An interesting point to help re-invigorate this thread, is the 'unit of the year' for this GT, for example at the finals it was teclis quite easily, at the heats it was the steam tank, the year before that it was thorek etc etc. This year the unit everyone has to worry about how to kill is the level 3 horror block with a herald in

its essentially a 30+ wound lord with a 4+ ward save thats unbreakable
its brilliant for holding objectives with
bolt of change is a really really horrible spell

now, ways round them include:
quickly engaging them with fast units with some combat ability, such as dark riders in the flank to hold them up from casting bolt for at least a few turns however with the spell gift of chaos at their disposal this is a temporary measure at best
the ring of hotek is an obvious one for druchii
meaty block units such as black guards are awsome at removing this threat

i must admit the funniest way ive seen someone deal with a horror bunker was an orcs and goblins giant, pick up and throw the herald out of the combat (no more 4+ ward save for you) and then jump up and down to 2D6 strength hits the unit to death, also a yell and bawl in the first round went a small way to getting rid of some too :lol:

now, i plead with people not to underestimate the effectiveness of one or more of these units, their damage potential and damage resistance is at times staggering and this is a threat that people should actively be planning for.

My answer, as always, is the black guards of doom

Tizsht · Post by **Tizsht** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:48 pm

I am going to heat 2, nice to see you as a ref this year Benji.

I think the new system for Gt's is much better, although I still think you can take very hard core armies, I expect to see quite a few deamons, less WE and less Dwarf armies. I think Undead can prove tricky as well since they are hard to get rid off unless you smash the general

We will see but I am looking forward to it.

Milney · Post by **Milney** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 4:58 pm

Grandmaster EJ wrote:An interesting point to help re-invigorate this thread, is the 'unit of the year' for this GT, for example at the finals it was teclis quite easily, at the heats it was the steam tank, the year before that it was thorek etc etc. This year the unit everyone has to worry about how to kill is the level 3 horror block with a herald in

its essentially a 30+ wound lord with a 4+ ward save thats unbreakable
its brilliant for holding objectives with
bolt of change is a really really horrible spell

now, ways round them include:
quickly engaging them with fast units with some combat ability, such as dark riders in the flank to hold them up from casting bolt for at least a few turns however with the spell gift of chaos at their disposal this is a temporary measure at best
the ring of hotek is an obvious one for druchii
meaty block units such as black guards are awsome at removing this threat

i must admit the funniest way ive seen someone deal with a horror bunker was an orcs and goblins giant, pick up and throw the herald out of the combat (no more 4+ ward save for you) and then jump up and down to 2D6 strength hits the unit to death, also a yell and bawl in the first round went a small way to getting rid of some too

now, i plead with people not to underestimate the effectiveness of one or more of these units, their damage potential and damage resistance is at times staggering and this is a threat that people should actively be planning for.

My answer, as always, is the black guards of doom

Or whack them in the face with the ever-useful CoK/Hydra Banner/CoB combo of death.

I'm just upset that I won't have my Cauldron converted and painted in time for this year. But next year

Average of 10.77kills, and a Daemon BSB with the Stubborn banner not withstanding, another 6 popping from an average instability roll.

Liberal application of both Black Horror and Soul Stealer could also be of use.

Grandmaster ej · Post by **Grandmaster ej** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 8:49 pm

It is doubtful that you would get many spells off vs an army that includes one or more of these units (as they tend to have a strong magic phase overall). Plus you would have many flickering fires comming your way before said unit gets into combat, ok you probably have the ring so maybe not any bolts but flickers can still hurt a LOT. And you have to take into account other elements of his army that you would have to look out for before engaging the horrors, ie flamers and flesh hounds.

Grandmaster ej · Post by **Grandmaster ej** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:31 pm

Ok, Heat 1 has finished today, my sources tell me that it was a fateweaver daemon army that was victorious (actually quite supprised by a greater daemon claiming victory). If anyone who was actually there would like to carry on this thread that would be most appreciated.

Post by **Dalamar** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:33 pm

I wasn't playing so I won't say much about the composition of the armies but yeah... tables 1 and 2 were Daemons vs Daemons... both of them. Table 3 was VC vs *empire*

I might be able to still sneak into Heat 3, if I do I'm most probably going with magic heavy unpleasant invisible army of doom.

Milney · Post by **Milney** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 6:23 pm

I've just come from the 1st Heat. Will post more when I'm back home (at my mates house who I crashed with for the tournament).

Good fun, as for your comment about the Horror armies stopping my Magic. Well, you were wrong. I took a revised list with toned down Magic (only two magic users, and 9PD before PoD) and I managed to get off plenty of spells.

Will report more later. In the end a couple of silly mistakes meant I didn't qualify - but even if I did I wouldn't have gone to the final. More on that later.

Grandmaster ej · Post by **Grandmaster ej** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:07 pm

coolio, im only human, no set of predictions is ever perfect.

Post by **Dark Alliance** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 9:13 pm

Heat 1 was just what we expected, and as I know the 2 Kairos armies I wasn't surprised that one of them won.

Around 17 Daemon armies qualified, 10 Dark Elves, 9 VCs and then a smattering of the others....

We had little in the way of major rules issues so overall it was another great event.

A lot of filth though...

Grandmaster ej · Post by **Grandmaster ej** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 9:39 pm

good stuff, appart from the min/max kairos armies, what kind of daemon armies qualified? me and players for other heats would like to know what we have to beat

Slortor · Post by **Slortor** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 10:42 pm

well i only played one list so im not sure - but basically if it was in the daemons book it was at the GT. I think every unit in the book got used in one army or another - from the nurgle wall to the tzeetch flying circus list, So really its hard to say - i think the top daemons all had at least some tzeetch though.

Milney was right - magic seemed to be, overall, fairly light - i ran into 2 lvl 4's, 1 lvl 3 and various lvl 2s over 6 games. My scroll caddy worked fine pretty much the whole time - and the ring caused one miscast in the entire tourney - but the Spellweaver rolled a double 1 and exploded on the first turn

Grandmaster ej · Post by **Grandmaster ej** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 11:58 pm

haha fantastic, well in that one miscaste it payed for itself for the entire tourney then lol

Post by **Dark Alliance** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:30 am

Kipper was very prevalent up on the top tables, along with the scribes.

Grandmaster ej · Post by **Grandmaster ej** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:44 am

Thats odd then, with all those fast moving siren songs floating about it makes it even more supprising that a kairos army won.

Marauder mitch2 · Post by **Marauder mitch2** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:32 am

Both Kairos players are good well known players on the indie scene hence the DS/NWA 1/2/3.

Kairos is hard and they played each other table 1 game 6.

Grandmaster ej · Post by **Grandmaster ej** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:32 pm

dont bite my head off sheesh, i simply meant that its interesting that a greater daemon won esspecially as a lot of people seemed to be put off them with the scenarios. and that its even more interesting when you consider that vs some armies kairos is little more than a glass cannon. i never said anything about the quality of the players which its fairly obvious to anyone who has an undamaged brain that they are going to be pretty good, and lucky at the same time.

Milney · Post by **Milney** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 4:11 pm

Grandmaster EJ wrote:dont bite my head off sheesh, i simply meant that its interesting that a greater daemon won esspecially as a lot of people seemed to be put off them with the scenarios. and that its even more interesting when you consider that vs some armies kairos is little more than a glass cannon. i never said anything about the quality of the players which its fairly obvious to anyone who has an undamaged brain that they are going to be pretty good, and lucky at the same time.

Only human, no ones blaming you

I was surprised at the sheer number of large creatures/monsters in armies generally. Whilst setting up for my first game I looked around the tables and counted at least 10 Dragons, a Wyvern and 3 Greater Daemons on the various tables that were within eye-sight of table no.12.

I also wasn't expecting quite that level of gribbly-ness (though I took the usual Double-Hydra goodness myself). Overall I was surprised at some of the armies I saw doing quite well.

For instance, Joe Sturge's (I think it was his anyway) fantastically painted Dark Elf force ranked in 10th with 3 big blocks of infantry, a single Hydra, and assorted support units.