My transition to fantasy from 40k - progress report

 Hey guys, I got thinking that alot of my posts have been model based, rather than actual gaming based. Now, this was partially intentional, as I always assumed that most people just wanted to see cool models in various stages of assembly and painting, and that no one actually wants to hear much from me and my struggles in fantasy. I also didn't want to sit down, waffle on about personal experience every few days and have a blog filled with a load of posts that is just chaff and not read. 

However, it has bugged me that I haven't had chance to sit down and just talk about fantasy for abit. So, if you'll allow me, I'll put all my gaming blurb in here.

So, what have I been upto? I've had a total of three fantasy games. Yes, just 3. This is why I've not talked much about my gaming. My opponants were warriors of chaos, empire, and Skaven, all at 2000 points. And I lost, drew and won, respectively. I've learnt alot and its been a...steep, learning curve. I am, however, enjoying the system. It takes twice as long to play that 40k, but by jingo, I have twice as much fun.

My list has been a hodgepodge of sorts. I've stuck to the same list for each game (roughly), as to give all the units a fair crack of the whip to see what works, what doesn't, and what needs adjusting.

My army, thus far, roughly, has been:

HoS, BSB, banner of sundering.

HoS, siren song

HoT, master of sorcery (loremaster: life), spellbreaker (dispel scroll)

3x fiends

3x bloodcrushers

6x seekers, full command

18 daemonettes, banner of ecstasy

24 daemonettes

5x flesh hounds (I had 5 warhounds from my 40k daemon army which i never use anymore, so they're in my fantasy list now!)

 

5 flamers

Now, I'll probably keep playing with this list for a while, while I get a firmer grip on the rules. I kept forgetting certain things (killing blow on my bloodcrushers, for example, and that my herald made a unit leadership 8, not 7).

I'm unsure what to do with my big blocks of daemonettes, whether to expand them or got for 3 units of 20, rather than 2 units of 30. I understand that in combat res it helps to have rank bonus, but it also hurts when big spells get dropped on them. I had dreaded 13th (or perhaps another skaven one) irresistible forced on my large block, mullering half of them with no save of any kind. Grumble. With three blocks, rather than two, it wouldn't hurt my army so much.

I've also been stuck with what to do with my daemonettes sometimes. I've seen big units I want to take out with my daemonettes, but they're too large to take on straight away, even though my units can pretty much bound across the board and engage them straight away. This has meant deploying them slap bang in the centre of my lines, but I've been moving them not quite 6in in an attempt to close the gap, whilst not leaving them open to counter attack or huge bomb spells. So I need to work out how best to use my speed.

People go all out trying to get rid of my bloodcrushers. In my last game, 3 bloodcrushers charged on of my opponent's skaven's flanks, then cut and unholy swathe across his entire line. 3 bloodcrushers. 3! 210 points. The game before that they couldn't make a charge for toffee, and enjoyed mixed fortunes at the hands of an empire cannon with a sense of humour. I think a large squad of 6 (which I'm aiming for) will cause major headaches for everyone involved in the future. They are not, however, quite as mental as the 40k bloodcrushers. One of my issues has been using 40k stats for fantasy units. This has bugged me somewhat, and slowed down my games now end as I squirrel through the armybook.

Flamers can be utterly horrible! I've been struggling to deploy them somewhere where they can hurt the enemy without risking themselves, but always end up on the wrong flank. I will correct my failings in the future and whack them slap bang in my lines. Definitely a keeper.

Fiends have done a decent job. They have speed, strength, swiftstride and a bucket of attacks, all rounded off with a pretty little stomp at the end of the phase (when I remember! I will remember!). My furies have also had some fine moments, cutting vast swathes through warmachine and slave alike. I sent them on a suicide run at a unit of chaos knights and they didn't flutter back, but that's surely what a 60point unit is for!

My seekers are, basically, too weak. They're fast, and poison is useful, but against anything with a rank they die horribly. I may end up relegating them warmachine hunting and take that siren standard off them if they aren't careful. Or I'll rob Peter to pay Paul, and I'll bolster them to units of 12 whilst dropping something else.

The heralds have been good, being able to always strike first, and reroll misses, really helps, and they cut a bloody ruin into anything human shaped with light armour. Siren song has been situational, and I've not left anyone in the middle of no mans land with a unit who have failed a charge against my units. The banner of sundering has been useful too. The minus 2 mod to any lore is handy, and has made a few of my opponent's sink an extra power dice into casting spells. The special lore against light magic is nasty though! My empire opponent, whether out of a sneaky list tailoring or a genuine unfortunate choice, brought a light wizard to play. He cast three spells, all of which miscast and left gaping st 10 large blast template shaped holes in his units! I'm unsure how many people would competitively bring light wizards to a tournament, but I think this banner is a very shrewd choice and well worth the 50 (75, if you include the 25pt BSB upgrade).

My herald of tzeentch is invaluable, although he's not had the best of it with winds of magic rolls. Life is an excellent buff, but in the future I may start looking towards using shadow magic instead. Ideally, I may end up taking two heralds of tzeentch, one with both lores. Lores of slaanesh have been hit and miss, usually being dispelled before they can take effect. I'll carry on using upgraded heralds, as they give me an extra channel roll.

What I've actually done this weekend is actually sit down, and do some writing. I've written up each unit I've used, and jotted down their rules. This is all obvious stuff, isn't it? Well, I've made sure I've trawled the rulebook and remembered every little rule I have forgotten. This has helped, as I found out monstrous cavalry has swiftstride too (it's not clear in the rulebook). Also, my steeds of slaanesh have bother armour piercing and poison. Consolidating my knowledge and experience will help me know exactly what all my units can and can't do, and saves me scurrying through the rulebooks every time I'm unsure of anything.

I'd like to take this point now to say thank you to Mal, Rob and Karl, for all being great sports in our games and for bearing with me and my learning curve.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope it's been informative. I've had problems with writing comments on blogs recently so if you get chance to make any comments, or any suggestions of improvements or what you'd like to see in this blog in the future, please let me know.

I'll leave you all with one of my most cherished possessions: A dog eared, well loved copy of codex: chaos daemons, signed by Johann the White himself, John Blanche.