Bleurgh.

So, played my 4th game with new TK last night in a rematch with Toms skaven at 2500 points, I'm not going to bother with a proper battle report as it went that bad there wouldnt be much to write about.

I fielded a lvl 4 priest, a king, a lvl 2 priest and a prince on chariot, 40 archers, 60 warriors, 2 units of 3 chariots, a casket, a necrosphinx, a hierotitan, a catapult and the last 80 points went on 2 swarms.
Toms list was much improved on last time, much bigger units, a screaming bell and he'd dropped the artillery completely and added a 2nd hellpit.
The game was effectively over by the end of game turn 2.

So what went wrong?



I cant really put my finger on it to be honest. a few things didn't quite go my way early on, firstly i completely forgot to make use of the hierotitans +d3 ability for 2 magic phases running. All the while rolling poorly and missing out on spells by 1's and 2's. doh.
My rolls for winds of magic were pretty poor. double 1 turn 1 just didn't leave me with enough to play with and 6 and 1 turn 2 gave me some to play with but even with a good casket roll i had 9 power dice to toms 6 dispel so I wasn't getting off anything too bad for him.
And yet again, my chariot units whiffed charges id have expected to make.

On the flip side, toms larger units were much more threatening and his rolls for hellpit movement were much better this time round, both of them getting right in my face turn 1, it would've taken a very bad roll for them not to hit my lines turn 2. So, long story short, lots of his stuff hit my units turn 2 and lots of my stuff died. It was getting kinda late by this point and I couldn't see any way of doing enough damage with what i had left to turn it around so we called it. all id managed to kill was a unit of censer bearers, about 10 clanrats and did 3 wounds to one of the hellpits. Simply not enough damage to soften him up before he hits my line.

So having played 4 games with mostly similar lists im 2 and 2, winning against orcs and gobbos and skaven, losing to khorne daemons and skaven. Both of the games I've lost they were in my front-line too quick for me to soften them up.

Time for some analysis! In the postgame we were discussing some of my choices and we both agreed im spending too many points on support style units and units that aren't intended to really do anything in combat.
First up, I'll be dropping the hierotitan, it doesn't have enough attacks to be worth getting it into combat with anything but weakened troops, and i already need to use too many of my power dice to make use of his bound items, so im spending 175 points purely on +d3 to casting rolls. which isn't worth it. (especially if you forget to use it :P) im also not oversold on 2 units of chariots, they are quite pricey and they sometimes get in each others way.
Toms suggestion was swapping them out for carrion to support the necrosphinx. I have to admit I'd not even looked at the statline or points cost of carrion yet and they do seem worth a try. I can get 6 carrion for less points than 3 chariots. Im also thinking of reducing the size of my hierophant archer bunker, i dont want them getting in combat so being 40 strong is a waste of points.

The other thing we looked at was a unit that can actually dish out damage when the real fighting starts and we both agreed necro knights are probably the best way to go. I have been wanting to pick up a unit of them, just hadn't got around to it at £33 a box. But on paper, they've arguably got the best offensive output of any unit in the book and also have the best armour save of any unit in the book. I may proxy up a unit to try next game.

So it was a spanking, but a useful spanking, onwards and upwards!