Have Army, Will Travel

Last week I had the pleasure of heading back to my old stomping grounds for a conference and managed to get in a few games while I was there. First of all, I have to recommend Battlefoam. I bought a couple cases of it when I moved across the country and it definitely saved my paint jobs. Plus I was easily able to pack all but a single small unit into one carry-on sized case for my trip back. If you have any intentions of traveling with your army for any reason, Battlefoam is totally worth the price.

Now then. It was nice getting to play with my old gaming buddies again, even if I get get spanked repeatedly. For the most part I can blame the dice (shakes fist in the general direction of his dice) for my lackluster performance, but it did get me thinking. So far I had been playing 8th edition with a slightly modified version of my 7th edition list. Out here it had been doing well enough since we were all still trying to figure out how to play the new edition. I think my friends back east have progressed farther than we have out here in terms of figuring out what a good 8th edition lists looks like. So I've decided to get more adventurous in my experimentation. My 2k list for this week of the escalation league looks something like this -

Lvl 4 Sorceress
Lore of Shadow
Sacrificial Dagger
Pendant of Kaeleth

Death Hag
Cauldron of Blood
BSB

Spearmen x 25, Std, Mus

Crossbowmen x 20, Std, Mus

Corsairs x 20, Std, Mus, Handbows, Frenzy Banner

Witch Elves x 20, Std, Mus, Armor Piercing Banner

Cold One Knights x 5, Full Command, Ring of Hotek, +1 Movement Banner

Shades x 5, AHW

Bolt Thrower

Hydra

This is reeeeaaaaaaallly different for me. No Black Guard. No Pendant BSB. No Harpies or Dark Riders. No Chariot. No Assassin. I'm going to need the Shades to take care of any enemy warmachines. I'm going to pair up the Hydra and COK with the Corsairs and Witches. The Hydra or COK will try to flank while the Corsairs and Witches head for the front to tarpit. The Cauldron will support one of the teams, probably the Witches, and the Sorceress will support the other. Shadow magic has some nice hexes that should bring just about any unit down to the point where Corsairs can carve them up. Crossbows and Bolt Thrower will lay down fire support and get rid of any small harassment units. I had trouble deciding between the extra hand weapon and handbow for the Corsairs. I decided to split the difference and get the handbow and make them frenzied. Since charging isn't as absolutely necessary as before, I figure they can roll up in front of their target and unload with 20 handbow shots. Then, as they are quick-to-fire, still get 20 shots on the stand-and-shoot when the enemy charges. Again, trying different things here. We'll see how it goes.

The league is going well. So far attrition has been minimal. We had four games going on Thursday and we're halfway through. Folks still seem to be enjoying it. All in all, I couldn't be happier with how it's gone to this point.