Storm of Miscasts

Just finished my first Storm of Magic game and wanted to get my first impression down before I forgot it.

Ok, I'll be honest, I wanted to get my first impression down while I was waiting for dinner to finish cooking.

Ok, fine, while I was waiting for the frozen pizza to warm.

My first impression goes a little something like this. "Wow look at all the cool stuff I can try to do. Too bad I just kept blowing myself up trying."

Actually, it wasn't even that cool. The two worst miscasts of the game came when both I and my opponent were trying to do completely routine things, as opposed to any of the new shiny spells. I turned one of my casters into a rampaging monster while trying to case Power of Darkness, and my opponent blew his caster and the fulcrum he was holding off the table while raising six zombies.

In the other game that was going on at the store today, they managed to turn all the casters on the table into toads three times. They spent half the game turning their casters back to normal only to have them turn into toads again.

It was fun, it's got potential, but I'm afraid unless you have just the right mindset or are in the right mood for it, it's just going to annoy the heck out of you.

The monsters are cool, the spells are impressive, but mostly you play the game if you want to watch a comedy of errors unfold before you.

You also need to make some serious adjustments to your normal lists for this game. 'I need more casters' is going to be said by pretty much everyone after their first try. I took three and felt like I should have taken 4.

For my monster allowance I took a Great Black Dragon and a Hydra. The SoM Hydra is more expensive and lacks Hatred and Handlers, but you can spend even more and give it a better ranged attack. I think once I get a hold of some of the other monsters I'm going to skip the SoM Hydra. The Dark Elf ones are better. I suspect that when they get around to re-writing the Dark Army book the Hydra will cost the same as it does in SoM and lack Hatred, and in all honesty I think that would be more balanced, but in the meantime I think there might be better monster choices available.

I'm going to make some more list tweaks and give it another go.

At this point I see this expansion as providing a little different flavor and some spectacular moments every once in a while. Which is really all I expected from it. So I think it's safe to say that it accomplishes that goal. Whether it will be worth the money or not depends on how often I feel like playing it versus normal Warhammer, and it's still too soon to know that.

I feel a little dirty

'ard Boyz prelims are coming up in a couple of weeks and Game Kastle is one of the California locations, so I decided I'd give it a whirl. It's free and at the moment the turnout looks like it will be sparse. The problem is that I'm still working towards having a fully painted army for the GT in June so I don't want to lose time doing any modeling prep for 'ard Boyz.

After thinking about it, fiddling with different lists, and checking out other folks 'ard Boyz lists online .... I decided to buy a second Hydra. It's entirely possible that some folks will roll into 'ard Boyz with 3 or even 4 Hydras, so I don't think it's entirely cheesy for a 3k tourney with no comp. I do feel a bit dirty for having it though.

So I'm going to put it together and give it a shot. I've also revised my GT list so now I have two options there. One list with a Chariot and a second unit of Shades, and another with a second Hydra and a couple of extra Corsairs.

I don't think I'll use it for friendly games, and probably not even for local tournaments, but seeing as how these are large scale events I felt like I should pack a little more punch.

Me? An organizer? Madness!

Today marks the end of the first week of the Fantasy Escalation League I put together at Game Kastle. So far things seem to be going along quite well. I've got a full ten people who have paid the entry fee and played one or more games, and at least one that hasn't paid just yet. People seem to be digging the format. There are several, like me, who are just playing with their usual painted armies. But I do have a couple of people who are actually working on building and painting as they go. I'm excited to see how things progress from here.

I've run plenty of gaming events before, but this is my first attempt at a wargaming event. I got to watch numerous IFL events, most of which went well and some of which could have gone better. Now I get a chance to apply those observations in a somewhat different environment. I'm sure that by the time it's over I'll have over-analyzed every little bit of it. Hopefully this is the first of many. If there's one thing I learned, it's that wargaming thrives with a bit of structure.

In terms of actual gaming, I got in two League games during the first week. One very close loss to a Lizardmen army which went down to the last attack roll of the game and one win against a new Scaven player. Both were very bloody, as 8th edition is proving to be time and again. I think the single biggest highlight from both games was the Scaven Warp Lightening Cannon taking out my Hydra in a single shot.

Still experimenting with different options for my Dark Elves in 8th edition, specifically with magic recently. One of my favorite builds for a Sorceress in 7th edition was a Level 2 on a Dark Steed with the Focus Familiar. At first in 8th I had tried putting a Sorceress in a big block of Spearmen, since 8th really likes infantry blocks, and hiding an Assassin in the unit to protect her. After some serious game changing miscasts I started having doubts about the wisdom of the 'bodyguard block'. So, time for a substitution. The Focus Familiar Sorceress is back, if for no reason other than the fact that when she miscasts all she'll blow up is herself. I've also been trying a fairly cheap defensive item on my casters, the common one that gives a 4+ ward save to the first wound suffered, hoping that it will help them live through two miscasts. So far I don't think it has actually helped. I'm not ready to give up on it yet, but I think it's time to start considering alternatives. In terms of effectiveness, she was my MVP against the Scaven. Being able to hide her behind a build and still have the range and line of sight to his units made the difference.