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.
Showing posts with label magic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magic. Show all posts
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
First Blood
Finally got in a game of 8th Edition on Saturday. I went down to Legends in Cupertino to play with the store owner. Turned out that he didn't have time to play himself. However, he was trying to get one of his employees up to speed on the rules so they could start running events in the store, so I ended up playing a teaching game. *shrug* It's better than nothing. Plus, I had to make sure I understood the rules well enough to explain them to someone who was mainly familiar with the 40k rules but knew a pretty decent amount about the Fantasy fluff.
It's hard to draw any conclusions from that game. He was playing an Orc army that didn't belong to him and looked like it was a couple of editions old. We put together the best 15oo point list we could from the models we had available, and I tried to dissuade him from some non-optimal choices he was making based on his 40k experience (no, you really should make one big unit of Black Orks, and you should probably put your General in there instead of two small units and 5 guys to hang out with your General). But he had fun and we got through the game without any major issues.
I already like the Magic system better than the previous edition. Magic defense no longer has to be a list design requirement. I tried out a Level 2 Sorceress with the Tome of Furion (knows one additional spell) and was quite happy with the result. Taking the Tome always seemed like a waste to me in the previous edition since you rarely had enough power dice to successfully cast the couple of spells you already knew. But with the new rules for generating power dice, a single lower level caster can have significantly more dice to work with than before (7 on average, up from 4). Suddenly 15 points to know an additional spell seems like a pretty good use of points. Previously if you wanted to be more effective you had to spend significantly more points and another Hero slot to get another caster, just so you could get a couple more power dice to work with. Now, adding another caster just splits the randomly generated power dice between them and all you really gain is a couple more spells and maybe some additional magic items. Granted, those can be valuable in and of themselves if you are going for a heavy magic list. But now instead of needing a 'scroll caddy' you can turn that same amount of points into a decent amount of offensive magic. I had been playing a magic heavy list with 3 casters until 8th came out. It seems like adding more casters in 8th will result in diminishing returns. You might gain flexibility by adding additional Lores, and maybe some extra punch with additional magic items, but I don't see the power scaling up the way it did in the last edition. I think this it a good thing.
It's hard to draw any conclusions from that game. He was playing an Orc army that didn't belong to him and looked like it was a couple of editions old. We put together the best 15oo point list we could from the models we had available, and I tried to dissuade him from some non-optimal choices he was making based on his 40k experience (no, you really should make one big unit of Black Orks, and you should probably put your General in there instead of two small units and 5 guys to hang out with your General). But he had fun and we got through the game without any major issues.
I already like the Magic system better than the previous edition. Magic defense no longer has to be a list design requirement. I tried out a Level 2 Sorceress with the Tome of Furion (knows one additional spell) and was quite happy with the result. Taking the Tome always seemed like a waste to me in the previous edition since you rarely had enough power dice to successfully cast the couple of spells you already knew. But with the new rules for generating power dice, a single lower level caster can have significantly more dice to work with than before (7 on average, up from 4). Suddenly 15 points to know an additional spell seems like a pretty good use of points. Previously if you wanted to be more effective you had to spend significantly more points and another Hero slot to get another caster, just so you could get a couple more power dice to work with. Now, adding another caster just splits the randomly generated power dice between them and all you really gain is a couple more spells and maybe some additional magic items. Granted, those can be valuable in and of themselves if you are going for a heavy magic list. But now instead of needing a 'scroll caddy' you can turn that same amount of points into a decent amount of offensive magic. I had been playing a magic heavy list with 3 casters until 8th came out. It seems like adding more casters in 8th will result in diminishing returns. You might gain flexibility by adding additional Lores, and maybe some extra punch with additional magic items, but I don't see the power scaling up the way it did in the last edition. I think this it a good thing.
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