I spent a great deal of time
painting over the last month-and-a-half trying to get the Underworlds warbands painting in time for my buddy to play with painted models. I didn't get to put in the work on Magore's Fiends like I would have preferred (painfully slow), but they're done and still look good on the tabletop. I can always go back later.
My mission was complete. My buddy came down and we played a
bunch of games. Let me quickly cover them below, but I was proud that every model we used was painted. The visual appeal, even in a board game, can be very rewarding...
Game 1
My buddy played the
Chosen Axes against my
Stormsire's Cursebreakers.
He built his deck to increase wounds, get inspired and gain glory points quickly for holding objectives, and healing all the time. My Stormcast are typically very dangerous, thumping out skeletons, ghosts, and even Blood Warriors with confidence.
It did not go well, as the lightning warriors found that they couldn't do damage fast enough to do any damage. They luckily sacrificed themselves to keep the dwarves out of their zone. This gave them the game-winning glory points at the end, but it felt hollow.
Game 2
We still had to find the best 2-of-3, so we played the same warbands. This time, the boards were set very diagonal with only four hexes to limit interactions. In addition, most of the newly-named "Feature Hexes" (objective markers) in the dwarven area, by strategy of my buddy.
This time was so much worse. Everything that the Stormcast tried to do meant nothing as the Chosen Axes just racked up the glory points and easily defeated any of the gold boys that came near. With upgrades and wounds to spare, it became a losing battle. And none of the objective cards really helped, so the Cursebreakers had to settle for very few points and be outgained by more than one.
Game 3
Two games down, each side with a win, and now it was time to get the third. Having won the board phase, I set it up to be a long setup with as many obstacles to the dwarves as possible. The Stormcast have upgrades to go through blocked and lethal hexes, so it wouldn't hurt them.
Unfortunately, none of that mattered. The distances were so great and the cowardice of each side being too strong meant that there was very little damage done. It was not an exciting game and resulted in no scoring at all for the Cursebreakers. The Axes got points just by standing on objectives. I had to concede the game because there was nothing, and I mean
nothing that the Stormcast could do to score points, cause damage, or even present a threat.
In all three games, the dwarves scored 6 or 7 glory points. They were very consistent in scoring points, regardless of the other side. The Stormcast, on the other hand, were foiled in every legitimate way. With speed-based ploys and upgrades, the Chosen Axes shared the same speed, defense, and offensive power. But they are based on claiming objectives, so they score easily and quickly which allows them to upgrade and heal. I found myself COMPLETELY outclassed. It was horrific and I HATE those dwarves! Credit to my buddy for building that deck- especially considering he doesn't play unless he comes cross-country to visit me! Wow. Victory to the Chosen Axes.
Game 4
My buddy wanted to use Magore's Fiends and I chose to use
Ylthari's Guardians.
His deck was built around causing damage. It wasn't anything terribly advanced and included upgrades that increased damage, so it was pretty obvious. I can't really remember anything about his deck that was especially exciting- I'm sure it was pretty good. But playing the trees requires a bit of focus and it was already late at night.
My buddy was worried about my warband's speed. I assured him that it was pretty much the same as him, that is until they're inspired. And they get inspired by healing. And they get reactions with crits on defense and attacks. And they get movement shenanigans to bounce about the board. It was frustrating for his Fiends and he got to feel a bit like I was feeling last series. The Guardians scored a bunch of points and denied the Fiends scoring any themselves. My buddy questioned his deck.
Game 5
This happened a couple days later, and had to be the chance to settle the best-of-3 for the Fiends and Guardians.
This time, the board was placed in a diagonal way again and even had an objective in no-man's land. That was going to be advantageous to my both forces... This was the same problem as the last game, except that all of Magore's Fiends focused on the defensive-based tough tree and took him out. Without that unbreakable defense pumping out wounds and defying all damage that comes his way, the Guardians were suddenly vulnerable. In this case, they used their unique gambits to destroy objectives and maneuver to deny the Blood Warriors their glory points. The frustration was unbelievable and resulted in a scant victory for the trees.
By this point, it was obvious that Ylthari's Guardians are a
very powerful force, if played correctly. I still fear for warbands that are able to shift the advantages to their side. My buddy believes that his Magore's Fiends deck is terrible. He even figured out that he was using the Khorne-dog wrong- putting him out in front and presenting him as an easy target.
Game 6
My wife had built a pretty good deck for her ghosts and wanted to give it a run, so she brought the
Thorns of the Briar Queen and my buddy went with the
Chosen Axes (if I remember correctly- I was studying and taking a quiz, so I was a bit distracted).
I remember hearing my wife cackle a number of times and my buddy exclaim how crazy it was. The ghosts simply 'pushed' their way to surround the dwarves, get inspired, and then get glory points in nutsy ways. The Thorns are extremely fast! With a couple of healing powers and extra wounds, they attacked like a swarm and forced the dwarves to react in a non-beneficial way. My buddy didn't like it and the ghosts easily won. Like, easily. I'm rather worried to play my wife now.
Game 7
My son challenged my buddy to a game a day later. My son used his Magore's Fiends against my buddy's
Chosen Axes. My son was already very worried, having heard my own experiences.
Funny enough, my son still lost but he did a much better job with his deck than me against those dwarves. He caused damage, had the speed to get in and lay down some smack before having to take the return attacks. With his objectives, my son still scored some glory points and made a good showing of himself. But he was not happy with his deck and my son instantly thought about revamping his deck.
Game 8
It was time for the heavyweight matchup, taking place on his last night in town. My buddy brought his
Chosen Axes and I brought
Ylthari's Guardians.
This game was very interesting because the trees were too afraid of the dwarves to directly engage. But the objective cards cooperated and it allowed for the glory points to stack up. Better, the board setup was advantageous and allowed the trees to use blocked hexes to their advantage. The Chosen Axes were able to kill a couple of the trees and be generally frustrating, but it wasn't anything near effective and they couldn't score enough points to win.
Game 9
Best-of-3. Unfortunately this was a foregone conclusion. From the board phase all the way through the beginning of round 2, everything was stacked against the Chosen Axes. Their cards did not come up right and the objectives that they needed were either too far away or contested already. To make matters worse, the trees simply ran as far from the dwarves as possible and taunted them. Destroying objective markers and keeping everyone at arm's length (very Eldar-like tactics) made Ylthari's Guardians unbeatable. With frustration oozing, my buddy had to concede.
All in all, we found that his
Chosen Axes deck was ridiculous and very well designed. Impressively and enough to rekindle my hatred of dwarves (I've always been partial to the elves, of course). Unfortunately, it's weakness is that it didn't have the ability to score enough points. Getting up to six or seven wasn't really going to achieve a alot of victories for the dwarves.
We also found that
Ylthari's Guardians are very capable of scoring tons of points and, when used correctly, can frustrate opponents past even resignation. They seem to be 'tricksy' in a way that's very dependent on dice rolls and extremely stressful for both the player and the opponent. If crits come up, it's going to be a bad to for the opponent. If they are rare, the trees are going to find themselves outclassed.
It was a packed weekend of gaming. I'm very proud to have finished painting the models in time and gave my buddy that experience. Better, I'm very happy that he actually got to play the game! It's also possible that he can come down later this year, with newly designed decks in hand and a mission to beat me. I'll be happy to meet that challenge, hopefully with a Stormcast deck that can do anything...
As always, Happy Gaming!
Remember from my last post that I'm back to working on my Chaos Space Marines. I quickly finished both the units from that post and this one in the same week because, well, you'll see. But I'm happy to be ripping through these units trying to get back on track for all these projects.
