Revisiting Play Styles Part 1: The Collection Playstyle

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! Tiberius wrote a blog post recently about list building for beginners, based on a 2015 post I made talking about the seven list building play styles I noticed at the time (during "The Dark Age" when we were not getting a lot of new content for the game). This post, which will be the first in a series on different playstyles, is designed to revisit, flesh out, and update my thoughts from 2015 as I've progressed as a strategy war gamer, and follow-up on Tiberius's post as a "next step" for beginners as you begin thinking through list building for more competitive play.

Quick disclaimer: if you don't care that much about matched play and just love collecting, then I've done my best to include some of my most beautiful* models for your viewing pleasure, but this will probably not be the best article for you. I'm sorry. 

(* - Centaur's models are not that beautiful. He's aware of this and wrote this note. So don't expect the sun, moon, and stars in what follows, :P)

This post is more for those who have played some matched games, have found that they tend to like running specific models, and want to up their game so that they can place higher at a tournament. I hope this post is helpful for you, :)

I.  The Collection Playstyle: "Current Models"

A small band of Centaur's Azog's Hunters, one of his favorite evil armies

The first playstyle we will look at is what I'm calling the "Collection" playstyle, as frankly it's the easiest one to address, and I suspect it's where most people start when they join the hobby. Back in 2015 I called this the, "Current Models" style of play, where you look at the models that you own and that's how you build your army.

Now, I have to say, as someone who started with this playstyle in 2010 when I joined the hobby, I still use this style to this day over ten years later. Sometimes I don't want to put in an order for 1-2 new heroes and paint them up before a tournament because life is busy (let alone whole sprues of new warriors that will also need storage space once assembled and painted), so even as a veteran player of the game I will sometimes default to this style of play.

So I want to start off by debunking the idea (in case you have it) that this is a "starter playstyle" because it's not: it's a practical playstyle, looking at what you own and building lists from there.

Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: The Serpent Horde

Good morning gamers,

We've looked at a variety of armies in this series so far - we've looked at traditional armies like Angmar and Ugluk's Scouts, as well as an all-hero army (the Breaking of the Fellowship), and an army that we needed to be fleshed out a bit in order to make it work (Rivendell - though you could do it with Fantasy Fellowship models if you're okay making Rivendell the allied contingent). Today, we're looking at an army that is, by no means, a competitive choice - and there are hard counters to it for sure. But there are also many armies that will be quaking in their boots when they fight it - it's the Serpent Horde, run the only way you can with Quest of the Ringbearer as your basis. Let's get stuck in!

The List

Quest of the Ringbearer has lots of models in it and for exactly one mission, you need to invest in the Serpent Horde - here's what you need:

• You need two War Mumaks of Harad (currently the entry barrier for me);
• You need one box of Haradrim Warriors (I have half of these guys right now).
  

And that's it - still ~$250, but "that's it." Fantasy Fellowship missions don't get us any other models, so there's exactly one way to run this force - double Mumaks:

• War Mumak of Harad with Rappelling Lines [ARMY LEADER]
  
• 5 Haradrim Warriors
• 5 Haradrim Warriors with bows and poisoned arrows
  
• War Mumak of Harad with Rappelling Lines
  
• 5 Haradrim Warriors
  
• 5 Haradrim Warriors with bows and poisoned arrows
  

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

700 points, 24 models, 10 bows hitting on a 4+, 2 D6+ models (the Mumaks), 2 war beasts with 22 passengers, 4 Might

This list has already been mentioned on the blog in our Bare Necessities series, though I only presented it as an idea (I didn't cover it in the main article). Today, we flesh out the discussion on this list and see how it approaches each of the scenarios. If you want to learn about Mumak tactics from the professionals, read Dan Entwisle's article on Warhammer Community.

Army Theory

The list above has two models on the ground - the Mumaks. On each of the Mumaks are 11 models (of the possible 13 models) and we have three kinds of models up there: a commander who drives the Mumak, 5 melee models with no extra gear and 5 ranged models with bows to shoot at the enemy. We did this for a few reasons. First and foremost, two Mumaks that have archers on them will mean that staying away from us is going to be all-but-impossible - and if we can threaten the enemy with bows, our opponent will need to engage us as quickly as possible or risk getting picked off a little at a time. Engaging, of course, could mean getting picked off a lot at a time, but I digress.

We could have placed all of our archers in one Mumak and put all of the melee models in the other (which could save us 10 points for Rappelling Lines on one of them - that would be another bowman and 3 spears, probably), but I instead chose to give both Mumaks Rappelling Lines, which is important for two reasons. First and foremost, Mumaks don't want big heroes to charge into them, so being able to peel them off and force them to fight something else is a good way to make them burn through resources. You can also have three Haradrim charge someone like the King of the Dead so he can't call a Heroic Combat and kill the Mumak (which he can do with a single wound). Since all models in the Howdah automatically pass Courage tests, you don't have to worry about the Terror or Harbinger of Evil, so you can just charge him. Pulling him off can give you a chance to kill a little more before he gets there - and maybe even get a charge off on the following turn.

TMAT Talks: Episode 18 - The Fall of the Necromancer Legions and All-Hero Lists

Centaur, Tiberius, and Rythbryt discuss the newest flavor of the month: the Fall of the Necromancer legendary legions, with a special emphasis on what those legions do to make all-hero lists competitive--and how one might apply those lessons to other all-hero lists that are... less competitive... to improve them (like poor Thorin's Company).

Also, is magic OP? (That is the question.) Oh, and there are also some Black Riders hanging about. (Because when are they not?)

You can check out the podcast over on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

Music: Happy Haunts by Aaron Kenny
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SHOW NOTES:

Breaking down the Fall of the Necromancer Legendary Legions (0:00)

All-Hero armies that work, and some that don't (1:04:30)

The Black Riders Legendary Legion (1:56:20)

Parting Thoughts (2:28:12)

Bonus: TMAT Talks Reviews... stupid-funny, gratuitously-violent movies from the 2000s (2:31:45)

Holiday Shopping with TMAT!

Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'?

In the lane, snow is glistenin'!
A beautiful sight!

We're HAPPY tonight!

Walkin' in a winter wonderlan'!

Photo Credit: Pexels.com

December is here, which can only mean one thing: it's once again time to procrastinate buying the perfect Christmas gift for your family and friends with whom you share the mutual obligation of gift-giving.

Now for some of us who share the hobby, this is not actually difficult. I'm mean, really: what gift could be more perfect than a box of still-sprued plastic orcs, just oozing with creative potential? Who could refuse the joy of a disassembled Nazgul? Even the challenge of a fine-cast Great Beast is a joy when the fine-cast is gifted. Plus, the gift of miniatures to someone in your gaming group is almost the same as a gift to yourself, right? (Hey, can I borrow that Sauron next week? After all, I did give him to you for Christmas...)

But gift-buying for the few who haven't seen the light (or who are still stuck in Warhammer)? Well, that's more of a challenge.

That's where we come in. Because you see, over the past year, TMAT has been collecting gift ideas on our blog from hundreds of highly-motivated entrepreneurs who have been spamming our blog* with the perfect way to buy that perfect gift for that perfect someone with that hard-earned money (or kidney) you haven't spent (or sold) on miniature goodness.

So without further ado, here are the top-10 things you never knew you needed this holiday season... until now**:

Unexpected Military Formations: In-set Heroes

Good morning gamers,

Recently, an article was posted on the Against All Odds blog about auto-winning scenarios with the Black Riders LL and how there's no way to fight the list on them (okay, that's a bit of an over-simplification, but it's clear that the Riders LL can have a tremendous advantage in them). Sharbie makes good points in the article, though I'm not convinced that all of the scenarios listed are necessarily an auto-win for the Legion.

These guys are scary for hero-reliant armies . . .

The Black Riders Legendary Legion is certainly one of the most blatant offenders of the "kill quickly and end the game in a few turns" style of play, but there are other lists that can turn those heroes that you love into do-nothings the entire game (and while the game might go on for a while, you don't get any of the fun you anticipated having - see a recent post from the Drawn Combat team for an expose on how this works). Whether it's the Black Riders Legion or another magic-heavy or shooting-heavy list (like the Vanquishers of the Necromancer and the Rangers of Ithilien), there are times when you might feel like everything is gunning for your heroes - and without those heroes, your chances of having an enjoyable game are basically gone.

This has made me think about whether the reason certain scenarios seem rigged to favor one side are due to problems with the lists themselves or because of the lists they're fighting against - or worse, how the lists they fight deploy their troops. As I got to thinking about this, I started forming ideas about how you can build your army (not tailored to fight one list and nothing else) and how you can deploy your forces to mitigate the effectiveness of these kinds of lists in scenarios that seem to favor them. This is a formations post, not a list building post, so we'll focus on formations that lots of armies can run (though I will recommend a few list building tips, as all formations evolve from their lists). Let's look at your options.