TheTrev0 is back with another 'Ard Boyz preparation article, this time covering the tasks that need to be completed before you begin your army list creation. Study up and you too might have the 'ard bits it takes to compete with your tribe!
'Ard Boyz Training - To-Do for List Creation
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| 'Ard Boyz Semi-Finals event 2011 at Sci Fi City, Orlando, FL. This was my 3rd match (final match) of the day and it is Ogre Kingdoms 6th edition vs Warriors of Chaos 7th Edition. |
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back to Basic, Advanced, and Specialized training for all you grunts that want that competitive edge in this year’s ‘Ard Boyz! This is the second in a series of articles. If you missed the previous article you can find it here.
This article is to give you all the information you need about the ‘Ard Boyz Tournament from proper etiquette, heads up on how the games are run, and questions to answer before you begin list creation.
What to think about before attending an ‘Ard Boyz Event
As previously discussed, ‘Ard Boyz is the leanest and meanest tournament out there and you will face some of the most game-ruining Cheese there is; it’s up to me to prepare you all against that Cheese so that it doesn’t defeat you, but it’s up to you to apply these lessons in the field. At 3,000pts, all armies will be able to bring whatever they want and in almost an infinite number of combinations, so even if you hear me cry “Slaverat Spam” from Skaven or Kairos Fateweaver “Purple Sun of Xerxes” turn 1 game ender, it only means that these are very powerful (and cheesy) methods of victory that exist and you must plan for or face potential doom. As I said its 3,000pts so a lot of players like to bring an element of surprise in their list, so it is possible you may never see some of the worst Cheese in the game (because there are definitive methods to defeating each of them).
Make sure that when you are thinking about whether or not you are going to play in this years ‘Ard Boyz that you understand that there are going to be people there (like me) that are going to want nothing less than to "Felt Your Army" and get a massacre victory. With that said, most of these people (including me) are very nice people who understand that not everyone takes the game as seriously as they do; personally I always wish my opponent good luck with the dice and to enjoy the game. So if you just want to go to have fun (and not play competitively, but rather for fun) and enjoy a few games of ‘Ard Boyz, admire the play styles of others, look at different armies, then by all means go and have fun; ‘Ard Boyz is open to everyone. Either way, if you are planning on attending you gotta have an army.
Your army has to be transported to the event – which typically means a few of your little men are going to fall victim to that hard right turn you made because you passed the hobby store. That’s okay because you came prepared! In addition to your army, you will need to bring all the supplies needed to model, including super glue, a modeling razor, a few extra bits/models, as well as enough dice to roll for all of your units, and any warmachine templates, breath weapon templates, forward arc template, and line of sight stick (or laser pointer which is what I recommend). It's not just your army list and army you need to bring!
Typically speaking, even though each game is given 3 hours to complete, games are usually over in 2 or 2 1/2 hours (although I did have one game that lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes). Regardless, when you do go to an ‘Ard Boyz event you will want to prepare for a 10 hour day, so plan ahead and dress accordingly. I recommend a button up, short sleeve, collared, cotton shirt with a pair of comfortable shorts. The cotton shirt will breathe easily and feel comfortable, while bringing a little fashion and style so you don’t look like a bum! Although I am not an undershirt type guy, if you do wear an undershirt make sure it’s also cotton and very thin; this will help with keeping you cool and won’t be heavy.
Your shoes are more important than you think and they need to have a nice sole in them because most hobby stores do not have the proper height stools to accommodate the often high tables of Warhammer. For this I recommend any higher quality athletic shoe. Your cloths will make you feel comfortable, but your shoe will make you feel refreshed and energized the entire day. Without the right shoe, you will be tired at the end of the day and, as such, your gaming experience will suffer; you will have less fun and make mistakes. When choosing the right shoe, make sure that you get the lightest shoe you can afford; you'll find when you are shopping for lighter shoes that they are more expensive and there is a reason behind that! You may not think it makes a difference, but it does. Consider a good pair of shoes as part of your "Must purchase before 'Ard Boyz" list.
As for food and drinks, don’t bring your own! Most hobby stores turn the day into a great big fun event with supplied food (typically pizza) and every gaming store I know supplies drinks of some kind. When you go to your ‘Ard Boyz event, make sure that you bring cash money and not your own drinks or food. Buy local food and drink and support your local hobby store, even if you bought/traded your army from other sources; it is proper etiquette to buy their food and drinks instead of bringing your own (which is frowned down upon and in some rare cases banned). By doing this, you can insure next year’s ‘Ard Boyz will be still hosted there and it will be a better success. Speaking of proper etiquette...
Proper Etiquette and Fair Play
In ‘Ard Boyz, your list must be created 100% before the tournament begins and must be handed into the Judge to make sure that the list follows all requirements. In addition, your list must be made available to all of your opponents. Thus, you will need to print out and make available 5 copies of your list: 1 for the judge, 1 for each of your opponents (3 games, 3 opponents), and 1 for yourself. If you feel that you would like to print out an extra one you may do so (as I did last year and I will be again this year); this is just over preparation (but accidents do happen). The copies of your army list are required, but in addition to printing out 5 copies of your army list, it’s nice to highlight each unit heading and place notes next to important items like BSB, General, Lords/Heroes, Core Units, Special Units, and Rare units. This is by no means required and some people may consider it helping the opponent win the game – but remember, not everyone knows every army and may not understand your list. It’s just a nice thing to do to help the game flow.
Which gets me to my next point – during the game if your opponent asks you a question about your army or a particular model on the field, it is a good policy just to answer the question; even if this hinders you or hurts you from victory. For example if they ask you which wizard has your dispel scroll, just nicely and with a smile point out the wizard. There isn’t any reason not to tell your opponent this because he legally gets a copy of your list. If you decline to tell him, he’ll be liable to read your list top-to-bottom, delaying the game and slowing it down. Same goes for anything else like if you declare a challenge and your opponent asks for your hero’s stats... just tell him what your character’s stat line is and get it over with. It’s not worth the argument or the delay of game not to do so.
Next is dice etiquette and this is where a lot of people make major mistakes, so read carefully and make sure you’re not one of the people making mistakes. When rolling dice, make sure that all of the dice that are being rolled are representing the same unit, character, or whatever other unit you are rolling for; if you have two or more units you want to roll at the same time, for example a Lord melee hero, your Caster hero, and your unit, make sure that it’s very clear what color dice represent what model is attacking. Using colored dice is effective at speeding up the game, but it’s important that they stay very clear and separate, announcing what the dice are and what you are rolling for each roll.
Additionally (and this is a common mistake), after you do roll the dice, pick and remove the failed dice rolls, not the success; in fact, don’t touch the successful dice at all. By not interfering with the success dice at all (by not touching them) you significantly reduce the chance of accidentally cheating or knocking dice onto a different face. Worst case scenario you accidentally touch a success dice (thinking it was a failed dice) and hurt yourself, which is much better etiquette and fair play than accidentally picking up failed dice as success. So... don’t touch your success dice until your opponent sees it and who cares about failed dice… get them out of there!
Spell casting can be something that slows the game down as well. To speed it up, talk to your opponent before the game starts and have this discussion with him:
“Hey, before we get started I wanted to talk to you about magic. I don’t know how much you know about the Lore of (Insert the Lores you are using), but to speed things up I’ll announce what spell I am casting, where I am casting it from, and what the target is and then roll for it. After we find out if it’s irresistible force or if it goes off, I’ll explain what the spell does in case you don’t know. Then you can decide what you would like to do.”
This makes a lot of sense as often times a spell fails its casting value or the caster suffers a loss of concentration – what’s the point of explaining a spell if it didn’t even cast? Also, for similar reasons, there isn’t as much thought put into the wording of a spell that goes off with irresistible force since the opponent can’t dispel it anyway. So as an example:
“Alright, I’m going to cast Wyssan's Wildform from my Level 2 Lore of the Beasts Butcher 8’’ inches away on my block of Ogres. The casting value is 10+.”Then I roll the dice and I get 9.“Oh well, didn’t go off. Uhh… that’s it for casting… shooting.”
Alternately, if it had gone off, I would have explained to him it was an augment spell that gave my unit +1 toughness and +1 strength.
Also, for the sake of your opponent (as well as yourself) think about what spells you would like to cast and in what order before the Winds of Magic are rolled. Then once you have the dice pool available, rethink the importance of the spells you wanted to go off and roll the dice.
In regards to fair play, that’s a tough call. ‘Ard Boyz doesn’t reward you for pointing out abilities or rules that your opponent forgot to use. For example, if the enemy’s block is Stubborn because of a Crown of Command on a hero in the unit, it’s not your job to remind him about it; but if you do happen to see that the unit is Stubborn and your opponent forgets, it’s very nice to point it out for him. I know it’s giving him a significant advantage, but they deserve it and they did pay for it in their list. This can happen in a lot of different areas and its just fair play to bring it to the attention of others.
Finally, a combination of fair play and Etiquette; talk to the Judge before the game about any rules that are complicated or confusing. For this, I recommend that everyone writes a nice, long and detailed list of rules that could be interpreted in two different ways. A perfect example of this (for Ogre Kingdoms) is our Hellheart vs Teclis/Slaan, or the Thundertusk shooting different targets, and the Greedy Fist/Death magic combo. No matter how clear the rule is to you, it won’t be to your opponent and he probably hasn’t been living on the Rules and Questions FAQ forum on the Ogre Stronghold to see our rulings and reasoning behind these very confusing aspects of our army. To make this simple and easy, talk to the judge, before match-ups for match 1 have been made, about the rules you feel are going to cause issues and make sure you get an official ruling one way or the other.
Another reason why this is a good habit to get into is because the Judge may never have heard of that rule debate/confusion before and needs to look into it himself. In this situation, it helps to do some of the homework for them and have page numbers, FAQ locations, and an explanation of the rule using the references available so they can simply look at all the rules, listen to your explanation, and make a decision.
Oh! I almost forgot! Before you go to an ‘Ard Boyz event (Or any event where there will be a lot of people), please take a shower (use shampoo on your hair and soap on your body), brush your teeth, and make sure the cloths that you are wearing haven’t been worn since they came out of the washer/dryer. It’s an uncomfortable situation to smell someone’s body odor and no one likes it; worse yet if the smell is offensive, someone could be very embarrassed. Do not take this note lightly just because it was at the end of of this section! Wash yourself and be presentable!
Scenarios found at ‘Ard Boyz
Before you sit down and start practicing for ‘Ard Boyz or making your lists, make sure you look up the special Scenarios that are set up for each year’s tournament. These scenarios will be different every year and add a very large twist to standard gameplay. Typically these Scenarios favor certain play styles while hindering another play style. These will need to be read twice by each person who is planning on attending the event so that they understand the wording of the scenario, the objectives, how to actually win, and what to look out for. I’ll go over a few examples now.
Last year’s Match 1 Scenario was “Fog of War” in which your line of sight was different at the start of every round. One nominated player would roll one artillery dice and multiply the result by 5 and this would be the furthest you could see (line of sight) and if you rolled a misfire you could see everything. This punished gunlines and shooting heavy armies since, well, you couldn’t see anything to shoot half the time. While although punishing gunlines and shooting, it favored close combat armies who often need protection from magic attacks and cannons (especially Ogres).
Some of the other Scenarios included random deployment with some units becoming Ambushers (deploying as Ambushers instead of normal deployment), while others gave victory to the player who captured a point (or an out of control Fanatic) instead of killing your opponent or scoring points (some actually scored a victory in a match with only 1 unit of Core left worth less than 500pts, but they did what the scenario asked for and thus won).
These Scenarios aren’t released yet, so don’t look for them, but they will be announced with plenty of time to read and practice with before the event. So I recommend around the end of February to start looking for these Scenarios and begin practicing with them; also make sure your lists are tailored accordingly because you don’t want to deploy four Rare choices when your opponent gets triple points from them. In cases like this, it may be better to figure out a different unit or find a way to play differently.
Questions to answer before List Creation
There are many things to think about before you get into list creation. These are very important topics to consider as you are building your list, and even if you do not agree, or your play style does not favor these tactics, many others will be using them. Plan your list so that you can effectively fight against these dangerous strategies before you have to place a single model on the table.
The number of Wounds in your army directly correlates to a higher percent chance of victory: This tactic is employed better by some armies over others (such as Skaven, Orcs and Goblins, Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts, etc), but can be used by all armies regardless of how many models can actually hit the field. For example, the choice to select Ironguts vs Ogres in the Ogre Kingdoms is a prime example of whether you support this strategy. Personally, I agree 100% with this ideal and use it to the maximum, thus, I always select models that have a low wound-to-cost ratio (WTC = Cost of model / Wounds of Model). Since most models only have a single wound, its easy to find out who has the best WTC ratio. Gnoblars for example have the best ratio in the game with 1 wound to 2.5 points while Ogres have a 1 to 10.6 ratio and Ironguts have a 1 to 14.3 ratio. The worst WTC ratio in the game often comes from Cavalry, which are very high quality units with very few models, which often and easily reach a 1 to 25+ WTC ratio. Ironically, which I will discuss later, High Quality units like cavalry are the counter to this strategy.
How to effectively Use +Wounds=Victory Strategy: Use large blocks of models in an optimum rank-and-file structure that will yield their highest productivity. For example, Gnoblars only have Weapon Skill 2 and Strength 2, which makes their offensive strength incredibly low. To maximize their very low WTC ratio, you would want to keep their potential base-to-base contact width very low to reduce enemy attacks against them, but still be able to claim rank bonuses. So in this case, Gnoblars would have a frontage of 5 with 10-15 ranks back. Contrary to this are the Ogres which are good in combat and have a lower WTC ratio than Ironguts, so you choose Ogres instead of Ironguts to get more wounds and place them in a Horde so that a lot of them can also attack. Large massive blocks is how to maximize this Strategy.
How to effectively fight against +Wounds=Victory Strategy: +Wounds=Victory Strategy can be beaten most easily by breaking the enemy’s giant blocks. The best method for this is a very high quality unit attacking the large block on a flank (rear or side) and winning combat resolution hands down. Cavalry is best at this (often) as they have high saves while dealing high damage. Once a unit breaks, the Cavalry can use Swiftstride to catch the unit and wipe it out completely. Another good counter to this strategy is template attacks (warmachines or magic) and causing Panic tests against the enemy unit so you don’t have to deal with it. Finally, the last method for defending against this strategy is to just ignore the unit. This tends to be a lot harder and less effective than the previously stated strategies, so plan ahead accordingly.
Powerful Wizard + Powerful Spell + Six dice (or more) = Victory: This is a remarkably powerful strategy than many players have come to rely on. Typically this strategy wins or loses the game within the first 3 turns of the game. It is most often seen employed by Daemons of Chaos, Warriors of Chaos, High Elves, Lizardmen, and Dark Elves, but most armies can create some sort of adaptation of this strategy (just not as well as these armies). Some spells that these casters use are Purple Sun of Xerxes, Dwellers from Below, and Pit of Shades (to name a few). Some armies have sneaky ways to use this tacic differently, like the Lizardmen Slaan Mage Priest which can “move” a miscast to an enemy wizard, allowing them touse powerful game-ending spells, but they will cast with all six (and in the case of the Slaan seven) dice on a spell to purposely get irresistible force, casting the spell and placing the miscast on an enemy wizard.
How to effectively Use Powerful Casting = Victory Strategy: The most powerful examples of this strategy often include a Flying caster (movement 10) so that they can march 20 inches first turn and be within effective range of their powerful spell on the first turn. Another effective way to use this strategy is to select magic items that give extra power dice to the pool, let you reroll casting results, add extra dice after rolling, and other tricky things. By adding these items, you can increase your chance to have a successful pool of dice in order to get the spell to go off.
How to effectively fight against Powerful Casting = Victory Strategy: Well, although I believe every person should bring a dispel scroll, and it goes without mentioning that a dispel scroll is the best way to fight this strategy, it really isn’t. Unfortunately, people who run this strategy are hoping and doing everything in their power to get irresistible force and you can’t use a dispel scroll against such a result. So really the best way to fight this is to have lots of smaller units scattered all over the place; that way when the spell does go off it doesn’t hurt you as bad. Also, high movement and quick engagement into close combat will protect you from all Magic Missiles and Direct Damage spells. Cannons and Sniper, as well as many other types of shooting, can also be very effective in fighting this strategy as you can dedicate your shooting against the caster in question. For Ogre Kingdoms, Sniper Maneaters are best for this job or the Ironblaster.
Points Denial: Probably one of the most underestimated and underused strategies in the game, Points Denial is not only incredibly effective, but also very irritating and reduces enemy moral quickly. This strategy is seen best in Wood Elves, but is also available in Dwarfs, Empire, and Vampire Counts. Simply put, Points Denial is a strategy that revolves around preventing your opponent from scoring any points, either by movement or by shooting. Points Denial armies typically are slower to victory and in engaging in Close combat when compared to other strategies and typically are turn 5 or 6 victors.
Effectively using the Points Denial strategy takes a couple of things. First you must avoid close combat at all costs. This isn’t always because your army or units can’t handle close combat (sometimes quite the opposite) its just that you want to inflict as much damage to your enemy as possible before engaging in close combat so that your unit has the upper hand; this is often caused by Shooting attacks from powerful gun lines. Empire and Dwarfs are best at this because of their sheer power of attacks at range and in the case of Dwarfs they are also able to slow units down to make it take even longer before they get into close combat. Points Denial should make effective use of charge blocking and march blocking units to prevent worth-while combat. Wood Elves are best at this as they take no penalty for moving and shooting, so will often move out of your forward arc (preventing you from charging) and still be able to shoot you. Vampire Counts are equally effective because they can raise Zombies in front of your unit, forcing you to charge them instead of the unit you want to attack. The whole point of this strategy is to suffer as few of wounds as possible while destroying the enemy’s largest block (and if you get other blocks in the process all the better).
Fighting against the Points Denial strategy is easy... fight fire with fire. Make sure to think about what kind of range and shooting units your army has and figure out which one is best; even if you don’t want a shooty heavy army, you’ll be happy that you can return fire. In the worst case scenario, your shooting (like High Elf Longbowman) will inflict a few wounds, but enough to cause panic or the potential of panic; just the idea that you have something that can shoot back is going to make a Points Denial army shoot at those units first. This gives you at least one turn with less shooting attacks coming in against your big block. Magic Missile and Direct Damage spell attacks are also very effective against this strategy as you can often kill their shooting. Cavalry in this strategy can be a double-edged sword – super effective against their units, but because of their potential threat are going to be lit up and die quickly... use them to fight this strategy, but know they probably wont see combat. Finally, Chaff is probably the most effective type of unit that is effective against this strategy. Often quick and nimble, these units can close the distance fast and threaten a side or rear flank which can delay the engaged unit’s shooting. Often, these shooting units can’t handle themselves in close combat so most Chaff units will be able to survive several rounds before losing.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with the above strategies, or whether or not your are going to actually use them, I promise you that you will see at least one of each of these strategies employed by some army at the 'Ard Boyz... Especially the second one (Powerful Magic = Victory). Purple Sun for everyone at every 'Ard Boyz.
There are many other strategies that are very powerful and effective besides the ones I've posted above, but these three strategies are ones that you must prepare for when creating your list, or at the very least in your mind and playstyle/strategy. So powerful are these strategies, that if you do not prepare accordingly you will lose to the army that uses them against you.
Next Time
Check back next time as we begin looking in-depth at strategies and tactics beginning with List Creation! We'll get down and dirty and as we discuss why the difference in 32 points could be the difference between winning or losing, and how to tailor a list to fit your play style. List creation is no walk in the park, so I expect you all to be there with pen and paper to take notes! Class will be in Session! Until next time...
-TheTrev0
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