The official Baldur T4 Kill count

I'm going to count all the games I play with Baldur's Tier 4 list. I'll update this post after every game and keep the score at the top of the post. I'll also list all the warcasters/warlocks I play against and note whether it was a win, draw or loss. I'm not an expert player and I'm not convinced I've built the ultimate Baldur T4 list. I just want to see how it works for me. I realise I'm sticking my neck out with this entry. Some of the people I play with are going to read this and make an effort beating this list to raise the lost score. That's exactly what I want. The funniest games are the really tough ones and I want to see how the list holds in a competitive environment. So... expect the 'Lost' score to hit the ceiling. :)

Won 6

Lost 0

Draws 0

Trollbloods - Chief Madrak Ironhide (Win)
Trollbloods - Grim Angus (Win)
Protectorate of Menoth - High Exemplar Kreoss (Win)
Minions - Calaban the Gravewalker (Win)
Retribution of Scyrah - Lord Vyros (Win)
Chief Madrak Ironhide (Win)

Steamroller Tournament 260311

Any day when you get to fill your bag with pewter and Hordes pariphernalia is a good day. If it's for a tournament it's even better. A couple of weeks ago I arranged a small tournament and no matter how fun it is to arrange and watch the players have a good time (killing each other), I couldn't help feeling a bit jealous at them for getting to play. Yesterday it was my turn again though. These were the conditions:

- One list, 25 pts
- 4 Rounds
- Kill Box each round (which I totally overlooked when I was assembling my list)

This was the list I decided to play:

pKrueger
Megalith
Feral Warpwolf
Druids of Orboros
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper

I'm not too sure about playing Megalith at 25 pts, but its self healing ability is crucial when playing other warlocks than Baldur and Undergrowth is an awesome animus. Combined with the Druid's clouds you'll be hard to both charge and shoot at. Krueger himself is great against high DEF and Stealth models, the Feral and Megalith can beat almost anything to pulp, so I felt like the list could deal with both ends of that spectrum.


Round I: vs Trollbloods

pMadrak
Earthborn Dire Troll
Axer
Fennblade unit
Krielstone Bearer & Scribes
Fell Caller

I lost the starting roll and got to go second. He deployed his army in a long line with the beasts positioned on the flanks. I kept my army in the middle of the board, with the druids spread out among Krueger and his beasts. I expected my opponent to make a slow approach in the safety of the protective aura from the Krielstone. Instead he kept running everything foward, which made it possible for Krueger to wipe out an important part of the Fennblades with his feat. The Stone Keeper managed to kill two Fennblades as well and the unit fled.

When he finally got the protective aura up, he claimed that it affected everything within 9" and gave +2 ARM and +1 ARM per fury left on the stone. That's some aura! I asked him if he was sure, he said yes and I let it pass. There were only minutes left of the game, I hadn't lost a single model, his army was crippled and there wasn't any chance on earth he would be able to get to Krueger so I patiently awaited the dice down call and won on attrition. I wasn't that thrilled by the victory since he was pretty new to the game.


Round II: vs Cryx

Mortnebra
Deryliss
Death Jack
Slayer
Reaper
Warwitch Siren
Warwitch Siren
Necrotech
Necrotech
Some Scrap Thralls

The second turn would prove to be far more tricky than the first. I'm not joining the "Cryx is OP" chant, but this time I faced Karim, who is not only a friend of mine, but a very good player. He rarely makes mistakes and is very meticulous both when building a list and while playing it. Each time I get paired with him I almost expect to lose, which makes it way too easy to brainfart and give the game away before it even has gotten interesting. This time I managed to place Krueger deep inside a forest with Skyborn on him, thinking Karim would have a hard time triggering Overrun. I really should know better than that. One of my druids was charged and killed by a Slayer, the Death Jack made a clever move sideways and *tadaa* - a charge lane. Loaded with Focus and still inside Mortenebras feat, he could easily end the game. There was nothing to do but to shake hands and look forward to the next game.

-"Ehr...whoooops!"

Round III: vs The Protectorate of Menoth

I really like playing against the Protectorate, because against a competent player you'll have to think really hard about how to crack them open. Besides that, Krueger is actually a menite by birth, which makes it even more interesting.

This time I felt less confident than usual because of my heavy reliance on spellcasting. It's pretty easy for the Protectorate to shut down a spellcasting list with all the denial available. I was quite surprised and relieved to see that his list really didn't depend that much on denial. (Heck, he even left the choir at home!) Reznik definitly has some denial going on, but with this list I don't rely on upkeeps and I could easily place myself outside his average-size-control area before throwing any spells.

This was his list:

Reznik
Vanquisher
Revenger
Repenter
Flameguard Cleansers
Exemplar Cinerators

I think I lost the starting roll and for the first turn I ran pretty much everything behind a forest. I didn't want him to get LOS to my Druids, since they are so vulnerable to sprays. He cautiously advanced, making sure he would stay out of the forest. I advanced with Krueger and used his feat to erase a large part of the Cleansers and deal some serious damage to some of the Cinerators. I placed my beast slightly to the right of the forest to have them ready when the menites approached. Reznik feated and forced me to stay away with my Druids and Krueger who wanted to throw Force Bolts and Chain Lightning. The Warpwolf charged and demolished the Repenter and Megalith walked up next to it to protect them both from charges with Undergrowth. Krueger took out a Cinerator and kept a distance to Reznik and his jacks. The Druids pushed away the rest of the Cinerators a couple of inches to lessen their threat range.

The Cinerators tried to charge my beasts but (thanks to Undergrowth) only two of them got close enough and they failed to do any serious damage. Now the Cinerators were blocking the path to my army and Reznik had little to do but hang back. Krueger could easily remove the Cinerators blocking the charge lane and put Lightning tendrils on Megalith. The Warpwolf made a double handed throw with one of the remaining Cinerators and managed to hit Reznik, who was now knocked down. Megalith charged Reznik and with his big granite fists he crushed him.


Round IV: vs Mercenaries

Ashlynn
Freebooter
Mule
Nomad
Master Gunner Dougal McNaile
Lanyssa Ryssyll
eEiryss
Rutger Shaw
Harlan Phineas Versh

When I saw my opponents list I felt pretty confident. Ashlynn (and some of the solos) can be a nightmare to try to hit and during Ashlynns feat it's often close to impossible. Krueger, however, couldn't care less. His feat hits automaticly and Chain Lightning can easily be arced from a Shifting Stone.

I lost the starting roll again and had to go second, which was fine by me. Eiryss, Rutger and the rest of the solos rushed forward and took advantage of linear obstacles and forests to get some extra DEF. Ashlynn and the jacks followed close behind. Krueger cast Skyborne on himself and advanced alongside his beasts and the Druids created a wall of smoke in front of them. The Stone Keeper and Shifting Stones shifted forward and the Keeper tried to cast Rock Hammer at the Mule. Harlan quickly drew his gun and fired at the Keeper who happened to be exactly 5" away. Harlan hit but failed to kill the Keeper, who managed to get a critical hit on the Mule.

The next turn Eiryss got close enough to shot at Krueger, but with Skyborne and elevation he was too hard to hit. The Mule fired at something (I think it was the Druids) but missed and the shot deviated close enough to not damage anything. One more turn and Ashlynn and her battlegroup would be in my face. Krueger feated away Eiryss, Rutger and Harlan before going Skyborne again. A Shifting Stone popped up slightly less than 4" from Dougal McNaile and Megalith geomancied Chain Lightning. It bounced six times (!) and I was able to deal some damage to Ashlynn herself. The Druids pushed back his jacks and then there was little left to do but to see how close he would like to come.

Ashlynn charged and killed a Druid, used her feat and failed to shot another Druid. Lanyssa cast Hunter's Mark on Megalith and the Freebooter surprised me with a 13" charge (if I remember correctly). He hit Megalith twice, but failed to do any significant damage. Then he threw Megalith at Krueger, knocking him down. None of his remaining models could reach him however, so his turn ended quickly.

On my last turn the Shifting Stones shifted into B2B with Ashlynn and Megalith cast Chain Lightning at one of them. With a boosted to-hit roll he only needed to avoid rolling three 1s. Lightning struck the stone and it arced to Ashlynn who only had a few damage boxes left after the previous lightning. I boosted the damage and needed to roll eight or more, which I did. The last game was over and I was happy about going 3-1.

Then it was brought to my notice that no other player had four wins. There were four participants who'd won three games, so it would have to go down on tie breakers. The first tie breaker was strength of schedule, and I knew that two of the opponents I defeated had gone 2-2. Would I get a trophy?

Sadly enough, I took the fourth place and missed out on the beautiful trophies. Still, I was more than happy to have been in the top run. Karim, who defeated me in Round II, turned out to be the winner (congratulations!) and if he went 3-1 I'm not going to whine about losing a game either.

The TO (who did a great job arranging the tournament) announced that there was a Best Painted Army price as well. I liked the idea, because it encourages players to play fully painted armies, which adds so much to the game. To my big surprise I was announced as the winner. I can honestly say there were several other worthy winners, but I was thrilled. I guess having a flying, converted warlock in loincloth and boots is a winning concept! :)

For the price money I picked up another Woldstalker unit, which was great. (Now I'll finally be able to try Baldur's T4 list.)

Nordic Open 2011

Finland is not only the land of high quality liquorice and the only country where they drink more coffee than in Sweden. It's also a country of keen WarmaHordes players and extremely good painters. This became a proven fact very recently when our beloved neighbours in east hosted the Nordic Open. For those of you not too familiar with the Nordic countries I can point out that Sweden and Finland really loves to beat each other in sports - particularly in ice hockey. This friendly rivalry most definitly reflected iteslf in the Nordic Open, where players from four countries got together to beat the crap out of each other.

I really regret not attending this event, but I'm not very keen about playing in tournaments that require that I spend the night away from my lovely wife and baby son. However, Rickard - who is a friendly soul from my local meta - decided to go there. He writes these great battle reports and, since this was an international event, he wrote it in english. He kindly allowed me to link to it, which I'm very happy to do. So pour yourself a big cup of coffee, check out the great pictures and enjoy the report. If you like seeing nicely painted armies, you're really up for a treat. There's an eKaya list in there, for an instance, that really made me drop my jaw.

Nordic Open 2011

Krueger the Stormwrath vs High Exemplar Kreoss

pKrueger vs pKreoss - 35 pts Outflank, Outfight, Outlast

Today's first game turned out to be against Menoth. I had decided on playing pKrueger and, just to be somewhat silly, I abandoned my favourite unit - the Druids of Orboros - and went with a small unit of Wold Riders instead. I do like them, but I haven't played them more than a couple of times and right now I like trying out my rarely played models. This is what my list looked like:

pKrueger
Druid Wilder
Feral Warpwolf
Woldwarden
Gnarlhorn Satyr
Wolf Riders
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Krueger might not be the strongest option against the Protectorate, but this time I was quite pleased to see my opponent line up his troop heavy list. Of course, with Defender's Ward, Shield Wall, the Flameguards mini-feat and the Zealots' Monolith Bearer, all those POW 10's might not be enough to clear the board from enemy troops. My opponent's list looked like this:

pKreoss
Reckoner
Repenter
Revenger
Choir of Menoth
Holy Zealots (full unit)
- Monolith Bearer
Temple Flameguards
- Temple Flameguard Officer and Standard Bearer
Covenant of Menoth

We decided to play a scenario and my opponent suggested Outflank, Outfight, Outlast (even though we couldn't remember what it was called). We rolled for set up and I won, so I decided to go first.

A wall of Menites ready to rumble.  I really like this guy's black and white colour scheme.

On my first turn I just moved everything forward. The Wolf Riders got Lightning Tendrils and  moved up far on the flank. The idea was to be able to charge their prey - the Revenger - and have lightning arc to the Choir behind him.

The rest of my army rushed forward to be able to get to the control zones. They were hardly going to be close enough to get shot at, but I tried to gain as much concealment as posssible.

The Flameguard decided to make life miserable for the Wolf Riders. They didn't make it all the way, but with Reach on their spears they were able to mess with the Riders' charge lanes. On the other flank, his Zealots rushed forward to be able to get the second control zone.

In my second turn Krueger forced the Woldwarden, who got Bounding from the Wilder, to trample into the second control zone and cast Chain Lightning into the crowd of Zealots. I boosted to hit and when I rolled for additional hits I got a 6. Six Zealots were deep fried, but the Monolith Bearer survived with 2 boxes left.

Two of the Wolf Riders charged into the Flameguards but the dice fail me and in spite of multiple attacks and Lightning Tendrils I only killed a few of them. The third Rider charged the Repenter and killed a choir member with bouncing lightning. Then I activated Krueger who advanced, zapped a couple of Flameguards with his feat and cast Deflection.

Krueger's feat templates were used to block LOS and discourage his 'jacks from advancing in Krueger's direction. This is where I made my first mistake. I let one of the templates touch a small part of the Reckoner's base just to try to damage it a little. I boosted the damage roll and got 1 or to 2 points of damage through. In doing so I gave the Reckoner LOS through the cloud, which of course was a huge mistake.

My Gnarlhorn ran all the way up to the forest in front of Krueger. With it's Counter Slam and solid threat range I hoped to keep the Reckoner in a distance. That would have been an OK plan if it wasn't for the fact that the Reckoner could actually charge the Satyr. The Gobbers made a cloud of smoke in front of Krueger to prevent shooting.

The Feral and the Druid Wilder advanced cautiously behind the Woldwarden to stay out of range of the grenade throwing fanatics. The Shifting Stones and the Stone Keeper shifted into place behind some cover and took out another Zealot.

The Zealots moved up and threw their fire crackers at the Woldwarden, almost taking out his Spirit branch.

The Reckoner charged the Satyr and managed to get into melee range. He was less than half an inch from failing his charge, but was able to kill the Satyr with a few decent damage rolls. The Reckoner took the first scenario point of the game. A very frustrating mistake, since I not only lost a heavy beast, but a very useful animus.

The Flameguards combined their melee attaks and killed two of the Wolf Riders. Kreoss charged and killed the third one. That meant losing 14 pts worth of models in one round. Would this be too much for Krueger and his remaining army?

The Woldwarden took out the remaing Zealots, earning my first scenario point. The Swamp Gobbers had to move up into the control zone to contest the zone and prevent the Reckoner to get LOS to anything valuable. The Feral ran up towards my left flank to be able to get a charge lane to the Reckoner. Krueger cast Deflection again and saved some Fury.

The Revenger charged the Woldwarden but failed to do much damage, but prevented the Woldwarden from scoring another point at the end of his turn.

Kreoss, the Hierophant and the Repenter moved up behind the forest, not far behind the Flameguards. My opponent probably decided on putting some pressure on Krueger, but this actually gave me some time before Kreoss would get close enough to use his Feat.

The Reckoner moved a short distance into the woods and managed to shoot Krueger, who transfered the damage to the Woldwarden.

Payback time. The Feral warped for strength, charged the Reckoner and had no problem wrecking it. That meant I was going to score another point at the end of my turn. All I had to do now was to bash the Revenger to bits and nothing would be able to prevent me from scoring a third point with the Woldwarden.

Time for mistake number two. I activated the Woldwarden and got ready for . The first fist missed, but the second hit, doing some damage. Then my opponent was happy to inform me that the Woldwarden would be pushed back 1" by the Revenger's shield. It was not the first time I forgot that annoying ability, but I do hope it was the last. The Woldwarden cast Lightning Tendrils on itself and continued the hitting, but failed to destroy it.

Krueger cast Skyborne and Deflection, moved away from the Flameguard unit and saved three Fury for transfers. The Swamp Gobbers moved up between Krueger and the Flameguard unit to prevent LOS with another cloud. I was pretty confident the Flameguards wouldn't be able to get to him and Kreoss was behind a forest. The Revenger was far away from Krueger and tied up in melee with the Woldwarden. It seemed like I'd score my third point in the end of my opponents turn.

The Revenger tried to walk away from the Woldwarden and survived the freestrike with the arc node intact. Kreoss advanced into the forest between him and Krueger, activated his feat and started arcing bolts of magical fire through the Revengers arc node.

If Krueger survived I would win on scenario points. I let Krueger take some damage and transfered the biggest hit. I had one Fury left in case one of the Flameguards would actually get close enough to hit Krueger. The advanced into the smokescreen, killed the poor Gobbers and tried to get to Krueger. We measured the melee distance and I realised one of them could actually hit Krueger. The damage roll was pretty low so I let Krueger take the damage himself. With one Fury left on Krueger, my opponent realised he had ran out of ways to kill him and I won the game after getting scenario points from both the Feral Warpwolf and the Woldwarden.

A very close and exciting game!

At last...

...I have time to write something about last week's games. As I said, we were supposed to bring two lists at 35 pts. I went for Baldur, who is my favourite warlock and Mohsar, who I haven't really played until very recently. Baldur is very strong and can hold it down against pretty much any faction, even though he has some problems with Legion. I'd say he is a solid choice for tournament play. Mohsar I chose simply for the fact that I need to play him more and he's very fun to play. Anyway, these were my lists:

Baldur
Druid Wilder
Feral Warpwolf
Warpwolf Stalker
Gnarlhorn Stalker
Druids of Orboros
-Druid Overseer
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper

Mohsar's list was the same as Baldur's except for a Pureblood Warpwolf instead of the Stalker.


Game 1
Baldur vs Strakhov (Khador)

From what I remember, this was the Kador list:

Strakhov
War Dog
Torch
Assault Kommandos
-Assault Kommando Flame Thrower
Kayazy Assassins
-Kayazy Assassin Underboss
Kovnik Markov
Iron Fang Uhlan
Kovnik Varchev (not sure)
Aiyanna & Holdt

We rolled for setup and I went second. He used his first turn to run things forward. The cavalry positioned themselves right by the obstacle in the middle of the board and Torch and the Assault Kommando was heading for the other side of it. Strakhov and his dog followed Torch and the mercs disappeared into the woods on my left flank. The Kayazy Assassins ran up right next to the Iron Fang unit.

Baldur sent his beasts forward, cast Solid Ground and Rapid Growth in front of the Uhlan. The Druids cast Counter Magic and Summon Vortex. I tried to place my models in a way that would make it easy to put the hurt on anything that came closer the next round.

 -"But what the heck is Kromac doing on the battlefield?", you might ask. Well, we played Destruction and I needed a medium base. Kromac was more than willing to lend a hand.

The Khador army came closer, except for the Uhlan and Kovnik Markov, who backed down to get a charge angle towards both sides of the obstruction.

The Druids advanced, started harassing the Assassins and the cavalry with Force Bolts and actually did some damage. A few Assassins fell dead to the ground and the cavalry was pushed and pulled apart to break their Shield Wall. The Warpwolf Stalker got Bounding from the Wilder and could easily cut down an Iron Fang Uhlan and a couple of Assassins. Baldur placed a new forest between the Stalker and the remaining Uhlan and Assassins.

The next turn the Assault Kommando came close enough to start shooting at my Feral and the Druids. Summon Vortex made it hard to hit anything. The Flame Thrower, however, had no problem hitting with its spray attack. Two Druids was killed and Baldur was slightly injured. Baldur was now on fire.
The Uhlan and Assassins tried to reach my right flank but there was too much forest in the way.

                                      

Baldur and the Druids now focused on killing as many Assault Kommando warriors as possible. I wanted to get rid of the Flame Thrower, but I didn't know that another member of the unit could pick up the weapon. Baldur now placed his forest in front of Torch, Strakhov and the remaining Assault Kommandos. To make it even harder for the Khador force, he used his feat.
The Stalker and the Stone Keeper took care of the remaining Assassins and the Uhlan unit. Kovnik Markov, now placed close to Strakhov on the other flank, was too far away though. The Feral and the Satyr stayed close to Baldur for yet another round, waiting for Torch to come closer.

Torch was sent forward in a rush, heading for my left objective. If he got there, he would surely cut it down in a turn.The Assault Kommandos, Strakhov and Aiyanna & Holdt pushed forward but luckily none of them came close enough to do any damage to Baldur.

Torch was pretty deep into a forest, far away from both my Feral and the Satyr and none of them has pathfinder. The Druid Wilder advanced towards the Feral and cast Bounding on it. It warped for SPD and rushed into the woods and had no problem reaching the warjack. Biting and bashing, it seriously damaged the 'jack but failed to total it. The Gnarlhorn charged as well and damaged the 'jack enough to wreck it. Baldur, who had stopped burning by now, kept his forest and saved some Fury for transfers.

Markov went for the Satyr's throat but failed to do any significant damage. Holdt and Strakhov made an attempt to kill Baldur but he soaked up the damage and sent some of it to his beasts.

In the last turn the Gnarlhorn grabbed Markov and threw him at Strakhov, who was knocked down. With Baldur within charge range my opponent forfeited the game.

All in all it was an exciting game. It might not come through in this battle report, but my opponent is actually a very good Khador player. In this game, the terrain and table set up was working against him and I had no problem crippling his game further with Rapid Growth and Baldur's feat. If it wasn't for the obstruction in the centre of the board I'd had a hard time keeping him away. At least it wasn't me who set the table. :)

My intention was to take more pictures and do a detailed write down on each round, but we ended up playing timed rounds, so that was really not an option. Maybe this weekend...