HH AoS Winter League Blog 3

Christmas has come early to the mortal realms with an early finish to Round 2, and we also have new tree mats! Which means we can start Round 3 in earnest.

Before looking at the battleplan and predictions for the next Round, as ever we will have a look back at the results of the last round:

Joe (bring your febreze) vs Callum (giant expectations)

Prediction: Joe narrow victory

Result: Callum takes the win

This was the closest game of the round and I predicted a narrow win, just the other way around!

Both players managed a double turn on one another and scored well, with only some early better primary scoring from Callum making the difference.

Following this game Callum correctly guessed who his next opponent is going to be, more on that in predictions!

Alden (cows and kangaroos, an unexpected love story) vs Max Berry (burly boys™)

Prediction: Alden to win

Result: Alden takes the win

Alden gets his win (and the Ogor-shaped monkey off his back) this time, though it sounds like Max gave him one hell of a game, tying units up for the whole game.

Max actually scored more primary points in this game, but was unable to deny Alden his battle tactics to ultimately take the win.

The big cow has been threatened with eBay after another poor performance, so we will see if a wild card ends up being played or he gets another chance in Round 3.

Craig (no longer lacking Ush?) vs George (rats, rats everywhere)

Prediction: Craig to win

Result: Craig takes the win

I’ve predicted myself 2 wins so far and won both games, so I know what I’m doing at least (if nothing else) at this stage.

Ushoran survived this game, but only after turning tail like the craven he is, ending up guarding one of my objectives late game.

Trying some monster mash was a lot of fun, and running 2 dragons was a pretty smashy option, though I still couldn’t take out that effing Screaming Bell which simply refuses to die.

The arguable stars of the show for me were the Cryptguard popping off their strikes-first ability and roasting nearly an entire unit of Rat Ogors.

George played the points game superbly and managed to score 3 battle tactics when the game was seemingly all but done, a combination of me being unable to finish off units and George using recursion to his advantage to bring guys back in my backline.

I feel George is going to be dangerous as this league progresses and he gets more practice, we had a great game.

Kyle (intense skittering) vs Andy (big bases are the best, get high all the time)

Prediction: Kyle to win

Result: Kyle takes the win

I predicted a close game here but scoring-wise Kyle absolutely ran away with this one with a very professional game.

Andy got bombarded by advice after the game by myself and Kyle and hopefully this will useful for the rest of the league (we just want to see Vhordrai succeed in life, honest).

Pete (the ginger tide) vs Aid (The leg bone’s connected to the hip bone)

Prediction: Pete to win

Result: Aid takes the win

This was a bye win for Aid as Pete was unable to play.

Leo (revived, refreshed and ratty) vs Liam (Hashut sounds like a dwarf sneezing)

Prediction: Leo to win

Result: Liam takes the win

Liam managed to get a solid win here in spite of his famous dice rolls, so must have been a very good game!

The score certainly suggests so with Leo scoring well with 52 in a losing cause.

Are the Helsmiths showing us what they can do?

Round 3: Bountiful Equinox

This is our next battle plan, which having played a practice game is quite dense with terrain (so many trees!)

I’m expecting lots of wild cards this round (with a few submitted already), as we’ve had a battle scroll update which for most is not too impactful, so tweaks rather than sweeping changes are expected.

Let’s see what I make of this round’s match-ups:

Callum (SoBs) vs Alden (Lumineth Nonsense)

I’ve realised I can dub any list of Alden’s ‘Lumineth Nonsense’ and regardless of what the army looks like, I know it’ll be accurate!

Currently Alden is still running the cows and kangaroos, but this may change with another list being experimented with which uses a large Vanari host with a couple of anti monster missiles, so we’ll see which one Alden ends up using.

Callum continues with smashy gargants and has been doing a smashing job in his first 2 games.

Unfortunately for him, success in Hobby Henchmen Age of Sigmar means only one thing, coming up against the behemoth that is Alden Plows.

Don’t worry Callum, we all get our turn!

Prediction: Alden to win

Me (FEC my life) vs Joe (army book is coming!)

Joe has been dying to try out a new list but hasn’t been able to find a game so we haven’t seen it in action yet, so I’m intrigued to see if he’s going to break it out with a wild card for our league game. It will be the last one before the new book, so potentially one last hurrah Joe?

I enjoy all my games with Joe and we always sweat it out, we’ve both got a few big characters for each other to chew through, and I have an Ushoran to miss all his attacks as well!

We’re both playing restless energy which on this map is quite tricky to achieve stages 2 and 3, so I predict a low scoring game, probably with a brawl over the centre objective dominating much of the game.

As ever, FEC don’t really have the rend to deal with Maggotkin, however we do bring the mobility which some of the slower units may struggle to deal with.

Prediction: I think Joe scrapes the win.

Leo (increasingly ratty) vs Pete (I don’t need 5 Magmadroths)

Leo has done super well in his 2 games and is surely due a win soon.

Pete had a bye game last round so has not played a huge amount of AoS in recent times, and the dwarves pack a lot of wounds and ward saves to contend with.

I want to reiterate my last predictions, where I noted Pete has given the more choppy battle formation a try, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the difference in output it brings to the little redhead fellas.

However, Leo is becominhg a wily customer and I think he’s going to get this one over the line.

Prediction: Leo wins a nail biter

Liam (Chorfs) vs Kyle (gnawing away at the leaderboard)

Kyle and Liam played a friendly game recently which Kyle won, so this is a rematch of sorts.

Both players come into this one with a win and a draw each and presumably lots learned from their 2 games, so this should be a good game.

Kyle’s shooting has the potential to pop off (as seen in their practice game) but we know he loves to misfire given the opportunity.

We all know exactly what Liam’s dice are about too though…

Purely from dice behaviour alone this should be a close one.

Prediction: Kyle to win so he can stop talking to me about strength of schedule in the placings

Max (burly boys) vs George (bells and furnaces)

I’m expecting a wild card from George whose list I think needs tinkering following the battle scroll.

I would expect any game with Max to be a quick one as the Ogor strategy is simply ‘full send’ so it will be interesting to see how the rats can cope with such an onslaught.

George has established a habit of failing basically every spell he’s tried to cast in AoS since he started playing again, so will be hoping he can get some manifestations in particular on the go here.

The Skaven endless spells are really annoying if they are in play and will make a big difference to George being in this game. If the spells fail, the Ogors run straight at (and possibly through) the rats.

Recursion will be big however, and Skaven can hang about in a game even when things appear to be going badly for them.

Prediction: Max to win (due to George’s spell casting dice hating him)

Aid (Skellies) vs Andy (Skellies, but also Vhordrai)

For this game we have a SBGL-off, 1 reinforced Blood Knights unit against another.

Aid has more of a general Skeleton force which is a bit heavier on units on the ground, whereas Andy has gone more herohammer and has the big boy Vhordrai to wreck face and buff up his buddies.

Andy has been practising hard and seems to be getting the hang of his list, but every so often can’t resist shoving Vhordrai where he’s not wanted.

After having his first game with SBGL against a rampant Alden, then a bye game last round, Aid could be a little lacking in practice with his list which might give Andy the advantage here, but you never know what can happen in a dice game!

Prediction: Andy to win

I’m looking forward to this round, and the league will likely start to take shape come the end of it (by which I mean Alden will be top, and the rest of us will be scrapping for that podium).