800pts Escalation League

As of next week, I am part of an escalation league Starting at 800pts, and increasing by 400pts every month for 5 months. I've been having a lot of trouble with my 800pt lists. I battle to beat most of the armies I know will be playing in the league. Lizard Men and Warriors of Chaos are my two biggest fears, but I'll also be facing Dwarves, Skaven, and all manners of Undead.

Heroes 157pts:

1 Firebelly
Level 2
Additional Hand Weapon

157pts

Core 202pts:

6 Ogres
Standard Bearer
Ironfists

202pts

Special 269pts:

3 Leadbelchers

129pts

2 Mournfang Cavalry
Ironfists
Heavy Armor

140pts

Rare 170pts

Ironblaster

107pts

Total: 798pts

I can't figure out how to get a clean 800pts without sacrificing some of the armor of some of the units. I'm trying to play as many hard hitting units as I can to try and deal with the high toughness and armor of Chaos and Lizard Men.

I'm still quite new to this, so any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Could you tell me more about the escalation format. For instance do you have to use the units in the 800 point army for the pts levels after that, or can you take a completly new list? Why do you think you will need the IB, are the rest running monsters at 800? And do you know any compositions of the other armies?

I will post a possible build of mine after I have had my breakfast

Thanks for replying!

The Escalation league is 800pts this month, increasing by 400pts each month until 2400pts. We have to use the same list each week, but not for the entire month. After we go up to 1200pts (and again each month) we can have a complete new list each week. For example I don't have to run a Firebelly next week, or next month, if I don't want to.

I know for a fact I'm playing against Warriors of Chaos, Lizard Men, Dwarves, Skaven, as well as Vampire and Tomb Kings (both of which are considering playing Undead with the new End Times rules). There is a chance that High Elves will eventually join the league, but it's not completely confirmed.

I'm playing the Ironblaster because I know the Skaven guy is running a Doomwheel, and at least one chaos guy is running a Chimera. There are also Casket of Souls running around. I also thought it could be an effective way of taking out enemy artillery, especially the Organ Gun.

I'm still pretty inexperienced, so I'm not sure which units are good in each specific circumstance.

Hmm reading that the nasy units are indeed coming out early in this escalation. The IB could be a good one, just know it might also blow up turn one, but that is the way of the dice. Keeping this in mind and the fact that you are most afraid of WoC and Lizardmen I would take something like this.

1x FB, lvl 2, XHW, Rubyring of ruin

5x IG FC, Standard of disc.

2x MFC Bellower, Gleaming Pennant

1x Sabretusk

1x Ironblaster

High strenght attacks with a pretty decent Magic phase (probably switch one spell for a extra fireball and hopefully the other one is spell #1,#2 or #5) Unfortunatly no real shooting apart from the IB. Leadbelchers can be devastating at this point lvl but you would need atleast 4. And the MFC are in my opinion just to strong to ignore of sacrifice. You could go for some scouting ME, which will work the first game. but after that ppl will plan for them.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Thank you for the help. I'm definitely going to test this out.

So I have now played all three of my games this week, and I have been pretty happy with this list.

Game 1: Undead Legion
I wasn't  too worried about his Casket of Souls because I deployed first and had my Ironblaster to deal with everything. Then he went first and blew up my cannon immediately. Luckily he go greedy with magic and kept losing concentration with his Level 4 Wizard and I managed to get my IG into combat with him. The Wizard died, and then the rest of his army slowly fell to pieces.
Result: Victory!

Game 2: Vampire Counts
So we somehow managed to play Blood and Glory, which is not one of my favorites. I failed an almost unfailable Mournfang charge at his General, while his succeeded in a very unfortunate charge with his Vargheists, which ended the game turn two with the death of my general, and my army breaking.
Result: Loss!

Game 3: Dwarves
My IB took out his Organ Gun and his cannon took itself out by exploding. The Mournfang took out his General, and ran the rest of the unit down. The IG took out his Hammerers, while the Cat did splendid work against his quarrelers. Unfortunately two IFs on unnecessary spells lead to some sad times for my poor Firebelly after it managed to lose all of it's levels and took a few wounds. Still, the game was a lot of fun, and was quite successful.
Result: Victory!

I am really enjoying Ogres. I did not think they would do very well at 800 points, but they have been holding their own. I am quite happy with a 2-1 result this week. I'm not convinced I need a cannon, and I think I might be better off with Leadbelchers or more Mournfang.

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

Good to hear that you had fun and the list worked. At low points we do have a problem with Blood and glory, but its hard to squeeze in more banners at this point.

So out with the IB and in with something else for next week?

Yeah, I'd love to try something different, like a second Unit of Mournfangs, or a Unit of Leadbelchers. I also like the look of Maneaters, but I have no idea what I'd do with them.

Week 2 of the league is done! I played a slightly different list this week. I replaced the cannon with 4 Leadblechers because I have played pretty much everyone with monsters now, and I replaced the Ruby Ring with a Dispel Scroll because there is a lot of magic running around now.

Game 1: Beastmen
This game was over pretty quick. In my Turn 2 I managed to take out his unit of skirmishers with Leadbelchers, and I was able to make the large unit containing his Wizard and his general flee and ran them down with my Mourfangs. He conceded almost immediately after that.
Result: Victory!

Game 2: Vampire Counts
Playing with the new End Time rules that prevent his army from crumbling after the Necro dies is rather irritating. I killed his Necro general very early, but because I also lost my Firebelly, his ethereal units just started destroying all my Ironguts, while a unit of Crypt Ghouls managed to break my Mournfangs and ran them down.
Result: Loss!

Game 3: High Elves
Once again my Mournfangs did everything. They ran down Sword Masters and Dragon Princes, while just running over everything else. All in all I lost my Sabretusk. It was a good time.
Result: Victory!

I am still really enjoying ogres. I don't know if I like the Leadbelchers or the Cannon more, but the Belchers have really impressed me.

Keep sharing

I have had no luck with Belchers but alot of luck with the Ironblaster, interessting to hear where you end

/Jacob

Another week, another three rounds of the league! This week was not our most successful week. Because we are playing with End Time rules, everyone has now been putting 400pts into lords, making them very difficult to fight.

Game 1: Undead Legion
We rolled the Watchtower, and everything went downhill from there. I could not pack my huge Ogres into the tower, so my opponent immediately ran his unit of Ghouls into the tower with his 400pt Vampire. I definitely made the mistake of running my Mournfangs into the tower to fight his Vampire, instead of just shooting the building with my Cannon and running the Mournfangs at his catapult, while dispelling his Invocations. I couldn't kill everything fast enough, and the game ended on turn 5.
Result: Loss!

Game 2: Dwarves
I managed to get the first turn, but was not able to do anything with my cannon, while he almost destroyed all my Mournfangs with his Organ gun. Luckily I was in combat the next turn, so his Hammerers and Organ Gun suddenly disappeared. He conceded shortly after that.
Result: Victory!

Game 3: Warriors of Chaos
This guy decided to join our league because he didn't like that we were playing End Times, so he wanted to "make a point" by built the most oppressive Blender Lord he could to ruin all the fun. A Chaos Lord with a 1+ Armour Save and a 3+ Ward Save was too much for me, and after just two turns I had no models left. I sure am excited to keep playing this guy.
Result: Loss!

We have a tournament this weekend to say goodbye to 800pts, but I'm not quite sure what to take. I can't really deal with all of the Blender Lords everyone has decided to start packing.

We just had a three round tournament to mark the end of 800pts. We had 8 players, with three rounds of Swiss. We had three Warriors of Chaos, one Beastmen, one High Elves, one Lizardmen, one Ogre Kingdoms (Myself), and one Undead Legion.

Round 1: Warriors of Chaos
I was staring down a Chimera, a block of Warriors and a Chaos Sorcerer. Things looked rough. My Mournfangs ran through the sorcerer, while the Chimera ran through my Belchers. My Ironguts, featuring the Firebelly, ran into the Chimera. The Firebelly dealt one wound, preventing Regeneration, and the Ironguts cut their way through the rest of the poor monster. The Mournfangs managed to take out the Warriors without too much issue, and the Hounds were not match for a unit of hungry Ironguts.
Result: Victory!

Round 2: Beastmen
This army was pretty much just a Doombull supported by a Shaman for the Wildform, and some Razorgors and Ungors for support. I ran my Ironguts into his unit of Ungors (with a Doombull) while my Belchers just destroyed all his Razorgors. Before I knew it, all I had left was a fleeing Firebelly, with no more Ironguts by his side. Luckily the Mournfangs managed to get into combat, breaking the unit, and running down the poor Doombull.
Result: Victory!

Finals: Lizardmen
So, I didn't quite measure my deployment very well, leading to my Sabretusk exploding, and my Belchers fleeing off the table immediately. Next, a mounted 1+ AS Lord hit my Mournfangs, making them disappear quite dramatically. The Ironguts got into combat with his Saurus and just won due to his rank bonus, causing my Ironguts to break and get run down. What a second turn.
Result: Loss!

I managed to secure second place. I was very underwhelmed with the Belchers, but was extremely happy with the Mournfangs. They constantly over preformed all month. I regret not taking a cannon for this event, it seemed like it could have been a lot more effective. Thanks to my performance today, I am not top of the league leading into 1,200pts. Thanks for all the help and advice. I'll see you all very soon.