Munkie

Str 6 still ignores armor, there is no multi-shot penalty to the 6-bolt. Get those things ASAP with wild riders and/or eagle(s).

I like to leave a spot for shades to go, personally. I like bringing them in close, too close. A unit of dryads on the flank can deal with them fairly well, and if they're on the flank, their choice of targets is very limited and their ability to interfere with the main battle line is non-existant. They can be a pain for armies without the shooting or freedom of movement to threaten them (like WoC) but against armies as fluid as WE, I think leaving them a hiding spot effectively gets them out of your way. As to the magic, yeah, Nathaniel likes to create a 2-hit combo. Debuff with magic, pepper with shooting. If you reduce the effectiveness of one, both suffer. Focus on the debuffs early game, and his shooting won't impress. If you kill his shooting, you can suffer debuffs without much consequence. But the non-dubuff aspects of Lore of Shadow won't be terribly effective against WE--inititative tests and the like...

I think you could do alright. DE have lots of shots but should be fairly easy to make him hit on 6s. -1 for 2x shots, -1 for skirmishers. That puts the shots at a 5. As long as you stay out of 12", he can either stay still and hit on 6s, or move in closer and hit on 6s. I think your ItP dryads will be tough for him to erase, so use them to make him keep his distance from the things you're really worried about him shooting (glade guard will fold). Use your shooting to kill dark riders ASAP to even the odds of the shooting game--and because they are the only thing capable of keeping up with your Wild Riders. Nathaniel also has a an unhealthy fear of firing big bolts with his throwers--which is great news for your treemen. As long as they don't get charged by Cold One Knights, he won't have anything to stop them. Just keep your eagles running interference and keep your treemen in gaps that the knights can't fit through. If he does start using big bolts, make sure to get to those bolt throwers as early as possible.

Or was he...

Meh. It'll be awesome when it happens, but that's just sooo many points. Too high-priority for me. I did just realize that you can take both a carnosaur and stegadon ancient in heroes at 2.5k. This is cool because it still leaves room for another ancient and some sallies/razors in rare. I'd do something like: 327: Scar-vet w/ spear, light armor, shield; carnosaur, loping stride. 296: Skink chief w/ spear, light armor, shield; ancient stegadon, sharpened horns. It also really opens the door for some monster mash lists.

2.5k, yes. Don't bother assembling those terradons, I've got a few grudges to settle with those things...

Dibs for fantasy! Wanna see how stunties taste?

That's not possible at 2.5k. Even minimal gear would exceed the 25% Lords in the above example. Just drop the oldblood, add in some skinks and terradons I say. I really like harassment units. Similarly, the stegs couldn't be ancients in the above list because that'd be too much rare. At least one would have to be a reggy steggy. Not that it's a horrible thing, just something to note. In either case, I would always buy sharpened horns. There's a lot of monsters and monsterous cav in the world and that upgrade is about the best answer you've got. What's the draw with Razordons though? I feel like the sallies are more of a "sure thing" and thus, more reliable. Plus I don't like planning on getting charged to use special rules like that. What am I missing?

I forget, how did your venom spam do against my crisis suit squad the last time we played?

Shae, in 5th ed I could assault out of webway portals and enjoy a cover save now and again. I could also shoot at every target with my full ballistic skill, so the fact that almost none of DE shooting is twin-linked wasn't really a problem. Much has changed.

Yeah I obviously need to play more than 2 battles before I get too set in my ways. I usually see armies with a lvl 4 and a lvl 2 in my area. So far I feel I've contained the magic well enough that I haven't felt the urge to spend more points on it.

No shield or GW for the longbeards? The indignity! Master rune of Valaya is good but unnecessary, I think. The remains in play thing is almost moot since you can just throw all your power dice at the RiP in your magic phase. So the only thing you're really paying for is +2 to dispel. With two scrolls, you'll be able to mostly keep a lid on the magic phases, just make sure you attack a wizard hard and quickly to try to snuff out their magic before you run out of scrolls. Personally, I just think runes of slowness and/or Strollaz' open up tactical options that otherwise wouldn't be available. I prefer them to Valaya's

Unless there aren't enough places to hide on the ground. Then they lose that war too.

I can't imagine a place I'd rather drink a beer.

Well obviously that's your main concern, you play nids. But some armies (like DE) are basically unplayable without allies. They just can't play 6th edition. But when you start putting blessings on allies, or creating ridiculous IC combos things get pretty ridiculous.

Haha! Well I don't think I'd "worry" about it, that's just my preference. Thanes are 1/2 the cost of Lords and have really some really awesome baseline stats for a hero choice. Ld 10 and T5 are great places to start for making a survivable, efficient, general. IMO, the ONLY advantage Lords have is access to shieldbearers.

Hydras are good for nothing but target practice.

I know, but since that publication, GW has obviously ramped up their ally inclusion with the next core rules set edition change. I only hope they learned their lesson, and don't try it again with fantasy. I'm not saying it WILL happen, just...if.

Yeah I definitely want to try a more substantial unit of drakes, but that would require some serious tweaking with what I'm currently running. But what I've seen is mostly people just run away from them. The mobile elements on the flank have mostly relocated instead of facing their wrath. Yeah, parry is definitely good but probably overkill. I had my Lord with T6, 5 wounds, and a 1+/5++ originally. I think that's plenty tough. If you give him Parry, then you have a weapon that does negligible damage. So then you're tempted to spend even more points to make his weapon worth a damn. Otherwise he'll just get ground down by pretty much anything. I'd rather be able to dish it out and keep him cheap. Currently, it's moot for me because the Ld 10 Thane has made a fine general for me so far. Oh, I know why why the anvil sucks, I'm just not bothered by it. It was a crutch in the last book so I avoided it unless I was doing an all combat army. It's no hair off my beard.

Good point. But you can't erase chiseled stone, so the grudge stands as recorded. Honor demands recompense!

As a 40k refugee, can we please all agree now that IF GW does include allies, we will reject the idea out of hand? It bodes ill.

I would make all battle brosephs count as allies of convenience. Solves lots of problems.

Irondrakes are cool but in my extensive experience (2 battles), they tend to just chase enemies out of their threat range, rather than do much actual damage. I won't complain with flanking elements deciding not to because they didn't want to get close. They seem especially good if you can vanguard a decent size block. I totally agree with your view of the runic combos. I've always just run dwarf lords with great weapons and decked them out for survivability. Most blender characters don't want to be taking 4 str 6 hits turn after turn. They tend to lose eventually. But I haven't seen any offense-based dwarf lords that I really like with the new book. The only way to get more than str 4 is by using 2 runes to get +1 str and AP (redundant with runesmiths), or take Rune of Might and double your str against T5+ models. But against T4 models, he doesn't do anything. I don't like it. I think a 6 point great weapon will do more damage consistently than many runic combos, and is certainly the best value. I don't really care about the Anvil nerf. I knew it was going to be nerfed, I just didn't expect them to go that overboard. Oh well, I never really used it much anyway.

Probably not!

Nope, nvm. The ring is indeed an enchanted item, so no problem there. Grudge recorded against Iraf for falsely accusing me of cheating ;)