My first Post & Desolation

Well since I have been added as an author I should probably get a post underway.

Next month I am attending a Warhammer Fantasy teams event tournament named Desolation in Canberra. Despite being a long time regular around the competitive 40k tournament scene (until 7th ed) and an equally long time Warhammer player, I have never delved into Fantasy competitively. I've personally always found more enjoyment in the garage with that one.


Something about the team environment and the team our captain put together however drew me out to give this one a go. So along with my mates Gorgrunt_Ironhide, Angeliz and The Dark Angel (WAU names) we've put our foursome together and I think we've got a pretty good team.

Desolation is a two day, 2400 point, four player teams event and is running the Swedish comp system (13+). Being my first competitive event and first look at Swedish comp I was very skeptical and hesitant. To me I didn't see why I needed even more math equations to work out an army list, the
whole system I found confusing.

Over the past several weeks however we've been playing a lot of practice games and I do really like the lists that have been produced. I have seen people using units that don't often see the light of day and combo's that often get overlooked. I have found that as a whole the system works well and does the job of balancing lists/races/books quite nicely.

Swedish Comp = Confusing at first, faster when you get the hang of it, worth the effort.

A little under four weeks left before we set off on our road trip to Australia's capital.
Our team consists of Gorgrunt the team captain rocking Empire, Angeliz leading a Dark Elf band, Dark Angel at the head of the Warriors of Chaos and myself hiding behind the large bulk of Ogres.

My list:
Having to fit my army above 13 Swedish Comp points, but with the comp playing no further part in the scores I wanted to get it as close as I could to 13. I figured why give up free comp points if it wont have an effect?

I ended up on a comp score of 13.3. I could have spent more points, but in practice I've become happy with how my list works.

LORDS
Slaughter Mater, Level 4 wizard, Law of the Great Maw, Fencers Blades, Glittering Scales

HEROES
Bruiser, BSB, Heavy Armour, Great Weapon, Talisman of Preservation, Iron Curse Icon
Firebelly, Level 2 wizard, Lore of Fire, Great weapon, Dispell Scroll

CORE
8 Ogres, Full command, Ironfists
10 Gnoblars
10 Gnoblars
6 Ironguts, Full command, Look out Gnoblar, Standard of Discipline

SPECIAL
1 Sabretusk
1 Sabretusk
1 Sabretusk
1 Gorger
4 Mournfang Cavalry, Full command, Heavy armour, Ironfists, Banner of swiftness
3 Leadbelchers

RARE
Stonehorn, Harpoon launcher
Ironblaster


Whats really been great is that committing to an event has made me get work done on my Ogres. They have been half painted here, some paint there for a very long time.

The Green Tide

Warning I am terrible at English read at your own risk!!!!!!!!!!!(Now with Punctuation - Editor Glen)

Long time no post, today I felt like I had a chance to post something worth while.

So I came into 40k in the middle of 5th edition and my first choice of army was Tau, unfortunately the book was old and I just didn't get it and so I gave up on them rather quickly.  So I moved over to the safe choice, Space Marines and played them for a while.  The first tournament I went to with them was Fields of Blood way back in 2010.  I didn't do to hot but came away with Living Saint a.k.a top sportsmanship.  At that point I was locked into 40k, definitely enjoying everything about it but Space Marines to me were kind of bland.  Not painted, but just rule wise just uninteresting.

Then came along Dark Eldar.  I was in love from day one and quickly switched over to them, building up a force of 1750 points as that was the standard for most of 5th ed. Soon after, Glen and I found our way to Sydney to play in Lords of Terra and High Lords respectively a.k.a Glen.  Here I came 7th overall and Glen winning High Lords with one of the oldest books at the time, Night Spinner FTW. Soon after was Call to Arms and once again Warhammer raged on but this time I actually came First overall with Dark Eldar FTW!!!

I happily kept playing them for a while then out of the blue came Grey Knights!  To me they were Space Marines with personality and to this day the best looking Terminators around.  I didn't start playing them straight away as Glen was pondering about building a force, but after some time I finally let loose and started building up units.  I was definitely enjoying them a lot, the rest of 5th and start of 6th but they had lost their shine.  I already had 3 armies and had decided not to start another one.  At the start of 7th I decided to return to Space Marines, with their new book in hand started picking up new units including Sternguard, Calgar box set, Drop Pod, Centurions, the new plastic Librarian and some other stuff!  But it was not to last with the new.....

...Grey Knights incoming I quickly switched back but the book to me is disappointing, but I was enjoying them and then all of a sudden Dark Eldar are coming too!! quickly Picking up the new codex it quickly became apparent the book was average at best there were no new builds and Archons got turned into garbage along with Wyches. :(

Leaving me here.  The other night while doing Tuesday night Pathfinder, I was sitting across from a Dakka jet, as I looked at it something clicked and by the end of the night I had decided to play Orks.  Later that week I received the codex and quickly found myself having a lot of fun with it.  After having my first game with them yesterday I definitely have found that love for an army again.  I did lose the game and there was tons of swearing at Glen (How many cover saves can I keep on making? - Glen) and running out of the room when failing an assault change screaming FUCK!!!! All in good fun.  Really have to thank Joel for selling his Ork army to Glen as it gave me the chance to play them.

Also thanks to Joel for Fantasy as I am now able to play High Elves 

Cody Out

Cracks Call 2014 List - Speed and Sound

The last weekend of the month sees a 2000 point Fantasy tournament being held in Masterton, Cracks Call is its name and I'm expecting a fun weekend at the venue.

Now I had a 2k Daemon list nicely provided for me from fellow Stone Falls Massive team mate Joel BUT as we are in the midst of the End Times in the Fantasy world I just had to get the Vampire Counts off the shelf.

Now the points shift to 2000 points from the usual 2400 means there are a few toys you cannot take so maybe it's just better to try and do one or two things well.  So speed and scream attacks seem like a good idea.

Vampire Lord, heavy armour, shield, Level 2(Vampires) Hellstead, Dragonhelm, Skabscrath, Opal Amulet, Aura of Dark Majesty, Curse of the Revenant

Vampire, BSB, Level 1(Vampires) Heavy Armour, Shield, Barded Steed, Book of Arkhan
Necromancer, Level 1(Vampires)
Tomb Banshee

20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves

8 Black Knights, FC, Barding, Lances

Terrogheist
Terrorgheist

Yeah it'l be fun

Warpfire - The Rise of the Necromancer

After enjoying a mix of Mordheim and 40k over the last three weekends, I will be heading to Wellington tonight.  This Saturday Warpfire is being played, a 1000 point one day Fantasy tournament.  There is no comp and you can check out some of the lists over on Fields of Blood.

Now I had this list worked out well before the 'veto' option got lifted, should be good for a fun days gaming with some different scenarios.

Master Necromancer, Level 3, Lore of Vampires, Seed of Rebirth

Tomb Banshee

5 Dire Wolves
25 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard

6 Crypt Horrors
2 Fell Bats

Mortis Engine

It is unsubtle and moves about as a large brick.  With a multitude of 1+ saves and low model counts to fight against I will be praying to Nagash to roll high on the two screams I have.

Tonight we also officially start a Dreadball league where I shall be coaching the Star Spangled Strikers in the debut season.

Call to Arms 2013 - 40K

On the weekend I participated in this years Call to Arms, the annual Wellington Warlords tournament convention.

I used my Eldar as I have been very very happy with the new Codex and the mobility it gives me.  I took advantage of the Iyanden supplement as those who know my armies will always see a wraith unit.

Photo courtesy of Cody

So here is the list

Farseer, Jetbike
Spiritseer

5 Wraithguard, cannons
Wave Serpent, holo fields, Scatter laser, shuriken cannon
5 Wraithguard, D-scythes
Wave Serpent, holo fields, Scatter laser, shuriken cannon
5 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent, holo fields, Scatter laser, shuriken cannon
6 Windrider Jetbikes, 2 cannons
5 Rangers

Nightspinner, holo fields
2 Warwalkers, 2 Bright lances each
Wraithknight , Heavy cannons

1747

 The missions were all rulebook ones which made things nice as simple.  Points were awarded for a Win, Draw and Loss with bonus points for slaying the Warlord and most expensive unit.  Players then awarded a Sports score after the game - more on that later.

Round 1
So first off it was Emperor's Will and I was up against Luke Forrest with his beautifully painted Tyranid army.  You can read a very entertaining battle report here on Luke's blog MONKEYCHUKA.
He sums it all up pretty well, I play against Tyranids quite a bit at home so knew what a lot of his units did and were capable of.  You may like in Luke's article the comment about D-scythes, they were particulary useful in thinning the monstrous hordes.  The Wave Serpents really demonstrated their potential for dishing out mass fire as well over the terrain heavy board.  Luke was very fun to play against even though things were not going well for him and after losing his last piece of synapse he called the game as his scattered termagants fled the Eldar force.  WIN full 13 points

Round 2
Next it was Crusade and I was facing Alistair Allan with his yellow and black Tau.  The board had nice blocky pieces of urban terrain and deployment was set at Hammer and Anvil.  I set my grav tanks up hard against the cover while Alistair set up his forces including an infiltrating Shadowsun, Kroot and Stealth suits.  I made an awful lot of cover saves, I admit that and when my grav tanks got to move it only improved.  What I had expected to be a long range shoot out turned into a close range fire fight in the early turns with Shadowsun and the Stealth team attacking aNightspinner and Wave Serpent early on.  She did manage to destroy the Nightspinner but I locked her down in melee for several turns after my cannon wielding Wraithguard thinned her unit then assaulted, eventually killing her - turns out she is just as bad in combat as most other Tau.  My Dire Avengers used Battle Focus to good effect darting from concealment to gun down Kroot before dashing back to their objective. The Riptide hunkered down behind the same cover most of the game until concentrated fire topped off my my War Walkers destroyed it.  The Wraithknight moved down the board and by the end of the game assaulted and killed a lonely Fire Warrior on a rear objective.  4-5 Drones were all that was left of the Tau force where I think I had only lost the Nightspinner, some Jetbikes and a couple Dire Avengers.  WIN full 13 points

Round 3
So the end of the day had me facing my own kind in The Scouring. Ryan Pike had the other Iyanden list, though very different to mine.  He had Wraithblades, Wraithguard, Wraithseer, Warp Hunter, Hornets, Wraithlord, Fire Prism and only a single Wave Serpent.  There was plenty of terrain depicting an Ork refinery and as Ryan had first turn I set up defensively.  The objective roll had me in control of the higher value objectives and after cheekily telling Ryan I was going to roll a 6 to seize the initiative, I did just that!  I moved my forces to take advantage of his openly deployed units and after a single round of shooting I had destroyed his Wraithlord(also warlord), Wave Serpent, Warp Hunter, Fire Prism, Rangers and thinned his Wraithguard and I was in control of 4 objectives.  Ryan then called game and shook my hand!  I felt bad as this was the fastest game I had ever played but Ryan was still incredibly happy, I told him I would have given him 10 for sports if I could have.  I had destroyed all his ranged attacks and he was right in that I would pick away at his remaining units for the rest of the game.  Seemed he was happy to go home early too as I then spent the next 2.5 hours wandering about watching the variety of other games being played.  WIN full 13 points.

Round 4
So first game on Sunday was Purge the Alien and Hammer and Anvil deployment with Night Fight.  I had was facing the flying chaos list of Jordan Greene.  He had 2 Helldrakes, flying Daemon Prince, Defiler, Obliterators and 3 units of chaos marines in Rhinos.  Now I think Jordan had already wound himself up over this game and multiple times on Saturday he had said he didn't want to play me.  Cody has been rocking a chaos flying circus so I was familiar with the units and made good use of the boards length.  Jordan went first, deploying his Rhinos and embarked units hard up against some simple buildings.  That was his first turn as he had reserved the rest.  I swung the Wave Serpents wide on each side giving me LoS to the transports.  Being just within the maximum range and using the scatter/shield combo to twin link then bypass cover I destroyed 2 Rhinos.  Jordan's forces then were joined by the rest of his army bar one Helldrake.  Having units still onboard the Wave Serpents and being out of Vector Strike range meant I took little damage and would continue to do so.  The Wraithknight destroyed the Defiler at range with his heavy cannons and over a couple turns of evasive movement I had destroyed Jordan's Obilterators, last Rhino and both Helldrakes only losing my rangers I think.  Jordan called it on turn 4 awarding me full points as he went in search of coffee. I will say Jordan had some terrible luck at times including rolling multiple 1s when shooting the rear armour of a wave serpent with the deep striking Obliterators. WIN full 13 points.

Round 5
So it was the last round and it was Big Guns Never Tire.  My last opponent was Brendan Dee and his heavily armoured Imperial Guard.  I had faced Brendan before in a tournament and knew he would be a tough opponent.  Brendan had first turn and had rolled the warlord trait which bestowed Stealth and Move through Cover to his entire army and we were on a heavy Cityfight board.  Brendan took out my Nightspinner straight away with his Manticores knowing I would have retaliated onto his Aegis protected parking lot the same way.  Now I made a massive mistake straight away and only realised it too late.  I had moved my Wraithknight up the board aggressively, something I had previously told myself not to do.  I think it was his durability through all the other games that did it but it was a mistake nonetheless.  I should have just sat in a building in my zone holding an objective and using his long range attacks, I should have, but I didn't.  My army knocked around his chimeras and a Psyker unit but there were still plenty more Guard.  The Brendan's trio of Vendettas came on the board and along with disembarking melta squads the majority of the Guard army brought down my Wraithknight Warlord for the first time.  There was the Warlord point along with most expensive unit and the game point for being a Heavy choice.  From there I did knot give up and used my shrinking army to do what damage I could to his scoring units.  I managed to eventually kill his warlord and unit in melee again with the cannon Wraithguard.  My D-scythe Wraithguard got into the guard lines destroying a Manticore and many Guardsmen before being focus fired down.  In the final turns my Fortuned Farseer turbo boosted into Brendan's zone contesting an objective and IF it had ended on turn 5 I would have pulled a win out of my proverbial arse, but no the game continued and to my suprise the Vendettas deployed small guard units to contest my objectives!  After some desperate shooting and damned improved cover saves by the Guardsmen I had lost the game.  Brendan and I tallied our scores and I had still gotten the 2 bonus points for this round.  As Brendan had only scored 1 in a previous game I was up by 1 Battle point for the event.

When everyone was finished and the tables packed away Carson, our TO went through the results.  I had managed to pick up Best Painted which was very nice as both Luke and Brendan's armies were amazing.  Nathaniel got Best Sports.  Then Craig Stewart got 3rd with his Imperial Guard/Marine force.  Carson then told us that by 0.14 I had come 2nd and Brendan 1st.  I was very happy for Brendan as we had played a massive game and I was curious to find out where I had lost the lead.

After telling a few of the Fantasy players the 40k results I went back for a chat with Carson.  I had lost 3 Sportsmanship points over the event.  I was very dissapointed at this as even though I had been very strong in most of my games I felt that they were still fun and usually light hearted.  I then put forward my opinion on the Sports scoring for the event.  I have played in an increasing amount of Fantasy events in the last 2 and a bit years.  In Fantasy events in the Wellington region there is a clear expectation that you will get full Sports scores unless something dire happens, a reduction in score is then discussed with the TO, so without a second thought I awarded 6 out of 6 in every game as they were all good blokes to play against.  This was not how Carson, Brendan or a couple other players saw it.  Carson stood by his players pack as he should as TO, I will point out that the Sports or expectaion was never talked about at all during the event, Luke and I in the first round even assumed it was out of 5 until we double checked.  Brendan came from his Autralian experiences where out of say 30 you would only get around 20 somehow saving the higher Sports scores for your favourite opponents, this is why we vote our favourite player.  I gave my feedback for pro default scores and left it at that and with Cody who I might add came 5th with his Daemon/CSM flying circus and John Murrie who graciously gave us transport headed home to Levin.

When I arrived home I recieved a very lengthy message from Brendan Dee.  He explained his difference in expectaion of the soft scores and wanted them adjusted as he had not awared me full points in the last round.  I was honestly just happy I had not pissed someone off, but in a shining example of Sportsmanship Brendan contacted Carson and asked that I be given the same score as I had awarded him, knowing full well I would take the lead.  Carson sent out the final results and breakdown last night with an explanation of the change to me having first place. 

So because of what I see to be confusion over the expectation of soft scores we had this little problem at the end.  Again full credit to Brendan for pushing this change through, you sir are a gentleman.  I am still of the opinion that full sports should be the default expectation or at the very least the process be addressed at the start of the event, I know the local Fantasy players agree.  In the results a few players lost a point in Sports and I would not be suprised if this was down to not catching a first round blunder and awarding 5 out of 6 like Luke and I almost did.  Other than that it was an incredibly smooth tournament and I thank Carson Turnbull and my opponents Luke, Alistair, Ryan(sorry...), Jordan and Brendan for some fun games.

Runefang VC List

Here is the list I submitted for Runefang which is in a couple weeks.

As previously posted its a variation of the list I played with in the Dark Valley campaign.

Without the BK bus this is a list I am very comfortable playing with. Having used variations of the infantry list since the current VC book was out this is what it boils down too for me.

Ghoul King, Red Fury, Ogre Blade, Other Trickster's Shard, Dragon Bane Gem
Master Necromancer, Level 4 Death

Necromancer, Level 1 Vampires, Dispel Scroll, Ruby Ring of Ruin
Cairn Wraith
Cairn Wraith
Cairn Wraith

5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
20 Zombies with standard
20 Zombies with standard
20 Zombies with standard
40 Skeletons with Full command and banner of swiftness

3 Vargheists with champ
8 Crypt Horrors
2 Fell Bats

Terrorgheist
Terrorgheist

I think I have learnt to use the chaff well through many many games and the advice of others. Good application of the Dire wolves and Fell bats keep making it a more effective force.

I am very happy to have the 8 Crypt Horrors back. They give the skeleton block which my Ghoul King leads a massive amount of support and the potential to tarpit some hard units is fantastic - right Wil ;)

The skeletons are a better investment than the ghouls for my build. Having the simple ability to swift reform and a simple banner does make a big difference.

Still have to be in the zone to win big with this but as usual it does depend on the opponent - put me up against Warriors of Chaos anyday

Looking forward to seeing all the usual suspects down in Wellington in 2 weeks

New Mourkain - Dark Valley campaign

Last weekend I had a fantasic time at the House o Dunn playing in the now dubbed 'Dark Valley Campaign' ooh err.

As I had posted I took the Ghoul King led hordes to forge a new Undead home and I guess I was successful as I carved out my Northern corner in the mountains. You can see on the final campaign turn I'm the grey tiles. Cody - white, Pete - Blue, Ryan - Orange, Wil - Green, James - Purple, Joel - Red and Mike - Yellow. Cody might be in for some not so friendly games if I want to expand my kingdom.



With the start of the campaign opening in an mass land grab from Pete's Skaven forces and Ryan's Blood Dragon VC, I consolidated the North east mountains while Cody's Chaos took the North West. Wil's Ogres took the south west swamplands, Mikes Beastmen and Joel Wood Elves haggled over the southern coastal resorts and James skaven/Chaos had some western lands.

Over the two days I fought all the others except Ryan which makes sense as why would the Undead nation need to squabble... yet. Even though I ended 5th in Empire points - due to not being able to build cities in the mountains, see what do Dwarves know, I was very happy with the armies performance over all. I won vs both Chaos players, Ogres and Beastmen but lost to Skaven and Wood Elves. I took the following.

Ghoul King, Red Fury, Flying Horror, DBG, OTS, Ogre Blade
Master Necro, Level 4, Death

Vampire, Level 2, Forbidden Lore(Heavens), Aura of Dark Majesty, Heavy Armour, Shield, Hellstead, Dragonhelm, Sword of Swift Slaying
Necromancer, level 1 Vampires, Ruby Ring, Dispel Scroll
Wraith x3

40 Skeletons, FC, Banner of Swiftness
21 Zombies, standard
20 Zombies, standard
20 Zombies, standard
5 Direwolves
5 Direwolves
5 Direwolves
5 Direwolves

3 Vargheists
3 Fell Bats

Terrorgheist
Terrorgheist

Subtle I know, now I tryed out the Vampire with Forbidden Lore for Terrorgheist support and yes he did occasionally mean an additional screaming wound was caused but I think he got killed in 5 of the 6 games and gave up nearly 300 vp each time so he is going to be let go. We may see him rding a bus in the future...

The Terrorgheists did very well most of the time and I think my use of them is improving thanks to good Dire Wolf and Fell Bat placement. Pete's skaven did manage to smash both of the Terrorgheists on turn 1 with his warmachine and magical shenanigans while Joel whittled them down with his mass shooting but that's going to happen against some armies no matter what. They really proved themselves as usual against the both James and Cody's chaos forces. Targetting those elite units and bypassing the armour saves is gold for the VC.

Death magic was overall exceptionally useful, keeping the pressure on target characters with sniping and forcing through Doom and Darkness every turn for extra Screaming results.

Vargheists do what they always do, go bat shit and hopefully kill stuff, most of the time they earn their points back and are a great distraction unit.

Now there was some discussion on my use of Skeletons over the usual ghouls. I took the skeletons for their flexibilty and passive bonuses. With the Wraiths deployed in the same unit the Ghoul King can sit in the second rank happily most of the time and with Flying Horror can still launch out on opportune targets. The ability to swift reform was so nice to have and a simple banner and a couple parries did make a difference. I like the ghouls but the Ghoul King and Wraiths do all the damage and blocking so the ghouls were not getting used that well. I'll take extra bodies and maneuverabilty thanks.

Looking forward and still resisting the cut and paste bk bus build I will drop the solo flying Vampire and Flying Horror on the Ghoul King - I rarely use it and sometimes when I do it really does not pay off. In return I can add my 8 Crypt Horrors back in, thats 24 toughness 5 regenerating wounds! It should protect my Skeleton bus quite well and I do miss having them in there.

As a bonus everything is painted and all I need to do is magnetise a few zombie bases and thats the army I'm comfortable with all done for now. I did get a finecast mounted Manfred in excellent condition for a bargain from trademe a couple weeks ago so I may paint him for when I do buy thast bus ticket... helps to have a nice lord model ready to ride.

Homecon III

This weekend I'm off to Wellington to take part in Homecon III, thank you very much for the invite Pete.

I will be using a list I have become very comfortable with over the last few months. Every event I have played at with the Vampire Counts has improved my playstyle with the list. Sometimes this has been advice from another player or seeing an opponent use a tactic or move on my army that I can simulate.

It will be lead by the Ghoul King as usual, really should name him as I have used the SGK with little variation since I first got this version of the book. I really like the defence that the Nightshroud Wight King brings as well. Cut the ghoul block down a little to get another 5 wolves. The baby Necro with Ruby Ring and Scroll has performed well since I began using him at last years events, I'll thank Joel for that useful little build. I see Ryan is using the same one too. Can't turn my back on Death magic from the level 4 Necro either as it gives me some ranged threat and the always welcome Doom and Darkness make those Terrorgheist scream all that much better.

Ghoul King, Red Fury, Beguile, Ogre Blade, Other Trickster's Shard, Dragonbane Gem
Master Necro, Level 4, Death magic

Necromancer, Level 1, Vampires, Dispel Scroll, Ruby Ring
Wight King, Heavy Armour, Shield, Nightshroud, Luckstone
Cairn Wraith
Cairn Wraith
cairn Wraith

5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
31 Ghouls inc Ghast
20 Zombies, Standard, musician
20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard

8 Crypt Horrors
2 Fell Bats

Terrorgheist
Terrorgheist

Looking forward to 5 good tough games and looking at the first round draw here I get to tussle with the goblin hordes first off tomorrow!

What Next?

I am currently doing the finishing touches on my Vampire Counts army for Skitterleap this weekend. As we all know an army is never truly finished but with selection of units I will have painted the undead are good for now.

So with no events planned for the near future except for the Team Champs in Feb and not willing to paint for other people at the moment, I find myself in a luxurious position I havn't had for a while. I get to paint whatever I want... thing is, what?

I really want a new 40k army and I know my regular gaming buddies have heard me say this an awful lot so I'm sorry. I've had a very good time with the Eldar and they're really fun in 6th ed but after 4 years of consistent play I want new toys. I think 6th ed is a good system and have enjoyed all the games I have played I just want a project to be passionate about like I was with my Eldar.

So ideas I have had and like are as follows. Most stuff is inspired by the Horus Heresy and with all the awesome kits FW is putting out any project would incorporate some heresy era models. Also all these ideas are Loyal or Chaos marines.

Alpha Legion leaning more towards heresy era with a less chaotic appearance. They are one of my favourite chapter in the HH books but I think they could look quite boring on the table if I stayed true to their fluff as they strive to appear very uniform without embellishment on their armour. I could go the new chaos codex route and use Huron for Master of Deception, cultists and marine squads and 'chaos' it up a bit more.

Imperial Fists. I like the idea of them being stalwart defenders and picture models based on fortified emplacements or on ruins. I would embellish the armour somewhat adding more gold to the yellow I think. As it uses the marine codex there are plenty of unit options available and I definitely would pack some Sternguard in there.

Night Lords. Always liked the imagery though I thnk they blinged them up a bit too much in the new CSM codex. Too much gold on that Helldrake for me, not nasty looking enough. Would try to make them very dark looking trying to emulate a dark environment. Where I could use the Blood Angel codex I would most likely use the new CSM one.

Blood Angels. Just finished Fear to Tread and at the end of 5th I was playing some fun games with the BA. They give me a lot of scope to make an angelic army with all the bells and whistles but I also like the idea of the feral bloodthirsty blood angels that were roaming the battlefield of Signus Prime in the later part of the book. So a lot of variety here. They play quite well and have the flying brick - stormraven which gets all the nice new flyer rules in 6th.

Dark Angels. New book coming, rumoured to be a Matt Ward book! Will most likely have broken plasma units in it thanks to Mr Ward. I have the Dark Vengeance models which also goes for the above Chaos options. Would model and paint them as more individual knight like units using the black preheresy colour rather than the green.

Generic Chaos Marine army. Don't worry about a legion and just go all out mutated evil. Savage bezerkers and Daemonic influences.

So if anyone has any suggestions or votes for something I've listed or something they themselves think I could pull off please share. It doesn't have to be marine based at the end of the day. Elaborate with possible units and allies if you want, never know what the community can come up with.

WFB - Practice for the Strigoi's horde

On Sunday I get to have a game against John from Stumpy Heaven who will be bringing his High Elves. We will be using the proposed armies we intend to take to Horned Rat/Gobbo in a couple weeks and as its mainly a 40K group here it will be great to have the practice for Fantasy.

My list which I'm pretty settled on is

Strigoi Ghoul King
Sword of Strife
Other Tricksters Shard
Dragonbane Gem
Red Fury
Aura of Dark Majesty

Master Necromancer, level 4

Vampire
Heavy Armour, shield
Dispel Scroll
Dragonhelm
Seed of Rebirth
Aura of Dark Majesty

Tomb Banshee
Tomb Banshee
Tomb Banshee

25 Zombies, FC

25 Zombies, FC

5 Dire Wolves

38 Crypt Ghouls, Ghast

6 Crypt Horrors

2 Fell Bats
2 Fell Bats
2 Fell Bats

Mortis Engine, Tome

3 Cairn Wraiths inc Banshee

This is blatantly a 'scream' list though it lacks a Terrorgheist, it wont be until after the tournament I acquire one sadly. The Vampires will join the Ghoul unit with a couple Banshees and take advantage of the dual Auras.

Crypt Horrors sit in front of the Mortis engine to soak the odd cannonball... maybe and get the regen buff.

Master necro sits in a growing zombie bunker while the other shambling mass head toward something I dont want to fight.

Add redirectors and nuisances and there you have it.

I have had suggestions of slightly different item builds on the characters but these seem good though I am on the fence whether to take the Sword of Strife for the extra 2 attacks and stacking Red Fury or go for +2 Strength for the same points for more confirmed damage.

Back from Homecon II

Over the weekend I took part in a Warhammer Fantasy fun tournament at Pete Dunn's in Wellington. I took the new Vampire Counts along to start learning how they work.

Now I didn't do very well coming in 3rd to last (12 out of 14) but I am starting to see whats good in the list.

First off I think my lord choices were alright, having the Strigoi Ghoul King(the chap pictured above) and a Master Necromancer. The Ghoul King did very well in close combat and the build I used worked well. He was very effective in killing rank and file and immediately pushing combat res in my favour where he was concerned. He did die a few times though, once to a bad combat result and crumbling along with the remnants of his ghoul unit against a massive skaven block, similar thing vs dwarves and after beating the crap out of some skinks 3 kroxigors pounded him on the head and he didnt make a single save - thbaks for that Hagen ;)

The Master Necromancer is a bargain, I gave him a dispel scroll but I'm inclined to give him a save of some sort in the future. Invocation of Nehek from him is fantastic. I had him in a Zombie bunker which grew by 2d6+4 each time it was cast and in a couple games casting it at a higher power for a bigger AoE worked well refilling units. Might try and get Master of the Dead in too so I can make those skeleton units bigger.

Hero wise I thnik the Banshee is situational though good fun and she did a bit of damage though being able to head off solo in some games to harass small units worked well. The Cairn Wraith did sweet F A, I love the model but those points can go elsewhere. The Terror was ok to utilise fear vs fear causing units but that doesnt happen a lot. He would theoretically be good in challenges vs units with no magic but it didn't really come up, may use him more but for 5 more points I could get another Necromancer. The Vampire Hero with fear bomb powers was a bit of a waste. I had him with the Screaming Banner but it would have been better to have Quickblood and kitted for combat as killing rank and file iswhat Vampires are really good at. The Cursed Book is pretty good, all the hexes are useful though mine seemed to gobble up 3 power dice each time I used it, probably will keep using it.

I had a simple mix for core - ghouls, skeletons, zombies and a small dire wolf unit. The ghouls were very good with the Strigoi but I would probably stick him with skeletons next time for the increased unit size and save. Tane suggested Zombies which I will try too as skeletons didnt do a lot but neither will zombies though they are cheaper. Screaming Banner was hit and miss. Dire Wolves are a cheap chaff unit though one wasn't enough.

Special - The Grave guard were awesome when they actually got into combat. My opponents knew what they did so avoided them almost as much as the Ghoul King. I think a Vampire in with them would help a lot as the high initiative attacks would offset the wights ASL with GW and just make the unit even more of a monster. I have the new Wight King model and I think are a bargain for the points so thats one to use too. Fell Bats were a cheap nuisance. The Spirit Hosts were pretty good, people mainly tryed to avoid them so they are a very good unit to protect flanks or annoy flankers and small units.

I only took one rare and that was the Mortis Engine - the biggest fire magnet in my army. In four of the five games it got destroyed in turn 2! Against Joel's High Elves it lasted until turn 4 and the higher strength detonation was certainly felt. In the first 2 games I foolishly had it moving along the battleline with the main force where it got into combat with Neils Bretonnian Knights or Daves Skaven and was beat down through combat results. Learning from this I then put it behind my lines but Tane and his magic artillery had 2 solid rounds of blasting it with flaming shots and down it went. Game 5 against Hagens Lizardmen had the Slaan burn it down with flaming magic missiles. However if you can keep it going it is a good bit of kit for the army. The regeneration aura is damn useful if you can roll 6's and coupled with units with built in regen - ghoul king and crypt horrors for example, it makes them more durable too. The Tome upgrade was great with +2 casting and an extra banshee howl is good for the mix too.

Other rares I plan on trying are the Terrorgheist for sure, Ideally a build with 2 for stereo screaming would be fantastic. Also the Varghulf is good for its points with regen, being able to march under its own power, hatred and thunderstomp - if anyone has one they'd like to part with let me know.

So there is a break down of my army, if any of the more experienced fantasy players out there including those I played against can offer any suggestions please do as I am going to stick with these undead fiends and finally have a fully painted fantasy army at last.

Coteaz list

This is a WIP list for my Inquisition build, other than being very good on the tabletop it's very appealing to me from a fluff and hobby perspective.

Some of the choices are not optimal and I know I don't have any of the amazing bullshit Psyflmen Dreadnoughts but this a list with units in mind I will convert/paint up. And some of its still bloody good.

Coteaz 100
Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, Psyker, Rad grenades, power armour 78

Techmarine, rad grenades, force halberd 110
Callidus Assassin 145

7 DCA(death cult assassins), 3 Crusaders, warrior w/meltagun 164
7 DCA(death cult assassins), 3 Crusaders, warrior w/meltagun 164
3 Multimelta Servitors, 2 Jokaero, 1 DCA, 1 Crusader, Mystic in Chimera 195
10 Warriors, 3 meltaguns, 6 hotshot lasguns in Chimera 155
9 Psykers, 1 warrior in Chimera 149

Stormraven with Typhoon ML and Twin Plasma Cannons 230
Land Raider Redeemer with Multimelta, psybolt ammo 260

The Techmarine and Ordo Xenos each team up with the assault focused DCA/Crusader units in the Stormraven and Land Raider Redeemer. Coteaz bunkers with the servitor/Jokaero Chimera. Melta and Psyker squads go roaming in their Chimeras. Callidus is just fun and goes after backline units. The Mystic can enable a secure Deepstrike of the Stormraven if needed and visually will form a nice retinue for Coteaz with his 'bodyguard' DCA and Crusader.

The hotshot on the warriors is so I can model a squad which can be used as an imperial guard vet squad and also the Psyker unit could be used for IG. Will probably model the Techmarine into a high ranking tech adept. I may build a flamer focused Deradnought to drop with the Stormraven and model it as the tech adepts creation.

All this will have to wait til the Dark Eldar and Sisters are done but at least I can look forward to it and tweak the list in the meantime.