He chose the polar bear look, so I went for an assortment of colours to contrast with the fur without being too harsh.
Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Painting - Werebear
This Werebear and human form are from Mierce Miniatures. I got them as part of a Kickstarter a couple years ago and since passed them on.
The new owner Adam intends it for Mordheim and affiliated to Kislev.
He chose the polar bear look, so I went for an assortment of colours to contrast with the fur without being too harsh.
The Werebear is mounted on a 40mm sculpted base, so you can get a idea of its size. Below is the big chap in his human form which I colour matched to match. Based on a 25mm base with freehand stonework.
Now back to the Knight.
He chose the polar bear look, so I went for an assortment of colours to contrast with the fur without being too harsh.
Friday, September 4, 2015
Painting - WHFB Daemons of Chaos unit fillers
I havn't been happy with the basing on my Daemon army since I first got them on the table. This was a combination of time and some mismatched basing materials.
With Crack's Call on the horizon I am taking the opportunity to rebase the Daemons and really improve their presentation.
Taking inspiration from the PS4 game Bloodborne I am basing them as if they and their cultist minions are sweeping through a ramshackle ruined city.
I have built the fillers and bases out of greystuff, miniature scale ceramic bricks, plasticard and a variety of bits that Joel left me when he moved to Melborne.
Here are the first two nearing completion, there will be more to come.
This piece will either have a tentacled cultist or Pink Horror added to it.
The repurposed Necromancer will be joined by 3 Pink Horrors and another cultist on this 5 wide base.
Building these has really inspired me to build more pieces like it for the game systems I play.
With Crack's Call on the horizon I am taking the opportunity to rebase the Daemons and really improve their presentation.
Taking inspiration from the PS4 game Bloodborne I am basing them as if they and their cultist minions are sweeping through a ramshackle ruined city.
I have built the fillers and bases out of greystuff, miniature scale ceramic bricks, plasticard and a variety of bits that Joel left me when he moved to Melborne.
Here are the first two nearing completion, there will be more to come.
Building these has really inspired me to build more pieces like it for the game systems I play.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
High Elves - a couple games in
So since the High Elves came out last month I have managed to get a couple games in against Cody's Chaos Warriors.
Now I will point out that Cody is fairly new to Warhammer Fantasy so he is learning his army while I get to try out the new rules. I did get major wins in both games but have yet to play a more experienced Fantasy player. A lot has already been said on many other blogs and forums so I apologise if I seem to be parroting what already has been said but this is after actual gameplay.
So things I have learnt..
Lords - Loremaster or Archmage, not both - They both have their uses. In the first game I used a Loremaster with a large Swordmaster block in what I saw as a Hoeth themed list. The ability to spam Magic missiles and buff the unit for combat with wildform was fantastic, nothing flash in CC though. I did not miss the bonus to dispel but in a tournament environment it could bite me in the arse. The second game had with with a ranged list and an Archmage. I used Shadow and to good effect. I got withering so forced that through onto prime targets. An initiative drop from Miasma followed by Pit lay waste to a block of Chaos Warriors. Really depends on your army build of course. I used Alith Anar in the second game and was too eager with him, deploying him with Shadow Warriors behind the Chaos lines. Unfortunately for Alith the Daemon Prince he shot twice with his portable Both thrower made both its Ward saves and 4++ only keeps you going so far. I do think he has some great uses for his points and will use him again but from within my own lines.
Book of Hoeth - With either of the two casters above in your list of course it's an auto include. I haven't made good use of it as I haven't faced an enemy caster of higher level but it will be invaluable.
Core - Nice to have the variety. Reavers are great, I did take bows and spears on mine and 2 units did the trick against the Chaos chaff. I used LSG in the first game about 25 strong. They sat back and fired most of the game then reformed deep for combat in the final turns. I think I'll stick with Archers, the extra range, cheaper cost and Martial Prowess make them a better all round choice as armour won't save your T3 elves in the long run. Nothing wrong with Spearmen if you want to support your elite melee units but I wont need them yet. I used a 5 man Silver Helm unit in the second game, redirected some Skullcrushers and then died horribly, did what they were supposed to then.
Special - I used a unit of 21 Swordmasters with BotWD and they did alright but I was facing an army with a lot of magical attacks so not too fair for Cody's dual DPs or ensorcelled knights. I like the Swordmasters but when you look hard at the White Lions and Phoenix Guard I just think they are better in a small supporting role. In the second game I tryed White Lions with BotWD, sure less attacks than the SM but with Martial prowess, the extra strength and stubborn you can clearly see why they are the go to unit. I would love to include a block of Phoenix Guard with Razor in a couple builds I've made but as I do not own any they can wait. Shadow Warriors were a cheap nuisance so I can see myself always squeezing in a 5 man squad. I used a 5 man Dragon Prince unit in the first game which got a lucky flank charge on some Skullcrushers and after some terrible Chaos saves ran the crushers down. As others have noted a big unit isn't that flash so if I use them their unit size will stay small. I have yet to try the others but plan on using some chariots.
Rare - The drop in price of the bolt throwers has been a blessing as with all the MC and MI about it gives some punch against them. They have been effective in both games and with the different fire modes I'll be including 2+ in my lists. I proxied some Sisters of Averlorn and had success with them. The AP against evil doers and potential against regen and ethereal complements the rest of the shooting. In both games I also proxied a Frost Phoenix, in both games it was great as a support unit to the combats with either the SM or WL. It even saw off a Chimera in the first game. I do however know that in the cannon rich tournament environment I play in it may not last long, I was usually lucky to have a functioning Terrorgheist in my VC but that's because I played with 2. This really has me on the fence as to whether I spend the money on one or not. Eagles still do the job well but with Reavers and cheap Silver helms you can spend those Rare points elsewhere.
So my current list I will try next looks like this, very Nagarythe themed but still functional and only slightly changed from what I used in the second game. It is very shooting based but it's a nice point of difference from my Vampire Counts.
Alith Anar
Archmage level 4 - probably shadow, Book of Hoeth, Ironcurse Icon(I had 5 points)
Noble, BSB, heavy armour, Reaver Bow, enchanted shield
10 Archers, m
17 Archers, m, st
5 Reavers, bow/spears
5 Reavers, bow/spears
5 Silver Helms, shields, m
5 Shadow Warriors
Tiranoc Chariot
25 WL, fc, BotWD
3xBT
5 Sisters
Now I was going to use the Frost Phoenix again but for 240 points can include another BT and more Sisters. 3 Tiranoc chariots or 2 Lion Chariots? Even more Shadow Warriors?
So please any suggestions would be welcome.
Now I will point out that Cody is fairly new to Warhammer Fantasy so he is learning his army while I get to try out the new rules. I did get major wins in both games but have yet to play a more experienced Fantasy player. A lot has already been said on many other blogs and forums so I apologise if I seem to be parroting what already has been said but this is after actual gameplay.
So things I have learnt..
Lords - Loremaster or Archmage, not both - They both have their uses. In the first game I used a Loremaster with a large Swordmaster block in what I saw as a Hoeth themed list. The ability to spam Magic missiles and buff the unit for combat with wildform was fantastic, nothing flash in CC though. I did not miss the bonus to dispel but in a tournament environment it could bite me in the arse. The second game had with with a ranged list and an Archmage. I used Shadow and to good effect. I got withering so forced that through onto prime targets. An initiative drop from Miasma followed by Pit lay waste to a block of Chaos Warriors. Really depends on your army build of course. I used Alith Anar in the second game and was too eager with him, deploying him with Shadow Warriors behind the Chaos lines. Unfortunately for Alith the Daemon Prince he shot twice with his portable Both thrower made both its Ward saves and 4++ only keeps you going so far. I do think he has some great uses for his points and will use him again but from within my own lines.
Book of Hoeth - With either of the two casters above in your list of course it's an auto include. I haven't made good use of it as I haven't faced an enemy caster of higher level but it will be invaluable.
Core - Nice to have the variety. Reavers are great, I did take bows and spears on mine and 2 units did the trick against the Chaos chaff. I used LSG in the first game about 25 strong. They sat back and fired most of the game then reformed deep for combat in the final turns. I think I'll stick with Archers, the extra range, cheaper cost and Martial Prowess make them a better all round choice as armour won't save your T3 elves in the long run. Nothing wrong with Spearmen if you want to support your elite melee units but I wont need them yet. I used a 5 man Silver Helm unit in the second game, redirected some Skullcrushers and then died horribly, did what they were supposed to then.
Special - I used a unit of 21 Swordmasters with BotWD and they did alright but I was facing an army with a lot of magical attacks so not too fair for Cody's dual DPs or ensorcelled knights. I like the Swordmasters but when you look hard at the White Lions and Phoenix Guard I just think they are better in a small supporting role. In the second game I tryed White Lions with BotWD, sure less attacks than the SM but with Martial prowess, the extra strength and stubborn you can clearly see why they are the go to unit. I would love to include a block of Phoenix Guard with Razor in a couple builds I've made but as I do not own any they can wait. Shadow Warriors were a cheap nuisance so I can see myself always squeezing in a 5 man squad. I used a 5 man Dragon Prince unit in the first game which got a lucky flank charge on some Skullcrushers and after some terrible Chaos saves ran the crushers down. As others have noted a big unit isn't that flash so if I use them their unit size will stay small. I have yet to try the others but plan on using some chariots.
Rare - The drop in price of the bolt throwers has been a blessing as with all the MC and MI about it gives some punch against them. They have been effective in both games and with the different fire modes I'll be including 2+ in my lists. I proxied some Sisters of Averlorn and had success with them. The AP against evil doers and potential against regen and ethereal complements the rest of the shooting. In both games I also proxied a Frost Phoenix, in both games it was great as a support unit to the combats with either the SM or WL. It even saw off a Chimera in the first game. I do however know that in the cannon rich tournament environment I play in it may not last long, I was usually lucky to have a functioning Terrorgheist in my VC but that's because I played with 2. This really has me on the fence as to whether I spend the money on one or not. Eagles still do the job well but with Reavers and cheap Silver helms you can spend those Rare points elsewhere.
So my current list I will try next looks like this, very Nagarythe themed but still functional and only slightly changed from what I used in the second game. It is very shooting based but it's a nice point of difference from my Vampire Counts.
Alith Anar
Archmage level 4 - probably shadow, Book of Hoeth, Ironcurse Icon(I had 5 points)
Noble, BSB, heavy armour, Reaver Bow, enchanted shield
10 Archers, m
17 Archers, m, st
5 Reavers, bow/spears
5 Reavers, bow/spears
5 Silver Helms, shields, m
5 Shadow Warriors
Tiranoc Chariot
25 WL, fc, BotWD
3xBT
5 Sisters
Now I was going to use the Frost Phoenix again but for 240 points can include another BT and more Sisters. 3 Tiranoc chariots or 2 Lion Chariots? Even more Shadow Warriors?
So please any suggestions would be welcome.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Pointy Eared Bastards
Last weekend like a lot of my knife eared kin I got the new High Elf book and no matter what the Druchii in Asur clothing are saying on Ulthuan.net I really am very happy with the book. I also picked up the Spell cards and the new Loremaster model.
Now in the round based game (40K) I usually grumble like an unupdated Dwarf at the writings of Matt Ward but this time I think he has put out some good work. The variety in the new army book opens up a lot of options for themed lists that can be usuable in friendly and tournament games. New Core and Rare choices opens it up nicely.
In 30 minutes of sitting down with the book with Joel from Brush of Doom and Ryan, we worked out a nice themed Lothern Sea Guard list using the new Skycutters, cheaper RBT's and a couple new character options. For the hobbyist, viable forces can be built for all off the ten realms I'm sure. I'm still looking at building an army of Saphery/Hoeth, with the new Loremaster Lord choice and IoB Swordmasters I have painted it would look great.
The variety in the book has lead me to make about half a dozen lists, some fluffy and some more balanced but for now I will take stock of my High Elf collection, see what still needs freeing from sprues and with impending Eldar coming see what I can afford. I will post some lists as I refine and get a chance to have a couple games.
However Warhammer Fantasy is not the only place my elven inclinations are coming through. In our Monday night Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords game which I am actually getting to play - thank you Aaron. I am playing an Elven Wizard named Thyll(short for some name long and elven). Im encompassing the Elven arrogance and treating the other party members, especially the human Paladin like simple hirelings. It hasn't been hard to prove my Elven superiority though as I have managed to be the last one standing in a couple important encounters and managed to drop or crowd control our opponents with some well timed spells - whats wrong with spamming level 0 acid splash. As of last mondays game we have reached the lofty heights of 3rd level, so with level 2 spells and augment summoning added to my feats its time for those Thistletop Goblins to get whats coming to them!
So having finally painted the Mage from IoB I can put aside the prepainted D&D wizard and put this guy on the table for the Pathfinder campaign and what will be numerous uses as an Archmage or scroll caddy in Warhammer.
In the third Elven incarnation I have my beloved Eldar which if you believe the word of the internet will be the next to get a new book. This makes me a very happy gamer. Sure I expect Runes of Warding to get nerfed, tanks to be not that points effecient and to end up spending way too much money on new models but they are my favourite army which I have played through multiple editions of the game. Plastic Wraithguard and a giant Wraithknight thing will probably be the first purchases I make to my trusty Wraith forces and if the new Eldar flyer kit is like the Dark Eldar one I'll get a couple of those as well.
Within the next couple of weeks I should get the Elves on the table and with some proxying see what works and what I can get in order for the next event, Horned Rat/Gobbo.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
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
Saturday, March 23, 2013
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.
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.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
To build a new Mourkain
This coming weekend Cody, Ryan, Wil and I are all attending a fun Warhammer Fantasy campaign weekend in Wellington. It's a small group playing and we are using some simple Mighty Empire rules that proved successful at a Wellington campaign weekends a couple years ago.
Now I was going to bring back old Team Resplendant which was full of High Elven goodness that did it's very best to hold it's borders even going so far as to ally with the Dwarven team at the time! But the two shelves of painted Undead far outweighed the incomplete collection of Elves from Ulthuan so Vampire Counts it is.
I almost, almost decided to use the ever popular BK bus but no I shall persevere with my Ghoul King and his court. This is a campaign so it is my Ghoul Kings intention to wrestle the lands of the living from its weak lords and fashion it into a new Mourkain where his army of darkness shall restore the Strigoi name to its former glory. We have been told to have no alliances so I shall be wary of Ryan's Blood Dragons and any emmisaries. Cody is using the new Warriors of Chaos and Wil is commanding his successful Ogre forces. Intercepted communications tell of Skaven, Wood Elves and Beastmen in the area and I expect to see the new incarnation of Daemons invade the mortal realms.
With most of my models ready to go I have set upon some units needing a little attention to finish properly. Today I finished the Vargheists and mounted them on some left over Graveyard bases I had from my Titan forge Crypt Horrors. I painted them to match the GW ghouls I have in my army to unify the look. Now to repaint some infantry bases from the old goblin green of 4th and 5th ed to the steel legion drab I use now. Then my forces will be ready to fight for Ushoran and a new Mourkain!
Now I was going to bring back old Team Resplendant which was full of High Elven goodness that did it's very best to hold it's borders even going so far as to ally with the Dwarven team at the time! But the two shelves of painted Undead far outweighed the incomplete collection of Elves from Ulthuan so Vampire Counts it is.
I almost, almost decided to use the ever popular BK bus but no I shall persevere with my Ghoul King and his court. This is a campaign so it is my Ghoul Kings intention to wrestle the lands of the living from its weak lords and fashion it into a new Mourkain where his army of darkness shall restore the Strigoi name to its former glory. We have been told to have no alliances so I shall be wary of Ryan's Blood Dragons and any emmisaries. Cody is using the new Warriors of Chaos and Wil is commanding his successful Ogre forces. Intercepted communications tell of Skaven, Wood Elves and Beastmen in the area and I expect to see the new incarnation of Daemons invade the mortal realms.
With most of my models ready to go I have set upon some units needing a little attention to finish properly. Today I finished the Vargheists and mounted them on some left over Graveyard bases I had from my Titan forge Crypt Horrors. I painted them to match the GW ghouls I have in my army to unify the look. Now to repaint some infantry bases from the old goblin green of 4th and 5th ed to the steel legion drab I use now. Then my forces will be ready to fight for Ushoran and a new Mourkain!
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Busy February
As we near the end of the month I am looking forward to a quieter March.
Early in the month I attended Over the Top in Hamilton with Cody, Ryan and Wil. This involved painting up another Dreadknight and character for Cody as well as some weeapon modifications for my Wraithlords. As Ryan has already posted he and Wil played in the Fantasy event while Cody and I played 40k. I really enjoyed the tournament and played top notch blokes in all the games against Tyranids, Grey Knights, Dark Eldar, Tau, Space Marines and Orks. As I have been playing a lot more Fantasy I wanted to have a good look at the state of NZ 40k now that 6th ed has been out for a while. No shock to see fantastic use of allies, flyers, new psychic powers and larger troop units making up a lot of the armies. There is no messing around in the 40k scene which is awesome and the standard of armies on display was impressive too. The Eldar have been relegated to being the Psychic servants of a few armies most notably Tau with Divination amping up the Tau's considerable shooting capabilities. I took a heavy Wraith list lead by Eldrad and at 1500 and 2000 points being joined by a Wraithseer toting a D-cannon. I had a couple bad match ups(Dark Eldar) and a couple games could have gone past turn 5 for a better result in my favour but thems the breaks and I finished up with 24th of 38. I really enjoyed talking with other players and listening to their views and army construction ideas, it gives me plenty to think about going forward with 40K.
After a late but fun filled trip back home and only a couple hours sleep it was off to work cramming in paperwork before an early flight the following day to Queenstown to visit some the impressive Otago stone fruit orchards - I work in produce. After a couple full days around the primary Otago growing areas it was a late flight back home. After work the next day some quick base colouring was required on a couple Hellstead mounted Vampires as it was time for the NZTC!
I was a proud member of Team OMEN captained by Sam over at Hashut's Right Hand, I brought the chafftastic Vampire Count list rocking the dual Terrorgheists. I highly recommend checking out some of the Youtube clips we made. They may not be full of tactical inspiration but gamers should get a laugh out of some. Sporting our fine Yoda adorned team shirts we made our plays and faced 6 great teams including the 3 who placed. Day one was an incredibly long day of Warhammer not finishing until 10pm after 4 games! OMEN had a mix of results and I lamented the loss of my Ghoul King in a couple of key moments which resulted in my army shitting itself in spectacular fashion, I did get a couple big key wins though too so I was happy after the first day. Heading back to Ryan's place with Cody afterwards we watched some Top Gun and the Thing!? while having a couple beers. At some stage when I decided it was bedtime Ryan declared it was time to head into town - this resulted in a big 'F... off!' from me as it was well past my bedtime but as Ryan and Cody were about to head out the door I threw my blanket aside, donned appropriate attire and followed them into the capitals night.
Well after a noisey night or should that be early morning of more beer, music and dancing we staggered back and I got some sleep before the final couple rounds of NZTC. With a strained awakening and emulating my undead forces with a shambling trip to the bathroom I realised it was near game time so self cast Vanhels Danse Macarbe and hastened out the door with the others for the tournament.
Chugging down energy drink and water I faced off against Beastmen first and like my teammate James drinking on the first day it may have improved my play as I got a good win. We were sitting middle of the field after the 5th round with the opportunity to claw a little bit higher. Our fortunes were not to be realised and after facing off against NZ Hammered we tumbled back down the ranks to 7th. I again managed to turn what was looking to be a favourable result versus Warriors of Chaos into a big loss as the Ghoul King got Gatewayed inspite of mass dispel dice being thrown, thems the breaks in the hard game of Warhammer Fantasy folks. I would like to say a massive thank you to Pete Dunn for putting the event together and congratulations on his team the Von Trapps for winning. Also tankyou to Ryan and Locky for running the two days in a fine display of organisation. The team format was awesome and provided a format for using some different and riskier builds. This may not have been successful for us but Team OMEN will be back with a better selection of forces at our command.
Back to work for a few days then this weekend it was off to Brisbane for the Soundwave Rock festival. No gaming involved but my powers of finding a gaming store in a retail haystack worked when I randomly looked down an arcade to see GW signs much to my wifes amazement... or was it horror? No purchases made but it was a nice busy spacious store with men and women sitting around a busy paint station and a nice selection of terrain on the tables. I did find a good comic book store to spend some funds in though so that was ok.
Amongst all this the Monday night RPG group has embarked in playing 40k Rogue Trader at last. Proving a great change from good old D&D/Pathfinder as the players have to actually think again instead of slaughtering whatever they come across... though that idea doesn't seem to have reached Cody's highly intolerant Flamer carrying Arch Militant yet as some barbequed faux port officials can prove evidence too...
So as the month approaches it's end, its time to get some hobby and gaming focus again. After some good hobby chats with James at NZTC he suggested adding to the Raven Guard's bases to break up the dark colours. I couldn't have agreed more so have started adding some small pieces of modelling lichen and grass to the wetlands bases, so far its making an improvement and I will post some pictures soon. Runefang is the end of April so time to make some choices in regards to Fantasy. Give the Vampire counts a break? Maybe fix up the High Elves and run a Hoeth inspired list I put together or have a good look at Daemons as the new book drops on Saturday and make use of Stu's massive painted collection sitting idle on the shelves in my gaming room... that and help Cody get his very own Warriors of Chaos army up and running for Runefang.
Early in the month I attended Over the Top in Hamilton with Cody, Ryan and Wil. This involved painting up another Dreadknight and character for Cody as well as some weeapon modifications for my Wraithlords. As Ryan has already posted he and Wil played in the Fantasy event while Cody and I played 40k. I really enjoyed the tournament and played top notch blokes in all the games against Tyranids, Grey Knights, Dark Eldar, Tau, Space Marines and Orks. As I have been playing a lot more Fantasy I wanted to have a good look at the state of NZ 40k now that 6th ed has been out for a while. No shock to see fantastic use of allies, flyers, new psychic powers and larger troop units making up a lot of the armies. There is no messing around in the 40k scene which is awesome and the standard of armies on display was impressive too. The Eldar have been relegated to being the Psychic servants of a few armies most notably Tau with Divination amping up the Tau's considerable shooting capabilities. I took a heavy Wraith list lead by Eldrad and at 1500 and 2000 points being joined by a Wraithseer toting a D-cannon. I had a couple bad match ups(Dark Eldar) and a couple games could have gone past turn 5 for a better result in my favour but thems the breaks and I finished up with 24th of 38. I really enjoyed talking with other players and listening to their views and army construction ideas, it gives me plenty to think about going forward with 40K.
After a late but fun filled trip back home and only a couple hours sleep it was off to work cramming in paperwork before an early flight the following day to Queenstown to visit some the impressive Otago stone fruit orchards - I work in produce. After a couple full days around the primary Otago growing areas it was a late flight back home. After work the next day some quick base colouring was required on a couple Hellstead mounted Vampires as it was time for the NZTC!
I was a proud member of Team OMEN captained by Sam over at Hashut's Right Hand, I brought the chafftastic Vampire Count list rocking the dual Terrorgheists. I highly recommend checking out some of the Youtube clips we made. They may not be full of tactical inspiration but gamers should get a laugh out of some. Sporting our fine Yoda adorned team shirts we made our plays and faced 6 great teams including the 3 who placed. Day one was an incredibly long day of Warhammer not finishing until 10pm after 4 games! OMEN had a mix of results and I lamented the loss of my Ghoul King in a couple of key moments which resulted in my army shitting itself in spectacular fashion, I did get a couple big key wins though too so I was happy after the first day. Heading back to Ryan's place with Cody afterwards we watched some Top Gun and the Thing!? while having a couple beers. At some stage when I decided it was bedtime Ryan declared it was time to head into town - this resulted in a big 'F... off!' from me as it was well past my bedtime but as Ryan and Cody were about to head out the door I threw my blanket aside, donned appropriate attire and followed them into the capitals night.
Well after a noisey night or should that be early morning of more beer, music and dancing we staggered back and I got some sleep before the final couple rounds of NZTC. With a strained awakening and emulating my undead forces with a shambling trip to the bathroom I realised it was near game time so self cast Vanhels Danse Macarbe and hastened out the door with the others for the tournament.
Chugging down energy drink and water I faced off against Beastmen first and like my teammate James drinking on the first day it may have improved my play as I got a good win. We were sitting middle of the field after the 5th round with the opportunity to claw a little bit higher. Our fortunes were not to be realised and after facing off against NZ Hammered we tumbled back down the ranks to 7th. I again managed to turn what was looking to be a favourable result versus Warriors of Chaos into a big loss as the Ghoul King got Gatewayed inspite of mass dispel dice being thrown, thems the breaks in the hard game of Warhammer Fantasy folks. I would like to say a massive thank you to Pete Dunn for putting the event together and congratulations on his team the Von Trapps for winning. Also tankyou to Ryan and Locky for running the two days in a fine display of organisation. The team format was awesome and provided a format for using some different and riskier builds. This may not have been successful for us but Team OMEN will be back with a better selection of forces at our command.
Back to work for a few days then this weekend it was off to Brisbane for the Soundwave Rock festival. No gaming involved but my powers of finding a gaming store in a retail haystack worked when I randomly looked down an arcade to see GW signs much to my wifes amazement... or was it horror? No purchases made but it was a nice busy spacious store with men and women sitting around a busy paint station and a nice selection of terrain on the tables. I did find a good comic book store to spend some funds in though so that was ok.
Amongst all this the Monday night RPG group has embarked in playing 40k Rogue Trader at last. Proving a great change from good old D&D/Pathfinder as the players have to actually think again instead of slaughtering whatever they come across... though that idea doesn't seem to have reached Cody's highly intolerant Flamer carrying Arch Militant yet as some barbequed faux port officials can prove evidence too...
So as the month approaches it's end, its time to get some hobby and gaming focus again. After some good hobby chats with James at NZTC he suggested adding to the Raven Guard's bases to break up the dark colours. I couldn't have agreed more so have started adding some small pieces of modelling lichen and grass to the wetlands bases, so far its making an improvement and I will post some pictures soon. Runefang is the end of April so time to make some choices in regards to Fantasy. Give the Vampire counts a break? Maybe fix up the High Elves and run a Hoeth inspired list I put together or have a good look at Daemons as the new book drops on Saturday and make use of Stu's massive painted collection sitting idle on the shelves in my gaming room... that and help Cody get his very own Warriors of Chaos army up and running for Runefang.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Over the Top 2013
The Hamilton Immortals hosted the Over the Top 2013 tournament over the last weekend, and 2 Wellingtonians (Wil and myself) along with 2 Levin/ites/ers/ees (Cody and Glen) made the road trip to the city of the future. Wil and I went for the fantasy tournament while Glen and Cody slummed it in the (much larger) 40k tournament.
Lake Taupo pre swim Codicus
Music selection for the road trip included a Nelly Furtardo CD so Wil could be in theme with his man eater army for the event. Brilliant weather on the road trip so we stopped at Lake Taupo for a quick dip then some pub grub and liquid refreshment. Much gaming discussion ensued. Old man O'clock (9:30pm) hit so I took over driving from Wil. Hit the supermarket for essential supplies (coffee, beer, bananas and muesli) then checked into the hotel once finally arrived in Hamilton.
Pub grub and liquid refreshment.
Day 1 was hectic for Wil and myself. 4 X 2400pt games of fantasy is a lot to fit into one day. Played a couple of Dark Elf armies first up, quite the learning experience for me getting 9-11 on the first and 19-1 on the second. I don't remember many details but enjoyed both outings, a tough army to face.
Epic VC bus fight in game 3 with my Terrorgheist charging in the rear while my bus hit the front and dogs hit side of Rory's bus. My Terrorgheist finally got a decent scream (double 5!) which killed 6 knights actually lost me the combat. My uber hero with anti heroes (7 X S8 ASF attacks) only could and only did kill one model, the unit champ, while the vampire lords killed each other and his heroes ripped my bus to pieces for lots of res and my side crumbled massively. Loss 6-14 with myself
Fun times while playing skaven last in day having a plague spell jump 5 times, affecting 3 each of our units but I think in the end killing more rats than deadites. Also the bell blowing up my safe watchtower victory turn 3 leading to a more interesting game. Ended 11-9.
I finished last amidst some hungry looks from the other three, so we all headed to kfc and bk to chow down. My brother had came down from Auckland so we all had a few drinks and some nerd conversation.
Day 2 faced wood elves, mission included special rule in turn 1/2 all units roll d6, roll a 1 and cannot march. hexwraiths and t gheist fail both turn 1 and 2. Yay. Hexies hid from archers who got magic attacks from hill. Managed to get across board and smashed through treeline, lost ~25 the ghouls to a kadon dragon flame and then overextended losing them on final turn. Failing to reform knight bus meant I missed out getting general+bsb+expensive archers. 7-13
Last game versus Bretonnians, screamed the pegasus knights to pieces, 3 units of dogs all charged one stack of peasant archers and all died to kill 3 of them (even with failed fear). Lost 4 knights to difficult terrain. Young Bret knights fail restrain, charge my bus and wipe out all the bk in one round. Bats tied up trebuchet after it one shot the Terrorgheist. hexies tried to hide from yet another terrain piece giving magic attacks, but caught by the grail knights. Ghouls had a grind against one big knight unit that the two vampire joined in to hide from shooting. They broke, ghouls failed to run down and vampires could not pursue as would put them in charge of big nasty unit so no points there. Finished 8-12.
So 60/120, 9th from 18 total, dead (pun fully intended) even. Not bad. Some more bk then truck stop food after another swim on the way home.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Skitterleap 2012 - Wryth's View
Last weekend I went to the Skitterleap Fantasy tournament in Wellington. I took a dual Terrorgheist list with my usual Ghoul King and friends in a Ghoul block/bus.
Here is a brief summary of the games I had.
Game 1 - Dawn Attack - Mal Patel - Lizardmen
I faced the Death of a Thousand Cuts list early on. Mal's many many chaffy units arrayed themselves across from me and his Slaan managed to take out my Ghoul King in turn 2 with a powerful Final Transmutation, rolling a 6 with the expected "take it off!" Army wide immediate crumble softened my Terrorgheists and other units up while the baby Necro took over control. In hindsight I should have sat the two gheists in the back corner for point denial but I surged them up a flank to scream some chaff. With all the poisoned attacks they didn't last long. I did manage to claw some points back though with multiple charges on skink units causing them to flee. The Wight King ended up being the last survivor of the Ghoul unit not counting the Wraiths who went on skink hunting duties. In the end it was 15-5 to Mal. A thankyou to Mal for some advice during the game, eg multiple charges on the skinks. His list can be quite difficult to deal without some pointers.
Game 2 - Blood and Glory - Hagen/Pete - Lizardmen
With another tour of Lustria underway I faced Hagen's Death of 999 cuts! With just having faced a similar list I was better prepared for this game. Hagen sat back with his Slaan and a mixed unit of skinks, Kroxigors and a pair of Scar vets while the usual skink harrasment went on. I picked away at units with the Gheists, Wraiths and magic - the ruby ring on the baby Necro was fantastic all weekend - thanks for that advice Joel. My Ghoul King block slogged across the table and in the fifth turn managed a charge on the big mixed unit crushing it in one go. Pete had taken over play at this stage as Hagen had other commitments. Apparently Lizards were not where they were supposed to be which was fine by me. Game ended with a win for the VC 15-5 to me.
Game 3 - Watchtower - Tom Dunn - Daemons
Daemons and Tom's no less had me a bit wary but it was Watchtower and I had a plan. Simple really, put the Ghouls and all the characters in the tower asap. Well suprisingly it actually worked. Tom had control of the tower but without an eligle unit to occupy it, it was left vacant. I walked my block up to it and held the Terrorgheists back sending zombies and chaff off to be a nuisance. Tom advanced both hordes of bloodletters around opposite sides of the tower while Billy the Bloodthirster neglected to come within scream range. I took out a fiend early on with the ruby ring and once I was in the tower proceeded to successfully death snipe the Khorne heralds. A Terrorgheist successfully beat some Screamers and a Bloodcrusher or was that reaper Tom ;) in combat on a flank due to thunderstomping the screamers. Tom had some very unlucky rolls for charges, his right side bloodletters failing three charges over successive turns vs zombies. The twin Gheists managed to Scream down his Tzeentch herald and Billy attacked the tower only to be fed poisonous ghouls. He declined any further assaults and with Death magic spewing Purple suns from the tower each turn he retreated to the far corner of the board. End of game with a surviving Terrorgheist on 1 wound in combat with Bloodletters I had won 14-6. I was pretty happy having held a lot of points back in the tower.
Day 2
Game 4 - Meeting Engagment - Sam Whitt - Dark Elves
With trepedation we started rolling for which units will have 'slept in' luckily for me it was simply some Zombies and bats while Sam had some Dark Riders and his Sorceress napping. With his extremely fast list lead by a Dragon riding Lord this was not a problem for him. This was to be a game which went back and forth with both sides working away on each other very evenly. With the first day pitting me against the MSU shooting Lizard lists this wasn't all that different as Sam had crammed in the maximum amount of shooting allowed, 90 shots I believe. The one saving grace of this though was the Dark Elf shots were not poisoned like thier Lustrian neighbours so Sam used a lot of shooting trying to whittle away at the Crypt Horrors. With all the shots that hit and failing to wound the Horrors would have looked like pin cushions by the end of the game. Sam did a very good job of outmaneuvering me and my zombie blocks and Wraiths mainly repositioned each turn to try and eventually net some shades or Dark Riders in. We both suffered from overzealous mages as Sam suffered miscasts 2 turns in a row killing his Sorceress with strength 6 hits and my Master Necromancer got a bit carried away with a Purple Sun(must have been all the successful casting against the Daemons) and got pulled into the Chaos wastes. This Purple sun would last the rest of the game floating about my main battleline and nicely keeping some of Sam's harder units like the Hydra at bay for an extra turn or two. With more turns of ring around the undead hordes, the generals finally clashed in the games final stages. Sam nicely charged my Ghoul bus with his Dragon Lord and Hydra after a turn in which he triple breath Weaponed them whittling down thier numbers. Sam issued challenges as this combat went on over a couple turns and the Ghoul King promptly threw in succession, the Ghast then Wight King in front of the Dark Elf Lord while he butchered the Hydra quite convincingly, though not without taking a wound in the process. Then in the very last rounds the Ghoul King after having killed the Dragon I believe went face to face with the Druchii Lord. With matched Initiatives and similtaneous dice rolls we rolled our hits, wounds and saves and with cries of entertainment our Lords managed to kill each other in the very last round! With a tally of the VPs we were only 35 points difference!(and in my favour - moral victory ;) a very well deserved 10-10 draw as it was without selling short any other opponents, one of the best games of any wargame I have played. Thanks Sam it was awesome.
Game 5 - Battleline - James Milner - High Elves
This was a very nice game to end the event on. James like Sam is on the NZTC team with Joel and myself. I also play High Elves so was familiar with the units used, however I will lament the Book of Hoeth and the many many irresistable spells that followed. James deployed well dropping Eagles and Archers while I set up mainly across from a large Elven tower complex. Opening shots had me move the Terrorgheists aggresively only to have James snipe one with Spirit Leech exploiting the horrific Leadership of the undead beasts. I certainly got a taste of my own medicine after running my Necro Death Sniper all weekend(should give him a rifle) as James used the spells to good effect. James placed winged speedbumps in the path of my Horrors and Ghoul bus and with a well timed soulblight nerfed my Crypt Horrors before unleashing the fury of the White Lion horde. Losing all the big fellas in one go hurt but I replied with the Ghoul King and co and took revenge. After a successful panic check on the Elf Mages unit which James was exceedingly thankful for, he moved them into the Elven tower and waited out the game. James won a deserved 13-7 and had some good advice for me in regards to exposing my big points Gheists to the Death magic. If I had held them bak it would have been a closer result.
In the end I finished middle of the pack and was quite pleased with that considering the caliber of opponent I faced. I played against some highly ranked players, fellow team members and... Hagen ;) - Hug?
I did not suffer any crushing defeats though failed to gain that in victory too. With some thought on the list I will drop for ghouls and get another 5 dire wolves as a drop as I felt a little lite on chaff with the Wraiths being deployed as characters. I also must practice my Terrorgheist use a lot more, knowing when to commit them or retreat as seen against Mal and James. The Ghoul King is still awesome even though he lacks in defense(everyone passed their beguile checks) though his Wight king bodyguard made a big difference with Nightshroud.
Congratulations to Joe, Mike and Wil placing in order, Sam for best painted and Bo for Sportsanship. Cheers Pete, a great event and people as always.
Monday, September 17, 2012
A Gathering of Gamers - Wrythcon
The weekend just past had me host 9 other gamers for a day of mayhem on the tables. This was dubbed Burcon...(thanks Mark), Nerdstock(Ryan) or Wrythcon as I tryed to encourage hopelessly.
After a frenzied finale to the big spring clean I had started mid week in the gaming room on Friday night, Leon W(Napier), Ali and I watched Conan the Barbarian(the new one) on bluray while I put together some more of the lovely models from Dark Vengeance - Whatever your opinion of the movie I thought it was ok as simple entertainment and Jason Momoa(Ronon Dex and Khal Drogo) gave me plenty of cheesy moves to pull while I play a Barbarian on Monday nights new fun Pathfinder game(time for a wee break from GMing).
Following this very late night I got up early and started setting up the tables. As Levin was suffering from the tempermental weather like most of the country I set up 4 tables in the garage and kitted out the gaming room one with terrain. Visitors from Wellington and Levin soon arrived and after introductions and some hugs where needed(thats for you Stu) the gaming started properly.
I played Joel's Orks in a 1500 point game of 40k with the Crusade scenario from the rulebook. I used an Eldar list with modifications from Call to Arms, dropping the second Wraithlord for a trio of Scatter Laser Warwalkers and the Avatar for a second Farseer to try out the new Divination powers alongside Eldrad's array of Codex powers. We got stuck in on a table depicting an Imperial base with Joel's green horde stacking mainly on my left. Joel will most likely post a very good battle rep from the Ork perspective with the many photos he took over the day on his blog so I wont go into detail. Suffice to say every round I cast a reroll to hit, 4+ invuln save and Fortune on the Warwalkers and blasted away, Fortune on the Wraithwall(yay dual power Eldrad) lobbed webs into his masses with the Nightspinner and killed anything that advanced close to my lines with the Wraithguards Wraithcannons. I won holding my objectives and having racked up Slay the Warlord and First Blood. In my opinion Joel was not aggressive enough with his large Boyz mobs but we talked about that after the game and I expect to see some new play styles from him soon. Also Joel killed only 2 models of mine each game turn bar one where he racked up the Pathfinders and a Jetbike squad, not really a good tally me thinks.
While we played Leon W and Conan(not the barbarian) had a pretty one sided game of 40k with Leon who has not played 40k in 10 or so years using Cody's Grey Knight army against Conan's Blood Angel hybrid list. Between Leon's amazing dice rolling - powers of Entropy apparently, and Conan's lack of dice skillz the Grey Knights pretty much tabled the Angels only losing a strike squad in return. They both seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves though with the dice results being blamed for everything including the GFC and Middle East situation Im sure.
Ryan with his bike heavy Marine army went against Stu's Necrons including his newly arrived trio of flyers. I'm sure Ryan will comment but seems he got his power armoured arse whooped by the dirty Tesla toting 'crons o doom only destroying a command barge for the cost of his whole army!
Leon C played Mark in a 2400 game of Fantasy. Leon brought his Lizards to play with a variety of units while Mark borrowed Joel's Empire army after like Leon W having not played in many years. With checks to the table it seemed one sided pretty quickly with Mark's Empire keeping Leon's Lizards in one corner of the table. Final result was a convincing win to Mark and Leon ready to get his Daemons back on the table again.
After a visit to the local K Fried which according to the visiting players has superior chicken to their own offering(who knew!?) we got to a team game of 40k. A simple split of armies had Leon W, Ryan and Conan being Team Imperial with Grey Knights, Space Marines and Blood Angels, Cody arrived after work and spent the game offering advice and cruel jeering for the Imperial team. Opposing these pillars of humanity were Joel, Stu and myself with Orks, Necrons and Eldar - what unholy alliance was this! Needless to say we ignored all allied rules from the rulebook and simply played that psychic powers and other army abilities could only be used on the players own army. Merging a couple tables we set up 5 objectives and a central relic which we would roll on the archeotech chart for a laugh to see what it did.
Dirty Team Xenos =D got first turn and set about causing as much trouble as we could. There was a lot going on the table so from my Eldar perspective I was happy over the game to kill both Vindicators with my Wraithlords Brightlance(finally did what it says on the box!), taking and holding the Relic(worth 2 extra VP) with Eldrads Wraithguard squad eliminating all the GK terminators heading in there direction, causing troubles for the Imperials with the good old Nightspinners web and the shuriken cannon from a jetbike squads stripping the last Hull point from Conan's hovering Stormraven!. Stu's Necron flyers went hard on a flank deaing fairly well with all who opposed him. Joel's boyz surged across the board harrasing the marines on their own objectives adn the funniest thing I thought was Joel's Lootas gunning down Conan's DC Dread before it got a chance to assault them. I wont deal with the Imperial opinion of these events leaving it to Ryan to spread his propaganda against the Xenos forces but after a long 4 turns we called it with little Imperial forces left on the table and many VP's in Xenos control - team Xenos wins.
After a tidy up of the garage and a dinner break we were set for the Star Wars rpg in the gaming room, this would be some players first ever rpg and as I will post soon it helps for everyone to work together right?
After a frenzied finale to the big spring clean I had started mid week in the gaming room on Friday night, Leon W(Napier), Ali and I watched Conan the Barbarian(the new one) on bluray while I put together some more of the lovely models from Dark Vengeance - Whatever your opinion of the movie I thought it was ok as simple entertainment and Jason Momoa(Ronon Dex and Khal Drogo) gave me plenty of cheesy moves to pull while I play a Barbarian on Monday nights new fun Pathfinder game(time for a wee break from GMing).
Following this very late night I got up early and started setting up the tables. As Levin was suffering from the tempermental weather like most of the country I set up 4 tables in the garage and kitted out the gaming room one with terrain. Visitors from Wellington and Levin soon arrived and after introductions and some hugs where needed(thats for you Stu) the gaming started properly.
I played Joel's Orks in a 1500 point game of 40k with the Crusade scenario from the rulebook. I used an Eldar list with modifications from Call to Arms, dropping the second Wraithlord for a trio of Scatter Laser Warwalkers and the Avatar for a second Farseer to try out the new Divination powers alongside Eldrad's array of Codex powers. We got stuck in on a table depicting an Imperial base with Joel's green horde stacking mainly on my left. Joel will most likely post a very good battle rep from the Ork perspective with the many photos he took over the day on his blog so I wont go into detail. Suffice to say every round I cast a reroll to hit, 4+ invuln save and Fortune on the Warwalkers and blasted away, Fortune on the Wraithwall(yay dual power Eldrad) lobbed webs into his masses with the Nightspinner and killed anything that advanced close to my lines with the Wraithguards Wraithcannons. I won holding my objectives and having racked up Slay the Warlord and First Blood. In my opinion Joel was not aggressive enough with his large Boyz mobs but we talked about that after the game and I expect to see some new play styles from him soon. Also Joel killed only 2 models of mine each game turn bar one where he racked up the Pathfinders and a Jetbike squad, not really a good tally me thinks.
While we played Leon W and Conan(not the barbarian) had a pretty one sided game of 40k with Leon who has not played 40k in 10 or so years using Cody's Grey Knight army against Conan's Blood Angel hybrid list. Between Leon's amazing dice rolling - powers of Entropy apparently, and Conan's lack of dice skillz the Grey Knights pretty much tabled the Angels only losing a strike squad in return. They both seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves though with the dice results being blamed for everything including the GFC and Middle East situation Im sure.
Ryan with his bike heavy Marine army went against Stu's Necrons including his newly arrived trio of flyers. I'm sure Ryan will comment but seems he got his power armoured arse whooped by the dirty Tesla toting 'crons o doom only destroying a command barge for the cost of his whole army!
Leon C played Mark in a 2400 game of Fantasy. Leon brought his Lizards to play with a variety of units while Mark borrowed Joel's Empire army after like Leon W having not played in many years. With checks to the table it seemed one sided pretty quickly with Mark's Empire keeping Leon's Lizards in one corner of the table. Final result was a convincing win to Mark and Leon ready to get his Daemons back on the table again.
After a visit to the local K Fried which according to the visiting players has superior chicken to their own offering(who knew!?) we got to a team game of 40k. A simple split of armies had Leon W, Ryan and Conan being Team Imperial with Grey Knights, Space Marines and Blood Angels, Cody arrived after work and spent the game offering advice and cruel jeering for the Imperial team. Opposing these pillars of humanity were Joel, Stu and myself with Orks, Necrons and Eldar - what unholy alliance was this! Needless to say we ignored all allied rules from the rulebook and simply played that psychic powers and other army abilities could only be used on the players own army. Merging a couple tables we set up 5 objectives and a central relic which we would roll on the archeotech chart for a laugh to see what it did.
Dirty Team Xenos =D got first turn and set about causing as much trouble as we could. There was a lot going on the table so from my Eldar perspective I was happy over the game to kill both Vindicators with my Wraithlords Brightlance(finally did what it says on the box!), taking and holding the Relic(worth 2 extra VP) with Eldrads Wraithguard squad eliminating all the GK terminators heading in there direction, causing troubles for the Imperials with the good old Nightspinners web and the shuriken cannon from a jetbike squads stripping the last Hull point from Conan's hovering Stormraven!. Stu's Necron flyers went hard on a flank deaing fairly well with all who opposed him. Joel's boyz surged across the board harrasing the marines on their own objectives adn the funniest thing I thought was Joel's Lootas gunning down Conan's DC Dread before it got a chance to assault them. I wont deal with the Imperial opinion of these events leaving it to Ryan to spread his propaganda against the Xenos forces but after a long 4 turns we called it with little Imperial forces left on the table and many VP's in Xenos control - team Xenos wins.
After a tidy up of the garage and a dinner break we were set for the Star Wars rpg in the gaming room, this would be some players first ever rpg and as I will post soon it helps for everyone to work together right?
Friday, August 24, 2012
Gaming Abroad
Back from a 3 week holiday in the States and Canada with my wife and time to get some hobby projects underway. Big thanks to Ryan for his posts, he sends me a lot of WIP pics so why not share them. Since I've been back I have gotten a bit done already so over the next few days I'll try to get some posts up.
Can't say the trip was gaming free, in fact when we stayed with Wil and his wife in Ottawa we faced off against a couple of his Canadian Warhammer Fantasy opponents. They provided me with suitable proxies for a Vampire Count army and in the basement of a local gaming store we hid from the oppresive northern sun for a day.
Now I'd like to say we kiwis did the country proud but I'd be full of crap. I faced a chap called John first with his very nicely painted Empire army - 2 Demigryph units and warrior priest spam, goodie. We had a very close game with the late stages being a massive grind in the middle of the table with my usual Ghoul King claiming an impressive tally of kills. As the 6th turn concluded though we tallied the points and John had won a minor victory over my visiting undead.
Wil had not faired well with his Ogres against Tom and his Chaos forces so with round one going to the home side we had some quick lunch from the Tim Horton's across the road(not that I bothered with their tasteless excuse for coffee) and swapped opponents.
Tom had a Warriors of Chaos army with a combination of Khorne and Tzeentch units. Standard 2 blocks of Marauders, Chaos Warriors, Hellcannon, warhound chaff, L4 Mage, BSB, Knights etc. Tom was a bt reserved with his movement which with his combat potential I thought he would have advanced. I on the otherhand moved my ghoul horde and Horror blocks towards his lines and after a couple rounds of magical exchange we were in combat. This did not go well for Tom! In a round of combat my Ghoul King clocked up about 8 kills, the banshees in the ghoul unit had already softened the Chaos units in shooting and with a truck load of poison attacks from the Ghouls his main block broke and fled swiftly being run down my the Ghoul King and co. Tom promptly conceeded and after a chat about some of his unit composition we watched the rest of Wil and John's game.
With some messy multiple unit melee going on, spells and challenges being flung back and forth and Ogres being sandwiched between a couple units of nigh immortal Demigryphs eventually Wil lost his game leaving the Canadians trying to make us sing their national anthem, seeing as we had no idea what thier heretical national ditty was we headed for the nearest pub and all took part of the local cuisine.
Also in Canada I was introduced to Heroclix. This guilty little purchase ticked a couple boxes for me. Its a game! It combines my 2 favourite hobbies, gaming and comic books! I only bought Marvel characters(mainly Avengers) so its like really cheap portable Action figures for me! Its dirt cheap! Wil and I royally cocked up the rules and after a hefty dinner at a BBQ restaurant our dinner comapanion Brad came back to Wil's and showed us how to play properly. Where Wil smashed my Avenger team and Brad's Symbiote trio with his Xmen quartet. Can't say its for everyone but I really like it(again I think because its like tiny superhero action figures). In short order I'll make the local chaps play it or as its so portable bring it down to Wellington with me and force it on Ryan and Jimmy ;)
Of course I couldn't be in the States and not take advantage of certain price differences so near the end of the trip in New York I found the GW store and scored a trio of Terrorgheists(one for Ryan), some Vargheists and a Stormtalon(also for Ryan). Discard the boxes and flat pack those sprues amongst the clothing in suitcase FTW!
When we returned I had less than a week to CTA and a house guest in the form of Psyche/Richard visitng from Sydney, plenty of gaming then ensued...
Can't say the trip was gaming free, in fact when we stayed with Wil and his wife in Ottawa we faced off against a couple of his Canadian Warhammer Fantasy opponents. They provided me with suitable proxies for a Vampire Count army and in the basement of a local gaming store we hid from the oppresive northern sun for a day.
Now I'd like to say we kiwis did the country proud but I'd be full of crap. I faced a chap called John first with his very nicely painted Empire army - 2 Demigryph units and warrior priest spam, goodie. We had a very close game with the late stages being a massive grind in the middle of the table with my usual Ghoul King claiming an impressive tally of kills. As the 6th turn concluded though we tallied the points and John had won a minor victory over my visiting undead.
Wil had not faired well with his Ogres against Tom and his Chaos forces so with round one going to the home side we had some quick lunch from the Tim Horton's across the road(not that I bothered with their tasteless excuse for coffee) and swapped opponents.
Tom had a Warriors of Chaos army with a combination of Khorne and Tzeentch units. Standard 2 blocks of Marauders, Chaos Warriors, Hellcannon, warhound chaff, L4 Mage, BSB, Knights etc. Tom was a bt reserved with his movement which with his combat potential I thought he would have advanced. I on the otherhand moved my ghoul horde and Horror blocks towards his lines and after a couple rounds of magical exchange we were in combat. This did not go well for Tom! In a round of combat my Ghoul King clocked up about 8 kills, the banshees in the ghoul unit had already softened the Chaos units in shooting and with a truck load of poison attacks from the Ghouls his main block broke and fled swiftly being run down my the Ghoul King and co. Tom promptly conceeded and after a chat about some of his unit composition we watched the rest of Wil and John's game.
With some messy multiple unit melee going on, spells and challenges being flung back and forth and Ogres being sandwiched between a couple units of nigh immortal Demigryphs eventually Wil lost his game leaving the Canadians trying to make us sing their national anthem, seeing as we had no idea what thier heretical national ditty was we headed for the nearest pub and all took part of the local cuisine.
Also in Canada I was introduced to Heroclix. This guilty little purchase ticked a couple boxes for me. Its a game! It combines my 2 favourite hobbies, gaming and comic books! I only bought Marvel characters(mainly Avengers) so its like really cheap portable Action figures for me! Its dirt cheap! Wil and I royally cocked up the rules and after a hefty dinner at a BBQ restaurant our dinner comapanion Brad came back to Wil's and showed us how to play properly. Where Wil smashed my Avenger team and Brad's Symbiote trio with his Xmen quartet. Can't say its for everyone but I really like it(again I think because its like tiny superhero action figures). In short order I'll make the local chaps play it or as its so portable bring it down to Wellington with me and force it on Ryan and Jimmy ;)
Of course I couldn't be in the States and not take advantage of certain price differences so near the end of the trip in New York I found the GW store and scored a trio of Terrorgheists(one for Ryan), some Vargheists and a Stormtalon(also for Ryan). Discard the boxes and flat pack those sprues amongst the clothing in suitcase FTW!
When we returned I had less than a week to CTA and a house guest in the form of Psyche/Richard visitng from Sydney, plenty of gaming then ensued...
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
WHFB - Shadows stir in Tristhafen
Recently the other lads I game with have cottoned on to Fantasy. I have thoroughly enjoyed 8th ed for a while now and have also been lucky enough to have had some very good weekends in Wellington playing with the local crowd which I can happily thank Pete Dunn for. I think now the other Levin guys have a good grasp of the rules and Cody is now making his foray into buying some Empire models while Stu rebases his Daemons from 40k to Fantasy! So I thought lets take a break from the 2400 point games and have some more fun narrative ones with the total 2400 point force being the goal while they build up their collections.
I thought 600 points would be a good place to start. Quarter of the 2400 goal yet enough for people to get some models painted(themselves) over a month or two. The games will be fast and easy to build a narrative with. So with Cody definitley taking the new Empire we set it in the Border Princes/Badlands and after not accepting his suggestion of New Tristram (wonder what hes been playing) as his campaign town we have the town of Tristhafen.
Now with Cody's initial force comprising of a level 2 Light Wizard, block of Halbediers, a Hellblaster Volley gun and a trio of Demigryphs we know that there is a variety of miliary forces in the region. Stu playing Daemons is easy enough to work in - bad men do bad things and summon Daemons. I am toying around with a couple different things, I have plenty of Vampire Counts though that wouldn't really encourage me too much to build a new force though I can always add to the collection. An awful lot of Orcs and Goblins sitting in boxes, then there are High Elves and Warriors of Chaos. Well have to see where the story goes.
So Monday night with D&D postponed for a week(public holidays means a couple guys can't always make it) we had some games.
Game 1 - Empire vs Daemons - Meeting Engagment
After locals had seen strange lights and heard disturbing sounds coming from the old ruined tower(cliched I know), the local Wizard set off with a contingent of troops to investigate. Upon reaching the ruins, Daemonic forces amassed under the control of a fel spellcaster formed up to destroy the mortal interlopers. Hellblaster fire and Light magic whittled down the bloodletters advancing on the Empires lines. Flamers of Tzeentch bounded from the tower and hurled fel fires at the state troops forcing them back. The trio of Demigryph knights of the Order of the Griffon crashed into the worn khornate unit and tore them apart with talon and lance and followed suit by destroying the Herald and his Horror coven. Alas the Light Wizard was badly injured but his surviving troops lead by the Knights carried him back to Tristhafen in victory.
Game 2 - Daemons vs Goblins - Dawn Attack
Following the defeat at the tower, the scattered forces of the Tzeentchian Herald moved to the nearby hills to summon more of their kind. There they ran across an encampment of Night Goblins, heading down the foothills to pillage the outlying farmsteads. The Shaman leading the raiding party screamed at his diminutive raiders to form up as the Daemons rushed out of the woods to attack them. Flamers made short work of the Spider Riders and as the pair of Night Goblin units hesitantly moved to face the Bloodletters the early morning assault showed its effects. Some of the worst fantatic performances shortly showed as the bewildered goblins stumbled towards the daemons at a less than impressive speed. As the Bloodletters navigated about them, the fungus addled fanatics either crashed into each other or whirled off away from the fight towards the woods! The pitiful morale of the goblins quickly became apparent as under magical and flaming attack the spearmen blocks fled or were ground under the cloven hooves of the bloodletters. The one Rocklobber which after some of its earlier accurate success had been undone by the Heralds adept control of Life magics, saw it fit to abandon the field also as the little trio crewing the machine ended up being the only things standing after the assault.
Game 3 - Vampire Counts vs Empire - Dawn Attack
Having recuperated from his encounter with the Daemons, the Light Wizard(who Cody can name!) saw fot to set to work cleansing the rest of the local area of dark forces. A local recluse academic of poor social standing had been seen frequenting the local graveyard. The townsfolk were concerned and with good reason! As the towns military arrived at the old Garden of Morr they found the scholar finishing his depraved work and had raised undead forces including several monstrous creatures of stitched flesh. The revealed Necromancer gathered his skeletal bodyguard about him and read from his Cursed Book, spurring a shambling mob of Zombies and his Crypt Horrors towards the men. The Light Wizard used the same magics which were so effective against the Daemons against these foul creatures too with great effect, immolating thier forms with blessed light. The Necromancer countered reading from his book, casting waves of dark magics to destroy the morale of the state troops and refilling the ranks of his dead charges. The Crypt Horrors lunged across the graveyard with suprising speed crashing into the Demigryphs and became embroiled in melee. The battle looked like it was favouring the dead as fell bats swept across the field to assault the artilery crew, but as the Necromancer called forth his most powerful magics from his tome he lost control! A Wind of Death burst forth from his gnarled grasp sweeping through the halbediers, but the winds of magic were too much for this novice and the knowledge was seared from his mind. Bewildered and unable to animate his forces the Necromancer grew panicked as the Knights wore down the Undead Horrors. Shortly the Order of the Griffon claimed another evil spellcaster and the Empire succeeded in protecting its townsfolk again.
So a fun start to the campaign. Serious gaming they are not with some entertaining comments thrown across the table and 6 dice on spells being thrown at every opportunity just to see if you can make a mage explode. I do now have a goal to actually model this town of Tristhafen and have it as the heart of the campaign. Characters can be named and grudges developed and while the players are not bound to use the same list every game I can see units coming back for more and hopefully modelled and painted to reflect the story.
So if you're in the area and want to come join in at any stage let me know, the more the merrier!
I thought 600 points would be a good place to start. Quarter of the 2400 goal yet enough for people to get some models painted(themselves) over a month or two. The games will be fast and easy to build a narrative with. So with Cody definitley taking the new Empire we set it in the Border Princes/Badlands and after not accepting his suggestion of New Tristram (wonder what hes been playing) as his campaign town we have the town of Tristhafen.
Now with Cody's initial force comprising of a level 2 Light Wizard, block of Halbediers, a Hellblaster Volley gun and a trio of Demigryphs we know that there is a variety of miliary forces in the region. Stu playing Daemons is easy enough to work in - bad men do bad things and summon Daemons. I am toying around with a couple different things, I have plenty of Vampire Counts though that wouldn't really encourage me too much to build a new force though I can always add to the collection. An awful lot of Orcs and Goblins sitting in boxes, then there are High Elves and Warriors of Chaos. Well have to see where the story goes.
So Monday night with D&D postponed for a week(public holidays means a couple guys can't always make it) we had some games.
Game 1 - Empire vs Daemons - Meeting Engagment
After locals had seen strange lights and heard disturbing sounds coming from the old ruined tower(cliched I know), the local Wizard set off with a contingent of troops to investigate. Upon reaching the ruins, Daemonic forces amassed under the control of a fel spellcaster formed up to destroy the mortal interlopers. Hellblaster fire and Light magic whittled down the bloodletters advancing on the Empires lines. Flamers of Tzeentch bounded from the tower and hurled fel fires at the state troops forcing them back. The trio of Demigryph knights of the Order of the Griffon crashed into the worn khornate unit and tore them apart with talon and lance and followed suit by destroying the Herald and his Horror coven. Alas the Light Wizard was badly injured but his surviving troops lead by the Knights carried him back to Tristhafen in victory.
Game 2 - Daemons vs Goblins - Dawn Attack
Following the defeat at the tower, the scattered forces of the Tzeentchian Herald moved to the nearby hills to summon more of their kind. There they ran across an encampment of Night Goblins, heading down the foothills to pillage the outlying farmsteads. The Shaman leading the raiding party screamed at his diminutive raiders to form up as the Daemons rushed out of the woods to attack them. Flamers made short work of the Spider Riders and as the pair of Night Goblin units hesitantly moved to face the Bloodletters the early morning assault showed its effects. Some of the worst fantatic performances shortly showed as the bewildered goblins stumbled towards the daemons at a less than impressive speed. As the Bloodletters navigated about them, the fungus addled fanatics either crashed into each other or whirled off away from the fight towards the woods! The pitiful morale of the goblins quickly became apparent as under magical and flaming attack the spearmen blocks fled or were ground under the cloven hooves of the bloodletters. The one Rocklobber which after some of its earlier accurate success had been undone by the Heralds adept control of Life magics, saw it fit to abandon the field also as the little trio crewing the machine ended up being the only things standing after the assault.
Game 3 - Vampire Counts vs Empire - Dawn Attack
Having recuperated from his encounter with the Daemons, the Light Wizard(who Cody can name!) saw fot to set to work cleansing the rest of the local area of dark forces. A local recluse academic of poor social standing had been seen frequenting the local graveyard. The townsfolk were concerned and with good reason! As the towns military arrived at the old Garden of Morr they found the scholar finishing his depraved work and had raised undead forces including several monstrous creatures of stitched flesh. The revealed Necromancer gathered his skeletal bodyguard about him and read from his Cursed Book, spurring a shambling mob of Zombies and his Crypt Horrors towards the men. The Light Wizard used the same magics which were so effective against the Daemons against these foul creatures too with great effect, immolating thier forms with blessed light. The Necromancer countered reading from his book, casting waves of dark magics to destroy the morale of the state troops and refilling the ranks of his dead charges. The Crypt Horrors lunged across the graveyard with suprising speed crashing into the Demigryphs and became embroiled in melee. The battle looked like it was favouring the dead as fell bats swept across the field to assault the artilery crew, but as the Necromancer called forth his most powerful magics from his tome he lost control! A Wind of Death burst forth from his gnarled grasp sweeping through the halbediers, but the winds of magic were too much for this novice and the knowledge was seared from his mind. Bewildered and unable to animate his forces the Necromancer grew panicked as the Knights wore down the Undead Horrors. Shortly the Order of the Griffon claimed another evil spellcaster and the Empire succeeded in protecting its townsfolk again.
So a fun start to the campaign. Serious gaming they are not with some entertaining comments thrown across the table and 6 dice on spells being thrown at every opportunity just to see if you can make a mage explode. I do now have a goal to actually model this town of Tristhafen and have it as the heart of the campaign. Characters can be named and grudges developed and while the players are not bound to use the same list every game I can see units coming back for more and hopefully modelled and painted to reflect the story.
So if you're in the area and want to come join in at any stage let me know, the more the merrier!
Friday, May 11, 2012
Horned Gobbo/Rat Day 2
Sunday of the tournament had me play Bo Patterson with... Lizardmen!
Having been 12-8 then 8-12 against these scaley frog followers had me eager to tip the scales in my favour and establish a hold on Vampire Coast(if only this was a campaign).
Bo had his Slaan deployed in a large unit of Temple Guard with all the trimmings including that wonderful Becalming effect on my Necro. Other than that he had a couple units of Saurus warriors along with the (as I was learning) compulsory chameleon skinks, salamanders and skink skirmishers. He did however have an Engine of the Gods with a wee skink priest atop it. The battle was Blood and Glory and all Bo had to do for the 600vp was score 1 banner, when theyre carried by Zombies it shouldn't be much of a challenge. Now I could have held the 2 Zombie units back but that would exposed the flank of my Ghoul/Vampire unit.
Wolves and Bats headed off to the left flank to intercept his chaff while the main blocks moved centrally. We exchanged slight blows in the first couple turns with Bo focusing his salamanders on my zombies and my Banshees retaliating by draining wounds from his various small units. Things were leading up to a big grind in the middle when an early Miscast of Throne of Vines by the Slaan saw him nuke 9 Temple Guard and take a wound of itself! It was the 5th? fail of a 2+ save vs miscast Bo had had too. In my turn I took advantage and in went the Crypt Horrors and Ghoul King lead unit full force with some augments to boot. Down went all the Temnple guard and a fleeing Slaan got trampled by Crypt Horrors while the Ghoul block reformed to face the rest of the Lizards. Bo raced his Stegadon through the lines and took out the battered zombie unit taking the break points vps. The rest of the game saw some brutal combats as my Vampire and co slew the Stegadon, my wolves and Fell bats actually won some combats and chased their prey off the board and a couple banshees did clean up duty on some stray small units. In the end Bo only had an unscathed unit of Saurus left and I scored 17-3. If I had protected my Zombies better it would have been mor,e but increasing the break point will be something to take into consideration in future builds.
Last game was against Peter Williamson's MSU Bretonnians with a nice straight forward punch up.
We had an entertaining deployment with Peter pleading with me to deploy a 'real' unit other than all my crap, seems to be a bonus for the vampires at the moment. Peter himself had an impressive number of units with multiple Knights as well as Yeoman, Peasants and Pegasus knights. Peter analysed some distances and had his units well back from Banshee threat in the early moves while my main units moved toward him navigating their way around some central terrain, I moved the Crypt Horrors across in front of my ghoul block to hold vs Knight charges then the action started. Peter charged the Crypt Horrors with 3 units of Knights including one with a hero wielding a flaming sword - oh crap! That unit itself had the most awkward charge and while silently hoping for a fail Peter made the roll and in came the flaming stick of doom. The hero rolled his attacks and only struck once! but alas he did wound and there went the 4+ regen >( following a barrage of lance strikes the Crypt Horrors crumbled for the first time and the knights rolled on inot the ghouls. From there it was a full 6 turn game of grind. A flank charge had him plow through the Mortis engine and got a 4th unit in the fight and with many many armour saves being made by Peter he finally crumbled my generals unit in the last turn. 0-20 and a well deserved win to Peter. I may have had my arse kicked but what a long brutal slog it was.
In the end I am happy to report I placed 12 of 30 and find this an improvement over previous scores. The Scream list along with some others were mentioned by Raymond at the closing when he announced his favourite list. I didn't go all the way and should have had Skabscrath on my Lord, fair enough I say.
Pete Dunn undefeated came 1st, Peter Williamson came 2nd(I dont feel so bad) and Hagen Kerr came 3rd. John Murrie got Best Sportsmen and Sam Whitt had Best painted with his striking Chaos Dwarves. Congratulations to you all.
So thank you to Raymond for the amazing organisation he had, score form and army list together on one sheet and prompt round draws, also I enjoyed his comments while he watched parts of many of the games I played - all about skill right? and roll those dice...
Thank you to Pete Dunn for getting us all together for it and of course the fantastic scenery.
Cheers to all my opponents, probably the most enjoyable set of games I have ever had at a tournament - must be why we all got max sports.
and of course thanks for the ride home John.
I have a much better appreciation for Lizardmen now and have studied the book during week. I would recommend it to new players for sure and might get a couple models to paint myself. I also have a couple changes to make in my list and will post those soon.
Having been 12-8 then 8-12 against these scaley frog followers had me eager to tip the scales in my favour and establish a hold on Vampire Coast(if only this was a campaign).
Bo had his Slaan deployed in a large unit of Temple Guard with all the trimmings including that wonderful Becalming effect on my Necro. Other than that he had a couple units of Saurus warriors along with the (as I was learning) compulsory chameleon skinks, salamanders and skink skirmishers. He did however have an Engine of the Gods with a wee skink priest atop it. The battle was Blood and Glory and all Bo had to do for the 600vp was score 1 banner, when theyre carried by Zombies it shouldn't be much of a challenge. Now I could have held the 2 Zombie units back but that would exposed the flank of my Ghoul/Vampire unit.
Wolves and Bats headed off to the left flank to intercept his chaff while the main blocks moved centrally. We exchanged slight blows in the first couple turns with Bo focusing his salamanders on my zombies and my Banshees retaliating by draining wounds from his various small units. Things were leading up to a big grind in the middle when an early Miscast of Throne of Vines by the Slaan saw him nuke 9 Temple Guard and take a wound of itself! It was the 5th? fail of a 2+ save vs miscast Bo had had too. In my turn I took advantage and in went the Crypt Horrors and Ghoul King lead unit full force with some augments to boot. Down went all the Temnple guard and a fleeing Slaan got trampled by Crypt Horrors while the Ghoul block reformed to face the rest of the Lizards. Bo raced his Stegadon through the lines and took out the battered zombie unit taking the break points vps. The rest of the game saw some brutal combats as my Vampire and co slew the Stegadon, my wolves and Fell bats actually won some combats and chased their prey off the board and a couple banshees did clean up duty on some stray small units. In the end Bo only had an unscathed unit of Saurus left and I scored 17-3. If I had protected my Zombies better it would have been mor,e but increasing the break point will be something to take into consideration in future builds.
Last game was against Peter Williamson's MSU Bretonnians with a nice straight forward punch up.
We had an entertaining deployment with Peter pleading with me to deploy a 'real' unit other than all my crap, seems to be a bonus for the vampires at the moment. Peter himself had an impressive number of units with multiple Knights as well as Yeoman, Peasants and Pegasus knights. Peter analysed some distances and had his units well back from Banshee threat in the early moves while my main units moved toward him navigating their way around some central terrain, I moved the Crypt Horrors across in front of my ghoul block to hold vs Knight charges then the action started. Peter charged the Crypt Horrors with 3 units of Knights including one with a hero wielding a flaming sword - oh crap! That unit itself had the most awkward charge and while silently hoping for a fail Peter made the roll and in came the flaming stick of doom. The hero rolled his attacks and only struck once! but alas he did wound and there went the 4+ regen >( following a barrage of lance strikes the Crypt Horrors crumbled for the first time and the knights rolled on inot the ghouls. From there it was a full 6 turn game of grind. A flank charge had him plow through the Mortis engine and got a 4th unit in the fight and with many many armour saves being made by Peter he finally crumbled my generals unit in the last turn. 0-20 and a well deserved win to Peter. I may have had my arse kicked but what a long brutal slog it was.
In the end I am happy to report I placed 12 of 30 and find this an improvement over previous scores. The Scream list along with some others were mentioned by Raymond at the closing when he announced his favourite list. I didn't go all the way and should have had Skabscrath on my Lord, fair enough I say.
Pete Dunn undefeated came 1st, Peter Williamson came 2nd(I dont feel so bad) and Hagen Kerr came 3rd. John Murrie got Best Sportsmen and Sam Whitt had Best painted with his striking Chaos Dwarves. Congratulations to you all.
So thank you to Raymond for the amazing organisation he had, score form and army list together on one sheet and prompt round draws, also I enjoyed his comments while he watched parts of many of the games I played - all about skill right? and roll those dice...
Thank you to Pete Dunn for getting us all together for it and of course the fantastic scenery.
Cheers to all my opponents, probably the most enjoyable set of games I have ever had at a tournament - must be why we all got max sports.
and of course thanks for the ride home John.
I have a much better appreciation for Lizardmen now and have studied the book during week. I would recommend it to new players for sure and might get a couple models to paint myself. I also have a couple changes to make in my list and will post those soon.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Horned Gobbo - Day 1
Over the weekend I attended Horned Rat/Gobbo and had a great time with 5 challenging games of Warhammer Fantasy.
Now the thing I did think was funny was that during the course of the weekend I was asked many times if I 'was the guy with the scream list' yes, yes I am was my reply ;) Now I was going to name the post 'Strigoi and the Banshees 2012 tour of Lustria' but that may have confused people.
So game 1 had me against Hagen Kerr which I knew straight away would be a challenging entertaining game. He had Lizardmen and this was the start of my growing expertise against the cold blooded ones. Hagen had an ethereal Slaan and the first of many Becalming magic phases where the ability to discard my 6s slowed down my magic a lot, though did save me from a lot of miscasts. The banshees worked well here clearing some of his chaff early as he encircled me with terradons and chameleon skinks to counter my own chaff. The Lore of light was a wonderful buff for the Lizardmen and the ASF and high WS and Initiatives it gave him certainly made a difference in melee but in the end after some big centre field grinding I managed a 12-8 win.
Game 2 was up against Matt Hassel and his Dwarves(hoorah for no Battle of the Pass). I deployed aggressivley and due to the scenario only had my large ghoul block off the board due to the 1 I rolled. Matt had terrible luck and a warmachine and a couple units were held off of his deployment. I took first turn and marched straight across the table at his board edge deployed force(pssh dwarves eh), a large AoE Vanhels then pushed the army even further toward him. He retaliated with some warmachine fire but my crypt horrors deployed in front of the Mortis Engine took a cannonball to the gut and stopped any further damage. His grudge thrower misfired and stopped the shot. My chaff on 1 flank charged his grudge thrower holding it up, Banshees took advantage of some gaps in the line and speed through to attack his other warmachines. Game lent my way heavily from there and I got a 16-4 win.
Game 3 saw another encounter with the Lizardmen, this time Mike King in charge. It was Watchtower and I think I had control though declined to deploy inside. We both moved centrally and I entered the tower after a couple turns with the generals Ghoul block. Mike took advantage of this and made his way around the tower to take down the rest of my army. My mistake was leaving the big power house unit in the tower too long and this took a lot of potential damage away from me which Mike used well. More Becalming of my magic and Lore of Light buffing the Lizards saw him mop up the rest of my army. I abandoned the building to cause some damage but swiftly re garrisoned it for the points. Mike played a good point denial game with a handful of his units being left on minimal numbers but proving difficult to finish off. Loss to me but still 8-12.
Now the thing I did think was funny was that during the course of the weekend I was asked many times if I 'was the guy with the scream list' yes, yes I am was my reply ;) Now I was going to name the post 'Strigoi and the Banshees 2012 tour of Lustria' but that may have confused people.
So game 1 had me against Hagen Kerr which I knew straight away would be a challenging entertaining game. He had Lizardmen and this was the start of my growing expertise against the cold blooded ones. Hagen had an ethereal Slaan and the first of many Becalming magic phases where the ability to discard my 6s slowed down my magic a lot, though did save me from a lot of miscasts. The banshees worked well here clearing some of his chaff early as he encircled me with terradons and chameleon skinks to counter my own chaff. The Lore of light was a wonderful buff for the Lizardmen and the ASF and high WS and Initiatives it gave him certainly made a difference in melee but in the end after some big centre field grinding I managed a 12-8 win.
Game 2 was up against Matt Hassel and his Dwarves(hoorah for no Battle of the Pass). I deployed aggressivley and due to the scenario only had my large ghoul block off the board due to the 1 I rolled. Matt had terrible luck and a warmachine and a couple units were held off of his deployment. I took first turn and marched straight across the table at his board edge deployed force(pssh dwarves eh), a large AoE Vanhels then pushed the army even further toward him. He retaliated with some warmachine fire but my crypt horrors deployed in front of the Mortis Engine took a cannonball to the gut and stopped any further damage. His grudge thrower misfired and stopped the shot. My chaff on 1 flank charged his grudge thrower holding it up, Banshees took advantage of some gaps in the line and speed through to attack his other warmachines. Game lent my way heavily from there and I got a 16-4 win.
Game 3 saw another encounter with the Lizardmen, this time Mike King in charge. It was Watchtower and I think I had control though declined to deploy inside. We both moved centrally and I entered the tower after a couple turns with the generals Ghoul block. Mike took advantage of this and made his way around the tower to take down the rest of my army. My mistake was leaving the big power house unit in the tower too long and this took a lot of potential damage away from me which Mike used well. More Becalming of my magic and Lore of Light buffing the Lizards saw him mop up the rest of my army. I abandoned the building to cause some damage but swiftly re garrisoned it for the points. Mike played a good point denial game with a handful of his units being left on minimal numbers but proving difficult to finish off. Loss to me but still 8-12.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Finished Titan Forge Flesh Tearers/Crypt Horrors
Here a handful of close up pics of the completed Crypt Horrors. Like I've said previously they were really nice models to put together and paint.
I bought 2 sets of 3 so there are duplicates in the unit of all the Titan Forge models. Also note the detailed scenic bases that came included, I added a little grass and dead leaf matter.
The 2 Ogres are to fill out the unit to 8 and look fine ranked up behind the main models.
I'll have to post some pics of the Banshee Quartet once theyre finished. Pete over at Fields of Blood just commented that my list has more screams than a One Direction concert - sure brought a smile to my face. Only fitting I should put a little more effort into them. Wonder If I can get 4 minitures of teenage girls before the weekend =D
I bought 2 sets of 3 so there are duplicates in the unit of all the Titan Forge models. Also note the detailed scenic bases that came included, I added a little grass and dead leaf matter.
The 2 Ogres are to fill out the unit to 8 and look fine ranked up behind the main models.
I'll have to post some pics of the Banshee Quartet once theyre finished. Pete over at Fields of Blood just commented that my list has more screams than a One Direction concert - sure brought a smile to my face. Only fitting I should put a little more effort into them. Wonder If I can get 4 minitures of teenage girls before the weekend =D
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Undead arise for Horned Gobbo
Next weekend is Horned Gobbo/Rat and it seems I am one of three taking the newish Vampire Counts to battle. I am looking forward to the event and the variety of armies which will be playing.
My list has the 2 tweaks made from the original, so no Wraith unit and instead a 4th Banshee and 2 more Crypt Horrors - goody goody.
Just a few little finishing touches to make on the models, nothing drastic just extras here and there or replacing old tired looking models where time allows and adding in a couple unit fillers.
Spent this afternoon finishing the bases for the Crypt Horrors while watching Alien again. Preperation for Prometheus in June. (Must remember to not compare it to the wonder that was The Avengers) Anyhow I added some 'dead grass' flock in patches and added some 'dead leaves' I got from Slave to Painting in Christchurch. really nice product which I will slowly add to the bulk of the VC army.
Heres a quick phone pic of the Crypt Horrors, I'll take a better one of them and some other units in the week.
My list has the 2 tweaks made from the original, so no Wraith unit and instead a 4th Banshee and 2 more Crypt Horrors - goody goody.
Just a few little finishing touches to make on the models, nothing drastic just extras here and there or replacing old tired looking models where time allows and adding in a couple unit fillers.
Spent this afternoon finishing the bases for the Crypt Horrors while watching Alien again. Preperation for Prometheus in June. (Must remember to not compare it to the wonder that was The Avengers) Anyhow I added some 'dead grass' flock in patches and added some 'dead leaves' I got from Slave to Painting in Christchurch. really nice product which I will slowly add to the bulk of the VC army.
Heres a quick phone pic of the Crypt Horrors, I'll take a better one of them and some other units in the week.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
WHFB - Vampire list tweaks
On Sunday I had a couple games with my VC scream list. Finally getting to put all the theory I have read on Carpe Noctem and other sites into practice was great and seems to have paid off.
In the first game against Ryan's VC test list it was pretty one sided from the get go with my banshess causing havoc on the undead units and their notoriously low leadership. Some horrific rolls by Ryan throughout the game only hastened his demise (you shouldn't roll that many 1's, you just shouldn't!) The forces of my Ghoul King wiped all the Blood Dragon's forces from the battlefield giving me a pretty massive victory. However as Ryan is a very new player I hope he did pick up the flow of the game better and we are working on tweaking his list for Horned Gobbo at the moment.
Second game was against John from Stumpy Heaven. John visited with his High Elves and we rolled a Battle for the Pass. I'm sure John may put up a detailed battle report on his blog so I'll just note some things I picked up. Battle report here on Stumpy Heaven Deployment is key, obvious I know but as an ever improving novice to fantasy I think I've worked out where my units should all go in relation to each other. The Mortis Engine looming behind the Crypt Horror unit and sending a trash Zombie unit towards the enemies heavy hitters works great. I did seem to have the majority of 'luck' in the magic phases with strong rolls and army wide vanhels being cast. John went some rounds without any successful spell casting. Also being charged by his flaming Spearmen wasn't as horrific as I'd first thought, sure it negates my regen from the Engine but I have a 2++ with my Ghoul King and Vampire so that swung that combat pretty hard in my favour. Banshees cleared Eagles and other chaff pretty quick especially with the dual Aura of Dark majesty close by. So all in all the game plan worked a charm though I know it won't be that good all the time.
Changes I will make though is dropping the Cairn Wraith unit in favour of another single Banshee and 2 more Crypt Horrors - I'll convert a couple Ogres. That will strengthen my Anvil to its optimum size, at 6 strong they held their own against the White Lions with invocations filling them back up of course.
Now I just need to get all the bits and pieces painted! Crypt Horrors just need a tiny bit more work and Ryan is posting up another 10 ghouls for me to mix in with the Mantic ones. A couple Banshees to paint and finish off the Mortis Engine and it will be looking pretty good.
In the first game against Ryan's VC test list it was pretty one sided from the get go with my banshess causing havoc on the undead units and their notoriously low leadership. Some horrific rolls by Ryan throughout the game only hastened his demise (you shouldn't roll that many 1's, you just shouldn't!) The forces of my Ghoul King wiped all the Blood Dragon's forces from the battlefield giving me a pretty massive victory. However as Ryan is a very new player I hope he did pick up the flow of the game better and we are working on tweaking his list for Horned Gobbo at the moment.
Second game was against John from Stumpy Heaven. John visited with his High Elves and we rolled a Battle for the Pass. I'm sure John may put up a detailed battle report on his blog so I'll just note some things I picked up. Battle report here on Stumpy Heaven Deployment is key, obvious I know but as an ever improving novice to fantasy I think I've worked out where my units should all go in relation to each other. The Mortis Engine looming behind the Crypt Horror unit and sending a trash Zombie unit towards the enemies heavy hitters works great. I did seem to have the majority of 'luck' in the magic phases with strong rolls and army wide vanhels being cast. John went some rounds without any successful spell casting. Also being charged by his flaming Spearmen wasn't as horrific as I'd first thought, sure it negates my regen from the Engine but I have a 2++ with my Ghoul King and Vampire so that swung that combat pretty hard in my favour. Banshees cleared Eagles and other chaff pretty quick especially with the dual Aura of Dark majesty close by. So all in all the game plan worked a charm though I know it won't be that good all the time.
Changes I will make though is dropping the Cairn Wraith unit in favour of another single Banshee and 2 more Crypt Horrors - I'll convert a couple Ogres. That will strengthen my Anvil to its optimum size, at 6 strong they held their own against the White Lions with invocations filling them back up of course.
Now I just need to get all the bits and pieces painted! Crypt Horrors just need a tiny bit more work and Ryan is posting up another 10 ghouls for me to mix in with the Mantic ones. A couple Banshees to paint and finish off the Mortis Engine and it will be looking pretty good.
Friday, April 20, 2012
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.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Titan Forge Goodies
On Thursday I recieved my latest little order for Maelstrom Games. This contained a wonderful selection of the Titan Forge undead range.
I got 6 Flesh reapers which I plan on using as Crypt Horrors, 2 Vampire Bats which I'll use as Fell Bats though you could maybe get away with Vargheists and Count Igork von Sharpfang who will make a fine Necromancer or caster Vampire.
I must say I am very impressed with the quality of these miniatures. In comparison to GW Finecast, Forgeworld and bases from Iron Halo and Secret War Miniatures these top the list easy. Very little flash if any, barely any trace of mold lines, no bubbles! The packaging is nice in small sturdy boxes with artwork on the front and photos of the models on the back.
The models inside are seperated into the miniatures themselves in a resealable bag, sprue free and the scenic bases(yes they come with) are in a seperate bag. The Count was in a small blister pack of his own but again sprue free and secure.
I have assembled the Flesh Tearers,the Count and his small undead goblin minion with a minimum of effort having the pieces fit together well. I have pinned the Flesh Tearers to normal 40mm bases for painting purposes and will attach to the scenic bases afterwards.
I will have these all done for Horned Rat/Gobbo at the start of May and find them a very nice addition to my collection
I got 6 Flesh reapers which I plan on using as Crypt Horrors, 2 Vampire Bats which I'll use as Fell Bats though you could maybe get away with Vargheists and Count Igork von Sharpfang who will make a fine Necromancer or caster Vampire.
I must say I am very impressed with the quality of these miniatures. In comparison to GW Finecast, Forgeworld and bases from Iron Halo and Secret War Miniatures these top the list easy. Very little flash if any, barely any trace of mold lines, no bubbles! The packaging is nice in small sturdy boxes with artwork on the front and photos of the models on the back.
The models inside are seperated into the miniatures themselves in a resealable bag, sprue free and the scenic bases(yes they come with) are in a seperate bag. The Count was in a small blister pack of his own but again sprue free and secure.
I have assembled the Flesh Tearers,the Count and his small undead goblin minion with a minimum of effort having the pieces fit together well. I have pinned the Flesh Tearers to normal 40mm bases for painting purposes and will attach to the scenic bases afterwards.
I will have these all done for Horned Rat/Gobbo at the start of May and find them a very nice addition to my collection
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