not long to go... Avengers Assemble

This wee post is not gaming related but another of my hobbies is reading comic books, predominantly Marvel ones. These include the core X-Men and Avenger titles as I have for many many years. So I'm quite excited to put it lightly about this coming out May 4th!

If what has been in the last trailers and teasers is anything to go by it will be awesome even if they screw it up somehow.

Avengers Movie Trailer

Back from Homecon II

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vampire Counts for Homecon and Cairn Wraith

First off a finished Cairn Wraith. A very simple model but along with the other new plastic character models for WHFP very well designed. The colour palette is that which I will be using for the new Vampire Count models I have and will get in the future.

Here is my list for Homecon in just over a week.

Unless I'm very lucky, at the event itself will be the first time I will get a chance to play with the new army book and the army as a whole. In theory the list should work but as Pete Dunn pointed out on Fields of Blood this week it really is experience that improves your game. With that in mind what better 'deep end' is there than to have a fun tournament with great people in a nice environment and learn whole lot of stuff very quickly.

Strigoi Ghoul King, Ogre Blade, Dragonbane Gem, Other Trickster's Shard, Red fury 370
Master Necromancer, Level 4, Dispel Scroll 225

Vampire, Heavy Armour, Shield, Aura of Dark Majesty, Fear Incarnate, Cursed Book, Seed of Regeneration 201
Cairn Wraith 60
Tomb Banshee 95

20 Zombies, Standard, Musician 70
34 Skeletons, Full Command, Screaming Banner 225
29 Ghouls 290
5 Dire Wolves 40

29 Grave Guard w/GW, Full Command, Banner of Barrows 428
2 Spirit Hosts 90
2 Fell Bats 32
2 Fell Bats 32

Mortis Engine with Blasphemous Tome 240

Total 2398

With the Mortis Engine as a buff the magic should be fairly strong against some lists so that should keep the horde a shambling. Plenty of combat punch spread about with the characters and Grave guard. Some synergy with the Mortis Engine providing and enhancing some regeneration saves in the list.

Took a long time to come up with this using what I own or could comfortably buy. Only thing I would like to add in the future is a Terrorgheist for sure.

No Hexwraiths even though I own a box as I think they will become stranded away from the general very quickly, will try them in a cavalry list where a Vampire Lord in a Black Knight bus is a key unit.

Finished Sisters of Battle army - warning lots of pictures!

Well the title says it all, I have at last finished Wil's SoB army and they are neatly pakaged and on their way to the frozen north of Canada.

The following are unit pictures of the army list Wil provided me. I still have Saint Celestine ans some Seraphim to paint but as Wil is not planning on using them at the moment they will be following seperatley in the very near future.

Some of the units are table top quality and I would have liked to have put more effort and detailing in but due to some time constraints was unable.

This project has taught me some time saving skills, the main one being the use of an airbrush, I wish I had this years ago. Now that I am feeling a little more confident with its use I plan to continue developing my skills with it. Obviously base coating is so much faster with it but the layering and highlighting than can be achieved is wonderful. Eventually I'll focus on light sourcing with it too.

For now the next important project is too get some of my undead rapidly updated for Homecon 2

Who shall lead the shambling masses?

So in the last couple weeks in between work and Dan's stag do I have read through the Vampire Counts army book quite a bit.

Now I happily admit that Warhammer Fantasy is not my strong point though I understand the principils for good list building and the theory on the table. Now there are a selection of units in the book I would like to try out but my big issue who to lead the army?

It is a 'Vampire Counts' army book but once you start dropping points on the Vamp lord he starts mounting up in points pretty bloody quickly. Then you look at the Master Necromancer and think 'damn, bargain'. For 200 points you get a naked level 4 caster who with a variety of synergy effects in the army can sit back in a rotting bunker of Zombies and buff away. Give him a 4+ ward and a magic toy and he'll still be 300 points or less.

You can of course take a moderately tooled up Vamp Lord and still get the bargain Master Necro, but should you? Thats quite an investment in points where there are all those new shiney units to try out.

This leads me to an army idea with no Vampires at all! Master Necromancer/Liche with a couple Necromancer subordinates with Ethereal and Wight hero choices. This throws the bloodline themes to the side and embraces the fluff of Nagash, Kemmler, Dieter and other infamous necromancers throughout the old worlds history.

Any ideas would be welcome

8th ed Vamps make Wryth a happy boy

Yesterday I headed down to Wellington and purchased the new Vampire Counts army book along with the new spell cards, black knights/hexwraiths, plastic Wight Kin and Cairn Wraith and I am very happy with my purchases.

The thing that initially stands out for me in the book is the variety of builds that seem possible, while I'm sure Ghoul hordes will still be prevelant I plan on getting my dozens of skeletons back on the table as I never amassed any ghouls anyway. The humble skeleton is only 5 points now with sword and shield and access to full command makes them a very nice option for core. It is also good to see the Dire Wolves back in there taking up core points too. I will put down a unit of zombies too, even if theyre still crap they can at least be joined by a character now so could be decent cheap bunkers.

So I now I have to make some choices as I have Homecon to attend in Feb, 2400 gives me quite a bit to play with now I can plonk down some cheap big units but its the Lord Choices that stump me as I kind of like them all and while some things like the Coven Throne may not be the most effecient of choices they look damn cool so may end up being tested via proxy.

If anyone has any advice on what they've read from the actual book - not online 'rumours' please share as the undead are making a comeback for sure.

Dreadfleet WIP

So a happy new year to all my gaming associates out there, I hope you all have plenty of positive gaming projects planned for 2012, with some of the rumoured releases I sure have.

Anyway this is the Heldenhammer flagship of the Grand Alliance In Dreadfleet and first model I decided to put paint on. Just have to do a final highlight of the waves and maybe some script on the sails.

I would have got stuck into the evil ships of the Dreadfleet but thought I'd best get this behemoth done first otherwise it would probably get put off for a while. I will be painting the Bloody Reaver and terrain next as those pieces are used in every scenario where other ships are not and can wait.

The models themselves in the box set are very intricate and have amazing detail as we can expect from GW just pay attention to the assembly instructions on the sides of the box. While having a few beers with guests and enjoying the hilarity of the Inbetweeners on Boxong Day I had to make a few adjustments to the models before gluing before I even realized the diagrams were there.

Now I have actually played the game now and the very first game was with my wife Ali. She chooses to view this as a boardgame so agreed to help me work out the rules without admitting to playing a wargame. We played the first scenario which has the Dreadfleet's Bloody Reaver versus the Grand Alliance's Heldenhammer fighting across and through a heavy reef using all the terrain from the set. It is a very good first mission and we had all the rules down promptly.

Yesterday Stu and Cody came over and again enlisting Ali we tryed two more scenarios with Stu and I as the Grand Alliance and Ali and Cody as the Dreadfleet. Splitting control of the fleets warships and with the alternating ship by ship activation rules made it a very fun team game with all players having fun.

As already said on many forums and blogs across the net, this game suffers because it is not compatible with Warhammer Fantasy itself but it is a perfectly good well designed game in its own right. Cody even suggested some easy games for an island based fantasy campaign where quick Dreadfleet games could decide reinforcement and invasion effects for following games.

If you get a chance to play Dreadfleet I recommend doing so as long as you can play it as a stand alone game as intended.