Post Runefang VI

So another enjoyable Fantasy event has been and gone. I ended up slap bang in the middle of the field which is actually where I expected to be with the list I took.

Game 1 Hugh Dixon Daemons – Big Khorne force, We exchanged chaff early in the game. His Skullcannon and a Terrorgheist exchanging fire over multiple turns. In the last couple turns the Ghoul King and skeleton block plowed through 2 blocks of Bloodletters with a flank charge and overrun! Random Daemon magic events seemed to hurt me a lot more than him including taking 5 wounds off a Terrorgheist. – Draw

Game 2 – David Appleby Skaven – Hoorah Skaven… I always enjoy playing David and this was no different including the novelty of seeing Rat Ogres on the table. I was actually doing fairly well in this game clearing up what points I could from him until some accurate template fire wrecked half my skeleton block and then the ghoul king failed 1 regen save and crumbled – last dice roll of the game too! If he had of survived it would have been a draw at least. LOSS

Game 3 – John Murrie Dwarves – It’s Watchtower, John puts Quarellers in the tower, I charge with skeleton bus and take tower. Add all my characters to the tower and let the rest of the army cause trouble. Look for an indepth battle report on this at John's blog. WIN

Game 4 – Locky Reid Beastmen – Locky had a well made Beast list. 5 casters and herdstone means he out magicked me every turn easily. It turned out 1800 points of his army was in 2 massive blocks of kitted out Gorrs and Beastigors. Early on I knew that sitting on my side of the table and exchanging magic and chaff would have been a better option but we decided it was more fun to smash our toys together. Some entertaining dice rolls and stubborn Ungors filled the game and Locky got a good win. LOSS

Game 5 – Josh Kennedy Wood Elves – I have played many games against the Woodies and know where to conserve my points. His list was a bit more varied than I had seen and included two 6 strong units of Treekin. Getting a turn 2 charge through the centre of his lines with my Crypt Horrors at his Level 4 Mage and bunker was a massive bonus to me, then game was then in my favour. Massive scream rolls from the Terrorgheists destroyed all his big hitters and over the full 6 turns I tabled him completely, sorry Josh. – WIN

So with that split mid field was spot on. Very frustrated with the Ghoul King dying in Game 2 and so much of the army crumbling. When I play the VC in the future I will look at giving the BK bus a go or at least using a general with more protection. Happy to see David gain 3rd overall with his unorthodox Skaven list. Congratulations to Pete Dunn for steam rolling all opposition. Thank you to John Murrie for the lift home.

With the new High Elf book released this coming saturday I will be dusting off the Red and Gold armour and getting my elves back into fighting shape. Liking the idea of a Hoeth force with a Loremaster and/or a themed Seaguard list. Will have to test a few things and see. Must be a knife eared year for me as I'm currently playing an Elven Wizard in our monday night Pathfinder campaign, new High Elves saturday and rumours of Eldar very very soon.

The northern wastes stir

So after a brutal yet entertaining weekend at Runefang, I've finally cracked open some models for my second fantasy army that have been sitting around. I'm planning on running WoC, with mostly Slaanesh in the force though I am not averse to mixing the marks to make the army sharper. Armies are pretty honed around here so I'm not going to pull punches though I want to try a few different things from the standard internet builds.

Put together my 5 hellstriders firstly (have to have the signature unit!)

 

Then using some parts from hellstrider kit made a test warrior with halberd

Runefang Prep

So Runefang is next weekend and I want to avoid the usual night before painting rush. Thankfully most my stuff is painted, bar the vargheists, fell bats, and wraiths. Started on the former two last night.

Start with the fell bats, ready to fufill their roll in (un)life by being thrown under the bus

Then the beginning of the vargheists, who hopefully will do me proud

In the trend of late here is my list for the event:

Vampire Lord, lvl4 vampires, barded nightmare, heavy armour, shield, ogre blade, other tricksters shard, talisman of preservation, red fury, quick blood

Vampire, lvl2 death, barded nightmare, heavy armour, sword of anti heroes, enchanted shield, quick blood

Necromancer, lvl 1 vampires, dispel scroll

3 Wraiths

39 Skeletons, champion, musician, standard bearer, banner of swiftness

20 Zombies

20 Zombies

20 Zombies

20 Zombies

5 Dire wolves 

5 Dire wolves

5 Dire wolves

10 Black knights, barding, lances, hell knight, musician, standard bearer

3 Vargheists, vargoyle

3 Vargheists, vargoyle

3 Vargheists, vargoyle 

2 Fell Bats 

Painting - WoC Tzeentch Daemon Prince

Last night before allowing myself to finish Bioshock Infinite - awesome ending btw! I finished Cody's Daemon Prince for his first Warhammer Fantasy army.

The colour palette contains all the colours which will be used in the army. You can see by the turquoise armour plates what the Chaos Warriors will look like eventually - I have done a test one and it looks good. May do a little more work on the sword though.

The plan is to magentise the Daemon Prince's feet so when Cody decides on a set of bases the DP can be swapped between Fantasy and 40k easily.

Must say I did enjoy painting this model. The colours are nice and bright and a change to what I normally use. The new/current GW paint range really has some superb shades throughout the greens and blues and I want to incorporate them more into some future projects.

This chap will be making his event debut at Runefang next weekend so watch out - I'm not looking forward to dealing with the build it has.

Now time to load up the new Tomb Raider.

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

Raven Guard Dreadnought - Horus Heresy

Here is the Raven Guard Dreadnought I decided to do as a cheap option for the project.

It is simply the Dreadnought from Assualt on Black Reach on a nice Blasted Wetlands base. Not a competitive option but thats not what the Campaign project is about. The Raven Guard had to rely on Dreadnoughts for heavy support with their vehicles destroyed during the drop. I may build a couple arm options for the Dreadnought as well.

I have added some lichen and flock to the base and those of my marines as they were very dark and had little difference to the Raven Guard armour - Thanks for pointing it out James. The scenic effects break it up nicely now. Next is the Mark IV apothecary I got from Pete a couple weeks ago, if anyone needs medical assistance its the Raven Guard after the massacre.

With the release of the Recon marines from FW I will be making an order where I will get the Raven Guard transfer sheet as well. Then I can add the Legion symbols to the Dread and the Tactical marines I already have. Other suitable units for the fluff would be a couple heavy weapon and Assualt squads. With the Raven Guard not getting specific rules until the third book I'll just have to make some generic safe choices in the meantime.

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.