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.

Merry Christmas fellow gamers

A beautiful sunny day here in Levin, New Zealand for Christmas 2011. I would like to wish all my fellow gamers a very merry Christmas and hope you enjoy your day today.

As for most gamers our net of contacts is cast fairly wide these days with tournaments and fun club or campaign weekends bringing us together from around the country or in fact the world. So I would like thank my local mates I game with whether it be wargaming or monday night roleplaying (Cody, Stu, Hadleigh, Womble and Mitch), the boys in Auckland I recently had a great time of Mordheim with(Dan and Andrew), Richard in Sydney who graciously hosted Cody and I for High Lords of Terra, Wil who now resides in the frozen north of Canada and Ryan who over Summer is in Perth who thanks to email still discusses army builds, tactics and painting on a regular basis, Pete Dunn over at www.thefieldsofblood.com who has run and hosted some extremely fun Warhammer fantasy weekends and the other Wellington/NZ based gamers I have meet and played with at these events and many other people who I have gamed with in the last 12 months, thank you.

So above is pictured the gaming haul I very happily received about an hour ago from my wife and despite what other people may say about Dreadfleet I am extremely pleased to have been given it as I wanted it but spent my gaming dollars on Necron units for the joint army. Upon opening the box the level of detail in the terrain and miniatures is fantastic! I know the local boys are keen to give it a go so it will be put to good use, right Cody?

The Avatar of War Models are awesome, its good to know I can open up a website like www.slavetopainting.co.nz on Ali's Ipad and she actually pays attention. She says they arrived in two days as well so bonus. The Goblin King should soon be leading my Goblin horde while the other two just had serious cool value for me and I'm sure Stu will 'borrow' the Daemon for his army while the Witchhunter will make it to the monday night rpg table and a Mordheim warband.

So I hope other people may have received the gift of gaming like I have and I look forwardd to what the rest of the day brings - my mother in law does like warhammer terrain and my sister in law was sent the 'wish list' too...

Completed Uriah and Confessor

Finished the flames on the confessor and freehand on both last night.

It was nice to finally paint the Confessor as he is an old model from the necromunda days and Uriah was enjoyable as well with many different textures. I havn't shown it though I should have but his cloak as viewed from behind is fur with a couple purity seals and his backpack has an assortment of equipment tied on with rope.

My wife has informed me this afternoon that she has finally done my Christmas shopping at GW in Wellington of all places, new toys in a few days for me it seems.

Uriah and Confessor almost done

Been back into the painting after an Auckland Foo Fighters break last week.

Got in some great games of Mordheim with the boys up there - cheers 'Damage'. I'll be making a battle report of the Monday night four way brawl on the fantastic home made Mordheim table - that is once I put the provided notes into an entertaining order.

Anyways the two nutjobs of the Ecclesiarchy are almost complete and I should have them done tonight but here is a WIP shot of the pair

Here are the two individually after a little more work - the photos are taken with my new phone so I'm still playing with settings though very happy with the quality with the basic shots so far.

I will post completed shots very soon and look out for the Mordheim tug of war over the Skaven informant.

WIP Uriah and Confessor

Here are some WIP shots of Uriah and a formerly Necromunda Redemtionist for Wil's Sisters of Battle army.

Normally I wouldn't show shots of miniatures in this state but during the week I sent some test shots to Wil of these guys at an earlier stage and also some step by step shots of an Ogre for him.

I actually think these raw shots motivate me more to get work done and also people can see the different layers that can go into a finished miniature. I would also like to point out that I am not an overly neat painter at these early stages but the final results always tend to work out.

So back to the painting and a big Good Luck to the guys at NZ Masters in Auckland, go the Wellingtonians!!