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?

Weekend Gaming

This weekend I am hosting quite a bit of gaming.

What was going to be a 3-4 people has escalated into 8-10 players from Wellington to the Hawkes Bay descending on my place for some Warhammer Fantasy, 40K and Star Wars rpg.

Some players want to trial Fantasy lists for upcoming events - Skitterleap and the NZTC. Learn 6th ed 40K - for the Fantasy players they have the round bases. For a couple its an excuse for a good catch up.

I plan on having a game or two with my Vampire Count lists including the dual Terrorgheists. Break out the Space Marines for a change, probably using some of the Dark Vengeance miniatures and run a Star Wars role playing game Saturday night.

Now in regards to the SWRPG I am really looking forward to it. I have asked the participating players to send me a brief character idea and I will have their stats and sheets ready to go, so we have the following line up.

Charismatic human scoundrel like Mal from Firefly.

Mercenary bristling with guns.

Imperial trained human who is Force Sensitive but hates Jedi and other Force traditions and now hunts them.

Very angry young Jedi on the run from the Imperial purge.

Butt ugly assassin dual wielding pistols and a sword.

Wookie female 'priest' with the healing touch who fights with bare hands/claws and a bowcaster.

I still have to find out what a couple other players want to be so with the current lineup it should be full of interplayer conflict - good times! I will be throwing a serious spanner into their interactions so it should be an entertaining game if nothing else.

Infinity & Twin Gheists - Current WIP

Been painting a bit sporadically since being back from holiday. Multiple hobby projects turning over in my head as usual and the arrival of my Limited Edition Dark Vengeance box only added to this.

However I had already decided that I would get the Yu Jing starter I bought for Infinity painted up first before anything else. (apologies for the photos but they were phone pics as the Camera had a post(thankfully)holiday fit and will be off for repairs asap)

I painted these in brighter colours than I usually work with, wanting to reflect the more anime feel of the models. The 'yellow' is Tausept Ochre with Iyanden Darksun on top. Fenris Blue, black wash then succesive lighter layers on the armour. The green is the new Sybarite green which is pretty cool. Green wash then layered up and highlighted. I was going to do a bit more on them but they are fine for play once we give the game a go. I will give them a suitable urban base scheme when I see something I like.

The next thing to work on is the pair of Terrorgheists I picked up in the States. The one leaning down was made following the Terrorgheist build exactly while the one rearing up was using the Zombie Dragon leg/wing build but the Gheist head/neck.

There are a lot of knooks and crannys on these beasties so painting is going to be all sorts of fun. Thet're only blutacked to the bases so at least that makes things easier. They'll be seeing action come Skitterleap time, teaming up with a couple banshees. Though a Mr Tom Dunn will tell you it wont be enough screaming and a third Gheist with Skabscrath bearing Ghoul King is what I should be doing ;)

I am resisting painting Space Marines until after these two are done but after putting together the Dark Angel Captain and Librarian from Dark Vengeance its going to be hard.

40K FAQ update

So the new FAQ's are out and they are pretty damn good, get them here

Nice to see GW making these clarifications in a pretty quick manner, definitley addresses some things that have been discussed on variour forums and gaming rooms about the globe.

Things I noted after skimming through them.

Units with Infiltrate and Scout can deploy by Infilitrating can also make a Scout move. Got some potential depending on the units weapon ranges and terrain they may want to get into.

Look Out Sir is now taken on the closest model - no more within 6" shenanigans

Wolf Guard, Paladins and Nobs in a unit are not characters - stops some of the Look Out Sir cheese

Blood Angel weapon clarifications, Dante I'm sorry yes your Axe is an Axe. Astorath, yeah your Axe is an Axe too, you still get S6 though. Sanguinary Guard, watch out what Glaives you pick from the armoury ok. Tycho?! yeah your still awesome bro.

Dark Eldar wipe those tears aside, Incubi Klaives are AP2 off you go there are some Terminators over there. Archons, those Huskblades look quite good now dont they?

Dark Eldar you've been living in Commoragh too long. GW says you don't count as Eldar any more so no Fortune and Guide for you anymore. Better release those Enslaved Farseers. Harlequins better kick those Shadow Field Archons out of your troupes.

There is a lot in the GW Magenta but those are the things that stood out to me.

Whispers from the Crypt

Bought some mantic wraiths awhile back during a Maelstrom games sale. Figured it was about time I made my own spirit hosts for warhammer fantasy, so being inspired by Coldbane and his start on his fantasy army I decided to try and get back into some regular work on hobby. Especially with a tournament coming up earlier next month, no more night before marathons to get 3 colour minimum!

I went with mantic wraiths because you get 10 individual models in a box for just over NZ$25 (http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/index.php?act=pro&pre=mtc_kow_und_inf_402_000) compared to the old old GW sculpts that currently retail for NZ$36 a base (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1460041a) in finecast, which I still haven't had the pleasure/misfortune to experience. I have a fair few mantic models now and I really like them.

I originally was going to put 2-3 individual models on a base and make 3-4 bases but I liked the look off all four together, was easier to construct, and they would make great wound counters with some magnetic love. The wraiths come with standard 20mm square bases, which when all lovingly green stuffed and glued together makes a nice 40mm square base.

Then I drilled some holes with a hand drill and fixed some magnets in.

Next I wanted to make some ethereal type basing. This was my first attempt which elicited a "Oh you made grass bases!" from my partner. It is exaclty what it looks like, I smeared green stuff all over the base and went to town with a craft knife. I could have probably taken a bit more time and made it rise higher in some places than others to a larger extent, but I'm happy with how it turned out compared to time invested.

Some adeptus battlegrey followed by a liberal blue wash and a few spots of green wash later, my ghostly dudes are ready to chase down warmachine crews and generally be annoying. There are still some bits to do like the hafts of the weapons and some highlighting, but fine to play with at the moment.

While waiting for all those washes to try on my ghostly buddies, I started working on one of my nightmares for my mounted vampires. I really wanted to make these guys stand out compared to their black knight escorts, so when with less ghostly colours but still not your average knightly steed look. The model is a gamezone mournful knight steed (http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/index.php?act=pro&pre=gmz_gmz_vmp_cav_101_000), I have the standard bearer and another knight I use as a vampire lord (http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/index.php?act=pro&pre=gmz_gmz_vmp_cav_111_000), I really like the minis (depsite being metal), except for one problem. The mournful knight standard bearers standard is really flimsly, I think I'm going to have to replace the entire pole it simply cannot support the weight of the banner (which is an awesome banner).

Finally the big new kid on the block, my terrorgheist/dragon. I like the zombie dragon head (and I may one day try him as one), so I build it as a zombie dragon but will use it with terrorgheist rules if he is not mounted. The rider is magnetised from his bum to the mount (you may recognise him in the above picture) and his elbow is magnetised to switch between lance and (magic) sword.

I must say that the GW zombie dragon/terrorgheist kit is perhaps my favourite model kit ever. Well sculpted, easy to put together, and I managed to make the big guy, the vampire (on either nightmare or actual dragon), and a strigoi ghoul king on a rock all from the same kit. There are still plenty of spare bits for unit fillers and terrain. I'm no GW fanboy but they got this one right.

Dark Elves Incoming

 

shades

 After A long time of mucking around in warhammer fantasy going from dark elves to warriors of chaos to the empire iv finally picked my side DE and have finely got some models built. Next is the colors I think ill go with the safe black gold and purple?  As this is going to be my first ever painting project. I picked up off maelstrom a mega box dark kin set from mantic over all happy with the models.

 spermen

 wizard

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...