Friday 29 November 2013

Tournament in March - Vaticon

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of playing in a tournament. Vaticon is at the end of March 2014 and I'm strongly tempted. I was thinking Wood Elves would be fun especially after I saw the comp pack:

Wood Elves
       100 points extra 10% reduction on victory points conceded
       Glade Guard models (excluding scouts), max 70
       All elves in the army have ASF (Wild Riders are considered Elves. This does not affect any Elven mount or steed)
       Casters may choose spells from any of the 8 Common Lores
       Forest Spirit's Ward Save is not negated by Magical Attacks
       Dryads ward save is negated by spells from the lore of fire, this includes any unit with the flaming sword of ruin or the cloak spell.
Reduce the cost of eternal guard hordes by 10% on the army roster

All the things that greatly reduce Wood Elves viability in 8th have been somewhat addressed. I suppose the only thing extra would be to give Wardancers the ability to disrupt units with flank or rear charges, but I can't have everything I suppose!

Monday 25 November 2013

Goodbye Roleplaying

Just a quick post. I've finally decided to get rid of my White Wolf World of Darkness roleplaying gear. For anyone  interested I've put them up on the opposite of ebay. It's called miniaturebids.com and if you want to see my old roleplaying books (and more importantly want to give me money for them) click here. Go on, buy my stuff so I can buy more stuff!

Ninja Vampire killing

Wizardy Stuff

Psychotic Vampirey killy stuff

Oriental Bloodsuckers
Goodbye old friends *wipes a single tear from eye* sniff. I'm going to miss you. A bit anyway.

Friday 22 November 2013

My 2014 Chaos, Dark Elf and Empire Challenge


Well I have gotten my early Christmas present to myself (Chaos, Empire & Dark Elf Army Books) and flicking through them I'm liking what I see. Now anyone who has looked through this blog will probably have noticed two things, firstly is that I flit from project to project with wild abandon, the other is my unrealistic optimism. Coupled together these characteristics mean that I am confident that my 2014 aim (to complete 2400 point viable forces for the three above mentioned armies) is fairly possible. 

Warriors Of Chaos

Probably the easiest of my armies to get to 2400 points are my Warriors of Chaos. I've got 32 Chaos Warriors painted, another 15 Beastmen (that will be used as Forsaken) a rather small Daemon Prince (thay can't all be huge can they?) and another 9 Drakul Knights from Black Tree Design who can either be more Warriors or Chosen, depending on the  mood I'm in. So the approximate total of painted (poorly and above) is 1100 points with very little upgrades. Nearing completion is some Chaos Hounds and a Chimera, so it's a very achievable target.
A Chaos Hordette


Some unsavory Dudes 

These Barbarian figures below can either be used as Marauders or Middenheimers so they are multifunctional models, or they will be when they get based properly!

Chaos Marauders or Hairy Empire Troops?

The Empire

Ever since I started gaming I bought lots of fantasy humans as interesting npcs for my roleplaying games and with the eventual hope that a fully formed  Empire army would appear. Sadly over 20 years later and this hasn't happened! So i'm going to have to take matters into my own hands and actually PLAN AN EMPIRE ARMY!!!  
Various wizards,witches and priests
For someone who can't generally stand dwarfs, I have managed to accumulate quite a few. There are Crossbow Dwarfs, Thief Dwarfs, Norse Dwarfs and even a Ghost Dwarf. Not forgetting Bugman himself.

Dwarven contingent
Next is a motley array of thieves, assassins, yokels, ghosts (again) and statues. These will be my free company models, due in no small part to the fact they are are with many different types of weapons.

Free company
My spear unit has a few old school Empire troops with halflings, half naked barbarian women and a ninja, talk about the league of nations!
Spears
My swordsman (and woman) unit is one of the few that has a decent enough size, there are many 'ethnic' people in it too.
Swordsmen
My greatswords is only 13 strong so that needs to be doubled in size I reckon.
Greatswords

My archers are an ok size (if you allow halflings in there) for a skirmish screen but not much else, the handgunners are a paltry 4 models so they may have to be absorbed back into the free company!
Ranged weapon Dept.
So all in all I have the scratchings of 1000 points of Empire Troops, not great but with some funky artillery and a unit of cavalry it could get close.

Dark Elves

My Dark Elf army presents a bit more of a problem. 45 models painted. Dreadlord, wizard (of sorts), 3 assasins, 30 corsairs and 10 Witch Elves. Roughly 950 points. I wanted to theme this army around a mainly slave raiding force, all Corsairs & Dark Riders, which is an enduring image I have for them, get in quick, kill most of the enemy, bring the rest back in chains. I have enough Corsairs to make a second unit and enough Dark Riders for two flanking units so my plan should be relatively simple to execute.

3 assasins a Dreadlord and wizard Dandy

Corsairs - painted by ebay

Corsairs painted by moi
So I have set myself the not insignificant target of painting up 3500 points by, well I suppose December 2014. The only good news in that respect is I probably have about 600 points of very nearly painted models so the whole shebang could well be finished before I ht 50 (in 6 years time)!

Sunday 17 November 2013

Some more painted figures

So apart from making Battle reports as a non paying career I've gotten a few more figures painted. As with most of my stuff they were started probably 3+ years ago (more like 5-11 to be honest). The reason being I only paint when I'm playing and the last 10 years has been pretty lean in the gaming front, but as I've played at least 11 games or Warhammer this year, I have really gotten the painting lurgy once more. So here are the currently varnished flavours of the month.

Gripping Beast Monk

Firstly I finished a medieval monk from Gripping Beast. I bought it at SELWIG probably between 1996-1998. It was in a packet of four, one I painted up as a ghost for Warhammer Quest. This one is another WHQ npc, this time he can be a monk, an assasin, thief or any one of a dozen other shady characters.
A Gripping Beast Monk

Dwarf Cannon Crew

If only I could paint all my figures up as ghosts! Then I'd have all four thousand finished by Easter! This was another idea for Warhammer Quest, basically a dwarf pc will discover an ancient dwarf bound to an axe, he can be called forth to aid the bearer but he must return him to his kin - which will involve several dangerous dungeons gone through of course. He's on a greenstuff flagstone type base but he can always double up as crazy Grimlukk Halfaxe dwarf cannon crew member and mime.
Dwarf cannon Crew (deceased).

Necromancer

Now I don't have or intend to ever have a Vampire Counts army but back in the 90's I had a hankering for all lead figures, one of the ones I purchased was this cheery little fellow, an old marauder Necromancer. As I've got a good collection of human models he may as well be used as an Empire Battle Wizard with a pallid complexion and a big staff.
Old Mage Withers

Marauder Musician

I bought this in a blister of villagers and used to have a light blue tunic with green leggings. He was only basecoated as I just could never get any enthusiasm up to paint any more. Then as I heard the song 'the Devil Went Down To Georgia' I thought a human with a golden fiddle would make a brilliant dungeon encounter!
Fancy-pants musician

Skaven Jezzails

Here's one of the slightly newer 1994ish Skaven Jezzails. The got promoted to the top of my to be painted pile after their sterling work in the The Battle of the Biscuits . The one below is from Marauder as opposed to Citadel. 
Steroided up Jezzail Team

Fear Us!

Rear view of them

Perculiar Iron Mammoth Gnome Orc Rider

This is an impulse buy. At the time I was playing quite a lot of WHQ and I saw this on a website, I thought to myself 'I'll show Games Workshop a thing or two!' and promptly bought it. I also got half a dozen Shaolin monks and did my bit for independent figure manufacturers. Unfortunately not enough as Iron Mamouth is no more. The model itself is rather an oddity as there is a semi barbaric gnome sitting on the shoulders of a rather depressed looking orc. Can't really see me using it much but at least it's off my to-do list. 

The Gnome/Orc combo

Profile

More Jezzails

Here are some pictures of some more Jezzails (I finished eight in total) that I hope will soon be putting 28mm fist sized holes in the enemies of Skavendom.

Old school goodness

Warpstone pommelled swords for the win!
The Jezzail team below is pure ebay as I bought them both in a job lot of Skaven and the clanrat in front didn't even have an end on his weapon! So I sculpted (badly) a staff of wood into a shield and attached another below in, and hey presto! Another weapons team.

Long range death.

'Yes Marvin, I'm going to shoot the dwarf over there'.

A shield's eye view

Chorus Line

Friday 15 November 2013

Doom in the Mountainous Valley of Doom! Lizardmen vs Skaven

Mage Priest Phunki P'Art'Ii led his forces from the narrow valley in the Spine of Sotek mountain range. His thoughts were preoccupied with the recent battle against the Ruinous Powers where his forces had banished the decadent army of Slaanesh back into the Realm of Chaos. After the wounded were tended and the slain returned to the earth, the long journey back to Itza would be arduous but hopefully trouble free. Presently Skink Cheif  Sticki Xuaxua excited voice could be heard yammering to the Skink attendants. That most hated of words were heard - "Skaven"! The twisted rodents of chaos were arrayed for battle across the narrow valley!  With a weary sigh Venerable Lord Phunki signaled his army to array for battle.

Following the game I had two weeks ago against Phil, I found myself up against Stuarts Skaven army. As I am usually on the dishing out end of Skaven ingenuity I thought this game would be a good learning opportunity. We rolled for scenario and got Battle for the Pass (again). Rather than bore you with the exact army lists (they're not that fascinating anyway) I thought I'd try out my Paint Shop Pro program and put words on the pictures (as if by magic). It will become evident later in the battle why you don't need to know what nasty stuff the Skaven army had.............
The Verminous Horde

 Ok so my army was led once again by Phunki Part'Ii mage extraordinaire aided and abetted by Skink Priest Teensiweensi with the Forbidden Rod and Opal Amulet. a Saurus Skar Veteran Gok Jan the battle standard bearer using the Talisman of Preservation. A skink cheif on a Terradon and another Skar Veteran with a The Sword of Bloodshed (+2 attacks) made up my characters. two units of Saurus, three units of Skinks, Terradons, Salamanders and an Ancient Stegadon with the Engine Of The Gods on it rounded off my force. The basic plan was to hold the middle with the Saurus and Stegadon whilst using the skinks and skinkesque monsters to snipe and kill stuff.
The Good Guys

Start of turn 1

Turn One

As I thought there was an awful lot Skaven troops I decided that moving forward was not in my best interest. I hardly moved forward at all and hoped to buff some skinks with magic as High Magic has some terrible short ranges. As far as I remember my turn was me not daring to move forward in case the Doomwheels destroyed whatever it was. The Skaven turn was far more eventful. Warplightning Cannon #1 killed my Ancient Stegadon and a couple of Saurus, while the other killed the remainder in the picture below. The Sorcerous Portal decided it would buff the Doomwheel with Wyssans Wildform! Aparently strength & toughness 6 just wasn't enough for the disgustingly biased piece of scenery! The Plague Priest cast Bless with Filth on their filthy little weapons, as if Stuart could make them any less attractive in hand to hand combat! With that the turn ended with me down about 420 points and the skaven gleefully marching forward.
Lizardmen 0 Skaven 420

End of Turn One

Bless them Monks!

Turn Two

Once again movement was kept to a minimum (only the skinks with the priest moved into the fungus forest). On to the magic phase. At this point I would like to inform you about the current battle that is running in my head regarding Mage Priest's magical abilities. Now I have given my Slann Mage Priest Becalming Cogitation (rerolls dispells) and Harmonic Cogitation (rolling an extra two channelling dice each magic phase). In the last two games I have played since the new army book came out I have given Phunki both of these abilities, managing to channel one single magic dice in 18 magic phases, so Stuart pointed out to me last game, that if I gave the priest the Channeling Staff the power becomes far more effective, particularly due to the amount of 5's I rolled in the last game. So for this game I decided to do away with the Earthing Rod for the Channeling Staff thus greatly improving my magical potency! I Roll for magic dice double 6! Oh look, no channels for you fatty! What followed I can really only describe as a MAGIC PHASE FROM HELL! I cast the Amber Spear on the Doomwheel on the left (the boosted version), BOOM! Miscast - kills some skinks, wounds the skink priest. but at least I managed to put 2 wounds on the Doomwheel. Lost 1 more dice from the pool, but that was ok, I still had 7. So my Slann Mage Priest casts Hand of Glory on the skinks on the left BOOM! Miscast! Kill 9 Saurus. Lose a couple more dice. End Magic Phase. Shooting puts a wound on the Abomb.
Lizardmen 0 Skaven 555

End of my turn 2
I think this turn the Sorcerous Portal decided to cast Speed Of Light on the Doomwheel this turn, to be honest I don't know why is didn't just go the whole hog and cast Super Mega Spell of Total Death Augmentation Cantrip on it! The Skaven turn two showed me just how awful a Hellpit Abomination can be. It ambled in its random way into my skinks unit, with a series of bites, scratches, humping actions and farts the skink unit was no more!
Skinks using the fence to act brave.

Wiped out to a skink!

Turn Three

Despite the fact the game was going hideously badly for me, things took a turn for the worse. I flew the unit of terradons over the Doomwheel on the right to drop rocks and hopefully smash it up. They didn't. I moved some skinks and then lined the salamander up to burn the Doomwheel when I realised that if I did flame it there was a hella good chance of the Terradons getting roasted too. The magic phase was a doozy. I cast the boosted version of Soul Quench on the Abomb only to miscast, AGAIN!!!!! This time Phunki destroyed 11 or more Saurii before cutting his losses and scarpering into the Realm of Chaos where he presumably thought it was safer. Oh yes and all I managed to do was cause a single wound on the Abomb! 600+ points lost to cause a single wound. I think it was around this time that the whole game took on a sinister aspect where I knew with absolute certainty anything I tried in this game would not come off! The skavenslaves charged my Terradons and routed them pursuing into my skinks. The Doomwheel charged my salamanders and this is where I got my first skaven casualty. The other Doomwheel splatted my now tiny Saurus unit, killing them all and overrunning into the dead figure area! Surely the Warlock Engineer was driven mad by the smell of pulped lizard meat & was preparing to pulp more. 
My dead Pool

The remains of my big Saurus unit

The first casualty my army caused!

The Salamander tooled up with skinks

End of Turn 3

Clash of the titans!

Skaven skaven everywhere!

At this point I'm thinking, things aren't going my way.

Turn Four

At this stage all I was playing for was a bit of pride so I declared charges with my skink chief on a Warplightning Cannon, and the Saurus unit on the Plague Monks in front of them. all I needed to roll was 4+ on 2d6, it came up 3. My only other movement was to bring the Salamander up to torch the Grey Seers unit. I just hoped against hope that it would hit them panic them and start a chain reaction that would make my defeat not so crushing. I rolled the artillery dice to see how many clanrats would I toast, and it came up a MISFIRE & the Salamander ate 2 handlers.As a side note, even the Sorcerous Portal was looking at me with pity as it cast Soul Blight on the slaves.  My skinks with the priest lost combat and fled off table. 
All I needed to roll was 4+ on my charge roll!

the Skaven dead pile
The final turn of the game saw a Doomwheel, Abomb & horde of Plague Monks charge the Saurus, the slaves who had reformed charged the useless bloody Salamander. At this point I think anyone reading this report will have a fair idea how those combats went. No! I didn't rout my enemies as I hoped, the Saurus and Salamander units lost, in fact the best thing to happen in the turn was the Hellpit Abombinable Gribbly ate the Plague Priest, Pluhrg Blechter! My Skink Cheif was still trying to kill the Warplightning Cannon so with only 87 points left on the table I gracefully conceded.
Meanwhile on the other side of the table

I predicted this unit would get wiped out to the last Saurii

Circling like big rodent sharks

Plague Priest gets et by the Abomb

Skink Terradon Chief giving the Warplightning cannon what for. 
Sticki Xuaxua looked over his shoulder at the battlefield behind him, all he could see was hundreds of skaven devouring the carcasses of the dead. Leaving the last remaining Skaven cowering under the Warplightning cannon he gave a single sharp chirp to his Terradon Buk and together they sailed up into the late evening thermals. Another army had to be raised to drive the foul ratmen from the mountains - swiftly!
Game Over Dude!
To conclude, there are a few things I could have done which may have altered (but not much) the outcome. I should have been braver with my Saurus, if I'd marched up and got stuck in the result might have been closer. The other thing that could've made a difference would have been to garrison the Slaans unit in the building, this might have hekped with the overall Mage Priest survival but I doubt it. I must check the rules for detonating wizards in buildings, it can't be pretty. I must also buy/convert some chameleon Skinks  to dispose those bloody war machines! The most glaring gaps in my army list is a plan B to deal with an Abomb if plan A gets mushed by cannon fire, and a designated war machine killer.