Moving over to Wordpress

I am saying goodbye to this blog and moving over to blogging all about my hobby on Wordpress.  

Why?  Well my hobby has changed over the past couple of months, I am starting to play and get interested in more war gaming rule sets.  At the moment its Warmachine which is taking up a lot of my time.  So much that I haven't yet picked up the new 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy rule book.  But I will at some point!

Because this blog was Warhammer Fantasy focused, I needed to change the blog to reflect the changes in my hobby.  So instead of changing this blog, I created a new blog on Wordpress and imported all the posts over.

I hope that all my regular visitors will still follow my ramblings on my new blog.

Click here for the RSS feed on my new wargaming blog.

Click here to see my new war gaming blog.

My 2010 Resolutions Progress

I have to thank the Boisterous Exuberance blog for reminding me of my 2010 new year resolutions.  So here is the progress I have made during the first six months.

Continue to spend at least 30 minutes most evenings away from the television painting my miniatures.

Achieved.  I now have a Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth box set to keep me busy in the evenings.

Join a club and play more often against other people.  Aim is at the very least 2 games a month.

Achieved.  Myself and my son Tyler now attend the gaming nights at Maelstrom Games at least once a week.

Complete painting my 2250 points Warriors of Chaos army.

Achieved.  This was completed back in February for the Gobtyks tournament. 

Complete painting my new army Dark Elves, so I can field at least a 1999/2000 point army.

Binned.  Difficult to paint an army when its all sold on ebay!

Terrain, I need more.  At least two woods and two hills.

Binned.  Been playing more often, but at the gaming nights at Maelstrom Games.  Hence the need for more terrain isn't high on my list at the moment.

Play in at least six tournaments during the year.  I have already earmarked ten tournaments.

On Target.  Have played in four tournaments during the first half of the year.  I was planning on attending Autumn Incursion at Maelstrom Games in August, but don't think I will be able to attend now.   Will definitely be attending Immortal War III at the Sutton Immortals in November, that's if I can get a ticket.  Apart from these two I am not planning on attending any others.

Expand my Ogre Kingdoms or Warriors of Chaos army to 2999/3000 points to play in larger army size tournaments.

Achieved.  This was completed back in June for the Summer Incursion tournament. 

Achieve a UK Warhammer Fantasy Battle Tournament Ranking of at least 250 in 2010.

Binned.  Really not too bothered with this.  It would have been nice to achieve this year, but Warmachine has got my attention now.

With the Ogre Kingdoms I am waiting on a new army book and miniatures before progressing any further.  Knowing my luck I will start painting more miniatures, then new miniatures and a new army book would be released.  I am hoping this will be later this year, or early next.  The rumoured 8th edition errata for Ogre Kingdoms may change my mind on this.

The Warriors of Chaos is an awkward army for me at the moment at 2,000 and 2,250 points my Daemon Prince doesn't fit within the new army composition rules, unless I drop him down to a level 3.  Rumours on the UK tournament scene is that 2,400 will probably be the new limit.   Therefore I am now 351 points short of a tournament army, so probably a new block of fifteen Warriors is in order? Of course a block of eight Chaos Ogres from the Ogre Kingdoms army could also fit in nicely!

With both armies, I need to wait two weeks for the new rule book and hopefully the rumoured erratas before making a decision!

Regarding Warmachine I now have the Protectorate of Menoth box set built and primed ready for paint.  So will be concentrating on painting this army to the very best quality I can achieve.  I have found over the previous two years that the quality I spend on painting has decreased, mainly due to getting an army on the table.  Therefore the Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth army will take as long as it takes to paint to the highest quality I can achieve.

Single figure painting has also made it back into my hobby recently.   I was inspired by The Basement demo day at the Summer Incursion to get back into single figure painting.  The miniatures on display were absolutely stunning.  Plus The Basement are having another demo day at Maelstrom Games this month, so I will be attending that for more inspiration.

So onto the revised resolutions for the remainder of the year.

Build up my Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth army to 35 points, fully painted.

Play a game of Warhammer Fantasy and/or Warmachine at least once a week.

Paint a single figure to the highest quality I can achieve.

Post more regularly on this blog and reflect the changes to my wargamming and painting hobby.

Another Change of Direction

Well it seems that my wargamming is going to take another new fresh change of direction.  I did plan on painting a Dark Elves army, but the army is being sold on ebay.  Got to admit after purchasing the miniatures I couldn't find the motivation to paint them.  Plus with the new Warhammer Fantasy rules coming out next month, and I think the Ogres and Warriors will need some more units painting.  Will still definitely be playing the new Warhammer Fantasy rules.  But a new army is being put on hold probably until next year.

Reason being... Well recently my son Tyler has got back into the hobby.  So instead of investing in another Warhammer Fantasy army which can be very expensive, we opted for a demo game of Warmachine at Maelstrom Games.  Having had the demo Tyler has opted for a Khador force and I have chosen the Protectorate of Menoth purely for the painting possibilities.  Hence the selling of the Dark Elves army to aid in purchasing two Warmachine armies and the Rule Book.

Also I won the Infinity rule book at Summer Incursion for my last place.  At first glance of the book my initial reaction is that it looks like a kids game, with a cartoon look n feel.  But Dan at Maelstrom Games informs me that is it one of the best tactical games that they sell.  So will probably be putting together a small force to play some Infinity.

Plus recently myself and Tyler have been attending a few gaming nights at Maelstrom Games playing Warhammer Fantasy up until now.  
Whilst there I noticed some people playing Black Powder with Napoleonic 28 mm figures.  The battlefield looked stunning, this has really caught my eye.  So will probably get some Vitrix or Perry miniatures to paint, see how that goes.  Will start with painting some units and get the rules at a later date.

So the title of this blog is going to have to change may be to "My Wargamming Blog", and possibly change the banner!  Will have to find the time to make some changes!

Summer Incursion Aftermath

Had a brilliant weekend, six great games and opponents.  Tournaments at Maelstrom Games always live up to expectations.  The tables, scenery, food and overall experience was excellent as always.

The gaming hall during Saturday morning

Game 1 - Andy with Tomb Kings

Loss by 1298 victory points (Massacre).  Andy only took three units of chariots, which all ended up in his dead pile.  The Ogres high strength attacks took care of those!  Yet I couldn't get to grips with the scorpions and magic.  Excellent game and I didn't expect to get anything out of Tomb Kings.  

Game 2 - John with Beastmen

Loss by 2087 victory points (Massacre).  This was a bloodbath!  A very different build of Beastmen army to that I had faced before, with a lot of of monsters.  The minataurs are nasty especially in a unit of six.  Everything I threw at them just bounced, but in the end the unit was below half strength.  John managed to remove all of my army from the battlefield, it wasn't pretty on the start of turn 6 so I conceeded.

Game 3 - Dan with Skaven

Loss by 993 victory points.  After two massacres in the first two games I faced Skaven with the Furnance.  I did managed to kill the Furance in turn 5 along with a few other units.  But I just couldn't get to grips with Dan's army.

Game 4 - Sam with Daemons

Loss by 604 victory points.  This was Sam first tournament and Sam's first win!  Sam took a very small Daemon army with a Lord of Change, two units of 10 Bloodletters and two units of 20 Daemonettes with a few Heralds thrown in.  My Leadbelchers put a couple of wounds on the Lord of Change, and the Scraplauncher impact hits finally got him down to half wounds!  My Ironguts managed to see off the two units of Bloodletters, but the Daemonettes units stayed around.   This was a hidden deployment scenario, I wrote where in my deployment zone I was placing units then Sam deploys his whole army.  Sam deployed all of his units behind a building in his left corner and the Lord of Change behind a wood on his right.   Unfortunately this only left one flank available for me to attack and a very small frontage because of the building and other terrain.  

Game 5 and 6 were against brothers Dave and Edward Barfield.  Two of the best opponents I have ever played.  These guys play the game and have a laugh, absolutely the very best two games of Warhammer I have played by a mile.

The Barfield brothers face off for a battle!

Game 5 - Dave with Orcs n Goblins

Draw (15 victory points difference).  At last a Orc n Goblins player.  After 25 tournaments games since I started playing tournaments I finally played a Orc n Goblin army!  This was a random deployment (roll a dice and lookup on a table for which type of unit to deploy).  Again another length way deployment, so a lot of combats in the middle of the battlefield.   I didn't expect Ironguts to defeat Dave's two units of Black Orcs, but they did!  What aided in me losing the game were the Fanatics (of which I entirely forgot about!).  I found my self needing to slow down the progress of a large unit of Night Goblins, plus take some Wolf Riders on the same flank.  So I stupidly charged my Tyrant out of the Maneaters into the Night Goblins (Yep you guessed it)  two Fanatics putting four wounds on my Tyrant!!.  Then the Black Orc hero finished the Tryant off in the challenge.  A really fun game and at least I didn't lose!!

Game 6 - Edward with Vampire Counts

Loss by 1362 victory points (Massacre).  This is getting to be too much of a coincidence, facing Vampire Counts on the bottom table last game of a tournament.  In the seven tournaments I have played this is the third time this has happened.  As per usual another massacre against Vampire Counts.  Having only a single butcher and a single scroll I couldn't stop the contant raising, needing to keep the dispel dice for the movement spells.   Most of the Skellies and Zombies were upto full strength by the time my units hit them so a bit of a bloodbath.  I never play well against Vampire Counts with Ogres and this was again one of those games.  But Edward was an absolutely brilliant opponent to play.

Final Words

So in the final placing I finished in last place, my third last place in seven tournament!  But had a brilliant weekend, the Barfield brothers were the highlight of my weekend!  So where did I go wrong?  I should have played smarter against Sam and his Daemons, at least getting a draw.  Not remembering the Fanatics and stupidly charging my Tyrant out of the unit most definately lost me the win against Orcs n Goblins.  

For my last place I was awarded an Infinity rule book, which is a sci-fi skirmish game.  So will probably get a small force for that together and give it a try!  

I would like to mention Craig Johnson who also took a Ogre Kingdoms army and finished in 4th place.  Well done Craig!!  In the hands of a very good general the Ogre Kingdoms can put up a fight against the other armies.

I will most definately be returning to Maelstrom Games in the near future.  I am planning on attending the Dragon Slayers one dayer in July and the Autumn Incursion in August.

Tomb Kings and Beastmen

The draw for the first two rounds of Summer Incursion has been posted on The Warhammer Forum, and my Ogre Kingdoms have been drawn against Tomb Kings and Beastmen.  Both of these armies allow my Ogres to take an additional 250 points.  So what to take?  

I have the option of two units of two Leadbelchers, or a unit of two Leadbelchers and a unit of  three Bulls with additional hand Weapons, or a Hunter with Beastkiller, or a Hunter with Seigebreaker.

Against Tomb Kings I think my best bet is probably the Hunter with Seigebreaker auto hits and D6 wounds should make a mess of some chariots. I have seen this Tomb Kings army at Gobstyks earlier in the year and it has a bucket load of chariots, so tempted with the Hunter.  Also we have the Bullgorger cast on my three units of Ironguts for smashing chariots, should be fun.  Could the Butcher with his immune to poison tackle the swarms, may give it a go?

Against Beastmen again I am tempted with the Hunter with Seigebreaker or may be the two units of two Leadbelchers.  Depends on how many chariots I will be facing.

I haven't played against Tomb Kings or Beastmen with my Ogre Kingdoms yet, so the first two games should be fun.

D' Oh

I had a game over the weekend with my eldest son. I played with the Ogre Kingdoms and Tyler played my Warriors of Chaos in a 2,250 point game. The Warriors of Chaos came out on top with a marginal victory, which isn't bad as Tyler hasn't played for around three years and only just picked up the Warriors army list before the game!

One thing came up in the game which got me thinking. Tyler cast a spell with his level four Deamon Prince. The spell was cast successfully, yet Tyler picked up a dice to re-roll because the Deamon Prince had Tendrils. I said "Why are you doing that, the spell is cast?", Tyler replied "Because changing this roll of a one makes it harder for you to dispel". 

D' Oh.... Bleeding Obvious, yet I had never considered re-rolling a dice for a successfully cast spell, Stupidly in my mind I would only re-roll a dice for a unsuccessfully cast, that being my reasoning for that item being in the list. 

Yet Tyler didn't have any preconceptions behind my reasoning why the item was in the list. Because of this his view having only picked up the army list was completely different to mine. The item says can re-roll a casting dice, so he did. 

So a very valuable lesson learnt. Even though you don't need a re-roll to cast a spell, taking the option could improve the chances of Irresistible Force or making it harder to dispel.

This may seem obvious to others reading this post, but to me at the time it wasn't.

Summer Incursion Painting Progress

With only fifteen days until the Summer Incursion and I still have a hell of a lot of painting to complete.  Both the Scraplauncher and Gorger need gloss and matt varnishing.  The Gnoblar Trappers are only partial painted.  And the forty Gnoblar Fighters are built and primed along with the movement trays.  Plus I want to make some more mushrooms for the extra units to tie them in with the current army.   As well as static grass and bits and pieces on the bases there is a lot to do.

So I have drawn up a plan.  If I stick to it religiously then I may be in with a chance, but its going to be tight.

Back to the painting table.

Spangleshard v Wyrdstone Necklace

I have always taken the Wyrdstone Necklace on my Tyrant.  Recently I have been looking into the comparison between the Spangleshard Talisman and the Wyrdstone Necklace.

The Wyrdstone Necklace grants a 5+ Ward Save with the minor negative that the Tyrant could take a wound after deployment.

The Spangleshard Talisman is a strange on.  If wounded by strength 7 or better then you get a 3+ save.  A strength 6 attack and its a 4+ save, Strength 5 is a 5+ save.  Therefore attacks greater than Strength 5 the Spangleshard Talisman is better than the Wyrdstone Necklace.

Here is the snag against strength 4 the save is 6+ and strength 3 no save at all.  This leaves the Tyrant at risk against normal infantry, magic missiles and Elven shooting when taking the Spangleshard Talisman over the Wyrdstone Necklace.  Also the Spangleshard Talisman cannot be used against automatic wound items, but I don't see these very often.

I am now considered the Spangleshard Talisman on a Hunter, but at 30 points it restricts the magic weapons available to only the Sword of Might.  

One option I quite like the look of is the Spangleshard Talisman and the Beastkiller big name on a Hunter.  This combination could be used against dragons typically giving a 4+ save, also causing multiply wounds.  I think I will probably run this combination for the Summer Incursion in a couple of weeks.

Ogre Kingdoms Painting Progress

With forty days remaining until the Summer Incursion tournament at Maelstrom Games I still have a load of painting to complete.  Progress was slow during April, the Scraplauncher, Gorger and Gnoblar Trappers have all been built and primed.   The Gnoblar Fighters are still on the sprues.  I have concentrated on painting the Scraplauncher first because it was the largest model.  The base and Rhinox are complete with the Scraplauncher its self and Gnoblars only half way done.  The construction and painting of the Scraplauncher has taken longer than I expected!

I guess by next Friday the Scraplauncher will be complete.  Next weekend I will start on the Gorger, followed by the Gnoblar Trappers.  The Gnoblar Fighters I am leaving until last.  This will leave me probably only two weeks to complete two units of Gnoblar Fighters.  Its going to be tight with the deadline for army list submission being the 4th June.  Every Ogre Kingdoms miniature I own in already in the army list, so there is no room for tweaking the list should I fail in painting these in time.

When all these are complete I can field a 2,999 point Ogre Kingdoms army,  the only units I won't have are Yhettees and a Slave Giant.  I am really hoping for a new Ogre Kingdoms army book this year after 8th Edition.  With the possibility of different miniatures and different rules the future could be very interesting for Ogre Kingdoms players.

Back to the painting table!!

Summer Incursion Ogres

Summer Incursion is a two day, six game tournament with the same rules pack as for the Winter Incursion.  At Winter Incursion I took my Warriors of Chaos, but this time its the Ogre Kingdoms which will be gracing the battlefields at Maelstrom Games.











I have made the following decisions in building the list.

Include two units of twenty Gnoblar Fighters in the core 2,000 points.  Primary use is to contest a table each.

Include a unit of Gnoblar Trappers in the core 2,000 points.  Primary use is harass and march block the enemies battle line.

Only include a Tyrant and Butcher in the core 2,000 points.  This means my main core 2,000 points can be bulked out with units.

This might sound strange but I have never run Sword Gnoblars, Brace of Handguns or a Tenderizer on a Tyrant. Also I have never run champions in any of my units before, but Randriod on a recent episode of the WaaghCast has opened my eyes to the benefits against shooting. Also I will be taking a Scraplauncher, Gorger, Gnoblar Fighters and Trappers again these are a first for my Ogre Kingdoms army.

At the moment this list is the basis for some practise games which I intend to play before the tournament.  I am hoping to get in around six games.  The core 2000 points will be played against only Orc & Goblins and other Ogre Kingdoms armies.

Tyrant (303 pts)
Heavy Armour, Luck Gnoblar, Tenderizer, Sword Gnoblars, Brace of Handguns, Wrydstone Necklace

Butcher (180 pts)
Bangstick, Dispel Scroll

Bulls x 3 (147 pts)
Crusher, Bellower, Additional Hand Weapon

Bulls x 3 (147 pts)
Crusher, Bellower, Additional Hand Weapon

Ironguts x 4 (247 pts)
Bellower, Standard Bearer, Look out Gnoblar, Rune Maw

Ironguts x 4 (227 pts)
Bellower, Standard Bearer, Look out Gnoblar

Ironguts x 3 (194 pts)
Gutlord, Bellower, Standard Bearer

Gnoblar Trappers x 9 (54 pts)

Gnoblar Fighters x 20 (40 pts)

Gnoblar Fighters x 20 (40 pts)

Leadbelchers x 2 (120 pts)
Thunderfist

Leadbelchers x 2 (120 pts)
Thunderfist

Maneaters x 2 (180 pts)
Heavy Armour, Great Weapons

For the reserves I can take 4 options totaling no more than 250 points each.  I am still undecided what reserves to take against each army.

Against Beastmen, Bretonnians, Dwarfs and Tomb Kings I can take 1 reserve

Against Dwarfs of Chaos, High Elves, Warriors of Chaos and Wood Elves I can take 2 reserves

Against Empire, Lizardmen, Skaven and Vampire Counts I can take 3 reserves

Against Daemons of Chaos and Dark Elves I can take 4 reserves

Reserves A (probably going to be used every battle)

Scraplauncher (165 pts)

Gorger (75 pts)

Reserves B (my next most probable units to use, unless I think a Hunter to be more useful)

Bulls x 3 (127 pts)
Bellower, Additional Hand Weapon

Leadbelchers x 2 (120 pts)
Thunderfist

Reserves C

Hunter (215 pts)
2 x Sabretusks, Seigebreaker, Talisman of Protection

Reserves D

Hunter (235 pts) 
2 x Sabretusks, Beastkiller, Greyback Pelt

Therefore I now have the following to build, paint and base for the 12th June.

1 x Scraplauncher 

1 x Gorger

9 x Gnoblar Trappers

40 x Gnoblar Fighters

More Movement Trays

I have a lot of painting and some practise games to get in before the 12th June.  Really looking forward to this event, and hoping to see all my 2,999 points of Ogres on the battlefield against either Dark Elves or Daemons!

Pins, pins and more pins

Over the past twelve days or so I have been busy constructing my Gnoblar Scraplauncher and its finally nearly built, just some green stuff work to do and it can be primed.

I used 27 pins in the construction of the Scraplauncher and Rhinox, along with another 7 pins for holding the Gnoblars to the Scraplauncher thats a massive 34 pins in total.  Without pinning then super glue alone simply wouldn't hold this thing together with a level of convidence that it isn't going to come apart over time.

This thing is also heavy, the Scraplauncher and Rhinox together weighs a hefty 210 grams!

Magnets and Movement Trays

Whilst playing with the Ogre Kingdoms army without Gnoblars I never saw the need for magnetised movement trays and miniatures.  However now the Warriors of Chaos have found their way on to the battlefield with ranked up units I need some magnetised movement trays.

So I turned to OG Games to purchase some Rare Earth Magnets, I got 100 for £10.00 at 10p each I think thats a bargin.  Next some sheets of A4 Magnetic Paper to stick onto the movement trays, at £1.40 per sheet another bargin.  I opted for the Games Workshop Modular Movement Trays as I have used these on my Ogres and found them to fit the job nicely, however you don't get enough corner pieces if you want a border on all four sides (cuts the number of movement tays in half).  Priced at £5.40 I could assemble the 8 movement trays I required.

First I assembled the movements trays.  The A4 Magnetic Paper was cut to size and stuck in place on the base of the movement tray.  The magetic paper was only 0.3mm think so doesn't raise the miniatures to high off the base of the movement tray.

Next I fixed the rare earth magnets to the base of the miniatures.  The magnet were just short of being flush with the base, so used some Milliput to fill in the gap.  A drop of super glue, onto which the Milliput was placed.  Then another drop of super glue onto the Milliput and the rare earth magnet was pushed into the Milliput on a flat surface.  This ensured that the magnet was flush with the bottom of the base.  The cavalry bases needed some of the plastic cut away to accomodate the magnet. 

While these were drying I applied PVA and sand to the borders of the movements trays.    Once dry I painted the borders.  I decided not to paint the magnetic sheet as it looks very similiar to Scorched Brown.  My painting technique for borders is..

Prime Chaos Black
A coat of Scorched Brown
Heavy dry brushing of Graveyard Earth
Light dry brushing of Bleached Bone

To complete a coat of gloss varnish Ard' Coat for protection, followed by a coat of Testors Dull Cote to dull it down again.  Static grass was applied in places.

At £18.20 to assembed thats only £2.27 per movement tray and the whole army is magnetised. Bargin!!

Change of Direction

My plan for the remainder of the year, was to play with my existing Warriors of Chaos and Ogre Kingdoms builds.  This was so I could concentrate on painting on my Dark Elves.  However there are a few tournaments which I would like to attend that are 2,999 points when taking an Ogre Kingdoms army.  So a change of direction for the remainder of the year.  One of my new year resolutions is to "Expand my Ogre Kingdoms or Warriors of Chaos army to 2999/3000 points to play in larger army size tournaments" anyway.

So for the next two months the Dark Elves will be put on hold and I will be painting an extra 500 points for my Ogre Kingdoms.  




Ogre Kingdoms army additions...

Additional Maneater to make a unit of three.
A Gorger which primary use is to harass all these bolt throwers I keep coming accross.
A unit of Gnoblar Trappers to harass and march block the enemies battle line.
A Scraplauncher for some range attack ability.
I may also go for another Butcher to replace one of the Hunters.

So onto another of my new year resolutions, "Join a club and play more often against other people.  Aim is at the very least 2 games a month".  I haven't managed to join a club in my area yet this year, but this is going to change!  I desperately need some more practise games with my Ogre Kingdoms if I am going to better myself at Warhammer!

The Warriors of Chaos will be put in the display cabinet and the Ogre Kingdoms back in the army case, reason being "Five dice Infernal Gateway on that unit" is getting boring and predicable, plus I find my Ogre Kingdoms more challenging to play with.

My next tournament is the Summer Incursion at Maelstom Games in June, I am not planning on attending any others until then.  So it will be 2,999 points of Ogre Kingdoms on the battlefield!

Winter Incursion Aftermath

Over the weekend I attended my first two day tournament at Maelstrom Games in Mansfield.  This has to be the best tournament I have attended to date.  The tables, scenery, food and overall experience was excellent.  I had six great games against brilliant opponents.  All in all a fun weekend, I would definitely recommend Maelstrom tournaments.

I ended the weekend in 29th out of 30 players, avoiding last place.  My target for the weekend was to at least win a game and avoid last place.  My best results out of the six games was a draw, but I did avoid last place!

Game 1 - Kirt with Lizardmen

A first for me playing against Lizardmen.  Sadly a massacre lose by 1,241 points.  This was a long ways deployment scenario, not good for an army with movement four.  Didn't roll up Infernal Gateway on either my Deamon Prince or Sorcerer, but as the weekend spanned out this didn't really matter.  I had 250 more points in this game, so on came the Chosen.  I was happy with the way I played, but Kirt and his Lizardmen were by far better.

       
Game 2 - Andy with Warriors of Chaos  

On to game 2 and I played Andy from Andrath's Wargaming Blog.  So a "Battle of the Blogs" so to speak!!  The game ended in a draw, with me up by only 57 points.  If I hadn't had charged my Daemon Prince into a unit of four Chaos Ogres then the Daemon Prince would probably have not ended on half wounds.  This could have possible cost me the win.  The plan for the weekend was to keep the Daemon Prince out of combat and hidden from shooting, but I just couldn't resist.

Game 3 - Alex with Dark Elves

A solid lose by 937 to end day one.  Alex's Death Hag raped my entire first rank of Chaos Warriors in a combat.  I did managed to kill the Dragon with Flickering Fire and Infernal Gateway.  Managed to get Pandemonium to remain in play for most of the battle.  The bolt throwers and hand bows were a real pain, Alex played well his shooting, along with hatred did a lot of damaged.  Not to mention that Death Hag!

       
Game 4 - Ed with Dwarfs       

Another first for me playing against Dwarfs.  However another massacre lose to start day two!  This was another deployment scenario, I had to write down my deployments then Ed got to deploy his whole army.  I then revealed my deployments.  Basically it ended up with Dwarfs in one corner to my left and the bulk of my army in a corner to my right.  So I could either hide in the corner and play for a draw or walk diagonally across the battlefield towards the gunline.  I chose to make a game of it and started walking.  Big mistake!!  Ed's gunline was on fire all game, not one misfire and all his range guesses were spot on.  The cannons, bolt throwers and stone throwers completely raped my entire army!

Game 5 - Rich with Beastmen

Yet another first for me playing against Beastmen.  And yet another massacre lose. This was another long ways deployment scenario with a random deployment.  I never really got to grips with this game.  Rich played his Beastmen army excellently, whilst I reacted to his army.  A large combat ensured in the centre of the battlefield, I lost and it was really all over.

Game 6 - Guy with High Elves    

Last game and another shooting army and archers, bolt throwers and a dragon.  And another massacre lose.  No scenario's here just a pitched battle.  Again I never really got to grips with this game either.  Too much shooting and just couldn't get to grips with the dragon.   

Final Words

The Dice Gods were not favourable for me over the weekend.  I did roll up Infernal Gateway in all but the first game.  But I never rolled the magic number for the strength all weekend.  In fact I would say that over the six games Flickering Fire was more destructive than Infernal Gateway.  I had started the weekend five dicing Infernal Gateway, but come the end was two dicing Flickering Fire and four dicing Infernal Gateway.

The Chaos Spawn was a complete waste of time and points.  In six games I didn't roll a single dice in close combat.   Not being able to control the movement was a pain.

So with the Warriors of Chaos I have now played nine games at two tournaments, won one, drawn one and lost seven.  The one game I did win, I really don't look at as being a win.  That game was won because I cast Infernal Gateway on a Vampire Lord and removed the unit, game over for the Vampire player.  My Warriors of Chaos army build isn't really up to the task, with Infernal Gateway being the key component.  I have found that the Magic Phase for me and my opponent gets a bit boring.  How many times can you say "Infernal Gateway on that unit" over a weekend, without sounding boring and predicable?  

So I am taking a few months off tournaments and Warriors of Chaos for a while to practise with my Ogre Kingdoms.  Hopefully I will be attending the Summer Incursion in a few months time, and with my Ogre Kingdoms.  As I find my Ogre Kingdoms more challenging to play with.

All in all an excellent tournament really enjoyed the weekend and every game.

Eve of the Winter Incursion

At the weekend I am off to Maelstrom Games for their first ever Warhammer Fantasy Battles tournament, Winter Incursion.  Its a two day, six game tournament with some scenarios (mostly around deployment) thrown in to mix things up a little.  The armies have been banded according to their relative strength, which allow the weaker armies more points on the table in the form of reserves.

The points limit is 2,000, but against certain armies I will have reserve units up to the value of 250 points.  So against  Empire, Lizardmen, Skaven and Vampire Counts I have one reserve.  Against Deamons of Chaos and Dark Elves I have two reserves.  But against Bretonnians, Dwarfs, and Tomb Kings my opponent can take reserves, and against Ogre Kingdoms and Orc and Goblins my opponent has two reserves.

Because of the army banding system in place, in the first two games I will avoid playing Deamons of Chaos, Dark Elves, Ogre Kingdoms and Orc and Goblins.  However no Ogre Kingdoms and Orc and Goblins armies are present at this tournament.

So onto the list.  I have dropped the Black Tongue, it did nothing in my last tournament.  The Rod of Torment is in and on the Battle Standard Bearer.  I had to move around the Arcane items because I noticed that one of the sorcerers at my last tournament had two arcane items (naughty!).  
Unfortunately this has mean't that I have lost a scroll, because the Infernal Puppet and Spell Familiar had to be on seperate sorcerers.  Another change is Mark of Slaanesh on the Warriors and Knights.

My Core 2,000 points.

Daemon Prince (General) (575 pts)
Level 4 Sorcerer, Mark of Tzeentch, Tendrils of Tzeentch, Bloodcurdling Roar, Fury of the Blood God, Causes Terror, Fly, Stubborn, The Will of Chaos, Scion of Chaos

Chaos Sorcerer (200 pts)
Level 2 Sorcerer, Mark of Tzeentch, Dispel Scroll, Spell Familiar, Conjoined Homunculus, Hand Weapon, Chaos Armour, The Will of Chaos, Eye of the Gods

Chaos Sorcerer (136 pts)
Barded Chaos Steed, Infernal Puppet, Hand Weapon, Chaos Armour, The Will of Chaos, Eye of the Gods, Lores of Death or Fire

Exalted Champion (Battle Standard Bearer) (195 pts)
Battle Standard, Sheild, Rod of Torment, Mark of Tzeentch, Hand Weapon, Chaos Armour, The Will of Chaos, Eye of the Gods

Chaos Warriors x 13 (293 pts)
Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer, Banner of Wrath, Shields, Mark of Slaanesh, Hand Weapon, Chaos Armour, The Will of Chaos

Chaos Marauders x 15 (95 pts)
Marauder Chieftain, Musician, Standard Bearer, Flails, Hand Weapon, The Will of Chaos

Marauder Horsemen x 5 (110 pts)
Marauder Chieftain, Musician, Standard Bearer, Shields, Throwing Axes, Hand Weapon, The Will of Chaos, Fast Cavalry, Horse Lords

Chaos Warhounds x 5 (30 pts)
The Will of Chaos

Chaos Warhounds x 5 (30 pts)
The Will of Chaos

Chaos Knights x 5 (280 pts)
Knight Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer, Rapturous Standard, Mark of Slaanesh, Barded Chaos Steed, Shield, Ensorcelled Weapon, Chaos Armour, The Will of Chaos, Causes Fear

Chaos Spawn (55 pts)
Causes Fear, Unbreakable, Lurching Horror, Flailing Appendages


My Reserves.  The Chosen I will play against Empire, Lizardmen, Skaven and Vampire Counts.  
And the Ogres for Deamons of Chaos and Dark Elves.

Chosen x 8 (237 pts)
Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer, Banner of Rage, Shields, Hand Weapon, Chaos Armour, The Will of Chaos, Chosen of the Dark Gods

Ogres x 4 (250 pts)
Chaos Armour, Great Weapons, Standard Bearer, Mark of Khorne, The Will of Chaos, Causes Fear

There are a lot of the top players in the country attending with nearly half in the top one hundred.  


So onto my usual topic for every tournament, my target.  This time around my target is to at least win a game out of the six I will be playing.  I am expecting to finish near the bottom (if not bottom), purely because I haven't had any practice with the army.  Also not expecting to get close on the best painted army, there are a lot of excellent painter attending.

UK WFB Tournament Ranking

I started the UK WFB Tournament Rankings for this year in 945th place, I have now risen to 712th after placing 21st at the Gobstyks event.  Thats a jump of 233 places in the first two months!  I have still to achieve my new year resolution target of top 250, but I have made a good start in getting there.  Unfortunately my next tournament Winter Incursion being held at Maelstrom Games will not be included in the rankings, this is the decision that Maelstrom Games have taken.  Here is my tournament record so far.....

The rankings have recently been moved to a new website Rankings HQ.  Its a brilliant web site containing rankings for WFB and 40K from all over the world.

My Dark Elves Army Pledge

I have been building my collection of Dark Elves the past couple of months and have managed to accrue...

A Sorceress on Pegasus
An Assassin
48 Warriors
15 Witch Elves with full command
6 Harpies

Still plenty of miniatures to purchase.  I am definitely going to include a dragon in the army for a centre piece.

So onto The Pledge.  This army is a painting and basing project to see how far I can push my army painting skills.  I want to paint this army to the highest quality I possibly can.  So I have come up with the following rules, which I have promised myself I will not break.

Study painting and basing tutorials on the net.
Understand and study the colour wheel.
No time constraints or dead lines.
No visible mold lines or joins.
Wash all miniatures prior to priming.
Check for mold lines after priming. 
Prime with Skull White.
Water down the paint.
Never paint straight out of the pot.
Use alternatives paints, Vallejo or Cote d'Arms and Windsor and Newton for inks.
Only include miniatures in the army I would like to paint.
If I spot something to tidy up, change or still to do write it down so don't forget.

I have my Warriors and Ogres for gaming and tournaments and will not be expanding these in the near future.  I want to concentrate on this Dark Elve painting project.  Not even a new Ogre Kingdoms book and miniatures will take me away from this project.  I would like to field this Dark Elve army at a tournament near the end of the year (may be as a small force), but I will not break one of the rules and rush the project for a tournament.  So this blog could turn into a Dark Elves painting project blog for the remainder of this year and possibly into next year.

I am going to start with the Sorceress on Pegasus which is the Morathi on Dark Pegasus miniature.  Then probably move onto the Assassin, Harpies and Witch Elves.

GATEWAY!! Take it off

Why is this post titled GATEWAY! Take it off?  I will explain....  

Yesterday I attended my second tournament of the year at the Gobstyks Gaming Club in Lincoln.  It was a one day event with 30 players.  No composition and special characters were allowed, so GT style lists.  I had been frantically been painting my final units of Marauder Horsemens and Chaos Knights for my Warriors of Chaos army in the previous week, and they were ready.  So the Ogre Kingdoms stayed in the display cabinet and the Warriors of Chaos took to the battlefield for the first time.

Game 1 - Sean with Vampire Counts

Why do I always seem to face Vampire Counts at every tournament I attend?  Sean took a large block of around 20 Grave Guard and placed all his Vampires in it including his Lord and Manfred.  
The unit looked menacing of the battlefield.  My initially thoughts were nothing in my army can take that unit on in close combat, not even the knights and with no ranged shooting I was going no where near it.  I only had one option to tackle that unit, Infernal Gateway.  Along with two units of Wraiths Sean's army was going to be hard to defeat.  I had cast Pandaemonium on my first turn to slow down the raising and movement of the Vampires, my plan was to attempt to keep this spell in play for most of the battle.  Turn 2 started and I was avoiding getting into combat.  Next the magic phase, I targetted the massive block of Grave Guard and Characters with Infernal Gateway, Irresistible!!  Followed by rolling 11 for the strength, GATEWAY!! Take it off.  Sean was not happy, two turns later and his army had crumbled into dust.

I had ended my first ever game with Warriors of Chaos with 2,948 Victory Points a Massacre win!  

Later Sean told me that the unit of Grave Guard and Characters was worth 1,500 Victory Points.  I explained he gave me no options to tackle that unit apart from Infernal Gateway, "played for and got" I think is the phrase! 

Game 2 - Michael with Warriors of Chaos

I was on Table 1 second game playing Michael who works for Game Workshop.  Hang on a minute... I shouldn't be on table 1, I usually take a soft Ogre Kingdoms army to tournaments and play on the bottom tables!  Michael's army was mostly Warriors and Knights a harder list than mine.  A fun game, but Michael gave me a lesson on how to play with the Warriors of Chaos.  We had both taken the Puppet and Black Tongue, it was a game with both of us adjusting rolls on the Miscast Table!  Michael's dice were on fire all game, he mostly got off all this spells and dispels.  It ended with me on a Massacre lose.  An execellent game, I learn't a lot by playing another Warriors of Chaos player.

Game 3 - Neil with Warriors of Chaos

Table 8 this is more like it, and Neil with another Warriors of Chaos army.  It was a fun and close game, but sadly another lose.  Again another lesson on how to play with the Warriors of Chaos.  
My deployment and movement really let me down this game but Neil played an execellent game.  I ended the game with only a unit of knights and my Daemon Prince left standing, but had made a respectable dent in Neil army.  However it was all the small stuff I had taken out, so my Victory Points was only 823.  I had lost my level one sorcerer (scroll caddy) early in the game, followed by me throwing double 1 and double 1 on my level two sorcerer.  Which only left my level four Daemon Prince for most of the game.   However my Daemon Prince was the star of the battle.  I can't remember how many 4+ ward saves I rolled on the Daemon Prince, but it was a lot!

Final Words

Really enjoyed the day, had a great time with three brilliant games against excellent opponents.  I ended the day in 21st place out of 30 players, really happy with my overall standing.  But most of all enjoyed playing the the Warrior of Chaos.  It really was Gateway for the Win, well at least once!

Winter Incursion 2010

The rules pack for this tournament is now available on the Maelstrom Games web site, so I downloaded it.  Its 32 pages and excellently put together, the best tournament rules pack I have seen.  

Its a two day, six game tournament with some scenarios (mostly around deployment) thrown in to mix things up a little.  The armies have been banded according to their relative strength, which allow the weaker armies more points on the table in the form of reserves. 

I would have liked to take my Ogre Kingdoms to this event, as the results are not going into the UK rankings.  
But I need 2,000 points of Ogres plus four reserves at 250 points each.  I can muster 2,500 points army, but not 3,000.  I did look at including a Scrap Launcher, some Gnoblar Fighters and more Irongut or Bulls.  I even considered making both units of Leadbelcher 5 miniatures wide, and adding another 4 Maneaters.  But the cost and limited time available to paint mean't that the Ogres will have to stay at home for this one.  I am not going to compromise the painting quality of the army to meet a tournament deadline!

The Warriors of Chaos are in a different army bracket to that of the Ogre Kingdoms.   I need 2,000 points of Warriors of Chaos plus only two reserves at 250 points each.  I will have 2,250 points painted, so only need another 250 points.  Here's the plan...  A unit of Ogres from my Ogre Kingdoms army not sure on the upgrade yet, may be additional hand weapons with Mark of Khorne?

Really looking foward to this one, it will be my first two day, six game tournament!

40K IG Catachans For Sale

I am selling my Warhammer 40k Imperial Guard Catachan miniatures.  They have been painted to a good gaming standard.  I have had these since early 2008 and they have just sat in the display cabinet.  Click here for the ebay auction.

Imperial Guard Catachan Jungle Fighter Captain
Imperial Guard Catachan Officer with Chainsword
Imperial Guard Catachan Officer with Power Fist
21 Imperial Guard Catachan Jungle Fighters
3 Imperial Guard Catachan Heavy Weapon Squads
3 Imperial Guard Catachan Snipers
2 Imperial Guard Catachan Sentinels

I am selling them to help fund my Warhammer Fantasy Dark Elves army!