Thursday, February 25, 2010

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.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

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.


Sunday, February 21, 2010

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!


Sunday, February 7, 2010

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!



Monday, February 1, 2010

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!