My 2010 Tournament Calendar

I have earmarked these tournaments in 2010 as the ones that I would like to attend.  I have already entered Winter War and the Gobstyks 2250 WFB events.  Along side each is the army which I will probably be taking.  One of my 2010 new year resolutions will be to play in at least six tournaments during the year.

January - Winter War (Ogre Kingdoms)

February - Gobstyks 2250 WFB (Ogre Kingdoms or Warriors of Chaos)

March - Call to Arms (Warriors of Chaos)

May - Open War 13 (Warriors of Chaos)

June - Battle of the Chumps (Warriors of Chaos)

September - Leicester Squiggle (Warriors of Chaos)

October - Mansfield Maul (Ogre Kingdoms or Warriors of Chaos)

October - Open War 14 (Warriors of Chaos)

November - Immortal War (Dark Elves)

December - Destruction Derby (Dark Elves or Warriors of Chaos)

My Lessons Learn't List

Back in October I started a lessons learn't list after my first tournament, since then I have played a few more games and learn't a few more things.  With practice and a lot more games then this list will hopefully grow some more.

For instance the initial entries of Remember Musicians have +1 to rally and Have a plan or plans for each phase have not occurred since.  I always remember the +1 to rally, and have used my Ogre Butcher to better effect.  

Question something if in doubt. Something came up in a game a recently, whereby a flying unit charged a unit of Irongut in the flank.  To do so they had to land in a wood, as the Ironguts flank was touching the wood.  Upon reading the rule book later, I found that flyers cannot land in a wood.  I did think about questioning this at the time, may be I should have. 

Don't be afraid to play for a draw.  Having played two tournament games against Vampire Counts, I have found that my Ogre Kingdoms cannot contend with the Magic that Vampire Counts bring to the battlefield.  Playing for a draw may lead to a boring game, but at least I will have something that resembles an army on the battlefield at the end.  This also ties in with the Think of current tournament placing entry in this list. 

Magic defense.  At least a single dispel scroll.  There is a lot of magic heavy armies out there at the moment.  The first time I didn't take a dispel scroll was when I lost 350 points to Infernal Gateway.  This undoubtedly lost me the game. 

Deployment (stop and think).  I had a terrible deployment in one of the tournament games recently.  I need to stop and think about not only deployment, but also subsequent movement with difficult terrain on the battlefield. 

Remember affects of weapons.  I can recall recently that I had forgot the +1 strength for the great weapons on the Ironguts. 

Remember unit special rules. Stubborn, Causes Fear for example. I can recall a couple of moments during the Squiggle tournament where I forgot Maneaters are Stubborn and more distrurbingly forgot Ogres cause Fear. 

Remember Musicians have +1 to rally. Again I can recall couple of moments during the Squiggle where I forgot this. 

Have a plan or plans for each phase. The Magic Phase for example. The Butcher was completely wasted in some games due to poor deployment and movement causing him to be out of range. 

Think of current tournament placing. All I needed to do was not lose by a massacre in the last game, and I would have avoided last place. I should have recognised the fast moving chariots and cavalry, two bolt throwers, two shooting unit and lots of magic. If I had deployed deep and hid out of line of sight then I might have avoided last place. Would have been a boring game though.

My Next Army - Dark Elves

Over the past months I have been considering which army to collect and paint next.  My initial thoughts were either Vampire Counts, Wood Elves or a Khorne Daemon army.

I purchased the Dark Elves army book on the day of release back in 2008.  The army was going to be for my son, who wanted at the time to get back into Warhammer Fantasy.  But he lost interest shortly afterwards. 

In November this year at the Immortal War tournament I won a box of Dark Elves Warriors for best painted army.  So my fate was sealed, with my Dark Elves army book and a box of Dark Elves Warriors it was going to be Dark Elves.

This army project will be purely a painting and basing miniatures project.  Although the Dark Elves are considered to be one of the best armies at the moment, the army list build will be based around the miniatures I would most like to paint not which units are better on the battlefield. 

I will be collecting all the miniatures I want to paint first, then when I have all the miniatures only then will I commence building and painting.  I am not expecting to start building and painting until around April next year.  The Warriors of Chaos project will probably take me until March to complete anyway.

My target is to have a fully painted Dark Elves army by November next years for the Immortal War tournament, leaving me around eight months to complete.

My 2009 UK WFB Ranking

Well after my first three tournaments I finished the 2009 UK Warhammer Fantasy Battle Rankings with a ranking of 955th.  Unfortunately the Immortal War result has not been included, which won't really improve my ranking anyway.

A lot more tournaments next year, and I will be improving on this!

Winter War 2010

I have entered my first tournament of 2010, the Winter War is being held by The Spiky Club on Sunday 17th January 2010.  It is a one day 2250 point Warhammer Fantasy tournament.

It will be another outing for my Ogre Kingdoms.  I will be putting an army list together which will comprise mostly of my Destruction Derby list plus an addition Ogre Hunter.  Experience tells me that I need another Ogre Butcher if the list is going to be more competative, but I want to concentrate on painting the Warriors of Chaos army. So my second Ogre Hunter will be in the army for the first time.

I may consider getting two or three units of Gnoblar Trappers.  The extra two Ogre Hunters allow the list to have an extra unit of Gnoblar Trappers per Hunter, so I can have a maximum of three units.  I will need to drop a unit of Bulls to accomodate the extra Gnoblar Trappers units, this will still leave me with a single unit of Bulls and three units of Ironguts.  This should be an interesting painting project over the Christmas break!

The two units of three Leadbelchers served me will in the Destruction Derby tournament, so these bad boys will remain in the army list. 

The tournament has some very hard "comp" restrictions on the other armies.  Ogres aren't hit by the comp at all, but then again do not benefit.

Destruction Derby III Aftermath

Had a brilliant day with three great games.  My thanks goes out to the Ben's for hosting such a wacky tournament, and to my three opponents on the day.  I finished the day on 31st out of 36 players, which I am well chuffed with.

A "no comp" tournament with wacky scenarios is a great laugh, the scenarios really helped in leveling the playing field for armies such as Ogre Kingdoms.

Photo courtesy of Bad Dice

Game 1 - Paul with Warriors of Chaos

This was the wound Stinkcrapp Bumfeeler the Night Goblin Shaman more than your opponent scenario.  Plus at the end of every turn the Goblin summons the power of his gods, all units that caused a wound to Stinkcrapp in that turn are hit by the Foot of Gork spell.

I managed a WIN! wounding the Night Goblin Shaman 10 times to Paul's 6.  Also getting a Marginal Victory 1297 to 961 on victory points.  The two units of three Leadbelchers didn't misfire all game, and along with the Butcher with Bangstick and Bonecruncher did all the wounds to the Night Goblin Shaman.

All game I just concentrated on wounding the Night Goblin Shaman.  My deployment was key with both units of Leadbelchers, the Butcher and the Hunter all deployed centrally I could inflict the most wounds with these.  This left the remainder of my army to just get in the way of the Warriors.


Game 2 - Stuart with Vampire Counts

This game followed all rules for a pitched battle, along with a few extra rules to shake things up a bit such as no models can fly, all units are affected by the Rain Lord spell and at the start of each players turn roll a dice for all your units, on the roll of a 1 the unit is hit by a Forked Lightning spell.

After my experience against Vampire Counts at the Immortal War tournament, my plan was to avoid combat as much as possible and play for a draw.  Alas I lost this game 654 to 165 a Marginal Lose.  I am happy with the result, I avoided the massacre which happened against Vampire Counts at the Immortal War tournament.  Had a unit of Leadbelchers stayed alive, and I killed one more single skelly it would have been a draw. 

With only a single Butcher with a single Dispel Scroll and with only three dispel dice I couldn't stop the raising.  I found that after two turns I needed to save all my dice for the movement and always strikes first spell.  These spell seems to be harming my units the most.

There was a vital combat in the middle of the table for a couple turns.  I had a unit of three Bulls in the front and a unit of three Leadbelchers in the flank of a unit of skellies.  I did manage to get this unit down to a single model over the three rounds of combat.  But the next round of combat they were back to full strength of 15.  Stuart managed to get the spell off which gives Always Strikes First with an irresistible force on the unit of skellies.  This unfortunately sealed the fate of the Ogres in that combat.

Even though I lost by a Marginal Victory, I was happy with how I fought the Vampire Counts. 


Game 3 - Adam with Bretonians

This was the get units wholly in your opponent’s deployment zone to score scenario points.  Plus the in the centre of the table is a rift that leads directly into the Realm of Chaos itself! At the start of each player’s turn the rifts move 2d6” in a random direction, any unit touched by the rift are immediately affected by the Infernal Gateway Spell. The rift moves through units like a fanatic does.  The Infernal Gateway rift didn't play any part in the game it just moved over to the left every turn and out of the way of each army.

A Massacre Lose scoring zero scenario points, and only a few victory points.

Really messed up deployment in this game BIG TIME.  The scenario meant that you couldn't deploy within 12" of the short table edge and with a 12" wide difficult terrain in my deployment zone to the left meant that I had 3 feet to deploy in.  Also I had another smaller piece of difficult terrain to the front of my deployment zone.

Having deployed my army completely wrong and giving Adam the first turn it was all over bar actually rolling some dice.  I should have used the terrain to my advantage and not to my disadvantage (which I managed!).  Not going first also meant that I couldn't get my army out into the space of the centre of the battlefield.

After turn one with the Bretonians marching the full 14" my whole army was pinned down in a small space with Pegasus Knights to the flank.  It was a mess!! With no table space left to flee the charges by turn four it was all over.


Final Words

Really enjoyed the day, had a great time.  A result of 31st out of 36 players I am well happy with.

I have discovered that opponents really don't like the Trollguts spell going off and two units of three Leadbelchers seem to scare them!

Well thats the end of the 2009 UK tournament year.  I am hoping to attend a one day tournament in January next year, which will be another day for my Ogre Kingdoms army.  After that I should have my Warriors of Chaos fully painted, so they will have a day out at a tournament soon.

Vallejo or Coat d'arms

I have been looking into re-stocking some of my paints. So a trip to my local GW to pick up some paints and found that I was paying almost £5 for 2 pots of 12ml paints. 

At the time I thought that almost £5 for two pots of 12ml paints is ridicious. 

Up to now I have always used Citadel, but the price of alternatives are very appealing.  Maelstrom sell Citadel paints for £1.96 and at GW its £2.20.  I would imagine that Maelstrom are still making a profit at £1.96.

At Maelstrom I can get ...

Citadel 12ml for £1.96, thats 6 pence per ml
Vallejo 17ml for £1.35, thats 12 pence per ml
Coat d'arms 18ml for £1.53, thats 11 pence per ml

Citadel paints are double the price of Vallejo and Coat d'arms per ml, are they really that much better? 

So I posted on The Warhammer Forum on the topic of Vallejo or Coat d'arms asking which of the alternatives Vallejo or Coat d'arms have you used and which do you prefer over Citadel?

The thread turned into a rather heated debate over the Vallejo range.   Here is my favorite reply to the post.

GW paints are the worst avaliable on the market today. They use solid, cheap pigment and poor quality carrier, so that they don't cover well and they seperate. They are produced by the lowest bidder so don't be surprised at the quality.

Valejo aren't much better. They seperate because they are too thin; the carrier and the pigment aren't good. The first warning should be that the stuff comes out of a dropper bottle.

Coat d'arms is produced by a company called HMG, Coat d'arms is their own brand. Same company produces Foundry and Privateer Press' P3 ranges as well.  Foundry is the best avaliable on the market. P3 is as good but a much smaller range.  Coat d'arms is very good but not quite the spec of the other two.

All 3 use liquid pigment in large quantities, in good quality carriers, so that seperation isn't an issue and so that when, even diluted to greater than 1:10, the amount of and quality of the pigment still gives strong, smooth coverage.

GW washes are alright, they are just paint and mixing medium pre-mixed, so good for consistency but again not good quality for the price.

GW foundation range is a cheap attempt at emulating the quality, high pigment paints produced by HMG (whom no longer supply GW due to GW asking HMG to compromise on quality of product to reduce cost to GW [not cost to consumer notice, cost to GW], GW's reputation for good paint is built on the fact that HMG was the supplier when they first released paints, that stopped when the paint sold switched to the hard plastic pots with screw lids which were made in France. Today they are made in China. It's fair to say the current product doesn't live up to the reputation of the original).

GW metalics are run of the mill. Many people find them easier to use than other brands as they are weak and lacking in pigment in comparison. That does not make them good, it makes them easier to use than quality metalics which take getting used to.

GW's old inks were decent (not the original inks, but the ones that came in the hard plastic pots with white screw lids, the French company behind those did good ink), but at the price were not any better than W&N.

Valejo ink isn't bad.

P3 ink isn't bad, but Foundry and CDA ink isn't very good, sadly it's the one thing HMG don't do well.

Go to W&N for inks, it's what they specialise in.

Anyone buying from Maelstrom should be looking at Coat d'arms and P3. They won't look back.

So for my next big army painting project I am going to use the Coat d'arms range.

Destruction Derby III

On Saturday I am attending my third one day tournament.  The Destruction Derby III being held by the Derby Wargames Society and the Bens of Bad Dice podcast fame.  I am a late entry off the reserve list, hence this post is so close to the tournament date.

This year you can bring whatever you like upto 2013 points. If it has been published by GW you can bring it.  This includes storm of chaos (that hasn’t been replaced by a new book) White Dwarf lists, chronicles, journals, and back of the army book lists.  If I had plenty of time, then I would have purchased Skragg the Slaughterer and a few Gorgers.


They have decided to do away with the comp(laining) and have some fun, with 3 whacky scenarios.  Looks like its going to be a lot of fun!!  I have included the scenarios from the rules pack...

The Funhammer

In all 3 games if the same special character faces itself (i.e. Kairos vs Kairos or Thorek vs Thorek) only 1 will turn up. Roll a dice to see which player gets to use him.

Game 1 – Get ‘im!!!!

Stinkcrapp Bumfeeler the Night Goblin Shaman is high on magic mushrooms. He has been ‘interfering’ with the King’s daughter and has a huge bounty on his head. Whoever brings his mangled corpse to the king collects the gold.

Players deploy and start the game exactly like a pitched battle. Stinkcrapp starts the game in the centre of the table.

Because he is so off his head on magic mushrooms Stinkcrapp is Immune to Psychology and feels no pain. Any attack from any source (be it close combat, magic or shooting) can only wound him on a roll of a 6, multi wound hits will do only 1 wound. He can be shot and charged like a single character, and is only affected by spells with a strength value.

Every time he takes a wound he is knocked back d6” for each wound caused, exactly as if he was fleeing from a charge (a unit of bowmen doing 2 wounds will push him back 2d6”) In combat he is hit automatically and will always flee at least 1d6” even if not wounded. The charging unit CANNOT PERSUE.

At the end of every turn the Goblin summons the power of his gods, all units that caused a wound to Stinkcrapp in that turn are hit by the Foot of Gork spell.

Victory Conditions

The winner of the game is the player who does the most wounds to Stinkcrapp.  Victory points are calculated as per pitched battle

Game 2 – The Storm of Chaos

While perusing the goblin into the far north two armies have come to battle in the chaos wastes and an eldritch storm is closing in.

No models can fly in the storm.

All units are affected by the Rain Lord spell from the lore of Life (Wfb rulebook page 118)

In addition to this at the start of each players turn roll a dice for all your units, on the roll of a 1 the unit is hit by a Forked Lightning spell from the lore of Hevans (Wfb Rulebook page 116). Any unit with a ward save are affected on the roll of a 1 or 2.

Victory Conditions

The game follows all rules for a pitched battle

Game 3 – Pandemonium

All signs of the goblin are lost, the storm has blown over but you are now lost deep in the Wastes of chaos and strange occurrences have started to happen.

As you stumble across another army Pandemonium ensues and the world as you know it starts to end.......

The whole Battlefield is affected by the Pandemonium Spell.

In the centre of the table is a rift that leads directly into the Realm of Chaos itself! At the start of each player’s turn the rifts move 2d6” in a random direction, any unit touched by the rift are immediately affected by the Infernal Gateway Spell. The rift moves through units like a fanatic does.

In the confusion to escape the madness of the chaos wastes you are convinced that the way home lies beyond the opposing army.

Deploy and Start the game in the same way as a pitched battle.

Victory Conditions

At the end of the battle each of your units wholly in your opponent’s deployment zone scores Scenario points equal to its victory points. You score half points if the unit is at half strength or less and full points if it is above half strength.  The player with the most Scenario points wins the game.  Victory points are calculated as per pitched battle

Looks like these scenarios could aid the Ogres a bit...

Can the Leadbelchers inflict plenty of wounds to "Stinkcrapp Bumfeeler" the Night Goblin Shaman in game 1?
How badly will the Rain Lord spell affect the Leadbelchers in game 2?  Only if I fire!
With plenty of units, how many can get over to the opponent’s deployment zone in game 3?

Look out for the funhammer aftermath report on Sunday!

Remainder of 2009

For the remainder of 2009 I am planning on completing the painting of the remaining miniatures for my 2000 point Warriors of Chaos army.  I have these to complete...

5 Chaos Knights
5 Marauder Horsemen
10 Chaos Warhounds
Daemon Prince

Will also need some movement trays which will probably be magnetised.  Also want to improve on the bland bases which I currently have on my Warriors and Marauders.

My current Warriors of Chaos army consist of....

1 Mounted Chaos Sorcerer
1 Exalted Heros
1 Exalted Heros with Battle Standard
15 Marauders
14 Warriors
11 Warriors (mark of Khorne)
1 Chaos Spawn

I was hoping to complete this army by the end of 2009, well that was the plan at the start of the year.  But I am now not expecting myself to complete painting all of these miniatures by the end of the year.  I would like to complete these by the end of February 2010.  Then its on to my next project which is going to be Dark Elves, but more on those in the future.

Immortal War II Aftermath

Had a great time and three great games. Plus I won the best painted army award, winning a Dark Elves Warrior box set and a Certificate.  I ended up in 23rd place out of 24 players, and avoiding last place.  Well chuffed!

It was a 1999 point tournament with no comp other than no special characters.  I took my Ogre Kingdoms with no magic defence.  Lesson learn't here is always take plenty of magic defence to a "no comp" tournament, as the games will demonstrate.

First game was against Steve with Warriors of Chaos which ended in a minor lose.  Steve's first turn he managed to cast Gateway and removed my Irongut unit with Butcher thats 334 points gone and my only magic attacks in the first turn.  I managed to get some units into combat which got me some points back.  I was happy with a minor lose especially with losing my Irongut unit with Butcher to Gateway on the first turn.  Had to question how a level 2 Tzeentch wizard can manage to cast Gateway.  At least a single scroll and I would have avoided Gateway.

Second game and another Steve this time with Wood Elves.  Massacre lose on turn 5.  A nightmare of a game for my Ogres up against 4 units of 10 Dryads, 3 units of archers, 2 units of fast cavalry and a treeman.  The skirmishing Dryads and archers reeked havoc.  I did manage to get my Bruiser into combat which killed the Alter Noble in a challenge.  But I couldn't contend with the Dryads and Archers.

So going into the last game I thought probably a game against the Orc and Goblin player.  But facing me across the table Vampire Counts. What am I doing playing a Vampire Count army on the bottoms table in the last round, I had to ask my self!?

So last game was against Dave and his Vampires.  Massacre lose with all models removed from the battlefield!   I was controlling my right hand flank with my 2 units of 3 Leadbelchers up until turn 4.  Well that is until they fired.  The potential 60 shots had the Vampires reversing for 3 turns.  But a sudden rush of blood and I fired both units, resulting in only 6 shots and 4 misfires.  Lesson learn't here is 2 units of 3 Leadbelchers together on a flank can be good, just don't fire!  I fed the Maneaters to the Wraiths hoping that being stubborn would hold for a turn or two, but didn't!  In the end Dave's magic reeked havoc and with only 3 dispel dice and no scrolls I was completely helpless, there were raised skellies every where.

Anyway I really enjoyed the day and will be attending more tournaments next year.  Will probably be taking the Ogres to my next tournament after that it will be my Warriors of Chaos.

Washing Miniatures

Ever since I was a kid making Airfix and Tamiya kits I have washed my miniatures in warm soapy water before priming.  This is because a release agent similar to WD40 is applied to the mold which aids the frame/sprue to exit the mold easier, thats what my father told me.

However when giving this advice on forums I have always got slated by other members, saying that they have never washed a miniature and never had any problems.

Then today I find a post on the Games Workshop blog regarding a 40K gameboard.

I quote from the blog...

"All plastic models have a release agent applied to them during the casting process; this allows the frame to come out of the machine. The Gameboard is no different and Ray of the Warhammer World scenery team recommends washing the Gameboard sections with soapy water to get the residue off before painting."

Thank you Games Workshop!  And to all those on various forums who have slated my advice in the past "I told you so..."

Image used is courtesy of Games Workshop, used with out permission.

Eve of Immortal War II

Tomorrow I play in my second tournament "Immortal War II" being held in Sutton Coldfield and hosted by the Sutton Immortals gaming club.  Its another one day, three game, 1999 point Warhammer Fantasy tournament.

I have changing the army list slightly from the army I took to the Leicester Squiggle tournament. Reducing the Irongut units from 4 models to 3 and increasing the Leadbelcher units up to 3 models, plus giving the Leadbelchers a Bellower each. The magic items on the Hunter and Butcher have changed as well.

 

My Ogre Kingdoms Army List

Bruiser (174 pts)
Army General, Sword of Might, Wyrdstone Necklace, Heavy Armour, Causes Fear, Bull Charge, Ogre Club

Butcher (175 pts)
Bang Stick, Skullmantle, Hand Weapon, Causes Fear, Bull Charge, Immune to Poison

Hunter (235 pts)
Sabretusks (2), Talisman of Protection, Greyback Pelt, Light Armour, Sic 'em boys, Loner, Ogre Club, Harpoon Crossbow

Bulls x 3 (127 pts)
Bellower, Additional Hand Weapon, Causes Fear, Bull Charge, Ogre Club

Bulls x 3 (127 pts)
Bellower, Additional Hand Weapon, Causes Fear, Bull Charge, Ogre Club

Bulls x 3 (115 pts)
Bellower, Causes Fear, Bull Charge, Ogre Club

Ironguts x 3 (179 pts)
Bellower, Standard Bearer, Look out Gnoblar, Causes Fear, Bull Charge, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour

Ironguts x 3 (179 pts)
Bellower, Standard Bearer, Look out Gnoblar, Causes Fear, Bull Charge, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour

Ironguts x 3 (154 pts)
Bellower, Causes Fear, Bull Charge, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour

Leadbelchers x 3 (175 pts)
Bellower, Causes Fear, Bull Charge, Light Armour, Leadbelcher cannon

Leadbelchers x 3 (175 pts)
Bellower, Causes Fear, Bull Charge, Light Armour, Leadbelcher cannon

Maneaters x 2 (180 pts)
Heavy Armour, Great Weapons, Causes Fear, Bull Charge, Immune to Psychology, Stubborn, Ogre Club