I'm baaa-aacck.
Up on the Magnificent Bastards!
Friday, September 2, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Welcome, The Magnificent Bastards
The song has been sung. The call has been heard.
My blog is moving. I've joined forces with 6 other like minds from the midwest hobby pool to bring you a super blog! (*Or, we're a bunch of lazy{efficient!} bastards and the few of us that do post will carry{inspire!} the others with them!!!)
The Magnificent Bastards is the name chosen, and it was our team name chosen back for the last Hillbilly (named the Battle on Beale) in Memphis, in TN in 2008.
"The Rodge" of pointhammered fame is the brain child of it all and one of the bastards.
Click here to learn more.
Come on over, we are enthusiastic and should have LOTS of content - in a few days I will redirect this blog automatically over there.
Thanks for following me and my ramblings. I will bring more and more in the future!
Cheers!
Domus
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Brave New World - Firebelly
I was trying to understand what was going on in the mask and had the pic zoomed in big time and was laughing pretty hard when I saw it.
Cropping the image just so of the new GW Firebelly produces this result.
LOL
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Blood in the Sun Battle Report
Finally making some time to do a write up. Details are gonna be sketchy at best but here's my best shot.
One of the neat things about the tourney is that you got 4 re-roll tokens if you paid / list in on time. You could use these, one per game, in any game except game 5.
My list
Slann - General / BSB
Cupped Hands
Divine Plaque of Protection
Becalming / Mystery / Focused
Lore of Light
Scar Vet - LA / Shield
Burning blade of Chotec / Glyph Necklace
Scar Vet - LA / Shield / Cold One
Dragonhelm / Dawnstone / Venom of the Firefly Frog
28 Saurus - FC
25 Saurus - FC
10 Skinks /w Blowpipes
6 Chameleons
6 Chameleons
5 Terradons
1 Ancient Stegadon
2 Sallies with Extra Handlers
2 Sallies with Extra Handlers
Game 1 - Steve Haver - Beasts - from MI
Great guy. Just started playing in tournaments this past year and having a blast. Since the organizers said they wanted fun lists, he brought a real fun list. Since there were not any rules to enforce this desire this was just a pipe dream so I brought a list that could compete.
His list
Beastlord
4 x Lvl 1's with Herdstone
Doombull on Flying Carpet
Big Block of Gor
Medium Block of Gor
Big Block of Bestigor
2 units of skirmishing Ungor
Unit of Harpies
1 x Razorgor
2 x Razorgor
I shot his razordons early and used the salamanders to thin the big blocks until I just couldn't avoid them anymore and the saurus, buffed by light magic, made quick work of them. He killed a unit of chameleon skinks. Sadly, our lists were not anywhere near the same caliber but he smiled and had a fun game through the pounding. Nice guy, would love to play him again with lists on a little more even footing.
And thus ends my pictures. Not sure why but I just quit taking them.
Game 2 Dan Ruud - Demons - Table 3
Thirster - Re-Rolls, 3+ AS, Spellbreaker
BSB Herald On Jugger
Herald on Foot
Lvl 2 Tzeentch Mage - master of sorc - Heavens
2 big blocks of letters in Horde form
6 Hounds
4 Juggernauts with Banner
I didn't like the looks of this list from the get go. Having played Toms Khorne demons a zillion times I always have fits with the thirster. It didn't help that we were playing a modified Blood & Glory scenario (dropping below Break point didn't end the game but you could getting bonus points for dropping the enemy). I knew I had to take my time getting into combat and use magic / shooting to wither his units down to something I could handle. Straight up combats with Demons is not a great idea.
He deployed right on the line the full 18" in which made me smile like a fiend. I deployed on the backline to give my shooting / magic some time to do its work. Chameleons deployed in the backfield with their eyes on the Tz. caster who had not learned "How Not to be seen". Turn 1 to Lizards.
Chameleons take out the Tzeentch caster and put some wounds on a unit of letters. Big spell of this game was Banishment. Turns out, Banishment punishes Bloodletters. I was killing 7-10 per round with that spell. Forcing them to re-roll ward saves is huge. My slann did miscast on Banishment and rolled a 10 on the chart which could have been bad. I used my re-roll here to turn it into a 7 and just lost some PD and took a wound. Much better than losing levels and banishment.
On his turn 1 he advanced up the thirster to threaten the lone slann and on my right flank advanced up his other unit of letters and parked the dogs in front of it. Juggernauts slowly advanced around my left flank (after failing LD test to march).
Lizard turn 2 - I took this opportunity to block up the right flank by charging out my Scar Vet on Cold One at the Dogs. I didn't expect to win but did expect not to break. This would keep both the dogs & the big horde formation tied up for hopefully a few turns while I shot it up. My slann hid behind the other unit of saurus which had advanced but only a bit. I made sure to put the thirster so he would have to charge the front of the slann but left him no where to land. Scar Vet did a wound to dogs and they easily passed their test. Combat held. Peppered the big unit of letters down more with magic & shooting.
Demon turn 2 - He wanted to charge the slann and when he couldn't he asked me to put his Thirster in a spot. I hate having to do this so I was very careful and made sure he was very exact in where he wanted him and his facing. He was wanting to get a Slann charge so positioning here was huge. Dan also took his BSB out of the unit that was getting shot to death and move him into the big unit that was blocked up behind the dogs / scar vet combat. Dog / Scar Vet combat draws off again. Juggers charge a sallie unit who flees and gets away.
Lizard turn 3 - Everything moves up except the slann who pops back a bit to be in 12" range of the saurus (should they see combat) yet out of LoS of the Thirster. Shooting / Magic finishes off the 1 Letter unit and starts to focus on the other. Hound / Scar Vet combat stalemate - this is working beautifully and continues to lock up his right flank.
Demons 3 - Dan finally charges a unit of saurus (on my right flank) in the rear with the thirster. His BSB also charges out at my lone hero holding up his dogs. Thirster does quite a few wounds, saurus hold on Steadfast with Slann nearby and reform to put him in the front. This could go poorly if my lone hero is killed as then I will have dogs / letters in the rear of that unit. Scar Vet challenges and puts a wound on the BSB. BSB no wounds - stalemate combat still.
Rest of the game - I continue the assault with shooting / magic on his other bloodletter unit until I wipe it out. The thirster is locked in combat with saurus for the rest of the game which he failed to completely kill. I only managed to put 2 wounds on it. I killed everything except for the thister and juggernaut unit (which played chase the sallies far too long to ever see combat). Massacre Victory for me.
Game 3 - Johnny Hastings - Beastmen - Table 2
I'd been hoping to meet Johnny in battle as it had been a long time since we last played.
His list (roughly)
Lvl 4 Shadow
2 x Lvl 1s - Scroll / herdstone
Beastlord
BSB
Big unit of Gor in Horde form
Big unit of ungors
Big unit of Bestigor
6 Minos - FC
Harpies
2 Chariots
Johnny deployed in a straight line and denied me anyplace good to place my chameleons. I decided simply to use them as bait to get stuff out in the open.
High points of the game
Minos charge a unit of sallies and the sallies kill 3 minos. Minos whiff and get sent running. I spent the rest of the game chasing these guys, they never made it off the board and 1 was left alive (though now that I type this he should only have insanely rallied....) and managed to rally denying me those points. Horde of Gor hurts. I used a big unit + steg to kill it but lost a ton of models in the process. This paniced the ungor unit which was hiding all of the mages. It also ran alot but got to the board edge and rallied.
I spent the game shooting up the Bestigor but never got them killed.
Turn 4 I had him on the ropes and was up roughly 500-600 points he knew it and wasn't overly happy about it. This too, soon would change.. I got greedy going for the big win and paid for it. Johnny finally realized he should be trying to cast pit of shades on my slann. He got it off, I failed my Init. test but used the re-roll which kept the slann on the table. I could have gotten out of range on my turn but was still being greedy. Slann / Steg stayed near the bestigor trying to finish them off for points.
Turn 5 Johnny pitted the Slann and Turn 6 he pitted the steg. 500 point win for Johnny - 7 - 13. Second tourney in a row where getting greedy and NOT getting out of uber spell range cost me the slann. Someday I'll learn???
Game 4 - I was supposed to play Johnny again on Table 2. Obviously this could not happen so I got swapped to Table 3 (I was amazed my loss did not move me very much in the standings) to play one of my favorite opponents Miel Vermulen from Milwaukee, WI. Miel is no slouch and always gives me one of the hardest fought games - I love this challenge.
Scenario was wonky. Diagonal deployment. IF only on the doubles based on round. Round 1 = IF on Double 1's. Round 2 = IF on Double 2's, etc... Miscast still only on Double 6's. This meant my becalming wasn't that great as it saved his Vamp from miscasting ever. I needed to suck the 6's though to keep my dispel opportunity alive.
His List
Vamp - Lvl 3 - Full Lore of Death - 4+ WS
Necro - Van Hels / invocation / Bound item (cant recall)
BSB - Drakenhoff
40 Ghouls horde form
20 Skellies - FC Vamp here
15 Skellies -FC Necro Here
5 Wolves
3 Bats
34 Grave Guard - FC - BSB here
5 Wraiths
Black Coach
Deployment - I deployed so as to completely ignore the ghouls. I thought I had won the deployment phase but my salamanders were a little to close to the black coach and couldn't flee without fear of going off the board.
Turn 1 to Miel. Coach charges a sallie unit. Wraiths charge the other sallie unit which flees (It had lots of room to get away). Coach kills a sallie and does 2 wounds. Sallies hold with Slann within 12. GG advance up. Ghouls make a big vs. charge terradons (I made a STUPID move with vanguard) and make it. (he was also within 6" of an idol of gork which would have let him re-roll). Terradons hold though!
Lizard turn 1 - Cold one Scar Vet charges coach. Saurus unit with Burning Blade hero charges coach in the flank. Coach dies - Saurus unit reforms so as not to get flanked by grave guard. Slann miscasts and rolls an 11 which is passed to the necromancer who loses both spells and is now a Level 0 wizard. Shooting commences with the chameleons whittling away at the generals unit. Steg gets into position to charge the generals unit turn 2.
VC turn 2 - Miel charges the saurus unit that just popped his coach. He needs a 9 and what do you know, that lucky son of a gun rolls it. With no combat buffs up the GG eat that unit alive and overrun into the sallie / Scar vet still sitting there. His vamp lord moves to the smaller unit so as not to be in combat with the Stegadon.
Liz turn 2 - Steg charges Skellies. Saurus unit positions itself to get GG charged. Shooting peppers his VC lord unit down further. Steg wins combat but is locked in combat with that unit for a while. Speed of Light & Pha's go off on the saurus unit. This enables them to tie up the GG unit for quite a few turns.
VC turn 3 - Lord heals his unit back up. GG / Saurus stalemate with light magic buffs up. Skellie - Steg combats sees the steg kill more skellies, chippin away.
Liz turn 3 - Slann comes out to see the Vamp unit. Shooting / Magic kills the unit off and puts 2 wounds on his vampire. Buffs attempted but only got Pha's off after failing to cast and ending the phase. Saurus hold though but take a beating.
VC turn 4 - Stuff. More skellies die. More Saurus die. Combats stalemate. My chameleons have been peppering the ghouls the whole game but finally got charged after failing a march test. They got away. Vamp cast Doom & Darkness on the slann.
Liz turn 4 - More of the same stuff except that the GG get freed up.
VC turn 5 - Vamp charges the slann since his unit is dead and all of the other units he could hide in are locked in combat. Grave gaurd whoop up on the saurus who still hold with the slann in 12" Skellie unit finally beaten by the stegadon who reforms from victory to rear charge the vampire in combat with slann. Vamp puts a wound on the slann and wins by 1. He thought he might have me with D&D still up but the slann holds. GG charge a salamander unit who gets away.
Liz turn 5 - Rear charge the vamp with the steg. Salamanders rally and are in a position to burn up the GG unit which will then get peppered by 2 skink units bowfire. I was really hoping Miel would not challenge my slann and he did not. Halfway through resolving the combat he starts banging his head on the table as he realized his folly. We had quite a crowd at this point and I started giggling uncontrollably while the onlookers were looking at us perplexed. Vamp died due to the steg charge. This forces crumbling which ends up killing the wraiths (who I never would have got), the bats, also never would have got and turns what was going to be quite the loss into a minor win for me (100+ points). 11-9. Another hard fought and fun game from Miel. I only won because he forgot to challenge. I'll take it (especially after my previous loss due to a mistake).
Game 5 - Nick Loaf - Warriors of Chaos
Watchtower scenario, also slightly wonky. The only units that could ever occupy the Watchtower were units that were 20 or less models. This was really the only fault I found with the tourney. A change this big to a std scenario should have been advertised.
his list
Lvl 4 on Disc with puppet
Lvl 2 on Foot with eye of Tzeentch (Spell stealer thingy)
BSB
Big block of khorne marauders with flails
2 Big warrior blocks - 1 Tz / 1 Khorne - both had halberds and the Tz unit had the banner of rage
1 5 man marauder horse unit
2 Hellcannons
I don't recall a lot of the details here except that I got my 10 skink unit in the building (which only had 3 models left). He never charged the building. I used shooting / magic to thin down CW units before fighting them and then used Light buffs to keep my units in the alive. He used the item 1 time to cast pha's protection on one of his units and I proceeded to keep my Slann out of LoS for the rest of the game. 13-7 win for Lizards.
All of that got me a 5th place overall finish. More importantly I got the same sports score as the guy who won best sportsman. I was really tickled with that especially since I had a really hard list and brought my A game to all of my opponents. I'm really more proud of that score than my overall placement.
Bretonnians (Mike Gerold) won Overall
Johnny Hastings went on to win Best General
Dennis Gunia won Best Painted
Jake Murphy won Best Sports
Joe Rogers won Players Choice
"The Legend" of HPB fame won a best Comp award as well
As usual, the HPB's cleaned up! Congrats to them!
I had an amazing weekend. It really reinforced my decision again to come back to the game. I had 5 great games with 5 great opponents.
I really was sad I'm not playing with an army converted / painted to my current skill level to be able to compete for appearance / Players Choice. This is something I HAVE to rectify. Met lots of great new folks outside of my games as well and got to put faces to a lot of guys I know from the internet. Got to spend time with some great friends I had not seen in quite a long time now.
I'll wrap up with some random pics (I really failed at picture taking here). I will have to work on it some more.
One of the neat things about the tourney is that you got 4 re-roll tokens if you paid / list in on time. You could use these, one per game, in any game except game 5.
My list
Slann - General / BSB
Cupped Hands
Divine Plaque of Protection
Becalming / Mystery / Focused
Lore of Light
Scar Vet - LA / Shield
Burning blade of Chotec / Glyph Necklace
Scar Vet - LA / Shield / Cold One
Dragonhelm / Dawnstone / Venom of the Firefly Frog
28 Saurus - FC
25 Saurus - FC
10 Skinks /w Blowpipes
6 Chameleons
6 Chameleons
5 Terradons
1 Ancient Stegadon
2 Sallies with Extra Handlers
2 Sallies with Extra Handlers
Game 1 - Steve Haver - Beasts - from MI
Great guy. Just started playing in tournaments this past year and having a blast. Since the organizers said they wanted fun lists, he brought a real fun list. Since there were not any rules to enforce this desire this was just a pipe dream so I brought a list that could compete.
His list
Beastlord
4 x Lvl 1's with Herdstone
Doombull on Flying Carpet
Big Block of Gor
Medium Block of Gor
Big Block of Bestigor
2 units of skirmishing Ungor
Unit of Harpies
1 x Razorgor
2 x Razorgor
I shot his razordons early and used the salamanders to thin the big blocks until I just couldn't avoid them anymore and the saurus, buffed by light magic, made quick work of them. He killed a unit of chameleon skinks. Sadly, our lists were not anywhere near the same caliber but he smiled and had a fun game through the pounding. Nice guy, would love to play him again with lists on a little more even footing.
And thus ends my pictures. Not sure why but I just quit taking them.
Game 2 Dan Ruud - Demons - Table 3
Thirster - Re-Rolls, 3+ AS, Spellbreaker
BSB Herald On Jugger
Herald on Foot
Lvl 2 Tzeentch Mage - master of sorc - Heavens
2 big blocks of letters in Horde form
6 Hounds
4 Juggernauts with Banner
I didn't like the looks of this list from the get go. Having played Toms Khorne demons a zillion times I always have fits with the thirster. It didn't help that we were playing a modified Blood & Glory scenario (dropping below Break point didn't end the game but you could getting bonus points for dropping the enemy). I knew I had to take my time getting into combat and use magic / shooting to wither his units down to something I could handle. Straight up combats with Demons is not a great idea.
He deployed right on the line the full 18" in which made me smile like a fiend. I deployed on the backline to give my shooting / magic some time to do its work. Chameleons deployed in the backfield with their eyes on the Tz. caster who had not learned "How Not to be seen". Turn 1 to Lizards.
Chameleons take out the Tzeentch caster and put some wounds on a unit of letters. Big spell of this game was Banishment. Turns out, Banishment punishes Bloodletters. I was killing 7-10 per round with that spell. Forcing them to re-roll ward saves is huge. My slann did miscast on Banishment and rolled a 10 on the chart which could have been bad. I used my re-roll here to turn it into a 7 and just lost some PD and took a wound. Much better than losing levels and banishment.
On his turn 1 he advanced up the thirster to threaten the lone slann and on my right flank advanced up his other unit of letters and parked the dogs in front of it. Juggernauts slowly advanced around my left flank (after failing LD test to march).
Lizard turn 2 - I took this opportunity to block up the right flank by charging out my Scar Vet on Cold One at the Dogs. I didn't expect to win but did expect not to break. This would keep both the dogs & the big horde formation tied up for hopefully a few turns while I shot it up. My slann hid behind the other unit of saurus which had advanced but only a bit. I made sure to put the thirster so he would have to charge the front of the slann but left him no where to land. Scar Vet did a wound to dogs and they easily passed their test. Combat held. Peppered the big unit of letters down more with magic & shooting.
Demon turn 2 - He wanted to charge the slann and when he couldn't he asked me to put his Thirster in a spot. I hate having to do this so I was very careful and made sure he was very exact in where he wanted him and his facing. He was wanting to get a Slann charge so positioning here was huge. Dan also took his BSB out of the unit that was getting shot to death and move him into the big unit that was blocked up behind the dogs / scar vet combat. Dog / Scar Vet combat draws off again. Juggers charge a sallie unit who flees and gets away.
Lizard turn 3 - Everything moves up except the slann who pops back a bit to be in 12" range of the saurus (should they see combat) yet out of LoS of the Thirster. Shooting / Magic finishes off the 1 Letter unit and starts to focus on the other. Hound / Scar Vet combat stalemate - this is working beautifully and continues to lock up his right flank.
Demons 3 - Dan finally charges a unit of saurus (on my right flank) in the rear with the thirster. His BSB also charges out at my lone hero holding up his dogs. Thirster does quite a few wounds, saurus hold on Steadfast with Slann nearby and reform to put him in the front. This could go poorly if my lone hero is killed as then I will have dogs / letters in the rear of that unit. Scar Vet challenges and puts a wound on the BSB. BSB no wounds - stalemate combat still.
Rest of the game - I continue the assault with shooting / magic on his other bloodletter unit until I wipe it out. The thirster is locked in combat with saurus for the rest of the game which he failed to completely kill. I only managed to put 2 wounds on it. I killed everything except for the thister and juggernaut unit (which played chase the sallies far too long to ever see combat). Massacre Victory for me.
Game 3 - Johnny Hastings - Beastmen - Table 2
I'd been hoping to meet Johnny in battle as it had been a long time since we last played.
His list (roughly)
Lvl 4 Shadow
2 x Lvl 1s - Scroll / herdstone
Beastlord
BSB
Big unit of Gor in Horde form
Big unit of ungors
Big unit of Bestigor
6 Minos - FC
Harpies
2 Chariots
Johnny deployed in a straight line and denied me anyplace good to place my chameleons. I decided simply to use them as bait to get stuff out in the open.
High points of the game
Minos charge a unit of sallies and the sallies kill 3 minos. Minos whiff and get sent running. I spent the rest of the game chasing these guys, they never made it off the board and 1 was left alive (though now that I type this he should only have insanely rallied....) and managed to rally denying me those points. Horde of Gor hurts. I used a big unit + steg to kill it but lost a ton of models in the process. This paniced the ungor unit which was hiding all of the mages. It also ran alot but got to the board edge and rallied.
I spent the game shooting up the Bestigor but never got them killed.
Turn 4 I had him on the ropes and was up roughly 500-600 points he knew it and wasn't overly happy about it. This too, soon would change.. I got greedy going for the big win and paid for it. Johnny finally realized he should be trying to cast pit of shades on my slann. He got it off, I failed my Init. test but used the re-roll which kept the slann on the table. I could have gotten out of range on my turn but was still being greedy. Slann / Steg stayed near the bestigor trying to finish them off for points.
Turn 5 Johnny pitted the Slann and Turn 6 he pitted the steg. 500 point win for Johnny - 7 - 13. Second tourney in a row where getting greedy and NOT getting out of uber spell range cost me the slann. Someday I'll learn???
Game 4 - I was supposed to play Johnny again on Table 2. Obviously this could not happen so I got swapped to Table 3 (I was amazed my loss did not move me very much in the standings) to play one of my favorite opponents Miel Vermulen from Milwaukee, WI. Miel is no slouch and always gives me one of the hardest fought games - I love this challenge.
Scenario was wonky. Diagonal deployment. IF only on the doubles based on round. Round 1 = IF on Double 1's. Round 2 = IF on Double 2's, etc... Miscast still only on Double 6's. This meant my becalming wasn't that great as it saved his Vamp from miscasting ever. I needed to suck the 6's though to keep my dispel opportunity alive.
His List
Vamp - Lvl 3 - Full Lore of Death - 4+ WS
Necro - Van Hels / invocation / Bound item (cant recall)
BSB - Drakenhoff
40 Ghouls horde form
20 Skellies - FC Vamp here
15 Skellies -FC Necro Here
5 Wolves
3 Bats
34 Grave Guard - FC - BSB here
5 Wraiths
Black Coach
Deployment - I deployed so as to completely ignore the ghouls. I thought I had won the deployment phase but my salamanders were a little to close to the black coach and couldn't flee without fear of going off the board.
Turn 1 to Miel. Coach charges a sallie unit. Wraiths charge the other sallie unit which flees (It had lots of room to get away). Coach kills a sallie and does 2 wounds. Sallies hold with Slann within 12. GG advance up. Ghouls make a big vs. charge terradons (I made a STUPID move with vanguard) and make it. (he was also within 6" of an idol of gork which would have let him re-roll). Terradons hold though!
Lizard turn 1 - Cold one Scar Vet charges coach. Saurus unit with Burning Blade hero charges coach in the flank. Coach dies - Saurus unit reforms so as not to get flanked by grave guard. Slann miscasts and rolls an 11 which is passed to the necromancer who loses both spells and is now a Level 0 wizard. Shooting commences with the chameleons whittling away at the generals unit. Steg gets into position to charge the generals unit turn 2.
VC turn 2 - Miel charges the saurus unit that just popped his coach. He needs a 9 and what do you know, that lucky son of a gun rolls it. With no combat buffs up the GG eat that unit alive and overrun into the sallie / Scar vet still sitting there. His vamp lord moves to the smaller unit so as not to be in combat with the Stegadon.
Liz turn 2 - Steg charges Skellies. Saurus unit positions itself to get GG charged. Shooting peppers his VC lord unit down further. Steg wins combat but is locked in combat with that unit for a while. Speed of Light & Pha's go off on the saurus unit. This enables them to tie up the GG unit for quite a few turns.
VC turn 3 - Lord heals his unit back up. GG / Saurus stalemate with light magic buffs up. Skellie - Steg combats sees the steg kill more skellies, chippin away.
Liz turn 3 - Slann comes out to see the Vamp unit. Shooting / Magic kills the unit off and puts 2 wounds on his vampire. Buffs attempted but only got Pha's off after failing to cast and ending the phase. Saurus hold though but take a beating.
VC turn 4 - Stuff. More skellies die. More Saurus die. Combats stalemate. My chameleons have been peppering the ghouls the whole game but finally got charged after failing a march test. They got away. Vamp cast Doom & Darkness on the slann.
Liz turn 4 - More of the same stuff except that the GG get freed up.
VC turn 5 - Vamp charges the slann since his unit is dead and all of the other units he could hide in are locked in combat. Grave gaurd whoop up on the saurus who still hold with the slann in 12" Skellie unit finally beaten by the stegadon who reforms from victory to rear charge the vampire in combat with slann. Vamp puts a wound on the slann and wins by 1. He thought he might have me with D&D still up but the slann holds. GG charge a salamander unit who gets away.
Liz turn 5 - Rear charge the vamp with the steg. Salamanders rally and are in a position to burn up the GG unit which will then get peppered by 2 skink units bowfire. I was really hoping Miel would not challenge my slann and he did not. Halfway through resolving the combat he starts banging his head on the table as he realized his folly. We had quite a crowd at this point and I started giggling uncontrollably while the onlookers were looking at us perplexed. Vamp died due to the steg charge. This forces crumbling which ends up killing the wraiths (who I never would have got), the bats, also never would have got and turns what was going to be quite the loss into a minor win for me (100+ points). 11-9. Another hard fought and fun game from Miel. I only won because he forgot to challenge. I'll take it (especially after my previous loss due to a mistake).
Game 5 - Nick Loaf - Warriors of Chaos
Watchtower scenario, also slightly wonky. The only units that could ever occupy the Watchtower were units that were 20 or less models. This was really the only fault I found with the tourney. A change this big to a std scenario should have been advertised.
his list
Lvl 4 on Disc with puppet
Lvl 2 on Foot with eye of Tzeentch (Spell stealer thingy)
BSB
Big block of khorne marauders with flails
2 Big warrior blocks - 1 Tz / 1 Khorne - both had halberds and the Tz unit had the banner of rage
1 5 man marauder horse unit
2 Hellcannons
I don't recall a lot of the details here except that I got my 10 skink unit in the building (which only had 3 models left). He never charged the building. I used shooting / magic to thin down CW units before fighting them and then used Light buffs to keep my units in the alive. He used the item 1 time to cast pha's protection on one of his units and I proceeded to keep my Slann out of LoS for the rest of the game. 13-7 win for Lizards.
All of that got me a 5th place overall finish. More importantly I got the same sports score as the guy who won best sportsman. I was really tickled with that especially since I had a really hard list and brought my A game to all of my opponents. I'm really more proud of that score than my overall placement.
Bretonnians (Mike Gerold) won Overall
Johnny Hastings went on to win Best General
Dennis Gunia won Best Painted
Jake Murphy won Best Sports
Joe Rogers won Players Choice
"The Legend" of HPB fame won a best Comp award as well
As usual, the HPB's cleaned up! Congrats to them!
I had an amazing weekend. It really reinforced my decision again to come back to the game. I had 5 great games with 5 great opponents.
I really was sad I'm not playing with an army converted / painted to my current skill level to be able to compete for appearance / Players Choice. This is something I HAVE to rectify. Met lots of great new folks outside of my games as well and got to put faces to a lot of guys I know from the internet. Got to spend time with some great friends I had not seen in quite a long time now.
I'll wrap up with some random pics (I really failed at picture taking here). I will have to work on it some more.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Back from Blood in the Sun
I just spent up the weekend at the Blood in the Sun tournament. I had a blast, spent a lot of time with old friends and made quite a few new friends. I also got to finally meet Grant Fetter and all the Garage Hammer & Ohio Hammer guys as well as the gamers from the Twisted Troop in Iowa(ish).
I traveled up there with my great friend Jeff Tupper and Rob Phaneuf. Rob drove up to my house from Memphis, TN and we then made the trek up to Chicago land.
Quick note on my games (More Extensive bat rep later) - only 1 game vs. a guy I didn't know but that didn't make my games any less awesome.
Game 1 - Steve Haver - Beasts (MI) - 20-0 Big Win
Game 2 -Dan Ruud - Demons (WI or IL) - 15-5 Major Win
Game 3 - Johnny Hastings - Beasts (WI) - 8 - 12 Minor Loss (*I got greedy & John punished me for it)
Game 4 - Miel Vermulen - VC (WI) - 11 - 9 Minor Win (Just squeaked this out)
Game 5 - Nick Loef - WoC (IL) - 13-7 Minor Win
Very pleased with my finish and that + really high sports (& really low comp) and moderate paint - netted me 5th place overall. Very tickled!
Full Results are here!
I was glad I got to meet Brad Schwandt (Rhellion) but was gladder I got to dodge his list. His double seers is a big answer to my lizard list and would bring the pain. If we both make it to Core Comp I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and challenge him round 1.
Cheers for now,
Domus
PS - see I'm not dead. Just been sick. Should get back to blogging semi-regularly now. :-)
Monday, June 27, 2011
Blog Suggestion: Lead n Paint
My good friend Caius just started a blog up. His focus is collecting and painting really old miniatures. The pre-slotta kind and beyond. Bit of a nut for that kind of thing but there are some really fun figures to look at in his collection.
Lead N Paint
Head on over and check it out. Only 2 posts so far but some interesting antiquities to look at.
Cheers,
Domus
Lead N Paint
Head on over and check it out. Only 2 posts so far but some interesting antiquities to look at.
Cheers,
Domus
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Fighting off a cold!
Came down with a cold over the weekend and I've spent the last couple of days taking it easy and fighting it off. I spent the bulk of yesterday working on my fathers day present!
I got it to work on with my son but he went and spent the day in a pool at his friends. We agreed to each build 1 tower. So I built 3/4 of mine and now have to wait for him to catch up so we can build the walks across the tops and join both towers together to move on.
Fun stuff and a great fun project. Sorting out those 4300 pieces was quite the chore though.
Cheers,
Domus
I got it to work on with my son but he went and spent the day in a pool at his friends. We agreed to each build 1 tower. So I built 3/4 of mine and now have to wait for him to catch up so we can build the walks across the tops and join both towers together to move on.
Fun stuff and a great fun project. Sorting out those 4300 pieces was quite the chore though.
Cheers,
Domus
Friday, June 17, 2011
Short Vacation and early Happy Fathers Day!
Here's hoping all you gaming dads out there have an AWESOME Fathers Day this Sunday. Here's a pic from my new favorite website to get your weekend mood set!
I'll be off for a few days on a short vacation (not that I post everyday regularly yet anyways...).
I expect to be back in full force on Monday.
Cheers,
Domus
I'll be off for a few days on a short vacation (not that I post everyday regularly yet anyways...).
I expect to be back in full force on Monday.
Cheers,
Domus
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Rule of the Day - Basic Versus Advanced
Rule of the Day 06/14/2011
Basic Versus Advanced - pg 11
Where rules apply to a specific model, they always override any contradicting basic rules. For example, the basic rules state that a model must take Panic test under certain situations. If, however, that model has a rule that makes it immune to Panic, then it does not test for Panic - the advanced rule takes precedence.
The end of the basic rules can be found in a little "blurb box" in the bottom right hand corner of page 63 labeled THE FOUNDATION IS COMPLETE!
Basic Rules Pages 1 - 63
Advanced Rules Pages 64+
There was recently some discussion which prompted this on The Warhammer Forum about reforming a unit from victory, which was still in combat on 1 side, and turning a unit to face an impending flank charge - thus giving the current enemy a flank. The question was "I had thought it wouldn't work because you can't move a model out of contact with the enemy, so if the command models are in contact they have to stay there and can't form the new front."
The command groups rules which force command models to always be in the front are on pg 92.
Combat Reform rules are on pg 55.
Combat reform would happen and the command would move to the front under the Advanced > Basic principle.
Cheers,
Domus
Basic Versus Advanced - pg 11
Where rules apply to a specific model, they always override any contradicting basic rules. For example, the basic rules state that a model must take Panic test under certain situations. If, however, that model has a rule that makes it immune to Panic, then it does not test for Panic - the advanced rule takes precedence.
The end of the basic rules can be found in a little "blurb box" in the bottom right hand corner of page 63 labeled THE FOUNDATION IS COMPLETE!
Basic Rules Pages 1 - 63
Advanced Rules Pages 64+
There was recently some discussion which prompted this on The Warhammer Forum about reforming a unit from victory, which was still in combat on 1 side, and turning a unit to face an impending flank charge - thus giving the current enemy a flank. The question was "I had thought it wouldn't work because you can't move a model out of contact with the enemy, so if the command models are in contact they have to stay there and can't form the new front."
The command groups rules which force command models to always be in the front are on pg 92.
Combat Reform rules are on pg 55.
Combat reform would happen and the command would move to the front under the Advanced > Basic principle.
Cheers,
Domus
Friday, June 10, 2011
Rule of the Day - Ambushers
Rule of the Day - 06/10/2011
Indirectly suggested by my good friend Jim Emerick, TO for the Midwest Rampage.
Ambushers - pg 79
A unit with the Ambushers rule does not deploy at the start of the battle. Instead, from Turn 2 onwards, the controlling player rolls a dice at the start of the turn for each unit of his Ambushers that have yet to arrive. On a 1 or 2, the Ambushers have been delayed - but you'll be able to roll for them again next turn. On a 3 or more, the unit of Ambushers arrives, and will enter the board during the Remaining Moves sub-phase. If the Ambushers do not turn up for the entire game, they are assumed to have got lost, and are treated as having fled the battle for the purposes of determing the victor.
Arriving Ambushers enter the battlefield from any point on any battlefield edge, and move on using the rules for reinforcements (see page 27).
*Note - Beastmen have their own special version of ambush in their book
This will apply though to any of the TK models with the "Entombed Beneath the Sands" special rule.
The big change for them from the previous book is that Ambushing is no longer optional.
Cheers!
Domus
*Lewis - the Original Nerd Ambusher
Indirectly suggested by my good friend Jim Emerick, TO for the Midwest Rampage.
Ambushers - pg 79
A unit with the Ambushers rule does not deploy at the start of the battle. Instead, from Turn 2 onwards, the controlling player rolls a dice at the start of the turn for each unit of his Ambushers that have yet to arrive. On a 1 or 2, the Ambushers have been delayed - but you'll be able to roll for them again next turn. On a 3 or more, the unit of Ambushers arrives, and will enter the board during the Remaining Moves sub-phase. If the Ambushers do not turn up for the entire game, they are assumed to have got lost, and are treated as having fled the battle for the purposes of determing the victor.
Arriving Ambushers enter the battlefield from any point on any battlefield edge, and move on using the rules for reinforcements (see page 27).
*Note - Beastmen have their own special version of ambush in their book
This will apply though to any of the TK models with the "Entombed Beneath the Sands" special rule.
The big change for them from the previous book is that Ambushing is no longer optional.
Cheers!
Domus
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Rule of the Day - Sequencing
Rule of the Day - 06/09/2011
*The Fibonacci Sequence at work!
Sequencing - pg 10
Whilst every effort has been made to make sure that the sequencing of rules is utterly clear, occasionally you'll find that two or more rules are to be resolved at the same time - normally 'at the start of the Movement phase' or similar. When this happens, and the wording is not explicit as to which rule is resolved first, then the player whose turn it is chooses the order.
There are numerous situations which can trigger these types of conflicts which would invoke sequencing. My buddy Joe, of Pointhammered fame, recently asked me a question on this and a few other items.
Joe writes;
Hey Domus, I see your latest Rule of the Day is about challenges.
Our situation was Johnny's Gor Horde w/ Beastlord vs Treeman Ancient w/ Annoyance. Fear, Primal Fury, and Challenges always happen at the start of combat and we were dicing each turn whether the challenge happened first or the other two rolls, since it could make a difference if he could not use the General's Ld.
Now that I think about it, I think when the order is not clear the player's whose turn it is decides the order so on my turn his general slinks to the back then takes the unit Ld checks, on his turn he does the Ld checks and then slinks the general. Do you agree? Or do you think there is a strict hierarchy to the order?
If the General is in the back, I would argue that no units can use his Inspiring Presence for the rest of the turn according to the wording of the Refusal paragraph in the Challenges section. What do you think?
(This would be a good way to bust skavenslave blocks or other shit units that rely on the General's Ld)
My reply
Challenges, Fear, Primal Fury all happen at the start of the combat means "Sequencing" kicks in.
So on Johnnys turn, he would do all tests first (as that benefits him) and then refuse.
On joes turn - challenge first and put the dude in the back.
Pg 102 says his Ld. may not be used for ANY leadership tests that turn if he gets dropped in the back rank. (*though don't Skaven have 'lead from the rear' or was that the previous book only)
Cheers,
Domus
Sequencing - pg 10
Whilst every effort has been made to make sure that the sequencing of rules is utterly clear, occasionally you'll find that two or more rules are to be resolved at the same time - normally 'at the start of the Movement phase' or similar. When this happens, and the wording is not explicit as to which rule is resolved first, then the player whose turn it is chooses the order.
There are numerous situations which can trigger these types of conflicts which would invoke sequencing. My buddy Joe, of Pointhammered fame, recently asked me a question on this and a few other items.
Joe writes;
Hey Domus, I see your latest Rule of the Day is about challenges.
Our situation was Johnny's Gor Horde w/ Beastlord vs Treeman Ancient w/ Annoyance. Fear, Primal Fury, and Challenges always happen at the start of combat and we were dicing each turn whether the challenge happened first or the other two rolls, since it could make a difference if he could not use the General's Ld.
Now that I think about it, I think when the order is not clear the player's whose turn it is decides the order so on my turn his general slinks to the back then takes the unit Ld checks, on his turn he does the Ld checks and then slinks the general. Do you agree? Or do you think there is a strict hierarchy to the order?
If the General is in the back, I would argue that no units can use his Inspiring Presence for the rest of the turn according to the wording of the Refusal paragraph in the Challenges section. What do you think?
(This would be a good way to bust skavenslave blocks or other shit units that rely on the General's Ld)
My reply
Challenges, Fear, Primal Fury all happen at the start of the combat means "Sequencing" kicks in.
So on Johnnys turn, he would do all tests first (as that benefits him) and then refuse.
On joes turn - challenge first and put the dude in the back.
Pg 102 says his Ld. may not be used for ANY leadership tests that turn if he gets dropped in the back rank. (*though don't Skaven have 'lead from the rear' or was that the previous book only)
Cheers,
Domus
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Rule of the Day - Monsters and Handlers
Rule of the Day - 06/08/2011
Maybe not that kind of monster that needs handling... :-)
These rules are a bit unlcear, so I'm hoping to peel the onion a bit.
Monsters and Handlers - pg 73
The handlers aren't really a combat unit per se, so we ignore them for most gaming purposes, treating the monster itself as the extent of the unit. {*this is THE MOST important sentence, and one I'll come back to}. When a monster suffers an unsaved wound, roll a D6. On a roll of 1-4 the monster suffers the wound as normal, but on a roll of 5-6 a handler model is removed instead. Once all the handlers have been removed, the monster must take a Monster Reaction test just like a ridden monster that loses its rider.
In close combat, the handlers can direct their attacks against any enemy in base contact with their monster. The handlers are otherwise assumed to have their hands too full controlling the monster to carry out any actions like shooting, or casting spells, etc. In addition the handlers cannot be charged, attacked or otherwise affected separately from their monster - if they are found to be blocking movement or line of sight, the controlling player simply alters their position, just as you would for any other battlefield marker or counter. If the monster is removed, so are its handlers.
Summation
Any wound is potentially transferred to a handler on a 5+. {*only shooting wounds transferred in 7th}
Handlers are mostly ignored, they are not in the following cases
-Close Combat. They can't be attack but they can ALL attack.
-When the monster is wounded, remove a handler instead on a 5+
This leaves quite a few scenarios where handlers would otherwise affect the game but that first sentence will prevent them from having any effect on the following.
-Panic Tests
-Template Hits
-Characteristic Tests - Excepting Leadership tests {*explicitly stated in the FAQ-which contradicts itself a bit}
-Charges / Being charged
-Line of Sight
Cheers,
Domus
Maybe not that kind of monster that needs handling... :-)
These rules are a bit unlcear, so I'm hoping to peel the onion a bit.
Monsters and Handlers - pg 73
The handlers aren't really a combat unit per se, so we ignore them for most gaming purposes, treating the monster itself as the extent of the unit. {*this is THE MOST important sentence, and one I'll come back to}. When a monster suffers an unsaved wound, roll a D6. On a roll of 1-4 the monster suffers the wound as normal, but on a roll of 5-6 a handler model is removed instead. Once all the handlers have been removed, the monster must take a Monster Reaction test just like a ridden monster that loses its rider.
In close combat, the handlers can direct their attacks against any enemy in base contact with their monster. The handlers are otherwise assumed to have their hands too full controlling the monster to carry out any actions like shooting, or casting spells, etc. In addition the handlers cannot be charged, attacked or otherwise affected separately from their monster - if they are found to be blocking movement or line of sight, the controlling player simply alters their position, just as you would for any other battlefield marker or counter. If the monster is removed, so are its handlers.
Summation
Any wound is potentially transferred to a handler on a 5+. {*only shooting wounds transferred in 7th}
Handlers are mostly ignored, they are not in the following cases
-Close Combat. They can't be attack but they can ALL attack.
-When the monster is wounded, remove a handler instead on a 5+
This leaves quite a few scenarios where handlers would otherwise affect the game but that first sentence will prevent them from having any effect on the following.
-Panic Tests
-Template Hits
-Characteristic Tests - Excepting Leadership tests {*explicitly stated in the FAQ-which contradicts itself a bit}
-Charges / Being charged
-Line of Sight
Cheers,
Domus
Finecast Myth 1 Debunked!
So I checked on the Mandrake Torso & Weapon I left on my porch (but not in the sun) last night before bed (roughly 11:50 - A little over 12 hours later).
The thermometer on the porch read 90F yesterday around 6:00 PM.
Amazingly enough, I did NOT find pools of melted miniatures.
Even the bendy weapon seemed to be in the same exact state (that of a bendy weapon).
How can this be?
I'm leaving em out now all day today (still not in the sun) for the next test - temps are supposed to reach 90F-95F today here in central Illinois.
Cheers,
Domus
The thermometer on the porch read 90F yesterday around 6:00 PM.
Amazingly enough, I did NOT find pools of melted miniatures.
Even the bendy weapon seemed to be in the same exact state (that of a bendy weapon).
How can this be?
I'm leaving em out now all day today (still not in the sun) for the next test - temps are supposed to reach 90F-95F today here in central Illinois.
Cheers,
Domus
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
A Positive, yet Honest, Finecast Experience
So, I got sick to death of hearing all of the finecast hysteria and decided to place an order.
I've been looking forward to finecast mainly because I like conversions, lots of which involve cutting models in half. Finecast models will make this chore so much easier on my life. Based on the gravitational pull towards the negative that has spun about the internet, I also knew somewhat what to expect.
Note that these models are intended for a high end army but I'm not a golden demon level painter. I'm looking for different things from my models.
Price with GW is ALWAYS an issue so I'm not really going to talk about that. It costs what it costs. We don't have to like it. Nuff said.
I placed an order for a box of Dark Eldar Mandrakes. 40k! What? No, no, no. I'm not switching to the dark side. I just simply have a conversion in mind for my dark elves that these torsos will be perfect for (much better than the Gor Torso's I was going to initially use). When I got home yesterday, I found the box from GW sitting on my porch.
I immediately popped it open to start checking out this 'space-age polymer'.
Upon opening the box, I found it contained 3 sprues within the typical GW plastic components boxes they've long used for metals. I did a lot of quick inspection looking for the 'bubble holes' in bad places. They were all over the skirts! I kid. The skirts have holes in em and I don't have the metals to compare to so all of the 'holes' in the skirts looked like they belonged. I was also doing a lot of pulling / twisting, etc on the models just to gauge their durability. Later that night, when I went to take the picture, I noticed that one models' foot had been separated from his skirt. Not sure if this was due to my actions of twisting em or if it came like that. (*See the circled red portion) Either way it wasn't a huge deal as a) I wasn't using the lower portion anyway and b) It could have been very easily repaired. It IS worth noting this is a VERY thin joint.
There is alot of flash that needs cleaned off. However, this cleans right off with a pass of the knife. In fact, be very gentle or you may cut / scratch your model.
I also noticed one other slight problem with only one of the models. The chin didn't come down to the point that the other model (in the same pose) did. It looks like a miscast. Hard to tell from the pic but the chin has no point - it is the hair you see sticking out past the chin. Clicking on it to see the bigger pic will also help.
After getting all of my pictures taken and models inspected I was itching to get to work so I sat down to cut all the models in half right at the top of the skirt. Previously, I tended to use a dremmel tool for this kind of work as it made the chore quicker than using a jewelers saw but it resulted in less than a perfect cut which almost always rendered the unused portion unusable. I simply put a new blade in the exacto knife and set out to cut a model. A little pressure and done. WOW! Less than a minute taken to cut a model in half. This is exactly what I was hoping for. I got all 5 models cut in half in roughly 5 minutes. All of the cuts are very clean and the lower halves of the models are very usable for another project. This, to me, is everything I was looking for from finecast.
The next step for me was then to do a test fit with one of my Drider bodies I had sculpted previously. It did require a bit of work to remove the Gor torso and scrape off the Green Stuff work I had previously completed but it was well worth the effort. Here is the rough test fit - I am using pins in some of the torso's - not for strength but simply to allow me more positioning opportunities. I also really like that weapon and it will be the only weapon I don't replace with handmade spears. Stay tuned for more on these guys in the coming weeks, I'm totally inspired and VERY pleased with the way he looks now.
Also - the model bonded very well with just superglue. I fully believe you won't be required to pin and superglue alone will be sufficient.
In the end, I had an overall positive experience with Finecast. I know there are some bad experiences out there and I have no doubt more will crop up. It is upsetting that a company the size of GW didn't do more research / implement harsher QC checks, etc.. to prevent some of the stuff from getting out. In the end I know they weren't experts when they started casting in metal but got great at it. I expect the same from finecast. Combine that with the conversion opportunities and the sculpting opportunities for NEW models I'm a bit excited to see what the future holds.
I'm not rushing out to buy a bunch of finecast but I won't be deterred to buy what I need in finecast after this experience.
I've taken a torso and a weapon (which was already 'flimsy' to begin with) that I cut off and put them on my porch, out of direct sunlight. It was 85 deg. Farenheit at 11:30 AM today when I put them out there. I will check on them in roughly 12 hours and see how they have held up.
To Summarize;
Pro's
Easy to Clean Flash / Mold Lines
Easier for Conversions (*especially big conversions)
Pinning not required (*but very easy to drill if you do)
Future Opportunity for even more detailed Models
Con's
GW Quality Issues - Miscasts - Bubbles (*I'm hoping these go away)
Small Weapons (like the ones on these guys) are a bit too bendy - May need a tweak to the formula. *NOTE - the spindly little arms were fine only the weapons were bendy.
Really weak joints very susceptible to breakage
One last note. Something to think about - They are casting models in 'resin' that were designed to be cast in metal. I'm interested to see what models designed for finecast look like and how they come out at the end. Not sure if it is a factor or not but I can't help but wonder.
Cheers,
Domus
I've been looking forward to finecast mainly because I like conversions, lots of which involve cutting models in half. Finecast models will make this chore so much easier on my life. Based on the gravitational pull towards the negative that has spun about the internet, I also knew somewhat what to expect.
Note that these models are intended for a high end army but I'm not a golden demon level painter. I'm looking for different things from my models.
Price with GW is ALWAYS an issue so I'm not really going to talk about that. It costs what it costs. We don't have to like it. Nuff said.
I placed an order for a box of Dark Eldar Mandrakes. 40k! What? No, no, no. I'm not switching to the dark side. I just simply have a conversion in mind for my dark elves that these torsos will be perfect for (much better than the Gor Torso's I was going to initially use). When I got home yesterday, I found the box from GW sitting on my porch.
I immediately popped it open to start checking out this 'space-age polymer'.
Upon opening the box, I found it contained 3 sprues within the typical GW plastic components boxes they've long used for metals. I did a lot of quick inspection looking for the 'bubble holes' in bad places. They were all over the skirts! I kid. The skirts have holes in em and I don't have the metals to compare to so all of the 'holes' in the skirts looked like they belonged. I was also doing a lot of pulling / twisting, etc on the models just to gauge their durability. Later that night, when I went to take the picture, I noticed that one models' foot had been separated from his skirt. Not sure if this was due to my actions of twisting em or if it came like that. (*See the circled red portion) Either way it wasn't a huge deal as a) I wasn't using the lower portion anyway and b) It could have been very easily repaired. It IS worth noting this is a VERY thin joint.
There is alot of flash that needs cleaned off. However, this cleans right off with a pass of the knife. In fact, be very gentle or you may cut / scratch your model.
I also noticed one other slight problem with only one of the models. The chin didn't come down to the point that the other model (in the same pose) did. It looks like a miscast. Hard to tell from the pic but the chin has no point - it is the hair you see sticking out past the chin. Clicking on it to see the bigger pic will also help.
After getting all of my pictures taken and models inspected I was itching to get to work so I sat down to cut all the models in half right at the top of the skirt. Previously, I tended to use a dremmel tool for this kind of work as it made the chore quicker than using a jewelers saw but it resulted in less than a perfect cut which almost always rendered the unused portion unusable. I simply put a new blade in the exacto knife and set out to cut a model. A little pressure and done. WOW! Less than a minute taken to cut a model in half. This is exactly what I was hoping for. I got all 5 models cut in half in roughly 5 minutes. All of the cuts are very clean and the lower halves of the models are very usable for another project. This, to me, is everything I was looking for from finecast.
The next step for me was then to do a test fit with one of my Drider bodies I had sculpted previously. It did require a bit of work to remove the Gor torso and scrape off the Green Stuff work I had previously completed but it was well worth the effort. Here is the rough test fit - I am using pins in some of the torso's - not for strength but simply to allow me more positioning opportunities. I also really like that weapon and it will be the only weapon I don't replace with handmade spears. Stay tuned for more on these guys in the coming weeks, I'm totally inspired and VERY pleased with the way he looks now.
Also - the model bonded very well with just superglue. I fully believe you won't be required to pin and superglue alone will be sufficient.
In the end, I had an overall positive experience with Finecast. I know there are some bad experiences out there and I have no doubt more will crop up. It is upsetting that a company the size of GW didn't do more research / implement harsher QC checks, etc.. to prevent some of the stuff from getting out. In the end I know they weren't experts when they started casting in metal but got great at it. I expect the same from finecast. Combine that with the conversion opportunities and the sculpting opportunities for NEW models I'm a bit excited to see what the future holds.
I'm not rushing out to buy a bunch of finecast but I won't be deterred to buy what I need in finecast after this experience.
I've taken a torso and a weapon (which was already 'flimsy' to begin with) that I cut off and put them on my porch, out of direct sunlight. It was 85 deg. Farenheit at 11:30 AM today when I put them out there. I will check on them in roughly 12 hours and see how they have held up.
To Summarize;
Pro's
Easy to Clean Flash / Mold Lines
Easier for Conversions (*especially big conversions)
Pinning not required (*but very easy to drill if you do)
Future Opportunity for even more detailed Models
Con's
GW Quality Issues - Miscasts - Bubbles (*I'm hoping these go away)
Small Weapons (like the ones on these guys) are a bit too bendy - May need a tweak to the formula. *NOTE - the spindly little arms were fine only the weapons were bendy.
Really weak joints very susceptible to breakage
One last note. Something to think about - They are casting models in 'resin' that were designed to be cast in metal. I'm interested to see what models designed for finecast look like and how they come out at the end. Not sure if it is a factor or not but I can't help but wonder.
Cheers,
Domus
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Rule of the Day - Flame Template (20mm / 40mm)
Rule of the Day 06/02/2011
A follow up to a previous post. I have already created Gaming Aids for use with the 3" & 5 " templates. See this previous blog entry.
I've long been meaning to finish up this flame template entry and finally made time last night.
I have tested these using the flame template I got from the Island of Blood plus a sheet from a GW customizable movement tray (20mm on 1 side, 25mm on the other). They are 99.5% accurate using that sheet as a 'template' under the template (if that makes any sense at all). There are a couple of close calls on the which are indicated with a range. I would probably default to the lower value to be safe.
Cheers,
Domus
A follow up to a previous post. I have already created Gaming Aids for use with the 3" & 5 " templates. See this previous blog entry.
I've long been meaning to finish up this flame template entry and finally made time last night.
I have tested these using the flame template I got from the Island of Blood plus a sheet from a GW customizable movement tray (20mm on 1 side, 25mm on the other). They are 99.5% accurate using that sheet as a 'template' under the template (if that makes any sense at all). There are a couple of close calls on the which are indicated with a range. I would probably default to the lower value to be safe.
Cheers,
Domus
A Gigantic Classic
I've been working off and on on getting this guy ready for paint over the last week. I've always loved this model, this Marauder Giant. One of the classics - so few of which I actually enjoy.
I've wanted to paint him and always saw him as a great fit in my Sigmar Ogre army. I've decided not to convert him at all and leave this classic beast as a classic.
I started painting last night, while chatting with some friends over teamspeak. I managed to get the skin basecoated, washed, tidied up and then 2 layers applied. Slowly but surely I will get this beast done! I love painting and I am glad to be back painting anything but this model definitely is a favorite.
I will update with more pics (& hopefully much better pics - these are all from the iPhone) as I progress.
Cheers,
Domus
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Rule of the Day - Refusing a Challenge
Rule of the Day - 06/01/2011
Refusing a Challenge (BOO! HISS!) - pg 102
If no enemy character steps forward to meet the challenge, one of them must retire in ignominy. This character is nominated by the challenger - though he may not nominate a character that could not have accepted the challenge, or a unit champion - champions can accept challenges, they do not have to. The retiring character slinks off to the back ranks and is not allowed to attack that round - move the model into a rank where he's not in base contact with the enemy. Another model will step up and fight in his place, just as if he'd been slain. Furthermore, the model's Leadership cannot be used for any Leadership tests that take place that turn.
Once a challenge has been refused, the issuer can fight normally in that round of combat.
Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide
A character cannot refuse a challenge if his model cannot be placed so that he is not in base contact with an enemy model - he can't evade his opponent and so must fight for his life. This most commonly happens if a lone character is the subject of challenge, or if his unit is small and engaged on all fronts, so that every model in the unit is in base contact with an enemy.
Note - There is a huge change from 7th edition buried up above. Champions can never be forced into the back ranks for declining a challenge. Nice to keep that typical extra champion attack in the combat.
Cheers!
Domus
Bravely bold Sir Robin
Rode forth from Camelot.
He was not afraid to die,
Oh brave Sir Robin.
He was not at all afraid
To be killed in nasty ways.
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin.
Rode forth from Camelot.
He was not afraid to die,
Oh brave Sir Robin.
He was not at all afraid
To be killed in nasty ways.
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin.
Refusing a Challenge (BOO! HISS!) - pg 102
If no enemy character steps forward to meet the challenge, one of them must retire in ignominy. This character is nominated by the challenger - though he may not nominate a character that could not have accepted the challenge, or a unit champion - champions can accept challenges, they do not have to. The retiring character slinks off to the back ranks and is not allowed to attack that round - move the model into a rank where he's not in base contact with the enemy. Another model will step up and fight in his place, just as if he'd been slain. Furthermore, the model's Leadership cannot be used for any Leadership tests that take place that turn.
Once a challenge has been refused, the issuer can fight normally in that round of combat.
Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide
A character cannot refuse a challenge if his model cannot be placed so that he is not in base contact with an enemy model - he can't evade his opponent and so must fight for his life. This most commonly happens if a lone character is the subject of challenge, or if his unit is small and engaged on all fronts, so that every model in the unit is in base contact with an enemy.
Note - There is a huge change from 7th edition buried up above. Champions can never be forced into the back ranks for declining a challenge. Nice to keep that typical extra champion attack in the combat.
Cheers!
Domus
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Rule of the Day Challenge # 1 Winner
Firstly, let me thank everyone who sent in emails. I did receive quite a few emails and was very pleased with the overall turnout.
I will endeavor to do a challenge related to every tournament I attend and potentially more often.
The first challenge can be found here.
Turns out, the specific question was ultimately invalid as Salamanders are NOT an infantry unit. DE Assassins can only be hidden in infantry units. This was something I knew and didn't think about at the time.
I did receive a bunch of answers that "he couldn't be hidden there" but they then failed to provide guidance as to the next step. I also received a few answers which actually dealt with the situation as if an assassin could have legally been in that unit.
In the end, I ended up with 2 answers that I really liked. 1 which handled the situation from the illegality standpoint and another which handles what to do in such an awkward situation (assuming it was legal). I've decided to send both emailers a pack of cards.
Answer 1 - Tarjei Aasen
Shadowblade cannot join Salamanders as they are not infantry or war
machines (they are war beasts). If a player at a tournament I ran had
written down that Shadowblade was hiding in a unit he couldn't join,
I'd rule that he would not show up for that battle, but would award no
VPs to the opponent.
Answer 2 - Joe Rogers
I would just rule he could not reveal himself. The reason being that if I allow him to be revealed, then I have to follow it up with an arbitrary decision since this for sure isn't covered anywhere in the rules.
So no reveal = I don't have to make up my own rules.
Allow him to reveal = I have to make up my own rules.
So I'm taking the KISS approach.
If you want more ammo for the ruling, you could say since they didn't cover this pretty common situation in his unit entry, that they didn't intend for it to be possible.
Fluffwise you could say he is swept away with the unit, but you could justify any garbage answer you want fluffwise.
--------------------------------
I loved answer 1 from Tarjei as it is ultimately the correct way to handle the situation.
I also loved answer 2, from the "Rodge", as it is a great approach to handling rules debates for situations not covered by the rulebook. Simple yet brilliant approach IMHO.
Congrats to both winners.
Thanks again for all the entries.
I look forward to the next contest.
Cheers!
Domus
Friday, May 27, 2011
And now for something completely different...
My wife & I recently painted our 3 season porch and put in new carpet. Hopefully, we will be listing our house soon in hopes of moving.
I found this beauty as I was cleaning out my armoire I store my gaming stuff in. My friend brought this to me about 6-7 years ago after finding it looking for books for his kid.
I have the unique distinction of looking just like the pirate in the middle with the big red beard and roundish glasses.
Comparison pic below for those who don't know what I look like.
I found this beauty as I was cleaning out my armoire I store my gaming stuff in. My friend brought this to me about 6-7 years ago after finding it looking for books for his kid.
I have the unique distinction of looking just like the pirate in the middle with the big red beard and roundish glasses.
Comparison pic below for those who don't know what I look like.
My son Sean & I had so much fun this day playing out in the snow.
This book is always good for a laugh from me when I find it and I won't ever let it get away from me.
Have a great holiday weekend all!
Don't forget the Rule of the Day Challenge is on until Monday!
Cheers!
Domus
Rule of the Day - Plague Furnace
Rule of the Day - 05/27/2011
Inspired by Chris Walker from IWFB, I have decided to start occasionally including Army Specific rules. Chris had given me a tip right before ArdBoyz which made a huge difference in my game. The furnace only 'swings' on the skaven turn.
This Buds for you Chris!
The Skaven Plague Furnace - pg 48/49
- Treated as a mount for the Plague Priest
- Frenzy / Impact Hits (D6) / MR(2)
- Furnace & Monks pushing it are unbreakable as long as Furnace still has 1 wound remaining
- Treats Terrain in the same manner as chariots (FAQ)
- Unit the furnace is joined to marches, charges and pursues normally as long as the unit has 10 models. For every model the unit drops below 10, thhe unit deducts 1" from the move. If the unit is reduced to 5 or leass models it cannot move.
Billowing Death - Skaven Shooting Phase Only
- Can't make this attack if in Close Combat
- Flame template that touches furnace base and in furnace front arc
- Toughness Test or 1 Wound no Armor save (just like plague censer)
Enshrouded by Fog
- At the start of any close combat, any unit touching the furnace suffers D6 automatic hits. Toughness test for each hit or 1 wound no armor save.
Wrecker Attack - Controlling Skaven Combat turn only
- Always Strikes Last (updated in latest FAQ)
- Artillery Dice worth of Strength 5 hits distributed as shooting with an enemy in base to base and in the front arc of the furnace.
- Misfire rolls on Plague Furnace misfire chart
Happy Furnace Hunting!
Cheers,
Domus
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Midwest Rampage 6 Final Scores
13th place overall for me! I'm very happy for my first 2 day 8th edition tournament.
Without my mistakes I could have broken the top 5 but I've learned invaluable lessons.
I'm really happy with my painting score also, with a dipped army with no extra highlighting that seems above average. I chalk it up to the contrast the bases provide.
Cheers,
Domus
Upcoming Blog Layout Update
I am finding my blog very bland to look at.
A layout update is totally in order.
I'm gonna have to do some playing while I make changes but feel free to send in any suggestions.
Cheers,
Domus
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Rule of the Day - Dispel Dice & Broken Concentration (Dispel)
Rule of the Day 05/25/2011
This one came up a couple of times in game at the Midwest Rampage 6 and I think I, and a few of my opponents, played it incorrectly.
Dispel - pg 35
Choose Number of Dispel Dice - pg 35
When dispelling, a Wizard can use any number of dispel dice. Unlike casting, there is no upper limit on the number of dice that can be used in a dispel attempt - though you must use at least one dice from the pool if you wish to attempt a dispel.
Dispel Value - pg 35
...skip to last pararagraph...
If the result on the dispel dice is less than the spell's casting result, the dispel attempt has failed. Furthermore, the Wizard is so preoccupied by his collapsing dispel that he is unable to attempt another later in the phase. Just as when casting a spell, a total natural dice score of 1 or 2 is always considered to be a failure, despite any modifiers. This is true regardless of bonuses, from any source. Note the army can always attempt to dispel, regardless of previous failures.
I'm sure I failed a dispel with my slann, as I think on it more, and dispelled again using his +4. Bad Domus...
Cheers,
Domus
This one came up a couple of times in game at the Midwest Rampage 6 and I think I, and a few of my opponents, played it incorrectly.
Dispel - pg 35
Choose Number of Dispel Dice - pg 35
When dispelling, a Wizard can use any number of dispel dice. Unlike casting, there is no upper limit on the number of dice that can be used in a dispel attempt - though you must use at least one dice from the pool if you wish to attempt a dispel.
Dispel Value - pg 35
...skip to last pararagraph...
If the result on the dispel dice is less than the spell's casting result, the dispel attempt has failed. Furthermore, the Wizard is so preoccupied by his collapsing dispel that he is unable to attempt another later in the phase. Just as when casting a spell, a total natural dice score of 1 or 2 is always considered to be a failure, despite any modifiers. This is true regardless of bonuses, from any source. Note the army can always attempt to dispel, regardless of previous failures.
I'm sure I failed a dispel with my slann, as I think on it more, and dispelled again using his +4. Bad Domus...
Cheers,
Domus
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Rule of the Day Challenge
I'd like to introduce the Rule of the Day Challenge. This will be a monthly (or more often) rules based contest. I will pose a question(s) and whoever answers using the rules justification I like the best will win a prize.
I pick, no whining please.
Rule of the Day Challenge # 1
After attending the Midwest Rampage this past weekend, I had my eyes open for rules I had to look up regularly or just plain weird stuff.
One of the weirdest things that happened was directly tied to Shadowblade, a special character from the DE book.
He was in a unit of salamanders that had fled a charge. On the DE turn, my opponent revealed him inside of that fleeing unit.
This opened up a few questions;
1. Does he count as charging so would the sallies auto-flee?
2. Would Shadowblade then get to pursue?
We had the TO rule both questions for our game.
So the challenge is;
How would you rule both questions and why? The best answer will receive 1 pack of magic cards, either the TK or O&G set.
Please send answers to ginger_buddha@yahoo.com.
Don't leave your answers as comments, they will be ignored.
**EDIT** - This contest will run until midnight on May 30th 2011 (GMT -6 or U.S. CST).
GL!
Cheers,
Domus
I pick, no whining please.
Rule of the Day Challenge # 1
After attending the Midwest Rampage this past weekend, I had my eyes open for rules I had to look up regularly or just plain weird stuff.
One of the weirdest things that happened was directly tied to Shadowblade, a special character from the DE book.
He was in a unit of salamanders that had fled a charge. On the DE turn, my opponent revealed him inside of that fleeing unit.
This opened up a few questions;
1. Does he count as charging so would the sallies auto-flee?
2. Would Shadowblade then get to pursue?
We had the TO rule both questions for our game.
So the challenge is;
How would you rule both questions and why? The best answer will receive 1 pack of magic cards, either the TK or O&G set.
Please send answers to ginger_buddha@yahoo.com.
Don't leave your answers as comments, they will be ignored.
**EDIT** - This contest will run until midnight on May 30th 2011 (GMT -6 or U.S. CST).
GL!
Cheers,
Domus
Monday, May 23, 2011
MWR 6 Wrap Up
Midwest Rampage 6
Fifth Midwest Rampage under my belt and definitely one of my favorites. It's a hometime tourney run by a longtime friend Jim Emerick. Anyone who knows Jim & I knows we tend to bicker at times like an old married couple but I look forward to this event every year. I only missed the year my mom passed.
Fun filled weekend with friends, old & new, and 5 intense games of Warhammer. This was my first 8th edition two day tournament.
Friday Night
Got to the venue Friday night to help setup. Helped get tables & chairs that were rented unloaded and all set up for the weekend.
I then proceeded to get a practice game in vs. Scott Kline – my lizards vs. his O&G. Scott’s a great guy and an old friend I hadn’t had the opportunity to play in forever. He is always one of the most enjoyable guys to play on the table. I learned the power of mangler squigs as they wrecked havok on the saurus units. Sadly, nothing else in his army performed even close to those and the slann got up the double bubble (Boosted Speed of Light / Boosted Time Warp). Not much can stand up to double augmented Saurus units (re-rolls to hit? Yes please!).
Spent Friday night at the bar & drinking at the hotel with Tom McClure and new guy Rob Phaneuf. Rob turned out to be a great guy and we spent the weekend hanging out together. His blog can be found here. :-)
On to the games & stuff.
Because I brought a table of terrain for the Terrain contest, I started on Table 3. Turns out I was supposed to play 4 of my 5 games there. My 1 lower table game was because he reversed the tables for game 3 so the top table was the highest number working backwards.
My List
Slann – BSB
Cupped Hands / Std. Of Discipline / Divine Plaque of Protection
Focus of Mystery / Higher State / Becalming / Focused Rumination
Lore of Light
Doesn’t get much more “Super” than that
Skink Priest – Lvl 2
Cube of Darkness
Scar Vet – Lt Armor / Shield
Burning Blade / Glyph Necklace
Scar Vet – Great Weapon
Armor of Destiny
30 Saurus – FC
30 Saurus – FC
30 Saurus – FC / Spears
6 Chameleon Skinks
6 Chameleon Skinks
6 Chameleon Skinks
4 Terradons
1 Ancient Steg
2 Salamanders with 8 Handlers
2 Salamanders with 7 Handlers
3000 pts exactly
Game 1 – Scott Tipsword O&G
Orc Warboss - General
Armor of Fortune / Crown of Command
Night Goblin Great Shaman – Lvl 4
Staff of Sorc / Talisman of Endurance / Ironcurse Icon
Black Orc Big Boss – BSB
Talisman of Preservation
Orc Shaman – Lvl 2
Dispel scroll
40 Orc Boyz – FC
36 Savage Orc Boyz – FC
25 Black Orcs – FC / Banner of Eternal Flame
35 Night Goblins – FC / Nets / 3 Fanatics
34 Night Goblins – FC / Nets / 3 Fanatics
2 Goblin Wolf Chariots
2 Goblin Wolf chariots
1 Goblin Wolf Chariot
1 Orc Boar Chariot
5 Wolf Riders – Muso
1 Pump wagon
1 Giant
Scott is running the nicest list ever and I gave him my only +2 comp adjustment. We are playing the Dawn Attack scenario. Random deployment really messed him up as his general & bsb ended up on his right flank far away from the rest of his army.
My combat units were in my center / left flank and my salamanders were on my right flank and hoping to panic some units out of BSB / General range.
Fortunately for Scott, fate decided we needed a more even playing field as my Slann got sucked into the warp on turn 2. (I played cupped hands with a 24” range all weekend – DOH).
Lots of pics from this game but very few details. I used salamanders in combat to take out the pump wagon after panicing a goblin unit off the board. Getting the flank on his generals unit and ignoring the Black Orc / Savage Orc units ultimately gave me the win.
Game 2 – Steve Grunwald Empire
Gen. Of Empire – General
Sword of Sigismund
Dawn Armor
Arch Lector - GW
Speculum / Armor of Silvered steel
Luckstone
Lvl 4 Light Wizard
Scroll / Holy Relic
Captain – BSB
Armor of Meteoric Iron
Dawn Stone
Lvl 2 Wizard – Heavens
Seal of Destruction
Warrior Priest- GW
Ench. Shield
Biting Blade
Ironcurse Icon
Engineer – Pigeon Bombs
Engineer – Pigeon Bombs
Engineer
3 x Mortar
1 x Great Cannon
1 x Hellblaster
20 Crossbows – FC / Banner of Eternal Flame
20 Handgunners – FC
38 Halberdiers – FC
37 Greatswords – FC
30 Flagellents - Prophet
Solid empire list, sure to bring the pain and shut down my magic.
His anti-magic kept my magic phase shut down the entire game. I think I cast one spell. I rolled at least 1-2 6 dice spells every phase and just could not get the IF (hoping to then pass it on to his level 2 in the building). Not having speed of light on saurus really hurts em.
Meeting Engagement with Diagonal deployment. Steve castled up his warmachines in the corner and his 2 big shooty units in buildings. Flagellants + cannon come in reserves. My terradons were my only unit to come in reserve.
My saurus units were setup with 2 in the center and 1 on my far right end of my DZ to provide a distraction.
I got the first turn & marched the Stegadon right out in front – hoping to bait him into charging with his GS unit and hoping he would come up short (he needed a 9 or something big). Salamanders started flaming units in buildings but none would panic.
Steve charged the steg, made the charge and then proceeded to kill it in one round of combat (which wasn’t what I expected at all). He formed his horde formation GS unit into a 5 wide 40 man unit.
I was able to charge in with Saurus & Slann to the front and a saurus unit in the flank. His flagellents were on the board and headed for the rear of my spear unit. This combat lasted multiple turns. After I had killed down enough of the greatsword unit he managed to get his big halberd unit in the front of my spearus unit.
I had the opportunity to block his flagellants with my remaining uninvolved saurus unit and really should have taken it. The flagellants later hit my saurus in the rear and did 17 wounds on the charge. The real problem here was that the GS unit was still alive with 1 model & an arch-lector (who was locked in a challenge with the Slann he couldn’t hurt). Over 3 rounds of combat I was able to put 3 attacks on his GS per turn. I wounded only once each time and he managed to make his 5+ armor save every time. This saved his halberd unit.
I eventually got my other unit of saurus in the rear of his flagellants where I managed to do a boat load of wounds and after 2 rounds of combat managed to break the halberd unit. Sadly, everyone was in combat with someone else so I couldn’t pursue. I got freed up on turn 5 but couldn’t get to any of his units in turn 6.
Win to the Empire.
Game 3 – Sean Rogerson DE
Supreme Sorc – Lvl 4 / General
Darkstar Cloak / Black Dragon Egg / Seal of Ghrond
Dark Magic
Shadowblade
Master – BSB
Pendant / Biting Blade
50 Corsairs – FC / Sea Serpent std
2 x 10 Crossbows
20 Executioners – FC
20 Black Guard – FC / Banner of Murder
20 Black Guard – FC / Whip of Agony
2 x Hydra
2 x RBT
I was really tired for this game – it was the Watchtower scenario. I ended up having to look up too many rules issues and I think it hurt my opponents enjoyment of the game. My apologies Sean if you are reading.
He won the tower and deployed a unit of 10 xbowmen in it. This enabled me to assault the building, punt them out and take it over with a 30 strong saurus unit with a hero in it. I kept the slann nearby and kept speed of light up the whole game and managed to bounce 2 Frenzied Corsair horde assaults, and 2 Black Guard assaults.
Shadowblade was in a Sallie unit which fled a charge. He revealed shadowblade while my unit was fleeing. We weren’t sure what to do. The TO ruled that my unit would flee but he couldn’t pursue. Unfortunately, he was sitting right next to a unit of chameleons.
Win for the Lizards.
Pic Fail. :-(
Game 4 – John Hartigan – Lizards
Slann – BSB
Mystery / Focused / Becalming
Lore of Shadow
Std of Discipline / Cupped Hands / Ironcourse Icon
Skink Chief on ancient Steg
Warspear
Skink Priest – Lvl 1
Scroll
Scar Vet on Cold One – Lt Armor / Shield
Dawn Stone / Venom of Firefly Frog
24 Saurus – FC
20 Saurus – FC
16 Skinks / 2 krox – FC
10 Skinks
10 Skirm. Skinks
10 Skirm. Skinks
16 Temple Guard – FC / Banner of Eternal Flame
Stegadon
5 Chameleons
4 Terradons
2 Sallies
1 Sallie
Back on my terrain table again (3rd game on this table now).
John & I had the best game. We both knew what the other could do and played a back forth positioning game for a few turns. I was going to focus on his left flank which was out of the 12” slann bubble (Saurus, Skrox, Ancient Steg with Chief) and take those points. My game plan completely changed when his Slann miscast and killed all but 5 of his TG. I charged in and managed to ultimately get the TG dead and 4 wounds on the slann.
My steg managed to kill his ancient with Chief (& he got the charge but I was timewarped & later had speed of light). My salamanders proceeded to then wither a saurus unit down and I then charged in with saurus in the front and sallies in the flank.
John played a great game. He used the lore of shadow and was debuffing my units like mad (even with Becalming). I just got lucky in the end and had enough points for the win (I was up by like 200 VP I think).
Game 5 – Marty Gaska – Lizards
Slann – General / BSB
Cupped Hnds / Ironcurse
Mystery / Becalming / Focused
Chakax
Scar Vet – Lt Armor Shield
Sword of swift slaying / Venom of Firefly Frog
Skink Priest – Lvl 2
Scroll
Skink priest – Lvl 2
Channeling Staff / Cloak of Feathers
2 x 30 Skinks / 1 Krox – FC
25 Saurus – FC
2 x Steg
24 Temple Guard – FC - Sword of the Hornet on Champ
2 x 1 Salamander
Blood & Glory – Back on my table again but asked to swap and got the nod.
My plan was to kill Marty’s 2 Skrox units, 2 salamander units and 1 saurus unit to win the game.
I deployed a saurus unit on my left flank to get a skrox unit, one in the center to tie up his TG (with my steg also) and the other saurus on my right flank to get after his other skrox unit. Both sally units were on my far left flanks to burn Skrox / Saurus units.
Marty won the first turn and took it. His salamanders were largely ineffective and his slann didn’t get much off without 6’s.
My first turn saw my salamanders panic the saurus unit off the board (thx to the building behind them). I put a couple of wounds on his baby steg with my chameleons (I should have focus fired the skrox though in hindsight).
His turn 2 had him moving up again (no charges yet though he could have). His magic & shooting didn’t get a lot done. My turn 2 was pretty amazing. I charged his steg in the middle with my steg and my saurus unit (which was split so got a flank charge unfortunately). I charged his sallie on my left flank with saurus and both sally units opened up on the skrox unit over there reducing it to 5 models (but no panic). I made short work of that sally and overran into the 5 man skrox unit. I charged the skrox unit on my right flank with saurus and won combat but the unit held. I also moved my slann out to support both units with LD / BSB and stay within range to steal the enemy slann’s 6’s.
What a great turn. I knew I had it in the bag. This knowledge ultimately cost me the game.
Marty turn 3 – He charged my spearus unit in the center in the flank with his TG. Charged his steg at my slann but failed the charge (oh how I wish he had made it). Magic phase. I had like 6 dispel dice to his 8-9 power dice.
Throne of vines was cast – I used the Cube of Darkness and got a 3 so I failed to end the magic phase.
Flesh to stone was cast on the skrox unit on my right flank. Clearly I could not fight T6 skinks (yes I had it wrong in my head as I’ve always got the Throne version off) so I used 4 dice to dispel it. He then cast dwellers on my slann. I failed my dispel attempt and then rolled a 4 for my Str. Test. Marty wins as my Slann was 3 of my 6 fortitude.
I never once thought that if he could take out my slann he would win. A mistake I shall never make again.
Great game. My overconfidence, dice, and the mistakes (not saving for dwellers and/or trying to stay out of the 18” range). It stung a little to lose to 1 spell, I will admit, but I bow down to Marty’s genius move at the end. I learned a lesson (one I knew) about 8th edition I will keep with me throughout the entire edition.
I ended up with 3 wins and 2 losses for the weekend and was very pleased ultimately with that record. I got to spend the weekend with some great people in our hobby.
The venue was a little cramped and the Best General scoring was a little difficult to decipher. That was resolved after turn 2 with a distributed scoring sheet which helped a ton. Some of the terrain was a little our of hand. Emerick has heard all of this from me and seems to be listening and already planning improvements for next year. When you think about Jim setting this all up from Portland, Oregon, it really was a well run show.
The weekend only proved to me that my decision to come back to the game after leaving early in 8th was justified. The people make the game great and they are 100% of the reason I came back.
Fifth Midwest Rampage under my belt and definitely one of my favorites. It's a hometime tourney run by a longtime friend Jim Emerick. Anyone who knows Jim & I knows we tend to bicker at times like an old married couple but I look forward to this event every year. I only missed the year my mom passed.
Fun filled weekend with friends, old & new, and 5 intense games of Warhammer. This was my first 8th edition two day tournament.
Friday Night
Got to the venue Friday night to help setup. Helped get tables & chairs that were rented unloaded and all set up for the weekend.
I then proceeded to get a practice game in vs. Scott Kline – my lizards vs. his O&G. Scott’s a great guy and an old friend I hadn’t had the opportunity to play in forever. He is always one of the most enjoyable guys to play on the table. I learned the power of mangler squigs as they wrecked havok on the saurus units. Sadly, nothing else in his army performed even close to those and the slann got up the double bubble (Boosted Speed of Light / Boosted Time Warp). Not much can stand up to double augmented Saurus units (re-rolls to hit? Yes please!).
Spent Friday night at the bar & drinking at the hotel with Tom McClure and new guy Rob Phaneuf. Rob turned out to be a great guy and we spent the weekend hanging out together. His blog can be found here. :-)
On to the games & stuff.
Because I brought a table of terrain for the Terrain contest, I started on Table 3. Turns out I was supposed to play 4 of my 5 games there. My 1 lower table game was because he reversed the tables for game 3 so the top table was the highest number working backwards.
My List
Slann – BSB
Cupped Hands / Std. Of Discipline / Divine Plaque of Protection
Focus of Mystery / Higher State / Becalming / Focused Rumination
Lore of Light
Doesn’t get much more “Super” than that
Skink Priest – Lvl 2
Cube of Darkness
Scar Vet – Lt Armor / Shield
Burning Blade / Glyph Necklace
Scar Vet – Great Weapon
Armor of Destiny
30 Saurus – FC
30 Saurus – FC
30 Saurus – FC / Spears
6 Chameleon Skinks
6 Chameleon Skinks
6 Chameleon Skinks
4 Terradons
1 Ancient Steg
2 Salamanders with 8 Handlers
2 Salamanders with 7 Handlers
3000 pts exactly
Game 1 – Scott Tipsword O&G
Orc Warboss - General
Armor of Fortune / Crown of Command
Night Goblin Great Shaman – Lvl 4
Staff of Sorc / Talisman of Endurance / Ironcurse Icon
Black Orc Big Boss – BSB
Talisman of Preservation
Orc Shaman – Lvl 2
Dispel scroll
40 Orc Boyz – FC
36 Savage Orc Boyz – FC
25 Black Orcs – FC / Banner of Eternal Flame
35 Night Goblins – FC / Nets / 3 Fanatics
34 Night Goblins – FC / Nets / 3 Fanatics
2 Goblin Wolf Chariots
2 Goblin Wolf chariots
1 Goblin Wolf Chariot
1 Orc Boar Chariot
5 Wolf Riders – Muso
1 Pump wagon
1 Giant
Scott is running the nicest list ever and I gave him my only +2 comp adjustment. We are playing the Dawn Attack scenario. Random deployment really messed him up as his general & bsb ended up on his right flank far away from the rest of his army.
My combat units were in my center / left flank and my salamanders were on my right flank and hoping to panic some units out of BSB / General range.
Fortunately for Scott, fate decided we needed a more even playing field as my Slann got sucked into the warp on turn 2. (I played cupped hands with a 24” range all weekend – DOH).
Lots of pics from this game but very few details. I used salamanders in combat to take out the pump wagon after panicing a goblin unit off the board. Getting the flank on his generals unit and ignoring the Black Orc / Savage Orc units ultimately gave me the win.
Game 2 – Steve Grunwald Empire
Gen. Of Empire – General
Sword of Sigismund
Dawn Armor
Arch Lector - GW
Speculum / Armor of Silvered steel
Luckstone
Lvl 4 Light Wizard
Scroll / Holy Relic
Captain – BSB
Armor of Meteoric Iron
Dawn Stone
Lvl 2 Wizard – Heavens
Seal of Destruction
Warrior Priest- GW
Ench. Shield
Biting Blade
Ironcurse Icon
Engineer – Pigeon Bombs
Engineer – Pigeon Bombs
Engineer
3 x Mortar
1 x Great Cannon
1 x Hellblaster
20 Crossbows – FC / Banner of Eternal Flame
20 Handgunners – FC
38 Halberdiers – FC
37 Greatswords – FC
30 Flagellents - Prophet
Solid empire list, sure to bring the pain and shut down my magic.
His anti-magic kept my magic phase shut down the entire game. I think I cast one spell. I rolled at least 1-2 6 dice spells every phase and just could not get the IF (hoping to then pass it on to his level 2 in the building). Not having speed of light on saurus really hurts em.
Meeting Engagement with Diagonal deployment. Steve castled up his warmachines in the corner and his 2 big shooty units in buildings. Flagellants + cannon come in reserves. My terradons were my only unit to come in reserve.
My saurus units were setup with 2 in the center and 1 on my far right end of my DZ to provide a distraction.
I got the first turn & marched the Stegadon right out in front – hoping to bait him into charging with his GS unit and hoping he would come up short (he needed a 9 or something big). Salamanders started flaming units in buildings but none would panic.
Steve charged the steg, made the charge and then proceeded to kill it in one round of combat (which wasn’t what I expected at all). He formed his horde formation GS unit into a 5 wide 40 man unit.
I was able to charge in with Saurus & Slann to the front and a saurus unit in the flank. His flagellents were on the board and headed for the rear of my spear unit. This combat lasted multiple turns. After I had killed down enough of the greatsword unit he managed to get his big halberd unit in the front of my spearus unit.
I had the opportunity to block his flagellants with my remaining uninvolved saurus unit and really should have taken it. The flagellants later hit my saurus in the rear and did 17 wounds on the charge. The real problem here was that the GS unit was still alive with 1 model & an arch-lector (who was locked in a challenge with the Slann he couldn’t hurt). Over 3 rounds of combat I was able to put 3 attacks on his GS per turn. I wounded only once each time and he managed to make his 5+ armor save every time. This saved his halberd unit.
I eventually got my other unit of saurus in the rear of his flagellants where I managed to do a boat load of wounds and after 2 rounds of combat managed to break the halberd unit. Sadly, everyone was in combat with someone else so I couldn’t pursue. I got freed up on turn 5 but couldn’t get to any of his units in turn 6.
Win to the Empire.
Game 3 – Sean Rogerson DE
Supreme Sorc – Lvl 4 / General
Darkstar Cloak / Black Dragon Egg / Seal of Ghrond
Dark Magic
Shadowblade
Master – BSB
Pendant / Biting Blade
50 Corsairs – FC / Sea Serpent std
2 x 10 Crossbows
20 Executioners – FC
20 Black Guard – FC / Banner of Murder
20 Black Guard – FC / Whip of Agony
2 x Hydra
2 x RBT
I was really tired for this game – it was the Watchtower scenario. I ended up having to look up too many rules issues and I think it hurt my opponents enjoyment of the game. My apologies Sean if you are reading.
He won the tower and deployed a unit of 10 xbowmen in it. This enabled me to assault the building, punt them out and take it over with a 30 strong saurus unit with a hero in it. I kept the slann nearby and kept speed of light up the whole game and managed to bounce 2 Frenzied Corsair horde assaults, and 2 Black Guard assaults.
Shadowblade was in a Sallie unit which fled a charge. He revealed shadowblade while my unit was fleeing. We weren’t sure what to do. The TO ruled that my unit would flee but he couldn’t pursue. Unfortunately, he was sitting right next to a unit of chameleons.
Win for the Lizards.
Pic Fail. :-(
Game 4 – John Hartigan – Lizards
Slann – BSB
Mystery / Focused / Becalming
Lore of Shadow
Std of Discipline / Cupped Hands / Ironcourse Icon
Skink Chief on ancient Steg
Warspear
Skink Priest – Lvl 1
Scroll
Scar Vet on Cold One – Lt Armor / Shield
Dawn Stone / Venom of Firefly Frog
24 Saurus – FC
20 Saurus – FC
16 Skinks / 2 krox – FC
10 Skinks
10 Skirm. Skinks
10 Skirm. Skinks
16 Temple Guard – FC / Banner of Eternal Flame
Stegadon
5 Chameleons
4 Terradons
2 Sallies
1 Sallie
Back on my terrain table again (3rd game on this table now).
John & I had the best game. We both knew what the other could do and played a back forth positioning game for a few turns. I was going to focus on his left flank which was out of the 12” slann bubble (Saurus, Skrox, Ancient Steg with Chief) and take those points. My game plan completely changed when his Slann miscast and killed all but 5 of his TG. I charged in and managed to ultimately get the TG dead and 4 wounds on the slann.
My steg managed to kill his ancient with Chief (& he got the charge but I was timewarped & later had speed of light). My salamanders proceeded to then wither a saurus unit down and I then charged in with saurus in the front and sallies in the flank.
John played a great game. He used the lore of shadow and was debuffing my units like mad (even with Becalming). I just got lucky in the end and had enough points for the win (I was up by like 200 VP I think).
Game 5 – Marty Gaska – Lizards
Slann – General / BSB
Cupped Hnds / Ironcurse
Mystery / Becalming / Focused
Chakax
Scar Vet – Lt Armor Shield
Sword of swift slaying / Venom of Firefly Frog
Skink Priest – Lvl 2
Scroll
Skink priest – Lvl 2
Channeling Staff / Cloak of Feathers
2 x 30 Skinks / 1 Krox – FC
25 Saurus – FC
2 x Steg
24 Temple Guard – FC - Sword of the Hornet on Champ
2 x 1 Salamander
Blood & Glory – Back on my table again but asked to swap and got the nod.
My plan was to kill Marty’s 2 Skrox units, 2 salamander units and 1 saurus unit to win the game.
I deployed a saurus unit on my left flank to get a skrox unit, one in the center to tie up his TG (with my steg also) and the other saurus on my right flank to get after his other skrox unit. Both sally units were on my far left flanks to burn Skrox / Saurus units.
Marty won the first turn and took it. His salamanders were largely ineffective and his slann didn’t get much off without 6’s.
My first turn saw my salamanders panic the saurus unit off the board (thx to the building behind them). I put a couple of wounds on his baby steg with my chameleons (I should have focus fired the skrox though in hindsight).
His turn 2 had him moving up again (no charges yet though he could have). His magic & shooting didn’t get a lot done. My turn 2 was pretty amazing. I charged his steg in the middle with my steg and my saurus unit (which was split so got a flank charge unfortunately). I charged his sallie on my left flank with saurus and both sally units opened up on the skrox unit over there reducing it to 5 models (but no panic). I made short work of that sally and overran into the 5 man skrox unit. I charged the skrox unit on my right flank with saurus and won combat but the unit held. I also moved my slann out to support both units with LD / BSB and stay within range to steal the enemy slann’s 6’s.
What a great turn. I knew I had it in the bag. This knowledge ultimately cost me the game.
Marty turn 3 – He charged my spearus unit in the center in the flank with his TG. Charged his steg at my slann but failed the charge (oh how I wish he had made it). Magic phase. I had like 6 dispel dice to his 8-9 power dice.
Throne of vines was cast – I used the Cube of Darkness and got a 3 so I failed to end the magic phase.
Flesh to stone was cast on the skrox unit on my right flank. Clearly I could not fight T6 skinks (yes I had it wrong in my head as I’ve always got the Throne version off) so I used 4 dice to dispel it. He then cast dwellers on my slann. I failed my dispel attempt and then rolled a 4 for my Str. Test. Marty wins as my Slann was 3 of my 6 fortitude.
I never once thought that if he could take out my slann he would win. A mistake I shall never make again.
Great game. My overconfidence, dice, and the mistakes (not saving for dwellers and/or trying to stay out of the 18” range). It stung a little to lose to 1 spell, I will admit, but I bow down to Marty’s genius move at the end. I learned a lesson (one I knew) about 8th edition I will keep with me throughout the entire edition.
I ended up with 3 wins and 2 losses for the weekend and was very pleased ultimately with that record. I got to spend the weekend with some great people in our hobby.
The venue was a little cramped and the Best General scoring was a little difficult to decipher. That was resolved after turn 2 with a distributed scoring sheet which helped a ton. Some of the terrain was a little our of hand. Emerick has heard all of this from me and seems to be listening and already planning improvements for next year. When you think about Jim setting this all up from Portland, Oregon, it really was a well run show.
The weekend only proved to me that my decision to come back to the game after leaving early in 8th was justified. The people make the game great and they are 100% of the reason I came back.
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