Skavenmas!

Wot ho folks, did you have a nice Christmas? We had a nice one but very tired at the moment as ended up seeing loads of family and being all over the place.

Wargaming wise I've had a very nice set of Skaven Toys with a Battalion box set, Stormvermin set, and a Doomwheel. With the bits I've got already I should have the main bulk of the Skaven army I want to paint up. I'm hoping to get a bit done on my Lunch breaks at work this week, and hopefully I have all my Slaves and Clanrats assembled before the year leaps out of the door!

It also looks like 2010 is going to be a very good year wargaming wise as we've got the 8th edition of WFB coming out and I've also started getting the twinges for 40k again, and the new Nid release looks brilliant along with the rumours about Blood Angels and maybe Dark Eldar or Necrons coming out later in the year.

Flames and Slaughter

Tonight, I shall be having my first game of Flames of War (I've dabbled with it in the past but never had a 'proper' game of it). I'm looking forwards to it even though I'm very anti-historical wargames due to my experiance of it when I was younger. The reason for this is the people I started gaming with often ended up turning the game into a simulation and would have 'discussions' during the game that unit X couldn't do that in real life, etc etc. Because of this, I've always been wary of historical games as I think they should be a bit of fun doing 'what-if' scenarios as well as having fun researching different eras of history while you assemble, paint and game with your army. So it's off round Stevyn's later to have some Americans batter Germans (or visa versa), while I scare him with horror stories about the new Skaven book.

Speaking of Skaven, I'm off to the Sheffield Slaughter in January. The Sheffield Slaughter is an yearly event held by the Dragon Slayers and is regarded as one of the best events in the calendar. It's got a very heavy composition rules set but it's still attracted 80 players. Me and Chris will be going, with Chris taking a varient of his Combat Dwarfs (but with no Runesmith on an Anvil as it's banned) and me taking Skaven. I shall be fielding the following....

Warlord
Plague Priest on Plague Furnace
Chieftain BSB with Shield
Warlock Engineer

23 Stormvermin with Shields, Full Command, and Poisoned Wind Mortar Weapon Team
25 Clanrats with Shields, Standard, Musician, and Doom Flayer Weapon Team
25 Clanrats with Shields, Standard, Musician, and Doom Flayer Weapon Team
25 Skavenslaves
25 Skavenslaves

25 Plague Monks with Full Command
6 Plague Censer Bearers
6 Gutter Runners

1 Doomwheel
1 Warp-lightning Warp Cannon

Now this is a big change for me as I've been getting used to my Daemons for the last three months, but Skaven are an army I've always wanted as I like the background and the new models look nice (proper 80's/90's style GW/Jes Goodwin!). It's a lot of models but with a can of Army Painter I should be able to do this.

Highs and Lows

I went to the Destruction Derby over the weekend which was a nice one day event organised by the Derby Wargames Society, of which the Ben's from Bad Dice are members of and they helped organise the event. It was a fun event of random scenarios and meeting new people.We could take anything as long as we had the rules to back them up and we saw a nice variety in the armies. I took a slight varient on my Daemon list as it's the only thing I have painted up at the moment. I took....

Lord of Change who was a Level 4 Wizard and had Flames of Tzeentch and Tzeentch's Will
2 Heralds of Slaanesh with Etherblades and riding Chariots

2 x 10 Horrors
13 Daemonettes with a Standard
2 x 5 Flesh Hounds
4 Flamers
1 Fiend

Not the hardest list in the world but then again not the weakest. My army worked out to 2013 points which was the limit for the event and we were going to get a special prize. Predictably though, pretty much everybody brought an army bang on the points, so the Ben's weren't expecting this and gave out dice instead.

Game 1 - Luke and High Elves

Luke is one of my regular opponents from the Dudley Darklords and a very good player. Earlier in the week we had played a practise game of the scenario for game 1 and a won by a big margin. Little did I know the tables would turn. I had originally grudged another DD player (Adam Jones aka Tank) but he dropped out so I grudged Luke as he had taken his place. The Bens placed us on Table 1.

Luke took a Lord on a Dragon with a Halberd, re-rollable save and a ward save, Lvl 1 mage, 2 x 10 archers, 16 White Lions with Full Command and Immune to Psych banner, 5 Dragon Princes with the Ignore Terrain Banner, 5 Shadow Warriors, 2 Bolters and 2 Eagles.

The Scenario was beat the living daylights out of a goblin who was being naughty with the Kings daughter. The goblin sat in the middle of the board and the player who scored the most wounds on it won. You could only score a wound by rolling a 6. Luke was more prepared for this game and I deployed badly because I was worried about the Dragon and Dragon Princes (in our last game Luke though I had Siren Song and had deployed the Dragon facing the other way). Luke pretty much took apart my army with the Dragon and Princes (which half my daemons couldn't damage due to having flaming attacks) and then peppered the goblin to bits with his shooting. Game ended with Luke on 11 and me on 3 which was a reversal of our scores on Tuesday.

Game 2 - Richie and Ogres

Richie had travelled all the way up from London with Og Games (who had sponsored the prizes for the event) and he had brought Ogres. Both of us had been beaten quite badly and were on the lowest ranked table - 18. Richie had been spanked by Adam Hall who had brought a Skaven with 2 Abominations and other bits which ripped Richie to bits. Richie was a bit worried about facing Daemons with his Ogres but we both knew this was going to be a fun game whatever the outcome.

Richie had a Tyrant, Bruiser, 2 Butchers, 2 x 3 Bulls, 2 x 3 Ironguts, 9 Gnoblar Trappers, 2 Maneaters and 2 Rhinox riders. In theory this should be an easy game for me if I can pick my combats.

The Scenario was a normal pitched battle but the who battlefield was effected by the Rainlord spell and each player turn, your army got blasted by Forked Lighting on a roll of 1 for each unit (1 or 2 if you had a ward save). Game starts with me getting the first turn and I move everything ready for charges. My 2 Chariots face off against the Rhinoxes with a Lord of Change nearby to support with Gift of Chaos. Rich moves everything around but knows things will be bad next turn and I charge my Chariots in and move my LoC up. So I cast Gift of Chaos hoping for a few wounds and I miscast which causes a wound to my LoC. My Chariots then cause a couple of wounds from Impact Hits and I get ready to watch my Heralds have fun. With 8 attacks hitting on 3's and wounding on 5's should cause lots of damage and win me the combat. Lots of fluffed attacks and wounds later and the Heralds are bricking it as the Rhinoxes are unscathed! Then for the rest of the game my dice decided to not play properly and I started playing like a numpty. Richie pretty much took all my toys off the board while his army was all there apart from a unit of Bulls and Gnoblars. Richie won by lots and I put my models in the middle of the board knowing I wasn't moving tables. It was a fun game watching my army self destruct but a bit frustrating but Richie did make it fun as we chatted all the way through the game.

Game 3 - Lee and Orcs of Chaos

Lee had travelled up with Richie as part of the Og Games crowd and had brought his Orcs of Chaos. Basicly it was a Warriors of Chaos army converted up from Orcs and Goblins who had been seduced by the bloodletting for Khorne.

He had a Lord of Khorne on a Jugger, Hero on Jugger, Lvl 1 wizard, 2 x 5 hounds, 2 x 5 horsemen, 14 marauderers with MoK and Flails, 20 odd marauderers with MoK, full command and shields, 15 Chosen, 5 Knights, and a Chariot of Khorne.

This game was to get into my opponents deployment zone while the entire battlefield was effected by the Pandaemonium spell (miscast on a double and units can not use the generals leadership) while a Infernal Gateway was strolling around on the board. Both of us deployed our armies and we found I had weighted my Right Flank while Lee weighted his Right as well, which left the main bulk of our armies as far away from each other as possible. Lee asked my why I had charged the Rhinoxen in my last game and I said you'll see but I thought I could have them. Couple of turns later and my Chariots were in his deployment zone having gone through his Knights and he agreed that I should have had those Rhinoxes last game. The game was pretty much me getting my Chariots and Flesh Hounds into his deployment zone while the rest of my army acted as a speed bump to slow Lees down while my LoC could blast away with his magic (and strangely only miscast once all game). Game ended and we found that I had got 1300 odd points while Lee only managed 1100 points which game me a win. If Lee had been able to get his chosen into my deployment zone he would have won but I think a combination of deploying badly with them and me worring him with the LoC constantly zapping models off the unit, meant he didn't push them as far as he could.

In the end I came 29th thanks to my win (not bad in a 36 person event). It was a really good event and made a nice change from all the 'serious' warhammer the last few months. I really liked the scenarios and it was a good venue to play at and I shall be going again next year.

Hi Ho!

Just a quick update. Just got back from playing Chris at a 2250 Pitched Battle of WFB, with him trying out his Warriors of Chaos army he is building and me trying out his Dwarfs because I'm thinking about giving them a whirl.

My Dwarfs were roughly - Anvil, Master Engineer, 13 Warriors, 2 x 10 Crossbows, 18 Longbeards, 18 Hammerers, 2 Bolters, Grudgethrower, 15 Slayers, 2 Organ Guns

Chris's Warriors were roughly - Sorcerer Lord on Dragon, Lv2 Mage, 14 Maraurders, 2 x 5 Horsemen with MoS and Flails, 2 x 5 hounds, 5 Chaos Knights with MoS, 2 x 3 Dragon Ogres, Warshrine, Shaggoth

Terrain scattered so we had loads of terrain in the middle of the board (a building and wood) and the only hill sat in front of these limiting fire/charge lanes. I deployed facing the other half of the board which was open and the game started with causing damage to the Shaggoth and Lord with my shooting and then Chris presenting as many targets as possible because if something got through it would hurt. Next turn I get a lucky scatter onto the Dragon and kill his lord and leave the Dragon on a wound. Chris then manages to get into my lines and starts smashing war machines to bits and scaring hammerers off with his Dragon. I then damage control by finishing off the half dead units and manage to charge the Dragon Ogres in the flank with the Longbeards and roll them up.Chris then manages to kill all of my shooting elements (apart from a unit of Crossbows tucked away in a building) with only loosing most of his Knights to the last Organ Gun before it got revenge and killed the Organ Gun. Game ended and totalling up the points I got a Massacre!

I'm chuffed with the win but too be honest I got really lucky killing the Dragon early on and I made load of mistakes. Quite seriously thinking about Dwarfs for Sheffield now but lets see what distracts me on the weekend!

Real Life + Me + Hobby = BUSY!!!

I think busy is a understatement for what I've been upto recently. If I haven't been out at Beer Feastivals or Hotels with my Wife, it's being snowed under at work or playing lots of Warhammer. In fact this is probably the first night since the GT I'm having a night in as such.

Anyway, hobbywise I've again been playing lots of Warhammer and I've been practising for my last event this year - The Destruction Derby Three. It's run by the Derby Wargames Society (the Ben's from Bad Dice's local club) and the easiest way to describe the scenarios is silly and random! The event is basicly a one dayer with three scenarios of randomness and players are allowed to bring anything with a army points limit of 2013. So I'm taking my Daemons which I've managed to get to 2013 points!

Practise games so far have been scenario 1 and scenario 2. Scenario 1 is basicly we've got to cause the most wounds to a naughty goblin (he's been having it away with the Kings Wife), and the only way you can do that is by rolling a 6. I played Luke and his High Elves and we had a great laugh. I got a first turn charge on the goblin (he starts in the centre of the board) and lost my Lord of Change to a Dragon Prince charge (pesky Banner which lets them charge through woods) but got revenge when I charged Luke's Dragon and it got Charioted to death! The goblin got smacked around all over the shop and in the end I had scored 11 to Luke's 5 winning me the game. Victory Points it was a draw in Luke's favour but it didn't matter as I won!

Scenario 2 was basicly a Pitched Battle but with every unit on the board getting hit by Lighting each turn. On a roll of 1 it's hit (unless you've got a Ward Save then its a 1 or 2!) and it takes D6 S4 hits. First turn I loose a big chunk of my army due to this! I was playing Chris and his Dwarfs and managed a Draw in the end of the fighting and lighting.

The DDIII looks like it's going to be a really fun event and I'm really looking forwards to it!

Post Heat Three Jangles

So Heat Three is all done and dusted and I'll be honest, I had a really good time. After hearing horror stories about the GW GT's, I was a little worried that I might face somebody who can be called a Male Chicken (careful kids I'm being rude) but I didn't and I had a really good weekend. While my goal was to qualify, I also had a mini goal of winning a couple of games. I didn't qualify but I did win a couple of games! In the end I came 102nd. It was 103rd but apprantly there was an error on the results they handed out as there was no 85th placing, so everybody who came 85th or less got bumped up a space!

My army did have a couple of flaws which I'm rethinking about for the new year. Firstly my magic wasn't enough and I needed to either invest more into it or not at all. Secondly I don't think the Lord of Change is very good for me as it's more of a supporting unit rather than a direct smash and grab unit. Also I didn't have much luck with siren song but I think that's more because I couldn't bring anything into the combat after the first round due to space constraints or my flankers being caught up with something else. My main flaw is quite simply me because I need to be playing more and more games!

A quick rundown of my games for those who are interested...

Game 1 - Mike and Ogres (Breakthrough) - WIN
Mike was a nice chap who works for GW and came to the event right at the last minute using the only thing he had fully painted - Ogres! I tried not to think "Easy Game" and get over confident but then I saw he had Skrag and I didn't have a clue what to do about him as I didn't have anything in my army which could really take him on (apart from the Lord of Change). Mike's downfall was that he doesn't play much and his army was in the wrong enviroment as he had - Skrag, Butcher, 2 x 6 Bulls (full command), 3 Ironguts, 3 Yhetees, 3 Leadblechers, 2 Gorgers, and a Slave Giant. Basicly I out magic and shot him and picked the combats I wanted. Got my nettes and Lord of Change into combat with a Bull Unit which had Skrag, and slapped the unit about which broke and got run down (taking Skrag). I got my special mission for his most expensive unit and got three units in his deployment zone which won me the game.

Game 2 - Andy and Daemons (Battle of the Pass) - LOSS
Andy was another nice chap with a cheeky Daemon army. It had a Khorne Herald on a Jugger, 2 Heralds of Tzeentch, 3 x 10 Horrors, Furies, 4 x 5 Flesh Hounds!!!, 2 x 6 Flamers. I wasn't thinking easy game now! Basicly Andy out magiced and out shot me and I fluffed my deployment as well and he took all my toys off the board. Enjoyed the game and chatting with Andy though.

Game 3 - Gareth and High Elves (Fog of War) - WIN
Gareth had a very strange High Elf army as it didn't have much magic (i.e none) and didn't have a Dragon. It did have a Prince, BSB, Noble, 2 x 10 Archers, 15 White Lions, 15 Swordmasters, 2 x 5 Dragon Princes, 2 Bolters and a Eagle. Gareth drew his deployment on the paper handed out while I deployed mostly on my left flank as I suspected that he would deploy centrally and he did. While I knew he had a 'strange' High Elf army, I knew that half my army wouldn't be able to do much about the Dragon Princes or Characters so I picked the Lore of Death for my LoC which flew around zapping the Princes. Towards the end of the game Gareth didn't have many toys left but he managed to stop me getting my secret mission by charging the Flamers who were trying to make a break for his deployment zone. Game ended with me winning mainly because Gareth had a last ditched attempt at killing something and charged my Fiend with his BSB and Prince. They cause a wound to the Fiend who attacks the BSB and runs down the Prince thanks to him auto breaking!

Game 4 - Andy and Dwarfs (Trials of Battle) - DRAW
Another Andy and he had a strange Dwarf army because it had no anvil! He had a Lord on Shieldbearers, a BSB, a Runesmith, 2 x 10 Crossbows, 20 Longbeards, 2 x 15 Hammerers, 10 Miners, 2 Bolters and a Organ Gun. Random deployment stuffed Andy while being fairly kind to me but his big blocks kept on bouncing my Hounds off them and towards the end of the game we had pretty much wiped each other out apart from a scattering of units. Andy got his special mission (get into my deployment zone) and I got mine (Hills) but Andy won with a small marging. Chatting to Clubmates they said that I had to win by 300 points for a win, so it was a draw! I tracked Andy down who nicely agreed and we got it changed to a Draw.

Game 5 - Dan and Vampires (Dawn Attack) - LOSS
Eeep! I've never played Vampires before so only had a rough idea what to do. Dan had Lord on Horse, Vamp BSB, Vamp on Hellsteed, 2 x 15 Skellies, 20 Zombies, 2 x 5 Dire Wolves, a Corpse Cart, 6 Black Knights, and 5 wraiths with a banshee. I picked the Lore of Light hoping to boom his army with my LoC and got stuck in. My LoC failed to boom much, killed the corpse cart and then got butched by the Vamp Lord. We then smashed each other to bits but Dan came out on top in the end. A very enjoyable game but I was so unprepared for the Vampire Magic Phase!

Game 6 - Andy and Daemons (Pitched Battle) - LOSS
Again, another Andy. He had a bit of everything Daemon army with a Great Unclean One, BSB Nurgle Herald on a Palaquin, Slaaneshi Herald, The Masque, 15 Plaguebearers, 15 Daemonettes, 2 x 10 Horros, Furies, Flamers. I had a big brain fart for deployment and then my dice decided to work against me, so I did the best thing possible and had a laugh. Good game but wish I could play Andy again to play him properly and not chump bash me.

So a good weekend and I'm going again next year. Also got to meet John Blanche who was just sitting in the couner doodling! He's a really nice guy and it was nice to meet him as I've liked his artwork since I've been in the hobby.

Pre Heat 3 Jingles

Just finished getting all my stuff ready for Heat 3 and I'm quite excited about it. I've set up a Twitter Account which I'll try and keep updated over the weekend. Go to http://twitter.com/Gaz_T to see what's happening.

I'm hoping to qualify and to do so for certain I need to win four or more games. Realisticly I'll probably only win a couple at most due to lack of experiance and focus but we'll see.

BAM! BAM!

Just a quick update

My Heat Three Ticket has come through the post so I'm a happy monkey and I'm really looking forwards to the event. Not expecting to do that well but I think it would be good as a baseline to improve upon next year.

More interestingly for you, my readers, GW have announced that Beastmen will be the next WFB Book! Here's a bit of sales speak.....

In the dark places of the world, the Beastmen have been gathering in number and in February they will unleash their rage on the Warhammer world with renewed vigour. A feral army of twisted monsters, the Beastmen have inhabitant the dark forests and wild places of the world since such places existed. To lead a Beastmen army is to field vast herds of braying, brutish beasts who worship Chaos in all its forms, and who fight to level the civilised world.

This will be the first time ever that the Beastmen have had their own, completely stand-alone, army list. The forthcoming Warhammer Armies: Beastmen is full of twisted monsters old and new, and an all-new lore of magic. The Beastmen are the original inhabitants of the Old World: in February 2010 they come to reclaim it from the hands of Men.

I quite like the new cover and it looks like GW are taking a step back from the 'orange' Beastmen of the 6th edition. Modelwise I think we can only really expect new Minotaurs (possibly plastic) and Bestigors (probably plastic), as I strongly think that the rest of the range will stay the same. I expect we can look out for some kind of big beastie (like the trend in the last couple of books) and some new characters. Hopefully we will see more over the next few weeks.....

Two Steps back or Naughty Boy!

Just sidestepping the ominous title for a moment (well I do want you to read my Blog); I had yet another game this week against my long time gaming buddy, Chris. We ended up playing a GT scenario which was Pitched Battle and Chris had brought his Combat Wood Elves out to play. I'm not going to report on the game as there wasn't much to say apart from I got bummed (or for those folks who not know the lingo, I lost badly). I deployed like a numpty by splitting my army up and Chris shoved everything forwards and smashed me. It didn't go all his way as he only had a few units left (well more like half his army), while I had lost everything. Highlights were my Lord of Change butchering lots of things (including a Treeman) but he got gradually worn down and was the last thing to die. Chris was happy as it was the first time he had managed to kill it!


Anyway, the ominous title.....


Thanks to Luke and the lads down the Dudley Darklords, I have been playing a lot more Warhammer and I gave in to going to a GW Throne of Skulls Heat (Heat 3). Now considering that the very first entry I made on this blog was to stop being so Tournament Focused, I think I’ve failed in what I was trying to do. On the other hand I’m really looking forwards to it and I’m impatiently waiting for my ticket to come through the post! I shall be taking my pink daemons but in classic Gaz Taylor fashion I’m seriously considering bringing something else (a borrowed High Elf or Dwarf army) or manically painting something new and different.


I've got a busy few days due to work but I'll keep you posted if I decide to do something silly and paint another last minute army!!!

Another Daemonic Civil War

Oddly enough, I popped down the club again on Tuesday for another game. They must either be putting something in the water or I'm doing less work. I had arranged a game against a young lad called Dan who was a mate of Luke's and he too was off to Heat 3. Because of this we played one of the GT scenarios but because Dan wasn't too fussed which one he played, we diced for it. The dice gods decided we were playing "Trial of Battle" which is basicly a pitched battle but you only score points for table quarters (100 for your own and 300 for your opponents). Secret Mission wise, Dan picked his and I decided to roll for it and ended up with having to destroy his most expensive unit to get 400 points.

Dan was using a Daemon army but while it looked soft because it didn't have any special characters or Greater Daemons in it, it wasn't. He took (from Memory so some of this may be wrong)....

Herald of Nurgle with Slime Trail and Lvl 1 Wizard (also General)
Herald of Tzeentch with Master of Sorcery and Spell Breaker
Herald of Slaanesh on a Steed and with Siren Song
Herald of Khorne on a Jugger with +1 S Sword, Armour (for 0+ save) and was a BSB with D3 Combat res banner

20 Plaguebearers with full command and re-roll to wound standard
2 x 10 Horrors
2 x 5 Flesh Hounds
5 Seekers
1 Fiend
6 Flamers

I took what was becoming my usual 2K list..

LoC with Master of Sorcery and Tzeetnchs Will
Herald of Slaanesh on a Steed and with Siren Song
Herald of Slaanesh on a Chariot with Etherblade

10 Deamonettes
2 x 10 Horrors
6 Furies
2 x 5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flamers
1 Fiend

I'm not going to put a full report but rather some highlights. I'll be honest, I did fancy that I stood a chance against Dan as long as I paid attention. Before the game started we sorted out spells. I took lore of fire for my LoC and Dan took lore of beasts for his Tzeentch Herald and Miasma spell for his Nurgle Herald. Table and terrain wise we had two woods and two hills as well as a building. The two woods ended up in a deployment zone of one side of the board with one in each quarter, and the hills ended up in the middle roughly but on each side (left and right). The building ended up in the middle of the other deployment zone. We rolled for sides and I won, so picked the building side. We both deployed centrally and evenly and my flamers decided to move into the building. I got first turn.

Turn 1
I shove my army forwards in an agressive manner and put units on the hills to make Dan think I had the Hill Mission or maybe the wood one because I could enter the woods next turn. Magic wise I try a few spells off but stupidly target his Flesh Hounds with my horrors forgetting he gets Magic Resistance. My LoC is in position to blast away at some horrors near his Plaguebearers but doesn't do anything. I had a feeling his Siren Herald will be moving nearby soon which I'm fine with as I though my LoC stood a good chance if I could get into the Plaguebearers.

Dan starts his move and moves the siren herald in front of his Plaguebearers and then he make the move which probably cost him the game. Instead of moving his Flamers into a wood which would mean he would get his secret mission and they would be an annoyance, he decides he wanted to shoot my Fiend up. Shooting does little as it only causes a wound and magic doesn't do much more.

Turn 2
LoC gets sirened into the siren herald and I declare charges with the Fiend and Chariot into his flamers as well as a unit of flesh hounds into one of his horror units near his Plaguebearers. Magic does little but I cast Flaming Sword on the LoC and promptly butcher the herald and overrun into the Plaguebearers.

Dan charges my horror units with his hounds and moves forwards with the rest of his army. He tries to get Miasma off but I dispell that as well as him scrolling the flaming sword. In combat his PB Champion challenges my LoC. The LoC pulps the champion as Dan forgot about it having flaming attacks but I pass my Instability test

Other Turns
The rest of the game consited of the following:

• The flamers taking pot shots at anything nearby while decorating their new home and being read to leap out to contest or capture quarters
• The LoC and eventually a unit of Flesh Hounds smashing the Plaguebearers. The LoC didn't have it all his own way as he took some wounds during the scrap. Towards the end of the game, Dan gets Miasma off and challenges the LoC (which drops the LoC down to WS1, S1, T1, I1, 1A) and causes 1 wound. The LoC uses it's Flaming Sword and causes 2 Hits and 2 Wounds (double sixes!) and the Nurgle Herald dies.
• A unit of Flesh Hounds and seekers, spend the game playing kiss chase until the LoC comes over and blasts them with a Conflag of Doom!
• My Chariot Herald gets into combat with the Khorne BSB and Flesh Hounds, challenges the Herald but fluffs it and gets butchered. The Chariot does it's job and kills some hounds with impact hits dropping the unit under US5

And the game ends. I find out Dan had the capture a wood mission which he didn't get but I get mine for killing his Plaguebearers. I had also got his two quarters and one of mine giving me a total of 1100 to 0. I could tell Dan was a little bit gutted but it was a good game and I think he has a nice army which should hopefully do well for him at the Heat. I enjoyed the game a lot as well. 

Daemonic Civil War!

Tuesday I wandered down the Dudley Darklords club after arranging a game against Luke, who is one of the local guys who plays there regularly. I took a scaled down version of my Warrington List, while Luke took a slightly modified version of the Heat One winning list (which you can read all about HERE and I do recomend it as it's done by everybodies favourite Warhammer Playing Austrailian, Bobo!). Now I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to win the game but I wasn't expecting the white washing I got!

The problems Luke's list presented were a Siren Song Herald being backed up by a Bloodthirster, The Masque, and a Khorne BSB Herald on a Jugger with the -2 Ld Banner. This basicly means that Luke can control the game by using Siren Song to pull in units which end up getting drawn into combat with the Bloodthirster, smashed to bits and then having to take a break test with an extra -3 to -5 to the test! Nasty enough, but chuck in my inability to roll dice (apart from Magic like getting Irresistible Force twice!) and it's no wonder that I lost.

My Dead Pile

My Expression after the game

Although there is lots of things I can try and blame, I think quite simply not knowing how to deal with the Characters in this list lost me the game. I think next time I should be more aggressive as Luke did seem a little unsure how to deal with my Character set up and I need to take out The Masque and BSB as soon as possible.

On another un-wargaming note, I gave Blood on Tuesday. Please visit http://www.blood.co.uk to find out where you can give a donation. Also remember it's generaly a pain free process, helps somebody who needs it, plus you get some biscuts at the end!

 

The Vow - Picking the Weapon

Feeling a lot better but still bunged up and still got loads of work floating around. Anyway, I've had a semi productive week. Firstly, I went up to Maelstrom Games on Monday with my mate Chris, as I wanted some toys and Chris has never seen the place. We both enjoyed it and we also took our WFB armies with us to play a game on the lovely tables in the shop. We both took our 2250 lists, with me using my Warrington Daemons and Chris using a Dwarf list. We decided to have a go at one of the GW GT Scenarios ending up picking Dawn Attack (the random deployment one). Chris gets fairly good rolls for his units and ends up with a deployment he wants while my army ends up a bit scattered, and Chris gets even luckier and wins the first turn which he takes. Expecting things to get down the drain, I brace myself for a round of plummeting war machine shots (Chris had two grudge throwers) and some how I get through the turn with a loss of three flesh hounds. Then Chris decides to use his Anvil and it promptly blows up and pretty much gives me the game. I then proceed to table Chris apart from one lone Dwarf model. It was a good game and I was happy I won, but we both agreed that never of us really learnt anything.


Anyway this Vow thingie. After deciding that I wanted to get a trophy, I needed to pick an army to use. Firstly I looked at Lizardmen but I found the list a bit samey and dull. Next I looked at VC and very nearly started an army of them because I found them interesting and different. But after some chats with Chris and giving into my temptations I'm going to go with Dark Elves. The main reasons for picking Dark Elves are:

• It's a very good army book with lots of options
• The models are nice
• The book is so good it will help me get up to the higher tables where I can play better players than me and learn new tricks

So yes it's a little bit of bandwagon jumping but I think it will help me so much over the coming year to succeed in my vow, as well as me learning a lot and improving to become a better player.

Work and Flu :(

There is going to be a sligh delay in my update about The Vow, mainly because I have flu like symptoms, don't feel too good, and a bit snowed under with work.

Plus note is that the Screaming Bell / Plague Funace is up for advanced order on the GW Site!

The Vow

Sounds rather dramatic but it's a bit of harmless fun, I promise. Okay a bit of background first. The Vow stems from two topics of thought from last week.

Thought One comes from when me and my Wife were watching the Pride of Britain awards last week and she was taking the mickey out of me for only having one award (Sportsmanship trophy from the WPS Club Challenge a couple of years ago) and lots of people being able to beat me at Wargaming (the subject of my Nan pops up when she played me once when I was 11 at 40k and she beat me).

Thought Two comes from me and a few mates preparing ourselves for the Sheffield Slaughter in Jan next year. Me and Chris are well up for this event as it looks a load of fun and both me and Chris want to attend more events next year and we would like our other mate, Stevyn to come. Now Stevyn has been going on for a bit now saying how he doesn’t understand why people take lots of skirmishers, shooting and big beasties, when they should be taking blocks of infantry. So we ask if he would like to go to the Sheffield Slaughter with us, where the rules have been designed to encourage lots of infantry blocks and limit shooting and big beasties. At the moment, Stevyn has decided not to come to Sheffield because he doesn’t like the rules and he doesn’t think that he would have his Dark Elves finished in time.


So by putting these ‘thoughts’ together I have come up with my fun project for the next year or so. The Vow is basically going to be me, doing my best to get at least one Trophy next year as well as painting a brand new army in time for Sheffield. I want a trophy because I want to raise my game in WFB and a new army because I want to be able to taunt Stevyn (in a fun way), that I finished two armies before he has even done his Dark Elves (considering he also has more free time than me!). So….

“I Vow to have a Trophy from a Warhammer Tournament by the end of 2010”

I’ll whack an update later on this week about the army I’ve chosen and why. See you soon!

More Rats of Doom!

On Thursday I got to see the new Skaven Plastics up close and personal and I can say that they are very nice. The Clan Rats are now one piece apart from right arms (for hand weapons or spears) and shields, so from a modeling point of view Skaven players have lost some flexibilty for assembling but gained a unit which is quite easy to assemble. The Doomwheel is a multi part plastic kit which looks very nice and has lots of conversion possiblities.

It also looks like I'm going to be doing Skaven because I quite like the models and my wife has been egging me on saying I should get them (it's true!). She's even brought me a box of Plague Monks to get me started (which may be renforced with some mates later today as I have to go past my local shop!).

On another note, pictures and rumours about the book has started popping up on the net. I haven't been paying the rumours too much attention as I want to enjoy reading the book when it pops out, but it looks like nobody is really crying about them being too hard or too soft yet. Picture wise, the Screaming Bell and Plague Furnace have popped up on the net. Thanks to nhohn from The Warhammer Forum (in this thread) has posted the following pictures....

The Plague Furnace

The Screaming Bell

So the Skaven book doesn't sound like it'll be in the same League as Dark Elves, Daemons of Chaos, Vampire Counts, and Lizardmen (I count them up with the big three), but it does sound like a fun book.

SKAVEN!!!

Nothing but a chitter for months that Skaven were being released and then GW release a horde of Vermintide by adding the New Skaven Releases for Advance Order!

As you can see from the lovely new model for Queek above (as well as the rest of the stuff on the GW site), they look fantastic and I'm really happy I waited for the new models as I've wanted an army of Skaven for a while now. Only downside is I would like to use them for some events I've got planned for the next few months, so I think it's unlikely that I'll be able to assemble an army of them on time (without resorting to Dip). It's safe to say that I'll be having the new army book when it comes out as well as asking for a few boxes for Christmas if I'm good.

Howling Wolves and Squats

I think this blog needs a bit of 40K love as I've been harping on a lot about WFB recently. Codex Space Wolves hits the stores tomorrow, along with some new metal character models and plastic kits to let you assemble an army of giant howling armoured barbarians with guns. I saw some of the plastics a few weeks ago in the flesh and they are very nice. I should be picking up a copy of the codex tomorrow as it gets me up early to avoid the rush at the local shopping centre, and I can mow the grass for hopefully the last time this year! I should put a review up in a few days minus the grass cutting. If you need to know what's coming out, check out this page on the GW site.

On a more important note, who remembers the Squats? Because if you do, you might be interested in getting this tongue in cheek model...


I personally love it. The only way you can get one is with a White Dwarf Subscription but more details will be available in November.

Battle Diary - Daemons of Poo!

I've just finished my game I had scheduled tonight against Chris and I thought I would keep a semi-regular Battle Diary thing. Partially because it's a nice entry and partially because I'm not quite ready for bed at the moment!

One of my main weaknesses is that I just don't play enough games and I'm not the sort of person who sits down and picks things up naturally for wargames (although strangely I can do this with computers which is great for work). So a pre new years resolution is to game more. Tonight I decided to try some different units out to see what they can do, as well as just playing some warhammer. The list I took is as follows..

Bloodthirster with 3+ Save, +1S and Flaming Attack with re-roll hits
Tzeentch Herald with Flames and Chariot
Tzeentch Herald with Flames and Chariot
Nurgle Herald
17 Plaguebearers with full command and standard of re-rolling wounds
13 Horrors
13 Horrors
5 Furies
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flamers
1 Fiend

Chris took roughly the following...

Runelord on Anvil with funky runes (dispel scroll and something which adds +2 to dispel)
BSB with Runic Standard of +1 to dispel
Dragon Slayer
10 Thunderers
10 Thunderers
10 Longbeards
10 Warriors
Grudgethrower with Flaming hits
2 Bolt Throwers
Slayers (can't remember how many but 12ish)
Miners
Organ Gun
Gyrocopter

Now I'm not going to go into a turn by turn report but I will highlight some things and my thoughts. Firstly the terrain scattered in such a way (we used the WPS Terrain rules) that one half the board length ways had all the terrain (lots of buildings), while the other half had a hill and swamp. Chris won the roll to pick sides and chose the side with buildings to deny me all the cover. We rolled for who got first turn and I chose to go first.

My basic plan was to shove the Bloodthirster down a flank with lots of cover while the other fast stuff went down the other and they would meet in the middle. So my Thirster goes RRAAAWWWGGHHH! and hurtles down the flank and ends up chasing a Gyrocopter off the board. Turns later he comes back on and is placed in a position to start smashing stuff but expecting to take a couple of wounds from shooting. All the Dwarfen war machines cause a wound but the Thunderers manage to kill him thanks to a Flurry of sixes for Chris and a Flurry of ones for me!

On the other side of the board my fast attack force fares a little better but is all killed. The Fiend is killed by a Bolter and Thunderers, and the Chariots attempt to shoot up some stuff with magic and flames only to be handbaged by a counter charged by Anviled Warriors and later the miners once Chris remembered he had them. The Flesh Hounds end up in the Slayers guarding the Anvil and die eventually due to a long 7 round combat. The rest of my army is picked off by shooting and Anvil counter charges and Chris gets a Massacre!

Lessons Learned are....

• Daemons do not equal an instant win!
• I'm starting to think more about my turn and what I want to do rather than randomly doing stuff.

I still need to play more but I do feel I'm doing better than what I would be as I'm looking more at what I'm doing. I just need to learn how to look a couple of turns ahead and I might start winning games. My army needs to be tweaked as I felt it didn't have much synergy, but Dwarfs are a bit oddball to play because they can deflate the magic phase as well as having a strong shooting phase. I'm going to try and play Stevyn next and his Dark Elves or maybe go to the local club and get a game!

Heelanhammer Shoutout

I'm just off to play a game of WFB in a bit with my Chaos Daemons against Chris's Dwarfs (I'm going to give the Bloodthirster a go in some proxy action!), I thought I would give a quick shoutout to Heelanhammer.

Like Podhammer and Bad Dice, Heelanhammer is a Warhammer Fantasy Podcast but in my own humble opinion it beats both with a big beat stick. Dan and Wayne are easy to listen to on the ears and while they can ramble on about off topic stuff, it still keeps on track by being about the hobby. Also slap on a big dollop of hobby related stuff (they give advice about how to paint good) and it's a really good podcast. So if you like WFB podcasts, download Heelanhammer and give it a listen.

Also for those folks who haven't been to the GW site for a while, it's worth visiting to have a look at the Astronomican. Basically the Astronomican is a kind of blog site where the guys at GW put up info about any new articles added to the site, as well as pictures about new models coming out or really cool pictures taken of things people have sent in.

Games Day - What Happened!?!

UK Games Day. Probably one of the biggest gaming events in the UK and maybe the world, as it's when GW puts on a nice show, showing off all the new toys we can expect to see over the next 18 months. Unfortunately it wasn't. I didn't go but I was really, really close to caving in and trying to wangle out of helping my wife at her shop to go to Games Day. I'm glad I didn't.

A lot of people have come away feeling really disappointed by how tight lipped GW have become over anything new coming out. You can find a nice topic about it on Warseer but here's a nice summary....

1 ) There were some showcase models for the new plastic Seekers of Slaanesh and the Chaos Daemon Prince in a red resin, but they were taken off display quite quickly!

2 ) The Tyranid Codex is being redone for Jan 2010. It was only confirmed by the following picture!


And that's it (apart from Forgeworld stuff)! No Space Wolf codexes were on sale (but the plastics were) and not a hide or hair of the new Skaven! I feel really sorry for those folks who paid £30 wanting to see lots of new cool things. I think GW have dropped the ball with this as a lot of people will get quite disgruntled by it as well as it will put a lot of people off going next year!

Anyway, I need to now decide if I want to start a new WFB army so I have something nicely painted, or start assembling Nids in readiness for the new codex!

Oh, and before I forget, you might want to check this site out if you've ever wonder if GW should make a film......

Warlord GT Roundup

Well it's been almost a week since the Warlord GT and I suppose I should let people know how I got on. Firstly it was a really good weekend and even with my lack of games before the event and the driving both days (the M6 was a nightmare on the way back on Sunday), it was still a really good event. Me and Chris are definitely coming again next time. There were a couple of downsides though.

Firstly the communications were a bit pants as things weren't that clear in the rulespack to what happened on the day (for example because me and Chris had a grudge we didn't need to bring any terrain which wasn't explained until Chris spoke to the organisers a couple of days before the event). Secondly the soft scores (Sportsmanship and Painting) caused a few problems. Sportsmanship because it wasn't clear how to score people (it varied differently through the event with people giving great games for every game rather than just one great game) and painting because if you got nominated you got 1000 tournament points. My Daemons got nominated and a few people were a bit peed off why a basic dip job got nominated over their nicely painted army. I think it got nominated because the Judges liked some of the conversions and how it looked overall, but personally I wouldn't have picked it and I can understand why some people were annoyed. We shall say no more apart from that I was dead happy to be nominated!

Gamingwise I came in at 87th out 122 people which was alright and I even managed to win a game! I would like to say thanks to all of my opponents if they read this, that I had five good games and enjoyed them all. I do have to say my best game all weekend was against Wayne Kemp who is the co-host on Heelanhammer and our game gets a bit of a mention in Episode 15 as well as a general review of the event.

I still don't know where my camera is but here's a couple of pictures of my army from the event...

You can also find lots more pictures here of the other armies and players.

Good event and even with the minor niggles and some of the whinging about soft scores, it's worth going to. You're going to start seeing me at a lot more events now as I really enjoyed myself!

Warrington / Warlords GT Pre Ramble - Extra!!!!!

Ooh! Just a quick one folks but the Ben's from Bad Dice have some coverage going on over the weekend!

Twitter - Www.twitter.com/baddice_podcast

Flickr - Www.baddice.co.uk/gallery

Warrington / Warlords GT Pre Ramble

It's T minus something hours before the Warrington Tournament (basically it's tomorrow) and it's quickly become one of the most anticipated events this year (I think only the South Coast GT comes close or beats it). There's around 120 odd players ranging from some of the best players in the country to chumps like myself. Apart from printing a couple of things off, I'm pretty much ready to go.

So prediction time. I won't predict who I think will win it as the Bad Dice boys have a quick summary in their latest podcast, and to be honest I can't really say where I'll expect to come apart from in the lower end closer to 100. I can say my expectations though. Besides having fun and being tired I would like to win at least one game and come higher than my mate Chris in the event.

And that's it from me, apart from a quick shout out to Heelanhammer which is a podcast by Dan Heelan and Wayne Kemp. It's a bit tournament focused but it's also very hobby focused and is well worth a listen to!

DoC Update 4 - Dirty, Dirty Dip

As I type this, I currently have a massive grin on my face, because my army of Daemons is now finished. It's not nicely painted but it has three colours and the overall army scheme looks nice (Pink and Purple). So what happened? Well on Saturday I had gotten to the stage where I was just going to ink wash and then drybrush everything and I remembered I had a tin of Army Painter Dark Tone. I sat there looking at the tin, thinking that it would be too dark for Pink and Purple, but a little voice said do it! So with me loosing hope because of other things going on I tried a horror out and it looked alright. Then a horror unit was done, and then another and another until the army was finished. And while I'm not over the moon with how well I painted it, it looks rather nice. I popped round my friend Stevyn's house the other day to borrow some terrain for the Warlords GT and he quite liked the overall look.

I originally brought the Army Painter dip to try out but got put off the idea due to more vocal members of the online community slagging it off (because it's not proper painting). After using it, I agree it's not proper painting but as a product which lets people get a painted army on the table which doesn't look too bad, it's a fantastic product! Plus as well it varnishes your models as long as you don't mind a glossy finish (but you can use dullcote or a matt varnish to dull it down). So if you have a load of unpainted models and want to get them painted quickly to game with, visit The Army Painter for general ideas on how to use it. It's not rocket science, as it's paint your base coat on using slightly brighter colours than you want and then apply the Army Painter (using a brush for best effect). You can get it from Maelstrom Games if you are interested.

I'm pretty much gearing myself up now for Warrington but I'll wack my thoughts into a post before I got. See you soon folks!

Space Wolves + GW Tool Kit = Nice!

Just a quick wander away from Daemons as I'm waiting for things to dry but I popped down to my local GW store as I needed to pick up some movement trays and I needed to a new Hobby Knife (my old one broke and nearly ended up in my head).


So I pick up the trays and I notice the GW tool kit up on the shelf. If you don't know what's in the kit, you basicly get a Hobby Vice, a pair of Plastic Cutters, a Razor Saw, a Sculpting Tool, some Modelling Files, a Hobby Drill, a Hobby Knife, 2 Bitz tubs, spare blades and drill bits, as well as coming in a hard case (the 108 figure GW cases). I needed a new drill as well, so I quicky added up how much everything would cost seperately and it seemed like a nice bargin. Seperately it would have been around £90ish but it was £60, so a good deal to me. I know people bash GW but their tools are very nice and having a case to keep them althogther makes this a nice kit.

I've also managed to have a nice look through the new Space Wolves Codex. I won't say that I've read it because I want to do that when it comes out, but having a good look through I can say this looks like it will be a great codex. It's written by Phil Kelly and has loads of background and lots of cool rules to keep the army in character like not taking the same equipment layout on characters or a Lone Wolf unit who needs to die in the game otherwise your opponent gets Kill Points. I want to do an army of these guys but I have been bitten by the WFB bug at the moment, so it could be a while before I do anything with these.

DoC Update 3 - Dark Elves are tough!

Okay, a few days later and I have my army all assembled and I'm not superglued to anything (although it was hit and miss with the Lord of Change!). I'm slightly disappointed with myself that I'm not at that painting stage just yet but real life butted in so I'm about half a day to a day behind.

I've got some conversions and price cutting stuff in my list and I do promise pictures soon but I have no idea where the camera is. Anyway, what funky stuff do I have? Well for a start I'm quite chuffed now with my Slaaneshi Chariots. Originally they were made out of Wood Elf horses and the base of a tomb king chariot and basicly looked like proxies (and my mate Chris agreed). I've just done some minor conversion work using some clippers, green stuff and some Tyranid Devourer guns and they look much better. I snipped the WE horse heads off and replaced with the Nid guns and then greenstuffed some 'fur' around to blend it into the model. Looks nice.

Next conversion is my Herald on a Steed which is basically a centaur mish mash of a WE Horse, Bloodletter body and Daemonette head. It's not brilliant but does the job. I've also minor converted the Fiend using Nid parts on the arms, but this was mainly because I was getting annoyed trying to rush and assemble it. The plastic arms made it much easier than pinning the proper bits on. Also, my furies are Nid Spore Mines and my Flesh Hounds are bog standard Chaos Warhounds. I would like to do some more conversion work but too be honest I can't be bothered now and just want to get them painted!

I also managed to get a couple of games in against my mates Steve and Chris. Steve wasn't going to Warrington but had brought a Dark Elf tournament style list (Dragon and lots of shooting) and Chris was going with me and wanted to test his Dwarf list out. It was also good as neither of us had really played in ages! So my first game was against Steve and them Dark Elves are tough! Basicly I deployed like a numpty, chose the wrong lore of magic (picked Beasts rather than Fire as he had a regen lord and Hydra), and forgot half the rules of the game. Steve was a bit cautious at the start due to never playing Daemons but soon got stuck in and took advantage of me. We both didn't play as well as we should of but it was a fun game, even if I lost!

Next I played Chris and his Dwarfs and he had a fairly standardish list (i.e a Anvil but too be honest Dwarfs need them to be competitive). I played a lot better in this game and had my Lord of Change rolling up his flank and taking his army apart but in the end he also managed to beat me with a Minor Victory. Both our armies were pretty hammered in the end but Chris managed to take out my Lord of Change and take a few units down to under half strength to stop me contesting table quarters.

So a rather lengthy post but all in all it's been fun the last couple of days, apart from the frustration of trying to assemble stuff quickly. I've got tomorrow to try and get the bulk of stuff painted, and I'll be honest it's going to be drybrushing and washes to the rescue. Anyway must dash as I've got stuff to paint!

DoC Update 2 - 09/09/09

It's been a while since my last update but quite simply I have been distracted to really do anything Daemonic painting wise. I've been distracted by work, distracted by spending time with my wife, and of course distracted by Space Hulk (it's Ace!). So here I am having a few days off to get things done and having worked in IT for over 10 years I know it's best not to panic in situations where things aren't going to plan.

So I've had a couple of days off work to get things assembled and painted. I've pretty much got all the components for my army apart from a Lord of Change (which I think will appear today depending on the postman), and my general plan is to post updates as I work my way through it (assuming I can find the camera my wife has borrowed). To wet your tastebuds, here's a semi-secret copy of the list (no magic items I'm afraid) so you can see what I'm rushing about over....

Characters
Lord of Change
Herald of Slaanesh on a Chariot
Herald of Slaanesh on a Chariot
Herald of Slaanesh riding a Steed

Core
13 Daemonettes of Slaanesh with Champion and Standard Bearer
10 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch
10 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch
5 Chaos Furies
5 Chaos Furies

Special
5 Flesh Hounds of Khorne
5 Flesh Hounds of Khorne

Rare
5 Flamers of Tzeentch
1 Fiend of Slaanesh

DoC Update 1 - Why does it always rain on me?

We've had some pretty horrible weather today, with it being rather nice this morning and then being treated to rain, rain and more rain this afternoon. And I think the weather sums up how things are going so far for me today. We had a big issue at work this morning, which took up a lot of my time. I've also been to the local GW only to find out the bits and bobs I was after weren't in stock (tournament season you see and Daemons are popular for some reason), and I'm currently sitting at my desk at work because I've been called out! So all in all not a good start!

Plus points are, I've ordered the bits I'm after and I can make a start on some things at home. I've decided to do some general conversions for my army, partially as a cost cutting exercise and partially because the conversions should look cool. Conversions are....

1 ) Horrors - These are going to be what is quickly becoming the classic conversion for them; plastic Ghouls minus their heads. The neck will be painted into an eye and it should give them a more 'horror' appearance. I'm also debating wherever to have them armless as it's less work for me and I think it'll make them a bit more Daemonic!

2 ) Furies - In my army these will be represented by Tyranid Spore Mines (40k range folks), as the models look quite tentacle like and sort of fit in with the horror theme.

3 ) Flesh Hounds - I'm currently humming and arrhing about these as I'm thinking about using Chaos Warhounds although part of me does like the idea of Tau Kroot Hounds or Dark Eldar Warp Beasts.

As for the colour scheme, I'm thinking Pink and Purple as it's a nice bright colour scheme, looks alieny/daemonic, and it's a bit different!

Anyway must go and finish fixing things! Catch you soon.

Just a Quickie....

It's almost the end of the Bank Holiday as well as August, and before I turn my mind to Daemonic Ponderings I just want to mention a couple of things....

Firstly, this months (Sept) White Dwarf is pretty damn good. Loads of content for 40K and WFB players (not a lot for LotR players though), with some good coverage of Space Hulk. In fact the coverage is so good, it doesn't do the usual "buy, Buy, BUY!" sort of sales articles we expect but a nice overall article and a Mission Report. It's also good from a WFB point of view as you have the two Ben's from Bad Dice doing a battle report in it as well. The Battle Report is informative and layed out in a nice way, as well as being a good read.

Secondly, if you own a Xbox 360 or PS3, GET a copy of Batman : Arkham Aslyum. It has to be the best game I have ever played on a console and in the few hours I have managed so far, it has become my favourite computer game of all time. It's not just a beat 'em up, it's a proper "You are Batman" style game as you have to solve puzzles, pick goons off one by one using traps, and of course pummelling them to nothing! I know it's not very Wargaming or Dice related, but I'm so impressed by this game I need to mention it!

Anyway, Operation : Daemon Army will begin soon, but more on that next post!

A Whole Lot of Nothing and Stuff and More Stuff

A Whole Lot of Nothing

Over the last few weeks I've done not a lot of little men wargaming mainly due to real life. Work has been a nice kick in the teeth as I've been having loads of fun juggling things due to people being on holiday and training courses and for some reason I seem to be doing all the Standby Cover (this is where I can get called out at anytime to fix things). Not that I mind as I do like work (apart from when things get bogged down in paperwork or politics but too be honest that is any office IT job) but it is a bit frustrating when you would like to be doing stuff with your toys! Another real life kick has been helping my wife out with her florist shop, as I'm the delivery boy and general helper with things. Again, not that I mind as I love my wife to bits and like helping her out.

So while I'm distracted by things I'm getting nothing done for this Daemon Army I need to get finished for the Warrington GT. The good thing is that my list has been accepted and viewed as not over the top. The bad thing is that I have little painted at the moment!!! My cunning plan in all situations like this is to have a couple of days off work and blast the army out. It may not be as nicely painted as I would have liked it to be but it'll be painted. I think it'll also turn into my generic WFB tourney army for random events and things.

And Stuff

Okay the stuff bit of this post. While being up till three o'clock in the morning fault diagnosing a P-Class Blade (a old server designed to limit space in a computer room but are a pain in the bottom to fault diagnose! The new C-Classes are much nicer), you do get time to try and look to the future for other projects and stuff. My current plans are to basically start playing more 40k (Space Wolves) and look at the Skaven Range when it gets released for WFB. So with this plan in my head I'm planning on the following....

I ) Collect a Space Wolf Army - I've always wanted one and the new models look nice
II ) Go to more 40K events - I like playing in events and 40k ones are normally a lot of fun!
III ) Collect a Skaven Army if I like the look of the new book and range

Some people may think it's a bit silly to be thinking about new toys when I'm struggling to paint the ones I have at the moment (Daemons), but I think you need to have something as an incentive to push you on (a bit like eat that cabbage and you can have Cheesecake for pudding!).

And More Stuff

So it's less than a week for Space Hulk now which I'm eagerly waiting on. Plan is to get everything painted up, convert up some Wolf Guard for some Space Wolf action (when the new models come out of course) and have lots of fun with it. The new White Dwarf looks a good one as well with some nice Space Hulk Coverage in it and I think is worth picking up a copy.

So after a rather long ramble of not a lot, I must dash now as my wife is calling me for another delivery to be delivered.

SPACE HULK!!!

Well it looks like the Mystery Box was Space Hulk in the end. And I have ordered a copy because it looks so good!

For those of you who haven't been in the hobby long, Space Hulk was a game developed by GW back in the 90's and basicly is about Space Marine Terminators battling against Genestealers on abandoned Spaceships known as Hulks. The Space Marines would board the Hulks looking for Technology or other valuable wonders, and one of the common creatures encounted of a Hulk are Genestealers.




As you can see you get a fair bit of kit in the box for the hefty £60 price tag. A lot of people may bawlk at the price considering what you get in it, but for an 'veteran' gamer it's a nice reminder of gentler times when I was a youngling. I'm already getting ideas about building up custom board pieces and rules to allow for variants involving Orks and Chaos Marines.

Anyway, Order now if you want a copy as it is a limited edition run!

Mystery Box and Batman!

Mystery Box???


There were some little rumblings that the Mystery Box would be reveled today at the German Games Day. Unfortunately not a lot was shown about it but a lot of staff were wearing T-shirts with a Terminator Helmet on it (the old one GW had made years ago which had a camera in a Storm Bolter linked up to an eye piece in the helmet) and some flyers showing the same as well as a Genestealer Skull. This and some of the other 'leaked' stuff seems to almost confirm that this is Space Hulk but there is a news letter from GW going out tonight about it. If you want what ever is in the box set though, it's available to pre-order via mail order tomorrow from 08:00.

Batman - Arkham Asylum

Okay it's not GW, Privateer Press or wargame related, but I've downloaded the demo for Batman - Arkham Asylum today and it's pretty damn impressive! I've pre-ordered a copy and hopefully it's not going to distract me too much (even with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their roles from the animated series!!). I just thought I had to mention it as it's a pretty impressive demo!

The ETC, The Ashes and a Whole Lot of Panic!!!

The ETC and The Ashes

The ETC has been and gone and it sounded like it was a good event from all the chat from the forums. The event was won by the Italians. Being English, I'm more interested in how England did and we came 14th. Not a bad result but slightly disapointing. The Austrailians on the other hand did a lot better and came 11th which is really good considering this was their first ETC and all their prep work seems to have paid off! Okay the Aussies did better than us in the ETC but we gave them a kicking and won the first WFB Ashes! Well done to both teams (especially England!). 40k wise, England did 'better' by coming 10th but there was only 16 teams while in the WFB event there was 24!

Whole Lot of Panic!!!

Most people who know me, know I have an attention span of a goldfish when it comes to toy models, as I always want the next shiney thing. Also real life seems to butt in a lot, making me even more distracted. So I'm now about 4 weeks away from the Warrington event and I have nothing to show for it. On the other hand me and my wife have been away for our wedding aniversary and my wife has a nice Steiff Bear (very expensive teddy bears). So after a week of relaxing in the Cotswolds, I'm ready to panic and paint like a furious whirlwind of mayhem. I do have a cunning plan which you will see over the next few weeks......

Maelstrom and the ETC

Over the weekend, Maelstrom Games opened up their new shop and me and my wife decided to pop up for a look. It doesn't look like much when you turn up as they are still in the process of building the gaming hall but the shop is finished and it looks very nice.

Eye of the Storm! - Entrance to the Gaming Hall via what will be the Resturant and Bar


Happy Shoppers

As you can see from these photos I've reposted from a topic about the shop on TWF, it looks very nice. We got a guided tour by Dan the local Press Ganger for Privateer Press, and all I can say is when this place is finished it will be brilliant. If you want to visit the store for a look, go to www.maelstromgames.co.uk

Plus we had a quick demo game of Hordes, where my Wife used the Legion and I used Trolls (both painted very nicely by Dan). Game went as follows....

• I run my Trolls up to give my wife something to do her turn, but I was expecting to take some pain and then give it back.
• My Wife starts playing and Dan trys to put her in situations where she needs to make a decision (roughly 50/50 type choices where it could go either way) rather than just rolling lots of dice. Me and Dan are then amazed by the fact that she rolls pretty well, with her hitting me all of the time bar once, and causing damage pretty much all of the time.

By the end of the game I had lost everything, where I had just managed to kill a Carnivean with Madrak. The amazing thing though was the fact that she enjoyed it and is thinking about playing the game more!


THE ETC

For those people who aren't aware, the ETC kicks off this weekend. The ETC stands for European Team Championship, and basicly people from different countries form teams and play WFB of 40k against each other. It'll soon turn into the WTC as the Australians have put a team together. The fun thing is that there is a Warhammer Ashes kicking off with Australia vs England for a nice trophy which will contain the ashes of stuff from both teams.


The Warhammer Ashes will be played on Friday and you can read some of the coverage (as well as for the ETC) by following Englands Twitter or Austrailas Twitter. There will also I imagine be coverage on The Warhammer Forum ETC Section (which you can check out for general info and wot not).

Warlords GT Blog - erm... well....

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm weak. Really, really weak. Not as soon as I used the magic system picker to pick the army I want to take to the Warlords event (it's now been retired to picking Lottery Numbers and for deciding what to have for tea tonight), I'm already looking at other armies and thinking how much nicer they look. And I'm now building something completely different. It was probably my subconscious mind, but you may have notice I added a picture of a High Elf Prince riding a Dragon in one of my earlier posts. Yes, that's right folks I'm now collecting High Elves!


You see I was thinking about the different lists you could make with the Warriors of Chaos and I found them all a bit boring too be honest. I'm not too sure if it's the tournament gamer in me trying to escape, but I found myself constantly coming back to the Tzeentch Lord on a Disc for some Gateway fun. While the other choices were interesting, I couldn't see myself using them more than once for this event. So I started thinking about the armies I wanted when I was younger and just started playing Warhammer. These armies are - High Elves, Skaven and Chaos Dwarfs.

I started a Chaos Dwarf army when I first started playing but never managed to collect more than a thousand points and somehow I've lost the models over time. I still read my White Dwarf Presents now, but unfortunately I wouldn't be able to use them. The army isn't one of the ones you can use at the Warlords GT due to it being a unsupported list by GW (no current book or models but rumour does have it that GW are working on them now!!!!). Next up would be Skaven, but with the new book out soon and time scales being a bit tight for painting, I've put them on my to do list. So High Elves it was.

The High Elf list is one I quite like as it's very flexible and I quite like the models and the background. I've also always wanted a army of them. So I'm busily trying to assemble a small 500 point force of them to act as some motivation to get the army finished. Hopefully my next post will include some pictures, once I find out where my Wife has misplaced the camera!

Warlords GT Blog - The Winner is....

As mentioned in my last entry I would be plucking my army for the Warlords GT out of a hat. Well I haven't got a hat to hand so a little plastic container was used and the winner was....

.... wait for it .....

Warriors of Chaos!

With hindsight this is probably an ideal pick as they can have lists of very few models and can be painted quite quickly. A small part of me is still thinking about other things but I'll stick with these guys as this will be the only way I can get started!

On a different note. I have spent most of tonight having 'fun' with our washing machine. I replaced the paddle with ease (cost bloody £20 though!) only to discover when my wife put a wash in, we had water spewing all over the place. I guessed it was a blocked filter but had to spend an hour on the net trying to work out how to get to the filter to empty it (on our washer it's cunningly hidden round the back and behind a sealed panel). I always laugh how something pops up when I want to do something hobby related.

Anyway, Warriors of Chaos it is and I need to get started. Hopefully I can get a chance to get some stuff done by the weekend......

Warlords GT Blog - Indecisive Monkey!

I've decided to start a blog to try and cover my progress with my army for the Warlords GT. Unfortuantly being the scatter brained person I am, I'm having problems deciding on what to use. I think the problem is because I can see so many good ideas to try I can't make my mind up! So I've decided to let Fate and Lady Luck decide for me.

One of my mates has suggested that I pick the army out of a hat and stick with it, so later tonight after I've repaired our Washing Machine due to a faulty paddle in the durm (the joys of being married and having a real life!), I'm going to do this. In the interests of sanity and what is possible, I've only included armies which I feel are possible to paint for September and that I like the models for. So the list is ......

• Vampire Counts
• Dark Elves
• High Elves
• Warriors of Chaos
• Daemons of Chaos
• Empire
• Dwarfs
• Lizardmen

So just over half the available armies and a mixture of playstyles and minatures, it makes a interesting list.

Fantasy Thoughts....

Well it's been a few days since my last post but I've been away celebrating mine and my wife's birthday's so I'll forgive myself. Anyway, this week I have been mostly thinking about Warhammer Fantasy Battle.



I've signed myself up for a tournament in September and I've decided I want to bring something new along. In other words I want some new toys and this is a nice excuse (plus I get to spend some of my birthday money).

The tournament is being run by the Northern Warlords and it's a nice two day event that has managed to attract 120 players! This is quite impressive considering that this is the first event they have run for a few years. The rules can be found here but it can be summed up as any current published book up to 2250 points using the standard pitched battle scenario. There are some army restrictions to try and stop people taking the default choices that a lot of top tournament lists use now (like Empire with two Steam Tanks as for this event a Steam Tanks counts as Two Rare choices).

So the rules looks interesting and not too restrictive and I know a lot of the players aren't going to be WAAC (Win At All Costs), so I'm going to have a fun time (hopefully). Only downside is that I'm not staying overnight but I get to save a bit of cash and stay in the good books with my wife. Only problem is what to take and with 9 weeks until the event I need to pull my finger out! Watch this space......

Rumour Mill

Even though GW seem tighter than a Yorkshireman about their releases for this year, rumours are starting to trickle out. Here's a brief roundup of what people seem to be talking about....

40k - Space Wolves



The Vikings in space are rumoured to be getting a new codex in October and have some new toys. Firstly it's rumoured that they won't be getting Lighting Claws but Wolf Claws which allow them to re-roll to hit or to wound! It's also rumoured that there will be a Special Character called Canis Wolfborn who rides around on a big Cybernetic Wolf! We also see the return of Njal Stormcaller with a new model which is holding a gnarled staff out before him.

The last rumour for them is kind of interesting as it sounds like Space Wolf Characters will be getting something called Sagas which seem to be similar to how Exarch Powers or Vampire Powers where you customise your character to be a big hero (For Example, we could see something a bit like 'Orkslayer' where the Character gets a bonus fighting Orks). Other than that they will be getting the mandatory plastic kits that enable you to customise your Marine Models into Space Wolves in a similar way to the Dark Angel or Black Templar sets.

Disappointingly there is still no news about how Grey Hunters are equipped as I'm hoping that they will be getting a Bolt Pistol, CCW and Bolter in a similar way to Chaos Marines to represent True Grit.

WFB - Skaven



Skaven are rumoured to be out later this year and it looks like the Adepts of Clan Eshin have been able to contain the rumour leaks as there is very little out about them. One rumour which keeps on popping up is the return of the Doomwheel as a plastic kit but that could be wishful thinking. Either way it's a release I'm looking forwards too as I have a soft spot for the evil ratmen.

Other Stuff

Well Planetary Empires is out next month for 40k which is basically a 40k version of Mighty Empires, so expect to see lots of coverage in White Dwarf and how to link it in with Planetstrike.

Fantasy Flight Games have a cool looking board game out soon called Chaos in the Old World which is set in the WFB world. Players basically take on the role of one of the Chaos Gods and have to try and conquer the Old World in their own way (Plagues for Nurgle, War for Khorne, etc).

Finally we have the mystery box which GW are releasing in September. Again they have been very tight lipped about this apart from that it will be a limited release and it's something cool. I'm hoping that it's Space Hulk but nobody is confirming anything!