Thursday 23 June 2011

Can Opener 2011 Review

Hey all.

Last weekend Me and my fellow gaming buddy thought it would be a great idea to catch the 10hr overnight bus from Wellington NZ to Auckland NZ on friday night, play a 1 day tournament, then catch the 10hr overnight bus back THAT night. Though it was for a good cause (and not just warhammer).


The "jist" of the event was a charity drive. Basically at any point during a game you could donate 1 can to re-roll 1 dice. Sounds simple, yet sooooooo game changing. The winner (Vaul from the warhammer forum who does the awesome youtube battle reports) brought along 120 cans for 5 games. Yes you read that correctly. To make matters worse, his army consisted of plague furnace, Abomb and grey seer (+the other unimportant stuff). Gotta love the subtle 13th spell + abomb + plague furnace tactic...especially with re-rolls hahaha. Not bitter at all-I wish I could carry/afford that many cans for a 1 day event haha.

And hey-it was a lolz event. Every one was in a really good mood and just enjoying warhammer and each other's company.


I managed to carry 15 cans,and didnt use them all haha. Dont worry-I donated them all in the end- I was just waaaay to tired to think with that sort of strategy haha

So the games: (I was writing reports like I usually do, and taking photos. [none came out good enough-though I will endevour to edit this post by adding a few of the good ones] Then I ran out of dunkin donuts and the energy levels just plummeted haha).


Game 1: vs High Elves -random deployment.

So this army was really interesting for the points level. lvl3 with silver wand, bsb, block of spears, archers, block of whitelions, lion chariot, eagle, mounted eagle dude, shadow warriors.
The game was a bit of a standoff. He didnt want to get near me-I was trying to get near him once the chaff was dead. I won 11-9, but should have been more as in the last round I got my flagellants into his whitelions + BSB, and didn't allocate attacks onto the squishy bsb...oh well. Fun game, great opponent.

Game 2: vs High elves -BANNERS

2nd game, 2nd HE army, 2nd army with a noble on an eagle haha. The opponent was using the HE army for the first time. In fact, he was the very first person to 20-nil me.  + he has a really cool brets army with cheese labels for banners haha. I was looking forward to this game.  This time it was the BSB with reavorbow, GW, and the charmed shield + mundane...not a bad combo *files away*. This time there were 2 RBT, swordmasters, sea guard, T chariot and 2 eagles + archers. I had a building on the edge of my deployment zone. Instead of being a dick and putting all my points in there, I used it as a lvl4 bunker. Best moment was when my flagellants charged his 12 wide swordmasters...I roll 5 dice...and then IF ASF on them haha. 50 attacks later (re-roll to wound too) = dead swordmasters + very depleted flagellants. They eventually got shot to bits. It took 3 rounds of RBT to kill my pistoliers, who managed to nab the t. chariot in that time. My "points bunker" halberd unit walked over the sea guard and the game ended as I was just short of the archers + lvl4. Didnt get all his banners (grrr), but nabbed a  14-6 win to me. SO our record now stands at 2 massacres to him, 1 major victory to me.


Game 3 s Woodies - deploy army first-most expensive unit worth x2 VPs

So 3rd game, ANOTHER Elvish army, ANOTHER noble on an eagle (I'm seeing an Auckland theme)-this time it was the BSB with the heavy armour/4+ ward. This game was an absolute disaster for me. I deployed first with a massive choke point for him to go through...only for the woodies to steal first turn. 10 wildriders 30 inch move later (vanguard + move) = on my flank ready to pounch. I made a big mistake when when my sisters moved to block his treekin from charging flag-instead gave them overrun into halberds...and the halberds were too far forward. Result = now I understand why everyone hates treekin haha. To make matters worse, the other unit were struggling to kill 10 wildriders. I failed EIGHT RE-ROLLING FEAR TESTS and the wildriders were really good at passing wards...and then to add to the woes-theflagellants, wittled down to 16 from bowfire charged the gladeguard. S&S killed 2, then in CC the glade guard killed 11...the rest then died from martyr. You can't plan that! All odds were on me winning combat by lots and nabbing the Gladeguard and lvl4 sigh. So everything died. 20-nilled
I'm not going to blame the cans-even though opponent used a few at key moments-heck he felt so bad he let me use one of his for a mortar misfire re-roll haha. Fun game, absolute disaster, and vs one of my fav opponents to play against.

Game 4 Ogres-battleline-general worth x2 VP's

So this game looked like an easy win. MMU ogres. 1000000000000 gnoblars in a unit, gnoblar trappers, butcher, stubborn tryrant, bsb, unit of 8 bulls, unit of 7 Iron guts, 3 lead belchers.
HOWEVER, I had run out of sugar, and it was showing. Flaggellants charged the bulls-went out of buff range....when letting them charge me = no big deal. The bulls pulled the flag apart-esp when I forgot to dispel the +1 T/stubborn with a 12 dice Magic phase (with the flag out of range as well for the buffs....). Iron guts engaged the general/bsb's halberds. I easily killed the ironguts, but the tyrant sat around WINNING COMBAT allowing the millions of gnoblars to flank me -taking out the unit.

Big mistakes all round...but I wanted to go to sleep haha. Though that doesn't take away anything from the victory. He was a great guy to play and I really want a re-match with a focused and awake me haha


Game 5- king of the hill vs Chaos Dwarfs

So the 2 massive losses sees me vs the TO. His army was designed to be 20-nilled. No magic, no shooting, no BSB. 2 units of GW dwarfs (one with 3 characters in front rank), 4 iron goems, 10 sneaky gits, 5 wolf dudes, 2 units of spear gobbos. Easy huh?

Well until you ge the hill and plonk your flagellants on them in a daze...and they get wiped out on the charge by EVERYTHING. THen the Iron golems pull apart 1 halberd unit, while the dwards pull apart the other. Disaster 101-but once again-I was ready to go to sleep. I felt bad as I wanted to be more engaged and "tactical", but the lack of sleep showed otherwise.

Oh well. So I won an award though-The wooden spoon award haha. Me and my mate also won the respect of the Auckland gaming community + established a gaming relationship I want to maintain as they were a great bunch of people to play with. NEXT time though I fly and SLEEP the night before haha.

Saturday 11 June 2011

First 40K in AGES 750 Blood Angels vs Orks

So, back to the 40k for my first game is a very, very long time. We went for a small game to give us time to re-hash the rules without interrupting the flow of the game.

I took:
Big Mek: Kustom Force Field
9 Lootas
30 Boyz: Nob with Powerklaw and 2 Big Shootas
11 Grotz
12 Trukkboyz: Nob with Powerklaw
Trukk with ram
3 Killakans with Big Shootas

So a list that does a bit of everything. Only issue would be Landraider...

The Blood Angel list:
Librarian: Preferred enemy power and s10 power
Apocothary
5 Assault Marines: hand flamer and flamer
Razorback: searchlights and Twinlinked Assault Cannons
9 Assault Marines; Sergant with Powerfist, Flamer
Landraider Crusader (one with Hurricane bolters) TL assault cannon, Multimelta.

So basically the Blood Angel list is 2 tanks haha. The Mission we played was "late orders", so didnt roll for mission until turn 4 to keep it interesting.
We deployed using the 12 inch deployment zone along the board edge.
So the razorback is out of sight (I deployed first). I kept the trukk boyz and grotz in reserve for late game rush for any potential objectives.

Turn 1:
So the Blood Angels went first. The razorback rushed to more cover to get away from the lootas. The Landraider just moved up, knowing it cant be touched.
Nothing shot as everything out of range.

So the Orks get down to business, by moving to try get a shot at the razorback.
The Kans shoot, hit 4 times, 1 glancing, which gets saved from the hard cover (we couldnt remember the order that goes in, so did the saves after the rolls to penetrate).

Turn 2:
So the Razorback continues its massive flanking operation and drives into the middle of no-where. Apparently my opponent wanted it away from lootas and over the other side of board if an objective appeared. The Landraider continues it's relentless drive up the middle towards the hordes. In the shooting phase, the KFF earned its points when it stopped a multimelta shot at the kans. The hurricane bolters opened up at the lootas who 4+cover saved FTW. They were not so lucky vs the assault cannon, which killed 2 lootas.
Please note the cool GW starter set measuring sticks. I thought that since we were effectively re-learning how to play, it would be fun to use them....DONT.

The Ork turn starts with the Trukk boyz entering the battle to have some fun. I rock them on up against a wall to get some cover saves from the razorback assault cannon.  I remembered that you can run in the shooting phase, so my Kans ran 4, and my shootas ran 1 inch haha-no point pretending my guns could touch the land raider.
Turn 3:
The Razorback continues to be boring-moves back to get a shot on the trukk. The landraider however, makes a tacical blunder, and gets stuck between a wall and a tank trap-perfect place to unload troops, but can only reverse out...
So down to shooting, the land raider lights up the lootas-killing 4. The lootas, however, hold strong and pass their panic test. The Razorback then lets lose at the Trukk boyz. 4 hits = 1 glance and 1 penetration. A 6 rolled on the trukk explosion table = boyz fall out and the trukk becomes an interesting terrain feature...no rampaging forward into the razorback then :(

SO, the Orks, out of things to do, all run at the landraider. The grots still decide it is better to hide off the field of battle.
Since the landraider moved 12 inches, I was hitting on 6's. My Powerklaws hit once, nothing, the kans did a repeat job. Good news was that the landraider could not tank shock itself out of the situation haha.

Turn 4:
turn 4 = roll for mission...and we got KILL POINTS. Everyone's favourite mission. bad news was I was 1 point down, good news was that I had 4 points in my sights...

THE ASSAULT MARINES GET OUT OF THE RAZORBACK!!!! The Razorback rocks up towards the orks to get some shots off at stuff. It was all for nothing however, as 4 wounds = 4 cover saves haha. The landraider has more luck killing 4. The multimelta gunner was obviously a little shaken by the hordes of Orks and missed the kanz.
In the Ork phase, the grotz finally waltz onto the battlefield into a corner to hide from the scary marines. The remaining 2 lootas Finally have a target to shoot, roll 3 shots each and promptly immobilise the Razorback. In the combat with the landraider 5 penetrating hits = a roll of 2, 4, 4, 5, 6...and I wish I didnt roll the 6 haha. With a 5 as top = everything dead inside as nowhere to deploy. As it was though, the marines stumbled out unharmed. My consolidation rolls were not good enough to avoid the multicharge...A 40k fluff worthy ending was in sight...

Turn 5:
Well not much to say really. To start with the immobolised razorback fires at the lootas, killing the stubborn final 2. 
The assault marines from the razorback moved across towards the slaughter. The Landraider marines opened up on the shoota boyz. The flamer kills 5 and the KFF means that only 1 ork died from the bolt pistols (stupid more Orks being in sight that not= no 4+ cover save). The assault marines then combo charge the trukk and shoota boyz. The Librarian does the preferred enemy power, and promptly kills the big mek. (Librarian in the film played by an old Grey Knight I painted years ago).

9 trukk boyz die and 3 shoota boyz die. In return I do nothing. That's right-nothing. 36 attacks from the shoota boyz = 2 wounds that are saved by the armour. However, the PowerKlaws manage to kill 2 marines! SO the orks lose combat. The trukk boyz run away never to be seen again. The shoota boyz lose another 12 from crumble..so much for the glorious horde!

Alright, so what can the Orks do? The Kans decide to get a piece of the action. However, they did not count on the Librarian having a s10 power. Striking first, the librarian destroys 2 kans and rips the DCCW off the 3rd one...so much for that winning strategy haha. My Nob then decides to miss the marines. The shoota boyz however, do hold!

We play the next round. My nob kills 2 marines while also dying to the sergent's powerfist, the rest of the glorious horde also die around him. With a Kan and some very scared grots on the board, it was safe to say that the Blood Angels had carried the day in the fluffiest way possible: One squad of marines soloing an Ork army. haha

Post battle:

So other than the obvious fact that we both have unpainted parts to our armies (him more so than me haha-need the new kans me thinks!) the game was fun. Disappointed to not get a glorious ork charge on the blood angels, but that's life. If I had better consolidation rolls after crunching the Land raider I might have been able to do it, but hey.
Time to scale the games up, get out the panzer division and dream about the Grey knight army I want to build once I finish the high elves...

Wednesday 8 June 2011

update: 40k Terrain

So, sadly no gaming in the weekend. My sister decided to come home from Korea so that meant no time for gaming-so sorry to my battle report fans.

So this week I thought I would share my obsession for the last two nights-and I'm not talking about Viking metal or Star Trek (though there was that too).

Years ago I bought the Imperial sector 40k terrain box with the dreams of building an awesome city of stuff. Unfortunately for me, 40k is more of a "fleeting" interest compared to my true love Fantasy. HOWEVER, my friend who is OBSESSED with space marines (in a not so healthy way) has just got back from Japan, so maybe it's time to dust off the Panzer division speed freak Orks and re-learn how to play 40k. That of course, means building terrain...my 2nd most favourite part of warhammer.

So here is what I have been working on with the remaining parts of the box set (the rest has been assembled into a variety of buildings):




So as you can see it is a 3 part building. A lower, bigger flat area for my lootas, and a higher tower part for interest + a balcony. The smaller tower will get a plasticard sky bridge to the tower so everything links up.

 Also, there are 4 wall sections left over which I will turn into a little ruined "feature". Then to base on cardboard, cover in rubble, and spray paint to look cool. Fun. If this terrain mood continues, I might even start constructing trenches....too many projects!


And bonus points for all those who spotted Harry the Giant with his soft toy Fred. I’ll paint him up one day when Giants are an acceptable part of the Empire/Slave giants are useful in an Ogre list.
I will also get around to posting my 2000 point Ork list and my thought on it + some pics and a 1750 list that I want to modify my list to based on my thoughts. BE WARNED, my 40k tolerance is low, so don’t expect too much. With my leave coming up soon though, I might get a game or two in, so hopefully there will also be battle reports on my newly repaired gaming table showing off my noob 40k gaming skills!

Wednesday 1 June 2011

That promised lick of paint

Hey everyone, so as this blog is titled in such a way to get me showing off my painting, I figured I better put some pics up of the work I've been doing.

Basically with the Empire army finished and the High Elf army either in the post (JUST beat the GW restraint of trade woot!), unassembled, or still being "won" on Ebay (gotta get the old metal Silverhelm champ! It's my favourite High Elf figure), I dont have anything "new" to paint.

So-that = my other projects. Ogres are still the ignored sibling (too much shadow grey and not enough fun at the lower points levels), which leaves upgrading my Woodelves.

So the old, crappy, first foray into painting "look" (ignore the pretty models in the background)
SOOOOOOOOOO BORING!!!!!!!

I was going for a "fight in the mud" stealthly look. What came out was a really bland colour scheme. I had red as a "pop" colour-but only on elites and characters = the army looks really dumb. It was also painted as the foundation paints came out, but before the washes, so everything has black mixed into it to darken it, and the skin is a bad attempt to "layer" with shimy shiny flesh wash to compensate. Also please feel free to gross out at the "edging"....gross.

So the new look:
So a lot more colourful, still keeping to the "muddy" look, and actually look like woodelves.

The cloaks and bits on the bow were done with an Adeptus Battlegrey base coat, washed with Badab black. Then it was dry brushed with camo green, then "layered" or "shaded" with catachan green to take the edge off the camo green.
The red stuff came out really bright in the pics-it's actually a lot darker (blame the flash). It is Mechrite red, badab black wash, the highlighted with blood red.
The brown leather/ends of bow is good old faithful scorched brown base, rough highlight of vermin brown the the answer to all painting problems ever, a wash of Devlan mud.
The flesh is tallarn flesh base, elf flesh highlights, then a wash of ogryn flesh.

Ignore hair as that is still the original stuff.

I Also thought I would treat you with a WIP of the battle Standard Bearer. Now this was originally painted with the washes, but kept the style of the old scheme (so the "red" was really a black with a red tinge). The WIP part to still be done is a design on the flag. I really want to try a freehand elfy design (pencil first of course!) using the Non-metallic metal gold colour scheme for the colours.





So there you have it.

My next painting update will possibly showing off my witch hunters Mordheim warband that I did using non-metallic techniques. Got to do a few repair jobs first though haha.