My Orks and 6th ed.

Hi All,

So I usually dont post about 40k, but I've been having a few games vs Ryan's bikermarines lead by captain douchenozzle (who is less douchey now that he dropped the powerfist) and I've actually been enjoying 40k.

Weird I know. The purist inside me hates that I've been listhammering at work and thinking up sneaky things I can do with orks.

Anywho. My listhammer and in game experience has resulted in the following list:

Bikerboss: Pklaw, attack squig, cybork body
Mega armour Mek

15 lootas

5 Nobbikers with cybork bodies
painboy
waagh banner/big choppa
3 pklaws
2x20 shoota boyz: nob with Pklaw/'eavy armour, 2 big shootas
10 grotz

3x1 deffcopta with t/linked bigshoota and buzz saw

Battlewagon: Deffrolla, Kannon, 4 bigshootas (complete with all gunz on central turret with 360 degree LOS)

1500pts

So for the unaware this list has a rather obvious tactic. 15 lootas + megamek ride in battlewagon. Megamek gives the lootas "slow and purposeful" = battlewagon can move 6 and the lootas can still shoot normally. Megamek can not shoot his t/linked shoota and on a 4+ repair a hull point.

There are other things the list does. Megamek becomes a tarpit due to 2+ armoursave so is really useful when battlewagon is threatened. Being opentopped he can pop out and charge threats.

The Nob bikerz and warboss are the super wing of the list. They ride shotgun with the battlewagon clearing things out. Deffcoptas have a similar role, but spend more time hunting tanks.

The rest of the troop selection is purely "tax".  vs some things 2x20 shootaboyz is really useful...vs other things they are there to be a huge distraction. Grotz are the secret weapon. bs4 means they can sneak up and do nothing...

I have a love/hate relationship with orks this edition. Snap fire and overwatch are awesome...but orks so rarely hit I find myself celebrating any hits. Hence why trying to maximise effective shooting. deffcoptas and nobbikers t/linked shooting is the most effective shooting I have....everything else is just noise...well the lootas hurt when they hit. I find that I play by picking off the things I can and ignore/hide from everything else. Not very orky I know, but it seems to work.

There are some sneaky things the orks can do now though. The slow and purposeful lootas above, but also (until FAQ'ed) bomb squiqs hit "vehicles" on a 2+ = hit flyers on a 2+...I guess they are just really good at throwing them in the air at the right time! I havnt put tankbustas in my list because I want to only use models I already have, but they would be an auto include if writing list from scratch.

Anywho enough musing. Other than getting a bikerboss (currently using attack bike as proxy)I am very close to having the list all painted (and then to think up a decent basing scheme for them!) So I hope to get good enough to go to some events next year. My biker boss will most likely be a converted trukk to make it obviously different (+ real warbosses dont shoot their own gunz-they get someone else to do that for them!)

I hope to have some pics up soon of the army.

Guess I should post CTA write up

Call to Arms 2012

So an exciting Call to Arms. It was my first time attending, but Warhammer is Warhammer-venue don't change that!

As per my previous post I thought I would give the High Elves a run around since the woodies had their turn last event and the Empire are sitting on the paint table.

My list was rather unsubtle:

Dragon Prince with re-roll 2+/4++ GW and other trickster's shard

lvl2: high, scroll

BSB: GW, Dragon armour

38 Spears: FC-flame

2x10 Archers: M

26 Whitelions: FC-amulet of light

26 Whitelions: FC

2 Eagles

SO dragon, 52 Whitelions, steadfast spears and chaff (sorry archers).

My Plan going in was to use ASF to my advantage as either a Jarl Axe wall, or get my Berserker mode on and Panzer strike the lines.

GAME ONE: Orcs and Goblins - blood and glory

An interesting list full of monster goodness.

Warboss on foot (general)

warboss on Wyvern

lvl2 orc

lvl2 gobbo

30 something normal boyz board and sword

30ish big uns 2hw-flame

2 gobbo chariots

6 trolls

Giant

Aranknarok

doomdiver

Very excited to come up against this list game 1. For starters I played Nick at the last event and got a very unsatisfying draw (thank you warping lvl4...), but also because he was a laugh to play-so always good to go in with a game I will enjoy.

My plan was to dragon the big spider then pull across to the blocks, spears into trolls, archers shoot off chariots, eagles get doomdiver while whitelions get everything else.....and that is pretty much exactly what happened. Only thing that was different was that his Wyvern decided to come play with the dragon...warboss and wyvern dead in 1 round of combat. Wyvern had taken 1 wound from archers (woot!). Prince finished it off allowing dragon to stomp all over warboss. I lost 1 whitelion block who got caught with an awkward clip on the big uns (to allow other block to have enough spare bodies to also kill giant as well as the boyz). Dragon was 1 turn late saving the day, but oh well, 20-0 to me.

Game two: Warriors of Chaos-random deployment.

Right on to game 2. I had a pretty favourable deployment. I was up against:

usual disc lvl4

BSB with stuff

lvl1

block of Tzench warriors hw/sh (lvl1 here)

block of nurgle warriors halberds (bsb here)

7 knights

2 warshrines

hellcannon

The warriors stole turn 1 and backed up (dwarf like play if I ever saw it!). I rushed forward. Dragon aimed at the knights (dead). Dragon then got hit by hellcannon killing the Prince-though the dragon carried on. Whitelions were a bit more cautious. The tzench warriors presented a tricky target that I had to pull out of position. Dragon bluff meant I got a frontal charge with 1 unit while the dragon jumped after the warshrines. The other whitelion unit wore a couple of gateway wounds (not a good day when stopping treason to let gateway through...) and were mindful of where the nurgle warriors would appear (had hopped into building). I took out the tznch guys over a couple of rounds and then hit the 2nd warshrine (dragon got stuck on 4++), broke it and went straight into hellcannon (dead). The Nurgle combat was a bit more tricky as I didnt rate my Whitelions to win it (re-roll hit on 4's, 2's to kill vs hit on 3's, 2's to kill and more attacks). However I brought my Spear block+ BSB up to give re-roll stubborn...which I failed, ran 4, got run down and exposed the spear flank to the (depleted) Nurgle warriors. Lucky this was LATE game as my spears held until the very last turn to break (killing BSB in process due to new flee rules), but escaped. All he had left was Nurgle, BSB, and lvl4, which was enough (having lost 1 Whitelion unit and BSB + eagles) to pull it back to a 13-7 win to me.

Game 3: Demons of dumb: diagonal deployment.

So Tom and I met again on the field of battle...meaning both our wizards would be dead/lvl0 by end of turn 2 as per usual... his list was:

Billy the blood thirster: KB, 7 attacks (probably usual) 3+, scroll

lvl2 tznch: loremaster light and scroll

2 korn heralds with 3+, flame sword thing (yeah-duplicate gifts were not comped...)

2x29 bloodletters

2x5 furies

2x3 flamers (last hurrah for pre Wdwarf update)

2 blood crushers

2 fiends.

Basically my list without having to pay core tax and a 5++ on everything and more chaff.

I opted for the Jarl Axe wall approach and castled up (deployed first) only 1 eagle failed to arrive. I picked the corner that meant due to a building his force would be split coming at me. My plan was spears and 1 block and 1 eagle handle 1 part, and dragon, whitelions block and Eagle deal with thirster approach. This was a game where I feel I out played Tom, but it didnt pay off. My biggest mistake was not deploying spears 5 wide (instead of my usual 7). Basically I killed all chaff except for 1 blood crusher. Pinned Billy on a unit of whitelions (overrun so combat in his turn), flanked with dragon...prince dies to KB (had to make 4 KB wardsaves....passed 3) and billy takes 2 more rounds to kill the dragon. Meanwhile bloodletter block come up rear of dragon/into whitelion flank and that collapses. On other flank I pinned Bloodletters on spears and used combat reform to get Whitelions for a flank charge....nope. Spears fluff 22 attacks...Bloodletters roll AMAZING and I flee (with BSB out of unit this time!) get run down so whitelions not so safe to charge! In the end I lost 4-16, but a good game none-the-less.

Game four: Bretts-watchtower.

Neil had opted to try not using HKB on a hero and brought the Greenknight. His list was something like:

Greenknight

2 lvl2 (1 on foot)

BSB

2 Paladins (one with charmed shield, the other with dragonbane gem).

unit of 10 knights errant

2x8 Knights of Realm

2 smaller Realm knight units

10 skirmish archers

5 Yeoman

3 Peg knights

Trebuchet

I put 10 archers in the tower to get closer shooting on the treb! Basically this game was defined by

1) dragon hiding from trebuchet...because'

2) it rolled a hit every time it fired (even when misfiring to explode)

3) 2+/5++ is amazing vs s6-I struggled to kill knights

4) 38 spears was a really, really good idea as too many bodies to lose watchtower

5) greenknight is really, really, really annoying

6) at least once a tournament leadership tests have to be failed on mass with a "high leadership" army.

SO yeah-greenknight couldnt kill all the spears (even after wearing a hit from treb), dragon only killed 1 Paladin in a challenge as spent most of game hiding then got trapped on Green knight. Whitelions let me down by failing to kill a single Paladin "speed bump" that resulted in it getting wiped out. Other Whitelion unit failing panic test taking it out of the game for 1 turn = couldn't come to the rescue in time. They eventually got 1 unit of knights, some peg knights, and heroicly saw off a last turn charge. BUT when we added up points I had lost 130 more than Neil, but with Watch Tower it became a 12-8 win to me. MISSION FTW!

Game 5: Lizardmen-battleline.

Going into this game I needed an 18-2 or better victory, and Sam needed to get tabled for me to break into top 3. So I draw Bo's Lizards that looked a little like:

Slann-discard my 6's to cast, gets extra dice when casting, loremaster life, BSB

lv1 skink priest on Engine of the Gods

Scarvet on foot with stuff

38 Saurus hw/sh

2x10 skink cohort with javelins

2x10 skink skirmishers with blowpipes

20 templeguard-banner of discipline

2x5 chemeleons

2 salamanders

1 salamander

So I actually managed to out deploy someone with fewer drops....Basically I deployed Dragon on my left = all the poison goes over there...then swing round to right flank for double whitelion, dragon panzer strike on his lines...while the poison only has archers (and lvl2) to kill. I breezed through the chaff which I felt wasnt used as well as it could have been, but I did have overwhelming force + flying monster, so it was never really going to be an issue. My big "break" was when the Slann (with throne up btw) miscast and killed 15 templeguard = all magic got diverted to keeping them alive instead of dwellering me (ie what I thought was going to happen for 6 turns). I got a massive strike on him that won it for me. Spears into flank of templeguard with dragon in front (did nothing for a round while everything was t8, but then finished it off when that all went away) and whitelion sandwich on the saurus (in front and flank). I was ONE kill short of breaking steadfast on 1st round. Then again I had allocated 8 attacks on to scarvet and 3 onto champ (both died), so didnt really help with that. Engine came crashing in, but died to 10 axes and the saurus got finished off.

Adding up the points I won 18-2...looking across to Sam he got 5 points...

End Result

The results were tallied and I came 4th...Sam beating me by 1.95/100 points! After the event Pete told me that my army came 2nd in the beauty pageant (Sam's Orcs coming first), so a very, very, very good outcome for me. My best ever placing at a 2 day event (not counting Homecon where I also came 4th last year). Hopefully my Empire can do the same come Skitterleap!

Thoughts on list:                                                                                                                         

The list worked as intended. I was a little miffed at it bouncing off the demons, but there was not much else I could have done.  This list (and the event in general) has cemented by belief that reliance on magic is not a game winning proposition. The only game where my mage was very, very, necessary (and ultimately let me down) was vs the Bretts where I needed to kill the trebuchet to free up my dragon-however I worked around that, took the hits and played the scenario to win. Something to hurt Billy was nice, but wouldn't have helped turn the game when it fell to me not bussing the spears and 4KB wounds on Prince.

Hot off the Painting Table!

Hi All,

I don't usually do up to the minute painting updates, but my Empire army FINALLY has a mounted general to lead them valantly into battle.

Meet Larry the Lector:

As you can see, Larry is sporting all the "must have" fashion items in the Warhammer world this season.

There is the Runefang sword if Larry decides to be a GTM that also doubles as a Sword of Anti Heroes if the occasion demands it
He can be seen wearing a crown if he feels particularly stubborn, but also kinda looks like there is a dragon on it if he opts for some Elven inspired heargear.
His shield is rather "charmed" or "enchanted" one could say
Note the White Cloak he has drapped around his shoulders

Larry is borrowing the BSB Barry's horse, but his will look exactly the same. They will stand out with their entourage of choice the Blazing Suns Inner Circle Knights.

Call to Arms 2012 The Dragon Lion Roars!

Righty,

So the deadline for list submission has passed, and since I'm having a crazy Friday night watching Stargate (all the motivation needed to start a TombKings army...) I figured I would post my list and some sweet pics of it.

So my list:

Prince: Moon Dragon, GW, Armour of Caledor, Vambraces of Defence, Other Trickster's Shard
lvl2: High Magic, Scroll
BSB: Dragon Armour, GW

10 Archers: Musician
10 Archers: Musician
38 Spears: Full Command-flame banner

26 Whitelions: Full Command-Amulet of Light
26 Whitelions: Full Command

Eagle
Eagle

So a rather unsubtle list full of fun and a wee bit anti meta. I'm in no position to be pushing for a place at Masters, so I figured I would get my fun on and run a *shock* dragon at a tournment.

Naked BSB is a little bit of a concern, but I'm not too fussed as his job is not really to kill stuff in combat.

The games I have had with the list have been really fun, and are usually determined by whether my Whitelion blocks can kill enough to make back their points. The dragon is an amazing support unit for the Whitelions and the spear "hammer".

Anywho the pics!

Army Shot

Prince for when the Dragon dies converted out of IOB swordmaster standard bearer and champ, IOB griffon rider and chariot rider arms, BSB converted out of chariot rider legs, prince kit and Phoenix Guard champ, IOB mage with no conversions as it is a fantastic model.

Flaming spears with Freehand banner

The token archer "core tax"

My Eagles converted from IOB Griffonsb (bad Greenstuffing hidden by paint job!)

The most bad-ass Dragon there ever was!

Whitelion unit number 1

Whitelion unit number 2 with rank filler and converted banner bearer. My goal for the week coming is to finish the banner with a design and glue it in place (currently sitting on a pin!)


So yeah, that's my army-all painted (except for 2nd banner), all based, and magnetised and ready to go! I started the High Elves as a hobby project, so I'm more excited by painting them then I am with using them on the table-not helped by their fustrating limitations despite pwning in combat! In saying that I have come to enjoy using them over the last year and I am aiming for a top 1/2 placing and hopefully being the best placed High Elf player at Call to Arms...


If I wasnt so determined to take the dragon (cos it's cool!) I would have put the Prince on an eagle and used the spare points to kit up the BSB with reavor bow and added 2 RBT's for some ranged goodness or some chariots/dragon princes. Possibly the more "sensible" option, but meh-I'll leave that sort of list to another day.

Looking forward to a weekend of Warhammer and all the goodness that entails.

Hobby round up

The last couple of weeks have been a little quiet on the hobby front as I found myself between painting projects, and a little distracted by the release of 6th ed 40k.

My limited exposer to the 40k meta/scene etc has given me a fresh enjoyment of 40k. Not enough to pursue it too much, but enough to get back into the odd game/possibly attend an event or 2. However, I am no fan of allies/fortifcations: I prefer to cover my weaknesses with tactics...not by adding a runepriest and fortress of redemption to every army! Hopefully the tournement scene agrees (and keeps the points of games in the 1500-1750 range) and stops the game becoming a farce.

Anywho. FANTASY!!!!!

I have inherited Ben's display shelf in his move to Australia, and I have begun displaying my armies on it-very exciting. I also used it as an excuse to paint up some of the High Elf stuff I have avoided due to never, ever, ever, ever seeing a situation where I would take over the usual suspects (ie my seaguard). This lasted all of 2 nights when I got to painting the gold. Now my High Elf gold is actually mitharil silver washed with the old GW sepia wash a few times. Sadly, I ran out of this and bought some of the new stufff from GW. This was the first time i have been disappointed with the new paints. The wash (or whatever they are called now) refused to layer, was shiny, and pooled in a way the old stuff didnt.Thankfully I got some of the Vallejo sepia wash as a stop gap and it does the job of replicating gold fine. One of my Wlion units has been done with it, however I was a little disappointed with its performance on the demigriff skin (hidden with other washes).

My Helfs will be rocking it at Call to Arms. I wont reveal my list JUST yet. I think the list I am using will be really fun and hopefully a little anti-meta in an interesting way.

The woodies have been sitting there looking cool. I'm happy with my latest list. ETC has been fustrating as usual because it has flooded the net with lists that a) are 2600pts, b) are designed for a game that I dont recognise as WHFB 8th ed c) have very little relevance to how I want to operate. There have been some interesting lists (fav is the one with all the eagle nobles), but of little value to my exploration of 8th with them.

The Empire is still a work in progress. I have been assembling knights with the Blazing Sun upgrade pack to be my ICKS, kit bashed my mounted general, and started painting my plastic stank.

My latest Empire list refinment is looking like this:

Alector: Bsteed, Ha, ent sh, SAHeroes, Wcloak, Pofool    218
lvl4: light, scroll                    225
BSB: Bsteed, FPA, sh, SoM                129
Engineer: la                        66
Captain: Pegasus, FPA, ch.sh, relicblade, dbane gem    131

13 ICKS: FC-steel                    390
10 xbows: sb                        100
5 archer detach                        35
5 archer detach                        35
5 Knights                        110

2 cannon                        240
3 Dgriffs                        174
3 Dgriffs                        174

Hellblaster                        120
Stank                            250

2397

Main changes are:

1) switch Runefang GTM to archlector: GTM was great, but the knights were acting as an expensive delivery system + he had no protection other than 1+ as. With the Archlector I achieve a few things. Sword of anti heroes gives me a way to counter character buses (or at least deter them from engaging), whitecloak adds protection to the unit by forcing all bad guys in b2b with the Alector to suffer -1 to hit. On top of that is hatred to make the ICKS more killy + obviously the prayers to add complexity to my magic phase.

2) dropping the RICK Rollers: Just another expensive knight bus. Stank does the "hold up stuff" better, and dgriffs are killy enough + with a unit of vanilla knights I can still rush a flank.

3) adding stank-see above.

4) return of the Captasus: ie the K'daai Destroyer. But also there to do other stuff too! I enjoy using flying characters in Empire lists and bringing him back means I get to use my cool model + adds some interesting dynamics to a rather unsubtle army.

5) standard in the xbows: mainly for Blood and Glory-but also because I have a cool converted banner for that unit. My army is a little light on conversions for paint scores, and with the removal of the bounce-lit flagellants a little light on paint score in general! I have 10 xbows all painted up with bounce lighting from the tourch banner to help bring my paint score back up a bit for what is usually my most competitive army.


My hope is to get the Empire ready for the event after Call to Arms which is the last 2400pt event in Welly for the year. Hopefully Neil will be running the 1200pts event (possibly my favourite outside of Homecon) which will see another run for the Highelves.  The Woodies will have to (sadly) stick to fun games for the time being. They can pull of wins when I need to, but dont get big enough wins to be competitive in 20-0 system. ETC'ers will disagree, but they get a points boost (and i think a VP's boost) to compensate.