Laying down the Gauntlet...Nuln fluff list for Ruination.

Righty,

So a lazy Sunday spent avoiding sanding plaster (oh joy!) = laying down gauntlet to all the gunline pretenders under 5 foot in height.

Everyone secretly knows that the Empire do the gunline the "best" and to prove it I present my fluffy 4000pt Nuln list:

Even in my Smack Down lists this poor guy can't find a spot :(

General Of Empire: Armour of Meteoric Iron, Warrior Bane, Iron Curse Icon, Pistol 160
Celestial Mage lvl4: scroll (that's lore of heavens) 225

BSB: Fullplate, pistol, flame banner 108
Engineer 65
Engineer 65
Engineer: Hockland Longrifle 85
Engineer: Hockland Longrifle 85
Engineer: Hockland Longrifle 85
Witch Hunter: Brace of Pistols 55
Witch Hunter: Brace of Pistols 55

10 Handgunners: FC - Hockland Longrifle 140
10 Handgunners: FC - Hockland Longrifle 140
10 Handgunners: FC - Hockland Longrifle 140
40 Swordsmen: FC  310
20 Crossbows 180
5 Knights: M 120
5 Knights: M 120

Cannon 120
Cannon 120
Cannon 120
5 Outriders 105
5 Outriders 105
5 Pistoliers: Champ - Repeater Pistol 110
Mortar 100
Mortar 100

Helblaster 120
Helblaster 120
Rocket Battery 120
Rocket Battery 120
Steam Tank 250
Steam Tank 250
3998

*drops mic, walk off stage*

I'll leave you all to sweat nervously wondering exactly how close I am to being able to field this list...

And, of course, this has opened the floor to anyone who can "up gunline" my attempt.

Ruination 2014 prep and stuff

Hi All.

Just a quick break from watching England lose the Ashes in style (down a crack) to give you all an update on where I am at hobby wise.

Disclaimer: as a true blooded Kiwi I am disliking my support for the Aussies in this series...but bitterness from the last series vs England and a begrudging ANZAC spirit has forced my hand + the Michael Clarke kinda looks like Dean Winchester.

Salamanders:
All troops are assembled sans shoulderpads. The forgeworld order has been made via Glen and hopefully I will have some pics for you all of the pre-painted dudes in the early new year. I have started green stuffing the flames and stuff...I'm determined to not resort to posting it all to Shirts Off Warhammer hehe

High Elves:
Nothing to report other than a wee bit of list-hammer.

I'm enjoying the discussions on Ulthuan.net about the potential for Swordmasters to be the main elite block. DL:DR - swordmasters lose less effectiveness with the loss of rare ranks and benefit the most from high magic and the loremaster...who loses combat anyway?

Empire:

RUINATION is coming up in the early new year. 4000pts of Warhammer goodness with "dont be that guy" veto comp. I am very much looking forward to this event. So much so it has managed to get me to unpack my painting gear and get repairing all the old stuff.

As usual, I like to keep my lists inside my army theme...so here's some pre-list fluff to keep everything in context:

Otto liked winter. It was cold, the forest was quiet, and the village folk were hungry and restless...but too drunk to do anything about it other than grumble. His soldiers were more worried about gambling than they were about wanting to go home. At least in the service of Otto and his Rickwald forest Inquisitional Forces you got food and grog which was more than they could guarantee was waiting for them back home. Besides, the winter patrols rarely lasted more than a day or two. Winter was easy. Winter was predictable, and more importantly the snow meant that Otto could ignore the rest of the so-called "empire" for a few precious long months. Witch hunters, glory seeking knights and the like were not so zealous or brave when they were freezing and the forest was just a little bit darker...Otto found himself cracking a sly smile.

This however was all coming to an end. As Otto walked the walls of the village his troop were wintering in he could hear the forest slowly waking up. The river was swelling and the snow was beginning to melt a little too fast for his liking. Even worse, the red full moon signalled the return of the Elector Count's court of fools. Otto's reputation at court had recovered somewhat after the fall of Stonefalls to the undead Manfred...the graveyards surrendered few bodies to the unholy master still at large in the forest when the ground refused to be broken. There was little to report, or embarrass him further other than the odd missing villager. However Otto just knew this court would require him to swear mumbled allegiance (again) and prove it with some grand gesture about "taking Stonefalls back for the glory of the Emperor" or whoever was on the throne somewhere far-away. People who only swung a sword in tournaments never counted the cost of progress in pints of spilled blood. The counted in flags over their keeps, trophies in their halls, and songs on the lips of (well paid) bards.

Otto never cared (nor could care) for frivolous displays of pretend power. Fear is the root of all religion (and Otto had seen enough to make him fearful for a lifetime) , and religion was the true key to power. The fools at the courts had never smelt the blood of a frenzied mob who willingly throw themselves on the weapons of evil so as to win battle with the sheer weight of their dead bodies. They had never witnessed the miracles on the battlefield when the chanting of ancient tongues slowed down time itself...or blasted apart the horrors that lurked in the shadows of the forest. Otto had faith and the cunning to weave the zeal of fellow believers to his own benefits....and that of the church. He was just not so good with the unbelievers, or even worse, the fake believers.

But all that meant nothing right now as Otto took in the sights and the smells, savouring every last moment of winter. What was going to happen was going to happen and the only real question was whether Otto and his nice little corner of the world would survive it. Trouble was arriving all dressed up in shiny armour and expensive weaves, on well groom steeds to the sound of horns, the waiving of flags, and proclamations of false piety by those of important birth. This is the worst sort of trouble (naive fools!), and the sort that Otto would best rather avoid. 

...And here's some exciting prep pics

That's all from me at the mo. 

First 40k "game" and the weeks that were

Sup,

Thought I better do an update.

WHFB wise I have been not doing much TBH. I've had 2 games - 1 vs Ryan's WoC and 1 vs Glen's Skitterleap VC One Direction fangurlz list.

I ran the same list both games. Archlector Lotto in his usual attire, lvl4 with 2 lvl1's of light, Otto'ss trusty Halberds and Banner bearer, some suicidal chaff knights, the usual Demis and a couple of stanks with back up cannon (or as I call it "I had to spend the spare 120 points on something and TBH a bunch of xbows or some Pistoliers would probably have more impact on the game!").

The VC game was very much defined by my T1 toasting of 5 Crypthorrors (thank you burning gaze and banishment) and Glen chucking his bunker in a building meaning I could approach the screams piece meal while targeting the Mortis Engines with magic and the Cannons who are officially overrated as over a game I successfully hit, wounded and bypassed the 4+ regen once...and to top it off the Stanks forgot how to make it into combat. This people is why Halberds are awesome. 9 ranks of Steadfast denying+ SCRes out of their eyeballs with the odd light buff/sigmar prayer and they will go though everything (well, almost). A nice 15-5 win with nothing undead left "alive" outside of the tower.

Vs the WoC Ryan was running a very cool list. Slannesh Dprice, usual BSB and lv1 set up, couple of chariots, block of Warriors, chaff, chimera, Hellcannon and Skullcrushers. This game was my turn to put "the bus" in a building...but only because Ryan had the nerve to kill the archer bunker that was originally in it! I drew the scroll out t1 and over the next 2 turns I successfully kept the Dprince out of combat and banished it off the board. s6 banishment vs 1+ AS/5+ re-roll ward is not as autokill as it might appear! This sent the building attacking Chimera packing leaving me to clean up the rest. The stanks figured out how to charge and together took out the 2 chariots, 1 soloed the warriors in the flank (boom!), while the other got a fluky cannon shot that killed the Hellcannon having missed the charge by a couple of inches (combat before gunz in my books!). I got lucky with a "rolled the flee dice too quickly" moment where my initial reaction was to flee the Dprince charge on demis flank to keep it out of combat...I totally didnt see the easy double stank rundown and the horrible overrun for the demis! Doggie charge on fleeing Demis = end 1 inch from board edge out of BSB range for a nervous rally test! However that game ended up as a big win for the Empire (stupid broken vanilla knights!)...the demis redeemed themselves by killing mr "unkillable" (my demis are making a habit out of that!).

So the not-so-secret in there is that I have a 2nd stank (my 3rd having sold my old metal one to Ben from Shirtsoffwarhammer). I havnt got around to painting it because of this:

Yup...lots of Marine goodness. I've been getting lots of crazy ideas... greenstuffed flames EVERYWHERE + a Forgeworld order is on the way with the Salamander shoulderpads/rhino doors etc to give the army the Salamander feel. Lots of fun...but OMG I'm sick of mould lines!

SPACEMARINES (Ironfists chaptertactics) VS ELDAR

So a trip north to the Metropolis that is Levin would not be complete without a game of 40k to get me used to not having 90 models on the board that cannot shoot and scream WAAAAGH. I looked around his shelves and saw some pretty marines and grabbed a few to get something that looked like an army. Glen added it all up, and then wrote a super broken Eldar cheese list to smash it. How nice of him.

We deployed:

Glen chose the other end of the table first. I put the landspeeder storm and 2x1 Attack bikes with Heavy bolters in reserve (yeah...power list). That Rhino has some tactical marines in it.

Glen's deployment:

Oh yeah...just 2 super waveserpents, a Nightspinner, jetbikes with a Farseer. 2 brightlance warwalkers and a Viper in reserve...cos this is a balanced game.

Basically I tried to hold my 2 objectives with super Eternal Warrior, 2+ as/3++ Chaptermaster tanking the Terminators while Glen happily flew around pwning me with all the terrain covering his flanks etc.

Action shot:

Crater is the remains of an Ironclad...I think I managed to take 2 hullpoints total the entire game!

But a fun pasting (and deserved given the hiding his VC got) that got me used to some of the rules (individual model placement = very important!) and experience of how fast other armies can move! I will have to be well tricksy with the Salamanders to keep up!

Anywho that is me for now. I'm trying to motivate myself to get the greenstuffing started for some exciting photgraphs of something other than my messy hobby space!

Next Hobby Project and reflection on the year that was

Hey all,

Back from a bit of radio silence. I was away in the land of cheap Warhammer, so not much hobby action there at all (though the GW sales staff in the UK are a lot less "fluff" orientated than the hobby-hero-hammer staff that work in NZ).

Anywho, any trip to the UK would not be the same without spending far too much money on Warhammer with the justification of a quick currency conversion + overseas use bank fees and then comparing that to the price your local Southern Hemisphere GW would charge for the same loot...

This of course now means that I have officially picked up my Hobby project for 2014...a Salamander Army.

SHOCK SHOCK a 40K army you might say??? ("I thought you already had a 40k army" was what the other half said)...and my answer to that is...DONT WORRY! I'm still a WHFB player first and foremost...I just have friends who also like to play 40K + it's fun...and that's going to be my key consideration...fun.

Now in that pile of plastic you will find:
3 Drop pods
1 Rhino
1 Razorback
1 Ironclad Dreadnaught
2 LandSpeeder Storms
2 Landspeeders
2x5 Scouts (no sniper rifles)
2x10 Tactical Marines
2x5 Devestators
5 Sternguard
AEGIS defence line

Meaning for my evil plans to come to fruition all I need to pick up from NZ is a thunderfire cannon and Vulkan.

I have set myself the goal of having it all painted with display board (and be reasonably confident using it) by Call to Arms 2014. Assuming CTA '14 is a 1750pt tournament with the usual rules and stuff I will have more than enough stuff to get some options together.

The Good news for all you is that my blog will no-longer be simply me painting another "X" to add to existing armies etc + I'll have to figure out how to make 40k battlereports make sense. The lack of strict movement rules can result in hard to follow reports, so I'll try my best.

WHY A SALAMANDER ARMY?
...especially when the internetz is telling me to Wave Serpent spam or take White Scars (the new "oh, I've totally owned that Demon Prince for years"). The reason is 2 fold.

The first fold is that since Space Marines are the default army in 40k they will never be "bad". They may not always be the top dogs, but they are the yardstick against which 40k is measured. My existing Ork army is the exact opposite. I'm sure when the book gets a revision in 20 years it will be the new shizz for 4 months or so, but it will eventually suffer "old codex" problems like it currently does today.

The 2nd fold is that Salamander's tick all the cool boxes for me. They like close quarter fighting with templates (Heavy Flamers = yum) and they have a dragon as their symbol! + I dont see many of them around = a chance to do something a little different. They also have built in super consistency at what they do best - flame and melta - which is a nice change from the Orks who do 1 thing consistently...powerklaws.

THE YEAR THAT WAS
So with the 2013 year officially finished I can now reflect on where things are at.

• I was 14th on the rankings for the Master's cut off, having fallen out of the top 10 after a frustrating Call To Arms where a couple of games I just failed to capture points from combats that I had successfully won (looking at you Halberds). This was better that last year where I was 16th.

In saying that I could have gone to Masters this year as I was 2nd on the waiting list - and the 1st no longer lives in NZ. However time zone differences + the dates colliding with the partner's birthday meant I couldn't go :( All the best to everyone who is attending.

• I am currently the Empire Icon Holder which was my goal for the year. I hope to extend my Stewardship of it for another year.

I'm very much looking forward to the usual Welly events next year. NZTC should be the highlight as it was so much fun last year + Panzershrek for some Swedish goodness. I hope to attend an event in OZ + hopefully an event in Auckland.

Lol cats with pesky elves on top

Hey all,

So the "old skool" readers of my blog/tormented opponents of mine circa Vermintide 2010ish might remember this unit:

Yup that's my old "Lion Princes" unit from back when I thought it would be easier to paint up conversions than tackle the official GW models (ALMOST finished my unit of 10 four years later...).

High Elf playaz have few things in common - some like Swordmasters (odd people - not you Glen), some are dragon nutz (looking at you James Milner), some seem obsessed with the "single viable combat unit tactic" (internet lists)...but what we can all agree on is that Lion Chariots are a massive disappointment...and the old metal Silverhelms are some of the classic GW minis (well, that last part is IMHO).

I was content with having only 1 unit for many years - I never really used Dragon Princes and when I did I had finally finished enough of the official models - but then the new High Elf book dropped and Silverhelms all of a sudden became cool - pity about the models.

Now, refusing to have mis-matched horses in my army, conveniently I managed to acquire 3 more lions and had a Legolas inspired conversion moment resulting in...

BOOM! Meet lion unit #2.

And with the quick re-label, meet my "Lionhelms"

Ready to be my awesome 2+as, s5 charge "chaff".




 

Alarielle the Radiant

Yo yo yo

Just a quick painting update.

Sorry for the not-the-best pic...my ipad cant seem to handle all the white!

Anywho adding my first official (painted) special character to my High Elves. I bought this on release day and it has been floating around my painting table ever since.

I had splashed some base colours down...painted the skin etc etc but something didnt feel "right" until earlier this week when it clicked that I had her colours around the wrong way...green is my High Elf main stay colour with red as the highlight. A quick colour switch-a-roo on her dress and everything made sense again.

In terms of tabletop use...I'll have try out the "Everqueen-star" list at least once! I do think it is a little too convenient that her points + Alith Anar (another Special Character I want to get) = exactly 600pts...Heck I dont think I can have a fluffy game vs Dark Elves without him!

In other news, my second "Lionhelm" unit should be finished this week, so look forward to that and I hope to squeeze in a game vs Will's Ogres next weekend = battle report!

Battle of the Highest Order - High Elves vs Lizards

Yo!

With this sudden upswing in personal excitement for the High Elves now that their evil brethren are in town I figured it was time to invade the new world...but first pit stopping in Lustria to settle some old disputes with the frogs.

I sent over to the land of Mike:

lvl4: Shadow, Golden Crown, Scroll, Ring of Fury
BSB: Armour of Caledor, GW
2x10 Archers: Musician
2x5 Reavers (bows)
2x5 Lionhelms: M (shields)
27 Whitelions: FC - Banner of the World Dragon
25 Phoenix Guard: FC - Razor Standard
Frostie (I believe it was "Swift")
3x1 RBTs

The fluff goes something like:

"The High Elf force landed undisturbed, but observed by the Chameleon scouts. The plan was to launch an attack on Naggaroth from the unguarded south passing though the jungles of Lustria. However one of the archers whilst walking up the pebble beach got a sacred stone stuck in his shoe. This great insult woke a sleeping Slann who gathered his Skink assistants, temple guard, and his 2 pet Ancient Stegs to meet the intruders who dare "steal" the ancient treasures of the old ones."

Mike's army consisted of:

Slann: Loremaster High, keep a dispel dice, re-roll a dispel dice, add extra d6 to a dispel attempt staff
Scarvet: Coldone, ASF sword, 1+ as, charmed shield
2 Beast Skinks  - 1 with dispel scroll
4x10 skink skirmish
2x10 skink cohort
28 skink cohort with 2 Krox
3 Terradons
26 TempleGuard: FC - flame banner
1 Engine Ancient steg - sharpened horns
1 Ancient Steg - sharpened horns

We rolled up Blood and Glory (an appropriate mission given the fluff) and rolled for spells.

...yup perfect roll to get miasma, enfeebling, withering, and pit.

I got table side pick and picked the one with all the forests cos that wasnt a stupid decision given I had 3 RBTs that needed good LOS O_o.

However I also got first turn and my army advanced - and the terradons fled some lionhelms.

I chucked movement miasma on the skinks in front of everything, and pit got scrolled (boo!). Shooting was very exciting...I think I killed 12 skinks!
The lizards moved up to set up lots of fleeing... and magic was a flop

And I responded by failing to take a photo!

Reavers on my right charged a depleted unit of skinks (thanks shooting), took a casuality from S&S, and 1 in combat, but ran them down and (crucially) blocked the cohort...who fled when the Lionhelms charged some skinks against a fence next to them, and run them down.

the Whitelions made 2 units flee and rushed forward 6 inches to take EVERYTHING to the face (very male-gendered elves). The other lionhelms sandwiched some skinks with the Phoenixguard...who wiped them out and reformed to counter charge.

Note how my epic shooting reduced a skirmish unit to a single skink and the Temple Guard got hit by an IF Emfeebling to drop them to s2(3). Oh only 1 RBT hit and it caused a massive single wound to the Engine of the Gods.

So what's a lizard to do (other than sunbathe?). In everything charges...but the "normal" Ancient steg was feeling a little down and didnt quite make it to the party failing an 11 inch charge.

Mike then rolls a 12 dice magic phase. I let him give the Engine back its lost wound to "teach my RBT's a lesson". he then went to firey RIP doom the Phoenix Guard...and failed to cast. He then promptly failed to 5 dice large amber spear on the Phoenix...maybe I shouldnt have let the Engine get its wound back. Combat was exciting. The BSB started by killing the unit champ 3 times, And from 21 attacks the Whitelions managed to kill 4 - yes F.O.U.R. Temple guard...Dont give me that "but the delta for 3 ranks is better than 2 ranks re-rolling" crap when I get results like that! Good thing everything else except impact hits and stomps did nothing - even the Scar vet failed to wound meaning I didnt even get to use the BOWD! However I still lost and held (thank you stubborn).

SO what Happens in return? Lion Helms flank the ancient to hold it up, PhoenixGuard and Frostie flank the TempleGuard . Enfeebling stays up (thank you really poor magic phase rolling and threatening Wither) and I get miasma off...dropping WS by an annoying 1. A few more skinks die to shooting. Combat? well, I could give you an epic run down on how amazing the Phoenix Guard were and how they sliced the Temple Guard up and how that then rallied the Whitelions who remembered how to hit...or I could post a pic of the result:

And yes...it finally happened. "Swift" got caught on my cuff and the clear stand thing broke = I can now either pin it, or do some fancy magnet shenanigans.

Scarvet ran, Engine stubbornly held on. Phoenix Guard pursued 4 inches, Frostie ran the scarvet down and into the flank of the engine.

Silverhelms vs Ancient = Ancient took a wound and held.

Lizard turn = smash up Engine, lionhelms hold and a sneaky Tempest does this:

Ouch! The terradons also drop some rocks on the cohort "blocking" reavors who die a biblical death worthy of the martyrs they are (proof the lizardmen are up themselves as they clearly cast the first stone).

However in return I do this:

(yup Phoenix Guard are beating up skinks again) + the other lionhelm unit ran a unit of skinks down who didnt flee far enough.

AND THIS

Slann took 2 rounds of combat to kill. Steg combat was a fluff of epic epicness (in the combat the lionhelms died and the frostie passed a very nervous break test).. Shooting took the terradons down to 1 wound...

Phoenix Guard reformed face the Ancient Steg...

and promptly flanked and killed it (thank you wither).

the last terradon died to a LOLZ IF ring of fury that rolled double 1 for number of hits and did a single wound hahaha.

Result: Massacre to the High Elves

MVP goes to the lvl4 with some crucial hexes. MVU goes to the Phoenix Guard who twice charged in to get the glory...but didnt let that get in the way of killing skinks!

Gotta say I liked the list. I need to get better with my RBT placement. I think like they are cannons...but they have a crucial difference - they can't simply "shoot" though units and terrain!

Hobby update: Anointed of Asuryan and other elvish thoughts

It's been a while since my last post. I've been distracted by real life things like pretending to be an adult and stuff...

Anywho, my limited recent painting time has resulted in me finishing the Anointed that comes with the Phoenix kit. Here he is hanging with some Phoenix Guard posse I painted up at the same time to keep him company

The beauty of plastering walls is that they provide a convenient white back drop so I can get in some half decent pics!

This isn't my favourite model TBH...I think it screams "over designed" in a way that GW can sometimes be guilty of now that they are using fancy computer designing software stuff. It's the little things like the scarf on the halberd not flowing in any particular direction - when there is also a belt scarf that they could have worked with to give the models some feeling, the pointy things on the shoulder pads etc etc. Sitting next to some Phoenix Guard (who I quite like) he looks a wee bit out of place. 

Oh well, it was fun to paint I guess. I'm getting to that stage where my paint scheme is a little zzzz to paint, but still works so I'm happy with it. 

New Dark Elves

Just a small piece of news for those internet users who like WHFB who dont keep up - the Dark Elves have been released. I bought the ipad ebook thing and I was a little disappointed with the presentation. They combined the fluff for each entry with the model gallery meaning both sections felt a little...empty. Compare that to other army ebooks where the fluff sections are full of amazing artwork with a separate model gallery...heck I even think one (or two) of the pictures were from the High Elf book!

The background fluff was a little "meh" too. It read like a scheming, always frustrated, cartoon bad guy constantly having his schemes ruined by some stoned teenagers in a combi van...while his mum secretly is the real power behind the throne. I was hoping for (having never read Dark Elf fluff before) an entire re-writing of the High Elf fluff from a different perspective (we are the real good guys...this is our story of subtle fall into chaos etc etc)....not a blatant admission that the Dark Elves are the baddies *queue over-emphasising the evilness of everything* With all the daily casual slaughter it's amazing there are any Dark Elves left alive! I always pictured Malekith's downfall to be a little bit like Furion's...

Rules wise I like how it all kinda mirrors what the High Elves do. Warlocks are the new OP and as usual there are cool monsters and stuff. Moving Witch Elves to core is an interesting move that will scare Ogre players, but I suspect they could be a weee bit of a red herring given they have no armour, t3, s3 and frenzy...poison only goes so far. Executioners look awesome...but without stubborn or the Banner of World Dragon I think they are a little vulnerable to fluffed rolls...without any defence to wear the return attacks. ie I would rather pay the extra point for Whitelions. 

For the MSU fans out there the Dark Elf book offers more options there, which is really cool as MSU needs to exist in some form other than "WoC monsters MSU Lolz"

Having read the rules I like the High Elves more cos we got phoenix, and usable new Lord and Hero choices + I think the High Elf troop choices are more exciting not just variations on "lots of s3/4 attacks". 

High Elves vs Dark Elves

Big call here...I think the High Elves take this one out - but only just. After the first round of combat where Dark Elf hatred is awesome, Martial Prowess trumps Murderous Prowess. Dark Elves have few answers to the Phoenix, and none to Phoenix Guard. High Elf shooting should also win the shooting war given its range (and price) advantage. However, Cloak of twilight peg dreadlord, or Character-heavy Warlock bus will cause plenty of problems...so too will careful use of Dark Magic..though I'm unconvinced of its "all comers" application - at least it has more coherency than High Magic which is all over the place.  

Woodies vs Dark Elves

Still a big win to the Woodies. 70shots/turn + dwellers + double treeman + dryads + eagles to catch the frenzy = yawn 20-0 win. I dont care if you have ASF and Murderous Prowess when you need 6's to wound...IF you make it to combat. Vanguarding Warlock bus = s4 shooting comes into play quicker :)

Anywho that's all from me. I have a game with the High Elves vs Mike King's Lizards tomorrow and I'll do up a battle report (I think my first with the new High Elves - only my 3rd game with them at 2400pts too!).

Weekend Gaming

Righty,

Saturday night and my weekend of partying continues with a couple of games of Warhammer!

With my Great Swords now up to an impressive size (imposter included to get 38), I thought it would only be appropriate to rock them on the table.

My List: 
Arch Lector "Otto": GW, HA, Dragonhelm, Talisman of Preservation
Amber Wizard lvl4
Light Wizard lvl4
BSB: Fullplate, Enchanted shield, warriorbane
Warriorpriest: HA, 2HW (just cos I LOVE the new model they released)
39 Halberds: FC
2x7 Archer detachment
2x5 Knights: M
38 Great Swords: FC
4 Demigryphs: M
2 Cannons
Hurricanum
2400ish

Not your typical Empire list by any stretch of the imagination. This was my first time EVER rocking a double lvl4...and with lores that are not typically paired together. My sneaky plans however relied on the combination of them both...

Will was rocking a list designed with the opposite intention to mine...
lvl4: heavens, usual kit
BSB: Crown
firebelly with i10 sword
lvl1 with hellheart
2 blocks of Ironguts
3 sabrecats
3x2 Mournfang
3 scouting/ITP Maneaters
Ironblaster

We rolled up Dawn attack and Will deployed first:

So yeah. Will got a good central deployment while I got stuck in the corner with little to no way to properly counter the scouting Maneaters. Will gets first turn and the initiative - even more so when he takes off 1 of my cannons.

My first turn was a bit of an unwind and reacting to the situation:

The knights in the losing combat re-directed having made the mournfang unit flee...dying there as opposed to somewhere closer to me was seen as preferable...I didnt fancy having a Gutstar on my flank turn 2!

My knights died horribly, the Ironblaster wore a cannonball TO THE FACE and I got some buffs up...

The Maneaters went in...I hold. Everything else closes in, Sabrecat blocks the Demis and casually IF's comet.

The knights hold!
In my turn the Comet comes down killing 8 Great Swords. Sabrecat dies swiftly (Jeff: "Taylor Swiftly").

The knights blocking the maneaters also decided to forget how to pass armour saves and die.

This is where it gets interesting. Will throws a unit of Mournfang into the Demis, Gutstar gets pushed right into the fact of my Great Swords and the firebelly runs to the flank while the Maneaters go eat my cannon (that had been doing nothing but misfire since it's awesome 1st turn shot).

Gutstar gets +1 Toughness and the firebelly hits 24, wounds 17 and kills far too many of them. 1 Mournfang dies and the other one holds on general's Ldship.

In return the Hurricanum runs over the Firbelly and the Great Swords do their manly thing and charge in.

Of course this was never going to work (especially as the Hurricanum could not overrun to safety thanks 1 inch rule), but given the bad situation was still very bad (And not getting better) it was a "meh" moment...and it didnt help that Will decides to crack out the Hellheart with a 20 inch range...down the hole goes my Light Mage and the Beast Mage explodes too. Naturally the Great Swords do their thing...and roll lots of 1's and 2's to wound. The mournfang dies though...

And in charged some Mournfang to save the day! No Halberds because they fled a charge...rolled a 3 and then got run down. I fled because...I dont know why - that's why, because I was in a forest (stupid mission grrr) and not steadfast, so couldnt hold the charge to bring the Demis in.

Any who we called it there because the game was effectively over. First outing with this list, and not very exciting.

Result: The Empire need to bring the big boy toys to deal with tournament lists!

We had a rematch where Will was using Antony's Bret list from Guardcon where (even with my Halberds + warriorpriest+ both lvl4s) in a building all game it took a 1000pt swing bottom of turn 6 for Will to pull it back to a draw (no pics due to proxies etc and it was a swing of the unexpected sort....hitting on 5's does not you hit MORE grrr). In that game the "power" of the Light/beasts combo came through. With hurricanum and 4 channels I had magic dominance and never felt that I was wasting a lvl4.

Overall I'm happy to keep exploring the list's potential. I am in the very early stages of thinking about attending an event in Melbourne next year = I need a panel comp friendly list! I think this list does that (and doesnt play too differently to my Panzershrek list).

Hobby Update: Great Swords and High Elf rank filler

1am on a Friday night update whilst finishing off Hawaii 5.0 s2..am I not the coolest guy E.V.A?

The last week has been busy NOT doing hobby stuff (thank you DIY binge), however I got a spare couple of hours tonight to get my fix!

GREAT SWORDS:

As part of my "get the Great Swords up to strength" project I have FINALLY got the other 9 plastic Goldswords painted up (the 10th being my BSB). Panzershrek showed how cool they are in heavier comped environments...but the 28 I currently have just isn't quite enough for them to do what they do best - win the war of attrition.

SO here's my unit of 37 so far:

...and yes I will re-paint that banner with something cool!

I still have 1 more dude to do = I'm going to get the plastic Empire Captain to be the unit champ

And then I'll have a pretty cool, manly unit!

HIGH ELF RANK FILLER

It's been a bit quiet on the High Elven front, however I have finished a sweet cavalry rank filler:

Very much inspired by that fantastic Legolas scene in the Two Towers...


...this guy is intended to sit within a Silverhelm or Dragon Prince unit...because I'm too much of a power gamer to jeopardise reform options with a unit of reavors!

Anywho that's me for the meantime...back to Hawaii 5.0.

Warpfire 2013 write up

Rightly all,

Yesterday was the first ever Warpfire hobby event in Wellington designed to celebrate all things hobby related...writing no comp or veto fun lists, different scenarios, strict painting scores, and a low stress environment.

Pre event there was a bit of controversy around what consisted a "fun" list with an example list containing 6-8 Beasts of Nurgle at 1000points  *queue internetz* Though after all that no one brought the Throgg list, and sure there were a couple of tough lists out there, but nothing too excessive...I think...well nothing that I played against (except Hugh's broken High Elves...).

Anywho - my list:

Warriorpriest "Acolyte Kristof": 2 hand weapons, heavy armour
BSB: Fullplate, Enchanted shield, warriorbane, crown of command (Super unnecessary)
38 Halberds: Full Command
6 Archer detach
4 Demigryphs: Musician (halberds)
4 Demigryphs: Musician, Standard bearer (halberds)

I basically took my Vermintide list from last year and dropped the lvl1 firemage and hurricanum and added the Crown of Command. That addition was a bit of a brain fart as my list come up with 35 spare points and I instantly went "sweet - crown of command" not "sweet - more archers" or something. I would apologise to my opponents, but the crown of command never came into play all event...so in the end it was wasted points and VPs due to less terrain captured throughout the event.

My list was definitely at the tougher end of the scale...however I had built in a couple of scenario weaknesses for savvy opponents to exploit: Easy to kill general (very important in 3 missions), few units for terrain capturing, only 2 core units that are squishy, and using Halberds on Demis is always a bad idea!

Game 1: vs John Taliby's Dark Elves

In this game the mission was to kill each other's core and keep your core alive.


A sneaky little list by John (to be expected). 2 units of Corsair core, 2 units of shades, some harpies, BSB, General with "gets better armour when kills stuff" set up and a Hydra

We deployed:

Basically the Hydra marched up and breathed all over my Halberds (22 killed) while the shades picked off the archers.

Undeterred like true men of the Empire (and Acolyte Kristof would never be able to look Arch Lector Otto in the eye if he didn't!) the Halberds charged in...helped by some Demis in the flank. Lots of combat later (and uber 5+ ward saves) the Hydra fled on 1 wound only to then get "Demi'ed".
However, the Mighty Halberds then got flanked by the BSB's Corsair retinue. Up steps unit champ Valten to valiantly die to a single mortal blow from the BSB and the Halberds (somehow) win the combat (thanks 5+ ward and static combat res) allowing Demi unit number 2 to come in and save the day!

But the Halberds, BSB, and Kristof didnt last too much longer with all the Shade shooting in the air. They slowly died in a hail of bolts while the Demis cleaned up the other Corsair unit and the Dark Elf General.

End Result: We both killed each other's core and I won the game.

Game 2 vs Will Hovard's Ogres

One of the "filth" lists of the event :P Firebelly with i10 and rubyring, block of bulls, block of stubborn maneaters, sabretusk and an Ironblaster. This mission was all about fortitude...keeping it and taking it with a breaking point of 1.

Will won the roll for table sides and we deployed:

Sorry I didn't take anymore pics of this game (and thereby depriving you all of game "visuals"). Will and I had already had this exact game a couple of weeks ago, and the 2nd Will picked the side with the building we both knew exactly how this would play out. Basically Ironblaster shoots demis, firebelly picks apart the halberds and that is that. The 1 major difference was when I pushed forward a little bit to try sneak the Ironblaster points I fled a charge on my Demis and due to the connected tables completely misjudged where the edge of our table was and the unit ran off! Oh well - that was where the loss came from as nothing else (except my archers) died. Exciting moment was when the firebelly cascaded...and then avoided the pit. 

 End Result: Loss with a few bonus points here and there. We both retained our fortitude but Will picked up 1 of mine.  

Game  vs Sam Whitt's Tomb Kings

Hobby Hero in his element - heirphant on foot with Dragonbane gem and Iron curse icon, 5 chariots, 2 warsphinx and a colossus BOOM! Mission was to kill casters and the general (in my case Acolyte Kristof's life had a high price tag on it!)

We deployed:

And for some reason the Chariots were not behind the warsphinx...also note the orange dice "board edge" markers that would be been SOOOOO handly last game!

Not much to say here...I goad the Chariots into demis...

who do 2 wounds from 5 d6 s4 impact hits (so I get a 3+ armoursave) and then crumble! Demis were then free to go kill the heirphant. Other demi unit takes out the colossus and then gets stuck on t8 - the last wound on that warsphinx been taken by failed crumble test. The other warsphinx crashes into the Halberds (who had failed a charge themselves...). Sam Aligns it to the BSB (not the mission points) and doesnt kill it - instead ploughs into the unit - who had reformed to horde. Halberds hold from steadfast (not crown), wear it down to 2 wounds left (with Demis in the back providing Static combat res support...). The last 2 wounds go from another failed crumble test for a funny - if not anti climatic - end to the game.

End result: win with heaps of bonus points 

Game 4 vs James Millington's Warriors of Chaos

This mission was all about getting fortitude and your general into an 18 inch square box in the middle of the table. James was rocking a 2+ armour, 3+ ward 3rd eye demonic mount hero (with soul feeder...), 15 Tzeench warriors with HW/SH, 2x5 doggies, 6 trolls and 3 skull crushers. 

After much singing and immature jokes (sorry Peter) I corner deployed the halberds and got a sneaky charge on some doggies with nasty 6 inch overrun into troll flank with my Demis...who butchered the doggies, then promptly rolled a 5 for overrun!

I hope you can all see the problem here! Trolls then failed stupidity (thank goodness!) and the skull crushers smashed into the flank...and I really missed my 1+ armour save! meanwhile the General charged into the other Demi unit hoping to tank them out with his s7, and "unkillableness". However I had planned for the skullcrusher counter charge and my Halberds had an easy charge on their flank to Static Combat Res them out for the run down and overrun into troll flank.

The Trolls then killed Acolyte Kristof (boo!) costing me some bonus points while the General was getting very good at rolling 2's for his ward save! Trolls flee (run off board over 2 turns) while the Halberds reform to set up this:

...End Result: Winning me the game and the basic mission objective. 

Game 5 vs Hugh Dixon's broken cheesy High Elves

Basically the same mission as before...expect all units in the box cause fear and suffer d6s1 magical hits with no armoursaves...also rolling to see when the game ends.

Hugh was packing a Loremaster. BSB on an Eagle with Starlance, block of spears, some archers, chariot, and 2 bolt throwers.

We deployed and I moved up having got first turn.

Then the broken cheese kicked in. Demis on the right lose a model to searing doom - flee, fail to rally and flee off board. Other unit next turn takes 2 bolts and flees off board. Halberds However march up undeterred!

Hiding in a building doesnt help as they get fireballed, Kristof and BSB both die to Spirit Leech and the arrows keep coming. They fail a panic test getting out...sigh. And are sot to pieces. All that remains are my Archers hiding by a hill to get me pity points.

End Result: big hilarious loss. Hugh got my best opponent vote cos we had a great time removing my models... I didnt land a single blow or cause a single wound (let alone a successful one) to his army!

Overall: The last game (and the odd mission point not collected) cost me as I came in 6th - once again disappointing Pete Dunn. I got 20 for painting which was really surprising given I think my Empire is my weakest painted army (due to the basing and the Halberds). Given to top score was 25 and only 10 people scored 20 or better I am rather pleased with that.

A fantastic little event that I look forward to attending next time. A little sad in that it is also my last event of 2013 as I will be out of the country for Skitterleap and Vermintide (so unable to defend my crown).

Thank's Pete for organising, Locky for TO'ing and everyone who attended for making it really fun.