Good Heavens!

Hi all,

Runefang this weekend and until a spark of genius last night I was going to have to suffer the embarrasment of kicking ass without a WYSIWYG heavens mage.

Back Story:
I wrote the list the week of list submission and put in an order for the Hurricanum mage bitz from my usual prefered ebay supplier.

a very short time later the bitz arrive....with the wrong body. Instead of the mage body I recieved the body of the hurricanum assistants...and the arms/staff/heads etc of the mages.

HOWEVER with a bit of cunning and blank staring at my own bitz pile I present Harold Finch the Heaven's Mage.

So Luminark assistant body and arms. Left hand is the Heaven's mage hand, the "staff" is the Luminack assistant's staff with the heaven's mage staff mixed in.

I like to think that Harold has no idea what he is doing (given the way he is looking at the orb with a "I think this is what I'm supposed to be doing" look on his face). Really he is just a huge Phil Collins fan. Whenever he sings his favourite song bad stuff happens.

So if you find yourself across the table from me this weekend, I apologise in advance if I sing every magic phase.

GW taketh, and taketh away....New Empire FAQ

Woah sad day for the Empire.

New Empire FAQ.

Bad News:

• No more hatred Demigryphs from waralter (good thing I'm not taking one to Runefang!). My Waralter will now be forever sitting on the shelf as the one reason for taking it, has been taken away.

• The Whitecloak of Ulric has been finally clarified to "models in base contact". I knew I was on the losing side of that argument...but I still stand by my original very well referenced comparative study on why the most consistent pan 8th ed armybook reading of this item was "units in base to base contact". I never took this item because of the lack of clarity...now I still wont be using it.

Good/Lolz News:

I believe this is the 3rd(?) Empire FAQ and the 3rd attempt to explain the very, very, very, very, very poorly worded Detachment rules (it is borderline Skaven armybook poorly written). Now more FAQ to create confusion....enter the all powerful Errata (hopefully my E-armybook update will be coming through soon!).

Basically they have capitulated and admitted that they got it wrong (finally). Now it is clear that "steadfast" can exist out of combat (yay), and that it is the parent unit's situation that is the be-all-and-end-all off the matter. Most importantly they clarifed that the parent unit has to be in combat to have lost steadfast.

Effect: so long as the parent has at least 1 rank of 5 models and is not in combat = CONGA LINING STEADFAST COLDBLOODED DETACHMENTS!

Oh...and my 2 cents on the High Elf stuff coming through. I'm going to sit on the armybook for a while and really crunch the best way to spend the least money making my army work.

My hopes and dreams:

• Interesting effective core (seriously). Bus of spears with dual (cheaper) T. chariot support, archers and fast calv is all I want!I like the idea of the slightly Greeco/Macedonian-Roman style look and feel of the army. I would hate for this to disappear in a puff of "oooo look new stuff"
• Cheaper RBTs. In a meta of monsterious calv...bs4 s6 bolt throwers are needed...but too expensive currently. 50/75pts and we're talking.
• SHADOW WARRIORS LIVING UP TO THE FLUFF...or dirt cheap/core! I havnt read the fluff (Queue Shirts off Warhammer rant) but I've heard that shadow warriors are supposed to kick serious ass. The new kit looks really cool...so I want a legitmite excuse to buy it.
• Serious competition between swordmasters and whitelions. The rumoured ASF/martial prowess with some way to get ward means I would LOVE to run 21 Swordmasters 7 wide. If that = 29 s5 ASF attacks = awesome....but if they die to zombies faster than I can kill zombies (like current) = back to the whitelions. 
• The new stuff to not be the only thing that makes the book good.  Ideal situation: the new stuff (Phoenix/silly flying boat things: both on "I will break 1st game" flying stands/new character choices etc) is "good" in the same wat the new WoC monsters are "good"...as in interesting, but not the game breaking cheese they could have been. 

Other than that I'm fine so long as there are dragons and eagles...and whitecloaks acting like seadragon cloaks...and available to characters. 

Anywho that's all from me. Runefang in the weekend...apparently I have the nastiest list (says Pete with the "Skaven need an update as there is only 1 list that works" list)....so naturally I'll choke and draw Dwarfs 4 games and Skaven for the last one...fun times...

Battle reports as usual unless I play all 5 dwarf armies...in which case I'll be showcasing a new found love for Warmahordes having rage quit Warhammer (that's how it works right?).

New Internet Trend: Announce Runefang List

Hey all,

Just following the trend and posting my list for Runefang. Let  me introduce to you all my Empire-Lore of Heavens style:

Arch Lector (General): Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Talisman of Preservation, Dragonhelm
Lvl4: scroll (Lore of Heavens)
BSB: Full Plate Armour, Enchanted Shield, Shrieking Sword
Engineer

38 Halberds: Full Command
5 Archer detachment
10 Archers
5 Knights: Musician
5 Knights: Musician

4 Demigryphs: Musician
4 Demigryphs: Musician, Standard
Cannon
Cannon

Steam Tank
Hurricanum
Hellblaster
2397

Wow what a list! It was born out of the fustrations I had with my NZTC Empire and my desires to try something a bit different. No lore of light is a little bit odd for me-as is having no support mage (or "support 70 Glade Guard"). But I'm sure I can figure out how to cast comets reasonably quickly.

I am a little conscious that this list might play a wee bit like a dwarf list (if dwarfs had comets and giant chickens of doom), but of the announced lists, 1 is a dwarf list (thanks John), another is a dwarf list (you can dress it up however you want Sam), 1 is cannon fodder (sorry Glen), and the other is a skink swarm (can I say "comet + chain lightening" loud enough Jeff?) so I 'm reasonably happy with that.

On the WYSIWYG front I have ordered the bitz from Ebay to make up the hurricanum heavens mage (my bitz from the hurricanum got turned into the light mage) so hopefully they arrive in time for me to have an actual heavens mage rocking it. In the meantime I am slowly painting up a 2nd unit of Reavers for my High Elves...