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.

Weekend Round up

Yo yo yo

With 1 week to go until Warpfire I have been Warhammering away with vengeance!

2400pts Empire vs VC
On Saturday I rocked up to Chateau Dunn and gave Tom "the Master" a game. I took my Empire (light council) and Tom was using a points denial "not actually aiming to win the game" VC list that was rather interesting from a denial aspect:

Vamplord lvl4 with the usual stuff
lvl1 and lvl2 death necros
naked Vamp BSB
2 banshees
with a scroll, mr(2), and scroll of shielding all hidden in a unit of 38 Skeletons = 1375pts that hid in a building all game...except for when the banshees came out to delay my line advance with some cunning cunningness (spell check almost made that awkward...) and the ability to shut down 2 magic phases.

Top it off with 2x8 crypthorrors and chaff = a list that not many points are going to be lost from...however it was a late game purple sun through my Stank (having survived 2 other attempts) that dropped it from a moderate win to an 11-9/12-8ish win for me - pretty impressive given the Stank was my only points loss and all I did was kill chaff while trying to get close enough to the Crypt horrors to engage in combat (unsuccessful thank you battle of the pass given 24 inches of "moving backwards").

Highlights:
Both forests on my side being venom thickets,
Seeing Otto back on his Waralter having been stuck footslogging it for most of the year,
5 knights being responsible for most of my combat phases, and
A super long range, through a unit archer shooting to kill the last 2 zombies in a unit BOOM! (yeah that's right...I took out a unit of zombies without engaging them in combat - it was THAT sort of a game!)

A great game against someone who knows how to chaff well (and in the process highlighted some holes in my list) and passes 5+ regens like he was back using his Demons...seriously I killed 4 Crypt horrors with cannons ALL GAME...firing 5 turns with 3 cannons at them and only rolling a 1 to wound once (tiny violin orchestra plays).

Hobby wise I've been a little slack having been distracted by power tools and DIY...however I do have another 9 Greatswords on their way, a non-Phoenix riding Assyrian guy, and a Calv rankfiller that might be doing a "hobby show and tell" later this week.

But of course, this weekend has really been about Space Marines:

Next year's hobby project will be getting a Space Marine army up and running. I figured that Space Marines being *the* 40k army never really get too far behind the meta curve so will always be good on the table (unlike my Orks who have long passed the "still fun to loose" phase).

I'm not exactly sure what I will be doing...Sternguard are appealing...dreadnaught spam...tank rush...droppods FTW...and I still think an alliance with Imperial Guard would be fun to do (hobby-wise...though I think there are some pretty bent combos there too). And now with the Chapter Traits I have to factor in what chapter I will belong to BEFORE I paint it up.

However my criteria is that I must like what I have and it must be able to smash face occasionally . Of course I will be reliant on other people's suggestions as to what is actually good as I dont really know all the special rules that well.

Anywho that was the weekend.