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!