Sunday 15 April 2012

The Battle of Blood Valley

So I finally got down the club again, after a few weeks of family Sundays it was a chance to escape from the kids.

Well it was until I arrived, as my opponent was what the interwebz rather unkindly describe as the 'twelve year old.' I must admit my heart rather sank - not because of the kid so much as the prospect of being beaten by him. Ok I was a little unkind, having a slight hang over and desirous of a nuroushing cigarette, I rather brushed off his excited attempt to inform me of the highlights of his army - which was made from the Island of Blood with a battalion box.

My hackles rose slightly more when arriving back with freshly corrupted lungs he was discussing the merits of shadow magic with his father. Though luckily for me, he was only running a level two mage, and the prince on the griffin. And when it came to rolling for spells he got off whither and the pendulem.

We rolled watchtower which was not that pleasing either but thankfully High Elves don't have cannon.


After much humming and hahing decided against deploying the Leadbelchers in the tower on the principle that they don't get a stand and shoot he would get first turn, and I didn't fancy them fighting the Swordmasters. The High Elves didn't take the option to get control of the tower, which allowed me to use the Maneaters scout move to sneak in - there being no where sutiable for them to deploy in the High Elf deployment zone, as he had strung out his units across the board.

As so to the High Elf turn. The Elf general on the griffin charged the Maneaters in the tower. This was a little surprising, and set me searching for the rules of fighting in a building, while he moved his units.

I'm not a particularly competative player, but I do like the turn sequence to run in the right order. And as much as I enjoyed the narrative my opponent was offering throughout the game, he was rather a gadfly. Moving a unit, and then wanting to fire his bolt thrower, before giving his strategy away with a little speech about his fluff before being drawn back to the business at hand, the movement phase. In a way it was nice to play someone who is still full of the spirit of Warhammer...

Especially when their general jumps of his griffin, loses the benefit of his expensive lance, and charges into the tower to do battle with 3 Maneaters with additional hand weapons. Needless to say the general died. The griffin subsequently went nuts and spent the rest of the game charging at the tower in a frenzy.


Having burnt the scroll and the sceptre of stability dispelling the Elven magic in the first turn I was faced with a tactical problem. The Elves hadn't advanced enough to get any charges off the Ironguts and the Mournfangs and there was a chariot on the prowl that could threaten the rear of the Ironguts. This problem was eased when the Leadbelchers wiped out the Swordmasters in a round of shooting, and a sabretusk took, and survived, the chariot charge and drew it away from danger.

Having been alerted to the power of the Leabelchers the Elves concentrated all their fire power on the unit. Thus in turn three the mournfangs got the charge on a unit of spearman, rolled high on the impact hits, took two casualties in the combat and wiped out the unit.

It took until turn five to wipe the army out.

My honour was intact... phew....


After that I joined in a game of Wings of War.

The last time I played WWI dogfighting, it involved chemistry stands endangered your eyesight whenever you looked down to check your stats.

I really enjoyed the game, and managed to get a couple of kills with skillfull use of the Immelman turn.

Indeed it was such a good game that I wished we had time to play again.

Oh and I made the decision to get the few bits and pieces I need for my Ogres rather than start another army... though being a waramer, I wonder how long that will last....

peace:)

Saturday 14 April 2012

Heavens Above

I've arranged a game at the club for tomorrow.

1800 points, against High Elves, I think.

The list I have come up with is this...

Lvl 4 Slaughtmaster with Heavens - sceptre of stability, crown of command, mask of eeeee
Lvl 1 Butcher with Maw - scroll and ruby ring
Bruiser BSB - banner of swiftness.

10 Ironguts - standard, muso, champ

5 Leadbelchers - muso
4 Mournfang - muso, I/F, H/A
3 Maneaters - scout, stubborn, muso, H/A, AHW
Sabretusk
Sabretusk

The plan is the butcher goes with the leadbelchers and does the Firebellytype job. The Mournfangs and the Ironguts try and work together to get some multiple charges off. The Maneaters try and tie up the shooting and the sabretusks act as diverters.

Obviously if we roll Blood and Glory or Watchtower I'll be pretty much stuffed.

I worked out a few lists before coming up with this one, but I have wanted to try a Heavens SM for a while, and the buffs it gives to the Leadies. The scroll and the sceptre of Stability should give a bonus to the magic defence in the early turns, and give me a chance to line up some tasty charges. And hopefully the mask of eeee will force drop in weapon skill at the very least.

We shall see...

peace:)

Friday 13 April 2012

Treacle

The painting of the Spanish creeps along at a snails pace.

peace:)

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Hurrah for the Under Dog

I've always rather fancied an Empire army.

And given that various numpties are claiming it to be terrible, I think I may very well start building one.

I mean I used to play Wood Elves - which were apparently terrible - but I did rather well with them, and would still have the army if the Eternal Guard had not be metal and building units of them so expensive.

So I then built an Ogre army because they were supposed to be rubbish. Even before the new book I found them rather good. The new book has made them stronger by removing the pointless limitations mainly, but they still suffer the same weaknesses that attracted me in the first place.

There is something rather pleasing in playing supposedly weak armies - not least the look on your opponents face when they discover the interwebz was wrong.

peace:)

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Monday 9 April 2012

Doldrums

The Spanish militia unit progresses slowly on the paint table.

A quick tally of what I have painted this year reveals it is either 232 or 268 figures - which by anyone's standard is pretty good going.

So perhaps you'll forgive me if I am a little lacking the inspiration to plough through the latest unit.

I really should arrange another game down the club, that usually gets my juices flowing...

peace:)

Sunday 8 April 2012

Stuff Not in the Rules

I realise that in matters relating to Warhammer it is heresy to try to logically apply real life situations to events, but...

I have noticed that some people when trying to rationalise the changes to the empire mortar - shouldn't that be howitzer? - have wondered why an exploding shrapnel shell causes less damage to mass infantry than a large stone the same body of men.

The answer is pretty simple.

The impact of the stone creates a storm of teeth and bones that explode laterally within the unit.

Add to this that prior to artillery developements of the late 19th century the use of shrapnel was a highly specialised and rather hit or miss affair; with the shrapnel spraying in all directions.

peace:)

Friday 6 April 2012

Rolling Death

The new Empire book is tempting me more and more.

Though more interesting is watching the current Empire players struggling to come to terms with 8th edition and the possibilities offered by the new book.

Ok, I haven't seen the book, but I have learned that the Luminark of Hysh is about 120-130 points, apparently. The Hurricanum is about the same cost. Which means that for about 500 points you can field 4 Ironblasters - two with an area attack. Plus they offer combos that the Ironblaster doesn't, and from what I can gather they don't misfire.

To me, who has played Ogres and knows the value of chariot mounted artillery, this is rather exciting. Especially when it is backed up with conventional artillery, that with the addtion of an engineer is rather reliable.

I have the Spanish to paint, and it may well be that the Warriors of Chaos army will be out around the time that this project is complete. And if that book as genuine Monsterous Cav - as opposed to the DemiGriffins - and war alters akin to the new Empire options, plus some shooting... I will probably go that route - mainly because it offers more conversion possibilities. But if not I will in all likelihood get myself an Empire army and build myself the Talabecland army I have always fancied.

peace:)

Thursday 5 April 2012

Thumbs Up For the New Empire

I'll admit it.

I am tempted by the new Empire army.

Ok I don't know how the points work out, but I rather like the idea of the lazer wagon things, the only thing that really stops me is that I want something that contrasts my Ogres, and there is too much WS3 in the Empire book to really do that.

What I don't understand is the negativity surrounding the new book - not least because in all honesty I don't think much has changed.

I'm not sure if Empire players have noticed, but the new 8th ed books offer players choices - and pretty hard choices at that. So the idea that the army is 'nerfed' due to changes to units that have seemingly become the 'only' build is a sign of just how dated the book is. Curiously Vampire players have embraced this new found freedom, and no doubt when the book eventually reaches eager hands of a wider player base, the debate will break out of the sterile twatishness of the big mouthed 'experts' that feel the need to criticise everything.

Frankly some of the chatter has been bizarre. For instance, people have been complaining about the Steam Tank being reduced to T6. Supposedly this is a sign of the book being Cruddified (*rolly eyes*), and the 'experts' point to the Tyranid codex. However a brief glance at the still current codex shows the Steam Tank as being.... eh.... T6. The interwebz warriors would have it that this change is as a result of the book being not properly playtested. Which surely flies in the face of all reason, as the change to T10 happened with the 8th ed FAQ, the studio have seen this change in action for nearly two years, and it seems perfectly reason that they have taken the decision that T10 was mistake.

The 'nerfing' of the mortar is also not as it seems.

A few months ago there was a story doing the rounds of a casual conversation involving Jervis Johnson at Warhammer World. According to reports Mr Johnson was of the opinion that the mortar would move to the small template. Let's not forget the armoured Butcher issue here. So clearly the decision had been taken that the mortar was too good, and needed to be balanced - (ignore that it is a howitzer) - so the question is, would it have been better to have S3, small template or S2, large template? Keeping in mind that it was going to get a points increase whatever.

Honestly the way people are talking it's easy to forget that the Empire has access to all the magic laws, cheap mages, and a wide variety of troops, and that the changes - rumours - have offered an increased number of options to tailor a list. In short to do what everyone who has a new book has had to do - experiment, and make up their own mind about what sort of army they want to play.

peace:)

Wednesday 4 April 2012

Tuesday 3 April 2012

Why Girls Don't Wargame

There are numerous stereotypes about gamers.

They don't wash, they live in their mother's basement, etc. Oh and they are social inadequates who are not very comfortable with the female of the species.

This trait is often seen on podcasts, ironically those same podcasts without noticing the irony will occasionally question why women, or their other half, aren't interested in their hobby.

Anywho...

When I got back into gaming my army was a Lahmian Vampire army, and flushed with excitement of writing lists and painting I made the mistake of signing up for a couple of forums using the name of the lady vampire who was my general.... yeah I know.... you should always have a forum name like 2thehilt69, or Ironteeth, or whatever. But I'm a fluffy guy, and what harm could it do?

Well it took one post on the forum to attract the private messages. Now they weren't quite at the level of 'what are you wearing?' but it wasn't far off. The creep in question wanted to know where I lived, if they could arrange a game, and other personal stuff. Which you might say is fair enough, except I have never had that sort of thing happen on any other forum, so it can hardly be described as normal.

Rather than get involved in any unpleasantness I just didn't bother with the forum again. Occasionally I would pop back to empty the inbox, which had a surprisely large number of mail for an inactive account. Surprising because the expected number would be none. Yet there would be three or four missives arriving every six months or so from gamers in search of the dream.

Anywho...

As lately I have been rather pleased with the figures I have painted, and this is a painting forum I thought I'd risk it again to post some pictures of my work.

Instead of the usual comments these forums generate, 'love it', 'really like the blue', etc the pictures attracted comments akin to teenagers on a street corner acting dumb - cos everybody knows a girl likes a dickhead.

Not.

peace:)

Monday 2 April 2012

Make Do and Mend

After the relative luxury of painting small units, I now face the daunting challenge of 24 man unit.

Which is a slightly odd thing to say, as my French army was built on 36 man units.

Still I have found a use for the infantry figures in the Perry French Dragoon kit. I noticed in a book I was reading the other day that the Spanish cavalry was so poorly mounted that the cavalry men often fought dismounted. Which is nice as I have enough figures for an infantry battalion and some skirmishing dragoons.

The question then arises as to whether they should be attached to the brigade of infantry regulars, or the cavalry brigade.

But regardless I have placed orders for the figures I need to complete the army.

peace:)

Sunday 1 April 2012

Tin Hat Time Again

A while ago I started building an Empire army using ECW figures.

The project didn't get very far as I couldn't work out a simple and cost effective way to transport pikemen, and no one seemed particularly interested in playing ECW.

I mention as a way of saying that I have more than a passing interest in the Empire book.

So with the update impending and the new figures being previewed, my interest has been sparked once again.

Well it was until I went in search of rumours.

Whatever the collective term for a bunch of moaners is, it surely applies to Empire players. The rumours have them running round like Chicken Licken, there is much whining and nashing or teeth that the entire range is not being updated leaving them with State Troops that don't rank up, etc, etc, yadda, blah, blah, blah - in short the world is going to hell in a handcart.

I think I'll wait for the book to come out..

peace:)