Dark Ascension pre-release weekend

So, it`s that time again that a new Magic the Gathering set is upon us. Yesterday, sunday, I went to the second day of the pre-release to battle it out and score some Planeswalker points on the sideline.

Expectations low as I`m only playing MtG again since past summer, the day started sour. You get to open 3 boosters each of Innistrad and the new set, Dark Ascension, and guess what was in my very first opened Innistrad booster. Yup, Liliana of the Veil damn damn damn as you have to give the parcel to the pool and receive another in place.



The pool I received wasn`t to write home about, so the best I could build was a green / black deck hoisting 2 Falkenrath Nobles and 2 of the new variant of Llanowar Elf, the Scorned Villager. Basically a mana generating flipping werewolf.

So armed with a big green beasties mostly deck, i had to go to war. Now, I always use minor land, and this time, at only 13, people looked at me strangely with my 7 Forests and 6 Swamps... and yet I only got mana screwed once, in my third round. Apart from those, I did have two of the above mana beasties, AND the new gargoyle that also generates mana, so this wasn`t the cause I lost big time. That was more to blame on the fact that I just don`t have all that much experience in the new style of Magic playing.

By the end of the day, i scored a 2 - 4 record with no drops, though on technical terms my opponent of the 4th round had filled in the result slip wrong, granting me a 2-1 win instead of a 1-2 loss though.

The thing that gives me some confidence though, is even with that crap deck, I wasn`t blown away apart from round 2, where a deck with an Invisible Stalker equipped with whatever bumps and boosts kept hitting me from turn 3 onwards for between 5 to 12 damage... not much to do against an hexproof, unblockable beastie, and a race against time I just couldn`t win as he could gladly sacrifice tokens and critters to block of my big meanies like the Ghoultree.

So I have high hopes that albeit slowly, playing MtG at an `above beer and pretzel level` is slowly comming back, I certainly saw players end up higher just because of their pools (one Liliana and two Sorin`s where around) were, well, playing themselves without any thinking. First two games I lost 2-0, the rest I won at least a round, and my opponents rarely ended above 5 lives, so not to shabby at all for an amateur.


And we got this cool rare promo card foil as well in the end... not much use to an all Blue Constructed like me, but I`ll find some trade use for something somewhere with it...

Project Insanity week 3: Many of First

Remember that first `colour scheme test` Chaos dwarf warrior I brought an ode to a few weeks ago, labelled Fist of Many? Well, here he is again, and this time, he brought some friends.

The main core of the way to small army I`ll be fielding the 12th is this humongous points block, consisting of 30 Warriors and accompanied by the Sorcerer Prophet and a Castellan, costing almost 900 points out of the available 2000. I know, that is many eggs in one basket, and way to many eggs in there for my own personal tastes, but necessity is a very cruel mistress.



Once the tournament has passed, the unit will be filled out to the 40 the base can accomodate, and the character excluded from it. Unit champions in my forces will become the 3rd edition Chaos Dwarf models so that they are sprinkled and integrated in the whole army.

So now it is down to the last line, with only 6 blunderbusses remaining to finish, I`m actually going to make it about two weeks ahead of the tournament, a rather spiffy effort for my doing...

The Battle Plan

Roight, about this time, I *should* start thinking of a modus operandi, aka a plan, to tackle the tournament. Fact is, I won`t be able to get a preliminary battle in to see how it all works, as tonight would be the last chance. Release events and drafts for the new Magic set the comming weeks you see.

So my force will be appearing on the tournament with low expectations and no mileage at all on the counter. Okay, so I had decided for myself already that this year would be a `get the feel again` year anyways, so I`m going to have to resort to my veteran years, adaptability on the field of battle and sheer luck to pull of anything else then being slaughtered.

One flank of the huge block will have to be anchored by a board edge, while the other will have the hailshots to protect it. The Earthshaker willl hopefully reduce some enemy blocks with a few well lobbed shells and hope the Quake! effect does the rest, while the K`daai will have two jobs. The first being to tackle all kinds of light infantry, flying circusses and the likes that head for my `in table` flank and cannon, the second to try and not burn themselves apart.

Looking at the opposition, I must say I don`t have to much of a clue how they play these days, so I`ll have to pull on the one resource I still have, how they played in 6th and hope / pray they haven`t changed to much in style over the years.

Registred sure are a Nurgle Deamon army, a Chaos Warrior army, a Dwarf force, a High Elf force, an Araby force and a Nippon force. Don`t really know the last two, but drawing on the historical periods on which they are based, I expect a light infantry force for the first and a lined up, heavy infantry bunch for the second, but none to speedy armies with either.
The Nurgle force I know as it is Patrick`s one of Nelson`s Revenge, their S might be to hard but I hope I play him for sheer relaxness factor. The High Elves consist of blocks of 20 - 25 spearmen and 3 bolt throwers, so the main job there will be to find a way to take those out, and lob shells in the ranks to reduce their re-roll to hit thingie.

On the list of `still awaiting army list` is probably either a second Warriors or Chaos Dwarf list (take the latter, I`ll crush you! ROAWR), a Skink force which I already saw being played, lots of the little buggers and a serious flying circus, a Zombie force (wait, I can outmanoeuvre something???), a non Night Goblin Goblin force (slavvveeess) and my nemesis Guy with his Beastmen. Beaten those ones in the current edition (also, only battle ever so far in 8th... and that`s almost 1.5 years ago) so will do again (I hope).

It`s going to be fun for one, as I`m slowly (hey, I`m old, everything goes slower and takes longer to complete then it used to be. Hey ladies, yeah, that also ;-) ) getting the `tournament anticipation` pumping in the old veins again. Used to be times when I could get hyped, now THAT is going to take quite a while longer though this stint around, try 2013... IF the Maya`s proved wrong that is...

See you next week, for the finale of the painting project!

WFB The Empire: Crossbowmen

So the first of the Core troops for the Empire has been painted, and can either be used as a `full` unit of 10 Crossbowmen, or I can split it into two detachments of 5.

Crossbowmen are in my view some of the most handy missile troops the E,pire has to offer, the extra range gives you on average one turn more of pouring missile fire into the enemy, and even though handguns might be better against knights and the likes, that isn`t what I use my ranged troops for. I got cannons to do that job...



Painted in the livery of Altdorf to be part of the Heroes retinue I painted a few weeks ago, next on the list to ressurect for this force is a unit of classic Greatswords, whom of course have to just be painted up in the colours of Carroburg. After that, it`ll probably be a regiment of spearmen in Wissenland colours, then we`ll see where to go from there.

Though a Militia unit in the Sylvanian colours seems like a nice sideregiment as well hehehe...

Lead Painter`s League 6 has been announced

So it is that time of the year again, where the daring members of the Lead Adventure Forum square off on the field of battle.

This year it`ll run from march onwards, and there have been some changes in the rules, most importantly for me the following

* Entrants are restricted to 50: Roight, so first I have to see that I can get into it uberhaubt. I hope my efforts and results of the last 2 years might be able to reserve me a spot.

* No photoshopping etc, plain backgrounds: Okay, it wipes away my plan to make 10 paintings to serve as a background, but it is all in all a good ruling. Just figures, no blahblah.

* Start the League with already three teams submitted: I always entered fully fresh teams, so no problem there in essence, but as soon as the Chaos Dwarfs are done, I better start painting for the League entry on the 27th of February.



Bonus themes have been decided as well, I kinda like them but it is going to be hard to reach all goals for maximum points.

* Round 1: Old Metal - classic, pre 1991 metal models. I like this, I even have a still uncracked blister from 1978 with some Star Trek Andorians by Heritage Miniatures, it`s about time I start painting them then...

* Round 5: Tolkien - full points are for a team of 5 heroes and 5 opponents. Nothing a walk to the local GW can`t solve, just going to need to combine as few models as possible for as few euros as possible. So 4 or 5 blisters should be sufficiant.

* Round 10: Naval - the one I dread. You need 2 times 5 ships plus a large model for full points, so perhaps I should order up some extra Confederate Ironclads to face off the Union ones I have lying around, and build something like a fort for the large model. Doubtfull I`m going to score the full amount for this round, but we`ll give it a try none the less.


So what are going to be the goals then this year?

* Try to win 5 out of 10 rounds. Last year I managed four, so being ambitious here

* Try to end in the first half of the table. Previous years I always fell short just of the halfway turnpoint, so this year it`s time to haul myself into that half.

* Gather once more all bonus points. This is going to be a hard one...

This year I`m going to try and do a weekly series on the how I fares, but first things first, let`s see if we make the Hallowed Fifty in the first place...

Sorry PS3, you`ll have to wait for me just a bit longer...

WFB Cathay: Phoenix

When I first read the Cathayan fan made army list, which you can download for free from the Warhammer Fantast Battle Reporter website here, there was no doubt I would try and build a small force for it.

I have quite a few Chinese models lying around from the Curtsey`s Miniatures ranges, for a project long time ago that, as so many, never came further then the planning stages but hey, that`s wargaming and the clublife.

In that list are three units I considered a `must have` for sheer coolness, namely a Celestial Dragon (goes with my tattoo), Terracotta Warriors (though it seems Black Army isn`t running anymore these days) and a Phoenix. Phoenixes are cool. Well, hot in a cool way. Well, you get what I mean...

So I found one nice and suitable for my needs last edition of Salute in a traders bin of prepaints from the DnD range, a transparant birdie which I finally repainted this weekend, as a guy has to do something while he waits for glues to dry on Chaos Dwarfs.





The birdie is based on a 40 by 40 base and stands about 5cm tall, good enough to do the job of a 150 points, `kill me whatever you like I get back anyway` flaming aspect of rebirth.

The 'Soft Scores' of Tournaments

"Want to play those Chaos Dwarfs this friday?"

"No, I can`t, they aren`t all painted yet"

"I know, but you can at least play with them already"

"Erm, no, not paaaainted..."

This is an actual clubforum dialogue from the past weeks. You see, I live by the own rule of 'if it ain`t painted, it ain`t getting played'.



Call me an elitist, call me a snob, call me whatever you like, but in my mindset of the hobby, and by default I don`t mean the GW Hobby in detail but all the miniature wargame things and era`s out there, the hobby involves more then just shoving around tiny little soldiers. It is not only about proving your the second comming of Julius Caesar or that you can build army lists tougher then Chuck Norris.



No, the wargame hobby for me involves all the aspects, from the making up of an army list, to the assembling, painting and throwing in the odd conversion, over the banner addition to at least knowing (which isn`t the same as playing) the `style` of your chosen force.

Face it, our hobby costs bucket loads of money. If I ever dare to calculate the amount of money I`ve put into the purchases of little men and all the needed supplies (rulebooks, paints, brushes, etc...) I think I might get depressed. Or at least miss that villa with olympic sized swimming pool in the Provence I could have bought instead...



Add to that the costs of what I refer to as `source material` when your into things like anime, comics etc and little baby Jesus cries. Your going to have plenty of inspiration though...

I try this year, with an extra incentus to get back full time into the Warhammer side of the hobby, to pledge myself to the Lead Painter`s Vow, a record track that tells you that you actually painted more models then you bought, and as you can see that is already going horribly wrong, even though january hasn`t fininshed yet.



This is due to the factor that january is waht I call one of the `Months of Plenty`. If you scour the internet, you`ll often find people clearing out part of their collections in either january or august.
This phenomena is due to the following factors according to my own observations and experiences.
In january, groups tend to decide on going for project X or Y and there are always those that then clear out older models as it seems it isn`t going to get played anytime soon, takes place (which for most of us is a premium) and free some funds for the new projects that way.
The second month, august, is the halfway break of the big summer vacation for schools. At this point, people tend to either get bored and do other things or the clubs seem `empty` as many are on holiday with wife and kids. At this point they tend to break of from a part of the hobby and clear out a heap of models again, perhaps even to supplement the holiday budget.
These are then also the months `deals` can be made... and the mountain tends to grow to astronomical heights again.

But let`s get back to the core of this Opinion piece, the soft scores at tournaments. Now first of all, tournaments are a niche in the hobby. Most fantasy gamesystems like GW, Privateer etc have them, while on the historical side of things they tend to be rarer. Not non-existant, just a lot less then there are fantasy / sci-fi torunaments, Flames of War perhaps excluded as this is a popular system that lends itself just as well to competitive gaming.

Reading around lately on a lot of forums, blogs and other media, as I have a decennia to catch up unto, I often see people complaining that there all winning, hard as nails bunch of models is taken away from his rightfull place as King of the Hill for a less scoring army, but that was gorgeously painted and had conversions.

AND RIGHTLY SO!

Because it is a hobby that involves more then only the throwing of dice, the peeking for loopholes of rules and the trying to create ubercombo`s of doom.
The wargaming hobby involves YOU caring for YOUR models. A decent paintjob, and I`m not talking Golden Demon standard here, is easy to acquire. Heck, even I can manage that and I`m all thumbs with paintbrushes and green stuffs.

The internet is full of how to tutorials these days, just a click away gives you handy insights in techniques, tips and tricks to get a decent result for a minimum (in perspective) of effort. You even have things like dips these days to provide instant highlights and shading, a product I don`t use myself but I`ve seen VERY lovely results with.



If you spend hundreds of pounds on models, then surely you can spend a few hours on getting those guys a noce colour. And no matter what painted score card at whatever tournament you look at, a basic painted, all based army yields at least around half of the points available.

Next point on those soft scores are usually WYSIWYG and conversion scores. I can`t actually see the problem with the first score points. Tournaments aren`t the place in my mind`s eye to try out new units. If they worked, you buy them. Or convert them. Or even use alternative models there where permitted from other manufacturers.
Okay, granted, I understand company sponsored tournaments want to see people play only with their own product, it is THEIR range afterall and they SPONSOR and ORGANISE the whole shaboodle. But at an independant tournament? A Dwarf is still a Dwarf, no matter what brand he comes from right? As long as your opponents can see that those dwarves you labelled hammerers aren`t barechested, mohawk sporting chaps... there won`t be to much discussion and the points for WYSIWYG are yours.



Conversions are a tat more difficult, and this I understand. There is for example to start with the difference between a loose formation game like 40k, where you can have things stick out on all sides, and ranked games like Warhammer where you basically have to stay within the footprint of the model. You must be able to rank them up after all, not a simple job at the best of times so let alone is all kinds of things stick out left or right...
And I can`t imagine a lot of conversion possibilities on an american infantry platoon...



Next on the average score card table... the spirit of the army! I actually find this a rather important, and even often UNDERscored part at tournaments.
Know your army, build it in the style it is supposed to be represented but add your own touches and flavour... this might actually be a nice point to talk about in a future point in far more detail. And now the setting of your game!
Most tournaments are by definition labelled as `a chance to meet new people in a competitive environment`. Now, whether you like playing on the edge or not, fact is that at tournaments you get to know people the best. Even more then at conventions, where you in my opinion work more on your personal bonds with traders and people of the organising clubs, while at tournaments you tend to get to know the person you play against a little.
I can completely understand the people, and there are more then you think (me being one of them) that rather play the middle or bottom tables but be able to have a chat about their hobby (which admittedly, is something you don`t get to do often at say work for example, as we have a rather `specialised` hobby) then to be knife between teeth win at all costs on the top three or four tables.

You can ask anyone of `Team TSA`, I tended to have the habbit of on purpose minor loss or draw my first battle at each and every tournament just to avoid those types, and worked up my way through the tables afterwards from there-on, Rain Man style. I the end I also ended up in the Top 10s, but I didn`t have my nerves on edge, and had a good laugh all day.... though I admit I`ll kill that bloke with his `this dudes, and that dude, then that dudes aims at that dude...`, he must have been my WORST opponent EVER. Beaten him though. Big time. Hehehehe *cough*. But it was stressing to say the least.

So yes, I`m in favor big time about the soft scoring points as they make a more `complete` experience of the hobby, in whatever setting you tend to game!

And so we go out with these famous words:



And now it is your turn. Get out of that couch and go into your hobby space, go to the gamecenter, the garage, the cellar and go paint and shape those armies. You`ll never find a more rewarding hobby!

*Bonus Points to those that get the reference*

Project Insanity week 2: Big Gun, Number One!!!

Yes, I know that`s from AC/DC. You tube the song, and enjoy Arnie himself doing the infamous leg hopping in it.
But this is a true blast to memory lane, as this model, long ago sculpted by Alan Perry, was the number one reason I fell in love with, and always remained, the Dawi Zharr.

You see, I haul from an era of Warhammer in which War Machines where mostly labelled as `small` and `cute`, and then this beast came along. The fact it had the `holy shell bearers` crew only reinforced the image for me. I fell in love with this model from the very first time I lay my eyes onto it in a White Dwarf ages ago.



And that was even before I read the rules of the cannon. You see, in my heighdays, when I shuffled from tournament to tournament, I towed along two of these guns in my list. Not for the damage it did, but for the earthshaker by-effect, which gave my infantry otherwise force the chance and more importantly time, to line up those blunderbuss volleys. Getting caught in those days in the crossfire volley of two units of 21 blunderbusses tended to ruin your day, not to mention your battleplan...

So now it is back in the game, under the disguise of the Dreadquake Mortar and optionally mounted on a traincarriage. But as I have an old school army (even though I already have quite a few of the new FW thingies) I am so including my beloved gun in the list. It`s expensive as hell, the quake rules are changed and you need an Ogre loader to fire every turn with success, but it... is... still the Earthshaker.

The Ogre itself is a normal Bull of a terribly painted, 40k bumpers and spiky bits glued onto them lot for nearly naught on eBay. Nothing some detaching and repainting can solve, even though at 6 Bulls, not all my cannons in the Earthshaker Grand Battery (don`t ask...) will get an extra crewmember. Yeah well.

In addition to the gun, I also managed to paint up the level 2 , Lore of Metal wielding Deamonsmith this week. This bloke, dubbed the `carrier of obligatory Dispel Scroll` will linger near the gun. This way, he can benefit from the Look Out! rules with the crews, while the gun can re-roll due to the Infernal Engineer rules.



Why I take the Lore of Metal is because I like to use the lesser used magical lores, it adds a dimension to the `standing out of the mass` that you have with the Chaos Dwarfs to start with. Though I admit, if I know I have a battle against someone playing a `flying circus` I`m probably going for the Lore of Fire, as people tend to race towards the big fat cannon with those things.

An Usurper? What is This!

I learned that in the small tournament on the club, someone else will also play the Dawi Zharr. TWO of the noble armies in a 16 man or so event, surely I must throw this little lordling into the fold and crush him under the hallowed boot of Hashut before his political ambitions reach to far.

Or I`ill line up the Earthshaker Grand Battery against him... DODGE THIS MOTHAFUCKA!

WFB Araby: Hashishin

The first unit of one of the unofficial but professionally made armies I`m gonna try and plunk down a thousand points for this year, the Hashishin are a Special choice in the Araby list.



The models themselves where painted a while ago for a Lead Painter`s League, so it was only a matter of touching them up. They are from the Black Tree Saracen range, of which I have quite a few models lying around *somewhere* that at least should provide a good base to start building an army from...

These units of Assassins are ambusher scouts, who can coat their weapons in Poison. Though the unit has no command upgrades and is small in maximum size, they can be useful if they get the chance to take care of war machines or straggling characters. Which is basically what I`m going to try and use them for...

If not, you still have at least a small flurry of high initiative attacks to throw into a side or rear of an enemy unit, even though being skirmishers in the current rules they can`t knock out rank bonusses and probably will die themselves rather fast as well.

Just a matter of swiftly trying to do more kills on the enemy then the enemy can retaliate to...

The Lunamaria Collection

If there is such a thing possible as having a crush on a drawn character, then in my case that would have to be on Lunamaria Hawke, the feisty pilot of the Custom Zaku from Gundam Seed Destiny.

Though in my case, having a crush means nothing more then collecting statuettes, gashapon`s and model kits of her and her suit...

So I was very happy yesterday that apart from my Captain Britain staue of pure awesomeness there where also 4 more Lunamaria`s of all kinds in the mailbox...






Included are a funny Kawaii version of her and the rather scene specific version where she spies on Kira and Athrun before going of to shop...



Finally, to quote the late Hein Westenfluss `... and what`s up with the redhead, surely that mini-skirt isn`t part of a standard ZAFT uniform right?`

Rule Britannia!

Just a quickie to show the newest addition to my collection

Brian Braddock, Captain Britain and imho coolest Marvel hero created, now has his own limited edition statue from the Bowen Designs series.

It might be odd that he was chosen, as he is not really a `mainstreamer` in the Marvel-verse, but this sculpt by Mark Newman, posing him atop a ornate cornerstone of some building, captures the spirit of the character. Stoic, heroic and `looking out for`-ness droop of the statue.




Standing well over 40cm in height and weighing in more then a kilo, this polystone statue has a place of honor now in my `Man Cave`, towering above my collection of Excalibur, MI-13 and likewise comics.

Limited to 700 copies, I got number 696 so I can say I got really lucky by just making it!

The Lure of Warhammer

I guess you can say I`m back `into` it. After a brake of more then a decade, slowly my defenses crumbled and more and more I was lured back to the world of the Games Workshop hobby.
Over the past weeks I listened, I read and I watched at the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp. I enlisted for a FUN tournament and a Blood Bowl league. And the truth is stunning, yet no suprise.

It`s like this in cold hard facts: since the release of 8th edition and the Project Asrai that was featured on this blog, I have been slowly and steadily been gearing back to war for Warhammer. Initially also for Warhammer 40.000, but I find that, just like all those years ago, I`m still more of a ranked up troops person then a big tank person.

That means I will be painting up regiments more then squads in the comming months.

Another factor is that, and the others can say what they want, the Far Side Iniatitive has ran it`s course. There is no longer a need for the old Warhammer players of our group, who back then `had it` with GW games. This was mostly a result of a very bad club-tournament result, where things happened beyond imagination.

Things like an army, even though only 3/4ths finished (for example, non of the interiors of the vehicles where painted, even though it was displayed with hatches open) being nominated as Best Painted Army just beacuse `the bloke always bring a completely fresh army to a tournament`.

That tournament was ran by official Outriders...

So we got the Far Side, offering an alternative to the back then very popular GW games at TSA, to play something else with a low `step in cost` and not sitting twiddling thumbs all friday evenings.

But now, so many years down the road, those veterans like Patrick from Nelson`s Revenge, or my archnemesis Guy, myself, and some that had disappeared from the radar for a few years are `ready` to start playing Warhammer again. It showed in the campaigns the last two years, as more and more motivation drifted from one thing to another, people where searching what to do... so we tied back the knots to the game we all got to know each other with, Warhammer Fatasy Battles.

Now though, it is grabbing me back in her seductive clutches... I`m actually planning on (slowly) restarting all my old armies and then some.

So let`s take a trip through memory lane.

The Chaos Dwarves always have been and always will be, my number one army. It is even now still the only force I plan to restore to it`s former 15000+ points size. I just love those little blighters for the look and concept, always havem always will.

But they actually weren`t the very first Warhammer models I ever bought... that `honour` belongs to... The Empire.
The very first WFB models I bought (heck, as if I knew what they did, they had the boxes in the local store back then and they looked cool, and at least they had a book) where Karl Franz on his griffon Deathclaw, the box of 4 Knights of the White Wolf and their grandmaster, an Amethyst wizard on foot and a mortar. That tiny, little mortar of the early 90s.




In all honesty, I liked playing the Empire, with their little cute Steam Tank(ette), their knightly orders and their excuse to mix and match uniforms of different states together. And they had a Halfling Hot Pot!

Another army I fielded even on tournaments where the Wood Elves, most of those can be read about in the old Project Asrai and Battle of the Relics posts in my archives on this blog.
However, the way Skirmishers now work in Warhammer doesn`t make me enjoy them, the neatly ranked waywatchers or dryads just look silly in my opinion...

Or as I can be seen here fighting next to my nemesis as long ago as in 2002 at the trial edition of our clubs tournament package for back then...



But there was another army I often fielded, as the picture from a big battle in 2001 belows shows... The Vampire Counts.



Ever since the Undead, a force I was building at the time, in the Vampire Counts and later the Tomb Kings, I had two forces from one. But even with all the cool bloodlines, I played the one true family, the Von Carsteins. I just liked the old Vlad and Isabella models... and that newly released Coven thing is just drop dead gorgeous...



So I have decided to rebuild initially small forces of the Empire and both Undead forces. Initially for this year I`m only aiming of completing at least 1000 points, good enough for the small skirmish game left or right without the large blobs of doom already comming into play, and to keep focussing on the main paintjob of the year, my Chaos Dwarfs.

But one thing I also have learned in all those years, are alternative models. With all my dabbling in various historical periods and cluttering of models for said periods, I have enough models to actually field 1000 points forces at least for the Tribes of Norsca and the Cathay unofficial yet professionally made army lists, as can be found here on the Reporter and as these armies are `accepted` for play over at TSA, why the heck wouldn`t I build them up...

Things like Mantic and their battlaion boxes are handy as well, it`s not like I`m ever gonna enter a Grand Tournament or such anyways with anything else then my Chaos Dwarfs... that is, IF I ever would enter one of those anyways. i`ll get my tournament fix (not counting small local affairs to promote the Word of Hashut) from Magic: The Gathering.

So that makes that apart from the Chaos Dwarfs, this year I am going to build up no less then the basis of 5 more Warhammer armies: The Empire, Vanpire Counts, Tomb Kings, Cathay and Tribes of Norsca, each for a 1000 points and then I`ll see where to go from there.

The only rule I will adhere to is that I won`t be buying anything labelled



I`m back!

Silver Spirit of Moo 2 - Vongalazthag Violators 1

Another year, another first battle and first battle report on the Society. Last year saw me take on Nemesis Guy in a game of Future War Commander in which my Gundams battled it out with his Andrayada`s. This year, it has been moved to the Blood Bowl pitch. Another year, another gamesystem, same archenemy...

I can`t make a detailed report of the step by steps of the match, as my camera did funny things and as such had to resort to my cellphone for pictures. Unfortunatly, it`s quite easy to shake to hard with those thingies, so a lot of pictures went awry, but I can tell you some highlights and incredibly stupid mistakes I made. I call my sickness to my defense, resulting fogginess in brainpan and such things teeheehee.

So I faced a Chaos Warrior team... I hate those buggers, as with 3 Warriors and a huge cow he outpowers me, and his team is over the whole line as well armoured, if not a tat better, then me.




But I had BoB! BoB is the 4th Hobgoblin in my team, filling up the ranks with Huey, Duey and Louey. BoB is going to be the most hyped player in the campaign I promise you, because in BoB we trust. And believe me, BoB already carved a reputation for himself yesterday, as did the other Hobgobs...

Namely each time a Beastmen was through and rushing the end zone, I managed with the necessary going for its and the likes to throw a blitz with an Hobgoblin... which always ended in an attacker down, and followed by an injury.



So I went in half time looking to a 1-0 behind against the silver spirits (hence named because they ain`t painted, booooo hissss) but with a dastardly and likely plan.

After set up, the ball was in front of one of the Hobgobs, who would pick it up to bring it to a Bull Centaur, hand it over and the armoured bull would rush off with the ball. It all went smoothly, the hole was punched, the bull centaur stood ready to take off with the ball after the hobgoblin gave it to him... and then I saw I had forgotten one little step...




So through raced a Beastman, and even though some Hobgoblins tried to stop it... twice, the 2-0 came on the field.



Luckily I managed to do some damage as half the Chaos team stayed KO`ed, and we both missed 4 players at that point, but I started with a man up advantage. Knowing in the short turns I never could make 2 goals, let alone 3 to grab a win, i decided on putting them out of action and do what I love most... foul.
First a Hobgoblin kidneypunched a downed warrior of the pitch, and later when Moo was down a Dawi warrior tried the same, but he was spotted and as a result send off by the referee. Sissy whistling pancy.

As lack of players did start to tell, a whole formed on the right flank and my bull centaurs filtered through. The only issue was that I had to rely on a dwarf picking up the ball (he did two turns over that) then giving a short pass (which he failed), a bull centaur picking up the scattered away ball (barely) and Sprint for the end zone (the third roll balanced on a 1 but fell on a 5) to save my honour.





2-1 and only one turn of play for the Chaos team left.

So we set up again, and I kicked, rolled for scatter with the d8 and rolled a... 9!!!! I was apparently scattering the whole game already with a d10 instead of a d8, and we noticed that in the 31st of 32 turns... strong going!



So what did we learn? Chaos hits hard. We knew that, but sometimes a reminder is all you need (but not necessarily want), but they are quite agile as well still. I`m going to have a long and hard thinking session on the how and about of actually winning a game with my team, as the ball handling part ain`t their biggest forte. Or we just keep kicking the living shit out of everything that`s down of course...

In the end I don`t have to look for excuses, I lost fair and square. Sure, I could have made 1 - 1 instead of 2 - 0, but I doubt I would be able to hold the line then for 4 - 5 more turns to prevent them from not scoring that second goal and making the result just the same.

He counted one serious injury and one badly injured goat by the end of the game and one warrior still ko`d, while I had a dead (and stay dead even after an apothecary use...) dwarf, a badly hurt dwarf and hobgoblin (BoB!) and a seriously injured hobgoblin. And the first send off player in another dwarf...




I`ll get my revenge, but I know he`s going to play the League with Undead... so I just need to find a bloody way of getting those mummies down...

Project Insanity week 1: K`daii... and not much else

So it happened that at the worst possible time, Nurgle`s Rot caught me. I can`t say what exactly is wrong with me, as my collegues or boss might read along and I don`t want them to know I can drop stone-dead any day on the workfloor. Insurances can be a real pain in the ass you know...

The introduction also has several exagerrations to catch your attention, but YOU try to paint bend forward with snot running out of your nose. Hmmm, reminds me of a funny quote I read earlier this week `Kids used to have snot-noses, now snot-noses have kids`.

But back to the order of business, the 2000 point army I`m painting up for the tournament of the 12th of February. Due to the setback that prevents me from painting decently nearly for 3 days now, I actually managed only to finish up the bases of two remaining K`daii models.

One was already done and was entered in the Golden Hat contest over at Chaos Dwarfs Online, where it understandably didn`t score any medals. First of all, there is some mighty competition overthere, and secondly as I always say, the day I start winning prizes in painting competitions, there is something seriously wrong with the competition!



Now, K`daii are large bronze statues with a fire spirit magically bound into it, and unleashed upon the enemies of the Chaos Dwarfs to burn and slaughter. Understandably, one would expect these, as no official models have so far been made by Forge World, to have some kind of flamey- Bully- like theme, those two things being trademarks of the Chaos Dwarf `iconography`.

I however opted to go for a more middle eastern / indian looking style of models. Why I hear you ask? Because I had them lying around in my bitsbox serving no use at all.
Fluffwise though, I tend to stick to the next story for myself. The Chaos Dwarf empire is rather vast though not heavily populated, so it makes sense their enslaving bands wouldn`t all go to the Known World, some are surely destined to go and search slaves for the forges in the opposite direction.
I wouldn`t as such be amazed if some Hellsmith has the genius stroke to create K`daii in the image of local godstatues, to strike the fear of heavens into the local populace as their own idols start running amok in their midst. Makes sense doesn`t it?



The only other things I managed to paint up this week are the movement trays for the tournament. I found them rather cheap on eBay, being made of resin they barely costed me 5 pounds for the set.
The smaller one is for 10 bases of 20mm, and will serve to hold the bulk of the 12 man blunderbuss unit, while the large one is created for a 40 man horde. This will hold for starters the 32 strong (including characters) warriors unit, and I`ll fill it up with additional warriors afterwards to make it one big unit of 40 Infernals.




I added the bloke to favourite sellers, I`m quite certain over time I`m gonna go and order some more of those things for traying my forces.


On a final note, remember I had 35 points left of my 2000 available army points which I was going to use to distribute amongst the characters for some more magic items? Well, after seeing some games played at TSA and reading up on 8th edition, I instead opted to add another model to the army list (as yeah, i don`t have enough to paint already). My earthshaker (Dreadquake Mortar) will receive an Ogre loader. This edition is all about big blocks, and last friday I saw one player on the table with a block of 200+ goblins!!!! If I land the shell in the centre, no matter how far it scatters it still is dead on in such a horde! And thus avoiding the 1/3 chance that it wouldn`t fire, the loader is a welcome addition to circumvent the slowloading. He also helps if the machine decides to eat someone of course...

The Vongalazthag Violators

So Grandfather Nurgle visited me, and now I`m stuck with a nasty cough and some slimey stuff exiting the nose, making it a bitch to bend forward to paint... so painting works are suspended for a few days crap Crap CRAP.

This does however leave me with the time to read up on certain things, do some picture taking to have entries prepared for the blog the comming weeks, and generally do other kinds of sideboard stuff, so without further ado I`m handing over the microphone to two collegues of mine who like to have a word here on the Society`s podium...

Jim: Hello Bob, and welcome for joining me. It sure is a special day today isn`t it.

Bob: Certainly is Jim, for we are about to witness a very special event. After more then a decade, we`re about to see the return to the pitch of the Vongalazthag Violators.

Jim: Indeed! Less then a month away from the kick off for the TSA Cup, these mean, not so lean killing machines are back. Their look has received a complete makeover, trading in their big chimney like stormram hats for compacter, heavier plated armour, but they look the business if you ask me.

Bob: They sure do. Today, they are only showing us glimpses though of their new set up. The coaching staff, led by a new coach called Vah`Durr, is still in the nearby village of Hoevenenburg for what they said where only `administrative details`. I guess they are negotiating building rights for a stadium there, as I saw long lines of peasants being marched of in the direction of the Badlands.

Jim: Honestly Bob, I doubt they would ever leave the Magma Bowl stadium, remember the fireworks show when they ignited the whole visitor stand on the tones of `Hashut is the Champion?`

Bob: Ow yeah huhuhu. Anyways, here we go it seems, first up are the stalwart lineholders of the team. It is rumoured they have two objectives for this cup, to score the single most amount of red cards ever seen, and to break the knees of everything that is called a catcher... you know, those fancy pancy lightfooted ballerina`s.

Jim: Next up are the two mighty Bull centaurs of the team. Should they actually want to ever score a goal, it seems these guys are the ones to do it. Though I wouldn`t be amazed these berserked monsters would just thunder down towards stragglers in the opponents half of the field like throwers.

Bob: And finally the brunt of the team, Hobgoblin linemen... I guess someone has to receive the punches...

Jim: So that seems to be the starting line up, we`ll be back to you fans as soon as more is known about the team, the staff and any friendlies they should play before the actual start of the TSA Cup. Take care!