What I Painted in February 2019

Well, more Lord of the Rings goodies for me this month that got painted, as the AHPC still thunders onwards.

Though this will in all probability be the final month of "Tolkien only" as I have some other models that need attention as well in march.

But lets get back to this month now before I stray to far.  The first entry for this month was the only one of two bonus rounds I participated in.  While I skipped the Water round (I don`t have any corsairs), the Mercenary round saw me bring out these Dead of Dunharrow, 20 of them lead by the King of the Dead.

I also managed to get some "regular" entries in this month, the first being this group of Elves.  Joined by some very strong characters, these also allow Noshi to play with the Elves in Battle Companies.

So that`s another lovely 31 models painted for this short month, and a nice amount to add to the tally...

... and now we thunder into the final month of the AHPC, and more Tolkien goodness.

Dux Britanniarum... game over man

Readers of my blog know I joined in a Dux campaign that is running since last year over at the club, and at time of writing, I'm actually in the lead.

But I don't like the ruleset by Too Fat Lardies one single bit.

Now, this has as a result that I haven't been declaring raids for months now, and only play when forced, aka when people attack me.  And recently I'm turning those games into non-fights, withdrawing from the field after the whole process of setting up and such has been done, generally making it a non-game, even though I declared this in front that I don't want to play it anymore.

The reason?  The rules suck, and as a lot of historical players tend to shout those sorts of things about GW rules, sometimes correct, I think it isn't obliged to be a TFL "fanboy" either because of those same reasons.  Well, in my opinion, and let me enlighted my standpoint on them with some examples.  Surely, it might be that this is how they interpret the rules at the club, but it makes for a really bleugh experience for me on the table.

Here is a first example from a game.  My opponent has a unit 20 something wide, and I managed to get units on both his flanks in a reasonable charge range.  The card for the unit on the left fals, and they charge in.  Now according to the rules, the attacked unit now lines up, but this means it suddenly carreens on it's flank point, and the 20+ unit now goes on it's side, making it only 2 figures wide.  This means it suddely "shortened" almost 10+ inches, and gets out of charge range should the card for the other unit fall.  Let alone if they actually win and get even further away should my units be pushed back and persued.

And that brings me to the second, and even bigger gripe I have with the rules: the totally random manner of unit activation, and no, no "fog of war" or "chaos on the battlefield" blahblahs can convince me otherwise.  It's not that they where fighting in clouds of gunsmoke...
I had it happen that I manoeuvred my cavalry into a good charge position, when at the end of the turn my opponents cavalry card came.  His horses (sanely) moves away and turns around to prevent a back charge, but I would need a far above average roll now to charge his horses.  The deck gets shuffled and hopla, there is his cavalry again, he plays the Carpe Diem, +1 dice for move card and one that makes you hit easier with his Shock cavalry, which was doomed after 4 rounds of carefull movement on my part, now thunders forward and totally flattens mine.

The randomness for me totally takes out the "tactical thinking" part of the game in the movement phase, and the degrades the game to nothing more then pray you come first and charge in everywhere as headless chickens.

Heck, to say it in 40k terms, even Khorne Berserkers have more tactical insight in battle...

So yes, these two examples have seriously caused me to dislike the ruleset, and I am praying the campaign is over ASAP for me.  I will definitly NOT end on spot 1 even if it means having to loose on purpose, so I don't have to participate in the 8-man multiplayer challenge for the win (something that did come in the campaign as it was already running, but as the majority agreed to this; so be it) and become the Dux of Britain (aka the winner).

Now, don't get me wrong, I see a lot of people having a good time in the campaign, but it is just not my cup of tea in both style of how the games are able to be selected, or how the rule mechanics work.  The campaign as it is is well thought out by the organiser, but it is just not a place to be for a player who "disects" his opponents armies and tactics in order to gain an upper hand, only to have everything screwed over by just pure, uninterruptable or influenceable randomness  (for an example with what I mean by this, the Opportunity Fire rule in Future War Commander for example is a good thing on how to try and do something on your opponent's turn, at a cost in your own, so you have to balance the potential advantages against the tactical plan on your turn).

The one thing I do know is that the army I bought and painted for the campaign will be on eBay as soon as the final whistle sounded...

TSA Clubevening of the 22nd of February 2019

Well, this evening was a calm one on the gaming front, because first that yearly obligation had to be held: the annual member meeting, in which we as the board inform the members over our workings.

With around 50 members present to listen to our blah-blah-ing... we got the show on the round for the first part of the evening.

Now, in short, the results of the yearly account are good, Crisis was a success, and our building and move plans are still on schedule for the first part of 2020.

We attended quite a lot of events as a club, and organised a good few ourselves as well, and the 2019 calendar is also well filled.  Perhaps the biggest point is that Crisis, due to the 1st of november being a holiday this year, will take place on the 9th of november.

So then to the gaming front.  In general, two rulesets seemed to be played this evening.  Dux Britanniarum was played on two tables, as Glenn's Viking campaign took place.

On the other hand, 40k was being in full swing, with a League battle, a casual battle between Drukhari and Primaris marines, and a large 6 player game.

Some boardgames where being played as well, the first of them being the Star Wars version of Carcassone, as well as a few other games.

Finally, the two roleplaying groups, one braving the world of Heroquest while the other braved the Dungeons and Dragons realms, where giving it a go as well this evening.

And so the last friday of the month was rounded out, and we move on into march...

Warpstorm 40k Tournament Games Workshop Antwerpen

Past saturday, the 23th, I joined in my first tournament ever since the Battle of Small Armies for Warhammer in 2012.

In a venue I have never gamed before, being the local Games Workshop store, the Warpstorm tournament was organised.

So that gave me a chance to face three new opponents in all probability, some armies I might not have faced before, and see how rusty I am.

The selection criteria for the tournament force where as followed:

A 500pts army that follows the matched play and organised play rules. In addition you must bring a minimum of 1 patrol detachment that has a min requirement of 2 troops instead of 1 for this tournament. Armies also have to be painted and forgeworld is allowed.

Following these rules, the force I fielded consisted of a Sorcerer, who was also my Warlord.  He comes with his Force Stave and Bolt Pistol, drank the Elixer for +1 S and A, and has the Unholy Fortitude trait for a further 1 wound and ignore wounds on 6+...

The Troop choices where 5 Noise Marines with a blastmaster and a power sword wielding, doom siren equipped champion, and 13 cultists hauling along a heavy stubber and a shotgun for the champion.
On a Fast Attack level, to put in reserve and drop on objectives if needed, are 5 Warp talons, while a Hellbrute with a Plasma Cannon and Missile Launcher provides the long range heavy firepower in the Elite slot.
Considering the restrictions and small size of the forces, I only have 3 CP, whom I'll probably spend on Veterans of the Long War for three times I guess...

The scenarios as well where pre-set, and would be the following:

Round 1: Eternal War - No Mercy
Round 2: Eternal War - Secure and Control
Round 3: Eternal War - The Relic

So all packed and ready, off we went to the store... with as the only goal, NOT to end last, and be very, very happy if we end in the first half of the table.

The tournament hosted 6 players, so that's a little pool to be paired off against, but would give me three totally new opponents.

Round 1: No Mercy

For my first tournament game over 7 years, I faced Pieter and his Drukhari force.  This also made me realise my force was to much my usual "fluffy TSA night" force, and not an optimal tournament force.  I should have gone for 2 small flamer equipped cultist squads for the objectives, and three Helbrutes for the firepower or something along those lines.

The Raider and three Venom's raced my way, and an abysmall set of rolling (which was going to haunt me all day) later my squads where rolled up one by one.  I managed to kill a Raider transport... which actually smashed down my Noise Marine champion in combat.

Insult to injury, my melee tooled sorcerer lost the combat to kabalites after rolling a lovely four 1s on his 4 attacks... so a well deserved 8-1 loss was my part.

Round 2: Secure and Control

For the second scenario, Nicholas and his Dark Angels was my opponent.  We deployed in our corners to saveguard our objectives, but his Hellblasters with Grim Resolve dessimated my forces piecemeal.

In a last ditch effort to get a draw, I rushed over the cultists to get Linebreaker, but in the end they fell and a 4-3 loss was my part.

Round 3: The Relic

The final game of the day put me against Necrons, commanded by Tyrone.  I got the first turn and did some damage, but then the shroud teleported his heavies on my flank and they decimated the Noise Marines.

I actually managed to grab the objective twice, but my Sorcerer managed to fail the save on his last wound against a Cryptek (sigh... I guess I rolled 727 ones today), the Talons once again failed their charge (as always) and in the end he won a minor victory as I had no infantry to go and grab the objective with left...

So, an abysmall 0 for 3 today, and a bit of a wake up call that I need to "restart" my tournament lists building thinking in the future, instead of going to those sort of events with the mindset of a in-character force.  Especially on such small points battles, where heavy, multi shot guns, preferably with AP modifiers, are the way to go...

In hindsight for example, the Warp Talons would go out of the list (and after all their abysmall performances, out of my grace just like my Possessed) and be replaced by either Obliterators, a second dreadnought, or a Predator with autocannon and heavy bolters...

Never the less, it was a fantastic day, even though I was a walking corpse after a very busy week and the late club evening the night before.  I got to play three armies I barely or even haven't faced in this edition before (okay, once the Necrons, that is it) and learned a lot both about the armies, some rules, and my own mindset which has clearly started hibernating over the years.

Or take a totally different army... maybe it's time to finally round out my Wild Riders...

Haul Report 170

Hello all, here we are again for another week of goodies...

And the first thing, is of course some cheap books...

At the local Kringwinkel, they did a weekly action where selected books where 50 cents only.  So I picked up two, one a semi-historical novel, the other a fantasy one by the look on the back cover, but of which I heard very positive things of Facebook friends of mine.

I also have started my "pre-Brexit" shopping on ebay, basicaly bidding on everything that I can use for my forces, but trying order all by bidding just a single GBP to max 5 GBP for really 'intresting' stuff and see what we win.  That way we might still get some odd and ends together for the apparently 6 armies I have standing in my cabinets...

But I also grabbed these, epic scale Noise Marines for my FWC force

The next to arrive where two Abrakhan Guard for my Haradrim in MESBG, at a pound each a nice find.

From a Facebook group, I also grabbed these SBG magazines, a high quality fanzine produced for the glory of the superb gamesystem... and nice to have in the collection.

Well, some more are in the mail in the meantime, so they should be dropping on my doorstep soonish as well...

On the Painting Desk 83

Another week passed by, and the Fellowship bonus round deadline is only a week away...

And I still need to finish three more figures... and base them all...

But at least some of the Fellowship got finished this week, albeit Aragorn still needs a coat of matt varnish.

After that, it`s going to go full out on Samwise, Gimli and Boromir, because I really should get them done this monday, in order to base and picture the entry thursday, and upload it.

Aaaah the pressure...

Lost in Space

Danger Will Robinson!

Any kid from my generation saw the classic (reruns of) Lost in Space, in which the Robinson family was tossed into space en route to a colony world.

Or the Matt LeBlanc movie from years ago...

But now Netflix has the remake series in it's catalogue, starring none other then Toby Stephens (I'm such a fan of him) as John Robinson.  Sure, the family roles have been changed, and their social interactions have been pulled to today's zeitgeist, but the core story is still the same.

The Robinsons, but now together with more colonists, crash land with their Jupiter 2 on a new planet.  Here they encounter the Robot, a creature apparently the cause of their forced evacuation from the mothership Resolute.  Amongst the survivors is also Dr Smith, a manipulative imposter out to save her own skin and gain access to the power of the Robot.

As the colonists discover that the planet is dying, they look for ways to launch from the planet, but at the sacrifice of trust, friendships and against the machinations of Smith...

A good remake for sure, and one I'm glad they actually produced for some good sci-fi hinging with Noshi.

We are going to see the Elves Mr Frodo

In this entry for the AHPC, I'm going back to the end of the second age... and the very beginning of the game system.

Back in 2001, these models of elf troops and numenoreans where included in the base set, and as Noshi has decided that she wants to play the Elves, they just had to be painted up during the challenge.

To lead these brave men and elves into battle, the great heroes of the time are included as well.  Gil-Galad and Elrond led the Elves of the Great Alliance of the age against the Dark Lord Sauron.

But as we know, the strength of man would fail...

So for this entry, I've finished 10 models of 28mm infantry, which should yield me a nice 50 points.