Chronowraith's Corner

Road to Adepticon - Part II

2012-01-26T22:23:00.000-06:00

In the first part of my 'Road to Adepticon' segment I laid out my 5-step process for preparing for any a national tournament. In that post I successfully completed the first phase which included some list crafting as well as purchasing my ticket. I also laid out a plan to successfully get everything painted and prepared for the big event. So in this post, I'll go over my progress, both the good news and the bad news, I'll lay out a revised list, and I'll mention a few of the test games that I've had in recent weeks.

Updates
So I have good news and bad news on the update front. The past few months have been full of personal issues such as the mother-in-law in the hospital, way too many holiday events, and other more mundane events like the release of SWTOR. I know, I know... I need more discipline.

Good News

Army list - I largely have my list refined so I know what units I want to include. I simply have to find the right balance between magic items, characters, and unit sizes. See my army list section below
I signed up for the Friday "It's how you use it" 1000 point tournament. This will give me a nice way to ease into Saturday's big event by allowing me to, possibly, fight against armies I rarely face. Also, it will allow me to refresh myself on the rules of my own army the day before the championship tournament. So overall a win-win situation where I refresh my memory on my own army, learn about opposing armies I rarely face, and just have a fun time playing an awesome game on Friday!
I've started planning out my display board. Usually I leave this sort of thing for last minute and it looks like crap. I swear I'm not doing that this time. I have some pretty ambitious plans but I'm certain I can make it happen and make it look good (hopefully).

Bad News

I'm WAY behind on painting. to date I have a Doomwheel that is mostly painted (lacking freehand) and 20 Slaves (out of 80). This leaves roughly 170ish models still to paint in only 3 short months!!!!! I need to put SWTOR down and get my ass working on some plastic rats.
I signed up for the Friday "It's how you use it" 1000 point tournament. While overall I view this as a positive, it does mean I will need to do a little more work as I don't want to haul around a large display board for only a 1000 point army. So I'm considering just doing a quick painted Battlefoam display board.
Cross your fingers but between work and home stuff my time is going to be seriously crunched in the coming future. Why? I want to spend time with my wife before she runs off to Europe for a month and I may have some travel coming up for work.

The Playtesting

So I really haven't been that active play-testing my army lists, but I have managed to squeeze in a few games against Dark Elves, one against Chaos, and a final game against another Skaven player. I tried using units I've never used before or ones I have limited experience with like plague monks, warp-lightning cannons, hellpit abominations, plague priests, giant rats, etc. Here are a few things I've found.

Plague Priests are well worth their cost. They can fight decently in close combat, are resilient enough to take a couple hits with their T5, and plague spells rock!
Plague Monks can do horrendous amounts of damage thanks to 2-hand weapons and frenzy. I had always been nervous about their survivability with no armor save, but T4 is actually a decent deterrent. I had them charge a unit of 25 Dark Elf executioners and in one turn they killed 16 of them and then chased them and their noble down.
Warp Lightning Cannons can be just as random as Doomwheels but are still useful for killing monsters and other war machines. They work best in pairs, but a single one can do substantial damage when it rolls decently.
While I love my Rat Ogres, I just can't justify them in a competitive environment. I'm relying on a 100 point character and a random die roll to make them a great unit. Also they are hampered by a lack of using their rank bonus towards leadership, something I was blissfully unaware of until it was pointed out to me. The warlord on a bonebreaker is thus a casualty since he has no place to hide if I don't take a rat ogre unit.
Giant rats are useful for redirecting but damn they die easily. I still prefer slaves for the task.

So here are a few breakdowns of the best two games I've played while playtesting.

vs. Dark Elves

My List - Grey Seer, Plague Priest, BSB, 2x35 Clanrats, 2 Warpfire Throwers, 3x40 Slaves, 1x35 Plague Monks, 5x Gutter Runners, 2x Doomwheel, 2x Warp Lightning Cannon

His List - Lord on Cold One, BSB, Noble, Sorceress on Cold One, 1x30 Corsairs, 2x10 Crossbowmen, 1x25 Executioners, 8x Cold One Knights, 2x Hydra

This game was dominated by unusual mishaps. In my first turn both cannon shots dissipated and no magic went off. In his first turn, his sorceress exploded with a miscast while casting mindrazor and took out 4 cold one knights. By the end of turn 2 we had each killed mroe of our own models then we had our opponents.

On the right flank, my doomwheel was wounded but rolled around like a pro dealing death and securing the flank. On my left the doomwheel was a distraction and ultimately died by turn 3 or 4, but kept him at bay long enough for other forces to at least move into position. In the center my plague monks faced off against at initiative executioners and stomped them into the ground in a single turn while his corsairs proceeded to chop their way through a unit of clanrats and two units of slaves before I finally destroyed them. End game? I won at the end of 6 turns with over half my army still on the table and his army entirely gone (lord took a cannon the to the face the last turn).

vs Chaos

My list - Same as above except take out Doomwheels and Warp Lightning Cannon and replace with two HPA. Spare points are used to buy rat darts.

His list - Tzeentch Lord on disk, 2x Tzeentch Chaos warriors w/shields (I think between 15 and 20 warriors), 1x 20 Khorne Warriors with two hand weapons, 1x Hellcannon, 5x1 Chaos Knights. Probably something else but I don't recall.

This game was relatively simplistic. He ran straight across the table at me and I manuevered to open up my center while leaving rat darts as bait. He took the bait and I proceeded to stomp the army into the ground. HPAs dual-charged the knights and wiped them out in a turn, warpfire throwers mutilated his tzeentch warriors, and while I lost the plague monks, they took out half his khorne warriors in a single turn before dying in the next CC phase. Chaos Sorcerers on disks are douche-bags.

The Army List

So here is the revised army list that I've come up with. Again, magic items are omitted in case any competitors are watching (I'm hardly a threat, but I need all the advantages I can get). I'll briefly explain everything in a blurb below the army list.

Grey Seer - Magic Items
Chieftain - BSB, Shield, Halberd, Magic Items
Plague Priest - Level 2, Flail, Magic Items
2x 35 Clanrats - Full Command, Shields, Warpfire Thrower
2x 40 Slaves - Musician
35 Plague Monks - Full Command
2x 5 Gutter Runners - Poison Weapons, Slings
Hellpit Abomination
Doomwheel
Warp-Lightning Cannon

The hammers in this list are the HPA and the Plague Monks. The Slaves are deployed near a Warpfire Thrower so they can lock an opponent up and the enemy can get flamed for doing so. The clanrats are both bunkers and used for flank charges. The doomwheel is there to cause mayhem along a single flank before moving into the opponents backfield. The Gutter Runners are warmachine hunters and if none are present or they are all dead by the time the runners show up, they will hunt monsters with their poison attacks. The WLC provides some much needed range support.

What am I missing? Well, I'd like at least a single Rat Dart for redirecting, especially since I'm used to doomwheels on both flanks and I won't have that on one of them. I'm also not convinced my magic item loadout is the best. I can think of one item for my Grey Seer which is invaluable but I need to find the points. So what am I thinking? I might go to 1 unit of 8 Gutter Runners which would allow me to take a rat Dart and the magic item in question.

The Display Board
So I've been thinking of doing a nice display board with grooves cut out for specific units and nice terrain modeled onto the board and such. I really wanted my Skaven to have an underground theme though, particularly that of an overrun dwarven hold. So I sat up thinking to myself one night, "Why not do a double layered display?" On the lower level I would have a few units moving through a cave or abandoned dwarven hold and on the surface the rest of the army. I'd throw a few bits around with skaven climbing out of holes and warpstone entangled trees. The real reason for this bit of flourish? I really don't want a huge display board that takes up too much horizontal real estate. Why? Last year for Adepticon I had a pretty big display board (almost 2' x 2') made out of plywood. This proved rather unwieldy as it was heavy and difficult to carry between matches while still having my battlefoam case, my army binder, and everything else needed for the tournament. I actually had someone run into my while carrying it and of course minis went flying and some broke. I want to avoid that if possible. Also, as a side note, if you ever run into anyone who is carrying models and you make him drop some, have some common courtesy and help him pick up his stuff.

8th Edition Vampire Counts - Preview Assessment

2012-01-08T02:18:00.002-06:00

As everyone has likely seen, Games Workshop posted the new Vampire Counts book and models this weekend for preorder. Now, what some people fail to see is that many of these units also have their statline and special rules (names, not descriptions) posted on Games Workshop's website too. This allows the Warhammer Fantasy savvy people to perform a little bit of an early analysis. Now, these assessments are of course incomplete since they lack any point costs. Point cost can cause a model with an amazing statline and seemingly great special rules to never be used.

So what I want to do here is to piece together the evidence and present the best picture possible for as many of the new Vampire Count units as possible. I will be ignoring characters since too many variables exist with them such as Magic Items, variable special rules, etc. So definitely no special characters and likely only a cursory glance, if any, at normal characters.

***New Units***

Coven Throne

Posted Stats:

Thoughts:

The first thing to note about the Coven Throne is that this is used as a chariot-type mount for your Vampire Lord. Whether this means it can only be used as a mount or taken like other chariots without a character remains to be seen. The Spectral Steeds will give this Chariot pretty unprecedented maneuverability. Rumor suggests the Pallid Handmaidens get ASF and the Spirit Horde does not.

The stats are fairly typical of a Chariot and the sheer number of attacks this thing can dish out seems pretty remarkable.

The Battle of Wills means that the before any combat the attacking unit and the coven throne roll off against leadership and if the coven throne wins then the enemy unit is hampered with negative modifiers or possibly attacks itself.

Scrying Pool sounds like a cool bonus to hit or wound but as it is supposedly a bound spell, this makes it highly unlikely to go off when you really need it.

On another note the model has received great praise. Personally, I think it's a little over the top. I like many components but when combined it's just too much. Not to mention the extreme difficulty this will present in trying to cart this bad boy (girl?) around.

Overall assessment for this is pretty positive unless it's cost is prohibitively high. I really can't see this costing less than 150 points though so be prepared for a massive point sink to include this.

Mortis Engine

Posted Stats:

Thoughts:

Again, rumors point to this being a chariot type. However, unlike the Coven Throne the Mortis Engine is supposedly only a Rare Choice. While the Throne has some seductive vampire types on board the engine possesses a necromancer type and a cloud of banshees.

Again, stats are pretty indicative of the Chariot type.Nothing special but nothing to scoff at either. It is a bit curious that the Mortis Engine does not share the Ward save that the Throne possesses but this is hardly the first time that has happened between shared chassis (Screaming bell and Plague Furnace anyone?). Of course a regeneration save is almost as good as a ward save, I just find it odd that one has regen and the other a ward.

Rumors indicate that the mortis engine's banshee swarm will allow it to make a ghostly howl attack as per the normal banshees. This adds to the utility granted by it's other ability, Reliquary.

Reliquary buffs nearby undead units. Supposedly it grants regen (6+) to nearby units and the area grows as the game advances. Also the enemy takes hits if they are within range. That being said, if the mortis engine is removed from play it supposedly explodes quite fantastically.

I have the same reservations about this model as I do the Coven Throne, although this one has less going on so it's not quite as over the top. Still, it looks to be a pain to move.

Point wise I think we are looking at 200+ points. If I had to guess I'd say around 250 to be exact.

Vargheist

Posted Stats:

Thoughts:

Monstrous Infantry for Vampire Counts is here! Oh snap! The Vargheists are truly unique monstrous infantry since they posses the fly ability. As vampires they can march move giving the Vampire Counts the most maneuverable MI in the game.

Stats are actually fairly impressive with essentially the same stats as a Rat Ogre except with Flying, Undead, and Vampiric and an additional point of Weapon Skill. The WS, S, I, A of these things combined with their flying means they will be serious threats on the board.

I really don't care for these models. The wings seem goofy and incapable of allowing actual flight. They just seem uninspiring to me.

For points I'd expect these things to be pretty costly. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 55-60 points minimum, any lower and they become auto-includes.

Crypt Horrors

Posted Stats:

Thoughts:

I had really hoped to see some sort of Frankenstein Monster for the rumored 2nd Monstrous Infantry that Vampire Counts were getting. no luck. Instead they only received large ghouls. That being said, these seems like pretty a pretty solid choice. Regen 5+, Poison Attacks, and T5? Yes, please.

Stats they are weaker than many other MI choices but have poison to offset their apparent "weakness". Additionally these are the monstrous infantry you throw at your aopponent if you just don't want them to die. Possessing T5, W3, and Regeneration 5+ is amazing. Throw in a Mortis Engine nearby and you are looking at a 4+ Regen save.

I actually think these are slightly better than the vargheists but only because they look like scaled up Games Workshop ghouls. That being said, I'm pretty, "meh" about them.

Point-wise these should be around 45ish points if I had to guess a number. They are more survivable than most MI and only a slight drawback of I2 and relatively low strength of 4 for MI.

Hexwraiths

Posted Stats:

Thoughts:

The Hexwraiths, probably my favorite new unit for Vampire Counts, add an interesting dynamic completely unseen from Warhammer Fantasy. Usually Fast Cavalry are known to be extremely fast and nimble but fragile and with little ability to cause great amounts of damage. They were often used as bait, to take on skirmishers, or attack war machines. Hexwraiths present a much more, "in your face" approach.

Stat-wise they look pretty unimpressive. S3, I2 with only one attack means they ordinarily wouldn't cause much damage. However when you unlock what the rumors and the postings on GWs own website indicate about their special rules, they are simply vicious.

First, while they are undead and can't march, being Fast Cavalry they still receive a free reform. Free Reform plus spectral steeds ignoring terrain = amazing mobility. Next, fast cavalry is usually fairly fragile and while I have no idea what type of armor save (if any) these models have, being ethereal is great protection on it's own. Only magic and magic items can hurt them. Next, they can perform a hit and run attack of sorts by moving through an enemy unit. This causes S5 hits. Finally being meanand nasty wraiths wielding incredibly wicked looking scythes, all attacks are rumored to be flaming, magical, and ignore armor. Whether this applies to just the special "move-through" attack or even normal attacks has yet to be revealed.

The models are, in my opinion, fantastic. The Spectral Steeds are nothing to write home about, but the riders look superb. The wychfire clinging to the robes and the scythes adds a nice degree of menace and I've always been a fan of wraiths in general. That aside, I'm considering finding enough bits to equip at least a unit of Plague bearer censors with those scythes!

Points, I'd place them around 35-40. They can be devastating if used properly but require a little finesse given their rules. Personally, I'd include these in every list just for fun.

Overall Thoughts:
It looks like the new Vampire Counts book will be completely different from the older books. The new units seem incredibly mobile, strengthening one of the glaring weaknesses of the Vampire Counts. They also received even more ways to buff their units. Having a corpse cart (rumored to be a special choice now) and a mortis engine nearby will make a unit of zombies fairly reliable in combat.

Wildcards:
So while I've added a number of thoughts above, much has yet to be learned of the new Vampire Counts. At this juncture we lack point costs, specific rule text, and the biggest wildcard - magic.

Magic will make or break Vampire Counts. I've heard everything from magic will be easier to cast but can no longer grow units beyond starting strength to magic will be harder to cast but will be far more devastating (hard to think given the current state of VC magic). Also what magic items will make the transition. I've seen a couple lists and honestly, I'm not liking what I'm seeing. Banner of the Barrows looks to remain untouched which is BS. That's one item that made Vampire Counts into the BS book it was before.

These two models are awesome. I plan to buy both just for painting. I do like the Isabella figure and will likely buy her as well in future to go along with my Vlad.

Malifaux Warband - Rasputina

2012-01-02T21:24:00.000-06:00

Roughly a year and a half ago I decided to give Malifaux a try. For a long while I pondered which faction and crew I would play first. After bouncing back and forth for awhile I finally settled on the Arcanists faction and, due to my love of all things cold and frigid, I signed up as an ardent Decemberist by choosing Rasputina for my first crew. In addition to the starter box I picked up a hoarcat pride, a decemberist acolyte, and an essence of power. Over the course of the last year I haven't played nearly as often as I'd have liked, but so far, my Rasputina crew remains undefeated in the dozen or so games I've played so far.

Roughly half of my games have pitted me up against Leviticus and then I've played against Lady Justice, Ramos, and McMourning. So far I've experienced one close game versus Leviticus and then Ramos definately gave me a run for my money. Over time I've adapted to Rasputina's playstyle and I'm notorious for creating so many ice pillars that I'm often accused of trying to recreate the Parthenon in ice. Lately I've had a great urge to play more Malifaux since it is a very quick game, plays smoothly, and has relatively little cost if you stick with one or two crews. Since it uses no dice, I also find the game a great palette cleanser for games such as Warhammer Fantasy, 40k, and Warmahordes.

Anyway, the real reason for this post is to discuss my Rasputina crew, my experiences with the game in general, what I'd like to add, and in general gives me a moment to discuss Malifaux on this blog which is something I've wanted to do for awhile.

So without further ado, follow the link to my first ever Malifaux post!

Art by Funky_Boodha

The Lists
First, I play Malifaux to have fun. So I largely take miniatures that appeal to me or I feel fit the theme of whatever crew I'm assembling. So don't expect these to be awesome net-lists and while I've maintained an undefeated record with my crews, that could be attributed to several factors- not all of which are related to the actual lists used or the skill of this particular player.

Also about lists, I find 20-25 points a good starting point. Less and it's over incredibly fast and you face some pretty strong imbalances depending on what Masters are being run. Most games I've played (particularly recently) have been 35 points. This allows the full breadth of a faction to unfold while still making the player make important decisions about what to include.

So this first list is what I ran for my first several games. this crew is easily put together from a starter box and a couple blisters and doesn't really go outside the box in terms of the overall theme of the December cultists. This first list also has a great strength in that all the models and rules come from the main Malifaux book so it's easy to pick up without trying to learn new rules from either Twisted Fate or Rising Powers.

Beginner's Lists
So here are to lists for Beginners in both a 25pt and 35pt variety;

Rasputina (25pt Crew)
Essence of Power
Ice Gamin x2
December Acolyte
Ice Golem

Rasputina (35pt Crew)
Essence of Power
Ice Gamin x 3
December Acolyte
Hoarcat Pride
Ice Golem
Extra Soulstone

These Lists both function similar. At the 25 point level you really rely on Rasputina to do the majority of the damage by casting spells through the Ice Gamin and Ice Golem (as well as the rest of the crew if within 4"). While her defense is mediocre and her physical attack is laughable, she is a master caster and has several key spells. She's able to lockdown terrain pieces, cause damage to non-frozen heart models, and create ice pillars. Honestly, Ice Pillars makes her a very dangerous and tricky force. Have a charge lane open with Rasputina stuck in the open? Ice Pillar! Now you don't.

The Ice Gamin should be used to pepper the enemy with Ice Blast from range or as pawns to block movement. They are not throw away units, but they are more sacrificial than any other units in the crew, especially since they shatter upon death.

The Acolyte should stay out of sight until he has a clear attack on a model he should be able to take down in a single round. Note that the enemy can still attack him, they just can't charge him or target him with range attacks. Nothing says they can't walk up and attack or land some AoE nearby.

The Ice Golem is there because people always think he's more threatening then he actually is. He can do some nice damage but really, he just absorbs a truckload of damage, thus distracting your opponent from the real threats (the Gamin and Rasputina).

Essence of Power is practically mandatory when using a Master like Rasputina. Those extra damage flips make her a serious threat regardless of terrain or other board effects.

Experienced Lists
These lists are both 35 points and add models from Rising Powers or Twisted Fates. Models from those books are noted with RP or TF in parenthesis.

Rasputina (35pt Crew)
Essence of Power
Ice Gamin x 3
December Acolyte
Sabretooth Cerberus
Silent One (RP)
Extra Soulstone

Rasputina (35pt Crew)
Essence of Power
Ice Gamin x 2
December Acolyte
Convict Gunslinger
Silent One (RP)
Extra Soulstone x 3

These lists work similarly to the beginner lists with a few notable additions or changes. Firstly, they both add the Silent One from Rising Powers. This is a great utility crew member able to bolster defenses of other crew members, heal crew members, extend ranged and magical attacks, and give more members the frozen heart rule if they don't already have it. A great addition to any Decemberist crew.

The Sabretooth Cerberus is there for flank protection or alpha strike. His Leap ability is amazing as it gives him a tremendous threat range that ignores cover of all types and sizes (I once jumped him over the GW Mage Tower terrain). Also with three heads, he can do vast amounts of damage. That being said, if you use the alpha strike option, use it wisely and don't be surprised if you cause a great deal of damage and then die a particularly horrible and quick death.

The last list requires a little explaining. No heavy hitters there, just three well rounded models that all excel at range. The convict gunslinger is always a great addition since it allows Rasputina's crew to paralyze models at range. This second list is all about ranged attacks, using Ice Pillar to cut off direct avenues of attack, and then freezing terrain pieces to delay the opponent and have then face Rasputina's ranged damage for as long as possible.

I can't wait to get this model...

The Future
I really want to pick up the Avatar form of Rasputina and try out the Avatar rules from Twisted Fate. They add a lot of character and story to the battles and I really feel that is Malifaux's strength over other systems. Games Workshop has an amazing history of lore and fluff for both settings. Privateer Press possesses an ever advancing story and progressing characters. Only Malifaux adds a rich layer of story to each individual game every time.

Also, I really want to pick up Snowstorm really bad. Snowstorm is such a fantastic model that I can't wait to get my hands on it from that perspective, but also it's a beast on the table. So much utility and potential in a single model, it's really quite amazing that it only costs 11 soulstones.

Another miniature I want to invest in is the Blessed of December. They seem like a cool concept even if I'm not exactly sure how I'd use them on the tabletop.

In the future I hope to expand my Malifaux collection. I would like to pick up a few more crews such as The Viktorias, Nicodem, Lady Justice, The Dreamer, and Kirai. I would also like to get more experience with my 2nd crew (Collette) whom I have only ever used once.

So in the future I really want to expand my coverage of Malifaux. It's a great system that is really worth the investment, especially considering how cheap the initial investment really is compared to other games on the market.

My apologies for not having any Malifaux stuff painted for this blog post. I'd endeavor to paint some and get it posted... but I have 170 rats to paint before April.

Road to Adepticon: Part 1 - Assembling the List(s)

2011-11-06T22:29:00.002-06:00

I mentioned in my previous post that I'm giving up the competitive Warhammer 40k scene for at least a year. Over the last year I've played a great amount more Warhammer Fantasy and I decided that during my self-imposed 40k sabbatical that I'd try my hand at competitive Fantasy. Why? Well, honestly I feel I'm just better at Fantasy than I am 40k. Let's take a quick look at my 40k tournament scores over the last decade. For local tournaments I've never placed higher than 3rd place, except when I've entered a few team tournaments and then I've placed two or three times, only one of which was a 1st place slot. Comparatively, for Fantasy I rarely play in a local tournament where I don't place in the top three. On the national scene I've never played Fantasy, but I played in the GW GT at Chicago for three years and then Adepticon Championships for another two years plus two years for the team tournament. The highest I've ever placed? At my 1st GT I placed 58th place out of around 180 people. I didn't even come close to winning any of the prize support though. So, at the end of the day, why not try my hand at Fantasy? I can't really be much worse and honestly- I have more fun playing Fantasy against strangers.

So with every trip to Adepticon comes a planning stage. I follow a 5-step process to help me keep deadlines and ensure that I end up with a decent list that's been playtested, and plenty of time to prepare the models. Here's the Process;

I. Planning
This stage involves listcrafting, purchasing tickets to events, and coming up with a rough time-table for everything.
II. Playtest I
The first playtest stage involves playtesting the various test lists I have crafted in the planning phase. Liberal use is made of proxy models to ensure I don't waste a bucket of cash on units I won't use.
III. Assemble & Paint
Assembly and painting usually go on concurrently with the playtest phases. I start with the models that are common to the most lists and then, as I refine my final list, I work on the more themed pieces.
IV. Playtest II
As mentioned above playtesting is an ongoing process. At some point though i draw a line in the sand and pick a final list and that is what this second playtest phase is about. This phase gives me a chance to practice playing with the final army list and make small tweaks.
V. Final Touches
By this stage the vast majority of my tournament army will be playtested, my list completely finalized, and the stage ultimately set. The final touch stage is where I come up with the extras like the display board, background fluff, graphically designed lists, and final touches on the bases.

So, my plans for Adepticon this year? I'm definitely going to play in the Championship tournament on Saturday and I may try and squeeze in the "It's How You Play" 1,000 point tournament on Friday as well. We'll see if any tickets are left when I go buy my stuff this week. These articles will largely concern the larger of the two events though.

So the first decision? I need to determine what army I want to bring. I have three choices given my model collection at this point; Skaven, Chaos Warriors, and Tomb Kings. I've never really felt enamored by Chaos, I love the models but really no urge to put them on the table. While building up a Tomb Kings army would be greatly satisfying, I have very little experience playing with them in this edition or with the new book. My experiences go to a couple of games where I used proxy models for most of the army. That leaves Skaven. I love my Skaven and the book still holds up really well in the current national meta so I really don't have an issue with using them.

Now, before I craft a list I really need to pay attention to the rules for the event. So off to the Adepticon website for the rules. In the past years they've had everything from comp scoring that required an advanced theoretical mathematics degree to determine, to rules concerning special characters, and even unofficial lists like Chaos Dwarves and Dogs of War. So after pulling the rules up I note two things that either interest me or will affect the lists I build. First, the weird point cap. 2200, really? You guys can't throw in the extra 50 points like EVERY OTHER national tournament? *Sighs* whatever, I'll make it work. Otherwise I'm curious about the inclusion of Dogs of War and Chaos Dwarves, so I'm off to download those lists just so I can better understand the units involved and see if they offer up any nasty surprises. That being said, I doubt either army will have a significant presence at the tournament to really worry about.

So now I have my army selected and I've read the rules for the tournament. Now I need a list. Usually at this point i craft several lists and playtest each. After one or two plays with each list I general know whether the list gels enough to warrant playing around any further with the list. So let's go over the leading four lists I've come up with and I'll give a breakdown of strengths and weaknesses for each. I've excluded magic items from these lists given the closed list environment and I don't want to tip off any sneaky competitors out there.

List A

Lords

Warlord - Bonebreaker, Shield, Magic Items

Heroes

Chieftain - BSB, Halberd, Shield, Magic Items

Warlock Engineer - Level 2, Magic Items

Warlock Engineer - Level 1, Magic Items

Warlock Engineer - Level 1

Core

35 Clanrats - Full Command, Warpfire Thrower, Shields

40 Skaven Slaves - Musician

Special

5 Rat Ogres, Packmaster, & Skweel Gnawtooth - Masterbred Rat Ogre

10 Gutter Runners - Poison Weapons, Slings

Rare

2 Doomwheels

Strengths - This list is very close to what I run normally so I'm very familiar with all of the strengths and weaknesses. It possesses a nice solid core with plenty of slaves to soak up wounds and lock enemies in combat. A nice large batch of gutter runners to sneak behind enemy lines helps deal with war machines. The Rat Ogres with the warlord are the real hammer though and offer a great way to really hammer through some heavier opponents. The doomwheels are there to cause the usual havoc as well and are great monster hunters with the d6 multiple wounds from the warp lightning.

Weaknesses - Believe it not, this list lacks magic. The lack of a level 3 or 4 wizard means I'm at a disadvantage when dispelling so I'll have to make that up somehow. Also, while I certainly have numbers, most of my troops are subpar slaves or very mediocre clanrats. Doomwheels are hardly real competitive either given their randomness. Also note this list lacks shooting of the non-magical variety with most emphasis on melee combat. Lastly, any victory conditions using Break points will really suck as this army only possesses a fortitude of 5 (and the break point will be 3 for the tournament). All the enemy has to do is kill 2 units of clanrats or whichever unit of clanrats possesses the BSB in order to win the game.

List B

Lords

Grey Seer - Screaming Bell, Magic Items

Heroes

Chieftain - BSB, Halberd, Shield, Magic Items

Core

30 Clanrats - Full Command, Poison Wind Mortar, Shields

36 Stormvermin - Full Command, Poison Wind Mortar, Shields

40 Skaven Slaves - Musician

Special

6 Rat Ogres, Packmaster, & Skweel Gnawtooth

6 Gutter Runners - Poison Weapons, Slings

Rare

Hellpit Abomination - Warp Spikes

Strengths - This army still possesses a strong core of slaves and clanrats with some stormvermin thrown in for fun. The giant block of unbreakableness will mean I don't have to worry about my general or the BSB running off the board. The HPA is a solid monster. The gutter runners, while smaller than I'd like to see, are still there to harrass war machines. The inclusion of a Grey Seer greatly boosts magic and the bell can have some amusing effects as well.

Weaknesses - I've really only used the Screaming Bell once or twice before and never to great effect. Stormvermin aren't my favorite unit either but make ideal bell carriers. The Rat Ogres will need to stay close to the BSB or end up running off the board when they lose a model or two to ranged weapons. Again, the issue of break points comes up. This list has the same problem and is very much an all or nothing proposition given that if the enemy destroys the bell unit the game is over. Lack of ranged units.

List C

Lords

Warlord - Bonebreaker, Shield, Magic Items

Grey Seer - Magic Items

Heroes

Chieftain - BSB, Halberd, Shield, Magic Items

Warlock Engineer - Warplock Pistol, Magic Items

Core

35 Clanrats - Full Command, Warpfire Thrower, Shields

35 Skaven Slaves - Musician

Special

5 Rat Ogres, 2 Packmasters, & Skweel Gnawtooth

5 Gutter Runners - Poison Weapons, Slings

Rare

Doomwheel

Hellpit Abomination

Strengths - Same great core. Good magic support with the seer. Still multiple hammer units with the rat ogres, the HPA, and the doomwheel. Good melee support from the Warlord. Gutter Runners still around to harass war machines.

Weaknesses - While this list has a little of everything that's the problem. It has fewer numbers overall. This list could end up being so generalized as not to be good at anything. Break points still an issue. Gutter runner squad a little small to really be effective. Lack of ranged units.

List D

Lords

Grey Seer - Magic Items

Heroes

Chieftain - BSB, Halberd, Shield, Magic Items

Warlock Engineer - Level 2, Magic Items

Warlock Engineer - Level 1

Core

35 Clanrats - Full Command, Ratling Gun, Shields

40 Skaven Slaves - Musician

Special

10 Gutter Runners - Poison Weapons, Slings

Rare

2 Doomwheels

2 Warp Cannons

Strengths - Strong Magic support with 3 casters. Strong central core for an army. Gutter Runenrs will run amok in the enemy backfield or help deal with monsters as scouts. Warp Cannon offers some serious ranged support to help thin the ranks of enemy forces and the doomwheels adds further confusion, flanking support, and monster hunting.

Weaknesses - This list requires strong coordination to avoid having the doomwheels destroy the gutter runners should they use their scout placement. Again, doomwheels are entirely random and could underperform. Break points still an issue. No real hammer units so I'll have to rely on shooting to thin out the enemy ranks enough for my normal units to finish them off.

At the end of the day I'm happy with all of these lists. Right now I'm leaning more towards list A since that is what I'm comfortable with. List B uses a deathstar unit and one that is random at that, so I would consider that list on the bottom of the pile. Now, I may still craft one more list to deal with a recurring issue I see in all four lists - Break Points. I'll have to keep this in consideration and see if it handicaps me siginificantly enough for me worry about recrafting some lists.

So let the playtesting begin!!!!

I'm Baaaaack!

2011-11-05T21:12:00.000-05:00

+1 impact hit for scythed wheels?

So I'm finally back after a myriad of health issues, family issues, and adapting to my new work & school schedule. To give everyone a brief idea as to what has prevented me from posting here, since my last post (dated 7/25/2011) I've seen three family members have serious health episodes where they either ended up in the hospital with life threatening maladies or were diagnosed with possibly terminal illnesses. I myself have been in and out of the doctor office with a number of health issues like gout (which keeps coming back). I've had a number of small crisis situations at work to deal with, trained 8 new employees, and developed and taught a class at work. All the while I've been going to class and working on my double masters program (MS in Anthropology and Geography). So yeah, I've had little time for hobbies other than the occasional Team Fortress game or watching Big Bang Theory. In fact, I've painted exactly two miniatures since that post.

Anyway, enough with the excuses. What's on tap? Well, In the past 3 1/2 months I've missed a number of big gaming releases and I still owe everyone a few articles from before. Plus I'll add in some quick rundowns of games I've played since my last actual content post. So here is a quick breakdown of what to expect going forward;

Triarch Stalker

Necrons - Just released this weekend and I bought the book last night. I love it. I really want to make an army of these guys, but unfortunately they go in the queue somewhere behind Dark Eldar. I plan a couple posts to discuss the new book, the new feel of the army, and especially the new units and models.

Ogres - I'm sad I couldn't post about these guys. I've never played Ogres before and I've only ever played against them once, but the transformation this army went through between it's previous book and the new one is truly a work of art. They went from being an army of big guys with little feel or flavor and they were turned into a cohesive army with solid rules and amazingly deep, and usually comical, fluff. Expect one of my usual breakdowns for Fantasy, but probably shortened due to my lack of experience using Ogres.

Warhammer 40k/Fantasy Rumor Mill - A lot of rumors have been floating around the internet about the new edition of 40k next year and the army book and codex schedules. I'm planning an article on going over my thoughts on a lot of these subjects.

Blanche Necron Art

The Road to Adepticon 2012 - With any luck my work won't send me anywhere over Adepticon weekend (April 19th). I'm planning on signing up my Skaven for the fantasy tournament and trying my hand at Fantasy for once given my track record. I'm tired of getting my rear handed to me in competitive 40k games. So follow my progress as I track through how I prepare a list, model the army, and make that army tournament-ready for Adepticon 2012.

Warmachine - Domination comes out soon and I'm both excited and disappointed. I'm planning an article to go over they why about this one. Also expect a couple articles discussing my first two or three Hordes games that I played (against Mercenaries).

Malifaux - The new terraclips terrain is out and so is twisted fates. I still plan a couple articles discussing those items as well as my many games I played over the summer and why I'm forced into a Malifaux break.

Miscellaneous - I started playing a little Magic: The Gathering again so I'll go over my thoughts about it's current state compared to when I last played around 1998ish. Also I'll go over my current decks that have seen some use.

Follow-ups and broken promises returned - I still plan to write guides on creating a wet pallette and some painting tutorials. I am also planning more Skaven articles such as an analysis of Weapon Teams. Lastly, I plan to finally finish my Tomb king analysis with the list that I've been using (by way of proxy models since I'm waiting on new skeletons to be released).

So that's where I stand. Welcome back to my little corner of the internet and check back every few days for some updates!

Back Soon...

2011-07-25T21:26:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to apologize for my recent absence. I've experienced a number of health issues lately that prevented me from readily accessing my computer. I will be back on Wednesday and look forward to seeing several articles from me this week. Here's a preview of what I plan on posting this week.

Skaven: Weapon Teams and How to Use Them
This article will cover Skaven weapon teams. I will explain the strengths and weaknesses of each team and also explain when to not buy a weapon team for a unit. Lastly, for you non-skaven generals out there I will give some tips for dealing with these horribly random, yet frighteningly effective machines.

Malifaux: Back to the Fray
I will give a break down of my recent games with Malifaux and go over some pointers on Rasputina and Collette. Lastly, I will show off a few pictures of my crew and give some tips on writing up crews that cover all of the weaknesses while still maintaining a strong focus.

Hobby: Making your own Wet Palette
This will be a short and sweet tutorial on making your own wet palette from common household items. These wet palettes are cheap, disposable, and made with safe and readily available household products. The only reason I haven't written this yet is due to my desire to take good step-by-step photos.

Tomb Kings Part 7: Sample Lists and Tactics
I know I dropped the ball on this one. I will get this out early next week perhaps. I need a little more time to "perfect" a couple of the lists I will present in this article and I would really like to get some photos of the War Sphinx and/or Necrosphinx.

Lastly, I want to give a brief speech on supporting your local game store. In the past 4 years I have seen my two favorite shops close their doors. The first store went down due to GWs corporate restructuring, so that had little to do with people not supporting the store. However, the 2nd store really went out of business due to two primary factors. The first factor largely hinged on the fact that the owner was an idiot who would try and sell the tile on the floor if it hadn't been glued down. However, the other reason is that people really didn't support the store. I don't know how many times I heard people say they would buy it cheaper on E-Bay or order from an online store. I find this practice ridiculous. Especially when the brick and mortar shop offers discounts akin to the internet shops (20%). So please, support your FLGS, even if the owner is an idiot.

Storm of Magic: Assembling the New Releases

2011-07-11T22:23:00.000-05:00

By now everyone has read enough about Storm of Magic, the rules overviews, the reviews of the book, and seen the plethora of new models as well. In my first post about Storm of Magic a few days ago, I mentioned picking up a Chimera, Cockatrice, Dreadfire Portal/Eternity Stair, and a Dark Elf Sorceress. So let's take a look at those models and I'll break down my opinion of each, the ease of assembling those models, and some tips and tricks for getting them to stay together.

Cockatrice
The Cockatrice is a Citadel Finecast model that stands on a 50mm monster base. An absolutely gorgeous model whose wingspan is wider than the model is tall by a great degree. It rests on a coiled up tail with the claws out and the beak ready to snap at nearby enemies. The cockatrice possesses a very dynamic pose when observed in person. The model itself comes in 8 pieces if you include the base. Quality wise, since that's been a concern for some with the Finecast product, is really pretty good. My model showed few mold lines and minimal flash. I did find two bubbles that either degraded detail or appeared in awkward areas, but both filled just fine with some greenstuff. Total assembly time took maybe 25 minutes to clean all the parts, glue and pin together, and fill in the seams with greenstuff.

This model really does not present a challenge for assembly and I think even a novice modeler could assemble this kit with little help. I would suggest pinning most of the pieces to the main body. I realize Finecast is lightweight and flexible and thus, should not shatter into pieces when dropped but one can never be too careful. The only tricky part of the assembly were the claws. Not so much tricky as simply finicky. Pin them in place to avoid any hassle. The wings should not present a problem. They fit perfectly into the slots provided and if pinned are amazingly durable.

The Cockatrice is one of my favorite new kits released for Storm of Magic. The model proves exquisitely detailed in its ugliness, aggressiveness, and sheer brutality while also possessing a very narrative dynamism that eludes to a monster in motion. This alludes to a giant reptilian chicken-lizard about to eat your face off that is only brought down from its lofty perch by a few defects resulting from the Finecast resin molding process.

Final Score: 9/10

Chimera
The Chimera exudes a brutish elegance both graceful and terrifying as befitting the monsters legendary status. Reared back on its hind legs the model looks like it is either rearing up to rip some poor sods face off or perhaps take to flight. Either way, the flickering snake tail combined with the three beautifully designed heads and the rearing body give the model a very active pose that fits the model and the fluff. The model comes in roughly 20 pieces and unfortunately lacks any sort of pose-ability. Total assembly time including cutting from sprue, cleaning the pieces, assembly, pinning, and greenstuff filling for the few seams was roughly 45 minutes.

The model possesses a normal amount of flash and mold lines for a plastic model. Again, a novice should find no problems when assembling this kit as GW really has insured the new plastic kits fit together almost seamlessly with little to no gap filling. One notable comment is that while the pieces are numbered on the sprue, the directions for assembly do not reference any numbered pieces. I'm thinking this is more of an oversight and it really shouldn't be necessary for numbered pieces. Overall the model possesses only a few minor issues with assembly and many of these issues can be avoided by simply taking the time to pin the model. First, make sure to glue the body to the base or a suitable surface used for gripping before continuing onto the limbs, heads, tail, etc. If you choose not to pin and wish to use plastic glue, make sure you let the tail section dry before moving on or you will definitely end up snapping the tail section off. The heads I really didn't find a good way to pin given they are hollow and the sides really don't give much room for pins. So superglue/plastic glue will be the method. I recommend gluing one head at a time, starting with the middle head, and let those dry for a few minutes before moving on. Prop the model up vertically if you have to to keep the heads in place as my griffon head really didn't want to stay in place.

So the Chimera model is a little pricier than the Cockatrice for some reason and has little pose-ability. The kit itself assembles quick and easily, particularly when pinning. The model, when fully assembled looks fantastic and has a great in-your-face pose that adds much needed motion to what could have been a very static monster. Great model, easy assembly, a little pricey for what you get, 'nuff said.

Final Score: 8/10

Dark Elf Sorceress
Dangerous beauty describes this model to a tee. When GW first showed shots of the new casters released alongside Storm of Magic, no one anticipated these models would be plastic. Remarkable sculpt, albeit a little tricky to assemble. This lovely vixen sports the new line of Victoria Secrets and will melt your face if you try and peek. A very delicate and slender model, although I find the pose a little static. Still, GW really outperformed themselves with this model. She possesses finely detailed features and obviously a casting process that they've nearly perfected since my model had only minimal mold lines on the hair and the legs and no flash or other defects. Clocking in at seven pieces including the base this model really shows just how advanced GW's casting process for plastic has become. Assembly time clocked in at roughly 15 minutes for me and I did not pin her (except to her base) or use green stuff of any kind.

I would not give this model to a Warhammer newbie. While I would not classify her as hard to assemble she certainly can prove finicky. Ignoring the placard on the back of the packaging I plowed straight into assembly and ignored the numbered steps. While the majority went together just fine I came to the arm, which technically goes under the hair I had just glued on. So after ripping her apart and retrying following the instructions I managed to get her together pretty easily... except the arm proved very irritating when attaching the two pieces of hair/headdress. Definitely let the pieces freshly glued cure a little bit when assembling this model or you will knock pieces out of place frequently.

Overall a beautiful model with almost flawless casting but a bit finicky to assemble at times. Did I mention she's dirt cheap? A shame she lacks any sort of pose-ability whatsoever which is usually pretty important for character models.

Final Review: 9/10

Dreadfire Portal
The dreadfire portal comes in one of the terrain two-packs for Storm of Magic. Paired with the Eternity Stair (reviewed below) this model offers up a long set of stairs leading to a raised platform with some skull braziers burning. Alongside the stairs viewers are treated to an interesting mural that includes death and some sigils symbolizing the winds of magic. The platform is roughly three inches off the table surface with the braziers rising another inch or two. The stairs leading up to the "portal" measure between 5 and 6 inches. As a note to everyone, this model has NO Chaos markings. If you are looking for that, look elsewhere. One seems to notice that this box has more empire-related terrain while the other box seems more Chaos oriented. Overall this kit took me about an hour to cut, clean, and assemble the roughly 11 pieces.

I would not recommend this model to novices at all. The directions are much like the Chimera and offer no numbers to follow and the model fits together very poorly with large gaps apparent (see photos). I even stuck my model in C-Clamp overnight and it still warped. The culprit? GW decided to make the stairs as one long stairway instead of breaking it up into several small segments. The longer the piece the more prone to warping. Don't be afraid to whip out the rubber bands or clamps on this model as otherwise you will spend a long time filling gaps after the glue sets.

An interesting piece of terrain that does not fit together well. Fortunately the kit comes with the eternity stairs or I couldn't recommend the whole box.

Final Score: 5/10

Eternity Stair
Anyone who buys the Eternity Stair/Dreadfire Portal box will likely be buying the kit for this very cool piece of terrain. Like a wizard tower with external stairs winding up a central spire and covered in imperial markings and magical sigils (non-chaos) this piece of terrain truly looks impressive on the battlefield. Standing an impressive 5" above the tabletop surface this piece of terrain will give your wizards the perfect vantage point to maul your opponents and draw line of sight anywhere necessary. All total this kit comes with 19 pieces and took me roughly 45 minutes to assemble.

I place this kit as moderate difficulty for a novice modeler. The directions share the same flaw as the Dreadfire Portal with which it shares a box and while impressive once assembled the Stairs really do have some interesting quirks to consider when assembling. First, make sure the central spire goes together correctly and actually forms a circle. Yes, a circle. Not an oval or rhombus or other weird shape. Don't worry about the gaps so much. The bottom stair section does not rest on the bottom surface, so let the glue set and cure a little before continuing to avoid displacing the bottom stairs. When continuing, set a piece of stairs in place and then let it cure some more for the best results. Finally, make sure the appropriate gargoyle goes at the spot nearest to the top stairs, otherwise you'll have your gargoyle fall off easily.

An impressive piece of terrain that also possesses some interesting quirks when assembling. This piece along almost makes the whole box set of terrain worth the money, the Portal is just gravy.

Final Score: 8/10

A few pictures of the terrain for size-comparison purposes:

Note: All pictures in this post are without greenstuff. I wanted everyone to see how the gaps looks before filling

So join me next time when I jump back on the bandwagon and work on some of my other blog projects like making my Wet Pallete How To, Malifaux discussion, Warmachine tribulations, maybe a storm of magic battle report/gameplay experience, or what have you.

Storm of Magic: A More In-Depth Look and Review

2011-07-10T00:17:00.000-05:00

A shot of the cover of the tome.

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Storm of Magic has arrived. I was fortunate that my order arrived early and my FLGS started selling their stuff early as well. As such, I managed to hunker down and thoroughly read the large tome between last night and today. Now, I have NOT played a single game of Storm of Magic, but that will change later this week and I'll certainly keep everyone up to date with my thoughts and feelings on ow the game plays. Until then though, this remains a theoretical discussion. Nonetheless, today I hope to dig deeper then my little mini-review yesterday and provide a more in-depth look at the Storm of Magic expansion. To start I'll describe the book, the different sections of the book such as rules, magic, and monsters, and finally give a little review of the overall product.

I <3 John Blanche (most of the time).

The Book
So what does $49.99 buy you from GW these days? Why, the Storm of Magic Warhammer Fantasy expansion of course! The book consists of 152 page hardcover with a very strange cover. The front flips out partially to reveal a spinner that plays a role within the expansion and leaves a little nub of hardcover. Overall the book seems well put together with a solid binding and a nice finish that resembles that of the recent Orc and Goblin and Tomb Kings books. The pages are of good durable stock and well laid out throughout the book. The wheel of magic I can see degrading over time but should last for many many games over the years. This really depends on how often players decide to venture into the Storms of Magic.

The interior is well laid out with sections centering on fluff, rules, magic, magical artifacts, monsters, new terrain rules, and scenario rules. Interspersed throughout the book one finds a variety of artwork from small vignettes appearing in the margins, to multi-page pieces of dramatic battles from favorites such as John Blanche. Many old pieces of artwork make a return in the book but also presented are several new pieces never seen outside of Storm of Magic. Also spread throughout the book, but also with several large sections at various points, come the miniature galleries. These mostly show stock models but hidden inside are some conversions as well as some as-of-yet unreleased models such as a high elf mage and an ogre butcher.

Each section within the book flows very well. The fluff section for instances starts off with small stories before presenting the reader with a multi-page battle and then a timeline showing famous battles wracked with magical storms. The book itself contains the following sections, in order; Fluff, Rules, Spells, Runes, Artifacts, Scenarios, Terrain, and Monsters. I'll cover some of these in my overview below. Regardless of whether I cover it or not, all sections of this book are worth reading. The fluff is interesting and not overwhelming, the rules are quick and coherent, monsters take up the majority of the book, and spells, artifacts, and runes take up most of the rest.

Rules
So the basic premise of Storm of Magic should be well known by now. I know BoLS had a list of expansion rules posted awhile back that seems pretty accurate looking back at it with the book in hand. To start, when magic energies converge or great and disastrous events occur and the winds of magic pour into the real world, Storms of Magic can occur. The convergence of this much magical energies causes artifacts of old to become empowered, gives mages more power to cast spells of incredible power, and allows for the binding of monsters and the summoning of allies. That's a quick overview of what Storm of Magic truly focuses on.

For an expansion, the rules presented really are slim, easy to learn, and quick to implement. Basically, in Storm of Magic the scenario centers around capturing magical fulcrums. The player with the most of these at the end of the game, wins. A few catches though, only mages can capture these fulcrums and once installed on a fulcrum are incredibly difficult to remove from their place of power. Any wizard may claim a fulcrum as long as the model fits on top of the terrain piece (hello Verminlord!). A mage on a fulcrum receives a number of advantages from a 3+ ward, immunity to Psychology and stomp/thunderstomp attacks, and is also immune to attacks causing multiple wounds. In addition, only a single model may be in combat with a wizard on a fulcrum. The fulcrums themselves are also very sturdy and act as buildings that cannot be destroyed unless specifically stated in the rules. However, manipulating magical energies on these fulcrums is dangerous and any miscast causes wizards to roll a normal miscast and then (if still alive) to roll on the fulcrum mishap table. This table has a variety of effects from turning every mage on the board into a frog, to obliterating the fulcrum (and the mage). Possessing fulcrums unlocks the ability for mages to cast cataclysm spells of various levels. Possessing a single fulcrum allows players to cast their presence level spells, having equal number of fulcrums to your opponent allows the equilibrium level, and if you are lucky enough to possess more fulcrums than your opponent you may cast the deadly domination spells. So how does one remove these wizards from the fulcrums (aside from waiting for them to blow themselves up)? Well, with monsters and other mages of course!

When playing a Storm of Magic game, the players agree upon a base point level. In addition to this basic level the players receive an additional 25% worth of points to spend on monsters, artifacts, and pacts from within the Storm of Magic book. These monsters all have a variety of abilities and some of them are positively brutal. The idea with the monsters being that if you send in a monster to attack a wizard on a fulcrum then they will stand a better change with multiple attacks at a high strength. However, monsters are not the only way to deal with enemy mages on fulcrums. All wizards possess cantrip spells (described in further detail below) that allow them to try and bump a caster off of their high perches.

Now another interesting aspect of Storm of Magic is the Wheel of Magic built into the book. This wheel is spun at the beginning of every turn and players can try and bend the winds to their favor if they possess a fulcrum already. A lore that stands as ascendant receives a bonus to cast and all lores throughout the warhammer world are represented on the wheel. Neatly enough, in every turn a major lore will be ascendant with some minor lores (necromancy, skaven, great maw, etc) will also be ascendant. Also, EVERY turn either Dark or High magic will also be ascendant although their bonuses are less since they are so consistent.

Lastly, as the magic being flung around in a Storm of Magic game borders on cataclysmic the winds prove much stronger. Players will roll 4d6 for winds of magic in their turn and dispel dice come from the two highest die rolls. The power dice pool obviously grows as well and maxes out at 24 dice, although casters are still limited to a maximum of 6 dice for each spell cast (excepting casters like Slann Priests of course).

The Magic (and Runes)
As mentioned previously all the lores of magic in Warhammer are represented in this book. Most of the major ones received an additional 3 spells each while some of the lesser lores only see one or two additional spells. In addition, GW associated all of the minor lores into the 8 major winds of magic for the purpose of tracking which lores gain ascendancy through the Wheel of Magic. I've listed those below for quick reference.

All wizards, regardless of race or magic level, gain the ability to cast cantrips. Currently, Storm of Magic introduces three cantrip spells - Magical Duel, Transagar's Transportation, and Unbind Monster. All of these cantrips are insanely easy to cast and will prove most useful in trying to claim additional fulcrums. Magic Duel is used to remove opponent wizards from fulcrums and provides a simple a quick method for attempting to do so. While not very dangerous to either party, this will allow a caster to knock an opponent off and usurp their position on top of the fulcrum. Transagar's Transportation allows a wizard already on a fulcrum to teleport to a vacant fulcrum. Useful for denying opponents a fulcrum at the last moment. Lastly, Unbind Monster provides wizards with a little defense against monsters by attempting to break the spells binding them to service. Warning though, this is a random change and could result in making the monster very, very angry indeed.

A new type of spell appears in Storm of Magic - Summons. These spells may summon either units or terrain and work differently depending upon which the user summons. Terrain may be summoned anywhere. Here is where the rules become a little grey as GW literally states this as anywhere, "but not if this would look silly". Okay, probably poor wording there. Additionally, terrain may not hang off the table or be perched precariously on something else. Summoned units must be placed more than 1" away from other units and impassable terrain. Additionally, a generic summons spell is available to everyone, the spell Seven Secret Sigils of Summoning which allows a single unit up to a particular point level determined by Presence, Equilibrium, or Domination. This spell will prove handy for many armies by allowing them to summon new casters to a game where magic proves pivotal to winning.

As previously stated, all of the lores receive between one and three spells. I've tried coming up with the names of these below for reference purposes. I'm not really going to address the specifics of each spell as I'm still trying to wrap my head around the specifics. Suffice it to say their are all varieties of spells from a magical vortex that heals units, a domination spell that brings back whole units from the dead, to a deadly spell that causes your opponent to destroy a number of units until both he and you have the same number of units. So feel free to ask for specifics on the spells if interested. I will not give casting costs, but I will give a rough description of the spell effects.

Interestingly enough, even Khorne makes an appearance here. If any Chaos Lores miscast one of their cataclysmic spells, Khorne will throw a fiery brass skull down upon the caster that works just like a stone thrower. Should the miscast kill the caster, the brass skull still drops, just on top of wherever the mage stood instead.

Dwarves are not forgotten either. They receive powerful ancestor runes and their runesmiths may claim fulcrums on behalf of the Dwarven army. Now, these ancestor runes work very closely like magic spells. You declare which rune you will use, roll dice, and work out the effects. Unlike cataclysm spells, ancestor runes do not require Presence, Equilibrium, or Domination and can be used at any time during the magic phase. As far as I can tell, runesmiths cannot cast cantrips or the basic summoning spell. This means Dwarves must be very wary of how many runesmiths they bring to a Storm of Magic game.

To use a rune, roll a number of power dice of your choosing up to a maximum of 6. Each result of 4 or 5 is a successful strike while a 6 is an irresistible strike. Your opponent rolls a number of dice chosen from the dispel pool. Every roll of 4+ removes on of your successful strikes. Irresistible strikes cannot be removed in this manner. If your opponent fails to remove all of your successful strikes, then the rune is struck and goes into effect.

The Artifacts
The book possesses a large assortment of artifacts from all the usual categories. I think the only categories lacking any items whatsoever are armor, standards, and talismans. Most of these artifacts gain power as your army progresses from presence, to equilibrium, to domination. All of these items come with a hefty point cost. The cheapest items I can find cost 100 points. I've listed the items below, without point costs, and given a quick description of the item. These are very quick and dirty as I am reticent to give away too many details.

Dawnstar Sword - Doubles attack characteristic and gains automatic hits, wounds, and multiple wounds (2d6) as it progresses along the power track.
Blade of Last Resort - Makes a character extremely powerful in duels but, upon winning a duel the character is removed as a casualty and a new character is given the blade.
Dodecahedron of Continental Drift - When playing with modular boards like the Realm of battle board, this bound spell (one use only) item allows players to swap board tiles with several restrictions.
Fozzrik's Floating Fortress - A floating fortress that can contain a single unit and move across the battlefield. Gains abilities as it progresses in power such as a flame attack, rock dropping gargoyles, and stone fists that assault anyone assaulting the fortress.
Woodwaker's Wand - Bound item, one use only that converts an existing forest into a unit of Guardian Trees. These trees have a pretty frightening statline that is much more impressive than treekin and in many ways, more useful than treemen.
Living Deadwood Staff - This has several effects ont he playing field. First, every forest counts as a blood forest. These forests do more damage as you progress from presence to equilibrium to domination. Lastly, this item allows for the summoning of Mysterious Forests.
Giantkin Helm - One use only. This transforms the wearer into a giant with all the advantages and disadvantages of that unit. This magic is temporary and the user checks every player turn to see if it fades (on a roll of a 1). Wounds are carried over even in excess of the original model (so they could die).
Windcatcher Prism - Probably my favorite item. Depending on which wind is ascendant this item provides the bearer and his unit with a variety of effects from flaming weapons that reroll to-wound rolls to Initiative 10 and ASF to non-magical attacks only hitting on the roll of a 6.
Paranoth's Piquet Fence - Turns a woods, hill, or marsh into a building. Temporary magic that can fade similar to the Giantkin Helm above.
Rockcharmer's Flute - Causes a nearby hill to attack any units on top of it and then move 2d6 inches. Units moved over will take damage as well. Bound item, one use only.
Wyssan's Weighted Dice - One use only (maybe). Pick two numbers. All dice rolls of the first count as the second. This goes for everything and everyone. As you progress along the power track it is possible to use the items multiple times.
Arabyan Puzzlebox - If the winds of magic are an odd number then add d6 power dice. Even number then reroll the d3 for magical flux (which lets you affect the wheel of magic and which lore is ascendant). As you progress in power gain several other abilities such as +3 to casting attempts that contain doubles, Doubles also increase the heroes characteristics by d3, to, finally, all doubles cause irresistible force.
Black Book of Ibn Naggazar - Grants Loremaster Death and Shadow. Each spell cast remove d3 models and add that number of dice to the casting roll. If no models in unit then bearer is killed. If he doesn't attempt to cast a spell from death or shadow during a magic phase he is also killed. Greater power adds additional power for the sacrifices (up to 3d6 per model!).

I know I used this yesterday. But it's a wicked piece of work.

The Monsters
The Storm of Magic book contains 45 monsters for wizards to bind to their wills and use against their foes. I've posted a complete list below. These monsters range in power from Exalted Greater Daemons to Chaos Warhounds and provide a range of options for every army. They've even brought back a number of classics such as the Fimur, Zoats, Lammasu, and Truthsayers/Dark Emissaries. A couple new monsters make it in here as well such as the Bonegrinder Giant - a so-called giant of giants. Lastly, the monsters in this book are self-contained. So if your army already has hydras, you may still take those using the base points but any further hydras you want from the magic and monsters point allocation must come from this book. Also, the greater daemons in here could flay the greater daemons from the daemon book in two with little to no extra thought. Seriously.

Most of the monsters above come with a variety of upgrades, some more than others. Of the the monsters are useful for a variety of tasks such as removing wizards from fulcrums, flanking attacks, or terrain mobility.

We can only hope GW intends to support Storm of Magic by insuring that all of these monsters see models at some point in the future. Many of the monsters in this book appear in army books and still do not possess a model of their own.

In Closing
I didn't cover a number of aspects around the book such as the lore section, the new terrain rules, or the rules for pacts. All of these sections are superb and definitely add to either the atmosphere of the game or the rules in general. I particularly enjoy the new rules for arcane ruins, wizard towers, and shrines as it adds a great deal of character to the tabletop. The rules for pacts offer a quick and easy way to build up an additional army and get some practice playing with it while still playing large games.

So now for the brief review of the book, taking everything above into account.

Presentability - 8/10
Ruleset - 8/10
Replay - 6/10
Campaign Play 10/10

So let me break that down a bit. The rulebook really is a fantastic book chock full in interesting lore, fantastic artwork, and cool miniature shots but I can't give it full marks because of how awkward the wheel of magic makes reading and flipping through the book. The rules are quick, clear, and concise overall and players will be able to quickly adapt to ingesting a few new spells and facing off against some new monstrous units. Replay, like all expansions I see this waning over time. Even the popular City Fight and Apocalypse expansions for 40k see limited use these days. However, for campaign play this book opens up an endless amount of possibilities.

So if you like Warhammer Fantasy and don't shy away from the magic phase then definitely check out Storm of Magic. These rules definitely provide an alternative for larger games to make them more than just a large warhammer game.

Come back in the next day or two to see the finished results and opinions on the models I purchased for the Storm of Magic release. I finished assembly on the Cockatrice, Dark Elf Sorceress, and Chimera today. All I have left to assemble are the Dreadfire Portal and Eternity Stairs. So come back soon and see how those turned out, what I think of the finished model, and some tips for assembling your own!

Storm of Magic: Brief Overview

2011-07-09T00:33:00.000-05:00

Storm of Magic book with the cover open

Well, I'm back from my restful vacation in the mountains and just in time for Storm of Magic to hit shelves. Now I know GW supposedly has a new process for revealing advanced orders and ensuring no one receives their preorders before the release date. That seems to have failed. I ordered a small collection of models (Cockatrice, Eternity Stairs, Dark Elf Sorceress, vortex templates, and the card deck) and all have arrived before the release date of tomorrow. In addition I managed to get my hands on a Chimera and the Storm of Magic book early as well. So check out the previews below for terrible pictures and my first thoughts on the Warhammer Fantasy Storm of Magic expansion!

Nice cards, poor container. : (

First up we have the deck of cards. These retail for $13.25 and you receive cards for all the spells appearing in Storm of Magic and a plastic carrying case in the frame of a magic tome. Overall, the cards are the same quality as previously seen with the Battle Magic cards and the race lores that GW has released to date. Nothing fancy but decent quality stock and all the useful information needed for quick reference. Sadly, the plastic carrying case is made of relatively cheap and stiff plastic. I can see the snap holding the book together breaking off pretty easily and the snap is nothing more than a "insert tab A into slot B" situation that I can see failing after constant use. Finally, their is no room whatsoever for any other lore cards. If you wanted to store your Skaven cards with your Storm of Magic cards, you'd have to remove cards unnecessary for your army.

Plenty of Cards

At only 13.25 you receive a large volume of cards and the book storage device is just a little freebie. If you look at the purchase like that then the cards are well worth the price. If you just want the book storage device, I'd recommend passing. 5/10

These templates ain't small.

Next, the vortex templates. Coming in at a pricey $29.00 and not even available from the webstore anymore, these are made exactly like the vortex template that GW made for the 40k Apocalypse release. The only difference is that they are a large template instead of the smaller template. Also, with 6 of them in the box they come in a variety of colors and prints that make keeping track of multiple magical vortex templates very simple and easy.
Would I recommend them for everyone? Probably not. Twenty-nine dollars is a pretty steep price-tag for a template you will rarely use and six of them seems like an overly abundant number. Still, If you play fantasy regularly and you plan of playing Storm of Magic at least every now and then, I'd suggest banding together with a group of friends and buying the box. Then split up the tin templates inside as evenly as possible. 6/10

One of the best plastic kits I've seen from anyone.

Next, the Dark Elf Sorceress. Wow, GW really outdid themselves with the new casters and the Dark Elf Sorceress in particular. As a plastic model she comes in new packaging and on a sprue of roughly 6 or 7 pieces (she's downstairs right now). She looks incredibly simple to assemble and my model has very few noticeable mold lines. Her base is also already textured for people who really don't care about basing. She is a beautiful model that any Dark Elf general should consider buying and I can see others picking her up just to paint and display (like myself). Her price point of $13.25 is also fairly reasonable for what you get. 9/10

Sprue 1 of 3 for the Eternity Stairs/Dreadfire Portal

The entire game of Storm of Magic centers around capturing Magical Fulcrums. I decided to pick up the box with the eternity stairs and the dreadfire portal since I really dislike the look of the balewind vortex. These models look like they will assemble pretty easily and could also offer some interesting bits for conversions such as altars and candles. The detail on the plastic scenery remains exquisite and they really possess a distinct look. At $37.25 these models possess a steep price point yet they are intrinsic to Storm of Magic. I'm sure GW did that on purpose as I really don't see how this kit can cost $37.25 while Witchfate Tor, a rather large wizard tower kit, costs only double of this kit (actually less than double). 7/10

Looks easy enough. Only seven parts.

You can see the bubble near where my ring finger is located.

Next, the Cokatrice. I admit to being a little wary to buying one of these finecast kits with all the negative press that finecast has received since its inception. Upon inspection the model for the usual flashing, bubbles, mold lines, etc I actually found very little wrong with the model. It possesses a couple mold lines on the central torso, some flashing between the claws and the bone protrusions on the main body. The largest issue was a bubble on one of the vertebrae on the back which essentially obliterated the bony protrusion on the back. However, this is relatively minor since I can put some green stuff in the bubble and build it up and the area sits between the wings and thus is rarely seen. I really am impressed with this model overall. The amount of detail is fantastic and it looks to be a breeze to assemble. As the cheapest ($-wise) of the monster kits out there this really is a steal and I highly recommend this kit to anyone. 8/10

One Sprue! That's crazy talk!

Okay, now onto the Chimera. This model I really felt rather indifferent about until I started seeing alternate paint schemes presented in White Dwarf and on the GW Blog. So I decided, "What the Hell, I'll pick one up and see if it impresses me." Well, color me impressed. Now, I am largely impressed because the chimera comes on a single sprue and also because it looks pretty clean as far as mold lines and the like. The only model I can think of in recent memory with fewer issues would be the Hellpit Abomination and that thing can be confusing to put together at times. For now, I'm still largely impressed but I'm holding final judgement until I start the assembly of the kit, hopefully tomorrow. At $41.25 this kit is not cheap and considering the limited usefulness (Transformation of Kadon and Storm of Magic only) this kit likely will not be a big seller. 8/10 (tentative)

Magic section of the Storm of Magic Book

Finally, we come to the Storm of Magic book itself. This tome clocks in at 152 pages stuffed full of fluff, rules, artifact items, spells, and beasts. In addition, built into the cover of the book you find the spinner that determines which lore is ascendant. Now, I don't mind the game mechanic of the wheel, but whoever decided that putting this in the cover of the book needs to be shot. This feature makes the book a pain to read on anything but a flat surface.

Fimur and Zoats in the monster section!

The book itself starts off with some fairly interesting fluff discussing the various points through history when Storms of Magic have appeared and armies have clashed over the magical fulcrums. Then it moves onto the meat of the expansion, the rules. These really don't take up much space and I am eager to see how these play on the tabletop. Next it moves onto the spells and artifacts that players can purchase with their extra 25% worth of points.

How's that for artwork? GW, you need to make this a poster.

Throughout the book art of all kinds, sizes, and ability is interspersed. Very much like the Tomb King book, one finds small interesting tidbits of art all over. Other art spreads across multiple pages and offers the usual vistas of massed battles. The artwork, like usual, is of top notch quality. Also interspersed throughout the book are pictures of models. So far I've only spotted a single model that I've never seen before, an Ogre Butcher. Signs of armies to come? Only time will tell.

A sign of things to come?

At almost $50 this expansion is not cheap. Still, the quality of the book and the work put into the contents justify the cost in my opinion, as long as you are a fan of Fantasy of course. At the same time, even if you like Fantasy but dislike magic, the magic phase, or prefer to run low magic level lists then this expansion is not for you.

Well, that's all I have time for right now. Come back over the weekend and I will post a more in-depth review of Storm of Magic, going over the rules, the monsters, and the magic. Also, I plan to build all of the models I bought today (or preordered and had delivered today) buy the end of the weekend. So expect more from good old Chronowraith over the weekend and as we move through the next week.

Ramblings Before Vacation...

2011-06-26T22:44:00.001-05:00

Cookie Wars - The future of wargaming

Alright folks, I'm off to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado for a family reunion. I will be back on the fifth of July so look for an update then. I'll leave everyone with a few quick blurbs and some images

First, note the poll over to the right of the screen. That's your right, not the actual screen's right. This poll is simply hypothetical at this point. I'm just gauging interest. All of those choices are armies I'd like to do at some point so don't feel as though you have to pick the one that most suites me or that most interests me. If you want more details, I encourage you to look at this post here for test figures for Scythes of the Emperor and Sons of Guilliman and Blood Ravens, see this image here for a sample Void Knight, and see my post here a few weeks ago for details (but no pictures really) of my Dark Eldar plans.

Second, Storm of Magic is almost upon us and I've posted almost nothing about it at this point. Given my proclivity for Warhammer Fantasy you might ask, "What does Chrono think?" Honestly, I'm withholding judgement to see specific rules.

Right now, I love the new models, terrain, and other assorted items they have shown. The book itself looks top notch as well. However, the rules seem a bit over the top. Unlike most other players, I really don't have an issue with the magic phase. Sure, it needs some tweaks, but overall I feel 8th edition provides solid gameplay and is much harder to dominate in any single phase than in 7th edition. Sure, don't take a mage and you will be devastated in the magic phase, but what do you want? This is Fantasy afterall. Would you bring a knife and a bow to a gun fight? No? Well guess what, you wouldn't bring only those two weapons to a Fantasy battle either. Magic = Gun. It really is that simple.

Hmm, that was a bit of a tangent wasn't it? Well, as I mentioned above, I'm a little skeptical of the rules for Storm of Magic. They seem incredibly over the top and I am really wary when they use terms like "domination" and "cataclysmic". I don't like the idea of starting to lose and my opponent GAINING in strength because of it. That means that once you start to lose you will likely lose big. To me, the best battles are those that drift back and forth over the course of the game or where the "winner" is indeterminate until the last turns.

So end of the day? I will buy the expansion. I will buy (most) of the monsters. I will even buy most of the little add-on trinkets like the void templates and the card deck. However, if the rules don't suite me or prove heavily imbalanced then I don't know that I will continue to play Storm of Magic after the coming campaign.

Regardless of how I feel, enjoy the shots. Two are taken from GWs blog and the last from the pages of White Dwarf.

Verdant Apotheosis - best thing since ... ever?

Now if they could only release a griffon without a rider

I love the new model. Points are 175 base.

Next, a few things to look forward to in the future of this blog. Expect some articles coming up for Malifaux, Warmahordes, as well as Fantasy and 40k. I expect to have some articles written about my two warbands in Malifaux and what I perceived their strengths and weaknesses to be as well as some trials and tribulations. For Warmahordes I will chronicle my learning curve as I restart my foray into the awesome setting of Iron Kingdoms with my Legion and Retribution armies. For Fantasy I hope to touch on Skaven some more with some underhanded and sneaky but unusual tricks, and for 40k I hope to present a little wishlisting on how the Eldar codex could be updated and made a little less cookie cutter. Right now we see maybe two builds out there (seer bikes and mech). Also, expect a Storm of Magic review shortly after the book lands.

Lastly I will present some general hobby articles. I'm working on several at the moment including ones about making a simple wet palette from home supplies, converting a warlord on a bonebreaker using nothing but Isle of Blood miniatures and greenstuff, and maybe an article or two about some basic painting principles.

Moving on, I wanted to present these in my Adepticon article but I couldn't find the memory card I had these stashed away on. These pictures were taken of a few armies during the Adepticon 40k Championships. This was probably my last year playing in the 40k tournament though as I really want to focus on Fantasy from here on out. So enjoy!

Loganwing

Cool bike army

This army won player's choice.

Brian Carlson's great Blood Angel's army (that beat me).

Lastly, something to consider...

... gaming doesn't have to be everything, so make

sure to make the most of life while it's there.

Tomb Kings Analysis Part 6: Special Characters

2011-06-26T00:52:00.001-05:00

Every codex and army book presents the players of that army with a vast amount of background and history involving that race. When the old Tomb King book came out special characters were a way to take those over the top characters and put them on the battlefield purely for fun. Most characters required the consent of your opponents and all of them were horribly powerful in their own right. Times change.

These days special characters, while representing historically important leaders and warriors, usually open up new avenues for army building and encourage a specific style of play within the army. Nowhere is that more true then the new Tomb King army book. The lords in particular will dictate how a player constructs the army and this usually means these armies will focus on a particular element of the army. So, I'm going to skip the usual quick change segment and just go all typographical on everyone.

Settra The Imperishable
Overall Settra really didn't change much. In all honesty he actually grew in power. First and foremost he increases the combat effectiveness of his army quite effectively. His "My Will Be Done" ability affects all units within 6" which proves an even greater boon than usual considering he parades around with a weapon skill of 7. He also spreads his Inspiring Presence out to 18" which is something usually reserved only for generals on large mounts (Screaming Bells, dragons, etc). Lastly, Settra counts as a level 1 wizard who uses the Lore of Nehekhara, which as I've explained here centers very soundly around boosting the lackluster abilities of the Tomb King's units.
In combat Settra took a little hit in the survivability department but comes up strong otherwise. He lost the old 2+ armor save in favor of just the chariot's 4+ armor (although he keeps the 4+ ward). He did gain a very modest amount of magic resistance. Both Settra and his chariot dish out magic attacks, something sorely missing throughout the Tomb king book and Settra sports a hefty strength of 7 as well. The blade of Ptra no longer lets Settra strike first, but it now ignores armor. It also trades the complicated effect that reduced opponents to Weapon Skill 1 for a combat round with a nastier effect that causes wounded characters and monsters to suffer a -1 to hit for the remainder of the game.
So couple the changes above with the fact that the new Settra sports a point cost roughly 150 points cheaper and Tomb King generals everywhere will be scrambling to find a place for him in their higher point games. He works equally well alone or in a unit, keep him near several units and players will find a very hard to crack bubble in the army where even lowly skeletons will hit Chaos Warriors and Chosen on 3+! Given his excellent combat stats he lends himself quite well to fighting all types of opponents from units to monsters and even some of the middle tier of special characters. Overall a great addition to any army if the points can be found. He boosts the army's effectiveness and can dish out some serious punishment.
So what kind of army works best for Settra? Well, since he is mounted in a chariot the best army is a mobile one. Now, this does not mean he performs well with all chariot or all cavalry. He does throw out his Inspiring Presence to 18" so the skeletons only need to keep within that bubble, but any army with Settra should seek to include the fast moving heavy hitters like Sepulchral Stalkers, Necrosphinx, Necroplis Knights, Chariots, and Carrion. Keep large blocks of infantry, but remember to move them and concentrate on getting their movement spells off as well.

High Queen Khalida
Khalida took a huge hit in combat effectiveness and survivability with the release of the new Tomb King's book. She lost Terror, Regeneration, the ability to make all archers in the army have poison attacks, and the ability to do d3 wounds when her poison affects her victims. What did she gain in return? Not a whole lot honestly. She gained Hatred (Vampire Counts), Always Strikes First, and the ability to give a unit of skeletal bowmen (that she deploys with) her ballistic skill and poison attacks. What is her price point you ask? Well, her points only dropped 50ish.
So at this point Khalida really isn't worth her points. She buffs only a single ranged unit with her Ballistic Skill (an unimpressive 3) and she really doesn't offer anything spectacular on any other front. Compared to a normal Tomb King she actually lost a point of strength which diminishes her combat effectiveness. I'm not sure what GW was thinking when they came out with the new Khalida rules. She's fairly fragile with only a 6+ armor save and no ward save (she's still T5), requires being deployed with a cheap throwaway unit to gain the most benefit of her abilities, and doesn't add much to the army. I'd consider her a pretty poor choice for a general and a Lord level character to boot.
If a player does choose to run Khalida then they need to make the most of her strengths. Ranged attacks still rule supreme for her and players would do well to invest in a number of liche priests as well. This list also makes a strong candidate for Catapults and the Casket of Skulls.

Arkhan The Black
So the great servant of Nagash himself makes a return to the tabletop. He's a wizard extraordinaire and one of the only level 5 wizards in the game. As if the sheer power of simply being a level 5 caster wasn't enough, he can also store dispel dice and then use them to power his spells in the Tomb King's own magic phase. From this point though, his luster seems to fade.
At first glance, one might think Arkhan extremely survivable. He's easily hidden in a unit and sports a fantastic toughness of 5. Then you notice that he has a 6+ armor save and no ward save. So the only thing between Arkhan and going back beneath the sand is his toughness of 5.
Next, let's revisit the magic section. He's a level 5 wizard technically. That essentially means if you take Arkhan he will be your hierophant. The problem with this is that he is stuck using the Lore of Death. Now, the Lore of Death possesses a number of useful spells, however, a hierophant should exist to ensure that the army stays together. So being stuck with Lore of Death at level 5 really doesn't do much for the army. Also, the number of times a player finds himself with leftover dispel dice is rare to say the least. So don't expect the use the Staff of Nagash too frequently.
Arkhan the Black, should any player chose to use him, really is an offensive character. He possesses the stats of a Chaos Warrior hero (minus the saves) and Death magic is one of the more offensive lores out there. So definately don't build a turtle army full of archers and catapults. The best army types would seem to be either a slow moving phalanx of skeletons, Tomb Guard, and maybe some War Sphinxes, or the faster moving army similar to Settra. Lastly, make sure to include more casters. The lack of the Lore of Nehekhara means players really should include at least a level 2 caster to help beef up the undead hordes.

Grand Hierophant Khatep
Khatep offers a much more reasonable, albeit less offensively powerful, choice to Arkhan the Black. As a level 4 caster and Loremaster for the Lore of Nehekhara, Khatep offers a nice way to ensure players have the right spell at the right time. In addition, the Liche Staff means that players will rarely worry about losing their hierophant to miscasts or prematurely ending Khatep's magic phase by a single terrible casting roll.
Offensively Khatep offers very little aside from the Scroll of the Cursing Word. This little scroll offers a unique way of taking enemy casters out of the game temporarily. However, it relies on a toughness test and most models have a 50/50 chance or better to pass this characteristic test. A rather large gamble considering at least one spell is guaranteed to go off since using the scroll takes the place of a dispel attempt. Still, the Feedback Scroll still works wonders so this scroll will certainly find some victims.
Other than the abiltiies above Khatep is really just a glorified Liche High Priest. He offers a more reliable magic approach to Tomb King generals out there and for his price point (only 100is points higher than a level 4 liche priest with no magic items) he really is a steal. Be careful of using him in small games though as unwary players may quickly discover that Khatep's leadership of 9 means he might be vying for the general slot in a Tomb King army without a Tomb King or Prince.
Khatep's tactical acument really lends itself to a variety of playstyles. Overall, he should perform best with a nice balanced army. A good mixture of speed, magic, numbers, and fighting skill will serve Khatep best. For some really goofy power, try including a hierotitan. A raw casting value (before power dice) of 4+d3 means he can reliably throw two dice for most spells (even some boosted spells). Now add in a Casket of Souls and you are guaranteed to have enough dice for almost any combination of spells out there.

The Herald Nekaph
At first glance, Nekaph sports all of the abilities and stats of a Tomb Herald with only higher weapon skill of 5 to distinguish between the two. Upon closer inspection though, Nekaph proves a formidable model. Nekaph must always issue and accept challenges but doing so means he gains a 5+ ward save and his killing blow works on a 5+. In addition, he is armed with one of the best units from the previous book, the Flail of Skulls. So for double the points of a standard Tomb Herald players gain a combat monster who can easily give most mid-grade characters a run for their money, If nothing else, Nekaph will often contribute to combat resolution with overkill wounds. If that wasn't enough, players can mount Nekaph in a chariot as well. Whether you use Nekaph to bolster lackluster skeleton units or turn the Tomb Guard into an absolutely beastly combat unit, players will find Nekaph a worthwhile purchase in all but the smallest of games.

Prince Apophas
Every army has its black sheep, right? Well, for Tomb Kings that is Apophas. Cursed by the gods to wonder the world and bring Usirian a soul equally as vile as his own, Apophas possesses a number of neat tricks that intend to allow him to assassinate enemy characters. However, this will prove an uphill battle for him as unfortunately his game stats and abilities just do not match the fluff.
So what would one expect in a character assassin? Well, by default one would think that character killers would posses decent combat stats (Weapon Skill, Strength, and Attacks), some sort of reasonable defense (High Toughness, Armor Save, or Ward Save), and someway of ensuring they can reach a character before the end of the game. Apophas definitely lacks the combat prowess to be a threat to anything other than mages and low tier characters like master moulders, skinks, or warrior priests. His survivability hinges on a regeneration save, something easily removed. So his only bonus is that he really should be easy to get into combat with enemy characters given he flies and has Entombed Beneath the Sands, particularly lone characters outside of units.
In combat Apophas shows a pretty sturdy strength of 4, an okay weapon skill of 4, and a large number of attacks, 5. However, that's where it ends. Don't expect any fancy poison, a huge axe with Killing Blow, or anything else. Sure, if he's in combat with a single enemy model that you pick at the beginning of the game he can reroll hits and wounds, but that takes his mediocrity only so far.
Survivability is really the main enemy for Apophas. When striking at initiative 1 the assassin really needs to be able to survive to make his own strikes. Apophas is just to squishy to survive anything but those low tier character attacks. Sure, he has a 4+ regeneration save and 4 wounds. However, he's still toughness 3. Yeah, that's right, Toughness 3. On average he will live through a single round of combat against most combat oriented characters before falling.
So while I do feel Apophas can serve a role on the battlefield, he really is a niche character whose only great success is taking out lone characters, particularly casters, floating around the field. Worried about those suicide skaven warlocks with nasty gadgets? Send in Apophas. Balthazar Gelt getting on your nerves? Pop up Apophas nearby and go to town.

Ramhotep The Visionary
Ramhotep is a necrotect and really offers very little of note outside of the necrotect bubble. He possess no magic items of any sort and only two special rules that a normal necrotect does not possess. The first ability, Frantic Fervour, is the most impressive. He conveys frenzy on any unit he accompanies which means he can turn a unit of tomb guard into a bloody nightmare. This ability opens up enough synergy with other characters and units that it alone justifies paying for an otherwise lackluster hero. Imagine a unit of Tomb Guard with a Tomb King and Ramotep inside the unit. That's a huge volume of WS6, S4 attacks with a hatred reroll going out. Sadly, that's about all that Ramhotep offers a Tomb King general. His other ability, Master Artisan means that a single unit of constructs can reroll failed armor saves, not all that fantastic given that the construct armor save is 5+. Nonetheless, this can be useful when used in conjunction with Necropolis Knights and their 3+ armor save.

So there you have it. Personally, I waver back and forth on the Tomb King characters. I really like Settra, Khatep, and Nakeph with Apophas and Ramhotep forming a middle tier of characters I "might" use at some point level. I can really find no reason to include Arkhan or Khalida. Khalida is a huge point investment for little return and an awfully squishy general. Arkhan just doesn't know what he wants to do. He has melee stats but a wizard's survival skills.

Disclaimer - I wanted to avoid giving potentially false information regarding these special characters so I've left out some information when considering how certain models perform on the tabletop until the current debate is resolved through a GW FAQ. The debate centers around the Troop Type descriptors. So, a model like Queen Khalida says "Infantry (Special Character; Tomb King)". According to the basic rulebook and FAQ this would mean that Khalida has, by default, all the base abilities of a Tomb King. The flip side of the coin though, is that if this is true then why are certain abilities common to all Tomb Kings spelled out in her description and others are not (Flammable and The Curse both appear in her description but My Will Be Done does not). So until GW releases a ruling one way or another, I'm going with a worse-case assumption. Personally, I fall into this camp anyway.

Skaven in 8th Edition: One Year Later

2011-06-24T22:17:00.002-05:00

So almost one year ago after the release of the 8th Edition of Warhammer Fantasy I posted some thoughts and reflections about how the new rules would impact my beloved Skaven. In the year since that post I have played many games of Fantasy and participated in a number of tournaments as well. Overall, many of my opinions bore fruit, but I found a great number to be completely false. So, for now, I'll take a quick peek back in time and post some snippets of the previous post and respond with whether or not I agree with that position one year later. At the end of this post I'll give a sample list for what I would consider my "standard" 2500 point army list.

So join me after the break for a brief look back in time!

My Skaven army circa September of 2010

“Slaves should still be taken in relatively small blocks. They need to remain what the authors intended and stay cheap throw-away units.”

Wrong. Slaves are best in units of 30+ with 40 being a nice reliable number. This gives them steadfast for several rounds of combat and almost ensures that the paltry unit will likely cause more damage on the opposing unit when it breaks and runs screaming then it ever did in the actual combat. I still see absolutely no reason for running slaves in a horde unit though. Their job is not to cause damage but rather to lock opposing units in combat while the rest of the Skaven army maneuvers to the flanks. Horde formation opens up the slaves to multiple chargers, takes up a horrible amount of space better used by other units, and most importantly it decreases the number of ranks a the slave unit possesses so they lose steadfast earlier.

Even a block of 40 slaves still only numbers as 80 points, 85 if you throw in the ubiquitous musician. So even at 80 points they are incredibly cheap given that they can lock down a unit of 20 chosen for 2 or 3 turns of combat.

“Spears may actually prove to outweigh hand weapon and shields in this current edition since a horde unit with spears attacks in 4 ranks.”

I really tried to like spears in 8^th edition. The idea of attacking with 4 ranks in a giant horde of rats felt really appealing to me for an incredibly long amount of time. However, this just doesn’t work. Clanrats just aren’t good in combat and it’s more important that the clanrats survive an attack as opposed to causing damage. I found that, on average, I only caused a single extra wound when using spears over hand weapon and shield combo. In return though, I lost at least double the amount of clanrats since the armor save drops to a 6+ and they no longer possessed a parry save.

“In this player’s humble opinion the Verminlord gained a fair amount of survivability.”

I honestly think I must have been in some drug-induced state when typing this sentence which leads into a much longer paragraph about how the Verminlord was better in 8^th edition. I won’t say that the Verminlord became worse in 8^th edition, but he certainly didn’t get better either. Sure, archers and gunlines will not receive a +1 to hit him due to the loss of the large target bonus. However, war machines became more accurate. So, at best, it’s a wash. I just can’t recommend the Verminlord, except in incredibly higher point games. Maybe he will serve a purpose in Storm of Magic? I guess we’ll find out next month.

“ Rat Ogres moved up the power scale dramatically”

Oh boy did they ever. I almost never leave home without my unit of Rat Ogres and Skweel Gnawtooth. I have seen this unit charge straight into the face of large blocks of Chaos Warriors and come out the other side playing soccer with half a dozen chaos helmets. What they lack in survivability they more than make up in hitting power due to the monstrous support rule and stomp. Manage to get a flank charge with a unit of 6 of these and it’s game over for whatever unit you just charged. Particularly if you have a huge unit of slaves tying them. The slaves will usually have more ranks, thus denying steadfast, while the rat ogres will do horrible amounts of damage and deny the enemy unit their rank bonus. Usually this means they are testing for insane courage in order to stay in the fight.

My Skaven army circa today (June 2011)

“The Doomwheel took a massive hit but still remains a strong choice for Skaven players. The change to its movement rule to simply random movement means that it can no longer weave in and out of units and cause mayhem.”

This still remains true. For its price there is no single model in the game that can cause as much damage as a Doomwheel *IF* it rolls decent. That being said, the change to random movement has left the Doomwheel far more prone to flank charges since you must now choose a direction before you roll the dice and it can’t pivot during or after the move. Standard caveat always applies to the Doomwheel. If it rolls great then it will perform great and could easily win you the game almost on its own. If it rolls poorly then it could easily end up not factoring in the game at all, or worse, being a detriment. If you want a more reliable model, take a Hellpit Abomination.

“So with the changes to army composition Skaven are able to take advantage of their cheap characters. For 50 points they can take a level 1 warlock engineer. For only a few points more they can take a chieftain to boost leadership and provide a little more killing power.”

This part is unbelievably true. In most armies of 2000-2250 points I usually run between 4 and 6 characters of the hero level. The change from slots to percentage based means that no Skaven player should leave home without a Battle Standard Bearer. Even if you don’t give him a magic banner, Skaven still need the army banner for the rerolls. Also, I’ve found that taking numerous level 1 warlocks is usually better than 2 level 2s. Why? Well, for starters each of the warlocks can take Warp Lightning, so that’s 5 cheap and easy spells to cast. Next, it means that no matter where I need a warp lightning I usually have one warlock nearby. Also, it opens up a little more room for useful magic items and you can spread those items around between the casters rather than lumping them all on one caster. Finally, I can take a suicide Warlock who doesn’t even have a magic level but who sits nearby with a doomrocket waiting for the recliner quarterback to slingshot him across the board to a convenient location via Skitterleap.

“Also, assassins may make it into more player's lists as players are not bound to slot restrictions”

I admit I’ve never tried taking an assassin. I keep telling myself that I will try one out one of these days but I just haven’t yet. I do feel they will add a bit of combat prowess to otherwise lackluster combat units, but, I’m still not certain they will prove worth their point cost.

“The addition of Lord level characters to more lists means Warlords make extremely viable options now for cheap leadership boosts and effective combat boosts”

I never leave home without my warlord. I often run him on a bonebreaker and stick him with my Rat Ogres, but, it’s not necessary. He adds a huge leadership eight bubble that really makes Skaven units reliable and, if you take a Grey Seer as well, usually means your enemy won’t immediately charge after the Seer. Seer generals are useful, but because of their high point cost are often very highly prioritized targets. I mean, if you can cripple an armies leadership (with an army of incredibly low leadership models) AND you can take out their level 4 mage… let’s face it ratboys… our whiskers are cooked. So the warlord, due to the changeover to point percentages, is an incredibly viable option who lends a sizeable boost to our rats staying power as well as lends a great degree of combat prowess to our otherwise dull and almost physically retarded core units.

“Of course, the changes to percentiles mean that a Grey Seer on a bell will run you the 25% Lord points all by himself. Plague Priests on a furnace will eat up a significant amount of points as well.”

Since starting 8^th edition I really haven’t used my Bell or Furnace lately. I think they just take up too many points for what you get considering the Bell is horribly random and the Plague Furnace… well… the plague furnace has to be pushed by plague monks. Now, I’ll get into plague furnaces another day but, even in 7^th edition, I was never fond of the furnace or plague monks.

My Warlord conversion. Not quite finished yet

Current 2500 Skaven List

LORDS -

Warlord w/ Bonebreaker, Warlock-Augmented Weapon, Armor of Fortune, Shield

HEROES -

Chieftan w/ Battle Standard Bearer, Storm Banner, Shield, Halberd

Warlock Engineer w/ Level 1, Dispel Scroll

Warlock Engineer w/ Level 1, Feedback Scroll

Warlock Engineer w/ Level 1, Doomrocket

Warlock Engineer w/ Level 1, Warp Condenser

CORE

50 Clanrats w/ Full Command, Shields, Warpfire Thrower

35 Clanrats w/ Full Command, Shields, Ratling Gun

40 Slaves w/ Musician

SPECIAL

5 Rat Ogres w/ Skweel Gnawtooth & Packmaster

8 Gutter Runners w/ Poison Attacks & Slings

RARE

Doomwheel x2

Note the beastmaster in the back is an old rat ogre.

The unit of 50 Clanrats is run with 5 ranks of 10, the 35 strong units run as 5 ranks of 7, and the slaves are all run as 8 ranks of 5. Warlord goes with the Rat Ogres, Chieftan with the Horded Clanrats. The warlock engineers go in the clanrat units except the doomrocket guy who runs alongside and inbetween units as necessary and staying close enough for the Look Out Sir! roll. Gutter Runners almost always held in reserve and brought on the opponents side of the board to deal with troublesome ranged units and war machines. Doomwheels on both flanks and the rat ogres neatly tucked into the battle lines.

Adepticon 2011 Report

2011-06-18T23:46:00.000-05:00

Okay, I meant to post this earlier but I quickly became carried away with my delving into the mystical arts of Khemri (plus my warpstone addled brain usually suffers from terrible attention deficit problems). So here is a quick rundown of my Adepticon trip.

I took my Iron Snakes Sternguard Spam list to the 40k single player tournament in hopes of maybe finally breaking into the double digit rankings. I knew this was rather ambitious though as historically, I perform very poorly at any national tournament, much less one in Chicago where I've never placed higher than 130 (and that was during the old GW GTs!)

So anyway, my list boiled down to Kantor, two sternguard squads in rhinos, an ironclad in a droppod, some tactical squads in rhinos/razorbacks, a predator, and a whirlwind. Oddly enough the most compliments I received all weekend was due to me being ballsy enough to take a Whirlwind. I figured it would work great if I managed to pull some Tyranid horde lists or Orks. Little did I know that traitorous bastard had already planted the seeds of my destruction. So here is the breakdown of my four games over the course of a very pain-filled day.

Game 1 - Tyranids
Huzzah! Tyranids! I should do geat since I have a whirlwind right? WRONG. My opponent's list had a large unit of genestealers, several units of the hive guard, some Tervigons, a unit of gaunts for screening, and a hive tyrant. I started with everyone out of the vehicles since the genestealers were dangerously close. The Ironclad dropped down and flamed the genestealers and killed several. I shifted my battleline away from the genestealers and sent my speeders down the flanks. First turn he wiped out a tactical squad with the genestealers and he immobilized the dreadnought that happened to be looking away from the rest of teh tyranid army (I forgot the hive guard can shoot through terrain). End result of this game? Pretty much tabled by the end of turn 4. I managed to kill most of the genestealers, put a couple wounds on some tervigons and that's it. It really was a horrible game. My opponent wasn't a bad guy, I could tell he actually felt bad stomping me into the ground. So the first game I lost largely because, while I figured I was well suited to face tyranids, I've only ever played against the new codex a single time before going to Adepticon.

Game 2 - Blood Angels
Let me say this first, Brian (Of Brian Carlson Miniatures) is a great guy with a beautiful looking Blood Angels army. That being said, I think I could have won this game had the dice been a little friendlier and if I had deployed a little bit more coordinated. So Brian's army consisted of Dante, Sanguinor, two units of sanguinary guard, some priests, and some assault squads that he chose to combat squad. I think that's everything. So he deployed Sanguinor and both squads of Sanguinary Guard in the extreme corner of the table. I deployed my sternguard and one tactical squad directly opposite him with my land speeders on the far flank and the other tactical squad in the center. All squads were in vehicles. He started across the board and I struck down a model here or there with my pot shots. When he got close I jumped the gun, rambled forward 6" and disembarked both squads of sternguard in his face. Fail. I did do a large amount of damage. I wiped out a whole squad of sanguinary guard, severely damaged the 2nd, and killed a priest. but... not enough. he got off the multi-charge and they slaughtered me to a man on that flank. Amusingly enough, my ironclad had dropped in the middle of the board on an objective and chased off or shot down an assault squad that tried to deep strike near him. However, end of the game he had Dante and another combat squad in my deployment zone and I had two landspeeders and a dreadnought. He won the victory, although, as I mentioned the battle could have gone either way for most of the game. Very fun game, very nice guy. He even offered me a beer from his magical cart!

Game 3 - Tyranids... Again
After my schooling in game 1 I was very cautious playing against tyranids again. That probably held me back somewhat and I know I could have deployed better in this game. My opponent (a girl!) possessed a hodge podge of Zoanthropes, guants, stealers, two trygons, some warriors, hive guard, and a tyrant with tyrant guard as well as a single tervigon. Game started off fine. I kept killing wave after wave of bugs and she had terribel luck with reserves. I actually had most of my army left at the end of the game but she had 1 more point than I did (damn created gaunts). Again, if I had deployed not like an idiot, I would have done better. Oh, and how many models had the whirlwind killed over the course of teh day considering this should have been ideal matchups (minus the blood angels). 4 models. All stealers. So a decent game, although hardly fun. My opponent kept being so indecisive that we barely finished 4 turns of the game and... she always seemed to scowl at me. Admittedly I'm pretty shy around new people, especially women, but I don't think I was being a dick. Still, maybe I was acting like one of those guys who was bragging when winning and whining when losing, although I doubt that. I really thought I was winning up until we were pointing up the sheets at the end of the game.

Game 4 - Yup, you guessed it. Tyranids again.
Sonnuva... *grumble, grumble, grumble*. Another damn bug player? So my opponent this time had a wonderful blue tyranid army. He had the swarmlord which made me very nervous, two tervigons, a tyrannofex, some hive guard, a bunch of gaunts, and a venomthrope or two. We started with two troops and an HQ on the table so he set up his swarmlord and both tervigons practically breathing down my neck halfway across the table. I turtled in a corner with Kantor and the tactical squads. First two turns I killed both tervigons with little loss. This meant everything coming in from his table edge had no synapse present! The swarmlord turned around to go babysit the newcomers so I shot the crap out of the gaunts, the venomthrope, and the tyrannofex. Last couple turns I mounted up and swarmed over or came as close as possible to all the objectives. End result, I held two objectives to his one plus I had some of the bonus objectives for the other victory conditions. I admit I was probably so elated at finally winning a game that I was probably too happy and *might* have come off like a prick. Still, I did give the guys kudos for one of my two favorite games of the day and for having a beautifully painted and modeled army.

So given that I faced 3 tyranid armies guess how many models the whirlwind killed? If you guessed higher than a dozen you'd be wrong. I think all total it killed 9 models all day. Four of those were genestealers, the rest were gaunts. So, over the course of 3 games... it still barely paid for itself. Needless to say I'm looking into alternatives and am considering a typhoon landspeeder at this point or another predator.

My heroes of the day? The Ironclad and the Predator. Both paid for themselves in every game except the first and the Ironclad probably would have done fine except for my absent-minded professor moment of forgetting hive guard guns fire through terrain.

Disappointments? The whirlwind obviously was the key point of failure. I'd say the sternguard disappointed me but I think the key problem there was my lack of practice using them on the tabletop. I am definitely going to replace the whirlwind with another predator tank. My only decision to make at this point is whether I want another autocannon/lascannon bunker or if I want the autocannon/heavy bolter tank for dealing with hordes. Also, I'm used to playing armies with fast vehicles so rhinos perplex me. If I just want to move 6" and fire why wouldn't I just get out of the transport and walk to begin with?

So final thoughts? I need more practice for 40k. Moreover, I need more practice with the army I plan to take to Adepticon. I had played only a single game of 40k with the Iron Snakes before Adepticon and that was against space wolves where, the likely outcome had we been able to finish the game, would have been a draw or possibly a minor victory for his or my army.

Tomb Kings Analysis Part 4: Special Choices

2011-06-14T21:07:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the next installation in the Tomb King series. Today, let's take an in-depth look at the Special Unit section of the new Tomb King army book. Special units usually live up to their namsake. They either fulfill a special role on the battlefield or they have special, usually exceptional, combat prowess for the chosen army.

The Tomb King choices are no exception to this rule and they certainly offer a huge boost in hitting power from the core choices ans well as some more specialized units for war machine hunting. The new army book has added a number of new and useful additions and changed some old favorites so let's take a deeper look at this vital section of the army book and see all the changes and additions.

Tomb Guard

Cheaper (-1pt per model)
Unit size no longer capped at 25 models
Halberd upgrade available
No longer carry Tomb Blades, however they retain the Killing Blow rule
Standard Bearer and Champion upgrades cheaper (-2pts each)
Musician more expensive (+4pts)

Tomb Scorpion

Lost one wound
Greatly affected by the change from It Came From Below to Entombed Beneath the Sands

Ushabti

Much cheaper (-15pts)
Gained a BS and can take a bow upgrade (S6)
Leadership reduced (10 to 8)
Profile strength reduced from 6 to 4, but they carry great weapons as standard

Carrion

Gained +1 Strength
Gained +1 Attack
8th edition flying changes greatly affect this unit

Necropolis Knights

Great Armor Save (3+)
Poison and Killing Blow (Serpent and Rider)
Can upgrade to use Entombed Beneath the Sands but not required
Monstrous Cavalry
Good Weapon Skill, Strength, and Attacks
Very Expensive
Mounted on a Chariot Base

Sepulchral Stalkers

Monstrous Beasts
Good Strength and Attack
Halberds
Entombed Beneath the Sands
Transmogrifying Gaze shooting attack that ignores armor
Expensive
Another unit that uses chariot bases

Khemrian Warsphinx

Terror
Crew possess Killing Blow
Good Weapon Skill and great Strength, Toughness, and Wounds
Relatively poor save (5+)
Thundercrush
Monster (so Thunderstomp)
Fiery Roar upgrade (Breath Weapon)
Expensive single model unit

Analysis

Okay, so here we see many monsters of various types (beasts, cavalry, infantry, and pure monsters). We also see a unit of especially effective infantry and some war beasts. So where to start, well, let's get the easy units out of the way first - Tomb Guard and Carrion.

In the previous edition the Tomb King army book really relied on two units for almost all of the army's punch. The Tomb Guard, usually equipped with the Icon of Rakaph, typically filled that role because of the Tomb Blade rule. This meant the entire unit wielded magic weapons that caused Killing Blow. Now that they no longer possess Tomb Blades, although they retain Killing Blow, are they worth the points? Hell yes! These troops can still form the backbone of any Tomb King army. Any unit that uses the Killing Blow rule can be potentialy devastating and with all the magic support like Righteous Smiting and Cursed Blades, plus a Tomb King/Prince boosting their Weapon Skill to 5 or 6, you have an absolutely devastating unit. Throw in the banner of the undying and they even come back with relative ease. So Tomb guard retain their status as a brilliant hammer unit just with a bit more competition from the new guys on the block.

So before we press on to those aforementioned "new guys" let's handle another old standby from the previous army book- Carrion. Carrion use to fulfill the role of flankers extraordinaire and could also fill in as make-shift war machine and scout hunters. Well, despite gaining a sizeable boost in attack power, they lost their most attractive trait- mobility! Carrion are now restricted to only 10" of movement and so while they can fulfill their previous roles, they are much slower. So Chariots make better flanking units, Sepulchral Stalkers make better war machine hunters, and skeleton horse archers make much cheaper scout hunters and harassment units.

The Tomb Scorpion really didn't change much. See my earlier post on Entombed Beneath the Sands and you'll see the main factors affecting this old standard. The poor guy did lose a single wound as well, but honestly, anyone who didn't see the Tomb Scorpion and Entombed Beneath the Sands nerf was wearing rose colored glasses and simply refused to take them off. This single unit and that single rule (well, the previous incarnation of the rule) kept this book winning through 3 editions of Fantasy almost singlehandedly

Okay, I lied. One more golden oldie. Probably everyone familiar with Games Workshop products has at least seen the Ushabti models. Fantastic sculpts and aside from being a bit overcosted in the previous book, these great looking statues of anthropomorphic dieties were almost as ubiquitous in the previous army book as chariots. These proved especially true during the waning years of the old book when most other units (except Tomb Guard and Tomb Scorpions) just weren't as effective as they once were. So what happeend in the new book? Well, they received a huge point reduction but also lost a few stat points. In trade they received the beneift of taking great bows. Personally, great bows suck. Sure, they are strength 6 but Ushabti still only hit on 5+. So ignore this bonus. Now, I hear people whining all over the internet about the strength loss. This leaves me perplexed. Sure, their strength went down by 2 points. Didn't anyone notice that they now have great weapons? Sure, now they strike last, but when did they ever go first anyway? At Initative 3 they were lucky to go simultaneously against most enemies. They managed to strike before Orcs and Goblins and LIzardmen. So honestly, I don't see this complaint very much. Now, the loss of leadership concerns me. Previously, Ushabti could really hold the line. With a leadership of 10 and the animated construct rule they almost never took wounds from losing combat. Now, that just isn't true. Overall, I don't feel Ushabti really gained or lost very much and they still perform very well considering their new price point. Other units do do fill the same role and probably better, but if you like the models they still perform well enough to consider, even in competitive lists. Just avoid the bows.

Okay, Now on to the new stuff. First up, the Necropolis Knights. These guys offer the best armor save a Tomb king army could hope for and with both poison and Killing Blow available, plus good combat stats, they can really put the hurt on opposing units. I would be wary about charging them into the front of any ranked units though. Their high cost and huge base size means they will usually never receive a rank bonus or possess more ranks. The knights need to be used as a hammer unit, attacking the flank of an enemy unit already locked in combat with a unit of skeletons, tomb guard, or chariots. They can actually outperform most cavalry as well, but again, stay away from blocks (Brettonian Cavalry) or the super cavalry (Chaos Knights). Entombed Beneath the Sands can be helpful int he right situation. A unit of these bad boys roaming around your opponents backfield will ruin their day. Don't forget they can stomp.

My favorite new unit

Next, let's cover probably my favorite new unit in the new Tomb King army book, Sepulchral Stalkers. They posses typical melee stats for an oversized monstrous beast/infantry/cavalry model and a decent movement stat and the added potential mobility of Entombed Beneath the Sands as well. However, they possess a special ranged attack that has every lizardman in Lustria running for the deepest caves they can find. Transmogrifying Gaze is an attack that, when used with it's relatively short range, offers an artillery die's worth of S1 attacks that go against the targets Initiative. No armor saves are allowed for these if they manage to wound so Sepulchral stalkers are the new kings of war machine hunting (remember, you use the initiative of the crew when working out shooting attacks). Sure, against humans and dwarves you are looking at 6's to wound, but when a simple unit of 3 stalkers can dish out up to 30 hits, statistics would dictate that 5 of those will wound. Look at a lesser roll of 12 hits, that should still result in 2 wounds, enough to make most war machine unreliable. So while stalkers can certainly hold their own in combat against small units, scouts, fast cavalry, and even work decently as flanking units. These beautiful monsters should be a Tomb King's first choice for war machine and scout hunting as well as harassment duties. Oh, they can stomp too so don't forget that in the heat of the moment.

Lastly, let's look at the big guy, the Khemrian Warsphinx. Want a single model that will make your opponents cry? This is it. Let's take a look at what we have for starters. A giant toughness 8 monster with plenty of wounds to spare. He runs around with a good Weapon Skill, decent Strength, and a large number of attacks due to the four crew in the howdeh (who have Killing Blow) In addition, he causes terror and possesses thunderstomp for being a monster, a special thundercrush attack, and possibly a breath weapon and/or poison attacks. So how do you make an opponent cry? Easy, run this obsidian badass up the board and straight into a large block of meat. The use Thundercrush, Breath Weapon, and Thunderstomp all in the same melee phase. Result? Well, the maxed out result is 38 dead models, don't plan on that happening. The average result that I have seen is 15 dead models, all going against models with the stats of an Empire swordsman. This unit is great at both hammer and anvil roles. It has the toughness to suck up a lot of punishment from units if it charges a front facing and enough stopping power to murder anything it touches. Just keep in mind that little trick I mentioned earlier only works once (Breath Weapon is once per game).

So there you have it. The new special unit list has grown considerably and all the units serve a purpose, although some moreso than others. I do have one question that begs being asked, why did GW give Tomb Kings three units that are on Chariot-sized bases? I have enough problems deploying my Skaven army, I didn't need another army with massive deployment issues.

PS - I didn't get the warsphinx assembled yet. I've been pressed for time due to the upcoming father's day holiday. I'll post pictures when I'm done painting it (of which, I haven't even started yet since it's still unassembled).

Tomb Kings Analysis Part 5: Rare Choices

2011-06-11T23:06:00.001-05:00

Mighty Necrosphinx

Close-up of the Necrosphinx's head

Okay, I know I'm skipping over special choices. I will come back to those in the next few days after I finish building my Warsphinx. So let's talk about the rare section of the new Tomb Kings army book instead. The previous rare section consisted of only two measly entries, the skull catapult and the bone giant. Now, both of these units had their uses but what usually happened was most people overlooked rare choices in favor of special choices, more heroes, or simply more core units. The new army book boasts a total of 5 entries in the rare section, although three of these were seen in the old army book.

So let's take a peek at these selections. For new units I'll point out some of the bonuses and for the older units I'll endeavor to explain how they've changed. I will do a little analysis on both old and new units and explain how I see them working on the tabletop and what roles these units are best at. So without further ado, let's get started!

Necrolith Colossus (Formerly Bone Giant)

Cheaper (-50 points)
BS2 (Formerly 0)
+1 Toughness
-1 Wound
No heavy armor available
New weapons are available (Great weapon, Bow)

Extra hand weapon now an upgrade

Screaming Skull Catapult

Same point cost
Skulls of the Foe more expensive (+10 points)
Crew now possesses light armor

Casket of Souls

Light of Death is now a bound spell with a power level of 5, is limited to 48" range and one unit (with possible jumps to nearby units), and now forces a leadership check on 3d6
Unit no longer causes Terror
Casket Guard no longer possess Tomb Blades but now have great weapons and still retain Killing Blow, they are also S3/T3 (so -1 to both)
Spirit Souls debuff is completely gone
Covenant of Power rule grants an additional d3 power dice in friendly magic phase
Cheaper (-30 points) and no 0-1 limit
Does not require a liche priest to babysit and the point cost comes out of rare choices instead of the hero/lord percentages
Toughness 10 and can be wounded/destroyed
Explodes when destroyed with a rather large area of effect

Hierotitan

Magic Support, +d3 to casting attempts when nearby
Magic support, can use a few spell-like abilities
M6, S6, T6, W5
Only 3 attacks

Necrosphinx

Good in combat - WS4, S5, A5 with Killing Blow and Thunderstomp
Decapitating Attack gives 1 attack per combat phase Heroic Killing Blow
Flying
Tough with T8 and W5
Slow in combat - I1
Only upgrade is a detriment

Analysis

So the new rare section offers a lot of good options for the Tomb Kings army and I can certainly see players spending many more points on this section then in the previous army book. Traditionally most players look at rare slots for somewhat overpowered units or units which excel at specific niche roles in the army. While none of the units in the Tomb King rare selection can be considered overpowered, all of these units fulfill some niche role or, in the case of the stone thrower, a role that isn't common elsewhere within the TOmb Kings army.
For magic support the rare section offers up the revised Casket of Souls and the Hierotitan. Both options offer up some nice casting support for Liche Priests but overall, the casket will give more bang for it's buck. Nonetheless, the Hierotitan is arguably better at staying alive.
The new casket is far less point intensive and is mobile. Light of Death gives the Tomb Kings an easy way to deal with low leadership hordes and heavily armored targets. Throw in the power die bonus and you really have very few reasons for not taking a Casket anymore. The best way to use the casket is the same way as previously, just don't rely on it to cause too much damage. Leave it in the backfield with a nice view of the battlefield and hit horde units and heavily armored foes. Just remember to use this item near the end of your magic phase. Bound items at only level 5 are pretty easy to dispel.
The Hierotitan offers up a little more mobile support for casters that plan on moving around a little more. In addition, the Hierotitan actually adds something to a combat and can defend itself from skirmishers, assassins, and the like. Just keep it within 12" of casters and you get a nice little power boost. As a note though, don't think you can just get away rolling one die for spells because you get a d3 bonus. The way the rule is worded in the main rulebook the spell will still fail on a roll of a 1 or 2 of the single die used in the casting attempt.
The Screaming Skull Catapult remains largely the same as the previous book minus the boost in price for the Skulls of the Foe upgrade. However, I do feel the need to point out at this time that stone throwers are not what they once were in previous editions. So while they have become much more accurate in 8th edition, they typically cause less harm when they do hit. Just something to consider. Personally, I feel the catapult is always a good edition, but maybe not at the same level as the old book in previous editions.
For use against monsters, monstrous infantry, beasts, and other large nasty objects, the Necrosphinx is no doubt a welcome surprise. At first look most players consider using this to hunt war machines, eat cavalry or skirmishers, or add some much needed punch to an assault. Well, those options still stand but this beast can really put the hurt on the big guys. The threat of a Heroic Killing Blow hit will cause opponents to avoid this model with their HPAs and Steam Tanks but gives it a much needed edge in combat versus these creatures. The high toughness of this monster also means the advantage lies squarely in the court of the Necrosphinx. MOst monsters hover around Strength 6 and thus they will need 6's to wound this guy. Also, since it is a monster itself, this nullifies the thunderstomp of other monsters. So worried about monsters? Take a bigger one made of stone with two huge freaking blades.
Lastly, we have the red-headed step-child of the rare section, the Necrolith Colossus. Most old-timers will recognize this as the former Bone Giant. This monster just doesn't know what it wants to do. It can wield a bolt thrower, make some wickedly high strength great weapon attacks, or just a large number of medium strength attacks all while enjoying a low point cost. Let me say this quite simply, anything this model can do, something else does better. The sole exception to this is the bow option since Tomb King's don't possess another form of this weapon type. But paying a rather large amount of points for a bolt thrower that hits on 5+ doesn't make much sense. I'd suggest the other alternatives in the rare section over this guy unless points are running dry. At lower point levels, this model may shine though as it offers a power level similar to an average functioning Doom Wheel for around the same price (slightly more).

So there you have it. The new rare section offers a number of interesting choices. These choices excel at offering the Tomb kings vital support for magic, monster hunting, and warmachines as these are traditionally areas they require extra support for or have proven especially weak in past. My personal favorites are the Casket of Souls which is a steal for the point cost and the Necrotitan which has one of the coolest models out there and just can't be beat for monster hunting.

Next time? I'll get back to Special Choices. Honestly, I have the article mostly written already but I really want to add in a few photos of my own stuff before posting the article. Then we'll be back for two more articles on Tomb Kings (Special Characters and Tactics) before I switch topics to something else.

Well, if you have any thoughts or opinions of your own then feel free to leave them!

Tomb King Analysis Part 3: Core Choices

2011-06-02T20:29:00.001-05:00

Alright, onto the meat of the new Tomb Kings army book- the actual unit entries! So this post, let's take a look at the backbone of the army, the core troop choices. Since at least 25% of any army must come from this category of units, it's important to know what your options are and how they've changed. The new Tomb King book presents some solid options and I can honestly say that all of the changes are, at very least, steps in the right direction.

So the Tomb king book has a total of five entries in the core section. Players choose between two varieties of skeletons, two varieties of cavalry, and the ubiquitous chariots. So I'll go over each core entry and explain what has changed and go over how I see these newly changed units operating on the larger battlefield.
Skeleton Warriors

Cheaper overall (-4 points base cost)
+2 Leadership
Hand Weapon and Shield now standard equipment
No Magic Standards
Musician more expensive (+5 points)

Skeleton Archers

Separate unit entry
Still cheaper than bowmen in the previous army book (-2 points)
+2 Leadership
No Magic Standards
Musician more expensive (+5 points)

Skeleton Horsemen

Cheaper (-4 points)
Standard bearer and champion cheaper (-4 points each)
Unit gained Vanguard universal special rule
Light armor is no longer standard (so adjusted price difference is only -2 points)
Musician more expensive (+5 points)
No magic standards

Skeleton Horse Archers

Points remain the same
Unit gained the Scout universal special rule
Standard and champion cheaper (-4 points each)
Musician more expensive (+3 points)

Skeleton Chariots

Much more expensive (+15 points)
Always a core choice (no longer need a tomb king to make them core)
Charioteers are both armed with spear and bow and have +1 Attack each.
No longer suffer from the Light Chariot rules so they do d6 impact hits
Still gain rank bonus and rank bonus increases the strength of impact hits
Standard Bearer and champion much cheaper (-10 points each)
Can still take a magic banner but the points cost dropped from 50 to 25.

Tomb Swarm

No longer a Core choice! Now joins the ranks of the special entries
No longer a 0-1 choice
Cheaper (-5 points)
Gains the Skirmishers universal special rule

Analysis

So what we see here are the core unit choices that should form the backbone (no pun intended) of any Tomb king army. Really, with he exception of the Skeleton Horsemen, I see all of these entries as viable and competitive. All of these units fulfill a specific role and they do a good job of performing in that role. Even the maligned skeleton horsemen serve a purpose, albeit a relatively niche purpose.

So for infantry the core choices give us two types of skeletons, warriors and archers. Obviously one is used for melee an the other for ranged attacks. The point cost for both units sits at a very comfortable level and allows both unit types, but especially the melee warriors, to be bought up to a nice suitable horde level while still remaining relatively inexpensive. The warriors really excel at holding up units. Since they count as unbreakable they can really lock units in place for the duration of the battle and makes it much easier to reliably flank charge those locked units by bigger and badder units. Archers really didn't change much from the previous edition other than the point cost. I still would say to avoid banner bearers and champions in archer units but musicians are must buys for the chance at quick reforms. The cost increase for musicians only underscores the increased role this command model plays in the new edition.

Horsemen were much maligned in the old book. We had fast cavalry who couldn't flee and who couldn't march and we had heavy cavalry who maxed out their armor saves at 4+. Neither performed very well at the jobs as detailed by the book and both were greatly overpriced for what you received.

Horsemen in the new book received a few additional boosts and point reductions to make them more appealing to Tomb king generals and I think more people will seriously entertain the idea of using the new cavalry. The addition of vanguard to the ordinary horsemen means they make a decent choice to handling scouts appearing in our backfield or to make up for the Tomb Kings lack of march moves to get them into a suitable position. Horse archers, while still suffering from the inability to flee from a charge or march, the addition of the scout rule makes this unit a fantastic addition for hunting war machines, skirmishers, and other scouts. I can see many players taking the new horse archers in lists as small harassment units an war machine hunters.

Finally, the ever-present chariot now appears as a core choice with no tricks or characters required to keep it readily available. This unit received a hefty price increase but honestly, they are worth the points. A unit of 6 of these things will do 3d6 S5 impact hits on teh charge backed up by 12 WS3 S4 Charioteer attacks and 6 WS2 S3 attacks. They make excellent flanking units. as two ranks of these charging into the flank of an opponent while being held up by a unit of skeleton warriors WILL cause chaos and likely break all but the most steadfast of units (literally). Also, they can take more pot shots while crossing the board since both crew members are also armed with a bow. I prefer taking a cheap magic banner with these chariots as well, nothing fancy but I find the Banner of Swiftness a fun distraction and the Banner of Eternal Flame is also a good buy as flaming attacks are always handy for those nasty Chaos Trolls out there.

Well, that's it for this time around. Next time I'll go over the Special Choices. This section has seen a number of new additions so I'm excited to go over several of the new units like the Sepulchral Stalkers and the War Sphinx. I'll even have photos of some of the models I've assembled to break up the Wall of Text (yay!)

Tomb Kings Analysis Part 2: Magic and Magic Items

2011-06-01T22:10:00.001-05:00

This week let's talk about magic items and magic. Both sections of the new Tomb King army book have seen a dramatic overhaul. Overall I'm quite fond of the new magic for the army. It seems to fit the flavor of the army while bringing Tomb King magic more in-line and less confusing than the previous book. The new magic item section seems a little empty but fits with the apparent shift away from army specific magic items. Most of the iconic items made the transfer to the new book, but sadly enough, a few did not.

So let's start with Magic where I will cover the general changes, make some comparisons (where possible) between old spells and new spells, and then go into a bit of detail with the new spells. Lastly, I will move on to the Magic Items where I'll go over a quick blurb of what Tomb Kings Lost, what they gained, and then go over the eight items included in the book.

General Magic Changes

Uses standard power pool and casting value process as described in the basic rulebook.
Tomb King casters can now suffer from miscasts and irresistible force.
Casters can now fail to cast their spells by not meeting the casting value.
No hieratic hierarchy to follow.
High dispel numbers
Roll for random spells like everyone else.

Analysis

Overall I really think the change to the standard system will positively affect Tomb Kings. Sure, there seem to be a lot of downsides to adopting this system but with the negatives there are some pretty big positives. For starters, magic is less predictable. Obeying the hieratic hierarchy was a pain and made our spellcasting much easier to deal with. Opponents knew roughly the order we would cast our spells in, and even players who had never played against Tomb Kings before would easily figure out which spells were important to dispel and which they could let go. Part of this issue was due to a lack of spells. The old lore possessed only 4 spells and the new one counts 7 total if you include the signature spell. So at the end of the day the Tomb Kings magic traded reliability of successful cast for a more flexible magic phase.

New Lore Highlights

Restless Dead Lore Attribute

Easier to raise dead

Plenty of augments and hexes
Most spells are boostable for greater effect for greater cost
No direct damage spells

Analysis

The Restless Dead lore attribute really makes the new Nehekharan Lore appealing. Not only does it mean you don't have to waste dice on casting a raise dead spell of some sort, it means the TK troops will receive some wounds back while also being augmented by the spell in question. Also consider that almost all of the augment spells can be boosted to affect all units within 24" and suddenly you have a very powerful and adaptable lore attribute indeed. It is also worth mentioning that all units benefit from Restless Dead the same. So skeletons get d6 models back just like animated constructs, and even chariots can be brought back from the dead. Sadly enough, due to the healing rules for the army, characters can no longer benefit from wound recovery magic like Restless Dead. Lastly, the lore does have one flaw and that is it lacks any sort of physical punch. It has precisely one damage spell (Skullstorm) and that one has a hefty casting cost and a lackluster effect.

Additionally, Liche Priests have access to the Lore of Light and the Lore of Death. While ultimately Tomb king players will always have at least one Liche Priest with the Nehekharan Lore (the hierophant must use this lore), these other lores offer some decent synergy with the right spells.
For Lore of Death look at Doom and Darkness combined with a bunch of Fear causing units or the Golden Death Mask of Kharnut and you have a winner. Aspect of the Dreadknight will let even our skeletons cause terror, something that should not be overlooked.
For Lore of Light check out The Speed of Light as a nice way to get around skeleton's abysmal initiative scores. Net of Amyntok when cast on a unit also affected by Dessication can be an interesting experience that can help prevent your opponent from advancing with a strong unit. Finally, Birona's Timewarp when combined with Righteous Smiting is just awful. Imagine a unit of Tomb Guard with double the movement, 3 attacks per model, and Always Strikes First (throw in a tomb king to make them all WS6 too!). Ouch!

Changes to Old Spells

Sekhubi's Incantation of Vengeance

Gone. Only damage spell in the Tom b King arsenal is the Magic Vortex Sakhment's Incantation of the Skullstorm.

Horekhah's Incantation of Righteous Smiting

Replaced with Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting. Does not allow attacking in the magic phase, but rather gives the unit +1 attack and/or Multiple Shot (2) if armed with bow or great bow. Boostable to affect all units within 24"

Djedra's Incantation of Summoning

Replaced with Lore Attribute Restless Dead. Much easier to raise dead models and has an even effect across the army. Cannot affect characters as per the new healing rules for the army.

Mankara's Incantation of Urgency

Replaced with Lore signature spell Khsar's Incantation of the Desert Wind. Can no longer charge with this spell as the unit must move as if in the Remaining Moves phase. Boostable to affect all units within 24".

New Spell List

Khsar's Incantation of the Desert Wind

As above, this augment is our basic movement spell. Boostable to affect all friendly units within 24".

Djaf's Incantation of the Cursed Blades

Augment that gives a unit Killing Blow or, if they already possess Killing Blow, then it works on a 5+ to wound. This is the only augment which isn't boostable to affect all units within 24" (instead it just increases the range to 24").

Neru's Incantation of Protection

Augment that gives a quick and easy 5+ ward save. Boostable to affect all units within 24".

Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting

Augment that boosts the target units attacks by +1 and if they are armed with bows they receive Multiple Shot (2). Also boostable to affect all within 24".

Usirian's Incantation of Vengeance

Hex that reduces an enemy units move by d3" and they treat all terrain (even open ground) as dangerous terrain. Boostable to extend range.

Usekhp's Incantation of Desiccation

Hex that reduces a units strength and toughness by 1 until the caster's next magic phase (so two close combat phases). Boostable to increase the penalties to d3.

Sakhment's Incantation of the Skullstorm

Magic Vortex that puts a small template down that does strength 4 hits and moves as typical for a magic vortex. Boostable to increase size from small template to large template.

Analysis

So all told Tomb kings have 1 magic vortex, 2 hexes, and 4 augment spells. So most Tomb Kings armies will have access to an augment spell of some sort meaning that troops can, more or less, be replenished relatively easily. The augments all fill gaps or weaknesses with the army in general like slow movement, weak armor saves, and weak combat competency overall. The hexes work to bring the opposing army down to the level of a basic skeleton. Lower strength and toughness mean that our enemies will do less damage and take more themselves.
My key offensive spell pick is the Incantation of Vengeance. This is an absolutely amazing spell at controlling horde units. Large blocks of 50 models will suffer an average of 8 casualties as well as being slowed. Cavalry are also key targets of Vengeance since they fail dangerous terrain on a 1 or 2.
Defensively I have to go with the Incantation of the Desert Wind. This makes up for a key weakness in the army, namely slow movement, brings the Restless Dead lore attribute into play, and is easily boostable to affect all units within 24" with only needing a 16+ to go off (when boosted).

Magic Items

Losses

Armor of the Ages
Collar of Shapesh
Chariot of Fire
Hieratic Jar
Icon of Rakaph

Gains

None! All the magic items in the book were in the previous book. Some have changed dramatically though.

Analysis

The biggest loss here is the Icon of Rakaph. Let's face it though, that item was incredibly overpowered for the point investment though. It allowed a large unit (usually Tomb Guard) to reform and then declare a charge. In the new book I'm certain they removed this item since many other powerful units can take standards now (Ushabti, Necropolis Knights, etc).

The Chariot of Fire's loss rests heavily with me as on one hand half of its effects were nullified with the changes to chariots. On the other hand, Tomb King's lack magic attacks to deal with ehthereal creatures so it always pains me to see items like this removed. Besides, I liked the visual.

The Armor of Ages and Hieratic Jar will certainly be missed by many. I think they could have retooled the Hieratic Jar into an item that allowed Liche Priests to take an additional spell, but oh well. Armor of the Ages was one of the more popular armors in the previous book. Sadly enough, Tomb Kings have no magic armor whatsoever anymore, excepting the generic items(of which several are great).

The Collar of Shapesh will also be missed sorely. This item looks like just an other ward save on the surface, but in effect it operated more like Look Out Sir! and allows Tomb Kings to avoid some nasty affects that otherwise ignored normal armor and ward saves.

Magic Items that Made the Cut

Destroyer of Eternities

Overall this item received a sizable boost in power. The cost went up by 10 points but in the bargain it grants Heroic Killing Blow and retains the +2 Strength bonus while not counting as a Great Weapon (so the Tomb King hits in Initiative order). The Sweep attack dropped in power though as it only hits each model once instead of twice. Still a good deal if players find themselves with a king on foot who they want to slaughter multi-wound models.

Blade of Antarhak

I just can't recommend this weapon any more. It used to be one of my favorites after the DoE and the Flail of Skulls. Now though, it bears a weighty cost with minimal effect. Receiving a 15 point increase this item lost it's spear status (boo!) and the wound regeneration only affects the character and not the unit he is with. The regen save is a nice perk for early in the game when the king is likely to be unwounded, but overall doesn't make up for the giant price hike and the loss of spear status.

Golden Death Mask of Kharnut

Wow, this item received a major boost both in points and in effect. This item *should* make its way into most Tomb King armies. Previously this item had a relatively low cost and the bearer caused terror. Now, this item costs enough that only Lord level characters will find it accessible, but the wearer causes terror and enemy units within 6" no longer gain the benefit of a general's Inspiring Presence or the BSB's reroll. Ouch. Combine this item with several fear causing units or Doom and Darkness from the Lore of Death and you have one hell of a vicious item.

Cloak of Dunes

In the previous book this item was practically an auto-include for a hierophant. It let him bounce around the board to cast incantations and bounce in and out of units for protection or to escape harm. Now with he changes to flying rules in 8th edition combined with an overall price hike for this item (over double the point-cost) this item went from an auto-include to a never-include. Oh, it did gain one thing- a goofy swooping hawk-esque grenade attack. Whenever the bearer flies over an enemy unit it suffers 2d6 Strength 2 hits. Given that Tomb Kings can't march and non-marching flyers only move 10", don't expect to use this ability often.

Neferra's Scroll of Mighty Incantations

Don't let this item confuse you. This is not another power stone. This item lets the user add a number of dice to the casting attempt equal to the power level of the wizard. However, these dice only exist for the purpose of determining irresistible force. The item even states, "bonus dice do not count as power dice". Overall, I'm not impressed with this one use only item given it costs as much as a feedback scroll. My only suggestion is to use it in conjunction with an earthen rod.

Enkhil's Kanopi

This item received a minor boost. It's still a bound item whose sole purpose is to remove remains in play spells. However, for every RiP spell removed it gives the user d3 power dice. Otherwise it costs only slightly more than the previous incarnation and dropped from Bound Spell 4 to 3.

Standard of the Undying Legion

This item went up in cost but received a sizable boost in power. At double the cost of the old banner this banner offers a much better chance to bring models back to life. All units that use this banner receive d6+2 wounds. Previously, only skeletons received a d6 while other banner bearing units received only d3 wounds. Great of Tomb Guard or Chariots.

Banner of the Hidden Dead

This banner received a huge point increase (+30) but overall the banner works much better than previous editions with the only limiting factor at all beign the large point investment of the banner itself. The new and improved banner increases the unit size from 100 points to 150 points allowing for more interesting developments. In addition the unit no longer has to be a core unit. Any unit can be selected. Finally, the banner acts as sort of a homing beacon for other models arriving using Entombed Beneath the Sands. If you can afford it, I suggest using this on a small unit of Ushabti or even Carrion. A shame they couldn't make the point limit a little higher to allow for Chariots to spring forth from the dunes.

Well, that's my take on the Tomb Kings magic. The new book possesses a great new magic lore that works very well with he new army to strengthen weak points and disable the strengths of opponents. The new lore even plays well with the other lores of magic available. While some may find the trimmed down magic items disappointing, most of the new items have been suitably revamped to work well with the army and increase the strengths of the army as opposed to shoring up weaknesses.

So next time I will move onto the Core units of the Tomb Kings army book! That post shouldn't be anywhere near as long or complicated as this one so I will hopefully have that up before the weekend.

Tomb Kings Analysis Part 1: General Rules, Lords, & Heroes

2011-05-22T17:24:00.005-05:00

Well the Tomb King Book released a couple weeks ago and I've spent a fair amount of time pouring through this beautiful tome. To date I've played out a couple of test games in my basement using proxies since I sold a hefty portion of my TK army years ago. A great deal has changed from the previous book and that's where I hope to come in and offer some analysis, advice, and aid for the new, the casual, and the hardcore players. So this week I plan on covering army-wide special rules, generic lord choices, and generic hero choices. I will also try and highlight some of the key areas that have impacted Tomb Kings with 8^th edition (such as the change to flying for instance). With that mission statement thrown out there, let's get down to the fun stuff!

Army-Wide Special Rules Changes

Generals selected via basic rulebook guidance(BSB) (Highest leadership)

Hierophant selected via highest magic level instead of leadership

Hierophant and any unit joined gains 6+ regeneration save

Undead rules rolled into Nehekharan Undead

Unofficial "cannot be broken" becomes Unbreakable Universal Special Rule (USR)
Break Tests rules follow the Unstable USR

Arrows of the Asp becomes Arrows of Asaph but stays the same

Animated Construct remains the same

"It Came From Below…" (ICFB) changed to Entombed Beneath the Sands (EBtS)

Follows Ambushers rules except units pop up and scatter instead of coming on from board edges
- Remaining Moves phase, so no charges
Can't pop up into combat any longer
Mishap table much friendlier

Analysis

The biggest and most important changes slited above are those concerning ICFB/EBtS and the section on general and hierophant selection. Tomb King players now possess a greater amount of flexibility when choosing their characters. Previously they were required to take both a Tomb King/Prince as well as a Liche Priest of some flavor. Now, players only possess a single character requirement (the Hierophant). I would *NOT* recommend taking a character that acts as both hierophant and general, but players are open to doing so if they please. For me, I see having a General and Hierophant combined as having all my eggs in a single basket. If that character dies then you've lost the game. Period. End of story. You'll be testing against ~Ld5 across the board without any bonus to leadership from the general.

The changes to ICFB are pretty dramatic but not altogether unexpected. The change to the ambush rule means the units come on during the Remaining Moves phase and thus no charges can be declared. Also, in-line with that the unit can longer pop up straight into combat. Now they follow drop pod-like rules where they are placed 1" away from the nearest edge of the unit in question. As mentioned previously, I was not shocked by these changes. ICFB proved incredibly powerful in previous editions and, honestly, it had become a crutch for bad players. Certainly it allowed the Tomb King book to stay semi-competitive in 7^th and even 8^th edition, but if the book is only viable due to a single unit/rule then something has to change. Now, EBtS requires players to think about their decisions and placements. It's less a shock attack tool and more a finesse move.

Entombed Beneath the Sands can be played in one of two ways. Players can either use units with this rule to put their opponent onto a reactive stance by popping up behind them or, in some cases, close enough to snipe at characters otherwise obscured behind units. Usually this will buy the Tomb Kings some time to get into position or draw enemy units out of position to deal with the newly arrived unit. In this method players can use EBtS to deal with small units of scouts, skirmishers, small ranged units, empire detachments, *some* warmachines, and lone characters. This method is not without its risks though. Scatter is your enemy. Place too closely to a unit and you could pop out on the other side of them and find your Scorpion, Necro Knights, etc have become pincushions. Scatter too far away and suddenly you are outside of a reasonable charge range. Caveat emptor. The other method is to take cheap(ish) units with EBtS and use them as roadblocks, popping up in front of units that will likely charge on their next turn. This method gives the Tomb Kings player the advantage of getting the charge off (usually). Unfortunately this method suffers from some pretty big drawbacks. The first and largest drawback stems from unit cost. Most units with EBtS are not cheap throw-away units. Tomb Swarms are the best you can hope for and they can easily be swept aside when charged.

Other changes to army-wide specific rules were relatively small tweaks and clarifications such as Nehekharen Undead picking up the Unbreakable USR. Previously they just had a vague line stating they "cannot be broken" which looks like Unbreakable but wasn't. This does mean that anything that doesn't affect Unbreakable units doesn't affect TK undead now, which wasn't always the case before. Also, another change to hierophants was to give them, and their unit, a regen save. It's not a particularly effective regen save, but it's good to know that even at low point games we are not required to take expensive magic items to keep our squishy priests alive.

So overall, despite the changes to ICFB/EBtS I really like the subtle changes to the army-wide special rules. I love that I can now play smaller point games if I want without being hamstrung by requiring two expensive characters. I love that, should I choose to do so, I can take an army led by a Necrotect or Tomb Herald. I'm also glad to see that the hierophant, given his importance to the Tomb King army, has some sort of built in defense. Despite the drop in power of ICFB, I welcome the change to something that requires more thought and planning. Let's not forget that the opponent still has to consider the possibility of some very powerful units appearing in his backfield mid to late game. Anything that injects more tactical and strategic thought into this game can only be a bonus in my opinion.

Generic Characters

Tomb Kings

Points stay the same

-1 Ballistic Skill (BS)

Chariots +15 points

Can Always take a spear (doesn't have to be mounted)

Light Armor is standard

Flail upgrade cheaper (-3 points)

Can ride a Khemrian Warsphinx

"My Will Be Done" (MWBD) buffs the TK unit's Weapon Skill (WS)

The Curse happens automatically upon death, no test required

Armor/Ward/Regen saves can be taken against the wounds

Analysis

The Tomb King himself has seen a couple of major changes to his Curse and My Will Be Done abilities and then a number of small and relatively minor changes. Overall the small changes bring the Tomb King in-line with the realities of 8^th edition. Flails have lowered costs due to the changes to close combat that put everyone going at their Initiative value. Spears can be taken regardless of whether to Tomb King is mounted, although I'm not certain why anyone would want to do so. Light armor being standard offers the Tomb King some base protection and is necessary to unlock magic armor. The ability to ride a Warsphinx is neat, and offers a character with a really ferocious mount and a decent close combat character up top. The chariot upgrade may seem incredibly expensive, but remember that Skeleton Chariots in the new book no longer suffer from the Light Chariot rules while still able to form units with rank bonuses and such. Not a bad deal for 15 points extra.

By far the largest changes center on the two primary special rules of the Tomb King – The Curse and My Will Be Done. The curse ability traded off power for reliability. In the previous incarnation a model/unit killing the Tomb King took a leadership check and if they failed they took d6 wounds. These were wounds so no rolling to hit, no rolling to wound and on top of that they couldn't be saved by anything. So kill the Tomb King and take d6 unavoidable wounds. In the new book any unit that kills the Tomb King takes d6 S5 hits. You still have to roll to wound and all saves apply as usual. At the end of the day I actually like this change. I can only recall one or two times in all of my previous games with Tomb Kings where my opponent actually failed the leadership test to be affected by The Curse. With all the changes to Tomb Kings magic, My Will Be Done was destined to morph into something else. I'll cover magic in a separate post but suffice it to say, Tomb Kings magic works just like everyone else's magic. So what did they do with My Will Be Done? Now, the Tomb King lends his Weapon Skill (WS) to any unit he is with. This has some obvious potential as suddenly Tomb Guard with a Tomb king inside look very scary indeed. Facing down a unit with a bunch of WS6, S4, Killing Blow attacks is something no one wants to do. Some caveats do apply to this ability – this does not affect mounts or steeds pulling chariots. So anyone thinking to bolster their warsphinx with a Tomb King needs to remember that the Tomb king doesn't lend his WS in this case.

Liche High Priests

Cheaper, -70 points per model

+1 Toughness (T)

-1 Leadership (Ld)

Skeletal Steed more expensive (+3 points)

New Magic (covered later)

Analysis

Not much change here. I plan on covering magic in a separate post so I won't delve into that too much here. The main changes here are a massive drop in point cost associated with the changeover to standard magic rules and then a couple of stat-line tweaks. The point drop is even greater than I had imagined. This translates into the possibility of more characters in the list, particularly if players don't feel the need to deck them out in all the fineries. Seeing a need for our all important Hierophants to become a little more survivable GW has blessed the High Priests with an additional point of toughness. While this won't stop much, it does make them less susceptible to roving bands of scouts, fast cavalry, and other small units trying to turn the priest into a pincushion. The drop in leadership likely exists to bring the Liche Priests out of contention for being the armies general unless most other characters are avoided. As I've mentioned previously, while I enjoy the idea of having my general and hierophant as the same model, in practice I really think this is a bad idea.

Tomb Prince

Points stay the same

-1 BS

Flail upgrade cheaper (-2 points)

Can Always take a spear (doesn't have to be mounted)

Light Armor is standard

Chariots +15 points

Can ride a Khemrian Warsphinx

"My Will Be Done" (MWBD) buffs the TK unit's Weapon Skill (WS)

The Curse happens automatically upon death, no test required

Armor/Ward/Regen saves can be taken against the wounds

Analysis

The Tomb Prince has the exact same bonuses and minuses as a tomb king. Their changes have been absolutely identical so anything I mentioned above remains true for the Tomb King's lesser leaders.

Tomb Herald (Formerly Icon Bearer)

Cheaper, -5 points per model

Must pay for Battle Standard Bearer (BSB) Upgrade

Light Armor standard

Flail upgrade cheaper (-2 points)

Can Always take a spear (doesn't have to be mounted)

Chariots +15 points

No 0-1 Restriction

No more Tomb Blades, although still possess Killing Blow (KB)

Gained Sworn Bodyguard special rule

Analysis

I don't know where to start with the former Icon bearer. Don't let that cost reduction deceive you, the Tomb Herald received a massive point increase since he no longer counts as a BSB by default. The net loss on this model stands around 18-20 points depending on how you value the light armor they through in for free. That being said, you can take multiples of the Tomb Herald while the Icon Bearer was limited to 0-1 due to his BSB status. An even greater blow is the loss of the Tomb Blades special rule. So while the Herald still possesses Killing Blow, he loses his magical attacks. The only new ability offered up to rebalance this character entry is the Sworn Bodyguard ability. This rule essentially extends the Look Out, Sir! (LOS!) rule to close combat, excepting challenges of course. Overall the revamped Icon Bearer received a massive point increase that his abilities just don't justify. Unfortunately, the usefulness of possessing a battle standard bearer in the Tomb Kings means that he'll stay make his way into many lists, although people might rethink giving him expensive banners or magic items due to his already hefty cost.

Necrotect - NEW UNIT

Gives Hatred to unit

Relatively Cheap (same as Tomb Herald)

Gives nearby constructs a 6+ Regen save

Stats comparable, although lower, to a Tomb Herald

Analysis

The Necrotect is a new character to this edition. He centers on unit buffing, particularly animated constructs. He offers a cheap way to give hatred to a unit and his stats would indicate he performs reasonably well in combat himself considering his pseudo-champion status. He provides a number of interesting possibilities when combined with other characters as well. Imagine a horde of Tomb Guard led by a Tomb King with Necrotect in there for flavor. That adds up to a great number of WS6 S4 Killing Blow attacks that get rerolls via hatred. In addition to hatred, he gives all animated constructs within `12" a regen save of 6+. Depending on how many constructs you take in a typical army this alone could help justify the Necrotect. With his hatred buff to any unit he joins and the aura of regen given to nearby constructs, I feel that the Necrotect will appear in a number of lists. I'll definitely be revisting this character in the future.

Liche Priest

Cheaper, -45 points

-1 Leadership

Skeletal Steed more expensive (+2 points)

New Magic (covered later)

Analysis

Again, same as the Liche High Priest. The only change to the High Priest that didn't filter down to the normal Priests is the bonus to Toughness. The Liche Priest is the cheap alternative. Don't want to rely on magic to win you the game? Take a couple priests and they will support the army just fine once upgraded to level 2. Just make sure you give the hierophant something to protect him as T3 with a 6+ regen save won't go very far with keeping him alive.

Quick Take-Aways

Hierophant is more survivable with 6+ regen and possibly +1T (depending on if High Priest or Priest).

Entombed Beneath the Sands no longer allows charges or popping up into combat.

Tomb Kings and Tomb Princes offer a useful buff to units they join.

Liche Priests much cheaper.

Liche Priests follow normal magic rules.

Tomb Herald received a massive point increase, but still too useful to not consider.

Necrotect is a cheap way to give a unit hatred.

Here is my rough breakdown of what's in store for future Tomb King articles;

Part 2 – Magic & Magic Items

Part 3 – Core Choices

Part 4 – Special Choices

Part 5 – Rare Choices

Part 6 – Special Characters

Part 7 – Basic Tactics

I'll also try and provide a couple of sample lists once I finish up the army book selections.

Dark (Eldar) Thoughts…

2011-05-21T14:23:00.005-05:00

So at work yesterday I worked on a Dark Eldar list over my lunchtime. I've been really excited about Dark Eldar since the book came out, largely due to the incredibly detailed and well-sculpted models. So I came up with a way to link a Dark Eldar raiding party to my Yme-Loc craftworld army – a pirate fleet. The most well known example of these fleeting alliances center around the invasion of the Iyanden craftworld by hivefleet Kraken. In some of the older fluff the craftworld was saved when Yriel convinced the corsairs and pirate fleets to come to the aid of the craftworld. With their aid Iyanden turned aside the catastrophic invasion, although they were left almost irreparably weakened. This is where I drew my inspiration and I'm going with a more diabolical pirate fleet as opposed to the corsair fleets more closely aligned to the craftworlds.

So I've already developed a little backstory for the Kabal of the Shattered Blade (not the final name… yet). The Kabal itself follows a matriarchal power ladder. Males are despised and treated with severe disdain and only kept to perform menial tasks and breed. When sent on raiding parties the females form the core team with the males providing support in the form of transport drivers, menials, and scouts. Occasionally males will prove themselves worthy of a more challenging role during combat. These males are outfitted with combat gear but given blank masks with a reflective coating so that when the females look upon their combat brethren they see a feminine reflection. For no woman of the Kabal of the Shattered Blade would willingly fight beside a male.

One reason for the disdain of male children is their propensity for birth defects. After ages of inbreeding and unprotected warp travel the males of the Kabal are sometimes gifted with an unusual curse. These mutations take on many forms, but the most common come in the form of hollow bird-like bones and wings or a thick skin of deep onyx color. These male children are given up at birth to some of the minor cults that make up the Kabal of the Shattered Blade. The onyx skin monstrosities are universally feared by all, even the matriarch herself, but are utilized as scouts to hunt out potential raiding locations. The winged children are elevated to the spires that adorn the Kabal's aeries of messengers. These messengers, akin to the Scourges that fly throughout Commoragh, become honored messengers and are the only males to hold any honor within the Kabal itself – for they act as the diplomats between the other houses and kabals.

So that's just a start to the fluff I have going for this Dark Eldar group. I hope to flush it out in the future to explain more of what's found in the DE book as well as explain the connection to Yme-Loc itself.

Below I have my base list and below that some rough ideas on how I plan on using this list and expansion options.

HQ –
Kabal Matriarch – Lelith Hesperax    175pts
(n/a)

ELITES –
Incubi – Klaivex & 5 Incubi w/Venom    247pts
(Demiklaives, Onslaught, Splinter Cannon)

Kabalite Trueborn – Dracon & 5 Trueborn w/Venom    192pts
(Blasters x4)

Hekatrix Bloodbrides – Syren & 8 Bloodbrides w/Raider    270pts
(Shardnet x3, Haywire Grenades, Flickerfield, Shock Prow)

TROOPS –
Kabalite Warriors – Sybarite & 9 Warriors w/Raider    190pts
(Shredder, Splinter Cannon, Flickerfield, Shock Prow)

Kabalite Warriors – Sybarite & 9 Warriors w/Raider    190pts
(Shredder, Splinter Cannon, Flickerfield, Shock Prow)

Kabalite Warriors – Sybarite & 9 Warriors w/Raider    190pts
(Shredder, Splinter Cannon, Flickerfield, Shock Prow)

FAST ATTACK –
Reaver Jetbikes – Arena Champion & 5 Reavers    166pts
(Heat Lance x2)

HEAVY SUPPORT –
Ravager    115pts
(Dark Lance x3, Flickerfield)

Ravager    115pts
(Dark Lance x3, Flickerfield)

Total - 1850pts

Basic Tactics

The incubi go after the big non-invulnerable save heavily armored infantry units. The Trueborn fly across the field and go crazy with their blasters versus transports and heavy vehicles alike. The warriors use the Dark Lances on the Raiders until they close into anti-personnel range and then the warriors themselves will take over and target units. The reavers go after flanking vehicles and otherwise sew confusion by using bladevanes to their advantage. Ravagers are the primary anti-vehicle support throughout the game. Bloodbrides either tar-pit the biggest and baddest close combat unit or pick off less able units (tactical squads, guard units, etc).

Deployment

Incubi are held in reserve until targets present themselves. Reavers may be held in reserve too depending on mission. Lelith rides with the bloodbride squad. All units try their best to start behind cover with the Ravagers nearer to the firing lanes on the table.

Expansion Options

My three primary options for this army are Mandrakes, Scourges, and Voidravens. Mandrakes would add some infiltrating but without a pain token they are mediocre at best. Since I have no easy way of giving them a pain token (Haemonculus or Chronos Parasite Engine) I think these will be relegated to the backburner and bought/painted for fluff reasons only. Scourges would offer some mobile firepower but have an issue with fragility and to me, don't really add anything of significance to this list. The Voidraven would give me more anti-tank, but honestly, I feel I have that covered. Between two ravagers, Reavers with heat-lances, Trueborn with blasters, and pot-shots with Raiders I feel I have this aspect covered.

Other Thoughts

I may transform one unit of Warriors into Wyches. In my opinion I lack in the Close Combat department but only playtesting will decide that for me. Still, I need to buy the models first and that's not happening until I get painting some of my existing items downstairs (almost at 100% fully assembled).

I'm still working on the Tomb Kings articles. I should have the first one posted tomorrow with the rest quickly following (a day or two apart from one another).

Another Day Another Blog Post…

2011-05-16T22:34:00.009-05:00

So I've progressed significantly since my last post. I worked long hours over the weekend to assemble as many miniatures as possible and well, as of tonight, 99% of the figs are completely assembled. Here's a quick run-down of the things I've assembled recently;

Eldar Warp Hunter

Chaos Dreadnought

Imperial Guard Medusa

Grey Knight Interceptors

Dark Eldar Warriors

Space Marine Scouts

Space Marine Dreadnought (Furioso style)

Ushabti

Tomb Kings Necrosphinx

Skaven Hellpit Abomination (#2)

High Elf Spearman Command

So what's left? I have two boarding marines, Harry the Hammer, a couple of assorted metal Eldar figures (2 Autarchs and a Great Harlequin), Iron Snakes Sternguard (the real ones), and my Imperial City terrain. That's it. Well, sort of. I have a TON of old painted miniatures I need to strip and repaint (and in some cases reassemble). I also have my Forgeworld Revenant Titan and Scorpion Superheavy that I need to "rebuild". The stripping and the FW superheavies will wait for now. I want to start clearing some of these miniatures off my shelves and I desperately need the practice with my new painting techniques. I'll likely delay my Sternguard for abit too until I have some shelf space and have brushed up (pun intended) on my painting and converting skills.

Anyway, here are a bunch of photos of the new stuff.

Warp Hunter

Necrosphinx

Hellpit Abomination

Tomb King (Came with Sphinx Kit)

High Elf Command

Grey Knights

Chaos Dreadnought

Space Marine Dreadnought

Medusa

Dark Eldar Warriors

Space Marine Scouts

Let me know if you want any details on these models. I know this is picture overload so I don't want to make this post even longer with diatribes about each model/unit. Some quick take-aways though;

Medusa kit blows.

Necrosphinx is awesome and goes together easily.

Warp Hunter is an easy kit, just be wary of mold release

I need more female dark elder bodies and the weird faceless heads out of the wyche box

Yes, that's an ork bit on the Chaos Dreadnought.

Grey Knights, while a really cool kit, the arms are a pain to assemble.

Next post? I'm hoping to have my thorough breakdown of Tomb Kings. I'll likely break it down into a series of posts. Start with Characters, magic items, and magic, and then separate posts for Core and then Special and Rare choices.

_____________________________________________________
Just for Timmy, here's the kneeling Wraithlord. Still needs greenstuff work on his one knee (I seem to have forgotten that one).

Now for Doug… yes, I plan on using it.

Project 2011

2011-05-13T13:19:00.004-05:00

I'm going to try and give the blog another go. This time I'm not going to plague myself with artificial deadlines. False deadlines just aren't enough of a deterrent for me. Now that being said, I will *try* my best to post something every week, even if I simply write, "Hey, I'm still alive. Don't forget about me!"

So what have I been up to in the year or so since I disappeared? Well, mostly work. Alright, alright, outside of work I've continued working on a number of projects and I managed to get my Iron Snakes half-assed and ready for Adepticon where I took a brutal beating at the hands of Tyranids no less. Nonetheless, I'll come back to my Adepticon travails in another post as I'm already starting to drift off target here. Last year I came to the conclusion that I needed to par down the amount of money I spend on this hobby. I possess a ton of half-bought armies, models I felt would look fantastic to assemble and paint and display, and a ton of terrain that has just sat around since being purchased since no one travels up here to game at my place. So lately I set out to assemble and paint every model I own. I gave myself a single restriction, one which I've already broken numerous times, that I couldn't buy any new models unless they pertain to *active* armies. Now here is where I fall into a grey area. I never defined what I meant by "active army". So since laying down the law I've purchased some Grey Knight models, some Tomb Kings models, Eldar, Space Marines, the list goes on. After realizing the ridiculousness of my situation I finally defined "active" to mean, "armies I actively play at least once a month." So this limits me to Iron Snakes, Eldar, Skaven, Legion of Everblight, Retribution of Scyrah, and Malifaux Arcanists. That's still a long list which brings up another issue; number of game systems.

I've always liked looking at new game systems. That's why currently I possess rules for close to 20 different miniatures systems and models for 12 of those. I think I need to reduce the number of systems I play. The problem? I still really want to break into the historical scene. So while I might ditch playing Infinity, Firestorm Armada, Uncharted Seas, Epic 40k, Mordheim, etc the overall number of systems to buy models for would likely stay the same. I really want to try Flames of War, Fields of Glory, Warhammer Ancients, Action Under Sail, and a couple of others, but, I only have a finite amount of time and money. For the first time I actually know people who play some of the historical stuff too, which makes things a bit more complicated. Given that many of the games I'd cut are ones that aren't being played locally anymore, am I really saving money by cutting them? Overall I'm still undecided on where to go with this dilemma.

Lately I've progressed to assembling miniatures. I'm *almost* finished assembling miniatures. Still on my plate I have some Iron Snakes Sternguard (the real ones, not the cop-outs I took to Adepticon, Grey Knights, Warriors of Chaos Chosen, Harry the Hammer, Dark Eldar Warriors, a Skaven Hellpit Abomination, Tomb Kings Necrosphinx, Eldar Warp Hunter, and an entire Imperial City. Then, however, I'm finished with assembly and can begin painting. I admit I'm pretty excited about painting up some models. I took a couple of painting classes with Chris Borer and Mathieu Fontaine at Adpeticon and I'm eager to step up my game so to speak. Some models I plan on just powering through, but, if it would look good as a display piece then I will spend some time on the model. This will also be the first time I paint using P3 paints on my own models. This stems from using them at the seminars at Adepticon and just loving them. They cover extremely well and the pigment seems to stay more consistent when water is applied.

So what are some of the highlights for me to paint? Well, don't laugh. I don't have enough space to make a list but here are some short take-aways; ~5000 points of Skaven, ~8000 points of Eldar, ~2500 points of Orks, 50pt Scyrah army, 50pt Legion army, ~70pts of Malifaux, ~350pts of Infinity, Harry the Hammer, Bugmans limited figure (from the bar), White Dwarf 50^th anniversary figure, Forgeworld Boarding Marines, IG Medusa, and much, much, more. I've posted pictures of my "display shelves" chock full of models. I actually can't fit anymore models on the shelves and thus I must resort to using my desk for model storage.

Lastly, here is a list of topics I hope to broach in the coming weeks on this blog;

One Year Later: Skaven in 8^th edition

Tomb Kings Army Book Review and Assessment

Orc and Goblin Army Book Review and Assessment

Iron Snake Sternguard

Adepticon Afterthoughts

How To: Know your Army Book/Codex

Battle Reports

Now will all of that actually happen in the "coming weeks"? Probably not. I'm a lazy guy at heart and I admit I used to type up the vast majority of my personal project at work and shoot them to my home e-mail address which isn't possible any longer. Nonetheless, I will do my best to ensure that whatever I post on the blog is both meaningful and useful for my tabletop friends.

The Brewmeister Returns!

2010-08-15T17:35:00.000-05:00

So just a quick update for now. I've had some personal issues come up this past week which have prevented a return to normally scheduled updates. Regardless, I have started painting Skaven. In fact, I painted the first complete Skaven slave last night to test out a paint scheme. Fun times for sure.

Anyway, I managed to assemble the limited edition bugman's figure from Warhammer world and figured I'd share some pictures of the miniature. Right now it will sit on my shelf for awhile before being painted. I need to work on other projects first before I can go back and paint some "for fun" miniatures.

So without further ado, here are the pics of the mighty Bugman.

Only note is that he does come with an option to hold a battle axe instead of the stool. I chose the stool for flavor since I never plan on building a dwarf army.

More power to the Warp Generator!! Full Rat-Power ahead!

2010-07-30T16:45:00.001-05:00

So 8th edition has dropped and some pretty big changes have taken place to the overall gameplay of Warhammer Fantasy. Magic has become less of a staple and both easier to cast and easier to dispel. Combat has changed dramatically with the changes to combat resolution, fear & terror, the inclusion of steadfast, and basic weapon changes. In addition the ability to measure ranges and distances at any point makes warmachines much more reliable. Overall, the changes have made for a much quicker paced game with far more bloodshed than in previous editions. All aspects of the game from monstrous creatures, to hordes, to elite infantry have been improved and changed so that they can affect the outcome of battles. In addition, the book includes several stock scenarios which make core troops valuable assets (core units with banners count as scoring units). So how have these new rules affected my beloved ratmen from the under-realms? We've gone from being a balanced army with a few nasty tricks to a very powerful army with reliable troops (who'd have thought?) powerful magic, and crazy creations.

So with the changes to army composition Skaven are able to take advantage of their cheap characters. For 50 points they can take a level 1 warlock engineer. For only a few points more they can take a chieftan to boost leadership and provide a little more killing power. Also, assassins may make it into more player's lists as players are not bound to slot restrictions. The addition of Lord level characters to more lists means Warlords make extremely viable options now for cheap leadership boosts and effective combat boosts. Of course, the changes to percentiles mean that a Grey Seer on a bell will run you the 25% Lord points all by himself. Plague Priests on a furnace will eat up a significant amount of points as well.

I want to take a quick moment to comment on one of the more unique entries in the Skaven book, the Verminlord. In this players humble opinion the verminlord gained a fair amount of survivability. Sure, an opponent can fire at him when he's behind units and true line of sight screws him just as much as everything else, but the loss of the bonus to hit him from being a large target means that shooty armies will have a slightly harder chance of turning him into a pincushion. Also with the changes to magic he gains a dramatic bonus to casting (just like grey seers). So having a roving combat monster (WS8 S6 A5 Terror-causing) is pretty amazing. He won't win games on his own but a smart player can use the mobility afforded to an individual model to put him in the right position at the right time and cause some serious hurt. Either that or the opponent will spend a great amount more firepower to bring him down leaving teh rest of your army intact. Only downside? At 500 points he will likely consume all of the points available for a Lord choice so make sure to take a BSB in your hero selection or you'll suffer for having that 1 point lower leadership on your large blocks.

Now the core choices for Skaven have always been good buys. Clanrats could win combats from static combat resolution and a little bit of survivability. All of the Skaven core choices prove to be exceptionally reliable since Skaven have a low point per model cost. With the addition of Steadfast (stubborn if more ranks than opponent) Slaves and Clanrats become extremely reliable (often leadership 10 if within 12" of the general). So now Slaves can reliably pin units in combat to set them up for a flank charge from more fearsome combat units. The addition of the horde rule which allows more attacks if ranked 10-wide means opponents will likely see much larger hordes of rats on the table. Spears may actually prove to outweight hand weapon and shields in this current edition since a horde unit with spears attacks in 4 ranks. Slaves should still be taken in relatively small blocks. They need to remain what the authors intended and stay cheap throw-away units.

For special units a number of units gained or lost power. Rat Ogres moved up the power scale dramatically. Before 8th edition many people pondered why they would spend the points on a troll with no regeneration. Now with the addition of monstrous support and stomp rules rat ogres are much more fearsome in combat, particularly when the Skaven player can lock an opposing unit in combat with a unit of Slaves and get a flank charge off against an opponent. Skirmishers overall took a hit. So gutter runers and poison wind globadiers lost their manueverability. Otherwise the special choices remain relatively unaffected.

Rare choices remain fairly strong for Skaven. The Doomwheel took a massive hit but still remains a strong choice for Skaven players. The change to its movement rule to simply random movement means that it can no longer weave in and out of units and cause mayhem. Also means that crap rolls can screw the wheel over much easier. HPA remains relatively unchanged. Warp Lightning Cannons and Plagueclaw Catapults increased in power due to the way war machines work both offensively and defensively. Now they should prove even more defensible and effective at fulfilling their rolls. Fantastic!

The Fabled Land...

2010-07-27T17:25:00.001-05:00

As I indicated in my previous post just a few moments ago, the wife and I took a vacation to England and Scotland recently. Because I have an awesome wife, she humored me by letting me drive way off our route to visit the fabled land of Warhammer World. I wasn't sure what to expect when first arriving at the gates, but suffice to say, I enjoyed my short stay within the hallowed halls of miniature history.

Now, to be frank, Warhammer World was in some ways a disappointment. Apparently what I had heard about Warhammer World proved incredibly out of date. They used to have all sorts of dioramas up such as the storming of the Imperial Palace and the Dark Eldar raid board. None of that is now there. Maybe they moved it back to GW headquarters next door, but they no longer display them in Warhammer World. So what do they show? Quite a bit actually.

When you first arrive through the gates you are greeted by a Warhammer Online Chaos Warrior (life-size). Go up the stairs and they have a life-sized Space Marine. At this point, you can continue further up the stairs or go into the large gaming hall.

Go further up the stairs and you enter the miniature gallery. Here they have a number of small dioramas and an assortment of models from each of the armies for Fantasy and 40k. Each army shows progression over the years starting with early models down below and the more recent models up top. In addition they have some assembled versions of the newest models (manticore, fire prism, etc in this case). Also any local painting contests will be displayed here as well.

So I did NOT take pictures of everything. I tried to get pictures of most of the dioramas and the armies that interest me. In addition I took pictures of a few other items (see pictures).

After the miniature gallery go back downstairs and enter the gaming hall. Here one sees many good gaming tables available for public play. In addition the hall contains a couple of dioramas and MANY pieces of original artwork for both fantasy and 40k. Fantastic. Also off of this hall one has the GW store. This really is just a uniquely laid out GW store. Nothing new or different here other than a few pieces of Forgeworld available (and a full range of Forgeworld Weathering Powders, of which I picked up 3). So back out in the hall and we move onto the last area of Warhammer World - Bugman's Bar.

Bugman's Bar stands out as the most impressive area of Warhammer World. They have wonderfully styled tables set out, comfortable sitting areas, and a nice bar area. In addition set off to the side sits a small room with a number of items available for purchase. They have everything from beer steins, t-shirts, an exclusive bugman miniature, some pins, knick-knacks, mousepads, and some artwork prints. I could have spent 300 dollars here easily but I restrained and bought a piece of artwork for myself, some Skaven pins, and 5 of the exclusive bugman miniatures for myself and my mates.

Kristi and I also had lunch at Bugman's and we braved the Troll Brew (they were out of Bugman's Brew). Troll Brew tasted like a typical IPA really but still not bad at all. The food there tasted delicious and the portion sizes extremely large.

I really wish a place like this existing in the states. You wouldn't even need the alcohol. Just have a large gaming store with a decent gaming area connected to a restaurant. Fantastic idea.

Anyway, here are the pictures (hopefully);

Me outside Corporate Headquarters (Warhammer World is around the corner).

Assaulted by Chaos just inside the door!

Some of my favorite GW dioramas they had on display. The level of detail on the Emperor vs. Horus and the Thunderbolt scenes is just astounding. So much detail is lost in the photos.

Just a selection of my favorites. I took a ton of pictures of the skaven stuff though. If anyone wants to see more just ask.

Gaming Hall

Bugman's (Blurry, I know)

Car Wars! See!?! It did exist!

Ominous site. Portent of things to come? Who knows!

Updates Incoming

2010-07-27T16:27:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I've been delinquent with my updates. Currently I'm in England for the next few days and I've been away from home for the past two-ish weeks. The weeks before that I spent preparing for this trip. I did manage to ingest the new 8th edition fantasy book though. In other news I did manage a visit to Warhammer World. I'll post pictures for that in a separate post.

Now my projects have changed as of late. For starters I've started selling off a large portion of my miscellaneous miniature collection. I figure if I'm not going to use it and I'm not going to paint it for display in the near future then I might as well sell it or trade it for something I will use.

Now, I've started playing a couple of other games in addition to Warhammer and 40k. I picked up Malifaux and I've started a new Warmachine army to see to completion (Retribution). Now, both of those armies I'm waitlisting. I intend to put those lists together and play the games but I won't paint them or do any conversion work for the time being due to more pressing projects.

For the two warhammer games I'm focusing on three armies, 40k Orks, Iron Snakes, and Skaven. I'm enamored with the new 8th edition fantasy book and rules so I definitely want to produce a fantastic looking Skaven army soon. Unfortunately that means I need a few new models and I'm simply going to wait on that for the Isle of Blood box set. For more on my take on 8th edition fantasy see my separate post (hopefully later tonight).

Work on the Iron Snakes will begin when I get back from my DC trip late next week. I plan on working on vehicles first since they require less conversion work. I want to do a few conversions on them to make sure they stand out from normal tanks. So any ideas for them would be appreciated. I really like Tim's rhinos for his centurions so I may try and steal a few ideas from his rhinos.

Orks may move up the priority list as I've heard rumored discussion amongst friends that they want to do Orks for next years Adepticon Team Tournament. I'm certainly not opposed to this as the early rumblings sound very free-form and I could accomplish a fair amount of finishing work on that army.

Anyway, I will post pictures of Warhammer World shortly and then come back for my take on 8th edition and particularly how Skaven fit into the mix.

Busy but still here...

2010-06-09T22:09:00.001-05:00

Nothing new to report so far. I never had enough time over the weekend to work on poses for the marines. I'm hoping to have more time this weekend but so far this week has kicked me in the ass. I guess going to job required training will do that. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that anyone paying attention to this blog knows I am not simply forgetting to post and am continuing to work on my models. So if I manage to find some time to work on models before Friday night then I'll post on Friday, otherwise I'll post over the weekend.

Let the Snakes Begin!

2010-06-04T23:09:00.000-05:00

Awhile back I posted about some plastic hoplites that, at the time, had not yet arrived at store shelves. I really wanted to try out the hoplon (aspis) shields contained within to see if they met my rather nit-picky standards. Well, yesterday they arrived in the mail. Immediately I began to see that while the shields are the correct size they have one major issue - the arms come attached the the shields. Anyway, what you see below is the first mock-up of one of the sternguard (notables) for my Iron Snakes list.

Right now I have not finalized a pose. What you see above and again below consists of all of the correct pieces held together with some blue-tac. The final pose will need a large amount of conversion work including, but not limited to, arm repositioning, dremeling out the back of the shield, and soft armor sculpting.

Anyway, a quick run-down on parts.

Head - Forgeworld Red Scorpion upgrade
Torso - Sanguinary Guard
Arms - Sanguinary Guard & Tactical Marines
Legs - Space Wolves
Shield - Immortal Studios Plastic Hoplites
Backpack - Standard Marine backpack

The marine in question also does not have a sea-lance because I still need to finalize plans for those. At the moment I am considering both the Chaos marauder spears and the Dark Elf banner poles. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

Bases will be a mix of custom-made beach (with sand and water-effects) and the ruins bases from Dragonforge Designs.

Postponed

2010-05-30T23:25:00.000-05:00

Due to a death in my family this past week I have postponed my projects for the week. I'll try and post something tomorrow but, as usual, family obligations come first.

Hopefully in June I'll have plenty of time to work on modelling the Iron Snakes and for painting Skaven. I still have my little side projects sitting on the shelves as well (Lamenter Librarian and Orc Boss) but I just haven't been feeling real "inspired" to work on them too much.

I had a little story on sportsmanship and how it can ruin the fun level of a game or campaign but given my current state of mind I think I should revisit that later.

Takeaway of the day? Be humble when you win and learn from your losses.

Skaven Fun

2010-05-21T17:58:00.000-05:00

So I spent some time looking over the Skaven army book while trying to refine my 2000 point list before playing a friend in a campaign game. I came up with a few nasty combos that I term the "suicide squad" that I seemingly overlooked in previous readings. In addition I think this tactic will only become even more viable in 8th edition if all the rumors floating out there about army composition hold true.

So in the new Skaven book you can take a plain Warlock Engineer for extremely cheap. He has no caster level and only a hand weapon to his name. However, as a clan Skyre model he has access to all of the interesting toys of his industrious and crafty clan such as the doom rocket, brass orb, and death orb. All of those items are less than their 50 point magic item allotment for heroes as well. So what the suicide squad does is take three cheap Warlock Engineers and give them each one of the previously stated items. Then, in some lucky magic phase I cast skitterleap and shoot one of the squad across the board to within 1" of an enemy unit and they use their item in the shooting phase. So essentially I get three free powerful attacks against my opponent when he usually isn't expecting anything. All of this for the grand total of 150 points.

Now, don't expect to escape the wrath of your opponents. Each suicide squad member knows that he will ultimately give his life to the Great Horned Rat. Opponents are usually all to eager to annihilate the offending character despite after unleashing their payload they pose very little threat. So the suicide squad serves two purposes - mayhem and distraction.

As an example I give you a scaled down scenario. The first time I used this tactic I played against High Elves. My opponent had turtled a bunch of Sea Guard and Phoenix guard in a convenient battle line in his deployment zone. So I cast Skitterleap and jumped my doomrocket over to one flank where he had a nice view straight down the line. I rolled two dice and landed right between the phoenix guard and a unit of sea guard. The rocket killed two phoenix guard and six sea guard (who almost failed a panic check). In the ensuing phase another unit charged my warlock and I elected to flee. I ran away an astounding 13" so the charge failed and then he proceeded to fire not 1 but rather 2 units of sea guard into the warlock before the little hero fell to the ground doing a very good pin cushion imitation.

So in my example my meager 45 point unit managed to kill far more than his points value and tied up the shooting of two units for a turn. In addition the failed charge caused my opponent's line to become a little disorganized and in later turns a mobile unit like a doomwheel, giant rats, or gutter runners could easily exploit the disheveled line.

Now, this tactic has a number of flaws. A full suicide squad you use up most of the precious character slots for throw-away suicide units. In a 2000 point game a list will use up three of the avialable four slots. Not exactly optimal. However, used in moderation single suicide units can still prove devastating. In addition, canny opponents will not fall for this tactic and magic defense lists will easily bat aside the casting attempt.

Now in 8th edition if rumors hold true I think this tactic will become more prevalent. Percentages open up a lot of possibilities for cheap throw-away characters. 150 points is a small pittance when you have another 350 points to spend in a 2000 point list. In addition I've heard several rumors that say the 25% max for characters is misinformed and that players will have a max of 25% for Lords in addition to a max of 25% for Heroes.

So I hope this has given any Skaven generals something to think about and consider while showing non-skaven players what to watch out for when playing more experienced Skaven players.

So I finally remembered...

2010-05-19T19:04:00.000-05:00

So I remembered to check my master Iron Snake army list while at work today and I remember the changes. I was, as predicted, confusing aspects of my 1850 and 2000 point lists. No predator at 1850 unfortunately. Anyway, presented below for my reader's enjoyment (all two of them) is the corrected list.

HQ -
Pedro Kantor (175)

ELITES -
10 Sternguard (295)
(Power Fist, Combi-Melta x4)

10 Sternguard (295)

(Power Fist, Combi-Melta x4)

Ironclad Dread (160)

(Heavy Flamer, Meltagun, Assault Launchers)

TROOPS -

Tactical Squad (10) (200)

(Power Weapon, Melta Bombs, Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher)

Tactical Squad (10) (200)

(Power Weapon, Melta Bombs, Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher)

FAST ATTACK -

Landspeeder (70)

(Multi-Melta, Heavy Bolter)

Landspeeder (70)

(Multi-Melta, Heavy Bolter)

HEAVY SUPPORT -

Vindicator (125)

(Siege Shield)

Whirlwind (85)

TRANSPORT -

Rhino (4) (140)

Drop Pod (35)

Red text denotes changes from what I posted previously.

3 Posts in One Day? Armageddon? Probably not...

2010-05-18T21:53:00.000-05:00

What can I say? I sat here cleaning my mancave of a basement and decided that I might as well go ahead and post my "to-be-assembled" projects to get them out of the way. Besides, I sort of owe anyone reading this blog still given my lackluster upkeep since inception. Anyway, I'll try and break everything down along the same lines as previously.

Warhammer Fantasy
10 Stormvermin
5 Chaos Chosen
Prince Sigvald
Wulfrik the Wanderer
Dwarf slayer and Golden Daemon (OOP, Games Day Figure)
Harry the Hammer (OOP, 25th anniversary figure)
White Dwarf and shield bearers (OOP, limited edition)
40 Plague Monks (OOP metals, not much assembly but they need bases)
10 Plague Censer bearers (again metal and not much assembly)
10 Poison Wind Globadiers (ditto)
Grey Seer (conversion using screaming bell bits)
Nurglitch on Giant Rat

Infinity
Haqqislam Odalisque w/ spitfire

Warhammer 40k
Inquisitor Rex and Retinue
3 IG Medusa Kits (Forgeworld)
1 IG Chimera
1 IG Baneblade
10 Space Marine Scouts
1 Space Marine Whirlwind
4 Space Marine Rhinos
1 Space Marine Vindicator
2 Space Marine Landspeeders
1 Eldar Revanent Titan (Forgeworld, technically a rebuild since I did such a terrible job previously)
1 Eldar Avatar w/ spear (Forgeworld)
1 Eldar Phoenix Bomber (Forgeworld)
1 Eldar NIghtwing Interceptor (Forgeworld)

This doesn't even include my Iron Snake infantry and dreadnought. The sternguard squads will contain bits from the command squad, sanguinary guard, death company, red scorpion upgrades, assault marines, and tactical marines, and additional bits from a box of plastic hoplites. The standard marines will have a wide variety of bits from the tactical marine, assault marine, red scorpion upgrades, and command squad boxes. Kantor himself is actually a conversion based on a master of teh chapter figure with bits from Kantor, and several other kits. The Ironclad dreadnought is a combination of the plastic venerable and ironclad kits with custom sculpts for the sword and shield.

See? I told you folks that these lists would be shorter. :-)

Don't worry, I've already banned myself from buying new miniatures unless they have relevancy to the Iron Snakes.

Addendum

2010-05-18T18:22:00.002-05:00

So for anyone curious what miniatures lurk within my current painting backlog, here is a quick and dirty breakdown that doesn't include any unassembled figures.

Warhammer Fantasy
Skaven Screaming Bell
Skaven Doomwheel
80 Skaven Slaves
50 Skaven Clanrats
30 Skaven Stormvermin
6 Skaven Gutter Runners
5 Skaven Weapon Teams
2 Skaven Warlock Engineers
Skaven Grey Seer
Skaven Battle Standard Bearer
40 Night Goblin Spearmen
20 Night Goblin Bowmen
10 Forest Goblin Spider Riders
Goblin Shaman
Goblin Boss
Orc Warboss (OOP, Games Day Figure)
15 Dwarven Warriors
10 Dwarven Miners
Dwarf Cannon
Dwarf Slayer
Dwarf Lord
25 Warroirs of Chaos
10 Chaos Warhounds
10 Chaos Knights
5 Chaos Marauders
Chaos Champion on Daemonic Steed
Chaos Champion on Jugger
Chaos Sorceror of Nurgle
2 Tomb Swarms
Wood Elf Sorceror (OOP)
High Elf Maiden Guard (OOP)
Warhammer Online Limited Figure (Orc Warboss, I forget his name)
Vlad Von Carstein

Lord of the Rings
Aragorn
Gimli
Legolas
Boromir
Frodo
Sam
Merry
Pippin
Gamling (on foot)
Gamling (mounted)

Warmachine
Captain Victoria Haley
Major Victoria Haley
Defender
Lancer

Infinity
3 Zhanshi
2 Tiger Soldiers
1 Shang Ji Invincible
1 Hac Tao
1 Ninja
1 Domaru Butai
1 Celestial Guard
2 Hellcats
2 Intruders
2 Zeros
2 Spektrs
1 Interventor
1 Vertigo Zond
1 Murabid Taureg
2 Yuan Yuan

Warhammer 40k
40 Imperial GUardsmen
6 Heavy Weapons Teams
1 Death Corp of Krieg Death Rider
1 Titan Princeps (limited Games Day Fig)
1 Valkyrie
3 Valkyrie Pilots (OOP, old Starter box)
9 Thousand Sons Marines
1 Abaddon the Destroyer
Inquisitor Lord Torquamada
Inquisitor Solomon Lok
2 Inquistorial Familiars
1 Inquisitorial Acolyte
4 Grey Knight Terminators
1 Space Wolf Terminator Rune Priest (OOP)
1 Lelith Hesperax
1 Land Raider
9 Terminators
5 Assault Terminators
2 Space Marines Sergeants
1 Ironclad Dreadnought
1 Drop Pod
1 Landspeeder
3 Scout Bikes
5 Sniper Scouts
Telion
Sicarius w/ Lightning Claws (limited, OOP)
Sicarius
5 Sternguard
1 Terminator Librarian
1 Standard Bearer (OOP, Skullz Reward)
80 Ork Boyz
5 Nobz
15 Kommandos
1 Snikrot
1 Big Mek
16 Stormboyz
1 Deff Dread
2 Trukks
6 Killa Kanz
1 Battlewagon
3 D-Cannons
4 Autarchs
1 Bonesinger (OOP)
5 harlequins
1 Death Jester
1 Shadow Seer
2 Great Harlequins
6 Howling Banshees
15 Striking Scorpions
3 Wave Serpents
2 Weapon Platforms
20 Dire Avengers
18 Guardians
10 Rangers
5 Wraithguard
4 Warlocks
2 Farseers
1 Eldrad Ulthran
2 Falcons
1 Wraithlord
6 War Walkers
1 Scorpion Gravtank (Forgeworld)

Space Hulk
9 Terminators
2 Terminator Sergeants
1 Terminator Librarian
1 Broodlord
20 genestealers

Historical
20 Greek Hoplites
1 Persian Warrior (Gorgon Studios Limited)

Maybe tomorrow I'll list everything I still need to assemble (don't worry, it's not quite as long of a list).

A day late and a dollar short...

2010-05-18T14:42:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the late update. I made trail mix last night and ate way too much of tasty goodness. So I ended up going to bed real early last night. Anyway, enough with my stomach issues.

So I tried remembering my actual army list for the Iron Snakes (which I have saved at work) but I couldn't make everything work that I remembered. I think I keep remembering a mix of my 1850 list and my 2k list. So what I'm presenting here is what I've recalled as my 1850 list. Questions and comments are more than welcome.

HQ -
Pedro Kantor (175)

ELITES -
10 Sternguard (295)
(Power Fist, Combi-Melta x4)

10 Sternguard (295)

(Power Fist, Combi-Melta x4)

Ironclad Dread (160)

(Heavy Flamer, Meltagun, Assault Launchers)

TROOPS -

Tactical Squad (10) (190)

(Power Weapon, Meltagun, Multi-Melta)

Tactical Squad (10) (195)

(Power Weapon, Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher)

FAST ATTACK -

Landspeeder (60)

(Multi-Melta)

Landspeeder (60)

(Multi-Melta)

HEAVY SUPPORT -

Vindicator (125)

(Siege Shield)

Whirlwind (85)

TRANSPORT -

Rhino (4) (140)

Drop Pod (35)

Now I realize that I'm short about 35 points and I can't for the life of me remember how I spent those points, but I'll make sure and fix the list when I get into work and take a peek at what I wrote down.

This list plays pretty simply. Essentially the tactical squads hunker down in their rhinos and use the rhino's firepoints to fire their special/heavy weapons. These squads exist to claim objectives and otherwise sit back out of harm's reach. Not heroic I know but generally a safe bet given the lackluster performance of tactical squads. The sternguard will play a much more active role on the battlefield. They will usually stay together and drive around teh field, deploying when needed and concentrating firepower on target squads. The Landspeeders will speed across the board and try to destroy any key vehicle threats. Alternatively I can deepstrike them onto flanks if my opponent doesn't have any tough vehicles. The vindicator and whirlwind use their templates for area denial and crowd control on hordes. Lastly, the wildcard of my list, the Ironclad in the drop pod will either deploy on the first turn on an enemy flank or drop directly behind the enemies lines. This will hopefully throw off my opponent enough that he wastes a turn of fire on the dreadnought and the rest of my army can maneuver into better positions.

Anyway, that's a very "rough" overview of my Iron Snake list. So enjoy. In addition here are a few more pictures of Killa Kanz below.

Weekend Update

2010-05-16T22:13:00.001-05:00

I know that I failed to update on Friday. I'm actively working on posting more frequently and hopefully life will slow down a little in the coming weeks. Anyway, I accomplished a fair amount of hobby work this weekend so I figured I'd go ahead and update everyone tonight.

The Orks have gone from a mountain of plastic sprues in boxes to a table-ready force. This weekend I finished the Battlewagon and put together all six of the killa kanz. Now, I still have some small amount of work to do in order to consider everything assembled and WYSIWYG but I could play a friendly opponent with what I have assembled. So what's left to finish this project off? Firstly, I need one more Ork with a rokkit launcha. Next, I need to convert rokkit launchas for both trukks and another two for the battlewagon. For some reason GW seems real big on sticking Orks with heavy shootas but not with rokkits. I'm not sure why. Lastly, I have to construct two arms for two killa kanz. One of them needs a rokkit launcha while the other needs a grotzooka. I had hoped that GW would include all of the possible weapons in a box of killa kanz for each kan but alas, they only include one of each.

So I think I'll try and bitz order the last few rokkit launchas I need for the trukks, battlewagons, and ork boy. For the killa kanz though I'm going to steal a conversion I saw shortly after the kanz release that uses a chaos havoc launcher for the missile launcher. The grotzooka I could use just about anything as long as it looks like a long wide barrel with junk crammed down it. Here's the picture of the killa kan with the missile launcher by the way. Neat look right?

In other news I started planning work for the Iron Snakes again. In fact I clipped all the Sanguinary Guard and Death Company sprues I bought back in April. I am so incredibly glad I bought those Sanguinary Guard boxes (4 of them) back on launch day to avoid the hassle that people are still experiencing in trying to track down boxes of these guys. Anyway, I think I'm definitely using the chest plates and some of the legs from the sanguinary guard. I also found some other neat bits like sheathed knives and I finally solved my issue of how to hold a shield, spear, and a boltgun with only two arms. Answer? The Sanguinary guard come equipped with their wrist mounted boltguns. So I can attach the wrist mounted weapons and still have a shield and spear. In addition the wristmounted weapons have the side-drum feed with the exposed shells. I like this look for sternguard since it draws attention to their special ammo rules. Special weapon troopers I will either convert special mounts or I revert to having hand held versions and have their other gear stowed elsewhere.

Well, this week I hope to have all my bits for my Sternguard mapped out and I'll list out what I'm using on this blog. Maybe even make some moke ups using blue-tack. In my post tomorrow I'll try and post my semi-finalized 1850 list and an expanded 2000pt list.

So any modeling or paintign planned for this week? Yup. I need to finish my fantasy Orc Warboss and my Lamenter's terminator librarian. After that I plan to devote most of my time to Iron Snakes except a few other small projects. Other projects include working on paitning the Skaven when I have time as they are painting priority number 1 until I complete more Iron Snakes. I also need to practice my freehand so I may revisit the chapter master figures recently painted and add some freehand to them.

Real quick before I get on to pictures, I decided to pick up a few models for display purposes only from Coolminiornot.com. I ordered the Twilight Knight (by Kingdom Death) and Ar-Fienel (by Studio McVey). Both models arrived quickly and in perfect shape. I'm actually quite surprised by the detail and quality of the casting for both products and I can't wait to work on these models in the future.

Anyway, on with the pictures of the growing Blood Axe Horde of Big Mek Grubsmakka.

Newest additions to Grubsmakka's horde (including Grubsmakka himself)

Grubsmakka himself. The Klaw was an easy conversion after I sawed off his previous arm.

Rokkit Launcha Killa Kanz.

Grotzooka Killa Kanz

The Battlewagon. Fun model to assemble until you start on the turrets. Ick.

A big bucket o' Orks.

I have more pictures of the kanz closer up and individual but I'm trying to avoid sucking up so much space on the blog with innumerable pics. So maybe I'll post a few of each in the future if I don't have pics for my post.

Progress and Fantasy Campaign (Post 2/2 for Today)

2010-05-10T22:34:00.000-05:00

So for those of you just joining me, I intended to post on Friday and then on Monday like usual, but life caught up with me. So please check out my previous post before reading this one. I'm sure this post will make more sense that way.

Anyway, I managed to accomplish a fair amount on my Ork army over the weekend given my hectic schedule. I assembled my Deff Dread and an Ork Trukk. The newest GW kits really are quite spectacular and the Deff Dread certainly wins my vote for one of the best new kits in the Ork line. In addition to looking completely bad ass, the kit assembles easily and quickly. The Dread took me a minimal amount of time to assemble compared to the trukk. Why do they insist on making hobbyists assemble engine components which will rarely, if ever, see the light of day? Overall I'm still impressed with the Ork line. Since most of the models have seen updates in the past two or three years the line has a real cohesive feel with a lot of fiddly characteristic bits that make building the models fun and interesting. Anyway, pics below of my Dread and the first of two trukks.

So this past week also marked the beginning of my fantasy campaign. Right now the campaign consists of seven players. I initially picked fantasy for campaign material for two large reasons. At the time of writing many of my circle of friends felt burnt out on Warhammer 40k. Also, none of my friends play the same Fantasy army. The campaign right now consists of Orcs, Empire, Dwarves, High Elves, Wood Elves, Beastmen, and my Skaven. A couple folks may switch armies but even still we wouldn't have any duplicate armies (Warriors of Chaos and Vampire Counts). If I tried this in 40k we'd have predominantly power armor armies (Blood Angels, Space Wolves x2, Chaos Marines for starters). So I figured that a fantasy campaign would be more fun than 40k at this time. Anyway, I'll try and get some pictures of the Campaign Map (don't get excited, it's almost entirely unpainted right now). I'll also post the working ruleset for public consumption.

So until Friday, stay cool and I'm going to try and get some more work done on my Orks during the week. I hope to have everything but the Kanz built before the beginning of the weekend. Oh, I still need to build my Big Mek too. Damn.

Deff Dread. Sorry for the bad pictures. I'm not sure why they came out so grainy.

Trukk #1. again, not sure why these pictures came out so craptacular. I took these with the same camera as the pictures in my previous post.

Backdating? 05/07/2010

2010-05-10T21:33:00.000-05:00

So I meant to post something on Friday about the fickle gods of Warmachine, Ork progress, plans for the Iron Snakes, and a few updates on random projects from the recent past. Unfortunately, I've had some health issues that consumed most of my week and kept me from posting. So tonight I'll make two posts, hopefully both relatively short and sweet but still interesting.

So after my usual Thursday night gaming night with friends I decided to shelve my Warmachine ambitions yet again. Apparently my interested friends played a few games of Warmachine during my absence to DC and didn't like the rules. I think they simply need a little time to adapt, but at this point I have enough other projects that I am shelving my plans for a Retribution force for the time being. Part of me has mixed feeling son this development. I spent a decent amount of time reading the warmachine book and the Retribution army book. I looked forward to building a nice fluffy force of Mage Hunters, but I guess if I wait maybe they'll convert more of the range to plastic? Maybe? Anyway, that's one project on perma-hold and only about fifty other ones to complete.

Over the weekend (since I meant to post this before the weekend) I want to try and assemble as many of my Ork vehicles as possible. I have a deff dread, two trukks, a battlewagon, and six killa kanz so we'll see how productive I can be. I have a number of personal plans this weekend too given the Mother's Day holiday so I doubt I'll accomplish as much as I'd like. Wish me luck!

I spent some time the past couple days considering poses for my Iron Snakes. I once again looked through my bits box and found a number of bits for interesting spear poses in-particular. Once I finish Orks I promised Tim that I would get back to work on my Snakes for next year's Adepticon and BOLScon. I'll need until October/November for assembly (since I'm actually a novice at conversion work). That should give me plenty of time to paint (I'm also a fairly slow painter). So keep checking the blog for updates to Iron Snakes in the relatively near future.

So the month prior to my business trip to DC I worked diligently on several random miniatures. Essentially I decided that this year I'm going to stop buying a lot of miniatures (funny, I know) and try and complete as much of my miniature painting backlog as possible. So I have numerous models to work on to complete this including a partially painted valkyrie, 1000 points of Imperial Guard, 1500 points of Chaos Warriors, several random space marine units like Sternguard, scouts, land speeders, and an ironclad dreadnought, and even some Lord of the Rings figures (Fellowship of the Ring and some Edoras heroes). Anyway, below I posted some pictures of my recent projects and my painting backlog.

Iron Snake's Librarian

Games Day Orc Warboss.

(Not quite finished yet)

Howling Banshee

Inquisitorial Sage.

Simple model but I love the stark contrast of metal and flesh.

Blood Raven Librarian

Still needs freehand and small details.

Void Knight Terminator Chaplain

Custom Chapter, needs freehand and details.

Sons of Guilliman Captain. One of my favorite side-projects.

Like the others he needs some freehand and small detailing.

Crimson Fist Captain

Backpack from Kantor. Needs detailing.

Scythes of the Emperor captain

Again, needs freehand and details.

Salamander Librarian

Needs freehand and detailing. He does have a backpack but I need to pin it back in place.

One of my favorite mini-conversions. This model started as a Mordheim Augur and now counts as an Inquisitorial Sage or Mystic (or even an elite-slot Inquisitor). I retouched her paint job recently.

Old Knight Crusader (Epic-scale)

Painted in the colors of my Void Knight chapter.

My painting backlog and a ton of unassembled miniatures. Not seen: my entire Ork army, 8000 points of Eldar, Battle for Skull Pass models, infinity miniatures, and Space Hulk miniatures. Fun eh?

That's it for now. Sort of. Post #2 about my weekend progress will be up shortly.

Warmachine, Eldar, and Hoplites, Oh My!

2010-04-26T23:09:00.001-05:00

Like many other wargame players I dabble in several games other than my primary interest of Warhammer 40k. Long ago I thought I ditched the idea of ever playing Warmachine. I bought a Cygnar force, played a few games, and then couldn't find anyone else to play against. Now, this is where I get irritated. A long lost friend (well, okay he wasn't lost per say) comes back into town dangling Warmachine in front of everyone like a carrot and now, almost all of my friends are thinking about starting up warmachine forces. On one hand, I don't care because I absolutely love the setting of Warmachine/Hordes. On another hand I can't help but feel a little slighted. Here I tried for the better part of a year to get people to throw down some Warmachine and the only responses I received came in the form of insults. "It's just Magic with miniatures." "It's too combo-oriented." "The models are all metal." etc, etc.

Anyway, I am getting back into Warmachine. I do have a small Cygnar force but several of my friends are going to start up Cygnar forces so I am going to angle off and start up a Retribution of Scyrah force around either Kaelyssa or Ravyn. Both of those warcasters appeal to me. Kaelyssa for her stealth and the heavy fluff surrounding the use of Mage Hunter Strike Forces and Ravyn for her all around badassness. Also, they seem to be the only two warcasters actually dedicated to the cause of saving Scyrah and not personal vendetta or gaining personal power like Vyros, Garryth, or Rahn.

I'm still trying to form up a couple of nice lists to choose from at this point but I know I want Eiryss, a Phoenix myrmidon, a Hydra Myrmidon, and at least one Mage Hunter Strike Force. Unfortunately that adds up to a sizeable force already (28 points I think, not including the warjack points from the caster). So, I know I have very few followers, but, any suggestions?

For those of you who don't know me, I have really 3 primary 40k armies. I'm using this term a little loosely at this point because at this point I barely even have any playable armies. I do this restructuring every few years and I'm sort of in the middle right now. Anyway, one of my primary armies is Eldar. In fact, Eldar were my first army choice upon starting 40k about 17-18 years ago and I've never really looked back. At this point I probably own about 8k in points for Eldar and with the exception of the Vampire and Cobra, I have most of the FW Eldar kits. So I am ecstatic about the new Eldar tank kit coming our way in June. Anyone who hasn't seen the kit can go visit this page on Bell of Lost Souls.

The Fire Prism looks a little weird to me and I'm not entirely sure how they'd "link fire" as per the fluff, but I'm so happy about GW removing the metal turret of death that I honestly don't see this model as anything other than a win. Now the Nightspinner I think looks cool but GW needs to come out with worthwhile rules or it will be just another Heavy Support choice like the Support Platforms. That space is crowded enough. Currently people think GW will simple staple a shadow weaver to a Falcon hull and call that a day. Let me be clear in this - If this happens the Nightspinner will be useless. Shadow Weavers are horrible. Period. Personally, I'm hoping for something akin to the old Epic Space Marine rules where they could block movement. Doubtful, but I actually think this is a viable possibility given GWs codex creep lately.

Lastly, my buddy Tim over at Tim's Minis sent me a link to some fantastic looking PLASTIC Greek hoplites by Immortal Studios. I don't know if the shields will work (they may be a little too small) for my Iron Snakes, but I'm going to try them out nonetheless. They look fantastic for historical plastics. I just wish they would be available before the end of May!!! In other historical news, it sounds like Warhammer Ancients will finally see new rules. David Pauwels posted that Warhammer Ancients 2.0 will go on sale later this year (I think you can preorder it now).

Retasking the Tasker.

2010-04-22T22:09:00.000-05:00

Well, It's been over a year since I utilized this blog. So what happened? Well, the easy answer to that question is simply - life happened. In the past year I've found a new job, started and stopped several projects, and rediscovered a few old hobbies (which are not important to this blog). At this point I'm trying to increase my exposure to the miniature wargaming hobby and decided to revisit the blog format and retask my Iron Snakes blog to a more general wargamming blog.
So what projects have I worked on in the past few months? Well most of models I've built are Imperial Guard, Orks, and Skaven. My local group burnt themselves out on 40k at last year's Adepticon where they had such a horrific showing that they decided to take a short break. The end result is that we haven't gamed much 40k in the past year. Currently, I am running a Fantasy map campaign for a group of 6 or 7 guys. Once the rules become more firm and tested, I'll gladly post them online.
Anyway, I plan on posting to this blog every Monday and Friday from now on. I know that seems a bit odd, but this will give me more motivation. On Friday I can post my weekly accomplishments and my plans for the weekend and on Monday I can post the results. So we'll see how that works out.

Further Delays

2009-05-24T02:15:00.002-05:00

Ouch. So I really want to apologize for my complete and utter lack of updates on here. Work has screwed with my start times more time than I care and I'm still working on my bathroom. Also, my Iron Snakes will be slow going for the summer as I've been inducted into a team for the Adepticon Warhammer 40k Team Tournament. I started up a blog for that (and my other non-Iron Snake projects as well). I'll post the link when it has anything worth looking at. For those of you interested we will be playing Imperial Guard.

Anyway, test model 3 still needs some detail work before I end up posting pictures. Okay, it needs more than just details. I need to paint the shoulder pads and backpack entirely and do highlights on pretty much everything except the armor. So you can flog me if I don't have anything to show next time around.

Delays...

2009-04-26T22:52:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to apologize for not having any regular updates lately. Lately life just seems to have other things in store for me. In addition to bathroom renovations I've also had two job interviews, a sick grandfather, and all the usual housework. I'm almost caught up with bathroom work, the interviews have come and gone, and while my grandfather remains sick they at least know what ailment afflicts him. So I should be back to painting Iron Snakes sometime this week.

I have actually started the third test model. I've completed the metals on him actually but I haven't painted anything else. My main point behind the third test model was to test out some new paints and procedures I learned at Adepticon. So I used Reaper metallic paints for all the metals. So far the gunmetal has come out looking very realisticly dull and lifeless. However, I'm not impressed with the lighter colors of silver from Reaper. The Polished Silver in-particular doesn't flow very well which makes highlighting a pain. So after I've finished test model 3 I'm going to paint one more test model using a hybrid of Reaper and GW paints. We'll see what I come up with for that but I guess first I have to finish the 3rd test model.

I'll try and have an update no later than Wednesday this week. I've also been hard at work making a nice tutorial for how I painted the chaplain's black from my previous post. So good luck with all your endeavors and I'll be back later this week!

2009-04-13T23:13:00.005-05:00

Well, I had a nice big post explaining what I've been up to for the past 2 weeks, but, my computer decided to be a prick and eat the post and crash my browser window. Imagine that.

As many of you already know I've been working on a random Chaplain for my Iron Snakes whiles I waited for some art supplies to arrive that were suggested by Dave Pauwels at Adepticon 2009. I finished him this past Friday and posted him on Bolter and Chainsword to good reviews.

You might have noticed the armor doesn't look black and your eyes are telling you the truth. I painted the model a very dark charcoal grey and worked my way up from there. The effect look smuch more natural than the typical black with highlights you see on most chaplains. Since I've been asked how I did the "chaplain black" I'm working on making a mini-tutorial that I'll post here once I have pictures and the paint ratios worked out.

Until then, say, "Hi" to Chaplain Croesus of the Iron Snakes and if you know where I found the name Croesus then kudos to you.

The model with just the 'black' armor finished...

With the faceplate and shoulderpad finished...

The finished model...