Ineptus Gameus

40K 6th edition leak - Being Grownup and admitting to being wrong

2012-01-12T14:33:00.000Z

One of the key things of being a grownup is being able to admit to being wrong. In fact it's a lesson we try and teach our young from a early age, but while many people don't like to admit they have made a mistake, I do. Yesterday, without looking at the PDF of the leak about the 6th edition rules and just reading the summary from various websites, I cried foul play and said the thing was fake. After reading the PDF this morning, I'm happy to say I'm wrong and this does look most likely the real deal. However I will add that this leak is most likely either a very early playtest copy or something Games Development have been working on as a possible direction to take the game in.

Reading the document, it looks very similar to the leaked 5th edition rules which appeared 4/5 years ago and the kicker is the codex FAQ which helps make this more believable. I still like the rules and the game seems to be improved if it heads in this direction but being older and knowledgeable of the ways of the world, I'm still skeptical if this is what we will see this summer.

The question is though, if this is the real deal - Why has it been leaked now. Is this some kind of mad marketing ploy by GW to generate interest virally or in a similar way Apple seem to control and release information. Is it a way to see how the internet gamers react to the changes and make any last minute tweaks or is it somebody actually being careless or stupid and leaking the information to be 'cool'. What do you think?

What a load of Hogswash? Warhammer 40K 6th Edition Leak???

2012-01-11T14:28:00.002Z

The whole internet (in the eyes of wargamers), is full of comments, thoughts, and discussions about a supposed leak of a playtest copy of the 6th edition of Warhammer 40,000. You can make you own mind up by having a look at a nice summary from Frontline Gaming of the rules (or even try and find the PDF on various torrent sites).

I'll let you make your mind up about it but I thought I would post my thoughts and views about the leak and the rules.

The Rules
I haven't seen the PDF of the rules, so I'm going off the summary and I can say that I think that these are FAKE. It's very difficult to piece together the summary as a ruleset as you are taking quickly written sentences and weaving them into a framework that works as a ruleset for a miniature game you have been playing for years, but these seem fake to me. I'll have a proper look at the PDF at some point but this reminds me of the Fake Blood Angel Codex from a couple of years ago, which seemed quite plausible until you got to the Vampire Bat Riders.

I will say that there seems to be some interesting ideas here but I would expect to see something more in the vein of the change from 7th to 8th edition fantasy, than what is being proposed here.

The Leak
As I'm fairly sure that these rules are Fake, and could be to do the following....

This leak is to try and show up any playtesters who have been wispering things about up coming releases. As per my blog entry last week about the Hobbit Game, this may be an exercise by GW to show that they have control over their playtesters.

It's a piece of work by somebody new to Games Development who were asked what changes they would do to 40K. This would then be discussed by the rest of Games Development and management to see what ideas they could use or if the person who wrote it was suitable for their job.

This is a promotional exercise to see what people think about some of the changes. However I think this may be unlikely as the game is scheduled for a summer release (or so we assume) and it seems a bit late to be testing the water about rule changes. Especially when we didn't get the same treatment with Warhammer Fantasy.

Its a hoax by somebody who has put a lot of time and effort into seeing how far they can get it to go

So Fake rules methinks but what do you think?

Dabbling with Warriors of Chaos - Part II

2012-01-10T12:23:00.001Z

So yesterday I posted up a army list I was using in a couple of games against my mate Stevyn. He decided to give the Ogre Kingdoms a go as he was curious about the army and he used very roughly the following....

Slaughtermaster with 4+ Ward and Lore of Maw
BSB with Heavy Armour and Ironfist

5 Ironguts with Full Command and Flaming Banner
9 Bulls with Ironfists and Full Command
4 Leadblechers
2 x 1 Sabertusks
1 Stonehorn

When I saw he was using this list I was actually quite worried. The Stonehorn would smash my units up unless I could take it out and I knew if the Ogre Blocks could get the charge on me then I would be in trouble. I'm not going to do a battle report as Stevyn made a few rule mistakes and my tactical genius was helped out by Stevyn Miscasting in the first game which killed his Slaughtermaster and allowed me to finish off his army. In the second game, I went round casting Infernal Gateway on everything. I think I may have ruined his hobby and seem to have put him off Ogres for the time being. We chatted afterwards and I suggested that he should have taken a couple of Iron Blasters which would have probably completely changed the games.

So onto my list and how I thought it performed...

Chaos Sorcerer Lord
I was quite pleased with the Chaos Sorcerer Lord and I was impressed with the Lore of Death on him. The lore has a nice selection of spells which are useful against most armies, and the lore attribute means I get chance to generate more power dice which is nice. I think he would have been better as a Level four wizard but when points were tight I had to make difficult choices. His magic items were useful as he did end up in combat and the Fencer Blades and Talisman meant he didn't take too much damage.

Tzeentch Sorcerer on Disk
Again another unit I was impressed with and he was the star of my second game. Getting +3 to cast meant he got his spells off with no problems and he only took one wound over both games due to Leadblechers shooting at him. He could do with another couple of toys to make him a bit more useful (such as Death's Head magic item or Bloodcurdling roar gift).

Chaos Warriors
Nice big block of a unit which can take a lot of damage until Stevyn read the rules wrong for the Bull Charge and applied a few too many Impact hits (which when being reassured by your mate and not wanting to cause an argument you let slide). The unit worked as a bunker for the Sorcerer Lord but it needed a combat character and unit champion. I was pleased with the unit and it only suffered trying to wound things which were high toughness.

Chaos Knights
These guys were great although I used them very poorly in both games. They could take a lot of damage and dish it out but they needed to combo charge together to get better results.

Warshrine
It buffed the Chaos Warriors a couple of times which was useful but I think I needed to have either two of them or a Hellcannon.

Overall I was pleased with the list but I know it's not the best list at this points level. The list needs a BSB as well as unit champions in any unit with Characters. The list could also do with some more support units to block up things or divert them, as I found I was playing very defensively. It has given me food for thought and I'm quite tempted to put together a Chaos Army now!

Dabbling with Warriors of Chaos

2012-01-09T12:48:00.001Z

So for a change from my recent posts, I thought I would give my blog some Warhammer Fantasy love. Later on today I have my first game of the year against my mate Stevyn as through stroke of luck I'm able to finish work early and he's off work for the day and we've agreed to have a game of Warhammer. As I'm thinking about starting a new army and currently enjoying messing around with smaller point games, we've decided to have a 1500 point game (hopefully games but depends on how much time we have).

I've been getting a bit bored with my Daemons in Warhammer recently as they seem to be all about the big blocks and what support buffs you can get for them. So in a slight change, I've decided to give the Warriors of Chaos a go (which is great as it's really easy to proxy up with my Daemons). After some thought I decided to bring a list which is a bit of a all rounder, which is good as I have no idea what Stevyn is using. My list is ....

Sorcerer Lord - 320 pts (General)
with Fencer's Blades, Talisman of Preservation, Favor of the Gods, Knows The Lore of Death

Chaos Sorcerer of Tzeentch - 185 pts
with Disc of Tzeentch, Golden Eye of Tzeentch, Knows The Lore of Tzeentch and is a Level 2 Wizard

23 Chaos Warriors - 401 pts
with Shields, Musician and Standard. Has Standard of Discipline

5 Chaos Knights - 230 pts
with Musician and Standard

5 Chaos Knights - 230 pts
with Musician and Standard

1 Chaos Warshrine, 130 pts

As you can see its very compact! As usual with all Warriors of Chaos lists, the army revolves around magic support hence the two sorcerers. With the tight points, it's been very tricky to fit things in but I have come up with a list I'm happy with. With the Sorcerer Lord being not too shabby in combat anyway, the Fencer's Blades should give him a slight edge by making him more difficult to hit (and easy to hit back) as well as an extra attack. The Talisman gives him a 4+ Ward Save and the Favor of the Gods allows him and his unit get more favorable rolls from the Eye of the Gods table. I chose the Lore of Death as it has a nice selection of spells ranging from a couple of pokey spells for picking out characters to massive unit effecting spells (like purple sun!). The Tzeentch sorcerer is there to deal with support units either through magic or charging (in very last chance scenarios!).

The core of the army is a block of warriors with shields. This unit is to house the general as well as provide a very hard anvil unit which is tough to kill and hits hard. The magical standard means my general is Leadership 9 which should be good. I would have preferred a BSB to also sit in this unit but I felt a mobile unit (the sorcerer) would be more useful. Out on the flanks will be the Knights and I will use these as support for the Warriors rather than shock cavalry. They are more than capable of taking out similar sized units or charging straight at a missile unit without suffering much damage! Lastly I chose a Warshrine as it's great for buffing my army as well as a capable fighting model in it's own right.

I'll post up later how the army did and what changes I would make but I have a feeling I should win my game as long as I don't get carried away with charging things off! What do you think about the army?

Games Workshop in 40% profit rise shocker!

2012-01-06T11:28:00.000Z

I was going to do a quick overview of what I think of some of the upcoming Vampire rumors as the new toys are up for pre-order tomorrow but this has caught my attention and I thought it would be nice to write about it. So it may come as a shock to the internet gaming community considering the general negativity towards Games Workshop since they raised prices last year, introduced Finecast and brought out Dreadfleet. Even with all these "negative" changes, GW have announced a 40% rise in profits. Here's a link to an article on Thisislondon.co.uk but I have copied it below for those too lazy to click (and it makes it easier to reference when I say what I think).

"Games Workshop, the maker of the Warhammer battle games, has demonstrated the benefit of its global strategy by delivering a 40 per cent leap in half-year pre-tax profits.

The Nottingham-based manufacturer and retailer's shares surged by almost 9 per cent to their highest level since the spring of 2005.

The maker of Citadel Miniature soldiers hailed a growth across all its channels and territories, including the UK, North America and Asia, although its revenues fell in Australia and continental Europe.

Games Workshop, which also has eponymous shops, grew its pre-tax profits by two-fifths to £9.5 million for the six months to 28 November, on revenues up by 5 per cent to £62.7 million.

The group generates more than 70 per cent of its sales outside the UK, and has global appeal amongst hobbyists, who collect, build and paint its miniatures and play war games with them.

Mark Wells, chief executive of Games Workshop, said: "An encouraging first-half performance in which we have delivered growth in sales, profit and return on capital from our core business. Good progress has been made on our strategic initiatives."

The group has more than 130 Games Workshop stores in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Scandinavia and Benelux regions.

The group's results also benefited from a large royalty payment it received from the games manufacturer THQ after the launch of its Space Marine computer game.

Shares in Games Workshop jumped by 40p, or 8.9 per cent, to 490p, valuing the group at £154.7 million."

So firstly this is good news, especially considering the state of the world economy at the moment and GW are very much a niche hobby. It's also interesting to see that while the internet gaming community have been very negative about somethings GW have done, it doesn't seem to have had a big impact on things and that GW do actually seem to know what they are doing. From a customer point of view, I'm hoping that this will either lead to Games Workshop providing some stability with their prices and we start to see some of this profit invested into new ranges or re-releases of cool old games (like Blood Bowl!!!).

Nostalgia and Gamesday 2012

2012-01-04T13:25:00.004Z

When I was a wee lad and I got into 40K, boxed sets used to have covers like this....

So I'm quite excited about the upcoming Gamesday minature...

Better pictures in this months White Dwarf, which is out Saturday (as well as news about the new Vampire Counts and preorders for them)

The Hobbit & Speculation about the Rumor Clamp Down

2012-01-03T14:32:00.001Z

Happy New Year everybody! Like many folks I've been distracted by real life over the festive period and I'm hoping that I can stick to one of my new year resolutions by updating this blog more. Anyway, here is a tasty titbit I've noticed whilst playing catch up with all the things going on over Christmas and New Year (I was tempted to do a Vampire Counts post but to be honest there is a really good rumor round up on Dakka Dakka which does a better job than me!)

So during a break this morning at work and a horrible cup of coffee, I noticed the following off Bell of Lost Souls, which in turn is taken from their forums (which in turn was pinched from Warseer)...

"At the Las Vegas Throne of Skulls, staff and regional reps stated the lockdown is due to one thing.

The Hobbit

That was what was stated in a Q&A they had at the end of the tournament. When GW re-upped their license to cover the new movie, they were forced to accept a one week info window. The design studio has had full access to scenes and images from the new movie. MGM does not want any info released early on the movie and required GW to demonstrate they can keep a fairly tight lid on info and images coming out of the studio. No one at GW likes it, but given how much money LotR made for them, they decided it was worth it. Any money loss due to reduced subscriptions or sales would be more than made up for with the Hobbit license.

Expect this format to stay around for at least two more years. Once the second Hobbit movie comes out, hopefully this silliness will end. "

This to be honest makes a lot of sense about the last year or so we have seen a decline in rumors. At first many people, including myself found it annoying but with hindsight I do think this is a good thing. This means that the product GW is producing is still new and fresh by the time it comes out, rather than many people being able to work out the in's and out's of a army release months before it comes out. The only thing I find quite annoying is the way they do advance orders now but that is another topic completely!

I do think it will be interesting to see how this lock down works with all the recent leaks, however these leaks are basically from copies of White Dwarf which are just leaving the printers or been sent out to subscribers early (mainly non-UK ones as we get treated like rubbish at the moment!).

Dabbling with Chaos, Thrones of Skulls and things

2011-12-19T16:12:00.001Z

So after my last update in October I have mostly been distracted with real life. Even though I have been suffering from this condition that many Wargamers get, I have still been thinking about the hobby and decided I would like to try and do more events next year. Unfortunately, I can't decide if I want to do 40K or Warhammer!

So I've decided to see what goodies Santa brings in a few days as that will help focus me and what I want to do (it probably won't but I'm optimistic!). In the meanwhile I think I will post up somethings I have been thinking about using at events. One event I think I would like to do next year is one of the GW Throne of Skull events. When GW originally changed the format of the tournament from a competitive one with three heats and a final to a seasonal gaming weekend, many people voted with their feet and didn't go to them. But over the last year the events have been building up a steady following and reputation and are now quite popular.

One list I've wanted to do for a while is one of the token net Chaos lists as they look like fun and fairly quick to paint up. The first one I'll talk about is the Dreaded Lash Net list.

The Lash list is fairly simple in terms of what is in the list but is actually quite tricky to use and is made up of three elements....

1) The Lash(s) - Slaaneshi Daemon Princes with the Lash of Submission power
2) The Guns - Lots of Obliterators
3) The Deck Chairs - Units from the Troops section of the codex to sit on objectives

The Lash list used to dominate 4th edition games but with the advent of True Line of Sight in 5th edition and the newer codexes, the list fell out favor but I think it still has some mileage. So in a 1500 point event, I decided upon the following list.....

HQ
Daemon Prince with Wings, Mark of Slaanesh and Lash of Submission
Daemon Prince with Wings, Mark of Slaanesh and Lash of Submission

Elites
3 Terminator with two Combi-meltas and Transported by a Land Raider with Dozer Blade

Troops
10 Chaos Space Marines with two Meltaguns
10 Chaos Space Marines with two Meltaguns

Heavy Support
1 Land Raider with Dozer Blade
2 Obliterators
2 Obliterators

The idea behind the list is that the Daemon Princes use the Land Raiders as cover and around turn two or three jump out and Lash stuff. The Terminators and Obliterators then shoot the Lashed units while the Chaos Marines hide in the Land Raiders to jump out when needed.

I tried to keep the list simple as it's rumoured that we will be seeing a new Chaos Codex next year, plus it makes it easy to use when at an event playing different players and armies. Anything complicated is no good for me unless I have played it over and over again. It also slightly goes against the Internet saying that you need at least six Obliterators but I'm hoping that the extra Land Raider and Terminators help fulfill that role.

So what do you think?

Some 6th ED Rumors (Kind of)

2011-10-26T13:21:00.002+01:00

So the fallout of Open War is settling and I had my first taste of a 40K event under 5th edition, and I enjoyed it. My Necrons lost all three games (two to phase out) but I think I was being very optimistic in my last entry. Either way I have a nice trophy for coming last (40K for Dummies) and won a Daemon Battlebox in the raffle! Speaking of Daemons, I managed to get a game the other night against Dave from the club. It was the classic match up with me using Daemons and Dave using Grey Knights (a very optimized and tournament spam style list whilst mine was the opposite!). The game ended up being a Dawn of War and Kill Points and in the end Dave won but it wasn't easy for him. I was quite pleased with the result as I nearly won and it's got me thinking about Daemons again.

Anyway, you are most likely reading this due to me mentioning rumors about 6th edition of Warhammer 40,000. Over the last few days, rumors have been popping up over on Dakka Dakka about some of the things changing or not changing in the next edition.

"What did your source say about 6th edition?"

"He/She wouldn't go into specifics, but said that a lot of what had been said online was true, some of it wasn't entirely correct, and some of it was correct but just worded extremely poorly to a point where it made the rule seem more complex than it actually was or made the rule seem somehow different. He/She said he/she had played games using the new rulebook and said that the games didn't take much longer to complete than they already are, if anything they were making a point that some of the more convoluted rules have been streamlined and some of the rules that were "too basic" got changed as well. He/She said that, if anything, the game feels much more strategic with the new rulebook, though he/she did say that some of the rules take "a bit of getting used to."

EDIT: Codex books won't be invalidated by the new rules apparently, but the new rulebook will come with an FAQ section for each already existing army to clarify any confusion or mix-ups in concern to the new rules.

Also, to those worried about the lack of Imperial releases, my source did say that new models and finecast were coming out over the next year for a few Imperial loyalist armies, including Imperial Guard, and that after Eldar we'd be, and I quote, "sick of Imperial releases."

As for why they chose certain armies over armies that needed it more (Dark Angels, Black Templars, etc), it was apparently due to lore/fluff reasons. Chaos is going to be a major threat come 6th Edition to everyone, not just the Imperium, and apparently they (Chaos) will have a front against the Tau Empire, hence why Tau are getting a release before-hand. The perspective/narrative is also changing apparently and it won't be only or heavily Imperial, he/she said that GW wanted to make some of the other "good" races (Tau Empire, Eldar) feel just as important as the Imperium when it comes to lore/fluff and the fate of the galaxy. This was apparently some of the reasoning behind why Tau Empire and Eldar are getting books before armies like Dark Angels and Black Templars.

As for the actual Tau Empire rules, all my source was willing to say was that a good deal of the rumours currently on the internet about Tau are true, but that some were false or just poorly worded, and that he/she couldn't give out or confirm/deny specifics as he/she "might get in trouble." Apparently, some GW staff are allowed to leak certain details to the public via the internet, but are very specific as to what is allowed to be said by who.

Again, take with a grain of salt. "

Now this is quite an interesting post in my eyes as it tantalizes players with the prospect of cool things happening background wise (shift with Chaos attacking everybody and not just the Imperium as a majority target) and that the game has some changes rule wise. However all this rumor seems to do is regurgitate speculation and best guesses rather than give folks something set in stone. In a way I quite like this as it helps keep things interesting for when the game comes out rather than us knowing everything now. Either way, I'm enjoying 5th edition at the moment and I'm not in a rush for the next one just yet.

Necrons - The Road to Open War

2011-10-10T14:22:00.001+01:00

I'm off to my first 40K tournament in ages next week, and I thought I would jot some notes about my preparations and thoughts for the event. Don't expect anything ground breaking but you may find some use if you've never been to an event before.

Open War is a series of one day events organized by the 1st company veterans, who are a club based in Nottingham, UK. They are a old club and have been going for years and being based in Nottingham, they use Warhammer World as they weekly gaming hall. Which may make it slightly amusing to the cynical of you when you find out that the event is being held at Maelstrom Games. The reason for this is around costs as Maelstrom let you game for free as long as you book the food for your event through them.

My story begins with booking myself a ticket to play 40K at Open War many months ago as the plan was to paint up a new 40K army and start playing more 40K. Then I got the Warhammer bug and swapped to Warhammer Fantasy and I was going to bring my Daemons along with with minor tweaks. Then I got the 40K bug back and then got hit by real life. When real life was safely under control I discovered I didn't have much time to paint anything so I elected to use my 4th edition Necron army. The reasons for this were quite simply I had it painted and I was a bit curious how it would operate under the new meta of the game at the moment. Then on the day of the deadline of submitting army lists, I discovered that my cats had been playing with my models and I would have to buy a load of bits to make what is considered a competitive Necron army. But then like a flash of lighting I had an idea and decided to take a Warrior Horde army in which I wouldn't have to spend a lot to get the army up to 1750 points.

So after some quick fudging around, I decided to bring the following army....

HQ
1 Lord with Gaze of Flame, Lightning Field, Phylactery, Resurrection Orb

Elite
6 Immortals

Troops
14 Warriors
14 Warriors
12 Warriors
12 Warriors
12 Warriors

Heavy Support
1 Monolith

At first glance the list doesn't look very powerful. It has little long ranged fire power and any dedicated close combat units will smash them to bits. However it can produce a massive amount of Gauss shots which will make most light vehicles cry and with the Resurrection Orb, Monolith and We'll be Back the army is quite resistant to shooting. But the Open War event is all about capturing Objectives and I think this is where this army will do ok. The general plan is to get to as many objectives as soon as possible and sit on them and shoot my opponent to bits. The monolith will babysit the warriors and they will be backed up by the Lord and his bodyguard of Immortals. Hopefully by being resistant to shooting and rolling lots of sixes I should be okay and hopefully win a game or two!

I'm not expecting to do very well but I'm very curious on how this army does in the current multishot vehicle spam era of the game. I think this army will do fairly well against the current Dark Eldar Venom spam due to the 3+ save and "We'll be back" but I think Grey Knights will smash me to bits due to me having now Physic defense. I think Ork Battlewagon lists and Space Wolf/Blood Angel lists will prove troublesome as well. But it's not all bad as I stand a good chance of being the best Necron player!

Zombie Pirates and Adeptus Astartes

2011-09-24T12:51:00.001+01:00

So it's been a couple of weeks since my last post and it's been a bust few weeks. For me personally, it's been very busy as we've had lots of projects on at work but in GW land it's been busy as we've seen stuff about the new boxed game Dreadfleet as well as the release of Space Marine on all the computermagigs.

Looking at Zombie Pirates first (aka Dreadfleet) we seen that a lot of the rumours seem to be true. Dreadfleet is a board game set in the Warhammer world and features a lot of the things we love about Warhammer (basically magic, undead, and big massive monsters). The GW PR machine is in overdrive as the website has been showing all kinds of cool stuff about the game and even this months White Dwarf has had it's release date changed to coinside with the release (1st October). So far I have avoided going into a GW and being pounced upon by the manager asking if I want a copy.

The game looks fantastic and you get a nice variety of ships in the set as well as all the lovely card markers and other gaming aids. You even get a sea playing mat to play on! Overall it looks nice but unfortuantly I'm going to be a bit negative now.

Firstly I think GW have missed the boat here (pun intended). Most wargamers like the idea of pirates and having pirates with magic, monsters, and scary things is great. I think GW could have made a nice little wargame out of this, especially with Finecast and we could have seen a nice variety of ships. It would have been fairly easy to do, by having Dreadfleet as the core game and then releasing expansions with a selection of ships in them (a bit like what GW did years ago).

Secondly I'm unlikely to be buying a copy of this game as it's £70 and I think that's a bit too much for something I'm only going to play a few times. It's a shame as this looks great and its brilliant that GW are doing things like this but I just wish that they didn't do it as a limited edition and left it as something to come back to in a year or two.

Next up we have Space Marine. If you've been hiding under a rock, THQ and Relic Games have taken the Warhammer 40,000 IP and made some great games out of it (the Dawn of War series on the PC). They've now decided to have a go at a third person shooter and they've made something beautiful. The game follows a Ultramarines Strike Cruiser answering a distress call from a Forge World due to a Ork Invasion. As you progress through the game you find out that there is a Chaos invasion happening at the same time and somehow you have to destroy the Xenos and Heretics before things get out of hand.

This game is going to get lots of references to Gears of War and there is no surprise as there are some simularites - however this is not Gears of War: Space Marine edition. Relic have chosen to dispose of the cover system used in most shooters and changed the health system, so you regain health for ripping the enemy in two. This makes the game very fluid and you'll find yourself moving around a lot which is great. This doesn't stop you from using your brain and standing behind some cover to sniper things which is useful later on in the game. The single player campaign is fairly well designed and you get a nice mix of action and marveling at the game world. Only issue I have is that they seemed to have copied the GW plastic sets a bit too exactly when the early screen shots of the game showed a more detailed world.

This game also comes with Multiplayer and it's a lot of fun (even with the week wait for them to fix the PS3 matchmaking issue!). There are two races in multiplayer (Chaos and Space Marines) and you can customise the look of your Marine quite extensively and quickly. As you level up you gain more bits to customise the look of your marine as well as access to more weapons and perks. There are three different classes for you to use (Tactical, Assault, or Devastator) and all work well and nothing seems too over the top. You can even copy the load out of the person who killed you so you get to try all kinds of different things even if you don't have access to them!

Overall Space Marine is a great game and while does have a couple of minor flaws is well worth picking up.

The future of Competitive Ogres?

2011-09-13T13:47:00.003+01:00

So the Ogre Kingdom army book for Warhammer has come stomping out of GW HQ and been released upon the world. As with the previous 8th edition Warhammer Army Books (Orcs and Goblins and Tomb Kings), it's another hardback affair and is all in colour (and there is even an added touch of blood splatters every now and then in the book). Looking at the army book as a whole, it's very nice and all of my previous fears of Jervis being involved have so far been proven wrong.

However....

Whilst looking through the book, I have noticed that you can make a very competitive army which is strictly not in character for the book. Now when we picture Ogres in Warhammer, we think about big hungry monsters, always hungry wanting to rip people limb from limb. Now this is something you can do with the book as all Ogres got cheaper, got a better bull charge (impact hits from any distance and gets better if you roll 10 or more for the charge) and got some nice toys. Ogres still aren't great in Close Combat due to having low initative, Weapon Skill and not much armor and with some of the massive units we are currently seeing in the game, they need a helping hand.

So whilst looking through the book, trying to come up with ideas about how to help soften up enemy units, I noticed the humble little Gnoblar. After reading it's rules and costs I had a very big evil grin on my face.

The idea I have for the army centres around you having as many Gnoblar units of 10 with Trappers. Now a unit equipped like this is cheap to include in the list, doesn't cause panic if it gets destroyed, can stand and shoot and more importantly thanks to the Trappers causes a dangerous terrain test on EVERY model charging the unit. This effectively means you can create a mine field of Gnoblars in front of your ogre army to die and slow the enemy down whilst you pepper them with shooting (which Ogres actually have a lot of now) and then counter charge. This sort of list may suffer against static shooting armies (such as Dwarfs or Empire) but all the Ogre stuff that can shoot is actually still okay in combat, plus a Gnoblar unit buffed up by Gut Magic is actually a bit worrying as well.

I think in the hands of a good player this kind of list would be very competitive. However nothing beats playing an army in character and having loads of Ogres instead. What do you think?

WFB - Maneaters will be the greetest!!!

2011-08-31T15:40:00.000+01:00

So after a kind of a break from Warhammer, I've jumped straight back into it and I'm full of positive energy for the game. So naturally with a new army release out this weekend, I've been thinking about ogres. Now this is a release I've been ignoring since the rumors started surfacing as I don't like being dripped rumors unless it's from an official source. I've also been ignoring it as I've been worried by the fact that the book has been co-authored and from past experience that suggests it's either going to be rubbish or over the top.

So looking at White Dwarf and reading all the Ogre Kingdom Rumors from Warseer and the Ogre Stronghold, I've been pleasantly surprised. The army seems to have had a load of positive changes to it but nothing to make it too over the top. Again it seems that GW have produced a "balanced" book which is following the current trend.

Whilst looking through the rumors, I have noticed one thing which I think every Ogre army will take - Maneaters!

There are a few reasons why they will be popular and I'll list them here....

1.) Mixed Weapons - Yes, Maneaters can take a variety of weapons in their units. What this means is you can do things like have a unit of six Maneaters with three of them with Extra Hand Weapons and three of them with Great Weapons. What this means is that your front rank pumps out lots of attacks and you have a back rank which can produce lots of high strength attacks. That's good although I think how you remove killed models may confuse some players enough not to do this.

2.) Skills/Traits/Experience - No idea what this ability is called in the book but it boils down to the fact that Maneaters can take two of the following rules: immune to psych, poison attacks, scouts, sniper, strider, swiftstride, stubborn, vanguard. This means you can do things like have a scouting unit of Maneaters armed with handguns with the sniper rule. That's quite nasty as it lets you pick out characters in units!

3.) They are 'cheap' - Maneaters cost 50 points each and can have command group options for 10 points each. For what the unit can do, that's cheap and I can see many players including them over Ironguts.

The only real downside with Maneaters is that fact that the offical GW models are quite expensive now (around £15 each) although I suspect most players will end up converting theirs up and having their own merc units which I think is more interesting! I'm looking forwards to reading the book this weekend as I may even be able to dust off my Ogres and give them a whirl!

OMG!!! Zombie Pirates!!

2011-08-25T16:04:00.002+01:00

So I was going to ramble on about how the Sisters of Battle have been screwed by their WD codex by having everything more expensive or I was going to ramble on about how cool the Space Marine Demo is (and it is really cool. I think Space Marine is going to be a Epic game!). Instead I'm going to talk about something that's close to everybodies hearts..... Zombie Pirates.

Or to be more exact a possible release from GW involving Naval battles, Warhammer, and Zombies - AKA Man O War (those of you who don't know, Man O War was a game from GW in the 90s which was set in the Warhammer world about Naval skirmishes and battles).

Over on Warseer, a interesting picture has popped up from the back of the forthcoming WD. As you can see it's a bit like a wanted poster with what appears to be a vampire/zombie pirate drawn by John Blanche. Firstly for those of us who can't read German, this poster translates as..

"Wanted! Anyone with relevant information/leads should contact/report to Jago Roth, Captain of the Heldenhammer."

Also there has been a few hints from various Warseer members about what is coming out. To save jumping around here they are....

"Originally Posted by CSE
oh its coming, its so cool (n i shouldn't say but its actually an October release, has multiple armies ships in it)"

"Originally Posted by CSE
Warmaster o war actually"

"Originally Posted by Satan
Do you know if there will be more fleets than Empire and Undead? You said "multiple" ones earlier...

Originally Posted by CSE
Yup there are more than just those 2"

"Originally Posted by CSE View Post
im certainly not disappointed the ship models especially the orcs are ace"

"Originally Posted by mrtn View Post
Harry said Warmaster scale, so 10 mm."

So from the sounds of it we are getting a Naval game which will have multiple fleets released for it set in the Warhammer world. The models will be around 10mm and there is a hint that the rules will have a Warmaster element to them (or this could just be about them being 10mm). I'm actually really looking forwards to this release and this is where the GW clamp down about what they are bringing out is quite cool, as it helps with that excitment. I have no idea if this is going to be a boxed set with multiple fleets or if this is going to be a book and you buy the models seperately. The real exciting bit is if the models will be plastic or finecast (although most likely a combination of both).

40K - Chaos Daemons vs Dark Eldar : My Bum Hurts!

2011-08-24T12:48:00.000+01:00

So I played my first game of 40K in ages last night against Rob Madeley. As expected in a Chaos Daemons verses Dark Eldar I got tabled. Whilst this wasn't a surprising result for either of us, I was happy with the game as I learnt a couple of things and I think with practice I could do better. In the end we ended up playing a 1500 point game and because I couldn't be bothered with messing around too much making new lists, I dropped the Daemonettes and Bloodletters from my army. In the end I took the following.....

HQ
Lord of Change
2 x Herald of Tzeentch riding a chariot with Master of Sorcery and Bolt of Tzeentch

Elites
5 Flamers
2 x 5 Fiends

Troops
4 x 6 Pink Horrors with Bolt of Tzeentch

Unfortunately this made my army about 1400 points so Rob had even more of an advantage but I was playing more so for the experience than anything else. Rob took the following (or something similar to this as my memory is hazy in my old age)...

HQ
Haemonclus with Shattershard

Elites
3 x 3 Trueborn with Blasters riding around in a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons

Troops
4 x 3 Wracks riding around in a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons

Fast Attack
A Beastmaster Troop with all kinds of horrible killy beasts

Heavy Support
3 x Ravagers

We played Killpoints and Spearhead and I won the roll for first turn. The board had plenty of terrain scattered on it, so there was plenty of cover saves available if required. The game started off with me giving Rob first turn. He asked me if I was sure about this and I said yes. The reason I gave him first turn was because I wanted to see how much of the board he would cover when he moved his army out and how I would deal with this. Whilst this seems a bit mad, I tend to learn from things by doing it wrong and then learning from it. As it was, Rob was able to cover three quarters of the board but I still had areas where I could deep strike into 'fairly' safely. I ended up splitting my force into waves and had a mix of units in each. First wave was basically all the horrors and a unit of Fiends, whilst the second was everything else. I was thinking mixing would give me some flexibility but in hindsight I should have brought my Chariots and Lord of Change down first to give me more shooting elements.

Then the game started to go down hill. I knew I needed to disable or destroy the Venoms for me to stand a chance, so I started bringing my horror units down to try and take these out. I managed to bring down three units of horrors and a unit of fiends but I had one of my horror units mishap and get placed in reserve. I then managed to destroy a venom and shake another. Then Rob had his go and the pain started. Basically due to Rob having loads and loads of shots and my inability to roll reserve rolls very well, meant that my army came down in dribs and drabs and allowed Rob to pick them off without too much difficulty. I managed to get a few killpoints out of him but he got all of my units and won the game.

I had a fun game as I enjoyed thinking about how and where my units would appear and what they would do, but this was a uphill struggle from the start. In our aftergame chat, we both agreed that this is probably the starting point that all Daemons will follow in the post Dark Eldar and Grey Knight days. I think he's trying something similar out for a game for the UK40K Podcast (http://www.40kuk.com/). We also agreed that Bloodcrushers would be better than Fiends and I needed to have We are Legion on my HQ choices (allows them to shoot different targets with different weapons). While a lot of players are currently starting to give up on Daemons, I still think they are an interesting army and the meta change has got people looking at other units in the codex, which can't be a bad thing.

40K - Chaos Daemons vs Dark Eldar : Pre game thoughts

2011-08-23T14:28:00.001+01:00

So I'll be playing my first game of 40K for a few months tonight and things aren't going to plan already. My cunning plan a few weeks ago was to have assembled a Marine army by now ready for my game tonight. Unfortuantly work has decided that wouldn't be the case and I'm behind quite a fair bit with what I wanted to do. So my Pink Daemons are coming out to play and I've carefully crafted a 1750 point list with minimal proxying but should be fun to play with (and simple to use).

My list is....

HQ
Lord of Change
2 x Herald of Tzeentch riding a chariot with Master of Sorcery and Bolt of Tzeentch

Elites
5 Flamers
2 x 5 Fiends

Troops
4 x 6 Pink Horrors with Bolt of Tzeentch
12 Bloodletters
13 Daemonettes

It's quite a small army but basically sits around the principle of firefights and then smashing things up in close combat. I would have preferred to have the Fiends as Bloodcrushers but I don't think a Fleshhound could really proxy as a Bloodcrusher. This army gives me 9 Bolts which should help out in the Anti-Tank department plus I have a backup of the flamers and the Lord of Change to finish things off if I need to. It's a nice army made out of models I have and I'm kind of happy.

Unfortunately there is a slight problem....

My opponent tonight is Rob Madeley. For those who don't follow the UK tournament scene, here's a introduction. Rob is currently 38th in the UK rankings but he was a lot higher than that (I think even number 1 at some point). I currently don't exist in the 40K rankings due to not going to a 40K event. Normally this isn't a problem as you can't always assume that somebody who is high up is better than somebody else but then you look at Rob's results from past events and he generally finishes in the top ten. Plus at some point he was also Mr Daemon which basically means that he was the highest daemon player in the UK and I believe that he's bringing his Dark Eldar list tonight!

To say I'm expecting to loose is an understatement but I'm hoping that I get chance to give Rob a good game, not have him table me and learn something. For those not aware, the current Dark Eldar list doing the rounds around the world is a Venom spam. This army basically has lots of infantry with Blasters riding around in Venom's with dual Splinter Cannons. This means that these kinds of lists can produce 180+ poisoned shots and no matter how good your armour is, there is no way you will be able to save all of those!

So my current thoughts are to give him first turn (thus I miss a turn of his shooting) and shoot out anything which can produce a lot of shots (i.e the Venom's). I feel my list is a step in the right direction and out of what I have available is ok, but I'm still expecting to get spanked. Still it's a challenge and that make it fun.

Necron Rumor Thoughts

2011-08-18T15:45:00.001+01:00

So a few more Necron Rumors have been unleashed upon the internet for gamers to digest and think about or moan about. I have been saying to myself since the GW clamp down to try not to regurgitate rumors, so I've started actually saying what I think about them.

So from Bell of Lost Souls we have the following rumors....

"Updated Necron Background
Necrons have now fully awakened. All previously encountered Necrons were "bugs" in the reawakening program and were under the sway of the two rogue C'tan. Now fully awakened, the Necrons are ready for their advancing story arc in the codex. That said, they are effectively "Space Tomb King" with strong parallels in both unit back story and visual appearance linking them to that Warhammer Fantasy army book."

Background to me is quite important as it's one of the reasons why I play these games of toy soldiers (and why I don't play Warmachine as the background doesn't quite do it for me at the moment). In the past the Necron Background has been slightly confusing for many players, as a lot of people just see them as Space Undead but if you read the codex and some of the snippets left around in there (as was the way back in 3rd edition), they actually have quite a good background story! This is quite reassuring that GW has chosen to move the background forwards and that the Necrons have fully awakened (as this will explain why we have new units and wot not). This also links in more with the Fall of Damnos book by Nick Kyme, where the Necrons seemed to have more control over themselves rather than being the minions of the C'tan. I'm quite pleased with this and like where this is taking the story of the race. It also suggests that there are still elements under control of the C'tan or are striving for the by-gone days.

"Updated Scarabs
Fast Attack choice. Three models in base unit at 45 pts, with up to seven more at 15 pts per model. Fearless, Swarms, Beast, Entropic Strike. Four attacks on the charge with 3+ cover save in terrain (which they ignore for movement purposes - like Harlequins) . Entropic Strike is a new rules accessible to several units in the codex. Against infantry on to-wound rolls of 4+, armor saves are ignored (Invulnerable saves allowed). Against vehicles on armor penetration rolls, each die that rolls a 4+, reduces the vehicle's armor by 1 pt on ALL sides for the rest of the game. Vehicles are destroyed when any of its armor values reach 0. "

This is quite interesting and will probably make Scarabs a must have unit looking at these rules (although it will depend on what else lives in the Fast Attack section of the codex). They will be fast due to being Beasts and ignoring cover and that they can reduce armour values of vehicles makes them quite a nice answer to the current mech game we are seeing. I don't think that they will be infantry killers even with their shiney rule of ignoring armour on 4+ to wound roll as I imagine that their other stats won't be that great.

These rumors have actually got me thinking about redoing my necrons and scouring the internet for cheap Destroyers (so I can have a good army now!). What do you think about these rumors?

The Bestest Chaos Marine Army? (probably not)

2011-08-12T15:52:00.001+01:00

So as you've probably been aware, I've been thinking about getting back into Warhammer 40K after a fling with that Square based game and for some reason I keep on getting drawn to Chaos Space Marines. I'm not too sure if it's because of the Horus Heresy series or because they are a bit of a underdog at the moment and only have one really successful type of build (dual lash). So I've done some thinking and I've been wondering about the following list...

HQ
1 Chaos Sorcerer (125 pts)
with Mark of Slaanesh & Lash of Submission

1 Chaos Sorcerer (125 pts)
with Mark of Slaanesh & Lash of Submission

Elites
8 Chosen (244 pts)
with 5 Meltaguns and riding a Rhino with a Havoc Launcher

Troops
8 Khorne Berzerkers (208 pts)
with Skull Champion armed with a Power Fist

5 Chaos Space Marines (135 pts)
with a Meltagun and riding a Rhino with a Havoc Launcher

5 Chaos Space Marines (135 pts)
with a Meltagun and riding a Rhino with a Havoc Launcher

Heavy Support
3 Obliterators (225 pts)

3 Obliterators (225 pts)

1 Land Raider (225 pts)
with a Dirge Caster

Total Cost: 1647

The force is lead by two Sorcerers who basically take the role of dual lash princes. Now some people argue with Space Wolf Rune Priests running around on the board and a lot of the anti-psyker abilities all round, the dual lashes are a liability as they can get shut down quite quickly. My counter argument is that these guys do a lot for the army as it gives me the chance to drag my opponents units around which is very important. Also by being Sorcerers rather than a Daemon Prince lets me put them in Rhinos which gives them some protection and allows them to be moved around quickly.

The rest of the army is designed to basically take out vehicles as I can put a lot of melta shots on the board as well as being mobile thanks to all the transports. The Land Raider transports the Berzerkers who will basically go after juicy targets and try and get my opponents attention. In a way they are expendable as a AV14 vehicle is fairly survivable and 8 Berzerkers is something you need to deal with quickly. The Rhinos act like mini Razorbacks and help out with crowd control as the army does seem to have a weakness against horde style units. Also being Strength 5 allows them to also deal with transports. Finally we have the Obliterators are a Swiss army knife of the army and will be brought down to deal with things which get behind my army or to act bravely and be a distraction.

Whilst the army doesn't have some of the tools of the newer codexes, it fairly flexible and aggressive which I think suits my play style perfectly. However it's pretty much close to what I would like to do however I can't help but feel I may be missing something. What do you think?

The 40K Rumour & Gossip Mill - Please have Salt

2011-08-11T12:24:00.003+01:00

So after something almost highbrow with my last post, I think it's time for some juicy gossip and rumour mongering. These are most likely not true or have a very small grain of truth engrained in them, but it's fun to talk about anyway. So all of these has come from The Bell of Lost Souls, which has in turn plucked the most juiciest/almost true from their forums.

"Oh by the way, Chaos Legions by March 1012 and 6th edition by October 2012, which will feature Eldar as the poster child. Heavy Xenos influence for 6th edition, including the long-awaited Tau update."

So we've got quite a few rumours here. The Chaos Legions one is something that has been bouncing around for years as Jervis has made comments in the past it's something they could do to rebalance the fact that Codex Chaos Space Marines upset a lot of people. There has also been a lot of rumours recently that GW will be releasing this some point next year. This I think is most likely true but I'm not sure about the dates. Gav and Alessio have said multiple times that they probably went a bit too far with the Chaos Space Marine codex in their efforts to simplify it. There has been talk of the Chaos Legions being like a 'plug in' list from White Dwarf, however I can see it more likely being either a test codex in White Dwarf or a get you by add-on.

Now we also see the rumour about 6th edition in October 2012. Now personally I would have said that this is rubbish, however with the Hobbit film coming out towards the end of next year, GW may pushed 6th edition forwards in an effort to help cater for their Hobbit tie in game.

Xenos being pushed a lot and Eldar being the poster child of 6th edition? Maybe. Personally, I'm not sold as Space Marines sell a lot for GW and I can see the guys at the top being reluctant to change this. Strictly speaking there should be more effort to push xenos lines as it can get a bit dull watching the civil wars on a lot of tables, but I just don't see how GW can do it apart from making them really good. I think the 6th edition box set could be cool but I would expect to see Space Marines in it no matter what. The Tau update should be interesting as I think GW have struggled showing that the nice guys of 40k aren't actually that nice.

"Matt Ward? Gone. Don't expect him to be writing any more Codices. His baby was 5th edition, and now that 5th edition is up, Ward is done. Board Members for GW? 3 of the old geezers gone. Company-wide changes. Everything since Tyranids? Made for 6th edition."

Some very juicy rumours here. So juicy, you can bottle it and sell it as rumour juice. Matt Ward for many people is the Anti-Christ. Personally I think he's a nice guy who just seems to struggle with writing his background fluff (I mean have you read the Grey Knight codex!). His rules seem powerful but all of the books he has written seem to be balanced against each other. This is a interesting rumour as it suggests that he has left the company. Personally I think he's been dragged off to work on the Hobbit game as he has many years of experience working upon the Lord of the Rings range for GW.

Change of Board Members and company-wide changes is sending my spidey sense tingling. It's often common place for board members in a company to change every other week (or so it seems), as they are moved onto new projects, fancy a new job or are retiring. GW is a company which seems to have had a mostly static board and many gamers argue this is the reason why 'X' is expensive and 'Y' group of customers are annoyed. Personally I think GW has done a good job over recent years with the company considering we have had global recession and that the hobby is a niche market. However I do feel that they do seem a bit backwards in thinking as I feel the company could stagnate in the future. Companywide changes have been happening for years (GW have been trying to reduce costs to save money), so not to worried about this. Also I doubt everything since the Tyranids was 'designed' for 6th edition considering that it was the first 5th edition codex. I suspect this means it will work fine in 6th edition but I do have a feeling we will see a series of FAQs like GW did for Warhammer.

"Speaking of 6th edition again, the main rulebook that comes out is supposed to be 'the book to rule all books'. It'll have ways to include Superheavies and rules for Fliers in regular games, and should errata a lot of rules in Apocalypse, past FAQ's, and past Codices to make it all fit together."

Quite simply there is a nugget of truth here. GW has been pushing for cool rulebooks for a few years now and I expect to see something similar to what we've had in the past. I doubt that it will have everything in it as they need to leave scope for expansions in the future but I think it will be a nice rule book.

So these rumours may or may not be true, but that's what I think about them. What do you think?

Being Aggressive in 40K

2011-08-10T14:56:00.002+01:00

I suppose it's a bit ironic at the moment that I'm going to be discussing being aggressive in 40K considering what is happening in the UK. But rather than moaning about society and the idiots which have shown up the UK to the world, I shall talk about more important things - Toy soldiers.

The reason this article has come around is because I'm off to a 40K Team tournament later this year and I got into a discussion with our team captain about what kind of player I am. Now I've always assumed I'm a flexible player who is just as happy defending as attacking, although my experiences over the Midlands Open has shown me other wise. After reviewing how I played, I think I'm naturally an aggressive player and find aggressive style lists easier to play. So when I mentioned this to our team captain, he suggested that I pick up Blood Angels. Now the Blood Angels are a very good close combat list and give players lots of bonuses if they want to fight lots of close combats, however when I think of 40K and being aggressive, I do not just think of getting into combat. To me, being aggressive is being able to control the board and using elements of your army to herd your opponents troops into areas which they will find difficult to operate in.

The Aggressive Unit

When I think of the aggressive 40K unit I think of a unit which has ability to produce a lot of attacks either through shooting or via close combat (or both!), a weapon which will cause damage to Vehicles or Monstrous Creatures, and a Transport or ability to move around the board quickly.

Personally I think a good example of this type of unit is a 5 man Grey Hunter Squad in a Razorback. Most players will agree that this kind of Grey Hunters unit is probably the best unit in the Space Wolves codex as well as the game. The unit is flexible and is just as good shooting things as it is fighting in close combat. The bolters allow it to pump out a lot of shots and being equipped with close combat weapons and bolt pistols allow them to cause a lot of damage in close combat. They also have the counter attack ability which allows you to increase attacks if you are charged making them just as good assaulting or being assaulted. You can give the unit a Meltagun to help it against Tanks or big beasties and being transported around in a Razorback gives them the moveability and range to get around the board quickly (plus the Heavy Bolters are good at killing horde units or taking out light transports).

Other aggressive units can be Dark Eldar Warriors with a Blaster and transported in a Raider, a unit of Chaos Havoc marines with multiple meltaguns and riding in a Rhino with a Havoc Launcher, and other similar units. Having a transport is the key to making these units so good and aggressive. You also need to make sure you can support these units either with other similar units or long range fire.

Countering Aggressive Units

So we've looked at what is an aggressive unit but we need a way of countering them. There is basically two ways to prevent these units going around on the board doing what they want. The first is the best method and it's quite simply disable or destroy the transport. Without an transport the aggressive unit is limited to footslogging as they only tend to be effective at 12" (although be aware that there are units who are effective at longer range). This means you limit the unit to a area of the tabletop or force them to spend a few turns running to get into position. The second method is to counter them with your own units but you need to make sure that you fight on your terms rather than your opponents. Key things to remember is how many shots/attacks can you deliver in your counter and what will happen if you engage them. For example if you charge them are you happy to be stuck in combat for a few turns, thus preventing the aggressive unit moving around but this prevents your counter unit doing anything else.

I've only touched upon the subject of Aggressive units but there are so many possibilities and combinations. Let me know your favorite ones!

Ogre Kingdoms and GW Game Design

2011-08-06T14:00:00.001+01:00

So I've started making more time for myself rather than getting distracted with work and real life as I'm supposed to be painting up a Warhammer 40K Space Marine army (no idea what flavour yet). However, I've been reading the GW website and something has popped up that I've decided to write about.

So firstly go and have a look at the GW Games Day Preview and have a look just above the pictures of Jervis and Trish. Done that? Great. So now I can carry on.

The article for those of you who haven't read it (either by being lazy or blocked as you are being naughty and reading this at work), is basically a preview of UK Games Day. It's the usual sort of stuff saying how great it is and it basically mentions that they will be doing a first by letting gamers having a look at the design process and see how a army book or codex starts off as a concept and becomes a finished book with models. Now this is a brilliant idea from GW and it's something they should be doing more often at Games Days as it allows the public to have a glimpse into the wonderful work environment they work in. However, there is a bit in this article which does slightly worry me about the forthcoming Ogre Kingdoms book.

Firstly here's the paragraph which has my spider sense tingling....

‘Well,' Andrew grins. 'If you've seen the inside back cover of this month's issue of White Dwarf (WD379), you'll know that this September we'll be revisiting the Ogre Kingdoms. We have some amazing new miniatures planned for the Ogres (If you can call anything in the Ogre Kingdoms range a 'miniature' - Ed), and a fantastic new army book penned by Jeremy Vetock and Jervis Johnson. I don't want to give too much away as we'll be going into more depth in next month's White Dwarf, but it's packed full to bursting with glorious new artwork, fabulous Citadel miniatures and, of course, fiendish rules.'

Unfortunately this does have me worried about the Ogre book now for the following reasons....

Multiple Authors

Now I accept that some projects need multiple authors, mainly because they are quite big and need more than one person to manage it. Storm of Magic is a great example as we have Matt Ward and Jeremy Vetock as the expansion authors. The book is filled with loads of monsters, spells and magic items but is anchored by a simple concept of a Storm of Magic scenario and it works. I get worried though when it comes to army books as it tends to mean that the original author has moved onto something else and somebody else has had to come in and pick it up. A nice example is the 6th edition Dark Elf army book which was worked upon originally by Tuomas Pirinen who left to become a computer games designer and was picked up by Gav Thorpe. Gav did his best but trying to steer something which half done and it needs to be finished by the end of the weeks is a uphill struggle. Gav did kind of rectify this with the 7th edition Dark Elf book (although he did make it too good). Another example is the Beastman book which had Andy Hoare leaving GW and Phil Kelly having to come in and finish it off. The book has some great ideas but in my opinion does feel like it's been rushed.

Jervis Johnson

He is a great guy and he is really into gaming and having fun, but sometimes he does worry you when he is involved in a project. Jervis is probably the last of the old guard at GW as he's been with the company for years and has been fairly active in game design and is now consider the GW poster boy with his monthly articles in White Dwarf. Jervis has designed some fantastic games over the years with Blood Bowl and Epic Armageddon being top of the list. He comes up with some fantastic ideas and has had a big influence in many of the games we play. But he does have a flaw and it's this that I'm worried about - he likes to tinker. Now tinkering is okay and something we tend to do quite often (house rules), however Jervis seems to do it a lot during development of a product and can take something which works fine and turn it upside down because he's found a different/fun way of doing it. This is fine enough as that's what Games Designers should be doing, but Jervis seems to tinker with perfectly good things for the sake of it. Again, I'm not having a pop at Jervis as such as I do respect him, however he does worry me when he's let loose on something.

Now these two reasons do have me worried about the Ogre book and I hope I'm proved wrong when I get chance to read it. But I am worried.

Return of the Bats

2011-08-05T13:14:00.006+01:00

So those of you who have got this months White Dwarf may have noticed something special about it. Not only is there an offical errata about the Power Scroll (you halve the casting value now), but we have some offical units being added to the Vampire Counts army. This is quite big news as GW has made a big effort not to publish rules in White Dwarf and it's by not having these rule updates which has put a lot of people off the mag (I still like it as I like the pictures). So for a start this is a big positive for White Dwarf.

Now to the units themselves, I'm not going to go into massive detail about them but here's a quick summary of my thoughts...

The Terrorgheist

So the big release for the Vamps at the moment. The kit contains parts to make it a Zombie Dragon but I suspect a lot of players will be more interested in the Terrorgheist. Basically it's a big rotting bat, that swoops down upon unsuspecting prey and munches them. And it has stats for being a big beastie as it can fly, causes Terror and has 4 WS3 attacks at Strength 5. It can take the hits as well as it has 6 wounds and has a toughness of 6. Unfortuantly it doesn't have a decent save apart from a 6+ regen save and it doesn't have the option to improve this. It has the special ability called Death Shriek which works in a simular way as a Banchee scream but goes off the Terrorgheist remaining wounds. It can also be upgraded to be Infested (bats escape from it when it dies causing damage) and Rancid Maw (gains Poison). It can also be a mount for a Vampire Lord (if it has Ghoulkin) but I doubt that this will be used much.

I personally quite like this monster as I think it looks nice and has some okay stats. It costs over 200 points and can fly and thunderstomp, so it's something you wouldn't mind having racing down the flanks to support your army. So it sounds great and looks a nice centre piece for an army however I do have some misgivings about it. For a start it has a massive base (100mmx150mm!!!) which can cause headaches if the table gets cluttered as you'll have difficulty fitting him in the areas you want him (flanks) and can make it easier for things to get to him. Secondly it's a big model so I suspect Empire and Dwarf generals to be rubbing their hands together when thinking about their war machines blowing it to bits. Finally it has no way of getting a better save which can make it a bit fragile. I think it would have been nice for GW to give it a 4+ regen save as an upgrade (say 40 points) which may have helped things out.

Wraith and Tomb Banshee

So we also get some new models - a Wraith and Tomb Banshee. GW decided that it would be cool to have these models as characters and it is actually quite a nice idea. I think the general idea was so you could come up with an background for these creatures and add something cool to your list. For example think in regards of the Tomb Banshee, a evil countess (Countess Onatop for example), who has had several husbands but murdered them and some other poor souls in her quest for power. Personally I like this and it adds a bit more flavour to the list. It also gives you the choice of some Etheral units from the Character section instead of the rare, allowing you to take a Terroghiest or Black Coach.

Overall I appauld GW for doing this as it helps a older book become a bit fresher and helps shake things up in the game. I've moaned about the lack of fantasy releases off GW a while ago and I can kind of see why now.

How to be Rubbish with Dark Elves at The Midlands Open 2011

2011-08-03T15:29:00.002+01:00

So over the weekend just gone, I took part in The Midlands Open and this was my first tournament under the 8th edition of Warhammer. Now I'll be honest, I haven't played much 8th edition and whilst I quite like the rules, I've struggled over the last year to do anything much hobby related bar listen to podcasts and browse forums. This meant that I was going into this tournament as a relative newbie to the game. With 8th edition shaking things up and how effective some units are, I decided that my daemons would struggle a bit in the game as my army was designed as a 7th edition one and as such would struggle against big blocks and wot not. Because of this I asked Luke (the organizer) if I could borrow his Dark Elves and he very kindly said yes. So a few weeks before the event, I played Tanka down the club and got beaten quite soundly and I was praying that this wasn't a sign of things to come.

The list I ended up taking was...

Lvl 4 Death Magic Sorceress with dagger, lifetaker and pendant
Lvl 2 Metal Magic Sorceress with dispel scroll
BSB Hag with Cauldron

23 Spearelves with shields and full command as well as the +1ld banner
2 x 10 crossbows with musician and shields
2 x 5 dark riders with crossbows
2 x 5 shades with extra hand weapons
2 x 17 Black Guard and full command (one unit had the flaming banner and the other had the AP banner)
1 Assassin with Manbane and Rendering Stars
1 Hydra

The general plan is that the shooty stuff shoots stuff and then the fighty stuff fights it. It's a nice list that works well on paper but as I discovered isn't quite as point and click as people may think. Luke assured me that it's a good army and told me a few things I could do with it. A few minutes later I forgot all of this and had to play the army from scratch.

So the day before the event rolls around and I help out setting up the hall, and I play Dan who was helping to run the event with Luke. Dan had his High Elves and we roll up Blood and Glory as the Scenario. Dan's army had a lot of bowmen, couple of swordmaster blocks, a white lion block and was backed up by some eagles, bolters and a high magic mage and bsb. Looking at Dan's army, it could outshoot me so I had to close quickly as I couldn't rely on him coming to me. That part of the plan worked however my dice rolling for saves and combat were quite poor and towards the end of the game it was looking like Dan had won. I managed to get a charge with my Black Guard upon a block of bowmen containing his general and bsb and a banner. Basically if I could kill this unit I would win the game and at this stage I had little choice but not to do it (mainly as I only had two units left!). So I got the Black Guard in and they batter the bowmen and win me the game! I was quite pleased and I was hoping that this was a sign of things to come. Then we roll onto the first day of the event....

Game One - Andy Mooreheart with Wood Elves

When the draw went up a few days before the event, I tried not to get too cocky. Internet Wisdom says that Wood Elves are rubbish, but I have to try to ignore this as I know it's generally wrong. Andy brought a mostly Tree Spirit list of a Ancient, two wizards (think one was a branchwraith and the other had glamourweave), two units of 10 archers with command, 3 units of dryads, 8 Treekin and two treemen. I knew if I could eliminate the Treemen or Treekin I would have the game done and dusted. The scenario was Dawn Attack and the random deployment slightly screwed both of us over but as badly as it could have. My general plan was to sit it out shooting stuff and then counter attack. However I found myself moving things forwards, trying to fight combats (and it didn't help I had a terrible headache and was starting to feel quite ill). Because I made this mistake and picked the wrong combats, Andy was able to take all my toys off and win the game. I had an enjoyable game against Andy (apart from feeling quite sick) but I couldn't help feel that I should have played the game differently (i.e not running at him!)

Game Two - Dan Comeau with Vampire Counts

After lunch we had game two which was Blood and Glory. During lunch I managed to stagger over to the local Asda and pick up some water and tablets and I was starting to feel a bit better. Dan brought the standard VC style list of a Lord, Wright BSB, couple of Necromancers, three ghoul blocks, a massive Grave Guard block with command, a coach and unit of wraiths. As this was Blood and Glory, Dan was already in a bad position as his army only had a fortitude of 4 compared to 6 for my (Dan admitted that he forgot about the scenarios). So I had to either kill his lord or take out the BSB and Grave Guard to win. In hindsight I should have spotted how this game was going to roll out and I should have taken the draw. However I hadn't played in ages and I was quite excited about playing somebody new and completely forgot this. Dan playing on a regular basis knew what to do and deployed his Grave Guard at the back surrounded by ghouls. His army then stayed in his deployment zone all game. I rushed forwards cast a few spells and blew my lvl 4 up. Dan then used the coach to take out some chaff units and the hydra and won the game on victory points. Dan apologized for the way he played but I didn't have a issue as he played it right. I think next time I would take the draw and then play a normal game against him during the round.

Game Three - Stevyn Pritchett with Dark Elves

Last game of day one had me facing my mate Stevyn. As per usual when I go to a tournament with mates, I usually end up facing them around game three. This was Stevyn's first two day tournament and he said it was quite a eye opener for him as he didn't realize how good some of the players were (hence why he was playing me). The scenario was Battle for the Pass and Stevyn had Lvl4 with Shadow, Lvl2 with Fire, Hag BSB on Cauldron, 2 x 10 crossbows, unit of Dark Riders, 2 x 20 Spearelves, 2 x 20 Black Guard, a unit of Witch Elves and a Hydra. So he had a more combaty version of my list. Again I got all excited and ignored the fact that I should have deployed right back and let him waste a few turns coming to me, whilst I shot at him and magic stuff. As I hadn't played him in ages we had a normal game where we both charged each other. Stevyn came out on top and I racked up another loss.

Game Four - Patrick O'Sullivan with Tomb Kings

After a good nights sleep, I felt all refreshed and ready for the day. The scenario was Meeting Engagement and I had already worked out my plan would be to stay still and shoot and back away if I could. I should have been facing Shaun Mitchell with Warriors Of Chaos, but he didn't turn up on the second day so I ended up facing Patrick. His Tomb King army was basically a lvl4, lvl1, BSB, couple of skellie blocks, couple of bow blocks, a unit of chariots, two warsphinxes, a scorpion and a Necrosphinx, two catapults and casket. Quite a nasty looking list and I knew the game would centre around taking out the big stuff. Being unusually focused while I deployed, I was able to make sure I wasn't too close and I had room to move backwards. I assume that Patrick was worried about what my army could do and deployed in a similar way but had his big monsters as far forwards as he could. The game was basically me magicing off his Warsphinxes and shooting. I managed to reduce his chariots down to one model with my shades, who then got charged by the chariot. They lost the combat and the chariot went off the board. I then moved the other unit of shades, Dark Riders and Crossbows to the re-entry point to try and stop it coming back on. They would then form a firebase and pepper the Necrosphinx until I had chance to deal with it. With everything going so well, something had to go wrong and my lvl4 miscast and got sucked into the Chaos Wastes! The game was basically me shooting some wounds off the Necrosphinx, loosing combats to it and then managing to have a last ditched attempt at killing it with a unit of Crossbowmen in combat with it. All I needed was a six to wound and Patrick to fail his save and it would drag the game back to a win for me. Of course I manage to wound it but Patrick rolls a six for his save and the game end there. This was probably my most enjoyable game over the weekend, mainly because it was so close.

Game Five - Steve Knight with Beastmen

So last game of the event and I face Steve with his first outing with Beastmen. His army was a lvl4, couple of lvl 2, a Beastlord and a BSB, couple of big blocks of gors, mini block of gors, couple of units of hounds, couple of chariots, harpies, razorgor and a giant. With the game being Battle Line, I knew he would have to come to me and I would just have to shoot, shoot and shoot. I think my brain must have gone for a walk during this game as I deployed a bit too far forwards than I should have and for some reason kept on thinking about 7th edition rules for combat where you didn't have supportive attacks. It didn't help that my lvl 4 miscast a few times as well and managed to kill both herself and the lvl 2. Because I had little experience dealing with massive horde units, I just didn't know what to do and ended up loosing one of the Black Guard through a ill thought out charge (as I thought Black Guard could kill anything!). Things were looking bleak for me but I managed to get a charge with the Spearelves and other Black Guard unit on his other horde block and smashed them to bits. This left Steve with limited magic support as he lost his lvl4 in the block and put me in a good position to claw some points back. Unfortunately this was turn 6 and it was the end of the game. Another fun game and I certainly learnt some lessons!

In the end I came 89th out of 92 which most people would consider as being really bad. But I hadn't practiced for the event and I wasn't expecting to do very well. I did however discover that GW dice are rubbish and big chunky dice are the future, and that aggressive armies seem to suit my playstyle compared to these magic/shooty dancey ones that some of the top players like to use. Not too sure when my next event will be but I will be going to the next Midlands Open!

GW Customer Service = Good

2011-07-04T17:23:00.002+01:00

So my last entry had me moaning that GW don't listen to their customers and are out of touch with things. Well I had a email today which proves me wrong. Lets travel back in time to a couple of weeks ago.....

So it's the last week of June and I've just come back off holiday and I was expecting my subscriber copy of White Dwarf to be waiting for me. It wasn't so I just assumed that it was delayed in the post. A few days drift by and still no White Dwarf but I've noticed some posts on several forums saying that GW was changing how they release things. The general jist was that the stores and WD would be the first stop for all information but anybody subscribing wouldn't get their White Dwarf before the offical release date and it would be posted on that date. I chose to ignore this as frankly there's been a lot of GW hate recently and I just assumed that this was part of it. So a few more days drift past and it's Saturday when WD comes out so I decide to pop to my local to see if there are any issues. I spoke to the manager who basicly told me the same information that has been posted on the web and I can honestly say I wasn't very happy at all. It's one thing for this to happen but it's another for it to happen and not be told about it.

So the weekend drifts past and I find out that I'm still annoyed so I email GW Customer Services asking the same question - Has there been any issues with WD for subscribers. I get a reply back telling me about the change and to contact them if it doesn't turn up in a few days. In reply I tell them that I will contact them if it doesn't turn up and that I'm very unhappy with the way that none of this has been communicated to their customers. My WD turns up a few days later and I basicly drift back into normal life and getting used to not being on holiday.

Then today I get a email from GW saying that they are very sorry about how I feel and welcome the feedback I have given. As a form of apology they have offered me 12 months free subscription and a £20 gift voucher. Unsurprising I accepted this but it does make me feel a bit better that GW are actually interested in my views on things. So if you have any problems with any GW products, give Mail Order a call (or email) and they will help you out (although please keep your comments civil and not just say things are rubbish because you don't like them. Oddly enough you may not get a reply or much help).

Stop - Rumour Time (or maybe not)

2011-07-03T16:56:00.002+01:00

So it's been a while since I've posted anything and too be honest I've had other things distracting me than the hobby. Anyway, since I last wrote quite a few things have happened but there is one thing I one to blabble on about for a few minutes - GW News Control.

As most folks are finding out GW are clamping down on when and where information gets released about their products. Now normally I wouldn't have a issue with this as frankly, their rumour control over recent years has been quite poor, often with fully finished codexes appearing on the web months before release. But now I feel GW have gone a bit too far with clamping down on things. For those of you who aren't aware, GW have decided that their stores and WD are the first stops for any information about their products. Which is fair enough but they have stopped with the black boxes so you don't see the new products until they have been released and as far as I'm aware they have even stopped releasing teasers on the web.

Now some of you may be thinking "Well that's okay as over the last few years we've known rules about new books/codexes before they have come out". Whilst I do agree with you, there is one thorny issue - The staff don't know anything about the new releases until they are out. I was down my local the other day and I was chatting to one of the staffers and he was struggling to tell me much about the new Storm of Magic release apart from what was already on the web and in WD. Now as a customer this is quite bad as I want to know what cool things are coming out and think it's a bit silly I can't until it's out. Also I've discovered that when you make an Advance Order with GW, it won't be posted until the release date. The reason for this is to try and stop people finding out about things before the release but this just makes me not want to advance order from GW and buy from a Webstore (which in the past I would AO from GW just so I got my toys quickly).

From what I gather, GW has had a change of management in the sales area and looking at these changes they just seem to be out of touch with their customers or the 21st century. What do you think?

Not moaning - honest!

2011-05-24T19:14:00.001+01:00

So it's been a while since I've posted anything in this blog. As usual real life has gotten in the way but it has also been complicated with that I just haven't had anything to write about either through writers block or plain lazyness.

Anyway, it looks like GW has upset the whole world if you looked at the internet. To sum it up if you weren't aware, GW are basically doing the following...

1 ) Stopping EU webstores such as Maelstrom Games from selling to the rest of the world, so basically upsetting all Australians as they can't get discounted GW stuff (as their stuff costs almost double ours)

2 ) Introducing prise rises in general

3 ) Replacing metal models with resin which if you read the internet will kill you

Now, quite simply while annoying I personally am not going to get upset about any of this. The price rises mean I will do less impulse buying from GW (which I've started to do anyway) and I'm quite looking forwards to the new resin models as I hate metal models. Also living in the UK means I'm not effected by the mandate GW has given the webstores (although I do sympathise).

There’s no point dwelling too much on this as GW have implemented it and too be honest, their price rises and other changes do make sense for a company on the stock market which needs to be making money. Yes we can point out the competition but they are all privately owned and don’t need to show that they are making money, while GW need to.

So the Finecast/Resin models are here to stay and I’m quite looking forwards to them. It means less pinning and the models seem to have better quality of detail looking at the pictures on the GW site (although this could just be new molds for the models doing this).

Although I’m looking forwards to the new ‘metals’ are you? Please let me know what you think.

Road to the Open and the rest of the year

2011-04-22T13:56:00.001+01:00

So it’s the start of the first of many Bank Holidays in the UK and I’m taking time to have a sit and think about the Midlands Open. The Midlands Open is a tournament being run by my local club, The Dudley Darklords at the end of July. I went last year and it was a fantastic event and a nice send off to the 7^th edition of Warhammer.

My original plan was to knock up an army of Tomb Kings as I quite like the new models and the new rules seem interesting. This has been broadsided by the fact that I’ve lost interest in assembling the Skeleton Warriors and Archers. In fact lost interest doesn’t really describe how I feel as I currently HATE the models. Between mold lines and the flimsy joins I’ve given up (for now) assembling them and I’ve moved onto something else to amuse me whilst I wait for the book.

Speaking of the book, I managed to have a look at it earlier today. Expect a similar layout and style as the Orcs and Goblins book and the rules look quite nice as well. What was quite interesting was that I was in the store with another guy who was reading the book and he was a Tomb King player and had been for many years. He wasn’t that impressed with the book as I think he was expecting something which was a similar power level as Daemons and Dark Elves. He also wasn’t impressed with many of the weapon options and was very unhappy with the new magic (especially now Heirophants can miscast). Personally the book looks nice and fits in more with the 8^th edition rules. I’m expecting all of the new books to follow the new format and have lots of cool stuff but not be too over the top.

Back to my evil plans and the rest of the year is panning out between a battle of work, certain computer games coming out (LA Noire and Batman:Arkham City!), and events I want to go to. I defenantly want to squeeze in a couple more Warhammer tournaments as well as a couple of 40K ones

Storm of Magic

2011-04-11T13:37:00.004+01:00

So I've had quite a nice weekend not involving too much work and I ended up actually having some recreational time to myself! This consisted of me getting angry assembling Tomb King Skeletons (I haven't got the knack yet) and going out for a mate birthday (Real Ales and Casino, whoo!). I quite enjoyed it as my Fantasy bug is really starting to come back, which is good as I have the Midlands Open in a few months.

Anyway, it looks like GW are starting to chuck out Warhammer releases this year and over the summer we are getting a Storm of Magic. I've added the blurb off the website below, but you'll need to join the GW site to see the sneak peeks....

Storm of Magic - when the eight winds howl...

The Winds of Magic are tumultuous. Drawn by Morrslieb, they are prone to rise from a strong gale into a howling tempest. And when they do no kingdom or realm is safe.

Monsters awaken from their slumber and are summoned from their lairs at the bidding of sorcerous masters. Armies assemble, ready to defend their borders or seize the opportunity to gain limitless power. It is in these desperate times tenuous pacts between wizards and creatures of darkness are sealed to create alliances never thought possible.

A time of doom and great deeds is at hand. Will you rise to meet the storm?

Announcing the impending arrival of Storm of Magic, the latest and largest Expansion for Warhammer, the Game of Fantasy Battles. Launched in July 2011, Storm of Magic describes what happens when great eldritch maelstroms roil across the lands. Magic becomes far more powerful and there is a whole range of Cataclysm spells to cast, unleashing untold devastation on the enemy. Arcane Fulcrums burst from the ground, not only acting as loci for the swirling energies that pervade a battle fought amidst the Storm of Magic, but changing the way a Warhammer tabletop looks and interacts with your armies. With such things so crucial to your Storm of Magic games a new range of Warhammer scenery and Wizards will soon be released in time for you to wage cataclysmic battles.

Then there are the monsters. When the Winds of Magic blow with such strength, the fell creatures of the world gravitate towards the tempest, slithering from deep tunnels or emerging from mountain lairs.

With the new Expansion allowing you to use so many different creatures there are a whole host of new monstrous plastic kits on their way. Citadel's queen of creatures, Trish Morrison, has spent the last few years in her own lair preparing for the new monsters to be unleashed upon the world.

Personally I think this is great, as they are doing something different to keep the game interesting, plus we are getting a load of new plastic monsters! Hopefully we will see some more generic magic items as well as some new scenarios and methods to upscale magic in large games. Also with the new monsters, suggests that we may see a monster ally list or there will be spells to transform or summon monsters. Unfortuantly I can see a lot of people moaning about this dumbing down the game, but what do they know. Warhammer is great and I think 8th is the best version (minus some minor tweaks).

Real Life Hates Wargaming!

2011-04-09T15:31:00.001+01:00

As you are probably quite aware, I haven't posted for a few weeks and it's not because I've got nothing to write about but rather the lack of time. Over the last few weeks I've been busy doing my day job as a Server Engineer working on many projects (we are having a massive infrastructure change at the moment plus the team I work in is down to half strength), as well as being busy doing my part-time job as delivery boy/dogs body for my wife's florist shop (it was Mother's Day last week and it was mental!!!).

It’s been quite a few busy weeks in Wargaming land and these things have caught my interest….

Tomb Kings!

Yup, Tomb Kings. I realise that you may be bored with me going on about them but GW have put the book and new models up for Advance Order. The book looks similar to the Orc book (hardback) and the new models look nice. The big Warshinxes are lovely models as are the Stalkers/knights (which look a lot better in real life that the pictures). I’ve ordered the book and I’m attempting to assemble some models for the army but failing and getting annoyed. Whilst I like the new models GW is bringing out, I wished that they were releasing some new plastic skeletons!!!

Grey Knights

Grey Knights are now out and it’s a lovely codex backed up with some nice models. I do feel that the release didn’t have much bang to it but I suspect that was down to details of the book getting leaked quite a few months before the release. It’s a nice list and I can see a lot of potential with it. I’m only slightly disappointed with them as I was expecting a bit more work with the background of the army as well as seeing different colour schemes for the eight brotherhoods.

Magic comes to Maelstrom

Maelstrom Games is starting to stock Magic the Gathering. I’ve been wondering when they would get round to doing this as they have a fantastic shop for holding events in. Hopefully we will start seeing some events being run as I do actually quite like card games like Magic.

I also now need to start getting ready for the Midlands Open, a local event being run by my club, The Dudley Darklords (which I need to attend more than I actually do!). At the moment the only painted army I have is my Chaos Daemons but they need some work to make them into a proper 8^th edition army. I do have a back out plan, but I would like to have something painted myself. So expect to see some random posts about a new army over the next few weeks (probably Tomb Kings assuming that I don’t get too angry with mold lines and fragile skeleton plastics!).

See you soon ;)

Mummy Dearest

2011-03-15T11:37:00.002Z

So it's been over a week since I last posted a 'hobby' entry (and I use that in the vaguest terms) and during this time I've been dabbling away with other models after getting upset and crying about assembling Tomb King Skeletons. Well that dabbling turned into a dribble and then that turned into nothing as I found myself being drawn back to Tomb kings again. So I decided to wait until a few more rumours started popping up and I've been playing Fallout New Vegas and re-reading some Horus Heresy books (currently working my way through Mechanicum which is a brilliant book).

Anyway, whilst trawling through the rumours about the forth coming army of dead things, a couple of rumours seem to be popping up...

1. ) Around 24th of March we should see some more sneak peeks / Rumours

2. ) It's been said several times that there will be no new Tomb King Skeletons, but there a theory about this. There has been semi confirmed rumours of new Tomb Guard models, which has lead some people to come to the conclusion that they will become the new skeletons (i.e. replace the Skeleton entries in the list but basicly be skeletons with WS3 and a fancy name).

3. ) Excitingly, there has been rumours about Mummies making a return, which has some people thinking that they will fill the role of the old Tomb Guard in the army but will be Toughness 4 and possibly with multiple wounds (and most likely Flammable!).

As a gamer and collector, I'm very excited about this release and I'm really looking forwards to the release now!

UK Throne of Skulls Format Change

2011-03-10T09:58:00.001Z

Whilst the internet is getting excited or angry about the new Grey Knights (which are getting mixed reviews), I've noticed something interesting in how GW are running the Throne of Skulls event in the UK later on this year. If you have a look at the 40K Throne of Skulls October 2011 event information, you'll notice that it states that the games will be 1750 points rather than 1500. But then if you have a read of the rules pack, it still states that the event is 1500 points. Being the curious person I am, I dropped a mail off to the events team at Warhammer World to get some more information and over a few emails, I have been able get some information out of them.

The event is indeed 1750 points and it appears that this change is to try and make people feel that they are getting value for money for the amount of games that they are playing. At the moment the event is run at five games for the weekend, but some folks would like a six game event, but GW decided against it due to a lot of people not wanting six games due to travelling home. So the event is still five games but you get to play slightly bigger games.

It also seems that GW have been listening to people and are adding a Ranking element to the scoring which will have a two-fold impact. Firstly, it lets you find out how well you did, so you can mock your mates when you do better than them (and so they can ridicule you when they do better). Secondly and importantly, the event will no longer be having random draws and you will be drawn against players who have done as well as yourself in the previous rounds. This is quite a welcome change as it means quite simply that you get to play players of a simular ability as yourself and in theory should have a fun weekend.

What's quite important about these changes is that it proves that GW are actually listening to their customers and trying to give them something that they want. Personally whilst the event is expensive, I'm quite tempted to go to one (either 40K or WFB) and I think that they will encourage quite a few players back by these little changes.

Plastic Toys

2011-03-05T11:23:00.001Z

So in my last update I mentioned that I was going to be joining The Wahammer Forum Painting Support Group and having a go at painting some Tomb King things ready for the release in May. Well a week later and I've had a bit of time to have some dabbling with some plastic kits.

Since the grand tidy up of my hobby room, I've been itching to start doing some hobby stuff but haven't been able to due to work. So I got a chance this week with a couple of evening free. My first dabble was with a Warmachine Menoth battle group as I picked up one of the plastic sets a while ago. I was quite impressed with the kit but I'm not a massive fan of the models and got bored quickly. I quite like Warmachine but I'm enjoying Warhammer and 40K too much at the moment. Next I dabbled with some Chaos Space Marines I had lying around and I couldn't believe the difference between the plastic kits made a few years ago and now. The CSM's I had were probably four or five years old and I had picked them up with the intention of doing a Chaos Marine army, and as usual I got distracted and they have been lying around since now. Whilst I was assembling them I just couldn't believe the difference between them and the new kits. Next time you moan about the cost of a plastic kit, think about all the old ones you had to do with their mismoulds and vague details (think the old Skaven Clanrats with the mismoulded feet!)!

So eventually I popped into my local GW and picked up a box of Tomb King Skeletons, scurried back home and looked forwards to assembling them whilst my wife got her soap fix of Eastenders and Corrie. Now the Tomb King Skeletons are basicly the old Skeleton kit which is nearly ten years old, with a upgrade sprue to make them Khemrian. Now I've been in the hobby for many years and I assembled some of the old old skelenton's (4th edition) and if I remember right they were quite fun to assemble but fragile. So I start on the kit and start cleaning up all the parts which whilst fiddly I didn't mind too much, but then came the gluing. Now over the years you learn when gluing models together, less is more and you can usually tell the age and skill of a modeller by the amount of glue that is applied to the model. So armed with my poly cement with a long metal nozzel (makes it easier to apply the glue where you want it), I started gluing my models. I'm usually quite a calm person with a great deal of patience but gluing these models made me a wee bit angry. Even after a break to watch Benidorm I was still livid when I came to finish off the models. The main issue I had was the fact that the contact points for the joins are very very small, which overall makes the model fragile and me angry (especially after holding it a few minutes to help it set) and I started adding more and more glue.

So after I recovered from the glue fumes and had a nights sleep, I've decided to leave off them for the moment and wait and see what GW do with the new plastic kits (wherever they are released in May or later on). I've got a stash of models to get through so I'll find something to keep me occupied (at least until I get distracted by Grey Knights).

Also earlier this week, my copy of the Orc and Goblin book came through the post. If I'm honest, this is the best Warhammer Armies book I have ever owned. The quality of the actual book is brilliant and it brings back memories of being a kid with Beano Annuals. The whole thing is in colour and it isn't just a cut and paste job of the old book or the background from the rulebook, as each section has been revisited. It's a lovely book and I'm looking forwards to the new ones. I'm not going to do a review of the list as they will be popping up everywhere anyway (especially Bad Dice Podcast) but I honestly can not see what all the moaning was about. The list isn't perfect and there's a few things I personally don't like (such as points costs of some units, Waaggh and the small range of magic items), but these don't make me want to burn all my models and have a massive moan. If you think about it, most things have probably been costed correctly and through first glance I haven't seen anything glaringly broken (although unsurprisingly Savage Orcs are a good buy). I think most greenskin players will be happy and I think all warhammer players should be looking forwards to when they get their armies redone with a new book.

Just Deserts

2011-02-25T13:26:00.003Z

Anybody who plays WFB and lurks on the Interweb is most likely aware that GW have recently annonnced that they will be releasing Tomb Kings in May. This came as a bit of a shock to a lot of people, as GW have been releasing books at quite a slow rate. Rumours started circling that it was to do with the poor sales GW had (dropped 4%) which considering that they had just re-released a flagship game was really bad and the world was going to implode. Others have suggested that it's because GW have just got the rights to produce a minature game for the new Hobbit films. Either way, I don't really care as it's nice to see Tomb Kings get a new book after what seems an ice age and it helps improve the game for everybody by changing things around a bit. But I'm not writing a blog entry because of that, since this is old news in GW internet land.

I've just signed myself up to the Midlands Open which is a Warhammer tournament run by a chap from my local club. I went to the Open last year and really, really enjoyed it as it was nice having a local event and it was run really well by Luke and his helpers. This year he's doing it again and as I have my WFB mojo back, it's been put on my list of events to go to. This is great as I had to drop out of the UK40K Indie GT due to personal reasons and I always try and go to at least one tournament a year for any system. If you want to go to the Midlands Open CLICK HERE for the details.

Anyway as I was rambling I'm going to a Warhammer tournament and I have Warhammer mojo but I fancy a new army. Tomb Kings are an army I've always been fasinated with, especially as I have a slight interest in Egypt already (and I'm off to the land of civil unrest later this year for my holiday). Back when I first started playing Warhammer in the days of the 4th edition, I made a couple of attempts to do something Khermi flavoured and whenever I flick through my army books or play around with army lists, Tomb Kings work their way in somehow. Also over on The Warhammer Forum, a painting support group has started up for players to make some mini blogs about what they have been painting recently. I've signed myself up as I really need to start painting nicely rather than relying on drybrushing and army painter.

So my general plan upon hearing the rumours that Tomb Kings won't be getting any new plastic skelentons for the release, is to slowly paint up a load of bowmen and maybe swordsmen ready for the release in May. Then when the army comes out I will have a nice core to play around with and that they can get slowly phased out when the new models come out. Plus if the army isn't to my tastes or I fail big time to get it finished, Luke has offered me the chance to use his dirty Dark Elves! Everybody is a winner!

BOLS O&G First Thoughts - I Disagree

2011-02-22T23:39:00.002Z

So I've just finished doing some work and decide to chill out and I've notice that Bell of Lost Souls has just added a update with some first thoughts about the new Orc and Goblin book, GW's first 8th edition book. As I've got the book on order and I've just got my Warhammer Mojo back, I thought I would have a quick look to see what people think about the book.

Now there has been some very negative thoughts and views about the book ranging from people moaning that the book isn't competitive to the fact that it's a hardback book which makes it too heavy to carry (I mean come on... really?). So I was half expecting to see some first thoughts with either a unbiased view or something a bit different than moaning. Unfortantly I was going to be proved disapointed.

First point of the article is the statement that O&G still have low leadership. Well the greenies have always had low leadership, it's one of the characteristics of the army. Plus with BSB's in 8th edition allowing re-rolls for leadership tests, it's not as bad as it used to be.

Next thoughts are that the points haven't changed enough to make the army a top-tier competitive army. I can't really comment about this as I haven't had a in depth look at the book but I don't think this is a big issue. I think when we all found out that we would be seeing new books, I think we knew that points won't be changing that much. The Ben's from the Bad Dice Podcast haven't really been making any moaning noises about the game and Ben Johnson has had a good look at the book and has also managed to play a game against them. He hasn't made any major moans (although I think we should wait until they review the book). Either way I don't think this is a big thing to get annoyed about.

Now the thing that a lot of people have been commenting about - The Magic Items. If you weren't aware, the new O&G book only has 8 magic items and all range between 50 to 100 points. Whilst at first glance this is really really annoying, if you think about it most books only really had 8 or so 'good' magic items. So I don't think that this is that bad, although it would have been nice to have had some nice cheap items for Goblin Characters. We also see in the article that there is a mention about cookie cutter lists which we will only see in a competitive enviroment, but this is something we have seen for years and is also something you see all over the place in all kinds of different games.

Finally we see mention about the fact that the Greenskins lost the Waaagh spell. If you think about it, it's not really a great loss. Yes the Waaagh spell was a great asset to the O&G list but it didn't really do anything but make poor generals win games and annoy other players by seeing Orc units surge forwards thanks to a Irrestable Force. I think the new book has some interesting spells and it's nice to see something different.

Overall I think it's far too early to write off the book. I suspect we will be seeing the book doing well in events in the future and most players settling down into the new style books after we are a few more in. Although I don't think I will be playing Greenskins anytime soon, I think that they will make the game interesting.

Fakes, NDA's and Rumours?

2011-02-21T10:44:00.001Z

Just a bit of theorising here and general ramblings. Over on Warseer, you may have noticed that the Grey Knight Rumour summary has died due to an IP Infringement. This IP Infringement came from some guys who were copying information from a leaked copy of the Grey Knights codex and I believe that somebody had also posted a direct link. Due to fear of the GW lawyers, the Warseer mods decided to pull the link and bin all discussion about the rumours. Which is fair enough as nobody wants to have legal action thrown at them but it does bring up some questions about the 'leak'.

Fake?
Firstly, I have seen the leaked copy and I'm going to be very clear here, I'm not going to be posting links or emailing people with a copy as I don't want to get in trouble plus it's a incomplete copy so some infomation is missing (and it seems a early playtest copy). But is it a fake?

I don't think it's a fake because it seems like somebody has gone to a lot of effort to knock it up if it was. Basicly all the units have full unit descriptions like what we are used to in a codex, it seems to have all of the right fonts, and it seems to fit into the writing style that GW use. It also seems to be a photocopy or set of pictures of a printed version of the codex due to the quality of the document (some pages are at jaunty angles and some of the words aren't clear). Also in the past, folks who like to make fake copies of playtests tend to come up with something plausable but with something really, really silly in it (like the Bat Riders in the 'play-test' Blood Angel codex). So I'm going to say that this is a copy of one of the playtest lists.

NDA's
This brings us nicely to NDA's or Non Disclosure Agreements. Whilst to us mere mortals, the GW playtesting process is surrounded with mistery, we can make some guesses. Firstly I imagine that all of the playtesters would have to sign a NDA which basicly forbids them from talking, writing or generally releasing information about the thing that they signed a NDA about. It's common practise around the world to basicly stop people blabbing on about up and coming things so competitiors don't start pinching ideas. Anyway, looking at the leaked copy of the Grey Knight codex, I don't think anybody within GW has broken a NDA as it looks like somebody has hastly made a copy of some of the codex and this suggests that they have pinched it without the playtesters knowledge and therefore could be a roomate or a gaming friend.

Rumours
Although this does bring us onto rumours and wherever GW actually leaks the information it's self via 'trusted' sources. One of the things about internet forums is the animinorty that people can get, which can make it easier to leak information. Leaks can also happen because the guys who design the models and work on the codexes are just really excited about their job and like discussing it. Alternatively, GW have certain 'sources' who are told to leak information to either start getting people excited about a release or to see public opinion. So I think we can conclude that somebody within GW has leaked this codex on purpose either through general excitement about it (look at this it's cool) or because GW want's to get the Grey Knight bandwagon started.

So what do you think about this and do you wish that GW did things differently when it comes to a new release?

Some 40K Loving

2011-02-12T17:43:00.002Z

With it being Valentines Weekend, me and my wife have successfully completed day two of the weekend. By this I mean that she is a florist and I've been helping out by taking deliveries and being a general fetchit person. So I've come home and spent some time being geeky and looking at all things GW related on the web whilst she has gone out to see if she can find a new outfit for when we go out for Valentines. Anyway, looking at the web it's been quite a exciting week. We've had lots of Warhammer Greenskin goodness and now we are seeing some 40K loving in the form of lots of Grey Knight rumours and blurry pictures.

Now I'm not going to bother to repost the rumours and pictures but rather point you in their direction - > Warseer Rumours

I am however going to waffle on with some thoughts about these rumours. Firstly the pictures....

For a start, they are a bit too blurry to really make any thoughts about the new models, but we can speculate about the direction GW have gone. First port of call is the Dreadknight, which is basicly a Grey Knight wearing a blinged up loader suit off Aliens. If I'm honest, I'm not sure about this. The outline of the model is quite distinctive and I'm not too sure if it's a bit too tall for my tastes. I think it has a fair few conversion possibilites for it (I imagine Daemon players are getting excited for Soul Grinders and Daemon Princes based upon it). I think I shall reserve judgement until I can see some better pictures. Same goes for the codex cover, as you don't see much but it does however confirm that the codex is called Grey Knights. The army shot is interesting and I'm guessing that that's a two thousand point army, which is slightly bigger model count wise than I thought. Other than that you can't really make out any details apart from that Grey Knights are getting Stormravens (which we already knew), Land Raider Crusaders (which is kind of expected) and the Dreadknights are very tall and will be hard to hide for LOS purposes (although fluffwise, why would they hide!).

Onto the rumours about the rules and oh boy this does sound like a very powerful codex. Not surprising as it's rumoured that Matt Ward has put pen to paper and written the codex. A lot of people will be grinding their teeth about Matt being the codex author but I'm not as I was quite pleased with the Marine and Blood Angel codexes. I do think it's a shame that we know from past experiance that this codex will either be really overpowered or will have some combo which is silly, but that's part of what GW does and has done for years, so I'm not worrying. The rumours look very nice and one of the first things that sprung to mind when reading them were the Pre-heresy Thousand Sons and I can see the codex being used for a converted army in this aspect. The rumours also suggest that the Grey Knights may struggle against horde styled armies (ie Imperial Guard) whilst I think they will be very strong against Marine armies. Time will tell but I think that this is going to be a very nice release depending on how well the models are recived.

Greenskin Anger - Why?

2011-02-11T20:38:00.004Z

The black boxes containing the Orcs and Goblin releases, have been sent out to GW stores and people have been starting to get a good look at them. This of course has been leaked out upon the net and we've started getting fairly good breakdowns about what has changed in the new book. Unfortuantly, most of the comments have been quite negative for some reason. The comments range from not liking the Hardback army book because it's too heavy to that GW has taken away the Waaggh + Power Scroll win function with the army.

Now I was lucky enough to see the book and new models eariler and I can say this, they are very, very nice. The book is very nice and seems to be of high quality and it's layed out in a simular way as the WFB rulebook. I didn't get to read too much mainly as I want to enjoy the book when I get my copy but all the rumours floating around are true. Whilst many of the changes aren't really a surprise, I was slightly disapointed with the magic items in the book as the pool has been shrunken down to eight items which range in cost between 50 points to 100 points. My main disapointment is that we will see more of the same combos, but too be honest we do now due to some magic items being too good so purhaps this isn't that bad.

Onto the models and I got to see the Savage Orcs and the Arachnarok and both kits are nice. The Arachnarok is massive but looks to be a joy to assemble apart from there seems to be very small contact points for the model the attached to the base (note - the base is massive and can be likened to a movement tray!). There is loads of detail on the model and I can see it being a massive seller for GW (as I can see 40K Tyranid and Daemon players pinching it for conversions). The Savage Orcs are very nice as well and the kit has plenty of options, I was quite pleased with the Musician who has a Cold One Skull as a drum!

Anyway, I still can't see why people are moaning. I don't care that the book is hardback or softback as long as it's enjoyable to read and (hopefully) doesn't have too many mistakes in it. It's not going to cause me any physical strain from carrying it (which oddly enough some people have said is why they dislike it) and it's not that much more than a older army book (and I'm sure to buy something simular from another source like RPGs would cost around £30). The army hasn't changed too much and is still the same random silly army. Yes GW have moved things around and recosted some things, but then they need to do that to sell models. My only real disapointments have been the lack of infantry forest goblins and the magic items (mainly as I like cheap items and it would be cool to have some Goblin bosses with some trinkets).

So what do you guys think about the release?

Wednesday Warhammer Woes (plus Waaggh)

2011-02-09T11:18:00.006Z

So you know how I mentioned that I moved my hobby room around and had a sweet setup near the window for painting? Well, my wife has mentioned that she doesn't like it and as most married hobbists know rather than argue the point of the benefits of being near the window, it's easier to move everything around. Whilst this sounds like a moan, it isn't really as it's about half an hours bit of work (thanks to the mass tidyup I did) and my wife is rather supportive about my hobby, although she did bet me £10 I wouldn't paint up all my models by the end of the year.

Which brings me onto my next subject....

Yes that's the new Orc army book. It's up for Advance Order on the GW site, and it looks interesting. It's a hardback book which has 112 pages of full colour lovelyness. Moneywise, it's not that much more that the current army books (about five quid) and it seems to fit in with the 8th ed army book style. The new models look nice, especially the Arachnarok (which is good as Spiders freak me out) and if I'm honest I do have a 8th ed buzz at the moment, although I am going to loose my bet with my wife. I'm also quite pleased as nobody in my gaming group plays with the greenskins and I don't think anybody at my club plays with them so it should be a very fun experiance. That or it's going to be at a simular power level as Daemons and Skaven and I'll be loathed by everybody

Too Many Models....

2011-02-08T16:07:00.000Z

So after my last post, I was all excited about painting and getting some models done, so I thought I would have a sort out and tidy up my hobby room. So I moved my desk over to the window so I would make best use of the natural light and could open the window when it gets hot (for some reason the room becomes a sauna) and I decided to sort out my 'junk' as my wife puts it. Like most wargamers I tend to horde but I don't do this on purpose. I see some new models and I decide I want to paint them or collect an army of them and then I get distracted by the next new thing. I haven't made a list of what I have but I have the good core elements for a Warhammer Skaven, Lizardman and Ogre Kingdom army along with a starting point for a Ork army for 40K (not counting my Daemons). My plan is at the moment to try and paint some of these things up (or sell them on ebay) rather than buy new models. I'm quite keen to do something Warhammer related just to try and get me excited about the game again. I think I'll try and get something painted up for the Midlands Open which is in July and about a 10 minute drive from my house. But I just couldn't believe the amount of models I have!

A look backwards and a look forwards

2011-01-31T17:19:00.003Z

I thought I would post a quick update before January disapears with me looking back on what has happened this month for me hobbywise and a look forwards to what I would like to be doing this year. As you are already guessing, I haven't done a lot this month. I've done some dabbling with some Chaos Daemon models for 40K but I've had to pull out of the 40K GT due to work commitments (something I wasn't happy about but that's life). That has been kind of a blessing in disguse as it means I can spend more time painting and modelling but I'm already looking forwards to the next shiney things (Grey Knights and Orcs and Goblins).

I'm really looking forwards to the Grey Knights as it means two things to me. Firstly, we get a new codex. This to me is a brilliant thing as the Grey Knights have some of the coolest background in the game, plus we should see a Marine army which will operate like how we read about them in the books. Secondly it means we are getting new models, so I can see the Grey Knight kits being combined with a lot of marine armies which will be a good thing. I can't wait to see the pictures of all the new things, but I just hope that GW support the release a bit better than they have done with other releases the last couple of years.

I have mixed feelings about the Orcs and Goblins release, but this is mainly because I have mixed feelings about Fantasy at the moment. I quite enjoy the direction GW has taken the rules in, but my issue is that it's very easy to end up with a dull army and have a dull game. I'm trying to come back to it as I have made many friends playing the game. My general plan is to start off slow and build up a new army but if I'm completely honest, I'm more interested in 40K (and dabbling with Hordemachine). Hopefully the new army book is going to be something special as it's been rumoured to be and I think Fantasy needs it as it seems to be stagnating a little bit. Whilst we have seen a bit more support in terms of new models, I think the game needs a bit more than that.

Reading wise, I've read Prospero Burns (see my thoughts here) and I'm in the process of reading the new Space Marine battles book - The Purging of Kadillus by Gav Thorpe. So far it's nothing special (sorry Gav) but it's an enjoyable read and I think Gav has the Space Marines just right in how they act and fight. With the new FAQS, it has got me thinking about a Ravenwing army!

Apart from that, not much has happened to me hobby wise. I have a few tournaments I'm thinking about attending but with the way work is, I'm finding it trick to commit to an event as I seem to struggle to find the spare time (plus my wife is a florist and with Valentines Day nearly here plus Mothers Day on the way, things get busy!)

Warhammer - Best Battle Report EVER!

2011-01-18T11:36:00.006Z

Just a quicky and a bit of a repost here from The Warhammer Forum. Bobo The Vampire Monkey, aka Isaac Alexander (one of the best players in the UK and Australia and Editor of Unseen Lerker Magazine), has just posted a quick battle report on TWF. Bobo is well know for writing fantastic battle reports and this one is a brilliant one (in fact it made me laugh and dribble coffee everywhere!). I'll now hand it over to Bobo

....

So there I was. It was round 5 of the UK Warhammer Masters. I was attending my third Masters tournament; and with my previous finishes of 3rd and 2nd I was bloody determined to win this one. In the second last round I faced off against Rich Laking and his Dark Elves on table 2. Whichever one of us won this game had a very good chance of going on to win the tournament.

It was the Meeting Engagement scenario. I was using my very tuned '4 unit' Vampire Counts army, and I had already seen Rich massacre another VC army because it came at him piecemeal and let him get around the flanks. I had no intention of letting him do such a thing to me.

Knowing that this was a favourable matchup for me, and that Rich was likely to box away his units in the far corner in an effort to conserve points for as long as possible, I deployed my army thus:

If you're wondering, that's 110 Ghouls (in three units) and 43 Grave Guard (in one unit).

I had the small difficulty of both my Vampire Lord and Drakenhoff Wight King BSB rolling 1s and starting off the board, but with some cunning use of the joining units rule I thought this was a very manageable problem.

After picking the pieces of his brain up off the floor (I think my strategy dazzled him a bit ) Rich did the sensible thing and, realising he couldn't hide, stacked his entire army on one flank, ready to obliterate it and turn on the rest of my army if it worked.

I was quite confident going into the game. Rich hadn't rolled any doubles on his Shadow Level 4, meaning he couldn't pick Withering to amplify his shooting phase to ridiculous levels. He also hadn't rolled any doubles on his level 2 Fire mage, meaning he couldn't pick Flaming Swords of Rhuin.
A quick point of note: in a small 16-man field like the Masters, there tends to be a little bit of 'list scouting' going on, so you're not caught out by sneaky tricks in future rounds. Even when it's not intentional you tend to pay attention to the horror stories that come up in between rounds, ie "Man, I never saw that flying Doombull coming!". Anyway, the previous VC player that Rich massacred had put his defeat down to the extra attack Black Guard who then got augmented with Flaming Swords of Rhuin, completely ruining the VC player's Regen banner. Now that Rich hadn't rolled it I was quite confident that my Grave Guard should eat his Black Guard alive.

None of Rich's units started off the board - except his Level 4 general, funnily enough! So the three most important models in our armies put together were off having a picnic somewhere.

Winning the roll for first turn (ie, Rich didn't roll the 6 to seize the initiative), I moved my Vampire Lord and Wight King BSB into the middle of my army. At this point I noted to my opponent that I actually had quite a magical edge this turn since his level 4 was off the board and thus couldn't dispel.
And like a complete moron, I took no advantage of this fact whatsoever. On the contrary, I was quite pleased with my first turn magic phase, as I managed to raise 16 new Ghouls in the unit opposing 50 of Rich's Spearmen and panic a unit of Shades with my double bombardment of magic missiles.
What I completely failed to realise was that Rich's Black Guard were currently without a Cauldron buff, and would be utterly massacred by my Grave Guard if I were to VanHels them in, Regen banner or not.

As it was Rich's (20-wide) Black Guard declared a charge on the Grave Guard. I did not mind this in the slightest. I was pleased that the Hydra rolled an inch short and didn't make it though. Rich also declared a charge with his pegasus-riding hero into my 45-man Ghoul bunker containing all my characters, with the apparent intent of assassinating my hero-level Vampire. I was over 20" away so he needed to roll fairly well to make the charge, which he did. Another stupid mistake by me, leaving him room to get in contact. No problem, thinks Bobo, I shall challenge him with my champion.

Rich moves his level 4 Shadow wizard onto the table. He rolls 7 power dice for the Winds of Magic. I know what's coming. "Mind Razor on the Black Guard," he states. "Needing..." he trails off, checking the casting value. "Double 6," I inform him, "or it's gonna be my scroll!".
He produced the double 6.

And my world disintegrated.

Allow me to illustrate the full degree of the combat here.

He had extra attacks from the Cauldron. On a unit that is 20 models wide. And already have 2 attacks apiece. That's 61 attacks.
They are, of course, Black Guard, so have WS5 and can re-roll their misses in every round of combat. To cap this off, my Vampire Lord is currently in combat with the errant pegasus Noble so can't use his Helm of Commandment to buff the Grave Guard.
Did I mention that the Black Guard now have S9 from Mind Razor?

58 hits and 47 wounds later, I removed my unit of Grave Guard (who have never even been reduced to half strength in a game, ever).

Rich then overran.

Into the combat with my Vampire Lord's bunker.

Holy crap. This is not good.

In an attempt to survive, the Vampire Lord challenges Rich's pegasus Hero. He is unscathed since the Noble only has a Biting Blade and I have the Regen Banner in the unit. Phew, we could still be okay here. I think I might just be able to absorb enough casualties on the 45 Regenerating Ghouls that my attacks back will be enough to survive the combat and then use my magic to turn the rest of the army around and muller the Black Guard next turn.

Rich then produced the Banner of Eternal Flame on the Black Guard.

And that was the game.

1 player turn each. 1 combat phase. 2097 victory points. 15 minutes.

The most extraordinary experience I have ever had in a game of Warhammer.

UK Masters has been and gone!

2011-01-17T21:01:00.003Z

So the UK Masters has been and gone. We have a new Warhammer Master as well as a new 40K Master. From the general posts over on The Warhammer Forum, it seems that it was a good weekend by all. We should be seeing coverage from Rankings HQ over the next few weeks, as well as podcast coverage. For WFB, tune into Bad Dice and Heelanhammer and for 40K tune into 11th Company and Two Gamer Radio.

So here's the final results...

Warhammer
1st Richard Laking (Dark Elves)
2nd Will Goodwin (Vampire Counts)
3rd Dan Heelan (Lizardmen)
4th Adam Hall (Daemons of Chaos)
5th Michael Biggs (Warriors of Chaos)
6th Russ Veal (Vampire Counts)
7th Isaac Alexander (Vampire Counts)
8th Nick Pym (Daemons of Chaos)
9th Ben Curry (Dark Elves)
10th Keith Wilkinson (Vampire Counts)
11th Andrew Isherwood (Warriors of Chaos)
12th Chris Legg (Skaven)
13th Mark Wildman (Empire)
14th Singe Frost (Beastmen)
15th Ben Johnson (Skaven)
16th Martyn Furnival (Daemons of Chaos)

Warhammer 40K
(note a couple of players had to drop out due to real life)
1st Josh Roberts (Imperial Guard)
2nd Neil Kerr (Chaos Daemons)
3rd Stu Robertson (Dark Eldar)
4th Peter Cooke (Blood Angels)
5th Alex Harrison (Imperial Guard)
6th Rob Buckley (Chaos Space Marines)
7th Filippo Cipriani (Tyranids)
8th Luke Nurser (Space Wolves)
9th Chris Green (Tyranids)
10th James Taylor (Chaos Space Marines)
11th Kiran Reddy (Eldar)
12th Richard Fielder (Space Wolves)
13th Gaz Jones (Dark Eldar)
14th James Ramsay (Imperial Guard)

Sounds like it was a great event and I can't wait to hear and see what happened!

UK 40K Masters is nearly here

2011-01-10T13:42:00.003Z

For those of you who don't follow the UK 40K tournament scene, you may not be aware that the WFB & 40K masters is happening this weekend. I'm not going to cover the WFB Masters much, quite simply because I'm still working out what's hot and what's not (apart from the obvious death star big point denial blocks) and I think it'll be quite close between the top spot. 40K wise I'm going to make some predictions and generally talk some rubbish.

Firstly, what is the Masters? Many, many years ago, in Australia, the WFB players started up a system of recording results of players and coming up with a system to rank them. Then out of this list, the top 16 get invited over to a tournament called the Masters to work out who would be the best of the best. This went on for a few years and out of this grew a website called Rankings HQ. Now Rankings HQ (or RHQ to save wear and tear on my keyboard), started to collect information of players around the world. Over here in the UK, we jumped straight onto the Bandwagon for WFB and the Masters and the rankings had run with great success and little moaning. Then it was tried to get this set up for 40K and we had quite a bit of moaning, mostly that the Rankings would make events uber competitive. After a while the rankings was set up for 40K in the UK and it was generally accepted that they didn't make the game anymore competitive than it already is (somebody competitive will be competitive no matter what system is in place).

So that's a brief history lesson, now lets look at this weekend. Basicly it's a weekend of six games of varying points (either 1500 or 1750 points which is decided which one to use each round) and a variety of scenarios. You can find the lists and the rules HERE.

Looking at the lists we have a nice mixture of races but the most surprising thing is that nobody is taking Orks! I'm not too sure if this is because some players have been using them a lot and fancy a change or that they have fallen out of favour. Personally the Battlewagon rumble list is still very strong and I would have expected somebody to bring a varient of it. Unsurprisingly, we don't see any Tau, Necrons, Inquisitorial Forces (not for long...!), Dark Angels or Generic Space Marines. It's also not surprising that we see that a lot of the lists for the same race are quite simular (well they are the best players and would pick simular things). It's slightly disapointing that nobody is taking anything silly or unusual, but I think this being the first Masters for 40K it's to be expected.

So onto predictions. After looking through the lists and the tournament rules, I quite fancy the look of an Eldar army doing it, more specificly Lee Brown's. It's quite mobile and can do a bit of everything. I think it may struggle against some of the Horde armies but anybody who has been on the end of a Eldar shooting phase (especially backed up by Eldrad!), know it makes you cry. But if I'm completely honest, I think it's going to be a Imperial Guard army that wins the event, and I think it will be Josh who may do it. Although he is bringing an army which I assume he is unfamilar with, it has plenty of Anti Tank and plenty of anti infantry. James Ramsey has a cool Guard list, but I think it may struggle against another horde army or Josh's Guard list. I would also love Rob Madeley to win the event as he's a local lad and goes to my club, but with Daemons, they can be so random and looking at the players he may not win the event.

So who do you think will win the Masters?

++ Incoming: Grey Knights ++

2011-01-10T10:45:00.002Z

Mondays are normally quite depressing. You've just gotten used to having a couple of days off and you're then thrusted back into having to get up early and go to work. It's even more depressing for me as it's the start of another barrage of soaps that my wife likes watching!

Good news is that GW have mentioned that something is coming. Something cool and of course Space Marine related - The Grey Knights are coming! Over on the GW website (click HERE and you will need to have a GW website account to see it), they have posted a confirmation saying that they are coming out for April and that there are plastic kits. Here's the blurb for those of you who can't be bother to go over to the GW website....

As the Emperor prepared for his final confrontation with the traitor Horus, he granted one final gift to Mankind, a safeguard and protection against the horrors of the Warp - the Grey Knights. A brotherhood of warriors as elite as they are secretive, the Grey Knights are a shining line of silvered steel that stands between humanity and the Daemons of Chaos.

Trained as the mightiest paragons of mental fortitude and martial discipline in the Imperium, the Grey Knights maintain a vigilant watch for daemonic incursion, responding wrathfully against the scions of the Dark Gods, and those who dally with them.

Clad in baroque Terminator armour and wielding powerful weapons such as storm bolters and Nemesis force weapons, the Grey Knights tear through the enemy, unleashing an onslaught of psychic powers and sorcery to sunder the foe.

The Grey Knights are an unstoppable force, the manifestation of the Emperor's will, valiant warriors who willingly sacrifice their own humanity so that Mankind itself can endure.

This April Games Workshop releases Codex: Grey Knights, alongside a comprehensive range of fantastically detailed Citadel miniatures. Although details are being kept firmly under wraps for now, you can expect an exciting selection of plastic kits to enable you to build your own Grey Knights army.

Over the coming weeks we'll be releasing more details both here on the Games Workshop website and also in the pages of White Dwarf - to ensure you're the first to get the news, make sure you subscribe to the Games Workshop newsletter and keep an eye on the What's New Today blog.

Whilst like a lot of players, I tend to get annoyed seeing Marine armies everywhere, I do think that they are cool. I've been thinking about a Marine army for a while now and I'm half tempted to pick up a few sets to have a play around with them. I haven't paid the rumours much attention but it sounds like these guys are going to be super elite, so an average army of them will be around 20 models. It's also interesting as it sounds like the whole Daemonhunter codex will be dropped and this codex will focus on Grey Knights. So I'm expecting limited Inquisitoral presence in the codex and anything to do with allies being dumped.

GW Sales Down?

2011-01-07T23:43:00.003Z

A few people may have noticed the following floating around on the web the last few days... (source is BBC News)

Separately, fellow retailer Games Workshop also saw its share price dive as it faces tough trading conditions in the entertainment market.Sales of its fantasy figurines and other products fell 4% in the six months to 28 November compared with a year earlier.

The company further warned that "difficult trading conditions since that time mean that this shortfall is unlikely to be recovered by the year end".As a result, the firm feared that profits for the year to May were unlikely to meet market expectations.

Shares in Games Workshop fell nearly 18% in early London trading.

Now of course a few people have started off ranting about how Warhammer 8th Edition is forcing folks to buy more models, therefore people are switching to other systems and this is the reason for this. Whilst I see their point, I don't agree with it 100%. I personally think the reason GW has struggled to be...

Big Bang and no follow up
GW released Warhammer 8th edition in July, which was quite a big release. They took a very ballsy approach and completely changed vast parts of the game. This of course annoyed a few people who went to other systems, but overall the reaction was positive. But I do feel that GW screwed up here by not following up to the release with a 8th edition army book. Whilst you could argue that 8th edition was a big change and people needed to adjust, I think five/six months is a bit overkill. We also saw the Island of Blood set, but at £60 it's almost out of that starter set category for a lot of people and I imagine a lot of people didn't pick up a copy unless they wanted Skaven or High Elves. Also the last main release we saw was the Dark Eldar codex which came out with a small bang and then we have nothing futher.

It's getting expensive
It's not a cheap hobby and having a recession doesn't help things but having a set of 10 Pheonix Guard at £25 does make people things twice about it. I think GW need to come up with some incentives (a loyaty card maybe) or something to get people feeling like they are getting value for money. I think for 40K, most people are happy spending around £20/30 on a unit, but for WFB it's a different kettle of fish due to the game giving large infantry blocks lots of bonuses. This would have factored in as well as I'm sure GW was expecting people to buy lots of boxes of Infantry when the game was released.

Competition
GW has a lot more competition now than it did 10 years ago. There are now lots of minature wargame systems with nice models which are attracting players for many reasons. Also chuck into the mix the video game market. I think things like the Playstation Move and Xbox 360 Kinect would have effected sales as they are new and gimicky and are more interesting for the age market GW seems to aim for.

The last couple of years, GW has been doing it's best to restructure and adapt so they can continue to make money, but I do feel that they are going to be in for a rough couple of years now. Overall the retail sector has been having problems shifting stock (why do we see so many sales now) and with VAT going up is going to make things slightly worse. I think GW needs to have another look at focusing on the kid/parent market, because I don't think that's the way forwards for them now unless they can come up with more self contained games which people can pick up as a gateway into the things that they sell (plus they can sell a board game anywhere!). As a hobbist, I don't want to see GW struggle or go out of business as I enjoy what they produce. On the other hand though, I do want them to be kicked in the knackers so they can wake up and see that they may need to rethink things.

Prospero Burns - A Reviewening

2011-01-05T19:59:00.005Z

Over Christmas, Santa desposited a copy of Prospero Burns by Dan Abnett for me and I finished it last week. The book is set in the Horus Heresy and covers the events of the Space Wolves being set upon the Thousand Sons. Now I must issue a warning before I go any further - if you are expecting Space Marine Bolter porn, you are going to be disapointed. In fact very disapointed. If on the other hand you want a good sci-fi book set in a brilliant setting, this is the book for you.

The book starts with a Fenris tribe raiding another Fenris tribe, and through this we meet the star of the book, Kasper Hawser. We get to see Kaspers point of view of the events leading up to the destruction of Prospero, and it's because of this I think hard core Space Wolf/Marine fans may struggle. Whilst we only get to glimpse the Astartes of VI legion through Kasper's interaction with them, we do get some nuggets of information about the legion and Dan Abnett enforces the view that the men of Fenris and the Vlka Fenryka (what the Space Wolves call themselves and prefer to be known as), aren't just vikings in space. The book also has quite a few flashbacks of Kasper's life, showing his life on Terra as a noted acadermic and also show's his journey into becoming a member of the Vlka Fenryka's 3rd Company as it's skjald (story teller/historian). It is through this journey we learn all about how the Space Wolves see themselves, the Council of Nikea where Magnus and the Thousand Sons are put on trial for their sorcerous means of war, and the assault upon Prospero.

Most of the Horus Heresy books can be read without needing to have read any of the other books in the series, but I must state that it might be a good idea that you read A Thousand Sons as this helps explain the events that Dan covers in Prospero Burns. Speaking of the title, we do not see much of Prospero burning as this section of the book is told from Kasper's point of view as a Skjald, so we get to hear about the battle as if we were a Space Wolf and Kasper was retelling the tale. Also most of the actual battle is covered quite well in A Thousand Sons and I'm quite pleased that Dan didn't choose to regurgiate the same thing Graham covers in his book.

If I was to score this book, I would give it 9 out of 10. It's a brilliant story and covers the events very nicely from a view point we have never seen before. It also covers and lays down some foundations for a nice subplot, concerning how the events of the Heresy came to fruit. I really enjoyed reading this book and found that I was doing what I could to sneak off and read a bit more of it.

So Prospero Burns gets 9 out of 10!

Go get yourself a copy if you want some good scifi and 30K action!

New Year & New Resolutions

2010-12-31T11:57:00.004Z

Some parts of the world are already celebrating the new year (and decade) and it's around this sort of time a lot of people get all optimistic and look to the future and start thinking about resolutions.

With 2011 only hours away for me, we already have a good idea what GW are tempting us with.

January
The year begins with a Skaven splash release, with players getting missing weapons teams and characters, as well as the important Abomination and Warp Lighting Cannon/Plague Catapult. We also get to see magic cards and a heraldry book. Personally I like all the models I've seen (check out my earlier post or pop over to the GW website on their advance orders section) and I think we will see a lot more Skaven armies around (I know I'm thinking about one).

Feburary
In the month of love (or bloody hard work if you are a florist!), we see the Stormraven and some Blood Angel releases. Whilst GW haven't confirmed anything yet, you can make a fairly good bet that we will be seeing this due to the accidental Stormraven article GW added to it's website a few months ago. The model is a bit hit and miss for a lot of players. I quite like it as it sits in with the STC design style that we have seen with all the other vehicles. Also with the Stormraven actually getting a model hints that other ranges will be getting it (like Grey Knights)

March
I can't think of a witty way of merging March and Orc (Orcarch?) like what GW did with October a few years ago with the Ork release (Orktober), but in this month we get to see a new Orc and Goblin book. It'll be very interesting to see the book because it's the first 8th edition book as well as many Orc players are probably worrying what will happen to their army now (as 8th gave them a much needed power boost). I think it will be a intersting release and will show players roughly which direction GW will be taking the army books in.

Rest of the Year
So after the first few months it gets a bit hazy. We know Grey Knights are coming which should be really cool as we will get to see an army playing how Marines work in the novels (basicly one Marine is worth a hundred men!). Also rumours have been hinting at a Necron release later in the year, which I'm really excited about as Necrons are one of my favourite armies. We also have heard rumblings about a Dark Eldar second wave as well as another expansion for 40K allowing players to have lots of aircraft (which also hints at most races getting some new models). Fantasy wise it's looking like we will see Tomb Kings and maybe Ogre Kingdoms, which is good as both books need redoing. I also imagine that we will see some Lord of the Ring releases, but I don't really play that, so not that interested.

New Year Gaming Resolutions
As many people are aware, it's customary to make a resolution for the new year. I personally don't bother as I usually break it within minutes of making one. But I'm going to try and make some gaming ones, which I will kind of stick to. Anyway, here's what I'm thinking...

1) Paint up the Island of Blood set
2) Get a 40K army painted up
3) Pick a Fantasy Army to use in 8th edition
4) Play more games on a regular basis
5) Try not to buy models I have no intention of using

Bit of a list but I think I can do it. The main ones for me over the next few months is a 40K army and not buying models I have no intention of using. Like most wargamers, I'm a horder and tend to amass a collection of things I don't really need. I would like to get a fantasy army done as my Daemons aren't really suited to 8th edition and I would love to play more games on a regular basis (depending on work and home life).

Anyway, that's 2010 over for me and I'm looking forwards to 2011. Have a happy new year!!

PS - 6 ) try and update this blog more often!
This is one I really want to do!

See you soon

Square Bases vs Round Bases

2010-12-30T14:38:00.006Z

I seem to have gotten a dose of Manflu at the moment, as I've been sneezing and coughing all day at work. With that and the run up to New Year, not a lot has been happening but I have been pondering a bit of a debate for GW players - Square Bases vs Round Bases.

FREEZE RIGHT NOW

That's right, freeze. Now are you thinking that I'm going to whitter away about 40K vs WFB? If so, look at the floor in shame. I would never dream of doing that as it's all down to personal taste. What I'm going to be rambing on about is actual square bases vs round bases in regards of Daemons in 40K.

For a start, I'm guilty of this as I've been using my WFB Daemons as 40K Daemons as it means I get a fairly cheap 40K army as long as I don't mind being hamstrung a bit (as what works for WFB Daemons is different to 40K Daemons). At first glance the bases don't seem to be 'that' important apart from how they look, but if you look closely a square base can be abused slightly. From corner to corner, a square base is 35 mm, so a model on a square base can protentially gain 10mm if they are leaping out of transports. From a Daemon point of view this is a no show, since they have no transports. In fact due to the bases being slightly bigger, its a disadvantage against template weapons but only slightly.

So from a game point of view, there is no real reason why you can't use daemon models on square bases. But to me this is only something you want to use in casual games or if you are just discovering 40K from WFB. If you are going to a Tournament, out of respect for your opponent, you should really be using Daemon models on round bases. I mean, they have made some effort to get and assemble their models for playing 40K and I think you should do the same. Earlier this year I ended up taking a half finished Skaven army to the Sheffield Slaughter and I felt bad. I felt bad because I had a rough time at the start of the year and I felt bad that I had taken models which 'just' met the bare minimum painting requirements. (I'm eternally gratefully to Gareth Hamilton loaning me models over the weekend for the things I couldn't get finished) Anyway, I felt bad, mainly because all the armies I faced were nicely painted and they had to face a rag tag army of different painting styles. I vowed I wouldn't do it again and so far I haven't.

So at some point in the future, I plan on doing a 40K daemon army just so I can go to some tournaments and use them. That's assuming that I'm not distracted by anything else....

Eeww! Green Cheese

2010-12-30T08:59:00.002Z

If you go to the Games Workshop Advance Orders Warhammer page, you may notice lots of furry warpstone powered contraptions and creatures. It's the second wave of Skaven models! It's just over a year after the book was originally released, and now GW have released some models to fill in the gaps in the range. There has been quite a few mixed comments about them but personally I like all the models. Combined with the Island of Blood I got for Christmas, I can see me painting lots of Skaven over the next few months (which is bad considering I should be getting ready for the Indie 40K GT!).

There are also rumours that we are getting a strange year for releases in 2011, as most of them seem the be model releases, rather than a new army book and then models. This is quite a big departure for GW as we've been used to getting a new army list followed by models (as the lists help sell the models). I think we are only seeing four main releases next year - Grey Knights, Necrons, Tomb Kings and Orcs and Goblins (Greenies are confirmed for March), whilst the rest will be new models for existing ranges (like the Stormraven for Blood Angels). It's a bit strange but we'll see how it pans out.

Gadzooks! An Update!!!

2010-12-29T13:08:00.002Z

Anybody who has looked at this blog has probably noticed the lack of updates and too be honest I have a massive bag of excuses, ranging from work involving job 1 (Server Engineer) and job 2 (Dogsbody at my wife's florist shop), plus a few personal ones (such as my wife's family dog having to be put down). Anyway, you're reading this because you are interested in the ramblings that I write rather than anything to do with my personal life.

First on the list is Christmas. It's been and gone for another year and I've been a good boy as Santa left me a xbox 360 (with Kinect!), a copy of Island of Blood, a copy of Prospero Burns and a Fighting Fantasy book (plus things like aftershave and moisturiser). So inbetween gorging on Christmas food and prancing around the living room, trying to make a digital avatar do stuff (it's good that Kinect!), I've been thinking about my wargaming and related toys.

At the moment I'm half way though (roughly) Prospero Burns, and I think it's quite a good book. I think if you were expecting Space Wolf action and nothing but Space Wolf action, you will be disapointed. If you want a good sci-fi book which looks at the Imperium and how it sees the Space Wolves, then this is worth looking at. There is plenty of action in it, but not the kind that people were expecting. I'll post something like a review when I finish it (maybe....).

Next on the list is the Fighting Fantasy book - Sword of the Samurai. If you are quite young, you may have never heard of this series of books, but you don't know what you are missing. Basicly they are a series of interactive/rpg novels where you make choices on where the story goes, and the series was created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone who originally set up Games Workshop. I just need to print off some adventure sheets to help me along (as you need to make notes about your equipement and your status).

Finally is the Island of Blood, which is something I'm quite looking forwards to messing with. I got to see the set on release day earlier this year and I was very impressed with what I saw. Now having it in my hands I'm even more impressed. I'm already trying to come up with army lists for both High Elves and Skaven, and I can see me having another go at Skaven due to having models around from my attempt earlier this year.

Anyway I need to get back to work and work out how I'm going to play on my 360 without my wife moaning. See you soon!

Warhammer Foursome's and Waaggh!

2010-12-06T20:14:00.000Z

Firstly, some exciting news - Games Workshop has confirmed that Orcs and Goblins are the next army book. Greenskin fans have been praying for a new book for a while now and it looks like not only are they getting it soon (March 2011) but it's also being written by Jeremy Vetock. Jeremy wrote the Skaven book, which is regarded by a lot of players as being a fun and characterful book (as well as being one of the current top tier books in the game) and he's also a big greenskin fan as well!

Also I've been dabbling with Fantasy again after a bit of a break from it. My mate Stevyn texted me last week asking if I fancied a game of Warhammer and I said yes. I then discovered that he also had Chris and Ian coming round and we were having a big four way battle. Having experienced Stevyn's scenarios before in the past, I was expecting something which would be cool but very long winded and we would be lucky to get a turn in. How wrong was I!

The idea for the scenario was that there was a Daemongate on the board which had a Daemon army trying to get out to slaughter everything but three other armies had turned up to control the gate, because they had heard rumours about powerful artifacts under the gate.The board was split up with one player having one short end of the board as his deployment zone, and the other two players deployed on the long ends but about 30" away from the short end player. In between the long end players was a hillside which sat the Daemongate. The hill counted as a Scree slope (difficult terrain for marching/charging) and all other terrain was counted as normal (random rolls). The Daemon player (me) got 2300 points to spend on a army but could only bring on units/characters if a unit/character was destroyed on the board in the other armies. I could charge out the daemongate in any direction but I couldn't stack units within it. The other armies hard 1600 points to spend. Player turn order was random (we diced for it) and magic was handled as normal but dispelling players divded up the dispel dice between them (but you could channel on a 4+).

It was a fun game with me using my Daemons, Stevyn using his Dark Elves, Chris using Skaven and Ian using Empire. All armies were quite mangled by the end of the game, with Stevyn loosing his whole army by turn four (he did have some bad luck). The game ended in a victory for Chris, but that's mainly because for some reason Ian dispelled my Lord of Change trying to cast Pit of Shades on Chris's Slaves which were in contact with the daemongate. Ian then let me cast Withering on some clanrats also in contact but he couldn't shift them with his mortars. In the end Chris won the game and we called it a night. It was a good game and has me all excited about Warhammer again.

Arron Dembski-Bowden on Dark Angels

2010-11-13T15:49:00.000Z

Again, appologise for the lack of update but work has been a bit frantic and I've been distracted by Call of Duty - Black Ops. Anyway, in between work and shooting people I work with on Black Ops, I've been thinking about what I would like to take to the UK 40K GT next year and I've been thinking about those armies people write off such as Grey Knights and Dark Angels. Both have fantastic backgrounds but tend to be a bit limp in the old rules department for how they run on the tabletop.

So whilst lurking around on the Bolter and Chainsword, I came across a comment that Arron Dembski-Bowden made when somebody asked him about his take on Dark Angels...

If you don't mind me asking, A-D-B, what would your take have been on the DA if you had complete freedom? Assuming you feel able to tell us - I don't want to put you in an awkward position!

Sorry for taking so long with this, I'm really struggling for free time lately. It's been a bit of an insane weekend, like.

I think it'd be inappropriate and disrespectful (even by my misbehaving standards) to answer that directly, and although my tastes for the First Legion are different to what came before in Descent of Angels and Fallen Angels, that doesn't mean I think they're unworthy novels at all. I can say what I hope comes across in the short story in Age of Darkness, which is called 'Savage Weapons' as a working title.

1. The Lion. I envisage the Lion has the absolute embodiment of knightly perfection. He's noble, honourable, austere, almost cold to the mortals around him. Not disrespectful or condescending, but distant and inhuman in his regal professionalism and honourable perfection. He's a medieval warlord, a king of a powerful nation, and carried many knightly traditions from his homeworld with him into the wars of the Great Crusade. Part of this is that he grew for a while in the wilderness of Caliban, and that experience has stayed with him. Part of it is his upbringing in the knightly orders. With his Astartes, it's a different matter. They know him well enough to see the subtle smiles or the fires in his eyes when he speaks of something he's passionate about, but to most humans he seems an austere and majestic primarch - a tactical genius, wreathed in knightly tradition, but not as immediately charismatic as the more charming Horus or Sanguinius.

2. I try to consider most Legion's Astartes as Soldiers + Something Else. When I write about the Night Lords, I try to convey that they're not these ultimate, elegant swordmasters; they're murderers first, and soldiers second. When they fight, they don't duel or care about technique. And it's not because they're stupid, it's because they're fighting to get a knife into your throat right from the first moment they see you. If I wrote about the World Eaters, I would make them Roman gladiators first (with the traditions and customs that come with it), and soldiers second. I'd have made the White Scars warriors first, and soldiers second, playing up the subtle differences there. It's not to diminish any Legion or make them less efficient, it's to highlight how their upbringing and Legion customs shape them as soldiers. They're soldiers, sure. But they're also something else. With the Dark Angels, I see them as knights first, and soldiers second. Their skills in warfare are shaped by the fact they're a knightly order with their own traditions, codes and customs. Each one has a knight's devotion to war; to maintaining his weapons; to considering his primarch not as "master" or "Father", but instead "my liege". The primarch is their genetic father, but that's secondary to the fact that he;s their liege lord - the man to whom they owe fealty. They're bound by their oaths as much as their blood, and take pride in that. (Conversely, this is what would've made the betrayal of Luther and the Fallen all the more difficult for many of them. They're spitting on their sworn fealty, not just rebelling against a father.)

3. Caliban. It was dangerous for far, far more than the Great Beasts. It was classed as a Death World in Imperial archives, and every Dark Angel will have a wealth of tales of hardship and struggle while he grew up there. Think of everything that went wrong in medieval Europe and the Dark Ages, and magnify it by ten. The Order's wars with other knightly orders were crusades that spanned continents and killed hundreds of thousands. The forests stretched on forever, making travel between settlements no easy feat, and communities struggled year after year at the wilderness' edges. The trees bled poisonous sap once you split their bark, making quality lumber even harder to come by, and the beasts in the woodland were all born of savage, lethal breeds - from vermin with no fear of humans, right through to packs of beasts that leave isolated villages devoid of life after they hunt. Locust swarms would leave towns suffering and starving, while outbreaks of Black Plague would devastate entire towns, and knights would have the grim duty of marching in with torches to burn the dead in massive funeral pyres. And the Dark Angels would all be warriors that grew up in this, and survived it. While Caliban would be changed by the Lion's crusade against the Great Beasts, it would still have strong echoes of its Death World roots.

So.

Yeah. Hope that helps.

So, that has got me rethinking about the Dark Angel background and I'm currently re-reading Descent of Angels which has been regarded as the worst Horus Heresy book and I'm quite enjoying it. Not too sure if I'll play a Dark Angel army just yet, but I have been looking at them in a different light.

Interwebz is back! (Hopefully)

2010-11-04T23:42:00.000Z

Firstly I'm really sorry about the lack of updates. Quite simply real life got in the way and I also suffered a bout of having no internet connection (which I'm still not 100% sure my ISP has fixed yet).

I've got some gaming done with some experimentation with Warmachine, plus I've now got my Dark Eldar toys (the codex is ace) and I'm getting a taste for Warhammer again.

I'm going to the UK 40K GT

2010-10-10T15:07:00.000+01:00

Yes, as the title of this post says, I'm off to the UK 40K GT. It's a bit of a shock to be honest as over the last couple of months I've only played four games of 40K (I managed to pop to the club) in which I lost all of them. But then again, I haven't really read the rules and I am still using my Fantasy Daemons in 40K.

I've also been looking at the list of people going and it looks very much like a Who's Who of the best players in the UK (basicly the guys who would regularly get to the GW GT Finals or appear in the top halfs of events), so I don't think I'll be placing very highly unless I can improve how I play. Anyway, I've got roughly six months to paint a new army (currently Dark Eldar) and learn how to play properly and I've set myself a rough goal of winning a couple of games at the event.

Meanwhile, we've got the Fantasy Throne of Skulls going on this weekend and from the sounds of it, it's going ok (although there seems to be a lot of High Elf players with Teclis!). The Bad Dice guys have got a twitter feed going on if anybody is intested - http://twitter.com/baddice_podcast/live-updates

Catch you later

I've had the Dark Eldar Codex in my hands!!!

2010-10-06T22:02:00.000+01:00

I'm feeling a bit sleep deprived at the moment thanks to one of my cats. He's got a nasty habbit of crying everywhere and anywhere for no reason at all and my wife hates it. So because he crys anywhere and everywhere, he does it at night, which wakes my wife up and she yells "Shut Up!!!" and normally throws a soft toy/magazine/lamp/anything to hand in the direction of the cat. This in turn wakes me up and the noisey moggy was squawking all night.

So why am I'm going on about this? Well apart from being sleep deprived which is making me slightly mental, it's one of the reasons why I can't remember any hard facts about the Dark Eldar Codex (that and I was more interested in the pictures as I want to enjoy reading the codex when I get my copy). I was going to hang on until payday but I couldn't resist, so I popped down to my local GW to pre-order a copy of the codex and some Warriors. Now I know some of you are asking why did I do this as you can get things cheaper online, but at the end of the day, I like to have my toys as soon as possible. One of the problems I've had with pre-ordering things from other online stores is that there can be delays as they tend to get the stock a day or so before the release. Ordering it directly from GW means I can get it a week before. Also by buying it direct, GW get the sales figures and will see that another player doesn't really want something Space Marine flavoured but something alien.

But I imagine a lot of you are more interested in the rules and wot not.....

Well, for a start the Warseer Dark Eldar Thread is pretty much spot on. The only things I will disagree with is that Wracks and Grotesques are an Elites Choice rather than a Heavy Choice.

My first impressions of the Codex is that it's very nice and follows the standard layout of a 40K Codex. The artwork is lovely and everything has a expanded background, like Scourges having their bones hollowed out and wings added to them to allow them to fly instead of a jump pack. The background has been fleshed out a lot and I think most people will be pleased with it. I didn't read to closely due to wanting to enjoy it when I get my copy.As for the actual rules, the term Glass Cannon springs to mind as they are very hard hitting but can't really take a punch (much like Craftworld Eldar). There are plenty of wargear options and most seem viable choices. The Dedicated Transports can have FlickerFields, which basicly give a 5+ Invunerable Save to the model (although I'm not a 100% sure if the Raider has it as default or as an upgrade. The Venom does have it as default).

Again I still think the army will prove popular for a few months but I think it will be tricky for a lot of players to adapt to if they have been used to playing with Marines. If like myself you like Glass Cannon armies then this is a good army for you.

+ + + UK 40K GT + + + (part twoish)

2010-10-04T20:45:00.000+01:00

Just a quickie but the UK 40K GT Tickets have gone on sale and you can get them by going to http://www.uk40kgt.co.uk/.

I'll be honest, I would love to go but with real life being a mess at the moment, I doubt I would manage to finish an army in time. Hopefully I'll be able to get in assuming that things clear up for me, but for yourself you best be quick as half the tickets have already gone!!!

+ + + UK 40K GT + + +

2010-10-02T11:33:00.000+01:00

I've suddenly found myself with a Saturday to myself where I'm not working or rushing around for anybody (apart from my Cats who have just had a big fight and I need to clean the fur up). So it gives me chance to mention the following....

Games Workshop for the 2010/2011 Tournament Season have rejiggled their tournament events from the cut-throat ones we enjoy, to a more friendly and hobby orientated one and then got rid of any heats or finals and made them seasonal. Many people were annoyed, as it was fun to go to such an event to find out who was the best (I've been to a Warhammer Fantasy one and it was fun). So some of the regular 40K GT players got together and came up with The UK 40K GT, with the idea being that we could have something simular to the old style GTs. I'll just hand you over to the event organizer for a few words now.....

What is this all about?

Unhappy with the changes to the GW Throne of Skulls Grand Tournament?

Wish someone would organise an event like the old GW GT’s?

With the change in format to the GW Throne of Skulls Grand Tournament we feel that there is now a demand for a player driven Grand Tournament, where the focus is on a players gaming prowess.

Announcing the UK 40K GT. This is an event organised by a number of well known tournament players and members of the UK gaming club community with the aim of providing a non comp, no holds barred event for gamers.

We hope the UK 40K GT will expand over the years to become one of the UK's premier 40k tournaments. However as with all things we must start small and realistic, therefore for its first year we are holding a single tournament at Maelstrom Games Eye of the Storm venue on the 26th and 27th March 2011. We envisage this event will prove so successful that we are able to hold regional heats across the UK with a percentage of top finishers qualifying for a Grand Final to decide the UK’s ultimate 40K champion. A number of potential venues across the UK have already pledged their future support and we need your help to make this happen! Yes, this year will be only a single event, but the more popular it proves the greater our scope becomes to expand for the future. Therefore this really is going to be a truly player driven event as its increased size, scope and success will depend upon the support you give.

As we have said this year’s inaugural tournament is being held at Maelstrom Games Eye of the Storm venue on the 26th and 27th March 2011. Tickets will be £35 which includes a hot/cold buffet lunch on both days, and an evening meal on Saturday. Tickets will be sold on a first come first served basis and details on how to purchase tickets will be announced on 4th October 2010 at 6pm GMT.

The event will consist of 6 games at 1750pts over 2 days with no composition restrictions beyond you may only use current and official Games Workshop Warhammer 40,000 Codices (so no Forge World) with the standard force organisation chart. The first round will be a random draw, with subsequent rounds being drawn on a swiss system because if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best!

For full details of the event please download the RULES PACK

There will be a minimum painting standard to be adhered to, similar to that employed over the years at the GW Throne of Skulls Grand Tournaments. This is because all of us prefer to face painted armies across professional built boards and terrain. There will be awards for the best painted army at the event, but there will be no soft scores to speak of. Your final ranking at the event will be based solely upon your gaming prowess. We understand that this may not appeal to everyone, but we feel there are plenty of excellent events across the UK with a stronger hobby over gaming focus; such as Games Workshops own Throne of Skulls Grand Tournament. That is not to say however, that we will tolerate poor sportsmanship (WAACer's) at our events, as we believe that it is entirely possible to play both tough and fair. Winning and having fun are not mutually exclusive and we hope to prove that with this event.

We have also set up a small forum; http://independentukgrandtournaments.freeforums.org. This is intended to be a venue for people to discuss the particulars of the UK 40K GT, whether that be submitting a rules question for the FAQ team, discussing travel arrangements, army lists, or even just laying down some smack talk.

Hopefully this has whetted your appetite for the event and you are already ear marking you calendars for the 26th and 27th March 2011. As we have mentioned above details on how to purchase tickets will be announced on 4th October 2010 at 6pm GMT.

Until then however, "Stay Frosty"

Regards

The UK 40K GT Committee: Bunny, Kong, Lash Machine, Lord Flashheart, Mattrs, MJayC50, Nature Boy and Skcuzzlebumm

So if you want to play in this sort of event, keep you eye out on http://independentukgrandtournaments.freeforums.org for more information. I'm hoping to go, especially as I was already aiming to do a 40K GT style event.

On another completely different note, I've joined The Bell of Lost Souls Network, so you may have noticed a new widget popped up on the right. All this means is that my blog gets exposed to a lot more people. Also The Bell of Lost Souls is quite a good site with lots views and comments from different people in the hobby. Pop over and have a look.

Why I think the Dark Eldar Bandwagon won't last very long

2010-09-29T20:18:00.003+01:00

It's been a busy few days since I last posted, involving the following...

Sitting on the table next to Bobby Davro when me and my wife went out for a meal on Saturday
Sitting in traffic on the way down to Essex thanks to work, and doing my best not to ram people due to them being stupid drivers and slowing down the flow of traffic (all I can say was I was very very angry about a two hour trip taking four hours!)
Sitting in a hotel listening to a co-worker moaning about things not being right with the hotel
Sitting around thinking what fun I can have with the new Dark Eldar

The dust has settled from Games Day, and GW have shown off possibly the best minature range that they have ever done (in my opinion of course). You can find loads of rumours and pictures over on the Warseer Dark Eldar Rumour Thread, but to sum it up, lots of people are excited.

As usual, when lots of people get excited about a new army the term Bandwagon gets banded around a lot. Lots of veteran players get disgruntled due to sticking with the race through thick and thin and then seeing lots of people playing with the army, thus ruining the 'unique' appeal about the army, but we also see other players getting annoyed as people are jumping on the next 'hard' army. Personally I think the Dark Eldar bandwagon will slow down after the release due to two things - The models look very detailed and the army will run like a glass cannon.

So why do I think this? Well lets look at the models. Firstly, they have to be some of the most detailed models that GW have produced. We have armoured plates all over the place as well as fine details making the models look very nice. The average gamer tends to get put off with things like this as they want to have their models done quickly and look good. Next up is the Glass Cannon. For those of you not familiar with the term, it basicly means for the Dark Eldar that they will hit hard but can't take any damage back. With an army of lots of Toughness 3 models with 5+ saves as well as Open Top AV 10 transports, it's easy to see this. Average gamers won't like this as they want to be able to win after a couple of games practise rather than quite a few games practise.

So because of this, I think interest in the army will fizzle out after a bit. Personally, I'm still looking forwards to them, as I want to improve my painting and I quite like playing with Glass Cannon armies. Then again, I could be completely wrong. Chaos Daemons for 40k were an army everybody said would be brilliant but interest fizzled out after a bit until recently (mainly thanks to Fiends I think) and they are proving to be quite popular.

Anyway, what do you think about this (or bandwagons in general)? Whack a comment up and let me know!

Games Day this year might be cool

2010-09-24T23:23:00.000+01:00

I sit here at home just finishing off a bit of work while sipping whiskey and half watching Predator in the background and my mind is cast towards Sunday. On Sunday, we have UK Games Day kicking off and frankly it sounds like it's actually going to be good.

The last Games Day I went to was over 12 years ago when I was about 18 and while I enjoyed it, as I got older I never really fancied going to one because of the following reasons:

I felt like I was paying a lot of money to wander around effectively a Games Workshop
With the Internet, you actually got to see more cool stuff than being there on the day
Far too many people who need to be introduced to a shower and soap

But now being 30 I have a slight change in how I see Games Day and I have been very tempted to go this year, just quite simply because I haven't been to one for a long time now. Add on top the fact that GW have also just recently added that they would be revealing a lot about Dark Eldar and have Phil Kelly and Jes Goodwin showing things off, I was really looking towards going. But again work has popped up and I have to travel down to London on that day, so I can't go.

So I was a bit sad about that, but then I found out that GW are doing live updates during the day, so hopefully I too can join in and see some of the cool stuff going on! Visit the Games Workshop Website on Sunday to see more!

PS - I'm really looking forwards to seeing the Dark Eldar Models!!!

Is Jes Bothered?

2010-09-23T20:59:00.001+01:00

So, is Jes Goodwin bothered by the blurry picture of the Incubi floating around on the web? That is the question that has popped up on a couple of forums recently.

For those of you with a big confused look on your face at the moment, I'll explain/waffle for a bit. Firstly, Jes Goodwin is probably the best minature sculpter on the planet and has had a hand in much of Games Workshop's success. Along with John Blanche, Jes has shaped and developed both the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universes as well as sculpting the most iconic thing associated with Games Workshop - The Space Marines.

Nower days, Jes is fairly high up in the company but he sculpts now and then with probably the most recent thing being the Cold One Knights for the Dark Elves.So naturally, when people heard he was involved with doing Dark Eldar concepts a couple of years ago, they got excited. And now we come to a few days ago and somebody has put up a blurry picture from the Dark Eldar Codex and a lot of people have gotten excited. But there are a few people who are spreading rumours that Jes is upset that the picture has leaked and is throwing his toys out of the pram, yet they can't prove if he is annoyed or not.

At the end of the day, I think this. Jes, probably doesn't give a hoot what some random person on the web says about his work, because the web person can find it very easy to hide behind a pseudonym and moan. He may be annoyed about the leak, but then again we have no idea if it was GW (or even Jes) who leaked the picture (which is something that they have done in the past). We'll find out more over the next few days as Games Day approaches but I'm looking forwards to seeing proper photos and the actual models!

Edit - I've just realised that some people might mistake the picture as Jes. It's not and is in fact Katherine Tate as one of her comedic characters, Lauren Cooper, who's catchphase is "Am I bothered?"

Blurry Things and Laughing at Aaron Dembski-Bowden

2010-09-21T22:59:00.001+01:00

Right, lets get it out of the way. Over on Warseer, you may notice the Dark Eldar Rumour Thread, and with in said thread there is the following blurry picture....

So first glance at the new Incubi which look like a cool mishmash of Eldar Aspect Warrior and LotR Uruk-hai. Looking at the image, the models appear to be sculpted by Jes Goodwin and rumour has it that most of the Dark Eldar range has been done by him. We should see and hear more come Sunday due to Games Day.

On a completely different note, Aaron Dembski-Bowden yet again proves why he is so frigging cool. Over on his blog, he is listing a few reasons why he hates Star Trek. All I can say is pop over to his blog and have a read as it's so funny and it's great reading about what he is thinking about. Plus whilst you are reading about that, buy some of his books as he is a really good Black Library author. In fact he is just a cool guy, as he's quite happy to discuss things with his fans and importantly he seems to 'get' the universe he is writing in.

Run! The Dark Eldar cometh!!!

2010-09-13T20:13:00.000+01:00

It's been a curious weekend for me and my wife. It initially started with me having to build two servers quickly to replace a failing system at work and then spend all weekend supporting the guys who managed the app and making sure it was up and running. We did this and I can put a nice big tick next to it.

Next up, a Blind, frail and elderly cat was handed over to my Mother-in-law as a passer by noticed it walking in circles in the road. Because she has three cats, a dog and her house is generaly noisey, me and my wife said it could stay with us over the weekend until we could drop it off at the local RSPCA shelter. The weekend was also spend mopping up cat wee, calming our cats down as they weren't very happy with it being in our house, and also trying to stop it going under the kitchen units and getting lost. Cat was dropped off this morning and thankfully her owners were found and contacted. Another big tick

So although I'm quite chuffed with myself today due to those two things, I'm even more excited about the following....

GW have confirmed that Dark Eldar are out in November!!!

Hell must have frozen over! Normally GW are quite cagey about letting people know what's coming out as they fear that the knowledge hurts sales as people find out what is in the book and then aren't excited when it actually comes out. This is kind of true, but I don't think so in this case. This has to be one of the most eagerly waited releases from GW in the last 12 years (apart from Chaos Dwarfs), and I can see it being a very happy Christmas for the guys at GW, as I can see this being a big seller! I know I'm pretty much sold!

Only a mother could love them....

2010-09-11T16:05:00.000+01:00

... the new High Elf plastics. Only a mother could love the fuglyness that the ooze. You might of guessed that I'm not very impressed with the new plastics, which are now up for Advance Order from Games Workshop. I was really looking forwards to these and I was even half tempted to go to Games Day as I might be able to pick them up early, but after seeing the pictures I've changed my mind. Now it's not that these models are poorly sculpted, it just that they had quite a high level to meet due to the metal models that they were replacing. If I'm quite and brutally honest, they don't. For example, the metal Pheonix Guard are nice and slender and basicly ooze Elveness. Then we have the new plastic Pheonix Guard (see picture) and they look like that they have been down the gym bulking up on Weightgain.

What's frustrating though is that I've wanted a High Elf army for years and I was tempted to give one a go as soon as I heard about the Island of Blood boxed set containing some, but these new models have put me off them. At least with my interest in WFB being low, I'm not hugely disapointed and I can get back to playing with Boltguns and Chainswords.

Pinkie Winkies come out to play!

2010-09-08T19:47:00.001+01:00

Introduction

For the last year or so I have mainly been playing WFB and I was enjoying it. Then 8th edition popped out and I liked it, but for some reason I wasn't getting excited about it and I found that I was getting interested in 40K again. So I see if I can get a game at my local club and have no luck, so I do something slightly silly and dangerous and arrange a game against some random guy off the internet! (please note if you are under 18 I would recommend against doing this due to the protental problems and I don't want the blame for it!!!)

Over on Dakka Dakka, Mercer aka Mark answered my call and we arranged for a game and off I pop up the motorway to visit him. Having not played 40K for over a year, my choice of armies was a bit spartan. I had my Necrons which needed repairing as they were used to decorate my birthday cake for my 30th. The fact they needed repairing was my fault as my wife nearly dropped the cake while trying to keep me upright when we went home. Having drunk lots of beer and whiskey, I don't remember this, so quite clearly it didn't happen

This left me with my Daemons which I could use in 40K as long as people didn't mind the square bases. Mark wanted to play a 2000 point game which I just about managed with the models to hand and only very minor proxying. I took the following....

The Pinkie Winkies - A 2000 point Chaos Daemon Army

HQ
Lord of Change with a Instrument of Chaos
Herald of Slaanesh with Soporific Musk; Transfixing Gaze; Unholy Might; Chariot of Slaanesh
Herald of Slaanesh with Soporific Musk; Transfixing Gaze; Unholy Might; Chariot of Slaanesh

Elite
3 Flamers with a Bolt of Tzeentch
3 Flamers with a Bolt of Tzeentch

Troops
13 Daemonettes
12 Bloodletters
11 Horrors with a Bolt of Tzeentch
11 Horrors with a Bolt of Tzeentch
12 Plaguebearers
12 Plaguebearers

Fast Attack
10 Flesh Hounds

Total : 1993 pts

I was quite aware that this wasn't the most effective list, but it was what I had to hand, plus this was my first time playing in about a year and with this army. I wasn't expecting to do very well and was aiming not to get tabled or loose very badly.

So off I pop up the motorway and I get to Mark's just as he's setting the board up. The board is a 5' x 4' board and is set up as a deserted/runined city block with a lot of terrain, which is what Mark normally plays over. That doesn't boad well for my Deep Striking army, but them's the breaks! Mark had taken an Eldar army he's been using for a while...

The Lost (aka the Purple Wurples) - A 2000 point Eldar Army

HQ
Farseer doom, guide & spirit stones
Farseer guide & runes of warding

Elites
5 x Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent with twin-linked brightlance & shuriken cannon
5 x Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent with twin-linked shuriken cannon & shuriken cannon
5 x Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent with twin-linked shuriken cannon & shuriken cannon

Troops
10 x Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent with twin-linked brightlance & shuriken cannon
10 x Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent with twin-linked brightlance & shuriken cannon
10 x Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent with twin-linked brightlance & shuriken cannon
6 x Guardian jetbikes with 2 x shuriken cannons

Heavy Support
Fire Prism
Fire Prism

Total : 1992 pts

Deployment

Mark rolled for the mission and we got Seize Ground and Pitched Battle. Mark then lost the roll off and I picked to go second. Although I hadn't played in ages, I wasn't stupid as this allowed me to 'waste' a turn of Mark's shooting before my army turned up. He then deploys his Wave Serpents centrally and hold the Jetbikes back behind a large shrine ruin. He then finishes his deployment with the Fire Prisms in a buddy system in the left corner of his side of the board.

I split my army up into Waves, with the first wave made up of both Heralds, Bloodletters, both Plaguebearers and the Hounds, and the Second wave had the rest of my army. My plan was stick down the fighty units first using the Plaguebearers as bunkers to protect the rest of the wave, and then the rest of my army comes down and shoots him up. Of course the Chaos Gods decide that this is a silly idea and pick my Second Wave to come down first. Ho hum...

We then get ready to start and Mark realises that we didn't put any objectives down (I play all inocent and blame forgetfulness and old age)! We then agree to play on kill points as it stopped messing around redeploying and Mark would have had an advantage with his deployment if we placed objectives now.

Turn 1

Mark plays cagey and moves his units 6" forwards and shields the rears on the Serpents by doing the back to back trick.

My turn and my Pinkie Winkies start appearing on the board. I pick both my Horror units to arrive first as I wanted to form a firebase. They come down in the centre of the board but one scatters to my left and leaves me slightly worried about how safely my army will come down. I then next pick the Flamers which I try to place down behind some LOS blocking cover but one scatters and they land in a large tower ruin but pass their dangerous terrain test. Next my Daemonettes come in and I try to place them in some open space near the tower ruin. Finally my Lord of Change comes in and I aim to place him behind another big ruin, but he has other ideas and scatters onto one of Mark's Serpents. Rolling on the mishap table, I get a 3 so Mark places him in a crater as far back as possible for me to not get any shots off but close enough for him to try a driveby or a long range duck hunt.

In my shooting phase, my Horrors blast some bolts at a single Serpent and get crew stunned.The Daemonettes try and make a run for cover but don't quite make it as they get distracted by something shiney and then the LoC trys to Moonwalk out of it's crater, in an effort to put some distance between him and the Eldar but doesn't quite make it

Turn 2

Mark identifys that the LoC is a threat to his tanks and drives up a Wave Serpent containing lots of Fire Dragons towards him and they all bail out hoping that they are in range. The rest of the army shuffles around to unleash the Avengers to try and blow the horrors up in to little bits and then the Fire Prisms move a little bit to get better LOS on the Daemonettes.

His Farseers then cast psychic powers, with Doom going on the horror unit nearest the stunned Wave Serpent and the Guide on both Avenger units going to shoot at the two Horror untis (we realised that this should have been done at the start of the turn but as this is a friendly we don't worry about it). In the Shooting phase, the Fire Prisms blast and blast at the Daemonettes until only 3 remain. The Avengers then unleash a storm of shuriken at the horrors and each Horror unit ends up with 3 models remaining. Finally the Fire Dragons finish polishing their meltas and fire away at the LoC along with pretty much every available brightlance and shuriken cannon in range or LoS. After the dust settled, the Greater Daemon still stood but minus a couple of wounds. Mark was not impressed!

He then Assaults with his Avengers who jumped out the stunned Serpent and charge the Horrors . Unsurprisingly they smash them good, destroy the unit and consolidate into some terrain.

In my turn I pray to the gods asking for the rest of my army and get rewarded with a flurry of 2's for my reserve rolls! One of the Heralds hears my call and she deep strikes in near the depleted Daemonettes hoping to be a threat to the Fire Prisms. She scatters into some craters terrain but passes the dangerous terrain test. My Lord of Change attempts to get out of it's crater but just manages to crawl out of it and I move my remaining Horrors to try and get them in position to kill the Fire Dragons. I put the remaining Daemonettes up against some LOS blocking terrain in an effort to be all gamey and deny a Kill Point for a turn or two and I then shift my Flamers in the ruins the ground floor to the first floor.

Shooting wise, my Flamers take aim at the Avengers who had killed their horror siblings and managed to kill half the unit. The surving Horrors blast away at the Fire Dragons, killing all of them and then Big Bird destroys their Serpent with a bolt of tzeentch.

Kill points so far.... Eldar 1 / Daemons 2

Turn 3

Mark starts his turn by moving a Wave Serpent carrying some Fire Dragon through some terrain ok, and he then moves the other one carrying Fire Dragons through terrain but it gets immobilised. The rest of the army colisdates around to get in good firing positions, and the 5 man Avenger unit back into terrain while the full man squad moves into some terrain to get some cover.

He then shoots with the Fire Prisms at the Herald scoring two wounds on it, which I wasn't bothered by as there are 3 more left and I can survive another round of shooting before I can carve them up. He then blasts the Horror unit with some shuriken cannon fire all but one. The LoC then gets peppered by all the bright lances and shuriken cannons Mark had avaiable but he fails to cause any damage.

In my turn I offer some assorted sweets and stuffed toys to the Gods, and this time I get the rest of my army apart from a single unit of Plaguebearers (who obviously aren't impressed with a toy giraffe).

The Herald deep strikes in, trying to land by the other one and gets in ok. My Bloodletters have different ideas and deep strike in, landing behind Mark's army but scatter onto his models. One Mishap later and they are sent back home to the warp! The Flesh Hounds attempt the same and come in ok and I try to bring the Plaguebearers in to support them, but they land in terrain, fail two dangerous terrain rolls but pass their invulnerables ok. I bring out a sneaky unit of Flamers which had been stealthly stalking along side some ruins in an effort to try and bag some kill points this turn, who are in turn followed by the remaining Daemonettes ready to assault and blast the full strength Avengers. The wounded Herald decides to come along with them and I fly the LoC towards the centre while the single Horror runs away.

The Shooting phase has the flamers wind of Chaosing the Avengers causing 14 wounds, which in turn leaves a single Avenger who passes his morale check. The Flamers in the tower, wind of chaosing at a Wave Serpent closest to them and manage to immobilise it. The LoC trys to throw a bolt at the immobilised serpent but does no damage.

Next up is my assault phase, and I have the Daemonettes charging the Lone Rang..Avenger and they rip it to pieces. The wounded Herald charges a Wave Serpent and smashes it to bits.

Kill points so far... Eldar 2 / Daemons 4

Turn 4

Mark cackles manicly and starts his turn casting Doom on the Hounds.He then moves the Fire Prisms, backing them away from the Herald. The Fire Dragons from the immobilised Serpent get out and move through terrain towards my Flesh Hounds, and the Jetbikes that had been hiding all game come out to play, aiming to add to the party gathering around my poor flesh hounds. He then moves all his Serpents 6" so I'll need 4+ to hit in combat, but one of them containing Fire Dragons move up to perform a drive by on my LoC.

In the Shooting phase, my hounds die thanks to the Avengers, Fire Dragons and Jetbikes. He then kills the LoC (although I found out afterwards that I had been playing him wrong and rolling a 4++ save rather than 3++! I think this would have left him with a wound!). The Fire Prisms shoot at the Herald coming towards them but no damage is caused, and then the rest of the army still fails to kill the lone horror! The remaining Avenger squad tries to prove that Eldar can shoot, by picking on the Daemonettes. A hail of shuriken later and only two are killed leaving one and denying the Kill Point!

In my turn, I try offering a Bullseye special speedboat to the remaining Plaguebearers, who arrive, get too excited about it and scatters onto one of Mark's units, Another 3 on the mishap table and Mark puts them in the bottom right corner of my side, as this will keep them out of the game. I suffle my units around to get them into good shooting positions or assault positions.

In the Shooting phase, my pinkie winkies fire away but don't cause any damage, apart from the lone horror shooting at the Fire Dragons. It manages to kill three which causes a Moral check and the unit legs it! Kill Point to me!

Assault time and the Plaguebearers charge and kill a 5 man Avenger unit and conslidate ready to try and fight something next turn.

Kill points so far.... Eldar 5 / Daemons 5

Turn 5

Doom is cast on the Plaguerbearers and Guide gets casted on the last Avenger unit and Fire Dragons. Mark then moves his Fire Dragons through terrain move their Wave Serpent out of terrain to target what it can. The Fire Prisms move around to target the Plaguebearers.

His Shooting phase is quite simply blasting the Plaguebearers with both Prisms, Fire Dragons, Jetbikes, Avengers and a single brightlance and he wipes them out. He then manages to kill the lone horror which has been plaguing him all game!

With the game protentially ending next turn, I know I need to kill three things to win the game. So my Daemons suffle around with the wounded Herald ready to assault a Wave Serpent, the next herald to get a Fire Prism and I then shift the lone Daemonette out of dodge, as I don't want her dieing if the Flamers take out the immoblised Wave Serpernt.

In the Shooting phase, the Flamers blast the Serpent and do nothing! Right so I can only get a draw at least now.

In the assault phase both Heralds fail to wreck their victims (although the Fire Prism suffers a Weapon Destroyed).

Mark rolls to see if turn 6 happens, but it doesn't.

Kill points in the end... Eldar 7 / Daemons 5 - Eldar Victory!

Summary

Although I lost, I was quite pleased with the result as it could have easily been a win or a draw. I was pleased that I had managed to cause a lot of damage to his army as well as not having my army wiped off the board. I think Mark was expecting a game a lot easier than he had, as I mentioned I hadn't played in a while and was bringing my WFB army as my 40k one. I made some mistakes, with the biggest one being the hounds being plonked down as target practise, but I did have some luck when it came to my lone horror and Loc surviving as long as they did considering what was being shot at them. I think Mark made a couple of mistakes by being too fixated on the lone horror and LoC when he could have been watching out for my Flamers. The Pinkie Winkies will get a few more outings as I'm waiting to see what the Dark Eldar are like before I commit to a 40K army.

You can read Mark's Bat Rep HERE. It has some pictures and is slightly different as I think he got a bit muddled up towards the end of the report. (but I think we both have a little bit)

You can also have a look at Mark's blog - http://www.imperiusdominatus.com . There's loads of stuff on there.

Dakka Dakka Dakka!!!

2010-09-06T20:52:00.000+01:00

I've really been getting the bug to play 40K recently. I know a lot of people are going crazy about Warhammer Fantasy and too be honest, it's a nice game and I enjoy it, but I have a scratch that needs scratching and 40K it is.

I haven't played much 40K now for at least a year as I got quite into WFB (which is why I think I've kind of gone off it at the moment) and it's a bit refreshing coming back to the scene and working out what is hot and what is not. Slight problem is that my Necrons have been damaged and need repairing, so ideally I would like to paint a new army up, but with Dark Eldar possibly coming out in November I want to hold fire until I hear more about that. In the mean while I have a Pink Daemon army for WFB which oddly enough I can use in 40K as long as my opponents don't mind the square bases. Luckly enough, I've joined Dakka Dakka and found an opponent not far from where I live. I'm off to play him tomorrow using my Daemons, so I might post a battle rep this week if I can remember (or just steal his as he posts them on Dakka Dakka.)

Here's looking at Blue

2010-08-27T20:42:00.000+01:00

As many people may have gathered, Codex Pictures have released a trailer for the Ultramarines Movie and whilst many people have moaned about it because they were expecting something like the Dawn of War intros, I think it's quite good. Bearing in mind that they haven't got a massive budget but have managed to get a veteran cast to do the voiceovers as well as Dan Abnett to write the story, I think this is going to be good.

Anyway, watch below if you don't believe me....

I think it looks cool!

It's oh so quiet....

2010-08-27T20:33:00.000+01:00

Not too sure what to say, but I've been very slack with updating this blog and there is one reason for it - WORK! I've just been really busy with work and what is even more annoying is that I've had to drop out of the Warlords GT as well as the Mansfield Maul due to the dreaded 'W' word. It's also had me working some long hours where I haven't had chance to do much gaming either.

But I have managed to get a couple of games of 8th edition in. Both games where against my mate Stevyn, who being a copper works dodgy hours as well and this was our chance to both see what 8th edition was like. We decided to play 1000 points as it meant we could hopefully get lots of games in (which was good as in-between learning the rules I got called out several times for work). Our first game was me running Wood Elves and Stevyn running Dwarfs. I brought a Level 4 Spellweaver with the Lore of Life backed up by a couple of units of Glade Guard, a unit of Glade Riders with a Noble (who had a Hail of Doom Arrow) and a unit of Treekin. Stevyn brought a Lord, Runesmith, big block of Dwarfs, big block of Hammerers, a unit of Crossbows and a Cannon. It was a fun game with me whittling down the Dwarfs from afar and them marching towards me. In the end it was a Win to Stevyn as while I had killed most of his army I wasn't able to finish units off and under 8th, that's how you get Victory Points. As I had Wood Elves, Stevyn was able to just sneeze near them to kill them off, although the Lore of Life did help out with me making units tougher or bringing models back to life. Second game was me using Daemons and Stevyn using Dark Elves. He smashed me good in this thanks to being able to single out my Herald of Slaanesh and then having a Hydra Thunderstomp it's way through my army. Good game though.

Bye Bye 7th Edition!!!

2010-08-02T20:59:00.000+01:00

You may be wondering why it's been a little bit quiet on the blog. Well, I've been really busy with work due to a few last minute projects, but I've also been to a couple of tournaments as a last blow out of 7th edition. My collectors edition of 8th has been sitting on my shelf for weeks now, because I was too worried about reading it and forgetting all my 7th edition knowledge. Now these events are finally over and done with I can get cracking with 8th edition like everybody else.

The first tournament I went to was the Dragon Slayers Summer Bash held at Maelstrom Games. This was run by Tim Fisher from the Dragon Slayers and was a mini run up event for the Midlands Open, which was held a week later. After much humming and arrhing I ended up taking my pink Daemons as they were painted up and I only had to paint up a unit of Bloodletters to make it fit under the Midlands Open comp (which was good as I was really busy at work!). In the end I settled upon the following 2150 list...

Lord of Change - Lvl 4 Wizard, Master of Sorcery, Tzeentch's Will
Herald of Slaanesh on a Chariot
Herald of Slaanesh on a Chariot
10 Horrors
10 Horrors
12 Bloodletters
12 Deamonettes with Champ
5 Furies
5 Furies
10 Flesh Hounds
5 Flamers

Basicly the lists were 2250 but because I had a flying model with Strength 6 or more, I could only take 2150 and my flying model was worth extra points. The army basicly works by killing more than what is killed itself and keeping the Lord of Change alive as he's worth loads of points. I knew as long as he was alive I would have a draw or minor loss if everything else was dead. So I went off the the Dragon Slayers Bash and played three games.

DSB - Game 1 - Matt with Empire
Matt had brought a generic 7th edition empire army. So it had a War Alter, Steam Tank, and as much shooting as the comp would allow. I always feel Deamons struggle against these armies as it's basicly a gunline with good spells against Daemons (i.e the War Alter and it's bound spells). This game was good as we were ripping chunks out of each others armies but in the end it was a Win to Matt as he managed to push a bit harder and clean all my units up apart from the Lord of Change and a unit of Daemonettes who were in a Watch Tower.

DSB - Game 2 - Adam with Dwarfs
Adam was running a Dwarf army with no Anvil and not a lot of shooting. Yes that's right it's a fighty Dwarf army (three big blocks backed up by artillery). I got lucky with terrain and was able to hide a lot of my army and tried to bait him with horrors and hounds while the rest of my army swept round the flanks to take out the shooting units. Worked a treat but I gave half the Flesh Hounds while trying to bait him (otherwise his fighty blocks would have stayed still). This gave me a win and another good game and great opponent.

DSB - Game 3 - Gav with Lizardmen
Gav had a Lizardmen army with a Slaan in Temple Guard Bunker, a Engine, Cold Ones, and then some chaff to bulk the army out. I decided to take beasts to try and stop the engine/cold ones from doing things when I should have stuck with Heavens (like I did all tournament). This game was basicly a right blood bath in the middle of the board in which Gav came out on top, and then we had a Benny Hill sketch for the rest of the game with a lone Terradon chasing my Lord of Change around. Very fun game but a win to Gav.

In the end I ended up 9th out of 16 which I was pleased with and had me feeling optimistic for the Midlands Open.

So a week later I'm at the Midlands Open on my own turf and played five games.

MO - Game 1 - Andy with Dark Elves
I was playing Andy who I had grudged as I knew of him from the tourney scene (he gets mentioned a lot of Heelanhammer) and we had been exchanging emails on the run up to the event as I had been helping out a bit with the organisation (techy bits with hosting the rules pack). Andy brought a fighty Dark Elf army with Black Guard, Executioners, Spear Elves and had minimal magic, a cauldron and as much shooting as he could. I was dreading this game as Dark Elves with lots of shooting and fighting elements were a tough army to take on. I debated about hiding everything, but in the end I decided to be aggressive and push forwards. This caused Andy to have a brainfart and start being defensive and he started moving backwards. He then had some bad luck as I caused a panic test on the Executioners (I blasted a unit of shades away) who ran off the board and gave me loads of points. Andy managed to claw some points back but it ended with a Win to me.

MO - Game 2 - Rich with Empire
Another Empire army with a Steam Tank, War Alter and lots of shooting. This was a nice game but I really struggled in this game and when my Flesh Hounds bounced off the War Alter, Rich capitalised upon this and then took everything out apart from the Lord of Change. Ended with a Win to Rich

MO - Game 3 - Steve with Wood Elves
Steve was having a bit of a rough time with the Wood Elves and again he had a rough time this game. He brought a Lvl 3, two units of Glade Guard, dryads, two units of Wardancers, unit of Wild Riders, Treekin and a Treeman. Steve forgot that half my army had flaming attacks and after turn two he had lost the Treekin and Treeman. To be fair to him, if they had got into close combat, I think he would has smashed me up good and proper but once I had removed those units I was able to clean up the rest of the army. Steve didn't make it easy but with Daemons and a bit of luck I was able to remove most of his army apart from the Glade Guard, his lvl 3 and a lone Wild Rider hiding. A win to me and a good game. Steve has even grudged me for the Warrington tournament in six weeks time!

MO - Game 4 - Jim with Combat Lizardmen
When I found out that I was facing a Lizardman army, I was expecting something simular to what I faced at the Dragon Slayer Bash. I was pleasantly surprised to see a combat army with a Old Blood on a Carnosaur, two units of Cold Ones with heros buffing them up, a Engine, and then skinks with kroxigor. This was a very bloody game where we killed loads of things on both sides but I was a bit too wasteful taking things out (like my chariots against the Engine) and it ended with most of my army dead and Jim with about a third of his still around. This game him a Win and it was a nice game against something a bit different.

MO - Game 5 - Jon with Skaven
This was the one race I didn't want to fight all weekend. Skaven are fast, fighty and random. Jon had what most people consider the standard Skaven army (furnace, cannon, clanrats, giant rats, etc) but he did have the Abomination, Rat Ogres, and not a lot of magic. I was quite worried about this army but we had a really fun game. I managed to take down the Abomination with my flamers after it had slaughtered the Deamonettes, as well as causing lots of damage to his army with a big comet going off. I made a big mistake by not noticing a unit of giant rats just being on a hill which my Flesh Hounds were hiding behind, and the rats charged in the flank and took the unit out after a few rounds of combat. If I had have spotted this I might of got a draw out of the game, but it ended with a win to Jon.

This left me with two wins and three losses over the weekend, but got me 50 battle points as I didn't get big losses and I managed to come 41st! I was really pleased as this was my best finish at a tournament and I had a fun time seeing 7th edition out.

Complaining Idiots

2010-07-20T20:29:00.000+01:00

At the moment, I'm away for work and currently sitting in my hotel room chilling out before I wander down to the bar for my tea and a few beers. I was a little disappointed with my hotel when I first booked in as it felt a bit like a nursing home, but over the last few days it's grown on me. The staff seem friendly, I've had a very nice nights sleep as the bed is nice and comfortable, and plus it's a golfing hotel so I've been able to while away a few hours on the driving range. My co-workers have done nothing but moan. One who moans for the sake of moaning has complained about everything, while the other has strange eating habits and had a moan when the hotel staff got confused about his food order (like expecting them to cook something last thing and bring it to his room so he can eat it around two in the morning when it's all cold and soggy).

Anyway, what I'm really getting at with this post is some comments I've noticed about the new toys GW are bringing out in a few weeks. Look at the following picture...

Three plastic Bloodcrushers. Seems innocent enough as the models look very nice and being plastic means they will be very easy to assemble and convert. Now bearing in mind that GW charge £18 for one metal one, we can expect to shell out £32.50 for these three models. So I can have one metal one for £18 or three for £32.50. Seems quite a deal to me as each one is £10.83 (roughly), while to have a similar amount in metal would cost me £54 and each one would be identical. Now I don't want to state the obvious but the plastic ones seem a very good bargain. Yet I have seen people complaining about the cost for some strange reason. I don't know if it's because it's plastic or something else but I just can't believe people sometime. Yes it's an expensive hobby and GW do mess up sometime by charging something silly or whacking prices up for no reason (well no reason to us the consumer), but just as often they come out with some fantastic kits at a affordable price.

Anyway enough ranting off me, the bar is calling!

40K Radio is back.... Kind of

2010-07-15T21:09:00.000+01:00

Yup it's back. Everybody's favourite 40K Podcast. Well kind of. For those not in the know, 40K Radio closed up a few months back (see my ramblings about it here) but the world craved a 40K Podcast and while there are some good ones out there (I quite like The 11th Company or Worlds End Radio, although WER does other systems, so isn't pure 40K), 40K Radio was the most popular. Personally, I liked bits of 40K Radio but found it a bit dull when it came to their codex insight (they covered the codex unit by unit and it was quite boring) or just rambled on about how much beer they have drunk. Anyway it's been brought by Battlefoam and they are starting from scratch with new presenters. I've only managed to listen to the first 10 minutes of the introduction episode (to let people know it's back but with new people) but so far I think it's going to be good.

8th has landed

2010-07-11T11:27:00.000+01:00

As many many people are probably aware, Warhammer 8th edition is out now, and I can say that I think it's the best version of the rules that they have done so far. My collectors edition has arrived and has been signed by some of the Games Designers at the Warhammer Launch yesterday. I didn't get to see anything new or pester anybody for anything new as I was very hungover due to my birthday party the night before, so I wasn't functioning quite right. I enjoyed my time there (apart from in the Miniature Museum where some smelly oink farted) and I just wish that I could have gone earlier in the day (we got there around 15:00) but people kept on putting drinks in my hands at my party.

Not much else to say apart from after speaking with the designers, you can see that they really do care about what they do, and are just as passionate about the game as you or I. Now for some pictures of my book!

I'm dead chuffed with it, and although there are things I would like to change (like gold edging to the pages and a different clasp) I'm still very happy with it!

7 Days to go

2010-07-03T10:33:00.000+01:00

It' a bit silly but I'm being even more of a big kid than normal at the moment. With 7 Days to go before the release of Warhammer 8th edition, I'm getting very excited about it. I've been checking the GW website daily to see if my collectors edition has been sent out yet (it hasn't yet). On the GW Blog, it's been mentioned that they are getting orders packed ready to be sent out next week, so hopefully I'll get mine by next Wednesday.

Missing the Point?

2010-06-30T07:43:00.000+01:00

With all the rumours about 8th settling down, many people are sitting down and trying to work out what advantages or disadvantages their army will get in the new edition. We are getting comments how Ogres are a lot better now or how Wood Elves are a lot worse. The magic system is being scrutinised for the best methods of casting, or which is the best lore now. Abilities like Fear are being looked at and then crossed out as they aren't as effective.

But all in all, should we be doing all of this?

Warhammer 8th edition is a massive change for us as gamers as well as for Games Workshop. They have seemingly done the impossible, by changing the core rules which makes a lot of armies better. In fact they have done the impossible by making a large portion of the Warhammer Community like the 8th by changing the core rules. In the past this was unheard of and many wargamers would have left the game.

By reading the latest White Dwarf and listening to Bad Dice (as the Bens have spoken with Jervis) 8th edition episode you can kind of see the point that GW want people to be thinking about when playing. You can see they want to create an cinematic experience where people's armies are battling it out for fame or fortune, not because it's practise for a tournament. I think a lot of players who are experienced with tournaments, tend to look at things competitively and we should try and do that a little less of this. For example, there are a lot of players out there who probably have never used a Great Eagle in a Wood Elf army due to the Treeman and Waywatchers being 'better' choices.

I think we need to welcome the 8th edition with open arms and play with it for a while without a focused tournament view. It's this view that ruined 7th (along with some books) and we shouldn't do the same to 8th.

Overconfidence = FAIL!

2010-06-22T17:23:00.000+01:00

Just something which has popped into my head recently is how being overconfident can lead to you loosing a game. This has all come about due to my new army for Warhammer - Ogres. Now I've had my beady eye on the hungry ones for a while now. The range has some fantastic models and the background for the race is nice, plus having an army of monsters is brilliant. But like many people, I've never really bothered with Ogres due to the book being one of the worst released by GW (which is of course a matter of perspective as I'm sure many people think that the Daemons or Dark Elf books are the worst for opposite reasons!). Under 8th edition Ogres get so much better and should be a fun army to use.

Anyway, where am I rambling with this? Well many people tend to over estimate Ogres because they are quite simply rubbish. Over the last year or so, I've faced Ogres twice. First time was at Heat Three and in my first game. I was playing a GW staffer called Mike who was playing with Ogres as they were the only things he had fully painted at the time. The army was completely wrong for the environment it was playing in (big blocks of Bulls) and I really had to concentrate because I was thinking "Easy Win, Easy Win". In the end it was an Easy Win (no offence to Mike as it was a nice game but his army was totally outclassed by my Daemons), but I had to concentrate. Next time was at the Destruction Derby where I faced another Ogre list which is more typical of what Ogre players take (Lots of small units of Bulls and Iron Guts) but as the event was a bit of a free for all, my opponent Richie had brought some Rhinoxes (normally not allowed as they are non official GW units). I was using my Daemons and a similar list to what I took to the GW Heat, but I went into this game being very over confindent, as my plan was to us my Lord of Change to cast Gift of Chaos (everything within 12" gets D6 Strength 6 Hits!) to roll up the flank with my two Slaaneshi Chariots (both with Etherblades, so no armour saves). Because I was so overconfident , I made no backup plans and completely ruined the plan by rolling like an idiot. This allowed the Ogres to counter charge and smash me up good.

So these should be a nice example of how not to be overconfident going into a game. Just remember, just because it looks like a rubbish army, you only need a few things to go wrong and you'll loose!

Warhammer 8th edition - It sounds good and looks good

2010-06-16T14:03:00.000+01:00

You may have noticed on the Games Workshop website that the 8th edition of Warhammer has gone up for pre-order and it was quite amusing yesterday to watch the GW website groan and creak due to the frenzied traffic it got due to people pre-ordering. I've order a copy myself which was the Gamers Edition (bag, counters, etc) but when I noticed I had misread what the set included (I though it had the Engineer's Tools with it), I quickly changed it to the Collectors Edition which in hindsight I should have done in the first place as I wanted something special for my Birthday.

Anyway, after speaking to different people at my local store as well as GW Mail Order (as I was changing my pre-order) my opinion of 8th seems to be valid, which is it's a shake up but going to be loads of fun. In fact most people who I've spoken too have been very happy to chat about the game as a few of them have had to say nothing about it for a few weeks due to NDAs. I think I was on the phone to Mail Order for about 20 minutes just chatting about the game!

But onto more interesting things....

Firstly, Dan and Wayne down at Heelanhammer have just released a 8th edition show. Dan got chance to spend an hour reading the book and covers what he can remember and what he thinks.

Next up we have Bad Dice who are doing a live show tonight (Wednesday 16th June from 19:30 BST or GMT +1). The Ben's have had chance to play 8th edition and are doing a review of the book. Jump into the show to ask questions about the book, otherwise if you miss it don't worry as it will become a downloadable podcast over the next week or so. I'm hoping to chime in and have a listen.

Finally, Bell of Lost Souls have done a You Tube video, showcasing the new rulebook. It's well worth watching if you haven't had chance to see how big or nice it looks.

I think that's all I can say at the moment as I'm busy absorbing all the information that's coming out but I'm really excited about playing 8th. In fact I'm a little sad that once 8th is out I've got a 7th editon tournament I'm going to so I won't be able to properly get into the rules!

I played 8th edition and liked it (or something that sounds like a Katy Perry song)

2010-06-12T20:08:00.001+01:00

I popped down to my local GW this morning as they were doing previews of the rules. After an hour of being pestered by work and trying not to smack my head off a wall due to some of the regulars missing the point of the preview (by quoting the Warseer rumours and general minor bickering) I ended up chatting with the manager who took me off to one side and gave me a one on one preview. We used the models from Skull pass which had been set up to try and show off different aspects of the rules. Here's a summary of what I can remember as well as what he can remember (he's only had the rules for a couple of days)

Movement
# The phases are all in the same order, so magic is not the first phase!
# I didn't get to see this phase too well as everything was set up to fight but it seems that movement is similar to War of the Ring/Fast Cav so units can slide or shuffle around on the board

Shooting
# Everything with a missile weapon can shoot in two ranks.
# If you have a bow you can volley fire which the unit can shoot with more ranks (I'm not too sure if it's one or more)
# If the unit is on a hill the only shooting benefit is for LOS
# Speaking of LOS, everything is true line of sight!

Charging and Close Combat
# LOS arcs are the same for everything now - everything has a 90 degree LOS
# Charging is indeed now base move plus 2D6 (or 3D6 if you are move 7 or more)
# You make your charge reaction before the charging unit moves and you can measure the distance between the two units
# Failed Fear tests make a unit WS1
#ASF + Higher Initiative grants re-rolls!
# Close combat is done in Initiative Order now
# The second rank can attack now in close combat but only gets one attack. Cavalry units benefit from this but only the riders in the second rank can attack
# Spears attack in an additional rank as well as the second rank. So spear armed units can attack with three ranks!
# Rank Bonus - Still 5 models to get a rank bonus but Ogre sized units get it from 3 or more models
# Horde Rule - Basicly double the number of models needed to claim a rank bonus and you get an additional rank to fight with (so 10 wide for infantry or 6 wide for ogre sized models)
# Stomp! - Ogre sized models get an additional attack after their attacks while larger models get d6 additional attack!
# You can wound anything with a to wound roll of 6! So S1 can wound a T10 model!
# War Machines and Monster and Handlers are different in combat now. When fighting you hit the WM or Monster as the crew hide behind them in CC (so you wound the WM or Monster). This info is a bit vague as I can't remember the details as we got disturbed when he was explaining and then moved on to the next thing.
# Outnumber is gone!
# If you loose a combat but have more ranks then the enemy you are stubborn
# Fleeing is a bit different now. If you are Move 7 or more you roll 3d6 but discard the lowest dice
# If you flee through a enemy unit you take d6 hits instead
# If you wipe a unit out then you may take a leadership test to redirect into another unit near the flee path

War machines
# Guessing is gone. Place where you want the shot to go and scatter as normal
# Templates are now like the Skaven ones - ie no more partials!

Magic
# Generating Power Dice is indeed 2D6 and the opponent gets the highest dice as his dispel dice
# All wizards can channel more power dice or dispel dice on a roll of 6
# You are capped at 12 power dice
# All the core spell decks have seven spells
# Picking spells is as per 7th but you may always default to the 'zero' if you don't like what you picked, plus no wizard may know the same spell as another wizard in your army. So no more two lvl1 fire mages knowing fireball each!
# You can roll up to 6 dice to cast a spell for any level
# You add your magic level to your casting or dispell roll
# A natural 1 or 2 is a failed cast (which limits single casting)
# You miscast on a double six now but the spell goes off and the wizard takes damage as he struggles with the backlash of magic
# Miscasts range from bad to really bad - So a double one is a big 5" template centred on the wizard and everything takes a S10 hit!

So basicly the warseer rumours seem fairly spot on.

My opinion is, that I think I'm going to like 8th. It of course has been designed to encourage people to buy more models (I think Goblins with Spears may be a big seller as well as High Elf Spearelves) but it still seems like fun. I think some players who like to play with precise movement, etc may get annoyed with the changes and will see it as dumbing down, but most players should still enjoy it. I think the only rule I don't really like is TLOS but that's mainly because it stops people doing cool conversions.

I haven't seen inside the book yet but it's in full colour and is massive! The book was on display in the display cabinet and the glass shelf was bowing under the weight!!!

The book goes on advance order Tuesday and will come in three 'flavours'. Prices are all rough as the manager didn't know and was guessing. The 'basic' rulebook is all in colour, hardback and has 500+ pages of Warhammer and will probably be £45. The gamer set is the rulebook, a white manbag, plastic templates that look like brass etching, bone coloured dice, a calliper, and foldy out ruler and will probably be £60. The collector edition is the rulebook but with a leather cover and gold edging I think and is around £75.
So overall, 8th is a big change and very risky for GW but I really like it and I think most people will.

Summer Fun

2010-06-02T18:49:00.000+01:00

It's June, which means half the year has gone and me and my family enter the birthday season with five of us having birthdays within 30 Days of each other (My Grandmother-in-Law, Sister-in-Law, Grandfather-in-Law, My Wifes and then ending with mine which will be my 30th!!!). Besides the prospects of too much cake and beer (as well as my wallet crying), it's going to be a pretty interesting period wargaming wise.

For a start we have June's White Dwarf which has something that GW haven't done for a long time. White Dwarf containing some actual bona-fiddle rules which we can use in our games - Spearhead. Spearhead is basically a expansion for 40K which lets you play massive tank battles. The idea is quite simple as the expansion is basically a collection of Spearhead formations which have a special rule (for example, the Tank Hunters Spearhead grants the Tank Hunters rule to any models in that formation) and a set of missions in which you can use these formations. It's been designed to let you play as just using Spearhead Formations, or to add them to your normal 40K army and play a game. I haven't had chance to play a game yet but it looks like it's a fun way of being able to use some of your models in a different way. My only criticism is that you have to get the Formations off the GW website, which I feel they should have included in White Dwarf.

Also in June's White Dwarf we have new bona-fiddle rules for the Eldar Night Spinner. Old hairy gamers will know the Night Spinner, but for those younglings it's basically the Eldar Basilisk for smashing Infantry. The tank has been around in the 40K universe for a good 15 to 20 years now but this is the first time it's come out as an actual model for 40K. Modelwise, I like it a lot and it fits in nicely with the rest of the Eldar range. Ruleswise it has been a bit of a turn off. Basicly it's the same cost as a Fire Prism (with similar armour and upgrades) and it comes with a Twin Linked Doomweaver as it's main gun. A Doomweaver puts a big pie plate of strength 6 hurt down, with the nice benefit of causing the unit hit to be stuck in difficult and dangerous ground. As an anti-infantry weapon it sounds great as it will cut up lightly armoured troops fairly easily, while also slowing said units down, so the rest of your force zooms around taking out other targets. But this is where it's a bit of a chocolate teapot for me, as it costs the same as a Fire Prism but the Fire Prism is so much better as it's good at both anti infantry and anti tank.

There some small snippets in WD for Fantasy and LotR players but not a lot, but we should see loads of Fantasy coverage next month due to the 8th edition coming out in July (just in time for my birthday). I'm hoping to have a rough game based on the rumours over the next week or so and I'll let you know what I think.

40K Radio is no more!!!

2010-05-30T10:51:00.000+01:00

It's with sad news that I post about 40K Radio has stopped doing podcasting. Due to a email incident where a 'listener' made a personal attack against Spencer about the show, Spencer has decided to call it a day. 40K Radio wasn't a brilliant podcast but it had it's moments and it was fun to listen to at times. You can get full details about what happened on the 40K Radio website.

Farty Kay Movie Update

2010-05-30T10:32:00.000+01:00

As I'm recovering from my curry last night, I've noticed that Codex Pictures has updated the Ultramarine movie website with a Teaser Trailer. You need to sign up to the site but it gives a look what a finished CGI Ultramarine looks like (nice so it happens). The teaser is just that though, a teaser. You see about 5 to 10 seconds of the Marine and then a black screen with lots of text saying the stars in the film.

It would have been nice to seen a bit more action, but this is looking a promising film instead of the pile of poo a lot of people were expecting. The story is by Dan Abnett and the voice overcast is made up of many classic British actors (see the site for details but they include John Hurt, Terence Stamp and Sean Pertwee).

Knock, Knock?

2010-05-29T18:20:00.000+01:00

Hi. My name is Gaz and I'm a Wargamer and have been for many years. I've played many different systems over the years but I've mainly settled down to playing Games Workshop ones, because I like the models, how the games play and plus it's fairly easy to find other players.

The Destruction Derby III in Dec 2009. I'm in the right hand corner looking thoughtful

The last couple of years, I've been attending Tournaments which I've enjoyed greatly, even if I'm not very good. Army wise I have a Daemon and Skaven army for Warhammer Fantasy and Necrons and Space Marines for 40K. Also I'm always trying to start a new army as I like having the models!