Tournament Results, a Break, and Back in the Saddle.

Above is the army I took to the Warhammer tournament. I basically got stomped. Two things were learned- I am way out of practice, and Skaven are no longer my tournament army of choice. Ogres all the way!

After that showing I took a bit of a break. No assembly, no purchases, no painting, no wargaming save a touch of X-Wing with Demitra. On that front I did finally pull a couple out against him (I don't ever remember winning, though he assures me I have). TIE swarms for the win, baby!

After that Demitra introduced me to DreadBall. now I am hooked. I mean to the point I bought into the Kickstarter for DreadBall Xtreme. Now to pick up the Space Bugs and Space Monkey Clones. This is not a cheap game to buy into, I'm looking at over $100, but that's far better than a Warhammer army (or Warmachine). As long as there's an opportunity to play it'll be money well spent.

Finally, yesterday I finally fulfilled my vow to pick up painting my Grey Aliens where I left off. Haters be damned, I'm going to do this thing. Wish me luck.

Oh, and go buy my Cygnar stuff off of eBay. It's extremely cheap for what it is. My wife is selling it, just search "Painted Cygnar" and look for the stuff on the gaming board. Shameless plug over.

Tournament Time Again!

After a long hiatus, it is time to pull out my beloved Skaven again. My Friendly Not-So Local Game Store is having a Warhammer Fantasy tournament coming up on February 22nd. I had to juggle my work schedule around a little bit, but I managed to switch shifts with a co-worker in order to attend.

To that end I have been looking for input as to my army composition, and I have been getting... A very mixed response. On Dakka Dakka I was getting several different responses from a fair few different army lists thrown my way. Some swear I should take a massive block of Stormvermin, others claim that my Grey Seer is going to miscast and blow himself to tiny bits. Since he's not going to be dropped under any circumstances (the Dreaded Thirteenth is just too useful against enemies like Chaos Warriors that my shooting and other spells won't be able to crack), I had to sift through the feedback in order to find a suitable kit loadout. The real debate was over the the Arcane Item he would be carrying. I settled on a kit that allowed him to cast The Curse of the Horned Rat more easily.

Since this is an open-list event, I have decided to forego subtlety and simply go for the throat. The usual shenanigans- a Grey Seer, a "suicide" Warlock Engineer, a super tanked-up battle standard bearer. You know the drill. I did however tweak things a touch this time. First of all, this game is going to be smaller than I'm used to- 2,000 points. That means I had to take a scalpel to my army and remove a few things. Less Gutter Runners, no double Hell Pit Abomination (in fact none at all), and less in the way of Clanrats. I'll be running my old nemesis, the Doomwheel again. Two of them. Lots of "rat darts"- nine strong Giant Rat packs that are there to take up unit drops, redirect the enemy, and generally make a nuisance of themselves will be present as well.

I dropped ten Clanrats, demoted my Warpfire Thrower to a second Poisoned Wind Mortar- the reasoning behind this is simple- it is a more stable weapon, it can move and fire, and it doesn't need to see its target. It also ignores armor. I will be throwing away my flaming attacks, but that just means I'll have to blow those regenerating targets I face up with my various forms of Warp Lightning. Dragon Ogres will be incredibly dangerous, as I'll pretty much auto-frenzy them with all the electricty I churn out, but hopefully the fact that I have thirteen drops (fitting, no?) will allow me to see where my enemies deploy and react by plunking my Doomwheels down on the opposite end of the board. A couple of rat darts will have to soak up the lightning bolts (or Skavenslaves as each unit consists of 40) to keep the Doomwheels from nuking one another. I have a limited amount of time to experiment with these concepts- I haven't even purchased my second Doomwheel yet!

Suffice it to say, I have some work in front of me. The journey begins with a game against the Lizardmen Wednesday afternoon. It terminates with three games in a few weeks. May the Horned Rat smile upon me and my troops.

Not That I Am, But If I Did II

The NOVA Open.

No entry has kicked up as much dust on my blog as when I ranted about how insanely expensive it is to attend this event. The organizer even went as far as to post on my comments section as to how his event was not overpriced and how people came from far and wide to attend. That is not the point of this post.

What this post is about is points. In particular 1,850 points, which between Adepticon and the NOVA Open seems to be the tournament standard point allowance.

Now, were I a wealthier man I would not think twice about entering the tournament, but seeing as I am poor that is an objective for a later date.

...But a man can dream...

It is that dream which has inspired me to add 100 points more to my original army list. It is this dream which has led me to a leaner, meaner (according to DakkaDakka any way) Chaos Space Marine army. My parts arrived today, and tomorrow the frenzy of assembly begins!

What, you ask, is my destination with this force?

HQ
Sorcerer (warlord) w/ force sword, mastery level 3 (telepathy)- 110 pts.
Chaos Lord w/ lightning claw, melta bombs, The Burning Brand of Skalathrax- 115 pts.

TROOPS
14 Chaos Cultists; Chaos Cultist Champion (15 models)- 70 pts.
14 Chaos Cultists w/ 14 autoguns: Chaos Cultist Champion (15 models)- 84 pts.
9 Chaos Space Marines w/ 2 plasma guns; Aspiring Champion w/ power sword, melta bombs (10 models)- 190 pts.
9 Chaos Space Marines w/ 2 plasma guns; Aspiring Champion w/ power sword, melta bombs (10 models)- 190 pts.
9 Chaos Space Marines w/ 2 plasma guns; Aspiring Champion w/ power sword, melta bombs (10 models)- 190 pts.
9 Chaos Space Marines w/ 2 plasma guns; Aspiring Champion w/ power sword, melta bombs (10 models)- 190 pts.

FAST ATTACK
Heldrake w/ baleflamer- 170 pts.
Heldrake w/ baleflamer- 170 pts.

HEAVY SUPPORT
4 Havocs w/ 4 autocannons; Aspiring Champion (5 models)- 115 pts.
4 Havocs w/ 4 autocannons; Aspiring Champion (5 models)- 115 pts.
2 Obliterators- 140 pts.

TOTAL
1,849 pts.

Now, some explanation may be required. Optimally I wouldn't take the 14 points worth of autoguns on the Chaos Cultists. Their job is to squat on objectives and/or to die horribly. Why arm them? Because that's what they've got, and I'm a WYSIWYG nut. Besides, I'm not really hurting for points in this list those points would most likely go toward giving out some more melta bombs, but why bother giving them to things like the Havocs in the first place? I mean, if they're getting charged all they can really do is fire off one last volley and commend their souls to the Dark Gods. They're doomed if they're in melee.

Along the same lines, I stripped the Cultists of their flamers. There is no reason for them to be toting them around. I've found that they die so quickly that they lose their ability to fire before I get a shot off. Waste of 5 points per squad right there.

Then there are the Chaos Space Marines. They've kept their plasma guns, but the aspiring champions are toned down. Since they wander off and challenge everything and every one, they need to strike at initiative rather than dropping down to 1 and just waiting to get chopped to bits. The Strength 5 AP 2 is super keen, but what does it matter if he never gets to use it? Melta bombs have been included to ward off Monstrous Creatures and Walkers.

Heldrakes? They're Heldrakes. No explanation required.

I'm stubbornly keeping the Havocs with Autocannons. The wall of fire, and 48" range just (in my opinion) makes them too valuable to drop. The extra dudes are all gone, since there's not much reason to keep ten bolters when for the same price I can have two Obliterators. If the Havocs are taking fire they're not long for this world any way. Those Strength 7 AP 4 shots are death to Tau and lighter infantry, wound MEQ models on a 2+, and can rapidly strip vehicles (even flyers with their volume of fire) of Hull Points. That's my reasoning.

The Obliterators? I'm actually afraid they're a waste of points. Every anti-tank weapon on the board is going to be pointed straight at them, and I'm pretty sure they'll disappear very, very quickly if I'm not super careful with them. I'm not too used to having to treat Oblits gingerly, so this will be an adventure for me.

Finally, my HQs. My Chaos Lord retains a similar weapons loadout to his previous one, but as with every other unit in the army, his fat has been cut. He's now a Burning Brand of Skalathrax delivery system, not much more. The lightning claw is there as a last resort- but I honestly don't expect to see him live too long once people realize what he's capable of. I'm trying to figure out how to model on the Brand, and I saw one idea I like. Use a Chaos Terminator heavy flamer, cut off the barrels, and replace them with something else. If I had one I'd use a Chaos Vehicle Sprue gargoyle head, but no such luck. I'll have to root through my bits to find something fitting.

Then there's my new warlord, the Chaos Sorcerer. I'm going to use the plastic Warriors of Chaos sorcerer mini and tweak it. He's going to get a head swap for a Chaos Marine head (I'm even thinking maybe one of the wolf's head helmets I have laying around) and he's going to lose his staff since force staves suck and are useless. I want to replace it with a severed head (like on the Space Ork Boyz or Zombie frames) but that's something I'd have to trade for. Something equally greusome would work out just fine. He'll also get a bolt pistol holster on his right hip, and a Chaos Marine backpack. After that he should more than look the part.

So, yeah. It's a fairly optimized all-comers list Between the Sorcerer, the Chaos Lord, and the scratch-built Obliterators (tweaked from various left over weapon bits and using Chaos Terminators as a base), I should have plenty of conversions for people to ooh and ah over. All the ingredients needed for a top-tier tournament army. Of course, my painting could always use improvement, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.

That's the aim of my army for now. Hope you're looking forward to seeing my stuff as I'm looking forward to building it.

Tourney Time Ahead

That's right, it's time to make up for my lacking content.

Dust-War is holding a 24-seat tourney soon. It looks pretty cool, only it has two srtikes against it. one, it's a five-and-a-half hour drive from my home.

...And the tourney starts at 10:00 am.

The other is that my FNSLGS has a tournament going the exact same day. A day I am in deep, deep trouble for agreeing to (you see, it's my fiance's birthday) and I have gotten begrudging permission to go. Leaving at 4:00 in the morning that day or spending the night at a fleabag motel the night before just doesn't sound like a good idea.

So, as you can tell, I'm getting back into tournament mode. Yes, the actual date isn't for over a month, but one can never get too prepared too early in my humble opinion.

Wrong preparation...

That theory in mind, I've been kicking around a few ideas using the Dust Warfare Force Builder. This one in particular:

Faction: Allies ( 298 / 300 )
---  Combat Platoon (178)
Upgrade: Additional Resources (10)
Command Section: "The Boss" Ranger Command Squad (25)
1st Section: "BBQ Squad" Assault Ranger Squad (21)
3rd Section: "Death Dealers" Ranger Weapon Squad (20)
4th Section: "Death Dealers" Ranger Weapon Squad (20)
Support: MCW M3-D "Cobra" (Zv) (35)
Support: MCW M3-D "Cobra" (Zv) (35)
Support: "Crack Shots" Sniper Team (12)

---  Elite Platoon (120)
Upgrade: Air Drop (5)
Command Section: Rhino (22, Hero)
1st Section: "The Hammers" Heavy Ranger Assault Squad (28)
2nd Section: "Tank Busters" Heavy Ranger Tank Hunter Squad (35)
3rd Section: "Grim Reapers" Heavy Ranger Attack Squad (30)

I see a few potential problems here. One, I may have too much anti-armor. Two, those Hammers just never seem to make it in close enough to make a difference. They are fire magnets of the highest order, and despite Rhino helping them to shake suppression (in theory) they usually spend the game hunkered down waiting for the hail of fire to pass. Finally, there's only one sniper.




Breaking up the wall o' text with... Some Etna!

Maybe this would work better:

Faction: Allies ( 296 / 300 )

---  Combat Platoon (178)
Upgrade: Additional Resources (10)
Command Section: "The Boss" Ranger Command Squad (25)
1st Section: "BBQ Squad" Assault Ranger Squad (21)
3rd Section: "Death Dealers" Ranger Weapon Squad (20)
4th Section: "Death Dealers" Ranger Weapon Squad (20)
Support: MCW M3-D "Cobra" (Zv) (35)
Support: MCW M3-D "Cobra" (Zv) (35)
Support: "Crack Shots" Sniper Team (12)

---  Elite Platoon (118)
Command Section: Ozz 117 (23, Hero)
1st Section: "Grim Reapers" Heavy Ranger Attack Squad (30)
2nd Section: "Tank Busters" Heavy Ranger Tank Hunter Squad (35)
3rd Section: "Grim Reapers" Heavy Ranger Attack Squad (30)

Still only one sniper, but with two squads of Grim Reapers I'll have increased anti-infantry capability as well as some pretty amazing anti-aircraft firepower.

...And as I found out last week, I do love shooting SSU choppers out of the sky.

I've also been kicking around the idea of dropping the BBQ Squad down to The Gunners, and giving Ozz and his Reapers Air Drop, but what those guys do to SSU blobs is just amazing.

I'll keep thinking.

Final Results And A Bummer

Well, I went 2&1 in the tournament, and despite having the only fully painted and based army and playing friendly to a fault, I ended up with no placing of any kind, which is bummer number one. I'm a bit miffed about the whole painted army thing, but oh, well. Life goes on.

The real bummer last night is that my Friendly Not So Local Games Workshop is shutting down. The store is getting packed up and moved down the street about a quarter mile. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, but the store is becoming a one man store. A shame that, as my orders from now on will be placed on the internet, and my games will be played at home or in friends' basements. Game Parlor is out, as games happen on days I have to work. I'm just so glad I just spent hundreds of dollars on an army I was supposed to use to get out of the house and game with.

Time to start pimping Infinity I suppose. It's nice to have a game where you can spend about $100 and never have to buy another miniature. It's not nice to not have a player base. Now if I can get people's scheduled to synch up...

Any way, fare thee well GW Springfield, I barely knew ye.

Final Game Report

Well, as I lost my second game (from not paying attention to the objective) I totally forgot to snap some photos. On the upside I managed to win my last game. Now I'm waiting for the tournament results.

Tournament Report: Game One

My first game ended in an accidental win after my opponent (fielding an all cavalry Empire army) accidentally made an illegal assassination of my Butcher. He then proceeded to get smooshed by my Ironguts in short order. My Gutstar performed admirably so far, here's hoping they're the avalanche of destruction they're touted to be.

Pre-Game Update: Thunderstorms

Dark photo is dark.

Well, the weather has turned here in Northern Virginia. A thunderstorm is passing through the area, and with that comes rain. Rain is not good for paper, cardboard, and flock, so I have to find an alternate mode of transportation. This is where my pistol case comes in. I emptied it of Uncharted Seas minis and removed the bottom layer of foam. This allowed for the placement of books, templates, and my movement tray. Then I added the middle layer of foam, placed the models, and closed the case...

Perfect fit! I may now have a way to store most of my ogres (the Mournfangs may be asking a bit much) and carry them safely to and from GW.

Victory over nasty weather conditions!

Ready For Action

Well, I've got my stuff all together for the tourney today. I've been spending all night reading and re-reading the Warhammer rulebook as well as the Ogre Kingdoms book and all of the FAQs. I'll try to have some "live" updated from the tournament tomorrow, complete with pictures. We'll see how placing all of your eggs in one big bad basket pans out. For now, here are my mighty warriors all boxed up and ready to go.

Bringin' The Cheese, If You Please

After much pondering, a few consultations, and more than a little time spent on Army Builder, I have come to the following conclusion: Ogres are where it's at. After rooting through my box of unassembled models, I came across two more Kroothounds and a pair of cavalry bases. Thus began my decescent into cheesedom.

I began rolling dice to see what damage could be inflicted by my Ironguts if they were maxed out (two Sabretusks , a Butcher, and a maxed-out unit of Ironguts), and I must say, it's quite impressive. Assuming the 'Guts don't take too much of of a pounding on their way in (and they probably will...) I should be able to get fifteen ogres worth of attacks against any target foolish enough to take my charge. Did I mention that the charge will probably happen on turn 2? Well it will. You'd better get to blasting some Ogres off the board.

Of course, despite having quite a bit of close sombat punch, there remains an issue. Two actually. Both are linked to the same selection of models.

Do I take the Butcher for increased survivability (his lore attribute allows him to regrow lost wounds) or do I go with the offensive juggernaut that is the Firebelly? The Butcher carries the Fencers Blades, which bring his Weapon Skill up so high that many rank and file enemies (short of elite High Elves or Chaos Warriors) will need to roll 5s to hit him. He's also Toughness 5, allowing him to shrug off all but the most impressive hits. The downside? Despite his four attacks (albeit hitting pretty much everything on 3s) he's only Strength 4. I know, he's not there to kick butt and take names, but at least he could (as the army gneral) contribute to the slaughter a little. He's there to augment an already obscenely poverful unit, which will make it a juggernaught of destruction. His spells can be a bit overkilly.

...But then I have a saying, "Overkill is still dead".

Wrong Firebelly, but this one's cuter.

The Firebelly really maximizes what this army wants to do- massacre stuff. Spells like Fireball and Burning Head are always useful, and on Ironguts the Flaming Sword of Rhun is fantastic to the point of hilarity. "Okay, I hit you. With the +1 modifier I wound you automatically, so start pulling minis". Fulminating Flame Cage is a great denial spell- anyone who wants to take a Strength 4 hit on every last model in his unit is welcome to. Anyone who wants to stay put to avoid the effect can do so as well. Everything else in the lore? awesome as well. Plus it stops Regeneration. Now, however, we come to the awesome part; the dude has a breath weapon! That's right, 2d6 flaming hits on demand (once a game) to swing that all important combat your way. He just can't grow back wounds...

Why is the wound regaining such a big deal? "Blood And Glory". This scenario adds together points based on how many banners you have, plus your general counting as two banners. When your number of banners remaining reaches the size of the game divided by 1,000 (so in this case 1), the game ends and you lose. That means, with the single banner in my army, all it takes is the assassination of my General to end the game. I guess that pretty much leaves my hands tied with using the Butcher.

I did need to add six more Ironguts to my "gutstar", and so that meant buying one box of Ironguts and throwing in a pair of "unit fillers". For those who may not know, unit fillers are pieces of scenery added into a unit to bulk it out in place of adding more models. Mine are rocks on 40mm bases. Well, they're a bit more than rocks, they're covered in Ogre gear and have Gnoblars impersonating Ironguts standing proudly atop them, but they're much cheaper than buying a whole other box of Ironguts for two more minis, and they look way better than proxying a couple of Bull Ogres in their place.

For those who may care, here's what's going to stomp in faces tomorrow night:

HERO
Butcher, level 2 wizard, Lore of the Great Maw, the Fencer's Blades, the Dragonbane Gem, and the Ironcurse Icon (180 points)

CORE
17 Ironguts, full command, and the Standard of Discipline (776 pts.)

SPECIAL
Sabretusk (21 pts)
Sabretusk (21 pts)

TOTAL
998/1,000 points

Three units (barely) causes this one to make the cut, and the two "junk drops" (the Sabretusks) will help me to see where the opposing army is going to deploy. This list will either win big (and I mean really big) or it will get slaughtered. That's my kind of gamble. I'll pretty much know if I'm going to win the tournament based on how my army performs, as I'm likely to be the only player there with a fully painted army. (even if it is only to marginal standards, I shouldn't get dinged there), and I consider myself to be a fairly good sportsman (unless my opponent is being... less than honorable).

Now, should I wear my Etna shirt, or should it be the "rules lawyer" shirt?

Questions, questions.

Tournament Play? You Don't Say!

Well, there's a 1,000 point Warhammer Fantasy tournament this Friday, and I want to bring the nastiest army I can. This means cheesy list, and so I ventured onto the interwebz to get some help analyzing my possibilities. Having gotten only two responses to my poll, I am still torn between two armies. Either my Ogre Kingdoms army will make the cut, or my Chaos Daemons. Still being torn, I decided to put together. First I put together my Ogre Kingdoms. My optimized Ogre Kingdoms army needed a Sabertusk, but I had no mini. Off to my box of random minis! After rooting around for a while, I came upon a Kroothound and a cavalry base. I slapped the two together and painted it up.

After that I pulled out my Ogres. The reasoning behind this army is simple. At small point values armies have a very hard time dealing with the hitting power Ogres can bring to the table. With this in mind I decided to put together the nastiest army I could. Ironguts, Mournfang Cavalry, and a lone Sabertusk. Why just one? Simple- this fills up one of the three compulsory units required to make a legal army, and he's very good at killing off warmachines.

My army consists only of units armed with great weapons. This is because of an Ogre's dismal Initiative score. As low as it is, the Always Strike Last rule really won't be a hindrance. The massive Strength 6 will annihilate enemy armor, and having the lowest movement in my army being a 7 (thanks Banner of Swiftness), I should make it across the table very rapidly.

Unfortunately, this army has one glaring weakness. It has abysmal Leadership. This leads to concerns about Panic, and forces me to spread out my units so that they're more than 6" away from each other. Especially that Sabertusk, as he's very easy to slay, and Ogres apparently freak out at the sight of a lone kitty cat getting offed. This also leads to concerns about gunlines. With a good volley it's quite possible to get 25% of a unit to die, and that would lead to a Panic test as well. That could very well lead to disaster.

That leads me to my other choice, Daemons of Chaos. They're a very solid army, and are much better painted than the Ogres. I called up the event venue (my friendly not-so-local Games Workshop) and asked if Special Characters were allowed. Met with a "yes", I began playing with Army Builder. I managed to fit in Skulltaker, The Masque of Slaanesh, a good number of Bloodletters, Flesh Hounds, and Flamers. Oh, also a few Furies. Except for the Furies, all of these choices are very solid. Why furies then? Points. I had them left over and had run out of Bloodletters. Five more of them and I'd be much happier with my army, but alas.

In theory this army is stronger in many areas, but it lacks one fairly major thing; magical defense. Having no Wizard means I have to rely on my Magic Resistance to carry me through the game, and against spells that don't deal wounds (Pit of Shades, Dwellers Below, Mindrazor) I have some thinking to do. Which spells do I let through, and which spells to I stop? I'll have to chuck more dice at spells to stop them, and this will lead to my opponent getting more spells through. Very, very ponderous.

But then, the Daemons are much better looking...
I wonder if there's a painting score?

Much more thinking is required. I may just end up rolling a die to determine which army to take.