Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Midwest Rampage 5, -Part 2

Midwest Rampage 5 @ Grand Hotel, Peoria, IL 5/22.23.

The Jester Vampire Versus my Steam Tank

Here are the Battle Recaps for my games at Midwest Rampage, I was a bit more festive than usual this weekend, not sure how the extra curriculars caught up with me. Can’t say I’m not disappointed with the results. Despite a solid list and strong Dogs of War choice, I went 1-3-1. Matching my Adepticon showing this year but dropping an the extra game. I stupidly gave game 2 away being greedy, and had the worst luck imaginable games 4 and 5…again that damn artillery dice makes me nuts..anyway I for am looking forward to 8th edition for a change of pace. My tournament record this year is 2-5-2 with Empire…pretty poor considering I win 75%-80% of my pick up games.

Overall all my opponents were great and I no problems in any games..on my personal scale all 5 games were Fun 5, Sports 5, Comp 5, Despite my horrid luck even game 4 was fun and even thou it was double Plague Furnaces, I can’t really ding the guy on my personal comp rating as I would rather have a second furnace than Jezzails or an Abomination, it was all good! Anyway here’s the rundown on the games.

Empire List.

General of Empire, Helm of the Ratslayer, Great Weapon, Holy Relic

Warrior Priest, Icon of Magnus, Great Weapon, Armor of Meteoric Iron

Battle Wizard, Level 2 Rod of Power

Battle Wizard, Level 2, Seal of Destruction

24 Swordsmen, FC, War Banner

2- 9 man Free Company, Detachments

10 Handgunners, marksman, HLR

10 Crossbows, musician

10 Free Company, FC

Great Cannon

5 Knights of the Inner Circle, FC, Steel Standard

5- Pistoliers, Musician, Outrider with Repeater Pistol

Helblaster Volley Gun

Steam Tank

Dogs of War Choice (Games 2 and 3) 13 Braganza's Besieger's, FC.


Game 1 Vs Sean L, Vampire Counts

40 Ghouls is always tough

Army List

Lord- Summon Ghouls, Red Fury, Dreadknight, Sword of Might, Helm of Command, Cuirass, Crown.

Vampire- Dreadknight, Staff of Damnation, Balefire Spike.

Necromancer, Corpse Cart, Balefire, +1 Spell, Dispel Scroll, Biting Blade

Wight King- BSB, Sword of Kings, Nightshroud, Barded Steed

22 Ghouls, Ghast X 2

10 Ghouls, Ghast

Corpse Cart

19 Grave Guard, FC, Banner of Barrows

18 Grave Guard, FC Banner of Strigos

3 Wraiths w/ Banshee

Good general, good game…I’ve played VC enough that I know how to win, you just got to go out and do it .I hid some huntsmen behind a hill in his backfield with my Scout deployment that I knew would draw out his Banshee and Wraiths. I needed to keep them from tying up the Stank all game so they were bait and it worked, My Wizard with Burning Gaze is right there and I lit them up twice only getting 3 wounds before I got chased away never getting another shot but they were out of the game, (but did grab my objective) I plow the Stank Into the VC General, between low impacts hit, and his Strength 7 return attacks I couldn’t close the deal..and eventually he hacked the Tank down, I put a ton of wounds on the VC General (12+) and, in the end most I ever got him down was to 1 wound, he just kept making his saves. I had the Wight BSB on ropes numerous times as well, but with 3 wounds and the Battle Standard he’s very hard to kill as well, I was always 1 wound away and as a BSB you take one less wound so I could never close.. Two Corpse Carts was a hassle for the ASF’s I took both out but not before I suffer some tough ASF rounds In CC. In the end, I killed quite a bit of his stuff but no Vampires and that’s where all the points are, he Killed the Stank and all my support stuff…and was up about 500 or so in the end, I could do much different here other than convert opportunities I just fail to convert. Loss 0-1

Game 2 Vs Marty G, Wood Elves.

Marty's Dr Seuss , puff ball army, counts as Wood Elves The Lorax was done by none other than James Wappell.

Army List

Spellsinger, Level 2, Calaingor's Stave, Scroll

3- Branchwraiths, Netlings, various spites

14 Dryads, with Nymph X 3

3 Treekin w/ Elder X 3

8 Wardancers, Bladesinger

Treeman

5 Ogre Bulls, Dogs of War.

My second time playing Marty Gaska in a tournament and its always a pleasure. I don’t mind losing my first game, but always want to win my second game for sure…Marty and I had a relaxed game we started off by getting a beer around 1pm..I wanted to give him a great game and I tried. I ran my Knights into his Ogre DoW unit (which Killing whom where the major objective) and killed them turn two. I also put the Stank into the Treeman early and did 3 wounds on the charge..then doing another two. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the last wound, and my greed to get full points for the treeman cost me big time. Wardancers come charging into the flank of the Stank to help, I try to charge my Inner Circle Knights into the Treeman from the rear figuring I’ll get that one wound, Of course- I fail my damn terror check!! and they run, and the Wardancers get enough hits that I have a bunch of 3+ Armor Saves to make I fail and the Steam Tank pops, Treeman still alive.

I had done a good job of managing the Dryads and my Generals Block was eating up the Treekin in the middle of the table, At the bottom of turn 4 I was up enough points to win the game, all I had to was play defense get some table quarters and the game was in the bag.

Suddenly (maybe it was my 3rd beer in one game?) I failed my own stupidity check and blew the game. The Wardancers overran when the Stank popped and next turn charged my freshly rallied knights, Who fled from the treeman the previous turn. There are only 6 of them and I figure I can pull it off. Marty goes for the extra attack…I have 1+ armor saves against elves and am strength 4, but these guys have killing blow and marty rolls 6 wounds but 4 killing blows! I make the other two saves kill one wardancer but need a 3 on my break fail and lose my Knights for 190 points, In turn 3 Braganza’s Besiegers, where doing pretty good on the hill in my left flank., they held there own and broke some Dryads on the charge, but instead restraining, I pursue trying to finish them, I charge them again, they get away, finally they rally and recharge me!. I whiff on the Stand and Shoot, don’t do so well in combat this time and break, I do get away..but fail to rally on a damn 9!!!, and run off the freaking board as I am on the flank and table edge is right there, Stupid!!, keeping them alive is the Major Objective of the Scenario…I lose almost 600 points with the 2 Banners I drop that turn…now the games is a Draw, and he's ahead on points.

Desperate on my turn 6, I do something incredibly stupid..I run my Pistoliers up and try to shoot the treeman, going for a lucky shot to get that last wound..I totally forget about Strangleroot!!...The Pistoliers of course dont get the kill and in tunr.and get wiped out by the Treeman’s shooting attack the last turn another 115 points Marty’s way, it still looks pretty close but when we add it all up with table quarters and banners, Marty’s up by a couple hundred over a draw, so the game goes to the Wood Elves…god I am ass for losing this game!!. Loss 0-2

.

Marty's DoW, unit where these Ogre Bulls, protesting the Empire intrusion into the forest, a nasty cavarly charge, put an end to them..the Wardancers however..had their vengeance.

Game 3 Vs Kyle C, Dark Elves

The Dark Elves, Cult of the Spider God, I believe they were called.

Army List

HighBorn, Dreadlord

Noble, Master

Sorceress x2

20 Warriors , Spears, Shields, FC X 2

10 Repeater Crossbowman, Guardmaster x 2

20 Corsairs, FC

15 Executioners, FC

5 Cold One Knights, FC x 2

War Hydra

Repeater Bolt Thrower x 2

4 Ogre Iron Guts, Standard, Dogs of War.

Kyle was a great guy, good opponent, but his all combat DE army could handle the magic and shooting my Empire had, I had rolled both my # 6 spells Wall of Fire and Cleansing Flare this game, and the Helblaster was on fire, my Cannon misfired and blew up as it would in the next 3 games but it didn’t matter, His Sorceress' where both on foot and he could protect them, I killed both very early with basic shooting attacks. he had no magic phase by turn 2,, it was bloody fight, and only his Corsairs managed to survive. His Bolt Throwers put enough wounds on the Steam Tank early that it was a none factor but survived the game to keep me points. I wounded the Hydra turn 1, with 3 wounds and had no problem finishing it off in turn 3. A couple failed stupidity checks late game really hurt Kyle. In the end we didn't need to add this one up clearly a solid victory or even massacre with table quarters and banners for The Empire. A good Win 1-2.

This didn't end well for either the Flaggies or those DE Knights..all slaughtered to the man.

Saturday night was a hoot, and much fun was had, I kept on drinking Corona and Sam Adams until around 1 in the morning.


Just a bunch of Zombies, courtesy of Gobbos.


Game 4 Vs Greg D Skaven


Double Plague furnace, Censer Bearers, Plague Claw Catapult, basically this game was akin to WWI France with all the poison gas going around.

Army List

Plague Priest w. Plague Furnace , 27 Plague Monks, FC X 2

Warlock Engineer, Level 1, Scroll

20 Clanrats, FC x 2

20 Slaves x 2

12 Giant Rats, 2 pack masters x 3

7 Plague Censer Bearers

Assassin with 7 Gutter Runners, and Death Runner

Plague Claw Catapult.

I meet Greg bright and early Sunday morning, shocking I am not too hungover but my dice are. Greg has two Plague furnaces, and rolls up some nasty spells ( Plague, Wither) This is my toughest game yet, but not if I can blow up those furnaces early. Well my dice said- screw you, my first Cannon shot, "misfire!", first Helblaster barrel 1 shot- "misfire!", and a “1” explodes, gone, Second cannon shot, "misfire!" Wizard #1 turn 1= miscasts, Wizard # 2, turn 2, =miscast, Wizard # 2 turn 3 miscast. In addtion to this comedy of errors, my dice rolls were just bloody awful across the board, couldn’t hit or wound anything.

I did plow the Stank into one furnace and pop it, but the Priest was still alive..the Second furnace Run down my whole right flank and I was powerless to do anything. Sometimes there is just nothing you can do. Loss 1-3


Ok, This didn't end well, Not a good idea...I tried to escape this actually. But there was no way around it.


Game 5 VS Joe G, Warriors of Chaos

Chaos Warriors, a cool objective marker, Joe cut out of steel with a torch.


Army List

Daemon Prince, Level 4 Sorceror, Mantle of Chaos, Fury of the Blood God, Mark of Tzeentch

Chaos Sorceror, Level 2, 2 Scrolls, Conjoined Homunculus. Chaos Steed.

15 Warriors, FC, MOS x 2

15 Warriors FC MON

8 Forsaken x 3

7 Forsaken

4 Chaos Trolls

Joe’s unconventional Warrriors of Chaos army was a pleasure to play and so was he, definitely my Favorite opponent other than Marty. This was really fun game. Its didn’t start out so well for me thou as I won the dice off and let Joe go first and he proceeds to Fireball my Crossbowmen who take three kills and then fail their panic check, when they flee they just clip my Pistoliers, who now also must check and then they fail their Panic check and run off the table, Sloppy Deployment on my part their cost me me big.. Joe’s Daemon Prince has Gateway, Treason, Call to Glory and Flickering Fire, he throws a 5 die Gateway at me turn 1 and he miscasts!, but rolls boxcars on the Miscast chart..so the spell goes off Irresistibly. But is gone from the game.

The Gateway put 5 wounds on the stank with Strength 8 hits..I make no saves..the Tank is now a paper weight for the whole game. On my first turn I rally those 7 crossbowmen who end up being the game MVP’s but in my shooting phase my first cannon shot is a misfire and “1” kaboom. from my turn1 on I played this game with no Pistoliers and no Cannon, and the Stank totally useless. So it was basically 1700 points vs 2250m the whole game, Things didn’t improve that much for me as the game went on- I shoot up the Daemon Prince with the Helblaster roll an amazing 28 shots, hit on 14, and would have normally done an awesome 11 wounds, but Joe gave him the “Mantle of chaos” which since you don’t see that many DP’s around these days, I had forgotten about..the D3 is a “5” So my strength 5 hits are now Strength 2, so only 3 wounds.he makes 2 of his 5+ saves, for 1 wound. That aside, some things did go right from me, I killed almost all his forsaken and I used his frenzied Nurgle troops against him, drawing them into charging my General and Detachments where the unfrenzied Slannesh blocks were out of range..with no Ranks due to my detachment flanking, he was quickly on "Snake Eyes" and I ran him down getting behind the other two blocks of Warriors..eventually my Fire Wizard got run down by the Prince and but my Crossbowmen finished off his mounted level 2 On the last shot of the game..getting me full points..with the banner I picked up from the Nurgle Warriors. In the end the final tally was less than 100 points in Joe’s Favor for a Draw. I end the event 1-3-1



My guys with a Daemon Prince in their rear quarter...not a good thing but he was more interested in my Wizard than charging a block of 25 with two characters


Again, I have to say this was tourney was great time, I wish I did a bit better and not sure where I placed overall as full results have not yet been posted. Dennis G’s Warriors got Player’ Choice and Best Appearance which was definitely due, he's been up there losing to James Wappel the last couple events and JW wasn't in attendance this day.… Domus"s Woodies always rule The appearance awards as well, but as that Army has won 19 Tournament Appearance awards, it was time for some new blood. I’m sure I did pretty well on that front,..and there were a few other notably great looking armies there as well. Conversions had a lot to do with your final appearance score in this event and I just don’t have that many. My pal Aaron’s fully converted Warrior army got major props from everybody and 10 out 10 points for conversions, which was great since he was only primed. Aaron went 2-3 in his first tournament so congrats to him, Chris, whose played in almost as many events as I have in recent years, went 2-3 with his Wood Elves as well, getting some tough match ups. Chris always up there for Best Sportsman award, I’m sure he was up there for the Gentleman Gamer award but as I mentioned full scores aren’t up yet. We all had a great time and looking forward to next year for sure!, Thank You, Jim Emerick!


Another great Empire Army by Derek Reeverts, The Hounds of Averland. I loved it.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Midwest Rampage 5, -Part 1.

Midwest Rampage 5 @ Grand Hotel, Peoria, IL 5/22,23

Midwest Rampage 5 has concluded! and a great time its was -2 days, 5 games..44 players..several people traveling 5-6 hours+ for the event however most being from the Central Illinois or Chicago area. A solid 2 star hotel with bar on the other side of the ballroom that stayed open until 1am. Included in the event where a vendor table from a great local indy game store with tons of great OOP stuff, a food drive that raised over $800.00 in cash and donations for the local food bank, a awesome raffle tied to your donations that gave everyone attending a chance to win some great prizes. We even had the guys from the "Waaagh Cast" recording everything for a future show, (we'll see if couple minutes of yours trulys thoughts make the final edit) . All that being said- I'd like to give an honest review here and while the people and the games were top notch, I do have a bit of constructive criticism I'd like to mention. As an Indy GT on its 5th year the Rampage is a solid 3 and one half star event, that's considering Adepticon setting the bar at a 5 star event. As it was my first year attending, I can't speak for previous years but here is a run down on the highs and lows.

Pro's-

Open gaming Friday Night-
The event started Saturday, however for us Friday evening arrivals the ballroom was open and set up for pre-registration and open gaming. since the ballroom was locked when we all left we could set up everything the night before, so you didnt have to do it at 8am on Saturday. meaning you got to sleep in a bit more, get up and get some breakfast before coming in and getting your table assignment. None of the round 1 rush I am used to at big events this was just great. if you were not totally fried the hall was open Saturday night too, and even had bitz trading and Demo's of the WAB book going on, from Adepticon Head Honcho and Gorgon Studios proprietor himself, Hank Edley.

Caliber of Talent/ Army Lists-
There was just a fantastic pool of players here, many well known big local names that are usually running events at Adepticon are here playing, I thought the competition overall was on par if not tougher at the top tables as the Adepticon Fantasy Championships. The score banding restrictions based on WPS kept lists in Check there were a few lists I saw that probably exploited WPS loopholes a bit, but nothing over the top, so its really just a matter of opinion based on personal viewpoint. Bottom line, if showed up to play here, you got a tough, but fair, honest game from a great player, no BS.

Vendors/Bar-
You can not do much better than the local brick and mortar dragging a huge amount of inventory (including 18 big boxes of blisters going back to late 90's )and setting up shop at a 44 person event..this was killer and I dropped about $80 bucks on old blisters that I got a killer deal on as I tied the purchase to the new Osgiliath scenery at retail. Hot damn I got my moneys worth there, great deal! Also what can you say about a bar being open 12 hours a day directly next to the gaming room, other than awesome.

Costs-
This was a very low cost event as tourney's go, especially for traveling an two nights in motel..I spend more day one at Adepticon this year than the whole weekend cost me here.


Cons-

Organization/ Scoring/Awards-

Jim, the TO of the event did have some personal issues to deal with on the day of the event (why does that always happen?,Murphy's law?- I had a near meltdown at work the night before I left too, that almost delayed our departure) this led to tourney packets not being assembled and handed out properly, I personally had a missing page that I had to scramble for after the 1st round. The scoring was broken down into Battle Points/ Bonus Battle Points and Best General Points This wasn't easily explained in the score sheets how to differentiate between separate best general and Bonus BP and I know several people computed their round scores incorrectly, I just went up and asked Jim, but several people guessed and got it wrong. This overall didn't effect the end result as the best overall was a 5-0, so I am sure if runner up was even remotely skeptical on the final result it would have gotten sorted out before hand..however with a newer crowd of players not experienced with attending tournaments this kind of disorganization could have been disastrous..thankfully it was just a minor hiccup Finally, it took almost two hours to get the awards ready and announced after round 5 on Sunday. When you've got 3/4's of the attendees..needing to get home Sunday night..(we had a 3 hour drive) That's just too long. In fact we were walking out the door, giving up on waiting after about 1 hour 40min , when suddenly they were ready..so we stuck around, again this stuff is minor, I am just used to Alex and Marty's events up here so I am spoiled.


Tables-

While the individual terrain was great, the tables were not. They used the standard 3x6 folding tables every banquet hall or hotel has and just slid two together long ways and threw a green sheet of piece of felt over them. the table were not all the same height so many didn't have a level surface across, with the table top sheets binding and pulling as you slid your trays in the movement phase got annoying at times, again I am used to solid 4 x 6 tops used at Adepticon or events taking places at the Chicago Battle Bunker or my basement. Just some food for thought- since Hank was there and lives in the area, perhaps borrowing or renting Adepticons tabletops in storage is a possibility?, this would really elevate the events gaming aesthetic, possibility? I wonder. Terrain placement had a similar problem that Adepticon did this year but worse- they tried to use pre set terrain but without a guide on how its supposed to be set up. my opponents and I had no problem agreeing to terrain placement were things obviously got moved, but just putting 5 pieces on the table doing terrain placement as normal would have saved some people some aggravation for sure. Again minor gripes

Food Choices-
Unfortunately the hotels food was pretty dismal or non existent..limiting your choices to strictly fast food for lunch..there was some decent bars and restaurants within a 5-10 min drive in the area but nothing near the Hotel until you were done for the day. A couple guys brought their own and tailgated in the parking lot for lunch, this was brilliant and I am doing that next year.


Again, while I am making some, I hope, constructive criticisms or just pointing stuff that can only improve the event, these things were minor and it didn't kill the overall great time of the weekend. Huge thanks to Jim Emerick for running the event basically by himself which is a huge undertaking. Barring any family conflicts, I am back again next year, for sure!.

Next up a rundown of my games and how myself, Chris and Aaron did.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Midwest Rampage 5




Midwest Rampage 5 takes place this weekend in scenic Peoria, IL. First time attending this one for me as the timing was finally just right. I know a good dozen of the players attending outside the guys from our club going down..so its looks to be a grand ole time. a 2250 WPS Composition event. Its 5 games over 3 days, games 2 and 3 feature an extra 250 Dogs of War float. This is what considered a soft tourney, there is banded scoring based your WPS score. There isnt a score less than 12 (scores are pre released) on the list..even my "17" is low on the scale most people choosing for maximum points by bring lists scoring above 20 on the WPS composition scale. This is the last hurrah for 7th Ed for me with my Empire and I don't think I'll be attending another tournament before 8th edition is released. Aaron and Chris are rolling down with me in the Dodge and bringing Warriors or Chaos and Wood Elves respectively. There are alot of awards handed out at this, a painting contest and Jim, the TO. is a swell guy who also runs a food drive at the event which gets you raffle tickets for various WFB and GW swag. There is alot going on here for sure and there are 43 signed up right now..with walk in's I wouldn't be surprised if it breaks 50 players. If your interested in the details check out the Rampage link above and look for my full write up of the weekend, next week..with Photos!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Battle Report. - Empire vs Warriors of Chaos 2500

5/18 @ Plastic Legions HQ

Five of us regulars met for our Bi-weekly club night last evening. Rich came by with all our new shiny WAB books he had group ordered for us and the other four of us threw down some Warhammer. The plan was to prep for the Mid West Rampage tournament this weekend. MWR is a 2250 tournament with 5 games however games 2 and 3 are 2500 point games with a 250 point Dogs of War float. This is what we wanted to test out. I have never used my Braganza's Besieger's unit...as it's my only DoW unit that's what I was going to field. Billy and Chris played Dwarfs vs Wood Elves with Pirate Slayers and Volands Venerators as their DoW...I had Braganza with the Empire against Aaron's Warriors of Chaos with a unit of Ogre Ironguts. Below the batrep from the game, my second try with Battlefield Chronicler. Unless we have all painted models on the table, I'll probably start defaulting to this for Bat Reps.. Aarons heavily themed Chaos army is so converted and custom sculpted..it's a shame its will probably only be primed for the weekend...I'll reserve photos of his awesome work until he gets some paint on them..but for sneak peak check out his blog Xenite's miniatures for a look at his awesome work.


Deployment


Key

Warriors of Chaos, Cult of Slannesh 2500 (Mark of Slannesh- MoS )

CL - Chaos Lord on Manticore, MoS, Crown of Command, Diabolic Splendor
EH- Exhalted Hero, MoS, Shield , Glaive of Purification, Steed
Sor- Chaos Sorceror- Tzeentch, Lv 2, Disc, Homunculus, Dispel Scroll, Power Familiar

CW1- 15 Chaos Warriors, FC, MoS
CW2- 15 Chaos Warriors FC, MoS
MH - 5 Marauder Horse
CH1- 6 Warhounds
CH2- 6 Warhounds
CK- 5 Chaos Knights FC, MoS
CC1- Chariot, MoS
CC2- Chariot, MoS
MC- 12 Chaos Cultists (Marauders)
OG- Ogre Iron Guts- Dogs of War

WPS 17

Empire- Army of Talabecland 2500

GEN- General of Empire- Helm of Ratslayer, Holy Relic, Pistol, Great Weapon
WP-Warrior Priest- Icon of Magnus, Armor of Meteoric Iron, Great Weapon
Wiz( red)-Wizard, Level 2, Rod of Power
Wiz (white)- Wizard, Level 2, Seal of Destruction.

SWD- 24 Swordsmen, FC
Mil1- 9 Free Company Detachment
Mil 2-9 Free Company Detchament
HG- 10 Handgunners, Marksman, HLR
Xbow- 10 Crossbowmen
FreeC- 10 Free Company , FC
CAN- Great Cannon
KTS- 5 Knights of the Inner Circle, FC, Steel Standard
FAST- 5 Pistoliers, Outrider with Repeater pistol
VG- Helblaster Volley Gun
ST- Steam Tank
BZB- 13 Braganza's Besieger's (crossbows) Dogs of War

WPS 17

Magic
Aarons level 2, uses the Lore of Tzeentch, his spells are Flickering Fire and Pandemonium
I have on Level 2, with the Lore of Fire, he has Fireball and Fiery Blast
My other Level 2 has the Lore of Light, he has Burning Gaze and Phar's Illumination


WoC Turn 1



Aaron wins and chooses to go first, His plan is engage me ASAP to avoid my heavy shooting. He keep his Lord hidden from y artillery but moves everything else up as much as he can. His Magic Phase starts with Pandemonium on "14", I go Seal of Destruction right away hoping to get rid of that nasty spell for the game, no luck. I roll a "1" ..its Dispelled this round but still in play.


Empire Turn 1


Given ample targets for shooting, I move my Flagellants to draw those nasty knights away from my General and his block of Swordsmen, my Knight are poised to go left of support and the Stank moves up to protect my right. In magic Phase I try to burn up some warriors the left with little result, I do get 3 of 6 hounds on the right with a Burning Gaze causing them to flee.I then unload alot of shooting, my Cannon overshooting one Chariot but popping the over, Crossbows shoot up and kill 2 Horsemen on the right and 5 of the 12 Marauders on the left side. 1st blood goes to the Empire!.


WoC Turn 2


Aaron's brings the fight right away, both his Chaos Knights and Ogres charge my Flagellants His Hounds charge my General and Swordsmen and my Detachments counter charge. He positions his other units, moving his Exhalted hero and unit of Warriors up my left flank. with right flank serious softened from my last round of shooting, he starts pulling everything away from my right flank. Aarons Sorcerors miscast takes a wound and the magic phase ends. In Close Combat, Aaron mistaken does the combats in the wrong order, allowing me to crush his dogs overrun and get a detachment into that combat with the flagellants to hopefully to buy the tarpit an extra round and divert some attacks..no such luck...still take 11 kills on the Flagellants and the Detachment runs away taking 4 losses..those Knights and Ogres are locked up for at least one more turn.

Empire Turn 2


I decide not to run my Knights into that Ogre and Chaos Knight Combat and run down those remaining Marauders..they almost escape but thanks to the Steel Standard they dont., My knight are now behind Aarons lines and out of sight of his Lord, a good place to be. My Swordmen, marchblock move 4 inches ahead. Not sure where the warriors are going I bring my Pistoliers out and hope to get some Feigned Flight happening. I then bring the Steam Tank over 1 inch away from the Chaos Knights (who are Frenzied) so once they get out of that Combat with my Flagellants they must charge the front of the Tank. Magic is uneventual. My Cannon misfires and it a malfunction so no shooting until turn 4. I put a ton of shots on that second chariot but can't get the "5's" I need to damage it. Braganza and the guys keep shooting up the Chaos Warriors with the Exhalted Hero headed their way. In Close Combat my Flaggies take 8 kills, which free's up the Knights and a lone crazed madman keeps the Ogres held another round.

WoC Turn 3


Free of the Flagellants but again Frenzied, those Chaos Knights must charge my Steam Tank I hope my 1+ armor save can keep me with enough wounds to grind them down on my turn. Both Aarons Lord and Chariot go for the easy kill Charging my Pistoliers..I was going to run and I wasnt really expecting the Lord to charge them, just the Chariot..since I would be running away from the Lord and not the Chariot..I endangered my whole right flank to panic checks if I ran that way so I held and the got wiped out, leaving greasy spot where the Manticore stopped to feed on them as the Chariot just rolled on thru. Aaron Exhalted Hero has a long Charge so he charges out of the unit to take on Braganza's Besiegers solo, He challenges Brazanga..whose got good stats WS 5, BS 5, but has only a 5+ armor save and easily dies to the Chaos Hero. However the unit has a good static res. rank, standard, outnumber, plus I am on a hill..and the Hero loses but makes his break check. My Stank ends up only taking one wound from the Chaos Knights.
It could have been worse.

Empire Turn 3


March Block, Aaron can't get his second unit of Chaos Warriors out of range of a Flank charge from my General and Swordsmen, I try to bring the Detachment along but they within range of the Manticore and have to make a terror check, they fail and run away. My Knights turn around
to run threaten the wounded Chaos Sorceror, and my Fire Wizard gets out of the away of the oncoming Warrior unit headed toward my Cannon and that Exhalted Hero. Again not much luck in Magic..the Fire Wizard tries to get those on coming chaos warriors..either gets 1 or just fails
(don't recall) , The Light Wizard tries to fry the chariot but again I can't wound. I dont have any shooting target this turn and in Close Combat, that last Flagellant dies and my Swordmens crush those warriors with the flank charge, they need snake eyes from the combat res and run, they do get away and I am a 1/4 inch short of hitting Aarons Sorceror. Having some bad runs with the Steam Tank getting greedy for Steam Points I am only bidding "saftey steam" this game..good enough..I kill two of the 5 Knight but they hold against me. The Besiegers no fighting without their namesake, win combat against the Exhalted this time, but he holds.

WoC Turn 4


That second Chariot of Aarons in now in my backfield and being a real pain, it charges my huntsmen, and I cant getway so I hold. His Chaos Warriors minus the Exhalted charge my Cannon, and His Lord on the Manticore charge my fleeing detachment and kill it but its puts Aarons lord under the nose of the Helblaster. Aarons Sorceror goes for a Flickering Fire on my knights with high roll but I stop it with a high roll., Aaron Fleeing second unit of warriors rallies. In combat the chariot crushes my huntsmen and overruns right into the other detachment I have back there...This Chariot is Aarons MVP for sure, His Warriors obliterate my Cannon Crew whose demise causes my Red Wizard to panic and he fails and runs away. Aaron's luck runs out
with the Besiegers thou..he loses combat to them and this time runs..he easily gets away with a high flee and pulls the Dogs of War Crossbow off the hill in pursuit.

Empire Turn 4


My General and Swordsmen Re-engage the rallied Chaos Warriors, my Knights Charge the Sorceror who flees and I redirect into the Ogres., My Fleeing Wizard, rallies and my other wizard moves back to cast at the Chaos Lord. Magic goes nowhere for me this round, and the big shooting event is my Helblaster barring down on Aarons Lord. For whatever reason my Helblaster has Aarons number everytime I use it against him..I get 22 shots , 11 hits and 7 Wounds..all wounding...Kill the Manticore outright and put two wounds on the Lord who lives but is now on foot. My Swordmen break his warriors again who flee almost off the board exposing their flank to the oncoming Besiegers. My tank gets a good grinding roll off and kills the Chaos Knights off and has Seven Wounds remaining..enough to be mobile. My Knights dont fair so well against the Ogres I kill one, but lose two of my own Knights and the Ogres hold.

WoC Turn 5


Aaron's Chariot now free of my second detachment, charges my rallies Wizard caught between Chaos Warriors and Chariot I run and die. Again Aaron Warriors Rally for another round of combat with my General and Swordsmen. The Chaos Lord charges my other Wizard..trying to get out of LoS of my HelBlaster and not run into the line of fire of my other shooters, he succeeds. My Knight stick with the Ogres and again, and there isnt much of a magic phase,
The Exhalted Hero has rallied unwounded, tries to find somewhere to be useful.


Empire Turn 5


Both General and the Besiegers charge the remaining Warriors who run off the board My Knights Kill the Ogres, and survive with 3 of 5 left, my Steam turns around and goes after that damn chariot and in the process the Engineer in the Stank uses his repeater pistol to shoot down the wounded Chaos Sorceror, got to love the versatility of the Steam Tank, My Wizard throws a Burning Gaze at the Chaos Lord who laughs it off. there are Army objectives in this game mirror whats going in the actuall tournament..I could find anything in Battle Chronicler to represent them (although you use a Unit called "objective:) they were not really relevant here so I left them out. anyway my Free Company moved out to capture one.


WoC Turn 6


Aaron's last gasp, His Exhalted Hero rear charges my General and Swordsmen hoping to get lucky, doesnt loses and flees..it doesnt matter as he wont get a chance to rally, but he rolls 3d6 and gets and 11, I roll 2d6 and roll "boxcars" catching him anyway, that's how this game went for Aaron., His Marauder threw some axes at my Free Company killing one and his Warriors stayed put on the hill, Aaron moved that chariot so the Tank could charge it and not the Warriors who are worth alot more points.


Empire Turn 6


We didn't finish my last turn as it was clear I had won and it was getting late. If the game did continue, I could have charged my knights at the Warriors on the hill hoping to get them below half or just held..my Stank was definitely hitting that chariot, Shooter target those surviving horseman where they could to try keep Aaron from contesting that quarter, and that's it. As it ended at the top of 6, I had 3 quarters and a bunch of Banners, despite appearance all my expensive stuff was still on the table, and I only took 630 in loses..so pretty clearly at least a Solid Victory..for the Empire. Aaron played a great game...he's hasnt been playing that long and is steadily improving..we are looking forward to great time this weekend..I'll a few comments on Rampage overall before I leave on Friday.



Aaron sent me this morning, just to remind of what he thinks of my Helblaster.
This is by Wayne Kemp of the Heelanhammer Podcast. Awesome and Hilarious...
We'll have to get Aaron his own Helblaster!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Old School Miniatures, A History.


Saying hello from 1980, no Hot Tub Time Machine here, just fresh paint

Something new and different here I have been putting together for awhile now. While I primarly consider myself a wargamer, I am also a miniature collector. I collect a variety of things relating to different aspects of my life, and somehow I have managed to hold onto alot of stuff precious to me as kid. Which hasnt exactly been easy when you were a kid 30 years ago. While I wish I still had all my mid 70's Airfix plastic toy soldiers, Model Planes and Tanks (sold -garage sale, thanks mom) . I did manage to hang on to my Fantasy miniature collection. IF you have ever wondered or maybe just aren't aware how the fantasy/Sci-Fi side of this hobby developed over the years here is good start, from my personal perspective.

Back in 1978, when the greatest thing to us kids were Comic Books, Star Wars and the Lord of The Rings animated movie (that we must have seen 10 times each in the summers of 77' and 78', One day we accidentally discovered the Dungeon and Dragons Blue Box in the back of the Comic Shop and it was all over from there. I don't think I did much else in my free time between 1978 and 1981 other than sniff model glue (LOL!), Listen to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and play D&D, Traveler, Dark Tower, Fedual and other assorted games with my brother and the kids in the neighborhood. Once we saw all the lead miniatures and box sets..we where hooked...it was like plastic soldiers all over again but these we metal and you could paint them and use them in a narrative game..we bought tons of them..and tried to learn to paint them decently.

Eventually, High School, girls and guitars took over and gaming every weekend was a distant memory...occasionally I'd pick something up to read or a cool figure here or there..but never did anything much with it. Fortunately the box I had packed it all away in survived the sale of the house I grew up in and my parents eventual relocation while I was off at college. Once I got married and settled down/ I started trying to take stock of my miniatures and my itch to start gaming again. I didn't start collecting again until the 2000's but most of my original collection survives unscathed..I've been slowing trying to replace the few missing pieces that were traded away or lost in the void..This is my original collection of Fantasy Miniatures purchased during the 1st Edition of D&D..the nostalgia here is pretty epic if you were born in the 60's like me. Recently I've started basing and painting these for display..what I'll do with them I'll save for another post...but here's some great lead from the early early days of the fantasy miniatures hobby, without this stuff there be no Warhammer, no 40k, etc..so I am glad I still have it, a little bit of gaming history.


I'll start out with some of the most recognizable stuff, The Advanced Dungeon and Dragons, "gold" box sets from Grenadier. manufactured in 1980 thru 1982 this followed up the Heritage line of Fantasy Miniatures, ( that I also have lots of)..I currently own 11 of the 19 box sets Grenadier produced and only 6 are complete..the rest missing various pieces that slipped into the void along the way..



The Wizards Box was always one my favorites, I am missing 1 model from this box, Letter "G"
the Sage..if you have this and want to sell it me, I will be very grateful..like paint you a Standard Bearer, grateful...I've been looking on ebay so far no luck.



I spent some time last weekend cleaning up, priming and basing these guys. I painted up two of them so you can what 30 year old miniatures can look like, My wife, was even like
"wow, those are cool"







I am definitely going to paint up the rest of these guys for display..I wont do it will all of them
but a few select boxes for nostaliga purposes is mandatory. The guy throwing "Bigby's Crushing Hand" is pretty awesome.





"Warning, don't eat the lead", that always cracked me up..not sure why.

I'm going to make this monthly series. Going thru the various boxes and painting some of these, and talk my lengths to locate some of the missing pieces, eventually the photos will all be galleried under a link on the left hand side bar. Next up I'll go thru the highly sought after "Tomb of Spells box, and some Heritage Dungeon Dwellers, that are even more "old school" than these!

I need to thank and point out www.dndlead.com, for some background material here. If you have some interest in this. dndlead is a well researched archive of all the old miniatures I'll be talking about here.

Dogs and Lizards




I've been up to bunch of stuff lately but lets start with a Warhammer Update. Here we have Braganza's Besieger's a Dogs of War Crossbow unit that's filling the the required 250 point float for the upcoming Midwest Rampage Tourney which is just 2 Saturdays away.


I won this unit at Core Competency 2008, they were initially painted by someone else. I've added 3 more so the full unit is 13 men. I did the banner first, then started touching up the shields by the time I started on the new models, I basically had redone the whole unit..cleaned up the freehand and picked out the missing details. This is cool unit, a Regiment of Renown. They are standard Crossbows but with a 3+ Saves and Braganza himself is tough customers..at BS 5 and 2 wounds


Just the command group and front rank is pictured here, the rest of guys are drying up and need another shot of dullcote..I'll finish them on Saturday. More on Midwest Rampage coming soon. We have some practice games set up this coming tuesday and I'll try to squeak out a battle report and see how these guys do.



So with lots of 8th Edition rules up the air, I haven't been able to make a ton of progress on my Lizardmen. Here however is my test Saurus Warrior. I have 45 of these guys to do..So I am really just trying to figure out if I do them all this way, or change each unit up with a different color scheme. We are still in the planning stage here. I'm somewhat out of my element having worked on Human figures for so long..its going to take me a bit to hit my stride with the Lizards.




Not quite sure about the spear tip yet....I'm not planning on using any metallics in this whole army, Ideally all workable materials are going to be stone or bone, trying to work in some NMM's ...were I can.




Here is my first Stegadon, again not sure if this is going to be the Engine, my other Ancient or the Standard Model..really depends on how the other colors come together. Plan is paint all the Stegadons first then once I figure out the loadout..do the howdas and characters, The next one is going to Grey, Dark scales working up to a light belly and face..not sure on the 3rd on yet.


Once we get some concrete info on 8th Ed and I get this next tourney out of the way, I will be digging into these guys seriously!.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

"X marks the Spot"



Since we've been on a serious WFB only kick over here for quite awhile, we opted for a change of pace last night and played some Legends of the High Seas. Rich and Chris both ran Pirate crews and I ran my Spanish Privateers and we played two 3 player games, The first was the now classic LotHS scenario "X's marks the spot" which is where 6 tokens are placed on the board each with a hidden number under it. Only one is the actually objective (the treasure) so you roll a D6 to see what number your digging for after the tokens are placed so the rest are just false leads.

The problem with the scenario is as luck would have it someone always seems to find the treasure at the token closet to them. After the treasure is discovered you need to move it off the board thru you start location. Since you cannot move and fire muskets in LotHS..its impossible to close long distances or shoot down an enemy escaping with the objective if you are more than 18"away at the start of the chase. This is unpredicable but all too common result leads to some disappointing games. I've played some awesome knock down drags outs, of "X marks"
but far too ofter the games a dud.

Which is why Rich and I came up with our own scenario, Prisoner Escort, similar to "X marks" its starts you in a position to where you'd be in that scenario AFTER you dug up the treasure. Meaning the Prisoner starts in the center of board..at the top of the movement phase roll a scatter die and a D6 that's where the prisoner moves until captured, and which point you need to escort the prisoner off the board alive. After an anti climatic "X marks" last night the Prisoner Escort was a blast/ Chris Pirate Crew caught the prisoner early, much gunfire and combat was had, Chris's entire was KIA, except for his Quartermaster and Wounded Captain who finally said "forget this!" left the prisoner and ran off the board (Captain failed his rout test, then Quartermaster did the same) That left Rich and I to fight it out over the prisoner, it was too far for each of to escort so we drew swords and got busy. Unfortunately I was out number, taking unlucky a early casualty, and leave two men with muskets to guard our retreat when the time came they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. My Captain valiantly fought on after we had broken but eventually was beaten, Rich's Sea Dogs, winning the day!.

All in all a good time, much talk was also had about WFB 8th edition over Negro Modelo, Lemon Soda and Diet Coke.

We plan on getting some Legends of the Old West happening soon!



LotHS, get more interesting with the more terrain you have..I had decent amount out last night for our games with this small town with some tree's, the watchtower, etc.







My Spanish Privateers below..note I have guys with Muskets in the building guarding them
a tactic that tends to work very well, as Privateer Merc hit on 4+ which is the best non character shooting you can get.



Some old shots of Rich's awesome Ruined Pirate Castle set up on my Realm of Battle
These shots are from last year, I realized I hadn't posted these before. Just an example
of what great terrain can do for game like this!.









 

blogger templates | Make Money Online