Episode 8 - 2012 Year in Review

Welcome to the final episode of the year. In this episode, Chuck and John discuss Waste Wars X and how each of their teams did in the tournment. Towards the end of the segment, John throws out a challenge to folks living in northern Illinois and southeast Wisconsin. After istening to John rant about the tournament, the guys talk about how they are wrapping up the year from a hobby perspective. To wrap things up, the episode ends with a best/worst of 2012 segment.

Download: Direct Download | iTunes

Email
John: equinox@unstabledice.com
Andrew: andrew@unstabledice.com
Nerd Rage: nerdrage@unstabledice.com

Links
The Waaaghcast: Website | Facebook

Sponsors
Rare Choice Games: Facebook | YouTube

Episode 7 - Adapting to Adepticon

Welcome to a Warhammer Fantasy focused episode of the Unstable Dice Podcast. In this episode, Chuck and John dive into the WFB tournaments at Adepticon. Next, the guys talk about Waste Wars X on Dec 8th. Finally, John announces the first ever Unstable Dice Painting Challenge.
Email
John: equinox@unstabledice.com
Andrew: andrew@unstabledice.com
Nerd Rage: nerdrage@unstabledice.com

Links
Adepticon: Website
The Waaaghcast: Website | Facebook
The Unstable Dice Panting Challenge: Website

Sponsors
Rare Choice Games: Facebook | YouTube

Adepticon 2013 - Potential Plans

As we edge closer to registration opening for Adepticon 2013, I thought I would share my proposed plan of activities for the convention. Last year I had to bow out because of work and family stuff, but this year I am planning in advance and have already scheduled the time off and booked a hotel nearby (not the actual convention hotel, but close enough for my needs).

Thursday
My plans for Thursday are to participate in the two 1000 point WFB tournaments. I am not sure what to expect with regards to attendance for these tournaments now that they have been moved to Thursday. The reason I say that is I would like to bring a more competitive list to the larger event and a more casual list to the smaller one. In the past, the later tournament had lower attendance numbers, but with the change in days, more folks may be playing in the later event because of travel considerations.

Regardless of actual attendance numbers, I plan on breaking out the Ogre Kingdoms army for one of the tournaments. I have slowly been cranking out the army for this tournament, so I am feeling confident that it will be ready for the table by next Adepticon. With regards to the other tournament, I will likely field either Empire or Daemons of Chaos. Neither army really excites me at the moment, but I have enough stuff painted for either that I can bring one of them without doing any additional preparation.

Friday
Friday has become a bit of a challenge for me as there are some cool options, but they all overlap on the schedule. As of right now, I am leaning toward playing in the Warzone tournament being run by Nick Baran of the Second City Warzone blog. This particular tournament is 1000 points with a 250 point sideboard and uses rules similar to Cities of Death. Outside of it being run by Nick, who is a good guy and supporter of stuff I have run, it is also tournament format I wish was more common. Cities of Death was an awesome expansion and really brought a new style of play to the game. Most TOs never embraced it and that is a real shame.

The other option is the Zone Mortalis: The Sin of Alacrity – Boarding Action events. As described on the site, “In this event, your boarding team will test its savvy, skill, and mettle in at least three challenging and distinct 1v1 scenarios across the breadth of 8 custom-made 4×4 Sin of Alacrity tables: from the Bridge, the weapons batteries, the launch bays, teleport rooms, and engineering section, through all the decks of this wayward spaceship.” Now that sounds cool, especially from a creativity standpoint. Where the Warzone tournament requires me to plan for the event and work on expanding an existing army (IG or Tau are my likely candidates), this event opens the floor to whatever madness my brain can come-up with as I suspect the “army” requirements will be quite small. Suddenly I have visions of Space Hulk Genestealers, Deathwatch Insertion Teams, or Killer Kan mobs. Heck, every codex is an option to explore and consider.

Saturday and Sunday
My plans for Saturday and Sunday are to avoid Adepticon and go home. I am sure the crowds will be massive and honestly the big tournaments don’t interest me. I also figure at this point that I will have hit any demos and purchased more stuff that I will never use from the vendor floor.

Episode 6 - Dueling at Duelcon

It is almost the end of October, which means it is time for a new episode. This episode begins with a review of Duelcon and John's results from the Friday night tournament at the convention. Next, the guys talk about what they have been doing hobbywise. Finally, a new segment of the show is introduced with a discussion on drybrushing.

   

Email
John: equinox@unstabledice.com
Andrew: andrew@unstabledice.com
Nerd Rage: nerdrage@unstabledice.com

Links
Duelcon: Website | Facebook | 40K Radio
The Waaaghcast: Website | Facebook

Sponsors
Rare Choice Games: Facebook | YouTube

The Citadel Finecast Experience

The few Citadel Finecast models I had before this week were ones I purchased off of EBay and were already assembled and cleaned upon arrival. My assumption was that at this point, GW had worked out any quality issues the process and anything new or recently cast would be of a higher standard. Was I wrong.

This week I worked on Orikan the Diviner and the model crumbled as I removed it from the packaging. The head on the staff was so fragile that it broke in numerous places just from me touching it. The mold lines were obvious and deep, such that I wonder if it was miscast. The air bubble holes are in places that are obvious if I were to paint it, but in positions that are going to be difficult to fill.

I know to most this is old news, but again I am shocked that GW has not made improvements to the process since the original launch of Failcast. Most companies would have pulled the line or at least attempted to make changes based on the negative reviews and PR. More to the point, I have not experienced these issues with the FW kits (minor problems sure, but not crumbling and horrible miscasts and mold lines).

In the end, a year later and I cannot still believe that GW has continued with the Finecast experiment. While GW is making an effort to move everything to plastic, some of these amazing sculpts will never be possible in that format, so GW needs to find an alternative.

On the Bench: Chaos Dwarf Infernal Guard

Looking for feedback on this model as I am trying to decide if I should stick with the color scheme in the pictures or go with a black/gold or red/gold scheme..

Episode 5 - Dark Vengeance, IWFB #4 & Waste Wars IX

Episode 5 has arrived and it is jumbo sized.  This episode begins with Andrew and John chatting about all of the conventions Andrew attended in August.  Next, John reviews IWFB #4 at the Chicago Battle Bunker.  After John’s review, Andrew tags in Chuck, who joins the episode to discuss Waste Wars IX.  After discussing the tournament, Andrew and John tear into the new 40K box-set, Dark Vengeance and debate which model is the best out of the new set.  Finally, someone other than John has some rage to share on the show. 

Andrew's Email: Andrew@unstabledice.com
John's Email: Equinox@unstabledice.com
Nerd Rage: Nerdrage@unstabledice.com

Links
The Waaagh Cast! on Facebook
Chuck's Blog
The Waaagh Cast Cup - Season 2


Sponsors
Rare Choice Games on Facebook
Rare Choice Games on YouTube

Direct Download | iTunes
 

Episode 4 - Electric Demons

Finally, the fourth episode of the Unstable Dice Podcast is available for download.  In this episode, John and special guest Chuck from the Waaaghcast discuss the new Daemons of Chaos.  They also review some of the tournaments coming up in August and how they are preparing for them.

Andrew's Email: Andrew@unstabledice.com
John's Email: Equinox@unstabledice.com
Nerd Rage: Nerdrage@unstabledice.com

Links
The Waaagh Cast! on Facebook
Chuck's Blog
Invasion Kenosha
A Gathering of Might IX

Sponsors
Rare Choice Games on Facebook
Rare Choice Games on YouTube

Direct Download | iTunes

Battle Report: Necrons vs Orks (1000 Points)

It had been many years since the Necrons had returned to the K’Enosha sector. Since that time, the orks had settled into a routine of watching grot produced fireworks displays and raising miniature squigs with massive mohawks. They had forgotten what it meant to face the purple menace. 


In this battle report, Ernie and I face each other in the first of a series of games intended to teach us 40k 6th edition. Before the start of the game, we agreed that we would only use the basic rules and not include any flyers, psykers or fortifications. We also decided to set the game at 1000 points as not to overwhelm ourselves with a massive first battle under the new edition.

Ernie’s List
Warboss on bike
3 Nobz on a bike
Ork commandos
Trukk with boyz
Boyz
Dethdread
Zzap guns


John’s List
Necron Overlord w/ voidblade
3 Crypteks w/ tremor staffs
10 Necron Warriors
10 Necron Warriors
3 Scarab Swarms
1 Tomb Spyder
1 C’tan w/ Writhing Worldscape & Time Arrow

 
Early Rounds

Ernie began the game by moving forward his bikers and trukk and then following it up with a few shots from his Zzap guns. I responded in my turn by pushing a little forward and losing an immortal to a sabotaged objective. The second turn saw Ernie continue to advance and bring his ork commandos onto the table. On my second turn, my C’tan assaulted the Dethdread while the scarabs flew into the Zzap guns. The dread stood strong, but the grot manned weapons were chased from the table.
Middle Rounds
The middle of game revolved around Ernie attempting to charge my forces and me holding them back via good rounds of overwatch shooting. By the time we ended turn 4, Ernie only had his one unit of boyz holding the objective left on the table. We decided to call it a game at this point.
Conclusion
The game ended with my necron’s winning 5 to 3. After the game, Ernie and I discussed how things could have gone differently and how if he had brought a single flyer I would have likely been gunned down. We also got a good laugh at the boxing match between the Dethdread and C’tan.

Looking back on the game a week later, I feel I also got lucky with the fact that Ernie didn’t bring more long range shooting. He played his orks like a true warboss, but if could have sat back a little more, I would have been stuck footslogging my way across the battlefield. I also think that I got some really good rounds of overwatch shooting that hindered him from assaulting me. Overall, it was a tight game that taught us both a lot about the new edition.

Episode 3 - You're Bored

Episode 3 - You're Bored
Direct Download | iTunes

Sponsored by Rare Choice Games

The exciting third episode of the Unstable Dice Podcast has found its way to the internet.  In this post Invasion Kenosha episode, Andrew and John chat about all the rumors of what is coming next from Games Workshop.  Next, they talk about their first game of 40k 6th edition against each other while discussing their thoughts on the new rules.  Afterwards, Andrew shares his results from the WFB tournament at Invasion Kenosha.  Finally, John sits down for a chat with Chuck from the WaaaghCast.

Andrew's Email: Andrew@unstabledice.com
John's Email: Equinox@unstabledice.com
Nerd Rage: Nerdrage@unstabledice.com


Links
The Waaagh Cast! on Facebook
Chuck's Blog
Invasion Kenosha
Garagehammer


Sponsors
Rare Choice Games on Facebook
Rare Choice Games on YouTube

Invasion Kenosha IV Review (by Michael J.)

Michael J wrote up a great article about his experience at this year's Invasion Kenosha.  You can check it out here.

The Daemons are Coming... (Again)

While my attention is on preparing this year’s Invasion Kenosha, I have spent a little time as of late preparing for the next four tournaments I plan on attending. The first tournament on the list is the 1000 point IWFB tournament at the Chicago Battle Bunker of August 12th (Sunday). While this breaks my rule of never gaming on a Sunday, I am making an exception because it has been forever since I got to play at my favorite point level.

Since I am planning on four tournaments, I needed to stick with one army. To make this task even more challenging, one of the four tournaments is a 40K combat patrol event at Duelcon (www.duelcon.con). Since I am planning for two different systems, I am stuck with one army that can meet both; Chaos Daemons.

The Emerald Eye (1000 point IWFB Series List)

Heroes
Herald of Tzeentch w/ Master of Sorcery and Disc (160 pts)
Masque (90 pts)

Core
(12) Bloodletters w/ Full Command (174 pts)
(12) Daemonettes w/ Full Command (174 pts)
(15) Horrors w/ Full Command (240 pts)

Rare
(3) Flamers of Tzeentch (105 pts)
(1) Fiend of Slaanesh (55 pts)

The Unstable Dice Podcast - Episode 2

The second awesome episode of the Unstable Dice Podcast is ready to grace your ears and tickle you brain. In this episode, Andrew and John discuss the latest news about 40K 6th edition. John hangs out with Allen from Rockhead's Comics and Games in Kenosha. Next, Dr. Jones and Shortround discuss the first part of their Vampire Counts armybook review. Finally, we read off the firstever nerdrage from a listener.

Links
Rockhead's Comics & Games
Illinois Warhammer Fantasy Boards
Gaspez Arts
Invasion Kenosha IV

Direct Download
iTunes

Invasion Kenosha IV Practice Scenario #1

The first practice scenario has been revised. The major change is the reduction is battle points for the scenario (going from a maximum of 30 to 20). I will be posting a revision to the pod rules shortly to explain how the system will work and how tie breakers are determined.

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

(Downloadable Version is Located HERE)

The Unstable Dice Podcast: Episode One

The Unstable Dice Podcast: Episode One

On the Bench: Ogre (#4)

With the fourth ogre, I decided to sculpt the shoulder pads with brown stuff.  When it came to the paint scheme, I used the same range of colors, but went for a lighter skintone on this ogre.  I am curious to see if the unit when finished will look disjointed because of the variations in skin colors or if it will make the unit "pop" more.

Pre-painted Image

On the Bench: Ogre (#3)

This is the 3rd ogre in the unit I am working on currently. This particular model has some highs and lows for me. I really like how the shoulder pads and gut plate look, but feel I could have done better with the skin tones and arm wrappings.

On the Bench: Ogre (#2)

This is the next ogre in the unit. The skin tone is slightly paler, which I think I prefer compared to the other one.

On the Bench: Ogre (#1)

This was the first in a new unit of ogres I am working on. I liked the idea of them wielding large polearm weapons that were a little less crude compared to what comes in the standard plastic kits. I also wanted to continue doing shoulder armor since I enjoy the look of it.

Waaagh Aeries VI: The Aftermath

The results from Waaagh Aeries VI were...


Best Overall: Paul Vinton(DE)
2nd Overall: Jake Murphy (Brets)


Best General: Tim Waeyaert(DE)
2nd Best General: Steve G. (WE)


Best Painted: Andrew Karolus(TK)
2nd Best Painted: John Gaszak (DoW)


Best Sportsmanship: Kevin Fleming (Dwarfs)
2nd Brandon Prouty (Lizardmen)

Name/Army/Painting Rank/Battle Rank/Overall Rank
John Gaszak DoW 2 7 4
Kevin Fleming Dwarfs 5 10 9
Cody Svientek Dwarfs 10 4 8
Andrew Karolus Tomb Kings 1 6 6
Paul Vinton Dark Elves 4 2 1
Steve Grunswold Wood Elves 7 5 5
Aaron Lacey Beastmen 11 12 12
Brandon Prouty Lizardmen 8 11 11
Jake Murphy Bretonnians 3 3 3
Tim Waeyaert Dark Elves 6 1 2
Chris Walker VC 9 8 10
Chuck Jiardina Ogres 9 7

Overall, it was another great day spent in Bloomington, Illinois. The scenarios were pretty straight forward without any of the game breaking surprises that I have seen at other tournaments hosted by the Waaagh Cast. I would have liked to have received my own copy of each scenario, but having them posted on the walls was fine for an event of this size.

When it came to my opponents, all of them were great and I would be happy to play them again.  I also had a blast hanging with Andrew for the drive down and back, and hopefully we can do it again in the summer.  

Waaagh Aeries VI: DoW vs. Dwarves Battle Report (Round 3)

“Dirty, Stinking Dwarves,” mumbled the Paymaster has he readied his army. “Nothing I dislike more than short hairy guys that don’t know how to use soap and find any excuse they can to drink excessively”.


Hearing his lord begin his standard diatribe about dwarves, Bert, the paymaster’s ever faithful servant ran to retrieve the anti-dwarf chest that was kept on the wagon. Once he returned with it, he quickly opened it to reveal it filled with small bundles of dried flowers. Grabbing one such bundle, Bert quickly tied it to the Paymaster’s face, positioning it just below his nose.


Acknowledging the fragrant defense, the Paymaster spoke, “I might need to fight those ugly bastards, but I sure don’t need to smell them”.

My apologies in advance as I misplaced my notes from the last game and may not have all the details correct from my last game. For the third round of Waaagh Aeries VI, I was matched up against Cody and his dwarves.

Cody’s Army
Dwarf Lord w/ anvil
2 Cannons
1 Organ gun
1 unit of Thunderers
3 other units of Dwarves

The Scenario
The scenario was Blood and Glory with some bonus points for keeping your BSB alive. If an army didn’t have a BSB, one of the army’s standards was upgraded to a gold standard for the bonus points, and though it did not get all of the bonuses a normal BSB would receive.



Early Turns
The first turn of the game only had a single event, but it was a critical one. Cody’s dwarf lord on an anvil blew up after failing a misfire check twice. With the anvil gone, my magic phases became a lot stronger. I shot a couple of dwarves, but that was about it.

Middle Turns
The middle of the game was me pushing around some ogres and Voland’s unit while Cody shot at them. I was able to get Voland into close combat with one of Cody’s war machines and wipe it out. I tried doing the same on the other side of the table with my ogre mercenaries, but I didn’t survive the initial charge. I again shot a couple of dwarves.



Late Turns
The late turns of the game saw my Cursed Company dying to a unit of dwarves and Voland wiping out a second warmachine. Cody was able to do some precision shooting with his cannon and wiped out Mr. Madness towards the end of the game. I shot a couple more dwarves.

Conclusion
The game ended with us having a victory point difference of ~38 points. Similar to my first game, the results are really due to a pair of unlucky rolls by Cody at the start of the game. If that wouldn’t have occurred, my units would have been gunned down before I could have reached his lines.

Lessons Learned…
1. My deployment for the last game was very sloppy and really played a huge part of why I couldn’t accomplish anything. In particular, I placed the Marksmen in such a position that they pretty much did nothing but shoot a couple of dwarves each turn.

The Roaming Gamer's Review: Texas Toy Soldier (Addison, Texas)

One of the pleasures of my job is that I get to travel all over the United States. During my travels, I get to visit various game stores and get a chance to see how folks approach the hobby in different parts of the world. I also get to find those gems that are worth checking out just to pick-up something new or have a fun chat. This month I review Texas Toy Soldiers, a great store in the Dallas, Texas area.

The first thing I noticed about the store was that is was clean and very well organized. The GW product was straight ahead as I walked in the door and the selection of product was excellent. The store also carried many other lines of products, including stuff from Spartan Games and Vallejo Paints.

Another great thing about the store is that all GW products are 25% off the MSRP. On the day I visited the store, I was debating on whether to purchase an Ironblaster or a Stonehorn. With such a great discount, I went ahead and bought both of them.

Finally, the fellow working the counter (I believe his name was Allen), was a real pleasure to talk with and made the visit a memorable experience. I liked that he was helpful when I called for directions and was kind enough to put what I wanted aside before I arrived at the store. We talked about the GW hobby and his interest in historical games.

I am already planning another visit to the Texas Toy Soldiers when I return to Dallas in January. The combination of a great discount and staff is hard to avoid and makes for an enjoyable purchasing experience. While I didn't get to check out any gaming while I was there, I do look forward to swinging by on a Thursday night to play the next time I am in town.

Around the Net: Warcast and Warriors of the Apocalypse

Avatars of War, the coolest mini company in the world and a very proud sponsor of Invasion Kenosha for the last 3 years has made some big announcements this week.

Gaelion from the AoW forum wrote the following:

We are totally excited at AoW about this new medium, it feels very much like a mix between plastic and resin, and the original sculpts can have more undercuts even than those for metal, due to the elasticity of the moulds, which allows us to sculpt really cool regiments. The detail definiton is frankly awesome.
It glues very easily and strong with superglue, and is very easy to cut.

Another great thing is that as the sculpting is done 1:1, it allows us to put out multi-part regiments much faster. We hope to release a new regiment every two months using War-cast.

This first War-cast release is a multi-part regiment, 20 multi-part minis, torsos/legs/arms/heads (20 different ones!)/different weapon combos, command accessories, ... for a hint to what it is: Apoc, War Price for War-cast will be not as cheap as plastic, but still very affordable for building regiments, and seeing the detail definition I really thyink is worth the small difference.

Pieces do not come in a big sprue, they come in small plastic bags, organized by type (trosos, legs, heads, ...).

At the moment, as manufacturing is taken in-house here at AoW and we've done the "minimum" setup (only one new plastic-resin casting machine), War-cast products will be available at the AoW online shop only, once we see how it is received, if it sells well enough in the future we'll invest to increase our plastic-resin production and sell it to retailers and distributors together with metal and plastic regiments. Time will tell!

Credit to Dakkadakka and the AoW forum for the images and information.

Waaagh Aeries VI: DoW vs. Wood Elves Battle Report (Round 2)

In what has seem to become too common an occurrence, the Coin Collectors were hired by a mysterious client to capture what appeared to be an abandoned tower near the edge of some ancient woods. The tower itself was unremarkable, something you would expect any eccentric with a limited budget to build. Still though, it was a job and the boys had already burned the gold they had collected from their recent encounter with the lizardmen.

“May I suggest sending the ogres in to capture the tower,” suggested Chase as he stood beside the Paymaster.

“That would require us spending a day oiling them up to get thru the front door,” sarcastically replied the Paymaster.

“Is this were you drop a line about having a skeleton key,” retorted Chase.

“This is where I drop you for being a smart ass,”

As the last word slipped from the Paymaster’s lips, Chase’s keen eyes caught the slightest movement from an open window towards the top of the tower. In response, he quickly raised his crossbow and fired a bolt. It shot forward, coming within a hair’s length of the window’s edge and striking something soft just behind in the shadows. That something became a beautiful elf female as she stepped into full view for just a moment before being pulled back into the shadows by unseen hands. Chase had proven once again to be a marksman without compare, though he would have preferred his target to have been a little uglier.

Having won my first game, I moved on to face my buddy Steve “Mr. Handsome” G. and his Wood Elves. Steve is a very skilled general and having played him before, I knew this was going to be a fun, but challenging match-up. I was also glad to see him playing Wood Elves as I wanted to see what they could do when under the leadership of someone who knows how to play them.

Steve's List:
Spell Weaver - Life, HoD arrow
Altar Noble
Altar Noble
20 Glade Guard
14 Glade Guard
10 Dryads
10 Wardancers
10 Wardancers
3 Treekin
Treeman
Eagle (aka Giant Chicken)



The Scenario
Our game was the basic Watchtower scenario with a restriction on the size of units that could capture the tower.

Early Turns
The game began with me pushing the ogres and Cursed Company forward towards the tower. Steve responded with his elves in the tower dwindling down the number of skeletons in the Cursed Company and moving his various elves and treekin forward to intercept. He also brought his one noble and giant chicken closer to the marksmen.

During the second turn, I moved Leonardo and the Captain from out of the Marksmen unit to create a protective bubble around my crossbowmen. I also attempted to charge the tower with what remained of the Cursed Company. While the bubble tactic would prove to work, my karma was balanced by the Cursed Company failing to capture the tower.


Middle Turns
The middle turn saw the giant chicken charging Leonardo in an effort to remove him and his prism from the game. Surprisingly, Leonardo was able to hold his ground for a turn of combat, thus allowing my marksmen to charge into the combat during the following turn and save him. While this was happening, one of Steve’s Altar Noble charged Mr. Madness and Vespero. The combat ended with Mr. Madness and Vespero breaking from combat.

Towards the center of the board, the ogres were trying to deal with the Treekin and Treeman, but they simply lacked the number of attacks needed to truly damage them. At this point as well, the Cursed Company was no more, so the elves clearly had control of the tower by mid-game.

Late Turns
The late turns of the game were mostly filled with Steve cleaning up the ogres and me trying to shoot down what remained of his larger unit of Glade Guard. His Altar Noble was able to charge Mr. Madness and Vespero again and finish them off on the second attempt. He was also able to eliminate my cannon, which was more of a mercy killing since the cannon failed to do anything during the game.

Conclusion
It was clear even before victory points were tabulated that Steve had won the game since I failed to capture the tower and most of my point heavy units were gone from the table. When it comes to the Watchtower scenario, I love playing it, but I admit to not having a very good strategy on how to win it. Also again, Steve is a great general and a fun person to play, so even though I lost, it was such a fun experience that the outcome didn’t matter to me (okay, maybe a little since it was a tournament).

Lesson’s Learned
1. Need to get more practice games in playing the Watchtower scenario. It is common enough that I should have a better understanding of how it plays with my armies.
2. I love you Cursed Company, but you are not worth the points.
3. While I wouldn’t call this a lesson learned, I did ponder after the game whether or not I should have gone with the Lore of Fire for Mr. Madness. If I can get the Flaming Sword off on the Marksmen, the +1 to wound roll along with flaming and magical would make for a vicious combo.

Waaagh Aeries VI: Andrew "Dr. Jones" K. Battle Reports

The following Battle Reports are from Andrew "Dr. Jones" K, who went to Waaagh Aeries VI with me.  I would just like to point out that everytime someone has carpooled with me down to Bloomington, they have walked away winning an award.



Andrew's Tomb King List
Khalida
High Liche Priest - Dragonbane gem, lvl 3
Liche Priest - Ironcurse icon, lvl 2
Ramhotep the Visionary
30 Skeleton Archers - full command
30 Skeleton Archers - full command
3 Chariots - musician, banner, Flaming banner
Tomb Scorpion
3 Sepulchral Stalkers
3 Sepulchral Stalkers
Necrosphinx
Hierotitan

It's my concept of the "infamous Khalida list," simply because I came up with this right when the book came out, long before it was cool . It's nicer because it's not 90 archers in one blob, and it's far less overall. The idea behind the list is as such: The skeletons form a line, one in front of the other. The Hierotitan stands out front to take charges and block my own. Khalida and Ramhotep stay in the front archer unit, and with the hierotitan blocking my charges I don't have to test for frenzy. The casters get the bonus casting dice to make them essentially lvl 3-4+ while the Chariots and Sphinx deal with flankers. Stalkers and scorpion pop up behind to deal with warmachines/small units. Works fine in theory and has done so on the table.


Game 1 vs Wood Elves (Steve)
Steve's List:Spell Weaver - Life, HoD arrow
Altar Noble
Altar Noble
20 Glade Guard
14 Glade Guard
10 Dryads
10 Wardancers
10 Wardancers
3 Treekin
Treeman
Eagle

Scenario: Battleline, with extra points for getting a character to the other side of the table.

Suffice to say, this went bad because I didn't even stick to my battle plan as outlined at the beginning, and because of dice. The only thing I did well at was getting power dice (after which I poofed those rolls). Pretty much everything sucked, I made the mistake of having Khalida leave to kill an Altar noble and fail, and the Stalkers misfired 5 of 8 times. On the plus side, they still killed the treeman easily and the eagle just as well. The Hierotitan was quite useful in boosting my spells, and even lived to the end of the game (everything else was dead by the end).

Loss!


Game 2 vs Dwarves (Kevin)

Kevin's list:
Thane/King?
Runesmith?
40 with great weapons
25 sword/board
12 Thunderers
25 Miners
Organ Gun
Cannon
Gyrocopter

Scenario: Watchtower, with a restriction that no unit of 20+ could garrison the tower.

This game went much better. Still, the hierotitan got blatted by a cannonball on the first turn...ouch. Still, I was able to roll the left flank (gyrocopter and warmachines), swing the chariots around, and then some big scrums happened. Turn 2 the scorpion popped up and threatened the cannon; he had to hem and haw to decide whether grapeshot or straightshot, choosing to grapeshot (which didn't kill it). Once his thunderers got in the tower, my archers all tore them to shreds. I made two important and interesting combats in the fourth turn. By then, the scorpion had destroyed the cannon, and so it and the chariots charged the horde of great weapons. The stalkers had shown up, so they all (and the necrosphinx) charged the other smaller block. The scorpion and chariots acquitted themselves well, killing ~20. Still...he entirely destroyed both units. UGH. The stalkers and necrosphinx failed to kill much of anything and lost the combat, lame! And just like that, due to the random game length the game ended and I had stuck my liche priest just close enough to the tower to cap it.

Win!


Game 3 vs Dark Elves (Paul)
Paul's list:Supreme Sorceress - shadows
Sorceress - dark
Noble - BSB
30 Spearmen
23 Crossbows
25 Witches
Chariot
5 Dark Riders
8 Harpies
5 Shades
Reaper
Hydra

Scenario: Blood and Glory

We both deployed refused flanks, each taking our right sides. His shades went near my chariots though and attempted to sneak past them...but couldn't do it and were run down. The stalkers showed up and did their job, dusting both the chariot and reaper. The scorpion eventually popped up behind the crossbowmen (and sorceress). It and the stalkers attempted to charge them; they fled but were caught by the Stalkers (despite being farther away). Near turn 4-5? I had a chance to clinch it. The hierotitan moved into place near his BSB, and I rolled a mighty 2 for the power dice, no channels. UGH. It failed to cast spirit leech...sigh, I would've thrown 6 dice at it. Oh well! On turn 6, Khalida's archers cut down 15+ witches all in one go, but were then charged by the harpies. Khalida killed 5, but they still managed to inflict 3 wounds on her and I failed all of my saves (had a 5+ ward from spell). Blegh, that lost me the game right there, as the failure of the hierotitan to capitalize was the key fail. Oh well. My moral victory was that I had scored ~1300 VP and he had only gotten about 930.

Loss!

Three great games and opponents, thanks for the fun!

Around the Net: Chaos Dwarf Daemonsmiths

There is also a FAQ for Tamurkhan.  You can find it here.

Waaagh Aeries VI: DoW vs. Lizardmen Battle Report (Round 1)

With the coming of the new year, the Coin Collectors found themselves traveling south across snowy lands. The journey was long, but the old paymaster had taken the bait of a young rival who had lured him in with declarations of providence superiority. The paymaster simply could not allow anyone to tarnish the name of his homeland, so he challenged the young general to a meeting on the battlefield. Little did the paymaster know that his opponent was not what he was expecting.

Last Saturday, I participated in Waaagh Aeries VI, a tournament put on by the guys from the Waaagh Cast blog and TOed by my friend Chuck. For the first round of the tournament, I challenged Brandon to a grudge match as a response to his comments regarding my post about a tournament in Wisconsin on the Illinois forums. Brandon brought to the table a cool lizardmen army that brought some fun unit choices that would challenge recently formed game plan.

The Scenario
The scenario was Battlelines w/ a special rule for earning objective points via a messenger model. The messenger was written down on a piece of paper at the start of the game and remains a secret until the end. The goal was to get the messenger into your opponent’s deployment zone by the end of the game.

Deployment
While not an official round of the game, I want to spend a moment talking about the deployment phase of the game. I started my deployment phase by placing the Marksmen on one side of the table, directly across from the first unit deployed by Brandon. As we continued to deploy, I also placed Vespero and Voland on that side, though I positioned Voland slightly closer to where I truly wished to deploy my forces. As the deployment phase wrapped up, I finished deploying my forces as far away from Brandon’s army as possible. I concluded the phase by using cunning to move both Vespero and the Marksmen to the opposite end of my deployment zone.

Early Turns
The early turns of the game saw a couple of interesting events. I lost my Lore of Life mage (Mr. Madness) to a skink miscast/cup combo. This was a hard lose for my army as it not only defined me of the ability to bring my models back via Regrowth, Mr. Madness was also my messenger model which meant I would now lose out on some objective points. It was a well played combo by Brandon and one that put me behind early in the game.

The other big event of the early turns was Voland and company being dissolved by concentrated salamander spit. While Voland himself was able to avoid death and redeem himself later in the game, I do admit feeling like I may have wasted the unit. I completely underestimated the ability of salamanders to march and spit. Having forgotten my lessons from last year’s Adepticon, I placed Voland’s unit to close to where Brandon’s army had set-up and thus given him a choice target to start the game.



Middle Turns
The middle of the game is where I was able to bring the full power of the Marksmen to bare on the table. Dropping two or three Kroxigors per turn was a nice change of pace, and suddenly put my ogre units into a position that they could charge and actually have a chance at surviving. It also meant that I was starting to do enough damage that I was causing enemy units to take panic checks.

It was also during the middle turns that I began to throw units into close combat. I focused on the salamander units as they were the most immediate threat to my army and were beginning to get close enough to my lines that I had to focus on them. To this end, the ogres and maneaters were able to charge the two units of salamanders and help to remove some of them from the battle.



Late Turns
The late turns of the game involved Brandon’s general failing a panic check while along the board edge and fleeing of the table. I must admit that while I did not expect it to happen (rerollable LD 9), it did make for an exciting turn of events in my favor. It also put me over when it came to victory points for the game. Outside of that, the Marksmen continued to rain death on the Kroxigors

“Pride in one’s homelands is a waste of emotions. Pride should truly be reserved for the bonds we forge and the trials we share together,” the Paymaster spoke as he walked the reforming battle-lines. ”Today we faced a worthy foe, and though it took tricky and luck to defeat them, there is no shame in what we have accomplished,” he continued.

“Does that absolution from shame also apply to the celebrating we plan to do over this victory,” questioned Chase.

Shaking his head in disgust, the Paymaster simply responded, “Leave it to you to ruin a moment.”

Conclusion
I do need to admit that I felt uncomfortable during the tournament for fielding what I considered a gimmick army. I don’t know really why, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger on all of the tricks that I had in my army. In particular, I decided to make Mr. Madness the messenger when I could have made the leader of any of the RoR units the messenger as they are considered characters per the RoR rules. Considering that the Cursed Company just sat in place, it would have been an easy choice to make the march across the board and get the points.
When it came to how I played, one mistake I made was how I deployed Voland’s Venators. I should have moved them over further to my right and kept them out of range of the salamanders. I should have also done a better job deploying the Cursed Company as they simply sat for the whole game.

While I had won the game by a reasonable victory point difference, I think luck played a large part in that victory. Brandon losing his general on an engine of the gods was just too random of an occurrence to claim that it happening had anything to do with my battle plans or gameplay. My strategy for the Marksmen seemed to work very well, but I also believe that if Brandon had used his giant unit of skinks as the tip of his spearhead, my crossbowmen wouldn’t have done as much damage.

Lesson’s Learned
1. If I am going to bring a trick, I need to use it.
2. I really need to stop throwing away points when I don’t need to. This was actually a theme for me over the weekend.

Screaming Down to Waaagh Aeries VI - Runners-up Video

A short video from Waaagh Aeries VI announcing the runners-up for each category.

This is my first attempt at recording something from a tournament and posting it to my blog, so please excuse the quality of the video.

On the Bench: Hireling Wizard Lord (Lore of Metal)

I converted this model some time ago and decided recently to paint it for use in the Waaagh Aeries IV Tournament. Overall, I am pretty disappointed with the results, mostly because I did a sloppy job with the conversion work and rushed to finish a few parts of the painting.

Screaming Down to Waaagh Aries VI - Part 1

This Saturday is Waaagh Aeries VI in Bloomington, Illinois. The tournament has been called a primer for the Adepticon WFB Championship Tournament and though I am not attending that tournament, I didn’t want to miss a chance to drive down and hang with a great group of guys. When it came to designing a list, I really looked to squeeze what I could out of what I had already painted without pushing myself to paint whole new units just for the tournament. In the end, I painted one model specifically for the tournament, and included a few more that were painted for the Adepticon 1000 point tournament.



In the end the list I have is a one-trick pony that most people hopefully will not be expecting. Combining Leonardo with the Marksmen and a paymaster with Drillmaster means that I have a 16 crossbow shots per turn that are hitting on 3+ and can reroll any misses. If my mage with lore of metal can get off Blades, I will have a unit of 18 crossbow shots, hitting on 2+ with 16 of them rerolling if they miss on the 1.

The other part of this pony show is the use of Cunning to bait my opponent into splitting the battlefield. Most of the folks playing this weekend have at least heard of the Marksmen, so deploying them first should make most players position their units to go after them ASAP. Adding one or two more units to the bait will likely cause most of my opponents to set-up such that they are sending their big stuff (large units, monsters, etc…) in that direction. When it comes to these additional bait units, I am thinking maybe Vespero’s Vendetta and the Cursed Company as my choices since I will be able to move one of them as well and the other may end-up getting ignored because of the bait & switch.

The other tactic I am trying with this army is to control the flow of the magic phase thru the use of Leonardo and dual level 4 mages. Leonardo’s ability to remove d3 power dice from my opponent’s pool each turn can be a game changer. Added to this a mage who will usually add an additional dispel dice per turn means that most of my opponents’ magic phases will have a small impact. In comparison, when my one mage remains sane, my mage with Lore of Metal can spend a few more dice as his companion can generate some of his own for each spell. Side Note: I wish I had a monster painted that could be used with the Lore of Beast. I feel that would have been the better choice as the character buffing spells would impact a lot of my army, but I hate not being able to utilize the lore to its fullest.

We Can Only Blame Ourselves

Recently BoLS started a conversation on their site about why folks felt WFB was in decline. The common response was that the entry point for the game was too high (entry being prices and model count). Personally, I tend to agree with these observations, but I do think that maybe this situation is a result of how the community responded to the release of 8th edition.

Generally speaking, most players decided to jump up the average game size from 2000 to ~2400 points. This alone would not be a major factor if it were not for the fact that every army book released since 8th edition was released has typically dropped the point cost of most core choices. Take for example Ogres. A basic ogre costs 30 points now, compared to ~35 points in the prior book. Now factor in that a player needs 600 points of core for a 2400 point game. This means that a player must now field 20 ogre models, where in comparison they would only need to field ~14 models at 35 points a model and ~17 models at 30 points per ogre. Basically by raising the game size, players have caused the entry level of the game to increase dramatically (in my example, a player now needs to buy another box of ogres just to meet the minimum requirements).

The easy response to this is that GW is still to blame since they are the ones that lowered the points in an attempt to generate more sales. While I agree that does make sense, I would counter such a response with the observation that GW never specifically states what they consider to be the standard game size. The community generally sets the norm and it is appears in this case that we raised it too quickly.

So what is the solution to the problem? Does the community embrace the idea of going back down to 2000 points as the standard? Doubtful. Should GW lower the price per model (which can be done in a couple of different fashions)? They could, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. This leaves us with only one viable solution and that is for current players of the hobby to lift themselves up and celebrate their love of the hobby. Another way to put it would be to say that we need to make the cost of entry appear to be worth more. This seems to be the only viable solution, though I hope maybe others can suggest something else that would work.

On the Bench: Dogs of War Display Board

While I like my old display board for Fantasy, it was rather small and could barely fit a 1000 point army.  This one uses the same tray as my old board, but I reduced the hill and made it a little more interesting and bright.

Adepticon 2012: 1000 Point Tournament - Part One

Before the holidays engulfed my world, I had decided upon building a cavalry based army for one of the 1000 point tournaments. My plan going in was to build the army around the Dogs of War Indy GT list, but since that post, I have decided to make a change. Instead I plan on using the Ogre Kingdoms book to fulfill my planned theme as I have been seduced with an idea and some models. I am also thinking this army will be for the morning session as I believe it will be the more competitive of the two armies I field. That said, I will decide which army is being used in which session shortly before Adepticon.

Ogre Kingdoms List v1.0

Hero
TBD (~158 points)

Core
5 Ironguts w/ musician, standard, look-out gnoblar and Banner of Eternal Flaming – 250 points

Special
2 Mournfangs w/ heavy armour, ironfists and a standard – 150 points
2 Mournfangs w/ heavy armour, ironfists and a standard – 150 points
1 Sabertusk – 21 points
1 Sabertusk – 21 points

Rare
Stonehorn – 250 points