Sunday, 26 March 2023

On the path to Uprising

This coming weekend, I am heading to Ballarat for a one-day 6th edition tournament called Uprising. Seems like about 40 players will be attending, which is a good number and about all they could fit anyway. I toyed with the idea of taking High Elves and using it as motivation to try to get some more silver helms painted, but in the end I decided to take Cult of Slaanesh instead.

Cult of Slaanesh is a variant Dark Elf list from the Storm of Chaos campaign book, and uses certain Dark Elves blended with a selection of Mortal Chaos and Daemon choices (all with a Slaaneshi flavour). It was a pretty exciting list when it first appeared, and I think a lot of us considered trying to make an army without actually managing to make it happen. Well, this is my moment. I had just enough painted Dark Elves and Daemons lying around to make a viable list - I just need a couple of extra characters. I've already painted up a Druchii Anointed, and have started work on the Sorceress to lead my army.

My Druchii Anointed, who is basically an angry sorcerous Daemon Elf with the offensive stats of a Chaos Lord.

Tuesday, 14 March 2023

Updated Dwarf Army Photo

It's not that long ago (well, a couple of years, but in my terms that feels recent) since I took an updated photo of my painted Dwarf army. Since then, the army grew substantially as a result of our slow grow league and my "updated" army photo now feels... not at all up to date. I'm probably done with painting Dwarfs for now, so I figured I should get another updated group photo before I move on to other things.

Again, due to the limitations of Blogger I've got the photo here at "extra large" size, and then I've included it at "original" size in order to upset your browser window...

Tuesday, 7 March 2023

More Gyrocopters

 <Ride of the Valkyries intensifies>

It's been a while since my last post, but I've finally pushed the Gyrocopters off the painting table. Technically I didn't quite achieve what I set out to, as I had 4 of them there in the batch and only completed 3. The other has only had the metals painted, but I felt like these were really starting to get in the way of making progress elsewhere, and given I now have 5 painted Gyrocopters, there was not a lot of urgency with the last one. So I caved and moved him out of the way so that I can move onto something more relevant.

3 more Gyrocopters, all of them on thick resin bases for a bit of stability and brass rods of different heights for a bit of variety 

Sunday, 5 February 2023

Cancon 2023 - Game 4

This is the final part of my report of the recent tournament at Cancon 2023. You can find the previous part here.

We came now to the last game of the event, with it being a very relaxed schedule of 4 games over 2 days. Somehow I was undefeated up until this point, but now I would be playing the only Skaven player in the field. I remember games against Skaven being pretty rough...

Game 4 - Pitched Battle

Alex Johnston - Skaven

I'll be honest, I can't for the life of me work out where Alex spent his points. He had one million units, and I had finished deploying, gone to the bathroom and had a nap before he placed anything meaningful down on his side of the table. It was a very unusual army, and felt like it had made a lot of concessions in order to be palatable to the TOs. Just the one Ratling Gun, only a sensible amount of Warp Lightning... It's entirely possible the army was hundreds of points underweight, really. Anyway, this is what I remember, can guess, or can see from the photos...

  • Warlord with Weeping Blade, Bands of Power, Heavy Armour, Enchanted Shield (probably - maybe he even had a hobo ward save)
  • Chieftain with Battle Standard and not much else
  • Warlock Engineer with Warp Energy Condenser, Supercharged Accumulator, Warp Blades, Storm Daemon, maybe a Dispel Scroll
  • Warlock Engineer with Warp Energy Condenser, Supercharged Accumulator, Warp Blades, maybe a Dispel Scroll or two
  • 20 Clanrats with Light Armour, Shields, Full Command, Ratling Gun
  • 20 Clanrats with Light Armour, Shields, Full Command, Warpfire Thrower
  • 20 Clanrats with Light Armour, Shields, Full Command, Warpfire Thrower
  • 20 Skavenslaves
  • 20 Skavenslaves
  • 20 Skavenslaves
  • 10 Night Runners
  • 9 Night Runners
  • Giant Rat Pack (6 rats and one packmaster)
  • Giant Rat Pack (6 rats and one packmaster)
  • Giant Rat Pack (6 rats and one packmaster)
  • 6 Poison Wind Globadiers
  • 2 Poison Wind Globadiers
  • 2 Poison Wind Globadiers
  • 5 Jezzails
  • Warp-Lightning Cannon

Another table with no meaningful terrain, unfortunately. A river cutting the table apart, which was likely to be an impossible barrier for me to cross, but no trees and very little in the way of cover.

Thursday, 2 February 2023

Cancon 2023 - Game 3

This is the third part of my report of the recent tournament at Cancon 2023. You can find the previous part here.

Two games down, and I hadn't even lost yet! This seemed like a pattern that was unlikely to continue, and here came a pair of Treemen to put a stop to my run... Dave had the only Wood Elf army in the field, which left me wishing that I'd followed through with my plan for using them instead of the Dwarfs (of which there were 5). Oh well. 

I was a bit surprised by the 2 Treemen, but the rest of the list wasn't as finely honed as it could have been, so I guess the TOs figured it was OK. I still remember getting 2 Treeman banned from Cancon in 6th edition. Ah, the good old days... Dave's list was also terrible for Blood and Glory. If I killed with the general (which was one of the Spellsingers, given the Highborn was Alter Kindred and not leadership material) or the BSB, the game would end that turn and I'd get 500 bonus victory points. I had plenty of banners, so didn't face the same dangers.

Anyway, on to glory! And blood. Always need some blood.

Game 3 - Blood and Glory

Dave Lewis - Wood Elves

  • Alter Kindred Highborn with Great Weapon, Light Armour, Helm of the Hunt, Stone of Rebirth (maybe the Bow of Loren? Probably? He didn't use it, though)
  • Spellsinger (Level 1) with Dispel Scroll
  • Spellsinger (Level 1) with Dispel Scroll
  • Noble with Battle Standard, Asyendi's Bane, Hail of Doom Arrow, Light Armour
  • 10 Glade Guard
  • 8 Dryads
  • 8 Dryads
  • 8 Dryads
  • 5 Wild Riders
  • 7 Wardancers
  • 5 Wardancers
  • Treeman
  • Treeman

Another moonscape of a table. We used the crystals as another "forest", because otherwise the only one would have been the one Dave brought with him, which felt unsporting and a bit sad for Wood Elves.

Tuesday, 31 January 2023

Cancon 2023 - Game 2

This is the second part of my report of the recent tournament at Cancon 2023. You can find the first part here.

My first game had gone pretty well despite me making a few mistakes. Time to see what the second game would bring.

Game 2 - Get the Thingy!

Luke Littlewood - Vampire Counts

  • Blood Dragon Vampire Count (Level 2, Necromancy) on Barded Nightmare with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Lance, Heart Piercing, Master Strike, Red Fury
  • Blood Dragon Vampire Thrall with Battle Standard, Flayed Hauberk, (naughty great weapon)
  • Blood Dragon Vampire Thrall with Sword of Battle, Cursed Shield of Mousillon, Heavy Armour
  • Necromancer (Level 2, Necromancy)
  • 19 Skeletons with Light Armour, Shield, Full Command
  • 19 Skeletons with Light Armour, Shield, Full Command
  • 6 Dire Wolves
  • 6 Dire Wolves
  • 5 Ghouls
  • 5 Ghouls
  • 9 Black Knights with Barding, Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
  • 3 Spirit Hosts
  • Banshee
Fighting undead on the mooooon!! (I'm not sure how we got here). This game awarded something like 400 victory points if you controlled that stone near the orange die at the end of the game.

Thursday, 26 January 2023

Cancon 2023 - Game 1

Cancon is over for another year, and I have survived my first foray back into the depths of 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy. As usual, I distracted myself by taking photos during all of my games, so here we are with another series of battle reports.

Prior to the tournament, I played a total of 4 games of 6th edition to test out a few potential armies, and to get some handle on the rules again. One of those games was with Dwarfs, so I was confident of my complete mastery of the army when I decided to take it to the tournament.

Initially I had dismissed Dwarfs as an option, figuring that they would be a pretty static, depressing army to play. There's a reason why most Dwarf armies you see end up in a castle formation with plenty of ranged firepower - they don't have a lot of choice. But then I realised the Anvil of Doom was a viable option to help the Dwarfs pull off some charges of their own, and decided it was a good opportunity to use the one I painted in the Slow Grow last year. In the end, this was my list:

  • Runelord on Anvil of Doom with Master Rune of Balance, Rune of Stone, Shield, Great Weapon
  • Thane with Battle Standard, Master Rune of Gromril, Rune of Resistance, Rune of Cleaving
  • Dragon Slayer with axes, wearing pants (so more than some Slayers)
  • 10 Quarrellers with Great Weapons
  • 10 Quarrellers with Great Weapons
  • 10 Quarrellers with Great Weapons
  • 18 Hammerers with Shields, Full Command, Rune of Courage
  • 18 Ironbreakers with Full Command, Rune of Courage, Ancestor Rune
  • 18 Miners with Full Command, Steam Drill
  • Stone Thrower with Engineer, Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Penetrating

The list was based around the principle of a couple of "anvil" units capable of receiving a charge, and the Quarrellers with great weapons being ready to flank or counter-charge once things got close, probably with the assistance of the Anvil of Doom. The Miners were obviously also hoping for some help charging as soon as they appeared behind the enemy. So the Anvil had some work ahead of it, provided it didn't mess up its 2+ rolls.

I felt the amount of shooting was relatively modest for a Dwarf army - one piece of upgraded artillery, and 30 crossbows. The Anvil could lend a hand too, hitting and slowing a unit each turn until the charging became relevant. As it turned out, the TOs considered asking me to change the list due to the amount of shooting. They mainly thought it was a lot of crossbows, and to be fair, the entirety of my Core had been spent on them. I did try playing around with variations on the list, but they all felt like they made the army less functional, and honestly I didn't really expect 30 crossbows to do much damage against most opponents - I hoped it might be enough to deal with some light distractions, and mainly be enough of a threat to make people move forward and engage me. In the end they had given me the green light to stick with things as they were, so in the absence of anything I would be as happy with, I just went with it. I didn't expect the army to do especially well as it was, and didn't think my shooting would be enough to make anyone really miserable.

The tournament somehow managed to attract 50 players, which is an awful lot for a game that has been dead for 16 years. Every army except Chaos Dwarfs made an appearance, along with a number of variant Storm of Chaos and "back of the book" lists like Sylvanians, Errantry War and Blood Dragons. There were 5 Dwarf armies, which was the most with the exception of Vampire Counts (if you counted the variant lists). It was a pretty good mix, although it offended my hipster sensibilities to be using one of the most popular armies. Oh well.

The event was a very gentle 4 games spread over 2 days - a far cry from the old hectic Cancon marathon of 8 games over 3 days. It lent things a more relaxed vibe, although in all honesty I could have handled another game given it was all I had signed up to do when we were up in Canberra. But more games squeezed in probably would have made things feel more like serious business, and I don't think that was the goal. Nor am I convinced I really wanted that either.

Game 1 - Outflank

Angus Mackie - Dogs of War

  • Mercenary General with Sword of Might, Heavy Armour, Enchanted Shield
  • Paymaster on Barded Steed with Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance
  • Hireling Wizard (Level 2, Lore of Heavens) with 2 Dispel Scrolls
  • Mercenary Captain on Pegasus with Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance
  • 23 Pikemen with Heavy Armour, Full Command
  • 9 Voland's Venators
  • 11 Crossbowmen
  • 5 Light Cavalry with Spears
  • 5 Light Cavalry with Spears
  • 8 Duellists
  • 13 Long Drong's Slayer Pirates
  • 3 Ogre Leadbelchers
  • 2 Ogre Maneaters with Great Weapons
  • Cannon
  • Halfling Hot Pot

Angus' whole army was painted in fancy non-metal style. It was very nice.