Grot wuz ere.

oh yes he waz.

Greatsword progress

Another weekend has ticked by and the Battle of Heffengen is now only 10 days away. Time us running out, but I continue to make progress. Since my last update I have painted my Greatsword unit filler and another 9 members of the unit. This means the 15 I had completed previously has suddenly expanded to 42, counting the filler. This is satisfactory progress, and if I am feeling like things are under control, that must mean they're really going rather well!

The supply wagon unit filler for my Greatsword regiment is completed.

The Battle of Heffengen: scenario rules

This scenario is designed to recreate the Battle of Heffengen in its entirety. It serves as an amalgamation of the following scenarios from the End Times: Nagash source book: Heffengen: River of Undeath; Heffengen: Fire and Iron; and Heffengen: Gurug’ath’s Doom. Some of the rules have been modified to suit the game as a whole, and certain additions have been made in order to better represent the flow of the battle in the background account.

The rules presented here are intended for 6-8 players divided into 2 teams, and a total points value of between 30,000-40,000 points per side.

A productive weekend

It's Monday morning and I am very tired, however I have come out of the weekend feeling pretty productive. 

I had planned to spend Painting Night on Friday working on more Greatswords, but then I got randomly inspired and instead spent the time converting and assembling my new wagon unit filler for the regiment. This was partly because I needed to work out exactly how big its base was going to be, as that would determine exactly how many individual Greatswords would be needed to round out the unit. 

The answer to the filler base question is that it takes up the room of 18 models (6x3). This is the same as the first wagon I built for my Stirlanders. Turns out I can't realistically jam the thing onto a smaller base if I want to include the horse pulling it. This is fine, but it does mean that the unit will really need to be 60-strong. Anything less and the filler will feel too big. I think I had been toying with the idea of reducing my workload and aiming for 50 Greatswords rather than 60. Guess that plan is gone again...

My new unit filler, set to take the place of 18 Greatswords.

Greatswords - first wave done

I'm starting to get some momentum up for painting a regiment of Greatswords. My last post was 5 days ago, and in that time I've managed to get the first 15 members of the unit finished. I started with a group of 5 including the command group, and was a bit worried when they took me a couple of days. But the next 10 took a similar amount of time, thanks to the lack of a banner and musician to worry about, I suspect.

15 Greatswords painted to a decent tabletop standard. If I can get a full regiment done to this level, I'll be pretty satisfied.

Ostland progress continues

I feel like I'm starting to gain some momentum in terms of painting the red and black "Ostland" contingent for my Empire. Since my last post I've completed the remaining 10 Handgunners I wanted to add to the first unit, including magnetising the bases. So they're done, and I can move onto something new.

20 Handgunners, ready to go! The banner doesn't rank up very well. Serves me right for just grabbing a second-hand model someone else assembled and assuming it would all work out.

The colour scheme is simple, and it did feel reasonably fast to paint.

Heffengen

I realised during last week that we were about to enter December and I really hadn't gotten the ball rolling in terms of this year's "big game". It seems to have become an annual event now, and I see no particular reason to break the pattern. Anyway, all the End Times stuff has thrown whatever plans I might have had into something of a spin, so I've decided to embrace it and use some of the material from the Nagash book. This year (well, technically it looks like it will happen on January 1st next year) we shall recreate the Battle of Heffengen.

For those who don't know (and without giving too much away for anyone who is worried about spoilers at this point), Heffengen saw a large Empire army led by Karl Franz intercept a Chaos invasion that had burst through the human defences to the north. As things started to look grim on the Empire flank, an Undead army led by Vlad von Carstein intervened.

The battle is actually covered by 3 separate scenarios in the End Times: Nagash book. I have decided we'll roll the scenarios together into a single large game involving 8 players.

The players are lined up and I'm starting to gather a list of the forces we have available so that I can determine the final size of the battle. My suspicions are that the limiting factor will be the Empire side, so of course I am doing what I can to bolster that side of things. I'm finally adding a third "region" to my own Empire army - something I've been planning to do for a long time.

10 Handgunners in the black and red of "Ostland" (shhh, don't tell the proper Ostland players. They will point out my scheme is wrong)...

End Times Unending

The End Times, it seems, are relentless. I had not even finished reading Warhammer End Times: Glottkin when I received an email from Games Workshop telling me I could pre-order yet another book in the series, this time Khaine.

When the Nagash book was announced, I think most people were pretty happy about it. Finally here was something that actually moved the story forward; probably the first real change to the status quo in 20 years. The situation of the Old World would change, characters would die, etc. I’m not quite sure how prepared we were for the sheer number of special characters that would meet their demise in that first book, but it still felt like a step in the right direction.

What I certainly wasn't ready for was the sheer rate at which these books are coming out. I feel like I am barely getting time to process what I am looking at before yet another chapter in the story arrives. By the time the Khaine book arrives, I still won’t have played a single game using the rules from either of the first two books. My wallet may not have recovered in time either, but then GW are helping me out there by having ridiculously low stock levels and making it impossible for people to buy the thing. So yay for them, I guess…

Arachnarok done

I am finally calling this stupid Arachnarok done. Is he a work of art? No. But he (and the teeming horde of Goblins on his back) is covered in lots of paint, and that will have to do. He has taken enough of my time.

One painted Arachnarok, ready for battle.

The Battle of Bumpkin: Part 2

This is the second part of a battle report. You can find part 1 here.

Empire Turn 2

Empire Turn 2

Owen:
GREG TWO: The Gregoning.
Greg does not have to do steam points anymore, but DOES need to do stupid tests. Pegacaptain is okay, as does everyone else who could be dumb.

The Battle of Bumpkin: Part 1

A 2500 point battle report between Nick Gentile's Dark Elves and Greg Johnson's Empire, as chronicled by that most questionable of note-takers, Owen Top.

Hellebron stalked through the burning human village, a scowl of dissatisfaction upon her face. Blood dripped from the blades she carried in either hand, but it did nothing to brighten her mood. She had been persuaded to launch this raid upon the northern Empire town of Bumpkin with the promise of a large population with weak defences. It was a certain slaughter. She and her sisters would bathe in an ocean of blood. The mere thought of it had been enough to get her ancient, withered heart racing.

She should have known the promises were too good to be true. By the time her forces had landed near the town, the humans had already raised the alarm, and many had fled inland, preferring to take their chances with the dangers of the forests than standing to face the fate awaiting them at the merciless hands of the Druchii. The town was still defended by a combination of soldiers and militia, however they were relatively few in number and the fight was over quickly. Worse; they had stood their ground bravely and died fighting. There had been precious few victims left for the Khainites to torment and murder in a satisfying manner.

With most of the town's inhabitants long gone and no real sport to be found, Hellebron had been forced to draw what satisfaction she could from murdering the odd litter of adorable puppies that had been left behind. Even this had done little to lift her spirits. With so little bloodshed to be enjoyed, the frown furrowing her brow at that moment would likely be stuck there permanently. She could almost feel her youthful complexion fading as her aggitation increased. If should could not revel in a true slaughter, the least she could do was to enjoy a little more suffering. Perhaps she should torture her scouts who had brought her on this fruitless expedition in the first place. And then maybe they could take a detour on the way home, and find some cute little baby seals to destroy.

The thought of making something cute and cuddly suffer lifted her mood somewhat, as one of her scouts (who would soon be suffering terribly at her hand) hurried toward her. "My queen," he saluted. "Another force of soldiers approaches. It seems they have ridden to try to relieve the town. The human Emperor's personal standard flies with them."

In spite of her previous brooding, Hellebron could not help but smile wickedly at this news. Perhaps she would have a chance to cause some real suffering today, after all.

Arachnaphobia

Well I have certainly been lax in terms of the blog recently! Sorry about that, I am still trying to recover from a bit of hobby burnout after the Duelling Gamers, and I seem to have had a lot going on elsewhere.

To make up for it a bit, there will be a battle report appearing in the next day or two. Not a massive one - just a sensible 2500 point game.

In terms of painting, I am struggling away on an Arachnarok. It's been a very frustrating model to paint. I didn't plan it very carefully beyond "I think I'll make it red", and it turns out these things have far more detail on them than I would ideally like. Spiders and Goblins everywhere. I had the spider looking mostly painted after one or two moderate sittings, but then came a wave of details and fiddling that make little visible improvement. Still, the spider himself is now basically done...

Pretty much there, right? He's even got static grass on his base!

Oh, wait a minute...

Unfortunately there is still the howdah full of Goblins to go. These guys were what broke me during my most recent painting session. It really would have been better to paint them before they were glued together. Sigh. Hopefully another session or two and I can call this thing finished. Then I just need to work up the courage to paint the second one, which also has its crew already glued to the howdah... :(

Curse their beady little undercoated eyes. So much fiddly on one impressive model.

Breaking it up a bit

It's been a while since my last post. This is partly a natural lull after pumping out my Axemaster tournament report, but it's also because I've been in a bit of a hobby slump recently. After 2 tournaments in quick succession (one of which included a mad rush to get my army ready), I now have nothing on my radar until Cancon in January.

I haven't even acknowledged my abject failure in the Tale of Duelling Gamers yet. The challenge finished at the end of September, and I failed to do anything about my quotas for the last 2 months. In August this was because I was completely focused on the Empire Ogres for Rumble, and then in September it was basically because I was burnt out from the previous month. So I only managed to paint Dwarfs for 4 of the 6 allotted months. In this regard, my efforts were a failure. In practical terms however, I did fine. My output for the 6 months was as follows:

• 20 Dwarf Slayers
• 27 Dwarf Quarrellers
• 11 Dwarf Thunderers
• 16 Dwarf Irondrakes
• 16 Dwarf Ironbreakers
• 12 Dwarf Miners
• 1 Dwarf Cannon
• 3 Dwarf characters
• 3 Ogre Leadbelchers
• 4 Ogre Bulls/Swordsmen
• 1 Ogre Ironblaster
• 5 Ogre Sabretusks
• 4 Ogre characters
• 1 Empire Captain to ride a Pegasus

If I managed that level of productivity every 6 months, I think I'd be pretty happy. So really I don't feel like I failed too badly. I just failed to focus, and didn't spread the load as well as I might have...

Anyway, as I continue to recover from my earlier burnout and without a clear goal in sight in terms of an upcoming tournament, my hobby efforts have been pretty confused and random. I've dabbed some paint on a couple of models, but I haven't produced anything even remotely close to a finished product.

Axemaster 2014 – Part 6

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Axemaster 2014. You can find the previous part of the report here.

Game 6

Ben Wadsworth, Warriors of Chaos

• Chaos Lord of Tzeentch on Disc of Tzeentch with Talisman of Preservation, Crown of Command, Dragonhelm, Flaming Breath, Soul Feeder, Great Weapon, Shield
• Exalted Hero of Tzeentch BSB on Barded Daemonic Mount with Armour of Destiny, Scaled Skin, Great Weapon
• Chaos Sorcerer (Level 2, Lore of Tzeentch) with Chaos Familiar
• Chaos Sorcerer (Level 1, Lore of Metal) with Dispel Scroll
• 17 Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch with Full Command, Shields, Gleaming Pennant
• Chaos Chariot of Nurgle
• Chaos Chariot of Nurgle
• 5 Chaos Warhounds with Vanguard
• 5 Chaos Warhounds with Vanguard
• Chimera with Flaming Breath, Regenerating Flesh
• Chimera with Flaming Breath, Regenerating Flesh
• Hellcannon
• Giant

Comp Score: 2

After 2 big losses I felt like reality had reasserted itself and my place in the field had been corrected, so I hoped to do a little better in my last game. I've been wanting to play Mr Wadsworth (the man behind Shirts off Warhammer) for a while, and now I had my chance. Unfortunately when I looked at his list, I realised I might have some difficulty getting rid of some of his characters. Ah well, what was the worst that could happen?

Game 6 deployment

Axemaster 2014 – Part 5

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Axemaster 2014. You can find the previous part of the report here.

Game 5

Simon Kwok, Empire

• Arch Lector on War Altar with Talisman of Preservation, Charmed Shield, Van Horstmann's Speculum, Great Weapon
• Wizard Lord (Level 4, Lore of Light)
• Captain BSB with Obsidian Lodestone, Full Plate Armour, Enchanted Shield (not really sure for this guy)
• Battle Wizard (Level 1, Lore of Light) with Dispel Scroll
• Battle Wizard (Level 1, Lore of Light)
• Witch Hunter with Brace of Pistols
• 40 Halberdiers with Full Command
• 30 Spearmen with Musician
• 30 Spearmen with Musician
• 10 Archers
• 4 Demigryphs with Standard, Musician
• 4 Demigryphs with Standard, Musician
• Celestial Hurricanum
• Steam Tank

Comp Score: 3

This was not a match-up that my army fancied at all. A double-Banishment "light council" backed by 2 cannons. It was precisely the sort of list that my Griffons wanted nothing to do with. And I couldn't even rush into combat for fear of what the Demigryphs and Steam Tank would do to my units. In conclusion, Simon's list was obviously better constructed than mine. I knew it would be a struggle, so just resolved to have some fun and get it over with...

Deployment. My second Griffon is almost in the picture on the left.

Axemaster 2014 – Part 4

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Axemaster 2014. You can find the previous part of the report here.

I spent the start of Day 2 sending SMSes to friends to see if anyone could either assist me or play in my place for that day, as I had basically no voice. Given how noisy the tournament venue was, I was not at all convinced that my opponents would be able to hear me, and I figured this would only get worse with the strain. Unfortunately nobody was available, so I just had to try and tough it out. Hopefully I wouldn't be reduced to expressing my intentions through the power of interpretive dance before the day was out...

Game 4

Aaron Graham, High Elves

• Prince on Star Dragon with Talisman of Preservation, Star Lance, Charmed Shield, Heavy Armour, Lion Cloak
• Noble BSB on Barded Steed with Enchanted Shield, Dawnstone, Sword of Might, Heavy Armour
• Noble on Great Eagle with Heavy Armour, Lion Cloak, Shield, Lance
• Noble on Great Eagle with Heavy Armour, Lion Cloak, Shield, Lance
• Noble on Great Eagle with Heavy Armour, Lion Cloak, Shield, Lance
• 9 Silver Helms with Full Command
• 6 Silver Helms with Musician
• 6 Silver Helms with Musician
• 6 Silver Helms with Musician
• Tiranoc Chariot
• Tiranoc Chariot
• Great Eagle
• Great Eagle
• Frostheart Phoenix
• Frostheart Phoenix

Comp Score: 3 or 4

So coming into this game, I think there were maybe 3 of us all on about the same score at the head of the field. Given my list I figured that wouldn't be me, but you never know. To say that Aaron's list was fast is a bit of an understatement. 8 flying models and the rest of the army had Movement 9. This was going to make it difficult for me to control the terms of the game, but at least he had no magic whatsoever. Maybe I could use that to my advantage.

Deployment.

Axemaster 2014 – Part 3

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Axemaster 2014. You can find the previous part of the report here.

Game 3

Steve Tuck, Ogre Kingdoms

• Tyrant with Armour of Protection, Great Weapon
• Slaughtermaster (Level 4, Lore of the Great Maw) with Talisman of Preservation, Dispel Scroll
• Bruiser BSB with Armour of Silvered Steel, Great Weapon
• Butcher (Level 1, Lore of Beasts) with Hellheart
• 8 Ironguts with Full Command
• 9 Ogres with Full Command, Light Armour, Ironfists
• 10 Leadbelchers with Musician, Champion
• 10 Gnoblars
• 10 Gnoblars
• 1 Sabretusk
• 1 Sabretusk
• Ironblaster
• Ironblaster

Comp Score: 2

From an Ogre army with no Ironblasters to one with a pair of them, Steve's list represented much of what my Griffons had been hoping (admittedly optimistically) to avoid. This game was particularly notable as I think it contained the only roll-off I lost for the tournament (Steve won the roll-off to choose the deployment rules despite my +2 modifier, and went for Battle for the Pass).

So I'm completely done deploying, and he's put down what? Anything..?

Axemaster 2014 – Part 2

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Axemaster 2014. You can find the previous part of the report here.

Game 2

Josh Tucker, Ogre Kingdoms

• Slaughtermaster (Level 4, Lore of the Great Maw) with Talisman of Preservation, Great Weapon
• Bruiser BSB with Armour of Destiny, Great Weapon
• Firebelly (Level 2, Lore of Fire) with 2 Hand Weapons, Dispel Scroll?
• 9 Ironguts with Full Command, Standard of Discipline
• 8 Ogres with Full Command, Light Armour, Ironfists
• 6 Leadbelchers
• 4 Mournfangs with Ironfists, Standard, Musician, Dragonhide Banner
• 1 Sabretusk
• 1 Sabretusk
• Stonehorn
• Stonehorn

Comp Score: 5

Yup, 2 Stonehorns. Now that is classy.

Axemaster 2014 – Part 1

Well Axemaster is done and dusted, so it's time for another tournament report!

This time around the event was something a bit unusual in the local scene. It was run based on the SCGT pack, which allocates comp scores using "hard" and "soft" selections. The comp scores have no impact on overall score, but are instead used to modify roll-offs to determine what deployment rules will be used, table sides, and the first turn. That being the case, there was a good argument for fielding a pretty hard list, provided that you didn't care much about going first. Naturally I ignored this perfectly sound reasoning and entered a comp 9 out of 10 list.

2 Griffons, 3 little Wizards, 9 comp and 0 chance of doing really well in an event like this...

I've put my list up before, but here it is again:

• General of the Empire
  • General; Great Weapon; Full Plate Armor; Shield
  • White Cloak of Ulric
  • Imperial Griffon
• General of the Empire
  • Great Weapon; Full Plate Armor; Shield
  • Ironcurse Icon
  • Dragonhelm
  • Imperial Griffon
• Captain of the Empire
  • Lance; Full Plate Armor; Battle Standard
  • Enchanted Shield
  • Talisman of Preservation
  • Imperial Pegasus
  • Swift as the Winds
• Luthor Huss
  • Barding; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour; Warhorse
• Battle Wizard (Level 2, Lore of Light)
• Battle Wizard (Level 2, Lore of Metal)
• Battle Wizard (Level 1, Lore of Beasts)
  • Dispel Scroll
• 14 Knights of the Inner Circle
  • Barding; Lance; Full Plate Armor; Shield; Standard; Musician; Preceptor
  • The Steel Standard
• 40 Halberdiers
  • Halberd; Light Armour; Standard; Musician
  • 5 Detachment - Archers
  • 5 Detachment - Archers
• 5 Demigryph Knights
  • Barding; Lance; Shield; Standard; Musician
  • Banner of Swiftness
• Steam Tank

Comp score: 9

Anyway, that's what I had to work with. On with the show!

Lores of Magic: The Lore of Undeath

Well, this is something a little different. The new Warhammer: Nagash book contains a lot of rules for special characters, new units and combining the Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings armies into a single more powerful army called the Undead Legions. It also includes a new Lore of Magic - the Lore of Undeath.

As usual, I thought I would go through this new Lore and see what it has to offer. It's worth noting that, as with everything in the Warhammer: Nagash book, there is likely to be some debate as to whether these spells (and the Undead Legions) are going to be permitted in tournaments. The content of the book is intended to represent a particular time period and set of events, and so many people may feel it's not appropriate for them to be used in what might otherwise be considered "normal" games. Anyway, I'm not going to get into that here. Let's focus on the new Lore of Magic.

Before we begin, there is something else unusual about this Lore that I should mention - all wizards in all armies can use it. So there could be Orcs, Elves, Daemons, Skaven, and all manner of other spellcasters running around, using the Lore of Undeath. So unless you're a Dwarf player, this Lore applies to you!

One other note is that the summoning spells in the Lore of Undeath work differently from any we've seen before in the various Undead Lores of Magic. Instead of creating a specific type of unit (such as Zombies) and a particular number of models or wounds, the spells here work on points values. It's an elegant way to broaden the scope of different units you can create, as well as giving you the option to give them the sort of equipment such a regiment could normally buy (like command models or weapons). The only restriction is that the unit still has to meet the normal minimum size, so you can't go around raising 3 Grave Guard or something silly like that. Other than that, you could see all manner of new units appearing on the table (provided that you have suitable models on hand).

Birdy, birdy, birdy (AKA my Axemaster list)

My, how time flies. I still hadn't finished writing up my report of Rumble in the Bronx when I realised that I had to submit a list for Axemaster. The tournaments are only 3 weeks apart this year, which is a very short turn-around. I was a bit burnt out after my mad rush to prepare for Rumble, and I came faily close to deciding that I wasn't going to enter Axemaster at all.

It didn't help that I'm not at all convinced by the player pack being used this time around. It's using the SCGT pack, which doesn't include comp to directly affect scores per se. Instead a higher comp score gives a player a better chance to win roll-offs to determine deployment, first turn, etc. It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it will make enough of a difference, and I'm also not convinced by the "hard" and "soft" choices identified for each army.

Anyway, in the end I decided that I could handle what might turn out to be a flawed pack, and that I really should enter what is basically our main local tournament (given it's run by Hampton). So I sat down and started making a sensible list that exploited the player pack the way most of the competitive sorts will be doing. Then I got bored, scrapped it all, and started making a list packed with Griffons instead. The flying Tyrant at Rumble had gotten me hooked on flying models, and I wanted some in my list - despite knowing what would likely happen to them.

Like the old saying goes, 2 wrongs make a right. I'm sure that's how it went...

Rumble in the Bronx 2014 - Part 6

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Rumble in the Bronx. You can find the previous game here.

Game 6: Battleline

Nathan Goodchild, Daemons of Chaos

My Boast: Hold Out (keep enemy units out of my deployment zone)

• Demon Prince of Nurgle (Level 3, Lore of Nurgle) with Flight, Chaos Armour, Exalted Gift (chose something that lets him re-roll Winds of Magic)
• Herald of Tzeentch (Level 2, Lore of Tzeentch)
• Herald of Nurgle BSB (Level 1, Lore of Nurgle) with Greater Locus of Fecundity, Greater Gift (chose Fencer's Blades)
• 10 Horrors with Standard
• 25 Plaguebearers with Full Command, Banner of Swiftness
• 3 Screamers of Tzeentch
• 3 Screamers of Tzeentch
• 1 Beast of Nurgle
• 1 Beast of Nurgle
• Soulgrinder of Nurgle with Daemonbone Claw, Harvester Cannon

Comp score: 5

After the debacle of the game against Chris, I figured I would drop back into the pack a bit. Apparently this wasn't really the case as there were a group of us milling about on very similar scores, with just Chris running off with things courtesy of the springboard I had provided. My final opponent was to be Nathan Goodchild, who had travelled all the way down from Queensland for the event. I had never played him before, so was looking forward to it. I could only lament how much tougher my draw had gotten in the latter stages of the event, however. My final 4 opponents had all either been ranked no 1 in the country or won the Masters in relatively recent memory. No wailing upon inexperienced tournament players for me, it seemed.

Nathan was running a borrowed Daemon army for the event, as his Skaven had been unable to make the trip with him. The borrowed army was not really holding him back, however. If his dice had been a little better in the previous game, he would have been well ahead of me instead of barely in front.

I confess I was slightly concerned about the match-up. The big block of Plaguebearers looked nigh-on impregnable for my army, and the Soulgrinder was not exactly a push-over. I was at a big disadvantage in the magic phase, and then there was the Nurgle Daemon Prince. Oh well, at least he wasn't the 1+ armour save, unbreakable, self-healing Warriors of Chaos version. Still, I would need a good contribution from my Ironblaster to help soften the big stuff.

During the Ogres' first turn, because once again I got distracted and missed the deployment photos. That big rock thing adds +1 to any attempts to wound things within 6". Same thing as was on the table in game 3.

Rumble in the Bronx 2014 - Part 5

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Rumble in the Bronx. You can find the previous game here.

Game 5: Watchtower

Chris Cousens, Lizardmen

My Boast: Contain Power (kill the most expensive non-character unit, in this case the Saurus block)

• Oldblood on Arabyan Carpet with Armour of Destiny, Great Weapon, Shield
• Oldblood on Cold One with Dragonhelm, Talisman of Preservation, Great Weapon
• Tetto-Ekko
• Scar Veteran BSB on Cold One with Charmed Shield, Dawnstone, Sword of Might, Light Armour
• 10 Skink Skirmishers
• 10 Skink Skirmishers
• 10 Skinks with Musician
• 10 Skinks with Musician
• 23 Saurus with Full Command
• 5 Cold One Riders with Musician, Spears
• 5 Chameleon Skinks
• Salamander
• Ancient Stegadon with Engine of the Gods

Comp score: 5

I had emerged from my game with Dave with my score more or less intact, and now I found myself playing the old Egg himself, Chris Cousens. This was the man responsible for my Tyrant flying about on a magic carpet, having issued a challenge to all and sundry before the event to include a model on a flying rug (only a couple of us were silly enough to accept). He was also leading the tournament. Apparently I really was at the pointy end of things.

Watchtower deployment, after Chris has moved his Vanguard forces up between the building and the magical rock that lets things within 6" re-roll failed charges.

Rumble in the Bronx 2014 - Part 4

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Rumble in the Bronx. You can find the previous game here.

Game 4: Battle for the Pass

Dave Duriesmith, Ogre Kingdoms

My Boast: Reconnoitre (control the most table quarters at game's end)

• Tyrant with Great Weapon, Crown of Command, Dragonbane Gem, Armour of Destiny
• Bruiser BSB with Great Weapon, Luckstone, Armour of Silvered Steel
• Firebelly (Level 2, Lore of Fire) with Talisman of Preservation, Great Weapon
• 11 Ironguts with Full Command
• 6 Leadbelchers with Musician, Champion
• 1 Sabretusk
• 1 Sabretusk
• 1 Sabretusk
• Gorger
• Gorger
• Gorger
• Ironblaster

Comp score: 3

I had been hoping to avoid Dave's list, because the stubborn Gutstar was something I simply would not be able to crack. Never mind, I'd just have to make the best of it. At least I was guaranteed at least 4 points because of our comp scores...

To his credit, Dave didn't deploy all his characters in the Irongut unit. The BSB went in there, but the Firebelly and Tyrant decided it would be cooler to hang with the Leadbelchers. Or maybe it wasn't really to his credit because he realised he didn't need all that stuff in one place in order to take on my units...

You'd think by now I would remember to take photos before the game kicked off. Hey, it was first thing in the morning. This was during my first turn.

Rumble in the Bronx 2014 - Part 3

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Rumble in the Bronx. You can find the previous game here.

Game 3: Meeting Engagement

Ben Leopold, High Elves

My Boast: Bodyguard (keep my general alive)

• Archmage (Level 4, High Magic) on Sun Dragon with Talisman of Preservation
• Noble BSB on Griffon with Swift Sense, Swooping Strike, Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance, Lion Cloak, Banner of the World Dragon
• Mage (Level 1, Lore of Metal) with Ruby Ring of Ruin, Dispel Scroll
• 10 Archers with Standard, Musician
• 10 Archers with Standard, Musician
• 6 Silver Helms with Shields, Full Command
• 5 Ellyrian Reavers with Standard, Musician
• Repeater Bolt Thrower
• Repeater Bolt Thrower
• Repeater Bolt Thrower
• Frostheart Phoenix
• Great Eagle

Comp score: 3

After playing two people I had never met before, I was suddenly faced with someone far more familiar. In fact, some of the models were very familiar too, since they were mine. I might have been involved in the idiot planning that saw Ben enter a list with a Banner of the World Dragon floating about on a Griffon, but despite the obvious dangers, he seemed to be enjoying it.

We would be playing Meeting Engagement (the one with the crazy diagonal deployment), and we found ourselves on a weird and slightly dreadful table with incredibly rough sand and an enormous rocky thing cutting the table in half. I won the roll-off for sides, and decided to try to take the big rock out of the equation by taking a corner that put most of it in my deployment zone. With an enormous ruined building next to it, that basically ensured that we were playing on a 4'x4' board. I then placed my army, with my regular Ogre Bulls and Sabretusks starting in reserve because they rolled 1s.

I deploy aggressively on the slightly weird table.

Rumble in the Bronx 2014 - Part 2

This post is part 2 of my account of a recent tournament. You can find part 1 here.

Game 2: Blood and Glory

Corey Leslie, Lizardmen

My Boast: Breakthrough (have a unit into the enemy's deployment zone at game's end)

• Slann Mage Priest (Level 4, High Magic) with Focus of Mystery, Becalming Cogitation, BSB, Standard of Discipline
• Saurus Oldblood with Crown of Command, Light Armour, Great Weapon
• 40 Saurus Warriors with Spears, Full Command
• 26 Temple Guard with Full Command
• 10 Skink Skirmishers
• 10 Skink Skirmishers
• 3 Kroxigor
• Bastiladon with Solar Engine
• 5 Chameleons
• 5 Chameleons

Comp score: 5

This match-up worried me slightly with the magical prowess of the Slann, and at least one unit I couldn't face. With the Oldblood at their head, those Saurus could take my entire army...

This is me almost remembering to take photos before the game began...

Rumble in the Bronx 2014 - Part 1

Rumble in the Bronx is over, and despite being exhausted for the entire weekend (too much late night painting and modelling will do that to you), I had a great time. Despite my doubts, I did manage to get my entire army ready in time for the tournament, so apart from not getting anywhere near enough sleep, I was all prepared for the event.

I've shown my list before, but here it is again for convenience:

• Tyrant
  • General; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour
  • Arabyan Carpet (He can FLY!!)
  • Talisman of Preservation
  • Enchanted Shield
• Bruiser
  • Great Weapon; Battle Standard
  • Armour of Fortune
• Firebelly
  • Magic Level 1; Lore of Fire
  • Ruby Ring of Ruin
• Hunter
  • Great Weapon; Light Armour; Great Throwing Spear
  • Longstrider
• 6 Ironguts
  • Great Weapon; Heavy Armour; Standard; Musician; Gutlord
• 6 Ogres
  • Iron Fist; Light Armour; Standard; Musician; Crusher
• 3 Mournfang Cavalry
  • Great Weapon; Heavy Armour; Standard; Musician
  • Gleaming Pendant
• 4 Sabretusk Pack
• 4 Leadbelchers
  • Light Armour; Musician
• 1 Ironblaster

Total Army Cost: 1999pts

I ended up getting a 7 out of 10 for composition, meaning the panel had deemed my list to be pretty rubbish. The reasons for this were that I wasn't really using any of the generally acknowledged strengths of the Ogre list, apart from an Ironblaster. My flying Tyrant and Hunter meant I couldn't pour all my characters into a single “Gutstar” unit. I had little magic and no dispel scroll. All my Sabretusks were in a single unit rather than running around separately as dirt cheap annoyances. And my Mournfangs had great weapons, meaning they were not very well protected. All good reasons to doubt my army could do the business, but I was pretty happy with the high comp score anyway.

My 2000 point empire-themed Ogre army.

Rumble used an unusual scoring system. Instead of the 20-0 system which is most common in this part of the world, the score range was 16-0 (with 8-8 being a draw). In addition to this however, both players had to choose a “boast” at the start of each game. Achieving your stated boast got you an additional 2 battle points, whilst denying your opponent their boast got you another 2. You couldn't use the same boast twice in the event – you had to use all 6 once. So the total possible score was still 20, before comp. Unusually, comp modifiers could push you above 20 points for the round, although you couldn't get less than 0.

Here is my account of the event. As usual, most army lists will be from memory, so forgive me if they're not entirely correct. I've got 130 photos to post all told, so I'll be splitting the games up into separate posts to help make the pages load OK. The venue was quite dark, so you'll have to forgive my amateurish efforts to take photos under the conditions.

Painted Empire Ogre Characters

Well this post may be a little late, but in the end my painting was not - I managed to undercoat and paint these 3 guys on Friday night, and was finally able to head to bed a little after 1am. I was tired all weekend, but at least I achieved my goal of having the army ready for Rumble.

Anyway, here is how the group of them came out...

3 painted Ogre characters - Tyrant on flying carpet, BSB and Hunter. Not bad for a night's work.

All in a night's work...

Let us sculpt and paint, for tomorrow we Rumble!

Rumble in the Bronx does indeed start tomorrow, and I do have a lot of work still to do. Just in case you hadn't worked it out yet, I bit off more than I could chew (again). The last couple of nights have been late ones, trying to get my army in order. Here is what I did last night...

Yeah, I had to do pretty much all of this last night. The flying carpet itself was nearly finished, at least.

Steam Tank Ironblaster and Ogre Bright Wizard Done

The clock is ticking. I really only have 2 available evenings left before Rumble in the Bronx. I'm beginning to think I won't get every model ready in time. Fortunately all of the remaining characters have back-ups, but if I have to fall back on them it might break my theme a bit, so I'm still hoping to avoid that.

Anyway, I spent a fair bit of time at the painting table last night, and my Ironblaster and Firebelly are all done!

My Steam Tank Ironblaster, ready for battle. Behold the scratchy highlighting on the cannons and splotchy washes on the hull (both are more obvious in the photos than in real life). A true masterpiece.