Adding to the Reiksguard

Over a year ago I resolved to paint myself a regiment of Reiksguard, as they were one of the few gaps remaining in my Empire army. I started doing 16 at once, figuring it was a relatively manageable number, and was probably more than half of the final number I would aim for (30 seemed a good final target). Anyway, it took me a long time to get them done, and in the end I only completed half of that first wave. The others sat in my pile of half-painted stuff, glaring at me and making me feel guilty.

Well I can now say that I finally got around to finishing those half-painted Reiksguard. Now they can go back in a cupboard and hope for a chance to play in an actual battle. Wouldn't that be a thing? Of course, right now I am trying to steer myself away from Empire and focus on some other things, so who knows when I will actually get around to using them...

8 more painted Reiksguard Knights, led by the old model of Kurt Helborg himself.

Cancon 2014 Aftermath: Part 7

This is the seventh part of my series of posts covering my time playing Warhammer at Cancon 2014. You can find the previous game here.

So I had made it to the third and final day of the tournament. I was just about breaking even on battle points, with 3 wins and 3 losses to this point. Probably not quite where I had hoped to be, but if I could put in a good showing on the final day, I might more or less achieve my original rough goal.

Game 7 – Battle for the Pass

Michael Jackson – Warriors of Chaos

• Chaos Lord of Khorne on foot – I'm afraid I simply can't remember what this guy had. No doubt some form of protection and a strength boosting-weapon
• Festus the Leechlord
• Exalted Hero of Nurgle (BSB). Again, I don't recall what gear he was carrying, although I think he was pretty well protected
• 17 Chaos Warriors of Khorne with full command, halberds, shields, Banner of Swiftness
• 17 Chaos Warriors of Nurgle with full command, shields
• 16 Chaos Warriors of Nurgle with full command, shields
• Gorebeast Chariot of Nurgle
• 8 Chaos Trolls
• Giant with Mark of Nurgle

Well this is something you don't see much nowadays – basically an all-infantry Chaos army based around Chaos Warriors. I confess, it was not surprising to see such a list languishing at my level on the middle tables. It's nice to know some people still field Chaos Warriors in reasonable numbers (50 Chaos Warriors total approximately one zillion points)...

Anyway, I think Michael and I were probably both pretty happy to see each other given the scenario – Battle for the Pass can be annoying when one player wants to sit back and pound the enemy rather than engaging. As it was we had no shooting models between us, so there was most certainly going to be some combat.

Battle for the Pass deployment.

Cancon 2014 Aftermath: Part 6

This is the sixth part of my series of posts covering my time playing Warhammer at Cancon 2014. You can find the previous game here.

Well that last game had been a bit depressing. But I had new dice and things were surely looking up.

Game 6 – Battleline

Steve Goumas – Lizardmen

"Am I lion?" No man has ever loved his t-shirt more that Steve loved that one. Or at the very least, puns involving lions...

Cancon 2014 Aftermath: Part 5

This is the fifth part of my series of posts covering my time playing Warhammer at Cancon 2014. You can find the previous game here.

Well the last game had dropped me back to a record of 2 wins and 2 losses, which was still acceptable. I could still achieve all my fairly modest goals from here...

Game 5, Blood and Glory

Jack Blanche, Ogre Kingdoms

I'm not going to lie to you. It's now about a month since I played these games, and some details are going to completely escape me. Now I think about Jack's list, I am extremely vague about the details. I'll do what I can, but bear in mind that what follows is probably mostly wrong...

• Tyrant with Armour of Destiny, Great Weapon (maybe)
• Bruiser (BSB) with Talisman of Preservation, Enchanted Shield (I think?)
• Firebelly (Level 2) with maybe a Dispel Scroll. He had something, I know it...
• Hunter with Sword of Striking, Longstrider, probably some other stuff
• 6 Ironguts with full command, maybe a Banner of Disipline or Swiftness
• 3 Ogres with 2 hand weapons
• 3 Ogres with 2 hand weapons
• 40 Gnoblar Trappers
• 5 Sabretusks
• 4 Maneaters with Scout, Immune to Psychology, Ogre Pistol, full command, Banner of Eternal Flame
• Ironblaster
• Scraplauncher
• Scraplauncher

Well that doesn't reach 2400 points, so I have clearly missed some gear on the characters. This is roughly what the list looked like. I'd like to point out that Jack is a real man who puts a Hunter into a proper unit of Sabretusks, rather than doing the typical Ogre thing of fielding multiple units of 1. It's possible Swedish comp was to blame, but I like it anyway.

How deployment looked.

Cancon game 4 - the other side of the story

The view from the other side (photo stolen without permission from Swordmaster in an attempt at petty vengeance! Ha!)

As promised in my previous post, my round 4 Cancon opponent Swordmaster is a prolific writer of battle reports online, and his account of our game can now be seen on the Warhammer Forum. Go have a look if you've got a few minutes. 

Cancon 2014 Aftermath: Part 4

This is the fourth part of my series of posts covering my time playing Warhammer at Cancon 2014. You can find the previous game here.

So after the 3 games on Day 1 I was sitting on 2 wins and a loss. If I could continue that sort of record I would be pretty happy – my nominal target was to get 5 wins from the 8 games. Day 2 started with a bit of a mix-up in terms of some incorrect scores and re-draws, but after the dust had settled I found myself across the table from another battle report writer – the Swordmaster himself, king of MSU (multiple small units)!

Game 4 – Battleline

Pawel Sajewicz (Swordmaster)– High Elves

• Larry the Loremaster - level 2, Talisman of Preservation, Earthing Rod, Dragon Helm
• Bob the Battle Standard Bearer - Dragon Armour, Halberd, Charmed Shield, Potion of Strength, Reaver Bow
• 15 Archers - Full Command
• 15 Sea Guard - Full Command
• 5 Ellyrian Reavers - Spears, Bows, Musician
• 5 Ellyrian Reavers - Spears, Bows, Musician
• 5 Dragon Princes - Musician, Banner of Eternal Flame
• 5 Dragon Princes - Musician
• 12 Swordmasters - Bladelord, Musician
• 12 Swordmasters - Bladelord, Musician
• 10 White Lions - Full Command, Gleaming Pennant
• 10 White Lions - Full Command, Standard of Discipline
• Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
• Great Eagle
• Great Eagle
• 5 Sisters of Avelorn
• 5 Sisters of Avelorn

What with all his reports online, I was able to get Pawel's actual army list rather than having to try to remember some 3 weeks after the game. Very handy. Not so sure about his choice of character names...

Cancon 2014 Aftermath: Part 3

This is the third part of my account of my tournament experience at Cancon 2014. You can find the previous game here.

Game 3 – Meeting Engagement

Jonathon Walker – Dwarfs

• Dwarf Lord on Shieldbearers with 1+ rerollable armour save, 4+ ward, great weapon
• Thane (BSB) with 1+ rerollable armour save, Master Rune of Challenge (I think it was on this guy...)
• Runesmith with Master Rune of Balance, Rune of Spellbreaking, great weapon
• 24 Longbeards with great weapons, full command, Rune of Slowness
• 15 Warriors with shields, full command
• 10 Quarrellers
• 10 Quarrellers
• 10 Thunderers
• 10 Thunderers
• 20 Hammerers with full command
• Grudge Thrower with 2 Runes of Pentrating, Rune of Accuracy, Engineer
• Bolt Thrower with Engineer, Rune of Burning
• Bolt Thrower with Engineer
• Organ Gun

The list above does not actually total 2400 points, but it's what I can remember. It's close enough. The scenario was Meeting Engagement, which is the one where you deploy diagonally, with deployment zones only 12” apart. So that is good for an army with no shooting against a Dwarf army with 4 pieces of artillery and 40 missile troops, right? Well, it turns out it's not necessarily any better than a normal battle...

Ahoy, there! We're waaay back here!! I think that shiny gem in the middle of the dice is actually the front of the Dwarfs' deployment zone...

Cancon 2014 Aftermath: Part 2

Here we are again for another segment of my Cancon report. You can read about the first game here. By now it's over 3 weeks ago, and I'm finding I am struggling to remember details. I'm sure I resolved never to leave such things this long again, but sometimes these things are not really within our control. Apologies for any vagueness from here on in. More vague than usual, I mean...

Game 2 – Battleline

Ben Halliday – High Elves

• Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix with Ogre Blade, maybe some other stuff like the Charmed Shield?
• Mage (Level 2, Lore of Shadow) with Dispel Scroll (again, I think...)
• Noble (BSB) on Barded Steed with Dragon Armour, Dawn Stone, Shield, Lance (maybe)
• 13 Archers with Full Command
• 10 Ellyrian Reavers with Full Command
• 9 Silver Helms with Full Command
• 20 Phoenix Guard with Full Command, Razor Standard
• 21 White Lions with Full Command
• 5 Shadow Warriors
• 3 Repeater Bolt Throwers

See what I mean about being vague? Ah well, the main details are there.

The table in all its glory. This is after the Shadow Warriors deployed and the Reavers used their Vanguard move.

Warhammer Dwarfs: 8th Edition Review

I've never bothered to really review an army book before, but I thought I might do so here, since I've already been asked a few things about it.

I think it’s fair to say that this book has been eagerly anticipated by most players. Dwarf players are sick of using the same book since the end of 6th edition, and many of them (and their opponents) are well and truly tired of the lack of variety in the list and the extremely static play style that it basically demanded. However, I was worried whether they would be able to tread the fine line of maintaining the fundamental character of the race, and adding some more playability to the list. Did they manage it?

Frosthearted Filth

Having had a High Elf army for many years, my army has many bases covered in terms of painted models. However, I had not yet painted any of the new toys that appeared in the latest book. Over Christmas and my birthday a few weeks later, I managed to get my hands on a number of those things. Now I just need to paint some of them.

I figured I should start with one of the most significant (broken?) additions to the High Elf army - Frostheart Phoenixes. I was given an additional shove by someone wanting to borrow them for an upcoming tournament, which helped me get around to actually doing them. As usual my focus was more on getting them done than making them a work of art, so there was a fair bit of drybrushing involved. On the bright side, it meant they got done very quickly...

Double the filth! 2 Frostheart Phoenixes, each with a different head.

Cancon 2014 Aftermath: Part 1

It's now well over a week since Cancon was run and won, but I am only now getting around to writing up my usual post-tournament report. This was partly because I was still recovering from a long weekend of travel, gaming and not really enough sleep. It hasn't been helped by the apparent death of my normal computer. I think the hard drive caught the BUS only to RAM into your Mother(board)... I don't know what's wrong with it, other than it failing to boot makes me want to boot it somewhere. Ironic, eh?

EDIT: I am now posting this some 5 days after I wrote the stuff above, and nothing much has changed. Computer is still dead, and it's now 2 weeks since Cancon. As such, I thought I had better post what I had, rather than waiting until I had written up all 3 of my first day games. So, this post is only the first game. Sorry...

Anyway, these things aside I still have a report to write. Cancon is an epic 8 games over 3 days, so there is even more reporting to do than for most events. So I shall give up on my usual promise to try to keep things short (which seems to fail anyway) and just get on with things...

The army I entered had a theme of sorts, in that it had Flagellants. Lots of Flagellants. For all the people who kept trying to call them Fanatics over the course of the weekend, they are not called that. Fanatics are small, green, and whirly. My army was somewhat slanted as a result of all these Flagellants, and ended up with no shooting whatsoever. It did have some magic (included partly with the intent of trying to make the Flagellants more impressive), but its ranged prowess was limited. I shall repeat the list here, although I did discuss it a bit before.

My Empire army for Cancon.

• Arch Lector on War Altar with Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield, White Cloak of Ulric
• Wizard Lord of the Light Order (Level 3) on Warhorse with Scroll of Shielding, Talisman of Endurance
• Captain of the Empire with Battle Standard on Barded Steed with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Sword of Might, Dawn Stone
• Battle Wizard of the Amber Order (Level 1) on Warhorse with Dragonbane Gem
• 9 Knights of the Inner Circle with Lances, Standard, Musician, Banner of Swiftness
• 10 Knightly Orders with Great Weapons, Standard, Musician
• 5 Knightly Orders with Lances
• 4 Demigryph Knights with Lances, Standard, Musician
• 28 Flagellants
• 25 Flagellants
• Celestial Hurricanum

Total Army Cost: 2400

Final Swedish Score: 15.3