Beefing up the Ogres

I'm all paid up for Rumble in the Bronx at the end of August, and I have started work on getting an army together. Lacking any other specific inspiration and given that the tournament uses relatively small forces at 2000 points, I have decided that this is the right time to upgrade my Empire Ogres from unit fillers to an entire army in their own right.

Having firmed up my rough plan, I then started alternating between not coming up with a real army list, and making only marginal progress with all the modelling work that needs to happen. And believe me, there is a lot of work that needs to happen. I plan to be slightly sensible about this, and I will try to make maximum use out of the Empire Ogres I have already finished. Realistically that means 7 Ironguts, 3 regular Ogres, 1 Leadbelcher, 3 Mournfangs and a Sabretusk. It's not an army, but it's 15 models that don't need to be built from scratch and painted. That is good, because the only list I have properly made by now has 30 models in total, which means I still need to build and paint 15 more guys (4 Ogres, 5 Leadbelchers, 2 Sabretusks, 3 characters and an Ironblaster).

At this point I am going with the assumption that I am going to use something at least similar to this list, and am trying to pump out a lot of constructed models in preparation for painting. Even if I then decide to tweak the list a bit, I'll still be closer to ready when the time for list submission (and locking my plan in properly) comes around. I've been getting my press moulds into some semblance of order, producing the odd new master component, and squeezing lots and lots of putty into Empirey Ogrey shapes. Here is what I have thus far...

The workbench at the moment. 4 built Ogres, hiding a small pile of partially constructed body parts.

Convic 2014 Aftermath – Part 3

This post is a continuation of my account of Convic 2014. You can find the previous part here.

Game 4 - Watchtower

Johannes Scherpenhuizen, Wood Elves

Comp Score: 1.4

• Spellweaver (General, Level 4, Lore of Shadow) on Steed with Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Preservation
• Sisters of Twilight on Ceithin-Har (Dragon)
• Glade Captain BSB
• 16 Glade Guard with Musician, Standard, Trueflight Arrows
• 10 Glade Guard with Musician, Standard, Trueflight Arrows
• 10 Glade Guard with Musician, Standard, Trueflight Arrows
• 5 Wardancers
• 5 Wardancers
• 5 Sisters of the Thorn with Musician
• 10 Wild Riders with Shields, Champion, Standard, Gleaming Pennant
• 5 Way Watchers
• 5 Way Watchers
• Eagle
• Eagle

Hannes' Wood Elves, complete with scratch-built Forest Dragon.

After the overnight break, it was back to fighting more Wood Elves for me. This game would be a bit different, given there was a Dragon kicking around and we were fighting for possession of a Watchtower (worth 750 victory points in this tournament). For possibly the first time in my 8^th edition tournament career, I was quite happy at the thought of winning possession of the tower at the start of the game, and I duly did so. I placed my Thunderers in there, giving them the best vantage point they would get all tournament. This game had the distinction of being the only time I actually managed to roll a 5 or 6 for Ancestral Grudge rule, giving my entire army hatred for the battle. How novel.

Convic 2014 Aftermath – Part 2

This post is a continuation of my account of Convic 2014. You can find the first part here.

Going into game 3 I was on 34.1 out of a theoretically possible maximum of 60 points. Nothing special, but I was thus far managing to avoid the bottom tables. Hopefully I could continue that trend.

Game 3 – Meeting Engagement

Sam Morgan, Bretonnians

Comp score: 0.7

• Bretonnian Lord on Royal Pegasus with Virtue of Heroism, Sword of Swift Slaying, Gromril Great Helm, Dragonbane Gem, Shield
• Bretonnian Lord on Barded Bretonnian Warhorse with Virtue of Duty, Dawnstone, Falcon-horn of Fredemund, Lance, Shield
• Paladin (BSB) on Barded Bretonnian Warhorse with Virtue of the Impetuous Knight, Enchanted Shield, Luckstone
• Paladin on Royal Pegasus with Dragonhelm, Wyrmlance, Gauntlet of the Duel, Shield
• Damsel (Level 2, Lore of Life) on Bretonnian Warhorse with Silver Mirror
• Damsel (Level 2, Lore of Life) on Bretonnian Warhorse with Scroll of Shielding
• 9 Knights of the Realm with Full Command, War Banner
• 10 Knights Errant with Full Command, Standard of Discipline
• 10 Peasant Bowmen with Braziers, Musician, Standard Bearer
• 10 Peasant Bowmen with Braziers, Musician, Standard Bearer
• 3 Pegasus Knights with Champion
• 3 Pegasus Knights with Champion
• 3 Pegasus Knights with Champion
• Field Trebuchet
• Field Trebuchet

I'm afraid that Sam didn't bother laying his army out properly for the beauty pageant (probably because of all the riderless carpets), so I never got a decent shot of it. Each one of those rugs is a Pegasus Knight, and the genies up the back right are the flying characters.

Convic 2014 Aftermath - Part 1

It's been a while since I had a tournament to report upon, however Convic was on the weekend and as a result I have finally gotten around to playing a few more games of Warhammer! As usual, I will try and fail to keep my descriptions of the games concise. I'm predictable like that.

I've shown my army list before, however I'll repeat it here now for convenience:

• Dwarf Lord with Shieldbearers, Gromril Armour, Great Weapon, 3 Runes of Warding, Rune of Stone
• Thane with Battle Standard, Gromril Armour, Great Weapon, Master Rune of Grungni, Strollaz's Rune
• Grimm Burloksson
• Josef Bugman
• 20 Quarrellers with Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield, Dwarf Crossbow, Full Command
• 20 Thunderers with Heavy Armour, Shield, Dwarf Handgun, Full Command
• 12 Miners with Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Standard, Prospector
• Gyrocopter with Vanguard, Steam Gun
• Gyrocopter with Steam Gun
• Cannon with Rune of Forging
• 12 Bugman's Rangers with Dwarf Crossbow, Great Weapon, Throwing Axes, Heavy Armour, Shield, Full Command
• 16 Irondrakes with Full Command, Strollaz's Rune

My Dwarf army for Convic 2014.

The theory behind the list was that I had no interest in a static gun line, but nor did I really believe that a vanguard-heavy combat army would work. So this was some sort of compromise. All of the units are well-equipped and fairly capable in combat, and most of them shoot. I was hoping that between this and my various deployment special rules, I would give myself a few options for how I would approach each game. I had my suspicions that the list might be found wanting in certain regards, and might require a fair bit of finesse (or luck) in order to get the most from it.

I got a 3.5 out of 5 for my composition score, which I guess was a suggestion that the panel also had their doubts about the army's effectiveness. That was fine, I would prove them all wrong! Maybe...

Duelling Gamers - Month 4 Complete

Well, we're 11 days into July, and I have completed my quota for the month. Sounds easy, but in truth I've only just gotten it done in time for Convic.

10 painted Dwarf Irondrakes, ready for battle.

Duelling Gamers - Month 4 Progress

By the standards of my previous months, this update is rather early. Normally I haven't even started painting by this point, but Convic is next weekend and I don't have time for my usual slow start. So with that in mind, here are some painted Miners...

12 painted Dwarf Miners. Technically only 10 of them are part of the painting challenge. The other two are just there because I need them for my Convic list.

Duelling Gamers - Month 3 Completed

Technically we are no longer in June, however I haven't done a Tale of Duelling Gamers update yet, and I've only just finished some of the models. My target was messed about a bit when I entered Convic and committed myself to painting a ton of models in a short time frame, but what I achieved was still pretty close to my original goal.

I had intended to paint the following:

• 16 Quarrellers
• 2 Characters

That was my $100 limit. It got tweaked a bit before I finished the Quarrellers, and this is what I ended up with:

11 Quarrellers, 6 Thunderers (should have been 5, but apparently I can't count to 16 total), Josef Bugman and Grimm Burloksson.