Wood Elf Hobby Progress

The lead-up to Bendigo Besieged was a bit of a hurry for me. It probably shouldn't have been, but it turns out I was fighting some health issues that were affecting my energy levels, and it made a relatively small job feel like a major undertaking. I had decided to take Wood Elves into the tournament because I never really got a chance to use the 8th edition Wood Elf book. This is all well and good, but for all that I've had a Wood Elf army for nearly 30 years, it's generally not been my go-to force for most of that time. The army has suffered a fair bit of neglect, and it needed work.

I decided I wanted to use a Lord on Stag, as it was a comp bonus and worked OK with my silly Moonstone of the Hidden Ways plans. I had a model that I picked up second-hand at some point, but it wasn't painted - I had never used it before. I also decided to include Waywatchers. I had never used them before either, so they were obviously not painted either. And I wanted to use Wardancers, which I hadn't used since 5th edition... And their paint jobs reflected this.

I did hatch these plans weeks in advance, so there should have been time to deal with all of these issues, as well as sundry extra things like an extra Warhawk Rider. I dragged my feet a while, but eventually knuckled down and got most of what I needed done. There were some other things I might have added like a new BSB and even a more suitable Spellweaver, but I was running out of time and I got distracted near the end by doing some extra stuff for a friend's army at the last minute.

Anyway, these models have already appeared in my report of the tournament, but here are some better shots of them.

Yeah, his spear is bent. Not sure when that happened, but I'm worried the paint will immediately fall off if I bend it back. I'm not a big fan of this model. Wood Elves from this era in general seem to be covered in layers of nick-knacks and details, and if you're trying to use a relatively limited colour palette, you end up looking for endless variations of the same colours to try and pick things out. I prefer the older models. This guy in particular is not really posed well for a general - leaning forward, his face half-covered in a mask and leaning into his own shoulder.

Bendigo Besieged Aftermath - Part 5

This is the final part of my tournament report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 5 - Battleline
Tim Jarman - Empire

• Marius Leitdorf, Elector Count of Averland with Full Plate Armour, Barded Steed, The Averland Runefang
• Battle Wizard (Level 2, Lore of Fire) with Dispel Scroll
• Warrior Priest with Additional Hand Weapon, Light Armour
• 20 Free Company Militia with Additional Hand Weapons, Champion
• 10 Handgunners
• 8 Inner Circle Knights with Full Plate Armour, Barding, Lance, Shield, Full Command
• 28 Spearmen with Light Armour, Spears, Shields, Full Command
• 3 Demigryph Knights with Full Plate Armour, Barding, Shields, Halberds
• 25 Flagellants with Flails, Champion
• Great Cannon
• 24 Greatswords with Great Weapons, Full Plate Armour, Full Command
• Mortar
• Helblaster Volley Gun
• Steam Tank

My final game would be against an Empire army that had managed a comp score of 10, so it should suggest a relatively even fight. Much of the threat from the list came from the Steam Tank and artillery, but I was sure it would be just fine...

Marius Leitdorf! He must be one of my favourite characters in Warhammer. A lunatic with a deadly blade who can receive tactical instructions from his horse...

Bendigo Besieged Aftermath - Part 4

This is part 4 of my report of a recent tournament. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 4 - Dawn Attack
Lachlan Hutchinson - High Elves

• Prince with Light Armour, Lion Cloak, Shield, Great Weapon, Blade of Leaping Gold, Talisman of Endurance
• Handmaiden of the Everqueen with Light Armour, Spear, Bow of Avelorn, Sword of Striking
• Mage (Level 2, Lore of Beasts)
• Mage (Level 2, High Magic)
• 30 Spearmen with Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Full Command
• 30 Spearmen with Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Full Command
• 20 Archers with Longbows, Musician
• 20 Archers with Longbows, Musician
• 25 White Lions of Chrace with Great Weapons, Heavy Armour, Lion Cloaks, Full Command
• 20 Sisters of Avelorn with Light Armour, Bows of Avelorn
• Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
• Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

Right, so first off, this is the strangest High Elf list I've ever seen. It must have been about a 7 for comp, but frankly it deserved more. The list put out a lot of shooting, but that was probably its main redeeming feature. It had none of the elements you'd normally expect to find, toughening up the combat potential of the army. The Prince lacked punch, the Mages had no items at all. The army had no BSB, cavalry, or monsters. It did feel like a proper citizen levy-based High Elf army. But it also felt under-powered, even against my 11 comp Wood Elves.

At this point I had lost 2 of my 3 games, although my battle points were not looking too bad because I'd managed to avoid big losses. I believe the match-ups were being done simply on wins and losses, so presumably Lachlan was also on a single win up until this point. 

Lachlan's army was an interesting mix of Citadel models and 3D prints that he had actually designed himself. The Spearmen and Archers (by far the bulk of his army) were all his doing. I was very impressed.

These Spearmen could do with some shields and paint, but they do look the part.

These ones look a bit more complete. The Bolt Thrower crew were also his digital handiwork.

The Archers were his doing too, although the Mage is a digital kitbash based on a Last Sword model.

It was Dawn Attack again, so we were rolling to see where our units went. Nothing too dramatic happened there. Lachlan ended up with a Spearmen unit by itself on the flank, and my Dryads were across from them (the Waywatchers appeared there later, when I couldn't find a good place to deploy them near the High Elf lines).

Bendigo Besieged Aftermath - Part 3

This is part 3 of my report of a recent tournament. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 3 - Blood and Glory
Chad Smith - Beastmen

• Beastlord with Great Weapon, Armour of Destiny
• Great Bray-Shaman (Level 4, Lore of Death) with Talisman of Preservation
• Wargor with Battle Standard, Heavy Armour, Shield, Gnarled Hide, Beast Banner
• Bray Shaman (Level 1, Lore of Shadow) with Herdstone Shard
• Bray Shaman (Level 1, Lore of Beasts) with Dispel Scroll
• 39 Gor Herd with 2 Hand Weapons, Full Command
• 20 Gor Herd with 2 Hand Weapons, Full Command
• 33 Bestigor Herd with Heavy Armour, Great Weapons, Full Command, Standard of Discipline
• 10 Ungor Raiders
• 10 Ungor Raiders
• 10 Ungor Raiders
• Tuskgor Chariot
• Tuskgor Chariot
• Razorgor
• Razorgor
• 5 Harpies with Scout

Apparently Chad's comp score was -1, which I think was the worst I faced in the event. Beastmen unfortunately tend to be faced with the choice of either going hard with their list, or getting smashed. Chad had opted for the former approach. As it was being laid out opposite me, I wasn't feeling great about the chances of my squishy Wood Elf list...

The scenario was a variant of Blood and Glory, where breaking the enemy army didn't end the game - it just granted 600 bonus victory points. It still meant the deployment zones were closer together than normal, with dead zones on the flanks.

 

Chad had pretty much complete control of the deployment phase, with piles of low value units to place before he put down anything important. I put the Glade Guard on the hill, the Treekin and Lord behind a forest they could teleport from (if they got the chance), and did my best with the rest of the stuff without knowing exactly where the key enemy stuff was going to be.

Bendigo Besieged Aftermath - Part 2

This is part 2 of my report of a recent tournament. You can find the previous part here.

Game 2 - Dawn Attack
Harry Pearse - Dwarfs

• Lord on Shieldbearers with Gromril Armour, Great Weapon*, Shield, 2 Runes of Striking, Rune of Might, Rune of Iron, Rune of Preservation, Rune of Stone
• Runesmith with Gromril Armour, Shield, 2 Runes of Spellbreaking
• Thane with Battle Standard, Gromril Armour, Shield, Master Rune of Grugni
• Thane with Gromril Armour, Shield, Dwarf Pistol, Rune of Stone
• 50 Dwarf Warriors with Heavy Armour, Shields, Full Command
• 10 Thunderers 
• Cannon 
• Grudge Thrower with Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Penetrating
• Gyrocopter with Brimstone Gun
• 35 Hammerers with Heavy Armour, Shields, Great Weapons, Full Command
• 10 Miners with Heavy Armour, Great Weapons, Champion
• Organ Gun with Rune of Accuracy

*When I first read through Harry's list, I assumed he'd decided that Strength 4 on his Lord was enough, provided that it would double against Toughness 5 or more. It turns out he'd missed the rule saying the great weapon counts as a hand weapon anyway because of the runes. In Harry's defence, it took several of us waaay too long to find the rule in the book that we all knew was there somewhere. I had actually given up and decided they must have dropped the rule in the latest book when someone finally spotted it right where we had all been looking. 

Honestly, against my list the great weapon probably didn't matter much anyway. The Lord was sitting happily in a unit of 35 Hammerers, along with every other character in the army. I guess it's what you would call a "traditionalist" Dwarf approach. Take every egg you can find, and stuff it in the Hammerer basket. Not the way I do things, but I'm a weirdo and not really a proper Dwarf player. When we went to KFC immediately before, Harry put his name is as Grombrindal up on the screen. I should really just defer to his superior Dwarf cred...

The scenario was Dawn Attack, which means you do have to nominate units for your characters before rolling to see where they all end up. I've been cruelled by this a couple of times, but this time the dice were merciful and my deployment more or less made sense.

That is certainly a unit. 

Bendigo Besieged Aftermath - Part 1

It's been a while since my last post. In actual fact, the last time I posted on the blog, I was recounting my experience at a 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament. Well I'm back again, ready to talk about another tournament I have attended - but this time it's for 8th edition! If this is confusing for you, rest assured that it confuses me too. I had to double-check so many rules to confirm whether I was in the right edition or not. Anyway...

Bendigo Besieged is into its 3rd year, having kicked off back when we were in the middle of COVID lockdowns and the general chaos around that. I wasn't able to make it as a result, and the next year it proved impossible as well. But this time I finally made it, and it was great to see people keen to play some games of 8th edition. There were 18 players, which is apparently a new record for them. But it was also the first 8th edition tournament I've actually played since the End Times blew everything up all those years ago, and also probably the first multi-day Warhammer tournament of any edition I've played since then, apart from Cancon (which barely counts, as it's part of a larger convention that gives it the pull it needs). Very frequently nowadays, it seems that people are unable or unwilling to commit to a 2 day event. They are very few and far between. It amazes me that this is actually my 4th Warhammer tournament this year. Before this year, I don't think I had played one of any edition since End Times, contenting myself with Kings of War as the old Fantasy community was scattered to the winds. 

When I committed to this tournament, I decided I wanted to use Wood Elves. I never really got to use the 8th edition Wood Elf book when it came out, because its arrival prompted every man and his dog to suddenly pull out their dust-covered army and bring them to events. I am not really keen on being part of the "problem", when it comes to one army being a craze that results in far too many of one army flooding a tournament. So I decided to sit back, wait out the storm, and use them when people had calmed down and moved on. Except then the Warhammer world ended and I never got the chance. So now, some 9 years later, this was finally my chance.

I had a few ground rules for myself, based on my reading of the army book and what I saw at events back in the day. I would not use Trueflight Arrows. They were a no-brainer choice that was absolutely everywhere in people's tournament lists. I wouldn't hate them so much if it wasn't for True Line of Sight, which basically ends up meaning nearly everything can see everything all the time. You can't hide from the, and they don't miss much. And they're relatively cheap. Very balanced. My other thing to avoid was Wild Riders, because they were also one of the key go-to options. They're not as broken as Trueflight Arrows, but they're the ultimate glass cannons and hit unreasonably hard. I wouldn't mind taking one unit of them, but they were indeed everywhere - so I decided to avoid them. 

Previous years of Bendigo Besieged had avoided a comp pack, but apparently that had seen some pretty tough stuff appearing. So instead they went the complete opposite approach, and brought in a vast swathe of criteria known as Highlander comp. This rewarded taking no duplicates in a list ("there can be only one", hence the Highlander reference), and tried to make known problems down whilst encouraging things perceived as softer, like a big unit of Empire Spearmen, not taking a proper mage, a dispel scroll, or a BSB. In fact I've never seen so many 8th ed armies without BSBs. An army's comp score could be as low as you liked, but it maxed out at +10 for a soft list. Naturally I promised myself I would get maximum comp by taking a compromised list. In the end, my score was actually an 11, in true Spinal Tap fashion. What's softer than soft? I am! I still only got 10 points, of course...

• Glade Lord on Great Stag with Moonstone of the Hidden Ways, Armour of Destiny, Shield, Spear
• Spellweaver (Level 4, High Magic) with Talisman of Preservation
• Glade Captain with Battle Standard, Hail of Doom Arrow, Great Weapon, Light Armour
• Branchwraith
• 20 Glade Guard with Standard, Musician, Swiftshiver Shafts (multi-shot arrows)
• 23 Dryads with Champion
• 4 Warhawks with Champion
• 8 Wardancers with Champion
• 6 Treekin with Champion
• Treeman
• 6 Waywatchers
• Great Eagle

Axemaster 2023 Aftermath - Part 3

This is the final part of my report of a recent tournament. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

With one game to go, I was now sitting on a win and a loss. Coming away with more wins than losses would feel like a solid success for the event, so now I just had to win my final game.

Game 3 - Pitched Battle
Jonathan Harry - Vampire Counts

• Blood Dragon Vampire Lord on Barded Nightmare with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Great Weapon, Ring of the Night, Black Periapt, Red Fury, Heart Piercing
• Necromancer (Level 2) with Book of Arkhan, Dispel Scroll
• Necromancer (Level 2) with Spell Familiar, Dispel Scroll
• 20 Skeleton Warriors with Light Armour, Shields, Full Command
• 20 Zombies with Standard Bearer, Musician
• 9 Ghouls
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 25 Grave Guard with Heavy Armour, Shields, Full Command, War Banner
• 9 Black Knights with Heavy Armour, Shields, Barding, Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
• 4 Fell Bats
• 3 Spirit Hosts

A Blood Dragon Vampire and enough magic to pretty easily force some spells past my defences... This game could be a struggle. This time the scenario was a normal battle, so I didn't have to worry about controlling something in particular. I could focus on... Not dying.

Deployment was interesting. I decided to anchor my flank with the forest, and put the Republican Guard closest to it in the hope that it would keep any fighting to their front. I found Jono's placement of his Vampire lord unusual. Putting cavalry out on the flank is nothing really new, but when it's taking the main combat threat in your force and the ability to march within his leadership range over there, and there's a forest blocking you from the enemy's flank. In his defence, he hasn't played as much 6th edition as he has 8th edition Warhammer... He might have forgotten what a barrier that forest would likely be.

All lined up and ready to go.

Axemaster 2023 Aftermath - Part 2

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

My first game had not gone particularly well, but there was still plenty of time to salvage some respectability for the mercenary Ogres.

Game 2 - Take and Hold
Orest Mikulin - Orcs and Goblins

• Orc Warboss on Wyvern with Light Armour, Fumpa's Club of Fumpin (+2 Strength), Ironskin Shield
• Orc Big Boss on Boar with Battle Standard, Drog's Dead Ard Armour (1+ save), Sword of Might
• Night Goblin Shaman (Level 2) with Mad Cap Mushrooms
• Night Goblin Shaman (Level 2) with Nibbla's Itty Ring
• 20 Night Goblins with Full Command, Spears, Shields, 3 Netters, 3 Fanatics
• 20 Night Goblins with Full Command, Spears, Shields, 2 Netters, 3 Fanatics
• 5 Wolf Riders with Musician, Spears, Short Bows, Shields
• 5 Wolf Riders with Musician, Spears, Short Bows, Shields
• 20 Black Orcs with Full Command, Great Weapons, War Banner
• Goblin Rock Lobber
• Goblin Spear Chukka
• Goblin Spear Chukka
• 6 Trolls
• Giant

Orest was running a very classic style of Orc and Goblin army. Wyvern, Giant, Trolls... All the "good" stuff (by which I mean, all the stuff you want, but which might not actually end up being any good). This felt like a list that lined up better with mine in terms of power level. The scenario offered 500 victory points at the end of the battle if you controlled the centre point of the table (that pile of sandbags in the picture below). 500 is a lot of points, so this was something you couldn't really afford to ignore entirely. I won the roll-off for table edge and actually bothered changing sides (I don't normally, because I'm very lazy). 2 hills seemed a little too convenient when he had 3 war machines...

Lining up my troops, looking at my units, wondering who is really disposable enough to "draw out" the Fanatics... Not really something I factored into my list building. Nobody wanted to volunteer, especially when one unit had Mad Cap Mushrooms (which doubles the Fanatic impact on the turn they're released).

Axemaster 2023 Aftermath - Part 1

Well, I have survived another 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament. We decided to resurrect our local tournament Axemaster after maybe a 7 year gap, running it using 6th edition because that seems to be where most of the enthusiasm is at present. I've posted my slightly dubious list previously, but here it is again for reference:

• Tyrant with Heavy Armour, Luck Gnoblar, Tenderiser, Wyrdstone Necklace
• Bruiser with Battle Standard, Heavy Armour, Luck Gnoblar, Sword of Might, Talisman of Protection
• Butcher with 2 Dispel Scrolls
• 6 Ogre Bulls with Light Armour, Iron Fists, Standard Bearer, Crusher
• 3 Ironguts with Standard Bearer, Look-Out Gnoblar, Great Weapons, Heavy Armour
• 3 Ironguts with Great Weapons, Heavy Armour
• 2 Leadbelchers with Light Armour
• 20 Ricco's Republican Guard (Regiment of Renown)
• 10 Braganza's Besiegers (Regiment of Renown)
• 6 Voland's Venators (Regiment of Renown)
• 1 Bull Rhinox Rider with Heavy Armour, Iron Fist

I was focusing on it more as an opportunity to use stuff like Dogs of War, and trying not to think too hard about how my games would likely go... Well, now we can find out how big a mistake that was.

Braganza's Besiegers and Axemaster list

Axemaster is in 2 days, and I'm happy to say that I'm pretty well on track in terms of my preparations. My list is settled, painting is almost done, and I've already come to terms with how badly I might lose some of my games!

Braganza's Besiegers are now ready for the table, which means all I have left to paint now is a Lookout Gnoblar to put on one of my unit standards. In some ways this unit felt a bit like a salvage project. They were rummaging around in bags, missing bits, some with rough undercoat/removed paint on them. I obviously picked them up second-hand back in the day, when my Empire army was really just formed up as a way to use my Dogs of War.

10 Besiegers, painted up to go with the purple and white of my core Empire "mercenary" army. I stuck with the rough design of the shields used in the original GW studio photos, even though I changed the colours from red and green.

Mercenary Ogre Tyrant

Axemaster is in less than a week, and I've been making reasonable progress on my preparations.

I now have a new Ogre Tyrant model, made to try to tie in with the armoured aesthetic of Ricco's Republican Guard and Voland's Venators. This is important, because they will all be in my list, and it's important to focus on capturing the vibe when winning most of my games is probably off the table...

One heavily armoured Ogre with a very large hammer. I struggled to decide on colours for him, and in the end the hammer grip was kind of me not making a decision at all - there was room for both colours!

The Road to Axemaster

Oh my. How long has it been? No wait, don't look at that - you'll go blind. Let's just say that it's been a while. I have been a naughty and neglectful blogger, but I'm still here. Lurking quietly in the shadows or something.

In terms of gaming, the club has recently seen a bit of a resurgence of interest in Mordheim. It's never really been a big focus for me - I think the best thing about the game is the tables some people create for it - ones you could never really use for a battle game like Warhammer. Anyway, I've joined in with a Sisters of Sigmar warband. About half my models have been painted up previously as Warrior Priests for my Empire army. The rest are running around wearing nothing but their undercoats. It's disgraceful, and I'm sure Sigmar is judging me and colluding with the dice gods against me as some sort of punishment. If I get around to fixing the situation, I'll provide an update here.

Progress has been slow on the hobby front in general. I have jumped around between a few different model projects, but in the end I managed to focus long enough to get another one of my wagon unit fillers done. It only took about a month longer than it should have. Well, maybe 2 months...

A unit filler for my Ostland Swordsman regiment. The wagon is a 3D print from Highlands Miniatures. I think the Swordsmen might be as well, but the arms are GW and the shields are old custom resin ones I've had kicking around for years, like the rest of the regiment.

Uprising 2023 - Part 3

This is the final part of my report from a recent 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament. You can find the previous part here.

With only one game to go, my apparently mighty Cult of Slaanesh army had still yet to taste defeat. I seemed to be surrounded by Vampire Counts, however...

Game 3 - Pitched Battle
Jake Campbell - Vampire Counts (Necrarchs)

• Necrarch Vampire Count (Level 2, Lore of Necromancy) with Book of Arkhan, Nehekara's Noble Blood, Ring of the Night
• Necromancer (Level 2, Lore of Necromancy) with Dispel Scroll
• Necromancer (Level 2, Lore of Necromancy) with Staff of Damnation
• Wight Lord on Nightmare with Heavy Armour, Great Weapon
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 5 Ghouls
• 15 Skeletons with Shields, Full Command
• 20 Zombies with Standard, Musician
• 11 Black Knights with Barding, Lances, Heavy Armour, Shields, Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
• 3 Fell Bats
• 20 Grave Guard with Heavy Armour, Shields, Full Command
• 3 Spirit Hosts
• Banshee
• Black Coach

This game would be interesting, as it was the first time I'd run into another player with some real muscle in the magic phase.

Nice-looking terrain, although I could have done without a river. I won the roll-off for sides, and elected the one with a hill on it.

Uprising 2023 - Part 2

This is the continuation of my report from a recent 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament. You can find the first part here.

I had won my first game rather emphatically, and propelled myself onto what I believe was the top table for the second round. This was not how this was meant to go. Oh well, these things have a way of correcting themselves. 

Game 2 - Hold the Line, Kill the Boss
Jack Norman - Vampire Counts (Blood Dragons)

• Blood Dragon Vampire Lord (Level 3, Lore of Necromancy) with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Sword of Striking, Obsidian Amulet, Master Strike
• Necromancer (Level 2, Lore of Necromancy) with Book of Arkhan
• Blood Dragon Vampire Thrall with Battle Standard, Flayed Hauberk, Biting Blade
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 24 Skeletons with Spears, Light Armour, Shields, Standard, Musician
• 20 Skeletons with Spears, Light Armour, Shields, Standard, Musician
• 5 Black Knights with Barding, Lances, Heavy Armour, Shields, Full Command
• 3 Fell Bats
• 20 Grave Guard with Heavy Armour, Shields, Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
• 3 Spirit Hosts
• Mercenary Cannon
• Mercenary Cannon

Cannons? In a Vampire Count army? Can't say it's to my taste, but hey what do I care? Good thing I didn't bring any chariots. They wouldn't have been happy...

Uprising 2023 - Part 1

On the weekend I drove to Ballarat for Uprising 2023, which was a one day, 3 game tournament for 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy. In the end there were 36 players. I still don't fully understand where all these people are coming from in order to play a long-dead version of an abandoned game. Every person I ask seems to have a different story. Some have returned after a long hiatus, some are new to Warhammer, some have clearly been sucked into a time vortex and have no idea what year it is... Anyway, it felt like a lot of people for an event of this kind.

I talked previously about my Cult of Slaanesh army list, but here it is again with a family photo so you can see what I was running:

• Druchii Anointed (Level 2 Dark Magic) with Great Weapon, Shield, Blood Armour, Quickening Blood, Pendant of Slaanesh. Tome of Furion
• Sorceress (Level 2 Slaanesh Magic) with Mark of Slaanesh, Dispel Scroll
• Noble on Cold One with Chaos Armour, Shield, Great Weapon, Seal of Ghrond
• Sorceress (Level 2 Dark Magic) with Darkstar Cloak
• 9 Cold One Knights with Full Command, Banner of Murder
• 14 Devoted of Slaanesh with Full Command
• 10 Warriors with Mark of Slaanesh, Repeating Crossbow, Light Armour
• 10 Warriors with Mark of Slaanesh, Repeating Crossbow, Light Armour
• 5 Mounted Daemonettes
• 2 Reaper Bolt Throwers
• 10 Daemonettes 
• 5 Chaos Furies

As usual, I managed to take a good number of photos, which should hopefully help me remember what happened and talk you through my games.

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.

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...

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 

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.

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.

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.

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.

A New Year, and a return to 6th edition

Happy new year, everyone! As usual, it's been a long time since my last post. I actually started this post a couple of months ago, and it never went anywhere. But here I am now!

I have not achieved much painting over the last few months, partly because my priorities started to get confused. I still have several partly painted Gyrocopters on my table, and it's possible I'll get them finished before shuffling them off to the cabinet (removing them whilst partly-painted would feel like an admission of defeat). I did paint a few "Hammerers", who are random models I tried to convert to help me pad out my actual Marauder-era Hammerers a bit. It was really just a bit of an experiment.

A second command group, and a few sneaky extra Hammerers to pad my total out to 2 units of 18.