Over 900,000

At some point today the hit counter on the blog ticked over the 900,000 mark. It seems there is a steady trickle of traffic through here even when I'm struggling a bit for motivation and not posting much. Rest assured that this won't last forever, though. Over the weekend I plan to try my first larger game of Kings of War (6000 points) to see how the game handles at a slightly larger scale. I expect it will go very smoothly. And then on Sunday I'll be going to a small KoW tournament that's being run nearby. Just a chance to get a few more games in against some different people. I'll take photos on both days, so stay tuned.

Thanks to everyone who's been dropping by!

Motivation is for chumps

We're nearly halfway through October now, and this means we're also nearly halfway through the latest iteration of Duelling Paintbrushes. So what have I done? Almost nothing.

Why? I have no motivation.

Hobby motivation is a strange and fickle beast. It can't always be predicted, and it can't necessarily be manufactured out of nothing.

Axemaster 2015 Aftermath - Part 4

This is the 4th and final part of my tournament report. You can find part 3 here.

Game 5
Stuart Murray, Warriors of Chaos

• Chaos Lord of Khorne on Manticore
• Throgg the Troll King
• Festus
• Exalted Hero of Nurgle on Daemon Steed with Battle Standard
• Mounted Sorcerer (Level 2, Lore of Metal)
• Sorcerer (Level 2, Lore of Slaanesh)
• 15 Chaos Warriors of Nurgle with Shields
• 15 Marauders of Slaanesh
• 5 Marauder Horsemen of Tzeentch
• Chimera

Comp Score: 3

My Mission: Control table quarters

It was game 5 and I would be playing someone else I had never played before. Stuart's army looked like something that had escaped a previous edition of Warhammer - a Chaos army laden with characters and with almost no models. Looking at it, my main hope was to knock off the units and hopefully minimize the damage the Chaos Lord could do (as he and his beast promised too much punch at high speed for me to handle).

Deployment

Axemaster 2015 Aftermath - Part 3

This is part 3 of my tournament report. You can find part 2 here.

Game 4
Mal Patel, Lizardmen

• Slann Mage Priest (Level 4, Lore of Metal)
• Saurus Old Blood
• Saurus Old Blood
• Saurus Scar Veteran with Battle Standard
• Skink Priest (Level 1, Lore of Heavens)
• 22 Saurus
• 22 Saurus
• 20 Skink Cohort
• 20 Skink Cohort
• 20 Skink Cohort
• 3 Razordons
• Bastiladon

Comp Score: 6

Mal's Lizardman army

My Mission: Capture the flag

Axemaster 2015 Aftermath - Part 2

This is part 2 of my tournament report. You can find part 1 here.

Game 2
Julian Jaksch, Goblins

• Skarsnik and Gobbla
• Night Goblin Great Shaman (Level 4, Little Waagh)
• Night Goblin Shaman (Level 2, Little Waagh)
• Night Goblin Big Boss with Battle Standard
• Night Goblin Big Boss
• 40 Night Goblins with Spears, Netters
• 35 Night Goblins with Spears, Netters
• 22 Night Goblins with Short Bows
• 20 Night Goblins with Short Bows
• Squig Herd with 21 Squigs, 7 Handlers
• Goblin Wolf Chariot
• Goblin Wolf Chariot
• Goblin Spear Chukka
• Goblin Spear Chukka
• Troll
• Pump Wagon with Spiky Roller, Exploding Spores
• Pump Wagon with Spiky Roller
• Doom Diver
• Rock Lobber with Bully
• Arachnarok

Comp Score: 6

Julian's very nicely painted Goblin army. The Colossal Squig was being used as an Arachnarok.

My Mission: Kill the general
Julian's Mission: Capture the flag

After an ignominious start, I joined Julian's all-goblin army down on the lower tables. I figured this was probably where my army belonged, so I wasn't too bothered being thrashed first up. Julian and I had never actually played before, despite attending many of the same events over the years. This promised to be fun.

Deployment

The Squignarok.

All those Fanatics are hiding somewhere in the list. Stupid closed lists. Julian's list actually had all the details on it, but I tried to ignore the things I wasn't meant to see.

The army's centre, with the Great Shaman in Skarsnik's unit and the BSB and Shaman in the unit to the left.

Yep, that's my whole army deployed right there. Everyone else was late.

Deployment started with Skarsnik delaying my troops with Squigs or donuts or something, resulting in each unit starting in reserve on the roll of a 6. Because I have great natural skill and a mastery of dice, this resulted in most of my army starting off the field. All 3 units of Orcs and my secondary Wyvern started in reserve, which meant my Great Shaman found himself deploying without a unit, trying to hide behind a building. 

What the hell, guys? Come on, we need you!

Oh well, at least I would get the +2 bonus to get the first turn (because of a better comp score and finishing deploying first - by about a week in this case). No wait, I lost the roll-off anyway. Julian took the first turn.

Axemaster 2015 Aftermath - Part 1

It is a strange phenomenon that as time has gone on and I have been less invested in actually winning my games, I have found that I remember fewer details of them. Back when I was younger and I played far more competitively, I could remember the entire game clearly. Nowadays it is all a bit of a vague blur. This report promises to be my least precise ever, as A: I really didn't care at all how I went; and B: we were playing with closed lists. As a result of the second part in particular, the army lists I provide here will be incomplete and probably slightly wrong. Keeps it interesting, right?

I basically chose my army by deciding I had painted 2 Arachnaroks and never used them, so set about rectifying that. I also jammed a couple of Wyverns in because they are flappy and stuff. The rest was boring vanilla Orcs because nobody likes or uses them (poor guys) and because I needed some fortitude for reasons that will become apparent from reading the player pack stuff below...

• Orc Warboss on Wyvern with Great Weapon; Shield, Armour of Fortune
• Orc Warboss on Wyvern with Great Weapon; Shield, Gambler's Armour
• Orc Great Shaman (Level 4, Big Waagh) with Dispel Scroll
• Black Orc Big Boss BSB on Boar with Heavy Armour and Dragonhelm
• Arachnarok
• Arachnarok
• 40 Orc Boyz with Shields, Full Command
• 25 Orc Boyz with Shields, Full Command
• 25 Orc Boyz with Shields, Full Command
• 6 Goblin Wolf Riders with Spears, Shields, Standard and Musician

The rough family shot I included in my previous post.

The tournament used the SCGT pack, which meant comp scores had no effect on the overall standings. Instead they were used to affect the roll-offs at the start of the game to determine each of the following:

• Deployment method (standard, Battle for the Pass, or diagonal)
• Table side/corner
• Setting up first
• First turn

Basically the higher comp score got a +1 modifier to each of those roll-offs, and if it was twice the score or more, it got a +2. Seems unlikely, right? Well as it turns out, I had the highest comp score in the event by a mile. I got a few +2 modifiers (and frequently lost the roll-offs anyway).

Results were determined by 5 different factors, with up to 20 points available between the 2 players:

• Win by 200+ VPs: 4 points (2 points each if result is a draw within 200 VPs)
• Achieve your secret mission: 4 points
• Deny your opponent's mission: 4 points
• Break your opponent's army (fortitude as per Blood and Glory): 4 points
• Prevent your own army from being broken: 4 points

So it was theoretically possible (however unlikely) that you could win the game and walk away with only 4 points. It's an interesting shake-up of the normal approach.

In terms of secret missions, you had to use each one once. The player with the lower comp score (ie every one of my opponents) had to reveal their mission before the game. The missions were:

• Kill the enemy general
• Kill more Special and Rare choices than you lose
• Control the most buildings at the end of the game
• Control the most hills at the end of the game
• Control the most table quarters at the end of the game
• Capture the most standards

Controlling things basically required non-fast cavalry units with fortitude. Hence the Orc blocks. Anyway, that's enough detail. If you want to go and read the player pack for yourself, you can always Google it. On with the show.

Game 1
Viv Gleeson, Undead Legion

• Mounted Vampire Lord (Level 4, Lore of Vampires)
• Mounted Vampire (Level 1, Lore of Shadow)
• Mounted Vampire (Level 1, Lore of Shadow)
• 40 Skeleton Warriors
• 16 Skeleton Archers with Standard and Musician
• 16 Skeleton Archers with Standard and Musician
• 9 Black Knights with Full Command
• 8 Black Knights with Full Command
• 6 Vargheists
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 5 Dire Wolves
• Screaming Skull Catapult
• Screaming Skull Catapult

Comp Score: 4

My Mission: Capture the buildings
Viv's Mission: Kill my general

Orc War Drum and Axemaster

I haven't really been able to focus upon any particular hobby thing recently. I've been largely crippled at home, recovering from knee surgery a couple of weeks ago. This gave me some time to paint, but even when I was trying to queue up models to work on, they ended up coming from 3 different armies. And then I hardly got to any of the things in the queue anyway. I guess I was just being optimistic.

My main achievement during my convalescence was padding out my horde of Handgunners with the unit filler, but since then I have also managed to plug a gap in my Orc army for Kings of War. One of the units that has no direct Warhammer equivalent is the War Drum. I decided it was useful, so I slapped together a couple of them and painted them up.

A couple of Orc War Drums, ready for action.