The Grudge Pony - Part 2

This is the second half of a Warhammer Fantasy battle report. You can find the first part here.

Orcs and Goblins Turn 3

Tim spent some time trying to decide whether it was worth sending Azhag into the front of the Longbeards, whilst the Trolls hit them in the flank.

The Grudge Pony - Part 1

A 5000pt 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle report

Time for another game of Warhammer Fantasy. A traditional Orcs vs Dwarfs bash, with a couple of special characters and an objective in the middle to fight over. Whoever is closest at the end wins. Simple enough, right? I took photos, so I'll present the game as a bare bones battle report, with no maps or anything exciting like that. Just pictures and captions. At least that way it actually gets done...

Thorgrim scowled down from his throne at the ranger before him. Feeling the weight of the High King's displeasure, the ranger was doing his best to use his skills of stealth and concealment to sink into the stone of the throneroom floor and disappear. 

"What do you mean, 'misplaced'?" growled Thorgrim. He glanced at the Great Book of Grudges that sat open before him, and his fingers twitched involuntarily toward his pen. 

The ranger saw this, and blanched. "We were ambushed by Orcs on our way through the valley, My Lord. We were able to drive them off and guard the caravan, but it seems one of the grudge ponies must have left the path in the confusion..."

The knuckles of the King's other hand whitened as they tightened their grip on his empty tankard. "So you defeated the Orcs, and the one thing you managed to lose track of was my personal shipment of Bugman's XXXXXX?"

The ranger nodded slowly, barely daring to breathe.

"Tell me," Thorgrim spoke slowly, with exaggerated patience, "when you realised my beer was missing, why did you not go back and find it?"

"We did go back, My Lord. But the area is now swarming with greenskins. They probably have the pony by now."

Thorgrim growled and slammed his empty beer mug down on the army of his throne, snatching up the pen with his other hand. He then paused a moment, calming his breathing. The ranger cringed as the King glared at him from beneath his bristling eyebrows. 

When Thorgrim eventually spoke, it was with the same exaggerated calm. "I understand, ranger. I'm sure you did your best. I have only one more question for you. How do I spell your name?"

*****

Azhag smiled as he watched the Goblins capering around the captured grudge pony. They jeered and poked at it with spears, but the stolid beast simply stood there, stubbornly ignoring their attentions. Truly, the Dwarfs had found beasts of burden that mirrored their personality impressively.

The Goblins rummaged around in the small wagon behind the pony, and eventually one of them produced a small beer barrel, emblazoned with the markings XXXXXX.

"Yesssss," hissed the voice in Azhag's head. He could feel the satisfaction emanating from the crown on his brow. "This is the one. The Dwarf King will leave the safety of his stronghold to retrieve this wagon."

Azhag's maniacal laughter echoed that of the crown, and as usual his ladz did their best to ignore it and get on with the important business of tormenting the pony.

The Armies

Dwarfs

My army was really based around my desire to use Thorgrim Grudgebearer again. He's a cool model and had only ever seen use once before. The size of the game had a lot to do with his presence, too. A 650 point, largely unkillable lord kind of demands a larger game in order to maintain some sort of balance. I decided to go relatively light on the artillery, instead making sure it would be relatively reliable with the help of some runes. I also knew Tim would have multiple hordes, so I ensured I would have a couple to face off against them. In the end it was a fairly "elite" army, with no regular Warriors. I really need to get some more normal Dwarfs painted to give me more options in that regard.

• Thorgrim Grudgebearer
• Daemon Slayer with Runic Weapon with Master Rune of Swiftness, Rune of Fury
• Runelord with Runic Talisman with Rune of Spellbreaking, Gromril Armour with Rune of Stone, Great Weapon
• Thane with Battle Standard, Gromril Armour with 2 Runes of Iron, Rune of Stone, Great Weapon
• Thane Helga with Gromril Armour with Rune of Stone, Runic Weapon with 2 Runes of Cleaving
• Josef Bugman
• 20 Quarrellers with Full Command, Great Weapons, Shields
• 20 Thunderers with Full Command, Shields
• 40 Longbeards with Full Command, Great Weapons, Shields
• 30 Slayers with Standard, Musician, 1 Giant Slayer
• 34 Ironbreakers with Full Command
• 19 Hammerers with Full Command, Shields
• Gyrocopter with Steam Gun
• Gyrocopter with Steam Gun
• 16 Irondrakes with Full Command, Strollaz's Rune
• 17 Bugman's Rangers with Full Command
• Cannon with Rune of Forging
• Organ Gun with Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Forging

Orcs and Goblins

Tim's army was built around Azhag the Slaughterer, who I had agreed to paint up in the week before the game. It gave him a centrepiece to offset Thorgrim. He then showed admirable restraint in fielding no other Wyverns and only 1 Arachnarok. I think he sort of ran out of points after building out his army with multiple large blocks. He ensured he had a few war machines. Again, my Orcs and Goblins need a bit of painting attention in order to offer more options around things like this. My Goblin Spear Chukkas are battered about, and I don't have anything more than what he chose in ready-to-use condition. I think I have a few projects to work on.

• Azhag the Slaughterer 
• Orc Big Boss in Boar Chariot with Battle Standard, Armour of Destiny
• Savage Orc Shaman (Level 2) with Lucky Shrunken Head
• Night Goblin Big Boss with Basha's Axe of Stunty Bashin', Short Bow; Light Armour; Shield
• Night Goblin Big Boss with Seeds of Rebirth, Short Bow; Light Armour; Shield
• Savage Orc Big Boss on Boar with Dragonhelm, Great Weapon 
• Black Orc Big Boss with Heavy Armour, Shield
• Black Orc Big Boss with Heavy Armour, Shield
• 98 Night Goblins with Spears, Full Command, 3 Fanatics
• 31 Savage Orc Big 'Uns with Full Command
• 39 Orc Boyz with Full Command, 2 Choppas
• 39 Orc Boyz with Full Command, Shields
• 10 Goblin Wolf Riders with Musician, Spears, Short Bows, Shields, Light Armour
• 10 Goblin Wolf Riders with Musician, Spears, Short Bows, Shields, Light Armour
• 40 Black Orcs with Full Command, Shields
• 9 Savage Boar Boyz with Full Command, Spears, Shields
• Orc Boar Chariot
• Orc Boar Chariot
• Arachnarok Spider
• Mangler Squig
• Mangler Squig
• Rock Lobber
• Rock Lobber
• Doom Diver
• 4 Stone Trolls
• Giant

Deployment

The armies line up. Note the Grudge Pony in the centre of the table. That was the sole objective of the game. Kills didn't matter.

Bit of this, bit of that

Apparently another month has passed since I last posted a blog update. Time flies. How it can fly by with me achieving so little... I don't really know. I guess I have just been generally unproductive.

So what have I achieved?

Just in the last few days I have actually finished painting a few models. These are Warrior Priests produced by MOM Miniatures. Models I acquired to help plug one of the gaps in my Empire army - a bit of a lack of Sigmar-centric faith. This all stems from how the army evolved over time. Originally it was going to be a Dogs of War army, and then it was going to be an Ulric-themed force. It eventually outgrew that, however. So these guys help balance the Warrior Priest side of things for the overall force.

3 painted Warrior Priests. As usual these days, there are things that I can see that could have been done better, or could use extra attention. Unlikely to happen, really. They look done enough.

These are really nice models, and a very affordable way to help with the fact that I basically don't own any "proper" GW Warrior Priests.

Da Battle of Da Lost Toof (Part 2)

This is the second half of my rough battle report of a recent game of Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition. You can find the first half here.

Turn 3

His Night Goblins had embarrassed themselves, but Moregut Browbeater was not concerned. The enemy were now within his reach, and he would do what he always did - solve his problems with the blade of his axe. His first victims were a scorched looking pair of Elf archers, who had stumbled out of the trees and directly into his path. With a bestial roar, Moregut charged toward the hapless pair, followed immediately by his howling personal guard of Black Orcs.

Moregut and his ladz charge into the Glade Guard who had been "volunteered" to serve as a speedbump, whilst the Arachnarok somehow manages the 1" charge into the Eternal Guard. Outrageous.

Da Battle of Da Lost Toof (Part 1)

So, a Warhammer 8th edition battle report. How is such a thing even possible, you ask? Surely all of the required materials have been destroyed in the great apocalypse preceding the Age of Sigmar. Apparently not. We're still here, and we still have everything we need to play. Apart from our previously firm grasp of what we're doing, that is...

Tim and I decided to take some photos of the game as we went, so although I'm not going to go to the trouble of making maps to track the game, I figured I might as well present what happened as a report.

Neither of us had played a game of Warhammer in many months, and making the lists was a bit of a haphazard affair. I'm half convinced we should have just made the game larger so we didn't have to actually make decisions about what to put in our lists... Maybe next time.

Wood Elves - 3000 points

• Follarion the Fabulous - Glade Lord on Forest Dragon with Ogre Blade, Armour of Fortune, Shield, Starfire Shafts
• Lorielle the Wild - Spellsinger (Level 2, Lore of High Magic) on Unicorn with Talisman of Endurance
• Urian the Un-original - Glade Captain (BSB) with Hail of Doom Arrow, Gambler's Armour, Great Weapon, Starfire Shafts
• Astarielle the Afterthought - Spellsinger (Level 2, Lore of Dark Magic) with Opal Amulet
• Fran - Branchwraith
• 10 Glade Guard with Standard, Musician, Swiftshiver Shards
• 10 Glade Guard with Standard, Musician, Swiftshiver Shards
• 23 Dryads with Branch Nymph
• 39 Eternal Guard with Command, Standard of Discipline
• 6 Tree Kin
• 3 Warhawk Riders with Wind Rider
• 6 Wild Riders with Shields
• Darthur the Treeman

This was my army. The first time I've used Wood Elves under the 8th edition book. Kinda sad, hey? I pointedly ignored Trueflight Arrows because they're stupid. That was about the sum total of the coherent thought that went into the making of this list. Oh, and I wanted to use the Unicorn. So yeah, that's apparently how you make a 3000 point list. The rest is random decisions. I need to paint/update some of my other stuff so I can use more interesting things like Wardancers and Wildwood Rangers. Next time.

Orcs and Goblins - 3000 points

• Moregut Browbeater - Black Orc Warboss with Basha's Axe, Talisman of Preservation, Enchanted Shield
• Slygit Raggamuffin - Night Goblin Great Shaman (Level 4) with the Trickster's Shard
• Brorep the Muscular - Black Orc Big Boss with Battle Standard, Armour of Silvered Steel
• Nobrakes Nogginmasher - Savage Orc Big Boss on Boar with Gambler's Armour, Great Weapon
• 50 Night Goblins with Shields, Full Command, 3 Fanatics
• 49 Night Goblins with Shields, Full Command, 3 Fanatics
• 26 Savage Orcs with Full Command
• 10 Boar Boyz with Shields, Spears, Full Command
• 9 Savage Orc Boar Boyz with Spears, Shields, Full Command
• 24 Black Orcs with Full Command, Gleaming Pendant
• Mangler Squig
• Mangler Squig
• Arachnarok
• Arachnarok

This was the list Tim came up with, using my Orcs and Goblins. I can't believe he didn't field a Wyvern (or more than one). Honestly I thought he would - that was why I used a Dragon. Oh well, at least he managed to jam some other cool stuff in there.

Deployment

The two armies line up, with faster elements on the flanks in a pretty standard fashion. Tim held the Manglers until late, making it harder for me to respond.

Not dead yet

You know it's been a long time between blog posts when people start sending you messages just to make sure you're still alive. Apparently I have reached this point. It's nice that someone was concerned enough about my welfare to check up on me (thank you for that), but it's also rather embarrassing. I am a truly terrible blogger...

So where have I been? I am still around, but my focus has been utterly lacking in recent times. I have played perhaps 1 or 2 games of Kings of War since my last post, but the majority of my tabletop gaming has actually been in a Blood Bowl league that is running at the club. After several weeks of games in the group stages of the league, we're now heading into the semi finals. I finished the early stages in second place, so I'm still involved in the pointy end of things.

I decided to play with an Ogre team, partly because I put a team of Ogres on round bases years ago for this purpose, and partly because Ogres are considered a relatively challenging team to use. There have been a few people questioning my choice of team already, given my impressive ability to roll badly for things like Bone Head tests (my current record is failing 4 in a single turn, twice in one game). Truly, it was a bad idea if I actually wanted to win the league. But it's good for a laugh, and on the odd occasion that they actually do what you want, a team with 5 or 6 Ogres on the field is a pretty horrifying thing to contend with.

My unpainted Ogres face off with Lachie's Dark Elves. This game did not go especially well, but I will get another crack at him in the semi-finals. The Lego hair and beanies are very useful for working out which Ogres have which skills.

In general hobby terms, I am still struggling with motivation and direction in terms of my main fantasy battle gaming. Recently I've spent more time playing computer games than painting. Somewhat embarrassingly, I've not even managed to make real progress on painting the Blood Bowl team I've been playing with. Disgraceful, I know. And it's largely prevented me from making any effort to report on my games on the blog. Maybe I will rectify this in the future.

Anyway, I am still here. I have just been a little quiet. And sooner or later there will be more blog posts. About something. I promise.

MOM Dwarf progress

So I've had these models on my painting table for a while. It turns out I painted the prototype way back in August last year. It has taken me this long to actually get around to painting the first wave of a regiment. 

11 painted MOM Miniaturas Dwarves.