Monday, 29 April 2013

Tiers of Joy

As I sit and wait for time to pass by in the usual ritual of waiting at hospitals I thought if take my mind away and pen down some thoughts that have arisen today as a result of a text debate that almost felt heated between myself and a mate.

Tiers.

Guaranteed to get a different response from every gamer depending on their army and experiences and the meta they play in.

I thought I'd break down my ranks based in my armies.

First, from my Tomb Kings perspective:

Lizardmen
Dark Elves
Skaven
--------
Demons
Wood Elves
Ogres
--------
Orcs and Goblins
Empire
--------
Beastmen
Bretonnia
WoC infantry

So why the top tier? Lizardmen, skaven and dark elves can easily own the magic phase and that's just something that TK need to be able to do almost uncontested! That skinks and RXBows can with our fragile troops down with ease makes it even worse. Lizardmen are top as you can tell from my batreps, they're really touch to beat in combat once they get their inevitable buffs up!

Bottom tier? May surprise a few, but the tomb guard halberd horde lists I run generally eat brets and WoC infantry lists for breakfast and I find I can hold the Beastmen back long enough to whittle them down!

In between ate the armies that give me grief but can be overcome with a solid gameplay and the usual tk tactic of...luck

So from an ogre perspective:

Lizardmen
Skaven
WoC
Dark elves
--------
Orcs n Goblin
Demons
--------
Empire
Tomb kings
Beastmen
--------

--------
Keep going....
--------
...wood elves

Top tier again can chew through me. Skinks don't care for toughness and the combat buffs can really wreck your day! Not to mention the panic inducing sallies!

Skaven can be intense and WoC can blend you into a froth!

The bottom is the lonely wood elves who I can always seemingly get into combat and mulch far to quick!

Ogres don't have easy though which bore the focus of my aforementioned text conversation! There's just too much access to death magic and cannons now. Ogres were top tier when they came out but empire do everything ogres do...but better or cheaper and have now of the drawbacks (low as, low I). Then WoC came and did it even better (skullcrushers and chariots spam...not to mention unkillable lords and DPs)

Now the next one is how I anticipate looking at it from a high elves perspective:

Lizardmen
Skaven
Empire
--------
Tomb Kings
WoC
Orcs and goblins
--------
Dark elves
Beastmen
--------
Bretonnia
Wood elves
Demons

The big #mayGWwhine is that the banner of the world dragon will be bent and will make HE vs demons an obsolete worthless match up...oh noes!

Brets will still get dicked on by white lions and wood elves won't be able to wound shit with their magical attacks meaning one of the few lists that wood elves could reliably win has gone!

The usual suspects will still put a dint I the all important magic phase though! We don't appear to have any spells that can bounce through armies with lots of drops and that is gonna make it STILL tough against lizzies and skaven!

You'll notice I've missed out chaos dwarves and vampires from these rankings...I really haven't played against them enough to get an honest feel for them...

Overall...lizzies, skaven and dark elves are still top...(the 7th ed filth hangover), followed by the 8th ed top of WoC, ogres and empire. Orcs, brets and vamps are sitting pretty in the middle and everyone is being propped up by woodies, tomb kings and Beastmen!!

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Loremaster of Hoeth

So I've never felt as much excitement for a new book as the upcoming high elves one!

I've been thinking a lot about one model in particular and that is the new loremaster of Hoeth. In case you're unaware he is said to be a level 2 lord who has the combat skills of a noble fighter but knows ALL signature spells!!!

I've been thinking he will form part of whatever armies I come up with.

My first thought was a large Hoeth themed force with masses of sword masters....

Nothing inspiring there right?

But then I realised that silver helms are said to be core now!

So now I'm thinking silver helm bus with combat lord, bsb and this loremaster of Hoeth in there.

He would be able to cast wyssans cheaply enough (due to being cavalry) on his own unit to give t4 2+!

He would have a ld10 spirit leech being delivered from within all that protection that can move 16"!

Playing demons or undead? No prob...here's a quick banishment!

Vampire counts bringing the ethereal love? Fireball their asses!

Bit of earth blood for a tasty ward...

And because NONE of this has eaten into my special...ill have 2 units of dragon princes for flank protection and two pheonix a in rare to make sure I'm in their face immediately!

Monday, 22 April 2013

My high elves rules

So things I've heard which you can choose to believe as, well, what you like.

Sisters of aver lorn are the ones with magic bows...not normal archers!

The 2 pheonix varieties (ice and flame) can be ridden or unridden and have a rule that "atunes" them to the winds of magic roll! They can end up with a 4++!

Sword masters and white lions retain ASF

The lore master of hoeth is real. He knows all the signature spells! This is the most epic shit ever!

Shield of saphery is now the high magic lore attribute an gives a 6++ to a unit which has an augment cast on it...cast 2 buffs? Get a 5++ etc!!

Reavers, shadow warriors and chariots in core!

Never felt so much excitement for a book!!!

Sunday, 21 April 2013

Warhammer World Tournament

So the two weeks of incessant painting was totally worth it and i had a blast!

Below are the three YouTube battle reports i made of the day.

Game 1 - Wood Elves
I hate Wood Elves due to their ability to wither you dow and seemingly avoid you at all costs! Zi's list has many more drops than mine and is becoming a master of deployment - regularly outdeploying me and making it an uphill struggle from the start! This coupled with Tomb Kings notoriously poor movement phase had me very concerned!

Game 2 - Empire
Johns Hellblaster absolutely shredded my chariot unit in a test game we had so i was rightfully terrified of it going into this. I knew i had his number on the Inner Circle Knights but the Demigryph Knights presented me with something i couldn't quite reliably counter.

NB - i cocked up the "Crumbling" FAQ during this game*


Game 3 - Beastmen
Beastmen have no shooting and so my lack of mobility wasn't as worrying in this. The thought of a horde of Bestigor and horde of Minotaurs does though!!



Final Thoughts and Results
Well i won...all three games!!! Honestly only expected to have a proper go at Rory's Beastmen but was really shocked to have won!

Against Zi (Woodies), i actually felt that for the first time i'd got the jump on him in deployment and was quite happy to allow the sphinx to be arrow fodder whilst i chipped away at what are usually an abundance of anoying chaff.

He made absolutely piss poor rolls and i was quite fortunate (a theme that would continue throughout the day)

Against John (Empire), i think i played tactically smart, not commiting to anything until the Hellblaster was taken care of. At the time i thought i was lucky to have been offered up the flank of the chicken riders but after learning i'd played the crumbling FAQ wrong (cant overrun but CAN reform!) it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth as no one wants to claim a victory from accidentaly cheating! I'd have still charged and done said wounds, the question then arises as to whether 2 demi's would've done enough to my fully buffed chariots to negate the 4 impact hits i did...i'm thinking ...likely!

Shame.

Against Rory (Beastmen) i feel really bad. For him, the whole day was a learning experience but one that i'd liken to someone vigorously thrusting a fist in your ass to try and teach you the value of lube...

...and i have big hands!

I'm really happy with how my list playsthough and finally feel like i've made some progress tactically. I think that by deploying all castle i allowed myself to buff to the max and feel my list has some real synergy

And since Tomb Kings are considered really weak, one of the highlights of the day has to be 29 Tomb Kings archers getting called broken...

Anyway - hope you enjoyed it! I'm wanting to get back down to the club and get some ETC practice in for Call to War but work has my balls in a vice and it's looking like i'm going to have to make some scenery for Call to War!

Saturday, 20 April 2013

New high elf leak

So I've been pouring over the newly "leaked" pictures...(thanks GW pr team) and I'm really excited by what I see!

Clearly have new shadow warrior figures and so I reckon the rumour I them being core will be true and can see them being buffed nicely to flog the new stuff!

The new pheonix model being sold one to a pack has me perplexed...i was expecting a pack of three...ala most monstrous cab so far... So either we're going to be having the most expensive unit of flying MC or they'll be similar to a ridden monster stat wise...interesting stuff either way!

Everqueen and guard models for sure! Can't wait to see the new rules!

So excited for this release!!


Oh and the new BSB model looks sweet but ill still e using my scratch built!

















Thursday, 11 April 2013

Purr for me my beauty...

So today I have started and finished my sphinx and horsies! A productive day indeed!

I even did some laundry!

No sign of my KR Multicase inners so I'm expecting them tomorrow!

For the warhammer world tourney this Sunday I only have the catapults to do and make some movement trays!

As a complete break from fantasy, ill be playing Zi down at the club in a game of 40k. His new Tau against my Necrons.

It will hurt!

But it will also be batrep'd and up by the end of Saturday as ill need to clear all the room I can on my phone for Sunday!

Ill have a video introducing my list and tactics and such up on Sunday morning but the three BatReps from Sunday may take a while longer to get up.

Back at school on Monday and this half term brings an SLT inspection and an OfSTed visit all within the first two weeks!

I may look undead by the end of it!

Sunday, 7 April 2013

I see dead people...

Seriously!

I'm dreaming of tomb guard! It's either too much plastic glue fumes or I'm painting too much!

I really want a fully painted army for Waw this Sunday though!

Archers are done ( in a day I might add) but the chariots are taking longer than expected. I've also been interweaving painting layers with gluing more skellies and a sphinx.

The sphinx kit is great as no matter what you build you get an otherwise unobtainable tomb king model which is a really great sculpt! I'm also planning on using the unused body as a cool "sinister statue" terrain piece!

With me having to head into school tomorrow to get some planning and marking done, the skellies will have to wait till Tuesday! I'm hoping to one day them so I can potentially one day the sphinx on Wednesday! Catapults on Thursday if they've arrived!

This will leave a bit of time to try and make some movement try's for them!!

Thursday, 4 April 2013

Tomb guard done...

So I've managed to get my 29 Tomb Guard done. I'm now moving in to painting 36 archers! These should be much quicker despite there being more models. I've purposely built them very "stripped down"...skelly and bow... That's all they need.

I need to get down to GW where I'm hoping to swap an unopened bretonnian battalion for, amongst other bits, 20 skellies, as 20 TG will get devoured on their own!

Wednesday, 3 April 2013

Steel City Wargaming

So i've mentione dthat i've been hitting the local gaming club on and off recently; the "off" part of that is generallyt down to the issue of it always seems to snow on Fridays...Grr

Either way, i've been BatReping m games down there (bar my first) and whilst they've been going straight up onto YouTube, i've been neglecting to put them on here...

So in one almighty post, allow me to bring you up to speel with some you may have missed...



010 Tomb Kings Vs Warriors of Chaos
I heavily proxy a TK army at 2000pts to face the new warriors. I learn what it's like to face a mutalith and also get my first experience of Special Characters in Warhammer Fantasy!


011 Ogres Vs Dwarves
A hastiliy arranged pick up game @ Steel City Wargaming see's me play against a Dwarf amry for the first time. This one gets real bloody!...Real Quick!


012 High Elves Vs Wood Elves
It's Zi's first time down at Steel City Wargaming and he brings the bane of my High ELves existence. I've only beat WE with HE @2400pts when i ran a cavalry themed army and so could get in combat before he had time to shoot enough away...will this change?

I wont be going down to the club this Friday due to my 1st Wedding Anniversary, but the following Friday (12th) should be having a game of 40k with my Necrons against Zi's (new) Tau.

...should be interesting!

After that is the Warhammer World Tournament! WhooP!

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

"I am the resurrection"

Not quite sure whether it was Jesus or the Stone Roses...

I'm finally on my Easter holiday! Aside a boat loa of house related things to do, I also have a hefty backlog of painting to get through!

See, a week on Sunday, ill be off to warhammer world again with Zi, John and zi's mate Rory in a 4 player round robin tournament. It's 2000 pts at my request... Believe or not, I thought I'd have a good chance on getting 2k of tomb kings painted for it! Sadly life gets in the way and so the only chance of me even having the models is by trading in and unopened bretonnian battalion box!

Won't post my list yet for the tourney but there will be a YouTube intro vid along with the 3 batreps. So far a I know, ill be facing empire, wood elves and Beastmen. This is exciting in many ways...

1) I've never played Beastmen... So rookie or not in the dark about their abilities!

2) safe in the knowledge that I will get Ker-rushed!!! in all three games I can go in really hoping to just have fun! Taking off a few important units from each army will serve me nicely!

I'm writing this from my iPhone for the first time so we'll see if this works... This should be a picture of the 20Tomb Guard I've been painting! They're base coated and in need of washing and highlighting. I also say "treat a model like a tramp...don't judge it till its been washed!"

Monday, 21 January 2013

4 months worth of updates!!!


Wow. was it really October when i last updated this? I've not actually had a 40k game since i uploaded the Necron v Space Wolf one.


A lot has indeed happened however, so here's a general update of what has been happening.


Ogres
I've now "pretty much" finished my Ogre army. I've painted the rest of my Mournfang, my Leadbelchers (so i now have 8), my Sabertusks, my Stonehorn and my BSB.


Having then played quite a few games with them and having started experimenting with different comp packs, i ended up buying 6 more Ogre models and gluing them with additional hand weapons.


What am i loving right now with Ogres? Well, i'm a huge fan of Heavens for Ogres. This comes from playing Lizardmen with their multiple skirmishing skink units and Wood Elves with their high number of small Glade Guard units. A well timed Chain Lightning can really tip the tide for me as both have the power to shoot me off the table if i don't react quick enough. In my latest lists though, I've stopped paying The Butcher Tax and started trying out just the Law of the Great Maw on my Slaughtermaster. I'm finding this is not only fine as i'm usually in combat by T2 anyway, but also free's up a lot of points!


Here are some pictures of my Ogres from the last few months








I'm all of a sudden aware that I've not actually uploaded or even took pictures of my finished BSB so will do that next time i play with em!


High Elves
I've tried a few different high elves lists and must be growing tired of Heavens as I've now messed around with a Cavalry Life/Beasts list and my latest foray - Light magic. Never though Light could be so good or useful on High Elves until i got my ass handed to me! White Lions with 2 attacks...oh my!


Having said that, I've not actually painted any more of them. I reckon i now need to buy ~21 White Lions and try and eBay 10 more swordmasters from the IoB...aaaand FINALLY...Games Workshop have released some Finecast Eagles. They're for The Hobbit but i don't give two shits! I've waited far too long and £30 for 2 seems perfectly reasonable!


Bretonnians
You may recall (but likely wont) me "Starting" a Bretonnia army a while back. This included me buying the army book and buying a Battalion.


The Battalion is still in the cling film.


Don't get me wrong, i love playing with Brets but my painting and modelling time has largely been spent finishing my Ogres and gluing....


Tomb Kings
So yeah...started another army. I know they're incredibly weak but it is nice when i can win with them - especially with me getting the "cheesey/beardy" looks when the Ogres get dropped!


They do have inherent weaknesses and reckon will be an all or nothing; table or be tabled kind of army but my god the models are lush!


I managed to snag a battalion, a colossus  a liche priest, , Casket of Souls, the magic cards and two packs of Tomb Guard on eBay for about £150! Bargain! I've since topped this up with an additional box of Chariots (i love the idea of a chariot legion) and the Army book!


Here are some pictures of my first painted bits: The Bone Colossus, the Casket and the Liche Priest








KR Multicases
After a trying few months at work and a stressful time at home involving completely gutting our kitchen and fitting a new everything (including the kitchen sink!!), i treated myself to a KR Multicase to carry and protect my miniatures.


It's an aluminium case that has custom foam inlays. I've only purchased the inlays for my Ogres and High Elves so far as the rest aren't really off the ground and i don't really use the Necrons a lot but i'm really impressed with the quality and speed of delivery and would really recommend them!

Universal Battle
So, whilst i have had a few face to face games these last 4 months, I've been so busy that I've actually signed up for this website called Universal Battle. It's basically a Java interface that allows you to play tabletop games over the internet so you still need to know/own the rules.

You have to spend a little time "making" your army out of pre-made sprites etc but its well worth it and has allowed me to not only test out several list ideas before committing to purchase them, but has meant I can get so many more games in. It's a nice way t play against new people too as i don't currently go to any gaming clubs and just have my small little group of buddies.

It only costs like $3 for 3 months and that basically covers server upkeep. I'd definitely recommend it and if you're ever on there, ask me for a game. I'm "Adasi"

Zi' Stag Do
So me, Zi and John went down to Warhammer world on the 5th Jan for the Stag Do. (one of us dropped out at last minute) and we had a great time. Turns out Warhammer drunk is incredibly funny!

We thought we'd try out the ever increasingly popular Sweedish Comp rules. I'll be writing a separate blog entry on my thought on that. But for now, here's the videos from that day.

Here's my intro video that describes the army i was taking and why.


And this is Game 1: My Ogres Vs Zi's Wood Elves

I have everything done on Game 2: Lizardmen but my phone is being a duck and not uploading it so i'll put that in a separate post.

Anyway. hope this blog has perhaps filled a lunchtime of internet browsing and i shall be updating at least once a week now on some various topic or other.

I actually planned on attending a Warhammer club in Woodhouse the other day but the bloody snow foiled that!!