Wednesday, December 30, 2009

My tentative Ogre Kingdoms list

Alright, my buddy Ben has been working on getting his Ogre Kingdoms playable and useful these days. He had a pretty poor start, so I figured this would be a fun challenge for myself as well. I have an Ogre Kingdoms army that I've never run, so this could be a chance to get some interesting games in. I don't have any dreams of beating current tournament lists, but maybe I can pose at least a challenge for some of them :).

Ogres are definitely not a top-tier army. They have poor shooting, mediocre magic, and close combat- their best thing- is still outclassed by several armies. Also, no flaming attacks, which is rough with all the regeneration out there. I tried to go for a lot of units, backed up with some useful shooting support in the form of Dogs of War cannons. There are some rumors that Dogs of War and Ogre Kingdoms will be combined, so I'll use that as part of my justification ;).

Here's the list:
Tyrant w/ Tenderiser, Heavy Armor, 2 Gnoblar Thiefstones, Luck Gnoblar - 291
Butcher w/ Hellheart, Tooth Gnoblar - 185
Butcher w/ Bangstick, Dispel Scroll, 2 Tooth Gnoblar - 190
Butcher w/ Bloodcleaver, Dispel Scroll - 180
3 Ogre Bulls - 105
3 Ogre Bulls, extra hand weapon - 117
3 Ogre Bulls, extra hand weapon - 117
6 Ironguts w/ Bellower, Standard Bearer, Rune Maw - 338
20 Gnoblar Fighters w/ Groinbiter - 42
20 Gnoblar Fighters - 40
20 Gnoblar Fighters - 40
2 Leadbelchers w/ Bellower - 120
2 Leadbelchers w/ Bellower - 120
3 Yhetees - 195
Dogs of War Cannon - 85
Dogs of War Cannon - 85
Total Army Cost: 2250

Tyrant and Bloodcleaver Butcher in the Irongut unit. Other Butchers in with the Ogre Bull units.

Mostly unassembled and unpurchased. Needs a lot of playtesting also. No idea how well it will work, but I'll certainly give it a shot!

Thoughts?

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Dark Elves vs Chaos Daemons, 12/23/09 (last Battle Report without pictures!)

2000 point game vs Sam running my Dark Elves vs his primarily Nurgle Daemons. Played at the Games Workshop Battle Bunker in Glen Burnie.

My army list:
Sorceress (lvl 4) w/ sacrificial dagger, seal of ghrond
Death Hag w/ Cauldron of Blood
20 Corsairs w/ Full Command, Sea Serpent Standard
   w/ assassin w/ extra hand weapon, rune of khaine, manbane
5 Dark Riders w/ repeater crossbow, musician
5 Dark Riders w/ repeater crossbow, musician
28 Spearmen w/ full command, shields, Banner of Cold Blood
6 Shades w/ great weapons
   w/ assassin w/ manbane, rending stars
2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
1 Hydra

Sam took Chaos Daemons- I don't have exactly what was in it (Sam is more than free to send it to me though :) ), but it was basically:
Great Unclean One (lvl 4) w/ Staff of Nurgle, Trappings of Nurgle
Herald of Nurgle (lvl 1) w/ Staff of Nurgle + Epidemius in a unit of Plaguebears
Herald of Nurgle (lvl 1) w/ Staff of Nurgle in a unit of Plaguebearers
Medium sized unit of Bloodletters
Beast of Nurgle

Deployment:



I deployed Dark Riders on the flanks, everything else more or less central. Sam put most things in the middle, Bloodletters on the side some.

I really should've taken notes... I can't remember much of the play by play, but Sam moved forward the first two turns, steadily marching and using his magic advantage to hammer at my spearmen. The Great Unclean one dropped my sorceress out of the spearmen unit on turn 3, I believed. I didn't move much, shooting at the Great Unclean one, and getting the Dark Riders behind his Bloodletters.

Sam had his 3 wizards, each with a bound spell, vs no magic defense on the top of turn 4. I had dealt maybe 3-4 wounds to his Great Unclean one, he had dropped my spearmen to about half. Also, he had each of his wizards casting Miasma of Pestilence (reducing the WS, A, S, T and I of my models in base contact with him to 1), making them difficult to directly assault. However, the tide was to turn!

The Great Unclean One charged my spearmen, doing no wounds. In return, he lost combat, and took 2-3 wounds (I can't remember exactly, but he was down below half).

My frenzied corsairs received killing blow from the Cauldron of Blood and charged into the Plaguebearer unit on my left. The Killing Blow won the combat- I dropped the Herald, and several Plaguebearers. Next round saw Epidemius go with him. The Corsairs plowed through the unit on the next round of combat, and took no damage in return.

The Dark Riders kept shooting at the Bloodletters, whittling them down. I finally charged the rear of the unit, eventually killing it. The Great Unclean One brook through the Spearmen, and played no further role. The Shades and Dark Riders kept shooting at the Beast, bringing it to one wound. The other Plaguebearer unit killed the Hydra, then mopped up the 2 Bolt Throwers.

Final score was 1624 VP for me, 1216 VP for Sam. A 408 VP win (Minor Victory) for me!

Sorry about the kind of poor synopsis. I need to take notes :(. Or pictures. Or both.

A goal for next year, surely :)

Finished Space Wolf Second Omnibus...

And I gotta say, I'm going to miss reading the series, since I understand this is the last book. I always thought the plot for the books was fantastic- really just a very enjoyable story. My only complaint was seeing the words 'young Space Wolf' about 40 times in Wolf's Honour. Eesh.

The Space Wolf series is overall very good though- really really does a good job giving a feel for the whole dynamics of the Space Wolf chapter as well as the personality of their warriors.

Next up is reading some of Pete's fiction, then a Warhammer fantasy book next... maybe Knight Errant by Anthony Reynolds. Don't get to read enough fiction about Bretonnian Knights, after all!

Also, have another brief battle report to post, probably tomorrow. Last one without pictures, I promise!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

New Years Resolutions for 2010

Alright! Time to get some things to keep me focused on next year. Hobby things mainly. I think if I stayed focused, I really can get all these done!

No new armies, no proxying!

I will not be starting any new armies on the upcoming year aside from the ones I play for Fantasy (Empire, Dark Elves, Ogre Kingdoms), 40K (Necrons, Witch Hunters, Daemonhunters, Chaos Space Marines), and whatever I end up choosing to do for good in the other games I play (one army apiece). There's rumored to be soooo many cool new things coming out. How can I resist? Even buying random models needs to stop. I need to focus on what I have!

Also- I want to force myself to assemble/convert the stuff I want to run. It'll make the game more enjoyable and rewarding for myself and my opponent. No more 'counts as'.

Build my Empire army
I have played them a few times, but I always have to proxy. I have an Army List that I want to use, but I want to get it fully assembled so that I can field it without having to figure out models to sub in. I think I own all the models, thankfully. Just need to finish! It's still PLENTY incomplete, so this will take some time.

Paint my Dark Elves!
Dark Elves were my first ever Games Workshop army. Why are they not painted??

Build Witch hunters
This also involves coming up with a good 2000 point list, and then ensuring that I have everything I need to assemble it.

Play more games!
I played 10 games of Warhammer Fantasy this year, 3 games of 40K, Space Hulk, and Blood Bowl, and 2 games of Warmachine. I'd like to play more (much more, in the case of 40K) of each of these. I also want to try Malifaux and Uncharted Seas. Basically, I want to play much more!

Play through Great Battles of Alexander
Great Battles of Alexander is a fantastic game about an era of history I love. I want to play through all 10 scenarios included. This will probably end up being solo, simply because ancient warfare isn't everyone's taste, but I can live with that. So long as I finally do it.

Play through Fellowship of the Ring
Get the models, build the terrain, and play all the scenarios from the Fellowship of the Ring book.

Get 100 painting points
Finishing the Dark Elves, according to Painting For Paints, will give me like 74 or so points. I want to get to 100. That's more than I've done up to my hobby LIFE up to this point. Quite a tall feat!

Watch the top 50 movies
Trying to get myself more cultured, I want to watch as many of the top 50 movies on the AFI top 100 list. I've seen 9 to date, so 41 more before the end of the year. First up, The Godfather!

Alright, that's it! Let's see how well I do! I'll make mention once a month about it. Or less frequently as I forgot :).

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Dark Elves vs Skaven, 12/18/09

Played a 2250 game, my Dark Elves vs Frans' Skaven, last Friday at the Glen Burnie Battle Bunker.

The objective was a 'fun' game. We usually try to go with the most competitive armies we can, winning being the primary objective type games. This time, we just wanted to try some random things out.

My list:
12 Corsairs (120)
-> Assassin w/ extra hand weapon, Manbane, Rune of Khaine (146)
-> Lokhir Fellheart (250)
516 points

12 Corsairs (120)
-> Assassin w/ extra hand weapon, Manbane, Rune of Khaine (146)
266 points

30 Spearmen w/ full command, Banner of Cold Blood, shields (240)
-> Assassin w/ extra hand weapon, Rune of Khaine (121)
-> Supreme Sorceress (lvl 4) w/ Sacrificial Dagger, 3 Null Talismans (330)
-> Master (BSB) w/ Lance, pair of handbows, heavy armor, sea dragon cloak, Dark Steed, Pearl of Infinite Bleakness (172)
863 points

Sorceress, level 2 - 135 points

10 Crossbowmen w/ shields - 110 points

10 Shades - 160 points

2 Repeater Bolt Throwers - 200 points

I was trying a few different things. First, I ran Lokhir, who I think is great, but WAAAAAAYYYYY too many points for his use. Against Skaven, the extra attacks will be nice, but not enough to be game changing, I'd think. I also ran a lot of assassins, which is different. I also tried to use different magic items- no Ring of Hotek or Pendant. This was the result. The goal was to get the Corsairs to focus on a unit, destroy it, and get it ran down for double points. Repeat until I won. Everything else provided ranged support. The BSB master was to eventually leave the unit and support where needed.

Also, no Hydras, no monsters :(. Level 4 took Lore of Fire, Level 2 took Lore of Dark Magic.

Frans' list:

1 Warlord @ 219.0 Pts
-> General; Shield; War-Litter, Poison attacks [15.0], The Foul Pendant [30.0], Warplock Pistol [8.0], Warpstone Armour [30.0], Tail Weapon [8.0], 1 War-litter @ [35.0] Pts

20 Stormvermin @ 218.0 Pts
-> Halberd; Heavy Armour; Shields; Standard, Shroud of Dripping Death [30.0], 1 Fangleader @ [10.0] Pts

1 Plague Priest @ 578.0 Pts
-> Magic Lvl2; Frenzy; Flail; Plague Furnace, Dispel Scroll [25.0],
-> 1 Plague Furnace @ [414.0] Pts
-> 26 Plague Monks @ [264.0] Pts
--> Frenzy; 2ndWeapon; Standard; Musician, Storm Banner [50.0], 1 Bringer-of-the-Word @ [10.0] Pts

1 Plague Priest @ 528.0 Pts
-> Magic Lvl2; Frenzy; Flail; Plague Furnace, Dispel Scroll [25.0]
-> 1 Plague Furnace @ [364.0] Pts
-> 26 Plague Monks @ [214.0] Pts
--> Frenzy; 2ndWeapon; Standard; Musician, 1 Bringer-of-the-Word @ [10.0] Pts

1 Doomwheel @ 150.0 Pts

21 Skavenslaves @ 42.0 Pts

1 Doomwheel @ 150.0 Pts

21 Skavenslaves @ 42.0 Pts

8 Plague Censer Bearers @ 157.0 Pts
-> Frenzy; Censer, 1 Plague Chanter @ [13.0] Pts

1 Plague Priest @ 166.0 Pts
-> Magic level 1; Frenzy; Censer, Poison attacks [15.0], Warp Scroll [35.0]

I didn't do much editing of this list, to save myself some time. Warlord in with the Storm Vermin. Almost identical in style to his competitive list, just Doomwheels instead of Hellpits.

The table (terrain set up by an independent 3rd person- Ben), and initial deployments:




For the record, this is my first try using Battle Chronicler, so I didn't have time nor experience to adjust the terrain. All of those buildings are slightly bigger, although the relative location is correct. The lake in the middle was also a little bigger, and impassible.

The terrain was a problem to begin with, it made the middle of the board unusable. It also made my force, which was no faster than my opponent, really get stuck into playing an attrition game (since the impassible terrain was more than able to block flanks) that I was not designed for.

I won't bother posting too much info about how the game went. I shot the first two turns, doing about 3 wounds to the left Doomwheel, and two to the left Plague Furnace. A charge by his Censor Bearers into a unit of Cosairs had them get annihilated by the assassin. The unit charged into the Stormvermin, who had been advancing straight down, but got defeated and ran down (the assasin killed nothing, and Lohkir directed all attacks on the warlord, dealing only a single wound).

The leftmost corsair unit failed a terror test to charge the Doomwheel, got charged instead, broke and run down, which caused the sorceress to panic off the table. At this point, I conceded, I had only killed the one unit of Censor Bearers, and had lost over 917 points, with more about to happen. Not looking good.

Ah well, next time, I'll get my revenge!

No pictures yet, next year, I swear!

Warmachine on Friday, 12/18/09

Played a quick game of Warmachine late Friday night, working to learn/teach the game with the new MkII rules. I once again ran the Khador starter box (Sorscha, Juggernaut, Destroyer) vs Pete using the Menoth battle box (Kreoss, Revenger, Repenter, Crusader).

I advanced slowly (silly Khador jacks) with my jacks leading, Pete doing the same.

My Devastator charged his Revenger, bouncing off it. The return attack taught Pete just how tough my jacks were to kill! A charging Crusader did NOTHING to me. Maybe scratched the paint.

Next turn, the Devastator did significant damage to the Revenger, and began pounding on the Crusader. A supporting charge by the Juggernaut ended the Crusader. Sorscha again moved closer, preparing to overrun his first line of jacks when ready. No damage to my forces, utter decimation of his? Sounding good so far.

Then disaster struck :(. His stupid Repenter, who I was convinced sucked, managed to hit Sorscha with it's flame thrower, catching her on fire. First turn didn't get rid of the continuous effect, and almost killed her. Suddenly on a VERY tight schedule (4 health left, and still on fire), I attempted to assassinate his caster, wind rushing Sorscha forward, feating (causing all his models to go stationary), then begging to shoot and Razor Wind with everything I could (the only other shot being the Devastator, of course). Not enough to do the job. Since Kreoss had not used his feat yet, I conceded. It was just going to be more painful, and that's if the fire didn't kill me. Another loss!

I know I was a little too aggressive moving Sorscha up, but I do like using Khador. It's a very different feel than Cryx, who I'm more familiar with. I'll have to give the faction a try with some new toys!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Blood Bowl, Book Read, and whatever else

Not a whole lot happening at the moment, but did manage to get a game of Blood Bowl in on Saturday vs Ben, primarily as a teaching game.

I used Dark Elves, 9 LineElves, 2 Blitzers, 3 Rerolls, 1 FF, 1 AC (no point saving money in a one-off game).

Ben used Lizardmen, and took 6 Saurus, 5 Skinks, 3 RR, 2 FF, 1 CL, 1 AC.

The score ended 1-1, but it really should have been higher (one way or the other). We had some of the worst luck I've ever seen in a game. Just sloppy ball handling (and terrible blocking) all throughout the game.

Overall, it was still a good time, although I would've loved to win!

I finished reading Palace of the Plague Lord by C.L. Werner. Overall, it was just okay- but it did have two things going for it.

First, it made me want to play the Path to Glory ruleset that Games Workshop put out at one point. Basically, it was a way for people to create Chaos Warbands and play skirmish games against one another, and have your members level up with experience, as well as draw in new recruits. It was a pretty fun little side-game, and had lots of easy modeling opportunities for newer gamers.

Second, I loved the description of the Plague Dragon Bubos, from the book. I think it's going to be a conversion project at some point :).

Next book is the second Space Wolf Omnibus. The series has been great so far, so I'm looking foward to getting through it.

And finally- next year I will be posting pics of my games, which means I won't be using 'counts as' in ANY game from now on. That's more of a personal challenge than anything- should get me off my butt to finish these armies!!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

LotR teaching armies

Alright, so I'm going to be teaching Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle game to a few of my friends, so I put together two 500 pt lists that I hope will be balanced against one another. I don't claim to have much experience with Lord of the Rings, so if anyone has some advice, I'd love to hear it!

Evil, Cirith Ungol w/ Nazgul allies:
Shagrat w/ Shield - 60
2/14/2 Nazgul w/ horse - 120
Mordor Troll - 100
8 Orc Warriors w/ shields - 48
8 Orc Warriors w/ spears, shields - 56
8 Orc Warriors w/ bows - 48
Orc Warrior w/ banner - 30
3 Warg Riders w/ 1 box, 1 shield - 38

Good, Tower of Echtelion w/ Rangers of Ithilien allies:
Faramir, Captain of Gondor w/ heavy armor, lance, horse - 90
Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien - 20
8 Warriors of Minas Tirith w/ spears, shields - 72
8 Warriors of Minas Tirith w/ shield - 64
Warrior of Minas Tirith w/ banner - 32
7 Knights of Minas Tirith w/ shields - 98
1 Knight of Minas Tirith w/ banner, shield - 39
10 Rangers of Gondor, 5 w/ spears - 85

I'm thinking I'll need to add another hero to the good force, something with some ability to combat the Nazgul's spells or handle the Troll maybe. Will have to give it a playthrough to see how well they interact with one another though.

After I get some games in with my friends, I have someone to go through the books and play the scenarios in them all. That's got me very excited :).

Thoughts?

End of November update

Just a quick post about hobby progress since the month is over.

I've been painting Cold One Knights, but I've slowed down a bit due to the holidays.

I've also been getting a strong desire to play a lot more specialist games (especially Blood Bowl!), as well as more games in general, in order to practice for some tournaments!

I played a game of Monsterpocalypse on Monday night as well, Defender X + Laser Knight vs Rogzor and Mucustos. My opponent ran two shooty monsters and a LOT of shooty units. The granted abilities really made things dangerous for any of my stuff to get close. He made the mistake of moving his Mucustos up too far, which I took advantage of by Body Slamming him with Laser Knight, then following with a Beat Back blast with Ultra Defender X. Killed his alpha form, followed by killing his ultra form two turns later.

I didn't think Defender X and Laser Knight would work so well together, but they really do. I was getting 8 Power Die a turn when I powered up. It was a HUGE factor when trying to run two monsters.