Warhammer Fantasy Campaign: Dwarfs?

A bunch of the campaign players met together last Thursday to hash out a bit of the details. We've agreed that no Forgeworld (exception being Chaos Dwarfs) and End Times books will be off the table (exception being models with rules in packages). So while my Glottkin, Blightkings, and Maggot Lords would still be usable, the extent I'm looking to buy into Warriors of Chaos is pretty limited. We also aligned ourselves a bit and are probably going to do an End Times campaign after we finish up this one, and that'll probably see the release of all the End Times books, too! So it just seems to make more sense to toss out the Legions of Chaos during that stint.

So Dwarfs it will be! I have no complaints, really, as I love me some Dwarf action. Every game with my Dwarfs has been with the exact same list, however, so I figure it's time to build and branch out a bit more. I'm thinking something along the lines of:

Nurgle Unit Filler, Warhammer Fantasy

     I'm trying to take my time to do the Nurgle Warriors of Chaos up right. Of all my other armies that I'm messing around with, they are the one that I know exactly what I want the end result to look like. From basing, to colors, to unit fillers, etc. - it's all in my head and it's only down to getting to the results. I got a good amount done on my Chaos Warriors today, but it was pretty much just mold line removal. I have a good amount of green stuff work ahead of me. I do have a picture update, however, as I completed the modelling for my Chaos Warrior unit filler:

Work in Progress - Nurgle unit filler 1

Warhammer Fantasy!

There's a Warhammer Fantasy campaign starting up in my local area at the start of the new year. I'm extremely excited for it. I have a few commissions to knock out so I can get started with a new army project ASAP. I have to admit that I'm a slut for beautiful models.

So I wanted to buy the least amount of models, and I wanted to play big, so I ended up with a 4 unit army. Is it good? No idea. But it's 2,500 points, and it looks gorgeous.

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Warhammer Fantasy: Dwarfs complete!

Well, sorta. I finished painting my Lords and Heroes and am getting ready to finish building everything for my 2,500 point list. I'm still messing around with the final points and units, but have a good enough idea to get started. Pictures:

Lord on Shieldbearers Conversion

Grim

Dwarf Runesmith

Dwarf Runesmith

Dwarf Thane Battle Standard Bearer

Warhammer Fantasy: March of the Dwarfs!

I've picked up another army. Cryx is still going extremely well for the League, but I can into some cash and invested in an army I've had my eye on for awhile: Dwarfs. I've always wanted to play Dwarfs, but moreso in a general sense. I love Dwarves. Always have, always will. They have a special place in my heart, regardless of the mythos, lore, or fluff tagged onto them. So instead of spouting army list ideas and desires, I'll just toss my conversion your way for Mr. King 'ol Mighty:

Dwarf Lord with Shieldbearers

This guy is a tough, high wounds beatstick. I've had a few games already with my Dwarfs, but lacking a suitable Lord miniature with shieldbearers has been an issue for any sort of proxy - so here is my result to remedy that issue, and I'm very happy with the direction it's taken.

Edit: Updated for this evenings working progress:

Edit edit: Quick update. Got most of the cloth work done and should have it completed tonight. But I think I have my Thane BSB /w Great Weapon all set to get based and have a few green stuffs added here and there:

Edit edit edit: And the Thane BSB is complete. Waiting for greenstuff drying times and he'll be ready for priming and painting!

Edit edit edit edit edit edit edit ;) Last edit, I promise. Last update before the final Lords and Heroes painting is completed:

Bolt Action, Warmahordes, Fantasy, and being done with 40k.

     There's a renewed interest in my local gaming area for Fantasy. Chances are very likely in the next month or so will see a comeback for the game in a much larger scale than just a handful of players. So here's hoping. I played another Fantasy game against Warriors of Chaos, this time at 2,000 points, and it went in my favor. Wood Elves can shoot alright, but their true game is mobility. It's pretty top notch. I'm fearing an opponent that can cause my key units issues. But I've ordered some Glade Riders to add a bit less set up time to my side, and have starting the long haul of removing mold lines and prepping an army for painting...
     But there's also a spark locally for the WW2 wargame Bolt Action. And being someone that's fine jumping on gaming bandwagons, that means I now have an army purchased and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival. I've chosen my army - the United States. I'm going to be avoiding Marines due to my preference of the European Front over the Pacific battles, even though Marine models have a lot of personality in their aesthetics. So expect painting updates, models, and battle reports for that to start sprouting up here and there as well.
     It's looking like I won't be able to attend the NOVA Open 40k GT, even though I've already purchased my ticket. The reason is personal, but since my inability to attend NOVA has come around I've decided to start my departure from 40k. I entered wargaming to play competitively, and playing 40k hasn't helped me any. GW is presenting a game that is the opposite of what I originally wanted when choosing my "primary tabletop wargame". I hope the game does well, and think they have a really strong history and personality with their 40k IP, but I can't have as much money tied up into a game like they want to create. Luckily Fantasy is currently unscathed at the moment, due to it's lack of comparable popularity, but I also only have a few hundred invested.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report 1500: Wood Elves versus Ogre Kingdoms.

I managed to get in a small 1,500 point Warhammer Fantasy game in last. We have a few local players, but when people show up is typically random. I'm trying to revive the game as much as I can, but we may have some more players coming up soon - so that's great. But right before I was about to leave the store, someone showed up for a game. It was fate!

I brought the Wood Elves, mainly because they are all I have. Still waiting on my Waywatchers to show up, and it's at the point that I'm getting a bit nervous about their arrival (should have been here by now). So little goblins are used as proxies.

Wood Elves:
-Spellweaver, level 4, dispel scroll, asrai longbow (Pit of Shades, the Withering, Miasma, Pendulum)
-Waystalker
-Waystalker

-Glade Guard, x10, Hagbane, Musician, Standard
-Glade Guard, x10, Hagbane, Musician, Standard
-Glade Guard, x10, Hagbane, Musician, Standard

-Wild Riders x5
-Wild Riders x5

-Waywatchers x5
-Waywatchers x5
-Great Eagle
-Great Eagle

Ogres:
-Slaughterdude, level 3, dispel scroll (He had the +1 toughness power, a panic power, and the 4+ regen (uggh!) one)
-BSB guy, heavy armor

-Ironguts x5
-Ironguts(I think, might be normal dudes) x7
-Leadbelchers x6

-Sabertusk
-Sabertusk
-Mournfang Cavalry x3

I was actually dreading having to play against this army a good deal. Our local Ogre Kingdom players is pretty great, so my only real advantage was that he's never played 1,500 points before. I apologized many times that I was unable to field 2000+ yet, so we ended up fighting a battle over the Watchtower!

Unfortunately I forgot to take any more pictures after the first one, but positions didn't change too much after the early rounds. This is after deployment, scouts, and vanguard moves. The tower to the left is the Hatred giving structure, the marsh is the 6+ regeneration one, and none of the others will matter. The white primed forest was mine. I ended up deploying a 10 man glade guard as bait in the watchtower.

So having control of the Watchtower, my opponent began his turn. He declared a charge on my Great Eagle with his left Sabertusk. I chose to flee and he chose to redirect into my Wild Riders (which we determined post game was probably a bad move). My Great Eagle flees only 5 inches and my Wild Riders make their Panic test. His Sabertusk makes it into the Wild Riders with a huge charge! Next, his big block charges directly at the tower and I managed to inflict 2 wounds with their stand and shoot. He moves up everything else a bit, placing his other Sabertusk in front of my Great Eagle, walking his Leadbelchers to be within shooting ranged of my glade guard unit with the spellweaver, and skirting his other ogre unit alongside the Watchtower. His Mournfang kind of reposition a bit and just move forward to try to get a later charge off on the Wild Riders. So, yeah, he ignored my Waywatchers completely. His shooting wasn't amazing, and he took out one Glade Guard from the unit to the left in the forest that was holding the Spellweaver. Close combat went favorably, although I didn't manage to kill his Sabertusk with my Wild Riders until after he killed one (the mounts finished him off). I also managed to inflict two more wounds from the Glade Guard in the center unit onto the huge block of characters he had. He then took down 9 Glade Guard in return, and I held up with my Bannerman.

On my turn, I declared a charge onto his exposed Leadbelchers from my Wild Riders, moved the other Wild Riders back a bit (and this was a bad idea, as they were left within the charge arc of the 7-Ogre unit. And tossed my Great Eagle at an angle in front of his Mournfang (which bought me another round of shooting). The Waywatchers all repositioned towards the rear of his army, while the left Great Eagle rallied. Magic phase was almost a bust, but I managed to get off the Withering on his 7-Ogre unit and made them lose a toughness. He used his Dispel Scroll on my Pit of Shades. Shooting ended up putting 2 wounds on his Mournfang from the Waywatchers/stalker, while doing 1 wound on his 7-Ogre unit from the other Waywatchers/stalker. I tossed all my shots into the 7-Ogre unit from the glade guard units and turned it into a 6-Ogre unit. In close combat, my Wild Riders removed three leadbelchers from the board, but lost three in return. With the charge and being up by 6 wounds inflicted, I won combat and chased them down with the remaining Wild Rider. Bare-bones, that's a wicked little 130 point unit!

His next turn was pretty good. He charged my Wild Riders with his 6-Ogre unit and his right Sabertusk, charged my lone Glade Guard in the watchtower with his big unit, and slammed into my Great Eagle with his Mournfang (positioned in a solid way to prevent any real overrun attempt. Magic went well for his, as he got off a bubbled 4+ regen on all of his units (which I forgot all game to see if that was a power I could dispel on my turn). No more shooting, at least. Close combat saw a dead Sabertusk from the Wild Riders and no wounds to the 6-man Ogre unit, and then I lost 4 Wild Riders. His Mournfang took down the Great Eagle with impact hits. The remaining guy ended up running off the table in a later round. His 6-Ogre unit reformed to face down my Glade Guard. The lone Glade Guard bannerman was slain with but a whimper. A mass of ogres now controlled the tower.

I had a good turn too, though. I positioned my glade guard with swift reforms towards his 6-Ogre unit, and brought my Waywatchers around to face the tower, with the other unit moving up behind the Mournfang. I rolled double 6s on the Winds of Magic, and I knew the game could change. I tossed Pit of Shades on the 6-man unit with irresistable force (which only saw me losing 1 wound and 6 dice from my casting pool, well worth it!). Direct hit over 6 ogres and they all failed their toughness. Woot! Shooting had a lot of shots at the Mournfang, and I managed to take 2 out completely and leave another with 2 wounds left. My last Great Eagle moved to intercept any charge they could try for next round, and my Wild Rider (the last one from the left unit that took out the Leadbelchers) moved down towards the center of the board to hopefully face off the Mournfang next round.

His charged my Great Eagle with the Mournfang as expected, and ended up killing it no problem. Magic found the unit inside the Watchtower with a 4+ regen and 1+ toughness, as he didn't want to risk the big bubble cast so he could force me to address the Mournfang issue. He overran from the Eagle a bit and I knew my last Wild Rider could make the charge.

I started the turn debating to not charge from the Wild Rider into the lone Mournfang, but decided against it since I was pretty sure I could take him out. Magic was a bust on my end (I cast Pit of Shades, but he dispelled it). Shot tons into the bunkered unit in the Watchtower and inflicted some wounds into the unit. My Wild Rider took down the Mournfang and was hoping my overrun would stop me from possibly having to check to charge into the Watchtower unit, which it did. Excellent.

End of turn 3.

The game at this point was a game of Magic phase. I couldn't do much to him if he had a good magic phase, and he was just sitting there buying as much time as possible. Luckily the game continued on to the point that I managed to grind down his models with Pit of Shades and Withering and mass shooting. In the end, I won on Turn 7 (which we were kind of unsure about - it says the game "at least continues another round", so we assumed that meant keep rolling until the turn number + d6 roll equaled 10). Hopefully we didn't do too many mistakes on the rules, but he's a pretty experienced player, and we were checking the rulebook as much as was felt was required to make sure we had them down.

It was a hardfought match for sure, and we talked a bit about the battle afterwards. I told him I don't know why he chose to redirect his Sabertusk into my Wild Riders on the first turn, as he could have blown them away with his Leadbelchers. He agreed, and realized then that he probably should have tried getting them into the Watchtower, which would have been brutal for me. Taking down his Leadbelchers early and making his Mournfang ineffective through Great Eagles really did a lot for me (and I was highly amused that his Mournfang only killed two Great Eagles all game, heh). The magic phase was unbelievably important for both of us. Lowering his toughness and making him take initiative tests were huge swings for me, and him increasing his toughness and giving out 4+ regen is ridiculous for his units against my Str 3 bows. It was a really fun game, though, and I learn a lot for my first game with Wood Elves. I can't wait to get them back on the field, and hopefully for much more than a 1,500 point game.

Note: I'll try to not forget to take pictures of each round/turn next time. It was a pretty intense game overall, so it kept slipping my mind.

Warhammer Fantasy: Wood Elves.

   

   I'm really debating playing these guys. I've looked through their book and am pretty sold on them as an army. They appear to require a good deal of finesse and strategy, but those aren't typically my weak points in gaming (even coming off of Warriors of Chaos, even though my playstyle there was generally just throwing stuff at stuff and waiting to win). I'm not entirely sure how to build a list, but I'm starting with a pretty simple (perhaps standard?) 1500 list. It feels pretty cheap to get into an army, and I can probably proxy up to 2500 points if I end up enjoying them. So, I have:

Lord:
- Spellweaver, Wizard Level 4, Dispel Scroll, Enchanted Shield (No Lore chosen from the start, but since Wood Elves can get any Lore, it feels a lot of their flexibility can come from that).

Heroes:
- Glade Captain, Talisman of Preservation, BSB, Bow of Loren, Hagbane Tips / although I'm unsure if the Hagbane Tips work for the Bow, still figuring things out with my limited Fantasy knowledge

Core:
- x16 Glade Guard, Musician, Standard, Lord's Bowman, Hagbane Tips / The Spellweaver and Glade Captain go here.
- x5 Glade Riders, Musician, Standard (Magical : Gleaming Pendant), Glade Knight

Special:
- x5 Wild Riders, Wild Hunter, Musician, Standard Bearer
- x5 Wild Riders, Wild Hunter, Musician, Standard Bearer

Rare:
- x5 Waywatchers
- Treeman / Why? Because he looks awesome. Probably a gap filler model until higher point games to get more Wizard Levels on a really tough tree bastard.

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Starting with a Wizard level 4, and boy does it feel really cheap. But that's coming off of having my Wizard level 4 being an almost 600 point daemon prince from Warriors of Chaos, so...yeah. Let's play with some Lores since my only experience in Fantasy so far has been Lore of Nurgle.

Standard BSB, and have to take one, so there you go. This one bulks up the shooting a tiny bit, and that's a huge perk since that's what they need to do to soften up guys so their Always Strike First attacks can follow through and make them over the top. This is a game where shooting is pretty much Initiative 11 attacks, so just putting out as many as possible before being charged by the scary stuff needs to happen.

Feels light, but it has to start somewhere. Core feels like an odd spot for things, but having a unit of Glade Guard, a unit of Eternal Guard, and a unit or two of Glade Riders in an eventual high point list seems like it'd be a good place to get started. I'm not sold on any Core choices, but given the fragility of Wood Elves (/elves in general), tossing in fast moving archery can't even hurt, especially with some really nice Enchanted Arrows options. You need things to die, and Wood Elves can do that really well at range.

Wild Riders seem like a no brainer, even if two units of 5 may be much for this point range. They are relatively cheap to purchase, though, and I'd imagine my 2,500 point list would have two units, so I kept that in mind when coming up with list ideas. I'm sure I could trim points, but Always Strikes First feels like it can really grind down guys. If Wild Riders were Core options, than I'd just have an army of them. :P I'm a huge cavalry fan though, and a lot of armies I've chosen to play over the almost two years I've been wargaming has been based around those particular armies having solid cavalry options available to them.

Waywatchers are pimp. Big pimps, really. I wish I could fill an army with just Wild Riders and Waywatchers, but...oh well. I was trying to get 10 in the list, but I want to 'branch' out with a Treeman (see the pun? :P ). Not sure how well the Treeman will work, but it's tempting to downgrade some champions to get him his Stranglethorn attack, or whatever that's called. I do expect this guy to turn into my really tough Wizard, but he may just get replaced before I move to purchase this army list.

The list feels solid, although it's basically a shooting version of what I was rocking out with my first 1500 point Warriors of Chaos list. Trying to emulate Warriors isn't a bad idea, but Elves don't do that whole "having armor saves" thing very well. They do have shots, though - so...woot!

Games Workshop, 40k, Warmahordes, Cryx, Thornwood Alliance, and some Fantasy. Blah, blah, blah.

     I got into wargaming so I could have a competitive social environment and to go traveling around for large tournaments and just generally have a really awesome hobby. Initially I chose Warmachine/Hordes and started with a Circle of Orboros army, but I never got in games, and one of my main DnD buddies was a pretty solid 40k player - so the switch was made! I've gone through quite a few 40k armies, but have been a pretty dedicated Black Templar player for close to 9 months now. Having only been playing wargames for about a year and a half, I'm pretty sure Warmahordes is where it's at. I don't have many issues mechanically with 40k, and I still love the game and look to play it often, but I think Games Workshop is just handling things poorly. IE: Not playtesting enough, bad balance, cycling through old outdated rules instead of coming up with interesting and fun new ones to put the game in a better spot, etc. They constantly contradict themselves with each successive release, and that just forces you to buy more stuff. Hey, white scars are amazing and scout, so let's release anti-scouting servo skulls in the next release with Inquisition that don't take up a detachment slot and only cost people 34 points, so there's NO reason not to take one to stop the powerful Space Marine build we just released. Or Lords of War and Str D is pretty broken in 6th and people seek to nerf it, so we'll release an army of Str D with Imperial Knights. Or we'll give people options in 7th to play how they want, and Lords of Wars probably won't be allowed in tournaments, but let's make lesser characters Lords of War for no reason other than to make banning Lords of War weird. 7th is good, but at the core it's designed to let you play with whatever you want, which turns into playing whatever you think is fun/powerful, which in turn leaves people buying things from each release each month to create armies that casual players can't handle without losing the "fun" aspect of the game, which is against what a beer and pretzels game should be designed around in the first place. It's an explosion of "F' you! Just buy our stuff for a game we don't give a sh*t about anymore!". It's sad, really.
     NOVA Open is coming up sooner than later, and I have my ticket for the 40k GT and expect to bring Black Templars with a couple Imperial Knights. The list has been performing really well, with the exception of a pretty bad showing against Stormravens. I'm anxious to participate in a huge tournament, but the closer it draws near the more convinced I become that it will be my debut and retirement from competitive 40k gaming in any respect. The way GW handles it's games means I'd rather just stick to Fantasy. Fantasy is fun, and while I don't play it enough, I always enjoy my games with it. The problem here is that I'm selling/have sold my Warriors of Chaos Nurgle army and am seeking to move into either Dwarves or Wood Elves. Chaos was powerful, and tons of fun, but I'm anxious to paint something that doesn't relate so much to the Cryx force I've powered through and still have a ton to paint for. Playing Wood Elves does start hitting the territory that GW brought 40k into, IE: Get a free forest that is a Citadel forest (IE: 30 dollar tax on the army to play it out the gate), and then buy another 2-3 from the item that you probably want to take for deep striking additional forests to really thwart the battlefield. Meh. However, GW's cash cow is 40k, and you can see that in the releases, and it feels like Fantasy gets the once over and has sort of slipped through their money hungry gaze and has gotten off a bit easy (probably due to the lack of allying). So, that's that.
     With Warmachine/Hordes, I have a Hardcore 50-point tournament this Wednesday evening that I'm looking forward to a good deal. I'm going to be bringing Goreshade3 with a Kraken and some other goodies, so hopefully I can remember to battle report them so I can toss those up here. Today also marks the supposed day that my small 15-point Thornfall Alliance army will arrive. I'm pretty obsessive about things when they start looming on my mind for extending periods, so I'm really holding back just buying everything that Farrows have to offer like I did with Cryx (I own 239 points worth of Cryx and about 5 Warcasters). I have a really fun basing theme I've been working on, so I'm also extremely anxious to get painting them and hoping to learn new things to up my paint game with them. You'll see them soon enough, as Carver is my next model I'll be painting up right after my Bile Thralls. Expect to see the Quilboars...err...Thornfall Alliance stuff within a week or so.

Note: I really do love 40k, and I enjoy the lore and game so very much. But GW doesn't, or at least it doesn't seem like they do with how they are handling everything, so...as a lover and fan of their game, it just puts me in a weird spot. Tag the fact that I am competitive and want to play major tournaments, and I'm pretty much left in the dark over 40k and my future with it. I would much rather play a game where my choice of army doesn't reflect my chances of winning with each new release. That's something that Privateer Press handles extraordinarily well, and GW trips over with massive meta changes every other month.
   

Mr. Prince and Dice.

These will be mine soon. I love Chessex. I love them so much. I highly recommend customized dice, as it just adds to the great experience of playing our chosen hobby.

But more importantly, I finished the work on my Chaos Nurgle Daemon Prince. I'm very happy with it, and can't wait to start painting tomorrow.

Warhammer Fantasy, too!?

I may have attended a tournament last Saturday on accident. A majority of the time at my FLGS (majority = practically always) there isn't a Warhammer Fantasy game being played, but when I stopped by to pick up a few things around noon there was a tournament going on! I ended up spending the entire day there talking to the guys playing , most of which I knew from other games that I played with them. Surprised that there was an actual playerbase (sorta), I talked about armies and rules and set out to put together my first army: Warriors of Chaos.

There was just enough stuff at the store to get started. I picked up two boxes of Chaos Warriors (making my total 31, as I had some left over from a plundered box I purchased long ago for a Space Wolf Wolf Guard unit), two boxes of Chaos Knights (probably more than I needed for my initial 1,500 army list), and a Chaos Giant. I have Lord and Heroes scattered around for tons of Swap Meets, and can put together any of those from my billion bits - so let's make a list!

Warriors of Chaos
Lord 
----
Chaos Sorcerer Lord, Level 3 Wizard, Mark of Nurgle
+Barded Chaos Steed, Tricksters Helm, Talisman of Preservation

Heroes 
------
Exalted Hero, Battle Standard Bearer, Mark of Nurgle

Core unit 
---------
Chaos Warriors x24, Mark of Nurgle, Shields
+ Aspiring Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer (Banner of Swiftness)

Core Unit
---------
Chaos Warhounds x5, Vanguard

Special Unit
------------
Chaos Knights x5, Mark of Nurgle, Ensorcelled Weapons
+ Doom Knight, Musician, and Standard Bearer

Rare Unit
---------
Chaos Giant, Giant of Nurgle

This leaves me with 28 points to invest a bit more in my Exalted Hero or add a Magic Banner to my Chaos Knights. Having never played the game, I hope it does alright. Tweaks will come about once I start actually playing the list, and get a feel for the "new" system. With enough models for stand-ins/proxies for models I don't have yet (Warhounds -coughcough-), I'm fishing around for a game. However, I'm fully aware of the lack of Warhammer Fantasy games at my FLGS, and have shopped around to other gaming stores within an hours drive to me so I can spend a day playing there.