Here's a review of last weekend's action at the Fall Brawl, and event held in the NOVA area (Burke, VA):
I played my standard Tomb Kings-- King w/ flail, collar, & cloak
Icon Bearer w/ Hidden Dead
Priest w/ scroll & jar
Priest w/ scroll
10 skeletons w/ standard
25 skeletons w/ command & undying legion
25 skeletons w/ command
3 chariots
2 tomb scorpion
23 tomb guard w/ command & rakaph
bone giant
screaming skull w/ skulls of the foe
Game 1 - Played a fairly sedate Lizardmen list-- Slaan in Temple Guard, 2 big blocks of Saurus, 1 small block of Saurus, 3 skirmished skink units, 2 units of terradons, 2 saurus heroes (one with track shoes, one with cold one), and a stegadon. Game was in the back in the turn 2 shooting phase after his slaan died to a screaming skull hit-- he had only 4 guard + a champ left, so no look out sir. Only four dice of magic defense allowed me to cast at will-- leaving my king in the screaming skull crew not only kept my early smiting on the catapult strong, but also kept the crew safe from his suicide hero. The crew did die to terradon rocks, but the damage was already done. Bone giant ripped up the 5 temple guard left and a unit of saurus, which was pretty well the game. 16-4 win
Game 2 - Got to play the same back alley abortion that Jer played game 4-- Dreadlord with Potion of Strength, Hydra sword, & pendant; BSB w/ 1+ save & GW; Mage w/ 2 scrolls; 3 units of dark riders; 2 units of harpies; 2 big units of black guard (1 w/ armour piercing, one with ASF); hydra; shades w/ GW; 2 RBTs. From the time I saw the list, I knew this game was a loss. The list is horrendous, but I decided to keep the game close. At the end, he had his BSB & 1.5 guard units left, to my 3 characters. Yeah, no units, over-running into my bsb at the bottom of 6. An 8-12 loss, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.
Game 3- Played bunker shooting dwarves w/ 3 crossbow blocks, ironbreakers, longbeards, bsb, thane general, lord on anvil, stone thrower, 2 bolt throwers, organ gun. Like all static setups, I utterly wrecked him. King was beating on the lord at the end of the game and had him down to one wound. That was all he had left short of the stone thrower and a crossbow unit. The first time in forever that I tunneled my scorpions-- btw, they rock a gunlines shit.
Game 4- Played Lizardmen with almost maxed lord (1 mystery away from using all his points) 2 skink combo units, ancient, normal steg, salamander, 2 terradon units, temple guard, 3 skirmisher units. Held on as long as I could, and even got a decent miscast out of him that killed 6 temple guard. Game ended with my king crumbling to combat res and leaving 2 temple guard alive with multiple banners on turn 6. Lost 2-18 and should have gotten skunked instead. An attempt at a much softer list, which is appreciated.
Overall, I liked where this tournament was trying to go, but they actually have to pull the trigger vs. the overly hard lists. The minimal comp they are putting together does not cut it at all. I did like the objective sheets that they used and the variable levels of victory. This kept everyone playing the whole game and gave a small benefit to forces that aren't ItP. My master plan would be a 10-15% point increase to all ItP units, and some meaningful restrictions on dark elves-- they were over 50% of the top 5 tables for crying out loud. The best option would be to tell people with hard lists to pound sand, but considering the tough list that Jer and I played was part of the inner circle, there's zero chance of that happening. To be competitive, I'd need to bring an A list army instead of a B- one. Otherwise elves will ninja you and make for an unwinnable game. Khemri in that environment are unplayable because of the tough characters you now fight. I will start rolling my king with the flail of skulls now, mainly because it gives him some monster and character killing cred and scares some opponents.
As an overall, I'd say it's an event to skip if you want to play nice lists. My friend Jer who went had a worse go of it bringing DoW and playing the Dark Elf list that was worse. The organizers mentioned that they weren't going to do anything about this for future events, so I think that I'm probably not going to be returning. I honestly don't see the point of playing "big 1" warhammer (the other two big three lists were nerfed by tourney rules) and the area (NOVA suburban hipster wasteland) has nothing in it that really endears it to me. It probably would be a decent tournament to go to if you wanted to play a mid-top end list and not worry about the standard evil lists beating your face in. IF someone was looking for a place to experiement with the Suicide Elf list (dark elves with ring of hotek and no mages-- lots of troops) this would be the place to go.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Building a New Army Part III
Building an Army Part III - Modeling & Painting Choices for the High Elves
In the last installment of this series, I mentioned the next part was going to be about playtest games and organizing the Dark Elves. Well, that didn't happen. I've been busy the last week or so with other stuff so no games besides Fall Brawl, and I just haven't had much time to seriously think about what I want in the Dark Elves yet. So instead of publishing nothing, I've decided to do some work on the high elves as far as modelling and painting goes.
Now that the High Elves have exited the list design stage, I need to start picking out models, doing conversions, and painting figures. Before I start doing anything else, I decided to raid my basement of shame and collect all the high elves that I could get my hands on from there. Checking out my various boxes of stuff, I came up with the following:
* 40 Phoenix Guard including 2 command sets
* 20 White Lions including command
* 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers from 5th Ed with crew.
* 40 old 3rd and 4th ed elves of various armament, including lots of spears
* Lots of old characters, including Teclis and several other special characters
* Current Plastic Spear Box (16 elves)
This gives me a good start on the army. Going unit by unit:
Phoenix Guard - Just using some of the guard that I already have.
Hector - I'm taking one of the heroes that I have sitting around, adding one of the separate halberds and a hoplite shield (I have a pile of them available from some old Crusader hoplite figures) I may also use the Avatars of War High Elf Hero to fill the role if I want someone more flashy here.
Archers - Don't have these yet, but I plan on using the old monopose archers from the 4th edition box set, so as to match the RBT crew.
Bolt Thrower - Using one of the ones I had sitting around.
Cassandra - This is going to require a new figure. I'm thinking about using the Avatars of War Light Elf Mage for her.
White Lions - Using some of the figures I have here. Their champion needs something special, so I'm thinking of building a custom one from spear elf parts mixed with the white lion components from the chariot boxed set. Command may be completed using the remaining elf components from a chariot crew mixed with spearmen parts.
Vaul Swordmasters - Here requires a bit of work. Since the actual swordmasters are very hard to convert to give hammers. Instead, I'm going to work them up out of parts from elf spearmen and white wolf cavalry hammers. The "leader" for them will have no hammer, but will have a blindfold to show that he's been ritually blinded as befits a follower of Vaul.
Shadow Warriors - Here I am again going to use the stock figures for the rank & file, but will give them a converted Everqueen model with a bow, or else work with a female archer from the wood elf line.
Loec Spearmen & Chariot - To show the Loec look for the unit, I plan on using a number of the old elf warriors with the conical Loec-style joker helmets. To give the unit more of a Greek look, I'll give the unit some hoplite shields as I am with Hector. I also plan on giving the Loec faction one of the chariots by using more of the Loec warriors on its back.
Paris - Here I plan on either using a Harlequin mostly stock. I will obviously have to remove the gun the figure has in favor of a bttle standard or another hand weapon.
Isha Spearmen & Chariot - While I was initially going to use Maiden Guard models, it has been next to impossible to find these figures anywhere. So It looks like I need to do a conversion for these figures. Luckily, Micro Arts studio does some Amazon torsos and heads which look like they will fit with the high elf spearmen figures. Add hoplite shields as with the other spearmen, and I should have a unique looking unit. The Isha chariot will have similarly convereted crew.
With all these things seen, it looks like I will need the following boxes and figures from various places (probably the warstore and local sellers)
* One extra Spearmen box
* 2 Chariot boxes
* One Shadow Warriors box
* Avatars of War Elf Hero
* Avatars of War Elf Mage
* 5 Amazon Head Kits
* 5 Amazon Torso Kits
* 1 Harlequin w/ power sword
* 1 Everqueen
* 10 4th Edition archers
As far as the painting goes, my plan is do my standard dip + highlighting to make for a very quickly but well painted army. In this case, I really feel that going with metallic paints is a bad choice for most surfaces. Lacquered armour of various colors will both look much nicer on the units, but also will show a different look than most high elf armies. Many parts of the painting choices are going to be taken from what I consider the best looking 40K army, Craftworld Eldar. I plan to use white on the linens and plumes to unify the army's color scheme, as this color looks rather good with dipping and also can be highlighted practically to white to get a much lighter effect if need be.
Sitting down for an evening with a White Lion, I was able to produce a test model fairly quickly. Here's the model at various stages of completion:
Note that the dip process does not always produce the shoddy models that it is famous for. By using brush control of the minwax instead of the traditional dipping method, polling is eliminated and drying time is decreased to under two hours. Highlighting can bring the colors of the model closer to the original colors before the dip process started, and can add to the illusion of 'depth' that is the final goal of painting. All of this is accomplished in much less time than standard techniques, and additionally protects the paintjob from the chipping that is common with metal models. This is also my first attempt with brush on dullcote-- it looks to be a bit cheaper and I've been worried about the whole toluene issue. I am very impressed with the stuff. It has coverage at least as good as the spray version, and much less is used in general. My only suggestion is to use a trash bursh-- one of the 10 cent ones that you can get at Michael's-- because the Dullcote will dry on the brush and start to ruin it. Not something you want to have done to your nice $20 Series 7 certainly.
I chose to use browns as the primary colors on the model to match with the rustic look I'd think followers of Kurnous would try for. Green gems were chosen to stand out from the rest of the model. With this successful test model, I now am working on completing more white lions, maybe enough to field the whole unit painted in a week or so.
Next: More completed High Elf models, and perhaps a playtest game or two.
In the last installment of this series, I mentioned the next part was going to be about playtest games and organizing the Dark Elves. Well, that didn't happen. I've been busy the last week or so with other stuff so no games besides Fall Brawl, and I just haven't had much time to seriously think about what I want in the Dark Elves yet. So instead of publishing nothing, I've decided to do some work on the high elves as far as modelling and painting goes.
Now that the High Elves have exited the list design stage, I need to start picking out models, doing conversions, and painting figures. Before I start doing anything else, I decided to raid my basement of shame and collect all the high elves that I could get my hands on from there. Checking out my various boxes of stuff, I came up with the following:
* 40 Phoenix Guard including 2 command sets
* 20 White Lions including command
* 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers from 5th Ed with crew.
* 40 old 3rd and 4th ed elves of various armament, including lots of spears
* Lots of old characters, including Teclis and several other special characters
* Current Plastic Spear Box (16 elves)
This gives me a good start on the army. Going unit by unit:
Phoenix Guard - Just using some of the guard that I already have.
Hector - I'm taking one of the heroes that I have sitting around, adding one of the separate halberds and a hoplite shield (I have a pile of them available from some old Crusader hoplite figures) I may also use the Avatars of War High Elf Hero to fill the role if I want someone more flashy here.
 |
| From I Heart Ninjas |
Archers - Don't have these yet, but I plan on using the old monopose archers from the 4th edition box set, so as to match the RBT crew.
Bolt Thrower - Using one of the ones I had sitting around.
Cassandra - This is going to require a new figure. I'm thinking about using the Avatars of War Light Elf Mage for her.
 |
| From I Heart Ninjas |
White Lions - Using some of the figures I have here. Their champion needs something special, so I'm thinking of building a custom one from spear elf parts mixed with the white lion components from the chariot boxed set. Command may be completed using the remaining elf components from a chariot crew mixed with spearmen parts.
Vaul Swordmasters - Here requires a bit of work. Since the actual swordmasters are very hard to convert to give hammers. Instead, I'm going to work them up out of parts from elf spearmen and white wolf cavalry hammers. The "leader" for them will have no hammer, but will have a blindfold to show that he's been ritually blinded as befits a follower of Vaul.
Shadow Warriors - Here I am again going to use the stock figures for the rank & file, but will give them a converted Everqueen model with a bow, or else work with a female archer from the wood elf line.
Loec Spearmen & Chariot - To show the Loec look for the unit, I plan on using a number of the old elf warriors with the conical Loec-style joker helmets. To give the unit more of a Greek look, I'll give the unit some hoplite shields as I am with Hector. I also plan on giving the Loec faction one of the chariots by using more of the Loec warriors on its back.
 |
| From I Heart Ninjas |
Paris - Here I plan on either using a Harlequin mostly stock. I will obviously have to remove the gun the figure has in favor of a bttle standard or another hand weapon.
Isha Spearmen & Chariot - While I was initially going to use Maiden Guard models, it has been next to impossible to find these figures anywhere. So It looks like I need to do a conversion for these figures. Luckily, Micro Arts studio does some Amazon torsos and heads which look like they will fit with the high elf spearmen figures. Add hoplite shields as with the other spearmen, and I should have a unique looking unit. The Isha chariot will have similarly convereted crew.
 |
| From I Heart Ninjas |
 |
| From I Heart Ninjas |
With all these things seen, it looks like I will need the following boxes and figures from various places (probably the warstore and local sellers)
* One extra Spearmen box
* 2 Chariot boxes
* One Shadow Warriors box
* Avatars of War Elf Hero
* Avatars of War Elf Mage
* 5 Amazon Head Kits
* 5 Amazon Torso Kits
* 1 Harlequin w/ power sword
* 1 Everqueen
* 10 4th Edition archers
As far as the painting goes, my plan is do my standard dip + highlighting to make for a very quickly but well painted army. In this case, I really feel that going with metallic paints is a bad choice for most surfaces. Lacquered armour of various colors will both look much nicer on the units, but also will show a different look than most high elf armies. Many parts of the painting choices are going to be taken from what I consider the best looking 40K army, Craftworld Eldar. I plan to use white on the linens and plumes to unify the army's color scheme, as this color looks rather good with dipping and also can be highlighted practically to white to get a much lighter effect if need be.
Sitting down for an evening with a White Lion, I was able to produce a test model fairly quickly. Here's the model at various stages of completion:
 |
| From I Heart Ninjas |
 |
| From I Heart Ninjas |
 |
| From I Heart Ninjas |
Note that the dip process does not always produce the shoddy models that it is famous for. By using brush control of the minwax instead of the traditional dipping method, polling is eliminated and drying time is decreased to under two hours. Highlighting can bring the colors of the model closer to the original colors before the dip process started, and can add to the illusion of 'depth' that is the final goal of painting. All of this is accomplished in much less time than standard techniques, and additionally protects the paintjob from the chipping that is common with metal models. This is also my first attempt with brush on dullcote-- it looks to be a bit cheaper and I've been worried about the whole toluene issue. I am very impressed with the stuff. It has coverage at least as good as the spray version, and much less is used in general. My only suggestion is to use a trash bursh-- one of the 10 cent ones that you can get at Michael's-- because the Dullcote will dry on the brush and start to ruin it. Not something you want to have done to your nice $20 Series 7 certainly.
I chose to use browns as the primary colors on the model to match with the rustic look I'd think followers of Kurnous would try for. Green gems were chosen to stand out from the rest of the model. With this successful test model, I now am working on completing more white lions, maybe enough to field the whole unit painted in a week or so.
Next: More completed High Elf models, and perhaps a playtest game or two.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Building a New Army Part II
Building a New Army Part II - Designing the High Elf List
Now that I have my armies and basic ideas laid out, I now had to go about assembling the lists for the two armies. Here I started with the High Elves.
First I chose the basics of the characters. This usually helps line up exactly what I want from the rest of the list. After doing a quick check of the important Trojans, here's the list I came up with:
* Hector - An okay fighter and the leader for a lot of the siege, but he was eventually killed by Achilles.
* Paris - Not much of a fighter, but the guy who started the war, and the one who eventually killed Achilles with a poisoned arrow.
* Cassandra - A great seer who had the ability to tell the future, but also the curse that nobody would believe her.
Seeing these characters, I quickly came up with an idea as to who was going to be what. First, Cassandra should definitely be archmage, seeing as she was a very good mage. That really leaves Hector and Paris as Nobles, with Hector the army's general. I also decided that since Paris was such a looker-on, I was going to make him the Battle Standard, so that he'd be better at looking on versus fighting it out with the enemy. The choice to make Hector a Noble instead of a prince also gives the advantage to Achilles (most certainly a Dreadlord) in combat, as it should be.
After figuring out what my characters should be, I sat down to look at the various High Elf gods to see what units should line up with what gods. I chose to include all the High Elf gods listed in their army book, with the exception of Khaine, who obviously will fight with the Dark Elves:
*Asuryan. He's the main god, as well as called the Flame Eternal. Hector should obviously be the stand in for Asuryan, and he should get a bodyguard of Phoenix Guard, who are protectors of Asuryan's shrine.
*Moreg-Hai. The crone goddess and patron of ravens. Archers are also listed as being under her purview. Cassandra is also going to be her avatar.
*Vaul. The forge god, who is said to have blind priests with two handed hammers. Swordmasters converted to have giant hammers and blindfolds would be a good stand-in here, so that's what I'm going with.
*Kurnus. The hunter god. Good unit choices would be white lions, lion chariots, or reavers. With my no-cav theme, the first choice made the most obvious choice, since the chariots are rather fragile and expensive for a chariot that's less hitty than the famous cold one chariots.
*Lileath. The moon goddess. She's mentioned as the last hope of the Shadow Warriors, so those will be her unit.
*Isha. The wife of Asuryan and the patron of the Everqueen's Maidenguard. Obvious choice here, but with no rules for the Maidenguard anymore, I decided to use the Spearmen rules for them. Additionally, Maidenguard chariots would look rather cool, so I also gave Isha two Tiranoc chariots under her influence.
*Loec. Not the most known god in fantasy, he's mostly associated with wardancers. He is known much more well known in 40K under the guise of the Great Harlequin (Who else is it going to be?) Paris was sort of a tricky git, so I decided to put him as the avatar of this god, probably modeled with a great harlequin or a shadowseer figure. Loec's unit would be spearmen again, this time modeled with a more Greek look to them-- hoplite shields, mixed colored uniforms, and possibly Corinthian-style helmets. Yes, I know the figure-8 shield was the one used at the time of Trojan War, but it doesn't look as good and won't be as iconicly recognizable.
******
Given these ideas, I started finalizing the list. As far as equipment and sizes, here's what I came up with:
Hector - Noble w/ Dragon Armour, Shield, Halberd, & Temakador's Gauntlets
20 Phoenix Guard w/ Full Command
Cassandra - Archmage w/ Level 4 & Seerstaff of Saphery
10 Archers
10 Swordmasters
15 White Lions w/ Full Command
6 Shadow Warriors
20 Maiden Guard (Spearmen) w/ Shields & Command
2 Tiranoc Chariots
Paris - Noble w/ Battle Standard, Shield, Dragon Armour, Additional Hand Weapon, Longbow, & Talisman of Loec
20 Spearmen w/ Shields, Command, & Banner of Ellyrion.
*****
At this point, I had a few points left over. Looking at the weaknesses in the list (mainly missile fire) I decided to add a repeater bolt thrower and 4 more archers. This put me at 2240, just under the point limit for the army but not enough to really add anything of value. I could always add a musician to the swordmasters, which would add another cool modeling opportunity and would put me less than 5 points under my limit, which I love to always get very close to. I'll probably play a few test games with this army to see how it ends up working out against a variety of armies.
Next: Test Games for the High Elves, and designing the Dark Elf army list.
Now that I have my armies and basic ideas laid out, I now had to go about assembling the lists for the two armies. Here I started with the High Elves.
First I chose the basics of the characters. This usually helps line up exactly what I want from the rest of the list. After doing a quick check of the important Trojans, here's the list I came up with:
* Hector - An okay fighter and the leader for a lot of the siege, but he was eventually killed by Achilles.
* Paris - Not much of a fighter, but the guy who started the war, and the one who eventually killed Achilles with a poisoned arrow.
* Cassandra - A great seer who had the ability to tell the future, but also the curse that nobody would believe her.
Seeing these characters, I quickly came up with an idea as to who was going to be what. First, Cassandra should definitely be archmage, seeing as she was a very good mage. That really leaves Hector and Paris as Nobles, with Hector the army's general. I also decided that since Paris was such a looker-on, I was going to make him the Battle Standard, so that he'd be better at looking on versus fighting it out with the enemy. The choice to make Hector a Noble instead of a prince also gives the advantage to Achilles (most certainly a Dreadlord) in combat, as it should be.
After figuring out what my characters should be, I sat down to look at the various High Elf gods to see what units should line up with what gods. I chose to include all the High Elf gods listed in their army book, with the exception of Khaine, who obviously will fight with the Dark Elves:
*Asuryan. He's the main god, as well as called the Flame Eternal. Hector should obviously be the stand in for Asuryan, and he should get a bodyguard of Phoenix Guard, who are protectors of Asuryan's shrine.
*Moreg-Hai. The crone goddess and patron of ravens. Archers are also listed as being under her purview. Cassandra is also going to be her avatar.
*Vaul. The forge god, who is said to have blind priests with two handed hammers. Swordmasters converted to have giant hammers and blindfolds would be a good stand-in here, so that's what I'm going with.
*Kurnus. The hunter god. Good unit choices would be white lions, lion chariots, or reavers. With my no-cav theme, the first choice made the most obvious choice, since the chariots are rather fragile and expensive for a chariot that's less hitty than the famous cold one chariots.
*Lileath. The moon goddess. She's mentioned as the last hope of the Shadow Warriors, so those will be her unit.
*Isha. The wife of Asuryan and the patron of the Everqueen's Maidenguard. Obvious choice here, but with no rules for the Maidenguard anymore, I decided to use the Spearmen rules for them. Additionally, Maidenguard chariots would look rather cool, so I also gave Isha two Tiranoc chariots under her influence.
*Loec. Not the most known god in fantasy, he's mostly associated with wardancers. He is known much more well known in 40K under the guise of the Great Harlequin (Who else is it going to be?) Paris was sort of a tricky git, so I decided to put him as the avatar of this god, probably modeled with a great harlequin or a shadowseer figure. Loec's unit would be spearmen again, this time modeled with a more Greek look to them-- hoplite shields, mixed colored uniforms, and possibly Corinthian-style helmets. Yes, I know the figure-8 shield was the one used at the time of Trojan War, but it doesn't look as good and won't be as iconicly recognizable.
******
Given these ideas, I started finalizing the list. As far as equipment and sizes, here's what I came up with:
Hector - Noble w/ Dragon Armour, Shield, Halberd, & Temakador's Gauntlets
20 Phoenix Guard w/ Full Command
Cassandra - Archmage w/ Level 4 & Seerstaff of Saphery
10 Archers
10 Swordmasters
15 White Lions w/ Full Command
6 Shadow Warriors
20 Maiden Guard (Spearmen) w/ Shields & Command
2 Tiranoc Chariots
Paris - Noble w/ Battle Standard, Shield, Dragon Armour, Additional Hand Weapon, Longbow, & Talisman of Loec
20 Spearmen w/ Shields, Command, & Banner of Ellyrion.
*****
At this point, I had a few points left over. Looking at the weaknesses in the list (mainly missile fire) I decided to add a repeater bolt thrower and 4 more archers. This put me at 2240, just under the point limit for the army but not enough to really add anything of value. I could always add a musician to the swordmasters, which would add another cool modeling opportunity and would put me less than 5 points under my limit, which I love to always get very close to. I'll probably play a few test games with this army to see how it ends up working out against a variety of armies.
Next: Test Games for the High Elves, and designing the Dark Elf army list.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Building a New Army Part I
This is the first article in a series that hopefully will cover me designing a tournament army from the ground up, including the modelling, painting, and list design issues that show up.
Building a New Army Part I - Ideas and General Guidelines
On the way home from JimCon this year, Gina was all aflutter about her new army idea (an amazon-themed Dark Elf army-- very cool idea that looks to be turning out pretty well so far) and this got my thinking. Her idea was more of an "art" army, in that the design would very much be about the modeling and painting versus other concerns. This gave me the idea to do something similar for next year's JimCon (the only big tournament that I go to anymore)
After a bit of consideration, I came up with a theme idea. Basically, it's Elves meets the Trojan War. Before this gets too complex, let me explain the basics:
High Elves at least have been given a vaguely Greco-Roman feel to them. Citizen spearmen, the various names of the regions, ect. So I decided to carry this through to the logical conclusion and make an army that really reflects this-- the armour, mythology, ect. Easily the biggest conflict in Greek mythology would be the Trojan War: it latest years and involved nearly as many important figures as the quest for the golden fleece. Of course, the Greeks were only one side of the conflict-- to do this right you'd need to have Trojans also. Dark Elves could easily stand in here for them, and also give me the opportunity to a "match pair" set of armies. It's a common concept in historicals gaming, and I think it should work fairly well with two classically opposed armies like dark elves and high elves. As an extra twist, it might make things interesting if the High Elves were the Trojans in this equation. Just to mix things up a bit.
Another interesting part of the Trojan War (and here I'm talking about the mythological event, not the historical one) is early on the gods did take sides in the battle, helping out their favored sons to either defend Troy or help it sack it. I think this might work out well in wfb also-- there are piles of high elf and dark elf gods that get mentioned for a text bubble or two in the background section of the army books, and then never get mentioned afterwards. They need to be used more than this, so decided I had to use them in these armies.
******
Given all those ideas, here's the basic guidelines I came up with for the armies:
1. Since for the time period in Greek history we're talking about cavalry wasn't usable, I've decided to go without also. Chariots should certainly be in use, and I plan to use at least a couple of them in these armies.
2. Every god from both sides (High Elf & Dark Elf) needs to be represented with at least one unit if not an attached hero. Unit champions and the like should be converted up to match what I can find about the various gods.
3. These lists shouldn't include a bunch of over the top or cliched combos of items, ect. I'm planning on taking these armies to JimCon in the future, so there's no excuse for making them overpowered slop that I copied off of the internet somewhere.
With these guidelines in mind, now I have a place to start making my army lists from. In my next installment, that's what I hope to explain and work on.
Next: Part II - Developing an initial army list for the High Elves
Building a New Army Part I - Ideas and General Guidelines
On the way home from JimCon this year, Gina was all aflutter about her new army idea (an amazon-themed Dark Elf army-- very cool idea that looks to be turning out pretty well so far) and this got my thinking. Her idea was more of an "art" army, in that the design would very much be about the modeling and painting versus other concerns. This gave me the idea to do something similar for next year's JimCon (the only big tournament that I go to anymore)
After a bit of consideration, I came up with a theme idea. Basically, it's Elves meets the Trojan War. Before this gets too complex, let me explain the basics:
High Elves at least have been given a vaguely Greco-Roman feel to them. Citizen spearmen, the various names of the regions, ect. So I decided to carry this through to the logical conclusion and make an army that really reflects this-- the armour, mythology, ect. Easily the biggest conflict in Greek mythology would be the Trojan War: it latest years and involved nearly as many important figures as the quest for the golden fleece. Of course, the Greeks were only one side of the conflict-- to do this right you'd need to have Trojans also. Dark Elves could easily stand in here for them, and also give me the opportunity to a "match pair" set of armies. It's a common concept in historicals gaming, and I think it should work fairly well with two classically opposed armies like dark elves and high elves. As an extra twist, it might make things interesting if the High Elves were the Trojans in this equation. Just to mix things up a bit.
Another interesting part of the Trojan War (and here I'm talking about the mythological event, not the historical one) is early on the gods did take sides in the battle, helping out their favored sons to either defend Troy or help it sack it. I think this might work out well in wfb also-- there are piles of high elf and dark elf gods that get mentioned for a text bubble or two in the background section of the army books, and then never get mentioned afterwards. They need to be used more than this, so decided I had to use them in these armies.
******
Given all those ideas, here's the basic guidelines I came up with for the armies:
1. Since for the time period in Greek history we're talking about cavalry wasn't usable, I've decided to go without also. Chariots should certainly be in use, and I plan to use at least a couple of them in these armies.
2. Every god from both sides (High Elf & Dark Elf) needs to be represented with at least one unit if not an attached hero. Unit champions and the like should be converted up to match what I can find about the various gods.
3. These lists shouldn't include a bunch of over the top or cliched combos of items, ect. I'm planning on taking these armies to JimCon in the future, so there's no excuse for making them overpowered slop that I copied off of the internet somewhere.
With these guidelines in mind, now I have a place to start making my army lists from. In my next installment, that's what I hope to explain and work on.
Next: Part II - Developing an initial army list for the High Elves
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
JimCon Part 2: Actual Games
Saturday morning, Gina was feeling sick, so she stuck around the hotel room. I headed down to the venue by myself, hoping this would not signal a bad day at the tournament.
Note: Detailed tournament reports are not going to be available due to my camera taking many blurry photos. Note to self-- always test out a new camera a bit to get used to it before using it for something important.
Game 1
Game 1 was against Jeff Tupper's Mixed mark beastmen. I met Jeff briefly the night before, and like everyone I played this year at JimCon he was a class act. His beats list had an khorne lord, undivided bsb, two undivided shamans, four herds, three chariots, minotaurs, two hound units, undivided bestigors, a shaggoth and a fiend of slaanesh. This game went rather well for me, partially because of the relative strength of the daemons, but also do to some abysmal unruly rolls on Jeff's part. I ended up killing both shamans with attached herds because he was forced to either charge or was drug within an inch of my plaguebearer block. His Lord also frenzied out of his unit and was cut down by bloodletters in a fit of rather poor luck. My Daemon Prince started out the day poorly by failing to do a wound to the chariot he charged, then getting beaten down by a countercharging Shaggoth. All said and done at the end of the game, Jeff didn't have much left, while I still had three intact blocks of infantry, two support units, and a single model left in the Daemonettes. Win #1 for the Daemons.
Game 2
The second game I was pitted against a mixed Chaos Mortals Army played by Hank Hunt. Tzeentch Sorcerer Lord, Slaanesh Herald, Slaanesh Hero, 2 units of Slaanesh Warriors, Slaanesh Knights, 2 units of Slaanesh Horsemen, Hounds, and a War Shrine. An interesting Chaos list to be sure, in that it seemed to obviously lean abit on Tzeentch magic, but didn't have the standard backup sorcerers to make me pay throughout the game. Top of turn 1 his gamble payed off, as he managed to gateway my plaguebearer block with battle standard out of existence! This was not going to be a pretty game, as I was in the hole starting out. Luckily, I kept him from casting gateway for the rest of the game by tying his sorcerer's block up in melee with my daemon prince until I could get help around a few turns later. My daemonettes and flesh hounds took care of his horsemen and flesh hounds rather quickly and followed up by killing his block of warriors with his battle standard, which then panicked his war shrine off the table-- things started to really go my way after this. His knights with hero wrecked my horrors, but where in turn killed by my bloodletters. After going through two summoned exalted heroes and putting 2 wounds on the sorcerer lord, my daemon prince finally died to instability. However, I quickly followed him up in combat with Seekers and flesh hounds, which broke this last unit of warriors and left my opponent with nothing left on the table. The game ended in a complete rout for the Mortals and win #2 for me.
Game 3
Game 3 was against James Hutcherson's High Elves. Last year I lost to a similar force of his, and was determined to not lose again. He brought a wizard lord, bsb on horse, 2 units of archers, 2 units of spearmen, sea guard, 2 lion chariots, a great eagle, 2 swordmaster units, and 2 bolt throwers. This game was truly my Waterloo, as my only effective combat unit (plaguebearers) was kept out combat the whole game while my other units got shot and ASFed to death. My Daemon Prince was killed by bolt throwers turn one to show his total punkness. A good game but a very bad result for me. Loss #1.
Game 4
Game 4 was against Randy Atchely's Empire. He brought a Popemobile, Casketsus, 2 wizards, 2 small knight units, outriders, 2 cannons, handgunners, crossbows, swordsmen, greatswords, detachments, and flagellants. Probably a slightly too strong list (any time your character kit out has internet slang, it's way too cliche), but not any worse than bringing daemons in general, so who am I to complain? As is the game went rather badly for Randy, having his knights held up by spells and the daemon prince, lost both his cannons by turn 4, and did not fight a round of combat with any substantial block the entire game. As it was, the only things he was left with at the end of the game was the great sword unit and all the characters. The Daemon Prince still died at the top of turn 6, though. At least this game he ate through roughly his point cost in troops. Win #3 for the Daemons.
Game 5
My last game was against another member of Team Tennesse with an Empire army. His force had outriders, 2 white wolf units, knightly orders, 2 units of crossbows, 2 cannons, a hellblaster, flagellants, swordsmen, greatswords, an empire general, BSB, and two mages. This game against was a flurry of fits and stops. My deamon prince died turn 1 to a great cannon, and again little to no melee actually happened during the game (empire doesn't fair well in melee anymore, so this should be all that surprising) Beyond all this, I was slightly ahead pulling into the final turn of the game. This game I had rapt up with a chain of linking combats in the final turn to kill the rest of his greatswords with general, if I could only blow through a detachment of 8 halberdiers with my plaguebearer unit. The final result of this is of course an insane courage check and a tied game. Slightly disappointing, but not the worst result that ever happened to me-- this was the first JimCon game 5 I haven't lost.
Conclusion
At the end of the event, my record of 3-1-1 with an average paint and sportsmanship placing was going to leave me on the outside looking in for the top placings. Jim Allen of the Amigos did win overall with a very nice Khorne Daemon army, which was rather nice. I also managed to get a plastic box as a door prize, so my high elf army is a little closer to being completed now.
Gamewise, I had five good games against five good opponents, and it's not often I get to say that anymore. My only real disappointments in the list were the plaguebearers and the daemon prince. The latter is just too fragile and expensive for my playstyle, and the former is simply too many points in too slow of a package that my opponent will easily avoid giving anything to fight. In the future (assuming I bring daemons again) I will probably dump the prince and the nurgle herald in favor of a slaanesh herald, khorne herald, and many more core troops. All in all, JimCon was very enjoyable this year as always, so of course I plan on heading back next year. .
Note: Detailed tournament reports are not going to be available due to my camera taking many blurry photos. Note to self-- always test out a new camera a bit to get used to it before using it for something important.
Game 1
Game 1 was against Jeff Tupper's Mixed mark beastmen. I met Jeff briefly the night before, and like everyone I played this year at JimCon he was a class act. His beats list had an khorne lord, undivided bsb, two undivided shamans, four herds, three chariots, minotaurs, two hound units, undivided bestigors, a shaggoth and a fiend of slaanesh. This game went rather well for me, partially because of the relative strength of the daemons, but also do to some abysmal unruly rolls on Jeff's part. I ended up killing both shamans with attached herds because he was forced to either charge or was drug within an inch of my plaguebearer block. His Lord also frenzied out of his unit and was cut down by bloodletters in a fit of rather poor luck. My Daemon Prince started out the day poorly by failing to do a wound to the chariot he charged, then getting beaten down by a countercharging Shaggoth. All said and done at the end of the game, Jeff didn't have much left, while I still had three intact blocks of infantry, two support units, and a single model left in the Daemonettes. Win #1 for the Daemons.
Game 2
The second game I was pitted against a mixed Chaos Mortals Army played by Hank Hunt. Tzeentch Sorcerer Lord, Slaanesh Herald, Slaanesh Hero, 2 units of Slaanesh Warriors, Slaanesh Knights, 2 units of Slaanesh Horsemen, Hounds, and a War Shrine. An interesting Chaos list to be sure, in that it seemed to obviously lean abit on Tzeentch magic, but didn't have the standard backup sorcerers to make me pay throughout the game. Top of turn 1 his gamble payed off, as he managed to gateway my plaguebearer block with battle standard out of existence! This was not going to be a pretty game, as I was in the hole starting out. Luckily, I kept him from casting gateway for the rest of the game by tying his sorcerer's block up in melee with my daemon prince until I could get help around a few turns later. My daemonettes and flesh hounds took care of his horsemen and flesh hounds rather quickly and followed up by killing his block of warriors with his battle standard, which then panicked his war shrine off the table-- things started to really go my way after this. His knights with hero wrecked my horrors, but where in turn killed by my bloodletters. After going through two summoned exalted heroes and putting 2 wounds on the sorcerer lord, my daemon prince finally died to instability. However, I quickly followed him up in combat with Seekers and flesh hounds, which broke this last unit of warriors and left my opponent with nothing left on the table. The game ended in a complete rout for the Mortals and win #2 for me.
Game 3
Game 3 was against James Hutcherson's High Elves. Last year I lost to a similar force of his, and was determined to not lose again. He brought a wizard lord, bsb on horse, 2 units of archers, 2 units of spearmen, sea guard, 2 lion chariots, a great eagle, 2 swordmaster units, and 2 bolt throwers. This game was truly my Waterloo, as my only effective combat unit (plaguebearers) was kept out combat the whole game while my other units got shot and ASFed to death. My Daemon Prince was killed by bolt throwers turn one to show his total punkness. A good game but a very bad result for me. Loss #1.
Game 4
Game 4 was against Randy Atchely's Empire. He brought a Popemobile, Casketsus, 2 wizards, 2 small knight units, outriders, 2 cannons, handgunners, crossbows, swordsmen, greatswords, detachments, and flagellants. Probably a slightly too strong list (any time your character kit out has internet slang, it's way too cliche), but not any worse than bringing daemons in general, so who am I to complain? As is the game went rather badly for Randy, having his knights held up by spells and the daemon prince, lost both his cannons by turn 4, and did not fight a round of combat with any substantial block the entire game. As it was, the only things he was left with at the end of the game was the great sword unit and all the characters. The Daemon Prince still died at the top of turn 6, though. At least this game he ate through roughly his point cost in troops. Win #3 for the Daemons.
Game 5
My last game was against another member of Team Tennesse with an Empire army. His force had outriders, 2 white wolf units, knightly orders, 2 units of crossbows, 2 cannons, a hellblaster, flagellants, swordsmen, greatswords, an empire general, BSB, and two mages. This game against was a flurry of fits and stops. My deamon prince died turn 1 to a great cannon, and again little to no melee actually happened during the game (empire doesn't fair well in melee anymore, so this should be all that surprising) Beyond all this, I was slightly ahead pulling into the final turn of the game. This game I had rapt up with a chain of linking combats in the final turn to kill the rest of his greatswords with general, if I could only blow through a detachment of 8 halberdiers with my plaguebearer unit. The final result of this is of course an insane courage check and a tied game. Slightly disappointing, but not the worst result that ever happened to me-- this was the first JimCon game 5 I haven't lost.
Conclusion
At the end of the event, my record of 3-1-1 with an average paint and sportsmanship placing was going to leave me on the outside looking in for the top placings. Jim Allen of the Amigos did win overall with a very nice Khorne Daemon army, which was rather nice. I also managed to get a plastic box as a door prize, so my high elf army is a little closer to being completed now.
Gamewise, I had five good games against five good opponents, and it's not often I get to say that anymore. My only real disappointments in the list were the plaguebearers and the daemon prince. The latter is just too fragile and expensive for my playstyle, and the former is simply too many points in too slow of a package that my opponent will easily avoid giving anything to fight. In the future (assuming I bring daemons again) I will probably dump the prince and the nurgle herald in favor of a slaanesh herald, khorne herald, and many more core troops. All in all, JimCon was very enjoyable this year as always, so of course I plan on heading back next year. .
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
JimCon '09 - Beginning & List Design
For the first tourney I plan on documenting, JimCon '09 seems like a good place to start. It's a nice tournament that the infamous Jim Livers has been putting on for the last few years in Lexington, KY. Situated out of the always friendly Albright's Store, JimCon has been for the last few years a place you could always bring a nice army to and not expect to get your teeth kicked in by the latest netlist-using chump. In fact, I managed to go 2-2-1 with Dogs of War last year if that's any indication. So of course I decided to take daemons this year...
Now before you strangle me too much, I know this is not the event to bring the BDS (Broke Dick Special) to, so the daemons that I brought had to try to end up being balanced all around the board, while avoiding the numerous cliched item combos that seem to exemplify everything people complain about with the army book. This would be a bit of a challenge, since I was both strapped for painting time, and also was under a 'no new models' ban because of my new house. With that in mind, I decided the best way to start was to load the list down with the biggest boat anchor unit I could: a Daemon Prince. Consulting the piles of unpainted models I had sitting in my basement, an unpainted 4th edition Bloodthirster caught my eye. Worst mark for the worst unit in the book? Check and double check. With this in mind, and the malice of forethought to know I had mixed daemon troops already painted, here was the 2250pt list I came up with to play:
Daemon Prince of Khorne w/ Winged Horror, Armour of Khorne, & Axe of Khorne
Herald of Nurgle w/ Battle Standard, Level 1 Mage, & Stream of Corruption
24 Bloodletters w/ Champion & Standard
18 Horrors w/ Champion & Standard
21 Plaguebearers w/ Champion & Standard
12 Daemonettes w/ Champion & Standard
5 Furies
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Seekers of Slaanesh
5 Nurgling Bases
3 Flamers
Slide show of my Army:
*****
The lack of musicians is both due to a lack of points working out, and also a lack of musician models on my part. This is a very similar list to my list for the Hillbilly last year, with the primary changes being the removal of three of the four heralds and the removal of all the gifts I had originally taken. 8 'Letters were added to make up for the lack of a herald & juggernaut to bulk out their numbers. I didn't expect the Daemon Prince to accomplish anything on his own, but he would be useful at killing heroes and the like as well as taking out small cav units that bother me. So I got down to painting both my objective marker and my Daemon Prince, and about 4 hours later I emerged from my mancave holding something that bordered on being acceptable looking.
As luck would have it, both my buddies that planned on coming out with me decided to back out. Logan's boss decided that he wasn't ready to give him his 40 acres plus mule quite yet, and Pugs didn't want to come along so he didn't have to miss the 49ers game on Sunday night. Skipping a weekend of cool gaming so you can watch the NFL equivalent of a mass suicide-- good call man, good call. However, my cool girlfriend and gamergirl Gina decided to head on out with me. Things were looking up for a cool weekend. After a seven hour drive, we arrive on site in Lexington, KY at about 9PM on Friday night.
With a much larger number of players over previous years, the event was now hosted in the unused storefront area next to Albright's. Of course, Jim shows up late, but Gina and I did get a chance to meet Amigos extraordinaire Paul Vinton and Jim Allen in person. Great guys to deal with, and both were sporting good looking armies this year. Paul even offered to lend me some furies to make up for the unit that I left at my house in my attempt to get out roughly on time Friday morning-- you kick ass Paul. Good guys all around. After a few minutes waiting around for Jim to show and looking at some of the armies arrayed out on the tables before us, (most painted better than mine) Gina looked like she was fading after the long car ride , so we made haste back to the hotel.
Next: Actual Games
Now before you strangle me too much, I know this is not the event to bring the BDS (Broke Dick Special) to, so the daemons that I brought had to try to end up being balanced all around the board, while avoiding the numerous cliched item combos that seem to exemplify everything people complain about with the army book. This would be a bit of a challenge, since I was both strapped for painting time, and also was under a 'no new models' ban because of my new house. With that in mind, I decided the best way to start was to load the list down with the biggest boat anchor unit I could: a Daemon Prince. Consulting the piles of unpainted models I had sitting in my basement, an unpainted 4th edition Bloodthirster caught my eye. Worst mark for the worst unit in the book? Check and double check. With this in mind, and the malice of forethought to know I had mixed daemon troops already painted, here was the 2250pt list I came up with to play:
Daemon Prince of Khorne w/ Winged Horror, Armour of Khorne, & Axe of Khorne
Herald of Nurgle w/ Battle Standard, Level 1 Mage, & Stream of Corruption
24 Bloodletters w/ Champion & Standard
18 Horrors w/ Champion & Standard
21 Plaguebearers w/ Champion & Standard
12 Daemonettes w/ Champion & Standard
5 Furies
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Seekers of Slaanesh
5 Nurgling Bases
3 Flamers
Slide show of my Army:
*****
The lack of musicians is both due to a lack of points working out, and also a lack of musician models on my part. This is a very similar list to my list for the Hillbilly last year, with the primary changes being the removal of three of the four heralds and the removal of all the gifts I had originally taken. 8 'Letters were added to make up for the lack of a herald & juggernaut to bulk out their numbers. I didn't expect the Daemon Prince to accomplish anything on his own, but he would be useful at killing heroes and the like as well as taking out small cav units that bother me. So I got down to painting both my objective marker and my Daemon Prince, and about 4 hours later I emerged from my mancave holding something that bordered on being acceptable looking.
As luck would have it, both my buddies that planned on coming out with me decided to back out. Logan's boss decided that he wasn't ready to give him his 40 acres plus mule quite yet, and Pugs didn't want to come along so he didn't have to miss the 49ers game on Sunday night. Skipping a weekend of cool gaming so you can watch the NFL equivalent of a mass suicide-- good call man, good call. However, my cool girlfriend and gamergirl Gina decided to head on out with me. Things were looking up for a cool weekend. After a seven hour drive, we arrive on site in Lexington, KY at about 9PM on Friday night.
With a much larger number of players over previous years, the event was now hosted in the unused storefront area next to Albright's. Of course, Jim shows up late, but Gina and I did get a chance to meet Amigos extraordinaire Paul Vinton and Jim Allen in person. Great guys to deal with, and both were sporting good looking armies this year. Paul even offered to lend me some furies to make up for the unit that I left at my house in my attempt to get out roughly on time Friday morning-- you kick ass Paul. Good guys all around. After a few minutes waiting around for Jim to show and looking at some of the armies arrayed out on the tables before us, (most painted better than mine) Gina looked like she was fading after the long car ride , so we made haste back to the hotel.
Next: Actual Games
Starting This Off With a Bang
Welcome to 'I Heart Ninjas', a blog that I hope will in the near future be a place to discuss Warhammer and other gaming related stuff. I like to think I'm a somewhat laid back guy about the game anymore. I don't expect this to be one of the more angry GW gaming blogs I've seen around, so check your 'fail', 'teh suck', and 'QQ' at the door.
I'm a tourney player, but a fairly mid-table one in general, so expect a decent number of tourney reports but not a lot of awards. I play in 'no comp no kidding' events, 'fluff bunny' events, and everything in between, so you'll see a variety of lists being played against a variety of opponents. My real final goal with reporting is to give people a decent battle report of normal tournament games, and also an idea of how armies play in a competitive environment.
Before anyone asks, the title of my blog comes from my some would say unhealthy love of ninjas, especially the multicolor ones you beat up while trying to rescue president Ronnie and prove you are indeed a Bad Dude. I'm really hoping the new Skaven book due out in the near future allows me to play my all-skirmished ninja Eshin army even if it does suck. It is just too cool of an army not to drag out for some good old-fashioned fun every once in awhile.
I'm a tourney player, but a fairly mid-table one in general, so expect a decent number of tourney reports but not a lot of awards. I play in 'no comp no kidding' events, 'fluff bunny' events, and everything in between, so you'll see a variety of lists being played against a variety of opponents. My real final goal with reporting is to give people a decent battle report of normal tournament games, and also an idea of how armies play in a competitive environment.
Before anyone asks, the title of my blog comes from my some would say unhealthy love of ninjas, especially the multicolor ones you beat up while trying to rescue president Ronnie and prove you are indeed a Bad Dude. I'm really hoping the new Skaven book due out in the near future allows me to play my all-skirmished ninja Eshin army even if it does suck. It is just too cool of an army not to drag out for some good old-fashioned fun every once in awhile.
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