Deathbridge Warhammer and Miniatures Gaming

Bell of Lost Souls editorial FAIL

2011-02-01T23:08:00.001-07:00

Bell of Lost Souls. You know the place. You've probably been on one side or another of one of their myraid of arguments. The site, as far as I can tell, is a group of players from Texas and their views and thoughts on the world of Warhammer. It's certainly THEIR view and I won't fault them for it. However as late there has been a great debate being waged. The schism between "counts as" and "proxy".

An argument, which one of the head writers defended in his own editorial (linked below) AND FAILED MISERABLY AT.

Specifically, this has been centered around one of their authors, "Goatboy". While not a fan of his play style or his painting (both are highly overrated IMO), he certainly garners my attention with articles. Why? Because I like the argue? *shrugs* He has this trend to bandwagon, enjoying the flavor of the month but usually with the same models. He has a "goat" army: marines with beast men heads, that he uses for chaos marines, Blood Angels and Space Wolves. Not my cup of tea and one of the reasons for this article. The other reason is his new "Word Bearer" army... using Space Wolf rules. Yes. You read that right. An army of fanatical religious nut jobs using the Space Wolf codex. Not the Chaos Marine codex.

Take a look for yourself:

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/01/goatboys-army-list-continuing-with.html

Bell of Lost Souls has jumped right behind their hombre in his defence and in so, here is the FAILURE of this entire thing. That being the worst argument ever presented to man.

I shall present the bulk of it here. My responses are intermingled within, in bold and italics: Like this. The original article (http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/02/editorial-is-it-proxy-or-is-it-counts.html) contained pictures, but I am not going to.

Using an Ultramarine as a Chaos Space Marine, or an Ork, or an Eldar Guardian isn’t appropriate. An Ultramarine as a Chaos Space Marine is a proxy…

OK, this makes sense so far. A non chaos marine model using chaos rules is a proxy. Makes sense and I agree.

…but a Goat Angel is ‘Counts-As.’

Uh...

See the difference? No... no I don't. Space Goats may use parts from both Loyalist and Chaos Space Marines, but they are neither and thus can be used in a variety of ways. Using straight Chaos Space Marines to rep out a new Codex chapter is all well and good at home, but is it appropriate at a tournament where you may be playing a stranger?

I don’t think so. At the very least, I’m sure we can agree it is a gray area.

So why isn’t it okay to use Chaos Space Marines as Loyalist Space Marines? After all, the Goats are pretty chaotic looking; what’s the difference?

Sort it out like this: does a model have a stat line in the Warhammer 40K universe already? In this case of Goatboys Word Bearers... yes, yes they do. They are called Chaos Marines. If it does, and you use it for something else, that’s a proxy. Ah, so his Word Bearers ARE proxies. Goat Marines exist nowhere except Goatboy’s probably warped mind, yet Khorne Berserkers have a color scheme and set of abilities everyone is already familiar with. Using Berserkers as Vanguard isn’t cool. No, it isn't. Wait, what does this have to do with Goat Boy's proxying?

But using Chaos Space Marines painted in your own design as Knights of Blood is perfectly cool. We’re all familiar enough with the game to be flexible on a technical proxy like that. It’s a game, after all.

So, in the end what you are saying is an Ultramarine can't be a Chaos marine because it is a regular space marine model. However, a chaos marine model, or one HEAVILY influenced by them, can be any space marine chapter it wants to? It has a Goat Head, Chaos parts, Chaos SYMBOLS but it isn't chaos? It's a Counts As, not a proxy?

If it has an established set of rules current in the system, it's a proxy. Goat Boys Word Bearers, however, are a Counts As because there are no Goat Marines? Because... there are no Word Bearers anywhere? At all... except in the chaos book? Really, your argument rings false within itself as there is no Ultramarines codex so really, it can be whatever it wants to be.

Let's do the math here:

Marine style model + Goats Head + Chaos Bitz + Chaos symbols = counts as?
A blue marine using other rules = proxy?

Here is the FACT. You are simply defending him not because he is right, but because he's the most prolific and arguably most netfamous writer on your site. He's using models he thinks look cool, which IS cool and fine and dandy, but using rules he thinks are BEST! Not best suited, but best in a competitive sense. A simple admittance would be amazing.

Don't go out on some front defending his honour when your view point ARGUES AGAINST ITSELF. He is proxying army after army and using the best rules he can find. It's that simple. Why not just admit it?

Team Deathbridge takes on Mythacon!

2011-01-30T13:10:00.001-07:00

This post and, frankly any update to this site, has been long in waiting. The club en masse recently took to Mythacon competing mainly in the 40k event though a couple fellas did try out Fantasy. It was a three day event with all kinds of RPG's, MonPoc, Infinity, Warmahordes, Dystopian Wars, every weird small GW game there is and of course 40k and fantasy, the two dominate games there. It was a really neat concept and put together VERY well. They had a professional chef on hand making the usual burgers and hot dogs, but awesome suppers like Butter Chicken and what not.

There were a ton of tables in the venue with just awesome terrain for the GW games. They used Zuzzy gaming mats on all tables with matching terrain so it looked awesome.

It was, supposedly, a heavy comp tourney with lots of soft scoring. The comp system, I am sorry to say, was not my jar of pickles. I understand where some of it was going and why, but still mystified by a few choices. There were full out Leafblowers, tons of guard/Wolf lists. Lots of Blood Angels. A lot of hard, hard lists. Of non marines/guard there was an orc army, Tau (teaming with all Tzeentch Chaos marines), 3 Dark Eldar armies that teamed with either guard or blood angels and our club even brought necrons (teaming with chaos marines). About 50-60 players and 8 weren't guard or MEQ. By the break between games 2 and 3 I had plenty of people come up and hope they were playing our team simply being bored of playing the same armies over and over.

Still, everything there was painted which was nice. Some better then others. The Tau/Tzeentch army was cool. A Space Wolf player had a brilliant Scottish themed army. Our club has some nice armies including an Ultramarine/Vulkan Sally combo.

The tourney was three games doubles, 1200 per partner. We had a good 2.5 hours for games, so they finished on time usually.

First, our lists:

Bloodthirster w/ Instrument, Blessing, Might
4 Crushers: All kitted out
8 Bloodletters
9 Horrors
7 Seekers
2 Soul Grinders with Phlegm

And my partners:
Masque
Herald of Tzeentch on a chariot w/ Bolt, Gaze, MoS, WaL
3 Flamers
2x7 plaguebearers
10 daemonettes with a banner, Trans Gaze
Tzeentch Prince w/ Bolt, Gaze, Flight, Might, Hide
Slaanesh Prince w/ Flight, Instrument, Might, Hide, Musk, Aura, TransGaze

GAME ONE
=========

Guard/Wolves

3 Grey Hunter units in Drop Pods: Melta, Fist, Mark of Wulfen
Wolf Guard in Drop Pod with all kinds of stuff and a Rune Priest with Wolf Tail Talisman and Jaws
5 Scouts with Melta Bombs and a melta gun

Company Command with plasma in a Valk
Psyker Battle Squad in chimera
2 units of melta/lascannon vets in Chimeras
All Plasma Executioner
Plasma/Lascan Demolisher
(The guard was played by fellow Warseer Sir_Lunchalot!)

The game was 4 Objectives with Dawn of War. There were some other weird extra points that I can't remember off the top of my head and didn't matter. No one deploys anything at all. Their first turn they rumble on everything they can and 2 drop pods land directly on an objective. We get the waves we wanted (2 grinders, Crushers, Thirster for me and Masque/Lazer Prince/Flamers/Netts for him). Without going into too crazy detail, the game ends up being a disaster and we lose 16-2. Chariot doesn't come on at all, dying when it autolanded on turn 5... and then mishapped. Horrors mishapped as well. Soul Grinders were doing giant damage, as they did all game. In a local marine heavy meta they are super scary. Thirster, as usual, was destroying and taking a bucketload of firepower.

The big thing was their strategy. A giant line of tanks to open up was blocked because the drop pods cut the table in half. Fighting through 30 space wolves is not an envious task. The guard didn't leave transports at all minus the CCS who just were a speedbump for the Crushers. Masque did almost nothing, only pulling the Wolf Guard out of cover once to get assaulted and make them fall back... which they proceeded to do all game. We did manage to get one objective and were about to clear another. I, however, am too nice. They had ONE remaining guy on the objective who took a bunch of shooting in cover. I told him he should go to ground, so he did. If he never, he woulda died. LOL... worst competitor ever right here. A great moment was the valkyrie moving full out to contest an objective only to be jumped by the remaining daemonettes who got the super rend of 6-6-6 and made it crash!

All in all not a bad game but a pretty bad defeat.

GAME TWO
=========
OMG! It's not marines, it's orks!... and marines. Sigh

Orks:
Warboss and Nobs in trukk. Nobs had the usual wound allocation shenanigans and a doc
15 Lootas
KANNONS... yes, they had grot artillery
Looted Wagon with a battlecannon
Huge unit of Kommandoes with Snikrot, who proved to be invincible in this tourney
20 (at least) shootas
(At this point I am going more off memory)

His partner was Nilla Marines
Chapter Master with Stormshield/Thunderhammer
10 Assault termies
Dreadnaught
Tactical Squad
Sniper Scout Squad
Devvie squad

I have to admit this game as a bit tough to play. The guys didn't know 40k that well and had to be coached through some rules, meaning we were often giving them strategy that worked against us. We also noticed they never at all did wound allocation, but weren't about to start an argument so let it be. They are new and seem like nice enough guys so let's keep them in the hobby, lol.

The game was pitched battle deployment, capturing table quarters as main objective. Secondaries were capturing the middle, terrain pieces and killing all their troops. We won this one 9-8 and if we were more hardcore (and they didn't roll 2 insane courages to keep them on the table) we could have wiped them out I am sure.

Deployment was much better this time for us, again getting our preferred first wave (I went for the same as game 1, partner put down the chariot, Masque, tzeentch prince and 'netts) They started everything on the table as well, including his termies who apparently mishapped in the first game and died. Even the kommandoes started on the table. Masque was amazing in this game, putting everything right where we wanted all the time and effectively making the lootas a non factor. She moved them out of cover where a Grinder (again, magnificent) killed half of them. Then later moved then out of LOS of anything. She was pretty brilliant here. Having the chariot on the table was also huge. This thing is a beast. Takes lots of attention, busts open vehicles, kills marines. Great! The Tzeentch Prince mishapped and got put into a back corner. However, with wings he got back into it right away, flying 12, shooting and still being a factor.

Back to Masque. I think one underrated thing is her combat ability. A great invul save and hit and run really allows her to get into a small combat to hold something for killer units and then hop away to do her job elsewhere. She pulled the Devvie Squad out of cover, a soul grinder destroying it in one shot. She was so invaluable in this tourney.

Our plaguebearers dropped in the back to take table quarters and did nothing else during the entire game. Well worth their points! LOL. The Bloodthirster landed on their one flank, effectively destroying everything over there. Artillery, most of the kommandoes (who only lived because of a double 1! against BOTH the thirster and prince), etc. He is such an attention whore. If you ask me, his biggest strength is how an army effectively repositions to face him and mistakeningly ignores other stuff. His Chapter Master charged him and got bug squished in one shot. I love him so.

Not a bad game at all, minus us practically using this as a teaching game. I think having fun and sportsmanship is much more important in the game then cutthroat winning (unlike the other douchenozzles in the event). It showed in our opponents. They came in a bit grumpy having been tabled the game before (probably because their opponents didn't help them as much) and by the end were having a good time.

Note: Sorry for the lack of army shots. Couldn't seem to find any.

GAME THREE
===========

The best game of the entire tourney! If I wasn't gonna win best painted it was one of the guys we played in this game. Plus neither team was in contention so we went out SOLEY to have fun and it happened! It was a very weird game. Spearhead deployment and VICTORY POINTS (say whaaaaaaat?!) with secondaries of KILL POINTS (WTF?!), 2 objectives and killing HQ's. Though the result didn't matter we called the VP a draw and went off secondaries. We killed all their HQ's, had more KP's and had an objective so won 14-10. I would play these guys again in a second

The Space Wolves half was a BEAUTIFUL converted army. It was this really rich brown with a jagged hardline camo pattern on the vehicles. Most of the marines were converted as well, guys drawing swords, repositioning, using arms from other kits. They had tartan pattern cloth on them: tabards and sub kilts and the like. Just awesome to look at.

His army was:

Rune Priest with Tempest, a Wolf Tail Talisman. You never saw a single rune priest in the tourney without it.
A big unit of Blood Claws
Long Fangs
Dreadnaught
Land Speeder
Whirlwind
Grey Hunter squad
(I was exhausted by the end of the day so I hope I am right on this)
and of course... scouts!

His partner was playing nurgle themed marines
Lord with Jump Pack and claws in a big unit of raptors
Chaos Marines with melta in a rhino
Plague marines with melta in a rhino
Defiler

With us vowing to have fun, we went for crazy deepstriking. We landed the daemonettes, a Soul Grinder and Tzeentch Prince right behind their lines and on target. We landed the flamers RIGHT BESIDE the long fangs (and wiped them out in one fell swoop). Almost everything landed, nothing crashed and died. It was amazing. Every fight in the game was desperate and dramatic as well. The Whirlwind was right up front and would ruin our day. The chariot and tzeentch prince immediately took is out! Scouts taking on plaguebearers, the tzeentch prince taking on ALL the Blood Claws and Rune Priest, killing the rune priest and lasting for a long time, even after the initial FOURTY SOME attacks they poured out. His defiler charged into the flamers. They held with 1 left and then Masque charged in and survived and held the defiler long enough for the Slaanesh prince to come in and SMASH it!

The Bloodthirster went on a RAMPAGE. He killed the Chaos Lord, all the raptors, the chaos marines and their rhino all in combat. It was ridiculous. The Nettes charged the immobilized land speeder (who was proving to be so, so dangerous, using missiles to just wipe out squads) and got 9 pens, blew it up and lost 7 of their own! There was pretty much NOTHING boring in this game. At one point one of our opponents called his friend and told him to come watch the game because it was so good. This team ended up winning best sportsmanship and it was well deserved.

Our team mates from our club did pretty darn well. Even the new kids went 2-1 and even tabled someone despite barely knowing the game yet. Two of our played won the entire tourney with a completely off the wall guard list with no chimeras or tanks and a deathstrike missile, using almost soley platoons. His space wolf partner had all the usual gibbins: Long Fangs, Grey Hunters, TWC. Notoriously grumpy, he even kept his composure in the last game against a team that cheated at every moment they could, even on their army lists.

We won best painted, which was pretty awesome. Sportsmanship last tourney with daemons and now painting. Go soft scores!

All and all, a good time. However, my list is going to be harder next time. I am a huge fan of comp. Only Hard Boyz really shouldn't have a comp system. Hell, if you don't have a comp system, don't have any soft scores. Everyone is just gonna bring their best possible list anyhow.

And now, for a "Report Card" on the armies
Bloodthirster: I've already said how invaluable this guy was
Crushers: Took a ton of firepower and hit hard. However, 4 is far too few at 2400 (or, more correctly double 1200).
Bloodletters: They're obviously dangerous so people went after them. However, they were key game turners at times, wiping scouts off an objective in the last game
Horrors: Shockingly resilient. They killed the sniper squad in game 2 with a shooting/charge and then held up the termies for a good 2 or 3 turns. That 4++ is huge.
Seekers: Game 1 they landed bad and got shot. Game 2 they got charged and took a unit down with them. Game 3 they were about to MASS charge wolves and the game ended. So... did nothing. Too bad, they woulda hit hard. But then again, people kept away from them when I told them what they do. Sometimes you make points back on pure intimidation
Soul Grinders: If not the Thirster, these guys were the MVP's. They did MASSIVE damage effectively destroying the shootas in game 2, taking charges and wiping out marines, etc. So tough and underrated even in a melta environment.

Masque: Started off slow and then won us game 2 on her own. Also super resilient.
Herald: I will admit, I was skeptical, but this guy being on the table changes everything. It's crazy how much attention he gets and damage he does. Plus he was always where he needed to be and could get out of the way of danger. except when the warboss and nobz charged him. He sucks in combat.
Flamers: Super bomb. Land, kill something, die.
Plaguebearers: NEVER DIED! The units weren't killed at all and in every game held objectives.
Daemonettes: Shockingly good as well. So much for Slaanesh sucking. The banner helped get the plaguebearers onto objectives and they did a good amount of damage themselves. That rending is huge.
Tzeentch Prince: So much more then a Bolt platform. He could tear apart vehicles and hold big units.
Slaanesh Daemon Prince: Wasn't game turning. Just solid. Took lots of fire. Killed what he needed to. Nothing spectacular but not the failure I thought he might be.

Things to change in the same scenario: Gotta get Changeling in there. I never realized how good he was before I sent in the army lists. More Crushers perhaps instead of the Slaanesh prince. Fiends. I definitely was NOT unhappy with how we did 2-1 and best painted. Works for me!

Tourney Primer

2010-12-03T20:56:00.003-07:00

Here's a cut/paste from something i wrote on our club forum for those of us who are going to a tournament soon. I felt that they needed to know what to expect and what i expect from fresher members so our club isnt given a bad name hehe.

Share your thoughts and experiences on tourney play below. Also note this is all about soft score tournies, so comp and sports and paint all part and parcel of the experience. If you want Ard'Boyz than meet me for some Black Ops over XBL hehe.

This is gonna be a primer for everyone who is goin to the tourney in January. We have a lot of players goin up from all skill levels of playing and painting and many of you don’t have experience in a tourney scene like this one. So I’d thought id put some things out there for people to consider and take seriously just to ensure you get what you want out of this trip.
Now there’s two reasons people go to these events so I will cover abit of those and than cover some universal things that everyone should know going into this. This is by no means official as its just some thoughts I’ve accumulated from going to regularly run events for over 5 years now.

To Win: this sounds weird at first cause ya know, everyone wants to win. Everyone goes in thinkin their coming home with an award and tales of glory but the fact of the matter is that your lookin at only about half the field if not less at big events are actually capable of serious play.
-These are the types of folks who prolly have played for a long period of time, grasp the rules as a whole, have concepts of what works and what doesn’t and just are generally better players than the majority of us. Now the winners don’t necessarily have to be bad people, with hard ass lists that have no fun, although there will be these players there. But this will be your top 10’s, upper tier top percent players and hopefully nice enough guys.
To Have Fun: this is what generally brings most people out to these events, have fun, meet new players, have a good time etc. This is your general body of 40k player, the person that still puts some time into painting so their models look nice, play once and awhile within a group and generally loves the game as a whole. Most of the time these players will have ‘softer’ lists and not play as hard.
-Usually these games will feel naturaly to you guys as it will be the closest you get to our normal type of gaming. The other nice thing is if they use a classic Swedish rules system than the winers play winners and the losers playing losers than most of the field of ‘winners’ will be busy with themselves after the first round leaving everyone else to have a good time.

So your gonna deffinatly have a few types of players up there, but there are a lot of things people need to think about and abide by for going into these events. These ensure that both you and your opponents get the most out of their games and feel like they got their monies worth.

Rules: this seems arbituary but this is the most important thing. You need to know the rules of the game, im not talkin rules lawyering but a general grasp on the rules as a whole. This goes double as you need to know your rules and the general rules of the game. Now no matter how much you know or think you know you’ll still find yourself in certain situations where there will be a dispute and the more you know the easier it will be to resolve them.

Mini-Presentation: this is usually the biggest change for folks as it’s not as important on the club/friends house level. Most real tournies require fully painted, based and WSYWIG armies. This means you need to have at least 3 colors on the model, the round bases under them painted and flocked and most importantly WSYWIG. (what you see is what you get)
-bPainting is self explanatory, basing a model can be a bit trickier but a quick Google search will get you all sorts of ideas on what you want. Finally if your models are armed with certain weapons or options than it is critical that they are represented on the model. This saves time and confusion among players and usually if models are not WSYWIG than they will not be allowed to be used or some penalty on the player points wise.

Conduct: this is as important as rules knowledge, if not more so as it not only reflects on you but on our club as a whole. I’m gonna break this down even further into the most important points, at least in my opinion.
-Outlook- this covers how you deal with the ups and downs of the game and how you interact with your opponent. So yes you can be excited when things go your way, but not so much that it’s over the top or viewed in any way negative by your opponent. On the flip side it also means how you deal with downs of the game. Your dice not going well, plans falling through you can’t be sighing or making excuses or getting mad. Not only will this reflect on you and how your opponent scores your conduct but the mind gets clouded and you will not be able to come back from the grasp of defeat. Plus severe bad behavior will get people kicked out of the event and that makes us all look bad.
-Outgoing- talk to your opponent before and after the game. Try and get to know them, what they play, what else they like, who they are etc etc. Abit of small talk will make the game go by so much better and make any disagreements easier to manage. Not saying be annoying or over-bearing but just nice to one another. Basically how you would like to be treated in return.
-Resolution– now your going to forget to do things, everyone does it at some point. Usually this happens at the worst times and seems to mean the way the game will swing. (at least at the time) Now the trick is to choose what you let go and what you stand firm on. I find the eye for an eye works well, if your opponent gives a little, you do the same and vice/versa. Your overall relationship with your opponent helps a lot with this. If you two have a good report than he will understand when you don’t let him make that move off-phase because it will affect your game negatively.
-Stoic– does anyone like being bullied? Of course you don’t, no one does. So you can’t play that way either. This means no pressuring for faster play, forcing your opponent to forget things by moving them through their phases etc etc. No telling them what to do, what models they can take off from wounds no ‘telling’ in general. By all means suggest or help along but never force or pressure them. Also you cannot touch their models unless you ask first or they ask you. This is a big no-no that if brought up by an opponent to an organizer will get you booted prolly automatically. Again making all of us look bad.

I think that pretty much covers the big stuff for you guys to know and think about. Tournaments like these are very serious business and should be treated as such. Because it’s in that seriousness that everyone will have fun and feel like their not waisting their time and money.

Can GW games even be unbalanced?!

2010-09-10T15:35:00.000-06:00

Let the arguments ensue!

This isn't going to be an essay but rather the start of an open ended conversation (argument). Games Workshop likes to claim they aren't competitive, were never meant to be competitive or played in such an atmosphere. However, their game has a clear winner/loser. They actively promote tournaments INCLUDING 'ARD BOYZ!

Jervis Johnson says no comp is needed for tournaments. That people should be able to bring what they want and the (fantasy at least) system is balanced enough to be able to do so.

GW games developed from roleplaying games originally, though that was 20 some years ago. Should we really be holding them to that still? Has it evolved from a roleplaying game to a wargame?

My opinion? If GW wasn't supposed to be competitive there would be some sort of reward system like most RPG's have. They also wouldn't promote tournaments of their own doing or ones they host in their stores, like the infamous 'Ard Boyz. Perhaps at one time it wasn't meant to be, but that time seems to have long passed. That's just my opinion, one's that has changed of late. HOWEVER, because a game is competitively based, it doesn't have to be a shit show either. Players need to be adult enough to have a good, friendly game when there are no stakes on the line. You're in a tournament for big prizes? Then yes, bring your big guns. You're in the FLGS then play like an adult, bring a fun list that both you and your opponent can enjoy playing with and against.

HOWEVER... if you think GW is NOT a competitive game and is not intended to be, can the game even be broken? How can a unit or character be broken when the win/loss don't matter at all? Isn't that just the way it goes sometimes? Balance gets thrown out for story. Maybe (insert unit/character) is supposed to kick everyone's asses and GW doesn't care. If it's a game based on fun and mutual respect, then OTT/OP stuff isn't actually OP. There isn't power levels in something not competitive if you ask me. If it's NOT a competitive game, then shouldn't it be more like D&D with players working together to fight the enemy and a DM to control it all?

So, lots of questions and discussion.

Is GW meant to be competitive? Why or why not? What are they doing/not doing to prove your point?

If they are NOT competitive, then can the game be truly overpowered and/or unbalanced?

Should there or shouldn't there be comp scores in tournaments?

Should there be tournaments at all? If not, why? If so, why?

These are just some thoughts going through my head as I work my nine to fiver based on a conversation I had this morning and with others of late. Let's hear what you think.. and be adults!

The Battle for Deathbridge begins!

2010-09-09T22:18:00.001-06:00

The Battle for Deathbridge begins... soon. The local club is starting a mighty fantasy escalation/land grab league. The insidious Forces of Destruction are invading the Island of Deathbridge, the meager armies of the Forces of Order rushing to the defense! Twelve armies all vying to be the last one standing!

The campaign set up is fairly neat. We will escalate from 1500pts to 2000 to 2500 over the course of 9-12 weeks. The campaign will be set upon a Mighty Empires tiled island with the FoD trying to take over as much of the map as they can. The campaign begins with a large scale 3 vs 3 game. The Forces of Order will be set upon the table in defensive positions holding two towers and a defensible other position. Each of these will be situated on one table quarter. Destruction are the attackers, deploying along one table edge, Order wherever else they are needed on the rest of the playing area.

The game itself is a mismatch in points. Destruction is supposed to win. How quickly they can win determines their placement and number of tiles for the commencement of the league. Destruction will total 6000pts with Order a mere 3000. Side games will/may be played at much smaller totals, 750 vs 500. The surviving models from those games can then immediately join the bigger game as reinforcements. It should be a blast for all involved and quite a large affair so early into a new system. It's definitely a good test on the large scale multiplayer rules.

Destruction will be the attacker throughout the campaign and needs to win 51% of the tiles to win the campaign... or rather, have 1 more then Order. Order just has to fend them off! There will be special, secret tiles with their own scenarios. There is the possibility of 2 on 1 games or multiplayer games. It's all up to the generals. They decide whom fights whom! They decide the fate of Deathbridge!

The sides, for those curious are:
Forces of Order: Wood Elves, Dwarves, Ogre Kingdoms, High Elves, Bretonnians, Lizardmen
Forces of Destruction: Warriors of Chaos, Throgg Monster Horde version of WoC, Beastmen, Ogre Kingdoms, Night Goblins and Skaven

Who will win? Who will survive? Keep track of the blog and see! We will try and give weekly updates as we progress.

And of course, as always, let's hear your thoughts. Are you doing a campaign? Wish you were? Going to?

Island of Blood and new Fantasy releases

2010-09-07T21:56:00.000-06:00

Normally I'd save this kind of post for Wallshammer, but I'm pretty darned excited about this, as a High Elf player and all.

For those of you who don't know (which I'm hoping isn't many of you), Island of Blood released on the weekend, with the best snap-together starter minis GW has done yet. But they weren't finished! Monday they released pictures of the new plastic High Elf elf kits and the new metal character blisters. On top of that, there is another wave of Skaven coming soon (signs point to January) to flesh them out even more.

Pictures after the break:

New Plastic Dragon Princes

New Plastic Phoenix Guard

New Plastic White Lions

New Metal Prince

New Metal Warlord

The new metal lords are character from the Island of Blood "setting". The Prince on foot is the same Prince riding the Griffin from the Island of Blood set and the new Skaven Warlord is a new character from the same battle.

Also, come January (or whenever), the Skaven are rumored to be getting Weapon Teams (in plastic!), a Hellpit Abomination (in plastic), several characters and bitz for making sling-toting slaves.

So Deathbridgers, what do you think? I've included a poll to get a sense of where the interest is, and I'd love to see some discussion about these new minis. Wallshammer and I have been discussing which army will be the "breakout star" of 8th edition. Walls has stated that High Elves will be the new Space Marines. I personally think that High Elves will start strong, but their elite, all-or-nothing style will turn off a lot of gamers who will then see that Skaven are one of the strongest armies out there. What do you think?

500pts... try it, it won't kill you... probably.

2010-09-03T20:05:00.001-06:00

Let's take a quick look at our normal point levels. Locally we play 1500 and in the wide world of internet gaming, that's small! I think it's the PERFECT size game. Lots of models but not an overspam of them and quick to play. However... what if we played even smaller games?!

But here's a task for all of you (STOLEN DIRECTLY FROM FRITZ~!)... come up with 500pt lists and play them. See what happens when you can't field your super character and his accompanying super unit. See how your army plays without 6 artillery pieces, 4 chimeras and 15 meltas. Without thunderwolf spam. Can't field 14 vendettas?! OH NOES! (exaggeration intended)

Yes, I know, you can't field your autowin army. But try it. See what happens! Hell, post your 500pt lists in response to this and get some discussion going. It's not a BAD thing to play small games. You need to think just as much. You can play more games in a night. You carry bag is smaller! It's really easy to field a 500pt fully painted army! Come on... do it!

I WANNA QUIT!!!

2010-09-02T12:00:00.000-06:00

I am sure a lot of us have been there. You are on that really bad losing streak. You can't seem to win, let alone the fact you are getting butt punted every time you put a shiny man on the table. Yes, this happened to me. Yes... oh yes. The source of my frustration? The above. The fact that I put a TON of work into an in progress army that got beat so horribly I wanted to hide my head in shame. Thankfully I had a REALLY good, friendly opponent. Against almost anyone else I would have quit.

So the question of this very short discussion piece is: What do you do to/How do you come back from your negative times (on the table) in the hobby?

Think of the Children (or the N00bs)

2010-09-01T17:15:00.000-06:00

A problem is popping up in Fantasy, now that we are 2 months in to the new edition. That being the enthusiasm that was drawing new players to the hobby is driving those new players away. Let me explain: New players, for those of you who might not know, usually don't know how to play the game. If they did, they wouldn't be new players. The vets of this game, on the other hand, are getting a little carried away with the new 'relaxing' of army composition. And creating some decidedly terrible lists, just because they can. I don't mean terrible in the 'why would you show up with that?' sense, I mean terrible in the 'Mwa ha ha ha! I can take 3 grudge throwers, 3 cannons, 6 bolt throwers, 2 organ guns and have great weapons on all my units!'.

Now, before you neck feathers get all poofy, let me clarify something. There is nothing wrong with playing something like the above... as long as the other guy knows what's going on. But springing something like that against a guy playing his first or second game? Seriously? What's wrong with you?

8th edition Fantasy has the most new-player-friendly rules of all of Games Workshop's products to date. HOWEVER, that does not automatically mean there will be a bunch of new players. A lot of them are getting turned off the hobby entirely by shenanigans just like the above (and if you are saying to yourself right now, 'Well I don't field that many artillery pieces' while painting your third Hydra, take a step back and give your head a shake. I used Dwarves as an example. EVERY army can be built to be ridiculous.)

Put yourself in the new player's shoes for a second. You have no idea what to buy, or how the game plays. So you buy stuff purely on the cool factor. This guy barely knows how to field these units, let alone how to stop a Bloodthirster with them. He sits down for his first game at a club... and across the table, the Skaven player smiles as he drops 2 Hellpit Abominations, and a Screaming Bell in a unit of 100 plague monks. This is over before it began. So the vet player (the Skaven guy) gets a cheap easy win. Yay, good for him. He's also just turned someone new to the game completely off the hobby.

And this is why our community doesn't grow. I'll admit, I almost never play out in public anymore, for this exact reason. I built my own games room, in my own house, where games are by appointment only. Just so I can weed out all the douchebaggery of winning at all costs. I'm sure any of you who have read my Warhammer articles know that I don't play to win. I play to have a good time and to tell a story. Guess I've just played D&D too long, but I find no joy in destroying my opponent, nor in him destroying me. But my point is, I'm a veteran of over ten years in these games, and I don't want to play in public anymore... how do you think a new player feels after being railroaded by a gooby Daemon list?

Now I've had this conversation with Wallshammer several times. I strongly believe that every club should have a 'pro' whose sole duty is to shield the new players from the mouth-breathers. You know the guys I'm talking about. The one the wrecks everyone else's good time because he just HAS TO win. The sad thing is, instead of getting shunned by the club for being a drain on good times, most club members will stoop to his level, usually 'to teach him a lesson' or to 'fight fire with fire'. This inevitably leads to an arms race within the club that has 2 very negative factors: First, it makes the place even less new-player friendly, and second, it turns off a lot of the casual vets who just want a place to put down the minis they spent a lot of time painting and converting, so they can have a fun time with like-minded individuals. But this isn't anything new coming from me.

Getting back to the idea of a 'pro' at the club... the theory is sound. However, this requires someone who is willing to be there ALL THE TIME, which pretty much no one can do. Also, the problem then also becomes, 'What if more than 2 new players show up?' Well here's the thing: no one would be able to do this full-time. Not without getting paid. You are essentially asking them to do an impossible job at the same time as giving up all sense of regular gaming. Is this fair to them? On a volunteer basis, absolutely not.

And some of you might say that this is exactly what the Games Workshop red shirts are for. But I can tell you flat out that the red shirts are worse for this hobby than the goobs. I know several ex-GW employees. And in addition to being some of the WORST power-gamers I've ever had the displeasure of gaming with, they are only introducing new players to the game to the point of sale. Once the cash has been handed over, they could care less. New players become part of the unwashed masses like the rest of us. Of course there are going to be exceptions, but by and large, a GW staffer cares no more for this hobby than that guy who wants to crush his enemies, have them driven before him and hear the lamentations of their women. Sadly, a lot of the time, they are the same guy.

So how do we solve this problem? GW staffers aren't the solution, and no one is going to volunteer to sit at the club everyday and cater to only new players. So is it hopeless? Of course not.

The simple solution in all this is that we ALL must become 'pros'. We ALL must be ambassadors of the hobby if we want the community to grow. If winning is more important to you than anything, the best thing you could ever do for the community is to stay away from the new guys (of course, most of the vets probably won't play you either, so new players might be the only 'suckers' you can get a game in with, in which case, maybe, and I'm just throwing this out here, maybe there is something wrong with how you approach the game.). Let them get their feet wet before you throw them overboard. And if you are a hobbyist, find these new players, warm them of the mouth-breathers, and keep them safe. If we don't protect the new players, the club will just keep getting smaller and smaller until there is no one left. Think about it: Isn't that worth a little bit of effort and kindness?

Why certain blogs are really starting to suck...

2010-08-09T11:29:00.003-06:00

Another well read wargaming blog recently posted an article bemoaning True Line of Sight. It really ticked me off, to be honest and made me think that this would be a good follow up post to my last one.

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2010/08/editorial-how-true-line-of-sight-is.html

That's the article. Let's hear your thoughts on it. Mine were posted under a different name but, so you don't have to sift through all the garbage responses went:

Does anyone talk to their opponent before they start a game anymore? Or is the table all set up, everything deployed blindly and then... BLINDFOLDS OFF! LET'S PLAY!

The biggest problem plaguing wargaming is NOT LoS, it is the incessant need to win. This is a cooperative game where you should be playing WITH your opponent, not AGAINST him. Are you there to enjoy a couple hours in your chosen hobby? Are you there to have fun playing with miniatures you likely (well, unless you are one of the players on some of the recent battle reports) put alot of work into?

Then why are you wasting your time arguing about trivial things like LoS? Why weren't these issues quickly worked out before the game? Why, instead of endless bitching, arguing and time wasting, did you not simply roll off to see if it counted or not? This goes for friendly games with pals, pick up games with strangers or tournament games. Does ANYONE really follow the number one rule in the game anymore?

Line of Sight is seriously the easiest thing ever. Can you see it? Yes or no? Undecided? Ask your oponent. He can't decide? You can't come to a group conclusion? Roll off. Um. How is that difficult again?

Do we just live in a way different gaming world then the internet?

What this game is really about.

2010-07-21T10:07:00.000-06:00

People tend to lose track of what this game is actually about. They worry about number crunching, W/L, min/max, which unit is under/overcosted. We just aren't seeing the real game anymore. Perhaps it's about time we did.

I will keep it quick, but check out these two particular subjects. The first, a blog from a former playtester for GW and then a video from Jervis Johnson. Especially listen to him. It's basically his game after all. Odds are he has a better idea of what the game is then we do.

http://bloodofkittens.com/2010/07/21/meat-for-meta-the-truth-behind-gw-playtesting/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce4_rSyTpck&feature=player_embedded

8th Edition FAQs are up and running

2010-07-09T11:20:00.001-06:00

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?pIndex=1&aId=3000006&start=2

DISCUSS!

T-Minus... uh... not very long now!

2010-07-08T19:47:00.000-06:00

Wow, we have the absolute worst titles around here, don't we?

8th Edition is nary a day away now. Plenty of us have been playing the new rules, adapting and changing our army lists. Mass speculation abounds about what does and doesn't work. Hordes were talked about amighty on forums, yet I personally am finding them to not be as dangerous and crazy as thought originally. Shooting is good, but not gamebreaking. The new magic phase is astonishingly great.

What are you seeing and experiencing thus far in your 8th edition adventures? Let's hear your thoughts, your trials and your tribulations in this brand new game!

Am I Evil? YES I AM!

2010-07-02T17:57:00.000-06:00

Maybe not the most appropriate title for this article, but I was just listening to Metallica, so it was stuck in my head.

How do you choose your army? Let's assume for a moment that all models in the game are built equal and the game is perfectly balanced. I'll give you twenty minutes or so to stop laughing, then we can continue.

With 8th edition dropping next weekend, I have been having a lot of conversations about army choice. People looking to get back into the game. Guys in the game looking to start a second army, or not liking that their uber-build from 7th ed won't auto-win them games anymore (and it not dawning on them that this is precisely why the edition is changing). So it got me to thinking: from a purely background perspective, where do I stand for army selection? Where do I start making the choices that help me select an army? For me, I know the first decision is good versus evil.

8th ed Fantasy is actually really good at drawing lines in the sand between good and evil (and neutral, in the case of 2 armies).

Now I realize that this is probably one of the most subjective things you can discuss. Everything in your life experience ultimately fuels this choice. For example, I've been a Dungeon Master for 20 years now, so I'm very comfortable playing Orcs and Goblins. Because I've been playing them, as a DM, for a very long time. However, I know that my preference is to play the hero, the good guy, since it's a role I very rarely get to indulge in.

Also, your local meta-game may or may not influence your army selection. I face pretty much nothing but Vampires and Daemons out here, so I'm even more inclined to go the route of the good guy, because it tells a better story for me. Evil versus evil isn't nearly as dramatic.

And of course beyond good and evil, there is the actual background of the army. Games Workshop nailed it out of the park when they took Orcs from being Tolkien-esque monsters to being drunken soccer-hooligans. It makes them unique. It makes them fun! It's a deviation from the 'standard fantasy' Though I do think they have dropped the ball in other areas. I can understand them wanting to make every army a 'grey area' so that there is always a reason to fight any other army out there. But it would be more dramatic if there were clearly defined 'good guys' and bad guys. Bretonnia started out that way, then in 6th, the background changed to show that they treat their peasants like slaves. It sullies there good reputation, for no point other than to show how dark the setting was in 6th and 7th.

It sounds though, like they are moving back to the dynamic. The epic struggle of good versus evil. that really appeals to me. The one thing I don't like about 40k is the dark versus dark mentality. A story isn't a good story unless you have a hero AND a villain. Villain versus slightly-less-villain gets old quick.

So take a look around your gaming scene? Are you dominated by Daemons and the undead, like I am? Or perhaps the opposite, and the realms of Elves, Dwarves and Men conquer all. In either case, if you are planning a new army for Fantasy, take that into consideration. Maybe go against the grain, if for no other reason than to create a better story on the table. It also helps to spice things up. You know what's not a fun time? Playing back to back games on the same day, against different opponents, who are using the same army. 5 guys showing up to a club all with High Elves (it's going to happen when the new starter set comes out).

Break the mould. Wouldn't you like to be known by your signature army? "Yeah, that Jim, he's our Skaven guy" is a little more exciting than 'Hey there's Jim. Him, Steve, Fred, Bob and Marmaduke all play High Elves." Just food for thought.

The Secret to Modelling and Painting 2 - The Opinioning

2010-06-25T13:14:00.000-06:00

I know... WORST... TITLE... EVER...

But let's get past that to the meat of the article. Part 2 of this article is much more opinion-based than the first part. Granted, a lot of what was said in part one is opinion, but for the most part, they are pretty obvious, and a little hard to argue with (yes having a ton of models actually does make you less likely to paint them). Part two, on the other hand, will deal more with the painting of models, and will be very skewed to my personal opinion of painting. Will it be as informative? Maybe. Will it spark conversation? I really hope so. So let's get down to it: (Also, I couldn't find relative ranting pictures, so enjoy these pictures of puppies!)

1) Base colors aren't enough anymore. Look at the tools available to us now, as opposed to ten years ago. Cheap, easily available (if sometimes poor quality) airbrushes. Matte medium for creating washes out of damn near anything (don't want to fork out the dough for matte medium? Try Future Floor Wax with a little bit of water!). High quality brushes at affordable prices. The list goes on. If you are just slapping down a base coat, and calling it good enough, then you are one of two things: Lazy, or only in the hobby to win the game. "I don't know how to paint" isn't a legitimate excuse anymore. There are books, DVDs and about a billion YouTube videos to show you how to do almost anything. Not to mention a bunch of long-winded, opinionated jerks who post on the internet (that was self-referential, in case you missed it).

I don't want to get off on a rant here, but painting miniatures is more a technical skill than some born-with, innate talent. You know how you develop technical skill? PRACTICE! And practice doesn't mean taking a tank brush to some space marines and calling it a day. You develop a steady hand. You learn to control color and paint viscosity. I know color-blind painters, blind in one eye painters, and have even read about a painter with no hands! Now I get that not everyone enjoys painting, and that's fine, but if painting is not your thing, find someone whose thing it is and get them to pant your stuff for you. This is a hobby. 9/10ths of the hobby is the collecting, preparing and painting of the models. If you are spending more time in your week playing than any other aspect of the hobby... seriously, think about if this is the right hobby for you. If you just like winning games, there's nothing wrong with that (as long as you're around like-minded individuals... nothing wrecks a good time more than a WAAC gamer at a casual event). Wizkids are still putting out (*cough*) quality pre-painted minis. Rackham has joined the pre-paint bandwagon. Wizards of the coast has a great D&D mini game line. Then of course there are the countless card games, board games and video games.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to crap all over people who like to win. There is nothing wrong with wanting to win (except for winning at the expense of everyone else's fun, but that goes for anything, and just makes you an ass), but if you only care about winning in a hobby that's rules were only invented to help sell minis, you've probably got the wrong game.

Bottom line: Help is abundant, practice makes perfect, and it's easier than you think.

2) A grimdark setting is not an excuse for a muddy-looking model. Yes, the world of 40k is a bleak, hopeless dystopian future. Yes you're average tank shouldn't look like it rolled off the showroom floor (though I'd argue that with the Eldar). But too many times, you see models that are base-coated, then washed in Devlan Mud and called finished 'because it looks more gritty and dirty that way'. No. It doesn't. It looks unfinished and sloppy. There is only one way of doing weathering on vehicles and models. And it's time-consuming. Anything else is just being lazy.

I'm all for giving something a wash to add depth to the model. I'm a big fan of Devaln Mud. But the process does not, and should never, stop there. Trust me, I get that some models are just more fun to paint than others. And I understand the pain of knowing once you finish this model, there are still 200 more needing your attention. I also get the desire to all least have everything better than primed.

But here's the thing: Just because you have 200 models to paint doesn't necessarily mean that you should paint the model in the front nicely, and the rest like crap. Again, I'm coming from a hobbyist's perspective. I game, if I'm lucky once every 2 weeks. I spend the rest of the time painting. The hobby part of this game means a great deal to me. And it's been my experience, playing hundreds of different people, that the better your army is painted, the more fun you are to play with. I have never played a douchebag with a nicely painted army. Coincidentally, all of my worst games were against people who didn't even have their models fully-assembled. As a hobbyist, I can tell how the game is going to go by the amount of effort put into the models. It's obvious.

How many of you Deathbridgers would agree that Wallshammer is great to play against? I'm guessing all of you. You know why? HE LOVES THIS HOBBY! He lavishes his models with attention. He converts, he paints many layers, and picks out the details. He tricks-out his bases. You see his army on the table and you know he's not just playing to win. He's playing to have a good time AND to make sure you have a good time too.

And that's the key to this whole little rant: Your effort in the hobby-side of the game shows what kind of player you are. A poorly-painted army is a STRONG indicator of a player not interested in the other guy in the game. Warhammer Fantasy used to be called 'the Gentlemen's Game'. Because almost all Fantasy players were hobbyists, and the showed courtesy and respect to their fellow gamers by taking the time and effort to deliver a polished army and good gaming experience (and thank-you Mat Ward for ruining that).

Getting back on point, we are talking about miniature models here. If it's all dark and muddy, it's essentially a blob on the table. Your opponent may or may not have any idea what it actually is from 4 feet away. However, if you paint cleanly, you use some bright colors, and you use a palette that is more than just 'brown, brown and more brown' you are helping your opponent. You are helping them understand what they are facing, you are helping them ease game play, by not wither having to explain what each model is, or worse, handing them a big surprise when it's too late.

3) Realism in painting miniature models is absurd. Seriously. We are talking about 8 foot tall mutant humans surrounded by essentially a walking tank, with a gun that fires rockets. At that point, make them colorful. It's not like they are going to be able to hide behind a bush anyways, what with their chainswords roaring and walking sarcophagus lumbering behind them.

Essentially this is a variation of point number 2. But it's a little more metagame. Remember, we are playing a game of little toy soldiers. Why not make them look nice? Go look at coolminiornot.com. Go look at the weathered models there. All the good-looking models started with a bright color made dark by chipping paint and weathering boots. The base coat and a devlan mud wash minis won't even show up on there.

Space Marines should be bright, their armor is their heraldry. Eldar should be practically glowing. Does this mean that there is no place for camouflage in 40k? Of course not. But what most people don't realize, camo is actually really hard to paint well. It takes a lot of time. Mudding the bottom of a transport, or the boots of a soldier takes time. And only works if you paint the model 'facotry-fresh' first. And THEN wear it down.

Remember, this is science fantasy, not science fiction. In 'real-life' yes, a soldier probably would be brown on brown. On the table, it looks terrible. It's what I dislike most about LotR. They paint everything 'naturalistic' to emulate the movies, but it makes for boring models and takes away from the gaming experience. I personally LOVE brightly colored models. Never in my life have I thought 'that doesn't look very realistic' (I'd punch myself in the face if I ever used 'realistic to try to describe the painting on a Carnifex). I have gone 'Holy Crap! I love how that's painted!' and 'Did that guy even paint that model, or just throw it in the dirt?'.

4) No one is asking you to win a Golden Daemon. They are just asking you to try. Put a little effort in past 'Git'er dun!' I once read a great article on a guy building an Orc and Goblin army. He base-coated everything, to get his army table-ready. Then every week he showed up to game, one of his units was shaded and highlighted until his whole army looked really polished.

This is a fantastic way to get started! Plus, if you show your gaming club that you are making genuine progress on your models every week, it tells them that you take the fun and enjoyment of other club members seriously. I can't stress that enough. Well-painted models show courtesy to your opponent. Showing all the upgrades on a unit shows courtesy to your opponent. Showing up on time, having all your gaming materials... it's all about courtesy. Make 40k a Gentlemen's Game. Strive to make sure your opponent has as much fun as you do. And nothing says you are concerned about the guy on the other side of the table as making your army look the best it can.

No one is expecting you to win awards for your painting. But it's really obvious when you're trying and when you're not.

Anyhow, that's my incredibly long-winded rant about the real secret of painting and modeling. I'm sure there will be people who don't agree. Which is why I prefaced this part with a strong opinion warning. But at the very least it's food for thought.

The Secret to Modelling and Painting

2010-06-21T23:06:00.000-06:00

As I returned from the rain-soaked Prairies of Alberta, I found myself once again in comfortable surroundings, ready to sit down and paint up a storm. I put out the models I wanted to paint, sat them in front of me, and stopped dead in my tracks.

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever found yourself keen and ready to paint, only to fall flat when it actually comes time to dip your brush?

It got me to thinking: What's stopping me? So, as is my nature, I thought and thought about it. My process came up with the following questions:

Am I losing interest/not interested in painting this army? If so, why? Did I need to start something fresh, since I've been ponderously working on the same army for quite a while now? Is my interest in this army waning because I'd rather be playing a whole different game? Is the sheer number of models I have intimidating me to finish?

So as I thought about these things, I came up with some guidelines for myself that I think will keep me on track, and prevent me from getting stopped in my tracks.

1. Never buy ahead. It's actually a really, really good idea to plan your army in advance. It helps with theme, color choice and maximizes purchasing power; as opposed to impulse buying and then leaving several units on the shelf while you game. If you are starting a new army, don't go out and buy 3000 points (in the case of Warhammer Fantasy or 40k) right away. Get an HQ (or hero) and 2 Troops (or Core) at most. Paint those, and then expand from there. A lot of burn out will occur from the subconscious knowledge that getting these 10 models done is great, but there is 200 more in your closet waiting to be painted. Don't get overwhelmed.

And if you are already past that point, there is a solution. Pack things up. And I don't mean in your case or on your shelf. I mean stuff them in a cardboard box, tape the box up and put it somewhere you don't normally store your models. Not to opened until the project you are working on is finished. It seems like a lot of effort, and more than a little strange, but it will ease your mind psychologically knowing that they are literally 'out of sight, out of mind'.

The third, and most drastic option, is to sell off some of your stuff. This one seems to work the best for me, as it helps me decide what I want to keep, which assists in choosing my next painting project, simply by figuring out the priorities (modeling and painting-wise in an army). This is usually a permanent solution though, so be careful. Seller remorse is almost worse than having too many things to do.

2. Preparation is everything. I'm sure you've heard most of this before. Clean your mould lines. Make sure the feeds from the sprue are cleaned off. Make sure you model everything the model is going to use (grenades, weapons, etc...) This does two things: First, a clean model is nicer to paint. I find it frustrating to be painting and then have to paint over a mould line. It sort of wrecks the model for me. Also, cleaning the model gets you familiar with the model. You'll see details you might have otherwise missed if you just dove straight in. And as for modeling all the options on your model, that's just a courtesy thing. It makes the game easier to play for you're opponent because they know what they are getting into. One of the most frustrating things I find when I'm playing is when a model is under (or mis)-represented.

3. Base before painting. Nothing is more frustrating than spending hours painting a model, then having to go back and base it. And even worse when you go to base it and the glue sticks to the model rather than the base. It's also been my experience that pre-basing, before priming, helps the basing material stick better. This cuts down on the time needed to finish the model. If you've never tried it before, I strongly recommend it.

4. Pre-plan your color scheme. And practice it! Knowing exactly how you are going to tackle every color in your army helps the painting go faster. And it's much less daunting to come at a fresh model with a color scheme in hand (or mind). I find the best thing to do is to write everything down. Then, if you take a long break from painting, or you add more units to a finished army, you can maintain consistency.

5. Only work on a few models at a time. This is one where a lot of people will probably disagree with me, but I find chain painting entire squads to be painful. It stops being an exercise in painting, which is fairly artistic, to be mass production, which is more the realm of being a robot. I NEVER work on more than 5 models at a time. Anything on a 40mm base or larger, only one at a time. Yes, it's slower, but, you'll find the quality goes up. And the unit will look better overall for doing it. Plus, setting a goal of painting 3 models in a night is much more achievable than painting 30 models by the end of the week. My Eldar, for example, I painted everything in threes. It took a long time, but I think it was worth the extra time. Plus it got me through the entire series of Robotech.

6. Have an end goal. This can be anything. An upcoming tournament. A big Apocalypse game. Playing far from home. Or it can be more set, like 2000 points, or one of every unit. Deadlines are a great motivators, but they are also the biggest cause of burn-out, because it's in human nature to 'cram' at the last minute.

7. Have something special planned for your army. This usually ties best into theme. Taking my Eldar as an example, I used the Forgeworld Avatar as my centerpiece for the army. I saw the new sculpts for the Aspect Warriors, and saw that Forgeworld Avatar, and immediately I had a theme; Biel-Tan Eldar. So I sold off my old Eldar army and started fresh. You should ALWAYS have a showcase piece in your army. Something that ties everything together. Something that makes the guy on the other side of the table drop his jaw. Now this doesn't always have to be a model in the army. It could be a stunning display board. It could be a hand-crafted, leather-bound army list. But it should be something that lets your opponent know that you think there is more to this game than winning.

So the next time you sit down to paint, and find yourself stuck, try some of these ideas. The goal is to make painting enjoyable, since the bulk of the time in the hobby is spent painting (or at least it should be). If you feel like painting is a chore, guess what?; it is. If you find the joy in painting, it is a very, very rewarding part of the hobby.

An alternate take on the Heresy

2010-06-18T00:49:00.000-06:00

The folks over at Bolter and Chainsword have developed quite the alternate timeline for 40k. It's a different look at the history of the game, using the old "What if..." adage. It's a FANTASTIC read for any fan of Space Marines. It's a simple premise. "What if Horus did not turn to Chaos... so Chaos turned to Rogal Dorn?" Just simply awesome they way they retell the Heresy. I couldn't quit reading it.

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/heresy/thedornianheresy.pdf

OMGTITANSKTHANXBYE

2010-06-15T11:00:00.003-06:00

Well i for one have been WoW clean for about a year and a half now......and than this happens. WAR was pretty fun for abit but lost out on the simple fact the game was trying to hard to do too many things.

It's also in my opinion that space MMOs can't work but who knows, i'll still be there launch day!

Video after the break!

Apocalypse and things I've learned!

2010-06-14T17:03:00.001-06:00

The local, 40k Escalation league end Apocalypse game, all eight hours and 40k+ points of it has come and gone. It was a long but VERY fun day playing with a good group of guys and friends. Club mates even came to watch. However, since then (and with discussion with others) I've come to realize some things that would improve my next big game experience. Let's discuss a few of these.

1. COME PREPARED!

When you come to a game, prepared for months, you should be 100% completely prepared. Your models should be assembled and painted. Your lists should be planned and finished well ahead of time. If you are given the choice of stratagems, then pick them ahead of time. Every single game book is available online in PDF form for free through torrents so there is really no excuse. Of course, you bring your dice, models, templates, books and pens, army books, rule book, army lists, etc. Arrange that you have apocalypse templates available through one of the players possessing them. Mark your stuff too! Simple initials on your templates and dice cubes, for instance!

2. FULL DISCLOSURE!

Other then bids, you don't need to hide ANYTHING in the game. Your army lists should be public. Special characters should be public. Datasheets and formations should be public. Even stratagems. Why? It avoids arguments. For example, and this isn't a slag on ANYONE, but one team in our big apocalypse game had 2 players with the same stratagem. There is mention in the Apocalypse rule book that no two players on the same side take the same strategem or formation. Both having it actually hurt the game somewhat (this for another discussion) and having made it public we could have changed things and made the game much more spectacular. If you're hiding things, you're either cheating or ONLY playing to win. Use Army Builder! It's cheap, way cheaper then any models or kit in the hobby and frankly, the best thing to happen to mini's gaming.

3. PRE GAME DISCUSSION!

Going into this game, the players should be prepared. There should be a discussion ahead of time in which the general lay out of the game is discussed, what is and isn't allowed, etc. This will take away a LOT of problems during the game and allow for more play time.

4. SIZE LIMITS!

Unlimited size armies just do NOT work. You can try and discuss what you can/can't take, but with unlimited points, the game is practically unplayable. Take our game (again) for instance. There were armies where every vehicle had all options, benefits, extra armor and hunter killer missiles. Every model had every single upgrade possible. Every unit has every addition and is full sized It basically becomes, pardon the expression, a dick wagging ceremony. Who can bring the stupidest, biggest, baddest units and models. It also make people bring stuff that does NOT belong in their army. They play a certain army, yet bring a SINGLE model from another army ONLY for their powers. They don't bring a force from that, just the single model. Because "they have it". Bull. It's for the benefit of the army, pure and simple. Limiting the points disallows this and makes players only bring their actual armies. We aren't saying 3000pts only. 4k, 5k... as long as there is a strict limit to stop the overbearing chaos that is unlimited points. Going with this, play ONLY what you can reasonably play. If it's going to take an hour JUST FOR YOU to finish a shooting phase while your team mates sit around with their hands on their laps, maybe you have too big an army. HOWEVER, if you _are_ going to play unlimited points, the group needs to discuss what they can/can't upgrade. Can/cannot add. Again, full disclosure (2) and pre-game discussion (3).

5. NO MODEL? NOT IN THE GAME!

You can buy orbital bombardements (for now) from the Witch and Daemon hunters books. Do an unlimited point game and you can basically buy as many as you want. There are other instances like this in the game. Just... don't. If there is no model to represent it, it should not be on the table. It's cheating min/max free points.

6. NO FREE STRATAGEMS!

Formations allow some armies to gain stratagems. There is no reason I can see to give away a free stratagem to a player just for showing up. The counter argument is it adds flavor to the game. My take is that there are only a few stratagems that are ever taken. These are usually game breakingly powerful, hence being taken. I would say if you don't get them from formations, you don't get them.

7. THEMED ARMIES!

In playing a FULLY PAINTED 40,000 POINT GAME, we proved that we all have very big armies locally. There was no reason you shouldn't play a themed army. If you are going to play Apocalypse, don't just take every random model you have (or only your favorites) to make up your point total. Have theme. For instance, Green Feevah brought ONLY Biel-Tan Eldar. Players bring ONLY Ultramarines and Imperial guard painted to represent the Macragge PDF. Nid armies are usually painted in a similar scheme. Have some story to your army, not made up powergaming. The game is so, so, sooooooooooooooo much more interesting like this. There is an inherent, instant flavor to the battle that invests more interest, emotion and fun.

8. KNOW YOUR RULES!

Everyone is probably guilty of this. Know the rules for apocalypse. Know the rules for your army. Use Army Builder! Don't look for your codex for every stat every fight when you can simply print out an army builder sheet. You are playing Apocalypse, know it's special rules. This goes for Planetstrike, Cities of Death, whatever. Heck, this weekend proved I need to read more myself!

9. SCENARIOS AND PRE-PLANNED GAMES!

While part of the game is to team pick objectives and random deployment zones, why not choose all this? Why not have a more thematic feel to the game by discussing the storyline, picking storyline objectives and picking a deployment that makes sense with this. Again, it's then not a random game. You're playing something that has a background, has texture and has something to invest in. Trust me, this will be so much more fun. You need to defend the chapel as part of the game, you'll defend it as much as you can! Putting some marker down in your deployment zone just because you can? Meh. You'll get it later.

10. TEAM MATES MATTER!

Again, not to hark on this, but Army Builder is SO AWESOME! You have every stat and weapon for every model in your army on a sheet of printed out paper. Your team mates can reference these! Not everyone will take the same length in each phase. If you're playing a huge army, delegate! Ask your team mates to move, shoot, assault with certain models if you aren't finished and they are. They look on Army Builder... bam, done. This speeds up the game, allowing for more turns, allowing for more moments.

11. PLAY LIKE YOU GOT A PAIR... BUT DON'T PLAY TO WIN!

People are going to disagree with me on this, but Apocalypse is meant more to be a fun exercise of social interaction, then a game you are going out 100% to win. What happens, and what happened in our club's game, is everyone worried about winning and played WAY too conservatively, leaving stuff behind so they could do a last second dash for the objectives. We deployed some eight feet apart, basically limiting the first turn to 10 minutes of moving and that's it. A Bloodthirster literally flew and ran THE ENTIRE GAME and didn't get to the enemies lines. Tanks with 72" range couldn't shoot for two turns. That's just ridiculous. As Privateer Press says you gotta play like you've gotta pair. Line up and FIGHT. You have lots of models, let some die. Believe you this... it's as much fun to watch my stuff blow up in spectacular fashion as it is for me to see yours do the same. It's NOT a defensive game. It doesn't work when it is.

12. PLAY FOR THE MOMENT!

My FAVORITE part of the entire game was when a Straken led squad jumped into a Belial led squad. Big names fighting big names. Big tanks shooting big tanks. A mass swirling battle over an objective! A single monster taking on an entire gun battery and surviving! THIS is what the game is about. Play for those. Play like you've got a pair!

I'd like to hear what other people think about Apocalypse and their views of the game, their experiences and what makes a good game to them.

Bell of Lost Souls blog roll

2010-06-11T13:19:00.000-06:00

Though not everyone likes BoLS, there is no disputing they get the most traffic on the Warhammer/Minis Gaming blogosphere. So, with that in mind we've teamed up with them and joined their blog roll. This should give us a ton more traffic and more readers! Our new posts will show up on their homepage's blog roll.

And to the new readers and the BoLS staff... welcome!

It's... go time!

2010-06-11T12:41:00.001-06:00

It's that time of the year. The annual escalation league is over. Armies are assembled and painted. Players are well trained, on point... and exhausted. So much playing over these past few months and it all comes to a head on Sunday with the League Ending Apocalypse game!

This game is going to be a doozy. Seven players have signed up with a possible ten by game time. Ten players all playing, as it stands, 4000pts and higher. The crazy part? It's all painted. Every single model that will be in the table. All 40000 points (or more) ALL PAINTED. And, really, it's a national affair. Not only do we have local people playing but non leaguers are coming from out of town. Some driving two hours. Others taking the day long trek (literally) from another province! The event of the year!

We need a 20x8 table for this game. We need every piece of terrain we can fandangle. There will be forests destroyed by our army sheets. Copious amounts of caffeine shall be consumed. All this in the name of one silly little game that we all complain and whine about daily. A game that costs more pound for pound then crack. A game that's caused more then one argument with our significant other. "Sorry, honey, can't come to bed, gotta paint the headbands on my guys!"

Green Feevah brings his Biel Tan force, one of the best looking armies I know. Doompickle lands with his Deathwing and Ravenguard, 40 terminators littering the field! My Catachan horde Space Wolves! More Imperial Guard. Tau? Chaos Marines? Fire Hawks! Yes, the marines that eventually became the Legion of the Damned somehow return from the warp for one game. It's gonna be a heck of a time that those not coming are going to regret missing!

And we'll even have pictures and battle reports after! After we eat smores that is.

Are you Prepared?

2010-06-08T14:53:00.000-06:00

So as I'm packing up for my big trip out East, and gathering all my Eldar for what I'm sure will be the battle to end all battles at Wallshammer's place this weekend, I got to thinking: Do I have everything?

What I mean by that is: My Dice, my tape measure, my templates, my tokens and counters, my objective markers, my rulebook, my codex, my Apocalypse book, and obviously my miniatures. Well lucky for me, I not only have all of that, but I have it all in one place: In my miniatures bag. Not only that, but there is a copy of Cities of Death, Planetstrike, Apocalyspe Reload, my Apocalypse templates, my vortex grenade template and now, the full rules for Spearhead (print-offs for the formations and the White Dwarf with the rules). I'm also sporting my full army list and the FAQs for the Eldar and the main rules.

Now don't get me wrong; this is a lot of stuff. My bag is more rulebooks than minis almost. But I know that I am prepared for any game, any time, anywhere.

One of my pet peeves is gamers who don't have the proper tools to game. The worst offenders I find are the people (out here anyways) that play at Games Workshop. No rulebooks, no army list, I'm thankful they have dice and a tape measure. The worst of it was back in 3rd edition, going their and playing some kid who didn't have any of his rulebooks, nor a printed list, and somehow, strangely, his Daemon Princes seemed to have every upgrade possible. Easily 300 points worth. My most regular opponent does this too. He games at my house, and since I am always prepared with my tools, he doesn't bring his and just uses mine. That irks me.

To me, it's common courtesy to be prepared. I feel that having everything I need to game ready to go, I am telling my opponent that I want him to have a good game. That I don't want to bring the game to halt by arguing over a rule that I can't show him. That I don't need to borrow dice, or counters or whatever because I'm ready to go.

Now of course the counter-argument to this is indeed that it is getting to be a lot of kit. Many books, a big pile of dice, all the counters, etc... This game has got to be one of the hardest to transport games out there. I have transporting my Eldar down to a science; my Orks though... not so much. No mortal case can contain the might of my Orks!

And though my Orks may arrive to the battle in carboard boxes and empty lunch trays, I still always make sure the things I need to make the game run smoothly are there. Maybe it's from 20 years of being a Dungeon Master, but one of my biggest concerns is that everyone at the table is having a good time. And to me, that means being prepared.

What do you guys think? Are you prepared?

Ork Non-Tactica

2010-06-02T03:12:00.005-06:00

First, let me explain. I have been a long-time Eldar player. Since 3rd edition. But the Eldar are and likely always will be a very unforgiving army. You feel every model lost. You play on the razor's edge of defeat, knowing if you don't play a near-perfect game your chances are slim. It gets to be a little tiring after a while. So, WAAAAAAY back in 3rd, I decided I wanted a more relaxed army. Something I didn't have to meticulously plan out (both in army list and in battlefield approach). So I chose, as my second main army, Orks, the kings of wacky, random, out-of-control mayhem.

That said, my Orks were shelved for all of 4th edition. So were my Eldar for a longtime. Their old, old codices just couldn't keep up, so I played mostly Marines back then (and they were dark days indeed). But towards the end of 4th edition, my interest in both the Eldar and the Orks were renewed. And with the interest, eventually came new codices!

The Eldar books I have spoken about before, but I could go on for days about the subtlety of fielding them. But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to talk about Orks. And how they are the masters of not planning.

With the advent of the new Ork codex, suddenly the army went from being very limited (because most units were underpowered and overpriced) to truly being a top-tier army. Almost everything in the book was a useful unit. The new models rank amongst the best GW has ever made. And that's when I found the true jewel of the codex. The secret that keeps me coming back for more.

You see, with the Eldar, my lists, be they fluffy or competitive, are meticulous. If it's a fluffy list, I follow the background to the letter, making sure there isn't a single model that doesn't fit the theme. My competitive list (back when I made such things) had the same meticulous planning involved. I know, when I field my Eldar, what every unit is doing for the first three turns of the game before I deploy them. My back-up plans have back-up plans. Not so with my Orks.

My last three games with my Orks have been the direct opposite. I have a core of models that I have recently re-painted that serves as the base of the army, but then I am literally still figuring out my points as I set-up. I take whatever strikes my fancy that day. I have no plan going into the fight, other than 'ORK SMASH!"... and I love it.

Again, to contrast against my Eldar, it s an army that is planned to the finest detail. I planned the army for 4000 points. Every model I own fits in the list. I tweak and adjust slightly, as I learn more and more of the nuances of the army, but overall, I have only bought exactly what I'll be using.

The Orks though are as different as can be. I'm truly dictated by 'I want to paint that' or 'that model is amazing!' I have quite a few points (5000 BEFORE my 4 super-heavies) and it's all just random units. There is no cohesion. I did not pick a Klan (I started as Speed Freeks, then moved to Evil Sunz, now I'm on to Goffs, since I'm taking a much more mixed approach to the list). My Eldar list has 4 troops choices that show up in every game. My Orks have 12 and counting. The only FOC slots that go over the 3 for a standard game are my Heavies, and that's just for Apocalypse. My Orks have more than I can field in EVERY slot.

Now I'm not saying you can just go out, buy a bunch of models, throw anything on the table and expect to win all the time. That's just not going to happen with this army. It's too random, too unpredictable. If you want to be able to field anything and still have a greater than average chance of success, Guard or Marines are far better choices. However, if you play just for the Hell of it, and don't mind your army occasionally defeating itself, then Orks are the army for you!

I called this a Non-Tactica, because I feel I can't really discuss the tactics of Orks. That would involve me having a plan. What I can tell you is that the army is a blast to play, and throwing stuff out there just for the Hell of it is a great break from being structured. There is the obvious, Lootas are good at killing tough stuff like Daemon Princes, or the Deff Rollas are the best anti-tank the army has. But really, it's all circumstantial. The Eldar plan. It's in their background, and it's how they play. The Orks live in the moment, just spoiling for a good fight. And that's exactly how they play best.

Kill Teams, the saviour of random models everywhere!

2010-05-28T22:40:00.003-06:00

We are all guilty of it.

Hordes of random models in boxes and troughs and buckets. Sitting on shelves and window sills. Models that inspired you to start an army... that you never actually started. A unit you got in some random trade or that came with some random sale. Perhaps the last remnants of a long ago army you played.

Every one of us have these and now, finally, we have a solution to our random model woes: Kill Team!

Battle Missions is a very good book. Tons of neat, unique missions. Different ways to play the game but I am not sure there are any more fun then Kill Teams. For those of you who don't know what it is, Kill Teams is a skirmish based game like 40k but perhaps more akin to Warmachine. Your unit models move individually, shoot individually... they are each their own mini unit. You have 20 orks... you move each one seperate. It's a two hundred point limit game, very small, with very strict restrictions on choosing. 0-1 elite, 0-1 fast attack and 0-2 troops. You play the game on a small (3x3 to 4x4) table that should rightfully be near covered in terrain. Any less then 75% and you aren't doing it right. It's very quick to play, full of energy. I played five games of it easily in one night, with five different lists!

Look through your closets and bins, you never know what you might come across that you forgot you had! heck, it might renew your enthusiasm for an army that was crap before. Proof? Play 2 wraiths and the rest in Flayed Ones. Suddenly a useless unit on a useless army is the craziest thing ever! (*grumble*)

So, Deathbridgers and readers alike what are your thoughts on Kill Teams? What lists have you been playing and enjoying? Let's hear 'em!

How do you pick your Army Colors?

2010-05-28T14:29:00.004-06:00

Here's a question I pose to all the Deathbridgers out there: When you start a new army, what makes you pick the colors you eventually paint? Is it a personal preference (I like green), is it that some colors are easier to paint? Are you following the fluff of a certain aspect of that army (like a Chapter or Craftworld)? Or is it something all together different?

Personal preference is obviously important. Myself, I won't paint an army who's color I don't like. Black Templars have some great models, and their upgrade sprues for regular marines are still among the best out there. But an entire army of black? No thank-you. I like color. It's most of what drives me to paint in the first place.

That said, black is clearly easier to paint than say, yellow. If you wanted to get an entire army done fast, Black is the way to go. Or Boltgun Metal. A single, easy to apply color. I'm sure most of you have worked with Blood Red or Bad Moon Yellow before, and ten coats later that messy wash is still showing through. You never have that problem with black.

Or is it a choice of fluff? You just like Dark Angels more than Ultramarines so you're painting your marines green. Again, personally, I went with Biel-Tan Eldar because I like green, and the fluff of the Craftworld, that of having the most aspect warriors, meant I got to paint a lot of different, bright colors. I would not have done then as Iyanden, since their fluff says they are mostly Wraithguards and Wraithlords, even though I think Yellow is by far the most striking color an army can be on a table.

Likewise with my Orks. I chose Goffs, a black scheme with checkers. But I didn't choose them because black is easier to paint. I chose it because it was how I saw the Orks. Wearing black. Being the bad-ass bad-guys. And bein' proppa stompy! I had actually started my Orks as Evil Sunz, mostly because I though the idea of an army that dies in droves wearing red shirts was funny. At the time, the trukk model was the worst model in 40k (and I'm sure most of you have seen the old model and would agree). The more I played Orks though, the less the idea worked for me. So I've been stripping and repainting my Orks to fit in with my 'darker' view of Orks. Don't get me wrong, I own a lot of trukks and could easily field a proppa Evil Sunz list, but I'm enjoying feet on the ground and a more mixed approach to how I play.

So what about you guys? Where does your army color selection come from? Are you fluff-mongers, like me, do you choose based on ease, or a favorite color, or a combination of several things?

Discuss.

Gettting back into Warhammer Fantasy

2010-05-21T14:25:00.004-06:00

I'm sure most of you know that 8th edition is right around the corner. I'm also sure most of you have heard a lot of the rumors swirling around about the upcoming MAJOR revamp to the system. Several Games Workshop stores are holding a 'playtest' of the 8th edition rules tomorrow (Playtest is a real misnomer; that assumes you have input to the process. Truth is the system is done, and printed. This is just a demo. I don't know why they called it a 'playtest') and even more light will be shed on the upcoming changes to the rules.

Wallshammer has already posted some of the older rumors. For those of you who want to see what is currently being discussed, Warseer has an excellent rumor summary done by Grimstonefire.

I'm not going to get into specifics about the rules, but I do want to go over some of the major changes to the system. The first, and most important, is the return to Warhammer Fantasy being about war. The game, in 7th edition, has devolved into a fairly broken skirmish game. A few large single models, some grossly overpowered characters, and minimum core choices. Now, core choices, or at least large infantry units with full command, will become vital to the overall strategy of the game, as the game is moving to objective-based (ala 40k) and only infantry with standards can capture these objectives.

This makes having foot soldiers better and makes the old tactic of large, terror-causing monsters eatng up entire flanks of the table a little more risky (not to mention the fact that the cheap and dirty 'terror-bomb' tactic is a thing of the past), as they will likely now get overrun by larger, more resilient blocks of troops.

Magic is getting a boost, but not in the way you think. In 7th edition, magic had become too reliable, a more or less sure-fire way to win, as long as you had more power dice than your opponent had dispel dice. Now, in 8th edition, magic becomes more powerful, but also a lot more risky. There are simply more chances for your wizard to blow themselves up. Now every army can feel the thrill of gambling that an Orc or Goblin Shaman feels every time he rolls the dice.

Lastly, random charge distances make the charge a little more risky. In 7th, heavy cavalry ruled the close combat phase. Chaos Knights, for example, hit from a long distance, had a HUGE number of attacks, and then what little was left to attack back had to contend with an incredibly good armor save and a high toughness. Now, they'll still be rock hard, but hitting a large block of infantry will be more risky. They might not make it, if they roll low on a charge, so they can't make those guaranteed 14" charges like in the past. Hitting an infantry block in the front might no longer be a sure thing for them either. With boosts in attacks, combat resolution and the possibility of becoming stubborn if the block is large enough, they could likely hold and even get some attacks back.

Essentially, the game is changing in every single aspect. Whatever army you are playing is likely going to need a HUGE rethink as to tactics. All the sure-bet, unstoppable units and combos that ruled (and wrecked) 7th edition are the ones that are receiving the biggest nerfs. Yet, the arms-race will begin anew as people look to find the loop-holes of 8th edition and use them to their advantage.

I realize that sounds bitter, but for those of you who know about the 'behind the scenes' of the game should know that Mat Ward is now in charge of Fantasy, and he a reputation of very poorly worded and thought-out rules. He is the one responsible for the huge 7th edition nerf of the Orcs (an army book which he wrote, then was interviewed for White Dwarf afterward and said he hated the army... nice...) and the book that broke the game Chaos Daemons. On top of that, he was the writer of the War of the Ring rulebook for Lord of the Rings. Opinion on this game is mixed, some say it's fairly brilliant and easy to play, making for fast-paced games. Regular players though complain that several of the rules aren't very well though out and lead to a lot of rules abuse, particularly with characters (I mention this because War of the Ring was a more or less playtest for a lot of the new Fantasy rules).

So I leave it you, the community, to discuss. What are your fears and dreads of a new system? Your hopes? How does this affect your army?

Warmachine Primer 3: Hobby Supplies

2010-05-11T18:22:00.005-06:00

It's been too long since my last article, but things get busy; you know how it is.

This will be the third installment in my Warmachine series, this time all about the hobby products that Privateer Press sells for both games.

Let's start with the paints: This is where PP products really shine. Having owned both the full st of GW and the PP paints, I honestly prefer painting with the PP paints. Overall, the colors are more consistent, the paint flows smoother and price can' be beat. Many of the PP paints are VERY similar to GW paints (color tone-wise), just named differently. You'd probably struggle to tell the difference between the colors on a model. Where they differ though, in price and ease of application, it becomes quite noticeable. You can buy individual pots of paint, or you can buy them in army-themed packs of 6. However you buy them though, most places I've seen sell the PP paints at 25% less than their GW counter-parts. And in terms of application, I'm sure all of you have horror stories of applying reds and yellow to models with GW paints (barring the foundation paints). With the PP paints, you'll find that not only do those colors go on smoother, but the richer pigments mean less layers to get an even color. Are they perfect? No. Some of their colors are still runny, but not nearly as bad. But I'm not going to do nothing but sing their praises. I prefer the black-capped, hard-top GW paint 'cans' to the PP pots, as I find them less messy. Make of that what you will, but overall, PP produces a slightly better product for a way better price.

The rest of their hobby supplies, more or less, are identical to most retail products of the same type. Files, pinning tools, glue and clippers are exactly what you'd expect: more expensive than buying them at the hardware store, since you're paying for the name. The pinning tools come with proper sized rods for pinning, and I found that to be a nice touch, but not a deal-maker. Their super-glue is pretty much identical to the GW glue. Modeling putty (green stuff) comes in black and white instead of blue and yellow, but is otherwise identical as well.

They also publish a training DVD on how to paint like a pro. I have not seen this video, but I know the PP studio has some of the best painters on the planet (Mike McVey!), so I'm sure it's top notch. If any of you have seen it, please let me know how it is.

There are 2 area where PP products break away from the pack though: their brushes (which are outstanding and I highly recommend you try them) and the wet palette. For those of you who have never used a wet palette before, it is a FANTASTIC product. Esentailly it is a tray with a sponge on the bottom. You place a sheet of special paper over the sponge (which should be damp but not soaking wet) and apply your paint to the paper. It keeps your paint wet longer, allowing you to blend colors more easily and to keep painting longer with a single color. This product can be a key item in taking your painting to the next level. Much like the brushes, I strongly recommend you try them.

If you've never tried a different companies products before (and let's face it; a lot of us haven't. GW has been the only game in town for a very long time), Privateer Press products are DEFINITELY the products to try. Grab a wet palette, some brushes, and a box set of their paint and give them a try. You may never go back to GW products (especially their brushes!)

Oh, and finally, though this is a little off-topic, but for those of you who Roleplay, Privateer Press also publishes Iron Kingdoms, a 3.5 D&D campaign setting set in the world of Warmachine. They are not making any new books, since D&D moved to 4th edition, but it is an exciting setting for those of you who play. Check it out!

Honour Guard Vs. Sanguinary Guard

2010-05-11T09:13:00.007-06:00

Now this is a debate that has been thrown around our club once or twice. So I am going to break it down into three categories: Power, Utility, and Models.

Power

Sanguinary Guard have some kick-ass offensive wargear but not a lot of choice. They are restricted to only a few choices in terms of weapons, but I guess that fits their fluff. For ranged weapons they each come with an Angelus Bolter. With a 12 inch range it really only has the ability to shoot pre-assault. Though assault 2 and AP 4 means it puts out a lot of shots that nothing short of a Space Marine will get armour saves against. And you can choose to upgrade the bolter to a plasma, or infernus pistol for more specific enemies, ie MEQ or vehicles. For melee weapons the SG come with Glaive Encarmine! Master-crafted two-handed power weapon! Now this weapon to me seems kinda... lackluster in comparison. You essentially give up the possibility of +1 attack with an extra close combat weapon for one re-roll per model. Seems like six of one, half a dozen of the other to me. And there is the option to upgrade the Glaive Encarmine to a power fist. Cool.

Honour Guard are the jack of all trades. They aren't particularly powerful but they can take nearly any weapon under the sun! Plasma, Meltas, Flamers, Storm bolters, Power weapons, you name it, they can take it. Any type of enemy they can be outfitted for. Nothing too extreme, but not totally inflexible either.

Winner: Sanguinary Guard! By a long shot.

Utility

Sanguinary Guard are severely lacking in utility. One trick pony if I ever did see one. They got one job and they do it well! Assault tough stuff! For wargear options they only have 5. Death masks to debuff the enemy. Company banner, plasma and infernus pistols, and power fists. They aren't much but I understand why the writers wrote them that way. To stay in their allotted groove. All their wargear options only help to cement them in that role.

Honour Guard, as previously mentioned, are the mother of utility. With nearly every wargear option available to them they can be outfitted to nearly any role. Even a shooty one ( which is probably a waste in most cases IMO). And outside of wargear they can take a Blood Champion and a standard bearer. And don't forget the built in Sanguinary Novitiate, thus neatly skirting the Sanguinary Priest's Independent Character rule. Then they have three different options for transportation. Foot slog, Jump packs, of Dedicated transport. Sanguinary Guard have no such luck!

Winner: Honour Guard!

Models

Now in this category it was a bit of a toss up in my mind. Either you have Bat nipples, or no dedicated models at all( I know you could use the Command Squad box, but they don't have any Blood Angel-ish bitz). For both cases I would personally just convert them.

Because of the lack of any really clear pro's to either I am calling it a tie.

~Weigh in! Who do you think is the winner? Have you used both and found one to be more effective then the other?

An introduction

2010-05-04T19:46:00.003-06:00

Hey denizens of the warp!

I was thinking about it, and with the arrival of this new blog i figure a bit of an introduction was in order.

On this page i go by the name Schwagg, so i guess you can call me Schwagg. I have now been in and around the game of warhammer for closing on eight years now. I began the game when i was introduced to it by a pair of my friends while I was in grade seven. For the next two or three years i only played the game on and off with friends or when i could manage to make it down to my local hobby shop. I only ever played a few games at the old hobby shop before it renovated, but needless to say my experience in the hobby took off after the new shop opened.

Now 5 years later later i'm what i would like to think of as an accomplished player, painter, and hobbyist. My personal army tally rests at five with Space marines (Salamanders), Chaos Space Marines (Thousand Sons Legion), Necrons, Tau, and Lizardmen for Fantasy. As many will attest to not all my armies are highly functional because i am a fluff player. I live and breath warhammer for the fiction behind the game, and at times i can be a bit of a fiction nazi. When i choose an army and the way i play its because of the fluff. I run a pure fluff Thousand Sons army and i don't win all that often with it, but i love it because of the fluff behind it.

My other passion that was previously seen is building terrain. In the near future when i manage to remember to bring my camera around to the hobby shop i'll document all my previously built terrain pieces. Presently on my table which i am working on are three pieces with which to expand the set of desert terrain i have made. I have a set of dead trees to represent a forest on the board (so my kroot of my Tau have somewhere to hid in this terrain set :P), a desert overrun imperial city block, and a desert excavation site. I promise i'll post up some pictures of these as they come along.

Well, thats a little about me and where i come from in this great hobby of our, until next time!

Fantasy comes closer! Another rumor roundup!

2010-05-04T13:24:00.002-06:00

Rules Changes

It has been said that army construction is moving back to percentages.

There have been not been strong rumours yet to support a specific % for each slot. However most people seem to believe it will be limited to 25& for Special and Rare choices, with armies always having to take 25% min core.

It is currently disputed wether the Slot System will be dropped. *new rumors from "credible" sources have the slots being dropped. So yes, cannon and hydra spam could happen*

Categories for core/special/rare are remaining.

40mm models moving to 3 model-wide ranks.
Magic

No longer are power dice generated by the number of spellcasters. The pool is now decided by 2D6. All Magic users add their magic level to the score rolled.

All Wizards have a chance to generate more power dice. - Avian

Irrestiable force will ahve a downside (Maye forgeting the spell for example)

If a wizard fails to cast spells (not counting dispels) in subsequent attempts he/she miscasts

Miscasts will be harder to have but much more devastating.

Dispel scroll will noe only add dispel dice (+2 dice to the dispel dice pool once per game). (This may be possibly just speculation)

Somepeople have said you may be albe to, "carry" over power dice, but holding too many power dice could have drawbacks.

All the book Lores will have more supportive spells than they have now, and will all be getting a major remake to fit in with the new edition. Each magic lore will get a SUPER speel like Curse of The Horned Rat for example.

Dispel attempts will be made by independent wizards, kind of like a magic duel.

There will be a higher chance of miscast if you multiple casters.

If a wizard fails to cast a spell, he cannot cast any more spells for the rest of the magic phase.

Giving irresistible force a downside

Double 6 = a miscast

Making miscasts much more devastating.

Something rumoured is carrying over power dice, but holding too many could lead to a ‘magic backlash’. Wizard will recieve wounds or hits if he didn't use the excess power-dice (than originally allocated) at end of the turn.

All the book Lores will have more supportive spells than they have now, and will all be getting a major overhaul. Each lore to get a mega spell.

Spells can be chosen, not rolled for.

New rumors from Avian are saying that 2 casts that don't go off in a row cause a miscast, which works again miscasts being less common but more devastating
Close Combat

There are 2 new rules to be introduced here; What I have named 'Stepping up', and a 'Horde' rule. - Harry.

What is 100% clear is that models in the second rank will have some role to play in most combats

Stepping Up Rule- Harry/ Avian

Basically how this works is that the second rank get to fight only if the guy in front is killed. But they only get a single attack regardless of what their profile attacks are, or what weapons they are carrying.

It is not yet clear whether special rules can be used in addition to this to this or not. (frenzy, hatred and killing blow etc).

No word has come on how spears will work in the new Edition.

In other news, cavalry will still only fight in 1 rank.

Eg; You have a unit of 20 guys, 5x4, 5 of which are in base contact with the enemy and 15 are not. The enemy strikes first and kills 6 of your guys. As you now have 14 models you have sufficient numbers to step up and replace casualties.

Because the front 2 ranks consists of 10 models overall, 6 of which are now dead, you still get to fight back with 4 models. In the next round of combat, the ranks are reset, so 5 models are in base contact, 5 in the second rank (capable of ‘stepping up’) and 4 in the third (remember, you still have 14 models). This time the enemy kills a further 8 models, leaving you with 2 models that get to fight back and a unit of 6. - "Grimstonefire"

"Horde" special rule
Fight in 3 ranks if 10+ wide (4 with spears). - Avian

Ony one save may be used against an attack now, just like in 40k. Youmust choose wether to use your ward save/ armour save.

Crush them! Special Rule
Creatures like Minos, Ogres and Trolls etc; will have a
dditional stomp/crush attacks. This is to represent there sheer size and them trampling smaller/lesser races underfoot. The bigger the creature the better the attack. These are not like impact hits.

There will be fewer armour save modifiers.

Stubborn is given to a unit that has more ranks then his opponent at the end of a fight.

Unit Strength is being done away with. There is some talk how this will affect flanking and CR and changes to them. Apparently there won't be any 5 man wolf units taking away rank bonuses anymore. Shooting
Not much is known about the shooting phase but here we go!

Armour save modifiers will also be fewer here.

Archers will fire in two ranks, not just High Elves- Harry

Somebody suggested the removal of guess range from warmachines. Psychology

Fear and Terror
When in combat, units or monsters will gain additional points to their combat res. As normal this will be added to the number of wounds caused by the Fear/Terror model/unit, as well as ranks, banners, etc. These bonuses may be cumulative between fear/terror causing things attacking a unit.
Autobreaking from fear or terror is gone.

Missions
For guidelines on how these missions might look, check the GW Grand/Doubles tournament sceanarios.

There will be around 15 missions in the new rulebook. About 8 or 9 of the missions need Core units to capture objective, in addition to this units will require banners to capture objectives. Several missions had multiple objectives.

Victory conditions have been mentioned rather than "victory points".

Terrain: Difficult terrain may be merged with very difficult and envelop more things. Many presume more than affecting just movement, perhaps shooting or magic casting. Army Selection

* Army construction is moving back to percentages.
This is looking more like 25% max characters, 25% min core, 25% max special and 25% max rare (anonymous source, but trustworthy ) The 25% characters includes mounts. (I have heard 50% max special and 15% max rare)
* Slot system will not be dropped *WRONG, according to Avian*
* Categories for core/special/rare are remaining.
* There *may* be something to prevent spamming...
* There will be a system wide errata to clear up issues for each army.

*New rumors state that "must have" units or characters do not count towards the percentage. For example, Bretts must have a BSB, he won't count towards the 25% limit, but any magic items he does will*
Rumours that have discredited

Fight-until-someone-breaks
Lapping around
Weapons using the flame template or large or small blast templates automatically hit any model in contact rather than cause partial hits. *I still say it will move towards the 40k system of no partials*

Let's take this all with a HUGE grain of salt folks. Alot of the "credible" rumor sources were wrong on nearly half the Beastmen book. Let's hear your thoughts on all this. My biggest thing is more ranks = stubborn. LD10 Stubborn Skaven?!

A video you really should watch!

2010-04-30T19:48:00.001-06:00

This is something everyone should really watch. Just a fantastic video of thinking off the wall. These guys get it. They really do. I don't agree with EVERYTHING they say, but man, they know how to have fun in ways we sure don't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPYGS1s1HX4&feature=player_embedded#at=452

I've love to hear everyone's thoughts when done!

Painting with Spooky part 1

2010-04-27T16:41:00.009-06:00

Painting- Some people love it, others hate it while some tolerate it enough just play in tournaments or have a painted army when they play.

I would say that I belong in the first category. Painting to me is the best part of the hobby of table top miniature gaming. It is very relaxing to me and there is nothing better then seeing two fully painted armies on the table while playing.

About 7 years ago I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and lost the vision in my right eye. As you can imagine painting can be a bit of a challenge with my vision impairment, but as a result of my determination and love for the hobby, I have been able to adjust and adapt.

Below are some of my first armies when I started painting. My Necrons!!

As you can see they were very basic in terms of colors, techniques and such, but everyone has to start somewhere. Right? Next up are some of my first fantasy army figures( Beasts of Chaos at the time). From experimenting, looking at peoples models online and in person, I was able to understand the basic skills to improve my painting.

They were quite the improvement from my Nerons., and with a lot of practice I was able to understand a lot of the skills most painters use on a daily basis when painting models. Skills such as : Patience , dry brushing, black lining, color palettes, shading and combing paints to make new colors. With these new skills I was able to get one of the most important skills when painting. Confidence! With confidence a person is able to do pretty much anything they set their mind too.

Now with my new found skills I have been able to paint at a very good table top quality and produce models which I am very proud of.

My Tyranids

My Warriors of Chaos

With each army that I paint I try to do something different. I always bounce ideas off my brother and my Mother ( oddly enough), not to mention the great group of guys from deathbridge. Everyone is very supportive of my painting and help inspire me to try new ideas and work hard at improving.

My Night goblins

I have even done some commission work. Here is a Trygon that I did for a friend who runs the comic book store we play at.

I am very proud of how it turned out, and excited that he has it on display in his store.

So I guess my goal of this little blog is to inspire people and give an insight in to some of the things I have learned over the past 8 years painting. I will be the first to admit that I am definitely not the best painter, but I am proud of the work that I do under my circumstances.

The most important advice that I usually give someone is " If you like it then that is all that matters".

Up next in my little series on painting. Why the right lighting makes all the difference.

here is a peek at what I am working on now.

Till next time. I would like to know what inspires you ?

Intro to Hordes

2010-04-23T14:36:00.008-06:00

In part 2 of what looks to be a series on Warmachine/Hordes, I will be going over the more feral cousin of Warmachine... Hordes!

Hordes, in many ways, is identical to Warmachine. So much so in fact that the two games can be played together. So you can face-off your Trollbloods against Cryx, or your Skorne against Khador. The basic ruleset is the same. You roll 2D6 for pretty much every action, which can be boosted either through abilities or by forcing your warbeasts (more on this in a minute). The rules for casting spells, running, fighting, grappling... all of them are identical to the Warmachine system. Which makes it very easy to jump into the game.

Now for the differences: Instead of a Warcaster, you have a Warlock. As Shakespeare put it 'What's in a name?' The difference is in the resource system. As I discussed in my last article, Focus is generated at the beginning of your turn and then allocated to your Warjacks to power them before activating any units. Simple resource management really.

Warlocks, on the other hand, are more about risk management. Instead of allocating focus, you force Fury. Every time you want a warbeast to do something, you force him, adding a fury. Each Warbeast has a maximum amount of Fury, so you can't just load him up and hope for the best. Now so far, this seems like a much better system, right? But here's the downside: At the beginning of your turn, your Warlock needs to leech the Fury out of your Warbeast to power his own magic AND to stop the beast from raging. If any of your Warbeasts have Fury on them at the beginning of your turn, they will have to take a command check, adding the number of fury they have on them to the roll. If you roll over the units command (average of 8 for most Warbeasts) they rage and attack the nearest model. This could possibly one of your own models! Also, when raging, you have no control over the beast, so you can't force his attack or damage rolls, you can use special abilities, nor can you force for additional attacks. One attack, that's it.

Which is why it is called risk management. For example, the Trollbloods Battlegroup is a Warlock (with a Fury value of 5) and 3 Warbeasts. In theory, I could force each Warbeast 3 times (for a charge, forced attack roll and an extra attack, for example), putting 9 Fury on the the table. In the beginning of my next turn though, I can only leech back 5 Fury (my Warlock's Fury value), meaning there is still 4 fury to deal with. At least 2 of my beasts are going to rage. Meaning I've lost control of them for the round, which could put them in a bad position, have them attack each other, or run them out of my control range.

The easiest way to say it is to say that Warmachine armies are about controlling your 'Jack's abilities, and Hordes armies are about trying to keep your army under control.

There are again 4 main faction in Hordes. There are the Trollbloods (the real 'good guys' of the setting; think American Indians crossed with William Wallace-era Scotland), Circle of Orboros (Druids of the forest; a lot of wolves and wood/stone constructs), Skorne (Quasi-Far East look; into pain like the Dark Eldar) and the Legion of Everblight (Dark Elves corrupted by an undead Dragon Lord). There are also Minions, which are much like Warmachine's Mercenaries, only not as varied, and they currently do not have a stand-alone Minions army.

List composition is the same. You take your Warlock, give him a battlegroup of Warbeasts, add a couple of units of troops and a solo or to and you've got a ready-to-go army! Points costs are the same as in Warmachine. Your beasts cost anywhere from 4-12 points (the expensive ones are the Character Warbeasts), units are around 4-10 points (and have Unit attachments), solos anywhere from 1 to 5 points.

I should also mention, that both for Warmachine AND for Hordes, this is a very good time to get started. Privateer Press, makers of the game, just released mk. II of the ruleset for Warmachine, and just finished testing on mk. II for Hordes. This was a great process, where they published the rules (for free!) online, and had the community of players test it, find all the imbalances, report them AND, I know this will be strange for most of you, since you are long-time Warhammer players and are used to GW stepping on your rules and your army, LISTENED TO THEIR PLAYERS AND MADE CHANGES!!

I can't stress that enough. They took the game to the community and had them test the crap out of it. there are no Leafblower lists in Warmachine/Hordes. The developers will never be recorded as saying 'Well I didn't think anyone would use 2 Lash of Submission Daemon Princes". They had the foresight to know that players are competitive. they will look for any advantage that they can. So instead of finding out after the fact, and then pretending the problem isn't there and waiting for a new book to fix it in 7-10 years.

And, for the few rules that slip through the cracks of massive public testing, they are willing to admit mistakes and quickly fix them. There was an ability of one of the Cryx Warcasters, for example, that had unforeseen complications against Hordes armies (since Warmachine was tested separately from Hordes; probably their only mistake). Once Hordes started it's field-testing for the new rules, they found the problem, and quickly published an errata on their website. Turn around time on this: 48 hours. We're not talking 7-10 years. 48 hours to fix a problem.

that probably came off a little rant-y, but it needed to be said. I stated it in the last article, and I'll say it again: Warmachine/Hordes is a great alternative to Warhammer, especially if you want to get away from all those nagging issues that plague the game right now (you know; like 7th ed Fantasy being almost unplayable unless you are playing Vampires or Daemons). It's a tight ruleset, a fast-paced, exciting game, and sports some of the best models out there.

Now get out there and PLAY LIKE YOU GOT A PAIR!

Death Company!

2010-04-23T10:37:00.003-06:00

Death Company. We all know these guys, and we all hopefully love them. How couldn't you love these crazed, angry, homicidal-suicidal maniacs! So why not do a review of the unit?

Where to begin? Special rules? Alright! So to begin these guys are Fearless, have FC, FNP, And Relentless. So in short they have all the benefits of a Sanguinary Priest without needing one, plus they are Fearless which just makes sense. Now when I first saw that they were relentless it kinda made no sense to me. Then I remembered that they can take a bolter instead of a bolt pistol. So rapid-fire to soften them up, then charge to finish them off! And you can still give them a power weapon or the like! Now me, I don't like losing that extra attack, but that's just me. I would only give a bolter to a dude with a power fist. He's not getting that extra attack anyway.

One down-point to these guys is the Black Rage. Having Rage means they have to move towards the nearest enemy. So they are in effect totally uncontrollable. Except when you put them in a transport, which for the current trend towards mech, really isn't a hard thing.

The one problem I have with putting them in a dedicated transport is that they can't take Lemartes. Lemartes is an upgrade character to the DC meaning he can't be singled out in close combat. Being a Chaplain, the DC gets to re-roll to-hit, and t0-wound. The thing about taking him is he has a jump pack built into his unit entry so he can't get into any transport short of a Stormraven. So you can either give the DC an upgrade character but open them up to manipulation by a crafty opponent or put them in a transport and lose the character of awesome.

All in all I think these guys are totally worth it! All those special rules, WS 5,and the fear factor, all for 20 points a model! What isn't to love about these psychopaths?

-So tell me, what do you think of the Death Company? Jump packs or transport? How have you kitted them out? What is your opinion on Lemartes

Intro to Warmachine

2010-04-22T22:11:00.011-06:00

I was asked to write an article on Warmachine, so here it goes:

For those of you who have never played Warmachine before, let me explain it to you as simply as possible. Imagine for a second Warhammer Fantasy, except that all of the rules for all of the armies were made at the same time and balanced against each other. Now play that game with a dash of 3rd ed. Dungeons and Dragons.

Warmachine is a game about stacking combos and building synergy. Every unit in the game is inherently balanced against every other unit in the game (as opposed to this 'internal balance' bollocks that Games Workshop does with each different army). Take 2 players of equal skill (in this case, we'll go with new players). Take two armies of the same size (again, in this example we'll take the battlegroup boxes, more commonly called 'starter sets'). Place models, play game. A fun time WILL be had by all.

I don't want to get off on a rant about Warhammer here, but I can't stress enough how if you are like me, and the thing that bugs you most about the game is how it is poorly balanced, you need to have large units where most of the models don't actively participate in the game, and that you just plain need a ton of models, then Warmachine is a VERY refreshing change of pace.

First of, you average game size (model-wise) is significantly smaller. An average game army is 35 points. Most Warjacks, the half-magical, half-mechanical golem/robots that the game is based around clock in anywhere from 4 to 12 points. A Battlegroup boxed set is around the 15 point mark by itself. So we're talking around a dozen or so models to have a working army.

There are essentially 4 types of models. First, there is your Warcaster. This guy is essential. His magical power is what makes your Warjacks move. Each tun he gives them some magical power (called focus points) and they spend those points to do things like run and attack.

Next up of course, we have the Warjacks themselves. As I said before, they are a magical golem/robot-thing that the Warcasters power with their magic. They are the heavy-lifters of the army for the most part, taking tons of damage and dishing out just as much. There are different types of Warjacks, lighter-smaller one, heavy-larger ones, and character 'Jacks, Warjacks that have been in service so long they've developed a sort of personality.

After Warjacks we have units. Units are just what they sound like, a unit of infantry. Though there is a cavalry unit in each army. Units do not benefit from Warcasters like jacks do. Instead they operate on their own and receive orders to do special abilities. These work similar to Imperial Guard orders. You take a command check (leadership test) and then can do whatever it is the unit says it can do. You can also take Unit Attachments which will give you a champion, and a standard bearer, in addition to conferring special abilities to the unit.

Lastly there are solo units. These are single models that operate independently, usually to boost your army with their abilities. Of course due to their nature, they are quite varied, and not easy to sum up in one paragraph. Nevertheless, these units are great additions to an army to make your existing force more versatile.

Your average size Warmachine force will consist of a single Warcaster, 2-4 Warjacks, a unit (or two) and a couple of solos. So again, we're not talking a lot of models here. That said, integrated right into the rules are size categories, allowing you go up in army size all the way to an equivalent Apocalypse game.

Now that the basics of army construction are out of the way, we can move on to the game play itself. It's very simple really. At the start of the turn you deal with any leftover effects from the previous turn, allocate focus to your Warjacks and start moving. One very important difference between Warmachine and Warhammer is that every unit does everything it can do in it's activation. there are no movement phases or shooting phases. You activate your unit, move, shoot with or assault with it BEFORE you move on to the next unit. In this way it's like Dungeons and Dragons. You have a move action and a standard action. You can Charge by doing both at the same time (your movement, plus 3", and it adds an extra dice of damage). There are also rules for grappling and throwing! This makes the game a little more tactical in that you have to coordinate your units more than you would in Warhammer, since you can't pick up slack in the next phase.

All dice rolling in the game is on a base 2D6. These rolls can usually be boosted through some means or another (special rules, focus points, etc...) Which means you don't need to carry around a big bag of dice to play. I've never rolled more than 4 dice while playing. Don't get me wrong, there is still some kit involved. There are three templates (like Warhammer), obviously the rulebooks, and it's important to have some counters. These can range from coins to stones to fancy custom-cut ones. There are also cards for each unit. In the standard baseball card size, these show all the abilities and rules of your unit. Most players will keep them in a plastic slip cover and bring a dry or wet erase marker with them, as the cards also have spots on them for tracking damage.

Lastly we come to the different factions of Warmachine. There are 4 main factions: Cygnar, the default 'heroes' of the setting (think stereo-typical steampunk), Khador, their militant rivals to the North (very Soviet-Russian), the Protectorate of Menoth (a Fanatically religious group) and Cryx (largely undead and bio-constructs). Beyond these 4, they have just introduced a new faction, Retribution of Scyrah (very anime-mech). And then, on top of all of that, there are the mercenaries! Any army can take mercenaries to fill out their army, and within the Mercenary choices there are 2 full-fledged armies: Rhulic Dwarves, in staunch solid armor and the Pirates of the Broken Coast. That's right, there are Pirates! Arrrrgh!!

So, if you've ever thought about trying Warmachine, or have passed by the models and though they looked neat, give them a try. Most Warmachine players are competitive, but friendly. It's a great alternative to GW games, full of character, flavor and fantastic models! So try it out. And remember, as their motto goes, Play Like You Got a Pair!.

Where did you go cover saves that aren't 4+?

2010-04-22T01:10:00.003-06:00

We all do it. It makes set up easier, takes away discussion (read: arguments) during games and simplifies everything. Each and every piece of terrain will be a 4+ cover save.

A wall? 4+

A building? 4+

Hiding behind troops? 4+

Rubble? 4+

Whatever happened to the 5+ and 6+ saves from barbed wire and fences and shallown trenches and craters? It seems to be an element we all forget to do, that can add some strategic value during a game. Do you risk travelling to better cover or hunker down where you are?

Secondly, for discussion, does anyone actually use the rule of "If you can't decide, go one less." with cover saves.

Person A: "I'd say that's 4+."
Person B: "There isn't much there, I dunno."

Instead of arguing black and white, yes or no... go 5+. It's a small tiny rule in the book no one seems to use, myself included. Terrain could be so much more fulfilling and varied. What are your thoughts on this?

Incoming: Doompickles Deathwing

2010-04-21T00:18:00.007-06:00

Howdy everyone! I just thought I would say hello, been busy lately with work. A little about me, I recently got into the hobby about 2 years ago and was hooked! Haha so much so that even neck surgery couldn’t keep me away from my weekly gaming group! I thought I would share with you all some pictures of my Dark Angels - Deathwing army. They are my first & favourite army.

I decided to create them mainly due to the fact that the fluff is so great and who could say no to an army full of terminators? Doesn’t take up alot of space, easy to take places and is house trained :D

Seriously though, a long time ago my first dealings with Games Workshop was with the Space Hulk board game (1st edition) and one of its expansions: Deathwing which had amazing fluff and the game itself was amazing. My friends and I must have played it non-stop for what felt like a week, now 5th edition has taken the roll.

Now onto some pictures of the figures. I will show some of the characters and some group shots. Hope you enjoy!

Overall Army Portrait

Belial

Chaplin

I am thinking about changing the Chaplin to a more traditional Black colouring, I think that would make him a bit more imposing.

Librarian

Banner

Apothecary

I magnetized the weapon arm so I can interchange the weapons depending on how I feel like running him, assault/shooting. Lately he has been toting the heavy flamer which has been effective.

Tanks Portrait

Dread Portrait

Apocalypse

Following is a couple of pictures of my unfinished Aires, it was fun putting it together just need to get it painted now! lol

From the Den: A Bad Day at the Office

2010-04-20T21:02:00.004-06:00

Was flipping through some things in the goold ol blue box. No not my TARDIS but my computer and i came across this little tidbit.

Now what we have here is a classic match of my 6th Co. Ultras against another memeber's Deathwing. So there's my Venny, locked up against another Venny with not the best outcome.

Everyone talks about see'ing the impossible in this game. Firewarrior killing a Carnifex in close combat, open topped Sentinel taking 96 dice rolls against it in close combat and still surviving i think 4 rounds of comabt etc etc.

But what about those times that give ya the good ol slap the forhead knee jerk reaction? I mean you could throw your dice against a wall, start getting pissy or even start complaing how shitty the new rules and/or codex is but why?

Why not enjoy the 'game' for what it is, a game to be enjoyed.

- Got any funny stories of 'oh my god eyse rolling lmao' moments?

2010-04-20T15:32:00.017-06:00

Hey everyone out there in the Warp!

So as most gamers know the terrain in which you play has a serious impact on the game at hand. We all know that many things suffice as terrain from pop cans (not mobile carnifexes) to books for hills, but it hardly compares to playing in a well built and painted set of ruined buildings to just add that extra bit to your game. With that in mind we also all know that there are some players who, by intention or not end up breaking these wonderful pieces down, and consequently there are those others who build new ones and repair old ones. So in hope of helping other get ideas for terrain and hopefully encourage more to build there own, i present a tutorial on how to build a desert pond.

1. Stage one - plan and design - in this step your going to simply draw out a rough floor plan for your given piece of terrain. I enjoy putting it on 9 1/2' by 11' sheets of printer paper then tape it to the piece of wood i shall be using so i can use the paper as a template to cut out.

2. The building begins - here i have the base cut out and I've scored the base with a knife to allow the glue to hold better. Next i took 3/4' pink foam and laid the base on top and cut out the outer rim of the pond that will later hold in our water effect. I used simple white glue to hold the foam in place.3. My next step was to cut out a rock formation from pink foam using a hit wire cutter and then added some larger stones from my backyard. Next you should round the edges of the pond using a hobby knife (careful, as the pink foam dulls the blades quickly). After rounding it I used some drywall mud to fill the larger holes and allowed to dry after which i sanded those parts.
4. Next i went about sanding the base with a mixture of GW Hobby sand and some basalt from another store using white glue. After allowing this to dry thoroughly, i used white glue once again, this time in a watered down mixed, and spread some on top to seal the sand down. Because i make a lot of terrain i went out to my local hardware store and got three 1 gallon paint cans done up for the colors scorched brown, desert yellow, and bleached bone. I used the scorched brown in the middle, desert yellow on the fringes and drybrushed over it all with bleached bone. i painted the rocks with a coat of codex grey from the pot.5. Here I've taken several of the blue paints i own (regal blue, necron abyss foundation, ultramarines blue) and black, and painted progressively darker into the middle to produce the look of getting deeper. I then added static grass in a few places both on the rocks and what was going to be under water. Finally i added some pieces of aquarium plan for some larger foliage. 6. The last step is to add the water effect. This was a process that took some time. I did numerous trial runs in small plastic containers literally recreating what i was going to be doing (gluing down sand, painting it and all). I did this so i could find what looked best once covered and how the water effect reacted to the paint, etc. I learned that you MUST ensure the terrain's glue is completely dried before starting or else air bubbles trapped by the glue will push their through the basing, etc. and ruin the model. Also, pop air bubbles with a tooth pick, if they dry, it can cause cracks in the water effect, also use the toothpick to east the effect into small corner or over the static grass. lastly and most important is THIN LAYERS. if you pour too thickly the effect will dry unevenly and either crack or shrink. In the end i also added a drop of liquid blue food coloring to the water effect to give it a nice color. I think i used 4 layers of the water effect and allowed each layer to dry for at least two full days before applying the next layer. Once dry, you have a very durable, very snazzy looking desert pond with which to fight the unending battles of the universe over.

Welcome everyone to From the Warp!

2010-04-20T10:51:00.003-06:00

FTW!

No, it's not what you think it means. It's From the Warp, a collective of blog sites relating to Warhammer and miniature gaming. Over 600 members belong to the group, including some very well known painters and modellers. Feel free to check out the other blogs, comment and pull people into our little world!

Your must-have-but-everyone-else-hates unit

2010-04-19T13:23:00.004-06:00

We all have them. The one unit we adore that the internet community hates. You see it. The list-builders refuse to acknowledge their existence except when they feel the need to mock their inclusion in other lists. The cons outweight the pros much like a planet does a feather.

"Why take X when there is Y and Z in the same FoC slot!? That's insane! You'll never win with those!"

But still you take them. Still you make sure you include them in your army despite what every one else says. And sometimes? Sometimes that unit saves the day or turns the tide in spectacular fashion. Then it's all worth it.

My unit.

The lowly Ogryn.

Oh how these are bemoaned! Why take Ogryns?! Why spend 40 points on a model with a 5+ save? Why take them when you can take Psyker Battle Squads!

Why? Because they are awesome. That's why. Without even taking stats into account, they are big giant abhumans with no brains and lots of muscle. They're so stupid they actually need to put limiters on their guns or they will randomly empty the clip. And they make that gun sturdy enough to be a club.

Now, game wise there are all sorts of reasons, at least for me, to take them. Yes, they have a crappy armor save but let's take into account the two main ways to use them

1) Drive by's
2) Assault

Drive by's were a by-product of me using them. They sit in a chimera, which has 5 shooting spots. All 5 shoot, unleashing 15 Str5 shots a turn. Not bad! Really, that makes them as good or better then a normal 10 man bare guard squad (discounting heavy weapons).

However, where they REALLY shine in my Catachan list is in assaults. They are Furious Charging S5, T5 models with 3 wounds and 3 base attacks. So, on the charge, my 5 man unit is doing 21 Str 6 attacks on the charge. HELLO! yes, again, armor 5. They die to powerfists like mad but that powerfist has to live... and that powerfist NEVER autokills them. Ever!

The other reason to take them? They are a big target. They are big ass, intimidating models. I even put extra care into painting mine to make sure they got attention! And they do. I put these babies on the field and people pay attention!

But you go on the internet and tell people you run Ogryns, you'll get laughed at.

So... what unit of yours do people laugh at?

Priests of DOOOM

2010-04-19T08:14:00.006-06:00

So I've been reading through the Blood Angels codex, and I've had the chance to play a few games, and one particular unit really sticks out to me. Sanguinary Priests! When I first went through the codex before release at my FLGS I was amazed by the concept of the Priests. A little like Wolf Guard in the way you get to break them down and disperse them through out your squads. They also gave me this whole Iron Snakes vibe, for anyone who has read the book. But little did I realize just how awesome they really where.

The fluff for them is really quite interesting. They are the apothecaries for the Blood Angles and all their successors. On top of their usual Apothecary-ish duties, they expected to lead their battle brethren into the red thirst to bring out their bloody thirsty and vicious nature. The way the Priest of Sanguine counter-point Chaplains really brings out the contrast of the nature of the Blood Angel Gene Seed is very cool. Both are members of a holy priesthood, both going about the same goal, both in different ways.

On the tabletop Sanguinary Priests are a must-have in my opinion. They are Independent Characters bought in one elite slot with up to three sharing the same slot. Giving any unit within six inches of them FNP and FC is nuts. Then the wargear available to them means they can be placed in nearly any squad. Terminator armour, jump packs, a bike! Anything! Think about a Terminator Assault squad, with TH/SS and Furious charge, and Feel no Pain! Lasguns, shootas, bolters? No problem.

Now there are some cons to Sanguinary Priests. A one wounds independent character is a real target. Never mind the benefits they give makes them nigh to target numero uno. All it takes is one swing with a power weapon, or one fail armour save and poof! Benefits gone. By that extension, giving a Priest a power weapon or any of the like seems like a waste of points. What's the point of spending points on a power fist if he is going to hide in the back of the squad. Now I'm not entirely convinced of this point myself, but it is something to keep in mind.

- So do tell! Have you used Sanguinary Priests? Are they worth it. Are they plagued by the one wound? Tell of your experiences!

Pictures of the Worst Eldar List Ever!

2010-04-18T17:52:00.007-06:00

As previously threatened in the comments of my last post, pictures of my Eldar!

Check them out after the jump!

1st Squad of Dire Avengers: Amethyst Squad

2nd Squad of Dire Avengers: Ruby Squad

3rd Squad of Dire Avengers: Topaz Squad

4th Squad of Dire Avengers: Emerald Squad

Striking Scorpions

Howling Banshees

Fire Dragons

Warp Spiders

Swooping Hawks

Shining Spears

Dark Reapers

My Command: Autarch, Bonesinger (used as an Objective) and Farseer

And last, but not least, THE AVATAR!

Feel free to leave comments, either here or on my Photobucket page.

The WORST Eldar list ever!

2010-04-18T15:39:00.005-06:00

Wallie says I have to post my list, so here it is.

Avatar

Farseer with Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Doom and Fortune

8 Striking Scorpions with Exarch, Scorpion's Claw, Stalker and Shadowstrike

8 Howling Banshees with Exarch, Executioner and Acrobatic

6 Fire Dragons with Exarch and Firepike

10 Dire Avengers with Exarch, 2 Avenger Shuriken Catapults and Bladestorm

10 Dire Avengers with Exarch, Power Weapon and Shimmershield and Defend

6 Warp Spiders with Exarch, 2 Death Spinners and Power Blades

6 SwoopingHawks with Exarch and Sunrifle

3 Shining Spears with Exarch and Star Lance

4 Dark Reapers with Exarch, Eldar Missile Launcher and Fast Shot

2000 points

Seriously though, this is my foot-slogging Eldar list. It is designed around the fluff of the Biel-Tan Craftworld. Moreso than any other Craftworld, Biel-Tan has a high concentration of Aspect Warriors. So the jist of the list is one of every aspect, with 4 squads of Dire Avengers as the Core.

The list has very obvious, glaring weaknesses. Almost no anti-tank, zero protection from template weapons. This is the list every mech guard wants to face. So this is a real uphill-battle kind of army. But I've managed to do well with it in friendly games.

The power of the list is not in taking aspect warriors. That is a HUGE misconception. The power of the list is in focused fire and synergy. One of the biggest things to understand when playing, or playing against Eldar, is that the army only functions as one large whole. You can't isolate any one unit and say "Oh this is really powerful. It must win a lot of games for you". Quite the opposite. Any unit in the list, if not supported by at least 2 other units will be wiped off the board before you have a chance to blink.

Where you want to start, in terms of synergy, is to make sure whatever you are going after isn't going to counter-attack. This means shooting the assaulty units and assaulting the shooty units. Always hit them where they are weakest. Team-up 2 Dire Avenger units to make sure a unit is destroyed. Outflank with Scorpions and make sure they have either cover-fire or a counter-assault unit waiting (Banshees are ideal for this). I'm giving simple examples right now. Don't mistake me though. It's not about finding unit X works with unit Y. It's about finding unit X works with unit Y as long as unit Z is in the right place and unit Q has a clear shot. Eldar units are like chess pieces, each unit has a very specific role. Only when you play them all together do you get a functioning army.

I have had other players try my army, and a few others copy my list after seeing my success with it. Yet none of these players have pulled a win out of the list. This is not to tout my supreme commander-ship of all things 40k. Far from it. This is entirely about understanding how the Eldar play and what works and what doesn't. Beyond that, it's just picking targets, isolating and whittling down.

My most frequent opponent is a hard-as-nails, mech and dread-heavy Nurgle Plague Marine list. With Toughness 3 models, this is a very difficult list to overcome. However, like most things, it is overcome-able. Target Priority, especially in this list, can not be stressed enough. If you don't realize early what's going to kill you the fastest, you'll be wiped off the table before you have a chance to fire back.

Of course, everything I've said swings both ways. Understanding the synergy of the Eldar is crucial to their defeat. Realizing that one Eldar unit alone is actually pretty terrible is the key to defeating it. Separate the unit from the rest of the army and pick it apart. Rinse and repeat.

A lot of people will focus on the Avatar, since I use the large Forgeworld model as a center piece. This draws a lot of attention and they will fire most, if not all heavy weapons at it early in the game. It has given my Avatar quite a reputation, though it is one it doesn't rightly deserve. Heavy weapons are not the way to deal with ANY monstrous creature. The best weapon in the game to deal with big guys like him is the all-mighty Bolter. Rapid-fire range, double tap for wounds a-plenty. HOWEVER, you should never expect one unit to be able to walk over rapid-fire and viola, dead MC. If one unit is good, 2 is better, and 3 is best. Instead of looking at it like you are committing 750 points to one 155 point unit, think instead like you are guaranteeing the effect that unit will have on the game is gone after one round of fighting. Those 750 points will go on to take out EASILY 750 points by games-end. Never look at anything in the game in a vacuum. 750 points on one unit guarantees a destroyed unit with ZERO repercussions. That same 750 points then get to do the same thing again, hopefully again with zero repercussions.

Actually, the above advice is just general good advice for playing. Moving your whole army forward for smashy-smashy will only net a victory less than 50% of the time. Picking your enemy apart however, will be mostly successful, as long as you still keep your eye towards the objectives.

In closing, while I think for most play, this is an awful list, especially if you don't know Eldar inside and out. I think the list is fantastic at demonstrating the synergy of the Eldar. This is a list to try if you want to understand the Eldar better. This is NOT a list to take to a tournament. And there are a hundred builds out there that are better for even casual play. This is a fluff list that is good at demonstrating the inner working of the Eldar.

And now you, and knowing is half the battle.

A Word from the Den: A Tale of One Gamer

2010-04-18T12:29:00.007-06:00

It all started so simply, it always does. I was perusing a local book store in the Lethbridge Center mall. (not only do these stores not exist anymore but Lethbridge Center can be barely registered as a mall) But amongst the magazine racks I spotted this.

White Dwarf issue 182 - Febuary 1995 and I was hooked. Inside were articles on than newly released Cadian Shock troops, rules and background for a fella named Commisar Yarrick and an awesome battle report featuring Ultramarines and IG vs. Da Orks!! (sure there was some fantasy and alot of Epic scale articles but who cares hehe)

See back than WD was the only way GeeDub could get new rules for units and errata to it's customers. The back of each mag also had pages of catalogue material detailing new items released and ordering info. Data cards, background articles, painting and ofcourse the battle reports littered the pages. By today's standards the types of articles are largely the same but the content is gone. Today the magazine is a glorified add for new minis and the articles themselves rarely have any information that can be considered useful.

I would go back as much as I could to pickup other issues when i could.

The bookstore didn't do the best at stocking issues so my initial collection was sparse but my interest was already peaked, I would need models. Now call it fate but around this time a new mall had opened up and in it was a store called Dufferin and Games. They mainly carried pool tables, board games and the like but also had a small section for RPGs and CardGames in the back. I got to talking to one of the employees (mostly about CCGs which I played alot of at the time) and he let me know that he could get me Warhammer minis! The addiction began......again, so simply.

Two blisters, a Terminator with Cyclone Missle Launchers and a pack of marines, 2 Mark 6 metal bodies with plastic arms, bolers and backpacks. These were the pizza arm days so possibility was limited but it was awesome to finally have some minis. I dreamed of the armies I was seeing in the battle reports and wanted one of my own!

But I needed someone to play with, so I enlisted the help of my SB brother Sean Bort. He delved into the game as I did and we decided to split a 2nd Edition Starter set, he taking the Orks and I the Marines. By this time I was going to school in a different city so we didn't see each other as much and really never learned the full rules. My love for the models at least and the world was still flourishing.

I picked up an Ultramarines Codex, Mk 2 Land Speeder and of course Dreadnought. I can still remember putting the Speeder together at my Uncle's farm, using so much two-part that the chunk of pewter was nigh invulnerable to breaking apart. The minis were painted with a black primer with white shoulder pads and metal weapons. Very simple indeed as my painting had a long way to go. I suffered a big hit when GeeDub changed their ordering policy (surprise surprise) and I was no longer able to get my fix from Dufferin, this effectively shut down the game for me.

About 95-96 I had started hanging out at one of the local comic stores (Showcase Comics). My new friends and I were into alot of CCGs at the time. Magic, Star Wars, Overpower, Wildstorm etc etc. At some point I gave the new owner Bob my half dozen or so White Dwarfs to see if I could convince him to carry the product. He showed the mags to some of his other customers and it seemed to be a hit. The only problem was that these people wanted to play Fantasy, not 40k. So i wouldn't have anyone to play with yet, but at least I had an in to getting me that sweet sweet pewter.

By the time 3rd rolled out in '98 Bob had bought a new house on the West Side and was hosting Magic and other game tournies with some regularity. With some push from him I finally had people to play the game I had loved for so long with! This only lasted a few weeks as Bob was begining to have problems with people stealing things like cards and the like while they were there. I had already befriended a fellow by the name of Chris Erickson and it turns out he was part of a gming group that had been playing 2nd edition for a few years and now played 3rd.

It was than I began playing as part of my first 'gaming group'. Chris, a fellow named Paul, Barry Gergel, Dave Johanson and i would get together in Dave Bruner's basement about every other Saturday night for some dice rolling fun. Soon my 'nilla army became a Black Templar Force with new minis, better paint and eventually an actual codex. (well mini codex) And the rest they say is history.

There's actually a ton of shit between than and now, but that is a story for a differant day.

- Thank you if you actually read through the whole bit, blogging is new to me. But how about all of you? Whats your first memory of the hobby? Did you see someone else playing or come by it on your own? Leave some stories in the comments.

8th Edition Fantasy Cover revealed!

2010-04-18T11:44:00.004-06:00

Yes, that is a twin tailed comet. Look for 8th Edition Fantasy to be released in July!

I must admit, I am actually getting caught up in the hub-bub a bit. The rumors I really hated seem not to be true. Time will tell, but in the meanwhile time to get my Empire going! How about you? Are you excited? Hating it? Sad? Don't care?

Howdy all!

2010-04-16T18:16:00.015-06:00

Howdy everyone! I'm Crechum, one of the contributors to this blog, and member of Deathbridge Warhammer. I've been playing 40k for about 18 months, so I'm still kinda new to the game. My primary army is Dark Angels, but I've just started Flesh Tearers. So for next while my posts will be about my adventures with the new Blood Angels codex, and my fail painting.

Without further ado here are some of my newly painted units. Excuse my crappy pictures, I'm still getting the hang of taking photos of miniatures.

Sanguinary Priest

Assault Marine

Assault Squad

Escalation League: Wallshammer's Catachan!

2010-04-16T11:13:00.003-06:00

As every reader knows, our Lethbridge Warhammer club is in the midst of a 40k escalation league. It is a three month affair whence we grow our army from 1000 points to a completed 2000 points. Although for obvious fun, this also motivates the members to get their armies built and painted or perhaps to try something new.

Though... most of us are just expanding our forces.

It is a simple climb. Month one: 1000, month two: 1500 and we finish at 2000pts. There are games played at each successive level as well, four/three/three to be exact, each contributing points depending on the results of the game.

I had several options in my head for the league. Eldar were considered briefly, then Chaos Marines. Thoughts of one of the new armies such as Space Wolves or Blood Angels flitted across my brain until I decided to simply expand my Catachan force. My immediate thought was to make sure this force didn't share units with my first force and had a different theme. My previous 2000 points of Catachan were a vet heavy, mech army. Almost everything was in chimeras. I also sprinkled in some Ogryns and Ratlings and a double penal legion for some distinct flavor. This one would be more simple and stick more the to ethos of a standard guard army: Lots of bodies and lots of tanks. So, thus the building began!

Let's see what I did, shall we?

1000pts:

-Company Command Squad: A sit still unit with a missile launcher, standard and vox. Their sole purpose was to support the line.

-Platoon: Command squad with 2 flamers, a medic, a vox and a powerfist. The counter assault unit. They could take and dish out more damage then a regular guard squad and would be there to hold the line against charges, plus be able to take late objectives (being a troops choice and all!). Within the platoon were 2 squads, each with a heavy bolter and one with a commissar. I tended to blob these two together. As well I had a mortar and lascannon squad to put down long range firepower.

-Veteran Squad: My second troops choice was a good ole veteran squad in a chimera! Harker, _THE_ Catachan character, leads the shotgun/3 grenade launcher toting unit.

-Scout Sentinels: Two seperate missile launcher sentinels provided some support, plus were able to flank march! These have proved invaluable in the campaign so far and might even be my MVP's (if not for the oft displayed insane heroism from the vets)

-Leman Russ Battle Tank: A fairly standard, heavy bolter loaded tank. Ol' Wasteful. Sit back and destroy!

I did how I expected to do, going 2-2 at the 1000 point level. A strong win against Grey Knights and one against a very odd penal legion/stormtrooper guard army and a loss against a massive infantry guard horde and against Black Templars.

1500pts:

I knew what I needed at 1500. More tank style support and more bodies. Pretty simple, but that is how the Imperial Guard works!

--Company Command Squad: The same purpose as above, only I took out the missile launcher to put it elsewhere. They also commandeered the veteran's chimera to bunker down and hide in.

--Platoon: Very much the same as above. I added a sniper to one squad and added a third squad with a flamer. As well, the commissar and 2 heavy bolter sgts were given power weapons. That makes the blob a suddenly much more formidable force in assault. You have to get through more then a dozen men to get to the power weapons. The third squad would likely run on it's own, being held in reserve to counter assault home base objectives and to deny KP's until later when they could come on. Alternately they could be used to run for an objective or to join the blob. A Missile Launcher team joined the Lascannons and Mortars. Even more long range death!

--Veterans: An upgrade was given to these fine men (and woman) with demolitions being added. As well they were taken out of the chimera and put in a...

--Valkryie: Nothing bad can really be said about this fella! A lascannon gives it anti tank and the double heavy bolter/double rocket launcher set up is death for infantry. It is able to scout, to outflank and to fly around causing havoc, dumping troops where they need to be.

--Scout Sentinels: Two squads this time, the first combining the missile launcher toting walkers into one unit and the second being a lone autocannon sentinel. The AC walker generally outflanks for side armor shots.

--Leman Russ: Ol' Wasteful is back

--Medusa: The kicker! Artillery with large blast Str 10/AP2 is nothing to sneeze at! Once I tell my opponents what it does (or they see), it becomes a priority target!

Again, I did as expected in the three games at this level, going 1-1-1. I beat up a combo Khorne/Nurgle Chaos Marine force, lost to Tau and their tau cheating technology and had a draw with some crafty Raven Guard. The last two games were very fun, providing some really dramatic moments. In the Tau game I was getting utterly trounched... until my veteran squad dismounted the Valkryie and ran rampant through his entire back line killing two squads of fire warriors and two hammerheads. The Raven Guard battle had THE moment of my Catachan career when a lone company commander, his squad dead, held off an insanely viscous double CCW/Heavy Flamer dread in close combat for four turns... without taking a wound!

So where do I go at 2000 points? I am going to need more strong units to deal with the expensive ones people will be able to bring to the table at this point level. I could use more scoring units as well. What do I add?

--A vendetta: 3 TL Lascannons. 'Nuff said!

--A Punisher: It fits with Catachan and gives me some more AV 14 on the field

--A Hydra Flak tank: If only for the idea I have model wise!

--Special Weapons Squads: A sniper team and a flamer/demo charge team. I am taking these almost soley because they scream Catachan. The sniper team is probably a complete waste of points!

--Little bit here, little bit there. I can see things I need badly. Melta bombs on the commander as he seems to always get assaulted, perhaps a power weapon as well. Maybe some krak grenades on a few squads. More straight up bodies can't hurt.

We'll see in the coming weeks what I finally decide on. Until then, let's hear how YOU have done in the league and what it's taken to get to this level.

2010-04-13T05:32:00.001-06:00

The insanity continues! These right here make me want to run an ork and goblin army. These things are beyond insane!

Building an Escalation List

2010-04-12T11:23:00.001-06:00

Our local club here in Deathbridge is currently in the midst of a very entertaining escalation league for 40k.

We had a very simple growth system of 1000-1500-2000 over 3 consecutive months. I pose this question to the readers. When you build an army, how do you go from 1500 to 2000pts?

I figure by 1500 you have the base. Your solid core of troops for capturing objectives. Your HQ. A tank or two. The last 500 seem to be to add the really snazzy stuff or really powerful stuff. I think the clubs last 500 will be spent on tanks and such for the most part.

At 1000, for my guard I had a platoon, command squad, vets in a chimera, a couple sentinels and a tank. At 1500 I added another squad, another heavy weapons team, a valk and a medusa for more artillery. Of course, there was some reshuffling within the list. Going towards 2000 what do I do? Add yet more tanks and start filling the 2000pts? Maybe a Hydra or a vendetta? More guys to add to the 50 or 60 foot sloggers?

How do you build up your army from point level to point level? Let's hear it!

8th Edition Fantasy Rumors

2010-04-11T22:32:00.003-06:00

These from from Warseer. All the credit goes to Grimstonefire. Some really interesting stuff. I will admit it was doom and gloom for me for quite a while, but this is making things better. NO SUSTAINED COMBAT was a big kicker.

Another thing I have heard is there is not two ranks fighting, but rather wounds are removed from the rear and therefore, the second rank fights to replace those wounds... think of the first rank dying and the second rank pushing up into the place of their fallen comrades...

Now, on with the show...

Note: This is only a summary of rumours that have been discussed in recent months. Rumours are subject to change. They are only 100% correct when they are facts.

I have tried to take out all the ones that have been quickly discredited, and a lot of this comes from reliable sources(who have been contradictory). Just so I am clear, none of what follows are rumours from me, they are all from other people.

Take with as much salt as is necessary, and don't blame me if any of it is wrong (I had to wade through around 200 pages of **** in french, german and english, and if I see people moaning about 25% again... *shudders* )

Note as well that none of the names of rules below are official, I just put something fun there for reference when I was collating.

Updating this: Much as I'd like to have the time and motivation to read all rumour discussions, PLEASE PM ME here with info,only if there is a significant rumour discussion from someone you guys really trust. I know there are snippets coming out in the general discussion here, and on many other forums. So rather than have to trawl across the web every few days, if you guys want this updated you will need to pm me with the info. I will try and keep ontop of things.

Note as well that unlike the other thread this is only for rumour discussion for the 8th edition rulebook itself. Not what armies are getting which releases (save that for the other thread).

These are all listed in no particular order.

ARMY SELECTION

Army construction is moving back to percentages.
There have been not been strong rumours yet to support any specific % for all categories, however, 25% min core, 25% max special and 25% max rare seem to be undisputed.

Slot system may or may not being dropped

categories for core/special/rare are remaining.
There have been no rumours yet of a system wide errata to specify which things are limited as a result.

MAGIC

NOTE: The magic rumours nobody seems to agree on, so rather than try and find what exactly the truth is I will just put here most of the theories

Power dice aren’t generated by the number of spellcasters. The pool is decided by 2D6. Magic users add their magic level to the score rolled.

All Wizards have a chance to generate more power dice.

Giving irresistible force a downside

If a wizard fails to cast (not counting dispels) twice in a row he miscasts

Making miscasts harder to have but much more devastating.

Dispel scroll only adding dispel dice (+2 dice to the dispel dice pool once per game).

Something rumoured is carrying over power dice, but holding too many could lead to a ‘magic backlash’.

All the book Lores will have more supportive spells than they have now.

If a wizard fail to cast a spell he can't cast other spells in the same phase.

COMBAT

NOTE: Trying to nail down what the truth is here is very hard. Once it is explained properly by someone who knows categorically what it is I will update this

Some of this is only my understanding of what has been discussed.

What is 100% clear is that models in the second rank will have some role to play in most combats.

Strength in depth/ stepping up.
Infantry units will fight with a second rank, as long as it is 5 models minimum (or 3 for ogre sized). Models in the second rank will be able to fight back even if the chargers have wiped out the front rank. However, if the chargers wipe the front 2 ranks no more models may fight back that turn.

If armed with spears they gain an additional rank to fight with (+1 rank as now). No word on the impact for High Elves.

Cavalry still only fight in 1 rank. Flank & Rear attacks, the charged unit fights as normal.

Horde
Fight in 3 ranks if 10+ wide (4 with spears).

One Save to ruin them all!
Models will only ever get one save (be it ward, mundane or magical armour). No word yet on whether regeneration is included. From Alessio himself.

40mm models
40mm models moving to 3 model-wide ranks. Ogres sized models are officially being put into their own size category (finally).

Crush them!
Additional stomp/crush attacks for big infantry (ogres, trolls, etc) to represent them trampling lesser races underfoot. Bigger bonus for large creatures like giants.

Armour may be more useful, as there are fewer other modifiers

MOVEMENT

Measure the distance for the furthest moving model, and perform whatever manoeuvres you wish within that lax limitation. Command models will have some role to play in giving free manoeuvre as you move (Musician bonus similar to Ancient Battles?).

Charging.
An added 'bonus' of getting an 'extra' +D6 or +D3 inches of movement to your move range (presumably the D6 or D3 decided by the category of warrior; infantry/cavalry/ogre sized).

Heavy cavalry no longer able to march
- Heavy cavalry, defined as any cavalry with a 2+ or better save, cannot march. They can double their move when charging as normal, but they are not allowed to make a March move.
- "Medium and Fast cavalry remain the same".

Chariots
S7 autokill is gone.

SHOOTING

As it happens to be the same rumour; armour may be more useful, as there are fewer other modifiers

PSYCHOLOGY

Fear and Terror
When in combat, units or monsters with these rules gain 1 or 2 or 3 points of Static Combat modifier. This is added to the number of wounds caused by the Fear/Terror model/unit, as well as ranks, banners, etc. These bonuses may be cumulative between fear/terror causing things attacking a unit.

Autobreaking from fear or terror is gone.

OTHER RULEBOOK CONTENTS
Multiple objective driven scenarios in the rulebook (no kill points)
See GW grand tournament and doubles scenarios.

15 or so missions in the new rulebook. 9 or 10 of the missions required Core units to capture objectives. Units must have banners to capture objectives. Several missions had multiple objectives

Victory Conditions
Interestingly something I picked up from a post was that ‘victory conditions’ have been referred to in the last 3 books, not victory points.

Terrain
Difficult terrain may be merged with very difficult and encompass more things (presumably more than just affecting movement).

Discredited rumours
Fight-until-someone-breaks
Lapping around
Weapons using the flame template or large or small blast templates automatically hit any model in contact rather than cause partial hits.

WELCOME!

2010-04-10T01:14:00.000-06:00

Welcome one, welcome all to the blogworld home for the Deathbridge Warhammer club! We will talk 40k and fantasy all while, hopefully, bringing a much different and needed perspective on the game... a realistic one! Members of the local club here in Lethbridge, Alberta will be posting their own thoughts, stories, battle reports, lists, essays, etc about our favorite "more expensive then heroine" hobby.

And some of us play other systems so you'll never know when you'll see Warmachine/Hordes or Flames of War or even Bloodbowl talked about on here!

But not Heroclix... never, ever that game.