So this isn't WHFB-related, but I've been busily making terrain in my garage for the last few days (along with polishing off my Legion army), and so Spencer and I decided to have a few games last night to showcase everything. Our barricades/obstacles are still unpainted (you can see some undercoated black in some of the photos), but we had enough terrain to play a decent-looking game on. We also kind of didn't plan ahead, so we were using ghetto tokens for our spells and other effects - this has been taken care of now due to the office photocopier, and we now have nice-looking tokens to use. So without further ado:

The cast:Magnus the Traitor and his battlegroup

Four-Star Syndicate, in it for the money
(I only used played these guys in one game, an oddly bloodless affair. Sadly Reinholdt the goblin mascot didn't accomplish anything)

Typhon

A teraph

Nephilim soldier

Nephilim protector

Carnivean



Zergling rush!

Thagrosh the Messiah

The action:

Magnus' troops looking uncharacteristically disciplined

The Idrian lieutenant gives a rousing speech, not realising that one of his scouts is facing the wrong way

Kell takes up a sniper position at the edge of the forest


A renegade wanders forward to fire off its obliterator rocket.

Magnus and his troops surge forward

Meanwhile the Legion pushes its way through the forest

A nephilim climbs a nearby hill to survey the battlefield

A carnivean crashes through the undergrowth

Battle is joined! A nephilim and a forsaken plow into the mercenary lines.

Typhon takes up a position behind some razorwire to unleash its blight breath on an enemy warjack.

A teraph advances upfield

A mangler holds the line against the advancing Legion beasts.

Magnus runs a renegade behind the carnivean to harry it with arcane bolts...

...but sadly leaves himself face to face with Thagrosh.

One swing later and it's all over for the Traitor.

More stats than the NFL

Here be dragons.

Round 1 Reflections

So over the weekend we managed to kick off round one, and had the unexpected fun of having Rufus involved as a sixth player! Michael was out in the country somewhere having fun in a Bushmaster, so his games will have to wait until next weekend, but as stands the games were a hell of a good time. Rufus bought his terrain, so being able to play on a good looking table with fully painted armies was an utter pleasure. Here are the armies everyone brought (sadly apart from Tim and I we didn't do photo shoots of any of the armies, so you'll have to survive with "action" shots):

Spencer, Dark Elves:

Vermithrax Hearteater: Master, light armour, sea dragon cloak,
repeater crossbow, Pendant of Khaeleth, Soulrender 146

5 Dark Riders, repeater crossbows 110
5 Dark Riders, repeater crossbows 110

7 Shades, great weapons, light armour 133


Rufus, Wood Elves:


Waywatcher Noble - Hail of Doom Arrow, Rageth's Wildfire Blades [150]
10 Glade Guard - Champion [126]
5 Scouts - Champion [91]
5 Waywatchers - Champion [128]

((Do you detect a disturbing trend towards skirmishing elf bullshit so far?))

Kirk, Skaven:

Plague Priest 120
*Languisher Sword [25]
*Bands of Power [25]

14 Plague Monks 162
*2ndWeapon; Standard; Musician; Plague Deacon
*Banner of Burning Hatred [25]

2 Plague Rat Swarms 130

5 Plague Censer Bearers 85
Total Army Cost: 497

Tim, Vampire Counts:


Vampire, Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead, Sword of Might, The Flayed Hauberk 185

10 Skeletons, Full Command, Spears 110pts

10 Skeletons, Skeleton Champion, Spears 98pts

Corpse Cart, Unholy Lodestone 100pts

Kurt, Orcs and Goblins:

Shizz'nit
night goblin shaman - 2x magic mushrooms, nibbla's itty ring, level 2 wizard (125)

Bleeding Moon tribe
20 night goblins - full command, nets (115)
20 night goblins - musician (64)
2 fanatics (50)

5 squig hoppers (75)
1 squig herd (30)
bolt thrower - bully (40)

Casting pool: 4
Dispel pool: 3
Models in army: 54


From my perspective the first round went reasonably well - my aim is to at least stay around the middle of the field with a low-tier army, which I think I've managed thus far (I'm currently third on the leaderboard, and have won three of my four games). As far as my army list is concerned...

The Winners:
Shizz'nit proved to be an incredible investment, and was largely responsible for two of my three wins. With the ability to throw out two spells and one bound per round, opponents (particularly those with no wizard of their own) had difficulty stoppng him from doing whatever he pleased. I was fortunate enough to get Hand of Gork twice, which was the only way I could close the distance against Spencer, and which let me fling fanatics through the enemy battle line with abandon. He only miscast twice during all four games, and both times I was fortunate enough to roll a seven (spell forgotten) rather than the more deadly greenskin miscast results.

The fanatics were likewise an incredible investment, and wiped out dark riders, skeletons, the corpse cart and censer bearers, and barely did any damage at all to my own army.

The squig hoppers also worked reasonably well, particularly as they're the only thing in the greenskin list you can really use to chase down enemy skirmishers. Although they managed to beat up the rat swarms with barely any casualties in the game against the skaven; they did, embarrassingly, manage to lose the combat after charging a unit of wood elf scouts only to be broken and run down. The dice are a fickle mistress.

The Losers:
The squig herd barely managed to accomplish anything (although they did blow up and kill a fanatic and a bunch of basic goblins during my first game). Their one moment of glory though was marching in double file down a narrow corridor between two terrain pieces that Kirk's plague monks were forced to walk down (due to their banner of burning hatred) and promptly blowing up on the skaven army.

The Mediocre
The basic night goblin units barely made it into combat throughout the day (apart from the dark elf match when Hand of Gork was involved). They did beat up some skeletons briefly though, and the unit with no command managed to kill Spencer's master with the accursed pendant in our game (actually slay him, that is, not run him down) and earn roughly 400% of their points for their troubles.

The bolt thrower accomplished nothing at all against the elves, but did kill three or four plague monks and eight or nine skeletons, so was probably worth the investment. I only lost it in one game too, so it didn't give away many points.

In general the army worked about as well as could be expected (there's little to do in low points games to mitigate animostiy, low leadership, etc). The biggest problem was the inability to deal with elf skirmishers/fast cav/missile units - I'm planning to invest in spider riders to help run them down before too long, but sadly not until we hit 1000 points. The next expansion involves a savage orc big boss on a chariot (for long-ranged, Waaagh-fuelled charges and a huge increase in leadership) and trading in the bolt thrower for a doom diver (squigapult!) to splat hard-to-reach elves.


Highlights from my games:

- Tim's skeleton champion, Neil, left alone to fight the squig herd and a goblin block. He killed one herder with each of his attacks, causing the squigs to run riot in an eleven-inch radius. He suffered five wounds for his troubles, but in their rampage the squigs took down a nearby fanatic and three or four night goblins.

- Hand of gorking a fanatic back and fourth through Tim's lines, wiping out his corpse cart and diminishing his skeletons.

- Losing on basically the first turn against Rufus, due to a Hail of Doom arrow and unit of waywatchers panicking my shaman and a unit of goblins off the board through weight of fire (I saw this coming, but really couldn't think of any way to stop it. Much like his game vs. Spence, Rufus and I pretty much won or lost this game based on who got first turn).

- Not even managing to salvage a minor loss against Rufus, due to my surviving goblin block failing their fear test to charge his scouts, and my squig hoppers bouncing off the same unit.

- Using Gork'll Fix It to shut down Kirk's rat swarms and completely negate their poison.

- An enormous Waaagh! against Spencer, where all through of my units surged forward an average of four inches, which when followed by Hand of Gork let me close the gap in what would otherwise have been an almost unwinnable matchup.


Highlights from other games:

- Kirk's plague priest (his sole surviving model) butchering the wood elf noble in a climactic duel on a mountaintop, only to spend two turns frantically dodging arrows before being brought down in a scene reminiscent of Throne of Blood.

- Tim's vampire being killing blowed by waywatchers on his first turn.

- Spencer's master somehow soloing the corpse cart and vampire simultaneously.

- Rufus' noble being gunned down before he could move by a huge cloud of dark elf quarrels.




More pictures to come!

First Night Goblin 500 points

Here's the 500-point list I plan to take on the weekend:

Shizz'nit
night goblin shaman - 2x magic mushrooms, nibbla's itty ring, level 2 wizard (125)

Bleeding Moon tribe
20 night goblins - full command, nets (115)
20 night goblins - musician (64)
2 fanatics (50)

5 squig hoppers (75)
1 squig herd (30)
bolt thrower - bully (40)

Casting pool: 4
Dispel pool: 3
Models in army: 54


I've decided to abandon the idea of an entirely night goblin force in later rounds, slowly adding other greenskin types to make a more balanced list. Next expansion is savage orcs!

final Skaven 500 point list

so I´ve settled on my final list for this weekend

500 Pts - Skaven Army

Plague Priest 120
*Languisher Sword [25]
*Bands of Power [25]

14 Plague Monks 162
*2ndWeapon; Standard; Musician; Plague Deacon
*Banner of Burning Hatred [25]

2 Plague Rat Swarms 130

5 Plague Censer Bearers 85
Total Army Cost: 497

Notes:
Strength in Numbers. Add the current units rank bonus to the Ld for all Ld tests, maximum bonus is +3
Life is cheap. May shoot/cast spells into HtH. Roll to hit as usual; roll D6 for each hit; Random
unit in CC hit on 1-3, Target hit on 4-6
Live to fight. Add +1 inches to any flee distance result.
Lead from the rear. Characters can lead from the last rank. Can accept/refuse challenges only if in
HtH. If unit in HtH but not character he can join HtH, stay in rear, or leave unit.
Spells are cast with Irresistable Force if the total on all dice used for the spell adds up to 13.

Casting Pool: 2
Dispel Pool: 2
Models in Army: 22

first 500 points

headed into this this campaign I think I´m ahead for points to $ ratio. the photo on the left shows the 607 points I made from a single box of plague monks, 4 monster bases and a flail from a marauder sprue.

plague priest, AHW, Liber bubonicus, warpstone chunk. [124]
4 plague rat swarms. [260]
14 plague monks, AHW, full command. [137]
5 plague censer bearers. [85]



here we have a closeup of my barely passable paintjob.

black undercoat,
elven flesh slapped on over it,
devlin mud wash,
robes are dry brushed with bleached bone,
teeth and claws picked out in mixture of bleached bone and white.
weapon painted in dwarf bronze washed blade in mixture of crimson gore and bestial brown. blade edge drybrushed in mithril silver
pox painted in crimson gore wash and picked out in snot green.

the plague rat swarms still need additional detailing and I havn´t decided how I want everything based yet.

Round 1

Round one is about to begin, so it's time to finalise armies and sort out the rules.

Here are the guidelines:

Points - 500 pts
Table size - 4x4 foot
Every player plays every other player once





Bonus Scenario: Strange Alliances
One general has clawed his way to the top of heap, and has proven through cunning and steel to stand above the crowd in terms of battlefield prowess and tactical acumen. In an attempt to bring an end to this onslaught, the other generals have agreed to combine their forces and drive this potential victor from the field once and for all.

Woe be to those who seek such alliances, however, as the conspirators by nature aren't far from treachery...

Defender: Player in first position + player in second position
Attacker: The remainder of the field

Deployment: roll a D6 for each unit or war machine in the attacking army. On a roll of 1 the unit is not deployed as normal, but instead moves onto the board in the first turn as though returning from pursuit off the table. The defending army begins the deployment sequence.

Turns: the attacking army plays the first turn. The game lasts for 6 turns.

Victory: standard VPs apply.

Alliance rules: armies can only use the leadership/rerolls of their own general/battle standard - their is no overall general for the force. Likewise, only one BSB counts per side in a combat at any time. Each player has their own dispel and power pool as normal, and these dice cannot be shared or pooled (for instance, you can't all throw your dice in together for one huge dispel attempt).




So, everyone should submit their army list in the next few days (with character/unit names, etc, if you're feeling a little... uh, flowery), and then I'm sure we can write up some sort of ridiculous narrative to explain why these miscreants from far-flung reaches are all fighting skirmishes against one another.