MODELLING: Khorne Lord on Juggernaut built

I've crossed my first task off my to do list. The Khorne Lord on Juggernaut is built.

I just love the aesthetics of this model - it's a real Jes Goodwin classic. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it! Of course this year I made a New Year resolution not to buy any new models so I knew I'd have to wait until 2010. Lo and behold I open a birthday present from my girlfriend and I'm holding the model in my hand. Result!

The only bad thing about the model is that it is all metal. Having come off the back of putting together the Ork Deff Dread, Killa Kanz and Meganobz I knew what a pain assembling metal models could be. This was no exception!

I think I must invented a dozen or more new swearwords as I tried to get the skulls on spikes stuck to the shoulders of the Jugger.

But why now? Good question.

I think it's because I've been listening to a lot of Warhammer Fantasy Battle podcasts lately (why are there no really good 40k podcasts out there?) and the Games Workshop tournament heats were played recently. I'd really like to return to my Warriors of Chaos army and finish painting the models and add a handful of new ones.

Having said that, I have now learned that WFB 8th edition is due out next summer. It makes sense then to hold off for a few months until the main rulebook is released.

At least I can show it to my girlfriend and she'll know her present was appreciated!

GENERAL: Warriors and Salamanders

I read my latest issue of White Dwarf over the past two days. I was looking forward to the launch of the Warriors of Chaos army book for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, as this is the only army I currently own for the game. I play a mortal list so this book would be vital to my next 6+ years of Warhammer gaming.

When I read the battle report I was incensed!

I have contributed to a thread on The Warhammer Forum on this very subject but I thought I'd record my thoughts here too.

I've been playing GW games for 20+ years, but I stopped playing WFB in 3rd edition and just began again in 7th. So I'm a veteran but a newbie to WFB. I chose to play mortal Hordes of Chaos and my buddy picked Dark Elves.

Boy did I get a run around in those early games we played. The problem was that I played a mixed HoC army with light magic, two Warrior units and just one unit of Knights and my opponent just danced around me, whittling my units away with magic and shooting, then delivering a decisive charge in the final turns of the game. It was very clear to me that it didn't matter how hard my units on foot were, if I couldn't get them into combat they were useless.

My fortunes changed when I began to include units and items to negate the enemy magic users, war machines and fast cavalry. Furies were my linchpin but Book of Secrets, Marauder Cav and bound magic missiles helped too.

Now they've improved the Dark Elf army book (much needed I agree) but what the devil have they done to the Warriors? What options do I have now to keep those march blockers off my flank, the mages and bolt throwers from skewering my expensive models?

Surely the inaugural battle report with the new book will advise me?

No. Apparently my plan is to hope my opponent decides to take me on in close combat. Are you kidding me?

Nobody wanted to charge me before, why would they want to now when my Warriors are even better in combat? Can't GW see the effect that this will have on most games?

Your opponent doesn't ever want to make combat so he uses his movement to march block you and his magic and shooting to kill you before you get there. The WoC hasn't got great tools to stop those things so he drops his foot troops and gets more knights. That means the opponent wants to get into combat even less, and he has to kill you even quicker, so he invests in more magic, shooting and annoying support units. So the WoC gets more Cav to make it into combat quicker. Etc, etc.

IMHO the WoC book would have been far better with units a range of abilities which would have allowed greater tactical flexibility for the WoC player AND his opponent. What about skirmishing Marauders in small units with throwing axes and throwing spears? Thugs (that's going back a bit I'll grant you) with bows? Re-introduce some Chaos Dwarf units?

The way it is now is exactly how Alessio describes it in the battle report:

Chaos runs at the guns, and then either a) Chaos is shot to pieces or b) Chaos reaches the gunline in reasonable numbers and cuts the enemy army to pieces.

Reading the battle report again I think that maybe Alessio was actually having a sly dig at the WoC book in his comments about gunlines.

Ahem. With that little rant out of the way I want to point you toward my first battle report of The Gauntlet Tournament. This was versus the new Space Marine codex iteration of Salamanders.

REVIEW: Chaos Warrior Regiment

• Made by Games Workshop
• Designed by Brian Nelson, Jes Goodwin, Alex Hedstrom, Colin Grayson
• Cost £18 (approximately $35)
  

Contents
The Regiment boxed set contains twelve plastic Warriors of Chaos, including enough parts to equip them with hand weapons and shields, or two hand weapons. You can also build a champion, standard bearer and musician.

Review
The new Chaos Warrior Regiment boxed set is a replacement for the ancient 'hunchback' Chaos plastics. That old plastic kit was revolutionary at the time because it launched the multi-pose models which now dominate the core units for most of the Warhammer range. Unfortunately it aged rather badly, while the new Chaos range developed around it. The old Warriors also had two major weaknesses; they took an age to assemble (because there were so many pieces to each individual model) and they were virtually impossible to rank up once constructed.

Games Workshop have addressed both of these issues on the new sprues. The main body of each Warrior is constructed from just two pieces, the legs and chest form one, and the back and cloak form the other. Each arm can then be added at the elbow, with a choice between two hand weapons, or a hand weapon and shield. The Warrior can then be completed with the addition of a head. Due to the uniformity of the body plastics, the unit now ranks up very easily.


Although these changes are largely welcome, they do introduce some problems. A completed unit will look very 'samey' as all of the models have an identical posture. This can be mitigated against to a certain degree by placing the champion, standard bearer and musician in the front rank (they have their own command sprue) but the unit will still look very uniform. I think this is especially problematic because the Warriors are, or should be, Chaotic. If any army should be a collection of disparate individuals, then Chaos should be it.

Converting the new kit will also be more difficult. The pose is stiff and rigid for every model, and impossible to alter because the legs and body are moulded together. The fur and cloaks are mandatory to complete the back section of the Warrior, leaving no wriggle room. Even the arms are difficult to convert as they only go up to the elbow, the upper arm being part of the body sprue. Again, this is especially relevant to the Chaos army, because it offers the most scope to individualise the army with the choice of patron God, mutations and gifts of the gods.

Converters needn't despair just yet though. The sprues contain lots of extra bits and pieces, beyond the basic necessities. Once I had completed my twelve man unit I had loads of heads, weapons, shields and other stuff left over. They will all go into my bits box for later.

The Warriors do look fantastic, though. Aesthetically, they take their cue from the Knights of Chaos, and they are light years ahead of the old kit in terms of looks. The posture is noticeably more upright and imposing than the previous models and I think most players won't keep the older models around for too long once they examine the new plastics. I'm sure no-one will mix the two sets of models in the same army.

With the new kit being simplified, I had assumed there would be less detail on the models. This isn't the case. There are a surprising amount of features and textures on the plastics, ranging from plate mail, to chainmail, to fur, to cloth, to bone, and many others. I found that it was best to leave the shield arms off the model and paint them separately, so that it was easier to get to the main body of the Warrior with my paint brush.

Summary
I think the Chaos Warrior Regiment boxed set is very good. It is visually stunning and straightforward to construct. It does not offer much opportunity for converting, however, and all of the models have a very similar pose. Nevertheless, I recommend this kit.

Score 8/10

Scores
All of my reviews end in a score out of ten for the product. The table below explains what that score means.

• 10/10 Perfect, absolutely nothing better
• 9/10 Excellent, highly recommended
• 8/10 Very good, recommended
• 7/10 Good
• 6/10 Above average, some problems
• 5/10 Average, some good points some bad points
• 4/10 Below average, some redeeming features
• 3/10 Poor, major flaws
• 2/10 Very poor, avoid if possible
• 1/10 Absolutely appalling

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Final thoughts

Like Ronnie Corbett, this campaign was short and not so sweet.

The actual mechanics worked perfectly well. That's because there were hardly any mechanics. When we began the campaign I was worried that it would stalemate with each side winning every other other game but three massacres later we had the shortest possible end to the campaign. I guess this is why playtesting is necessary; you never know what is going to happen.

So if the rules went right, what went wrong?

The problem was that neither of us really got into the campaign. I think this was because it was so short, that tabletop issues affected our enjoyment of the games and that the campaign rules didn't impact upon the tabletop games enough. In order for a campaign to feel special it has to make the tabletop battles different from one-off games. This difference could come in various ways, whether it be rules for troops gaining experience, altered missions and scenarios or unique models and characters. Each game in the campaign should feel different from the last so that the players seem to be actually getting somewhere. We had none of that.

Still this campaign did have one advantage over the the majority of campaigns I have played in the past; I finished it.

I'll take all these thoughts on board when I come up with my next set of campaign rules.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: The defence of Tor Thana

After some delay, here is my write-up of the third game in our Nemesis Crown campaign.

I had painted up the Marauders on foot to tabletop standard so I dropped a Sorcerer to fit them into the list. This meant I now only had one level one Sorcerer with just two dispel scrolls. I hoped Gary wouldn't have too much magic.

Gary picked a level four Sorceress with three level two underlings. Gulp! He had dropped most of his magic items and other extras to play with as many models on the board as possible.

This could be tough.

Armies 2000points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Sigurt Volsung, Lord on Daemonic Mount, Armour of Damnation, Berzerker Sword, Gaze of the Gods, shield
  
• Thaer, Exalted with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon, Enchanted Shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Angur Boda, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
• 12 Chosen Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
• 16 Marauders, full command, light armour and shields
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command, Warbanner
• 5 Marauder Horse, champion, musician, flails
• 5 War hounds
• 5 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Level 4 sorceress
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder
• Hydra
• Chariot
• Chariot

Terrain and deployment
You can see the layout of the terrain on the photo below. Again, Gary hadn't touched the board since our last game so I scattered the pieces randomly. It left a very wide open battlefield which would be ideal for shooting and magic heavy armies. Uh-oh.


I continued with the patented Volsung deployment technique - putting down my throw-away units in the centre till I had an idea where the pesky pointy-ears were deploying and then set up the rest of my army hard on one flank. In this case I had a very strong left flank and refused the right, which had the two Dark Elf chariots on it. I hoped to sweep the Knights around the rock spires and hit the squishy Elf centre hard with my Lord and the Warriors. In particular I felt Gary had put his spell casters in a very vulnerable position with only his shooty units near them for defence. Just one or two units in amongst them could disrupt his entire army.

The game
I won first turn despite the Dark Elves having the +1 bonus. I marched the hounds and Marauder horse up the centre to threaten the Repeater Bolt Throwers and all those Sorceresses. The warriors marched too, angling slightly into the centre. My Knights marched up the extreme left flank. My Marauder infantry moved up more cautiously and the furies went wide right behind a hill.

Gary had a unit of dark riders on each flank and marched each up to give my infantry units something to worry about. One of his chariots went stupid and stumbled forward and the other kept pace with it. On the right he moved the Hydra back to plug the gap behind the rocks.

Most of his action took place in the magic and shooting phases. He concentrated on my fast moving units in the centre and killed one whole unit of war hounds, two out of the second unit and three of my marauder horse, as well as drawing out both of my dispel scrolls.

The game looked like this after our first turns.


In my second turn I declared charges all over the place. My furies charge the dark riders on the right - they fled into the middle which left my furies out in front of the Dark Elf infantry and chariots. I think Gary expected me to charge with the marauders but I feared the counter charge from the chariots so I held the unit back instead.

On the right flank my smaller warrior unit charged the other dark riders. They fled too, but this time they stopped in front of another charging unit; my Lord on his daemonic mount who was going to charge out of the warriors and into the repeater crossbows. He went after the dark riders instead who were destroyed, but it did leave my Lord out in front of the rest of my army and feeling a little vulnerable.

I didn't need to worry. My marauder horse charged into the three sorceress who were rather conveniently lined up in a row. Of course I only wounded one, but I took no casualties in return. All the sorceresses passed their break tests. Boo!

Now my three hounds charged the level four sorceress. The repeater bolt thrower crew helped her out but their intervention was in vain. I killed one of the crew and took no wounds so I had won the combat. The sorceress, who was also the army general, failed her break test. She ran off the board. Both repeater bolt thrower crew failed their panic tests and ran too. Now the spearelves failed their panic test and ran off the board. This panicked the executioners who turned tail and ran. A charioteer took this as a bad sign and ran off the board as well.

By the end of the combat phase the dark elves had lost around half of their army. They had no realistic chance of winning the game so we called it another Chaos massacre.

So I had won the game and won the campaign. The forces of Sigurt Volsung were victorious and could now hunt for the Crown in peace while the Dark Elves slunk off to their Black Ark in shame. My warriors will be feasting on Cold One flesh tonight.

Honours

• Chaos - Those last three war hounds. 18 points of models caused well over 700 points of damage.
  
• Dark elves - Chariots for at least causing me to deploy in a certain way.

Thoughts

• Yet again, another perfect game for my Chaos army. Obviously it was helped by Gary rolling such appalling panic tests as the centre of his army crumbled, but I still think I had the superior deployment. I could bring my army to bear in strength on the left without much chance of anything getting in around my flanks. On the right Gary actually had the advantage, with two infantry blocks, two chariots and the dark riders facing off against my furies, the marauders on foot and my chaos chariot. He didn't press his advantage though, and all I needed to do was hold his army off the flanks of mine. Even had the battle continued I think I would have been in a better position come turn three or four. Gary's positioning of the sorceresses was baffling to me; they were such juicy targets I just had to go after them, and I knew I could threaten them with multiple units from turn two onwards. Gary's plan was to focus his magic and shooting in one tight area of the battlefield but it failed spectacularly.
• I would be surprised if I play against Gary's dark elf army again. Our campaign is now finished and we'll probably move on to other game systems for a while. I've never seen Gary so downbeat about an army before, or so angry during a game. It really makes it difficult for me to enjoy the game because if I am losing everything is okay with Gary (and I'm not happy) or I am winning and Gary is angry (and I'm not happy). It has been mounting up for weeks and weeks and came to a head during this battle. I think it is a combination of several things; it is a new set of rules for us and we are still getting things wrong, Gary is playing a finesse army when he normally plays more straightforward forces, we've been playing against just each other for almost a year. This last point is important. Gary and I are experienced players, having been involved in the Games Workshop 'hobby' for almost 20 years. We are both decent players and about the same skill level as each other. For a couple of years we played in out local gaming store against a variety of players, but over the past year (since Gary got a flat and his own table) we have just played against each other. Every game is a real test as we both know each other's games inside out and we know that any mistake we make will be ruthlessly seized upon. At the store it was different. We were strong players there, able to take on most armies and if not win, make a tough fight of it. For the first time in a long while, Gary is losing a lot of games and he doesn't like it. When I was losing against his dark elves in our early games I came up with a different game plan, I scoured the Internet for different ideas and I thought long and hard about the army I was facing. Gary isn't 'into' the games as much as me so he hasn't spent as much time addressing his problems as I did and it is showing. I think he'll get rid of the army rather than persevere with it. It's a shame because I think it is a real test of your gaming skill to succeed with different styles of army and he would become a more rounded gamer if he stuck with the pointy-ears. For myself, I think I could do with a break and/or play some games against different players.
  
• Phew! I was going to round up my thoughts on how the campaign ran here, but I've waffled on about so many other things I don't have space. I'll write them up in their own post in the future.

PAINTING AND MODELLING: Chaos bases

I had a monster hangover yesterday after a big drinking session on Saturday night. Never mix the grape and grain! So I really didn't fancy painting anything but I had just enough energy to flock my Chaos bases. I hadn't done this for a while so I had a lot to do; the Lord, Warhounds, Marauder horse, Marauder infantry and the movement trays.


As you can see in the photo, it really does make a massive difference to the look of an army. If you don't already add flock to your bases I'd recommend it. You get a lot out of it for not a lot of effort.

I use two types of materials, static grass and snow flock. Both are added with dabs of watered down PVA glue.

On the left you can see the final model I need to paint for the army - a Knight. I'm going to try and use the foundation paints to replicate the red of my other knights as this is a notoriously tricky colour to paint over black.

I'll let you know how I get on.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Game two analysis, part two

The comments have kept rolling in following the battle report so I thought I'd go through them before our next game. The first is from Zeb on the Warhammer Forum.

It seems like your friend is playing De the way you play Khorne... Except for the 8 levels of magic.

As others stated, he needs to slow down. Also to concentrate fire with his RBT's.

One thing that seems to have been wrong is that the lvl 4 can't be in a chariot, and that the four furies (in the pic they seem to be four) shouldn't have caused the Dark Riders to auto flee, since they still have Unit Strength 6 vs the Furies US 4 (or possibly 5).
Which also brings me to wonder about the first round of that combat, he did no wounds and you did one = a draw. But does he play Dark Riders without musician???! He needs to include that, just for the sake of rallying easier.

Good Luck, I know it takes time to learn the rules, I'm still learning 20 later...!

How come the lvl 4 can't be in the chariot? Is it something specific to DE?

As for the furies, there were 8 in the starting unit and they killed 1 dark rider for no casualties. That meant a draw. In the second round I think I killed another dark rider for no losses. That meant US 8 vs 6 and the Dark Riders auto fled. The furies pursued but didn't catch them and then got peppered by fire from the repeater bolt throwers and crossbows which took them down to four models.

I'll have to check if there was a musician in the unit - if not I'll recommend he includes one.

AndyP posts a lot of battle and campaign reports on the Warhammer forum. He has some strong views on the game and I am a fan because he plays warrior heavy Chaos lists. He wrote:

Characters can only ride in chariots if the unit entry in the army book (the bit with all the point costs) specifically allows them to ride in one. Compare the entries for the highborn and high sorceress. Neither of the DE sorceresses can ride in chariots.

Other than that, I like the pictures with arrows - it's very clear what's going on.

Regarding your friend's dismay with the dark elves. I would encourage him to keep at it - it takes a lot of practise to compete with DE. He shouldn't expect to win straight away. I would advise against making radical changes to the list. Keep practising with similar lists before trying something new - otherwise you're back to square one.

The rules queries regarding the chariots were a new one on me and I didn't even think to check with Gary during our game. I'll e-mail him these comments so he can make the relevant changes for our next game.

I think Andyp's thoughts on the Dark Elf army list are spot on. It's difficult to get to grips with a new game system, especially if you are playing an army that fights in a way that is outside your comfort zone. Gary's attempted solutions have been to put successively harder models on the board but these have all failed because fundamentally the Dark Elf army is not supposed to be played that way, and certainly not against Chaos. Whatever model Gary plays I can pick a harder version in my list. No, what he needs to do is press his own advantages which are manoeuvrability, magic and shooting while avoiding his weakness which is combat.

Chopping and changing the lists is not helping because he has no time to get used to how each unit works. My own experience has shown me that in Warhammer the way the army works as a whole is more important than how powerful each individual unit is, and that deployment is crucial. I think it would be more beneficial for Gary to concentrate on his tactics and deployment than tweaking his army list.

There was also an actual comment on the lone pilgrim blog itself. Glory be!

To Gary,

The Dark Elves are squishy. They should NOT be in combat earlier than turn 3. Turn 4 better. He needs to make you come to him (in the center) and then pounce your flanks.

He tends to throw the Dark Elves immediately forward, which really comes as a surprise..

The Dark Riders fled off the field? Perhaps musicians are needed specially since now a fast cav can MOVE after it rallies he can be just 10 inches away from the knights and since you have to charge him, he flees, rallies and then moves back to where he is denying you a march.

the Dark Riders that got charged by the hounds should never have been charged in the first placed.. Since either a) the riders have longer range. (14 inches for the hounds right?) and b) he could flee. He could have creeped the Dark Riders a bit first to ensure that he was in range but the hounds weren't.

Tag teaming units against one enemy is going to be needed.

And remember Chaos is a Large Hammer, the Dark elves are a Scalpel. The DE is a finesse army.

Good luck and good hunting.

btw did you make your fear/terror checks when you charged the hydra? if you pursued into it, did you make your checks

Looking at the last pic it looks like the Hydra went out alone. that's bad.. Treat it as a slower chariot .. One hitting a full unit in front cant win. It needs support. 2 chariots hitting at the same time though.. is another matter. :)

Hey archeteuthis,

We did make the relevant fear/terror tests - we tested at the start of my third turn because the hydra was within 6" of the chosen (with the lord) and chariot. Then we tested when both units charged.

I don't think I need to test when the hydra is fleeing as it's not quite so scary when it has it's tail between its legs.

Don't forget that my lord (on fear causing mount) was in the chosen so I had 9 LD with the re-roll for being Chaos Undivided.

Thanks for all the tactical insights, everyone. I'm passing them all on to Gary and I'm sure he'll put them into practice soon.

PAINTING AND MODELLING: Marauder infantry

I've really been pushing myself to get the last models in my Warhammer Chaos army complete in time for our Nemesis Crown campaign. I had already painted the second warhound unit and Marauder horse and I now had to tackle the 16 man Marauder infantry unit. Gulp.

The first thing I had to do was sort out the movement trays for my embiggened army. You may have noticed I used unpainted and incorrectly sized bases in some of my earlier battle reports. The horror!

A lot of cutting and hacking later and I had completed three trays. I added some plasti-card underneath the bases to hold everything together then I glued sand to the edges. I undercoated everything black then painted Graveyard Earth over everything. Here is how they looked at that stage.


I then drybrushed Codex Grey over the textured bits followed by Fortress Grey. Another coat of Graveyard Earth tidied up the interiors. Here is what I ended up with.


The bases are now adequate for the tabletop but still need some love to finish them completely. I plan to add some static grass and snow flock shortly.

I had procrastinated enough. Now I had to tackle the 16 man unit. I had initially decided to paint them in five man batches and had painted all the metallics on the command models and a couple of others. I change tack when I found that I'd be able to have a couple of extended painting sessions. I decided to paint them all at once.

My first job was to get all the models up to the same level so I broke out the metallic paints. A couple of hours later I applied the washes and had a break. My next session took another couple of hours to get the flesh basecoat on. I used the Tallarn foundation paint and then washed it with a Flesh Wash. It's a little dark and messy but it'll do to get the models onto the battlefield.

After another break I then tackled the next big surfaces; the cloth. I experimented with the foundation paints again, this time with Knarloc Green. It's a lovely, vibrant colour and went straight over the black in one coat. I washed this down with an Ork Wash. Like the skin I wouldn't consider the cloth anywhere near complete but it will enable me to get the models into the game.

Here are the fruits of my labours so far.


Below is a close up. You can see how rough the models are in this photo.


Other areas that need some paint are the wood on the weapons, the ropes and skulls, the boots and the hair. I'll try and get that done before my next game.

Wish me luck.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Tactical analysis game 2

I posted our second battle report up on The Warhammer Forum and it has drawn more responses. The first highlights a quirk in our army lists.

Lovely report! Just as the other!

Just one thing; What is it about you and your friend bringing four dispel scrolls? That's alot! I've never attended a tourny with more than two.

Well, that's a funny thing. My intention with the Chaos army was to go magic light and pick a low level caster or two just to hold up the enemy magic. As you can tell from my list it is quite hero heavy and I plan to drop one of the sorcerers when I add another unit. I guess I just was afraid of the Dark Elf magical barrage (these are my first games at 2000 points).

Gary has played more aggressive lists than I expected and has sometimes played very little or no magic. That has made my magic seem quite good and Gary is now afraid of it (especially steed of shadows). I was somewhat surprised to see four scrolls in his list, though.

Also, we're both rookie players so expect to see some weird stuff in our lists, tactics and games.

If your warriors are charging into a combat they want to, on turn two, he(the DE player) is doing something wrong. With that army, he should have been march blocking you, and shooting/magic you to death. Or at least until he could easily defeat the scattered remnants. Charging the warriors on turn two is not needed, and he would have been much better of letting you move forward at a slow speed and then engaging later when it was to his advantage.

Sounds like he need to slow down a little and not just rush into combat. DE doesn't work like that. Major Combats shouldn't start until turn 3 at the earliest really.

These are comments that were echoed after game one. I had real trouble in my early games versus the Dark Elf dark riders as they got around my flanks and march blocked me. I sat down with the Chaos army book and had a good think about my options. I added the furies, the banner of wrath, the book of secrets (to utilise steed of shadows) and totally changed my deployment style. I added speed, shooting and more supporting units. I have never looked back since and Gary has never managed to come to terms with my army.

Some recommendations for Gary.

Take the sorceresses out of the chariots. If the chariots are stupid, the mages can't cast. This is very bad if he's loading up on magic! Try mounting some of them on dark steeds, or maybe a pegasus. You'll be able to march block, and get in range faster to use your magic.

I'd make the executioner unit smaller (12-15) and the spears bigger (20). He might also want a second unit of 10 crossbows or 5 dark riders. The executioners shouldn't be running up and hitting things in the face, they should be getting into the flanks.

I noticed in both reports your hydra kept engaging Chaos to the front. That's a bad place for him. Try getting him to attack the flanks of the enemy. You'll cancel his rank bonus, and your flank will offset his outnumber. The best thing is to use him with the spearmen, so the spears hit the front, and the hydra hits the flank. If the enemy turns to face your hydra then run your spears into his flank.

Dark Elves v. Chaos is an uphill battle. Take advantage of your magic and shooting early on. and don't engage the enemy until you've thinned out their numbers a bit. Keep trying!

In our second game I think Gary did a good job of stripping my supporting units away (like the marauder horse and the war hounds) but he didn't manage to get in around the sides of my army to lever the flank charges. I was trying to encourage him to combi-charge my units rather than hope that one hard unit would do it alone.

I likened it to the days when we used to play 2nd edition 40k. Gary generally based his army around a supertough Chaos lord who could beat anyone on the board in single combat. My plan was to either slam two powerful heroes into him and take him down or use my superior mobility to avoid him and then beat up on the rest of his army. Just throwing my hardest fighter into combat with the lord wasn't enough because even he wasn't tough enough to take the lord out.

The Dark Elves are the same in that they just won't be able to stand up to my Chaos units one for one. They have to use more guile and either gang up on my units or avoid them and fight only a portion of my army.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn't suit Gary's playstyle. In 40k he plays Chaos with a Khorne slant, Dark Eldar, Tyranids and sometimes Necrons. In all those armies there are models that can pelt full tilt across the board and take on just about anything when they get to the enemy. I tend to favour the tricksy armies like Tau, IG and Daemonhunters who require more finesse because they don't have such big hitters.

Our roles have been reversed in Warhammer and I seem to have adapted quicker. All it will take is one or two battles where Gary works out the tactics and we'll be back on an equal footing again.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Battle of Gnarled Oak Grove

This was our second game of the campaign. The first was for the Solsister river and was won comprehensively by my horde of Chaos. That meant I captured location three and could now launch an attack on location two: Gnarled Oak Grove.

I had to tweak my list a little as some readers pointed out that I had illegal wargear on my Lord (he had two pieces of magical armour). So I dropped the enchanted shield for a mundane one and lost the sword of might. This left me enough points for a berzerker sword. I gave the enchanted shield to my exalted and dropped a level two sorcerer to a level one. With the spare points I bought throwing axes for the marauder horse. I now had a shooting phase. Who-hoo!

Gary had made rather more substantial changes following his mauling in our last game. He went out and bought two chariots. Eeek! He also dropped the highborn in favour of a level four sorceress. Oh-oh.

This would be a very different game.

Armies 2000points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Sigurt Volsung, Lord on Daemonic Mount, Armour of Damnation, Berzerker Sword, Gaze of the Gods, shield
  
• Thaer, Exalted with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon, Enchanted Shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Angur, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
• Boda, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
  
• 12 Chosen Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command, Warbanner
• 5 Marauder Horse, musician, flails, throwing axes
  
• 5 War hounds
• 5 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Level 4 sorceress with extra power dice (Dark Hand of Death spell, Steal Soul, Doom and Darkness, Drain Life) in chariot
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell, Doom and Darkness)
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls (Wind of Death, Drain Life) in chariot
  
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder
• Hydra

Terrain and Deployment
Gary hadn't changed the terrain since our last game so we decided to roll a scatter die and move each piece 2d6 inches in each direction. I won the choice of deployment zone and picked the side with the rocky columns in it. This meant the wood (Gnarled Oak Grove?) was on the other side of the table but a bit further forward than the last game. I placed my units so that I could envelop the left flank and sweep my Knights around behind this wood to get at the pointy-ears rear.

Gary put his hardest hitting stuff near the middle, with a unit of Dark Riders on each flank. He now had more units so he could place his last chariot opposite my knights. Here is how it looked.

The game
I won first turn thanks to the +1 bonus for having the smaller army. I flew the Furies over to the extreme right, trying to tuck them in behind the hill. Everything in the centre marched forward. On my left I tried to be clever by putting the Warhounds in front of my knights to deflect the chariot away. The Dark Elves dispelled all but one of my magic spells without breaking sweat. A dark hand of death spell killed two spearelves.

I had miscalculated with the furies and the dark riders managed to charge them. Gary rolled appallingly and failed to kill a single daemon. I killed an elf in return and the rest of the unit held. The elf shooting wiped out both my first warhound unit and marauders entirely. Suddenly, my centre looked mighty vulnerable.

On my left, the chariot succumbed to stupidity and the sorceress hung on for dear life. The dark riders warily moved forward. The dark elf magic was shut down with the use of two of my dispel scrolls.

The table looked like this at the end of turn 1.


My furies pulled off an unlikely win against the dark riders on the right. The three survivors fled due to fear and the furies pursued but failed to catch them. I marched the rest of my warriors up the centre again. I was now close to charge range for the speedy elf units. Again, my magic was shut down with casual insouciance.

I charged the dark riders on the left with my warhounds. The riders held, confident in their prowess, but they obviously had the same rubber lances as their sister unit and only one casualty was caused on each side. Both units remained in place.

The dark elves began their turn positively by charging with the executioners against my regular warrior unit. I took the charge. The hydra marched up to flame the chosen warriors to no effect. On my right, the dark riders failed to rally and headed for the board edge. The repeater crossbows and a repeater bolt thrower killed four furies. The remaining bolt thrower missed my chariot.

On the left the sorceress in the chariot cast drain life. I let the spell through as I was desperate for the warhounds to be killed so that my knights could see some action. It was risky because I could potentially lose a knight or two. In the end it worked perfectly for me; all the hounds died while the knights all survived. I used my final dispel scrolls to hold the dark elf magic.

All eyes were now on the big scrap in the centre between the warriors and executioners. I issued a challenge with my exalted. The champion answered it and could possibly have killed my hero with a killing blow. He didn't, and my exalted caused two wounds. I saved the single wound the other executioners caused and caused two with my warriors. To add insult to injury, both of our magic users were facing each other. The sorceress rolled a 1 to hit while my sorcerer caused a wound on her. I had won the combat handily and the executioners broke. I rolled a 12 in my pursuit and ran the unit down. Ouch.

It was now my turn and I was in a very strong position to deliver the knockout blow. I charged the victorious warriors into the spearelves, the chosen warriors and chariot into the hydra, the furies into a bolt thrower and the knights into the dark riders. Everything worked in my favour.

The furies killed a crewman who broke. The repeater crossbows stayed, but the sorceress was panicked into fleeing off the board! Sigurt and the chosen took three wounds off the hydra and my chariot took off two wounds - the beast turned to run but was hacked to pieces by both units. My warriors barrelled into the spearelves and forced them off the battlefield. Finally, the dark riders fled but my knights just managed to catch them and run them down.

I caused so much carnage in just this one turn that the dark elf army was too shattered to carry on.

Honours

• Chaos - Thaer the exalted and the warriors who met the charge of the executioners and then went on to defeat the spearelves.
• Dark elves - repeater crossbows who wiped out the marauders in one turn of shooting.

Thoughts

• Another bad defeat for the dark elves which left Gary distraught again. He had completely overhauled his list and added the chariots and so seemed optimistic. That feeling continued in the first two turns as the dark elf magic battered my chaos army and I had to use all four dispel scrolls. My attacks up each flank had faltered and my supporting units were killed in the centre. Obviously, the turning point was the defeat of the executioners. My exalted was the difference, with the elf lack of ranks hindering them too. The sorceress running off the board was the final kick in the teeth for Gary. He just doesn't know which way to go from here and was even talking about scrapping the entire army and getting something else.
• On my own side of the table, it was business as usual for my Chaos Horde. Again I deployed in an effort to envelop one flank while largely refusing the right. I thought Gary's army was more of a threat in this game and was closer to what I expected to play against. My success lies in the fact that I am bringing my warriors into combat by turn 2 or 3 and so far nothing has been able to stand before them. I am sure that if Gary perseveres he will learn how to counter in time.
  

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Game one analysis

I posted a version of this battle report on the Warhammer Forum and it drew a few responses. I've reproduced some of them here. The first batch are some suggestions for Gary's Dark Elves. I've sent them on to him.

The dark elf player needs to bait the chaos more with dark riders and never flee from flyers unless your absolutely certain that he will not reach ( 20 inches is a pain).

More units to combine themselves to attack the brute force of the enemy.

An executioner unit against chaos warriors is not good. Supporting it with a dark rider charge to the flank will turn the tables.

Bad luck on the chariot misses though. Target priority would make you go after the hounds (take away the fast units for the dark riders to work their magic) and shoot up the warriors. Splitting up the bolt throwers (or making them be deployed LAST) allows one to see the fire lanes and forces one to choose which bolt thrower to silence.

Don't let him give up hope. The Dark elves need skill and patience and yes expect to have a lot of losses before you get it right.

Encouraging words.

Gary made a couple of mistakes and with DE's it is costly. I think he will have learned a few lessons.

DE magic is reliable and they should have at least 2 level 2's using death. His army has no punch he needs some Cold One Chariots as they are a steal at 95 points and some harpies because they do exactly what it says the tin.

cheers rob

he should look at www.druchii.net and get some help

I have had a quick skim of the website mentioned above and there look to be some solid ideas there.

When I played Dark Elves, I had a couple of rules that I always abode by.

Never try to be in combat before turn 4. While this rule wasn't always strict, you see how Gary's turn one charge turned out? Use shooting and magic to remove support units, then envelope and engage in later turns. Most armies I play benefit from this strategy.

Targeting priority. I would not have shot at that chariot with hounds/marauders/furies on the board. Expensive Chaos units can still take a panic check when a 30 point hound unit is wiped out.

Crafty Deployment. Deploy fast units first that can redeploy and shooters first, then load a flank with combat units.

Support. Never almost ever charge alone. Minimally infantry should always charge with chariot/hydra/ADDITIONAL character support.

Good basic advice, I think.

Regarding Gary's prospects on a rematch:

I'd say your armies match up pretty well, though I think yours has a slight advantage.

Here's my advice to Gary:
1) Don't receive charges from the chaos infantry. You have enough shooting to make them come toward you. Your elf infantry have 2" of charge reach on them. With the banner of murder, you've got even more. You still might lose some fights charging executioners into chosen, but you'll do better than the other way 'round.
2) Don't charge hounds unless they are right in front of something you actually want to charge and not angled such that your pursuit will carry you off funny. Hounds can't fight. Shoot them or ignore them, but don't charge them.
3) Play so that your bolt throwers get to shoot at the Chosen Knights. That's pretty much the only thing in your list that will deal with them, and boy, will they.
4) Since Chaos lacks shooting, get your Dark Riders out there to bait and flee the hard hitting stuff. should make it so you don't have to receive those nasty charges.
5) If you can change your list, take either more magic or less magic. 2 level 2s doesn't get that much done; 1 lvl 1 caddy is a much cheaper low magic.

With a little practice and some better feel for his more maneuverable army, Gary should be able to give you some better games that you'll both enjoy more.

More good advice. This poster also pointed out a rules error in our game.

Great batrep! Particularly like the pictures and the arrows and stuff.

In fact, one of the pictures makes one of those quirky little rules mistakes more obvious. I'm not trying to be mean, I just want to help you guys with the rules. This one went against Gary, so maybe that will give him some hope.

In Gary's turn 1, his executioners charge the warhounds, who flee. Even with his 6 on the banner of murder, they end up just shy of the Chosen warriors. The executioners should then move a failed charge move which is half the distance they could have covered for a charge. Your pictures pretty clearly have them moving the whole distance. Embarrassed

Had they moved a proper failed charge, they would have either a) been entirely out of range of the counter-charge by your chosen warriors the next turn or at least b) sufficiently far away that when they fled they would have escaped with the possibility of rallying. This could have made quite a different in the early progress of the game.

Ooops! All the more annoying because we had played the rule correctly in other battles. We probably just got too excited by the banner of murder. It wasn't our only mistake.

Unfortunately you have two pieces of magic armor on your Lord; you'll have to drop one. Armor of Damnation is too sweet, so just swap the enchanted shield out for a regular one.

Ooops again! I'm switching his wargear around for our next game.

Our battle report also got some comments on the blog itself. Check them out on the post below.

Let's see if Gary can turn things around in the second game of the campaign.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Clash at Solsister valley

The clash at Solsister valley was our first game of the Nemesis campaign. The outcome of this game would determine which player won location three, the Solsister river.

Armies 2000points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Sigurt Volsung, Lord on Daemonic Mount, Armour of Damnation, Sword of Might, Gaze of the Gods, Enchanted Shield
  
• Thaer, Exalted with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon, shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Angur, Lvl 2 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Unseen Lurker, Crown of Taidron spells)
• Boda, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
  
• 12 Chosen Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command, Warbanner
• 5 Marauder Horse, musician, flails
  
• 5 War hounds
• 5 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Highborn on Cold One, Executioners axe, 1+ save
• Noble, Strength six sword
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls
  
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder
• Hydra

Terrain and deployment
The Dark Elves won the choice of table edge and placed the first unit, his repeater bolt throwers right in the middle of his deployment zone. I put down both warhound units, the chariot and marauder horse in my centre, largely ignoring the Dark Elf deployment. Only when I could see where his units of dark riders, the executioners and his hydra were did I decide whether to envelop the right or left flank.

I initially favoured my right, because the left had a wood in the Dark Elf deployment zone but Gary had deployed both units of dark riders on this flank. I wanted to restrict their mobility so I went for the left flank. I put both warrior units and the furies here. My last deployment was the knights. Normally I would put them on the flank of the warriors and completely refuse the opposite flank, but I was worried about how congested things would get on the left and that wood could hamper my attack. After some deliberation I put them on the extreme right. This meant they were unsupported but I felt confident they could handle the spearelves and repeater crossbows that faced them.

The dark elves had the highborn on my left flank, both sorceress' in the executioners unit and the noble in the spearelf unit. I had Sigurt, my lord, in the chosen warriors along with Angur, while the other sorcerer and Thaer were added to the regular warriors.

Here's how the board looked.

Turn 1
I won first turn. There wasn't much subtlety, as you would expect from a Chaos general, as I pushed my units down the dark elves throat. Only my furies hung back on my left to respond to sneaky dark elf manoeuvres. My magic did nothing.

The dark elf response was to charge with the executioners. My warhounds fled. Gary hoped to trigger a collapse of the centre of my army but I had ensured the lord was in a good position to contribute his 9 leadership. None of my units panicked. The executioners fell just short of the chosen warriors containing my lord (even though the banner of murder scored added six inches). The dark riders repositioned for later charges and baits. Both repeater bolt throwers shot at and missed the chariot. The spearelves shuffled back, and turned to face my chosen knights. The repeater crossbows killed four marauder horsemen. I used two dispel scrolls to shut down the elf magic phase.

Here's how the action looked at the end of the first turn.

Turn 2
My chosen warriors, containing Sigurt, and the chariot charged the executioners. They tried to flee but were easily caught. That meant I had also killed both elf magic users. My furies charged the dark riders in front of the wood who also fled. The daemons caught the cavalry and killed them. I flew Thaer out of the warrior unit and behind the highborn and last dark riders. On the right, my chosen knights slammed into the spearelves who lost the combat spectacularly and were overrun. This was a disastrous turn for the pointy-ears as they lost units all over the battlefield. The one ray of light for them was the repeater crossbows who saw off a whole warhound unit by standing and shooting then beat the last marauder in combat without taking a casualty.

The dark elves were down but not entirely out. Then Gary flunked the stupidity test for his highborn. Now he really was in all sorts of trouble. Instead of getting a flank charge into my warriors (with the sorcerer Boda in a vulnerable position) he just stumbled forward. The hydra charged my chosen warriors. It caused one kill while I cut down both handlers. The enraged beast became unbreakable as it stood over the broken bodies of it's masters. The last unit of dark riders pushed up my left flank, away from Thaer, and turned to shoot at the furies but they only killed one of the flyers. The repeater bolt throwers decided to hit something this turn and took three wounds from my chariot.

This is a snapshot from the end of the second turn.

Turn 3
I was now in a very comfortable position. The chosen knights moved up behind the repeater crossbows (I think we forgot to use their overrun in the previous turn). My furies charged the second unit of dark riders who fled off the board. Sigurt repositioned himself in the chosen warriors so he could lop some heads of the hydra. My regular warriors charged into the beast too. Thaer flew over the wood to threaten the repeater bolt throwers. The chariot moved up so it could charge next turn, if it survived.

The bolt throwers both missed the chariot, and the crossbows did nothing either. The dark elf general turned his cold one to face the rear of my warriors who were hacking into the hydra. In the ongoing combat the hydra finally went down under Sigurt's blows.

The battlefield looked like this at the end of turn 3.


Turn 4
My chariot charged one bolt thrower while my exalted charged the other. All the crew were butchered. My chosen charged the crossbows and trampled them into the dirt. Now came the coup de grace. My chosen warriors reformed to face the highborn. Angur cast unseen lurker on the unit and they charged into the dark elf general. The two generals faced off in single combat. Sigurt went first and hit with every attack. He then wounded with every blow. The highborn was smashed out of the saddle and killed.


The game ended with a Chaos massacre.

Honours

• Chaos - chosen warriors (including Sigurt) for seeing off the executioners, the hydra and the highborn
• Dark elves - repeater crossbows for killing the warhounds and marauder horse

Thoughts

• From the Chaos side of the board this game was as close to perfect as I'll ever see. I lost about 200 points of my army for the total destruction of the dark elf army. From deployment to winning first turn to the dice rolls, everything went right for me. The dark elves were the complete opposite when their deployment didn't work and their dice rolls were poor.
• I had expected to face a magical barrage in this, my first 2000 point game, with the dark elves able to choose a level four sorceress, but Gary chose a fighty leader instead. His own magic was reduced to just two scroll caddies.
  
• I have never seen Gary so despondent after a game. He is really at a loss as to how to win a game against my Chaos army. I think his list has the edge in mobility, shooting, magic and ranked units if he picks the right list and uses it cleverly, but my list has more brute force. Gary is almost at the point of giving up on them altogether. If anyone has any ideas let me know and I will pass them on to him.
  

CAMPAIGN: Nemesis Crown - Introduction

This is the first post in a whole series which will cover the Warhammer campaign Gary and I are playing against the backdrop of the Nemesis campaign. He will be using his Dark Elves while I will be fielding my Horde of Chaos. The campaign will be played using the simple location rules I posted a while back, with 2000 points armies.

We'll be using the time limit special rule with our campaign ending on 6th August 2007. There are only 6 weeks or so to play, we decided to stick with the basic five locations. The games are set in the Barren Hills and we've named the locations thus.

1. The ruins of Tor Thana
2. Gnarled oak grove
3. Solsister river
4. Dun hills
5. Marchens Henge

The Dark Elves are camped out near Tor Thana so their base is location one. My Chaos horde is based at Marchens Henge which is location five. If you check out this map you will notice that the intervening terrain features match the ones above. It's almost like I did that on purpose!

Our first battle will be near the Solsister river in location three. I'll post the first battle report tomorrow.

PAINTING AND MODELLING: Marauders - the first five

I've just got a small update today. I've got the metallics on my front rank of Marauders.


The silver is Boltgun Metal with a Black Ink wash, while the gold is Tin Bitz, then Brazen Brass with some Burnished Gold highlights. I washed it with Chestnut, Brown and Purple Ink.


Unfortunately, I haven't completed them in time for the start of the Nemesis campaign but I hope to have them finished in time for the end!

PAINTING: Marauders, fahsunds of 'em!

Well, not quite. Ahem.

My main accomplishment this week is the completion of my Marauder horsemen. To tabletop standard, anyway. I converted some of the Marauders to carry flails (scrounged from the Marauder infantry described below). Strength five in the first turn of combat on a unit that moves 16" and costs well under a hundred points - what's not to love? Plus I can try out those sneaky bait and flee manoeuvres that the dastardly Dark Elves use on me all the time.

I got the chance to use my Foundation paints for the first time on these figures and was impressed by the coverage. I used Tallarn Flesh straight over the black undercoat and though I had some trouble matching the regular shades of GW paint to the Foundation colour, I'll definitely be using more of them in the future.


My plan is to get all of my remaining models up to this standard so I can get them onto the battlefield, and then come back to them to finish them properly. I painted the tartan blue as I saw a similar pattern in the latest White Dwarf (UK issue 330) on the Lord of the Rings Clansmen of Lamedon. Nice to see someone at GW is reading this blog!

I will use the Foundation paints on this Knight too.


Red is notoriously difficult to paint over black and I remember painting about 5 layers onto my original unit of Knights. It's got to save some time, right? I've bought another Knight to take the unit up to six members. This means I could put a character in there if I want and benefit from the 'look out sir' rule, and it also means I get the extra attacks against 5 wide ranked cavalry or infantry on larger bases. It also means I have one more model to be removed as a casualty if the unit takes a battering (my Dark Elf foes have invested in more Repeater Bolt Throwers - eek!).

The other thing I've done over the last week is start to assemble my Marauders. One of the reasons I chose a Chaos army was to keep my model count low and I originally was dead against Marauders, simply because of the length of time they would take to build and paint. I bought them anyway after playing a few games and seeing how cool ranked infantry looked. This unit also means I have every core choice represented in my list. I am hoping this will improve the flexibility of my list and give me more practice with a greater variety of units.

I did correctly guess they would be a pain to put together, though. This is what I have to show for 3 hours work.


I must have a really bad casting of these plastic sprues as the cast lines are horrendous and are taking an age to scrape off. Nevertheless, I'm ploughing on.

I have a six day work week this week so my gaming time will be severely limited. My aim is to get this 16 man unit built, based and undercoated over the next week. If I'm lucky, I might get some paint on the Knight, too.

Wish me luck!

NEW MODEL FUND: As one army leaves another arrives

I've been mucho busy on e-bay over the past week or so, building up a war chest to finish off my Chaos WHFB army and my Blood Angels 40k army. I have put almost an entire Tau army up for auction and I still have quite few units to list.

Nevertheless I thought I'd update my New Model Fund with the results so far.

• Total income from sales (and my penny jar) £102.33
• Less selling fees £12.63
• Less models bought £84.00
• New model fund £5.70

With my plunder I bought another Knight, to bring my unit up to six strong, and a box of 16 Marauders on foot. This should comfortably allow me to field a 2000 point Chaos Horde army. Result!

Now I just have to build and paint those last few models...

The Masterplan

I've been mulling things over for a while and I've now got a masterplan for my gaming future.

I began thinking about this because of my Warhammer Fantasy Chaos army. I massively underestimated how long it would take me to build and paint this force. My original idea was to start at 500 points and then escalate our battles by 250 points per week until we had 2000 point armies. Gary managed this quite easily, his approach to get as many models constructed and painted as possible in one run, then not do anything for weeks after. I kept holding him back, my painting much slower and more methodical. My time for painting was severely curtailed by work, this blog and many other commitments.

So the first part of my plan is to be realistic about what I can achieve. Here's what I think I can do comfortably.

• Paint one 40k 1500 point army per year.
• I can also paint a few 'fun' models to complete a second army or for a secondary game system (e.g. a team for Blood Bowl, a gang for Necromunda, more models for my Fantasy Chaos army).
• I can finish one terrain project.
• I can complete one or two sections of my website (e.g. a sub-sector of the Skolarii Sector, update the Blood Bowl section).
• Update my blog every one or two days.
  

That gives me a wide range of projects which I can dip in and out of over the whole year. The official Games Workshop tournament season runs from 1st August to 31st July, so it makes sense to fit my year around this timetable. I plan to attend the 40k Grand Tournament every year, and this will allow me to go with a different force each time.

The 1500 point army per year also fits in with my long term aims for 40k. There are 11 main forces and factions in 40k. I want each faction represented as models in the Skolarii Sector. Of course, some armies are more relevant to the sector than others. The main protagonists are:

• Imperial Guard (Cadian 271st and many other regiments)
  
• Orks (common right across the sector)
  
• Chaos (Exigators and The Hooded renegades)
  
• Space Marines (Blood Angels)
  
• Daemonhunters (fighting the Chaos invasions)
  

Secondary armies are:

• Tau (Third Sphere expansionists)
  
• Tyranids (splinter fleet has devoured Dyram)
  
• Witch Hunters (small commandery)
  
• Eldar (small craftworld, Harlequins fighting Chaos)
  

And tertiary armies are:

• Dark Eldar (scattered pirate raids)
  
• Necrons (single tomb world)

I'll work through the list from top to bottom until I have a 1500 point army of each faction.

Aside from 40k, there are other games I'd like to play. Some will inform the Skolarii Sector too, such as Battlefleet Gothic which would allow me to simulate space battles, especially the first and second Chaos invasions. Aeronautica Imperialis looks excellent, and though I don't have the rulebook or any models, I'd love to fight out some dogfights between Imperial Navy Wings and Chaos Hellblades. I have some Inquisitor figures and they will allow me to uncover some intrigue in the sector, especially amongst the Inquisitorial factions. Epic would let me play some larger scale battles and would be great to depict large Imperial Guard armies fighting the Ork hordes. Finally, I could get into Necromunda to simulate the gang wars in a Hive somewhere in the sector.

Outside of 40k, there are several other systems I enjoy. I've been getting into WHFB with my Chaos Horde, so I could always add more models to that army, or I could collect another. I have a massive bunch of old Wood Elf miniatures which could easily be used as the basis for my second army. Warmaster appeals to me because of the scale; it's how I imagine these semi-historical battles should look. The models are relatively cheap and quick to paint, so I could finish a force or two quite rapidly. Last, but not least, is Blood Bowl. This is one of my favourite ever games, and I have played numerous leagues over the years. Gary and I played through one a while back and will use the same teams when we return to it. I do like the look of those pro elves, though.

Phew! That's quite a list of stuff I see in my gaming future. Some of it years off. And of course, I have no idea what Games Workshop will do in the coming time. They might release new games, armies and expansions which could make me re-evaluate my plans. In the meantime, at least I have a direction.

So, that's the long-term, what about the short-term?

Here's what I plan to achieve over the next tournament season.

• I will build and paint 1500 points of Forgeworld Renegade Imperial Guard.
• I will add some models to my Blood Angels Space Marines to bring them up to 1500 points, and they will be my main tournament army for the year.
• I will finish my trench gaming board (which is currently half built).
• I will complete subsector 1 (the Salazar systems) for the Skolarii Sector.
• I will get all my battle reports up on my website (around 150 of them!).

Wish me luck!

A bitsbox of gaming

I've been up to lots of game related things this weekend. I haven't finished my Marauder horse yet, but I've added the metallics, horsehair and fur. I'm going to break out the foundation paints soon to paint the flesh.

The latest issue of White Dwarf dropped through my letterbox on Friday. I was really looking forward to getting my mitts on this as it had part one of the Blood Angels codex update. There were no points costs listed, just some background material, the Blood Angels special rules, a wargear section and the stats and unit descriptions of the models unique to the Blood Angels. The full army list will follow in the next issue.

I noticed a few things right away. Some rules are as per the Dark Angels codex - all models now come with frag and krak grenades and ten man veteran, tactical, devastator, assault and scout squads can be split into combat squads. I haven't really thought through the implications of this as I don't play Dark Angels, so I don't know if it is a good or bad thing. It fits the background of the Marines, though, so it can't all be bad.

Assault Marines are now Troops. This is a relatively unexpected development (for me at least) and means a big change in background and army play style. I can't really imagine many people investing in Tactical marines now. My own plans were for a mechanised force so I don't know how this change will affect my planned army. The loss of Furious Charge across the whole army makes them slightly weaker, but I still expect most BA armies to contain lots of these jump-packers.

The Death Company look nasty. They come with two attacks basic, fearless, feel no pain, furious charge and rending. Ouch. There is no confirmation of the rules on acquiring the Death Company, so these must appear in part two of the codex.

The Furioso Dreadnoughts can now upgrade to Death Company Dreadnoughts. This is great news for me as I had modelled a Furioso to represent Chaplain Blackblood, an old hero of mine since Rogue Trader days, who had been mortally wounded and placed in the dreadnought while gripped by the Black Rage. The movement rules probably make it not so great in the game, but at least I can play the model 'correctly.'

Speaking of vehicles, the over-charged engines are much better. You now roll a d6 - on a 1 the vehicle stalls and cannot move, on a 2-3 it moves normally and on a 4+ it moves up to 18" as a fast vehicle. This will make a massive difference to predators with heavy bolter sponsons in particular, as they could move 12" and shoot their main weapon and secondary weapons. Baal predators are therefore very nasty indeed. I already have a predator destructor painted and ready to roll.

Mephiston has lived up to the pre-codex hype. His statline is excellent and he can cast all three psychic powers per turn, and can even use them in the opponents turn. He is a close combat monster, hitting with 6-8 attacks with a Force Weapon. His only slight weak point will be no invulnerable save and a probable high points cost. Still, I expect to see him on a lot of table tops.

Two rules queries came up immediately.

1 - Mephiston. His Lord of Death special rule says ...Mephiston has all three BA psychic powers powers, and can use each one of them and his Force Weapon once each player turn... Does this mean he can use Wings of Sanguinius to fly around in the other player's turn? The implications are huge.

2- Over-charged engines. Can you try to use these on the turn you enter the table from reserves? If so, what happens when you roll a 1 and can't move?

If anyone has any ideas I'd like to hear them.

The new Blood Angels codex has really stoked me up and I want to build an army of the bloodthirsty protectors of humanity. In order to do that, because of my vow to only buy models with the proceeds of sales of my gaming gear, I need to sell a lot more stuff. To that end I dug out all of my Tau stuff. All laid out it looks quite impressive.


Here is the full list of models.

Tanks

• 2 Hammerheads
• 2 Devilfish

Battlesuits

• 6 Stealthsuits
• 9 Crisis suits
• 3 Broadsides

Infantry

• 8 Pathfinders
• 24 Kroot
• 60 Firewarriors

Drones

• 31 Gundrones

By my rough and ready reckoning I estimate there are around £300 worth of models in this army. I'd be more than happy if my sales pulled in half this amount. That would leave me with more than enough to finish my Chaos Horde and complete a 1500 point BA force (I already have a number of models).

In future posts I'll let you know how what BA models I already have and post some pics of the finished models. I have also begun to flesh out the background of the Imperial fleet for the Skolarii Sector. I've also been ruminating on a master plan for collecting and painting future armies and using or losing the models I currently own. When I've decided on the details I'll post it up here.

Out of the red and into the black

A while back I worked out my new model fund and found I had overspent my budget. My remedy was to sling as much stuff on e-bay as I had time to list. The auctions are over and my finances are looking a little better.

My new model fund now looks like this:

• Total income from sales (and my penny jar) £81.26
• Less selling fees £8.28
• Less models bought £59.00
• New model fund £13.98

That's more like it.

My next purchase will be a single Knight to bring my cavalry unit up to six models. After that, my last purchase for the army, to bring it up to 2000 points, will be Marauders.

Speaking of Marauders, the next unit on my painting table is the Marauder horsemen. I've already blocked the base colours on the horses and I really want to get them up to table top painting standard by the end of today.

Those Blood Angels are still on the horizon...

Decadence and exile - selling the Eldar

I had a rummage through my Warhammer 40k model collection and found a cache of Eldar models to sell. These were given to me by my sister a while back, I think, and so the painting quality is not up to my normal standards. Still, most of them are painted to tabletop standards and virtually all of them are metal so they would be easy to strip.

Here are the e-bay listings:

• classic Fire Dragons including an Exarch armed with a Firepike
• classic Warp Spiders including an Exarch armed with twin Deathspinners and Powerblades
• classic Dire Avengers
• classic Guardians
• Guardians
• Warlock with Singing Spear
• Dark Reaper

On the painting front, I managed to completely finish the four War hounds and I made good progress on the Marauder Horsemen. I got the base colours on the horses (three shades of brown and an ink wash) and they just need their manes and tails tidied up before I move on to the riders. I'm really hopeful I'll have them finished before my next game.