(Almost) Flawless Victory!

Hi all,

First, for those other Canucks out there in the aethertubes, happy Thanksgiving!

You're going to do what to me?

I managed (at the last minute, thanks to the Beloved) to get down to the G-Dub this morning to participate in a 1500 point tournament for Age of Sigmar.  It wasn't huge, with only 8 of us playing, but it was an excuse to get out, and get in some games with my developing force. I ran the same list as last time, with the minor addition of actually taking a couple abilities for which I was eligible, but hadn't know about, last time.  One of them, the Command Trait "Cunning Deceiver" (which imposes a -1 penalty to hit on opponents in the first turn), made a huge difference, and has joined my list of new favorite things.

Battle one.  Khorne vs. Slaanesh.

I went in the the tournament with the main goal of actually remembering everything my army does.  The list I've been building / running depends heavily on synergy around a couple of keywords (Khorne, and Mortal).  It means I have the potential to get a lot of little buffs, that in the aggregate, turn my decent-for-the-points, but not outstanding models into powerhouses.  By and large, I managed to do this (barring a couple of slips), and it paid off.  As it worked out, I ended up with best overall.  In a field of 8, it's not like I'll be tearing up the international tournament circuit, but I'll admit, I was pretty chuffed.

The battlefield from Lord Vahkos' point of view.

Seekers crash into the line.  Bloodreavers die well.

Game one was against a Slannesh Demons list.  It's the first time I've played against this, and while I'd been warned about the speed it brought to the table, seeing it in person was a different thing altogether.  My opponent ran a large unit of Seekers, one of the really big chariots, several Daemonette clouds, and assorted heroes (including a Forgeworld Keeper of Secrets).  Turn one was a revelation, when the Seeker unit moved a total of 25" across the board to charge my front line (Slaanesh demons start with high Move, can run and charge in the same turn, and she was running a formation that added move bonuses).  This was the first point where the Cunning Deceiver ability kicked in, blunting my opponent's ability to damage me before I had a chance to fight back.

The hard part was they kept coming back.

On the other hand, my knights are in a good position to flank and sweep.  Which they did.

This was actually why I'd taken it in the first place.  My list thrives when I get to choose the conditions for combat, and on the attack.  First turn alpha strikes make for a bad time (which I learned the hard way last time I played in a tourney).  Having a little insurance went a long way.
It mattered, as it turns out, a bunch of demonic cavalry up in my grill turned out to be something of a handful (especially after rolling a "1" for morale twice, which allowed them to restore lost models).  I eventually ground them down, and was able to pick my fights pretty effectively, using my knights (hands down the killiest part of my force) to good effect, and even took out the Keeper of Secrets.

We spent most of the game operating under a misunderstanding about how the victory conditions would be determined (we thought the Major victory was an all or nothing proposition, and that our game would be settled by kill points, but this proved incorrect.   It was possible to win a partial, Minor victory on scenario, and when our game was called for time, my opponent was ahead on Objectives.  This game me a minor loss in the opening round.

This doesn't end well for the chariot.

Or the Keeper of Secrets.

We broke for lunch, after which I set up for game two.  This was against another Chaos opponent, who ran a bit of a mixed bag - some Slaanesh, a couple of chaos Dwarf cannon, and notably, a War Mammoth (using Forge World rules, but subbing in a Mumak from the LotR range).  This was probably the game where I played best, remembered most of my rules (even remembered to have the Chaos knights' mounts get in their attacks, something I somehow manage to forget, despite playing Bretonnians).

Against mixed Chaos.  Note the Chaos War Mumak.

This was a game notable for the sportsmanship shown by my opponent.  He went ahead on objective points early, using his speed (again, the Slaanesh elements) to seize objectives and rack up some early points.  The scenario had a premium, however, for controlling objectives in the opposing deployment zone - and by turn 4 or five, I was in a dominant position, and rapidly catching up.  My opponent could have very easily stalled the game, but instead, made a point of playing efficiently, so that we got in a full five turns (the only game I played where this occurred).  As a result, I not only caught up, but won a major victory on scenario.

Vahkos considers his options.  That's a pretty nice skull for the Skull Throne lumbering towards him.

MVPs this game were the Slaughterpriests.  As well as offering one of the few ways to do damage at a distance in my army, the 'priests can also force enemy models to move towards me.  In this game, I used the ability to taunt the War Mammoth forward, away from its supporting unit.

We're going to need more BBQ sauce.

This let me pile in most of my really killy stuff into the Mammoth, and get in a couple of good turns on it before the rest of his army piled in to help.  The Mammoth is a crazy piece.  It has Forge World rules (i.e., is ridiculously powerful) and made up about a third of his army points.  Losing it (it was finally dealt the death blow by my Khorne Lord, Vahkos, in a rather cinematic finish), meant he didn't really have much else that could compete for attrition.

That's pretty much every killy thing in my army packed around one model.

I cleaned up the units he'd piled in, which amounted to most of what he had left, swept up the table, and took the objectives, especially the one in his deployment zone (worth by far the most points).  By turn 5, I'd pretty much tabled him, had all four points well under control, and was ahead on victory points.  Major victory.

Finally!

Vahkos turns his attention to mopping up.

Game three was against the same opponent I'd played Game 1 last time.  He, like me, is a GW Oldboy, and I've found our games are both fun in themselves, and offer plenty of opportunity for nostalgia.  He ran much the same list of Beastclaw Raiders (Ogre cavalry, mammoths and mournfangs) as last time, aside from a few little tweaks to items, and had a much better handle on how to deal with my Khorne boys.  In many ways, this was almost a mirror of the first game - I was badly mauled, but was so far ahead on scenario it didn't matter.

We meet again.

The scenario we played is pretty close to perfect for my list.  I'm running a Khorne Mortal formation that has a rather nifty ability - whenever one of my heroes dies, a non-heroic model in my army can become a hero, splitting off from it's parent unit, and picking up a few bonuses.  Add in the fact that I have 5 heroes to start, including my commander, that objectives in the game can only be scored by heroes, and that heroes remain in control of objectives until an enemy hero claims them, and you start to see why this one was weighted in my favour.

Run Bloodstoker, run!

This game was pretty tense.  I sent most of my army in again his two strongest units (two other, mammoth-like creatures).  I took them out in the end, but paid a heavy price, losing  most of my infantry, and taking a pretty hard hit to my knights as well.  Even Vahkos went down under the hooves of the Mournfang, but he bought valuable time.  Taking out the Stonehorn (pseudo-mammoth) and rider meant my opponent no longer had any characters, and my lads' heroic last stand gave me time to take control of all three objectives.  The final turns saw the rather un-Khorne-like sight of several Khorne heroes, (including some newly minted ones) running pell-mell from what was left of his mournfangs.  In the end though, I had the objectives, he didn't, and that was another Major Victory.

Slaughterpriests, about to be slaughtered.

A newly minted Khorne hero, with eyes on the prize.

Three solid, fun games.  Three great opponents.  Two major wins, one minor loss.  I was feeling pretty good when Puddin' and the Beloved stopped in to pick me up.  Then results were announced.  My turn two opponent won a well-deserved Best Sport, the shop painting guru took Best Appearance, a likable younger fellow with Seraphon (Lizards) won Best General, and yours truly won Best Overall.  Huzzah!

I'm thoroughly stoked to paint these guys some more.  Not sure that I'll make it to finished for Armies on Parade, but on the other hand, I've made waaaay more progress than I would have without the commitment.  I'm going to try and get as much done as I can, and keep getting these on the table.

I've also been toying with the idea of getting a few more models.  One viable option would be the Khorne starter box.  That gives me another 10 Blood Warriors, 3 juggernaught riders, and a hero (another Slaughterpriest, but he's readily convertible).  Another option is either warriors, marauders, or Marauder riders - a little more speed might work.  I'm leaning towards some combo with Juggernaughts, as they're probably my favorite Khorne models, but I'm open to suggestions if people have any good ideas.

FMB

Grudge match. Of happiness and joy.

Hi,

So, back in the day, when men were men and the Cub was but a gleam in his daddy's eye, I lived in sunny Newfoundland, and played 40k with a disreputable, if lovable, band of rogues and scoundrels.  Amongst them was Chris, who played Nurgle Space Marines, and never a more vile and puss ridden pack could you encounter.

As it happens, Chris came through Halifax the other day (his WWI re-enactment groups were doing a bit up at the Citadel, which we missed due to the Beloved's birthday and my desire to continue being married).  Chris and I, however, did manage a game of WFB at the local GW, due in part to the staff being willing to reserve us a table and loan Chris an army (thanks, Dan!).

Turns out, Chris has been working on Skaven, so we arranged to throw down at 1500 points, my Brets against his (Dan's) Skaven.  I ran a list similar to the one I'd run at the tournament a ways back, but with points fleshed out with a couple of Lords (thanks to the 50% L/H rule of the End Times). Chris ran a couple of 50-rat units, assorted characters, a unit of Rat Ogres, and enough weapon teams at which to shake a stick.



We played the random deployment scenario, with Chris deploying first.  He put his rat block in the center, the ROgres off to the left flank, and his weapon teams distributed across the army.  I had my Treb and Yeomen on the left, my knights and archer in the centre, and my Pegs on the right.





\My plan was pretty simple.  Chris had stacked up his two big infantry blocks a bit.  I hoped to capitalize on it, get his units tangled in each other, and then hopefully maximize my knights charge, breaking units piecemeal rather than letting him gang up on me.



The major weakness of my list, along with it's strength, is the knight block, which functions as something of deathstar.  With my Army banner, a Lord, and my L4 wizard, it was something of an all or nothing proposition.



First tun, I probed on the flanks with my Peg Knights and Yeomen.  Chris advanced, pushing his ROgres into the woods on the flank (they spent much of the game wandering in said woods), and opting to stack up his infantry rather than getting them bogged down in bad terrain.



My Treb managed to misfire in it's first shot, but luckily only lost it's shot for the turn.  On turn 2, I charged my Yeomen into a weapon team that had strayed too close.  They promptly whiffed all their attacks, as did the weapon team in return.  As it turns out, I should have won the combat due to my musician, but both of us forgot it affected combat resolution (been a while for us both), so the units stayed locked in combat.



In the centre, there was inconclusive shooting and magic exchanges.  I flew my Peg knights in behind his lines, causing ( I hope) a moment or two of indecision.



On Chris' turn, his weapon team managed to get in a solid hit, while my Yeomen maintained their proud tradition of slapfighting, before running away in shame.





On my following  turn, things got a little crazy.  Chris had pushed his rats forward enough that I figured I could chance a charge.  I sent the knights in, they hammered home, and then things went sideways.  One of the advantages that Brets have is that their wizards don't sit in the front rank of their unit - rather, they're snugly ensconced in the middle.  That meant that my Lady could still cast offensive spells (just not at the unit her unit contacted).  I then decided to compound the impact of my charge with a casting of Dwellers Below on the block of Skaven behind the one I'd charged.  This went off, with irresistible force.  On the plus side, Chris couldn't counter it.  On the downside, it caused a S10 hit to the Lady and every model in base contact with her, i.e., most of them.



As it turned out, I got dumb lucky on this one.  Both my other characters dodged a bullet, and while I lost three knights, most made their ward save.  I lost some attacks on my charge, but was still in the game.

The Dwellers spell was a monster.  Half the rat unit failed their strength test and died, and while they made their Leadership check, the unit was well and truely gutted



The turn continued crazy in the shooting phase, where my attempt to finish off the damaged rat block with my trebuchet backfired as the thing misfired again(!), and this time, exploded in a storm of splinters.

In the combat phase, my knights predictably won (by 11, or something silly like that).  The rats broke, and my knights chased them down, but not enough to engage the second, damaged rat block.



This left them sitting in the middle of a shooting gallery of weapon teams.  It was about this time we figured out we'd been doing the aforementioned teams incorrectly through most of the game.  This wasn't looking too good for the knights.

As it turned out, however, Bretonnian armour stood proof against Rat tech (I think they overshot and killed as many of their own guys as mine), and at the end of turn 3, it wasn't looking great for Chris.



I still had a solid block of knights, including all of my characters, his Rogres were tied up, and odds were good I'd break the second block of Clanrats had the game continued.



We had to call it for time at that point, but it was a grand affair.  It was great to see Chris again, it's been far too long since we'd had a chance to play, and the GW guys here in Halifax were terrific as always in helping us out.

FMB

Doldrums

Hi all,

Not dead, just resting.  Well, would be, if I wasn't so damn busy.  I'm working evenings a couple nights a week, and weekends are mostly a write-off as it's prime family time, so opportunities for painting are limited.  Also not been feeling the mojo lately, and I learned long ago not to try and force it when that mood sets in.

There's been some geek action.  Got in my first 40k game in about 9 years (?) today, with the guy who's advent more or less coincided with the end of my 40k gaming.  Took the orks out for a learner game against the Cub (using the local GW's Dark Angels), and the little squig cleaned my clock for me.  Last weekend, he talked me into a game of Space Hulk, so we spent an hour clipping sprues, and then pitted Termies vs. Stealers in a pretty gripping game.

I've been tinkering a bit with my Commander decks, especially with the new block and Commander pre-cons coming out.  I'm also hoping to get out to a draft one of the upcoming Fridays, my first ever.  Finally, been puttering with converting a lord up for my Bretonnians.  Still a work in progress, but here's some progress shots.

Thinking of doing him in red and yellow, diagonal quartering, hearts and fleur de lis?  That should keep be busy painting once the jones bites again.  Until then . . . .

FMB

There you go, going on about class again . . .

Hi,

Been a bit loner than planned since the last post.  A family-wide visit from Father Nurgle, plus general business, kept me from doing as much as I wanted.  I did, however, get these guys finished up.







These are Mounted Yeomen and in my list will serve as charge redirectors / warmachine hunters / cannon fodder.  They're also some of my favourite figs in the range.



They are, I think, Perry sculpts, from about 5 editions ago.  Rumors abound that Gdub is releasing the new Bretonnian book soon.  Soonish.  At some point, anyways, and these guys, as some of the older metal figures, are liable to get the plastic treatment, much to my chagrin.





I used a mix of shields for these guys, including some plastic ones from the 5th edition Bret / Lizards box, shaved down.  Seemed appropriate.





Love these guys, so much character.

I've been modelling / converting up a suitable Lord to kick off the jump to 1500 points.  I also need to get around to flocking and otherwise finishing the basing on the first 1000 points.  Plus, there's some Massachusetts militia staring at me accusingly from the prep shelf.  All in good time, my pretties, all in good time.

FMB

High roller

Hi,

Another Peg Knight finished, which rounds out the minimum unit of 3.



This guy turned out okay, though I'm noticing that the varnish I've been using lately seems to be dulling out some of the highlights and blending.  Maybe wait longer for the paint to cure before varnishing?





I'd love to run thee guys in larger numbers, but I'm pressed for points.  Maybe once I get over 200 points, I'll have some room.

Big Ella

Hi,

One thing I did manage to finish over the last few weeks was my first Trebuchet for the Brettonnians.



I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. The figures have been faves of mine since they were released, so it was nice to get a chance to paint them.















For scuzzy peasants, they've got a ton of character. The goal here was to keep the palette pretty subdued, as I want these guys to fade back a little. Knights = bright and shiny, peasants = lovely filth down 'ere.

Next up are three Pegasus knights, which will take me to 1000 points for the brets. I might dip back into Impetus first, as I have some half-painted phalangites on the shelf.