Love, Dice and Paintbrushes

We Have Moved!

2011-05-05T22:47:00.000-07:00

Love, Dice and Paintbrushes have moved to a new host over on 6sided.net.

It uses the Wordpress format and being wargames-centric it seemed like the sensible thing to do.

The New Address is:

http://www.lovediceandpaintbrushes.6sided.net/

My Abscence, or: Where is the Love?

2011-03-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

I don't usually like to use this blog to air personal laundry but I was trying to keep this more updated. Recent personal events have meant that hobbies have taken a definite back-seat in priorities.

I will not go into details but the long and the short of it is that J and I are no longer together and I imagine that it will be the end of our marriage. For what it is worth, it was a decision that I made and it was not made lightly.

The titular Love in the Blog name was both the Love I shared with her and for the hobby and so in that regard I won't be changing the name. I still have the love for the hobby and there is still care there for J, I just can't and won't remain with her.

Our boys are currently residing with her, I wished to be the primary carer but the court system has granted it to her in the meantime.

This will hopefully be the last mention of this sad situation and the Blog will remain hobby focussed (as it should).

Mantic - Abyssal Dwarf Berserkers

2011-03-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

From the Mantic Blog

For most Dwarf Berserkers, it really does not matter what are the motivations of the army they are fighting for. All that they need to know is that there will be fresh enemies to cut down and bloody fights in which to unleash their maniacal killing lust. So the Berserkers are only too easily swayed by the Abyss, convinced to give up their soul in return for the promise of eternal slaughter and a never-ending supply of willing foes against which the bloodthirsty warriors can match their fighting prowess.

More and more, I am loving the new releases from Mantic. They are stepping out of the shadow of the bigger players in the industry and creating a product that has it's own style and feel. I piicked up a set of their Dwarfs a little while ago and I was impressed then; it will be hard to resist picking up an entire army set soon.

Hell Dorado’s World-Wide Re-Release

2011-01-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

Hello Dorado is finally being re-released. The announcement from Cipher Studios webpage:

Cipher Studios is pleased to announce that the world-wide release of Hell Dorado has begun! This miniatures skirmish game originating in France will be released in 4 different languages and distributed all over the globe. Throughout the next 18 months the entire current line of Hell Dorado models will become available to distribution. And not only will we release all of the characters and troopers that are already out, we will also bring you 6 brand new models for the game: one character for each faction.

These new Hell Dorado figs have already begun to hit the shelves. At the crest of this new wave leads the indomitable Augustinus Raimond of the Westerners. On the heels of this close combat beast will be Husaym al Dinn, a djinn, fighting for the Saracens with blood soaked blades and an in-your-face combat style.

We have been working furiously to bring you Hell Dorado. Coupled with the improbable amount of bad luck in the first month’s release, it has seemed as though we have been through Hell itself to bring you this new miniatures game. Having overcome these obstacles getting out our initial wave of releases, we are now on target for shipping the second wave to distribution. The English product has now shipped and the product with translated text will be leaving our warehouse shortly. Cipher Studios has been successful in bringing minis fans Anima Tactics in 4 different languages for 5 years now. Because of this, we will be able to implement the same plan with Hell Dorado easily.

And yes, the rulebook is almost ready for print. We have finished all writing and editing. Edited sections have been passed along to our foreign partners for translation and to our layout team, which is in its final stages as I write. You will have it in your wanting hands in no time. Once the book is at the printer, we’ll be able to give a more exact time of release.

Thank you all for believing in us and hanging in there these last couple of years while we were getting Hell Dorado back into the gaming community, on an even bigger scale than before. We look forward to bringing you these amazing models, growing the already incredible community, and expanding the rich world of Hell Dorado!

This is great news for skirmish fans and I am very much looking forward to grabbing a copy.

Bullroarers Update

2011-01-26T18:46:00.000-08:00

We are now at round five of the Hotgoblin Cup and while the Barefooted ones are yet to notch up a win, they are developing quite nicely and have been able to make a few Touchdowns.

Along the Skill front, I have been quite lucky with rolling a couple of doubles and even a +Strength to one of the Halflings. Only takes him to Strength 3 but it is not what my opponents generally expect.

The Skill I have been focusing on with the general upgrade is Sidestep. Combined with Dodge, the Halflings are able to make their opponents really work to gain ground. For the Treemen, I have gone for Break Tackle on both and one has also been given Multiple Block to give my line of scrimmage a bit more flexibility. The Doubles rolls so far have gone to a Hail Mary Pass to get me out of trouble and create opportunities and most recently Dauntless. This will allow me to put a bit more threat on and not rely so heavily on the Treemen for the Blocks.

My next round is against a particularly bashy Chaos Dwarf team, the plan at this stage is to play conservatively and limit the amount of damage he can cause me in the long term.

Warhammer Forge

2011-01-26T16:41:00.000-08:00

Some interesting new developments coming out of Forgeworld, in particular their new Warhammer Forge arm. Historically, Fantasy has received short shrift from Forgeworld so it is nice to see this new focus.

Warlord Tamurkhan riding his giant Plague Dragon, Bubelos

Plague Ogres

Bile Trolls

Plague Toads, also called Rot-Eaters and Sewer-Kin

They may not be usable in tournament environments but it is wonderful to see the fantasy Hobbyists being looked after again.

Wargames Factory and Bastion Closing?

2011-01-17T20:45:00.000-08:00

There has been some interesting developments in the Wargames community in the last week or so. First with the apparent coup d'etat over at Wargames Factory with Tony Reidy leaving the company and posting an open letter (Link - 2nd post down)making some parting shots. This in itself would be of moderate note and understandable considering the current economic conditions. What makes this more interesting is the sudden developments over at Bastion and the reports of them going under.

Now with Bastion, nothing has been confirmed and there is just initial sketchy reports from Beasts of War saying that they will be closing. The Official Ex Illis forums seem to be unsure as well with nothing official being said. Whilst the absence of a rebuttal from those at Bastion is not evidence of this rumour being true, their silence does lend weight to the rumour.

What links these two issues is the fact that it is known that Wargames Factory has been taken over by the Chinese manufacturer of their products, Ghost Studio. Ghost Studio is also the manufacturer of the plastics for Bastion so it is possible that a similar takeover is in progress. The new Managing Director of Wargames Factory, George Sivy, is/was an employee of Ghost Studio. Now this in itself is not an issue, it is a relatively small industry and experience is valuable but their could be some interesting developments to come.

Now both these issues could simply be Ghost Studio attempts to recoup monies that are owed to them but it seems an odd way of going about it. No doubt more information will come to light in coming weeks.

Rerolls, a chance to fail twice

2011-01-09T18:59:00.000-08:00

The Bullroarers had their largest ever defeat in the opening game of the Hotgoblin Cup. They went down in a screaming heap, 6-0 to a Slann team. To add insult to injury they suffered 9 casualties to 2 although only one of them ended up being a long term injury. Whist one of my Treemen ripped the head off the Slann Journeyman foolish enough to take him on.

The sad thing is they weren't playing badly they just suffered some bad luck with some early casualties, including my only player with Sidestep and then it continued with some abominable rolls. I lost track of the number of times I would try to pick up the ball or pass it, fail the initial 4+, then reroll and fail again.

The Halflings are not all that bad but they so need a lot of luck to complete plays. Most of their actions require a 4 plus or thereabouts to succeed and when you put enough 50% chances together then it makes it difficult to get things done. I am fervently hoping for an AG upgrade on one of my 'Flings as I think that would make the chances of getting touchdowns a little more realistic.

The skills are starting to build up though so I will have a few more options when it comes to making play. Hopefully I have got my bad luck out of the way early in the season and it is all up and up now.

Tavern Topic - New Years Resolutions

2011-01-04T16:22:00.000-08:00

I'm not usually one to make, let alone keep, New Years Resolutions. Particularly when the hobby is involved; I seem to self sabotage whenever I set myself a deadline. This year I am setting myself a fairly straight forward goal with plenty of scope and not limiting what I have to paint beyond my existing collection.

Simply put, it is the Honourable Figure Hoarders Vow. I mentioned this a few posts back and it is an attempt to limit my ever growing pile of pewter and plastic that sits in my hobby area silently mocking me. I love miniatures, I don't mind what manufacturer, what system or even what scale. I am exposed to a huge range of different figures and I tend to impulse buy and then never get round to actually using them in a project. This is going to change from now on; I will have to paint 2 or more miniatures before I will allow myself to buy 1 new miniature. This way I should reduce the backlog and not overly restrict myself.

This is a good vow for anyone who has been in the hobby for a while, many of us do it. We buy the latest shiny thing, it goes into our hobby stash and never actually gets painted or used. I would recommend anyone who has a pile of shame to give this a go.

My other vow this year is to play some more games, last year I got too caught up in side projects and talking to people and didn't actually play much. This year I will try to play more and get more out of the hobby. I am also planning to put on a good showing at the AUSCON Wizards of Oz painting comp.

I will be charting my progress in the blog as that is part of my vow and it should mean that the Blog gets some more love too.

Barefoot Bullroarers Bruised and Bloodied

2011-01-03T16:57:00.000-08:00

Well the pre-season for the Hotgoblin Bloodbowl League has finished and the proper Season kicks off tonight. And what a pre-season it has been, the Bullroarers have a record of 0/1/3 which is not too bad for the diminutive pie-eaters but more importantly they have got a few improvements on the board with a few more waiting in the wings for an SPP (Star Player Point) or two.

The Bullroarers have also escaped with only a single long term injury, -1 AV to a player with no SPP so I may yet retire him.

I am loving Bloodbowl, it is perhaps GW's greatest ever game and I do not say that lightly. A lot of it can be put down to the guys that have been working on the evolving iterations of the Living Rule Book (LRB) and refining the game system to maintain balance. Everything has a counter and while some skills are better than others it has a polish to it that other games systems should aspire to.

It is somewhat disappointing that this game has received little support from its creator and is only kept alive by a group of dedicated fans. Yes, GW continues to publish it but the rules in the box haven't kept pace with the LRB and the miniature ranges are looking dated and have notable gaps.

If you have never played BB before, I heartily recommend picking up a team, downloading the .pdf rules and giving it a go. It has minimal outlay and is ridiculously entertaining.

Round 1 of the Season begins tonight and I will let you know how we go.

The Honourable Figure Hoarders Vow

2010-12-22T17:16:00.000-08:00

"I hereby vow to not buy a single miniature before I've painted at least two.

I shall display in public my will to resist the temptation of the lead and of the resin, by charting my progress over the next year and be open to scrutiny and public mocking should I fail."

Yep, my collection of "To Be Painted" has grown to silly levels and I really need to get motivated to paint them up. With the new year, fast approaching it is time to actually finish some projects and reduce the pile of grey and metal that mocks me from my painting area.

The Projects I really want to finish.

Cawdor Gang - Necromunda
Barefoot Bullroarers - Halfling Bloodbowl Team
Mercenary Army (Shae and Ashlynn) - Warmachine
Blindwater Congregation - Hordes
Orks - Aeronautica Imperialis
Halfling Army - Warhammer Fantasy
Gremlin Crew and other Outcasts - Malifaux
Empire of the Blazing Sun - Dystopian Wars
Shroud Mages - Uncharted Seas
Ratling Squad - Warhammer 40'000
HeroQuest and Space Crusade (for my Boys)
Various Rogue Trader figures and other single sculpts that I love.

Just putting it down as a list makes it look even more imposing.

I think everything else in my collection should be culled or at least severely reduced. Also on my to do list is to actually play more games rather than sit around and talk about it.

Wish me luck, cause I'm going to need it. (Especially when I realise I have left stuff of my list)

More AI Orks

2010-12-02T12:09:00.001-08:00

Aeronautica Imperialis - Ork Force

2010-11-28T11:46:00.000-08:00

Pulled something else out of the "To Be Painted" pile. Here is the start of my AI Ork Air Force. I have drawn inspiration from the MiG-15's used in the Korean War for the colours and I wanted to tie them in with the Blood Axes that I am planning for 40K.

Random Ork to Prevent Burnout

2010-11-21T04:59:00.001-08:00

Took a break this evening to paint just something random out of the "To Be Painted" pile (everyone has one).

'Doc' Killingsworth and Rhulic Privateer

2010-11-12T04:15:00.001-08:00

A couple of additions to my growing Privateer force.

Completed Commodore Cannon

2010-11-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

Completed the cannon and really pleased with the result. Even more pleased with its performance on the table. It is brutal; with its variety of shot types ranging from single target, POW 20 to the spray template for troops getting close it handles a lot of situations. It easily earns its place in pretty much any Shae list.

Commodore Cannon Crew (love my alliteration)

2010-11-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

The first of the Swabs have been finished and I am pretty pleased with how they have turned out.

Working on the cannon at the moment and then I will start on a solo or two before doing the Sea Dogs. Leaving the 'Jacks as a treat for finishing some of the grunts.

Talion Charter

2010-10-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

“What is a rebel? A man who says no”
Albert Camus

Welcome to my Road to War Diary. I actually have had many of these miniatures kicking around for some time, gathering dust, but I think the time is right to bring them out and give them the paintjob they deserve. Steampunk has always been a style that has appealed to me and I think the 'Jacks that epitomise this aesthetic best are the Merc Warjacks. They may not have the retro-furistic look of the Cygnar, nor the ornate style of the Protectorate 'Jacks but they still have a charm to them.

Of the Mercs it is the Privateers that caught my eye first, they have some really characterful Jacks like the Mariner and Buccaneer. Plus who doesn't like pirates apart from Ninjas?

First up is my Warcaster, I have begun with Phineas Shae but plan to get Broadsides Bart later on down the track but for the moment it is enough to wrap my head around one caster. So far I have been very impressed with him, his DEF is decent and while his ARM is a bit soft, leaving him with some focus seems to offset it. This combined with Storm Rager and I have been able to go toe-to-toe with even heavy Jacks (OK he had some help...) and come out on top.

Following Shae is the almost obligatory Commodore Cannon; this thing is awesome. Not only is it a great looking miniature, it can lay down some serious hurt and has a nice variety of ammunition types for diferent situations. Plus it has some great rules such as allowing the regular Sea Dogs to crew it should you lose the original crew and it can gain bonuses from many of the Privateer Solos.

On the 'Jack front I am currently packing two in my roster, A Mariner and a Freebooter. The Mariner seems to be a better choice in smaller games as it seems to have more utility, but I do love the options the two open fists on the Freebooter gives me. They are both going to be a lot of fun to paint.

Rounding out the Units choices I have a full unit of 10 Sea Dogs with Mr Walls and 1 Rifleman (I do plan on getting the other 2 but so far they have failed to impress me). I can see where the Sea Dogs will come into their own in larger games when supported by the right solos but in the smaller games that I have been playing they simply don't do much else but die. I think that I would have been better served by getting some Pressgangers instead. I would be happy to be corrected though, if someone has a way of getting the most out of Sea Dogs at 15-30 points please let me know.

Solos seem to be where the Privateers really shine with some great characters. So far I have Lord Rockbottom, Master Gunner MacNaile and Doc Killingsworth. Each bring some great little tricks to the table and I think I tend to spend most of my list building time working out which ones to bring.

The List so Far:

Shae

Freebooter
Mariner

Commodore Cannon
Sea Dogs (10) + Mr Walls + Rifleman

Lord Rockbottom
Master Gunner MacNaile
Doc Killingsworth

Coming Soon:

Buccaneer
Rifleman
Pressgangers

Just a quick proof of concept and basing test that I knocked up. I have started painting the Swabs and I just wanted to be happy with the basing scheme from the outset.

The blue front arc marker is also a test of the colour scheme to be applied to the 'Jacks. I think I may carry the front arc design across the entire force.

Latest Work

2010-08-06T06:08:00.000-07:00

Been busy with other things this week so very little progress.

An Army of Halflings

2010-07-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

So I've been thinking how to field an entire army of Halflings. There is no army list that is perfectly suited but I think there are some that would work.

My first thought was Wood Elves; good archers, work well with woods and can field Ents (Treekin, Treemen or even Dryads). The one factor that killed it for me was, there is no way to field the Hotpot.

Then I thought about using Empire but felt it wasn't a good fit either and whilst a Skink army might work it doesn't feel quite right either.

What I have settled on is using the Orcs and Goblins army book and creating a "Counts As" Goblin Horde.

Now forgive me but I'm still operating in 7th edition so this is not really current but will give an idea of where I am heading with this madness.

The Halfling (Goblin) Army

Halfling Hero (Goblin Big Boss)
Light Armour
Shield
Ulag's Akrit Axe
Amulet of Protectyness
(89)

Halfling Hero (Goblin Big Boss)
Light Armour
Shield
Great Weapon
Warboss Umm's Best Boss 'At
Guzzla's Battle Brew
(88)

Halfling Hero (Goblin Big Boss)
Light Armour
Shield
Battle Standard Bearer
Rowdy Grott's Big Red Raggedy Banner
(114)

30 Halflings (Goblins)
Spears
Shields
Full Command
(170)

30 Halflings (Goblins)
Shields
Full Command
(140)

20 Halflings (Goblins)
Bows
Full Command
(100)

20 Halflings (Goblins)
Bows
Full Command
(100)

6 Halflings on Ponies (Goblin Wolf Riders)
Short Bows
(78)

Halfling Hot Pot (Goblin Rock Lobba)
(70)

Halfling Hot Pot (Goblin Rock Lobba)
(70)

4 Ents (Trolls)
Stone Trolls
(180)

1199

The Ents will be from Impact! specifically these ones

The fluff explanation is that they are Treemen that have been dormant and have started to breakdown away from the Wood Elves influence. Hence the stupidity and the vomit could be wasps or bees.

I still need to nail down a few ideas but I think that the core idea is sound.

A lot of Halflings to paint too.

The Barefoot Bullroarers

2010-07-28T05:18:00.000-07:00

Continuing my love for all things Halfling, I have begun painting my first Bloodbowl team, "The Barefoot Bullroarers."

Comments and Criticism is welcomed.

Another Day, Another Halfling.

2010-07-25T05:25:00.001-07:00

The Halflings are getting more numerous. Wish I was a faster painter.

Road to AUSCON

2010-07-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

May next year will herald the emergence of a brand-new event in the Australian Wargaming calendar. Held over the three days of the May Day long weekend in South-East Queensland. AUSCON will be a celebration of all things wargaming, including tournaments for all major systems, demos, seminars and the Wizards of Oz painting competition.

J and I have both decided to enter this competition, not with any grand plan to win, but for the experience and to push ourselves as painters. The plan, at this stage, is to enter in every category. This means we will have to paint a wide variety of miniatures to as high a standard as we can.

Below is the list of categories and the miniature I wish to enter.

Fantasy Single Miniature under 54mm - Avatars of War: Orc Shaman
Fantasy Single Miniature 54mm and over - Enigma: Yarry, Light Feet
Fantasy Mounted Figure, Monster or Vehicle up to 54mm - Games Workshop: Ghazak Khan
Science Fiction Single Miniature under 54mm - Privateer Press: Phineus Shae
Science Fiction Single Miniature 54mm and over - Armorcast: Hamster Gun Girl
Science Fiction Mounted Figure, Vehicle, Armour or Monster up to 54mm - Forge World: Ork Trukk
Historical Unit up to 15mm - TBC (Maybe Corvus Belli: Numidians)
Historical Armour up to 15mm - TBC
Historical Armour up to 28mm - TBC
Gaming Unit up to 54mm - Wyrd Miniatures: Born in the Bayou
Scratch Built, Converted or Sculpted Figure - TBC
Diorama Open up to 15mm - TBC
Diorama Open up to 54mm - TBC

It looks pretty daunting at this point but I'm going to give it a go. I will also though down the gauntlet to any other Australian or New Zealand based bloggers to also attempt this challenge. I will be happy to cross-post and promote your blog in exchange.

Let's Get It On!

Warheads - Sir Hugo

2010-07-22T22:46:00.000-07:00

Trialling a new game by Urban Mammoth, called Warheads: Medieval Tales. Love the sculpts, surprisinly hard to paint as all mistakes are starkly obvious.

Halflings through the ages

2010-07-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

Loving painting these old halflings, these were the last of the Imperial Halflings.

Classic Halfling

2010-07-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

Continuing my love affair with old school Citadel figures.

Recent Work

2010-07-19T16:47:00.000-07:00

Been Slack with the updates. Will try to do more.

May Releases from Wyrd

2010-05-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

Crooked Men

Waldgeist

Jack Daw "Baghead"

These will be up for preorder later today.

Myranda - Beastmistress

2010-02-18T06:37:00.001-08:00

Myranda from the Order of the Chimera - Not too happy with her but after stripping her once already I just wanted to get her done. I'll revisit her fresh one day.

Marcus, The Beastmaster

2010-02-07T05:40:00.001-08:00

I finished Marcus for my Arcanists Crew. This is something I was very happy with. Trying some new techniques on him including using primarily washes and 'juices' to build up the colour on a white undercoat.

Also tried to restrict my colours to really 'earthy' browns and oranges to emphasise his animal/naturistic character. This is my first try at painting dark skin and actually really pleased with the result.

Back View

Used him for the first time on Friday night and while I didn't win I think I learned a lot and am starting to grasp how the crew works

Another Razorspine

2010-02-02T15:11:00.001-08:00

I am very much enjoying painting the Order of the Chimera Crew at the moment. After working on the undead of the Redchappel Gang it is refreshing to go into another direction stylistically. The wonderful thing about the Malifaux range is the diversity in the crews, even within the factions there is a broad range of influences and styles.

I tried to keep the two Razorspines similar with subtle changes to be able to tell the difference on the table. Not sure if I will run them both in the crew or have the second as the shapeshift form for Myranda.

Just Marcus and Myranda to go on the basic Crew and then I can start looking at expansion options.

Sabertooth Cerberus

2010-01-31T04:04:00.001-08:00

More love for the Order of the Chimera. This time with 100% added Sabertooth Cerberus.

Other side

There is something about this kitty that I really enjoyed painting. I should invest in a second one.

C + C Welcome

Razorspine Rattler

2010-01-30T15:02:00.000-08:00

Ok it's not part of the Redchappel Crew but I have started on my second Crew to get my Henchman status from Wyrd.

Razorspine Rattler from the Order of the Chimera (Arcanists)

Looks a lot more fleshy in the photos but I'm pretty happy with the results.

Back view

C + C welcome

Gremlins and Piggies

2010-01-29T05:01:00.000-08:00

J is doing up a Som'er Teeth Malifaux crew for one of our customers and they are turning out very nicely so I thought I'd share.

Piggies

Hog Whisperer

Malifaux is taking up a lot of my attention at the moment, I'm letting a lot of my other project fall behind. Have a tournament mid March and have the better part of an army to finish. All in all it's not too bad a problem to have.

WargamerAU Iron Painter Round 1

2010-01-14T17:30:00.000-08:00

WargamerAU has started an Iron Painter competion modeled after the very successful Wyrd Miniatures version. While I don't consider myself to be a fantastic painter, anything that pushes me to do the very best I can and try new techniques is a good thing.

The first round theme is Weather/Whether. I chose to interpret this literally and show a miniature under the effect of weather. I still had my favourite of the Rotting Belle sculpts (The one with the Parasol above her head) to paint and I thought that a rainy evening scene would be ideal. Drawing inspiration from the famous musical Singin' in the Rain.

I also wanted to go all out on the base so using one of the street bases and a Victorian Lamppost from the Wyrd accessory pack I had the scenery for my diorama base.

The Base was painted in dark colours with the Lamppost being a central feature and projected some source point lighting from the top (a technique I have never tried before). The base was then liberally coated in Vallejo Still water effects to give a reflective sheen and add to the theme.

The Belle herelf was placed in a fairly standard pose with a slight twist on her arm to bring the parasol into a more upright position. I wanted to focus more on the light and shade than fancy colours, so she is painted in a plain blue dress. The parasol itself looked a little plain, so drawing inspiration from Japanese fans and parasols, I freehanded a blossoming branch (also a new technique for me).

I tried to do shading in the appropriate areas that would have been covered by the parasol and while there is room for improvement, I feel that I have done a pretty good job and will leave it as is.

"Shamblin' in the Rain"

As always C+C welcome.

Bete Noire

2010-01-12T05:10:00.001-08:00

I'm procrastinating on my Iron Painter entry so I knocked out Bete Noire. Wanted to try using a limited palette and go for a monochrome effect with just a touch of red to act as a focus.

I think the blending up from a paler colour on the base of her dress and the limited range of colours emphasises her ethereal nature. Took a lot of inspiration from the LotR Army of the Dead.

C + C Welcome.

A Pair of Totems

2010-01-06T03:37:00.000-08:00

Ok, while taking breaks in between my Iron Painter entry I have completed two new totems for Seamus.

First up, a Grave Spirit.

Second up, a Malifaux Child - this one is from Hasslefree Miniatures. I loved the sculpt and had to get one. Using it as a totem occurred to me afterwards.

C + C Welcome.

Family Portrait - so far....

2009-12-27T04:45:00.000-08:00

Hooray, my bases have arrived! I have based up all my fully painted crew and made some Corpse Counters.

Just a quick post today to show the bases and to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.

Lady of Negotiable Affection

2009-12-23T03:57:00.001-08:00

The first of my Rotting Belles is now complete and my bases have arrived so now I can get stuck in and finish the previous minis.

I tend to steer clear of white fabrics as I have struggled with them in the past. For this reason I decided to have a spoonful of the proverbial cement and just go for it.

Rear view, much more palatable than Sybelle's

Haven't given her a name yet, any ideas?

Some C + C would be apreciated

All My Base are belong to Who?

2009-12-21T04:08:00.000-08:00

Madam Sybelle is now finished, still no bases though (cry!). I may revisit her at some stage but to be honest I just wanted to get her out of the way.

I ended up adding an undone clip on bow-tie to complete the Playboy Bunny theme (thanks for the idea Papa). I pushed my limited green-stuff abilities to their max.

And from the rear. (shudder)

I may go back and do some touch ups but for now I want to move on to the Rotting Belles.

Of Copycats and Ugly Bunnies

2009-12-17T13:24:00.000-08:00

The Copycat Killer is now finished (still no sign of my resin bases)

Australia Post are having rolling strikes so goodness knows when I'll get them.

Tried to keep him looking as close to Seamus as possible, but also tried a heavier wash of blue on the jacket.

Reverse Shot

I wanted to do something special to Sybelle as I wasn't happy with her as is. I have J to thank for the idea of this one - Playboy Bunny!

First proper attempt at greenstuff sculpting, don't think I did too bad a job.

In case you were wondering the item on the left is her bunny tail.

Whatcha think?

Seamus, the Mad Hatter

2009-12-13T11:50:00.001-08:00

My Seamus is now finished aside from his base (which are yet to arrive).

Very happy with how he came out, the flash makes the blending look a bit rough but it looks good in the cold light of day.

I had a lot of fun painting this mini, and I get to do it all again with the Copycat Killer totem.

And from the back.

Next stage, the Copycat Killer.

As always, C + C welcome and encouraged.

Malifaux

2009-12-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

My order arrived from Phoenix Forge with all J and my Malifaux goodies. Malifaux is a brand new game (Released August this year)from Wyrd Miniatures. It is a skirmish game with opposing Crews of 4-10 miniatures per side.

To sum up the flavour of the game is difficult to do succinctly, but one of the game creators, Nathan Caroland, has described it as Steamvictoriohorrorwestpunk. The themes involved can be very adult in content, with a much darker feel than a lot of other games out there with touches of gallows humour. For this very reason I would not recommend that younger children take up the game. For those mature enough to deal with the subject matter, the setting is wonderfully realised and open to further expansion. The studio team have put out a large amount of well-written fluff in both the rulebook and the online magazine.

The game itself has some brilliant innovations and while not completely reinventing the tabletop wargame, it is different enough to stand out from the crowd. Probably the most notable innovation is that they have dispensed with the use of dice. All probability factors are instead handled by drawing from a deck of cards. A regular deck of cards (with both Jokers) can be used but I feel that using one of the Wyrd decks does add to the experience. The game itself is very streamlined with the core rules being very straightforward and easy for most people to pick up in a few minutes.

This is not to say that the game is easy to master or lacks depth, far from it. With almost every decision you make having a consequence or an opportunity cost, there is a lot to be weighed up before committing to a course of action. The game revolves around the Crew Masters, particularly powerful characters who are able to twist fate to their will. This is represented in game terms through your control hand. A control hand is a random draw of 6 or 7 cards made at the start of each round that allows you to "cheat" unfavourable card flips, replacing them with a card in your hand. Masters also have the ability to manipulate Soulstones which is the resource for purchasing your crew and also allows you to access special actions during the game.

The miniatures and resources for Malifaux are downright fantastic. The rulebook is up there with the industry leaders and is easy to follow, well laid out and beautifully illustrated. All miniatures come with reference cards which should allow you to go entire games without having to refer to the rulebook at all. One negative to the reference cards is that they are a little thin and flimsy and would have been nicer on stiff card like Privateer Press reference cards (nothing a little laminating can't fix). The miniatures are fantastically detailed 32mm "Heroic Scale" and have a style that is distinctive to Wyrd.

I would recommend this game in a heartbeat to anyone seeking something a little different and the skirmish nature of it means you do not need much of a cost outlay to get going. All of the factions have 2 or 3 starter boxes and can be used straight away for a scrap. This allows for a gaming group to have a large variety of forces from the outset. J has chosen the Neverborn, the demonic faction, who are full of very creepy characters and I have gone for the Resurrectionists, the necromancer faction. Expect to see some pics soon.

Cawdor Update

2009-12-07T03:45:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update on the Gang. Have finished another Ganger with Autogun and finalised my Heavy conversions.

Ganger - Tried to add some personalisation with the Angel Wings

A Slight Change of Focus

2009-12-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

I have changed the tag line for the site slightly as I have decided that having the Blog purely for Warhammer was a little too restrictive. It also meant that I was hesitant to do non-Warhammer topics. So now L, D and P will be a general wargaming blog with a particular focus on Warhammer Fantasy but also dabbling in Skirmish games like Necromunda and my new Favourite, Malifaux by Wyrd Miniatures. I will also touch on general gaming news and will do a few features on Warmachine (first I need to paint up my Talion Charter and actually learn to play).

I have some of the brand new game (Malifaux) from Wyrd arriving shortly and intend to do a series on my initial impressions of the game and miniatures. (The Miniatures are awesome, by the way). I played the first game on Friday Night and must say I am very impressed so far. The game is easy to pick up and the mechanics can be explained very simply, the complxity comes in the strategy, resource management and the synergies between various elements.

I'm hooked and while J is more interested in the miniatures at the moment, I intend to have her hooked too. If you are interested you should definately head over to the Wyrd Site (link above) and check it out.

Cawdor Gang

2009-12-02T00:01:00.000-08:00

The project of the last few weeks is a little different from anything I have done on this site previously. I have been working on a Cawdor Gang for Necromunda. To the uninitiated, Necromunda is a skirmish game released by GW in 1994 to recreate gang battles in the underhive of the major hive city of Necromunda (funny that).

I have been wanting to do a gang for years and to break my, previously mentioned, painting funk I figured that eight to ten figures was the perfect, achievable goal. Of all the Necromunda Gangs, it is Cawdor that appeals to me most, the juxtapostion of medieval torturer garb with the futuristic technology of the 41st millenium really strikes a chord with me.

As this is primarily a painting project I have selected figures with very little consideration to their performance on the tabletop. I have selected two Juves (inexperienced gang members), 1 Heavy (I am converting him to have a heavy bolter), 1 Leader (compulsory) and 4 Gangers armed with a mix of lasguns, shotguns and autoguns.

For the colour scheme, I have tried to stear clear of my usual suspect paint choices and I also wanted to have a dramaticaly different scheme to the dark blue that the Eavy Metal team painted the studio gang with. I decided to go with a linen/green combo with red trimed weapons. Also on the agenda was to avoid using metallic paints completely, even on the wonderful Back2Base-ix resin bases.

This was to challenge me to grow as a painter and try some new techniques and colours that I had been avoiding and to improve as I think I had let myself get lazy towards the end with the Warriors of Chaos.

The Gang in progress.

I still have no name for my gang and would appreciate if anyone with some ideas would be willing to contribute in the comments section. As always comments and criticisms are welcome.

It's been a while

2009-12-01T23:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. It has been due to a combination of lack of ideas for wothy posts, lack of new miniatures being painted and last of all the latest addidtion to J's and my family. We welcome little Bailey into our lives and one day, perhaps, he can play wargames with his dad and older brother.

I tend not to do too many personal posts as it has little or nothing to do with the raison d'etre of the Blog but I feel in this case it does not hurt to explain my 3 month absence.

It is not purely due to his arrival that I have not been posting but it was a slight distraction.

But, once more into the breach, I am back!

Oh No, He Didn't...

2009-08-27T03:55:00.000-07:00

I got what may be the start of a new facet of my gaming hobby today. My Captain Phineus Shae arrived today in the mail. Over the last few weeks I have become increasingly interested in Warmachine/Hordes and the Privateers in particular.

I haven't fully commited myself but I was thinking about starting a Talion Charter force for Warmachine and with Mk 2 coming out in January, now may be a good time to starting a new game. I love the look of the Privateer warjacks and was thinking of doing them in a "Bioshock" kind of way. The whole Steampunk + Sea going nature just fits perfectly and the heads of some of the jacks look a little reminiscent of the Big Daddy's.

In other news - the store is now fully up and running.

Theorycrafting - Spears vs Hand Weapon and Shield

2009-08-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

There are always people wondering about what is best to arm their core regiments with. Many boxed sets come with the option of either hand weapons and shields or Spears and shields. On the surface, Spears seems the better option as they allow the second rank to fight and “hey more attacks means more wounds and more wounds mean better combat resolution right?” But under the current rules spears for foot troops are not all that great compared to the bonus given to the combination of hand weapon and shield.

Scenario 1
Let’s assume the generic unit has WS3; S3; T3 and no other equipment. This allows the direct comparison between the two weapon options to be compared.

Generic unit A of 20 with hand weapons and shields vs identical generic unit B of 20 with spears and shields. Both are ranked 5 wide and 4 deep. Both have full command.

If A attacks first then the combat will end up with 1.25 (1 through rounding) casualties caused on B. B then strikes back causing 1.67 (2 through rounding) casualties on A meaning that B will win combat slightly more often than A on the balance of probabilities. Combat resolution has B winning by 1.

If B attacks first then we will see a result of 1.83 (2) casualties to 0.83 (1). So we see there is even more likelihood that B will win combat. Combat resolution has B winning by 1. We can see that spears are slightly superior but there is not really much in it so the points could be saved and not affect the overall combat ability.

As spears cost more this is not a fair match up so we should give unit A light armour to compensate (usually costed the same).

Scenario 2
Unit A attacks first causes 1.25 (1) casualties as before and then takes 1.25 (1) casualties in return. Drawn combat.

Unit B attacks first causing 1.38 (1) casualties and then takes 1.04 (1) in return. Drawn combat again.

So for all that you have almost twice the number of attack coming in, the extra armour mitigates it.

Scenario 3
Bringing the generic units from before back (without the extra armour on A), let’s imagine them taking a charge from 5 light cavalry C with WS4; S3; T3 armed with spears.

Odds are C will charge A so we get 1.85 (2) casualties from the riders and 0.83 (1) from the mounts or 2.68 (3) total. A strikes back causing 0.83 (1) casualties. Due to banner, outnumber and ranks A wins by 2.

When C charges B we will see 2.22 (2) casualties from the riders and 1.04 (1) from the mounts for 3.26 (3) total. B strikes back causing 1.67 (2) casualties. Due to banner, outnumber and ranks B wins by 3.

Not a huge advantage to the extra cost spent on spears. Spend the same on light armour and the result would be A winning by 3, same as spears but the benefit to ranged defence is better.

Of course these are simplistic mathematical models and don’t take into account the wide variety of possible combinations available to a Warhammer general. In most case the option to arm with spears is offered to the core block infantry that is intended to win combat through static combat resolution rather than wounds in which case it is better to reduce the number of wounds received than increase the number of wounds caused.

Mathematically the chance to hit wound and kill with hand weapons vs spears is the same, spears just allows the 2nd rank to fight as well, increasing the number of potential hits. Most spear armed foot troops will only hit 1/3 to 1/2 of the time, wound 1/6 to 1/2 of the hits and with most opponents having at least a 5+ save kill only 4/6 of the wounds.

Best case scenario against an equal opponent an average trooper will only cause a casualty 1/6 to 1/8 of the time. Against superior troops this chance drops even lower. Whereas a +1 to armour save will mitigate an extra 1/6 of all attacks that hit and then wound. So if you are choosing between light armour or spears (generally the same points cost – around 1 pt per model) the extra save should be more valuable. Light armour, shield and hand weapon equates to 4+ (50%) save in combat and will swing the combat far more in your favour than shield and spear (6+ save) and 5 or six more attacks. Plus more armour will help out of combat; more models left alive means more to attack back as well.

In conclusion, when given the choice and under the current rule set, the marginal advantage that spears have over hand weapon and shield is not worth the cost. It is far better to give your core troops more protection than more attacks as most of the extra attacks will not have a noticeable effect.

The Secret Revealed... L,D & P Store is now open!

2009-08-25T05:09:00.000-07:00

That's right, the reason I have not been posting as much the last few months is that J and I have been working on a new venture, a hobby store. Credit where it is due, J has been doing the lions share of the work whereas I have been running around with grandiose ideas.

The idea of the store is to offer OOP (Out-of-Production) and alternative miniatures, mostly focused towards GW games initially along with associated products including Love, Dice and Paintbrushes only merchandise (T-shirts, then who knows... I have a few ideas for custom dice that may be appearing very soon)

Rest assured I will not be turning the blog into a blatant advertising tool and I will not be making constant posts about the store. The Store will obviously have a link from the Blog and they share the same name but I will continue to just talk about general hobby issues as I have until now.

Website is at www.lovediceandpaintbrushes.com.au. So if you are looking for something a little different for your army, after some new dice, paintbrushes or want one of our cool T-Shirts come and check us out.

Tournament List, Take 2 - Breakdown - part 3

2009-08-18T14:18:00.000-07:00

Special

Chaos Chariot 130

Mark of Slaanesh

4 Ogres 220

Full Command, Additional Hand Weapons

Mark of Slaanesh

5 Chaos Knights 200

Full Command

Mark of Slaanesh

War Banner

Nothing too ground breaking in the special choices. Just the hard hitters to inflict some pain on the enemy. Taking the War Banner just to give me the extra little kick so I don't get bogged down. I would prefer to break each unit on the first round if possible to keep the momentum up. Ogres are equiped with the additional hand weapon as they are the old Golgfag's Mercenary Ogres and that is WYSIWYG.

Total Special Points 635 (28.2%)

Rare

Spawn 75

Mark of Slaanesh

Taking the spawn as I have a soft spot for it and it does a good job of holding a flank against small annoying stuff.

Total Rare Points 75 (3.3%)

Tournament List, Take 2 - Breakdown - part 2

2009-08-17T02:43:00.000-07:00

Core

18 Chaos Warriors 373

Full Command, Shields

Mark of Slaanesh

Banner of Wrath

My anvil regiment, this will form the centre of the line and should be able to take a charge and hold. The Banner of Wrath will draw out dispel dice and possibly give me few wounds.

15 Chaos Marauders 105

Full Command, Flails

Mark of Slaanesh

This regiment will act in tandem with the Warriors and hopefully will cause some damage. If I can take the charge with the warriors then get a flank charge with the Marauders I should be able to take down some big hitters.

14 Chaos Marauders 106

Champion and Musician, Shields and Light Armour

Mark of Slaanesh

The Generals bodyguard. The Sorcerer will be held in this regiment for some added protection from missile fire.

5 Chaos Warhounds 30

Diversion unit/screen for the Knights.

5 Marauder Horsemen 96

Musician, Throwing Axes and Light Armour

Mark of Slaanesh

General fast cavalry regiment, adds some mobility.

Total Core Points 710 (31.6% of total)

Tournament List, Take 2 - Breakdown

2009-08-16T04:31:00.000-07:00

Characters

Demon Prince 385

Level 1 Wizard

Mark of Slaanesh

Soporific Musk

Bloodcurdling Roar

The idea of the Demon Prince is to be my ready reserve. Able to fly, I can pick my battles with him and take on the weak spots, such as warmachines. Giving the magic level gives me an extra Dispel Dice and with Bloodcurdling Roar and the magic missile I can use him to snipe away and march block. I also hope that he will attract some attention and draw focus away from the slower units. Soporific Musk will pretty much mean I'll wipe out any units that I can cause to flee.

Chaos Sorcerer 160 General

Mark of Slaanesh

Dispel Scroll x2

Conjoined Homunculus

I have gone for a defensive magic phase. Unless I am willing to go with a level 4, I figure that it is best not to enter into a power war with magic. By taking two level 1's and two scrolls, I can try to limit the worst of the opponents magic and get off the occasional magic missile or other useful spell, the Homunculus is there to get me over the line if nessecary.

Exalted Hero 285

Battle Standard

Mark of Slaanesh

Chariot

Shield

Armour of Morrislieb

Biting Blade

Nothing too outrageous with my BSB. I just wanted a hard hittting combo that could really support my foot regiments as they advance. I will try to use it in combination with my Warriors and Marauders to smash anything that tries to break my line. The Biting Blade is to make his attacks magical to deal with any ethereal units around.

Total Character Points 830 (36.9% of total)

Dire Wolves

2009-08-16T03:45:00.001-07:00

Been a while since I posted recently painted. But here are J's Dire Wolves (one of them in any case)

Something, this way comes...

2009-08-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

Bit quiet on the posting front I'm afraid. This is not to say that I haven't been busy, far from it. I have been working hard on our games room and it is shaping up nicely. I am also working on a new project that is related closely to this blog.

Needless to say, watch this space for updates.

The army list is close to being finalised. I am just tinkering with the specifics now of which regiments have champions, numbers and layout. I'll post the final list with my trhinking in the very next post.

Tournament List, Take 1

2009-07-30T23:14:00.000-07:00

Ok here it is, the first take on my Army list to take first to Geoff Jose Memorial Tournament and then to Ork-toberfest 2009. I have a little bit of time to refine the list and work out he kinks but I believe the central idea is solid. The idea behind it is a fairly diverse, flexible list that is not going to get Comp-Slapped.

Without further adieu:

1 Demon Prince
Level 1 Wizard
Mark of Slaanesh
Soporific Musk
Bloodcurdling Roar

1 Chaos Sorcerer - General
Mark of Slaanesh
Dispel Scroll
Dispel Scroll
Conjoined Homunculus

1 Exalted Hero
Battle Standard
Mark of Slaanesh
Chariot
Shield
Armour of Morrslieb
Biting Blade

Total Character value 830 or 36.89%

18 Chaos Warriors
Mark of Slaanesh
Shields
Full Command
Banner of Wrath

15 Chaos Marauders
Mark of Slaanesh
Flails
Light Armour
Full Command

10 Chaos Marauders
Mark of Slaanesh
Shields

5 Chaos Warhounds

5 Marauder Horsemen
Mark of Slaanesh
Light Armour
Throwing Axes
Musician

Total Core value 674 or 29.96%

1 Chaos Chariot
Mark of Slaanesh

5 Ogres
Mark of Slaanesh
Additional Hand Weapons
Full Command

5 Chaos Knights
Mark of Slaanesh
Full Command
Rapturous Standard

Total Special value 670 or 29.78%

1 Spawn
Mark of Slaanesh

Total Rare value 75 or 3.33%

Total 2249

Power Dice 4 +1 Bound Spell
Dispel Dice 4 +2 Scrolls

Well there it is, voice your opinions denizens of the interwebz.

Demon Prince of Slaanesh

2009-07-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

J has finished painting my Demon Prince, I think she has done wonderful work. Initially, she just wanted to see how it would turn out but I liked the result so much I asked her to finish it up and I don't intend to do anything further to it (apart from basing).

I must admit I was a little nervous when she put down the base coat of Warlock Purple, but I do like the result and it does look very Slaaneshi.

Blast from the Past

2009-07-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

I managed to score a copy of this nostalgic treat on eBay last night. Along with Space Crusade, also by Milton Bradley in conjunction with Games Workshop, this was my first foray into the hobby. I never owned this game myself but several of my friends had copies, usually with one or two pieces missing.

The copy I have purchased claims to be complete, albeit with minor damage. I hope this is accurate, however with the price I paid for it I do not mind a little wear and tear.

I would have preferred a copy of Warhammer Quest but with the prices that copies are commanding at the moment (some in excess of $250) I'll just have to hope that GW revisits it at some stage.

When my son is a little older, I look forward to having many a dungeon crawl with him. It is a little disappointing that these games have been let fall by the wayside as they used to provide an excellent introduction into the hobby and so many of my fellow gamers began their adventures with this game.

What do you field?

2009-07-27T01:10:00.000-07:00

I have put a new poll up because I am interested to see what peoples opinions and preferences are when it comes to their armies. I am an unabashed OOP (Out-of-Production) fan, I love the old Citadel and Marauder miniatures, partially because they are a little different to what the majority of players are currently fielding but mostly because they are the miniatures that I wanted when I was younger and just starting out.

When I began playing Warhammer 40,000 I lived in a small town in rural northern Australia. My local newsagent stocked White Dwarf but to get any miniatures you pretty much had to order them from England (The first Australian store had opened but there was no domestic mail order at that point). So I was limited to my Space Crusade and later my copy of 2nd edition 40K and everything else had to be proxied. But every month the new edition of White Dwarf would come out and I would stare longingly at the pages of metal minis at the back (I miss those pages). My current army is pretty much all previous generation models, the only current plastics that you can still get are the Marauders and they were bought last edition.

Now I realise I am not in the majority, indeed GW makes its money by convincing most players that the latest boxed set of Space Marines is far superior to the previous boxed set of Space Marines and that you should always be replacing the older items in your list with the latest iteration. To a certain extent I can appreciate that the models are getting better (the 2nd edition gretchen that came in the box are pretty damn horrible) the levels of detail are improving and some of the old sculpts are not all that great.

The third type of player casts their eye further afield from the GW range. Whether they are unhappy about the prices charged by GW or they want their army to look distinctive these players look to other manufacturers to create their armies. In some cases it is just for a particular hero or regiment and other cases it is entire armies. I am beginning to look around at the other ranges because I want my army to be a little different and I like the metal models which GW seems to be heading away from.

What camp do you fall in? Does your army have to be completely up-to-date with all selections made up of the current range? Do you search for the older models, or have them built up over the last few decades? Do you raise the middle finger to GW and source your army from alternate manufacturers? Or are you a combination of two or more of these types and are happy to mix and match to suit your needs?

Please note I do not want any flaming or attacks on other posters or against GW. I personally am happy to buy models from GW, I just have a predilection for unique looking armies.

Where did the time go?

2009-07-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

I realised this morning that it has been three weeks since my last post. This is quite embarrassing and I did not mean it to go this long.

I have, however, been very busy in Warhammer related activities. I am creating my very own hobby room. Well actually it is a hobby shed, but let's not split hairs. The shed has been sitting there, stacked to the brim for the last four years or so and to be honest I have been scared to go near it. But I have discovered lately that Warhammer miniatures and a 16 month old are not the best combination. I needed a space of my own that I could devote to the hobby.

It actually did not take me nearly as long as I expected and it was pretty much finished over the weekend. I had to be pretty ruthless with our collected detritus and when the final trailer load was taken to the dump our lives were 300kg lighter. But now I have a room that I can have dedicated to painting and gaming.

It wasn't all hard work, during the purge I found an old box of minaitures that contained Golfag's Mercenary Ogres among other goodies. This was a wonderful find as I wasn't sure what had happened to these and other miniatures in the intervening years since I purchased them.

I now have to decide whether to field all or some of the ogres in my army for the upcoming tournaments. They won't be the Regiment of Reknown, just a regiment of MoS marked ogres with additional hand weapons and maybe Chaos Armour. I believe I have to rebase them as Ogres are now on 40mm bases and these lads are on the older 50mm ones.

Has anyone else stumbled upon a cache of forgotten miniatures from their past?

My First Tournament

2009-07-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

I have decided to enter my first Tournament, the Geoff Jose Memorial Warhammer Tournament 2009. It seems like it is a nice relaxed tourney to begin with and get some experience under my belt. It will also provide me with a goal/motivation to get more of my Army painted as painting rank and file can get tedious. It will be held on the 5th of September which gives me a nice amount of time to prepare.

I am quite excited about the prospect of playing in a tournament and while I harbour no delusions of winning or even coming close to winning (I imagine I would be in contention for the wooden spoon) I will relish the chance to get involved. This is definitely an area of the hobby that I am aiming towards as I like the holistic nature of tournaments (in Australia at least) that rewards all aspects of the hobby.

It is 2250 points limit with some interesting side rules such as the penalty for taking too many power dice. If you wish to take an army with more than 10 power dice you will be asked to make a $10 donation to the Queensland Cancer Council. All army lists have to be submitted prior to the event and any deemed to be "Unfriendly" will be given one opportunity to resubmit a softer list and if this second list is rejected then the player will have their entry fee refunded. I like this as it will discourage the extreme power lists that tend to surface.

I will be taking my Warriors of Chaos based around my current 1500 point list with a few tweaks that I will determine in the lead up to the 15th of August which is the cut-off for List submission. I need to work out what to take as my Lord choice and whether I will take a 4th character (I probably will not). Alternatively, I could skip the lord choice altogether and take 4 hero level characters. So many choices to make.

My thinking currently is to take a Demon Prince of Slaanesh with an upgrade to 1st level Sorcerer and then round out the rest of the points with another regiment of Warriors and some Hounds. This is to take advantage of the relaxed nature of the event and use a Lord choice that not many people would take to a highly competitive tournament. I think apart from giving a few minor upgrades (Not too much spent on Gifts) I will leave the Prince pretty much "as is". I won't be tooling him out to be undefeatable.

Expect a tentative 2250point list soon.

Stepping Up - 1500 point list

2009-07-02T01:45:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm getting into the swing of things I'm going to start trialing a 1500 point list. It's not a particularly tough list (actually its probably fairly soft) but I think its nicely balanced and has no overly glaring weaknesses. All selections have the Mark of Slaanesh.

Characters

Sorcerer lvl 2 - Dispel Scroll, Book of Secrets - 175
BSB - Chariot, Blasted Standard - 280

I have gone for a balance of Magic offense and defense with my General to keep my options open and allow flexibility, plus the extra spell compensates for bad rolls on the Slaanesh magic table. The BSB is one of my 'hammer' choices, with the Blasted Standard offering some protection from any nasty cannons and other ranged nasties lurking about.

Core

12 Warriors with Shields and Full Command - 232
15 Marauders with Flails and Full Command - 105
16 Marauders with Light Armour, Shields and Full Command - 126
5 Marauder Horsemen with Light Armour, Spears and Full Command - 115

Nothing too fancy here, solid core to use as the centre line and take the enemies charge. The Marauder Horsemen will act as flankers and to deal with war machines and missile troops.

Special

5 Knights with Full Command - 260
1 Chariot - 130

The Chariot is going to shore up one end of the battle line while the Knights are another 'hammer' to cause some grief to the enemy.

Rare

1 Spawn - 75

Don't expect miracles from this choice but it will shore up the other flank, opponents seem unsure about the spawn as it has the potential to be dangerous. I find it too erratic to be relied upon but it can save my line from flankers and should be able to survive one turn to allow me to counter.

I like this list and am anxious to see if it performs. I should give it a go on Friday and I'll post what happens.

My Thoughts on Game Balance

2009-06-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

One of the recurring topics that seems to come up again and again on the forums is the issue of Army balance and which forces have an inherent advantage. Now, many feel that this is due to GW not releasing the army books simultaneously when the new edition of the game is released and this is true. From GW's perspective this would not be wise as there would be a huge rush initially for purchases and then it would die down and be very little movement until the next edition. By staggering the releases across the lifespan of each edition they keep interest higher and allow them to focus on different forces.This will always cause a shifting in power as each new army book comes out, with some weaker armies finding new strength and with other armies gaining in some areas and losing in others.

I think that one of the biggest issues that people struggle with is that Warhammer was initially envisioned as a role playing system rather than a competitive game. It is more Dungeons and Dragons than Chess. While the developers have made progress in bringing more of a competitive balance in over each subsequent iteration there will always be unbalanced aspects. If people tried to play a role playing game the same way you see people trying to play WFB you would be forever hearing cries of "The DM is overpowered!, Clerics should be improved!, Rangers are not on par with Fighters! etc.

Yes, people run very successful tournaments that do put these armies into a competitive framework but to do so they usually have to put an extra layer of rules and assign handicap or comp systems to re balance the lists. Considering even GW tournaments have restrictions, it is an admission that the game in its 'pure' form is not equal and balanced. Nor should it be, I see WFB as a tool set for Role playing in a primarily friendly non-competitive way. The beauty of the game is that there is not an overly restrictive rule-set, allowing for a broad range of situations and scenarios It creates an environment where players can create scenarios as wild as their imaginations can come up with. If the rules were more 'balanced' it would severely restrict this and would force players into more narrowly defined forces.

There could be more of a balance, I feel, between the openness of the current rules and lists and competitive game. For example, the wording on many of the rules should be more explicit and less open to interpretation and inconsistencies corrected. But at the end of the day GW does not make most of its profits on the rules, rather it makes it profits on the sales of models which benefit from the more open system. In essence, the rules are provided to give us an impetus to buy the miniatures and as long as they are not glaringly broken (and cry all you like they are not) then we will continue to play.

There could be some argument in taking a 'weaker' army to make you a better player, if you can win with a competitively sub-par army then perhaps there is more to that achievement than rolling over someone with a powerful army list designed to utilise every advantage you can squeeze out of it.

At the end of the day, people should play how they like, to some they enjoy the meta-game that is building nigh-unbeatable army lists and to others it is creating a themed army that has inherent weaknesses but is fun to play. What do you all think?

Entries for the Battle Reporter Forums Painting Competition

2009-06-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

Sigmar over at Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter Forums is running a painting competition and J and I have decided to enter. I will be aiming to submit two entries, 1 for the single miniature category and 1 for the regiment.

Entry 1 - 2002 Games Day Special Edition Chaos Lord with head swap

And Undercoated. I'm tempted to mount him on a Chariot, but with the short amount of time I may just base him on the 25mm base.

Regiment Entry - The old metal Chaos Knights. I love these models and hope I can really do them justice.

They need a fair bit of cleaning up but I think I can do it.

J will be entering a Corpse Cart, I love this miniature.

Good luck to the other contestants and if anyone else wants to participate you can find the rules here.

Mark of Nurgle Correction

2009-06-25T04:18:00.000-07:00

I have Aeschere from the Chamber of the Everchosen Forums to thank for bring this to my attention.

The Warriors of Chaos FAQ from the Games workshop site.

Page 110, The Mark of Nurgle, second
paragraph. The text should be changed as
follows:
When rolling to hit against a model with the
Mark of Nurgle, the attacker suffers -1 to its
Ballistic Skill and Weapon Skill, to a
minimum of 1.

PDF can be found here

This changes things somewhat, as the benefit to regiments and characters in close combat now only applies to the defensive side of things. However, it means that regiments fighting in multiple ranks are all hitting on the lower value (if it applies). If anything this ruling make me like the MoN even less. Receiving 16.7% less hits isn't really all that great when you have average to good toughness and good armour. From a defensive point of view we should compare the Mark of Tzeentch and the Mark of Nurgle

Lets take the hypothetical regiment of 12 Empire Archers and place them 15" away from a regiment of 10 Chaos Marauders (light armour and shields). If the Marauders have the Mark of Nurgle the shooting phase will go something like this (on average):

BS 3 is reduced to 2, this gives a basic RtH of 5 and -1 for long range gives us RtH of 6. There will be 2 hits from this and 1 wound with a 33% chance to save. (Mathematically it will kill 0.66 of a Marauder)

For the Mark of Tzeentch:

BS 3 gives a RtH of 4 and -1 for long range gives us RtH of 5 so their will be 4 hits and 2 wounds and a 44% chance to save. (Mathematically it will kill 1.11 Marauders)

Now in melee we should see this in two different ways. Against a regiment with no penalty to hit from the MoN and a regiment with a penalty.

Firstly lets see 8 Empire Swordsmen striking 6 Marauders (equiped as before).

With MoN the WS is reduced to 3 however this still strikes on 4+ so 4 hits and 2 wounds with 33% chance to save. (1.33 Marauders slain)

With MoT the Swordsmen strike on 4+ so 4 hits, 2 wounds and 44% chance to save. (1.11 Marauders slain)

Secondly, we see 8 Dwarven Longbeards striking the same 6 Marauders.

With MoN the WS is reduced to 4 so now striking on 4+ so 4 hits, 3 wounds (rounding up) and 16.7% chance to save. (2.22 Marauders slain)

With MoT the WS stays at 5 so striking on 3+ we see 5 hits (rounding down), 3 wounds and 30.5% chance to save. (2.47 Marauders slain)

In a straight up comparison we see that the MoN outperforms the MoT (except in the obvious case where the MoN doesn't affect the RtH). I'm still not convinced it is worth the extra points, especially when you cannot guarantee you will be getting into combat with the right WS opponents and the Tzeentchian Mark will give benefits against all attacks regardless of strength and whether it ignores armour saves. Personally, I feel that the Mark of Nurgle is the weakest of the Marks due to its situational nature and cost.

Calculations were made in Excel using the formula: Number of attacks x chance to hit x chance to wound x inverse of chance to save. (no rounding was done by me until the result)

Theorycrafting - Mark of Nurgle (Part I)

2009-06-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

I was very much looking forward to writing this article as I find the lore behind Papa Nurgle really interesting and appealing. I also thought that the Mark of Nurgle (MoN) was a really good bonus and for it cost it should be. Once I started looking at the numbers behind it, I have become less convinced about its value. Due to the game mechanics the apparent bonuses become situational and slight.

The MoN has two components to it. The first is a -1 modifier to all shooting aimed at the Character or Regiment. This means in game terms a reduction in successful hits of 16.7%. Unless you are facing a particularly shooty army such as Wood Elves or Gun-line armies as favoured by some Empire and Dwarven armies then this reduction is not going to be significant on its own to warrant the price. Once you factor in the amount of actual casualties it saves (5.6% to 11.1% based on Strength 3 to 4 missiles hitting Toughness 3 to 4 troops) then it seems almost useless, this becomes even more pronounced when taking in to account armour and ward saves.

The second component is a -1 to WS (Weapon Skill) for all opponents in base-to-to base contact. This may seem like a good idea until you really break down how the comparative WS actually determine what roll to hit is required. Below is the logic that makes up the Roll to Hit Tables (RtH).

Roll to Hit based on comparative WS.

A = Attackers WS
D = Defenders WS
RtH = Roll to Hit
So using the above there are only two times when attacking that this debuff will actually cause the MoN to have an effect. The first is when facing an opponent with an otherwise equal WS; your troops will now be hitting on 3’s not 4’s (16.7% increase). The second is when hitting characters with WS 1 point over double your troops (for example Marauders facing WS 9 targets) as it will mean you hit on 4’s not 5’s.

As a defensive tool the MoN will help against attackers with a WS 1 higher than yours (it will mean your opponent now requires 4’s to hit not 3’s) and against low level WS attackers (for example Skeletons WS 2 will now only hit Marauders on 5’s not 4’s). I think it would have been better if the Mark gave a -1 modifier to the opponents Roll to Hit.

Characters

Chaos Lord
The Lord has a WS of 8 so using the formula above, we can see that it will be of benefit offensively against other WS 8 and defensively against WS 4 and WS 9. This is not too bad as there are some combat monsters (literal and figurative) out there that this would give a nice edge against. The Shooting debuff is also good if you intend to mount your Lord and run him solo as they tend to attract large amounts of attention from ranged units.

Sorcerer Lord
The main reason for taking the MoN on this character would be for the access to the Nurgle School of Magic. I like the school and feel it is a pretty well balanced one and it’s good to take if you don’t want to do the usual Infernal Gateway/Tzeenchian build. The defensive aspects are good too as a little bit of protection from missile fire. You won’t be pushing to get this character into combat so that aspect of the MoN is mostly bonus.

Demon Prince
Similar issues to the Chaos Lord (see above) as he has the same WS. Being a large, solo target means that he can be a target for ranged attacks.

Chaos Sorcerer
Same issues as Sorcerer Lord (see above).

Exalted Hero
Same issues as Chaos Lord (see above). WS is 7 so the opponent WS that will be affected are 7 (for hitting) and WS 4 and 8 (for avoiding being hit).

Core Choices

Chaos Warriors
With a good Armour Save and reasonable toughness, Warriors do not have a lot to be concerned about shooting. Using the strength 3 arrows against Warriors with shields as an example, the MoN gives only a 2.8% increase in survivability. The benefit to melee is against WS 5 (offence) and WS 3 and 6 (defence).

Chaos Marauders
The Marauders are more likely to benefit from the Marks defensive qualities than the Warriors due to the lower toughness and Armour. An unarmoured Marauder with the MoN will get an 8.3% increase in survivability when getting shot at by strength 3 shots.
Melee benefits is gained against WS 4 and 9 (offence) and WS 2 and 5 (defence).

Marauder Horsemen
Same as Chaos Marauders (see above). The greater range and manoeuvrability of the Horsemen will maximise the strengths of the Mark as you can pick your targets. However, very few of the typical Horsemen targets will have the above mentioned WS. In addition the Horses get the benefit against WS 3 and 7 (offence).

Theorycrafting - Mark of Nurgle (Part II)

2009-06-24T01:36:00.000-07:00

edit - this one was so big I had to split it into two.

Special Choices

Chosen
Same issues as Chaos Warriors (see above). Melee benefits is gained against WS 6 (offence) and WS 3 and 7 (defence). The high WS of the chosen means that you are going to be striking your enemy on 3’s for the most part anyway.

Chaos Chariot
Chariots tend to get targeted by ranged attacks so can get some benefit from the -1 to hit, however they have good armour so they would mitigate a lot of the successful hits anyway. As the MoN affects the enemy, the Horses get the benefit as well to hit. The Crew can be considered Chaos warriors so have the same melee benefits (see above)

Ogres
The -1 to be hit by ranged is not a bad idea as they are only toughness 4 and can be easily taken out by focused range attack. This gives a small buffer and may act as a psychological deterrent for your opponent. The Melee benefit is gained against WS 3 and 7 (offence) and WS 2 and 4 (defence)

Chaos Knights
The Armour Save of the nights renders the benefits of the shooting debuff almost void. The Melee benefit is gained against WS 5 (offence) and WS 3 and 6 (defence)

Rare Choices

Spawn
My own spawn tends to be an arrow magnet so anything that reduces the number of hits it takes is a good thing. For pure survivability the MoT is better but if you want that balanced against the Melee buff then the MoN is better balance. The Melee benefit is gained against WS 3 and 7 (offence) and WS 2 and 4 (defence)

Chaos Shrine
Similar issues as the Chariot (see above), however you are not as likely to get into combat so you have to weigh up the benefit versus taking the MoT. The Melee benefit is gained against WS 5 (offence) and WS 3 and 6 (defence).

Giant
Similar issues to the Spawn (see above). The Melee benefit is gained against WS 3 and 7 (offence) and WS 2 and 4 (defence).

Summary

If you are building a Chaos army for a tournament or to be used against different armies with little to no modification it is hard to justify the points on the MoN. The protection against ranged attacks is slight at best and unless you are sure what types of opponents you will be facing and their weapon skill then you may not be getting any benefit from the Melee bonus either. Remember, it is only the ‘threshold’ WS values that are going to be affected and you will only be changing the combat results by around 16.7% each combat. Below is a table of the WS and how the MoN affects them.

As you can see the common WS values in the Chaos army (3, 4 and 5) will affect the other common WS one way or the other. Also keep in mind that MoN only affects those in base-to-base contact, regiments that fight in multiple ranks will only have the front rank affected.

If you are a micro-manager and can get the right regiments into combat with enemies that are going to be affected, or are going up against a known quantity where you are designing a regiment purely to destroy a specific force then the MoN can potentially be a game winner. For general purposes, I believe it is too hit and miss and for its cost (30 points for most regiments). For raw damage it is outclassed by MoK and for damage mitigation it is second to MoT. The Mark of Nurgle has its role in the list, but I think it could have been better realised by the designers.

Teaching Someone to Play Warhammer - A Cautionary Tale

2009-06-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

As you would be aware if you have been reading L, D & P, my Wife J has been painting up an army as well so we can enjoy the hobby together. She has never played before and chose the Vampire counts purely on a visual and stylistic appeal rather than any notion on how they actually fare on the battlefield.

She has now finished 2 regiments (Ghouls and Wolves) and has her Lahmian on foot painted (I'm sorry, no pics - been very slack in that area) and has a lot more on the way. Now happy with how her little force is growing she has asked me to teach her to play. So I suggested we get her entire army that is constructed and I would field the equivalent value in my Warriors army and we would play a few friendly games to teach her the basics.

Such a good idea in theory...

The trouble with using these two armies is that a lot of the choices in our armies have special rules governing them. I realise now there is a very good reason GW puts Dwarfs and Goblins in the Battle for Skull Pass starting box. Trying to explain the basic rules in each phase of the game and then having to throw those rules out is a daunting task. Thank goodness we didn't use any Magic items.

Her force in the first battle consisted of Vampire on foot (We had no magic and no bloodline powers just to keep it simple), 10 Skeletons with Command, 20 Ghouls with Ghast, 5 Dire Wolves and 4 Fel Bats. My Army was my usual 500 point list. We decided to just play across a clear field to remove the complications of terrain and we did not have any rules for set up.

The first issue came up in the movement phase, undead and marching and the use of flyers. To the uninitiated, Warhammer movement can be complex enough without the undead special rules and then throwing in flyers as well is just masochistic. But we pressed on and got to the Magic Phase, I do not recommend using magic in beginners games but with VC, it is unavoidable. Luckily J had rolled the very simple Vanhels Danse Macabre so I guess it wasn't too bad.

My move was fairly uneventful and after her turn the unusual movement of the Spawn was nothing.

The rest of the game was pretty straight forward with her breaking my Warriors with a combined Ghouls and Wolves combat and running them down (needless to say, she liked that). My spawn and the bats wore each other down and I learnt to absolutely hate the fact that every magic phase she brings back almost as many things as I kill.

Sadly for me J had wiped my army out by the 4th turn. Purely through attrition and static combat bonuses (Although I had underestimated how powerful ghouls are - they are awesome) she forced my Marauders to flee off the table and the bats finally wore the Spawn down.

First game win to J.

Once we got over the initial issues of almost everything in both our armies having exceptions to the core rules it wasn't too bad. I think though if you ever intend to teach someone to play this game, select more conventional armies. From here I will get us to play larger and larger games and introduce more elements otherwise people just get completely overwhelmed by the complexity of the game.

edit: I did manage to restore some honor by winning the second game with slightly larger forces.

Theorycrafting - Mark of Khorne

2009-06-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

I will start this article with the preface that, of the four Chaos powers, Khorne is my least favourite. This is both in terms of Lore and on the game table. I could be accused of blatant hyperbole, but Khorne is the God for hyperactive 12-year olds who like nothing more than to scream "Blood for the Blood God!" from the other side of the table. Of course the idea of Khorne is perfectly suited to Chaos and it wouldn't be right not to have him, it's just not to my taste.

The Mark of Khorne (MoK) has the effect of giving the character or regiment Frenzy. The exception to this is the Rare choices; Giant and Spawn, they receive +1 to their strength instead. Frenzy can be a double edge sword in my opinion. It is great that it gives the extra attack and the immune to psychology is very nice but the fact that it forces you into charges whether you want to or not, the forced pursuits and the fact that you lose the bonus if you lose combat makes me dislike it. Many people swear by the Mark and I can see the judicious use of it can be very powerful.

Characters

Chaos Lord
I see a lot of these hard-hitting bad-boys around, usually sitting on the Juggernaut which makes this character one of the scariest lord choices in the game (excluding Dragons et al). With the right magic items these characters can become nigh invincible. An argument could be made that the whole idea is to get the Lord into combat so the downsides of the Mark are less serious. Backed up by a regiment of Knights with MoK there is not much that can stand up to a charge.

Demon Prince
Being able to fly allows you to choose your battles more carefully and avoids the main drawback of the MoK. Having a Prince marked in this way can cause your opponent serious concerns as they cannot safely ignore a fear-causing combat monster tearing though their war-machines, archers etc. This diversion can be enough to split the focus and allow other elements of your army to close and put them on the back foot. Of course a regular Prince will be almost as effective but having the MoK makes him that little bit scarier. Additionally the Mark is very cheap (15 points) which makes up for the fairly overpriced Prince.

Exalted Hero
Same issues as the Lord (see above). This is a good choice if you have a Lord with a different Mark as you are more likely to use a character that is not your General more aggressively.

Core Choices

Chaos Warriors
If you are intending to use your warriors in an aggressive fashion then this is a good choice of Mark. A 50% increase to attacks (33% increase if you have already equipped the extra hand weapon - 4 attacks per Warrior is brutal). Against most opponents they are unlikely to lose a straight-up fight (the more exotic troop types notwithstanding) and so can tear through most units. Be aware of diversion units being sacrificed to goad your warriors out of position, their movement speed will not allow you to easily reposition and they can get left out where they can no longer contribute.

Chaos Marauders
The MoK plus a high strength weapon such as flails or great weapons can prove to be a nasty surprise for many regiments. In my experience many people overlook the Marauders in assessing threats and this can be advantageous. One thing to keep in mind is the ability for this Mark to assist in winning combats. Marauders are a relatively "soft" target in the Chaos list and if they are not striking first they can struggle to win combats. Compare two identical regiments of Marauders one with MoK and one without (lets say a regiment 6 wide, all in combat) - both will suffer the same number of casualties (say 3). The unmarked regiment will strike back with 3 attacks (4 if they have the Champion) whilst the MoK regiment will strike back with 6 (7 with Champion) giving double the potential damage and the equivalent of the unmarked regiment suffering no wounds.

Marauder Horsemen
This Mark can give the Horsemen a nasty punch but will not make them an uber-unit. They will still be as fragile as an unmarked regiment so should not be used recklessly. Using their maneuverability and speed they can provide the coup-de-grace for already engaged foes or light ranged units or war machine crews. Good paired with flails or spears.

Special Choices

Chosen
Same issues as Warriors (see above). Can make an already powerful unit devastating.

Chaos Chariot
This one comes down to personal choice, I think it hits hard enough already and considering the long charge compared to the shorter movement (no march moves allowed) then you have a very real risk of being out maneuvered. That being said, a MoK chariot can dish out a huge amount of damage.

Ogres
Not a bad choice, this regiment is used for dishing out the pain anyway so giving them the extra attack is a good idea.

Chaos Knights
A good solid choice for this regiment. There is no good reason against taking the MoK and can make this regiment simply one of the very best heavy cavalry regiments in the game. If you do happen to get drawn out by a diversion unit the reasonable speed means that you can get back into the right position.

Rare Choices

The Mark of Khorne gives +1 to strength for the Spawn and the Giant.

Spawn
Making the Spawn strength 5 is not a bad idea if you want it to do some damage. The unmarked spawn is a little under strength in my opinion and the extra damage could be useful. Not going to be particularly game changing (gives about a 16.7% increase in wounds and will reduce armour save by 1 more than normal) .

Chaos Shrine
As the Shrine is best used towards the rear of the army in a supporting role, it is very rarely going to be in combat. Thus the MoK is largely wasted and one of the other Marks would be more appropriate. Only for the Khornate themed armies.

Giant
I see little value in increasing the strength 6 giant to 7. The unmarked giant would be almost as effective (or as close as makes no difference) and many Chaos generals would say that the Mark of Slaanesh is a better choice. The strength bonus would come into play against high toughness targets but the Giant is best taking on lower toughness regiments anyway.

Summary

One of the things I like about the 7th edition Warriors of Chaos Marks is that there is no 'stand out' Mark. Every regiment has a Mark or Marks that work really well and others that are not so good. There is a great synergy to be found in balancing the army with multiple marks.

The Mark of Khorne has the potential to be very powerful and turn almost every regiment into a tactical nuke, the downside is that you have to think a couple of turns ahead and be aware that you can be forced into making charges that you otherwise wouldn't have taken. Also be confident of victory when you do engage the enemy because as soon as you lose a single round of combat the bonus is gone and the points invested are effectively wasted.

Additional thoughts on the Mark of Tzeentch

2009-06-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

Since writing the article last week on the Mark of Tzeentch (MoT) I have been thinking and reading some other people ideas. I have a few points that I wish to add, that whilst not changing my overall feelings toward the Mark, do add some extra value and should be considered under certain circumstances.

The first point I want to discuss is the use of the Mark of Tzeentch on Marauders. For large regiments (20+) it is actually more cost and game effective to use the Mark of Tzeentch than just giving them light armour. Of course a regiment as large as this is not a common sight and you still have the opportunity cost of not being able to take a different Mark that may be more effective. If you are looking to save points and you weren't going to otherwise mark the regiment then it may be something to consider.

The second issue was to do with an assumption I made when weighing up the value of the ward save compared to bulking out the regiment with the equivalent value of additional soldiers. I was of the belief that any potential saved models (1 in 6) could be easily backed up by having the extra manpower to replace them.

The logic goes 10 Marauders (no upgrades) equals 40 points plus MoT equals 60 points. On the balance of probability the Mark will save 1.67 Marauders. For the same cost you can purchase 5 extra Marauders and would more than offset the potential losses. This logic is fine for casualties caused by shooting and if you are striking first in close combat but if you are striking second those extra Marauders are not going to be able to cause any damage.

This means that against Always Strike First (ASF) and higher initiative foes the value of the MoT increases as it can help the models in combat survive to strike back. Remember though that only 1 in 6 models will be saved so this would mean only 1 or 2 points maximum difference in the combat resolution. You could get lucky and save all of them but more likely you will fail to save any. This also only counts when getting hit by more than strength 4, if most of the hits are strength 3 you are just as benefited by taking regular armour. If you are facing a high strength, high initiative army then there is a reasonable argument for taking this Mark, especially on the lighter troops.

Neither of these factors have changed my opinions about the MoT - but I can see it does have some utility, albeit situational. I still feel that the biggest problem with the Mark on rank and file is the opportunity cost of not taking one of the other Marks.

Tell me what you want

2009-06-11T23:12:00.000-07:00

It occurs to me that apart from discussing whatever crazy thought is running around in my head at the time, I do not have a particular focus for the Blog. Obviously, I would like to focus on the topics that are dear to my heart and are relevant to what myself and J are doing in the hobby. But I would like to know what the people who read the blog are more interested in.

Do you want more Theorycrafting? I can put more of the mathematics behind the army choices (showing the probabilities and the raw numbers are a good way to weigh up the various combos) but I realise that it can be of little interest to many and they would rather just read the conclusions than see how it was reached. Or do you not want to see that and want less theory?

Do you want more Battle Reports or would you rather visit Sigmar over at Battle Reporter for that?

Do you want more News and General items that show upcoming releases or rumours floating around?

Do you want more pics of what J and I are working on? Or work in progress shots or painting demos?

The focus will always be on the Armies J and I are painting and playing at the time (At the moment, Warriors of Chaos and Vampire Counts) but I would like to know if you would rather see more of a focus on one type of post and to put less emphasis on others. Is there another area you would like to see me tackle or, heaven forbid, are you happy with what I'm doing and would rather I didn't change anything?

Praise the Dark Powers - New Bitz

2009-06-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Bell of Lost Souls for publishing this news. Games Workshop is releasing some new metal conversion pieces though their online store. Of most interest to me is the Slaanesh Chaos Icons (Part Code 99069915051) and the often rumored Pack of Skulls (Part Code 99069999005).

There are also marks for the other 3 Chaos Gods as well as Marks of Chaos Undivided. I'm going to be putting my order this week. It'll be nice not to have to scavenge spare skulls from various places.

Theorycrafting - Mark of Tzeentch

2009-06-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

Today I am focusing on the second in my series on the uses for each of the Marks of Chaos. Tzeench, the Master Manipulator, Lord of Change and Patron Deity of Sorcerers. The Mark of Tzeench (MoT) has two effects, the first is it confers a 6+ ward save (or adds +1 to any existing ward save) and allows all magic users to add +1 to their casting roll.

Characters

Chaos Lord

The ward save is handy by itself or can boost the effectiveness of a magic item such as The Armour of Moresleib (+4 ward save) increasing it from 50% effectiveness to 66% effectiveness. Not too shabby for a mere 10 points. Not sure about mounting a Lord on a Disc, I haven't done it or seen it done but imagine it could be reasonably effective.

Sorcerer Lord

Hands down, the best Mark to give to a Sorcerer. The ward save in this case is the bonus but the +1 to all casting rolls can mean the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful cast. This Mark also gives access to the Tzeentch Magic list and the Disc mount which can be very handy for this character.

Demon Prince

If you are taking this Lord choice then you cannot go wrong with the MoT. Not only does it increase the already existing ward save (4+ going to 3+) but if you are giving the Prince magic levels then it boosts that as well. Not too many people want to take Demon Princes but if you do want to take one the Mark of Tzeentch is a very good selection.

Chaos Sorcerer

Same issues as the Sorcerer Lord (see above) - The best mark you can take.

Exalted Hero

Same issues as the Chaos Lord (see above)

Core Choices

Chaos Warriors

The best thing about the Marks of Chaos is that they are a flat cost. Whether you have a regiment of 10 or 50 it will cost the same to apply it to your troops. This means that the larger the regiment the more cost-effective the Mark. Giving already heavily armoured regiments a ward save can be a waste of points unless you are planning to face opponents that can easily negate your armour save. For Warriors this is a highly situational choice and there are better Marks. For cost effectiveness the basic cost (not counting Command group or Magic banners) of the regiment must exceed 6 times the cost of the Mark (as the Mark effectively has a 1 in 6 chance of saving) and be likely to be required in the battle.

Chaos Marauders

Using the above ideas you would have to have a regiment size of 21+ to make the MoT worth taking as any benefit that would be gained could be achieved though taking more Marauders for the same or less cost. Regiments with more than this number would find it to be a valid choice, however it would still have to be weighed whether there is a better Mark. Apart from theme or fluff reasons there is no good argument for taking MoT marked Marauders.

Marauder Horsemen

Same theory applies but with the smaller, but just as fragile units. In this case there could be a slight argument for taking this Mark but only for units with 8+ Horsemen. If you are looking for survivability, then there are better ways and this isn't using the Horsemen to their best potential.

Special Choices

Chosen

Same issues as Chaos Warriors (see above). There are better Marks to take for this regiment (Mark of Nurgle or Mark of Khorne). For a defensive block this could be a viable choice but you would have to make sure that the enemy is focusing on this regiment to get the benefit.

Chaos Chariot

Giving a chariot a ward save is an ok idea in my opinion as anything that has a chance at doing some harm will probably also negate its armour save. I feel that there are better choices for Mark.

Ogres

There is some justification for taking the MoT on Ogres. Again it comes down to a cost/benefit ratio. When the Mark is less than 1/6th of the cost of the basic regiment then it is worth taking. The issue then comes down to are there more effective marks that could be taken in lieu.

Chaos Knights

Due to the high cost of the individual Knights and the attention they attract, especially from weapons and foes that can ignore ore severely reduce armour saves, this Mark has some significant value. If you want the Knights to act as the "anvil" in your battle line, taking the lions share of the damage then this is a good choice to improve their survivability.

Rare Choices

Spawn

One of the biggest things I lament for my Spawn is the complete lack of any save. This Mark provides a modicum of protection and will help with the overall survivability of these monstrosities. If you intend for your Spawn to be a delaying unit this can help them survive an extra round of combat.

Chaos Shrine

The MoT is considered to be the best Mark for the Shrine. Boosting its already formidable 4+ ward save to 3+ (50% up to 66%) will force your opponent to think twice about committing resources to combating this target.

Giant

As the Giant is already quite a resilient target, I do not feel that the extra points are worth being spent. Other Marks are better choices and taking the Giant in its "vanilla" form is good enough for most situations.

Summary

For the most part the Mark of Tzeentch is a defensive choice and being that the Warriors of Chaos are not an overly defensive army it does not have a lot of utility except in the case of characters where you are boosting their survivability (best paired with a magic item that gives a ward save). In the case of Sorcerers it is almost mandatory in a power-list and many people take it as a given for the Chaos Shrine.

For everything else it all comes down to the formula:

Cost of Mark of Tzeentch has to be less than Base Cost of Regiment (no command, no magic banners) divided by 6. You also need to consider the opportunity cost of taking the MoT over a different Mark.

Theorycrafting - Mark of Slaanesh

2009-06-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of posts on various forums asking which Marks are best for which units and which Mark is best from a single-marked army perspective. Now I am building a Slaanesh only army and I am marking every character, regiment, monster that can have it appropriately. But this is a personal choice based on Fluff (the background and "keeping in character") I know that this will give me a few restrictions and hamper some of the effectiveness of the force. But I am by no means a power-gamer, I play for the fun of it not to grind my opponent into the ground.

I will start by discussing the Mark that I have chosen and how it works for each selection in the army list. The Mark of Slaanesh (MoS) is the cheapest of the Marks and has the effect of making the bearer immune to Terror, Fear and Panic.

Characters

Note that mounting a character on a Fear or Terror causing mount will negate or lessen any need to react to these effects.

Chaos Lord
The Mark of Slaanesh comes in at a miserly 5 points and is a good insurance policy. Even though this character is Leadership (Ld) 9 this will still mean, what is almost certainly your General, has a 1 in 6 chance of failing a Terror, Fear or Panic test (2.78% for The Will of Chaos). This could mean the difference between a win or a loss. If you don't have another specific Mark chosen for this character and you can spare 5 points you should purchase this Mark. It won't win you any battles but it guards against a source of frustration. In addition this Mark is a prerequisite if you wish to purchase a Steed of Slaanesh.

Sorcerer Lord
Again this mark will only cost 5 points but will be of less value. The Sorcerer is less likely to be is positions where these tests will be required. It also has the effect of forcing you to take the Slaanesh magic table, which many people believe is the weakest of the three Chaos Schools. The Sorcerer does have a Ld of 8 which means you will fail one of these tests 27.78% (7.71% for The Will of Chaos) of the time or a little over 1 in 4 times. It comes down to how much you feel you need protection from Terror et al. I will take it as it is in the theme of the army but from a competitive point of view it makes little sense and the Mark of Tzeentch is much more appealing (I will cover it later).

Demon Prince
From a game play point of view there is little reason to take the MoS. The Prince causes Terror and as such is immune to its effects. You would only take this Mark for the immunity to Panic (7.71%) or for theme reasons.

Chaos Sorcerer
Has the same issues as the Sorcerer Lord (see above)

Exalted Hero
Has the same issues as the Chaos Lord except for the lower Ld 8 (see above)

Core Choices

Chaos Warriors
MoS is a reasonable choice for these regiments. It makes them more reliable and will insure your battle line against bad panic tests (Although you do get The Will of Chaos - re-roll failed panic tests) and allow them to disregard Fear and Terror. Can be very handy against Undead armies.

Chaos Marauders
A very good choice for these Ld 7 regiments. It adds a level of reliability and protection from shooting triggered panic tests. A non-marked regiment will fail 41.67% of the time (17.36% for The Will of Chaos) so to avoid this completely and ignore Fear and Terror this is worth the 10 points.

Marauder Horsemen
Has the same issues as Chaos Marauders but will be even more useful as the Horsemen are more likely to be acting away from the General and the rest of the army. They are smaller units so are more likely to be broken though shooting.

Special Choices

Chosen
A nice benefit for this regiment but not as much of a requirement. Makes them more reliable. A good roll on the Eye of the Gods table can make it redundant though.

Chaos Chariot
Same issues as discussed with the Warriors (see above)

Ogres
As the Ogres already cause fear the benefits are not as noticeable, but it is still a cheap Mark and better than no Mark. If you can spare the 10 points it is probably worth it. There are other Marks that are probably better for this regiment.

Chaos Knights
Fear causing so like the Ogres it is not as necessary but if you have the points and don't want another mark on them it is not a bad option.

Rare Choices

Rare options have a modified MoS. Instead of immunity to Fear, Terror and Panic it instead confers Always Strike First. Excepting the Chaos Shrine

Spawn
With a base Initiative of 2 this Mark is well worth the 20 points as other-wise you will be striking last every time.

Chaos Shrine
Not the best Mark to take (Tzeentch seems to be the winner for the Shrine) but not a bad choice. Ld 8 like the most other regiments so has the same chance to fail the Tests this Mark negates.

Giant
With an Initiative of 3 this can be a handy bonus but with the greater survivability of the Giant (compared to the Spawn), the extra cost is possibly not worth it (40 points).

Summary

My favourite Mark, the Mark of Slaanesh, gives a great bonus for very little cost. It means you don't have to worry about a few bad dice rolls ruining your battle plan. Not perfect in every situation but points well spent. It works well as a mono-themed army, it has no real downside apart from some units have little or reduced use for it.

The Art of Staying Motivated

2009-06-03T01:01:00.000-07:00

Now that J and I have gotten stuck into the meat of our armies, the inevitable motivation problems have been starting to rear up. J has struck it with her Dire Wolves and I am not very motivated to do my second regiment of Marauders.

The problem for each of us is slightly different. For me it is the thought of painting 16 more models very similar to 16 I have just finished. For J it is that she is getting frustrated with the detail on the Wolves. Being a bit of a stickler for detail the sheer level of it is giving her some frustration.

Our approaches to solving this issue are differing too. J has gone out and bought some Skeleton Warriors as she feels that the models will be easier to get done and for every few she completes she'll do another wolf. This breaks up the wolves and makes it a bit more varied with her painting regime.

As far as I'm concerned, I have been experimenting with the Knights, trying to come up with a colour scheme that will fit in with the rest of the army and yet make the Knights look like a centrepiece. I have decided to pull out all the stops and treat the Knights as if each one is a character in their own right. This means higher levels of detail and more care taken. Like J, though, I will be breaking each one up with various other models such as the Marauders on horseback and on foot.

This seems to be the key, by breaking the army down into manageable pieces and "rewarding" ourselves with different models it is easier to stay motivated. Also by focusing on each step, for me it reaching 1000 points and for J it is completing each regiment, it means that the enormity of painting an entire army does not phase us.

I should soon be posting some more pictures of our progress too. Completed the standard bearer for my Warriors and am quite happy with the result, especially the hand painted design on the banner. Painting a "flat" image on a sculpted banner is tough.

Knights or Chariots?

2009-06-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

This post I am opening up for discussion. I am torn at the moment between adding a regiment of 5 Chaos Knights (with full Command and Mark of Slaanesh) or 2 Chaos Chariots (with Marks of Slaanesh).

I can see benefits to both but am unsure. Please add your opinion with comments and sway me with persuasive arguments.

I open my ears to the wise counsel of my readers. Which path should I tread? Chariots, Knights or a hitherto untrodden path.

Website Profile - WargamerAU

2009-05-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share my thoughts on one of my favourite Warhammer forums - WargamerAU.com.

This forum is an invaluable tool for advice, inspiration, gossip and everything else related to tabletop wargaming in Australia and New Zealand. It has a wonderful community of like-minded people with very little of the negativity that pervades some other sites.

It has a fantastic trading forum where you can pick up everything from the one bit you need for your conversion to entire armies.

It is a sponsor dependent site but the advertising is very subtle and does not intrude at all. The mods are fairly relaxed and let a bit of free rein in regards to people posting.

All in all, a superb site for anyone interested in wargaming but absolutely invaluable for those in Australia or New Zealand.

If you haven't already, please check it out.

A Crushing Defeat

2009-05-30T17:36:00.001-07:00

Well the first outing for the Warriors was a bit of a disaster. I played against a nice guy with a Dark Elves army and while his attitude was friendly, his army was a mass of pointy death.

I brought out my painted 500 point force, as I feel the one way to truly motivate me to painting the full army is to restrict myself to only ever using fully painted/based miniatures. 500 points is pretty restrictive as it does not allow for a wide variety of options and puts a huge dampener on Magic Items. This from a learning perspective is good as it allows me to focus on the core rules without getting bogged down in the minutiae of special rules.

My opponent took to the field with 10 Crossbowmen, 5 Dark Riders (with all the toppings) and a small regiment of Executioners with a Battle Standard Bearer (BSB). Straight away, I knew I was going to have to weather a hail of missile fire before, hopefully, evening the score with close combat. I got to choose the side of the board to start on so I selected the side with the small hill at the back, more to deny his Crossbows than any advantage to me. There was also a small Forest that I chose to deploy the spawn behind to give some defense against the ranged attacks.

This is where my sanity left me as I foolishly left my Marauders in open field in the middle of the board. The Warriors were placed better with a large farmhouse towards the centre of the board providing cover along the left hand side of the board. In hindsight I should have exploited this cover for both regiments. My opponent won the role to determine who went first and decided to go second.

Turn 1

Rolled a 9 for my Spawns movement and decided to move up to the left of the forest putting it between me and the Dark Riders whom I was sure would try to flank me and to provide support to the Marauders. The other regiments moved forward to try and close the gap with the enemy. With nothing else for my army to do it was over to the Dark Elves.

The Dark Riders marched to the top of a low hill on the right flank and the Executioners came up the middle. Shooting was fairly devastating with Crossbowmen unleashing their obscene amount of quarrels into the Marauders slaying 4 of their number and the Dark Riders targeted the same regiment slaying another. It was at this point I was glad for the Mark of Slaanesh as I did not have to take a panic test.

Turn 2

The Spawn could have charged the Dark Riders if not for a dismal movement roll of 5 leaving it about 2 inches away from the enemy. I wheeled the Marauders to present more of a forward target to prevent the flank charge from the Riders and advanced to behind the farmhouse with the Warriors.

Executioners charged my Marauders and the Dark Riders turned and moved away from the Spawn. Shooting was less effective with the Crossbows only taking out a single Warrior and the Dark Riders inflicting one wound on the Spawn. Then came close combat and boy did it hurt. The Executioners ripped through the Marauders killing 5 and not allowing any to fight back. Not surprisingly they failed their leadership test and broke getting run down by the victorious Elves. This also took them into combat with the Warriors

Turn 3

Managed to roll enough to get the Spawn into close combat at the rear of the Executioners. Killed one after taking one wound. I had issued a challenge to the BSB with my Hero and managed to take him down to one wound and the Warriors slew another in return for two of their number being lost. I still lost the combat by 1 and had to roll a Leadership test or flee. I rolled a 9 and my proud warriors turned tail and fled.

The Executioners now turned their attention to the Spawn and dispatched it efficiently.

Turn 4

The Warriors rallied...

And then the Executioners slaughtered them on the charge. 1 Warrior and the Hero remained and they broke again this time being caught and cut down.

I had my entire army destroyed for the loss of only two Executioners.

The Wrap Up

A couple of things that let me down. Firstly, my army is not very maneuverable, and with no ranged I got picked at from afar and weakened. Secondly, I failed to use the terrain to my advantage. I should have shielded my army behind the farmhouse and goaded the Executioners into attacking without the support of the ranged. Thirdly, Executioners hurt and always striking first and rerolling to hit causes a lot of pain.

I need to add more fast options, such as the Chariots, Marauders on horseback, Hounds and Knights and possibly swap my Hero for a Sorcerer to give some ranged punch. I never expected to get beaten so thoroughly but I guess my opponent had the advantage of picking to his strengths and my weaknesses.

The 1000 point list

2009-05-28T03:56:00.000-07:00

I have worked out what intend to aim for with my first 1000 points. It works out as 2 Regiments plus finishing a new hero. Already made a start on the Knights and the Marauders so I will try to post some work-in-progress shots in a few days.

Chaos Sorcerer
Lvl 2 Wizard, Mark of Slaanesh 125

12 Warriors of Chaos
Hand weapons, Shields, Full Command, Mark of Slaanesh 232

16 Marauders
Flails, Light Armour, Full Command, Mark of Slaanesh 126

16 Marauders
Hand Weapons, Shields, Light Armour, Mark of Slaanesh 126

5 Chaos Knights
Mark of Slaanesh 260

Spawn
Mark of Slaanesh 75

This will leave me with 56 points to play around with various Gifts/Magic items.

Probably not the best list for this points bracket but I feel it will give me something to experiment with different tactics and get a bit more familiar with the rules.

The Sorcerer with the Mark of Slaanesh is not a hugely popular pick due to the general weakness of the Slaanesh magic table when compared with Tzeentch or Nurgle lists, but it fits best with the overall theme of the army.

Space Hulk for Christmas?

2009-05-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

I just read this article on Bell of Lost Souls and it has gotten me very excited. My first foray into the world of Games Workshop was Space Crusade, a GW and Milton Bradley product that was a blending of Hero Quest and Space Hulk. To go back and play a revamped version of this old classic would be a wonderfully nostalgic experience.

I have seen well kept copies of the older board games (Warhammer Quest, Hero Quest, etc.) sell for large amounts ($150+) so it seems that the time is right for a re-release of the classics. Perhaps we will see more of this from GW over the next few years and Space Hulk is a test of the community reaction.

note: This is all unverified speculation at this point. I imagine we will hear more closer to Christmas.

The Big Score

2009-05-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

I have to take my hat off to J, she can really hunt down a bargain. She has just bought on eBay a huge bundle of miniatures for both of our armies and I think she has done it a really good price.

This should keep us out of trouble for a while:

Vampire Counts

Ethereal Host
6 Fel Bats
9 Ghouls (older metal models)
Banshee
Necrarch Vampire (foot and mounted)
Lahmian Vampire (foot and mounted)
Blood Dragon Vampire (foot and mounted)
Blood Dragon Standard Bearer (Limited Edition)

Warriors of Chaos

Undivided Champion
Tzeentch Champion
Marauder Champion
5 Marauder Horsemen
Games Day 2002 Champion (Limited Edition)
3 boxes of 4th edition Plastic Chaos Warriors (This, I am particularly pleased with as it will keep my army consistent)

I have a bit of a soft spot for Limited Edition and other Out of Production (OOP) miniatures as I think they add character and uniqueness to an army. Of course it still depends on the miniature in question as the standard of some of the older Citadel and Marauder (anyone out there remember those?) miniatures were pretty poor. Rogue Trader era Space Ork bikers and Space Marine Scouts spring to mind.

Classic - not always worthy of nostalgia

Can't wait to get the delivery and get started, the Marauder Horsemen may change the look of my 1000 point army list but until then I am sticking to my current plan. I hope to post the list today.

What comes next?

2009-05-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

Now that I have the first 500 points of my army complete and J has finished her first regiment for her Vampire Counts army it is time to look forward to our next acquisitions. On Friday night I wasn’t feeling too good so we decided to go out for a relaxed dinner before going over to our local GW store and joining in the chaos that is games night.

This turned out to be not a very good idea in terms of getting a game as the place was packed and all tables were in full swing. I may have to come earlier or find a different day to get some practice games in. This turned out to not be a huge drama as we simply sat down at the painting table and got talking. J picked up the excellent new Dire Wolves and I pulled out my second regiment of Marauders.

The feedback J has been getting from everyone in regards to her Ghouls is very positive. Most people are very surprised to hear that it is the first regiment she has ever painted and that she has only been painting models for about two weeks. I must say she has already surpassed my abilities and will continue to get better. I think this comes down to a close attention to detail and a pursuit of perfection. My painting style ends to be a lot more relaxed with an emphasis on how the unit looks on the battlefield with more attention paid to the character models.

For the next 500 points, I intend to add 5 Chaos Knights of Slaanesh for some punch, the second regiment of Marauders (with hand weapons, shields and Mark), bulk up the Warrior Regiment to 12 and swap out the Exalted Hero for a Sorcerer. This, with a few little magical items should push me up to 1000 points. I’ll fine tune it a little more and post the proposed list.

Having 1000 points will make it easier to get a battle as few people wish to play less than 1000 due to the tough restrictions it places on army selection.

Spawn of Slaanesh

2009-05-21T14:46:00.001-07:00

Using a converted Steed of Slaanesh as a Chaos Spawn as I had the model and with fairly minimal conversion it looks like it could be one. I will be replacing it with an actual spawn sooner or later but for now it will do the job.

J did the paintjob and I think it turned out quite well.

So near and yet so far

2009-05-21T14:22:00.001-07:00

Well I almost did it, I aimed to have a full 500 points completed by Friday and I came within half a model. Unfortunately I didn't get the standard bearer finished so didn't include him in the above shots. Still I think it is a solid effort. Very happy with the champion.

As you can see, the warriors are the old style plastic models, they hadn't yet released the current ones when I bought the boxed set.

The spawn will be in the next post and I didn't actually paint it. It is a converted Steed of Slaanesh from the mounted hero and J liked the model so much, she asked to paint it.

More Ghouls, they're everywhere!

2009-05-21T14:16:00.001-07:00

Some more individual shots of J's ghouls to show the detail and effects.

J completes her first Regiment

2009-05-21T14:05:00.001-07:00

J finished the bases on her ghouls last night and thus completes her first regiment. I am incredibly impressed with the results. She has a real eye for detail and is willing to try different techniques until she achieves the look she had in her mind.

I think the idea of using different base coats to achieve uniqueness in every model has really paid off, yet they still look consistent.

The banner was added purely for the look of it, she thought it would look good with one of the ghouls carrying around a banner scavenged from somewhere in a grim parody of other, more conventional units.

Really can't wait to see what is coming next. I imagine either more ghouls, some zombies or a Vampire hero or Necromancer.

Exalted Hero of Slaanesh

2009-05-20T14:17:00.001-07:00

I may go back and continue touching up this model as I am still not 100% satisfied with the result. I forced myself to finish as I was concerned that if I continued to fiddle with the paint job I was going to make it worse.

Very happy with the effect on the sword though.

Marauders are complete!

2009-05-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

Finished the final touches on the first regiment of Marauders and the Exalted Hero of Slaanesh.
All in all I am pretty happy with the result and I think I will only improve from here.

Marauder Regiment - Painted these guys fairly conventionally except for the purple war paint covering the right sides of their bodies. Inspiration came from Celtic traditions of using woad to paint designs on the skin to intimidate the enemy. I feel it will make my marauders look a little different and promote the theme of the army.

Site Changes

2009-05-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

I have been trying a few different things on my blog lately and I will continue to tinker until I am satisfied. Bare with me and it will all settle down soon.

Photos are still coming for J's Ghouls and my starting 500 Slaaneshi Warriors army is nearing completion.

I have two more Warriors and the Spawn to finish and then basing. Should be do-able in two days.

The First 500

2009-05-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

I have a mission to paint up, to a standard that I am happy with, 500 points to use on Friday night. I could probably rope J into helping as she is both quick and awesome with a brush, but I really want to try and do it myself.

Army List

Exalted Hero
Shield, Mark of Slaanesh

9 Warriors
Shields, Mark of Slaanesh, Full Command

15 Marauders
Flails, Light Armour, Mark of Slaanesh, Full Command

Chaos Spawn
Mark of Slaanesh

Using as many of the already painted models as I can I think that this is achievable and will allow me to play several skirmishes to get back into the swing of the rules and learn any of the subtle differences between the edition that I last played and the current edition.

The tactics that I hope to utilise is a one sided pincer with the Marauders and warriors advancing together with the board edge protecting one flank and have the Spawn try and flank the other side.

Centre block is the Marauders. I am hoping that the size of the unit and central positioning will goad the enemy into attacking it. The Warriors with the Hero will be on their flank with the board edge or terrain protecting their flank in turn. The Spawn will be out on the far flank and will try and catch the enemy on the side or rear. If the enemy tries to focus on the Spawn I will move it toward the rest of the force and try to crush them with superior troops.

Ghouls, Ghouls, Ghouls

2009-05-18T19:37:00.001-07:00

J picked up her first miniatures for her Vampire Counts army yesterday, the regimental boxed set of Ghouls. For the longest time she was torn, with morbid glee, between the Ghouls and the Zombies. In the end it was the seemingly daunting task of painting 20 slavering disgusting abominations compared to painting 10 slavering disgusting abominations. Plus she liked the Ghouls better.

She has really good colour scheme worked out. To emphasise the fact that they are a unit more out of mutual convenience than any sense of loyalty they each have a different base coat that gets built up to the same top colour. This gives them subtle differences in hue and makes them look a lot like a rabble.

I will add pictures soon.

Choosing the Army

2009-05-18T19:31:00.001-07:00

Just before I stopped playing 5 years ago I had begun a small Warriors of Chaos force. As I am already in possession (no pun intended) of about 1000 points worth of Marauders, Warriors and Chariots in various states of completion it makes sense to begin where I left off.

I had never actually played a game with this army so to all extents they are still a new army to me. Now surveying what I have and with a shiny new copy of the Army Book in hand I go through what I have and how many points it will bring me up to.

The list:

2 Regiments of Marauders (1 w/ flails & 1 w/ hand weapons and shields)
1 Regiment of Warriors (hand weapons and shields)
1 Regiment of Knights (hand weapons – no lances – sigh)
2 Chariots
1 Regiment of Daemonettes (again sigh, I can no longer use them)
1 Chaos Spawn
1 Chaos Hero
1 Sorcerer
1 Mounted Hero

This, I feel, gives me a nice solid core to work with.

I’m a big fan of themed armies; I have nothing against those players who take a little bit of everything, but for me nothing beats having a characterful army that looks cohesive. I have decided that my force will be completely dedicated to one particular God.

Khorne is not for me as there are numerous Khornate armies around and I don’t really like the style. Nurgle is a maybe, but again I do see quite a few around. Tzeench is difficult as I like it but don’t really want the Sorcerer heavy army. I like magic to be a nice addition not something to be relied on. That leaves Slaanesh, I like the look of them, the way they play and you don’t see a lot of Slaaneshi themed armies around (or maybe that’s just me).

So, with the theme decided, I’m ready to go.

J has decided she also wants to paint an army, she had a go on one of my Space Orks (or Sporks as she calls them) and she like the result she came up with. Originally she indicated that she would like a 40K army to paint but after seeing the Vampire counts J was sold.

So that’s two armies that we are going to work on side by side, Slaaneshi Warriors of Chaos and Vampire Counts. Anyone would think we are both a little dark natured and maybe we are.

First Post is First

2009-05-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

I have recently made the decision to start playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB) again after a 5 year absence. This Blog is going to be an insight to this wonderful hobby from mine and my Wife’s perspectives as we will be participating in all aspects of the hobby from collecting to painting to gaming and eventually tournaments and competitions.

A little about the Author:
M is in his Mid-20’s and has been playing Games Workshop games since the release of Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition. His wife, J, also in her 20’s has little experience in the game but has an extensive art background so has a different approach.

This Blog will start with how I am going with selecting an army, painting and my early forays into battle. Eventually there will be some theory crafting and deeper looks into various aspects as I get more confident.

I won’t be tying myself into a routine of updates as that is usually the quickest way for me to lose interest in something, but when I feel I have something to share I will post.

What makes me feel like I have something to say about gaming? Well after playing World of Warcraft for several years and seeing the strong blogging community associated I was surprised to see a distinct lack in the GW world. I feel I come from a fairly common background, I have a family and looking for a little bit of escapism and enjoy board gaming and I hope that people who are also interested in WFB may get some value from my tales.