tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48432159097468842642024-03-13T14:17:19.712-07:00The Surrey SpartansSurrey Spartanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12386329124515952405noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4843215909746884264.post-47873933338344462612016-06-04T02:33:00.001-07:002016-06-04T02:53:53.179-07:00Painting the Zone Mortalis board<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
With our resident painting extraordinaire (other than Angel!) taking it upon himself to paint the Zone Mortalis board which was purchased using club funds to kickstart 30k gaming at the club and give us a unique selling point as a club to entice new gamers (fresh blood?!), and interest on his Twitter, he has kindly written up an explanatory 'how to' guide about the process. So without further ado...!<br />
<br />
Hi Chaps @secret40kgeek here to give you a quick run down of how the
clubs new zone mortalis table was painted up and the techniques employed
throughout.<br />
<br />
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<img alt="CjpqDdlXIAA-lxI" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-891" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/cjpqddlxiaa-lxi.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
So after ordering the Forge World bundle which comprised of 16 tiles
and 4 small and 2 large blast door sets I went about deciding which
colour scheme i wanted to paint up. I had a look around online and on
the FW website for inspiration on colour schemes etc. I decided that
although I liked the beige looking FW board I wasn’t too keen on it
being the inside of a space ship in the 31st millennium as it reminded
me too much of 60’s/70’s interior decorating. I also liked the look of
some of the darker and grey interiors as it's more in line with what I
envisage a ship would look like. However, I thought that an all grey
board may appear too dark when playing games so i compromised and went
for a grey base with the beige walls…. and of course it wouldn’t look
grim dark without lots of weathering and grime!<br />
<br />
So to start off I used Halfords grey primer and at £8 a can i only needed 2 to undercoat all 16 tiles.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="FullSizeRender" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-758" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/fullsizerender.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
With the undercoat down I then airbrushed GW’s Eshin grey around the
edges of each square panel to make it darker towards the outside and
give some depth to each section. i then painted the bits in between by
hand with Leadbelcher (tedious task) and trying not to get any on the
grey panels.<br />
<br />
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<img alt="IMG_6035.JPG" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-768" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/img_6035.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
At this point I had’t completely made my mind up on on the colours
for the walls so decided to make a start on the the complex tiles and
because hazard stripes look cool (and because Dan insisted on hazard
stripes) I decided this would be the place to do them. So I first
sprayed the tiles with AK interactive heavy chipping fluid thinned down a
little then I used masking tape to square off the inner section between
the 4 grills and airbrushed the square black.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="IMG_6036.JPG" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-772" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/img_6036.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
Once this had dried I then lined up some masking tape diagonally
across the square using a second strip to measure the width before
placing the next strip, which helped to keep a consistent line direction
going across. It was quite simple to line up against each of the square
corners.<br />
<br />
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<img alt="IMG_6037.JPG" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-776" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/img_6037.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
I then airbrushed GW’s Averland Sunset as the base colour on top of
the black. This was looking quite flat and wasn’t covering very well so i
mixed a little Skragg brown in and airbrushed it in around the edges of
the square panels wherever they met under the masking tape. This helped
to give depth but was quite dark so I then went in with some Yriel
Yellow to lighten it up in spots.<br />
<br />
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<img alt="IMG_6039.JPG" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-778" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/img_6039.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
Then came the satisfying bit of pulling off the masking tape to see
the results!!! I was lucky there was no bleeding below the tape, but also
when I pulled the tape up, it pulled off some of leadbelcher and primer
off the panels on the outer squares.<br />
<br />
At first I was fuming but then I realised it looked like natural
damage that would occur and added an extra level of weathering before i
started with the washes and weathering powder.<br />
<br />
The next step was to wet my toothbrush and then gently start to rub
the striped sections to activate the AK chipping fluid and scratch away
the yellow and black to reveal scratches worn patches. I then sponged on
some additional damage and brushed on some FW ‘light earth’ weathering
powder in random patches before i then airbrushed the whole tile with
nuln oil and then again with agrax earthshade.<br />
<br />
I then made up a varnish wash concoction using 1 part Nuln Oil to 1
part Agrax Earthshade to 1 part Lahmian Medium to 1 part Gloss Varnish
and then generously painted this on the whole tile with a large brush.
This was to protect the tiles from gaming use and give an additional
layer of grime to each tile.<br />
<br />
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<img alt="12376681_10156749373530015_2649801091626350520_n.jpg" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-786" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/12376681_10156749373530015_2649801091626350520_n.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
For the next theta tile I decided I wanted more hazard stripes
because they are just really cool aren’t they?! But I didn’t want to
just repeat the same pattern, so after a few attempts at different styles I settled on thinner stripes going out from a central square in diamond
effect. I carried out exactly the the same steps as above to line up
the masking tape and to paint and then weather the tile.<br />
<br />
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<img alt="IMG_6043" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-792" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/img_6043.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
You can see below the area outside of the hazard strip area where the
masking tape had pulled off the primer and Eshin Grey and Leadbelcher
when it was removed. I really liked the effect so i did this on every
tile to try and get weird scratched random patterns on each tile. I did
then sponge over a variety of grey, black and browns to give it a
dirtier appearance.<br />
<br />
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<img alt="IMG_6044" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-793" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/img_6044.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
The picture below shows some weathering after using a wet toothbrush
over the AK interactive heavy chipping fluid to rub away the hazard
strips to give an effect of the paint wearing away over time.<br />
<br />
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<img alt="IMG_6045" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-795" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/img_6045.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
For the next tile I carried out the same steps for the floor panels
as above and then I airbrushed the lower sections of the walls using
GW’s Abbadon Black and Eshin grey to give a dark to light effect from
the bottom up of the walls.<br />
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<img alt="IMG_6129" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-800" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/img_6129.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
Next I painted in the alcoves and inner tops of the walls using GW’s
Rakarth Flesh with a brush carefully trying (and failing) not to get any
on the grey walls. The picture below shows the first layer or so of
hand painting in the Rakarth flesh. As you can see it didn't cover very
well and I didn't want to lose any of the detail so I went back over it
with my airbrush (again trying to minimise the spray on to the grey
walls).<br />
<br />
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<img alt="IMG_6130.JPG" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-815" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/img_61301.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
I then started the most tedious task of all as i went round each
alcove and hand painted over any Rakarth Flesh that had got onto the
walls… oh my god this was a massive tedious chore!!! Thankfully a
combination of the Eye of Horus and Mysterious Universe podcasts kept me
going throughout.<br />
<br />
I then used one of the old large GW dry brushes to pick out all the
detail and edges with GW’s Celestria Grey to give a scratched and
damaged look to the walls. This simple technique was really effective
and started to make the walls pop.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="IMG_6131.JPG" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-831" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/img_61311.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
The next step was to dirty up the alcove panels and to this i simply
airbrushed GW’s Agrax EarthShade into the recesses and around any pipes
or damage to the walls. I then painted up all the pipes and wires etc
that come from many sections of the walls and floor in a variety of GW’s
Warplock Bronze, Brass Scorpion and Leadbelcher to try and mix it up
and give some variety. However, I ended up doing more in Brass Scorpion
as this gave most contrast.<br />
<br />
This was the second most tedious task as some of the resin doesn’t
fit snugly against the walls and there are numerous sharp and jagged
edges from where it has been cast so there aren’t clean lines to paint. I
got around this by painting black into the recesses and then i washed
all the pipes in a mix of Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil. I then
sparingly went round and gave slight metallic highlights to the wires
etc.<br />
<br />
The final bit for the walls was to do a black oil pin wash around
everything to help add depth to the recesses and the walls after the
drybrush highlight. This also added to the grimey and dirty effect and
it worked so well with the amount of recesses there were it didn’t take
hardly any time due to the capillary action of the oil wash.<br />
<br />
The last 2 bits of detail I saved until the end once everything else
had been painted/varnished was to paint up the numerous lights and
computer screens randomly dotted around each tile.<br />
<br />
For the lights I airbrushed on a large circle of GW’s Khorne Red
surrounding the light source, followed by a slightly smaller circle of
GW’s Evil Sunz Scarlet, which was followed by an even smaller circle
which just covered the light and a small section around it with GW’s
Wild Rider Red and then finally I did a small central area in the middle
of the light with GW’s Ceramite White.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="light" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-866" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/light.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
And for the computer screens I hand painted the screen itself with
GW’s Caliban Green and then airbrushed around the screen with the same
colour but taking care not to go as far as doing the lights. I then
airbrushed into the left hand side bottom corner with GW’s Warpstone
Glow and further into the corner with GW’s Moot Green. I then cut up
some old Sisters of battle transfers and used the white text as fonts on
the screen and secured them in place with micro set and sol. I then
used ” tins of GW’s purity seal to spray all sections of the boards to
seal in and protect the paint. I then went back to the computer screens
and gave them a coat of gloss varnish to give additional screen shine.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="screen.jpg" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-874" src="https://surreyspartansgaming.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/screen.jpg?w=474" /></div>
<br />
So all in all it has taken me 2 months to complete all 16 tiles and
the doors, although i’m going to go back and add some hazard effects to
some of the doors to mix things up a bit. The last 8 tiles only took me 2
weeks as i got into my stride and managed to get a consistent effect
for each tile using the same steps over and over again.<br />
<br />
I would be lying if I said it was an enjoyable painting project.
However, it was extremely satisfying to finish and it makes for a great
centre piece at the club and opens up a new style of gaming.<br />
<br />
Me and Paul christened the board with a game of 30K Alpha Legion Vs
Mechanicum and it was awesome (even though we kept forgetting some of
the rules as we went along) but here’s to many more fun games… although
we might have to buy 8 more tiles to make it a 6×4 !!!<br />
<br />
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Surrey Spartanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12386329124515952405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4843215909746884264.post-47808620174777658522016-05-31T10:32:00.001-07:002016-05-31T10:32:32.301-07:00Reports from the front: Chad's Harlequin Barrel Roll Academy vs John's Nids LuftwaffeChad is at again with some strong content for the blog, gratefully provided from his own personal blog. As always, you can check out more of his writing here: <a href="https://nomnomniconcom.wordpress.com/">https://nomnomniconcom.wordpress.com/</a><br />
<br />
The Surrey Spartans have started a new 40k Cup, using the Premier
League model for group stages and competition. As ever I couldn’t miss a
chance to 1a) play competitively 1b) as my poncey dancing space elves.
The entry limitations were 1,250pts, Combined Arms Detachments and
Formations allowed, Lords of War allowed but no allies. Poncey space
elves were a go!<br />
<br />
So what did I spend my 1,250pts on? I could have gone with a regular
Force Organisation list. I had plenty of points to through about, so I
could have got a fairly fantastic list of all singing, all dancing space
elves. I could have even got my ‘quins into the Cegrogach’s Jest
formation, getting the normal Rising Crescendo special rule as well as
being able to reroll Invulnerable Saves failures of a ‘1’. I even ran up
a couple of lists to test the idea.<br />
<br />
But I’ve recently come into position of fourteen Harlequin Skyweavers
and three Voidweavers. My Harlequins have missed out on these amazing
pieces of kit – my ‘quins have definitely suffered without two wound
jetbikes and all the toys they have access to! And there’s the fancy
Falchou’s Blade formation that gives me reroll-able jink saves…<br />
<br />
And so I give you Falchou’s Fury!<br />
<br />
<u>Falchou’s First Blade </u><br />
3 Skyweavers (1x Haywire Cannon, 2x Shuriken Cannon, 3x Star Bolas).<br />
2 Skyweavers (1x Haywire Cannon, 1x Shuriken Cannon, 2x Star Bolas).<br />
1 Voidweaver (1 Haywire Cannon, 2x Shuriken Cannon).<br />
<br />
<u>Falchou’s Second Blade </u><br />
2 Skyweavers (1x Haywire Cannon, 1x Shuriken Cannon, 2x Star Bolas).<br />
2 Skyweavers (1x Haywire Cannon, 1x Shuriken Cannon, 2x Star Bolas).<br />
1 Voidweaver (1 Haywire Cannon, 2x Shuriken Cannon).<br />
<br />
<u>Falchou’s Third Blade </u><br />
2 Skyweavers (1x Haywire Cannon, 1x Shuriken Cannon, 2x Star Bolas).<br />
2 Skyweavers (1x Haywire Cannon, 1x Shuriken Cannon, 2x Star Bolas).<br />
1 Voidweaver (1 Haywire Cannon, 2x Shuriken Cannon).<br />
<br />
<u>The Heroes Path</u><br />
Solitaire (Cegrogach’s Rose, Harelquin’s Caress, Haywire Grenade).<br />
Shadowseer (Mask of Secrets, Hallucinogenic Grenade Launcher, Force Staff, Psyker Level 2).<br />
Deathjester (Haywire Grenades, Shrieker Cannon).<br />
<br />
I’ve committed pretty hard to the jetbike plan. The jink save, with reroll, is statistically almost as good as a 2+ save <em>and</em>
ignores AP. For things that ignore cover saves I’ve got the natural 5+
invulnerable or the once per game 4+ Mirage Launchers. This gives me a
surprising amount of survivability in a world where power armour is
becoming increasingly flimsy.<br />
<br />
My plan is to zip about the battlefield claiming objectives and
generally avoid any kind of committed engagement. 40k is a game won by
strategic action now, not just total annihilation, and if I can choose
my fights – or where I don’t fight – I will be able to claim objectives
as and when it is safe or convenient. I have nine Haywire Cannons and
two dudes on foot with Haywire Grenades, as well as my Solitaire’s
Caress, to deal with vehicles which is a surprisingly impressive
anti-armour ability.<br />
<br />
How do I deal with gargantuan creatures? I run my Solitaire at it and
pray for 6’s. Failing that I have plenty of machine guns that can, with
more prayer-powered 6’s, be AP2 which should also help. Yup, that’s
more prayer than I’d like to depend on but I’ll give my dice a full
Jacuzzi-spa treatment before the games and hope it helps!<br />
<br />
<u>Game 1: Falchou’s Fury, AKA Harlequin Barrel Academy Vs Laffan’s Bio-Luftewaffe.</u><br />
My first opponent in the group stage was Mr John Laffan, someone I
hadn’t had much interaction with at the club. This is mostly due to my
poor social skills, I’m sure, and was apprehensive about our first game
because I knew nothing about him or his list, besides that he was
playing Tyranids.<br />
I figured I could deal with a swarm of little things pretty well and
some big chunky things quite well, on the basis that Tyranid
invulnerable saves aren’t all that (un-sourced opinion, poorly
researched and likely to be incorrect). I sincerely hoped he didn’t
bring many fliers as my anti-air ability involved yet another set of
prayers and/or sacrifices.<br />
<br />
Imagine my emotions when I saw not one but two winged Hive Tyrants,
three other monstrous flyers, thirty flapping Gargoyles and a score of
spore mines! He was at least as manoeuvrable as I was, and with his
formation bonus of Without Number on a 4+ on most of his units he had a
lot of potential attrition as well. Things were not off to the greatest
of starts, but I reassured myself that the only thing my list hard
countered was large-ish squads of poorly armed and armoured dudes. I was
probably going to be okay against his Gargoyles at least.<br />
<br />
This wasn’t that reassuring for me so I’ll move swiftly on to the game.<br />
<br />
We were playing Lost Contact so would one objective card on the first
turn and then one for each objective held at the beginning of each
subsequent turn. My mobility would be an advantage, but equally his
mobility would be an advantage too. He also had objective secured on the
Gargoyles, giving him the edge there. My advantage was that the
Gargoyles were pretty crap in combat and I could jink whenever I needed
to for some anti-devourer endurance. The fliers couldn’t claim
objectives, but I had nothing to deal with them. My plethora of Haywire
Cannons were next to wasted and my Solitaire was going to be next to
useless until something big landed, or some Gargoyles got too close –
and when 19” is too close, that’s not all that unlikely!<br />
<br />
<u>Deployment</u><br />
John deployed first and spread his three Gargoyle units across his
deployment zone, covering the board pretty effectively. Our objectives
were mainly strung out across the centre of the board, with one in open
ground near his deployment zone and one in similarly open ground near
mine. He placed a flying Hive Tyrant on each flank and both Heavy Venom
Cannon Harpies on my left, while the Hive Hag with four Haywire missiles
and a nasty breath weapon (I’m unsure of the proper name, apologies)
went on my far right. In reserve he held sixteen spore mines, two
clusters of five and one of six, and five super-spore mines (again, I’m
unsure of what these are actually called).<br />
<br />
I’ll note now that the gargoyles, small spore mine clusters and three
of the super-spores all effectively had Without Number – when they were
destroyed, John could put them into ongoing reserves on a 4+. Every
time they were destroyed. So while they weren’t the most phenomenal of
troops, he potentially had a massive attrition advantage over me.<br />
<br />
I deployed my Skyweavers in a convex crescent on my far left flank,
placing the Voidweavers inside the curve. My Hero’s Path took up
residency in the church on the left flank, making the most of their
Stealth & Shrouded bonuses while they waiting for an ideal time to
strike. The flank I abandoned held an objective in a ruined building but
if I had deployed on that side his Heavy Venom Cannon Fliers would have
been in range straight away, while at least this way the second Tyrant,
far right Gargoyles and the Hag would be spending a turn getting into
range before becoming effective. I also hoped to wreck the first two
units of Gargoyles quic<br />
kly, lowering the amount of small arms fire that threatened my
Skyweavers. Sure, a reroll-able 4+ save was nice but not having to make
any was preferable!<br />
<br />
I rolled Shards of Light and Mirror of Minds for my psychic powers.
John only used three – one that lowered my BS and Initiative by D3, one
that gave two things Feel No Pain and Psychic Scream.<br />
<br />
<u>Turn One</u><br />
I failed to steal the initiative but wasn’t too upset, as it meant I
would be free to assault in my first turn. Skyweavers have three attacks
each at Initiative 6, with an extra one on the charge; I was fairly
confident that I could annihilate a full unit of space-bats if I got
three or more of my bikes into base contact. John moved fairly
aggressively forward, not responding to my jibes or goading about his
Tyrants refusing to land and assault my sci-fi ballerinas. He made a
very fair case that my Solitaire was terrifying. I did not, however,
refrain from teasing him further.<br />
<br />
He fired some long range bio-artillery at me, but after my
synchronized barrel rolling only a single Skyweaver fell to the floor in
a flaming wreck. My Heroes came under fire, specifically the Solitaire,
but he passed all of his cover saves – much to the Hive Tyrant’s angst.
Reluctantly John passed me the tape measure.<br />
In my first turn the Skyweavers gunned their engines and their
speakers, blaring Dragonforce across the battlefield as the accelerated
out towards and into the Tyranid line. This is usually a bad idea but
with all of his scary things in the air I was happy to get up in the
Gargoyles’ grill. After a quick reminder my Solitaire couldn’t assault
as he’d infiltrated, the Heroes took respite in the church with both the
Death Jester and the Shadowseer jumping up into the tower for LOS while
the Solitaire lurked around the base of the building.<br />
<br />
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<br />
In my shooting phase, John clarified/let slip that if I caused even a
single wound on his fliers they would have to take a Grounding test –
potentially crashing to the ground on a roll of 1 or 2 at the end of the
phase, and taking a Strength 9 hit into the bargain! This would mean
I’d be able to assault them in that turn. While daunting, they were far
scarier in the air than on the ground so my Voidweavers span round to
bring all their guns to bear on the fliers. Between the three of them
they got a wound on each of the fliers. Half my Skyweavers and the Death
Jester fired on the left-most unit of Gargoyles, tearing seven of them
apart in a hail of flechettes and lightning. The haywire blast was
surprisingly effective against the poorly armoured things – worth noting
for the future.<br />
<br />
The other Skyweavers withheld their fire, leaving their assault
options open while they stared at the fluttering monstrosities above.
John passed both checks so the gamble had failed, although I’d gotten
them to jink so wasn’t a complete failure. I instead assaulted the
central unit of Gargoyles, my largest squad of three Skyweavers making
it into base while the jetbike who had lost his buddy soaked and jinked
the stand and shoot response, but failed to cover the distance.<br />
<br />
The Gargoyles died in assault, three having died to longer ranged
shooting earlier. The Skyweavers cavorted and wheeled their way back
towards John deployment zone, baiting him backwards and threatening
Behind Enemy Lines. Both our psychic phases had been fairly uneventful,
so I haven’t mentioned them – except that I Blinded John’s Warlord,
which was nice but he was still twin linked.<br />
<br />
<u>Turn 2</u><br />
<br />
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<br />
All of John’s spore mines arrived. All of them, covering the
battlefield like a rash that cut off huge swathes of it with their
threat range. Fortunately they couldn’t assault this turn so I was
safe…for now. John flapped his much diminished left-hand Gargoyle unit
around the church to challenge the objective my Heroes were claiming.
Everything else swung round towards my bikes clustered on the left hand
side of the battlefield.<br />
John’s psychic phase saw the first or many Psychic Screams from his
secondary Hive Tyrant, which apparently wasn’t loud enough to drown out
the thrash metal my Harlequins were playing. In the shooting phase his
Warlord managed to get the one wound required to kill my Warlord through
instant death, even though he was blinded and my Shadowseer was nearly
invisible. There was a Vector Strike from one of the Harpies but no one
died. I also jinked everything else that was shot at me – except the
Hive Hag’s template weapon. At S6 this presented a massive threat to my
entire army, but the Harlequins normal dancing Invulnerable save kept
them alive.<br />
<br />
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<br />
And then the second Harpy shot, having not actually jinked last turn.
Plot twist and a half! I finally failed a jink re-roll and the
penetrating hit blew one of the Voidweavers apart in a prismatic
explosion. John had once again ignored my taunts and refused to land, so
it was on to my second turn.<br />
<br />
I spread my bikes out in a wide curve, looking to eliminate as many
of the spore mines as possible. They ignored cover and so they had to
go. I scythed through most of the little one and made sure I was as
spread out as possible to avoid being templated again. The right most
squad of Gargoyles was also wiped out, but I didn’t get any wounds on
the fliers – much to my annoyance. My Death Jester also failed to kill
the last three Gargoyles lurking in the shadow of the church, leaving
one looking somewhat lost and confused.<br />
My Solitaire through his Haywire grenade at one of the super-spores
and took a wound off it out of spite. He had very few options, trapped
by the church, but if he was going to die then I wasn’t going to let
John say he hadn’t caused a wound on something!<br />
<br />
My assault phase was pretty lacking – the only remaining Gargoyle
squad was out of sight (although retrospectively the Death Jester
probably could have managed it) and I had to wait for the other one to
re-arrive next turn, having passed its Without Number check.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<u>Turn 3</u><br />
John’s fliers had a graceless round of trying to make some very sharp
turns, leaving them much more spread out than before. One of the
Harpies even landed! Too far from my stuff for me to get to in one turn,
and too far from the objectives to be useful to me. At this stage, I
had first blood and John had Slay the Warlord plus one Secure objective
card, putting me one behind. I felt a lot further behind with all the
big bugs roaming the skies, only compounded by the returning Gargoyles
landing in my deployment zone.<br />
<br />
The Psychic phase opened up with Psychic scream failing, although
this was no massive loss to John as only two jetbikes would have been
in range. Importantly though his Warlord rolled a Perils of the Warp
casting his –D3 BS power on my Death Jester. Despite the Shadow in the
Warp it brought, the Chaos gods were unkind and punished the insectile
hubris of the Hive Mind – John rolled a 1! The Tyrant narrowly avoided
being dragged into the warp but did suffer a wound as it desperately
wrestled it’s psyche back from the warp. He then failed its Grounded
check, suffering a second wound on impact. As it clicked and clattered
to its feet it turned to see that it had fallen inside a whirlwind of
colour and music; the eye of my Harlequins’ storm!<br />
<br />
My Death Jester bit the dust in John’s shooting phase, but again all
but one jetbike dodged the incoming bio-hailstorm. The assault phase saw
another tumbleweed charge headlong across the map, distantly echoed by
two super-spores which drifted into my Solitaire only to explode
harmlessly, and then it was my go.<br />
My Solitaire initiated his Blitz. John only nodded and gazed woefully
at his Warlord, communicating his sad and final farewell to his Warlord
through the telepathic link they shared. I wasn’t so sure he should
have been so laconic, but it did only have two wounds left and I had all
sorts of ways that the number ‘6’ would be bad for the beast. My
jetbikes formed an inward-facing crescent aiming their guns as many bugs
as possible and the Voidweavers coasted forwards to maintain line of
sight.<br />
<br />
The Hive Tyrant was wiped out under a blizzard of shuriken fire,
sliced to ribbons by a thousand flechette rounds. I scored Witch Hunter
and Assassin, and had slain John’s Warlord into the bargain! My
Solitaire filed a complaint with the orchestrator of this dance (me) as
he had ‘wasted’ his Blitz, but after I’d failed to hurt the Hag-carrier
thing (which was now out of Haywire missiles) he was still in range of
the returned squad of Gargoyles.<br />
<br />
He did horrible things to most of them. The survivors couldn’t cover
the four inch gap he’d left in their formation and were out of Synapse
range. They tried to flee, but faced with the Solitaire’s Initiative of
10 they literally had no hope of escape. He did horrible things to the
rest of them.<br />
<br />
<u>Turn 4</u><br />
The recently re-deceased Gargoyles came back for more, the plucky
little bystyrds landing almost exactly where their still warm previous
incarnations lay eviscerated. The lonely Gargoyle in the church passed
its Instinctive Behaviour test. The second Harpy landed next to its twin
and they began lumbering into artillery positions in the ruined
building on the right of my deployment zone.<br />
<br />
The remaining Tyrant completed the wide turn it started in Turn 3 and
was nicely placed behind seven of my nine remaining jetbikes (I haven’t
tracked when they were lost well, apologies there. I need to write
these up sooner after the event!). The spore-mines floated towards their
targets, now dangerously close despite their tragic assault distance
restraints. I lost another jetbike and a half between the psychic and
shooting barrage of the Hive mind, but the cover saves were becoming
harder and harder for John to overcome as his fire power became more and
more reduced.<br />
<br />
My Solitaire finally met his end under a hail of various bio-weaponry. “Extreme Prejudice” doesn’t begin to cover it.<br />
<br />
A few spore mines assaulted my bikes and failed to explode anything
except themselves. A second Voidweaver went down to an assault by a
super-spore, and another tear was shed. It barely had time to dry on the
blood-encrusted dirt before my fourth turn began.<br />
<br />
I didn’t achieve much in my turn, mainly sweeping the board for
mines. One batch didn’t make it back so that was nice. I missed
everything at the fliers, or failed to wound. At this stage I had
claimed two more Secure Objectives (both the same one fortuitously) and
John hadn’t pulled anything he could take as his remaining Tyrant and
the Hive-Hag thing were flying, and his Harpies were cowering behind a
ruined building. Despite their powerful weapons, getting through the
barrel rolls was difficult and only having one shot each made it
significantly less likely they’d land anything meaningful. I was in the
lead significantly at this stage, so John had his work cut out for him.<br />
<br />
<u>Turn 5</u><br />
I didn’t realise quite how limited John’s options were at this point,
selfishly restricting my tactical sense to what I could achieve, and
what his stuff could threaten. The answer to the latter was “everything
threatens everything” so when I looked at the table all I saw was
massive red warning triangles above all his units. In retrospect, he
could see he was behind on points and despite me only have about eleven
wounds and one vehicle on the table my jink save was reliable enough
that it was going to cause him problems.<br />
<br />
Which is why, for the fifth turn running, he did not land his
remaining Tyrant and instead flew it into range for another volley of
heavy devourer shots and a Psychic Scream. He also brought his Hive-Hag
thing (I may correct this when I learn its real name but no promises)
out of the sky to claim an objective spot, although it didn’t score him
any points.<br />
<br />
The psychic phase began with a powerful déjà vu – his Tyrant rolled a
Perils of the Warp giving itself Feel No Pain! This time the Chaos gods
were less aggressive in the assault and only took a wound off the
beast, not prevented by Feel No Pain thankfully, and like its
brother-Tyrant this one crashed to the ground under the psychic
feedback. Although the impact didn’t wound it the beast was left
surrounded by the remains of Falchou’s Fury.<br />
<br />
I lost a single jetbike to John’s shooting and the play passed to me.
I drew three new objectives – Big Game Hunter, Ascendency and a Secure
Objective. My Skyweaver’s all banked their bikes to face the suddenly
very alone Hive Tyrant and my Voidweaver coasted away slightly so all
three of its guns were on target. Things looked grim for the Hive’s
champion, but thanks to some poor To Wound rolls from me I did a lone
pathetic wound to the creature.<br />
<br />
Howling for blood and victory, I declared charges with my seven
remaining Skyweavers. The Tyrants stand and shoot reaction missed, which
is fair enough since it was literally being assaulted from all sides!
Despite being Fleet, only four Skyweavers made it into combat; a lone
jebike that had suffered over a dozen spore mine explosions and my squad
of three, as yet unharmed.<br />
<br />
I had sixteen attacks but without Zephyr Blades I needed some luck to
get through the T6, 3+ save and 5+ Feel No Pain protected Tyrant. I
managed a single sad wound. In response the Tyrant crushed a bike with
two successful wounds. My Skyweavers held and chose not to Hit & Run
– I couldn’t let the beast escape!<br />
We rolled to determine Turn 6. It was tense, as if the game ended I
won but if it continued John had a chance to wipe me out or even catch
up – my bloodlust had pulled me off of two objective markers, taking
below two for Ascendency and off of the Secure Objective target.
Masterful strategy! The dice fell…and the game continued!<br />
<br />
<u>Turn 6</u><br />
John’s movement at this point was just the re-re-returned squad of
Gargoyles who flapped over to harass my unengaged Skyweavers. John
pulled a Secure objective but nothing was close enough to it for him to
take advantage. However, if he destroyed my remaining jetbikes and
vehicle he would wipe me of the board – and I only had six bikes left!
He also had a left over Objective from an earlier turn to destroy a unit
with shooting, but D3 if he managed to kill three.<br />
<br />
It was a tall order, and the bio-artillery had lost most of its
sting; a single jetbike tumbled to the ground and he scored a lonely one
point. In combat, despite the Tyrant only having a single wound left, I
failed to kill it and he crushed a jetbike in return. My Skyweavers
broke – half what I wanted, as they were planning to Hit & Run
anyway – and there was a very short but very tense moment as we rolled
to see if my Skyweavers escaped. They did and the Hive Tyrant was
suddenly once again very alone in the middle of nowhere.<br />
My fleeing Skyweavers rallied (all part of the plan) and I moved the
others and my Voidweaver into place to claim Ascendancy and my Secure
Objective. They were also all in range of the Hive Tyrant which finally
succumb to a death by a thousand cuts, giving me Big Game Hunter.<br />
<br />
We rolled for Turn Seven but the dice came up too low – the game was
over! The Sci-fi Space Ballet had danced and dazzled its way to a 12-7
victory!<br />
<br />
<u>Aftermath</u><br />
I thoroughly enjoyed play John – he was a friendly, knowledgeable and
sporting opponent and a fantastic example of what a 40k player should
be. His list was rich in lore and character but still competitive in
spirit, and he played a very good game. I learned a lot about Flying
Monstrous Creatures and the new Synapse rules, which was definitely a
plus, and had a lot of fun. SO thanks to Mr Laffan for the game!<br />
<br />
I have learned – or been reminded – that although template or
‘Ignores Cover’ weapons do get around my impressive jinking ability I do
still have a 5+ invulnerable and a one-phase-per-game 4+ invulnerable
on everything. The Mirage Launchers especially saved my spandex clad
warriors in a couple of tight spots. However, I should still respect
these weapons and not take too many risks.<br />
<br />
Also important to note was that jinking continuously means my
firepower is often much less intimidating that people expect, but picked
up a lot late game when he couldn’t force all my units to jink every
turn. This odd interaction is quite nice, but depends on those jink
saves working; if I lose too many Skyweavers too fast I will probably
hit like a wet sponge from Turn 4 onwards!<br />
<br />
Another surprise was my combat power. Three I6 attacks per Skyweaver
is monstrous, and with a 24” potential charge range along with bonuses
for fleet they can definitely threaten a lot of things surprisingly
fast. I am <em>really</em> sad I didn’t get any Zephyr Blades! Finally, I
must remember all my dudes have Star Bolas! Half a dozen S6 AP2
templates could have really torn into that last Tyrant a turn or two
earlier. I will have to remember to play with <em>all</em> my toys in the next game!<br />
<br />
I hope you enjoyed my report, and they’ll be more to come – the Cup
is set to play out over three months or so. If every game I play is half
as enjoyable as this one was I am sincerely looking forward to it!Surrey Spartanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12386329124515952405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4843215909746884264.post-52129799581429220722016-05-30T08:05:00.000-07:002016-05-30T08:07:52.240-07:00Reports from the front: Dan/Tom's cup game 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My second game of the knockout stage rounds was against
Lawrence and his ‘blaggy’ Corsairs list (as he likes to call them!). As we
discussed, the list has the power and ability to reach the final stages of the
cup and the D weapons offer a hard counter to invisible Wraithknights and the
like. Corsairs are an army I’ve played myself and the update has bright them in
line with their Craftworld cousins’ power levels. <br />
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Again, I have never actually played Lawrence at the club and
it was the perfect opportunity to get a game in without having to make much of
an effort arranging a game (with the cup sorting that for me!). With the format
of the competition changing, I’m planning on surging through fixtures as
quickly as possible to get time for 30k and a change in pace to competitive
gaming, whilst allowing me to choose who to play in which order, to at least
try and get the worst of it out the way first! </div>
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Lawrence has gone for an Iyanden scheme for his Corsairs; a
fitting tribute to the fluff about Prince Yriel and a wise move in gaming terms
as he can get list flexibility out of running them in a normal list or Corsairs list without the need to buy and paint up more models! I used to run a full jetpack
infantry Corsairs army, and may just have to plagiarise the idea (they say copying is the
highest form of flattery ;)!). For me, the misadvertising of the Skathach Wraithknight
on the Forgeworld site and not being fully part of a Corsairs CAD, along with
the potential cheese against some armies, without investing in Venoms or
jetpack infantry, has put me off running them casually for the time being at
least.</div>
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His list is a variation of what he's playing at the moment, with the Corsair coterie detachment providing more flexibility in choosing what he can bring to the table. He's playing them in another club tournament (at the South London Warlords I presume) and is using a CAD, which is more restrictive in what's available. Only being able to take the single Warp Hunter is a pretty big tax for them. </div>
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<i>The jetbikes, Lynx, Warp Hunter and Hornets, gloriously painted, before deployment.</i> </div>
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I won the roll-off for the second concurrent game and decided
to go first, obviously not wanting to give away the chance to be shot at. With
the objectives being so important to the cup games, it really skews the
effectiveness of close quarters beasts the Wulfen. That and playing against the
Corsairs who get their free move away via “Reckless Abandon” to get out away
once an opponent’s unit are in their threat range. From a combat standpoint,
this allegorically works a lot like charging a fast cav unit in 8<sup>th</sup>
Edition Fantasy, with them fleeing and then looking for the auto-rally to stay
out of being tarpitted or charged, as seen in popular tournament lists (John –
mainly – and Felix can both attest to this!). </div>
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The Wulfen then prepared for a kicking, and the D shots from
the Lynx and Warp Hunter made a world of difference for insta-gibbing them
rather than just taking a wound off with re-rolls on scatpack bikes from the
Corsair’s psychic phase adding to the firestorm. I felt if I could have been
more aggressive charging up the board to get to the other side in two turns,
this may have changed things. But even then, Lawrence could have moved his
jetbikes away from me to score objectives on the other side of the board! </div>
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There has been a lot of talk about the Wulfen being a glass
hammer unit (hitting hard but not staying around for long – I think Harlequins
do that the most, though a shortage of AP attacks with kisses means they do
less damage arguably), but I’ve found them to be less glassy than I was
expecting . </div>
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<i>Now you see it, now you don't; Wulfen squad taking out a Hornet, for all of their kills total!</i></div>
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For the amount of firepower that was being dished out by the
Corsairs, standing up to four turns of shooting seemed quite a feat, as
expected to be packing my stuff up after turn 1; so I’ll take that as a moral
victory! The storm shields, FNP and toughness value v.s. Eldar shooting were
really useful against the Corsairs, with Lawrence pointing out how much harder
it made tabling me straight away; it’s just a case of getting them into combat
to do their work! </div>
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I can see Invisibility being useful for rushing Wulfen
across the board, whilst Gate of Infinity and something to move them around
would be ideal. But against Corsairs, they just don’t have the mobility.
Beating them would come down to a shooting game (which I obviously don’t have!)
and goes against elite killy units. </div>
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With the lock-in of the lists being pivotal, it’s no wonder
the list is as powerful as it is. The D basis of the list is designed to take
on the powerful lists at use in the competition and they will definitely be a
problem for others when Lawrence gets through into the later stages!With John’s
3 Riptide list, all knights lists, wraithknights and so on in the meta, mobile
D is a game changer. The jetbikes are perfect for scoring objectives and give a
boost in shooting.</div>
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<i>Lights out for the Wulfen, as the scat-bikes zoom across the board taking all objectives.</i></div>
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Either way it was great fun and there were loads of pointers
to take away from the game. And playing such an experienced opponent like
Lawrence meant for a richer experience. I can see him progressing well and
after seeing him win the Christmas tournament organised by Will, expect him to
be looking to repeat the feat!</div>
</div>
Surrey Spartanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12386329124515952405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4843215909746884264.post-14678992090448371002016-05-30T04:01:00.001-07:002016-05-30T08:06:56.909-07:00Reports from the front: Dan/Tom's Wulfen cup game 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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With the blog in need of a bit of upsurge in content, I
thought it was a perfect idea to link current gaming with blog content. It’s a shame
Mordheim doesn’t fit tangential commentary or that Guild Ball players had the
time to write up batreps about the system, but time is money (as I find myself,
as a semi-professional freelancer; especially for Barry when he’s missing out
on gaming!), and as the anointed administrator of the blog it’s kind of
mandatory! <br />
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I won’t be doing more detailed reports<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>like Chad (or as well I expect; my excuse being I have my own
writing and paid work on top of these duties and others to really!), but will
try and give the reader the gist (mainly I put my miniatures down, then remove
them!) and my thoughts on the game. Playing a formation of Wulfen wasn’t the
wisest move for this format, so don’t expect any tactical genius!</div>
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The first game of the knockout round was decided by the order
system and that meant I was drawn against Rich and what turned out to be a
dreaded Imperial Knight list. I haven’t actually played Rich at 40k (having not
joined the club when he was rocking his Emperor’s Children in the 1k league the
Spartans had going at the new premises at the time) and I think our last games
were during the Fantasy escalation league against his Sylvanian Empire army (I
think!), with his love of the undead, featuring his wolf riding demigrpyph
knight alternatives and other great conversion work as is expected from him. With
9<sup>th</sup> Age becoming popular, I’m sure he’ll be dusting them off soon!</div>
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My reason for entering the cup was to get to start a
catalyst to enjoying 40k again (having fallen out of love of it for a little while,
but I think gaming interest peaks and wanes in phases), or at least, a spark to
the flame! And also mainly to get the opportunity to play people I hadn’t
before (variety is life spice as Matt says), and for me gaming is a social
activity and the chance to get to know people better than I wouldn’t otherwise,
is worth propping up the table as the wooden spoon (something I seem to get a
lot of)! </div>
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I won the roll off to start and rashly let Rich deploy first
in the slimmest (im)possible hope of being able to deploy my units in a more
tactical fashion. In retrospect, it would appear utterly pointless, but having
not played in ever it seemed like tactical enough at the time. Oh well! Setting
the terrain without any line of sight blocking scenery also didn’t go in my
favour! The scenario hampers movement, and if the set-up was 24 inches on,
rather than 12, the Wulfen could really give people headaches first turn.</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oAlDPO7_Jy8/V0wcwSgy0cI/AAAAAAAAAFI/jd2J9KSxo8cmePaj_DyDZRBzD6DTm-7GQCLcB/s1600/batrep.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oAlDPO7_Jy8/V0wcwSgy0cI/AAAAAAAAAFI/jd2J9KSxo8cmePaj_DyDZRBzD6DTm-7GQCLcB/s400/batrep.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Deploying second was a bad, very bad idea - Wulfen awaiting impending death!</i></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2ft9DMSBrWo/V0wcvPkIj4I/AAAAAAAAAFE/lP7Sz0yarVkAM0KaWDUEivBctIGokk-lACLcB/s1600/batrep1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2ft9DMSBrWo/V0wcvPkIj4I/AAAAAAAAAFE/lP7Sz0yarVkAM0KaWDUEivBctIGokk-lACLcB/s400/batrep1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i> The board setup did little to change Rich's deployment!!</i></div>
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It was nice to play against such well painted miniatures and
I felt rather guilty about playing my unpainted grey horde of Darwinian-transitory-sapiens-style-inspired-wolf
men whose hackneyed (sure there’s a pun there...) karate posing has turned a
lot of people off an interesting close combat beast into the 40k meta. Rich’s
freehand is outstanding and his knights, matching his 30k Word Bearers, have
been daubed in appropriate symbols and liturgies to give an inclusive overall
look when he plays his knights allied in with his traitor force for 30k.</div>
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I was hoping that grey plastic would mean that the army
performed better (having seen tournaments won by – the idea being that gamers
too busy to paint are better gamers because they’re too busy gaming; and like a
recurring pattern I’m not as it turns out!), but misreading my rules (with my
habit of “I dun goofed”), didn’t exactly help the result! </div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FEVR_11EMhQ/V0wci-k9lrI/AAAAAAAAAE4/ww3I-JAE9OwmEBK-tzvSLdSZ0ulMifcKwCLcB/s1600/batrep4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FEVR_11EMhQ/V0wci-k9lrI/AAAAAAAAAE4/ww3I-JAE9OwmEBK-tzvSLdSZ0ulMifcKwCLcB/s320/batrep4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>In spite of the terrible photo, you can still see the detail at work in Rich's freehand.</i></div>
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As expected, I was shot off the board before I could even
amount to doing anything, by turn 2 as I recall. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fixed scenario of having to gain objectives
meant I had to be less aggressive as I tried to hold onto objectives to
generate cards and then try and complete them. Doing the exact opposite of what
my army needs to do isn’t really what I want to be doing, even if they do have
a 3+ invulnerable!</div>
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In short, I moved my Wulfen eagerly up the bed in my first
turn, before receiving a load of firepower in return. My warlord was vapourised quickly to give Rich those bonus points and I then continued to move
around to try and hold objectives/generate cards and was basically shot off the
board<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(again, down to my inane ability
to shoot myself in the foot at all times, hey who said difficult wasn’t fun?!!)
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The highlight for me was the stubborn remaining Wulfen
valiantly trying to hold on to the objective to the last man and still going to
blown away anyway. Going into the competition, setting my targets as
realistically low as possible means I can at least walk away less shamefully
with more knowledge about my army works! The target is to increase the
longevity of games each time I play to try and survive being shot off the board
each time; I can but try!</div>
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As long as I make progress every time I compete I’m happy (akin
to what my driving instructor said about me advancing along – I passed second
time haha!).</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TZXvZk7mSRg/V0wcuR4559I/AAAAAAAAAFA/dA2mecIyA1s6y9FbPyfv3vQW8DNUiv4FACLcB/s1600/batrep2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TZXvZk7mSRg/V0wcuR4559I/AAAAAAAAAFA/dA2mecIyA1s6y9FbPyfv3vQW8DNUiv4FACLcB/s400/batrep2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Valiant Wulfen trying to outlast the untired guns, soon to be dead, very dead!!</i></div>
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<i>The Knights didn't stay in the same place all game, moving forward turn 2 to get nearer objectives, just in case! </i></div>
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Surrey Spartanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12386329124515952405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4843215909746884264.post-45214886421228796222016-04-26T11:37:00.001-07:002016-05-30T04:17:51.628-07:0040k Cup: Asking the organiser!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
With the inaugural 40k Cup just around the corner at the club, I thought it would be a great idea to pick the brains of its running man, or should that be organiser, Peter. There's a lot of interesting building as the competition ramps up, with people finetuning their lists for the deadline. And with this in mind, I thought I'd ask to get a slightly deeper understanding for the thoughts behind running it in this format and its intentions.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i> This is what Google produced, but the cup will definitely look different, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>even in spite of Steve's 8th Edition tournament winning foam cup in the early days of the club!!</i></div>
<br />
<br />
So, onto the Q&A!<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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</xml><![endif]--><i>What was your inspiration for setting up the cup?</i><br />
I'm really enjoying running the cup so far, even though we haven't even rolled any dice yet. I wanted to be involved in running an event as the last 40k league was great fun to take part in so I thought I'd get involved.<br />
<i> </i><br />
<i>What were your motivations?</i><br />
The cup format seemed like a great way to make a competitive competition that was going to be exciting whilst ensuring a minimum number of games for the players that go out in the first round.<br />
<i> </i><br />
<i>Why the format? With a cup it whittles down players, do you feel this brings a more exciting/dynamic interest?</i><br />
Having a straight knock out competition eliminates half of the players after the first game so this should be more engaging and also generate interest as other players' games will really matter to everyone.<br />
<br />
<i>The cup brings a more competitive element to gaming at the club. Do you think this is a good thing and why? And with more players attending tournaments it can only encourage that growth?</i><br />
I'm hoping that the knockout rounds will be really competitive. Judging by some of the lists I've seen there are some really competitive armies so we should see some epic clashes.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Do you have any plans for the future? Like keeping it a regular event?</i><br />
The elimination process is going to be great for bragging rights at the club too.<br />
<br />
We'll see how the cup goes and if it's a success I'm sure there will be opportunity for the winner to defend his title!</div>
Surrey Spartanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12386329124515952405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4843215909746884264.post-3593268504263440022016-04-24T03:13:00.002-07:002016-04-24T04:24:07.586-07:00Chad does Mordheim: Gory days<i>Perhaps inspired by Bruce Springsteen's song lyrics (who knows?!), Chad talks us through his latest conquests in Mordheim in this post about the ramifications of 3 games for his ratty warband.</i><br />
<br />
No, that’s not a misspelling. The first few missions in any Mordheim
gang’s life are going to be hellish and hectic; if a colour scheme had
to be chosen for then it would be red and brown in violent, clashing
slashes. Your war band is untried, and your equipment is mismatched and
sub par. The individual members are at best vaguely competent and on
average pretty rubbish. This is only made worse in a world where your
opponents have pushed themselves into Strength 4 and you’re stuck on
Toughness 3.<br />
<br />
Games three through five exemplified this problem, as did my fairly
Skaven-ly play style; I often got carried away and over confident after
an early success and ended up slinking away. My next games I played Dys
and his Blood Dragon pirates, Jonathan and his beleaguered Rieklanders,
and JD and his newish Dwarven Treasure Hunters in that order. Each of
these war bands present different problems and challenges which I’ll
explore in my reports below.<br />
<br />
<u>Game 1: Attack of the Bloodbeard</u><br />
First up was Bloodbeard’s motley crew – and a quite sizeable crew it
was too! I’d picked up a Beggar, representing the poor sap who hired my
Samurats, but Dys still nearly outnumbered me two to one! This whole
‘one henchman’ thing had massive downsides…especially after we rolled
Defend the Find as our scenario! I had to hold a central building
against Dys’s marauding undead pirates? And to win all he had to do was
get more models within 6” of the house? Bring it on.<br />
<br />
I set up my shooty fellows (two dudes with throwing stars, two with
slings – true artillerized terror) on the first floor and my remaining
dudes, including double-club beggar on the ground floor. My plan was to
take people in drips and drabs, knocking them down to slow them even
more than being dead already did while my combat dudes did the butcher’s
work. I did not want to get out numbered, and I did not want to get
surrounded.<br />
<br />
Bloodbeard got first turn and his crew lurched forward, except the
three not-so-nautical war pigs he’d hired which shot right at me,
although one had a difficult crisscross of streets to navigate so didn’t
make it into the scoring area. Thinking this feel perfectly into my
plan, I issued two charges on each – the Beggar and Assassin on one, my
halberd-wielding Black Skaven and the Verminkin on the other. Everyone
passed their leadership checks, by some miracle, and we all got in
contact. Great news, as it meant that I was likely to be two out of four
kills towards forcing rout checks – sure, the vampire had a leadership
value of nearly double my average, but it might work out.<br />
<br />
In other news, my shooting missed and one of my Gutterrunners removed
himself from the game by failing a 4” leap and suffering an S2 hit. So I
was half way to rout checks myself. Then neither of the pigs died, so
things looked real rosy.<br />
<br />
Dyson’s second turn started with the third pig charging my leader and
his vampire charging my spear wielding Gutterrunner. My leader had been
stunned last turn and so was eliminated while knocked down, but my
Gutterrunner must have eaten a whole garlic bulb as the vampire missed
his attacks. I killed the other pig, but that was not really much
commiseration.<br />
<br />
At the beginning of my turn I voluntarily routed. I was close to
being outnumbered and butchered, and Dys would probably have outnumbered
me in the zone next turn anyway. This way he didn’t get any heroes in
the house, so didn’t get any extra wyrd-stone while I scarpered with
three! I then rolled well on my exploration and got six more, as well as
a favour owed by a sell-sword. This presented a quandary, as I wanted
to keep the Seven Samurats to seven, but if I didn’t take advantage of
this then I’d be missing out on a massive advantage – which was also
free. Eventually I reasoned that the sell-sword was an old friend
(rival? Enemy that didn’t immediately need killing?) of one of the
Samurats. With that explanation, I chose the Skryre Sniper as it fit
thematically to have someone devoted to the art of long ranged death.<br />
<br />
My Assassin suffered ‘severe injuries’ and had to miss the next two
games, while the Gutterrunner who impersonated Icarus managed to escape
harm! Except for the loss of an eye…Some stat ups were gained, most
notably my Beggar got Medic and the one-eyed Gutterrunner got an extra
attack – so he traded his throwing knives to the Verminkin for an
additional sword. My sorcerer also got better at casting Warpflame
despite not managing it in the last game.<br />
<br />
<u>Game 2: Cross Town Brawl</u><br />
Next game was against Jonathan’s Rieklanders. His luck had not
improved at all since our last game, but he’d only lost Henchman.
However having to replace them had kept his gold reserves low (unlike my
coffers, which sat at something like 14 wyrd-stone and 120gp despite
losing most of my games) and his men weren’t fantastically well equipped
and they only numbered eleven. Not being dead they could march but also
be stunned, so there were pros and cons over the last game. We rolled
Occupy and five target houses, meaning we’d both have to split up to
really challenge board control.<br />
<br />
We fought on our market square board rather than the ruined mansion
where I’d ‘fought’ Bloodbeard, and there were coincidentally four
buildings around the square and a well in the middle. Jon took the city
side with a little more building cover which left me with the church and
windmill side. I deployed using other buildings to block LoS from those
scary BS4 longbows and the game was afoot!<br />
<br />
Jon moved forward with his guys, and I did the same but got further
into the board, claiming the church. Turn two saw him secure an inn and
the vampire-home, while I occupied the church fully and moved towards
the guard house on the bridge. My sniper turned up and knocked a
Rieklander off his feet, despite needing a six to hit! Nothing else
happened though.<br />
<br />
Turn three things started to heat up as Jon moved into the first
floor of the vamp-home with his archers and made a dash towards the well
with his leader and some captains. He left two crossbowmen in the inn,
one of which fired at my Jezzail and missed. In my third turn I got into
the bridge guard house with my Verminkin and beggar while I took the
ground floor of the vamp-home with everything else – except my sniper,
who hid, and my Gutterrunner who still had throwing knives (having
picked up Knife-Master) who I forgot about entirely. I threw some
Warpflame up the stairs and made the Bowmen duck for cover but didn’t
really hurt anyone.<br />
<br />
Turn four saw the vamp-home getting trashed again, as per my Skaven
war band’s modus operandi. Jon charged a Bowman into my half blind
Gutterrunner skulking around the side of the building and a Champion
into my Sorcerer – but he was intercepted by my Halberd wielding Black
Skaven, who had picked up Lightning Reflexes for just such occasions.
The kitchen/dining area was turned over in the struggle (we were a bit
boisterous in moving minis) but my Black Skaven got the upper hand and
stunned the Champion. My Gutterrunner knocked down his attacker in a
flurry of sword blows, and I was looking in a pretty strong position.
His crossbowmen had no targets so spent a tense few minutes listening to
shouts and hissing and smashing furniture from across the road while
his leader and champions bravely took the unoccupied well in the centre
of the square.<br />
<br />
In my turn my claw-armed Black Skaven got to the second floor of the
vamp-home, miraculously without falling off as per his previous
attempts, and I got more rats in the ground floor. My shuriken armed
Gutterrunner made it to the bridge guardhouse and he, my Beggar and
Verminkin (who had both been awarded slings due to lack of space in my
treasury) unleashed a hail of shrapnel and dung at Jon’s elite in the
well house. The ended up covered in shit and pretty pissed off, but
uninjured. My Sorcerer stunned a Bowman up the stairs and the Jezzail
missed, but my sword-armed Gutterrunner and halberd wielding Black
Skaven finished off their opponents so that was nice.<br />
<br />
Jon was looking a little disheartened at the beginning of this turn,
which meant that I was caught utterly off guard when he had one Bowman
leap out of the window and land perfectly outside the vamp-home while
two more rushed down the stairs and surprised my Sorcerer and Black
Skaven on the ground floor, while his heroes backed off a little from
the well house, also moving back towards the vamp-home. His shooting
phase saw the Dark-Knight Bowman wound my Sorcerer but only knock him
down while his compatriots sent my Black Skaven squeaking for cover,
although left him unharmed – he even tried a cheeky crossbow shot
through a window but it didn’t stick. His heroes then returned fire on
my dirt slingers and put my Gutterrunner out of action.<br />
<br />
With no combat we went right into my turn! My claw armed Black Skaven
ran down two flights of stairs to charge a Bowman and my halberd
wielding rat charged into the one next to him. The Beggar and Verminkin
scuttled out of sight, hiding, while the Sorcerer stood up rather
groggily and failed to cast his spell to get vengeance. The Jezzail hid
so it was straight on to combat – in which my halberd guy dealt with the
bowman in front of him and the claw armed guy didn’t, although didn’t
die either so I guess that’s okay.<br />
<br />
Jon’s turn saw another impressive hail fired into the vamp-house –
windows were smashed, decorations ruined and a little bit of rat blood
shed as my sorcerer hit the dirt again. Combat again saw the untrained
Bowman flail desperately and my fighting-claw ninja expertly miss his
attacks. In my turn my halberd-rat charged out of the house screaming in
Bloodfrenzy or panic as he ran into Jon’s three combat equipped heroes,
while my Verminkin was sent to challenge ownership of the centre well.
My sword-armed Gutterrunner actually made it into the acrobat who had
jumped out of the window to ambush my rats too! Shooting saw my Jezzail
burn yet another hole in the side of the inn instead of a person and my
Sorcerer remove Jon’s leader with a blast of fire, finally on target.
Thankfully there was no collateral damage in the form of my halberd-rat,
who stunned the Champion he was facing off against.<br />
<br />
Jon called it there an voluntarily routed, his taste for the battle
gone with his leader. He’d lost most of his Bowman, although all but one
recovered, and was two combat fellows down for no loss to the Samurats.
I’d been able to control the flow of battle pretty well, fighting in
buildings being ideal for my high Initiative, high movement guys where
they could choose their fights/bundle individual enemies. I found
another six wyrd-stone, putting me on the heady-heights of twenty-one
before I sold seven. I bought two sets of bracers and two cold-steel
Halberds, giving one to my halberd-rat and the other to my sorcerer
along with some bracers each. Both Black Skaven picked up Tail Fighting,
my leader finally accrued a exp-up and got Lightning Reflexes and my
two gutter runners got a skill and a stat up each – the half-blind guy
got a strength and I gave him Tail-Fighting, while the other guy
suffered a deep wound (-1 Toughness, putting him on an abysmal T2) but
got an additional wound and Trick Shot, so he would now always get to
shoot at full accuracy with his shurikens. I banked the remaining 90 or
so gold and looked for the next game.<br />
<br />
<u>Game 3: Murder in the Streets</u><br />
For my third and final game of the night I threw down against JD’s
newly formed Dwarven Treasure Hunters. He’d had a rough few games before
and I think only agreed to the game because I pointed out my Assassin
was still <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">kicking back </span>injured
and would miss this game. I had got another favour owed to him (the
Council only knows how) so I picked up a Skryre Poison Wind Globadier to
continue my theme of wacky mercenary members, and kept on the sniper
mainly out of cool factor rather than anything to do with his
performance in the last game.<br />
<br />
We rolled street fight. I had to run down a four-model wide street at
a Dwarven war band, with a three man crossbow henchman group that had
earned BS4. Flash backs to the Ratmificent Seven getting wiped out flew
through my mind, but I shook them off and set up with my fastest guys at
the front – after a brief discussion JD revealed his crossbows actually
had a 36” range, so I was going to have to throw caution to the wind
and my rats at a wall of spikes and steel.<br />
<br />
I spent three turns running at him, the Jezzail arriving on the
second but missing. In fact, I’ll head this one off; he missed all game.
He missed so impressively JD never even considered shooting back at
him. My <i>Beggar</i> was considered more of a threat due to his two
clubs. My guys got hit by seemed to just be dodging and diving to the
floor; every time I was hit JD’s dice turned into D2’s so miraculously
no one died.<br />
<br />
Turn four finally saw some combat, a bit of magic and the struggle
between his crossbow henchman and my Globadier, the latter trying to
throw a grenade at the tightly packed dwarf back line and the former
turning him into a pincushion to stop him doing so. After my halberd-rat
tore through his first opponent he then spent about a million turns
tripping up one of JD’s slayers and refusing to hit him while he was on
the floor. My sorcerer spent most of the midgame knocked down as JD
frantically tried to kill him with his Engineer.<br />
I forget exactly what order things happened in, but I know my
fighting-claw armed ‘ninja’ got taken out first. Hammers fell, swords
slashed and after four or so rounds of combat we’d both lost two war
band members – I was the only one to lose a hero though. My Globadier
removed a crossbowman before he was taken out, one of the slayers went
down under the desperate scratching of a Gutterrunner, and things were
looking pretty equal – despite my halberd-rat being charged by JD’s
noble in an attempt to stop the beleaguered slayer from being auto
removed after being stunned.<br />
<br />
Now, this is where things went wrong. Very, very wrong. My Sorcerer,
seeing a chance to remove two fairly scary dwarves for the possible loss
of one rat, Warpflamed the dwarven noble. It fizzled, and the backwash
lightly tanned the slayer. However, the halberd-rat got roasted;
wounded, save failed, straight up removed from play. In JD’s turn my
Sorcerer then got picked off by some crossbows and my remaining rodents
achieved sod all, having decided that since their swords were barely
working they’d better use wet handkerchiefs. I swiftly routed in my next
turn.<br />
<br />
My half blind Gutterrunner nearly went fully blind, but upon
realising this would auto-retire the vicious little sod I used up my
Beggar’s Medic ability on the first injury I’d rolled, and after a bit
of CPR he survived against the odds, half-sight intact and with a bonus
experience point! My knife-rat got a damaged leg, lowering his Movement
to 5” which was tolerable and that was about it for injuries – my Skaven
Samurai had clearly learnt well from their leader in Playing Dead 101!<br />
<br />
My Globadier earned his stripes, getting a new skill (Eagle Eye,
later found to be illegal and replaced with Infiltration). My Sorcerer
got an improved BS to 4, although had never shot his Warplock pistol,
and also Battle Mage so he could wear armour. This was a debateable gain
since everyone seemed to be S4 and/or carrying axes, but worth it for
the off chance it was relevant. Sword-Runner (now named Gut) got boosted
to S4 while his buddy (Run) got no advancement. I tried to find a
second Jezzail in an effort to game the rules, and because I’d come away
with another 6 wyrd-stone which was immediately sold, but failed
miserably. The Samurats returned to camp and let my Assassin know they’d
got beat. He sympathetically shouted at them and swore he’d get revenge
on the stunties at some point – presumably after he’d upped his own
Strength to 5.<br />
<br />
So that was game day 2. A good few advances, no actual deaths just
yet and plenty of money in the bank (after a couple more purchases I was
still on about 117gp and 10ish wyrd-stone). I’ve since found that my
Skaven are actually limited to a measly S4, so halberds might become the
order of the day, or Strongman and Great Weapons, but time will tell.
There’s also Mighty Blow, granting +1S in combat which would make any S4
halberd wielders S6 and unparryable by any S3 enemies. Then I’d only
have to manage to roll a 2+ to wound, so failure would become intensely
more embarrassing.<br />
<br />
I’m still enjoying the rats, thankfully. I’m somewhat underwhelmed by
their supposed terrifying abilities to dish out damage but hopefully
that’ll change soon. I’m also looking at Marks of Khorne for the Frenzy
upgrade, as my attack statistic is one of the few that goes up twice.
Doubling somebodies Mighty Blow attacks with a halberd sounds like a
great plan! But we’ll have to get there first. Hell, maybe someone will
pick up an extra wound, or even T4. That’d be great. Until then I’ll
keep skulking in the shadows and bullying the weak.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://nomnomniconcom.wordpress.com/2016/03/29/missions-into-mordheim-the-gory-days/">https://nomnomniconcom.wordpress.com/2016/03/29/missions-into-mordheim-the-gory-days/</a></div>
Surrey Spartanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12386329124515952405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4843215909746884264.post-68230925473970199912016-04-24T03:09:00.002-07:002016-04-24T04:23:41.711-07:00Chad does Mordheim: the 7 Samurats<i>Chad's progress in Mordheim continues as in the dangerous city, this time experimenting with the 7 samurai, of a different kind, namely Skaven!</i><br />
<br />
<div class="entry-content">
My goblins have met an untimely end. Mainly due to my disinterest
in the list I was playing, and the options for development as the war
band ‘grew’. So they won’t be featuring on this blog any more. In their
place have risen warriors of unlikely legend: The Seven Samurats.<br />
<br />
They are the spiritual successors to my war band from my previous
Mordheim campaign, the Ratmificent Seven; they all wielded pistols
except one who was armed with fighting claws and got real close ‘n’
personal with anyone who survived the Warplock pistol volley from Hidden
positions. It met with great success until I had to street fight versus
six Dwarf crossbowmen. They live on in my memory as one of the most fun
yet fluffy lists I’ve written.<br />
<br />
After a slightly drunken night playing World of Warships with some
other guys in the campaign I put together a Skaven list modelled on the
Seven Samurai – lots of swords and some throwing stars, very strictly
kept to six heroes and one verminkin (Kikuchiru, or the comic
relief/not-a-real-samurai dude). I will recruit no new henchmen, only
upgrade my current samurats and replace those who fall.<br />
<br />
I picked clan Eshin (for hopefully obvious thematic reasons) and formed my brave band (for the third time in the campaign):<br />
<br />
Assassin, Weeping Blades, Sling, Light Armour.<br />
Sorcerer, Warplock Pistol Brace, Sword (Spell: Warpfire).<br />
Black Skaven, Halberd, Sling, Light Armour.<br />
Black Skaven, Fighting Claws.<br />
Gutterrunner, Spear, Throwing Stars.<br />
Gutterrunner, Sword, Dagger, Throwing Stars.<br />
Verminkin, Sword, Sling.<br />
<br />
What a glorious group of heroes! Almost. Not quite. There is another
Skaven player, Ric of Clan Moulder, who is running a horde of
experimental mutants. He outnumbers me two to one, as do a few human war
bands. As with my goblins, I’m sharing a model count with some tough
customers – mainly T4 or BS4 or another non-leadership statistic of
four. I’m be outmanned, out-muscled or out-classed in nearly every game I
play.<br />
<br />
Is there a bright side? Of course! Have you seen my equipment? Weeping Blades are <i>hideous</i>! Automatically wounding on 6’s, but still allowed to crit, <i>and</i>
they cause a critical hit on a five or a six! Having checked the rules,
that means that they always wound on a 5 or 6, so Toughness six beasts
are that much easier to bring down! They might be rare in the first
place, but these things are going to help make them even rarer!<br />
<br />
Halberds are perfect for my Black Skaven – bring them to Strength
five while still fighting at Initiative, I should be able to bring down
enemies before they get a chance to fight back. Fighting Claws give my
other Black Skaven spider-like agility when scaling buildings and
getting about the board, as well as being pretty dangerous in a fight.
The spear on one Gutterunner is for style more than anything – none of
the Seven Samurai used a spear, but it’s cool. And might help my WS2
Gutterrunner not die immediately when charged. I’m trying twin swords on
the other one to test the parry ability, as I think that’s going to be a
big player in the campaign.<br />
<br />
I will admit the sorcerer with Warplock Pistols is somewhat
not-samurai-esque. I am putting this down as a Kabuki/Magician
character, or is basically the special effects guy for my group. A
little bit of ranged firepower is going to be very welcome, and the
short range means he’s going to be stuck at the front with the others
anyway. His spell also has an 8” range so the pistols will only be fired
when I can’t risk collateral damage. Usually that is pretty rare, but
when you have seven tooled up furballs it may come into play.<br />
<br />
<u>Game 1: Vengeance in Fur Form</u><br />
My first game was against my roommate who had slaughtered half my
original war band. Did I feel any more confident now that I had started
again? Not a chance. We rolled Warpstone Hunt, so I wasn’t going to have
my rats picked off one by one. Matt’s goat blokes were still fast, but
slightly slower than my rats so I hoped to get some positioning
advantage. I also hoped that with a take and hold objective he would
break his war band up and I could deal with it piecemeal.<br />
<br />
Was that malicious? Vengeful? Dare I say petty? Yes. I had played
goblins, and was now playing Skaven. If I could nobble the minotaur and
make him run bleating I’d be happy. Nothing less.<br />
<br />
We set up on opposite board edges, he with a bridge for his billy
goats and me with a church and a house built by our vampire player which
he’d claimed as his own. There was a distinctly open square in the
middle and while tactically it was okay to rush the middle as there was a
wyrdstone token in the bell tower there, I lost first turn and didn’t
fancy trying to force the goat blokes off it. I contented myself with
nabbing the tokens in the church and vampire-home, then settling in for
the duration.<br />
<br />
Matt grabbed the token under the bridge and the one in the bell
tower. He was less content with a draw however, and was very aware of
how stabby my list could be given half a chance – he’d been playing
World of Warships with me at the time it was designed. So while my pack
was split between the two buildings, he ran his whole war band at the
vampire-home, leaving my Sorcerer, Claw-wielding Black Skaven and the
Spear wielding Gutterrunner two turns away. I sent a hail of slingshots
and knives at his dudes and miraculously knocked a bestigor down and my
sorcerer managed to take two wounds of the minotaur!<br />
Then things got messy. The minotaur couldn’t quite charge into the
building due to lines of sight and me being on three different floors,
so instead bulled (ha ha) its way in through a window space/wall. The
other goats spaced themselves around the outside, ready to jump in. His
Shaman, Bad Trip, failed to cast Wings of Darkness so couldn’t catapult
himself into my Assassin – a fact I was pretty grateful for!<br />
<br />
In my turn I issued four charges against the minotaur, and had my
first encounter with my leadership stat: The minotaur caused fear, and
we misplayed the rules (I think) so that if I failed my LD check I
couldn’t charge. With LD seven (Thanks, ‘great’ leader…) I hit the
average and passed two out of four tests – except rather than either my
Assassin with Weeping Blades or Black Skaven with Halberd making it in,
who could have made short work of a single wound, no save model, my
Verminkin and Gutterrunner did. In a panic my Sorcerer threw a ball of
Warpfire at the muscle-bound cow and instead of cooking his ass managed
to knock over my Gutterrunner in base contact and do the same to my
Assassin on the floor above.<br />
Suffice to say, my Verminkin did not kill the cow.<br />
<br />
He was only stunned in return but this meant that someone was dying
in Matt’s next turn. My leader and Black Skaven got charged on the upper
floors while the other goats failed Initiative tests to get into the
house, thankfully. The Shaman Dark Wings’d into my Black Skaven, and the
stage was set for a three-floor brawl in the vampire-home.<br />
<br />
Tables were broken, windows smash and a book-cased violently
dismantled over someone’s head. Blod, fur, gristle and spit decorated
the interior and the enighbours were kept awake with roars, squeals,
braying and bleats. At the end of the combat phase, one goat and the
minotaur were down as was my Verminkin – what a fan-fucking-tastic trade
that was! Sadly my Skaven bottled it and ran with their two wyrdstone,
even if I wanted them to stick it out a bit longer, and Matt took the
victory.<br />
<br />
We both got two bonus wyrdstone, his minotaur didn’t in fact die –
although nor did Kikuchiru, which wasn’t as great a cause of
celebration. His shaman lost an eye and my Gutterrunner suffered a deep
chest wound and was reduced to Toughness two! I picked up a ton of
wyrdstone, maybe six, and also salvaged two pairs of bracers from the
black market along with some Heavy Armour for my leader and a lot of
light armour for my other chaps. I banked about 40gp and three wyrdstone
and looked for my next opponent.<br />
<br />
<u>Game 2 – Rumble in the Ruins</u><br />
Or opponent<i>s</i>! Four of us got together for the first
multiplayer free for all of the campaign – another wyrdstone hunt, but
this time there was a massive eleven wyrdstone on offer! Matt’s Gors
were back, bringing a Centigor (presumably the tour bus) with them and
their bassist, who had missed the last game. He was on my right after
deployment; on my left was Captain Bloodbeard and his undead crew
commanded by David Dys, and on the far side of the table Felix’s so-far
unlucky Carnival of Chaos lurked. There was one large, central ruin that
was about 2’x2’ and a might four flours high (at some sections); most
of the wyrdstone ended up here, with one being suspiciously close to
each player’s deployment areas. Clearly no one was 100% confident that
they could take and hold the ruined mansion.<br />
<br />
I split my seven rats into two groups again, this time my Sorcerer
and Halberd Skaven on the right near a house with a wyrdstone shard in
and everyone else in the centre, facing an apparently sheer wall. I was
trusting my high Initiative and movement to get me to the top, and a
hopefully commanding position. Turn one everyone shambled, scurried,
trotted, lurched or walked towards the centre except the Carnival, who
were suffering severe PTSD and hung back in a nearby building, cradling a
single wyrdstone shard. David D’s dogs scampered into to grab wyrdstone
and Matt’s shaman Dark Wings’d into the manor ruins. Over the next
three turns they battled for position until Matt’s minotaur caught a pig
and began either trying to kill it or mate with it, we weren’t sure
from the combat rolls. In that time the Carnival hadn’t moved except for
one enterprising swarm of grubs which managed to sneak in and steal a
shard from the manor despite having a movement of three. I failed
dismally to pick off a strangler from Matt’s band, threw some rather
ineffective gravel at Dys’s Blooddragon Vampire pirate and my claw-armed
dude ran up the side of the manor, trying to corner the bray shaman who
hadn’t failed to cast his spell once, and was now carting two wyrdstone
by himself.<br />
<br />
I had planned to nobble him, swipe the wyrdstone and then hide in a
corner/voluntarily rout as soon as possible with my three shards. Matt
took offense to my not-so-subtle plan (I’d shot at one dude and used my
claw-Skaven’s zone of control to ensure his shaman couldn’t walk out) so
pulled his entire band out of the manor ruins and back towards me –
fortunately the small door space and woods interrupted this, and only a
lone Gor got into combat with my Sorcerer. Oh, and of course the shaman
cast his spell to escape not-quite-certain death and charge into my
unlucky magician. Combat saw him removed by the Gor, so that was an
issue.<br />
<br />
In my turn I counter charged, surprising Matt with how far most of my
dudes could go, and abandoned any kind of board control – with the
shaman in my lines, my prize was easily within reach! And I only had to
get my Verminkin sliced up to rout! That plan failed as I took down both
the bray shaman and the Gor in combat. Dys brought his angry dead
(slowly) around the manor, having been misled about my willingness to
fight on two fronts, and caught by surprise at how quickly I could run
away (‘redeploy’) and the Carnival unlocked the windows of their hovel,
confused why they couldn’t hear the sounds of combat any more.<br />
Matt charged in with everything except a Bestigor and the Minotaur,
who had charge lines blocked by the manor wall and doors. In a truly
surprising display of skill my entire war band won their fights,
stunning or eliminating their opponents – except my leader who, charged
by Matt’s chieftain, only managed to knock him down. Matt’s dice had
been terrible and I could see him weighing up whether he was going to
rout next turn – Dys’s remaining pig and vampire had already reached our
brawl (swiftly becoming a tradition for our war bands) and his
shambling horde were only a turn away. My verminkin had been destroyed
by the vampire, which was a fortunately bad tactical move by Dys as it
meant that in my next turn I could voluntarily rout – with a total of
five wyrdstone, thanks to Matt’s unfortunate combat rolls!<br />
<br />
I rolled first turn next, for the first time all game and really the
only time it mattered. I spent a pretty intense seven seconds deciding
if I wanted to roll into the vampire with everything, near definitely
removing him but opening myself up for a counter charge by less stabby
but not that much softer undead. Matt’s minotaur was lurking in the
wings as was his last Bestigor, late to the gig for reasons best left
unexplored, and they could have made pretty short work of something
themselves and I could see him eyeing up the so far undefeated vampire.
Glorious victory shined bright in my eyes, the promise of riches and
renown filling my mind…<br />
<br />
Then I remembered I was a Samurat. I fought not for glory or riches,
but mainly to stab people in the back when they weren’t looking and
steal things back to the hovel I’d been hired to ‘protect’/enrich. So I
put down my dice and declared I was off, taking my five remaining rats
and five shiny wyrdstone with me.<br />
Dys finished off Matt’s leader but his Wight couldn’t manage the
Bestigor in one round, the Carnival came out of hiding and began to
prance about a bit and Matt also routed, with only one shard despite an
serious lead in the early game. Dys then made the somewhat suspect
decision to rout, on the basis he’d lost two pigs and didn’t want to
risk losing something else – this left a very surprised Felix with a
wholly unexpected victory, if not much wyrdstone for it.<br />
<br />
In the after game my Sorcerer recovered fully (more like had faked
it…), Kikuchiru the First died and was instantly replaced, and I rolled
another five wyrdstone on my exploration. Pretty ratting good game! So
far I’d lost two games and come out with enough surplus wyrdstone to see
me through for at least two more! I went shopping again, although since
I only sold six shards to avoid a glut I could only afford helmets for
every one and the hiring of Kikuchiru the Second, complete with two
swords, a helmet and light armour. Spoilt bloody henchman he was too…<br />
<br />
I also got some skill ups, far more excitingly! My Sorcerer went up
to BS4, making him mildly more useful with his pistol, and some bracers
which allowed me to swap out his sword for a halberd. My halberd Skaven
got himself Lightning Reflexes and Tail Fighting, giving him and extra
sword attack and a parry bonus with his bracers while also ensuring he
was going to be striking at Initiative with chargers. Claws only got one
advance, which was Tail Fighting avec new sword for the bonus attack.
My Toughness two Gutterrunner, now dubbed Heihachi, got Knife Master,
allowing him to throw his knives three times a turn, while the other
received an additional Attack and Initiative making him a pretty scary
prospect one on one. My leader also picked up Lightning Reflexes; my
thinking was that, while I could almost guarantee a charge with my high
movement and climbing ability, if I could bait people into making
mistakes by charging into my Reflexed people then I’d half my work done!<br />
<br />
So the Samurats were bloodied and bruised, technically beaten but
bouncing back better than before! They were also a lot of fun to play,
the options available on each of them and the different equipment I’d
dished out making them each a little more characterful. Yes, I could
have done this with goblins and if I re-rack again I’ll probably go back
to them with a fresh plan that I’ve put together. But first the sun had
to set on the legend of the Seven Samurats, and it looks like it’s
going to be a long, long day.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://nomnomniconcom.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/missions-in-mordheim-the-seven-samurats/">https://nomnomniconcom.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/missions-in-mordheim-the-seven-samurats/</a></div>
<br />Surrey Spartanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12386329124515952405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4843215909746884264.post-75676922966643820892016-04-24T03:02:00.002-07:002016-04-24T04:23:14.169-07:00Chad does Mordheim: Order of the Golden Snotball<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span class="s1">Chad, our resident Harlequin (and now 9th Age Dwarves) player and all-round gaming enthusiast, is taking part in our current Mordheim campaign at the club, organised by Rich. Chad is also a blogger and writer, and we've been lucky enough to be given the green light to feature his work from his blog </span></i><span class="s1"><span class="s1"><a href="https://nomnomniconcom.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/journeying-into-the-dark-missions-in-mordheim/">https://nomnomniconcom.wordpress.com</a></span>.</span></div>
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<i><span class="s1"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="s1">We'll be following his progress and reports throughout the campaign, so here's his first post: </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="s1">My friendly local gaming club, the Surrey
Spartans, are starting a Mordheim campaign. It’s to run over the next
three months (I think, correction pending) and of course I’m getting
involved – any professing warband style game is immediately appealing
for me, and besides what I fear will be an infrequent Ninja Allstars
league I’ve got nothing on at the moment. So I put myself down for a
dwarves treasure hunting party and assumed I would be able to run up a
list in no time. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This was until I saw I could play Forest
Goblins and give them Giant Spider mounts. Cue the creation of the Order
of the Golden Snotball:</span></div>
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<span class="s2">Sir Dick Spiderlin, Lord of the Order of the Golden Snotball (Chief)</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Giant Spider, Spear, Shield, Light Armour. (115gp)</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s2">Rob Anybody, Spider-Knight of the Golden Snotball (Brave)</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Giant Spider, Spear, Shield, Light Armour. (95gp)</i></span></div>
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<span class="s2">Twatter, Squire of the Golden Snotball (Brave)</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Axe. (25gp)</i></span></div>
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<span class="s2">Scatgob Oddball, Weirdo (Shaman)</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Light Armour, Shield. (65gp)</i></span></div>
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<span class="s2">Stabhack, Stabber of Men, Hacker of Elves, Lover of Spiders. (Red Toof Goblin)</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Giant Spider, Axe, Axe/Sword, Light Armour. (95gp)</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s2">Murk, Moss Farmer (Slugga)</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Throwing Weapons. (35gp)</i></span></div>
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<span class="s2">Slink, Grass Hermit (Slugga)</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Throwing Weapons. (35gp)</i></span></div>
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<span class="s2">Midge, Moth Herder (Slugga)</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Throwing Weapons. (35gp)</i></span></div>
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<span class="s2"><i>Warband Total: 500gp</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This list may be somewhat of a
post-revisionist Goblin list in the eyes of some gamers out there – e.g.
there’s seven models when I could have got ten for 150gp – but I think
it’s quite characterful. Not only do I get to imagine my Spider-Knights
being well spoken English gentry types leading a hopefully increasing
number (and variety) of goblin peasants to war and glory, but it’s a
massive bully boy list. I also already own most of the models (painted)
so that’s a plus too.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">My plan is for the Spider riding guys to
roam around and grab objectives/look scary while the dudes of foot
(Twatter, Scatgob and the motley thrown weapons crew) take on smaller
numbers of henchmen as a group. The three Sluggas get to chuck their
shit (possibly literal) three times a turn, hopefully resulting in an
average of one hit a ‘shot’ from each of them. This should be enough to
take a henchman or two out, and Scatgob will hopefully get some kind of
useful spell to support this ‘artillery fire’. Twatter will then kick
anything knocked down in the dangly parts, or hit it with his axe. The
cavalry will arrive when and if they can all get into base contact with
the same person, hopefully knocking them down with the two spear
wielders striking first. This will let Stabhack stab and hack them apart
while mostly defenceless. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This doesn’t get around the fact that
it’s quite possible I’ll be outnumbered by Dwarves, Elves and other
‘high point per model’ races in the first round. Sure, I can recruit
more Goblins in droves (15gp a time before equipment, 20gp if I want to
get more Sluggas or Red Toofs) later on but initially I’ll have to be
fairly tactical. Or cowardly. So how will I deal with threats?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>High quality infantry:</i> Mug individuals and pick off stragglers/flankers. Gang up with as many dudes using the same thing as possible. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Being Outnumbered: </i>Kill anything
fast first, preferably at range. Do not get entangled in long melees,
hit and run wherever possible but don’t take risks. Spend a lot of time
hiding and waiting for the enemy to split into smaller groups under the
mistaken impression a pincer tactic with infantry is the best way to
deal with a cavalry/ranged enemy.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Being Outnumbered by High Quality Infantry: </i>Err.
Shoot them to thin numbers and throw everything I can at their most
expensive models. Hopefully something should stick and they’ll be
knocked down. Once they’ve been broken up as a group, the cavalry can
pick on stragglers/front runners with shock tactics.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Large Creatures:</i> Having neglected
to get a Gigantic Spider (serious temptation but in the end having
multiple cavalry and more models won out) I have nothing that can really
go toe-to-toe 1v1 with Ogres, Trolls, Minotaurs or whatever other big
guns people bring along. However, I should be fast enough to evade it
while the cavalry picks on smaller chaps. I’ll probably leave it to
Scatgob and the Sluggas to wear it down with attrition, ranged attacks
and old age.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Being Outranged:</i> I know there’s at
least two Empire players and one Dwarf player in the league, so it’s
pretty likely that someone will have the smart idea of just bringing
crossbows. My last Mordheim league featured 8 pluck dwarves with
crossbows and it was terrifying. I was running six skaven chaps, mostly
heroes, with warlock pistol braces and a Night Runner who regularly
impersonated a psychopathic Spider Man – I met with lots of success but
my lack of armour meant the crossbows took me apart in games where I
couldn’t just stay hidden. In this campaign I either have a head long
rush, Charge of the Light Brigade style, at the shooters or try to
manoeuvre around terrain until I can get to them in one turn. Or just
run and hide.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">So my strategy is pretty much run and
hide until my opponent makes mistakes. I can live with that, as long as I
don’t get too bloodthirsty and continue charging through and enemy
warband after meeting some initial success.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">What are my goals for future progression?
Ideally, everyone gets their own spider and Dick gets a Gigantic
Spider. That’s going to be expensive though. Really I want three more
Sluggas with throwing weapons, five Red Toofs on foot with twin axes,
five normal Goblins with spears and shields, two more combat types on
spiders and the three most veteran Sluggas mounted on spider-back. Or
all of them. So we’re looking at spending another 1,025gp for the ideal
warband.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Before getting people light armour. Good.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Realistically two more combat spider
riders, three Sluggas on spider-back and six combat goblins on foot with
spears and shields would be great. And much more affordable at 570
before any light armour, which would only really be bought for people on
spider-back. First order or purchase is likely the spear-goblins to
bump up my numbers, probably extending to five spear-goblins and five
axe wielding Red Toofs for ‘shock’ counter charges. It does largely
depend on how successful I am in my games, which I fear may be <i>not very</i>. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">One of the guys is playing to vampiric
nobles, a Lahmian-Blood Dragon couple, who take their pet wolves for
walks in the city and are set upon by various adventures. This is the
smallest warband in the league, to my knowledge, but I only just
outnumber them two to one. None of that sounds good for the Order of the
Golden Snotball, but I’ll role-play the hell out of it. And who knows,
one vampire <i>might</i> get knocked down by a hail of random objects
being thrown at them. So far the lists I’ve seen haven’t featured many
Ogres, Treemen or other large, tough targets so that’s nice for me I
suppose. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: center;">
<span class="s1"><a href="https://nomnomniconcom.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/journeying-into-the-dark-missions-in-mordheim/">https://nomnomniconcom.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/journeying-into-the-dark-missions-in-mordheim/</a> </span></div>
<div class="p1">
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</div>
Surrey Spartanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12386329124515952405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4843215909746884264.post-85027400296718358592015-12-19T09:02:00.000-08:002015-12-19T11:47:35.500-08:00Spartans' first 40k tournament a success<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last Sunday, the Spartans played host to their first competitive 40k tournament under the watchful eye and guidance of Will who was more than happy to organise the event (along with some really funky hand drawn score sheets which definitely need reusing for future events!).<br />
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With the event rules allowing for inclusion of 30k armies, avid Horus Heresy fans were able to give their prized new lists a tryout against some of the best formations and units from the 40k universe, like DJ's specifically cheesy Eldar list (blaming Dwayne Pipe for informing him that everyone was bringing ). Andy brought his Night Lords down, whilst Rich made use of a Solar Auxlia list and Matt played with his shiny Mechanicum (Mechanicum was almost as popular as Knights I think!).<br />
<br />
There was a fair amount of filth brought to the table as expected, but there was a great balance of fun within the gaming, making sure all who took part had a great time and would enjoy taking part again. The most memorable in-game action had to be Rich's heroic plasma wielding grunt who killed off the Knight Lancer in overwatch, granting Rich 'slay the warlord' and more importantly, amusing him greatly!<br />
<br />
First place went to Lawrence's 3-knight-list, whilst Neil battled it out on the top tables to come runner up, and DJ blitzing the competition to get bronze (they are after all inspired by the Miami Dolphins so needed a link to NFL inspired combat).<br />
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First place:<i> Lawrence</i><br />
Second: <i>Neil</i><br />
Third: <i>DJ</i><br />
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Metaphorical wooden spoon: <i>Joel's Necons</i><br />
<br />
Knight Titans were a popular choice, with some interesting Knight on Knight action throughout the day. Matt blasted away a fair amount with his Atrapos, whilst Neil used the firepower of his Castigator to good use and engaged in a few brawls, and Lawrence made great tactical usage of his knights to control the board to his game changing advantage.<br />
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Si used the opportunity to retire his list so to speak that had been so effective in the recent 1k league, whilst Neil took to the field with his Castigator and AdMech list, and Lawrence ran a list of Cerastus Knight-Lancer.<br />
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The use of allies made more some pretty mean combos as well. Lawrence added to his Knights with an Admech detachment, whilst Neil brought the dakka with his battle servitors. Chad finished strongly middle of the pact with his Harlies who pulled off some notable kills with their instant death abilities, and James brought the Ork wave machine to good effect.<br />
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Knights and Wraithknights weren't the only Lords of War, with John having fun blasting away with what is known at the club as his "Tuna" (although no dolphins were harmed in netting it). <br />
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All in all a great day of warfare and a sign of great things to come at the club.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LLQMuKzyJEM/VnWCw_oYTnI/AAAAAAAAACM/7woukxS2EhM/s1600/tournie1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LLQMuKzyJEM/VnWCw_oYTnI/AAAAAAAAACM/7woukxS2EhM/s320/tournie1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>James' wave of Orks made for some cinematic looking games.</i></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AZ8pQpy6Xdc/VnWC077d4MI/AAAAAAAAACU/aXvMgZZWft8/s1600/tournie2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AZ8pQpy6Xdc/VnWC077d4MI/AAAAAAAAACU/aXvMgZZWft8/s320/tournie2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Clash of the titans - for reals y'all!</i></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qz9jllWX4-Y/VnWDA4ewa1I/AAAAAAAAACs/GZUtTjsV7YY/s1600/tournie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qz9jllWX4-Y/VnWDA4ewa1I/AAAAAAAAACs/GZUtTjsV7YY/s320/tournie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>How to hide a Knight. Lawrence using the scenery to play hide and seek with his warlord choice, a Kinght Lancer!</i></div>
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<i>Matt with his elite force of AdMech.</i></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZDLx_56nYis/VnWDHTfYFiI/AAAAAAAAAC4/bdYDZjjuU2k/s1600/tournie4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZDLx_56nYis/VnWDHTfYFiI/AAAAAAAAAC4/bdYDZjjuU2k/s320/tournie4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i> Two knights, what odds?</i></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zUKEBi23XzY/VnWDJMzcj3I/AAAAAAAAADA/0_Lx7j6Kmr4/s1600/tournie5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zUKEBi23XzY/VnWDJMzcj3I/AAAAAAAAADA/0_Lx7j6Kmr4/s320/tournie5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Let's just hug it out...</i></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HjyzR8TI8uE/VnWDKEYOGyI/AAAAAAAAADI/snQHVqQPdIg/s1600/tournie6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HjyzR8TI8uE/VnWDKEYOGyI/AAAAAAAAADI/snQHVqQPdIg/s320/tournie6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Knight versus Knight.</i></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qyG8aVXdhnc/VnWDLbKC49I/AAAAAAAAADQ/5IFHH07gc8A/s1600/tournie7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qyG8aVXdhnc/VnWDLbKC49I/AAAAAAAAADQ/5IFHH07gc8A/s320/tournie7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>John's affectionately named (or is that, rudely dubbed?!) "Tuna" in action.</i></div>
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<i>The Tau Supremacy Suit shows how supreme its template blasts are!</i></div>
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<i>Deej's Man of the Match (or should that be Wraith Construct of the Match) who .</i></div>
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<i>Neil putting on an a technical demonstration on how to hide your army all in one building </i></div>
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<i>Rich's nicely converted rabble of rebellious Auxilia fight off against the well generaled forces of Shadowseer Chad.</i></div>
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<i>James' horde of Orks and Andy's 30k Night Lords face off.</i></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fIf4M2DKkRE/VnWNPcjbCwI/AAAAAAAAAEU/z_9Bno5hBOw/s1600/tournie13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fIf4M2DKkRE/VnWNPcjbCwI/AAAAAAAAAEU/z_9Bno5hBOw/s320/tournie13.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>The Magos' multi-wound meat shield!</i></div>
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Surrey Spartanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12386329124515952405noreply@blogger.com0