2013 in Review

2013 is almost over and this makes it a good time to take a thoughtful look back over the year that was.

Another year done and dusted

2013 was the year i returned to warhammer and wargaming as a whole. During 2012 wargaming had fallen by the wayside for me, i had a low paying job and no way to get to the various gaming clubs around the country. In contrast 2013 started with me joining the Kapiti Wargames Club, which for the first half of the year was the Kapiti Warhammer 40k and Roleplay club for me. Then the glorious month of June came around, and with it a new job, new salary and a restart of my Warhammer Fantasy command with the Wood Elves. It also saw me start this blog, which has grown quite substantially from its small beginnings. 

Alternate Games Workshop Models: Avatars of War

Today my shipment from Slaves to Painting of Avatars of War products arrived. With the upcoming release of a new Dwarf army book (march, or so the rumors say) i thought it would be a good idea to start a dwarf army that has been at the concept stage for quite some time. And what with my recent boycott of all Game Workshop models, i decided it would be a good idea to try out the Avatars of War Dwarf range.

Now this Dwarf army is a themed one, the theme being Unbreakable, sorry, Slayers. Yes i have wanted to do a Dwarf slayer army ever since i learned about the slayers, and the AOW Dwarf Bezerker range is a excellent substitute for the dull GW metal slayers. Now a quick note before i go on, this post will be comparing GW products to AOW products to give you a better idea of what both companies offer (not that regular readers will need to be reminded of what GW offers).

The Beauty of Fantasy

Fantasy has always been my favourite genre of book, movie and video game. It has a quality to that has drawn me in and captured my attention. Depth, Wisdom, Hope, Beauty and Courage, these are all things i find in Fantasy.

Skyrim is one of my most loved Fantasy games, its beauty is spectacular.

Season Unending

Do you know the ancient Nord word for war? "Season unending"... so it has proved.
-Arngeir, Greybeard
 Skyrim 

Thursday the 12th was the last gaming club session for the kapiti wargames club for 2013. It was also round 3 of the ongoing elf conflict between Nick's Dark Elves, and my Wood Elves. It was a standard 2400 point game, my list was comprised of:

Highborn (1#, 248 pts)
   1 Wood Elf Highborn, 148 pts = (base cost 145 + Shield 3)
      1 Sword of Might, 20 pts
      1 Armour of Destiny, 50 pts
      1 Dragonbane Gem, 5 pts
      1 An Annoyance of Netlings, 25 pts

Spellweaver (1#, 335 pts)
   1 Spellweaver, 250 pts = (base cost 215 + Level 4 Upgrade 35)
      1 Wand of Wych Elm, 55 pts
      1 Glamorweave, 30 pts

Noble (1#, 120 pts)
   1 Wood Elf Noble (Battle Standard Bearer), 90 pts = (base cost 75 + Battle Standard Bearer 15)
      1 Hail of Doom Arrow, 30 pts

Spellsinger (1#, 170 pts)
   1 Spellsinger, 125 pts = (base cost 90 + Level 2 Upgrade 35)
      1 Ranu's Heartstone, 20 pts
      1 A Lamentation of Despairs, 25 pts

Eternal Guard (20#, 320 pts)
   19 Eternal Guard, 246 pts = 19 * 12 (base cost 12) + Musician Mus 6 + Standard Bearer Std 12
      1 Guardian, 24 pts
      1 Gaemrath - The Banner of Midwinter, 50 pts

Glade Guard (10#, 138 pts)
   10 Glade Guard, 138 pts = 10 * 12 (base cost 12) + Musician Mus 6 + Standard Bearer Std 12

Glade Guard (10#, 126 pts)
   10 Glade Guard, 126 pts = 10 * 12 (base cost 12) + Musician Mus 6

Glade Guard (10#, 126 pts)
   10 Glade Guard, 126 pts = 10 * 12 (base cost 12) + Musician Mus 6

Glade Guard (10#, 126 pts)
   10 Glade Guard, 126 pts = 10 * 12 (base cost 12) + Musician Mus 6

Dryads (10#, 120 pts)
   10 Dryads, 120 pts = 10 * 12

Treeman (1#, 285 pts)
   1 Treeman, 285 pts

Treeman (1#, 285 pts)
   1 Treeman, 285 pts

This.Must.Stop

Today i was alerted to yet another GW price hike, this time in the hobbit range. (Image courtesy of Scotts wargaming blog)

80 dollars for ten bits of plastic, 80 dollars. This is beyond laughable, beyond ridiculous, its pure greed. And it must stop. GW only gets away with this because people pay for it. So i ask EVERYONE who reads this blog, or this post, to boycott GW, stop paying stupid amounts of your hard earned cash for bits of plastic made in China.

Escalation Does What?

So a while back a played in a 2000 point game where the other side had a titan (you can read about it here), my conclusion from that game was that standard 40k units couldn't hope to beat apocalypse class units, like super heavies. 

They really only needed the titan

Well with the new release of the 40k expansion Escalation players can now take those same super heavies into standard 40k games.

Wood Elf Wishlist and Rumors

So its December,  and around this time of year people often publish wishlists of things they would like for Christmas, so in that spirit i have decided to put together a wishlist of the top 5 things i would like to see in the up coming (may 2014, hopefully) wood elf book.

1. Make Treeman Ancients worth taking: The Treeman Ancients has been useful, however i feel for that, for the points increase from Treeman to Treeman Ancient, we should getting alot more than just one extra point of leadership (and general rules). I would like to see gain more upgrade options and perhaps a few stat increases.
2. Decent Close Combat Core unit: Whilst Eternal guard are alright, and dryads are decent the wood elf core selection (besides only having 4 options) lacks a decent close combat unit. Given how close combat focused fantasy games often are this means that wood elves have to rely on their special and rare units to hold the line, and they are often too expensive to fit into the list in any great numbers. What i would like to see is a redo of the Eternal guard, already rumors are abound of them having a +1 strength 5+ save weapon, so it sounds good.
3. A retooled Lore of Athel Loren: This one is fairly likely. I have heard that GW plans to make it a very natural lore in that the lore attribute will be bonuses to cast for standing near forests, and that the spells will have terrain manipulation feel to them, which would be great. 
4. More Options in Special and Rare: This is fairly likely, right now there are 4 options in special and core (if you use a highborn). With such a lack of variety i often forgo special in favor of more core units
5. Make Waywacthers worth taking: Waywacthers have wonderful lore, and the current models are the perfect embodiment of that lore. Unfortunately rules wise they lack punch. Killing blow at short range was good (until heroic killing blow came along) and their deployment rules are pretty good, until the FAQ came along replaced those rules with basic scout deployment rules. I would really like to see Waywacthers get some very interesting and themey rules that cater to a ambush and guerrilla warfare theme.

The Waywatcher Models, perfectly capturing the lore of the Waywatchers