2014 in Review

Its that time of year when I look back and reflect on some of the major wargaming related events of the past 365(ish) days, and thank those who have had a positive influence on my wargaming experience for 2014 . So without further delay lets get to it.

One of the big things to happen this year for me was the release of the new Wood Elf book, finally after all those years of a 6th edition book we got a brand new 8th edition book and did it live up to the wait? Well no not really. If you were following the rumours about the book as much as I was then you couldn’t help but feel disappointed by the new book especially since some of the rumours that came out right before the book went up for pre-order had skirmishers in core with the Strenght-4-at-short-range-bow being given to all and hatred Beastmen being an army wide rule. Despite all that the book isn’t bad just disappointing especially in the areas where the book got nerfed, forest sprits where never broken and didn’t need the -1 strength, dryads were fine as skirmishers and removing that rule hasn’t really done anything for them at all. On the positive side the new book did modernise the Wood Elves with ASF and access to all 8 rule book lores as well as High and Dark. Overall the book is good but I wish it were better.

On the topic of GW codices and army books there were a lot published this year with 8 40k codices and 2 Fantasy army books being published this year alone as well as a new 40k edition and the Shield of Baal Wh40k campaign, and while they score points for quantity the loose points for quality with most of the codices from Orks onwards being dull and uninspired; the last 3 40k codices didn’t have any new units in them and all the new kits that came out were unnecessary redos of old kits, some of which (the Dark Eldar Archon leaps to mind) didn’t need the redo.

Welcome to Firestorm: The Terran Alliance

Continuing on with the Welcome to Firestorm series it’s time to take a look at the 6 main races of firestorm, starting with the Terran Alliance. This post will focus on their background, military strength and how they are currently positioned in the Firestorm lore, Enjoy. 

The Terran Empire Symbol

In the Firestorm universe humanity had colonised all the planets in earth’s home system (referred to as the Sol system) by the end of the 22nd century and the governments of earth had united into one, mainly in order to pool each countries resources which were rapidly dwindling. With the stars open to them humanity’s innate drive to explore kicked back into life and many thousands of human colonists flocked to sign up for these expeditions, which were referred to as extra solar expeditions. It took 3 centuries for the first wave of colony ships to settle and another 2 for these newly founded colonies to thrive.

For Dramos

Last night i was able to get in a 1000 point game of Firestorm against my friends Terran fleet, and i decided to write up the report in a narrative style as i enjoy doing narrative battle reports more than the more kind. So sit back and enjoy.
 
Fleet Admiral Randa Yount stood gazing out upon the vast expanse of space before her and tried to quell her nerves. Around her the crew of the “Hitchens” went about their jobs with a slight air of excitement, for many this was their first voyage aboard a warship as the crew of the warship and the same went for all of the other ships in the fleet, and for Yount herself. The fleet, called the Voice of Dramos, was a newly founded patrol fleet on its maiden voyage before it headed into the Storm Zone to assist the Dindrenzi war effort. Yount herself had recently graduated from the naval academy and through a bizarre series of events had found herself as the fleet admiral for the Voice of Dramos, she still periodically pinched herself to ensure wasn’t dreaming.

“This sector is clear Admiral” called out one of the command bridge crew, “Shall I signal the fleet to move the next sector?” Yount answered with a simple nod, and watched as her fleet prepared to enter Fold Space. As the Hitchen’s own Fold Space drive powered up Yount found herself absentmindedly wondering if they would find anything in the next sector, so far all they had found as empty space, which was what they were expecting. 

The Voice of Dramos patrol fleet

Planetfall Incoming

What with the dispatching of my Planetfall order on December 10th I feel its time to talk about Planetfall, my feelings about it so far, how the models are shaping up the just the game in general. Firstly I just wanted to say that I am impressed with how Spartan handled the first Planetfall wave; they encounter unexpected demand for the starter kit and recon helixes that came with it. In response they let their customer know, via email, that the release would be delayed for a while as they produced more boxes to fill their pre-orders. This is how you handle “unexpected demand” for a product. As of the time of writing this post (9/12/2014) I have yet to receive an email telling me that my shipment will be delayed so all looks well for this release being sent out on time.

Welcome to Firestorm: The Story so Far

Welcome to the first of the "Welcome to Firestorm" posts. The aim of this post, and the ones that follow, is to introduce new players who are unfamiliar with the Firestorm universe to Firestorm lore and perhaps inspire a few people to start a Firestorm fleet. First up is the overall story of the Firestorm universe.

The story of the Firestorm universe starts as many sci-fi universes do. Humanity experiences a golden age of technological advancement  and colonises much of the galaxy. As they explore humanity came into contact with alien races, namely the Aquans, the Relthoza and Sorylians,and fought a war with these races that became to be known as the Wars of First Contact.

A map of the known Firestorm galaxy

Content Shift

There has been an issue weighing on my mind for sometime and it involves GW. You see i love WHFB but hate GW as a company (it used to be that i strongly disliked GW but with recent developments i can now fairly say i hate them), and so the question was: Do i keep playing GW games and continue buying GW models? 

For the longest time the answer has been yes, i still really like WHFB as a game and Wood Elves as a army and my like of the game system and army has outweighed my intense dislike of the company and its practices, another factor keeping me from abandoning GW was that i hadn't found a game that i liked as much as or more than WHFB, until recently.

Enter Spartan Games, Firestorm Armada and Planetfall. I started really getting into Firestorm a few months back and with the release of Planetfall my attention is being drawn towards both those systems and the potential they hold. For those who don't know Firestorm is a Sci-fi Fleet based wargame and Planetfall is a Sci-fi ground based wargame set in the same universe as Firestorm and all signs are that Spartan Games (the creators of Firestorm and Planetfall) will be making a way for games of Firestorm to be combined with games of Planetfall, so fun times ahead. With me getting into these two games i found myself enjoying them more and enjoying WHFB less, not enough to the point where i want to sell all WHFB related things and jump fully into Firestorm but enough so that instead of constantly thinking about WHFB and thinking about what new unit to buy for the Wood Elves i now find myself thinking about Firestorm Fleet tactics and what new ship to add to my fleet.

A Lesson in Soildering

I recently played a game of Planetfall during one of the local clubs wargaming nights, Planetfall is ground based wargame of Firestorm Armada (and it looks like Spartan Games will be making a rules system to link the two games together). I wanted to do a write up of this battle but this issue is that i don't fully grasp the ruleset yet to be able to do a standard issue battle report on the game, however i do know enough about the lore of the Firestorm universe to do a narrative report on the battle, so thats what i have chosen to do. In addition this post will be the first in series aimed at explaining the basics of the Firestorm universe, whose lore is well written and interesting, much more so than 40k's lore in my view. So sit back and enjoy.

Colonel Valentin Zeigler sat back in seat and focused on the tactical readout displayed before him as the Works Raptor LR-6 Recon tank he was riding in moved into position. The readout displayed the real time locations of the units in the Directorate Armoured Recon force he was attached to, all the better for him to learn the tactics of Directorate. As the final units moved into position Zeigler, himself a Colonel in the Dindrenzi Federation and the freshly promoted CO of a Dindrenzi ground regiment, watched intently taking in as much of the Directorate's tactics as he could, after all he was here to learn from people that were considered to be well versed in ground warfare.

The contested military complex

Mordheim City of the Dammed Early Access: First Look

This morning i purchased the early access version of Mordheim City of the Dammed from Steam, this is a game i have been looking forward too for some time. Since a lot of the readers of this blog will have both played the GW version of Mordheim (and most likely have loved it) and play video games i decided to write up a "First Impressions" post of the game. Note that this isn't a review as the game is only in early access but from what i have seen so fare this game has a good chance at being a worthy computer adaption of the game. I will look at 3 aspects of the game for his post, the Mechanics, the Graphics and Performance and the Lore.

The Current Loading Screen

Mechanics

Starting with the basic turn order all members of both Warbands are assigned an initiative value that determines in which order they can act. When a member can act you move them with the WASD keys in third person camera view, on a side note i enjoy being able to control my Warband in 3rd person, it brings out the detail of the character models and helps with Immersion, you feel more like a Warband Leader than a all seeing god with a birds eye view of the battle. 

Change on The Wind

There have been some interesting developments of late regarding GW and how they release models. These past few weeks have seen a Tyranid model release separate from a codex release with the rules for the models being made available in Whiter Dwarf and for FREE!!!!!!on the Black Library site.  On top this there is the side note that last week GW released a App called Warhammer the App for Iphone, basically a GW/Black Library news app.

All the proof you need

For The Federation: Firestorm Armada Battle Report

Last evening's gaming club session heralded my third ever game of Firestorm Armada and to celebrate this i have decided to do a battle report on the game. The real reason behind doing this report is that it helps to promote the game (which i believe deserves promotion) and i know the rules well enough to be able to write a battle report for a Firestorm game.

For this battle i was playing the Dindrenzi Federation (whose ships are slow, heavily armoured and have powerful rail guns that only have a very limited arc of fire) and my opponents were playing the Directorate (similar to the Dindrenzi but with less powerful guns with better arcs of fire) and the Relthoza ( a stealth and ambush orientated faction). We decided to plan a basic Battleline type mission where the only goal would be to wipeout more enemy squadrons than the other side. The Deployment zone was 12 inches in from the board edge and while i did win the roll off for deploying first i let my opponent place the first squadron. They deployed a Battleship and a squadron of Cruisers behind a debris field on the right side of the board and deployed a Battleship and a second Cruiser Squadron as well as a Corvette Squadron on the right hand side of the board.

My Opponents right side Deployment

Lets Talk About Firestorm

By now I have played 2.5 games of Firestorm Armada, and I think I know enough about the game, its rules and the company who makes/maintains it to write a decent post about the game and various side issues surrounding it, and this is that post. Let’s start with the rules

The Rules

The rules for Firestorm are fairly simple and easy to learn. For instance generally speaking every shot fired by a model in the game will hit on a 4,5 or 6 with a roll of 6 counting as 2 hits and allowing you to roll another dice, if a 6 is rolled off that dice then it also counts as 2 hits and gives you another roll. This mechanic is referred to as the “Exploding Dice Mechanic” and means that even the smallest ship has a chance to inflict severe damage if the dice give the right results. Shield mechanic work in a very similar way to the shooting mechanics, for every point you have in a ships shield stat you can roll that many dice when being shot at, for every 4,5 or 6 rolled you can discount a successful shot from the enemy, this mechanic also uses the Exploding dice rule so a lucky player may be able to completely nullify a round of shooting from the enemy if he rolls right.

Slow Progress: Skitterleap Day 2

Its now been a whole week since day 2 of Skitterleap so i felt that it was about time i did the day two tournament report, so here it is.

Game 4: Battle for the Pass

Game 4 was against Robert Higgins and his pirate themed Ogres. His list had some issues for me, mainly the two Ironblasters but also the fact that the majority of his troops were toughness 4 multi wounds killing machines. Thankfully said killing machines had little to no armour so that was something to go on.

He got the first turn and began by trying to kill the Glade Lord and his Eagle with the Ironblasters, thankfully they only did a total of one wound to the Glade Lord throughout the entire game. Otherwise he generally advanced towards my own lines with a few bouts of combat between Dryads and ogres. Those combats were all my doing as i tried to halt the ogre advance for as long as i could to get as much ranged damage as i could in,  Pit of Shades came in handy here as it one shot quite a few ogres from the Leadbelcher and Bull units. Finally i cleaned up the Gnoblars in Roberts Deployment zone with a unit of Scouts and Waywatchers.

A Shakey Start: Skitterleap Day 1

Day 1 of Skitterleap 2014 has come and gone and while it wasn't the best start i could have had it wasn't the worst start i have ever had, after the cryptic start lets get on with the report.

Game 1: Dawn Attack

Game one was against Neil Wiliamson and his Warriors of Chaos. Dawn Attack didnt do much damage with its random deployment ways and i took first turn. I opened with an attempt to claim the right flank of the table and began this endeavor by shooting away Neil's warhounds and moving my scouts into Neils right flank. My center remained steady and on the left flank i withered the Skullcrushers and shot some wounds off them. Neil began by genelly advancing on the left flank and center while on the right flank he turned his last unit on the right to face the oncoming tide of Elves.

The Lord And The Weaver: Wood Elf General tactics

After the tournament Call To Arms 2014 i decided against having a Mage general, in both my first and last game my mage general decided to get sucked down a hole which meant that the first game was a bigger lose than it would have been and it meant the last game was a lose rather than a win. For my Skitterleap list i decided upon a mobile Machine Gun/Bow Glade Lord, my reasoning behind this was that he would both more useful (he can shot chaff, hunt chaff, hunt warmachines and seek flanks) and he would be easier to keep alive (his primary role didn't have a built in chance to get him killed without my opponent lifting a finger). However he has only seen a single game so far so i decided to do a tactics post looking at the Pros and Cons both both viable generic lord level Wood Elf generals in order to help any other fellow Wood Elf players who may be having similar issues, there will be a post in the future on Wood Elf special characters which will cover them and the reason why the Treeman Ancient isn't in this post is because i no longer consider him a viable general choice for reasons i will come to later.

The Lord and the Weaver, who will you choose? (assuming you play Wood Elves)

An Other Productive Weekend

This weekend it was time for a break from GW related models for paining, this time i planned to finish off my Firestorm Armada Fleet and continue my Flames of War Polish army, and i was able to achieve both goals. So here is my finished Firestorm Fleet:

Core Blimey: Wood Elf Core Tactica

Having now played with all 4 of the core units in the Wood Elf book I feel that I can speak about them tactics wise while knowing what I am talking about. In the new book the core section got a few slight tweaks with many of the units still filling their old roles, Glade Guard still shot things, Dryads are still our best source of chaff, and Enteral Guard are still the best CC infantry unit we can bring to bear, only the Glade Riders were really impacted by the changes.

Glade Guard

The trusty Glade Guard are still trusty and worth consideration. Really all they gained was access to the new arrows (and lost the S4 at short range bow and the no penalties for moving and shooting). Aside from that they are still the same old 12 point squishy elves we all know and love.

Quality Vs Cost

There has been an issue that has been bugging me for some time and it is GW related. The quality of their models is undeniable; they produce some of the best plastic models around (with the exception of a few of the Hobbit Models) however the quality must be viewed in the context of the cost of the models, even using the best example (50 NZD for 10 Enteral Guard/Wildwood Rangers) we can see the product is overpriced. I doubt that it took anywhere near 50 NZD to produce that kit and the actual value of the plastic that the models are made of isn’t worth 50 NZD.

Now if you buy GW’s models from sits like Ebay and Trade Me, or even online retailers you are likely to get a better deal. I just picked up a Brand New Riders of Rohan box for 31.50 NZD (including postage) from Trade me. This is about 20 NZD less than the retail prices and I think it more actually reflects the actual value of the model. Sure the models look great but for not 50 NZD (for only 6 models).

There is another part of this that I have yet to mention in all my posts about GWs price and that is the core of my issue with GWs pricing. I started this hobby in 2007 (ish) at the start of the Storm of Chaos Campaign. The standard box set (arcos all WHFB armies at least as well as some 40k armies) was 55 NZD for 20 models, some of the box sets that I can recall are 20 Imperial Guardsmen for 55 NZD as well as Zombies, Skeletons, Beastmen (12 Gors 18 Ungors), Orks (both 40k and Fantasy), Empire State Troops, Dark Elves, High Elves, Tomb kings. And it wasn’t just core troop box sets the metal “Blister Packs” were also reasonable prices. There were issues, certain units could only be bought by the Blister Pack (Savage Orcs and Grave Guard are two such examples) and other units had rules but not models . And the models produced during that time were as good (or at worst slightly worse) than models produced nowdays, and yet GW sold them for less and still were able to thrive as company. The core of my issue is that they sold similar products for less when I started and now the sell roughly the same products for so much more now days.

Dynamic Elves

On my recent Wood Elf tactics post I got a comment that seems to sum up peoples view of the new Wood Elves:

Ok granted HoDA's effect is amazing. However, the cost is not 30 points.

The true cost of HoDA is 105 points. A glade captain + HoDA.

There is no material reason to take a Glade captain (including BSB) other than to take HoDA. He's weak in CC, Arrow of Kurnous is a gimmick and a BSB is no help in any type of MSU army (which is the competitive only way to play WE).

The only decent Lords / Hero choices are spell casters, and HoDA on a BS4 Multiple shot for 30 points is not nearly as effective.

Now feel free to disagree, but think about your list for a second. What does that Glade Captain (or even worse: lord) really contribute? And would you be better off having taken 105 points worth of something else?

 Perhaps 5 more Waywatchers or 4 more Wild Riders.

HoDA is amazing, but the army is stronger without the one carrying it.

Now I am not singling this commenter out, indeed I encourage anyone who has a view about my posts be it a view that agrees with mine or disagrees to comment. But the above comment perfectly encapsulates the view many people have about the Wood Elves, that there is only one build that works and that anything that doesn’t fit into this build should be cast aside.

A Tactica All of its Own: The Hail of Doom Arrow Tactica

The Hail of Doom Arrow (or HODA for short) has been with the Wood Elf army for quite a while now. In the 3rd edition book it was a Scarloc only magic item, in the 6th ed book it was 30 point Enchanted Item that did 3d6 worth of strength 4 shots (it wasn't classified as a multiple shot item) and now its current version is a 30 point Enchanted Item that does 3d6 worth of strength 4 shots armour piercing shots (it is now a multiple shot item). It’s an time that many Wood Elf players take and its easy to see why. However there is one question all wood elf players who use the HODA must answer: When do I use it and who do I use it on? As I have been using the HODA pretty much as long as I have been playing Wood Elves allow me to give you my opinion on those two questions. 

While not actually a HODA we would all lime to think that they look like this

Who? 

Looking at the HODA’s profile many Wood Elf players may be tempted to fire it at all sorts of things. Monsters, Big Unis, Small Units, War Machines, Heavily Armoured Troops, Lightly Armoured Troops, Chariots. All of these are tempting targets for the HODA however I advise a more narrow selection of potential targets, Chaff or Small to Medium units. As tempting as it may be to fire the HODA at a Warmachine / Monster and wish for the required number of sixes to kill it this would be a waste of the HODA. I recommend firing it unis along the lines of Chaff, Empire Knights/ Elf Calvary (of all Armour Saves) or blocks of toughness 3 to 4 about 15 to 20 in size. The mina reasons for this is the random amount of shots, you simply cannot rely on the HODA to kill a Monster or War Machine as you need a huge number of shots to hit in order to have a chance at getting the high number of sixes required to wound. Similarly you need an equally high number of hits to transfer over to wounds to put a dent even in a moderately sized Horde (30+ models).

The Hunt Begins

+++++ Data Transmission Incoming +++++
+++++ Contents Magenta Level Secured +++++
+++++ Password Required +++++
+++++ Password ******* +++++
+++++ Access Granted, Welcome Inquisitor Malenciha +++++
+++++ Report on Parxis Engagement from Librarian Erstin +++++
+++++ Report Begins: Greetings Inquisitor. As you are aware Strike Force Epsilon has already encounter traitors in the Quarlous Sector (see my previous report on the
engagement with the heretical Pretorian 3^rd Fusiliers). After our first battle with these forces myself and my men were eager to hunt down those who had escaped the Emperor's Justice last time and destroy them. Our hunt lead us to the battle scared world of Parxis where we believed we may find information about our quarry, what we found  was far worse.

The Battlefield

The area where the engagement took place was also the location of a downed Aquila whose cogitators had vital information as to the where abouts of the  Pretorian 3^rd . As we approached the Battlefield our ships sensors detected the presence of others. As the reports from my squads came the first of our opponents were revealed: Blood Angels.

Where is The Koronus Expanse? And a Shoutout

Yesterday we had the first session of a Rouge Trader Role Play that i am running for a group of friends and having deiced to publish these sessions in a report style of post i did just that and wrote up the session and posted it. This morning i was reminded providing basic setting information would be a good idea, where were the session taking place, what was Port Wander? Where was the Kronus Exspane? Well thankfully the Rouge Trader Core Rule book has all those answers, and so i present to you the background setting that the Role Play is set in, enjoy.

The Koronus Expanse is the name given by Imperial authorities to a dangerous unexplored region of the Halo Stars beyond the Calixis Sector. The Expanse is accessed through the Koronus Passage, a treacherous but navigable route through the great warp storms that bar passage to the Halo Stars beyond the way station of Port Wander. As is true of the Calixis Sector itself, the Expanse was untouched by the God-Emperor’s Crusade many millennia ago—and so it is a realm of fearsome xenos, treasures beyond imagining, heathen worlds of men, and the echoes of ancient doom.

The Koronus Expanse in the the 41st Millennium is a scattered, partly explored region containing a few young colonies and vast natural wealth still barely exploited. Rogue Traders vie with one another for known resources, heedless of lives lost in the pursuit of riches, while a tentative attempt at Imperial colonisation follows in their wake. Drawn by the flow of wealth, pirates and servants of the Dark Gods have also slipped into the Expanse, eager to cast destruction upon the works of the God-Emperor’s faithful, living by what they wrest from dead hands, while the Expanse itself holds many secrets and native inhabitants no less dangerous.

Through the Maw: Rouge Trader Session 1

+++++ Incoming Data Transmission +++++
+++++ Password: ******** +++++
+++++ Welcome Admiral Gillam +++++
+++++ Loading report from Ensign Holt +++++
+++++ Report Begins +++++

Greetings Admiral from UCS 020, here follows my report on the actions of the Rouge Trader Pank and his crew during the first phase of their mission.
 
I met the Rouge Trader Pank and his crew at 13:00 PWST (Port Wander Standard Time). By this point they had already designed and named their ship and had gone throughout the Port acquiring gear that they believed they would need on their journey, Pank (The Rouge Trader) acquired a Jump Pack,  Jaydenicus (The ships medic and slightly unhinged missionary) tried to convince others to join the crew but failed, the Psyker Valerius (the ships Astropath) acquired a Melta gun that would be shipped to Evera  (our base of operations in Un Charted Sector 020). Finally Jaydenicus acquired a illegal Squig for the Kroot member of the crew, why he did so remains a mystery and perhaps the reason would only make sense to one such as he.

Upon their arrival back at office we had set aside for them i introduced myself and the role i would play on board the ship (your eyes and ears) and i informed them of the mission that you gave them (to recon UCS 020 and send back any and all information on the planets that lay within). Pank seemed to resent my assignment and place aboard his ship and tried to talk me down, he did not succeed.

The Exspanse Beckons: Rouge Trader Prologue

Welcome one and all to the Prologue of my Rouge Trader Campaign, allow me to explain this post and the ones that will follow it. I have been interested in Role Plays for some time and have even GMed a few. Last year I started watching a D and D series on Youtube by someone who goes by the name of Itmejp. JP does several Roleplay shows, with the first (and in my Opinion best) being called Role Plays original, now Roleplay Solum. He also does a show called Sawn song (a sci-fi show), R and D (where different Role Play systems mare tried out) and Vigil (an dungeon World Fantasy Role Play).

It is my opinion that these series are hands down the best entertainment ever published to Youtube and perhaps some of the best entertainment across all mediums. The players are all excellent at the characters they play and the interactions in the groups across all the shows are real and are thrill to watch. In addition the GMs/DMs are top rate, mentally flexible enough to keep up with what their players are doing whilst not being hide bound by the rules, the rules are there to give the players a fun time and can be bent and broken to achieve that goal. On top of that the things that happen on that show are simply amazing and simply don’t happen on TV shows, I would say that the series put out by JP and his group are better than Game of Thrones. If anyone is interested in checking out the series the link is here. I have found that listening to episodes while paint has been very relaxing and helps me to paint. If you like Role Plays then I highly recommend checking out the link, it will be worth your time.

The Bloody Road to Skitterleap

Skitterleap this year provides me with a chance to try out a new army. As frequent readers will know i am working on a Mono Khorne Chaos Demon army and have decided to enter it into Skitterleap. As this is a completely different army to the Wood Elves it requires me to practice like i never have practiced before, and practice i did last Thursday during my weekly games night. It just so happened that my regular oppoent Nicholas Jebson (of HMS Distraction fame) also had a new army that he wished to try out, and that army happened to be Dwarves (or Dwarfs if you are GW).

This game would be a big change for both of us as we both lacked a magic phase, which usually plays a big part in our games, Nick did still have some shooting power in his list but it wasn't nearly as maneuverable as he was use to. I had a Skullcannon, which is kinda similar to Trueflight Glade Guards/Scouts/Waywatchers. The game was 1000 points, Nick's List was made of:

Dragon slayer

grudge rune

thane

great weapon, gromril armour with the rune of stone and fortitude and the rune of spite

10 thunderers

handguns, heavy armour, shields

10 thunderers

handguns, heavy armour, shields

21 troll slayers

slayer axes

gyrocopter

gyrocopter

5 Rangers

Champion

My list was made of:

Hearld of Khorne

Lesser Gift

Healrd of Khorne

BSB

2x10 Bloodletters

Full Command

3 Bloodcrushers

Full Command and Banner of Swiftness

Skullcannon

We set up the table and the began rolling dice. Nick rolled a 5 on his Dwarfy Grudge thing and his army hated mine. I rolled a 6 on the lesser gift tabel giving my general Always Strikes First, yaaay.

Whats so Bad About Herohammer?

At the start of this week I hadn’t fully made up my mind on the End Times rules. I loved the lore update and liked the models but I was on the fence over the rules having said previously that I would ignore them, that wasn’t due to me disliking them that was due to me not planning on buying them.

I like to think I am a logical and rational person who can be swayed by decent arguments and logical thought and this is just what has happened with the End Times: Nagash rules. After listening to a few of my regular podcasts (most of whom talked about the book) I not only now plan on buying the End Times: Nasgash book but look forward to playing some End Times games, especially with the scenario set underground. I don’t plan on using the Lore of Undeath, as this would mean buying a whole new army, but things like the increased 50% lord and hero allocations are something I will be using.

And now we come to the heart of this post. Ever since the 50% lord and hero allocations were seen people have been saying that this is a 9th ed hint (which I still don’t buy. But am happy to be proved wrong) and that this heralds the return of Herohammer (Dun,dun,dun) which is apparently big and scary and we should stop playing WHFB because of it. But I don’t see the issue here, in other words what is wrong with having more lords and heroes on the field? Heroes can still only take 50 points of magic items and lords can only take 100 points, so its not like they got harder to kill, they are still as vulnerable to cannon balls, magic, snipers and miscasts as they were before. Yeah you may see more of them but all that means is changing your tactics and strategies to counter them. So what if you face a 2400 point Dark Elf army with 2 lords on Black Dragons, they can’t take the same magic items and that’s just less points that that player gets to spend on things like Warlocks and Bolt Throwers. And it’s not like 2 Black Dragon rider lords are un-killable, bog them down in infantry, flank and rear charge them and break them in combat, or just dance around them with Skirmish units or fast cav and pepper them to death, or just shoot them in the face with a cannon ball, that still works. I actually like the idea of being able to field a Dragon riding Wood Elf Glade Lord and a Level 4 Lifeweaver, that would be kinda cool.

Those Who Consort With Demons

+++++ Incoming Transmission +++++

+++++ Transmission Encrypted: Magenta Level Clearance required to access this message +++++

+++++ Password: ******** +++++

+++++ Access Granted +++++

+++++ Text Based Message from Inquisitor Malenciha to Librarian Erstin ++++++

+++++ Subject:  Heresy within the Pretorian 3^rd Fusiliers +++++

++++ Message Begins: Greetings Librarian.  After receiving your last message about rumours regarding Guard regiments summoning Demons to aid them in battle I was, at first, sceptical. In fact if it were anyone other than yourself (or any other member of your chapter) making these allegations then I would have them under investigation for fear they had gone insane, or worse, become tainted themselves. However I pursued these rumours and found, to my shock, that there is some truth to them. I have attached Pict Images of a battle between the insidious Eldar and the Pretorian 3^rd Fusiliers, where it appears the Fusiliers’s Psykers summon Demons to aid them in battle (These images are strictly for your eyes and your chapters eyes only, no one outside our organizations may know of their existence).

I advise you make haste to Pretorian 3^rd Fusiliers last known position and purge them.

The Emperor Protects

Inquisitor Malenciha of the Ordo Hereticus

+++++ Message Ends +++++

Pict Image from the 3rd's Engagement against the Eldar, note demons in the foreground appear to be working alongside the Troops of the 3rd, image quality attributed to Warp Energy

+++++ Report Loading +++++
+++++ Report Begins +++++
+++++ Here begins the report of Librarian Erstin of the Grey Knights and his Strike Force, and their engagement of the heretical Pretorian 3^rd Fusiliers, account begins:

After conversing with Inquisitor Malenciha on the subject of the heretical Pretorian 3^rd Fusiliers it was decided that the best course of action was for me to take my Strike Forces and engage the Demon Worshipers.

We made good speed to the unnamed planet where the heretics had gone to ground, we were alerted to this hideout by a member of the Officio Assassinorum who had been working with Inquisitor Malenciha.  After making planet fall we located their hideout with great ease for they gave no care to hiding themselves, believing themselves safe.

Recon pictures detailing the Heretics campsite and surroundings

End Times? What End Times?

Usually i like to leave a new post up for a few days before doing another, this allows the new post to get decent exposure. However the WHFB expansion "The End Times" demands a post, not just because i did a post last year where i lambasted WHFB Lore as "Toothless", but also because there seems to be a great deal of panic about this expansion. This post will look at the End Times Expansion from 3 angles: The Lore, The Rules and The Models.

The Rules

Lets start with the biggest source of panic and hysteria, the rules. From what i can gather the following are what we know will be in the Expansion's ruleset:

-50% Lord allowance (as opposed to the normal 25%)

-The Lore of Undeath. Basically is the WHFB version of Demonology, it allows all mages from all races to summon Vampire or Tomb King units

- A Combined Vampire Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings army list

- Nagash rules (there could be other characters and rules to come)

The first two points seem to have gotten everyone up in arms with people panicking that this expansion heralds the return of "Herohammer" (a,apparently, very bad thing from before i started WHFB that has Heroes and Lords become very powerful and plentiful). To me this is nonsense. If GW wanted 9th edition to feature Herohammer type rules then this expansion wouldn't exist. Currently the rumours have 9th coming out next year and if 9th was to include the 50% lord allocation then what is the point of this Expansion? As far as i can see one of the main draw points of this expansion is the 50% Lord allocation so why would GW cannibalise its own sales by putting that exact rule in 9th? It makes no sense and it seems to me that the point of this expansion is to give people a way to play WHFB Herohammer without making it a core mechanic in the core ruleset.

The Dice Decide: CTA 2014 Day 2

Day 2 of CTA was a day applying learnt lessons and the Dice deciding against me. As will become clear by the end of this post the dice were against me for the final two games, which was a shame because I needed 29 points to get 50 across all 5 games, achieving my goal of coming middle of the pack.

Game 4: Blood and Glory 

Game 4 was against Thomas Lissington and his undead Hordes. The game started well with casualties being dished out to the undead in huge numbers. My archers took a toll on his Dire Wold units and by turn 2 they were all gone with the big unit of 20 being squished by the Treekin. The Blood Knights suffered badly at the hands of the Waywatchers and would have died if not for the Banner of the Blood Keep’s 4+ ward save. By end of Turn 2 things were going well, all the Dire Wolves were gone, the Terrorgheist was tied up chasing some scouts who danced around pulling faces at it, his Blood Knights were down to 2 knights plus the BSB and his Ghoul unit as stuck in the dangerous terrain in the centre of the board. On top of that my units had begun to pull around the sides of his remain units in order to deny charges whilst stilling shooting said units.

A Weekend's Work

It started on Friday evening (technically the weekend). I took the sprues out of the box and began to clip the components off. In about half an hour i had begun assembling them.

So it Begins

The Wood Elves Return! CTA 2014 Day 1

CTA 2014 has come and gone and it was a bitter sweet event for me. On one hand I didn't achieve my goal of getting mid of the group in overall placing but on the positive side I learnt a lot about my army, how to play it and the direction I want to take the Wood Elves in future games. Before I begin I want to say that across all 5 games my opponents were excellent sports and opponents, they all were provided genuinely enjoyable games and were joys to play against.

Game 1: Dawn Attack

Game one was against the one and only Nicholas Jebson and his Dark Elf hordes and the scenario was dawn attack. Deployment wise neither of us were badly affected by random deployment with most of our troops landing in the centre, that and both of our forces were mobile enough to reposition themselves if the need arose. I got first turn and began the shooting bombardment, killing a few Dark Elves here and there; the most notable was killing the Chariot that Nick general was riding in (said general succeed into the nearby corsairs). Nick’s opening turns saw him gun his forces towards my lines and generally weathering the Wood Elf firepower, he did charge a reduced shade unit into the some scouts with little effect on either side. The most important event in the early turns was my general killing himself by miscasting, rolling Dimensional cascade and failing the 4+ to not die roll (as it turns out he was foreshadowing events to come), I can’t even remember the spell he cast but I do recall making some vague statement along the lines of “Surly he can’t die now” or some equally dice tempting phase. 

Images from the early game (Turns 1 and 2)

Games Workshop is Really Not Your Friend

For many reader's their response to the title of this post will be "Thank you captain obvious", however GWs most recent anti consumer move (the one that inspired this post) should really hammer that line home. Let me make it clear: Games Workshop doesn't like you, it doesn't value you as a customer, it doesn't care about you and it certainly doesn't respect you, all we (the legions of people who buy things from GW) are revenue flow to Games Workshop. Revenue flow that can be condensed to at will, talked to as if we were stupid and above all we are the kind of revenue flow  whose reactions to GW's moves are completely ignored.

No doubt many of you will be wondering what sparked that decidedly dark and grim opening paragraph, allow me to explain. Today i was linked to an in depth article that did a excellent job of explaining GW's recent move to try and limit the sale of its products to only Games Workshop stores. If they succeeded then, in Australia, stores similar to Mighty Ape, Slave to Painting and The Hobby Store would not be able to sell GW products any more meaning no more discounted GW product, and considering that GW already has raised the Aus (and NZ) price of its product to ridiculous heights already it will only make things worse for Australian GW hobbyists .

All The Magical Things: Wood Elf Character Loadout Tactics

Wood Elf players are blessed and cursed when it comes to magic item selection for their characters. On the positive side there aren't that many good magic items in the new book so in many ways what worked in the last book still works. On the negative side there isn't a Banner of the World Dragon eskque item in our armoury. We got the dregs of the magic item barrel in terms of the quality and usefulness of our racial magic items. There are a few standouts but they are out numbered by average or just plain bad magic items. However i have already covered the racial items in part 2 of my review of the Wood Elf army book (it can be found here) so this post will be focusing on the core rule book items and how they can be used to benefit Wood Elf characters.

Sadly no Wood Elf magic items were featured in this image

The Commissar and the Cannon

Following on from last week's hobby labours i continued my work my 3 WIP armies, and managed to produced some finished products which i would like to share with you today. First up is the colonel Commissar himself, Ibram Gaunt (once again i apologise for the faint black bars in these images, i do have a proper camera now but it lacks a SD card):

                              

Hobby Rampage

My small painting desk has been frantic with activity of late (thats what happens when building 3 armies all at once). With work going ahead on an Ork army, Tanith First and Only Imperial Guard regiment and a WHFB Khorne Demon army my hobby time has been devoted to building and painting models from these 3 armies, thankfully the Wood Elves are about finished bar a few movement trays that need doing.

So first up i wanted to show the test model for my Khorne Demons colour scheme. Recently i had some family in America who were willing to pick up a few things for me, most of which was a brand new Khorne Demon army and here is the first finished model in that army.

The Storm of Arrows. CTA 2014 Practise

Thursday saw the first practise game for my CTA Wood Elf list, and my opponent was doing the same. Nick Jebson (author of the HMS Distraction) was taking his Beast Hunter list for a spin and looking just at the lists our armies do seem evenly matched. I was taking:

2400 Pts - Wood Elves Roster - Call to Arms List v 1.1

Spellweaver (1#, 305 pts)
   1 Spellweaver, 305 pts (Always Strikes First; Blessing of The Ancients; Forest Stalker; General; Level 4 Upgrade; Asrai Longbow; Hand Weapon; Volley Fire)
      1 Elven Steed (Fast Cavalry; Vanguard)
      1 Channeling Staff
      1 Talisman of Preservation
      1 The Lore of High Magic

Shadowdancer (1#, 185 pts)
   1 Shadowdancer, 185 pts (Always Strikes First; Blessing of The Ancients; Forest Stalker; Level 1 Wizard; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon x1; Immune to Psychology)
      1 Glittering Scales

Glade Captain (1#, 150 pts)
   1 Glade Captain (Battle Standard Bearer), 150 pts (Always Strikes First; Forest Stalker; Asrai Longbow; Hand Weapon; Battle Standard Bearer; Volley Fire)
      1 Gambler's Armour
      1 Hail of Doom Arrow

Spellsinger (1#, 150 pts)
   1 Spellsinger, 150 pts (Always Strikes First; Blessing of The Ancients; Forest Stalker; Level 2 Upgrade; Asrai Longbow; Hand Weapon; Volley Fire)
      1 Dispel Scroll
      1 Ironcurse Icon
      1 The Lore of Beasts

Waystalker (1#, 110 pts)
   1 Waystalker, 110 pts (Always Strikes First; Forest Stalker; Hawk-eyed Archer; Asrai Longbow; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Scouts; Sniper; Volley Fire)
      1 The Bow of Loren

Eternal Guard (20#, 265 pts)
   19 Eternal Guard, 265 pts (Always Strikes First; Forest Stalker; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Asrai Spear; Light Armour; Stubborn)
      1 Eternal Warden (Always Strikes First; Forest Stalker; Hand Weapon; Asrai Spear; Light Armour; Stubborn)
      1 Standard of Discipline

Glade Guard (10#, 170 pts)
   10 Glade Guard, 170 pts (Always Strikes First; Forest Stalker; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Asrai Longbow; Trueflight Arrows; Volley Fire)

Glade Guard (10#, 160 pts)
   10 Glade Guard, 160 pts (Always Strikes First; Forest Stalker; Musician Mus; Hand Weapon; Asrai Longbow; Trueflight Arrows; Volley Fire)

Glade Guard (10#, 160 pts)
   10 Glade Guard, 160 pts (Always Strikes First; Forest Stalker; Musician Mus; Hand Weapon; Asrai Longbow; Trueflight Arrows; Volley Fire)

Deepwood Scouts (10#, 160 pts)
   10 Deepwood Scouts, 160 pts (Always Strikes First; Forest Stalker; Hand Weapon; Asrai Longbow; Trueflight Arrows; Scouts; Skirmishers; Volley Fire)

Deepwood Scouts (10#, 160 pts)
   10 Deepwood Scouts, 160 pts (Always Strikes First; Forest Stalker; Hand Weapon; Asrai Longbow; Trueflight Arrows; Scouts; Skirmishers; Volley Fire)

Treeman (1#, 225 pts)
   1 Treeman, 225 pts (Forest Spirit; Tree Whack; Causes Terror; Flammable; Large Target; Scaly Skin; Stubborn; Thunder Stomp)

Waywatchers (5#, 100 pts)
   5 Waywatchers, 100 pts (Always Strikes First; Forest Stalker; Hawk-eyed Archer; Hand Weapon; Asrai Longbow; Extra Hand Weapon; Scouts; Skirmishers; Volley Fire)

Waywatchers (5#, 100 pts)
   5 Waywatchers, 100 pts (Always Strikes First; Forest Stalker; Hawk-eyed Archer; Hand Weapon; Asrai Longbow; Extra Hand Weapon; Scouts; Skirmishers; Volley Fire)

Caring Complaints

Often i see posts decrying people who complain bout things that GW does, and that doesn't sit right with me. Sure there are people who "Love to Hate" GW and will pointless nit pick at everything GW does just for the fun of it. But most of the people who complain about things that GW do are doing so because (i think) they care about WHFB and Wh40k.

You really do need at least 1 picture per post, and this is the most relevant one i could find....

A Flying Rectangle

Today GW has unveiled (officially, there were leaks prior to this) the new Space Wolf flyer! And here it is.......

Yes Rectangles can indeed fly!

The Ghosts and The Greenskins

Since i started back into Warhammer and Warhammer 40k (mid 2013) i have done 6 different 40k armies and have sold the first 4 of those. The reason for this is that i had issues with 6th ed and those 4 armies didn't click with me in the way that Wood Elves have clicked for me in WHFB, in fact i enjoy Wood Elves so much that they are the only fantasy army i will do (i have tried three times to do a second WHFB army and have sold each of those 3 armies after relieasing that they weren't Wood Elves). However the 2 40k armies i am working on now have clicked, and in turn i am actually looking forward to playing Wh40k again. The two armies that have my attention (and finances) are a Ork army and an army i have wanted to do since i first read one of the novels about them: The Tanith First and Only, or Gaunt's Ghosts.

The Best of the Imperial Guard

Call to Arms 2014

I have been slow on the post output of late and this is mainly due to the fact that i have caught "That Bug" that has been doing the rounds this winter.  But this hasn't stopped me from entering this years Call to Arms for WHFB. For those who have followed this blog for some time you will re-call that CTA 2013 was the first tournament i reported on this blog, as for how well i went.........

You know how they say "There is always next time"......

All the Colours of Magic: Wood Elf Magic Tactics

With the Wood Elf magic lore options going from 3 to 10 it can be somewhat daunting trying to select a lore to use on your mages. I myself have trialed 7 out of the 10 lores on offer and now present my opinions on those 7 lores in order to help you choose the lore that best suits your Wood Elf army. The 7 lores are Fire, Metal, Beasts, Life, Death, High and Dark.

Standard magic related image? Check

Fire

Just like its odd seeing Dark Elves use Light magic it is similarly odd to see Wood Elves use Fire magic. Odd as it may be the lore of Fire can be useful in a Wood Elf army and the spells that make this so are: The Flaming Sword of Rhuin, The Cloak of Cascading Fire, Fireball and The Burning Head. The benefits of the Flaming Sword are clear, +1 to wound is a very useful thing and at only 8+ to cast its a bargain, chuck this on a unit of Trueflight or Swiftshiver Glade Guard and watch the carnage. The Cloak is great for giving a WE combat unit an edge even before the first blows have fallen (2d6 S4 hits on any enemy unit in BTB contact will ruin someones day), Fireball provides a scary number of S4 hits that can seriously weaken or even destroy some units and the Burning head is great for causing low LD units to either flee off the board or get set back a few turns, and given that WE still have a hard time vs horde units panicking one such unit is a great way to buy time for your line. The other spells have their uses but its those 4 spells are of the most use to a WE player. Its not the best lore on offer but its not bad.

Transmission Incoming, Source Unknown

+++++ Incoming Transmission +++++
+++++ Source Unknown +++++
+++++ Transmission Begins +++++

All right hummies listen up good, iz be waiting, watching, obzersving youz and iz has come to a conculshun: Youz is weak. Youz have been ruling this sector and keeping da boyz down. Dat don’t sit right, da weak shouldn’t be beating da strong, it should be da other way round!

+++++ None verbal audio burst, likely firing of a weapon or the striking of a weapon against a hard surface +++++

My name is Warboss Blackjaw and iz has a message for youz. Da godz gave me a vision, day showed me dis sector in control of da Orks, day showed me youz in chainz at my feet, day showed me boyz beating you wif youz own weaponz and tacticz. So readyz yourselz hummies for iz is coming for ya, and when iz do there will be nowhere ta hide. The time of da Orks haz come and iz going to kick startz itz.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

+++++ None verbal audio burst, identified as the repeated firing of a weapon +++++
+++++ Transmission Ends +++++

The Dice Odyssey 2013-2014 Stats

What with the one year anniversary of the Dice Odyssey having come and gone (the first post was on the 18/6/2013) i have decided to start a yearly tradition where, around the 18 of June, i will do a post covering the important stats of the past 365 days, so lets get to it, starting with:

Page Views

Total number of page views: 34,770

Month with the most page views: 7618 (this is probably due to my coverage of the Wood Elf release during this month)

Most Viewed Post:  Pierce the Armour! Wood Elf Review Part 1 with 2220 views

Top 3 Non Wood Elf Realated Posts:

1.  The Non Wood Elf Post with 701 views
2.  Mantic Games Vs Gamework Shop with 332 views
3.  The EA of Wargaming with 218 views

Let's Talk About The Orks

Its been about a week since my last post and one of the reasons for that was i wanted talk about the Wh40k Ork release. Ever since GW deicede to "Change" how they do releases we have had 4 (not counting the Orks) GW armies all with very different releases. We had the Imperial Knights (who, perplexingly, got their Codex in week 2 of their release which is odd as the Imperial Knight release consisted of about 2 items total), the Dwarfs (who not only had a incorrectly spelt army name but also had to wait until week 3 for their Army Book), the IMPERAIL GUARD (who got a new, silly and copyrightable name as well as a week 4 Codex release) and the Wood Elves (easily the best release out of all 4 of the armies with a  2 week release and the Army Book in week 1). So we finally come to the Ork release which has been a snorefest. I decided to start a 40k Ork army when i knew the army would be redone and its been hard to keep my interest up, and i am not the only one. So what do i think is the cause of this lack of excitement? To help answer that question lets look at what was released when during this release.

It took 4 weeks to get this Codex, lets hope its worth it

The Rumour Conundrum

According to the rumours we should expect WHFB 9th Edition in September, or we should expect it to be discontinued in December, or we should expect it to be replaced by a Mordhiem like skirmish game, or we should expect 9th edition in 2015. All of the above are rumours i have heard regarding the future of WHFB. From the outset i want to make clear that i think it highly likely that WHFB will get a 9th edition and find it highly unlikely that WHFB will be disconnected. I believe WHFB is in fact growing, its player base swelling with every new army book and GW would have to be declared insane if they dropped it. The point of this post is to address several issues all at once. Firstly i want to take a look at the state of rumours about GW's release schedule, why are there so many rumours about the same thing and how can we possibly tell a false rumour from a true one. Then i want to address the rumours/view that WHFB is a game system in decline, that its player base is dwindling and try to show that this is not the case. Finally i want to talk about 9th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles, what i hope to see i the new edition and what i think is likely to be in it. So grab a mug of your favourite hot beverage, sit back and read on.

Dont let its age deceive you, its not dead yet.

Rarely Disappointing: Wood Elf Rare Unit Tactics

Here we are the rare unit tactics post. The advantages of only doing two units in the post is that I can spend as much time as I won’t on each unit without having to worry about the post becoming ridiculously long. So let us begin.

Treeman

Oh the Treemen how you have deceived so many. When the news first hit that these guys dropped a wound and a point of strength many Wood Elf players dropped the Treeman, along with Treekin. Once more I refused to bow to the commonly held view and stood by the Treeman (the new model helped). And lo I was rewarded! Some of the things people missed about the new Treeman was the Increase to LD 9 (with Stubborn) and Treewhack. So what roles do I see this unit fulfilling?

Roles: Anvil, Monster Hunter, Monstrous Cavalry Hunter

Recommended amount in an army: 1

The 8th ed Treeman retains his 6th ed role of being the model you can rely on to hold up an enemy unit or monster and do some damage. But that’s not all he can do, with the addition of Treewhack (which can be targeted against any model in base to base contact, said model must pass a initiative test or suffer D6 Wounds with no armour save allowed) he is now better at killing big monsters and the dreaded monstrous cav. Confused? Allow me to explain. The big two MC units that Wood Elves fear the most are Demigryphs and Skullcrushers because they have good toughness and a 1+ armour save and all the toys we have to deal with these things are shooting orientated. However with the addition of Treewhack we now have a new way of dealing with these units. The Treeman simply needs to Treewhack the unit until it dies and hope that he doesn’t die before they do. Ok it’s not perfect but it’s what we have, and as such a Treeman should be considered when choosing units for your army. Now for a brief chat about Strangleroots. It’s a range 12 multiple shot attack on a model that will be moving, meaning a -3 to hit penalty. For this reason I suggest you pass on Strangleroots and spend that 20 points elsewhere. But the Treeman itself is still a good choice for your army.