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)