The Duo Tournament: 1000 points of sheer firepower

The 24st of November is approaching fast now, and as such the forces are gathering up for the TSA Duo Tournament.

I`m partnering with my long time Nemesis to take the field together for the first time, and under the monikker of Team Old Skool (we both field a lot of 4th / 5th edition models) we struck an unholy Chaos Alliance.

he will be bringing along the muscle of the force in the guise of Chaos Warriors, I will be bringing along the firepower en masse to soften up the resistance for the muscle to tear through.

Now, judging by the `probably entring with` list on our clubforum, it might be necessary, as I counted at least 2 Lizardmen, 1 Orc and 1 other Chaos Warrior force, so toughness 4 will be prelevalent in the tournament it seems.

Not to worry, I opted for this reason just to bring along the Marksmen of Miragliano.  the unofficial army lists that can be found on Warhammer Battle Reporter are always allowed when we organise those kinds of in club tournaments, so I either had the option to take along 20 Hobgoblin Archers with their bows, or 10 of the mercenaries.  20 shots with long range at 12" over and then hitting on 5s, wounding on 5s, no save modifier versus 10 shots hitting on 3s (and one even on 2), a long range of 15" over and no modifiers to hit for the range, strength 4 with a -1 modifier... easy choice.

It IS still a tournament after all...

On the other hand, I`m hauling along an amazing 10 points worth of magic items, divided as one on each character...

So without further ado, the army list for my part of the force:

Infernal Castellan with a Fireglaive and the Ironcurse Icon: she will be joining the blunderbuss unit for cover and is the acting general of the force.  The icon is just `in case` for opposing war machines, though judging by the armies apparently present and the points sizes, it ain`t going to be an artillery battle I think.

Deamonsmith level 2 with a Pistol and the Pidgeon Plucker Pendant.  He will be toting the lore of Fire mostly, unless when we`re up against heavily armoured troops in which case he will be switching to the Lore of Gold (and pray for that gold turning spell).  His main job is to stay in between my rocket launchers to use the Infernal Engineer skill and his item is just in case some assassin harpies, eagle riders or whotnot`s are about.

20 Infernal Guard with Hailshot Blunderbusses.  These guys will, depending on the scenario and special rules present (see an earlier post about those) probably be advancing on the flank of the warriors, to enfillade any ambitious Horde sized units.  Potentially 60 shots per volley?  No multiple fire modifier?  Armour reductions?  Say bye bye to any decent shaped unit of goblins, skinks, skeletons, and whatever low value bulk out units.

2 Deathshrieker Rockets.  A large, self correcting 5" template, albeit only at strength 3, is still something to be worried about if your a ranked and filed trooper.  Having two come your way even more so.  And having an engineer present to seriously reduce the misfire chance makes them dropdead lethal

10 Marksmen of Miragliano.  Lovely models.  Lovely rules.  See the reasoning at the beginning.

So the force numbers 32 models and 2 war machines with crew, whom if all goes well cause 74 shooting attacks and 2 incoming SCUD missiles per round of firing... I think I have my part of the pact covered now ;-)

Project Insanity the Finale: the come-back tournament

And then the moment arrived for which this serial was made. After 8 years of not playing, and 3 weeks of insane painting speeds, the TSA Club Championship Fun Tournament was upon us. As 14 armies gathered in our clubhouse, the forces of the Dawi Zharr stood ready to take on the opposition, with one goal in mind: Do not become the last one in the ranking. Ending higher then my archnemesis Guy was a bonus...



But first, let`s have a look at all the armies gathered for a grace to the title... as we walk along the tables when the armies for the first round have been set up.

Mike`s Skink army and Yannick`s Dwarves



Tom`s Chaos Warriors vs Patrick`s (from the Nelson`s Revenge blog - see TSA sidebar) Nurgle Deamon Force



Tournament favorite Kristof`s High Elves vs Sven (from the Mechaniak blog, again, see sidebar) and his Night Goblins. Sven will proudly march on to win the best painted awards as well, and very rightly so



Arch Nemesis Guy`s Beastmen horde vs Jelle`s Tomb Kings



Wim`s MASSIVE zombie horde vs Sven the Organiser`s Bretonnians



Hannes`s Nippon vs Heiki`s Goblin Horde. heiki won the `special prize` for most bonuspoints in army selection (a tourney thing, basically, the less specials and rare, the better).



and finally `guest attendee` Wim, the only non TSA member in the bunch and his Araby force, versus some old farts Chaos Dwarfs. Don`t go looking for his link in the sidebar though, your already reading his blog.



Battle 1: we battle the sons of the Sand

So the tournament is a go, and I start with facing off a horde of Arabians with a lot of fast cavalry, a massive elephant and blocks of spearmen. For the tournament, we had to choose in this scenario a `trophy` model at the opposing side, which would grant additional bonuspoints if killed or captured. He selected my Sorcerer Prophet, I one of his Iman`s (it`s an Antwerp thing, no need to explain why that one especcially though).

Now, I loved the table we where assigned to. Two rivers counting as dangerous terrain caused half his horses to drown before he got to my compact force, and a Transmutation of Lead in turn one turned half a block of spearmen, a lvl 2 caliph and my trophy into gold. Still think I should have gotten even more bonuspoints, at least my trophy was already gilded and polished now. The other spearmen unit literally spat apart when an earthshaker shell crashed into it.

The battle was over before it had began in all earnest...

The rest saw the elephant dying when under the effects of an Ash Storm, making it flammable, and the hero then wounding it with the Black Hammer of Hashut, causing the general to start his long run back to the baseline and ending the battle in a Massacre for the Chaos Dwarfs.

Hero of the match though was the level 2 Hellsmith, who managed to throw back two units of fast cavalry and a depleted unit of flying carpet riders who wanted to get past him and attack the Earthshaker.




Battle 2: oh crap, those Hogh Elves

The massive amount of points I raked in caused me to be on the top of the mountain at that moment, and so my opponent was Kristof and his High Elves. I feared this force even from before the tournament, with so many units versus my way to compact line. A special rule for the scenario resulted in me having to deploy my entire army before his, so I had no other option then to bunk in.

80 High Elf spearmen / sea guard led by a Battle Standard and level 4 wizard, and supported by two eagles and flying hero set out towards my line and in this battle the K`daai for the first (and only) time excelled. They managed to hold up and defeat a block of spearmen and the two eagles, before finally going under vs the hero, whom I could keep from charging with the help of an Ash Cloud. I had the luck that I had magical superiority, because on the second spell his level 4 casted he ended up in the realms of Chaos never to be seen again.

It was not to be though. I had to take a gamble and charge one of the spearmen blocks, in order to hopefully break them and get past the other two blocks in front of my warriors. However, thanks to the bsb they held on (justly) and the other two units piled in. It still took three rounds of combat before my warriors (at that point, a standard, champion and the sorcerer prophet) broke and where run down, and as a result (and good tradition) the blunderbusses and cannon crew decided to leg it as well.

Still, a good fight from the Dawi Zharr, for only eleven elves of the massive force that marched to my line lived to tell the tale...

Man of the match here is a tie between the K`daai onehand for tying up the flank, and the Earthshaker on the other hand for blasting about 60 elves apart...




Battle 3: Hashut be praised

At this moment, both me and my nemesis where on a 1 - 1 record... and the lords be praised, we had to fight each other. This meant that I would have complete control of wether or not I could achieve my secondary objective.

His horde, with a very nasty unit of hero led Minotaurs, deployed in line against my small force standing on and around a hill. The Earthshaker did his duty, decimating blocks of infantry, but he managed to strike home a battered assault, including one big nasty Gorgon, in the end. The Dwarfs, albiet pressured, did manage to hold on by the flesh of their teeth, and the battle would have been a jiffy... if the blunderbusses and cannon crew didn`t do their usual thing. Move over Usain Bolt, these fully plated dwarfs run the 100m way faster then you! I really will be glad when my force is more to my liking once painting can start in earnest on them again...

Still, I managed a minor victory and the warriors are getting the man of the match title for my side, refusing to break off assaulted on all sides.





So we ended with a 2 - 1 result, and bith objectives achieved, but where did we end after 8 years of not playing Warhammer?

Here is the result, the painting points where seperate from the playing points, otherwise I would have even be close to the person before me...

1: Kristof (High Elves)251 pt
2: Sven (Bretonnia) 220 pt
3: Tomsche (Legion of Azgorh) 183 pt
4: Tom (Chaos Warriors) 178 pt
5: Hannes (Nippon) 170 pt
6: Yannick (Dwarfs) 165 pt
7: Mike (Lizardmen) 160 pt
8: Patrick (Nurgle Deamons) 159 pt
9: Guy (Beastmen) 138 pt
10: Wim (Vampire Counts) 137 pt
11: Jelle (Tomb Kings) 129 pt
12: Heiki (Goblins) 124 pt
13: Sven (Goblins) 113 pt
14: Wim (Araby) 83 pt

Third place. We managed an unbelievable, podium place! Okay, an old fox seems to still know his tricks then WOOT WOOT.

What did we learn this tournament?

* Earthshaker. Definitly the unit of the tourney for me, blasting apart about 200 models now that they are laserguided with the all measuring allowed and the Hellsmith re-roll special rule. Sure, at 240 points for the gun and 170 for the Hellsmith this is mighty expensive as hell, but the blast AND the dangerous terrain aftermath of the quake make her a monstrosity. Downside is, unless your opponent has many blocks of troops, it`ll be hard to get the points back for this one, and it certainly isn`t viable to take 2 or such for them...

* Drop those K`daai. On the 5 battles I played this weekend, only once where they worth it. As soon as they are painted up, they will be replaced with Hobgoblins and more rank and file dwarfs.

So what now?

Well, the paint jobs for the Lead Painter`s League are now primarily my concern, as are those for the Brushslave League.
Second then is to paint up at least 1000 points of my Cathay force, but after that, it`s back to the Dawi. The blunderbusses have to get back to their old 20 man, full command status, if only to prevent the one or two casualties, panic and then run off that ran strife through the force the past days.
Hobgoblins will be added in blocks of at least 20 as well, to protect the flanks of the warrior unit and `flop in` if needed, while the warriors themself will grow to 40 to become a horde.

All in all, a fun tournament, and next year I`ll be back... with the followers of the Celestial Dragon peasant army then!

Hero of the Empire

No, I`m not starting an Empire army at all.

I do however, plan to make a voyage to my personal holy land, Japan, in the second half of 2013, and I know myself. Aikiba district, the walhalla of all things anime, manga and videogame, is going to be my candy store, and I`ll be a very happy kid rabbling through it.

But that is going to cost buckets full of that lovely thing called money, so I`m gearing up to start saving some funds together with all my overdue, bought for some project I for the love of God can`t remember anymore, wargame thingies.

This bloke will be the first, I have some more Empire models and once they all are done, I`ll probably throw them on some barter forum or something, or even the evil bay. So if I can manage to get some regiments tweaked in between all the `regular` to do stuff, my goal of having around 5k `shopping pocket money` should be doable.

Tribute to First of Many

No, this isn`t a tribute to the Borg or some other mass alien invasion race from movie X or serie Y.

This is a tribute to the single most important figure in any wargames army, wether it be fantasy, sci-fi or historical.

He is included in every force, or enjoy a happy old day in a relegated borderpost called display cabinet.

No, I`m not talking about the General. Nor the Standard Bearer, and it ain`t the Mythical Hero either.

First of Many is the valiant soul that fights shoulder to shoulder with the troops. A Thousand Death's are his destiny, he will march many miles, and run many more.

He will face off against cavalry, dragon or tank alike. He will dodge bullets, evade laser beams, survive artillery barrages and block sword strokes.

He will gather around his flag, and will be prepared to lay down his life for the ultimate goal in order to secure victory for your forces.

He is First of Many, he is that very first Rank and File model you paint up in order to test the colour scheme of the army to come...

Zargath of the Burning Flame

Zargath is the gatekeeper of the Obsidian Stringhold, the home ziggurat of the Clan Vongalazthag. For as long as anyone can remember, when he is not on the battlefield he stands above the gatehouse, peering over the desolate plains in search or threads to his clan.
Some invaders rumour he has long been petrified and that his body only serves as a repellant symbol, but when he unleashes his martial prowess on the battlefield, hefting his obsidian bladed axe, many of those rumours come to a brusk end... often together with the rumourspreaders.




Accompanying are a pair of pet Firespitters, vicious creatures born from the plains of lava. Their bodies are pure magma, topped with obsidian carapaces.
Thoug if caught by an early age, they can be domesticated and trained to become the equivalent of a pair of strong hunting dogs, though it is generally advised to always keep a pair of them, they tend to engage in fireball spitting games which if they ain`t shooting at each other can make a mess of anyone`s furniture.
They are also totally sucked out of my thumb because I had those beasts lying around from the Monsterpocalypse game, and I won`t be knocking up any rules for them.
When Zargath will do duty as the champion in a blunderbuss regiment, these fella`s will be placed right behind him as a unit filler and `count as` a normal warrior armed with the `buss.

Chaos Dwarf Petard

A Blast from the Past... as it blasts your lines to smithereens!



The Petard is from an era even before my beloved `Silly hats` (though I hate that monicker, it`s the reason I like them). As I decided to do the full reworkings in the `middle age` Chaos Dwarfs bolt red and blueish scheme, it was a bit of a puzzle to bring the look over to these old models.






I`m quite satisfied though in the end, and they will fit in nicely between my ranks of Dawi Zharr... now where did I leave that Swivel Gun.

Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower

Fresh from the painting bench, the classic war machine that provided some non-misfiring long range punch to the Dawi Zharr forces. One down, a gazzumpteen to go...



The restoration works on the Chaos Dwarves and tau are slowly but steadily progressing between all kinds of other projects. I`m quite certain the first 1000 points of both should be ready to roll by the time the new year is upon us, so no stress at all - yet...

Hobgoblin Steam-powered Bolt Thrower mk II

What better way to celebrate the return to Zharr Nagrund by sacrificing some of your wargame models to the Father of Darkness, Hashut.

For centuries, the Hobgoblins are the most loyal of the servants of the Dawi Zharr. They are not even trusted by the other greenskins that toil in the furnaces in slavery, and take to the battlefield alongside the ranks of armoured Chaos Dwarves.

However, their main machine of war, the simple yet efficient Bolt Thrower, lacks punch at times, and as such the most elite guncrews are sometimes rewarded by the engineers with this upgraded version. Hurling explosive rocket-bolts by a build up of steam pressure, these weapons have a longer range and higher damage capability then their normal counterparts.



The model is a rather simple kitbash, but for the sake of making a sacrifice, I cannibilized on purpose some of my models in the collection from other game systems. The carriage is that of a Union 6pdr gun for 28mm American Civil War gaming. The top section is an Aeronef from Brigade models, turned upside down and pointing the tail outwards. Only the rockets are actually from my bits box, namely two Imperial Guard missiles from the missile launcher sprue.



It will be crewed by the regular hobgoblin crew though I`m going to change the bolt in ones hand by altering it with greenstuff to look as another rocket. Rules-wise, it`ll stay a normal bolt thrower for ease of play.
And the mk II? That is in honour of the really old Hobgoblin missile launcher from about 25 odd years ago...

I am an Anvil... part 4: For Hashut!!!!!

I blame Dreadfleet...

They have the Black Kraken in it, a vessel I`m painting currently, the first of the ships of the boxed set.

I blame Forge World...

The upcomming Throne of Tamasomeone has the Chaos Dwarfs in it, and apparently for the first time since Ravening Hordes, the Dawi Zharr get a valid, legal army list.


Yes, it is true, I`m back again to my first love in wargame armies, the Chaos Dwarves. Remember that box I unearthed over a year ago with all the old school Wood Elves in it? Well, some remnants of my old, glorious force where also in there, a fraction of the sizeable force I once fielded, but a decent basis to start rebuilding the one army I truly enjoyed fielding in no matter what game system I played ever since.



I just loved the look of the Babylonian high hats of those fellas.

I discovered the Dawi Zharr when I bought my very first issue of White Dwarf, which featured a battle report between them (as the finale of their White Dwarf only feature series, introducing the race to the 4th edition of Warhammer) against the Wood Elves. The Earthshaker and his back then ridiculous size was my first love.

The army got slowly build up over time, and even trundled onwards into the tournament scene, where in the Ravening Hordes era they where already an oddity. Many victories where won by my opponents just not knowing, let alone facing, a force of Chaos Dwarves before, having no idea what they where about and what they could do. Area of effect Blunderbuss volley anyone?

And from there stemmed my often used online alter ego, Lord Aldades. I joined an MSN group all about the Dawi Zharr, the Council of Sorcerers. Headed up by Hashut`s Chosen, Aleeha Travis, they had the intention of keeping the legacy of the Chaos Dwarves alive, to prevent them by having an active memberbase and supporting fans to go down the road of the Squats.

I never met Aleeha in person (she being in North Carolina back then), but I can sincerly say she had a great influence in my `being` as a wargamer. I got steadily introduced into the joy and fun of belonging to an online `family`, though the CoS (and later the Hand of Hashut forum, these days we have Chaos Dwarfs Online where I lurk for ages now, I really should register someday). The Council teached me the path of building fluff for your forces, of not min / max`ing armies but to play and stay in character towards the spirit of an army.



It was a good time, and even though with the years I dwindled away from the GW system, I always kept defending the little blokes in stores and such, appealing for a come back more anticipated then Michael Jordan or Michael Schumacher.

Hence, due to inforum storylines that where developed at that time for the use of some or other unofficial army book for 5th edition, my Lord on Great Taurus with Black Hammer evolved into

Lord Aldades
Priest Lord of Clan Vongalazthag
Ruler of he Fortress of Despair
Supreme Commander of the armies of the East

which sounded way more cooler me thinks!

And now the fire and the flame pulls at my very being again. The Father of Darkness, hashut, beckons me back. I`m stripping the old models and starting up a painting line for them. I`m converting all kinds of stuff to make excentric looking variants of Earthshakers and Death Rockets, and comming soon a steam powered Hobgoblin Bolt Thrower. My skills at scractchbuilding and converting are still below average, but at least compared to back then I can more or less bring my ideas to life.

I saw this alternative Death Rocket once, by someone called `tjub` on CDO, and I just loved the look, and ever since I pondered to do something like it. I`m building one now, just not exactly like that.



Plastic Dwarven warriors WILL be converted to transform into their dark cousins, and even though I cannot say i`ll ever take to the field of battle in the near future, I also grown as a wargamer to have a force in a cabinet that I truly enjoyed painting and working on... which is the essence of the whole hobby in the end, is it not?

And all that thanks to one lady half a world away, behind a keyboard. As this small serial of articles has now reached it`s conclusion and the point I wanted to be made has been spoken, I want to dedicate it to her.

To Aleeha, for making me a wargamer instead of a diceroller.

Thanks

Project Lame-Ass 5: Transformation of Khadon

A fresh batch got completed for `varnish row` tonight, including some larger then 6mm scale models.




Transformation of Khadon



The first thing painted this week was a nice beastie to represent the effects of the Amber lore spell for my Wood Elf mages. In the old -my- days, this spell just changed the stats of the character et c`est tout, but now it allows the model to transform into about half of the Imperial Zoo. Not that I would bother buying a heap of big beasties, as it is a welcome change in paint schedules, but I do mind hiring a van just to transport a spell effect :-)
So I went scouring the net and found a Trictalion from Enigma Miniatures 30mm range, a horned, scaled, 6 eyed monster that fits on a 40by40 monster base... good enough for me!

Little space elves



Secondly this week... more epic Eldar for use in my Eldritch Caste force. Still continuing in the Saim han colourscheme, their ranks are bolstered by 4 more stands of Guardians, 2 large cannons and 2 stands of Exarchs.

Through Normandy and Beyond



Next up, for the 6mm ww2 campagne `that might happen next year` are a set of british tank destroyers by GHQ, namely 5 (aka, the contents of a blister pack) Challenger`s, tank destroyers build on the chassis of the delightful Cromwell tank (not the greatest tank ever made, but in my eyes one of the most `sexy` lined ones though).

The SAC gains a new toy



Finally this week, the Lince (a copy of the british Dingo) Armoured Car for the Society`s heroes. The model, a 28mm resin by Warlord Games, is armed with a small front mounted gun, so will become a `proxy` for one of the AC designs in Where Heroes Dare! Can`t expect the noble adventurers to cross the Sahara on foot now can we.


That is it for this batch. Next time, I have actually no idea what it is going to contain, I have two days off tomorrow and the day after, so it will see a lot of painting time going on. One thing is for certain, as I`m currently watching Gundam 00 there will be mobile suits in the lot for sure ehehe.

Ciao Ciao

Project Asrai: The Finale

And so this project concludes, restoring a battleworthy 2000 points tournament force out of a heap of old figures I found back. It ain`t everything that I have that got painted, but this is enough to get me `back into a game` occasionally.

Ancient Archery

So I needed 10 scouts for the force, and found these little gems amongst the collection. Hailing from around 1990, the Sea Elves are now part of my Asrai host to sneak up on the enemy lines and shaft them early on.



I got wood!

Of course, no `true` classic Sylvanesti host would be complete without one of the old Marauder treemen. A strong hingepin to anchor the lines of archers on, I always loved these guys even before they received a train of special rules.



We can dance, we can dance...

The final unit for the force is a second, small unit of War Dancers, of the `next generation` compared to the other unit. Led by the old Warhammer Quest character as a Bladesinger, they will mainly have the job to be stop gaps where the thin green line seems to bend.




And so the force is completed with this group shot. Normally Iwill be playing a tournament next week (with like, 1 battle of 1000 points under the belt) but I still haven`t received confirmation, so it might be that that won`t pass. No worries on my part there, then the next time this force comes out of the closet will be with the War of the Beard 2011 tournament at the local club.




So, what now?

Well, going to spend most of the time working on the Humanity`s Darkest Hour campaign, and as such will be finishing my host of 6mm armies and the final ships of my OUDF fleet for Full Thrust fleet first. After that? Who knows, I certainly don`t hehehehe...

So thanks for following my ramblings for two months, and till the next time!