New year target

It has been a busy Christmas period, but now it is time to return to real life.


At new year it is traditional to set yourself a new year resolution; and I am no different. In previous years I have set myself challenging new year targets.

In 2010 I tried to paint three armies in a year. This was roughly 15 figures a week. Needless to say I failed.

In 2011 I set myself a target of ending the year with less unpainted figures than I started it with. I blame the Internet. A quiet five minutes and I pay a little visit to the web and minutes later I have an order for yet more shiny metal.....

So in 2012, it is time to set myself a target I have some chance of achieving. I have decided to attend a full proper tournament and to tidy up my Empire army enough so that I am not embarrassed to present them at the tournament.

This seams more achievable.

To achieve this I first needed to find a place to play. After a tour of the web I have decided to attend The Polish Sausage Warhammer team event at Maelstrom Games in Mansfield UK. It is a team event at the back end of February. This should just about give me enough time to finish the army and to pull together the three other players I need to go with me. I have asked around my local club and I have plenty of interest and have one player committed. Just two more required.

The next step is to decide on a list. After a few hours reading the forums and with my own knowledge of the Empire I have decided on the following list.

Arch Lector with sword of battle, Dawn armour, Dragonbane Gem & Van Horstmans spectrum

Battle standard bearer with Armour of Meteoric Iron

Naked Master Engineer

Captain on Pegasus with Dragonhelm, Luckstone & crown of command.

Two level two Wizards (One fire with dispel scroll & one Shadow with rod of power)

Two units of Halberdiers (1 of 29, 1 of 30) both with full command

30 swordsmen with full command and 9 handgunners

30 Greatswords with full command and 9 handgunners

A mortar, cannon, Helblaster Volley gun and a steam tank.

I have most of these but I still need to get 50 halberdiers, 10 greatswords and I will take the opportunity to refresh my character models.

My preferred style of play with the Empire is to sit back a bit and then try and dominate the centre ground. I hope that this list will work with that.

No doubt I will change the list and probably rage quit many times between now and the tournament, but I need a starting point.

Now to visit the web and buy some figures.

Skaven list trial and a swap deal

Over the past two weeks I have started assembling and building a new fantasy army for a tournament in a weeks time. The problem with this is I have had no time to play test the list to see if it is competitive and I know how to use it.


I have now remedied this by playing two games, against high elves and vampire counts. I had to proxy in quite a large number of empire figures, so it looked a bit daft, but my opponents were very gracious. I lost both games but both were competitive and I thought that I was close to winning both.


Based on this vast bank of experience (!) I have formed the following verdict on the various units.


Grey Sear. The Magic worked very, very well. I managed to take grave guard down to two figures and a banshees unit down to one wound, until they had a great magic phase when they rebuilt both units... I have not yet used the skalm, but I was a bit alarmed when I reallised that I had not given him any saves at all.


Clan rats. I have large units and they appear to work quite well. I suspect that board and sword would be better than spears, but I am working from the starting point of two Island of blood starter sets, so you work with what you have. In both games I used them 5 wide in very deep columns in an attempt to gain the stubborn ability. This worked quite well but they did bounce rather sickeningly against grave guard! I guess most things would.

Weapon teams. In the first game the high elves shot the flayer apart before he could do anything and the poisoned gas teams were fried by a stray lightning bolt from the wheel. In the second game the gas team was my MVP with direct hits with almost every shot. The problem with the gas team is that they quickly move out of 3" when the clanrats march.

Doomwheel: In both games this scared my oponents and made them do daft things. Suffered a lot from missile weapons and the grave guard went straight through it, but worth it just for the oponents reactions.

Warp Cannons: Whilst they did not make their points back in either game, I just love the concept, so they stay.

Gutter Runners: I have not yet had a war machine to face but they have quite an effect on oponents making them worry about a fast moving skirmish force. Worth keeping.

Based on this and comments made by my oponents I have changed my force to the following;

35 Clanrats with full command, handweapons & shields and a poisoned wind team

36 Clanrats with full command, spears and shields and a poisoned wind team

2 warp lightning cannons
Doomwheel
two lots of 5 Gutter runners with slings and poisoned attacks
Grey seer with 4+ ward talisman
Battle standard with enchanted shield and 5+ ward talisman.
Chiefton with Halberd.
Warlock Engineer with doomrocket

The good news is that I now need to paint less clanrats.

The better news is that I have managed to swap a large collection of various celt figures (brought for Warhammer historical, but frankly I was never going to get around to painting) for a random box of old Skaven.

When I got home, I unpacked and found a massive collection of rat shaped goodness (see photos)...

Warriors of chaos 2000 points List 2

Kholek Suneater
The Troll King Throgg
3 Chaos Trolls
3 Chaos Trolls
6 Chaos Trolls
4 Dragon ogres, great weapons
Chaos giant, mark of slaanesh
Scyla Anfinngrimm

This army is is many ways just for fun, but is, occasionally, a very competative force.
Its quite fast and tough with lots and lots of big nasty monsters that can turn the enemy into so much pate. Kholek anf Throgg provide some nice leadership zones to protect the trolls from stupidity and Throgg also acts as a battle standard. Scyla is a fun character and has magic resistance 3 to help stop spells that would affect the whole army.
Syla and the giant provide flank protection as they are pretty much immovable (ones unbreakable whilst the other is stubborn with a leadership 10), the giant always strikes first too.
The army has virtually no magic resistance, no offensive magic, has hardly any missile fire and has nothing to deny rank bonus, however its speed and toughness will make it a hard nut to crack.

Warriors of chaos 2000 points List 1

Sorcerer Lord; barded chaos steed, mark of tzeentch, extra level
Daemon weapon, collar of khorne
Sorcerer; barded chaos steed, mark of nurgle, extra level
Book of Secrets, power familiar, conjoined homunculus
Sorcerer; barded chaos steed, extra level
Infernal puppet
There is no subtlety to these guys, its magic all the way. the Lord is a very good spell caster and a holy terror in combat (4-9 attacks at S5-7) although he may hit himself. The nurgle sorcerer generates 4 dice and knows 3 spells so is almost as good at csting as the lord but the nurgle lore has some very good spells. The last scorcer is there for support and with the puppet to protect against miscasts.
6 Marauder horsemen, mark of slaanesh, light armour, throwing spears, musician
6 Marauder horsemen, mark of slaanesh, light armour, throwing spears, musician
6 Marauder horsemen, mark of slaanesh, light armour, throwing spears, musician
6 Chaos hounds
6 Chaos hounds
6 Chaos hounds
The core choices are there to give a flexible flanking force that can get the sorcerers around the table to where their spells can do the most damage. The horsemen are fagile as a porcelain puppy but easy to manoeuvre and they won't panic. The hounds are a missle screen (bless them).
5 Chaos knights, champion, musician
5 Chaos knights, champion, musician
4 Dragon ogres, great weapons
This army is both straight forward and nasty. The wizards can belt out a large range of nasty spells joining whichever units will either protect them better or get them to a suitable position. the special choices give the army some proper hitting power and the lord can join one to give a nasty surprise in combat.

Vampire Counts 2000 points List 2

Vampire lord, extra level
Master of the black arts, forbidden lore, lord of the dead
Skull staff, crown of command, biting blade
This lord is designed to be a terror in the magic phase. generates 5 power dice, knows all spells from a magic lore plus invocation) and gets +1 to cast and dispel. the crown is a fantastic item and lets you take advantage of the Vampires Ws without risking him in combat.
vampire
Dark acolyte, summon creatures of the night
Flayed hauberk, dispel scroll
A good secondary magic user who's quite resilient from a two up armour save.
Wight king; Barded skeletal steed, battle standard, lance
Drakenhoff banner
Expensive but since he gives the unit with regeneration and is damned hard to hurt anyway, he is worth it.
Wight king; Barded skeletal steed, lance
Good combat clout for the points
20 skeletons, light armour, hand weapon and shield, full command, warbanner
10 skeletons, light armour, hand weapon and sheild, champion
18 crypt ghouls, ghast
3 base bat swarm
15 grave guard, full command
5 Black knights, champion
3 fel bats
This second army is slower moving than the first but has a substantial magic phase and quite diverse range of units. The vampires keep the numbers up, even making some units bigger and allowing you to raise new units of zombies.
Both types of bat count as infantry for invocation, so can quickly become very large. These are for flexible protection. The fell bats make acceptable war machine hunters and the swarms are to make sure that the general is not at risk if the enemy outmanoeuvres you.

Vampire Counts 2000 points List 1

Vampire Lord; Extra magic level, nightmare,
Ghoulkin, dark acolyte, infinate hatred, summon ghouls
sword of might, walach's bloody hauberk, dispel scroll, black periapt
The lord is a good mix of magic and combat reliability. A level 4 because of the bloodline powers, he can put a power or dispel dice aside for the next phase. In combat he has 4 S6 attacks and his hatred applies every round, so he should hit most of the time. There is no limit to how many ghoul this chap can raise. Lastly his ghoulkin power means all those units of ghouls get a free march before the game begins (with any characters who have joined them).
Vampire; battle standard
Forebidden lore, summon ghouls
Flayed hauberk, power stone
the battle standard is a support character in every sense; despite being only a level 1, he knows all the spells from the lore vampires or one of the ones in the rulebook. So although he can only use 2 dice to cast spells, he has a lot of choice and the power stone means he can give a one shot attempt at a tougher spell later in the game.
Vampire;
Infinite hatred, walking death
Sword of battle, armour of night, talisman of lycni
This guy is fragile with only a 5+ save and dosen't have much casting ability. However, he's great for hunting down small units, war machines or vulnerable characters. His magic armour inflicts a -2 to hit modifier to all shooting whilst he's on his own, so regular shooting will rarely hit him.
20 crypt ghouls, ghast
18 crypt ghouls, ghast
14 crypt ghouls, ghast
10 crypt ghouls, ghast
The bulk of the army and a very solid bulk it is too. toughness 4 with 2 poisoned attacks each, ghouls are pretty decent in a fight.
7 Dire wolves, doom wolves
Dire wolves are extremely quick (m9) but are very poor fighters. they can hunt war machines but for the most part are best used to march block.
Varghulf
A very good lone monster and terror causer, his stats are good enough for him to go hunting small enemy units by himself or give a bit of clout to any ghouls stuck in combat.
5 Blood knights, standard, musician, royal standard of stigos
the hammer unit, frenzy, hatred and a stat line better than many heroes, these guys have the most devastating charge of any in the game.