Post Christmas spread

Greetings all! Hope you all had a good holiday of choice and if you are from a present receiving denomination that you got all you hoped for. I for one have had a good Christmas, and whilst gaming related presents were low in numbers, I got a few bits I wanted for my Trollbloods, which I am very happy with!


Now, in my last entry I spoke about my decision whether to use Vampires or Beastmen for my alternate WFB army, and as I'm sure most of you have seen by now, the new Vampire Counts book and a range of delicious new miniatures are being released mid January. Obviously this has swung the balance in their favour ousting the Beastmen from the running, and now means that I have dug (get it?) out some of my VC models, which still require assembly.

For now I am holding off making decisions on which of the new units to purchase. I mentioned in my last post my Necrarch Vampire, Abdemanechus. I love the idea of him, but it seems that inevitably GW are focussing on the von Carsteins, which I have also always been drawn to, so for now I think it prudent to see what the book entails and decide from there!

In terms of the Ogre Kingdoms, I began assembling the Stonehorn/Thundertusk last night and it is currently at the point where the generic pieces are now fully assembled and the next step is to begin assembly as one of the variants. Trouble is, at the moment I'm struggling to decide on which one - whilst I like the look and idea of the Thundertusk, I can't help but love the Stonehorn too, and so am torn. I've asked the Whyf and she prefers the Thundertusk, but who knows which one I shall ultimately make, at least first as I've already decided that I'll definitely be getting a second kit!!!

The Dark Eldar have hit a lull at the moment: I'm still waiting for a couple of the models for our initial list to arrive so that they can be assembled, and due to the break, I've had no time whatsoever to even pretend that I'm going to paint them, but time draws onward and sooner or later I shall have to begin them!

In the meantime I'll occupy myself with all the shiny new toys I have!

Have a great New Year guys!

Plans

Ernst Leichtanzer cast about frantically, searching for anything that would help. His master, the Great Abdemanechus had charged Leichtanzer with securing favour with the gods for the new year so that the venerable old Vampire may once more stalk the lands in search of prey and power. Three things were known to Leichtanzer: The sons of Tchar had fallen from favour and had been consigned to something called The Cudbord, a Tribe from the Ogre Kingdoms had secured their place and were growing stronger daily and that there was one more place of favour which Leichtanzer must secure for his master ahead of the twisted Beasts of the forests. Time was of the essence as both expected reinforcements resulting from an arcane ceremony celebrated by one of the gods that Abdemanechus referred to as Krismoss. Truly these gods were strange! Not least as they seemed to be different aspects of one god on current whims. Abdemanechus spoke of these gods are turning their gaze once more upon the Old World, though he spoke too of other worlds: one, strangest of all with creatures encased in armour of Blood vying for attention against strange elven beings that sought only torment, all the while as giant bone coloured warriors looked on lamenting their former standing. Another, similar in many respects to the Old World where a Tribe of strange blue skinned creatures led by powerful warlocks strode forth proud in the knowledge they had no rivals for the god's affections. The last world was one mainly of sea, though it was a neglected world. Upon it strange ships of iron (as if such a thing would be possible!) did battle in the name of their queen, one named Vectroria. Strange as these seemed, Leichtanzer could not help but feel that he must be wary lest they catch the eyes of these gods more often!


Well, another year nearly gone and this one really went fast! Its now time for my annual short listing of future projects that I won't get finished, and to begin with it's Warhammer! The release of the Ogre Kingdoms book has reinvigorated my interest in fantasy and I've enjoyed the few games I've had with them despite losing all but one, which was a very enjoyable draw. The idea is to focus on the Ogres as a main army but to have a second army available to use to add variety especially when facing the same opponents. I've decided once and for all to store away the Warriors of Chaos for now and so the choices that attract me the most are Beastmen and Vampire Counts. I think therefore I shall have a few games with each in the New Year to see which appeals more.

For 40k, much like the Warriors of Chaos in Fantasy, I've grown tired of the Deathwing so have decided to place them in storage for a while and work on something new. The Blood Angels had initially caught my eye, but recent decisions for Doubles have meant that the Dark Eldar that have been clogging up my cupboard are now finally being assembled, and consequently will need painting meaning that I may actually have a second army (half) painted by the end of February!

In terms of Hordes and Dystopian Wars, I'm due to get a few bits from each so its more of the same on those fronts, which is fine as I enjoy both!

So, that are my plans, but what is in the pipeline for you guys in the coming year?

If I don’t see or speak to you beforehand guys, have yourself a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!



God bless!

quiet time

Not a pretty sight that photo is it? It was taken at the Planetary Empires at the end of last month.

White Dwarf Issue 181 - January 1995

I had been gaming for a couple of years when this issue came out. Mainly Blood Bowl but a I had started a small 40k army too. I'd bought a few issues prior to this one, but this was to be the beginning of a 16 year era.

From this issue on, I have not missed a single issue, and indeed there was a couple of time where I had multiple copies!

That is, until this month. I've now cancelled my subscription, and I don't intend to purchase another issue for the foreseeable. Personally I think this is incredibly sad and it is not a decision I have made lightly. Now don't get me wrong, I still enjoy playing both 40k and (sadly to a lesser extent at the moment) Fantasy, but I think that it would be hard to argue against what seems to be a widely held consensus that the magazine is a poor quality publication in comparison to how it used to be.

Maybe that is because we remember the old issues with nostalgic fondness, or simply youthful eagerness, but even if that is the case, then surely the company should recognise this? I've now been gaming longer than some of the people at our local club have been alive. i'd say that 90% of all people at that club are old enough to legally drink. When I was a child, most of the people that went to the store were about my own age. Now, whilst a saturday game at the store is heavily weighted towards the younger gamer, there are a lot more people of adult age than there used to be. All this withought going into the almost entirely adult attendence at tournements at Lenton. In essence, the gamer has grown up. Physically, if not always mentally.

Because of this, we see beyond the razzle dazzle of the current White Dwarf format. We don't need the newest released army to win in a battle, we just want to read a decent, honest report. We don't need almost an entire magazine to be one long, long, long advert for as many different things as possible, we just want insightful articles on different builds to the norm or perhaps different scenarios. There is no reason whatsoever why the company can't use that as a much subtler method to encourage sales on a weaker selling product by showing the best way to use it with a different setup.

I don't have a great deal of experience outside of White Dwarf of reading wargaming magazines, but due to starting playing Hoardes/Warmachine, I have begun reading No Quarter. Now, I would like to make this clear: I haven't given up White Dwarf because of No Quarter, I had simply begun to read it in conjunction with learning more of the Privateer Press systems.

Now there are two major differences between the two. The first being that there treat armies fairly - new models perform in a balanced manner during there battle reports, even if they perhaps get a bit more attention. Now I appreciate that the way that they release products differs to GW's, in that they release multiple army products each month as opposed to GW's method of focussing by and large on a different army each month and releasing armies in batches (or waves) but that doesn't mean that if the model looks good and the rules work, we won't buy it unless it does a 'since sliced bread' performance in the magazine!

The second is that No Quarter features much more fan generated material. GW has more fans than Privateer Press. It hits a wider audience and it's resources are more available. Making the most of that wouldn't be quite so hard as it is for PP. Obviously postal/email submission is better than ever, but GW has literally hundreds of stores throughout the world. There are independent stockists that outnumber the stores by dozens. Most of all, GW is a major supporter of the GCN. It isn't that hard to draw upon the public in order to maximise their input. Indeed, the vast majority of gamers I know (and having attended many tournements over the last few years, I've met people from all over the country and a few from round the world!) would give a limb to be in White Dwarf!

So now, directly to Games Workshop, and particularly to the White Dwarf Team, I would say this: You are the voice of the company. Use that voice well. It is true that the internet has given a very vocal group of us gamers the ability, sometime rightly, sometimes wrongly to influence others, but given that you as a company have a very limited set of platforms to give your own right to reply, then you must make the very most of that opportunity!

Also, whose cat?

Had two very enjoyable games against Ben today with the Ogres. The first game was against Ben's own Ogre army which I thought may well be an uphill struggle. The list i used for both games was as follows:

1 Tyrant w/ Ironfist, Ironcurse icon, Armour of Destiny, Ogre blade, Luckstone 315
1 Butcher w/ Ironfist, extra level, hell heart 188
6 Bulls w/ fc, Ironfists, look out gnoblar 227
6 Bulls w/ fc, IronfistsI look out gnoblar 227
7 Ironguts w/ fc, look out gnoblar, Dragonhide banner 386
4 Leadbelchers w/ bellower 182
4 Mournfangs w/ bellower, standard, Ranger's Standard 350
1 giant 200
1 Ironblaster 170
10 Gnoblars w/ trappers 50
10 Gnoblars w/ trappers 50
10 Gnoblars w/ trappers 50


Both games didn't start well to be honest but in the end swung back a bit. The Ironblaster was so-so for me, and the giant, as much as I loved it didn't really do much in game one, and game two, although he 'killed' a unit of Cairn Wraiths and a Vampire, we aren't entirely sure whether he could really have done this against ethereal models. Most of his results were yell and ball which is fair enough, but the vampire was picked up and thrown back in to combat.

The Mournfangs were immense, and even when they rolled badly they still managed to do well! I'm glad that I chose to give them the Ranger's Standard which certainly made them more versatile! The Gnoblars were a mixed bag: in both games two units did next to if not nothing of use, but the 3rd unit did spectacularly earning their points back and then some! i think they chipped a couple of ogres (though one i think was badly wounded) with traps and thrown weapons and combat hits, and they took out quite a few zombies chipping them down enough to make a difference in the long term!

The butcher died in both games, but in the game vs the Vampire Counts i predicted the imminent death of the unit he was in, so i managed to achieve a magnificent set of miscasts with the Hellheart! I reduced the ethereal vamp and a necromancer on a corpse cart to wizard level 0, caused a few deaths to some ghouls through magical feedback and a wound to the other necromancer and the standard bearer.

Other than that, the bulk of the army did ok, but I think i just need to get used to them a bit more, so all in all a good start!

From the mountains they came

So this is what I've been up to for the past few weeks: Slowly building up my Ogre Kingdoms army which I bought the majority of years ago!

I'd picked up the new book a week or so after release and I loved the new mournfangs and the ironblaster models so I could resist the chance to finally set about building the army up!

Hopefully this will kickstart the love for fantasy again as I've barely played it this edition and as I've said several times I'm not that enthusiastic about the Warriors of Chaos, but when I do play fantasy I feel stuck with them as they are a) the nearest to painted I have and b) the army I've learned to use the best (I struggled with the Beastmen), yet somehow they don't excite me!

I'll be taking them for a spin at the weekend against Ben's own Ogre army and a more regular sized army (basically so that I can stomp/thunderstomp them and see how that fares)

On another note, it may be a while before I get down to the club again. For a few reasons things have changed and I now don't have the time that I used to. I'm not taking a break from the hobby or anything, but getting the time to get in to Hull is, at least for now, a thing of the past. Watch this space.

Big Changes afoot!

I've been getting back in to the fantasy love affair once again so have been assembling one or two models over the last week. My favourite of the models built was the giant.

I'm sure that you can already guess which army he shall be for, but if not i shalt spoil the surprise! and if you know don't say! (this all really boils down to me wanting to think i'm all mysterious and stuff, even though i'm not).

so whilst this new endeavor is underway, I've once more been using the Stormkrow Tribe. Faced Ben's Ogre list earlier in the week and i must say, it gave my  well honed list a run for its money. It didn't help that i couldn't remember how my lord was supposed to be kitted out, but he was 90% how i used to field him, so there is now real excuses there. Seems that the new book isn't as bad as feared!