Quest for style

I've tried to give some thought as to what kind of miniature player I am. Am I a defensive player? Or do I prefer to have all offense? Do I like to mess with my opponents? Every time that I ask myself this question, I always answer with "I don't know."

Here is my attempt at answering this question. I'm going to record my armie's performance using the FIDE ELO ranking system. I'll assume a ranking of 1500 as a baseline and the see what has the better performance. I'll see where I stand after 30 games under my belt.

• WM Khador: 1485 / 1
• H Circle of Orboros: 1515 / 1
• WM Cygnar 1515 / 1
• WM Protectorate of Menoth 1485 / 1
• 40k Dark Eldar 1515 / 1
• WHFB Vampire Counts 1500 / 0
• WHFB High Elves 1500 / 0

ATZ: Final Fade Out and a Vanquisher

I recently purchased All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out from Two Hour Wargames and I will give you a quick play test review sometime this week.

Protectorate of Menoth: Vanquisher Heavy Warjack

I have also been making some progress the retooling of my Protectorate of Menoth for WARMACHINE. As per the schedule, I should be completing about 4 or 5 points worth of models per month to have 35 points painted by the end of the year. I'm happy to report that I'm still on track for that lofty goal! Here's an early look at my #miniatureMonday Twitter contribution for tomorrow.

Keep on gaming!

Protectorate of Menoth: 2013 will be the year of the Creator

When I got into WARMACHINE way back when first edition cards were black and white line drawings, I had selected two forces to field, the Protectorate of Menoth and an aggressor Khador army (Khador would be the loaner army for friends)

More and more I ignored the chosen of the Creator and played Khador as my main army. Why? Well, because Menoth relies on unit synergies to win and I managed to make a *very* sub-optinal force that struggled to break even. Essentially I had chosen models that I liked the look of (which is a valid reason, don't get me wrong) instead of researching which unit works best with what other unit.

This was in stark contract to my Khadoran combined arms forces which were giving as good as they were getting. In contract to this the Menoth army felt clunky and fought me as much as the opponent it seemed. I needed to re-tool the army...

NO MORE EXCUSES! The time is now to move on Caspia and in the Thornwood. Time to muster a coherent force and burn the chaff. I've given myself the following goal for 2013: Assemble and paint a coherent and effective 35 point Protectorate of Menoth army. According to this schedule, I would need to completely finish 4 points worth of models per month, considering that the warcaster credits points to the army list.

Even if January is two-thirds over, I think that this is ample time to finish the army compared to a Journeyman League for example. Let us hope that I do not get distracted by new shiny models as the year progresses. Wish me luck.

10mm Flames of War Infantry Basing

Having an extensive 10mm WWII german collection and recently acquired the 3rd ed of Flames of War rules, I've been thinking about infantry basing. A few options are open to me as follows:

• RaW: Base 10mm infantry as the rules state. Might be a little sparse and out of whack with the reduced tank scale
• Multiply by .66 the size of the bases: This would result in a standard base size of 7/8" by 1 3/8" (2.25 cm x 3.5cm)
• Multiply the base size by 2 and use the number as cm: This would result in a standard base of 2.5cm x 4cm. I think that the extra 5mm width would be the most useful considering the space required for 5 infantryman models.

What do you guys think? Do you know of more options available for 10mm / 6mm Flames of War?

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

And by this I mean it's time to play tricks and obtain treats! Halloween is upon us and our friends at Wargame Vault and DriveThruRPG are running their annual trick or treat treasure hunt. Just browse around on their webstore and click on every pumpkin you find. Some of 'em are trick, most of them are freebie treats.

To dress up your wargaming table for Halloween, one cannot have too many zombies, and with the upcoming release of All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out, there is no excuse (for me) to paint up more Walkers. Enter the Wargames Factory with their 28mm modern zombies. They look really nice and you can't beat the price since quantity is important in regards to zombies. $20 will net you a pack of 30 zombies, either male or female. Now all I need is the Romero-esque zombie clown to complete the set. I think i'll order me a set of each.

And finally here's a little something to add to your Halloween soundtrack from Jonathan Coulton:

Vampire Counts @2000 points

Halloween is upon us once again. Here's a quickie list for our favorite blood  suckers for a late night skirmish or three.

• Vampire Lord, L2 wizard, red fury, quickblood, armor of destiny, ogre blade, shield (428pts)
• Wight King, BSB, nightshroud, barded skeletal steed, shield (174 pts)
• 28x Ghouls with Ghast (290 pts)
• 40x skeletons, full command (230 pts)
• 28x Grave Guard, great weapons, full command, banner of the barrows (416 pts)
• 9x Black Knights, barding, lance, full command, screaming banner (289 pts)
• Varghulf (175 pts)

2002 pts total

Vampire lord goes in the GG block, and the Wight King rides with his knight buddies. The weight of number per unit should enable you to survive a round or two of combat to get that Invocation off to replenish the ranks.

Happy Halloween!

Wargaming terrain generation

Too many times has terrain generation been a necessary evil in my group. Either there's too much of one terrain type and we run out of ways to model it, or random generation required terrain that we don't have.

I recently found this universal card-based terrain generator inspired by Fantasy Battleground's Kingdoms expansion. I recommend using it as limits the number of terrain pieces that you would require while still keeping with adequate randomness to keep things interesting.

Solo play campaigns

I usually have a couple of hours free while the little one has her afternoon nap so I've decided to keep myself entertained with a wagames solo campaign. Here are my choices:

* 5150 Star Army (pro: have 40k and AT43 figs to use. Con: lots of charts)
* 5150 New Beginnings (Pro: have rezolution figs to use. Cons: need urban terrain and scifi civilian figs)
* All things zombie (Pro: Zombie figs available, terrain choice. Con: Survivor figs missing, urban terrain needed)
* Blitzkrieg commander (Pro: have figs easy rules. Con: no opponent automation)
* Cold war commander (Pro:  Easy rules Con: no figs or terrain)
* Future war commander ( Pro: have figs Con: same a BKC)
* Descent: road to legend solo (Pro: boardgame Con: no opponent automation)
* Battleground: fantasy warfare (Pro: 4 factions available. Con: no campaign rules)
* Heavy Gear Blitz (Pro: giant robots on roller skates. Cons: No opponent automation. Missing Southern minis. No campaign rules)

I *could* adapt the 'de bellis solitarius' unit automation for those games missing such rules so it's not as big a deal as it could be.

Now in making a choice, I absolutely have to stick with it 'till the end. None of this 'try if for a few sessions then switch' since that's what i've been doing recently which has resulted in too many false starts.

I'll have to give this further  thought, but i'm absolutely open to suggestions as well.

Edit: After careful consideration, I'm going to start an All Things Zombie campaign. Time to generate the survivors.

Quickie Malifaux campaign

I'm really smitten by the Malifaux game, so much so that i'm tinkering with a simple campaign system. It would go like this:

* 10 game campaign
* the player with the most accumulated VPs win
* Sudden death victory is awarded to the player who completes 8 different schemes in order (selected at the start of the campaign).
* players must select a faction at the beginning of the campaign and stick with it.

Standard Malifaux rules apply for crew selection and gameplay.

What do you guys think?

Post annual GW price hike

I approve of the challenge that this guy has put out there: Go out and find other games!



Now for a quick list of suggestions not covered by the video:

Games with rules + miniature line (Most with Free Rulebooks):

• Malifaux (Mentioned in the video)
• Infinity
• Kings of War
• Warmachine / Hordes (They are starting to follow in GW's footsteps, but nice to start)
• Flames of War (on the expensive side of things tho)
• Dust Warfare
• Heavy Gear Blitz

Games with rules to use with any minis:

• Horde of the Things (HOTT)
• Song of Blades and Heroes
• Bloodbowl (Free rulebook, lots of minis producers, not just GW)
• Starmada
• Full Thrust
• Blitzkrieg  Commander / Cold War Commander / Future War Commander
• Gruntz 15mm
• Dirtside
• Stargrunt
• All Things Zombies
• 5150: Star Army or New Beginnings

These are just off the top of my head, there are *many* more out there. A great resource for PDF rulebooks is the Wargames Vault.

Hope this has been helpful to some, See you next time.

Lilith Starter crew for Malifaux

A while back I was looking for a skirmish game that was cheap to get started in, but with deep enough gameplay to sustain my interest. Enter Malifaux, a steampunk weird west skirmish game. The gameplay looks really simple to grasp but difficult to master.

Intrigued, I ordered a pair of starter packs and the rules from Meeplemart.com .

As you can see I've got a Lilith Neverborn crew starter and a Perdita starter to have their Guild nemesis.

While waiting to get a game in, I decided to start painting up Lilith and her children. First up were some Terror Tot Nephilim

Then was a Mature Nephilim

And last but certainly not least Lilith herself

Of course, a family portrait is de rigueur

Considering on how well these models painted up, I can't wait to get started on the Ortegas.

The dead will rise from the blood soaked battlefield

The new vampire counts book is out and here are links to reviews of it:

* Hero's Gaming Blog
* Bell of Lost Souls

As a skeleton kind of player, i'm ecstatic that they are now about half the points that they were. What can I say? I loves dem bones. Vamps are more badass than they were (caster lord players will get dinged in points tho)  with the ability to feed of of a defeated foe. Speaking of healing, invocation of nehek is now an area of effect spell, healing all in a certain radius. Battle attrition? What's that?

To celebrate this edition's release, I have ordered a batch of models from Mantic games (have you *seen* the price on the new GW models? That's dentist visit money) Nothing special, some Ghouls, Skeletons, and Black Knights. Yup, the old stand-bys are as reliable as ever.

Dark Eldar strike into Virtual Realspace

It's been *forever* since I played 40k. So I decided to take out my beloved Dark Eldar out for a virtual spin. (Yay Vassal!) You see, it's been so long that I haven't actually used the new DE codex yet (it's only been a year!) 

This is the endgame of an Anhihilation Dawn Assault mission vs Tau. DE win of course (6 vs 9KP). The game hasn't really changed for the DE at all: Speed is life. All but one of those craters were DE vehicles, while 90% of the red smudges are what is left of the Tau infantry after the DE were done with them.

I lucked out on the Combat Drugs so all my combat monsters were so hopped up on drugs that they Felt No Pain, which mitigated much of the Tau shooting. I really like how the game moved from one end of the table to the other (Bottom right to top left). Power from Pain took care of the rest (represented by skulls in the image).


The Dark Eldar of the new codex are just as entertaining as the previous one, with some added durability thrown in so that the late game is still to be contested. I am absolutely statisfied with it.

Quick WHFB Vampire Counts army list

This is what I do while the baby is taking her nap, I organize undead minions to take over the world. :)

• Vampire Lord [1] w/ Mage Level, Forbidden Lore, Master of the Black Arts, Helm of Commandment, Armor of Destiny, Enchanted Shield
• Wight King [2] BSB w/ Barded Skeletal Steed, Black Axe of Krell
• 10x Ghouls [1] w/ Ghast
• 21x Ghouls w/ Ghast
• 27x Skeletons w/ Full Command
• 20x Grave Guard w/ Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
• 5x Black Knights [2] w/ Full Command, Royal Standard of Strigos
• Black Coach
• Varghulf

Total: 1990 pts

The rationale behind this army is to keep the lord in his bunker and out of harm's way. The main battle line will consist of the Ghoul, Skeleton and Grave guard units. The black coach, Varghulf and Black Knights will cover the flanks, or launch to harass the opposing flank units.

A drop-in replacement for the Wight King could be a Vampire BSB w/ Waking Death and Dread Knight. Depends on my mood.

New VC book rumored for January 2012

More info can be obtained here:

http://www.vampirecounts.net/Thread-Official-Rumour-Thread-New-Vampire-Counts-Book

Dark Eldar Halloween List

A few years back, I organised a haloween game of 40k. It was imperial guardsmen vs the walking dead. Well not really the walking dead, but they *were* Grotesques , Talos and Haemonculi. It was great fun to have the Grots trot across the board while the Guard were pouring tons of ineffective fire into them.

So here's a 1500 point Dark Eldar Halloween list for the new codex:

• Haemonculi Coven
• 95pts - Haemonculi[1] w/Webway Portal, Liquifier Gun
• 95pts - Haemonculi[2] w/Webway Portal, Liquifier Gun
• Elites
• 185pts - 5x Grotesques* w/Aberration
• 185pts - 5x Grotesques* w/Aberration
• Troops
• 100pts - 9x Wracks w/ Liquifier Gun
• 70pts - Raider, Flicker Field[1]
• 100pts - 9x Wracks w/ Liquifier Gun
• 70pts - Raider, Flicker Field[2]
• 100pts - 10x Wracks w/ Liquifier Gun
• Fast Attack
• 130pts - 5x Scourges w/ 2x Splinter Cannon
• 130pts - 5x Scourges w/ 2x Splinter Cannon
• Heavy Support
• 135pts - Talos Pain Engine* w/ Chain Flails, Additional CCW, Heat Lance
• 135pts - Talos Pain Engine* w/ Chain Flails, Additional CCW, Heat Lance
• Total: 1530pts

*: These units are deployed in the Webway

Is this an effective list? Nope. With only 3 Lances and 2 Heat lances, vehicle heavy lists will be a problem. But to take objectives from infantry, especially after the portals are deployed? Oooh boy, it will mess them up. Feel no pain on most units from the start of the game is going to help immensely. Remember to attach the Haemonculi to the Grotesques after deploying the portal to prevent them going on a rampage.

Happy Halloween!

Rally round the king playtest impressions

Kicked the tires of Rally Round the King, a Fantasy Miniature Massed Battle Wargame, this evening. I was already familiar with the reaction system so a I jumped in with both feet and started running a campaign. The major players are Elves, Undead, Human, and Orc empires. The summer season of the first year of the campaign saw the Elves declaring war and invading the peaceful orcs O_o !! (This result is a good thing, displaying the unexpected results that can be generated with the system)

On the tabletop, I really enjoyed the fact that you're in control of your forces until they get into charge/missile range. Then all H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks breaks loose. In the end, most units were routed (The superior discipline of the elves winning the day over the greenskin numbers). The Orc leader was killed in the battle.

It's an easy to learn system, and has I think the least amount of charts of all the THW games. The combat flowed smoothly and I was uncertain of the end-results of the battle even after quite a few turns of the center melee going on. This is a good thing, when you consider deployment and army lists will determine the winner of a WHFB game well before it is ended.

All in all, a very enthousiastic thumbs up on the system. Now if you'll excuse me, the Orc empire without a strong leader has fragmented into civil war, and I can't wait to see what happens next. :)

The black coach is finally finished

After many appearances in this Vampire Count's army lists in paper and metal form, I can finally say that my Black Coach is done! The model itself is the reason why I chose VCs as my army. The way the model is put together tho... ugh! The white metal parts don't *quite* fit together, or even line up for that matter. Assembling the thing was a exercise in frustration.

Because of all the problems assembling and painting the thing, I will make *sure* that it is still present in all my army lists.

I'm just sayin'

And on this very topic, Today's Dork Tower absolutely nails it!

8th ed BRB Bang for buck quick review

I finished reading the rules for WHFB 8th edition, all 150 pages of 'em. I have no inclination to wade through what amounts to 3 white dwarf issues tacked on to the rules to make a 500+ page book. The white-dwarf-ish later half of the book should have been cut, and kept in the astronomically priced special edition ($150 for that thing), leaving the rules and background info in a much more affordable core book (I'd be ready to shell out $50 for that no problem).

I come back to my price/value comparison with WARMACHINE mkII. Would I buy the WM mkII Prime book for CAN$35? In a heartbeat! (And will before the month is out) Would I buy the 8th ed BRB at CAN$90? Never in a million years. I'll wait for the mini book to appear on ebay, thanks. The close to 3 to 1 fluff to rules ratio doesn't justify the price for me.

I'm clearly not the target market since I want most of the pagecount of the game books that I buy to be useful in the actual games that I play. To each his own, but sticker shock on the BRB is a "remains in play effect" until GW decides to bring down the price.

Oh and here is a pic illustrating very well the padding contained in the BRB. It's a size comparison between the standalone book and the rules-only book in the starter boxed set.