Monday 31 December 2012

The start of something Evil...

Mwhahahahahahaha... The time known as Christ Mass has been good to me and my minions have been sent scurrying to fetch me a force to assemble over the next few months


So what did I get?

Magma cannon
Hellshrieker rocket launcher 
3 Daemonsmiths
20 Skaven to convert to Hobgoblins via the piles of plastic in the little bags
15 Fenrisian wolves to make Hobgoblin riders (it specifically says in Tamurkhan they ride GIANT wolves)

These will be used as an add on force to my Warriors army until I get more units to make up a whole Chaos Dwarf force

As much as I like the models for CD I nearly didn't go with them as there wasn't enough conversion opportunities for them until I realized GW don't make Hobgoblins! A quick search on the net showed up the idea of using Skaven bodies with goblin heads so viola... or some other stringed instrument...

The question now is will I get the Dragon Ogres painted up before starting on these.  Any answers on a postcard should be no...

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Dragon ogres complete

Well hello again it's been a while...

I have finally settled where i'm going to be for a while and have a permanent place to paint and model again it's time to get back on track!

I've finished putting together the dragon ogres and so far they've only been foiled by an ethereal black coach smiting all else in their path with great weapons.  It was especially funny to see them kill off 3 units of ogres!  I originally armed them with ogre weapons but didn't like it as they looked to ogrey so I found the plastic chaos knights weapons I never used as they were too big and stupid but perfect for my dragon ogres.

I went to more effort to mutate these as they are "true" creatures of chaos so while they're meant to be a stable(ish) breed for chaos it's still chaos...  Took a lot of patience and green stuff but i'm pleased

Ramble over here they are.  I must say matt black isn't very matt any more...



I couldn't resist giving one a dragonish head.  He also has a tentacle for an arm I haven't bothered showing


I tired making this one looking like it had another body bursting out but sadly my sculpting skills aren't that impressive so i'll have to see what I can do with paint (no laughing at the back)


Hello! TWAT!...  Scratch built great flail.  Think i'm also gonna give this guy a helmet


4 arms are great for holding more weapons! And ladies love a big tongue. Apparently...

Once I've got these painted and my maticore done i'm starting a new project.  Here's a teaser.  Can you guess what it is yet?


Hopefully next post will be sooner than the others!

Friday 12 October 2012

It's a bit chaotic at the mo...

What is this blogger thing?  I seem to remember it being quite important...

Bouncing round Sheffield and starting a new job really makes for a tired boy with no time to play with toys... I have tried and I've started on my new projects as I was invited to take place in a storm of magic game that never happened

So I'm gonna make dragon ogres.  I need something on my flanks that won't crumble to quickly and arming them with great weapons means I can hit back hard.  They had a play test the other week taking out a vampire on a nightmare quite easily but then dying to an ethereal black coach.  I hate those things...


Here's how they're getting on so far.  I'm converting them up to look more chaotic and dragonish unlike a lot I've seen on the tinterweb.  Gonna have a go at extra arms and limbs as after all these are true sons of chaos.  I may even paint one up pink...


And with my birthday money I treated myself to a Chimera.  I really like this model and hate the Manticore one so this will be a count as Manticore for a lord.  Sorry he's the wrong way round I have to go and can't find the rotate button!


Til whenever next...

Monday 27 August 2012

I didn't make it to Cardiff so had time to do some more painting.  I've certainly become a lot quicker over this last year.  I know what I want now and how to achieve it.  Also I'm not too bothered about these henchmen...  I painted them the same as the other squad except I switched the red shoulder pad.  One is headless as I couldn't find the head I wanted to give him



I'm pleased with the assassin.  I made him blue to stand out from the rest of the army



Monday 20 August 2012

"Tourney" news

I just thought I'd put a quick post up about Kierons "tournament" on the weekend which I really enjoyed.

It wasn't a competitive tournament but more of a campaign.  Win a battle and control a territory on a map.  We were split into 3 teams so had to work together to wipe the others off the map!

I played 4 games; Skaven first where I narrowly won thanks to my opponents last two turns of appalling luck (his general running away despite being stubborn for example).  I also made a mistake as I had cast call to glory and didn't think it could be dispelled in subsequent turns but it can.  How ludicrous is that though?  A guy gets turned into a hero then can be banished next go.  Hmmm

Rich was my next victim - ahem - opponent and I was in for a surprise.  End of his turn one movement phase looked like this


I nearly panicked as this had never happened before!  What do I do when the enemy come closer?!  His plan was to try an make me run off the board edge by sticking me with loads of poisoned attacks but we all know what his dice are like... 6'd to hit...

(this is from another of his games later in the day)

So the inevitable happened and the Slann with his balloon of doom took a lot of turns to kill in a challenge but eventually he bit it and victory was mine!


Game three pitted me against a very very nice looking army of Orcs.  It was one of the best and closest games I've ever had with luck swinging both ways.  One unit of my warriors was saved from two chariot charges by some trees (glad to see its not just my knights who have difficulties with them).  My other unit were blessed with stupidity by the warshrine and spent two turns ambling forward to get rear charged by horde Orcs.  Amazingly they all hit and only a few didn't wound to win me the combat and proceeded to cut them down to size but sadly not in enough time before the game ended so it was a draw as everyone else except my general and a few marauders had died.

Game 4 was something special.  It was two battles of 5 players each.  Unfortunately my allies had been ambushed so set up in the middle of each table.  I was placed on one with Andys beastmen, two Orc players and Rich's Slann.  We each placed an objective and at the end of the game whoever controlled one would claim a territory, and another for killing an enemy general.  It was a right laugh as mayhem ensued with the two orcs on opposite sides they couldn't really gang up.  We ignored one and the Beastmen took on the slann while I took the other orcs.  The Slann attacked everyone so were in turn attacked back by everyone getting wiped out.  At the end a unit of warriors occupied an objective in a building facing a horde of savage orcs who had done nothing all game except trudge across a table.  The other orcs had a third of a horde left in another building.  the beastmen had its general and a chariot left.  We won 8-3!

The end of the day saw Chaos victorious and bagged me an objective set :-) But more importantly I had had a great laugh and met some thoroughly nice chaps.  Cheers Kieron, again again!

Oh and I finished the wolves.  A week back home means I won't get anything else done this month :-/



Tuesday 14 August 2012

Plan B...

No I've not got into a new genre of music I've painted some more warriors as a backup to my main unit as I am far to reliant on them to win my battles for me.  Hopefully these will take some shooting and magical attacks instead.

Here they are as a pile of bits just to prove they're new ones!



I added a few marauder heads to try and tie them in together 

I finally succumbed to using unit fillers.  I don't intend to use them all in the same unit as it looks too silly

And I traded some wolves so I can field an all wolf Space Wolf army at some point in the future.  These should only be quick to do as Fenrisian wolves are black!


I should hopefully be a bit more productive from now on!

Sunday 8 July 2012

OK I tried posting this last month but it failed and I didn't notice.  I have 5 minutes while the kids are watching Ice age (it is aimed at 30year olds right and its a happy coincidence they like it?) The Taiwanese are out so aren't hogging the only ethernet connection there is.

Here we go





Annoyingly I only noticed I had 9 when taking the photos.  One had hidden under the settee to avoid being undercoated.  He shall be punished accordingly and get given the pink horse

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Thunder, thunder, thunder, thunder WOLVES!

I finally finished them off.  I had to wait posting them because I didn't have PVA glue to do the bases and I don't want to post without doing bases because that's bad...

There are 3 new GW thunderwolves and two of the ones I ordered from the states.  I painted the two states ones black so they aren't as defined and hopefully stand out as different too much.









For my next trick I should really finish off my marauder horse but i'm not overly excited at that thought so we shall see... Til then

Monday 11 June 2012

Battle Report - Elves again...

I played a 3000 point game against Dan the other night who plays High Elves.  Once we had laid down our forces we realized that out forces aren't exactly very big so a battle of elites then!

I fielded

Level 4 Sorcerer of Tzeench with 15 disposable maruaders
Level 2 Chaos Dwarf death sorcerer with a bodyguard of 10 fireglave wielding dwarves
30 Warriors with extra hand weapon and shield including exalted hero with banner of the gods
2*5 warhounds
10 Marauder Horse
10 Knights with exalted hero
Shrine, Hellcannon and spawn

We rolled the meeting engagement scenario and I got to set up first denying Dan the chance to hide behind the river like he wanted (what is it with Elf players!?)
As I deployed first Dan could match up his army to mine meaning my warriors face the sword masters and my Knights up against the White Lions. Yay...
The only tardy units not to bother arriving on time were my exalted hero onna horse and a unit of spearelves
Apologies for the sideways photos I can't seem to change them!

The Hellcannon is just off camera to the left

Turn 1

I went first declaring a charge on the Swordmasters with my warriors. 12" apart with movement 5 and of course they fail.
My marauder horse move around the Silverhelms flanks with the spawn and warhounds moving to get in their way.  I really didn't want these hitting my flanks so the plan was to annoy the hell out of them and hopefully keep them away from the main battle.

I rolled 9 for magic but thanks to Elven dominance I only managed to cast infernal gateway on the White Lions with irresistible force killing all bar 3 of them.  I chose to kill 3 marauders rather than let me sorcerer take a wound.  That would do me nicely though!

Shooting saw my Hellcannon score a direct hit on the Seaguard mangling them horribly leaving only a front rank.  Suddenly my knights were only facing a few pitiful elves and the game already looked to be going heavily in my favour.  A well thrown axe in the back took down a silver helm and the dwarves bullseyed an archer off the hill.

The elves were reeling from their losses but were determined to come out fighting so the Swordmasters declared a charge on my warriors and the 3 brave (or stupid?) White Lions went into my Knights and the Silverhelms into my spawn hoping to over run into the hounds
This time the Swordmasters only needed a 5 to reach me but failed it.  The lions made it and the Silverhelms couldn't fail

Elven magic was embarrassing with only a buff spell on the Silverhelms working.  Shooting wasn't much better with the archers picking off two dwarves.

In combat the Silverhelms promptly minced the spawn and went into the hounds who held ground.  The white Lions killed a knight and my unit champion before dying a glorious death.


Turn 2

My warriors charged into the Swordmasters and reached their lines this time.  I thought about charging the knights into the remaining Seaguard but decided against it.

My exalted hero sauntered onto the battlefield casually cleaning his breakfast from his sharpened teeth with a  claw.

Magic failed me this turn with the winds to low to provide any powerdice.  Shooting was equally bad with the Hellcannon missing but the dwarves did hurt two archers this time.

In combat my unit champion issued a challenge and made three 6+ ward saves to survive but didn't manage to hurt his challengee.  Unfortunately for me my exalted hero was in base contact with the Elven general who stuck his magic sword right up his **** killing him easily. Warriors died  in droves but did enough damage back to stay in combat as I only lost by 1.  This seemed a pivotal combat.
On the right flank the warhounds died.


No Elven charges were declared but the Silverhelms were crossing the river on my flank and a new unit of Seaguard entered battle taking aim at my horsemen.

Elven magic saw my warriors lose a point in toughness and a buff on the Silverhelms again (why I don't know) I lost a few more Dwarves to shooting and 4 horsemen bit the dust from the Seaguard.

Combat and unsurprisingly I lost with the warriors as the elves hacked at the weakened unit.  I outdistanced the elves though.


Turn 3

My knights charged into the Swordmasters with the warshrine moving up in support.  My leftmost warhounds went into the flank of the seaguard hoping just to tie them up.The marauder horsemen moved up behind the Silverhelms and the Hellcannon decided it wanted to join in the fun by breaking loose and rampaging up the field.
Magic blew strong and I needed to do something about the Silverhelms so the dwarved sorcerer tried and failed to snipe the units banner bearer but once again I cast infernal gateway with force causing 10 hits on the 11man unit... Only strength 5 meant they still had 4+ armour saves and only 2 died!  Oh dear...

Shooting took down another archer and Silverhelm.

In combat only my unit champion and 3 knights went down so I had a chance if i could cause enough damage back.  I couldn't and lost the combat but held firm.  the warhounds fled after failing to wound anyone.


The Silverhelms didn't quite get across the river this turn and the only other movement from the elves were the new seaguard unit coming up on my horsemens rear.
Magic saw my Knights lose toughness and a thorny hedge appear around the silverhelms
The warriors took a few arrows in the back but their armour held.

To combat and all bar one knight died and fled through my marauders but he survived.  The Swordmasters were now nose to nose with my marauders and sorcerer.  Ulp...

Turn 4

I needed to do something about the Swordmasters before they butchered my sorcerer and his bodyguard.  Queue heroics from the lately arrived hero with a charge into their flanks.  As he has to issue a challange I was hoping he could tie them up so I could magic them to death before he died. 
My dwarves went into the silverhelms with my horsemen and warshrine hitting them as well.  The plan was just to hopefully keep them there by sheer stubbornness.

With magic I managed to kill the Elven mage in the Silverhelm unit as they all turned to hit themselves (stop hitting yourself) and they had their strength and toughness reduced by 1.

The Hellcannon rampaged again and with everything else in combat there was no shooting.

My exalted hero killed his opponent in combat!  He was armed with the sword of strife so with 6 st5 attacks you'd hope he would be dangerous.  I won the combat but the elves held firm.
In the Silverhelm fight I lost by 1 but stayed in the fight with all units.


A charge from the Seaguard into my exalted hero was the only movement from the Elves.  Shooting was restricted to my fleeing units and magic saw buffs applied to the silverhelms with more thorns appearing.

The thorns didn't scratch me though and in a new challenge I again won with Tzeench favouring his champion saving him with two 6+ ward saves.  However he thought this was enough favour as 2 rolls on the eye of the gods table saw it closed.
As I won the combat the Seaguard fled but the Swordmasters were firm again.
I actually managed to win the Silverhelm combat but they went nowhere either.





Turn 5

No movement for me apart from very reluctant warriors to flee the board.  The game is a mosh of combats to resolve.
The only magic saw me cast infernal gateway right in the face of the Swordmasters with irresistible force AGAIN = bye bye Swordmasters :-D
Shooting saw another hit with the Hellcannon and here is what happened.





Poor lonely elf but he stood firm bless him...

Combat still didn't resolve the silverhelm fight and all units stayed locked together.


In the Elven turn I lost a few marauders to shooting but the only mage now left fluffed his lines and failed his first spell so wasted the turn.
Still nothing happened in the silverhelm fight.

Turn 6

I forgot to take photos from here on in but a quick summery.  My exalted hero onna horse charged into and minced the unit of archers in the river running them down onto the hill.  My warshrine finally died in the Silverhelm combat  and at the end of the game there was only 1 left against 3 dwarves and the sorcerer.

A comedy moment saw the Elven mage in desperation move closer to my hero hoping for a miscast to take him out.  He did miscast thanks to pandemonium being in play but I modified the roll so there was no detonation and instead the mage took a wound.

Final scores were

Elves - 980
Chaos - 1200

Conclusion

Avery messy game that started well for me but then saw my two hardest units bounce off the Swordmasters which I guess is what they do.  If I had had my bsb in with my sorcerer then it could have all been different as it would have made the warriors stubborn and hopefully I could have ground them down some more meaning I could charge my knights into their flank.
I think Dan made a huge mistake with his Silverhelms as they were out of the game where they were.  Not dispelling the hex on them as well meant all their combats were at Strength and toughness 2!
This army is very reliant on me getting in some good magic and the Hellcannon hitting directly twice didn't hurt either.
The dwarves aren't worth the points but fair play they are quite handy in combat being stubborn and with a 4+ armour save and strength 4 too.
I do find it silly how having 1 model on the board from a 545 point unit means you get no points for them.  Luckily my warriors didn't leg it and saved me a load of points so it balanced out :)
A fun game with a great opponent.  Cheers Dan

Zombie Apocalypse


Turns out Archeon the Everchosen is really good at it getting to the helipad first and killing 18 zombies along the way :-D








Wednesday 6 June 2012

Happy Birthday!


As Dr A pointed out it’s been a year since I started this blog and we started the 4 gamers project.  Time for a reflective entry then! Dooodle de dooo, dooodle de doo...

Reading my first post I wanted a 2000 points, well painted highly customised Chaos army well did I do it?  Here is a gratuitous whole army shot, can you guess?


Yep!  Without any upgrades, magic items  or marks etc I can make over 2500 so I’m really pleased.  Each model as had indivivual attention except for the dwarves.  I still want another block of warriors and then finish off the extras like an extra ogre and the other marauder horsemen.
Considering what my painting was like on my ex-bretonnians the painting standard can be classed as ‘well’ too :-D


Looking back on my battles it seems my sorcerers have been miscasting since the first game. I’m still not a great general and someone is still a girly cheating elf.  Chaos are very one dimensional to play with and with my armour saving being abysmal too all that armour ain't so scary.











The blogging has helped keep me somewhat more focused than I would have been otherwise making me get out the paint brushes more often than I would have otherwise.  

So I am more than happy with what I've done, hopefully by Christmas i'll finish it!