Thursday 1 October 2015

Battletech Kickstarter

Hello all,

The rumors of my demise are sadly over rated.

I thought i would add my voice to the chorus and share the new Battle Tech pc game on Kickstarter.
I have already pledged my funding with this game universe and The Free Worlds League( House Orloff) in particular being my favorite.

See below link
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/battletech

This news may actually kick start (pardon the pun) my blog and indeed my hobby juices.

Ramble finished.
Cheers
Lupus

Tuesday 14 July 2015

My Blog's Future content.

I am not sure what the community will do in regards to Warhammer 8th edition and Age of Sigmar, but for my part I plan on continue working on my 8th edition Vampire counts and Wood elves army's both the figures and the fluff, i have around 30 ish draft posts that i have been working on and i still intend to finish them off.

Warhamer Fantasy has been part of my gaming life for 25 years and I am not willing to give it up yet, whilst Age of Sigmar could be a good beer and chips game, I prefer my fantasy armies to have big formed up battalions and Magic, if in the future a different game peaks my interest it may well  fill the void of Warhammer Fantasy, only time will tell of course.

So hopefully i will have content of interest in the coming months, stay tuned.

Cheers
Lupus

Sunday 5 July 2015

Added a few new Pages

I have been meaning to add a few pages to my blog for a couple of months nowm but i just kept putting it off for one reason or another, but with the Destruction of 8th edition warhammer , and the arrival of Age of Sigmar i decided that i should fly my nerd colours at last and add the pages for my Wood elves, Vampire and Dwarf armies to show that I am not pulling the pin on the Old world even if GW has.

The Old world has been a part of my life longer then my Wife and it will continue to be part of it for many years to come.

I have also decided to give Age of Sigmar a page, the reasons i will discuss in another post, but for now let me just say.

Victory lies with the Big Battalions.

Cheers
Lupus

Monday 15 June 2015

Brains- Or a WIP of my Vampire Zombies

It has been slow in my hobby world of late, with the 9th edition uncertanity.

But even with that I have managed to go through my collection and find my zombies both new and secondhand and fleshed out(pardon the pun) three units of 30 zombies or 90 zombies. To be honest i doubt i will need more than 90 of those rotters.

So work to date.
One unit taking shape with the green zombies and regiment bases, some zombies still need torso's.

Another two units again some torso work required.
As you can see from the pictures it is early days so far, some zombies are partially assembled and some zombies will need a new paint scheme/ re-basing.

But it is a start.

Cheers
Lupus



Saying good bye to eight edition Warhammer

It is fitting i suppose that my last game of Warhammer 8th Edition will be with my Vampires, the Vamps were the army that i was using when 8th edition was released, over the course of 8th edition I have played and collected Vampires, Skaven, Warriors of Chaos, Wood elves, High Elves and Lizardmen. I have not included my dwarfs in this list as I have not yet actually played a game of 8th with them as yet.

This week i will be playing what could be my last 8th edition fantasy game as such i can think of nothing better then using this 2500 point list.

Lords
Vampire Lord- W'Sorchai
Lv4 - lore of vampires
Talisman of presrvation, Black periapt
Great weapon, Heavy Armour
Quickblood, Flying horror, Aura of Dark Majesty


Hero's
Necro - lv 1 death
Cursed book


Vampire
-bsb
-lv2 vamps
quickblood,
heavy, nightmare, lance, shield,
dragon helm
book of arkhan
Seed of rebirth
potion of full hardiness


1 Tomb Banshee


Core
50 skeletons- fc -banner of movement

20 Zombies- banner, muso

5 dire wolves

5 dire wolves

10 dire wolves inc doom

10 dire wolves inc doom

Special

1 spirit host

1 spirit host

2 fellbats

10 black knights
-barding lances
fc- banner of barrows

Rare
Mortis Engine - cursed tome

Varghulf

I am not sure how it will play, but it will be a good game.

Cheers
Lupus

Wednesday 6 May 2015

1000pt Vampires counts


After playing 2400 point games for so long, it felt refreshing to attempt a 1000 point list instead, and with the imposed restrictions on army list design i feel that this is a good start.

Hero's 246pts
Vampire -W'sorchai the enslaver
Lv2 lore of vamps - general
heavy and shield
talisman of endurance

Necromancer - Helmut Jaeger
Lore of vampires

Core 310pts
25 skeleton warriors- full command banner of swiftness
spears -shield

5 dire wolves

5 dire wolves

20 zombies


Special 270pts
2 fell bats

6 Crypt horrors inc haunter


Rare 175pts
Varghulf

List design thoughts

  • At the outset i felt i needed 2 invocation chances to force my oponents to actually think what spells they want to dispel, so this meant two casters were a must, factor in my general needed a ward save and that limited what else i could purchase for W'sorchai.
  • I love skeletons so a block of them, a bunker of zombies for my necro to keep him off the front line and some wolf darts round out my core options.
  • 2 fell bats for warmachine hunting or attempting march blocking
  • The Crypt horrors and Varghulf both add speed and damage potential to my list.
First game is on Friday against Lizards so lets see how the dice favor me or not.

Cheers
Lupus


Tuesday 5 May 2015

Vampire counts , Cause who doesn't like a blood suckers army for Ninth Edition Warhammer

Hi everyone,
Well the decision is made, I will wait no more for Warhammer Ninth edition to be released ,I feel that the Vampire counts will be a safe bet to put my hobby time into, regardless of the rumors of changes to the warhammer fluff, I just can not see GW dropping the Vampire army in some format, so with this assumption in mind i have started the re-image work on my vampire counts 6th edition army, with the intention to turn it into a ninth edition army that will be the best i have created to date.

So how does this rash statement of intent turn itself into the reality of an army that is tournament ready?
The bare truth is to be honest i don't know, what the finished product shall look like, but the first thing i need is a theme.These are what I have thought of to date.

The options i am considering without knowing any Ninth edition fluff is as follows

  • An army of flesh golems- this is barely a concept at the moment.
  • An Army of Zombies in all shapes and sizes- so zombies would be depicted in every unit using different models for corpse cart, varghiests and Crypt horrors etc.
  • An army raised from the defeated remains of the empire province of Solland- so this would be based in 8th edition fluff and could be the remains of the empire raised to serve.
  • Regardless of my overall theme my army will have Necrach Vampire figures, even if they will be called something else in ninth edition.

So that is the idea's i have for the moment, with this in mind, the first step will be getting all my vampire stuff out, and putting away my wood elves and dwarfs and seeing what bits and bobs i have to work with, whilst the round versus square bases rumors continue i will be a man and blue tack any new units to their bases to hedge my bets.

Anyway that is enough out of me.
Cheers
Lupus




Monday 27 April 2015

1000 point warhamer

In an effort to kick start my hobby malaise a few mates and I are going to be playing some 1000 point warhammer battles, my hope is that it will reinvigorate my interest.

So here are my thoughts using the following restrictions

1000 point army's
No Lord choices.
0-250 on hero's
250 + on core
0-500 on special
0-250 on rare

Max three magic levels(inc sisters of thorn and  warlocks)
Max 2 warmachines (inc steam teanks, gyrobombers)
Max 1 each type of rare
Max 2 of each special type

The goal is not to have hero hammer or he with the most warmachines wins, but to use these small battles to have fun.

Anyway that is all from me.

Cheers
Lupus

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Army Transport options

Well it time to finally open the wallet ,even though I am not currently in the 'hobby zone', I have started thinking about how I can improve the transport of my armies.

For Cancon I used some old foam trays that were lying around and a plastic $2 shop carry tub, this system worked okay for what it was, but i intend to attend more tournaments this year, an this current set up is not suitable for driving as i kept expecting it to flip over and as i intend to fly with the army i really need to up my game.

These are my concerns-
  • When flying do you put your army in checked luggage or can you take it as carry on?
  • What sort of case/bag is best?
  • It is the overwhelming choice of different companies that is concerning me, not the lack of it.
  • At this stage I have had no experience with anything except an Old GW case that i gave away years ago, and my current set up.
My future transport option needs to be able to carry my wood elves safely without being a major pain lugging it about.

I am hoping that the community will be able to offer some sage advice.

Cheers Lupus

Sunday 29 March 2015

Awaiting 9th Ed

I would be lying if i said i was motivated in my fantasy hobby at the moment, i just can't seem to put brush to model, the what if's about 9th edition . Now don't get me wrong, i like the fluff of the warhammer world, but the new fluff rumors does not faze me.

The gaming side of it does interest me, and it is because of that my hobby has ground to a halt, i have plans and idea's for my armies, but until i see the shape of 9th edition i am loathe to actually waste my time.

So what am i spending my time on at the moment then, i am catching up on some overdue reading .

Stay tuned.

Cheers
Lupus

Wednesday 18 March 2015

Cancon Random Pictures

Random Pictures of the convention iteself.


Night goblin warboss

Second hand stall

More second hand.

Board games area.



Some Cosplay, sonic qas dedicated it was very hot this day.


More Cosplay


A cosplay lady and her kids.

Warrior of Chaos Army


Chaos dwarfs army

High elves army

Wood elves army

Ogres Army

Night goblin army

Dwarfs Army

More Cosplay
Some Napoleonics



Another Dwarfs army.

Roy's best painted Dwarfs.




More Cosplay

Steampunk cosplay

Another woodelves army

Another High elves army.

And that is it for Cancon, i highly recommend the event, even if Warhammer fantasy is not for you the convention is just amazing.

Cheers
Lupus

Cancon the final wash up.

With all the battle reports up, such as they are, i decided to look at my army composition and see how i felt my Elves as a whole faired.
So how did i do?
4 wins and 4 loses.
73 battle points and placed equal 100th position out of 120 entrants.
If my army was completely painted I would have finished equal 66th position, so a lot can be said for attending a tournament with a fully painted and based army.

How did i find that my list performed, well here are my thoughts on the matter.

Lv4 Life weaver- Corinath
  • Lore of life is worth the comp hit you take in swedish comp. Whilst it did not always perform as i would have expected , i found that it gave my opponents something to think about in every magic phase , be it flesh to stone, dwellers below or even shield of thorns.
  • The magic item load out of my general could have been better
BSB
  • This guy is a must have, the re-rolls to ld tests was worth it, factor in the hail of doom arrow and i found him to be effective, although i am not completely happy with his loadout i will continue to tinker
Branch wraith
  • To be honest, i think i will play without her for a while, the additional channel and her perfomance in game seven were handy, but not really worth the investment.
  • perhaps in a tree list she would be amazing with a few of her sisters to help out. I also feel that I defaulted to using her defensively on spell choice when i could be better served otherwise.
  • I feel that her points in another offensive unit would have been of better use.
Lv1 Beast singer
  • This girl had the theory behind her, but i found the lore of beasts not as good for this army as i expected it to be , in truth i had not play tested a lv1, but I did playtest a level 2.
  • If i keep a second spell caster in my list i will probably change the lore to shadow/ metals or heavens.
  • The fireball ring was okay, but i found it not as good with beasts as say metal or light would have been.
Shadow dancer
  • He worked well, but I think his loadout needs to be changed to a potion of strength, as it would add high strength attacks to him.
Glade riders
  • Excellent, will continue to find a place for them, maybe upgrade their arrows to something hagbane maybe?
Glade guard
  • Who can argue with trueflight arrows they bring the pain and i don't mind taking the comp hit for them.
Wild wood rangers
  • 28 may be about three too many, may consider reducing them to 25, but will add the banner of swiftness in the future to lend more speed to the unit as the flaming banner was wasted this time around.
Wild riders
  • 140 points of pure destruction, if they are not shot to death first, an awesome unit.
Treeman
  • Love this guy, always performs his roll well, and as a stubborn anvil does as advertised.

Giant eagles
  • wish I could have three units, may add some Warhawk riders or an Eagle noble.
Way watchers.
  • My unit of 6 is sometimes overlooked, but always performed their roll well.

Potential changes

  • My army was very static with usually the Wildwood rangers acting as late game counter attack unit.
  • As predicted i struggle with high toughness high armour save units eg the stank from game three, and the Doomwheel in Game 8. 
  • I felt that I lacked another fast unit that could bring the pain, so i will be looking at a redesign, maybe a wardancer unit as well for some more fun.
Anyway that is how my army went , for myself i had a blast, but i think next time i will fly up, the drive up from Victoria was okay as we were fresh, but the drive back was a drag as we were not fresh at all.

Cheers
Lupus.

Cancon Day 3 , game 8- There were Rats , rats lots of bloody rats, on the board.

Game 8- Robert Hughs aka Rojo (Wargamerau)
Last game of the tournament and Rojo and his amazing hair was looking a little worse for wear, an excellent opponent and his figure that he painted in pastels looked great, the rest of his amazing army was borrowed. but it as well look good, i cannot wait to see his finished ratmen next time we meet.

Skaven
The Mission was Battle Line
Last game of a three day tournament and with only 30 minutes of lunch we were on the tail end of a great event, and i am glad to have played Rojo and great way to end a great event.

His List was 16.6 counting as 16 swedish
Lord Skrolk

Plague Priest
Lv2, Flail, Ironcurse icon, Obsidian Lodestone

Warlock Engineer
Lv1, Warp energy condensor, doom rocket

Warlock Engineer
Lv2, dispel scroll, warstone tokens

34 clanrats
full command, shields, poisoned wind mortar

20 slaves
muso and spears

34 stormvermin
full command , razor standard, poisoned wind mortar

8 gutter runners
slings

8 gutter runners
handweapons and snares

8 poisoned wind globadiers

34 plague monks
full command, plague banner

Doom wheel

Plagueclaw catapult.

Rojo and his magic hair ready to go.

The skaven at deployment on the right flank.

The doom wheel that refused to die.


Skaven center.

My glade riders appear behind the plague monks and have their eye on the catapult.


My center depleted by the plague claw stand ready to repel the rats.

Eagles flanking.

The lovely looking plague claw catapult, that cause a lot of elven death.


End of turn 6, fleeing clanrats behind the tower.

Depleted slaves in front of the tower.

The doom wheel that i just could not kill, with one wound left.


His spells- Plague and more Plague, I cannot remember them at all.
My spells
Lifeweaver:- Awakening the wood, throne of vines, shield of thorns and Dwellers below
Beastsinger:- Wildform
Branchwraith:- Earthblood

Highlights

  • I was able to reduce the horde of storm vermin with missiles and magic and finally in CC with my Wild wood rangers.
  • My treeman and a unit of wild riders ground  the plague monks off the table
  • My glade riders ambushed on and took care of his plague catapult 
  • At the end of the game only the doom wheel and slaves were left.


Result 14-6 Win to me.

This was a great way to end the event, and i look forward to meeting these excellent people hopefully again next year.

Cheers Lupus.

Cancon Day 3 Game 7 The Lizards come.

So onto the first game of the day three.

Game 7- Josh Byrne
Lizardmen
The Mission was Battle for the Pass
Josh is a 40k player who's mates and he decided to try thier hand at fantasy a couple of months ago, dont let that fool you though he had a firm grasp of the rules and is an excellent general, and to be honest his lizardmen were painted really nicely.

Josh fielded this army.

Slann
Lv4 - High Magic, Harmonic Convergence, Focus of Mystery, Channeling Staff, BSB, Swiftness

Scar Vet Halberd, Glittering Scales
Scar Vet Halberd, Light Armour, Dragonhelm, Ironcurse Icon

4 units of 12 Skink Skirmishers
Javelins & Sheilds

2 units of 30Saurus Warriors
Full Command

34 Temple Guard
Full command

Stegadon
Sharpend Horns


Josh ready to deploy.


My Wood Elves deployed and ready to go.

The Saurus behind the skink screens at deployment.




Turn 2 the Lizards continue to advance.

Turn 2, my great eagle about to die.


Josh looking intently at his skinks.



Just before the battle lines meet, in turn 4.


His spells- All of the high magic ones i believe.
My spells
Lifeweaver:- Awakening the wood, flesh to stone, throne of vines and Dwellers below
Beastsinger:- Wildform
Branchwraith:- Earthblood


Highlights

  • Josh deployed all his characters into the temple guard.
  • This game was a bloody affair , and the lizards did very very well, but for one wound on a steg my wild wood rangers would have survived the combat and threatened his saurus block, but the lost combat broke and ran.
  • I cleaned up his skink screen effectively, thank you true flight arrows.
  • I forgot to dispel fiery convocation in my turns which accounted for the death of my singer and her glade guard body guard
  • Josh rolled total power every time it mattered, which reduced his slann to level zero mage level however by turn 4.
  • Dwellers accounted for the slann mage and a goodly number of temple guard.
  • In the last turn i decided to attempt to turn a draw to a win, but it backfire and became a loss instead.


Result  12- 8 against me , so another loss.


Tuesday 17 March 2015

Cancon Day 2 game 6

This was the last game on day 2 and i was beginning to feel it a bit, enter my second mirror match of the event.

Game 6- Alex Rynel
Wood elves Swedish 15.3
The Mission was Battle Line

His list is as follows.
Spellweaver (310pts)
dispell scrowl, Elven Steed, lore heavens, Level 4 talisman of preservation 

Glade Captain (152pts )
BSB, bow of loren, hail of doom arrow, shield

Shadowdancer (120pts)
potion of strength
  
10x Glade Guard (160pts)
hagbane tips, musician 

10x Glade Guard (160pts)
10x hagbane tips,musician

20x Eternal Guard (285pts)
shields, full command, standard of dicipline

10x Deepwood scouts (160pts)
hagbane tips 

7x Sisters of the Thorn (197pts)
Standard bearer/w gleaming pennant

6x Wild Riders (168pts)
shields

6x Wild Riders (168pts)
shields

3x warhawk riders (135pts)

Treeman (225pts)

8x waywatchers ( 160pts)

His spells- Cannot remember  any except his chain lightning was very effective.
My spells
Lifeweaver:- flesh to stone, throne of vines, shield of thorns and Dwellers below
Beastsinger:- Wildform

Branchwraith:- Earthblood


Alex looking happy at the start of the game.

Alex castled up on the right flank

First turn the castle sorties out to attack my woodies.

All my dice and a better picture of the summer elves.


Alex's scouts and Treeman holding his left flank, with dead sisters in the background.

Finally a picture of my army.


It has been nearly two months since this game , but these are the highlights.

  • Gleaming pennant saved the sisters and the heavens weaver from a (boxcars)double 6  12 on a panic check , and instead turned it into a (snake eyes) double one on turn 3, i think that little 5 pt item is going to become a staple of my list as i have seen it prove its worth twice now at this tournament for my opponents.
  • Sisters of the thorn proved hard to kill, but i got them in the end turn 5 or 6.

  • It was basically a game of move and counter move with shooting and magic to the fore, both of our infantry blocks saw no real action during the game.

Final battle points
7-13 , and another loss to me.

Cheers
Lupus.


Cancon Day 2 and Game 5 - A gent was played 'best sports was gained'

Comming into game five after the drubbing Viv had given me I was in good spirits after picking up some bargains during my lunch break.

Game 5- Karl Anderson
Orcs and Goblins
The Mission was Blood and Glory,
With a fortitude of five I expected to give up the bonus points very quickly, but my plan was to focus on breaking the Orc army as well to mitigate some of the bonus victory points.

Karl's army Swedish comp  15

Orc great shaman
lv3 - earthing rod, ruby ring and talisman of presevation

Orc Shaman
lv1- feedback scroll

NG Bigboss bsb
Great weapon , talisman of endurance

NG Bigboss
Great weapon, obsdidan lodestone

NG Bigboss
great weapon, dragonbane gem

18 savage orc big uns
with additional handweapons full command

 40 NG
shields, spears, full command, netters and 2 fanatics

2 units of 5 goblin wolf boyzs
shields spears and muso

18 black orcs
shields full command, standard of discipline

2 goblin wolf chariots

2 orc chariots

2 units of 2 snotlings

Goblin rock lobber

2 snotling pump wagons

2 doom divers

2 mangler squigs


His spells- i cannot remember but he did not roll foot of gork, this i remember quite clearly.
My spells
Lifeweaver:- flesh to stone, throne of vines and Dwellers below
Beastsinger:- Wildform
Branchwraith:- Earthblood

We both deployed deep and after a turn or two we decided to make a game of it, as both of us were inclined to sit back and shoot and magic the other, i got lucky that Karl did not roll up foot of gork, but this gent was able to provide a great game and it is no wonder that he won best sports for the event.
Karl and his army deployed and ready to go.

My center and left flank after turn 1.

My right flank after Turn 1.

After turn 1, the game became so much fun that i clear forgot to take regular photo's, in the end  neither of us broke during the game and I was able to use dwellers and  bow shot  to destroy the savage orcs off the board.

One of the highlights was my glade riders having a brain fart came on behind the night goblins, and bam- fanatics made short work of them.

Mangler squigs mangled and in the end I won this game  12-8, but on an enjoyment scale this was one of the best overall.


Cheers
Lupus