Stumpy Heaven

Latest arrivals & High Elf Army List @ 2400pts

2012-01-31T09:36:00.001+13:00

More parcels in the post this time some helpful additions to my High Elves with 10 more White Lions and 5 more Phoenix Guard. These will allow me to flesh out my units of both type (with unit fillers) to 28-30 models something that I see as necessary under 8th Edition. Alternatively I could run two smaller units of 12-15 of each type or 1 small unit of each. Going to be a month or so before I can start painting them though as I have to order some Iron Halo bases first and finish off my Chariots.

Either way I am going to have to get them finished before March 3rd if I am to take my High Elves, rather than my Dwarfs, down to Runefang V the first Wellington WHFB tournament of the year. At their last outing the list was restricted to 2000pts but increasing it to 2400 gives me some extra options, and I plan on trying something a little different. My current thinking is for the following:

High Elves @ 2400pts

Archmage Level 4 - 315pts (w. Phoenix Guard)
w. Silver Wand, Talisman of Preservation

Mage Level 2 - 135pts (w. Spears)
w. Dispel Scroll, Amulet of Light

Noble - 168pts (w. Spears)
w. Battle Standard, Great Weapon, Armour of Caledor, Guardian Phoenix

40 x Spears - 395pts
w. Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame

14 x Archers - 159pts
w. Musician

12 x Archers - 137pts
w. Musician

14 x Phoenix Guard - 240pts
w. Full Command

28 x White Lions - 470pts
w. Full Command, Ironcurse Icon, Standard of Discipline

5 x Dragon Princes - 160pts
w. Musician

Tiranoc Chariot - 85pts

Tiranoc Chariot - 85pts

Great Eagle - 50pts

TOTAL 2,399 pts

This list is derived from a 2000pt list I used at Runefang IV last year. The list makes some significant changes to that which are:

Inclusion of Lvl 2 Mage with that all important Dispel Scroll.
2nd Archer unit and loss of Archers Light Armour.
P/Guard reduced from 24 to 14 and removal of Banner of Sorcery.
W/Lions increase from 21 to 28 to become a stronger melee unit.
Spears increase from 30 to 40 and get Banner of Eternal Flame rather than War Banner.
Inclusion of the 2 Chariots.

All up the extra 400pts gives me slightly more magic, more movement and tactical flexibility and greater melee power. Ill try and organise some games at the Club when it reopens next month to test this out.

Some Great Online Reading

Been finding some real gems online among the gaming blog community this week as well. The following posts in particular caught my eye:

Basing Tutorial @ Noestes Painting and Modelling
A simple to follow and well illustrated tutorial on effective basing from a painter whose work I have admired for sometime now.

Making a display board @ The Magnificent Bastards
For starters this guy has one of the best, if not THE best, Dwarf army I have seen. Wonderfully themed and painted with some outstanding conversion work. This tutorial on the making of a display board for his army comes just as I begin my own planning for the same thing. If you want to see his outstanding Dwarf army then click here

WIP - Jagdpanthers

2012-01-30T10:55:00.000+13:00

Recieved these guys in the mail last week and did some quick assembly work this morning while the kids had breakfast. I really wish Battlefront would put some instructions in with their models though as like with all their kits there were a plethora of extra bits whose use and location on each model I couldnt figure out. The pictures on the box dont seem to help either. They'll will form part of my LW Fallshirmjager force from the Hells Highway book, and also flesh out my Panzer Company.

I've also rediscovered the joys of PC Strategy gaming having found a copy of Talonsofts 1997/8 game Eastern Front round at my Dads place last week. Forgotten how enjoyable it was and have been trawling online for modern games of a similar nature.

The Talonsoft range of games was always really good particular the Napoleonic and US Civil War stuff. Of the other PC Strategy games I've enjoyed over the years I would say that Sid Meir's Gettysburg and Shogun Total War have been the best, oh and Civ 2 of course. The latter Total War Games Rome and Medieval I found to be too busy i.e. too much stuff on the screen - the original Shogun was detailed enough while also being relatively simple and I honestly preferred the regional based deployment it used.

WIP - High Elf Tiranoc Chariot

2012-01-24T09:14:00.002+13:00

Getting close to finishing this just a few final touches to complete: highlights and edging on crewmens armour, 2nd crewmen, symbol on banner, wash for armour on horses and chariot and highlights for purple areas on chariot and horses. Otherwise its pretty much looking the way I wanted it to, two more to do after this. Will start taking photos at each stage of the process next time to show what i do more clearly.

High Elves and Fallschirmjager Army Pics

2012-01-19T09:09:00.001+13:00

Not sure why but I decided to lay out my entire collection of Flames of War and High Elves on the table yesterday just to see what I had. For Flames of War there isnt as much as I thought - although I do have a Jagpanther Platoon on the way having just ordered one off Battlefront and there is a lot more I want to get. For my High Elves its the number of unpainted figures that I still have left, the large number of movement trays to be completed and the number of models whose snow has yellowed and needs to be replaced that is most daunting. Still its nice to see what you have.

Army wide pictures are large and should expand out

Flames of War Collection

High Elf Collection

Flames of War Units

High Elf Units

StuG G Platoon repaint completed

2012-01-16T10:48:00.002+13:00

Finished repainting this platoon last night and also managed a few colours on a Fieldgrau Platoon of Fallschirmjager (I had a spare one and figured Id paint it grey to use as Panzer Grenadiers).

Struggling to remember how I managed to paint without the aid of Washes - the Citadal paint range is simply outstanding makes adding detail amazingly easy.

Colour scheme is same as for PSC PzIV's using colours from Vallejo Infantry paint set. German Medium Brown, Dark Green followed by Luftwaffe Green. Tracks are Adeptus Battle Grey from the Citadal Foundation range with Badab Black Wash and Mud Wash liberally applied on top.

First WHFB event of the year in March

2012-01-13T10:24:00.002+13:00

Pete Dunn at Fields of Blood has announced the first of his regular WHFB tournaments for the upcoming year Runefang V in March 3rd/4th. I've attended the last three Runefangs and like all of Petes events they are well run, highly competitive and a lot of fun.

My 2400pt Dwarf army is all ready to go, now its just a matter of figuring out if I can actually make it - here's hoping.

Also took a leap of faith with my FLGS and asked them to order in the new Ogre Kingdoms book for me. Will be interested to see how long it takes.

FLGS issues & starting 2012

2012-01-12T10:34:00.000+13:00

Made a trip to my Friendly Local Gaming Store yesterday to get the new Ogre Kingdoms source book only to find that they have neither it, nor the recently updated OnG and TK books. Also surprised that none of the store staff had any knowledge of Battlefronts announcement of FOW Version 3 coming in April.

The store itself is still dominated by card players and Warmachine which is cool - but seriously given the massive relaunch of WHFB over the last 12 months why they dont have the latest books is beyond me. They have 6 copies of Storm of Magic though?!?

If Maelstrom Games could still ship GW products to the Southern Hemisphere I would be ordering through them, as it stands I am going to have to find another retailer in NZ somewhere (probably Vagabond in Auckland). Tried getting my local store to order stuff in before and it took months.

Maelstrom Games will be getting an order soon though as they have recently kissed and made up with Battlefront and can start selling FOW products again. So the Mid-War book North Africa and some more Plastic Soldier Company products will be on order, along with a NW41 Rocket Launcher Platoon - although if exchange rates allow for it some BF products may actually be cheaper through their NZ operation.

Also said goodbye to my Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth collection yesterday after giving it all away to Jeremy Gray my FOW playing partner from Panzershrek 2011. I have kept my four favourite models though - Grand Exemplar Kreoss, a Redeemer and 2 Paladin Order of the Wall models. But gave away

Feora Preistess of Flame
Amon Ad-Raza
High Exemplar Kreoss
Avatar of Menoth
2 x Revengers
2 x Exempler Seneschals
High Exemplar Gravus
2 x Reclaimers
2 x Full units of Exemplar Errants
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic
Eryss Mage Hunter of Ios
Nearly full Mk2 Menoth Faction Deck
GF9 Warcaster Tokens (from Mk1 but most still valid)

All up a reasonable collection for him to get started with and I really hope he enjoys it. Pity really I was on my way to building up a solid Exemplar themed eKreoss force.

Anyway for nostalgia purposes heres what I kept - still adds up to about 12pts so If i borrow a model I could still play a small game with them.

Big Tank Update - PzIVs and StuGs

2012-01-09T10:48:00.000+13:00

Got in a lot of painting last week and have managed to complete my 2nd Platoon of Plastic Soldier Company PzIVH's - except for some minor detailing and the crewmen. Also repainted (without stripping) one of my StuGs in the same paint scheme to see how it would look.

Three batches of photos - first is the half way point for the PzIV's. At this stage each model has been spray coated with GW Chaos Black as an undercoat, then spray coated with Tamiya Panzer Yellow and then covered liberally with GW Ogre Flesh Wash. I used this wash rather than Sepia only because I had no of the latter left. However, the result was far better than I expected.

Briefly considered leaving the tanks like this without any camo but stuck with my scheme from the 1st Platoon. Will adopt a similar method though with the PzIII's I am going to get to build up a Mid-War Afrika Korp/Fallschirmjager force.

Next lot of photos show the tanks with camo added. Green is Vallejo German Dark Green followed by Luftwaffe Green and Brown is Standard German Medium Brown - the basic colours found in the German infantry paint set. Tracks still need some drybrushing and Ill stick some foliage and additional tracks and baggage on each tank - command tanks will also get aerials.

The two completed PSC box sets - two Platoons of 4 x PzIVH's and a CHQ.

Finally its the repainted StuG G (on the left) vs. the original version which was my first ever attempt at painting a tank. Foliage is from the Silflor range and I have more on order which Ill re-add to each vehicle. The colour scheme is the same as for the PzIVs/

Dragon Prince panic , Vampires & other stuff

2012-01-05T11:10:00.002+13:00

Sat down to do some painting last night and realised that I cannot find the sprues the shields for my plastic HE Dragon Princes are on. After searching everywhere i have a very horrible feeling that I might have accidentally thrown them out meaning I have 10 models I cannot finish. Going to have to source some parts off GW which will be costly.

In the end I decided to assemble my 2nd box of PSC Panzer IV's making up another 5 of the PzIVH version, that gives me 10 in total. Over the next couple of months I also be ordering 2 boxes of the Sdkfz Half-tracks, 1 of the PzIII's and 1 of the Panthers.

Purchased the VC edition of White Dwarf yesterday too and have to say it was the most enjoyable read I've had in WD for a while. I liked the Border Princes story and the return of the Von Carsteins, very interested in the hint at a renewal of tensions between High Elves and Dwarfs, hopefully they will continue the theme in the next Dwarf book. The new VC models are fanastic and I really like the look of the new army, but wont be rushing back into them. For my Dwarfs it will me a continued emphasis on CR and Flaming weapons but no major changes. Going to be fun taking out a few Mortis Engines with a Flaming or Flame Cannon and watching the VC player crumble as their pretty new model goes bye bye in one turn.

Buying the new Ogre Rulebook next payday and looking at building up to an initial force of 1000pts for some small club games.

Oh, and my new daughter arrived yesterday 9lbs 4oz!!!

Finding inspiration online

2012-01-01T09:06:00.000+13:00

Not mine this time but an army from another blog which I found a few days ago. Always enjoy viewing other peoples work, the vast majority of which puts mine to shame. The level of ingenuity and imagination some gamers have is just amazing - constantly surprised at how innovative a lot of people can be.

Anyway the overall theme for this guys Dwarfs is fantastic as is the paintjob. One stand out is this converted Cannon. Check out full post and the blog in question at: 'You Magnificent Bastards'

Trawling forums is always a good place for ideas - Ulthuan.net is a must for High Elf players as is Bugmans Brewery for Dwarfs. There are a number of threads on both that I check regularly to see if the people in question have updated their posts, but also just to marvel at their painting skill.

WIP - High Elf Dragon Princes & T/Chariot

2011-12-31T07:27:00.000+13:00

Managing to get more painting in this week. Working on completing the first of two units of the new Plastic High Elf Dragon Princes, great looking kit and fantastic change from the awful metal models (esp. the horses). Only completed the purple armour so far rest still FAR from done.

One other change is a new process for adding snow. Following some advice from the Stanton brothers at Panzershrek I decided to give RapidFilla a go. Luckily I've been doing some repair work on the house and had some in the shed. It drys quickly, applies far easier and more importantly will stay white. It is also means an end to having to mix PVA/Water/Flock into the right consistency, having to ensure you apply it over a white surface (as it takes on the properties of the colours below it) and watching it slowly turn yellow over time (usually after a year or so). Going to have to redo most of my High Elves with the Filla esp. the movement trays.

Oh and HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone and your Whanau!!!

Starting a new Warhammer Army

2011-12-27T09:14:00.000+13:00

Must be the Christmas Spirit but I'm giving serious consideration to starting up a 3rd WHFB army. High Elves and Dwarfs are great but I feel I need something a little different and perhaps more nasty.

I did build a decent VC army a year or two ago but enjoyed painting it more than playing it (only used it 3-4 times) and sold it all on - save for a single Female Vampire. Pity really as it was probably my best painted army - lots of pics on the blog still (think I have them linked somewhere) - well best painted army that hadnt required paint stripping.

So what do I choose?

Wood Elves
To nice, they dont suit my play style and I really dont like them as an army.

Dark Elves
Very nasty army, never enjoyed playing against them much, so are Evil enough. But too many infantry figures to paint, I already have Elves, any colour scheme would clash with my High Elves and they dont interest me

Brettonians
Too many horses - can't paint horses, and the armies too one dimensional for me. That and they a Nice race.

Empire
Another 'Nice' race, lots of horses and lots of infantry. A lot of options too and basically too fiddly for me. Really like the Preistly magic side of things, the Warmachines and detachments. But they're not for me.

Skaven
HA HA definately no - my Dwarfs would up and leave.

Warriors of Chaos
Evil yes, but no shooting (1 or 2 exceptions aside) and I like shooting. Again like Dark Elves I had a lot of bad experiences playing against them which puts me off playing with them.

Beasts of Chaos
Don't interest me.

Daemons of Chaos
Don't interest me and honestly seem a bit OTT.

Vampire Counts
New book coming out soon, but I didnt like using them under 7th and dont plan on going back.

Lizardmen
Hmmmm?? Great looking army, cool book, lots of nasties and useful range of options. But just dont do it for me.

Tomb Kings
Very cool new book, but too much like Vampires for me.

Orcs n Goblins
Always wanted an O&G army. The new book is awesome - might buy it for the hell of it - and the army plays really well. But every man and his dog has OnG at the moment.

That leaves....

OGRE KINGDOMS
New book, new figures, new toys and a cool mix of combat, magic and shooting. Plus they are Evil with some great fluff. That and the models (Gnoblars aside) are all large and you only need a few per unit so theres less to paint, and what you do have to paint is less fiddly than Elves or Dwarfs.

So Ogre Kingdoms it is - getting a nice Xmas bonus next week in lieu of recent Union negotiated back pay, so I might pop out and buy the new book. Will also look at the new Batt box....

Oh and of course theirs more Plastic Soldier Company vehicles to buy (PzIII, PzVs and SdKfz 251s) and some FOW books - North Africa, Monte Cassino and Grey Wolf. Going to be a good year 2012

Thoughts on a new Dwarf Book & looking ahead to 2012

2011-12-24T15:45:00.000+13:00

Mentioned in last post that a new Dwarf army book is expected early-mid next year. Given the recent balancing act done with the new army books under 8th especially the dropping of army unique magic items to 8-10 items each I am starting to worry about seeing major changes to the Dwarven Rune system. There are several runes that under 8th are redundant either because rule changes make them so or because no-one uses them, and others that clash with the new rules, or were weakened by them (e.g. RO Sanctuary and Magic Resistance).

Hopefully the Dwarf book will keep the unique nature of the runic system and the rule of 3 but with GW you never know. The major problem here for Dwarfs is that we cannot use any of the common magic items in the rulebook. The massive breadth of items here must either be matched by an equally long list of items in the Dwarf book or balanced out by changes to the rune system that would allow similar runic items to be built. The former is simply unworkable and should not and will not happen. The latter would work particularly where common pre-built runic items are used to accompany a smaller but more focused list of runes. The pre-builds would be cheaper than building a similar item under the current book but come with penalties, such as either use pre-built or custom built. Custom buiilt (those built by the player) would do a lot more but have a much higher points cost, and come with fewer restrictions. This at least would require Dwarven players to make some concessions when it came to things, and would I guess stop people complaining about the uber-killer Dwarf Lord on Shieldbearers etc.

Plans for 2012
Seems the right thing to do around this time of the year is to plan out what (we hope) the following year will bring. Gaming wise I have a serious painting backlog to get through but also a couple of new projects I would like to get off the ground. Keeping it simple these are:

Build a gaming table for games at home
Finish unit of 20 Dwarven Quarrellers to complete army.
Build a display board for my Dwarf army.
Finish my High Elf painting backlog (about 50-60 models).
Re base my High Elfs to fix up all the yellowing snow.
Build a Mid-War FOW Africa Korp army (Panzer or Panzer Grenadier)
Play in at least 2 FOW tournaments
Play in at least 2 WHFB tournaments

Thats about it. Of these building the gaming table at home and a Mid-War FOW army are the top priorities. After that its finishing off the High Elf painting which has been on the back burner for nearly 8-9 months now. In fact I already have plans for the table sorted and will be getting the wood next week :)

Merry Christmas & Happy Birthday

2011-12-24T09:03:00.001+13:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS to my New Zealand and International followers/readers, all the best for the holiday season. To my Whanau in Christchurch heres hoping the stupid earthquakes stop soon.

In some great gaming news Battlefront has provided a fantastic early Christmas & Birthday Present (I'm 38 on Xmas Day) in the official announcement that the 3rd Ed rules are due out in March - although as a large number of BF people are local club members I did have some forewarning.

Best of all they are going to continue the practice of giving a free mini-rulebook to anyone who has a copy of the 2nd Ed hardback rules. And the Mini-rulebook is 294 pages long

Oh and the new Dwarf Rulebook should be out in March/April as well - 2012 is going to be a great year gaming wise.

Dwarves at New Zealand Fantasy Masters

2011-12-20T09:55:00.003+13:00

The army lists for this years WHFB New Zealand Masters tournament are slowly appearing on the net, and the Dwarf lists reveal some interesting thinking on the part of the respective players. I don't know what the Comp rules are for the event but the lists are 2400pts and I assume that standard hard caps and no double rares apply. The two Dwarf players competing and their lists are:

Daryl Painter
Ranked 11th & Best NZ Dwarf General

Dwarf Lord
w. Shield Bearers,Great Weapon,Ro Stone,MRo Spite, Ro Furnace, Ro Preservation.

Battle Std Bearer
w. MRo Gromil,Ro Might, Ro Fire, Ro Furnace.

Runesmith
w. Great Weapon, Mro Balance, Ro Spellbreaking.

20x Quarrellers
w. Standard, Musician, Champion, Great Weapons.

20x Quarrellers
w. Standard, Musician, Champion, Great Weapons

10 x Ranger
w. Great Weapons, Throwing Axes.

30 x Hammerers
w. Standard, Musician, Champion, Mro Grungi

30 x Slayers
w. Std Bearer

Cannon
w. Ro Forging

Grudge Thrower
w. Ro Accuracy, Ro Penetrating, Ro Burning

Organ Gun

Total - 2387

Interesting list that gives Daryl four reasonably strong blocks of infantry. Taking of two blocks of Quarrellers is something I have considered. The extra shooting is beneficial but the reduction of the AS in combat to 6+ vs. 5+ reduces your chances of making that save by 16.6%, but I assuming here that he is relying on their T4 to save them from having to make an AS in the first place. Deployment would I assume be in 2 ranks of 10 giving him 40 shots every round (Crossbows can't volley fire). The Rangers appear to be a throw away unit to road block opponents and to give his Quarrellers and Grudge Thrower time to do damage. Personally I would put RO Burning on the Cannon to take out big nasties like the HPA. Lord is pretty well protected and I'd assume that he would go with the Hammerers, but then again putting him with the Slayers might be interesting (as I don't take Slayers I can't remember if he can do this or not). BSB not protected enough for my liking but RO Might makes him S8 against anything T5 or higher which is good. Big nasty block of unbreakable slayers deployed in horde will also cause people problems.

Thom Van Roekel
Ranked 6th

Runelord
w. Shield, Rune of Stone, Rune of Preservation, Master Rune of Balance, Rune of Spell Breaking x2

Battle Standard Bearer
w. Master Rune of Gromril, Rune of Preservation, Master Rune of Challenge, Rune of Fire.

Master Engineer

Dragon Slayer
w. Rune of Fire, Rune of Speed.

Dragon Slayer

Dragon Slayer

20 x Warriors
w. Great Weapons, Veteran, Standard Bearer, Musician

10 x Quarrellers

28 x Longbeards
w. Great Weapon, Veteran, Standard Bearer, Musician, Master Rune of Grungni.

29 x Hammerers
w. Champion, Standard Bearer, Musician.

5x Miners

5x Miners

Cannon
w. Engineer, Rune of Burning

Cannon
w. Engineer, Rune of Reloading

Organ Gun

Gyrocopter

Total - 2400pts

Not sure about this list. Its more suited to the play style of my Club mate Adam who likes to bulk up on Heroes. Yes those Dragon Slayers are good for redirecting units and getting in peoples way but they and the Master Engineer represent 230pts that could have been spent elsewhere. However, if they survive the Slayers and the Miners could prove annoyingly difficult for people. It offers much better anti-magic than Daryl's list and the double Cannon is appealing, although here I would prefer 2 Organ Guns. Great to see the Gyrocopter coming out as well.

Of the two lists I am not really sure which I prefer - Daryl's has the large infantry blocks I like and has a strong shooting component but is light on anti-magic defense. Thom's is probably more balanced overall although weaker on shooting, and heavily dependent on the Slayers and Miners working effectively.

Particularly revealing to note that neither player takes Engineers with their War Machines.

Either way they make an interesting comparison to the 2400pt list I took to my last WHFB tournament and which is pretty much my standard army now.

My 2400pt Tournament List

Runelord
w. MR Balance, RO Spellbreaking, RO Resistance, RO Stone, RO Furnace, Shield

BSB
w. RO Fire, MR Gromil, RO Resistance, RO Preservation, RO Furnace

Warrior Rangers x30
w. Full Command, GW

Warriors x30
w. Full Command, GW

Quarrellers x16
w. Shields, Musician

Hammerers x30
w. Full Command, RO Battle

Miners x20
w. Full Command

Stone Thrower
w. Engineer, Brace of Pistols, RO Accuracy, RO Penetratingx2

Cannon
w. Engineer, Brace of Pistols, RO Forging, RO Burning

Organ Gun

TOTAL 2,400

The rest of the army lists can be found here

As for me and my WHFB playing its on hold for the Xmas period and the entry of child No3 sometime in the next week or two (or maybe today?!?!). But Ill be back into it asap probably around March, along with a lot of FOW where I will be getting heavily involved in Mid War stuff. Aiming for 3-4 tournaments in 2012 including the local FOW event in July. As the local club starts after my two eldest kids bed times making club nights should also be goer as well so expect more battle reports in 2012 as well.

New releases from Plastic Solider Company

2011-11-25T12:21:00.001+13:00

The Plastic Solider Company's range of quality 15mm WW2 products has expanded yet again with a large number of new releases set to make any German player (like me) foam at the mouth. Havng already purchased two boxed sets of the PzIV range I can atest to their quality - while they lack some of the detailing of the BF range and the satisfying weight they are excellent products.

Check out my review of them, and links to other reviews, here and pictures of the completed models here.

Among the new goodies are:

German Army Deals

Panzergrenadier Company - £54.00

Afour box 15mm Late War German Panzergrenadier Company Deal. Comprising130 figures and 15 SdKfz 251/D Halftracks - enough for a 3 platoon plusHQ Flames of War Panzergrenadier Company.

This same deal from Battlefront would cost you a hell of a lot more - 3 Platoon sets of PzGr alone would cost you NZ$270.

Panzer Army Deal - £75.00

A six box 15mm Late WarGerman Panzer Army Deal. Comprising 130 figures, 15 SdKfz 251/DHalftracks and 10 Panzer IV tanks - enough for a 3 platoon plus HQFlames of War Panzergrenadier Company with 2 platoons of panzer IVs.

Another unbelievable deal giving you huge savings on the normal BF range.

Panzer Army Deal - £42.00

A 3 box 15mm Panzer IV Company Deal. Comprising 15 x Panzer IV tanks.

German Platoon Sets

Panzer III Ausf F, G & H - £16.50 for 5 tanks

StuG III Ausf F8/G - £16.50 for 5 tanks

And finally also due out in January next year are......

Panthers A, G & D variants
Late War German HeavyWeapons
15mmRussian Heavy Weapons
15mm Russian 45mm gun
15mm Decal sets for SS, Wehrmact and DAK Panzer Divisions
New plastic reinforcements range allowing you to buy single vehicles, HQs etc

They also have army deals set up for Russians and some more Allied stuff coming soon as well.

I already two box sets of the PSC PzIV range and as I am starting to really like Mid-War will pick up some of the PzIII as well and come next year will be aiming for the Panthers too.

WIP - Dragon Princes taking shape

2011-11-09T09:14:00.001+13:00

More progress on the Dragon Princes last night. Working on a single model at a time to get the colours right. Have decided to go with something a little more muted and simple. Liking the grey as well so while just shade/highlight that in and not worry about any white areas.

WIP - High Elf Dragon Princes

2011-11-07T09:14:00.000+13:00

I had completed one of these a while back to test out the eventual colour scheme. Finally got some free time last night and pulled out the painting table for first time in weeks and got back into them. Have only completed base coat of Hugomont Purple and Purple Wash and Scorched Brown so far. Haven't quite decided whether to keep the armour really dark or lighten it up like the test model. I have 10 of these new Dragon Princes to complete so theres room to experiment if I want to.

Apologies for lack of posts

2011-11-01T09:49:00.002+13:00

Quick apology to 100+ followers and other regular readers of my blog - I haven't been doing much wargaming related posting lately. The reason I've been swamped at work and basically haven't played a game since my last FOW battle report.

Cricket season also started a few weeks ago and my local gaming club has shut down for the Christmas period. So as with most years posts over the next couple of months will be restricted primarily to painting & modelling updates. Although I might squeeze in the odd rare game. Also expecting our 3rd child around New Years so free time for gaming is going to be really restricted after that - but having to stay up at night does mean more time to sneak painting in.

In that regard I do have a lot of painting to do with a huge backlog of Warhammer Fantasy High Elves to complete, some Dwarf Quarrellers to finish off, and a Gepanzerte/Panzer Company to build. The next project is going to be the assembly and painting of my 2nd box set of the Plastic Soldier Company PzIV's - I'll also get round to ordering some of their SdKfz 251's as well.

Just brilliant

2011-10-25T12:50:00.001+13:00

This video absolutely captures what the World Cup means to Kiwis - beautiful stuff
Our World Champion All Blacks! from Jared Brandon Productions on Vimeo.

All Blacks Win!!!

2011-10-24T08:24:00.002+13:00

Pretty much zero wargaming activity for me at the moment as work is extremely busy doing nothing 24/7 but marking student assessment last month or so *sigh*.... but I did stop long enough to enjoy, as nerve wracking as it was, the All Blacks break their hoodoo and win the World Cup. But bugger me if the French didnt nearly do it to us again, and who would have thought that Stephen Donald would save the day. Being a Manawatu boy I really felt for poor Cruden.

GOOD ON YOU BOYS WELL DONE!!!

All Blacks 20 Australia 6

2011-10-17T11:08:00.001+13:00

Awesome game last night - congrats boys and suck eggs Quade Cooper - now its onto France in the final!!!!!

Battle Report: Fallschirmjager vs. British Mech Infantry

2011-10-10T10:50:00.001+13:00

Up against Grant's Desert Rats in a 1500pt MW battle using the 'Hasty Attack' Scenario. Basic rules for scenario are:

Defensive Battle w. prepared positions.
Delayed & Scattered Reserves
Defender Immediate Ambush
Defender places 1 objective, attacker 2
Defender deploys entire force, attacker then removes one objective.

Mid-Wars turning out to be quite enjoyable as it seems more balanced i.e. no uber-heavy tanks although armour is very expensive. I used the North Africa source book and took the following list:

Fallschirmjager MW 1500pts
CHQ - 2 x Panzerknacker
Combat Platoon - Panzerknacker + 3 Squads
Combat Platoon - Panzerknacker + 3 Squads
Pioneer Platoon - SMG + 3 Squads + Supply Truck
Mortar Platoon - 2 x GW42
Light Gun Platoon
Tank Hunter Platoon - 4 x Marder II

On the defensive they were facing the following:

British Mechanised Infantry MW 1500pts
CHQ
Combat Platoon
Combat Platoon
Tank Platoon - 3 x Grants
Tank Platoon - 2 x Churchills
Artillery Platoon - 6 x 25pdr
Scout Platoon - 3 x Armoured Cars

(Photos are all pretty big so should expand out when clicked on)

The Battlefield from the defenders (my) side of the table. Objectives are the wrecked Shermans marked with smoke near the forest on the left, and in the cornfield to the right of the road - the 3rd which was removed went in the forest on the right. A FJ Combat Platoon digs in around the left hand objective while the Pioneers, protected by a minefield, spread out across the two right hand objectives. Marder II's (proxied by StuGs) deployed in ambush in the tree line between the cornfields.

British Armour begins its advance supported by artillery and a single infantry platoon. The British assualt would suffer from the consistent failure of their reserves to arrive on the field. The advancing armour also suffered when 1 Tank was destroyed by the ambushing Marders and a 2nd became almost permanently bogged down in the treeline.

The ambushing Marder II's draw first blood as the Fallschirmjager dig and wait for the inevitable assault. However, their initial success was short lived as the semi-indirect fire from the Grants 75mm guns easily knocked them out. This coupled with the firepower of British Artillery saw the Marder Platoon quickly destroyed. The Marder Platoon Commander didnt help himself by electing to shoot at the British Artillery rather than finish off the Grants.

With their only long range AT weapons out of commission the FJ were left to fend for themselves against the British armour. Luckily it continued to remain bogged down and British Artillery was unable to range in on their carefully prepared positions. Those few barrages that did come through also proved ineffectual the Fallschirmjager riding out each barrage with impunity.

Luck continued to swing my way as my reserves came on well before the British. Mortars arrive first and immediately began bracketing the Grants and a nearby artillery observer with smoke. This forced the sole British infantry Platoon to advance across open ground toward the dug in Fallschirmjager. Scenario Victory conditions meant that the defender would win if the attacker had no units on the defenders half of the table by Turn 6.

More reinforcements arrive in the shape of the Light Guns and 2nd FJ Platoon. Using the cover of the Mortars smoke screen the quickly deploy blocking the main approach routes. However, its already too late for the British as by Turn 6 they have been unable to reach my half of the table. The only Platoon able to try, a unit of Infantry, was quickly wiped out by the dug in Fallschirm. However, we elect to continue playing regardless - and actually end up going to about Turn 14 or so.

All of the British reserves are now on, and the Grants finally get unbogged and begin their advance with Churchills, Infantry and Scout Cars on their right. Mortar Smoke continues to bracket them, and then the Light Guns deploy to block the Grants advance.

The British assault fails - badly - one Churchill is knocked out by the Fallschirmjager and the 2nd is forced to retreat. But it can't go far enough and the Fallschirmjager launch a breakthrough assault and finish it off before returning to their prepared positions.

Meanwhile the re-deployed Light Guns start firing at the advancing Grants knocking out one and forcing the crew of the 2nd to bail out. The supporting Fallschirmjager then attempt to assault it but keep failing their Tank Terror - 3 times they move to assault the single bailed out tank and 3 times they sit cowering in the open.

Meanwhile, the advancing armoured cars easily take out the Light Guns while the remaining British Infantry Platoon bravely advances to assault the dug in Fallschirmjager.

The assault ends up as a long bloody affair but only after defensive fire decimates the advancing British who are eventually wiped out by the dug in Fallschirmjager.

Meanwhile in the centre of the battlefield the 2nd FJ Platoon finally pluck up the courage to assault the bailed out Grant - whose crew steadfastly refused to get back into their tank - and knock it out. At the same time Mortar fire takes out the British CHQ and the British are reduced to 2 Platoons - their Artillery and the Scout Cars. At this point we call the game off.

Replay this week with same scenario and slightly modified lists with the Fallschirmjager once again on the defensive.

Happenings

2011-10-06T10:14:00.001+13:00

Checked my shelves last night and surveyed my rather large backlog of unpainted High Elf models and realised that I have absolutely no interest in painting them. So I decided to take my unpainted 4th Fallschirmjager Combat Platoon and paint them all Field Grey so I could use them as Panzer Grenadiers. Once they're done Ill add a box set of the Plastic Soldier Company Sd Kfz 251/1D's to them and hey presto an instant 2nd PzGr Combat Platoon.

Playing 1500pts of Mid War FOW tonight and am looking forward to it, might just be able to get away with one more club night next week until I have to give it up for cricket (which starts this weekend) - can't be away too many nights each week.

Seems my enthusiasm for Warhammer Fantasy and High Elves in particular has seriously died off in the last couple of months.... and all I can really think about is FOW

For the record my current Warhammer Fantasy painting backlog consists of

10 x Plastic HE Dragon Princes
5 x ISOB HE Ellyrian Reavers
1 x HE Lion Chariot
2 x HE Tiranoc Chariots
1 x ISOB HE Mage
1 x HE Mage
10 x HE Silver Helms (which Ill probably never do as they are a waste of points)
10 x ISOB HE Lothern Sea Guard
10 x ISOB HE Swordmasters
10 x Metal HE Swordmasters
30 x Dwarf Warriors w. HW (to be converted into Quarrellers)
2 x Dwarf Bolt-Throwers
10 or so Plastic Dwarf Artillery Crew
2 x Dwarf Master Engineers

But my Dwarf tournament army looks fantastic (if I do say so myself - check here if you want to see it) and thats good enough for me.

PSC 15mm Panzer IV Platoon complete

2011-09-30T10:59:00.003+13:00

Finished the last of these guys on Wednesday night. Redid the brown camo on the first three with a duller shade (German Med Brown) which looks better than the darker GW Scorched Brown I had used earlier. Probably too much camo on the last couple of tanks, but overall Im pretty happy with them.

Next step is to attach them to some large bases and then look at options for camo netting or foliage. Will use either Silflor foliage or some old bandages as netting. Would also like to stick aerials on them but am not sure how, still trawling the net looking for ideas.

Plastic Solider Company New Releases & Review

2011-09-29T13:05:00.000+13:00

It seems that the Plastic Solider Company is starting to crank up development and production of its quality range of 15mm WWII miniatures. Their T34 kits were a big hit among FOW gamers and I recently ordered my 2nd box set of their excellent PzIV's (5 for NZ$29). The latest additions to the range are Sd Kfz 251/1C's and 251/1D's again in sets of 5 and at the same price as the other models in their range.

The PSC Sd Kfz 251/1C kit

The Plastic Solider Company range is excellent value and for German FOW players they now provide some serious consideration if you are looking to build a Panzer or Gepanzerte Panzer Grenadier company. Having assembled one set of the PSC Panzer IVs I can atest to their quality (you can see some my completed PzIVs here)

2 Boxed sets of PzIV costs NZ$60-65 (depending on exchange rate) and gives you enough tanks for a CHQ and two 4 vehicle Platoons. Purchase 2 more boxed sets of Sd Kfz's at the same price and thats enough vehicles for the same set up - a CHQ & two 3 Squad Platoons. Couple these with their German Infantry set which gives you 125 figures (10 Officers/NCO's, 90 infantry, 15 LMGs) at NZ$32 then you can build a basic company for as little as NZ$120-150.

PSC Sd Kfz 251/1D

However, while the vehicles are better value and just as good (if not better) reading the reviews and checking out the pics leads me to believe that the BF Infantry looks better, and is more accurate. So to be cheeky what I might do is order a couple of box sets of the PSC half-tracks and use my BF Fallschirmjager as PzGrenadiers.

You can find some excellent reviews of the PSC range, and comparisons with the Battlefront miniature range at the following links:

If you want to purchase some of this range then I would recommend:

MW Fallschirmjager @ 1500pts

2011-09-27T11:35:00.001+13:00

Playing Josh at the club on Thursday - probably one of my last games before cricket starts - 1500pts Mid War. Going to take the following list from the North Africa source book

CHQ - Panzerknacker x2 - 65pts
FJ Platoon - Panzerknacker + 3 Squads - 270pts
FJ Platoon - Panzerknacker + 3 Squads - 270pts
FJ Pioneers - SMG + 3 Squads + Supply Truck - 370pts
FJ Light Gun Platoon - Panzerknacker + 2 x LG40 - 70pts
FJ Mortar Platoon - Panzerknacker + 2 sections w. 4 x GW42 - 125pts
FJ Tank Hunter Platoon - 4 x Marder III (proxied by my StuGs) - 325pts

TOTAL 1,495pts w. 6 Platoons

Three platoons of FV infantry with defensive options gives me a solid defensive base. Light Guns add some decent close in AT protection - dug in, concealed and gone to ground Josh will have to come within their range to hit them. Smoke from the Mortars will help force him to do this and the Marders add some reasonable long range firepower.

Was hoping he'd go for a LW game so I could take my Panzer IVHs but maybe next week if I can wangle another game.

Next FOW Company - Panzer Lehr & more Fallschirm

2011-09-23T10:21:00.002+12:00

Have finally settled on my next FOW company. Having already purchased a PzGr & a PzIV Platoon it was going to be one of those two and the Panzer Lehr options in 'Earth & Steel' are just awesome. Couple of options to go with, all of which require minimal additional purchases as I can make use of existing FJ units to fill out each company.

Panzer Lehr

CHQ - 2 x PzIV
Combat Platoon - 4 x PzIV
Combat Platoon - 3 x Panther A
Aufklarungs Lehr Platoon - PF + 3 Squads
Panzerspah Platoon - 1 x Sd Kfz 250, 2 x Sd Kfz 250/9
Rocket Launchers - 4 x 15cm NW41
AA Platoon - 2 x Sd Kfz 7/2 w. Armour upgrade

All I need to complete these lists area Platoon of Panthers, another PzGr Platoon and the Rocket Launchers & AA Tracks both of which I can also use with FE FJ.

PanzerGrenadier Lehr

CHQ - PF x2
Combat Platoon - PF + 3 Squads
Combat Platoon - PF + 3 Squads
AT Platoon - 3 x Pak 40
Heavy Mortars - 4 x 12cm
Panther Platoon - 3 x Panther A
Rocket Launchers - 6 x 15cm NW41

Also been finalising my Fallschirmjager lists from Hells Highway. The 3rd Division list is all complete with every unit assembled and painted. I only need to buy a Platoon of Battlefront Jagdpanthers to finish off the 6th FJ Regt Company and i'm all done.

Fallschirmjager 3rd FJ Division (Hells Highway) 1750pts

CHQ - 2 x PF, 2 x PS, 1 x Mortar
Combat Platoon - PF + 3 Squads
Combat Platoon - PF + 3 Squads
Pioneer Platoon - PF + 3 Squads + Supply Truck
FJ AT Platoon - 3 x Pak 40
FJ Heavy Mortars - 4 x 12 cm
FJ Assault Guns - 4 x StuG
FJ Mortars - PF + 1 Section
Ersatz Platoon - 1 x Sd Kfz 250, 3 x Sd Kfz 250/9

TOTAL 1,745 - 8 Platoons

Fallschirmjager 6th FJ Regiment (Hells Highway) 1750pts

CHQ - 2 x PF, 2 x PS
Combat Platoon - PF + 3 Squads
Combat Platoon - PF + 3 Squads
Pioneer Platoon - PF + 2 Squads + Supply Truck
FJ AT Platoon - 2 x Pak 40
FJ Heavy Mortars - 4 x 12cm
Heavy Tank Hunter - 2 x Jagdpanther

TOTAL 1,740 - 6 Platoons

WIP - Panzer IV's & Sdkfz 251s

2011-09-19T09:42:00.000+12:00

Nearly finished painting these guys last week just a few final details to complete like highlights on the tracks, the crews and misc pieces of equipment. Colour scheme for the Tanks and the Half-tracks was completed using the following process:

Undercoat - GW Chaos Black
Basecoat - Tamiya Panzer Yellow (2 coats from spray can)
German Camo Dark Green (979
German Camo Medium Brown (826)
GW Sepia Wash
Luftwaffe Camo Green (826)
German Camo Medium Brown (826)

Tracks were simply GW Chaos Black with dry-brushed GW Codex Grey. Ill redo these a this week with GW Adeptus Battlegrey to darken them up. Tanks will also go onto bases like the half-tracks although theirs will be large rather than medium sized.

Also thought Id put in a picture of both units together so you can see how the fit. Will be paint stripping my StuGs and repainting them in the same colour scheme.

Only problem is that I am not sure how to paint the inside of the half-tracks cant find any decent pictures to work from on the net. Grenadier infantry are coming along nicely should have them finished in a couple of weeks.

However, cricket season starts this weekend which means I only have a couple of weeks of gaming left before I pack everything except the painting up for the summer. My local club closes down from Nov-Feb, and I give up my weekly gaming while cricket is on Oct-Mar.

Battle Report - Dwarfs vs. Lizardmen @ 1500pts

2011-09-13T10:08:00.000+12:00

Up against Calebs Lizardmen for the first time last week, its his new army and a distinct change from the Warriors of Chaos he normally plays. At 1500pts I took a slight variation on my 2400 tournament list and fielded:

Runesmith (General) - MR Balance, RO Spellbreaking, Shield
BSB - MR Gromil, RO Resistance, RO Preservation, RO Furnace
Warriors x30 - Full Command, GW
Warriors x30 - Full Command, GW
Quarrellers x20 - Musician, Standard Bearer, Shields, GW
Organ Gun
Organ Gun

The dual Organ Gun was a bit cheeky and I was planning on taking a Gyrocopter but opted for the increased shooting instead. Luck was on my side to start as we rolled for Blood and Glory as our scenario meaning an extra 9" on the deployment zone. This put both of my Organ Guns in firing range in Turn 1. Against my list Caleb took (from memory):

Slann - Lvl 4 with normal bells and whistles
BSB - with big smashy weapon
20 x Saurus w. Spears
20 x Temple Guard
Unit of Kroxigors & Skinks (3 & 24 respectively I think)
2 units of Skink Skirmishers
Chamleon Skinks

Deployment - Organ Guns in the middle where they could fire at everything. Quarrellers on the flank with the Runesmith. Warrior blocks spaced apart to offer some flexibility. Slan went in the middle with Kroxigors on my left and Saurus (proxied by Chaos Marauders) on my right.

I get first turn and move Warriors forward angling for the Slanns unit which is my main target. Organ Guns open fire on it and take down 12 Temple Guard. In hindsight I should have taken out the Skink Skirmishers and Chameleons first - but forgot you can draw LOS and fire through forests.

The Chameleons swing round behind my right flank and take out one of the Organ Guns while the other Skirmishers start to rain missiles down on my poor Warriors. Poison attacks prove pretty effective but only against the Warmachines. Slann magic is easily dispelled and the Lore of Life proves ineffective for the first few turns.

BANG!!! The remaining Organ Gun blows away the Chameleons as the right flank Warriors choose not to charge the Skirmishers. Quarrellers fire at the Skinks on the left, but my Warriors opt not to charge and instead move up ready to take on the Kroxigor unit.

Not charging the Skinks causes me some headaches as they swing around and start taking out more Dwarf Warriors with their poison attacks. They also wound the Organ Gun but luckily leave it able to fire for another turn. Lizard magic still proves ineffective, but now the Saurus have moved into charge range.

CHARGE!!!! Warriors charge the Saurus who with their spears will put down 25 attacks in the first round of combat. But they fluff their attacks killing only 3 Dwarfs whose Great Weapons then chop down 9 Saurus in return. Cold-blooded allows them to stay and fight though.

On the other flank the BSB opts not to charge the Kroxigor unit and instead is charged by them, and the Slann with his Temple Guard. Combat gets extremely messy as Kroxigor GW do some damage, but somehow the Dwarfs stubbornly hold on.

Meanwhile the remaining Skirimishers take out the last Organ Gun and the Quarrellers reform into a ranked block ready to charge the Kroxigors and help out the BSBs unit.

Victory and defeat in the same turn. The Warriors on the right break the Saurus but fail to catch them as they flee. The Warriors on the left and the BSB are wiped out and the Kroxigors overrun but stop short of the ranked up Quarrellers.

Meanwhile the Temple Guard reform to face the few Dwarfs who have managed to survive against the Saurus Warriors, only 10/30 now remain.

The Quarrellers prove their mettle once again and chop their way through the Kroxigor unit which only just holds on. The Cold-Blooded rule saving them. Unfortunately Dwarven Runes fail to stop the Slanns magic and he is able to use the Lore of Life to restore the Kroxigor unit.

Turn 6 comes and goes with the Temple Guard wiping out the few remaining Dwarf Warriors. While the Quarrellers can simply not do enough damage to kill of the Kroxigors. End result only a handful of Dwarfs remain alive while several decimated and fleeing Lizardmen units remain on the battlefield.

WIP - PzIV's and PzGrenadiers

2011-09-07T11:46:00.003+12:00

Still have 3-4 Warhammer Battle Reports to write up and post yet including one 3 way battle from my last tournament. In the interim here is my current painting project a Platoon of LW PzIV's and some PanzerGrenadiers.

Have also provided some comparison pictures of the Plastic Soldier Company Panzers vs. Battlefront StuGs and Sdkfz's. Models were easy to put together and look fantastic. As soon as money allows I'll be buying one more box set of them and another PzGr platoon.

Only the front three have been undercoated so far - one layer of GW Chaos Black, and 2 layers of Tamiya Panzer Yellow.

Plastic Solider company vs. BF Sdkfz251 - I've decided to base all of my vehicles. Schurzen on the PzIV comes complete I just cut out random panels on a couple of the models.PzIV vs. BF StuG G - sadly am I going to have to strip and repaint my StuGs now to get the colour scheme the same across all of the vehicles. Only camo going onto the PzIV will be green dots/stripes.Infantry are on the new GF9 Plastic Rubble bases which are simply fantastic. Only realised after I had painted them that most of the figures were wearing camo smocks so shouldnt have been in FieldGrau. But I think Ill keep them the way they are and only change a few. Painting isnt entirely complete on them as I havent applied the final FeldGrau layer to the tunics yet.

Your local Gaming Club? Is Garage-Hammer winning?

2011-09-02T10:29:00.004+12:00

One thing that I really enjoy about tournaments is the chance to meet new opponents and play against different armies. As the only events I attend, with 2-3 exceptions, are in Wellington the majority of people I come across are from the two principle Wellington Clubs. However, you also get a large contingent of people travelling from Auckland, the Bay and even the South Island. I have regularly thought that from a gaming point of view living in Wellington would be great primarily due to the large number of organised gamers in the region.

But that begs the question where are all the gamers in my city? GW prices aside a lot of people buy Warhammer products and play the game, question is - where do they go? Locally we use the phrase 'Garage-Hammer' when referring to this lost group of gamings, who either avoid or dont know about our club and hence play Warhammer in their Garages or the like. Advertising is an issue of course and building links with your FLGS is important here. Our local store is, unfortunately, run by a group of younger kids most of whom play card games like Magic or whatever? They recently started setting up tables for regular games on a Wednesday night but even here WHFB numbers are low. For a while they also scheduled their gaming nights at the same time as our club meetings.

This begs the question - that if the FLGS isnt supported by local gamers because of GW prices why would they support the local club. And if the FLGS offers nothing to gamers why wouldnt they buy elsewhere - and where do they send people who do buy GW from them? Pete Dunn over at Fields of Blood makes this point in his latest post and its a good one.

If you've followed my blog for a while you would have seen that a huge number of my WHFB battle reports outside of tournaments are against the same few opponents. This is due to the lack of members locally. At present my local club - The Manawatu Duellists - has in Warhammer terms only 5 regular players:

Myself with Dwarfs & High Elves
Adam - Dwarfs
Doug - Skaven, Ogres & Orcs n Goblins
Brendan - Orcs n Goblins & Brettonians
Caleb - Warriors of Chaos & Lizardmen

There are also a couple of other irregular attendees who have Lizardmen, Beastmen and Orcs n Goblins. Hence the pickings in terms of opponents is slim. Its been that way for a while although in 2009 we did undergo a bit of a boom period when a number of younger players came along.

But where are the rest?

Whats the situation like in your neck of the woods?

How hard is it for you to find games outside of tournaments? I know of a few regular tournament players for whom those events are the only chance they get to play WHFB.

And in todays GW doesn't seem to care anymore era just what role are FLGS supposed to play when gamers buy overseas due to high local prices?

Plastic Solider Company PzIV's have arrived

2011-08-29T10:14:00.003+12:00

These little beauties arrived in the office mail this morning. Moulding etc is fantastic, and putting them together is going to be a breeze a lot like the 1/72 scale Airfix kits I used to build when I was a kid.

If I sneak some glue into the office I might even get them all finished in time to use them at the Club on Thursday night - have a 1500pt LW game of FOW against Caleb.

Ogres released Dwarfs are next!!!

2011-08-28T06:52:00.003+12:00

If the schedule is to be believed then after the new Ogre book - which looks awesome btw - comes out next month we will have a 5-7 month wait till the next new release which will be Dwarfs. Not sure where this info came from because the general opinion for a long time had been that Brettonians and Wood Elves would get the treatment first, Brettonians especially needing a facelift.

Anyway given the wholesale changes and new monsters etc we seem to get in every book what would I like in the next Dwarf book?

Answer - the BSB to be able to carry a GW and a lot more fluff and thats it, honestly...

The Dwarf book as it is works, yes some 2 attacks each infantry would be cool and maybe a big mechanical monster and cheaper points cost for Rangers etc. But while it needed substantial changes to make it competitive in 7th, in 8th it works well as is.

So please GW dont change my Dwarfs too much just give me more fluff lots of it - maps, stories, legends, new heroes, runic historys, pictures all the cool stuff. Oh and the BSB-GW thing too and ill be happy. I would hate to see Dwarfs lose the character and charm they currently have...

Battle Report - Dwarfs vs. Warriors of Chaos 2400pts

2011-08-26T10:34:00.005+12:00

Friendly match up vs. Caleb at the club last night. I took my Dwarf list from Karak Eight Peaks but modified it by dropping 10 Miners, their command and a RO Furnace on the Runelord so I could include the Gyrocopter. Calebs Warriors of Chaos list comprised:

Mage L4
- Tzentch, Enchanted Shield, Talisman of Preservation, Infernal Puppet, Word of Agony
BSB
- Tzentch, Biting Blade, Dragon Helm, Talsiman of Endurance, Shield, Ironcurse Icon, Stream of Corruption
18 x Chaos Warriors of Tzentch
- Command, Shields, Gleaming Pennant
20 x Chaos Warriors of Khorne
- Command, Extra Hand Weapon
20 x Chaos Warriors of Khorne
- Command, Extra Hand Weapon
5 x Marauder Horsemen of Khorne
- Flails, Musician
5 x Maruader Horsemen of Khorne
- Flails, Musician
5 x Chaos Knights
- Musician
5 x Chaos Knights
- Musician
5 x Warhounds
5 x Warhounds

We ended up playing Blood and Glory with the extra large deployment zone and army Fortitude rules (which we promptly forgot about), Caleb choosing sides and winning first turn.

Deployment (except for the Rangers who down on far right in front of a unit of Chaos Knights). My army well forward, warmachines behind his Warriors all grouped, cavalry on the flanks. Rocks were considered passable only if you could move over them in one go, and they could not be pursued through. The small forest in the middle, the only one anyone contacted, was a Fungus Forest causing Stupidity.
Gyrocopter watches the deploying Chaos Army - it would soon fly in and try to take out the advancing fast cavalry. Problem is I shot it in the wrong order. Quarrellers were supposed to take out the Warhounds and then leave the Marauders to the Gyro. I did it the other way round, meaning the Quarrellers had to shoot the Marauders at long range.
Turn 2 and the charges begin. The Stone-thrower which missed once the entire game has already taken out half of one of the Khorne blocks but the rest come crashing in. The Gyrocopter has fled from the charge of the Marauders, when in hindsight I should have let it take the charge - it might have done some damage. Hammerers were now facing 36 attacks a round from the Warriors of Chaos, and another handful from the Tzentch Mage and BSB.

Chaos Knights on the flank charge the Rangers who had tryed to charge - Scouts being allowed to do so in the first turn, if you did not move first - and failed. I fully expected the Rangers to decimate the Knights but they didnt because (a) they fluffed their rolls and (b) the Knights 1+ AS even when reduced to a 3+ because of the S5 attacks saved them. End result I had to make a Stubborn roll to stay in combat.
Disaster testing on L9 the Rangers fail, flee and are chased down. The entire unit wiped out in Turn 2 without killing a single Chaos Knight. My flank is now wide open and the Chaos Knights are unfortunately just out of Organ Gun range.

The central combat somehow continues and the Hammerers valiantly hold on as the Miners charge in to provide support. Meanwhile the other Warrior block has had to chase off a unit of Warhounds whose positioning prevented them from getting into combat earlier. The Chao Warriors of Tzentch are proving impossible to kill, but the Khorne block is getting seriously whittled down. But vs. 4 attacks from each of the front rank models I am struggling.

Marauders now join the melee adding to the confusion in the middle as my BSB is drawn into a challenge where neither he nor the Tzentch General can wound each-other.

Chaos Knights on the flank charge the Cannon. Shooting from the Warmachines has done well so far. The Organ Gun even though behind my infantry still has LOS to the taller Chaos Warriors and has taken down the 2nd Khorne Block. The Cannon however misfires but manages not to blow itself up. Chaos magic up to this point has been ineffective and Caleb abandons it for the remainder of the game.
The Miners are wiped out and the Marauders overrun while the 2nd Warrior block finally gets into combat wiping out most of the 2nd Khorne Block. The Hammerers though are getting seriously depleted and still cant kill the Tzeentch Warriors.

Disaster the Hammerers are all killed and the BSB flees and is cut down. The 8 remaining Warriors of Khorne then swing right aiming for the Quarrellers. At the same time the Chaos Knights on the right have overrun the Cannon and charged the Stone Thrower. The Engineer fires his pistols and kills 2, yes 2, Knights and the rest then fail their charge. The Marauders meanwhile go for the Organ Gun, and the Quarrellers have been charged by the 2nd Chaos Knight unit who are surprised when the Quarrellers turn out to be the uber-killer unit of the day.

In the background my remaining block of Warriors wipes out the Chaos Warriors of Khorne and turns to face the unkillable Warriors of Tzeentch. AH HA take that - a stand and shoot reaction from the Quarrellers kills 1 Chaos Knight, and they then kill 2 more in combat forcing the remaining Knight to flee. The Quarrellers give chase but are unable to catch him, but unable to rally he runs off the board.

However, by this stage things are well and truly over for me. The Warriors have been comprehensively wiped out by the Chaos Warriors of Tzentch, and the Organ Gun has gone down to the Marauders. My only success in this Turn other than the Quarrellers seeing off the Chaos Knights was more great shooting from the Stone Thrower. It scores a direct hit on the remaining Chaos Knights unit killing 2 of them, and then in the next turn lands on top of the Warriors of Khorne reducing them to one model.
That sole surviving Khorne Warrior charges the Quarrellers and is cut down in combat, the Quarrellers reform to face the Stone Thrower ready for Turn 6 which begins with the Marauders and remaining Chaos Knight charging the Stone Thrower.

Amazingly the Artillery crew hang on long enough for the Quarrellers to flank charge the Marauders at the end of Turn 6. The Stone Thrower crew is wiped out as are the Marauders and the game ends. Both armies have been decimated. Chaos have lost both big blocks of Khorne Warriors, nearly 2 complete units of Chaos Knights, their Warhounds and both blocks of Marauders. My Dwarfs on the other hand have suffered far worse and once we remembered the Fortitude scenario rules it was pretty clear that Caleb was the winner either way.

To give you an idea of the carnage this was the pile of dead models at the beginning of Turn 6

Tournament Report: Dwarves vs. Orcs & Goblins

2011-08-24T14:59:00.014+12:00

Call to Arms 2011: Karak Eight Peaks WHFB Campaign Event
Game 2 vs. Neil Williamson
Scenario: Chokepoint from WD March 2011

Chokepoint is a variation on battleline that awards extra VP for getting across to the other side of the board (100 VP per unit in the enemys half of table) and for claiming the centre point of the table (army with most "models" within 12" of centre gets 250VP). Up against Neil's Goblin horde which included one unit of 80 Night Goblins, but thankfully no Fanatics although he did have a Mangler Squig which is worse - but at least you know where it is.

The scenario also included a special rule that meant everybody hated everybody, and if you already hated them then you got eternal hatred. So non-stop re-rolls every combat round for me.

Deployment pre-scouts. The ruins we played as hard cover forests. Neil would place some Orcs, a Giant and two Chariots down to the right of the swamp in the bottom left of the picture. My Rangers went down in the ruins with the big dice on top of it.
The Night Goblin Horde - 50 shots in volley fire if it didnt move!!!
Rangers deploy in charge range of Neils right flank. He gets first turn and declares a charge with all four units on that flank against the Rangers. Result ...... Orcs & Giant roll double 1's and fail to charge and only the Chariots make it in only to be slaughtered.

Meanwhile the rest of Neils army passes its animosity checks and moves forward. His Shamans also roll well on the Winds of Magic with Neil getting a 6/6 giving him 11 PD to my 9DD. But its disaster (for him) after that as a spell aimed at giving his shooting block poison attacks miscasts. The IF gives the unit the poison but the resulting Dimensional Cascade (all my opponents seemed to roll this) kills 15 Goblins and then the Shaman. I respond to Neils opening moves by charging the Rangers at his Giant, rather than the Orcs, next to it as I am certain I can kill the Giant before being flanked by the Orcs - but I cant be certain I can kill the Orcs before the Giant flanks me. Oh no - the dice gods are ignoring Neil. The Giant dies only killing 2 Dwarfs in the process, and he collapses directly onto the Orcs killing 8 of them. The Orcs then FLEE THE FIELD!!!
During the same turn my artillery has also destroyed his Rock Lobber and started targeting his other warmachines.
Neil responds by charging the pump wagon into the pursuing Dwarfs, this gives him a modicum of revenge as the Pump Wagon makes short work of the Rangers. However, they have done their job and single handedly wiped out the Orcs right flank. His shooting also takes out the Organ Gun leaving me vulnerable to the oncoming Squig herd and Mangler Squig.
Turn 3 - Goblin animosity keeps most of Neils army from moving giving me the initiative. The Miners also come on and I deploy them on my board edge to counter the Chariots and Mangler Squig move up on my right. Meanwhile to avoid being charged by the Squig herd the Warriors charge the Goblins next to them hoping to break them and overrun in the first round of combat.
The gamble pays off, the Goblins break and run after failing to kill a single Dwarf and losing 12 of their number in the 1st round of combat. The Warriors surge forward leaving the Hammerers alone to the rear.
The big melee is joined!!!!!! The Night Goblin horde and Squig Herd charge the Hammerers, leaving my Warrior unit in the rear facing the wrong way.
Meanwhile the Miners move up quickly seeking to get into flank charge position against the Squigs - hoping that the Hammerers can Stubbornly hold on. Shooting has also taken out the Mangler Squig and started to hit the remaining Chariot.
The Miners charge the flank of the Squigs as the Hammerers, down to less than 1/2 strength, valiantly hold on. Meanwhile the Warriors to the rear reposition themselves to either charge the rear of the melee or collect any fleeing Goblins.
Neil losses combat and the Night Goblins flee, only the Squig Herd who are ITP hang on still fighting to the side against the Miners. Unfortunately as the Miners are now larger in size than the Hammerers the fleeing Night Goblins dont head for the Warriors positioned behind them but off to the left of the Hammerers who fail to chase them down.
The Squigs explode as the last of them is cut down by the Miners Champion and my units advance to hold the centre of the field. The last of Neils Chariots and his pump wagon have been sniped by my Cannon and Stone Thrower and only his rallied Night Goblin horde remains. I've lost my Rangers and half my Hammerers but have secured a pretty satisfying win

OOPS WHAT HAPPENED TO MY QUARRELLERS!!!

Big lesson I learnt from this game was never stack your dead models around a live unit - my Quarrellers which had been really effective in Turns 1 and 2 suddenly disappeared from the table. Not because they were dead but because I had piled so many dead Hammerers around them that I completely forgot they were there - luckily so did Neil.

Tournament Report - Dwarves vs Skaven

2011-08-24T09:49:00.009+12:00

Call to Arms 2011: Karak Eight Peaks WHFB Campaign Tournament
Game 1 vs. Pete Dunn
Scenario: Seek & Destory from WD March 11

[Pictures are all pretty big so should expand out]

Well Adam and I had talked about this match up on the trip down to Wellington and had agreed that each of us would get at least one game in against Pete the TO for the event and Mr Skaven NZ. But getting him first up was a shocker and I think Pete enjoyed my expression when called out the draw. Once again his Clan Dunn horde included the usual bells and whistles with Gutter Runners, Clan Rats, Plague Monks, Screaming Bell and Hell Pit Abomination.

The Scenario was essentially battleline but with me defending a Dwarf Brewery which Pete had to destroy to gain additional VP. I also had to set up my entire first giving Pete a substantial tactical advantage. Unfortunately I wasnt really sure how to best deploy and the result was Ok but not the most effective set up I could have gone with.

My deployment - the Brewery was represented by the small column between the Organ Gun and Warriors behind it. Miners went underground and the Rangers deployed on the building on the right flank with the intent of flanking the Skaven army after the Hell Pit is killed by the Cannon.

Damn Gutter Runners are really annoying and my deployment had to cater for them and try to minimise their ability take out my Warmachines. Unfortunately I stuffed up and didnt deploy well enough to prevent them from getting into a good shooting position.

Turn 1 and the Skaven horde advances and Skaven magic takes effect. The 13th spell goes off killing 6 Hammerers but the resulting miscast results in a Dimensional Cascade (even after the Earthing Rod is used) and kills around 20 Skaven.

At this stage Im thinking sweet great start, then the Gutter Runners run in and kill the Cannon crew removing my anti-Hell Pit weapon. 11 more Hammerers are also killed by a Doom Rocket and the Warp Lightning Cannon and suddenly they are down to less than half strength.

Aftermath of the first Turn Hammerers reduced by more than half and Warriors forced to move up to plug the gap in the line. Dwarf shooting did some damage in return though culling the Skaven BSB's unit in half and scoring 3 wounds on the Hell Pit.
Quarrellers hurriedly reform to prevent the Gutter Runners taking out anymore Warmachines. I also moved the Rangers out of the building and into the flank of the Skaven army with the intent of charging them in. With the Cannon gone I really had no choice as I had to delay its advance toward the Brewery. The Organ Gun and Stone Thrower continue to concentrate on the Skaven BSB's unit but cant finish off. And in Turn 2 the Greyseer miscasts again - this would be a constant pattern throughout the weekend as 4/5 of my opponents suffered miscasts trying to overcome my superior number of DD.

The Skaven army closes in on the Brewery while the Hell Pit stays behind to finish of the Rangers. Turn 3 doesnt go well for me as the Stone Thrower misfires and blows up and my BSB and Hammerers get charged by the Screaming Bell.

Disaster the Hammerers are all dead and the Warriors who charged the Bell in support cant attack it as the Greyseer is locked in a challenge with my BSB. It was only in Game 5 that I remembered that I didnt have to accept such challenges and could have moved to the back. If I had then all of those GW attacks could have gone on the Greyseer and the Bell rather than being wasted. Luckily the Bell misfired but even this couldnt help me much. The Skaven BSB's unit also kept running around avoiding being killed as the Organ Gun followed the Stone Throwers lead and blew up rather than shot at them.

Quarrellers attempt to do something other than reform and charge into some Slaves. Somehow they get through a few rounds of combat before being wiped out.
Miners arrive in time to charge the Gutter Runners attempting to destroy the Brewery.
Ah crap!!! The Rangers are all wiped out by the Hell Pit although the manage to get it down to a couple of wounds and it charges in against the Miners who have moved forward after seeing off the Gutter Runners.
The Miners are wiped out and Skaven infantry flank charges the Warriors who are thats left of my army. That damn challenge causes me no end of headaches as my BSB cant kill the damn Greyseer and this effectively neuters a 30 strong unit of Warriors for 3 Turns.

End Result I got Dunned well and truly. Learnt the hard way that its sometimes better to refuse a challenge and that my warmachines should have gone behind my infantry where the Gutter Runners couldnt touch them, and they could still shoot. 2nd match up vs. Pete 2nd massacre but this time round I do believe I could have swung the result my way. Ill get him next time...

... this battle and a later one against his Son have re-ignited my passion for Dwarf fluff though and will form the background of a new chapter for my other blog KarakThorinkin namely the Invasion of Skaven Clan Dunn.

Dwarfs in 8th Edition: Results so far

2011-08-23T20:00:00.011+12:00

Just over 12 months ago I posted about how much better Dwarfs would be in 8th Edition (read original post here) After 12 months of gaming under the 8th Edition rule set including one recently completed tournament I have to say I was right Dwarfs are much better, much, much better in fact. So what’s happened so far:

Everyone’s Dead?!?
8th Edition is brutal, incredibly brutal. I've only played a couple of dozen games under 8th rules but in every single one - and in all the ones I have watched - at least one army is completely wiped out and the other nearly so. Whereas you could play a game of 7th and often only have 1-2 units on each side die, in 8th everyone dies. Yes this does mean that my entire army gets wiped out as well, but there are very few instances in which I haven’t done the same to my opponent.

Great Weapons are Gold
The army list I took to Call to Arms/Karak Eight Peaks over the weekend is pretty much my set in stone 2400pt list.

While other Dwarf players filled their list with characters and small units, me I stuck with big blocks of infantry in this case 3 blocks of 30 and one of 20. Why? Because I like close combat, I love throwing dice and because it’s what Dwarfs are supposed to do. But more importantly because it works. Step Up gives me, barring some horrible disaster, 13 attacks every round at S5 or S6 (I field my units 6 wide 5 deep). Against Skaven & Orcs this weekend that was deadly. I would often lose 5-6 guys in each round of combat (T4 being enough to save them most times) while routinely killing twice that number.

Whereas in 7th people loved charging Dwarfs as they could kill our front rank, deny us attacks, and keep doing it round after round till we were dead. In 8th it’s not that simple. Now I found that opponents move away from combat and spend time either trying to set up multiple charges or flanks on my units.

The only exception is when they use the big uber monster or character mount. Then as always Dwarfs are in trouble if the warmachines havent killed the thing first.

The Magic Phase
I was worried about the new spells that came through in 8th, but learned from playing High Elves that magic has not been overpowered. Unlike 7th were it was often used as hammer to bludgeon opponents in 8th IMHO it is more subtle and far more tactical.

For a Dwarf our runic combos also mean it is harder than ever for opponents to use it against us. A Runelord with Master Rune of Balance adds +3 DD to every phase. There are only 3 dice rolls that an opponent can make that will result in him/her getting more PD than a Dwarf has DD. Those rolls are 6/6 = 9 DD for me, 11PD for them; 6/5 = 9 DD for me, 10 PD for them; 5/5 = 8 DD for me and 9 PD for them. In every other instance a Dwarf player running a standard list will have more DD than the enemy has PD.

This weekend at Call to Arms there were only 3 magic phases in which my opponent rolled one of those 3 combos. The only times they were able to score more PD outside of this was through the aid of warp stones and mushrooms. What this meant is every opponent had to risk 6 dice throws to get the IF they needed to avoid my dispelling. End result, in all 5 games I played over the weekend all of my opponents suffered a miscast, some more than one.

Add in 1-2 RO Spellbreaking and a Dwarf General is sitting pretty. But the dreaded 13th spell will still get through on occasions.

Movement & charge rule changes
The rule changes here mean Dwarfs are now a serious threat tactically to any army on the board. The 2D6 charge range means I can even get charges off in Turn 1 with my Rangers, a tactic I used successfully in two games at Karak Eight Peaks. The charge rules also give Dwarfs far more options in terms of how they use their troops and make it extremely difficult for enemy generals to hide vulnerable units. I have noticed a distinct change in how people deploy against Dwarfs now with a greater emphasis on concentration of force, rather than spread out with the intent of enveloping me.

Warmachines
These haven’t changed much but the changes I absolutely love are those to the Cannon and Stone Thrower. No more guess ranges and D6 wounds make the Cannon unbelievably effective - I learnt this weekend that simply placing the initial bounce marker 4" in front of your target pretty much guarantees a hit. Especially when the Rune of Forging is used - which lets face it should be mandatory.

Stone Throwers being able to fire indirect has also been awesome under 8th and the weapon has worked wonders for me

Another nasty trick is that against armies whose infantry are larger than Dwarfs you do not need to station your warmachines out front to shoot them. Not needing to roll on BS to hit they can go behind your shorter infantry and still draw LOS to targets in front over the heads of their own troops. An Organ Gun deployed alongside Dwarf Warriors is useful but vulnerable. Deployed behind where it can still shoot its deadly and nearly untouchable unless the enemy has scouts.

Again these changes force enemy generals to change their game plan against Dwarfs

My 8th Edition Dwarf army list
This is what I took to Call to Arms last weekend. It works and works well, the only change I might make would be to swap the Gyrocopter in for the Stone Thrower but that’s it. This is, as I said earlier, my set in stone list tournament list and I can see myself taking this to every WHFB tournament I attend next year.

Runelord
w. MR Balance, RO Spellbreaking, RO Resistance, RO Stone, RO Furnace, Shield

BSB
w. RO Fire, MR Gromil, RO Resistance, RO Preservation, RO Furnace

Warrior Rangers x30
w. Full Command, GW

Warriors x30
w. Full Command, GW

Quarrellers x16
w. Shields, Musician

Hammerers x30
w. Full Command, RO Battle

Miners x20
w. Full Command

Stone Thrower
w. Engineer, Brace of Pistols, RO Accuracy, RO Penetratingx2

Cannon
w. Engineer, Brace of Pistols, RO Forging, RO Burning

Organ Gun

TOTAL 2,400 exactly

How the list has changed since 7th
In 7th army list building for Dwarfs was more about denying phases to the enemy and nullifying our inherent weaknesses. Of the four phases - movement, magic, shooting and combat there was only one we could realistically win - shooting. But doing so would leave us vulnerable in the other three. A gunline would work but only until Turn 2 when it would lose in combat. A combat army worked but would have to sacrifice anti-magic and would always be out maneuvured. Strong anti-magic defense was costly meaning your other phases were weak. The only improvements possible to movement - Gyrocopter, Anvil, Miners, Strollaz required you to weaken other phases.

Hence a 7th Ed Dwarf army list was based on compromise, the inability to dominate a phase effectively without losing the others badly, and the need to be:

Anti-magic - RO Spellbreaking, items that granted MR etc
Anti-fear - RO Courage, Dwarf Lord w. Shield bearers, RO Determination
Anti-shooting - MR Grungi, Shields
Anti-movement - More shooting & smaller units to deflect chargers

My standard army was therefore smaller in terms of unit sizes, had 3-4 characters rather than 2, and took more units. Smaller units of Warriors and Quarrellers were needed to deflect and redirect charges. GW were never used, except on Hammerers, because I expected my front ranks to die and I needed to prevent that to have chance of surviving combat. I also had to cater for the ability of 30pt enemy units to capture table quarters. To combat this I need shooting to take them out. I also expected to be charged by Turn 2.

The basic change in my thinking and army building can be summed up like this:

Johns 7th Ed Dwarfs
focused on negation and avoidance. Negate enemy magic, negate their fast cav and small units, and avoid combat until shooting has done damage and hope that I can eek out a draw, or blood the enemy badly enough to get a slight win. Somehow I managed a couple of 20-0 at the odd tournament but largely a 10-10 draw was seen as a victory for a Dwarf.

Johns 8th Ed Dwarfs
Focused on combat first and combat last. Big blcoks of infantry all with GW whose sole intent is to get into combat as fast as possible. Whereas a 10-10 result was the aim in 7th in 8th I want that 20-0 and the rule changes mean I can get it.

Shooting is there but it’s a side issue and only dominates strategy when facing something like a Hell Pit Abomination. Random movement also means I am more aggressive and more willing to commit to battle, and both more able and more willing to seize the initiative e.g., by charging Rangers in the first turn.

Overall 8th Edition is fantastic absolutely love it!!!!!!!!

Back from Call to Arms 2011 some random pics

2011-08-22T10:27:00.007+12:00

Returned from probably my last Warhammer tournament of the year last night - the Karak Eight Peaks themed campaign tournament courtesy of Pete Dunn. Was a fantastic event the final 3-way Battle Royale at the end a definate highlight. My Dwarfs faired pretty well 2 wins and 2 losses in the first 4 games and then 2nd in the last game - where victory could have been mine had the dreaded 13th spell not caught my Hammerers and General giving the Skaven a 1200pt turnaround (455 for unit, 230 for Runelord, 100 for general and 500 bonus VP for killing General as per scenario rules). Up until that point I was a good 2-300VP clear of the Skaven. But thats the way the Dice Gods roll sometimes.

[Pictures all pretty large and should expand out]

Sam's O&G army from our campaign tournament. Full of conversions and all beautifully painted. Won best army in our section.

I have around 250 photos to sort through before I can start writing up the battle reports but I will get these up over this week. Going to start adding more stuff to my other Dwarf blog using this campaign and recent games as the starting point. So expect LOTS OF STUFF over next week or so.

In the interim here are some random shots of the rest of the weekends gaming events which included: 40k, LW-FOW, Napleonics, DBM, Dystopian Wars, Warmachine, Fields of Glory and a few random demo games here and there.

LW - FOW

Warmachine - Protectorate of Menoth

Dystopian Wars

Basils Roman Dwarfs - he played in the campaign tournament as well

Ellens Blood Angels Company - shes one of my clubs 40K players and this was my favourite army out of the entire tournament.

Other great news of the weekend was the Manawatu Turbos crushing win over Waikato 54-20 pity the All Blacks couldnt do the same in South Africa.

Battle Report - Dwarves vs. Skaven @ 2400pts

2011-08-19T10:47:00.010+12:00

In the year 2610 dark clouds were once again gathering over the Dwarfs of Karak Thorinkin. Orc & Goblin incursions were increasing and had only been beaten back with heavy losses. In the latest battle a large force of Savage Orcs and their Black Orc masters had been annihilated by the holds army (Read Battle Report). But the victory had cost hundreds of Dwarven lives as well as that of its general Runelord Thirak Grazgdukr. Precious few warriors were now left to defend the hold and its lands both above and below ground. Fewer still Runelords were left to protect the holds lore, history and to provide the runic power needed to protect their lands.

Returning from that last battle against the green scum the tattered remnants of that army now struggled home through weather turning increasingly cold and toward the refuge of the fortress of Kazad Thrombidal. Guarding the southern flank of the holds lands the fortress occupied a rocky outcrop at the end of a deep steep sided mountain pass. The march was conducted in haste though as Gyrocopters from the hold had brought news to the army that Skaven had breached the lower tunnels of the fortress.

Map of the inner lands of the Karak Thorinkin located in the mountain range known as "The Vaults"

This haste would now prove the armies undoing. Advancing up the steep sided heavily wooded floor of the mountain pass the army was ambushed. Warmachine crew bringing up the rear of the marching column shouted warnings as Skaven skirmishers leapt from cover and begun shooting them down. Small swift footed rats armed with Slings began running through and attacking the artillery train and soon dozens of Dwarfs were dead or wounded. The main bulk of the army could do nothing though as up ahead low lying mist cleared to reveal a horde or Rats spread across the entire width of the pass. Towering over them was the dreaded form of a Hell Pit Abomination the eyes in its many heads gleaming with red fury and blood lust.

The army's line up between the black imposing walls of the mountain pass
(Please excuse the dodgy additions to the photo)

Deploying with what little time they had the Dwarven army had no choice but to march straight at the Skaven horde - the warmachines in the rear would have to be left to fend for themselves - the army had to get through to Kazad Thrombidal. Those warmachines that were untouched by the Skaven skirmishers drew line of sight on the dread Abomination and prepared to fire. But at that moment a green red storm cloud filled with lightning flashes and thunder descended over the army. Warmachines refused to fire, Crossbow strings snapped and Organ Guns misfired and exploded as the Storms violence crashed over the Dwarven army.

The Skaven horde advances

As the Skaven and Dwarf armies advanced closer toward each-other the Storm abated as quickly as it had formed. Stone-throwers began lobbing rocks onto the massed ranks of Skaven troops. Quarrellers peppered an advancing unit of Rat Ogres taking down several of the fell beasts. But the Cannons - the only machines capable of killing the Abomination were silenced - Skaven Slings killing the last of the crews and allowing the monster to advance unmolested.
The first melee combats were joined as Rat Ogres crashed into the Dwarven Quarrellers. Defensive fire did no damage and the Rat Ogres and supporting units tore the Dwarfs apart. Miners enacted some revenge charging the flank of the Ogres, killing most and sending the rest fleeing. But they too were cut down when more Rats and a vile lightning sheathed Doomwheel tore through their ranks.

Rat Ogres and rat pack charge the Quarrellers. The rat pack pursued through them while the Ogres are stopped by the impassable terrain. Miners would then charge their flank wiping them out.

In the centre the Dwarven armies Battle Standard Bearer, bravely ordered his accompanying Hammerers to charge the Hell Pit Abomination. His flaming weapon set fire to the beasts flesh while the Hammerers weapons chopped great hunks from its bones. But it was not enough, the demon continued to live, and its multiple heads soon feed on scores of Dwarves.

Hammerers charge the Hell Pit

Combat expanded as more Skaven charged into the Hammerers ranks and Dwarven Warriors made charges of their own. Surrounded the Hammerers fought on bravely but their weapons made little impression on the Abomination. Charged in the flank by the Skaven General the Hammerers, the Dwarven Battle Standard Bearer and General were all cut down. A regiment of Dwarven Warriors readied itself to charge to the Hammerers aid but was prevented as Skaven emerged from tunnels beneath their feet and charged their rear ranks.

Skaven flank charge the Hammerers, and tunnellers rear charge the Warriors stopping them from advancing to help the Hammerers

Locked in combat with this new threat the Warriors could only watch as the Hammerers were cut down. Rangers meanwhile cut a swath through a swarm of smaller rats and then began methodically chopping apart Skaven Slaves. While brave their actions were also foolish the leader of the unit failing to move his troops in to support the stricken Hammerers.

The massive central melee - in the middle only 3 Hammerers are left out of unit of 30

The Hammerers, BSB and Runelord perish and the pursuing Skaven crash into the remaining Warrior regiments.

The destruction of the Hammerers left the Skaven general free to charge the Warriors who were still locked in combat with the tunnelling Skaven to their rear. The Dwarfs fought bravely but were cut down and soon only the regiment of Rangers was left alive in the mountain pass. They bravely charged the Skaven Generals unit, surrounded as they were on four sides.

Last roll of the dice as the sole remaining Dwarven unit trys to get some payback

Great Axes rose and fell with terrifying speed and scores of rats were cut down, the remainder fleeing the battlefield. Charging forward victoriously the Rangers attempted to reach the dreaded Abomination and extract some revenge.

Rangers pursue the Hell Pit after wiping out the Skaven BSBs unit

The Abomination obliged by charging them in return along with the tunnelling Skaven who had appeared earlier. This time the Abomination finally fell as Dwarven Axes caved in its multiple heads and ending its life. But the victory was short-lived as the remaining Skaven forces surrounded, charged and then annihilated the few remaining Dwarves. The army was destroyed, the pass open to the enemy and Kazad Thrombidal undefended... the Thorinkin were now in desperate trouble.

Fallschirmjager Heavy Mortar Platoon

2011-08-17T09:47:00.003+12:00

Finally completed these guys the other night. Mortars are from the Forged in Battle Range while the figures are spare crew from the standard FJ Mortar Platoon - hence the lack of the standard poses and large mortar shells.

Unfortunately the models have a glossy look as the vagaries of GW Purity Seal meant I didnt get the normal dull coat. Normally wouldnt use Purity Seal but I've run out of Moana Vale so needs must and you do get a 50:50 chance of either a dull or shiny finish, just got unlucky this time.

No HQ or Observers for these guys yet Ill just use those from the normal Mortar Platoon when I field them. Also finished last gun from my FJ Artillery Platoon, and got word from Maelstrom that my Plastic Solider Company PzIVs are on there way.

Also getting very excited about rumoured new Dwarf book in May 2012. If all the new models and rule changes for Ogres and TK are anything to go by then Dwarfs are in for a huge shake up. Just as long as my Hammerers are still cool Im happy.

Warhammer in the snow

2011-08-16T09:39:00.005+12:00

Heading off to Wellington for my next Warhammer tournament - Call to Arms - this weekend. Despite being an indoor sport the weather is going to play a big part. Pretty big news in New Zealand this week is the cold weather we have been experiencing that has covered the country in snow.

I was teaching yesterday afternoon walked into class at 3pm weather was fine, walked out at 5pm (no windows in room) to find this...

Lived in this city for most of my 38 years and its never snowed here before, felt sorry for our international students most of whom come from much warmer climates than this. Its not much when compared to snowfall in Northern Europe or my sister in laws place is Saskatoon but for us it was pretty cool. Family in Christchurch which is still rebuilding after earthquake got a foot of the stuff.

My kids loved it though, got greeted with a snowball to the face when I got home courtesy of my daughter.

Alternate fantasy skirmish rules & new FOW army

2011-08-10T09:20:00.005+12:00

Having my first go at a new rule set this Thursday at the club. Ganesha Games 'Song of Blades and Heroes'. Its a fantasy skirmish system with a remarkably simple but effective and interesting set of rules. They have also adapted the same rule set to Napoleonics, Sci-Fi and a range of other genres.
Best of all the game is designed to be played with either 15, 25 or 28mm figures the only thing that changes between each scale is movement and shooting ranges. So I can use my existing WHFB collections. You can check out the game info here

After FRACAS last weekend I've also decided that my 2nd FOW army will be German. Principally as I am not interested in playing any other nation. The only exception would be the New Zealanders out of Monte Cassino source book, but here I would have to use British vehicles which I really dont like.

That and starting a 2nd German army means I can chop and change models between it and my Fallschirmjager.

Have started process already by ordering a set of the Plastic Soldier Company's Panzer IV's off Maelstrom, only cost $27 for set of 5 tanks at the current exchange rate. Reviews I have read suggest that they are an excellent alternative. Buying these so I can start a Panzer, Grenadier or Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Company. Each would rely on pretty much the same stuff and with the alternatives offered by Plastic Solider and Forged in Battle the process should be pretty cheap.

Next up for purchase - going to take it slowly and spread it out over next 8-12 months, will be:

NW41 Rocket Launchers (2 sets of 3)
Plastic Solider 15mm German Infantry (NZ$30 for set of 100)
Forged in Battle SdKfz 251/1 (NZ$30 for set of 4)
FJ 10.5cm Artillery Battery

The NW41's I can add to my Fallschirm and use across the Panzer/Grenadier forces. The Plastic Soldier figures allow me to base up Grenadier infantry. PzGrenadiers can be safely made by adding the FiB half-tracks to the PSC infantry. Not exactly Battlefront accurate but good enough and more importantly cheap as chips.

FOW Tournament Report - FRACAS Part 2

2011-08-09T09:51:00.010+12:00

Game 3 Free for all vs. British Recon Company

The most enjoyable game of the tournament for me despite losing 2-3 because my opponent was a nice bloke but also extremely fair – so fair he kept giving me advice on best to beat him, I also learned a couple of things from him. The most important of these was that CIC do not work like Battle Standard Bearers in Warhammer. With WHFB these guys allow any unit with range to re-roll failed leadership (motivation) rolls, in FOW your CIC attaches to the Platoon he wants to give re-rolls too. End result is if you stuff up the re-roll both the Platoon and the CIC go bye-bye. I should have known this but have been happily playing along using the CIC like a Warhammer BSB – I guess my FV must have never failed a re-roll meaning it’s never come up before now.

Anyway my opponent had:
• CHQ in Scout Cars with a couple of extra independent teams (I think?)
• 2 Scout Car Platoons maybe 3
• A Platoon of Light Tanks
• Battery of 25pdrs

Fallshirm deploy around their two objectives (the 2nd is the tank by the water tower)

Unfortunately from here my memory starts to fail me. Basically he advanced in two groups each heading toward a separate objective with the Stuarts in the middle ready to move to either side.

British Armoured Cars advance as Fallshirm try despartely to dig in

The Light Guns took out one Stuart before being killed while the Mortars kept up a constant smoke barrage. Machine gun fire from the British armoured cars started to hurt me and the 25pdrs took out the Mortars a team at a time.
On the left one Recon Platoon was checked in place, or held deliberately, either works as a valid reason. All of the action was on the right. First British Armoured Cars with supporting independent teams assaulted the dug in Fallschirm. The following melee saw them pushed back after heavy losses on both sides, including an entire Scout Car platoon.

Fallschirm launch a counter assault vs. British Armoured Cars

Resolute but costly defences leaves British armoured vehicles burning but few Fallschirm are alive to return to their foxholes.

The Stuarts then joined in from the centre. The melee that followed saw all of them wiped out in the assault but follow up machine gun fire from the remaining Armoured Cars in the following turns left only the Mortar command team anywhere near the right hand objective.

The 2nd British assault is also beaten back but the Fallschirm all fall in the process.

The sole remaining Scout Car on that flank advanced to take the objective and despite my best efforts the 2nd Fallschirm Platoon couldn’t take it out. Even if they had I remained outnumbered and only 1 team away from being below 50% strength. However, the 1 hour time limit ran out and the game ended with neither of us winning and a 2-3 loss to me.

Game 4 No Retreat vs. Soviet Mechanised Company

Good terrain set up for this game which pitted me against a force of:
• Mechanised Platoon w. Half-tracks & Motorcycles
• Tank Platoon w. 5 British Stuarts
• Assault Gun Platoon w. 3 Su76s
• Recon Platoon w. 3 Armoured Cars

Playing the defender I remembered the mistake I made in Game 2 and started with the Light Guns and a combat Platoon on the board and the Mortars and other FJ Platoon in reserve. With the objectives close together I was able to dig in the combat platoon across both of them. The terrain set up also meant that my opponent had to divert his Recon platoon all over the show trying to reduce my choice of ambush sites for the Light Guns.

The battlefield with the 1st FJ Platoon dug in around the two objectives

The objectives btw were really well modelled. One consisted of a mock prisoner of war camp complete with Soviet prisoners, the other a broken trench line including multiple tank tracks and crushed & mangled Soviet dead. They gave the game a touch of realism – Soviet forces attempting to retake a captured trench and free some prisoners; possibly so they could send them to Siberia or a Penal company afterward if we follow historical trends.

My opponent rushed forward as fast as possible grouping his armour together and trying not to think about where the Light Guns would appear.

Soviet armour and mechanised infantry advance enmass

The Soviet recon moves worked very successfully and I ended up having to deploy the Light Gun ambush on my board edge directly behind the dug in Fallschirm. This turned out to be a good place to put them. By having the Fallschirm go to ground the Light Guns could shoot over their heads and the Soviet armour would be forced to come into range to avoid having to hit the Fallschirm on 7’s and the Light Guns on 6’s. Initial Soviet shooting was ineffectual and took out only a single Fallschirm team, their low firepower ratings not helping them get through their prepared defences. My reserves also arrived in a timely fashion with the 2nd Fallschirm Platoon coming on in the woods to the left.

Reinforcements arrive and deploy to force the Soviet recon elements out of the village

The 2nd Fallschirm Platoon advanced to assault the Soviet Recon Platoon which promptly disengaged allowing them to continue advancing toward the village and objectives. By this stage the Soviet infantry had dismounted and entered the same village and began its assault on the Fallschirm dug in around the objectives.

Soviet mechanised infantry dismount and join their armour in assaulting the objectives

The assault proved rather bloody. The Soviet infantry were decimated by defensive fire and then forced to withdraw from the assault after suffering further losses. The Tanks without infantry support had already lost some of their number to the Light Guns and soon lost more to the defending Fallschirm – the CIC and Platoon commander’s Panzerknackers cutting through their top armour easily.

However, the Fallschirm too suffered losses including a number of teams to Soviet flamethrowers, and they broke and ran leaving the objective undefended and in the hands of the sole surviving Soviet tank.

The 2nd Fallschirm Platoon had once chance to recapture the objective or the battle would be lost. They needed to assault the Soviet infantry which was now in the Village, push them out, and then consolidate toward the objective hoping they got close enough to contest it.

The assault went in and was successful. Soviet armoured cars which were in the village were unable to disengage from the attack and got caught up in the assault as the Fallschirm charged through the village. The Soviet infantry was annihilated along with their armoured cars as the Fallschirm surged through and around the buildings pushing the enemy back. Consolidating a single team came within range of the objective allowing it to be contested.

With their CIC, Kommisar and 2 Platoons destroyed the Soviets were not in a good position, and this became worse when the Light Guns destroyed the sole surviving Stuart tank causing the remaining Soviet Platoon to break and run.

A very close (very – about 5mm in it) and enjoyable game and my first tournament win at 5-2, although for the life of me I still can’t figure out the scoring system as it doesn’t seem to follow what’s in the rulebook.

FOW Tournament Report - FRACAS Part 1

2011-08-08T09:06:00.008+12:00

Overview
600pt Mid-War tournament fought over 1 day across 5 rounds. Tables were smaller than standard at 900mm x 900mm or 900mm x 600mm. Only two scenarios were used ‘Free for All’ or ‘No Retreat’. 32 players attended the event from around the country bringing a mix of Allied and Axis armies with a slight weighting toward armoured forces. List composition rules for the tournament required all lists to contain a minimum of 3 Platoons, one of which had to be a combat platoon with vehicles with a ‘Top Armour’ rating of 2 banned.

My Fallschirmjäger list was drawn from the ‘North Africa’ list and consisted of

Company HQ w. 1 Panzerknacker upgrade & 3 x 8cm Mortars
Fallschirm Platoon w. Panzerknacker upgrade & 2 Squads
Fallschirm Platoon w. Panzerknacker upgrade & 2 Squads
Fallschirm Light Gun Platoon

Total worked out to 600pts exactly with four Platoons on the table each game after I battle grouped the HQ Mortars with the 2IC. Being all infantry company (as in no vehicles whatsoever), I think the only one at the tournament; I played the defender in every game.

Game 1 – Free for All vs. Finish Company
Up against club mate Josh Forester so at least I knew that I would learn something as, while significantly younger than me, he is an excellent and experienced gamer. In our few games together so far I’ve always come away with a few extra tips and tricks. His army consisted of:

Finnish Infantry Platoon – 3 Squads
Light Tank Platoon – 4 Stuarts
AT Platoon – 2 x 45mm
AT Platoon – 2 x45mm

Set up gave me two spaced out objectives: One on a ridge with a building nearby protecting one flank and a reasonable amount of open ground in front for the enemy to advance through, the other was on large hill which allowed me to position my troops behind the slopes keeping them out of LOS. The only drawback here was several lines of trees and cornfields which would allow Josh’s infantry cover on their approach. Getting first turn enabled me to dig all of my Platoons in and I patiently sat back and waited for Josh’s advance; the absence of enemy artillery a nice bonus meaning I could group my units together more tightly.
Josh double teamed his units forward initially but soon started taking pot shots with his AT guns and Tanks aiming first of all for my Light Guns one of which was taken out. The dug in infantry proved too hard to hit and remained safely hunkered down.
To force the enemy Armour to advance within range of the Light Guns the Mortars began laying down a rolling smoke barrage. This slowly brought them closer and also forced the Finnish infantry to hold back seemingly waiting for the armour to soften me up first.
Finnish Tanks emerge from the smoke in range of the Light Guns but their fire, and that of the supporting AT guns takes out one of the waiting Light Guns. The other gets a small amount of revenge brewing up one of the Stuarts. At the same time the Mortars firing HE take out one of the Finnish AT Platoons exposed out in the open and not dug in.With the Light Gun threat neutralised both the Finnish infantry and Armour assault the Fallschirm defending the hill top objective.
Disaster for the Finns as defensive fire pins their assaulting infantry (5 shots out of 6 scoring hits) and also reduces their number. The tanks also move in lose one of their number and are pushed back.

The 2nd FJ Platoon and Fallschirm CIC then advance from the right toward the rear of the Finnish tanks and join the Assault. In the next few rounds the Finnish tanks are all destroyed but in the process I lose more infantry. This leaves the hill top defence severely weakened and the stronger Finnish infantry Platoon then moved in. In a round of poor defensive shooting I get 11 shots off at them but fail to pin them. They come pouring in and in an epic melee wipe out the Fallschirm and take the hill, but leave only 4 of their own bases on the table.

End result was a 3-4 loss as while Josh had taken the objective he had lost two Platoons in doing so.

Game 2 No Retreat vs. US Para Company
This game was against the tournaments youngest player – just 11 years old – and one very new to the game having only started in May this year; his dad was also playing. A very nice kid, bit nervous as you would expect but he did extremely well giving a couple of the experienced old hands a real drubbing scoring a couple of 6-1 wins. He also played really well, especially as he had to put up with me constantly asking players on the tables next to us what the rules were. Poor kid was probably expecting me to at least know what I was doing.

Only bad spot for him was – despite the tournament not using them – someone marking him down for sportsmanship?!?!? We talked about it on the van trip home and honestly, why anyone would mark down an 11 year old I have no idea. Maybe they should get more used to losing like ME. Anyway his army consisted of:

Para Infantry Platoon
Para Infantry Platoon
Light Armoured Platoon w. 3 Stuarts

Defending under the ‘No Retreat’ rules meant I had 2 of 4 Platoons off the table and 1 of the 2 on the table in Ambush. Terrain was excellent for defending but in determining which Platoons to place in reserve I promptly lost the game before the first turn. The biggest threat in the US force was the Tanks which could rush the weakly defended objectives. However, I basically ignored this and put my Mortar Platoon on the board with an FJ Platoon in ambush.
End result, the US Tanks advanced unimpeded right across the board and I had nothing that could stop them. Delayed reserves and poor dice rolling meant I didn’t get my other Platoons on the board until Turns 4 & 5.
The Stuarts rushed the objectives machine gunning my infantry all the way while the US Para’s stayed put. Without any AT support I had no choice but to assault the Tanks as they burst into my deployment zone, assaults which promptly failed every time as defensive pinned and cut them down in droves.
Not even the appearance of the Light Guns and the 2nd FJ Platoon could save me. The Light Guns took out one Tank, but the Infantry were unable to get into assault and the US tanks held the objective unopposed at the start of the penultimate turn and I promptly lost the game.

In hindsight what I should have done was put an FJ Platoon and the Light Guns on at the beginning. With the Light Guns starting in prepared positions, and placed behind the nicely positioned hedges, the US Tanks would have been forced to advance within range to hit me (they would have needed 7’s outside of 16” – 4 for Vet, +1 for range, +1 for concealed and +1 for gone to ground).

They could have then weathered their fire and taken them all out before his infantry came in. His infantry would have then been forced to advance across open ground toward dug in infantry and would not have done well.

My on-going love affair with Mortar Platoons really needs to stop ;)

Fallschirmjager off to another tournament

2011-08-04T16:02:00.002+12:00

Time for the troops to buckle on their equipment and get ready to march out to war at this weekends 600pt MW tournament. But first its Dwarfs vs. Skaven at the club tonight!!!

Going to be rather punishing weekend for me I think but we'll see :)

FOW Tournament Battle Report - Panzershrek X Game 3

2011-08-03T11:00:00.005+12:00

Our last game of Day 1 up against the Stanton brothers Romanian Horde and I do mean Horde, they had I think 16 Platoons between them including a mass of cheap armour. Our paltry 8 Platoons seemed rather inadequate here particularly as the Delayed and Scattered reserves rules would have us outnumbered for much of the battle.

Can't remember the name of the scenario unfortunately. But we were defending and got to place two objectives down in our deployment zone while our opponents placed one. We then deployed all of our troops - with the exception of a single ambushing platoon - and they then took one objective away. End result we had two objectives on opposite ends of the board to defend and nearly all of our deployed forces positioned around just one of them.

The board looking from our side. Stars indicate the objectives. Each of the red outlined boxes show the random deployment zones. Having to wait till Turn 3 was really going to hurt so our only hope was to batter the Romanians with Artillery and keep them pinned down long enough for our reserves to come on.

Objective "Moo"

Romanian armour and infantry begin their advance enmass toward our lines. The expansive terrain gave them a lot of cover and also made it very difficult for our spotters to draw LOS and range in on them.

On the extreme left flank our forces consisted of the Tiger Companys commander and an ambushing Platoon of Pak 40s. Against them was arrayed a sea of Romanian armour of infantry. Our right flank was better off with a full strength FJ Platoon with PF and 3 accompanying PS dug in among the Church and local village. They were supported by our Artillery and one Tiger Platoon. Unfortunately the Tigers were not in position to advance on the Romanian objective as terrain afforded their AT units too many advantages.

Romanian armour begins the advance and our Paks draw first blood. The artillery ranges in on and pins down the Romanian infantry halting it in its tracks, but the enemy Armour keeps on trucking. Turn 3 comes and we get no reserves while the Romanians gain one platoon. This pattern would continue for the next 3 turns with the Romanians gaining reserves in a steady stream while ours remained stubbornly off the board.

Romanian infantry gets pinned down by Artillery fire as the Paks and lone Tiger try to take out the Romanian armour. Unfortunately the terrain made it extremely difficult to hit them, particularly at long range and we scored very few successes.

Romanian infantry reaches Objective Moo and begins the assault. Outnumbered we surprisingly throw back the assault. We have only one turn though for our reserves to come on, and then they have to roll right to come on in the right spot, or we are going to be swamped.

Romanian light tanks support their infantry by swinging in behind the Pak 40s. Shooting at close range the Paks had a perfect opportunity to take out the enemy armour before they got in behind, but they miss.

Overrunning the Paks, the Romanian armour supported by more infantry guard the objective and wait for our reserves to come on. We have to get them on in this turn or we are toast. Luckily we roll a 5+ and a FJ Platoon comes on the board and assaults the Romanian Armour. But the assault fails and our infantry is pushed back more than 4" from the objective and the game ends with a Romanian victory.

Overall, an enjoyable game but one in which our small number of active Platoons really hurt.

Battle Report - Dwarfs vs. Orcs @ 2400pts

2011-07-29T11:25:00.006+12:00

It is the year 2610 in the Old World and once again the lands and people of Karak Thorinkin are threatened by the evil forces that plague the Warhammer World. Scarcely a decade has passed since the Thorinkin (People of Thorin) defeated a large scale incursion of Druchi into their ancestral lands. Now in the 90th year of the reign of King Druegar Strominsson, a reign veiled in the blood of almost constant warfare, another threat has emerged. On the surface tribes of Orcs and Goblins are starting to move into and through Thorinkin lands bringing their filth with them. And below Ironbreaker patrols report worrying signs that Skaven may also be returning – strange sounds in the lower tunnels, increasing disappearences of mining units and most concerning of all freshly dug tunnels. Not since the Goblin Wars (1608-1692) and the Storm of Chaos (2523-2526) has the hold faced such peril.

King Druegars Hammerer Bodyguard stand ready with the rest of the army

Now a large force of Black Orcs, Orc Big Uns and Savage Orcs has invaded the holds southern territories burning settlements and destroying crops. Runelord Thirak Grazgdukr has marched out of the holds southern fortress of Kazad Thrombidal to do battle on the plains of Drulkin Zhuf.

The right flank of the Green scums battle line - River Trolls, Black Orcs & Wolf Riders
Runelord Grazgdukr sends a Regiment of Rangers ahead of his main force to open proceedings.

The Green scums right flank - Savage Orc Boys, Orc Big Uns and Boar Chariots.

Runelord Grazgdukr deploys his forces. Sensing the vile taint of Shaman magic he positions himself behind in the Forest behind the Organ Gun and readies himself to call up the Runes of his people. The armies Battle Standard Bearer Kilagh Urgarad stands ready with the Hammerers and Warriors of Clan Theolik "The Goblin Killers" and ruling clan of Karak Thorinkin.
On the right flank Quarrellers ready themselves as the Cannon crew warm their gun barrel sending a great cloud of smoke out over the battlefield.
Advancing impatiently the Green scum move forward managing to avoid the squabbling that plagues their race. The Thorinkin wait patiently and tense as the first crackling waves of Greenskin magic slice through the afternoon sky. But the runes of the Thorinkin are too powerful and the result is little more than a shower of faint sparks over the battlefield. Greenskin artillery - Doomdiver and Catapult - show the weakness of non-Dwarven warmachines and misfire to the delight of the watching Dwarfs.
Battle is joined. On the Dwarven left flank the Rangers have cut down one unit of Wolf Riders and turned to face the River Trolls whose vile stench makes it hard for them to breath. Meanwhile after watching their Black Orc cousins be decimated by repated Organ Gun Volleys the Savage Orcs and Big Uns charge the main Thorinkin Battle line.

Cheers erupt throughout the Dwarven ranks as the Big Uns are cut down in droves by Dwarven Great Weapons and flee the battlefield. Both their initial charge and retreat take them through a Wlydewood which proceeds to turn on the Green scum adding scores of corpses to those at the feet of the Dwarven Warriors.

Meanwhile to the rear a Regiment of Miners has emerged from its underground advance and charged the rear of the Black Orc unit and the Green scums General and the Rangers have charged the Trolls.
The River Trolls proof strong opponents but not strong enough. While their vomit horribly kills half of the Ranger unit they themselves are cut down and forced to flee. This allows the Rangers to charge into the flank of the Orc Generals Black Orc Regiment adding their numbers to those of Miners. At the same time the Warrior regiment which saw off the Big Uns also charges the Black Orcs and soon they are surrounded on three sides by Dwarven Great Weapons.

But to the rear things are not going so well. The Hammerrs even with the support of the armies Battle Standard Bearer are hard pressed to hold against the Frenzied double weapon weilding Savage Orcs. Although half of the Orcs are dead so to are half of the Dwarfs, and there are less of them. The survivors stubbornly refuse to run but can only watch as a unit of Wolf Riders, after first routing the Quarrellers charges into their flank.
Soon the Hammerers are dead and the Battle Standard Bearer Kilagh Urgarad stands alone for several rounds of combat resoluting refusing to flee, and coming close to causing the Orcs to run from his seemingly invincibility.
To the rear the Orcs suffer further losses but also display similar courage. The Black Orcs are cut down in droves leaving the Orc Big Boss alone against two full Regiments of Warriors and the Miners. But he battles on, perhaps mimicing the actions of Kilagh Urgarad and wipes out the Miner Regiment single handed. But he cannot survive and he is cut down, not even the rallying of the Big Uns and their charge into the flank of the Dwarven Warriors midway through the melee can save him.

The Orc General is cut down and the Warriors turn on and swifly rout the Big Uns. But to their victory is short lived as to their right Kilagh Urgarad's brave fight ends in as an overwhelming tide of Greenskins bear him to the ground in death. But more horribly still the Orc Shaman in his last act breaks through the Runes protecting the army and kills Runelord Thirak Grazgdukr with the Big Foot of Gork. With both armies now having lost their Generals, their Battle Standards and a large proportion of their infantry the battle ends as both Dwarf and Orc slowly withdraw. The Orcs though take some pride in having caused slightly more losses to the Dwarfs, but only slightly.

But their is no rest for the Thorinkin. As the remnants of the Dwarven force return to their fortress they are greeted with a horrifying message - "Skaven have breached the lower tunnels!!!"....

[Next week Dwarfs vs. Skaven @2400pts stay tuned]

New Heavy Mortars & Dunkelgreb for Fallschirmjager

2011-07-28T11:18:00.005+12:00

Well I learned the hard way that I need Heavy Mortars with their 3+ FP if I expect my FJ to assualt through dug in enemy troops. So I finally got around to basing my Heavy Mortar Platoon. The other thing tournaments definately do is inspire you to improve the painting and basing of your miniatures. Panzershrek was no exception and the best painted armies collection of half-tracks was just unbelievably good, and made mine look like crap.

So last night I did some experimenting and worked out a new way to get a decent enough looking Dunkelgreb type colour. It turned out really well after trying it on my new FJ Heavy Mortar Platoon, so I spent last night repainting my Pak Guns, 7.5cm Artillery, Mortars, HMG, Light Guns and Half-tracks in the same colour.
Results were better than expected and the colour really makes the miniatures stand out- the Pak guns look so much better.

The original colour scheme

Artillery Platoon is still waiting on the final gun base, the observers and HQ team to be finished but I am going to concentrate on the Heavy Mortars first. The Heavy Mortars themselves are from the Forged in Battle range while the figures are from the standard German Mortar Crew platoon collection.

FRACAS IV my next FOW tournament

2011-07-27T11:32:00.004+12:00

Am attending another FOW tournament in two weeks time - FRACAS IV a 600pt MW 1 day tournament with some interesting restrictions:

Armies must have CHQ + 3 Platoons
Minimum of 1 combat Platoon
No top armour 2

Was considering not going as it was hard to work out an effective 600pt Fallschirmjager list but after doing some work on Army Builder I think I have come up with something pretty useable.

FRACAS IV Army List
Fallschirmjager LW
Source book - North Africa (21st Pz) Fearless Veteran

CHQ - 1 x Panzerknacker/SMG, 1 x SMG, 3 x GW42 8cm Mortars - 150
FJ Platoon - 1 x Panzerknacker/SMG, 2 x Rifle/MG Squads - 190
FJ Platoon - 1 x Panzerknacker/SMG, 2 x Rifle/MG Squads - 190
FJ Light Platoon - 1 x SMG, 2 x LG40 7.5cm Light Guns - 70

Total 600pts

Going to be interesting as I can see people sneaking in all armour lists. Did some calculations on army builder and I built a couple of nasty ones consisting of several Platoons of Light Tanks. But as I don't own any other armies and only really want to play using my own stuff the tank-less Fallschirmjager will just have to do.

I also started painting up my FJ Heavy Mortars last night. Using some FiB Heavy Mortars and a bunch of left over standard FJ Mortar crew for each base. The Forged in Battle mortars are pretty good and come with some neat little ammo carts, but the figures were awful. The standard Mortar crewmen don't come with guys in quite the right poses but some fiddling made them turn out OK.

Oh and heres the rainbow I saw out of my office window this morning - very nice.

Been cold as hell last few days, Whanau in Christchurch got a foot of snow, now its raining like buggery - got to love Winter weather in New Zealand.

FOW Tournament Battle Report - Game 2

2011-07-26T14:48:00.008+12:00

Panzershrek X
vs. US Paras & British Tank Company
Scenario - Witches Cauldron
Role - Attacker

The game board emphasising the smaller deployment area of the defending British who began in prepared positions. Random Deployment turned out to be very lucky for us with all of our forces (less reserves) starting off in the same table two table quarters (at bottom of picture).

US Paras occupy a half-circle defensive perimeter around the edge of the village. The objectives are both located on the outskirts but close enough that infantry in the buildings can contest them from within hard cover.

Our forces deploy. Fallschirm and Tigers (with CHQ) deployed in cover ready to advance. The Artillery and a single Platoon of Mortars were deployed to the top right of this picture. Our only worry here was where the ambushing Platoon of flame throwing Churchills was going to pop up.
With the defending player getting the first turn I made my first mistake in not deploying the Artillery and Mortars further away, and in not deploying to limit the ambushers ability to place themselves close. The Churchills with their FA 13 were scary as hell and their presence really screwed with our thinking. The Artillery spent a good part of the game unsuccessfully trying to range in on them.
Fallschirm and Tigers begin to march up but halt short of assault positions but close enough to contest the objective. The dug in LMG of the US Paras were a concern particularly as we were having major issues getting smoke screens ranged in and laid down to protect the advance.

Those damn Churchills continued to make life difficult and after a small advance this flank remained effectively stationary as we tried to figure what to do against them. Even Tigers couldnt make much of an impression on their FA.

Lucky dice rolls for reserves see the 2nd Fallschirm and Tiger Platoons come on at the same time, and in the same place and the opposite side of the village. They allow us start advancing toward both objectives at once and somewhat rescue the Churchill inspired tactical quandry we had got ourselves into.
We bite the bullet and send in the Tigers and Fallschirm to assault the US Paras - dug in, concealed and gone to ground our Artillery can do nothing to dislodge them. Constant barrages had killed a couple of teams but little else. But, they had at least kept the Paras pinned down reducing their defensive fire.
The assualt fails and we are forced to withdraw, particularly as the Churchills had now advanced on the Fallschirms flank and begun roasting our infantry.

Finally we gain a success. British reserves come on and are immediately followed by our last reserves a full Platoon of Paks. These deploy to the rear of the British reserve Sherman Platoon, open fire and cause the Tanks to melt away fleeing the field.
Unfortunately taking out the Shermans was to be our only success. Increasing pressure from the enemy decimate the Fallshirm on both flanks and once again our attempts to assault the dug in Paras are kept at bay.

The final acts of the battle see things go really wrong for us. The Churchills and British Artillery take out our guns and mortars and our infantry is forced to assault over open ground. Tiger tanks bravely try to contest one objective but are roasted by Para Bazookas and British flame throwers.

All up we advanced en-mass and then halted. Waited for smoke and artillery support which didnt work as required. Assaulted without supporting fire and got wiped out. Fell back. Got roasted by flame tanks. Broke and ran.

Result 2-5 Loss

FOW Tournament Battle Report - Game 1

2011-07-25T15:58:00.009+12:00

Panzershrek X
vs. Scottish Highland Division
Scenario - Dust Up
Our role - Attacker

Our Highland opponents make their grand entrance. At this stage it all seemed rather simple.The table showing our deployment zones and the approximate starting positions of our units in Turn 1. As attacker we had delayed deserves and it took until Turn 4 before any came on.
The Blue Stars are the objectives.
The Scotts deploy their artillery park. It took up an entire table quarter and against it our 3 10.5cm games seemed rather lame. Careful positioning by the Scotts meant that we could catch no more than one gun under our templates at a time.

Delayed reserves meant we had to sit back and wait things out. Our single mobile force on the table of 3 Tigers wouldnt have survived assualting through the Scotts 17pdrs and their direct fire capable artillery. We were also very wary of the 3 Platoons of Wasp carriers that would soon appear in the British reserve zone. In the interim British airpower and artillery
pummelled our forces.
After wiping out our artillery the Typhoons then went after the Pak 40s and Tigers dug in around our 2nd objective - located to the southeast of the ruined village.
Our reserves finally come on in the form of the 2nd FJ & Tiger combat platoons. Their target objective is in the top right of the picture (its a plain brown base). But unfortunately Scottish infantry had already dug in around ruins north of the road blocking our advance.The only option was to assualt. The first attempt by the Fallschirmjager alone failed. So a 2nd assault by the Tigers and the Fallschirm was launched.Unfortunately things came unstuck rapidly as Scottish PIATS took out first one, and then the other Tiger. Defensive took its toil on the advancing Fallschirm. While we eventually pushed the Scotts out of the ruins our reserves had been depleted so much they were too weak to advance on the objective.
Meanwhile the Fallschirm dug in the ruined village at the crossroads could only watch as Scottish reserves came pouring onto the field. Skillfully deployed behind forests they remained safe from our Paks and Tigers until the last minute. By this time Scottish artillery and Airpower had also whittled our forces down considerably.Wasp flame carriers move in toward the objective (a ruined Tiger Tank) and the Fallschirm begin taking casualties. However, the Wasps didnt count on facing an entire platoon of Panzerfaust armed infantry backed by 3 Panzershrek teams. A large number of Wasps were toasted and the supporting infantry also took losses.

But this wasn't enough as the Scottish artillery continued to rain down on the Fallschirm and they were eventually buried under tons of rubble. The few survivors fled the field, running past the hulks of burning Tiger tanks and wrecked Paks.
The Scotts victorious celebrated to the sound of bagpipes.

Panzershrek X a FOW tournament in pictures

2011-07-25T09:55:00.013+12:00

Finished my first FOW tournament yesterday. Had a lot of fun, played some great games, meet some good people and thoroughly enjoyed myself despite my teammate and I finishing dead last :( Going to be posting detailed battle reports from the tournament over the next week or so, so stay tuned. First up though I thought Id share some random images from the weekend.

Our army
My HH 3rd Div Fallschirmjager and Jeremy's Tiger Company from Hammer & Sickle.

Winner of best painted prize

He did the outlining by hand using a finebrush, no dry or flat brushing - just awesome. Player in question was only a young fella too from the Hutt Valley Gaming Club. He and his team mate thrashed our team in Game 4 on Sunday.

Table and random army images
The set up at the tournament was just awesome - the amount and variation of terrain was great and the board set ups offered something for everyone. That so many of the tables were the result of one player raiding his personal stash was somewhat scary though.

FOW tournament team enters in style

2011-07-23T21:16:00.003+12:00

These guys were the last team to enter the tournament venue today and boy did they make it an entry to remember. Their army by the way was the "51st Highland Division"

FOW Battle Report - FJ & Tigers vs. 7th Armoured

2011-07-22T11:26:00.009+12:00

Last practice game before the FOW tournament this weekend. This time Jerry and I were up against a big force of British Armour, two companies both drawn from the 7th Armoured Division (I think) using a mixture of Shermans, Fireflys with infantry and 25pdrs in support. Cant for the life of me remember the name of the scenario but it wasnt a standard one.

The game board looking from British short table edge

Board divided into quarters we attacked from one corner (top right), our opponents defended another (bottom left). Delayed reserves then came from the other two quarters (bottom right in our case, and top left in theirs) - we had 3 Platoons off the board while our opponents had 5, 3 of them armoured. Two objectives in each of the starting quarters. Winner was whoever held an enemy objective at the start of their turn. Also used Mobile battle rule so the defenders artillery couldnt fire in the 1st turn.

German deployment zone (later in battle)
Opening turns consisted larger of exchanges of artillery fire and attempts by infantry to dig in
British artillery lays down smoke to cover Paks as first armoured reinforcements enter the game
Masses of Cromwells and Firefly reinforcements come on and begin their assualt on the dug in Fallschirmjager. Mortar Smoke blinds some of them allowing the Tigers and Paks to take pot shots. But the infantry has to rely on its PF and Panzershreks.
The first British assaults falter and then fail dramatically. Massed waves of machine gun and heavy tank fire fail to break or even kill any of the dug in Fallschirmjager. In reply AT weapons, Pak guns and Tiger Tanks take a deadly toll on British Armour.

Tigers pop in and out of cover to take pot shots at British armour causing heavy losses to the British. Meanwhile the Germans wait in vain for their reinforcements which keep failing to show up, while the British ones arrive every turn.Another wave of British reinforcements arrives and assaults the objective.
Cromwells sneak around the flank to try and take out the Tigers But the Cromwells shots bounce off and they are decimated a close range by the Tiger Tanks.
The Bren Carriers and infantry manage to force the Fallschirmjager, who have taken heavy losses after defending against 3 assualts, off the objective. But they take heavy losses themselves to do so with Artillery fire, Mortars, Panzershreks, Panzerfausts, Rifle/MG, Paks and Tiger HMGs all pouring fire into them.
Meanwhile in the British deployment zone absolutely nothing is happening.

Reinforcements finally come in the form of the 2nd Tiger Platoon. Hull down behind the river bank they begin to pick off the defending British Armour.
Fallschrimjager reinforcements join the 2nd Tiger Platoon and begin advancing on the outnumbered British defenders.
Crossing the river FJ and Tigers make use of the concealed terrain to try and get into assault positions. One assault by the leading FJ Platoon has already failed causing it to lose 2 of its 3 squads.
British infantry and armour counter attack as the action switches to this flank. The German deployment zone is now devoid of action. Only 2 leaderless Fireflys, FJ Artillery and 3 Tiger Tanks are left amongst a sea of destroyed armour. The leaderless Fireflys are still dangerous but unable to move on and take the objectives.

The last gasp of the battle. With the British CHQ moving into command range of the stationary Fireflys the Tigers defending the German deployment zone are knocked out. German reinforcements now pour into the Assault in a desperate attempt to take an objective before the British can.

The game ends when the remaining Fallschirmjager and Tigers are wiped out leaving only the FJ Artillery alive on the table. The British have suffered heavily as well but somehow manage to hang on long enough to secure a win as the Germans break and flee the field.

A damn fun game that we played very late into the night. Definately learnt a few things tactics wise that we will take into the Tournament tomorrow. Going to be fun!!!

WHFB Battle Report - High Elves vs. Skaven 2000pts

2011-07-20T12:30:00.008+12:00

The 2nd battle report from my mate Adams tournament outing with my High Elves earlier this month. This time Adam was up against one of our club mates Doug and his Skaven horde.

(All of the photos should expand out when clicked on)

The spells for this game were: Dwellers Below, Shield of Thorns, Throne of Vines, Flesh to Stone, and Regrowth. The hill in my deployment zone was a scree slope.

Skaven deployment
High Elf deployment

The plan with deployment was to fully utilise the hill which was a scree slope where any unit charging or fleeing on the hill had to roll a dangerous terrain test. The plan would be to use the terrain to slow down and split up the army into sizeable chunks that I could focus on one at a time, a key to achieving this would be breaking through the left flank with the Eagle and Dragon Princes (DP) and get around the army. Deploying the spearmen between the hillside and the forest meant I could also better funnel the centre and right flank of the army in order to limit the number of skaven units that can be committed to a combat. A huge advantage with deploying the spearmen between the forest and hill, was the fact the Lions suffered no movement penalties in the forest. This meant I could use the forest to slow down the skaven even further as well as disrupt the skaven units. Placing the archers on the hill also meant they had a view of most of the skaven army for the whole game. What did not help was the night runner tunnelling marker being placed right in front of them though.

High Elf Turn 1
Turn one was relatively with quiet with some movement by the Eagle and DP, throne of vines being dispelled and the archers killing a couple of giant rats.

Skaven Turn 1
The skaven turn was also quiet, with the whole army just moving forward.

High Elves Turn 2
This turn started with the DP and Eagle charging the unit of slaves with the engineer in it, the slaves promptly fled, leaving the DP and eagle to redirect into the rat swarms. It was essential to break the swarm in one turn, if I want to be able to get around the army. The lions also failed a charge on the slaves, that were in front of the clan rats. Throne of vines was successfully cast, while dwellers below on the clanrat unit was dispelled. The archers also killed a few more giant rats before being charged next turn. In combat the DP and Eagle caused enough wounds to leave one rat swarm on two wounds. However this still meant the DP and eagle could be charged the following turn. Something I really was not looking forward too.

Turn 2

Skaven Turn 2
In this turn the Night runners turned up right under the archer unit, allowing them to be in combat without charging; with the giant rats also charging the archers and only losing 5 wounds to the dangerous terrain. This turn also saw the assassin which had been deployed as a scout at the start of the game, charge into the rear of the lions in what was supposed to be a combo charge with the rat ogres and the grinder, but both the grinder and the rat ogres failed the charge leaving the assassin to take on the lions all alone. On the left flank the other unit of giant rats were able to charge into the flank of the DP, while random movement put the doom wheel into the lions. The slaves that had fled from the lions continued to flee, while the unit with the engineer were able to rally.

In the shooting phase the doom wheel killed only two lions, with the lions destroyed the Doom Wheel in combat after losing another 2 lions to its grinding attack. The assassin who was part of the same combat was only able to kill a single lion himself, with the resulting loss in combat and failed break test by the assassin leaving the lions free to move around next turn. The combat in the archers, was relatively one sided with the night runners, grinder attack, and the giant rats being enough to break and catch the archers. The DP and Eagle were also broken in combat and chased off the table.

High Elf Turn 3
In this turn the Lions and spearman charged the slaves. The aim here was to get the lions away from the rat ogres and plague monks, by trying to break or pop the slaves and get a good roll high roll for the overrun distance. This would also move the lions closer to the centre of the action where the night runners and other unites were posing a huge threat to the phoenix guard on the left flank.

During the magic phase a successfully cast dwellers below on the unit of clanrats with the warlord and BSB, was able to kill 18 skaven and also the BSB as a bonus. The clanrat unit did not flee however, which was unfortunate. The combat phase was a bit of a mixed bag, with the slaves being broken, and popping, but what I realised was that if the lions were allowed to overrun, it would leave the spearman exposed to the harder combat units of the skaven army. So instead they reformed, to be able to take a front charge from the rat ogres and the rest of the skaven army next turn.

Turn 3

Skaven Turn 3
In this turn as predicted the rat ogres with the warlord on a rat ogre mount, and the doom flayer all charged the unit of lions. Meanwhile the assassin was able to rally before going off the table edge. With no shooting this turn, the next step was combat. During combat the lions gave as good as they got, causing 8 wounds on the ogres, 1 wound on the warlod, and also destroying the doom flayer, while losing 15 of their own. Thankfully they passed their break test and it was then on to the next turn.

High Elf Turn 4
This turn started with the spearman charging the unit of clan rats, who elected to flee, while in the magic phase both regrowth on the lions was dispelled and dwellers below was unsuccessfully cast, leaving the remaining lion to be squashed in combat.

Skaven Turn 4 & end of game
Charges this turn were the plague monks, warlod plus rat ogres, and grinder into the spearman with the BSB; while the giant rats charged the flank of the phoenix guard. During the magic phase throne of vines was dispelled. Combat saw the BSB cause one wound on the warlord in a challenge before the BSB himself was killed, while the spears failed to do anything themselves. Without the BSB he unit broke, but at least they out ran the skaven.

The combat between the phoenix guard and the giant rats was a stale mate. his was to be the last turn, since we had run out of time during the tournament to keep going. The result as can be considered obvious was a massacre win for the skaven.

Thanks Adam another great write up - looking forward to the rest!!!

FOW Tournament 2v2 Army list

2011-07-19T11:03:00.005+12:00

We submitted the final copy of our army list for the teams FOW tournament this weekend today. Going to be an interesting time for all involved, 20 teams all up with 40 players. Expecting a lot of Soviet armour and possibly a few infantry armies will just have to wait and see. Anyway heres what Jeremy and I are taking

Panzershrek X - Late War 2200pt Teams Tournament

Fallschirmjager (Mine)
Hells Highway - 3rd FJ Division

CHQ - 1 x PF, 3 x PS, 2 x 8cm Mortar - 175
FJ Platoon - PF & 3 x PF/Rifle/MG Squads - 290
FJ Platoon - PF & 3 x Rifle/MG Squads - 200
FJ AT Platoon - 4 x 7.5cm Pak 40 - 165
FJ Artillery Platoon - 3 x 10.5 cm leFH18 - 150
FJ Mortar Platoon- 2 sections - 115

Total 1,095 pts / 5 Platoons (6 once HQ mortars are battle grouped)

Schwere Panzer Kompanie (Jerry's)
Hammer & Sickle

CHQ - 1 x Tiger IE - 225
Panzer Platoon - 2 x Tiger 1E - 430
Panzer Platoon - 2 x Tiger 1E - 430

Total 1,085 pts / 2 Platoons

More of a defensive than offensive capable pairing as our limited practice games have taught us, but one that should be reasonably effective. Ill get some pictures of the army up on Friday. Expect to see A LOT of pictures from the tournament and battle reports appearing next week.

FOW Battle Report 2200 FJ & Tigers vs. Tankovy

2011-07-18T09:44:00.010+12:00

Finally got a practice game in for my first Flames of War tournament this weekend. This time Jerry and I were up against a very nasty Tankovy force consisting of a bunch of Soviet Heavy Tanks and Assault Guns. Playing Hold the Line we started with only a single FJ Platoon, a Platoon of Tigers, and our Artillery on the board. The ace in the hole though was the Platoon of Pak 40s in ambush.

Pictures should all expand out - some are blurry unfortunately.

The board from our end - artillery at the rear (75mm proxying as 105mm), FJ Platoon and Tigers at forward objective

Soviet heavy amour lined up ready to advance

Reinforcements finally come on in the form of FJ Mortars and the 2nd Tiger Platoon

Soviet assault guns advance through a continous smoke barrage - we were laying this down the entire game. 3 guns and 2 platoons of 3 mortars meant we could effectively cover the board and just march the smoke forward. Soviet armour rules meant they couldnt move and shoot so this effectively nullified this entire assault gun unit.

Soviet Assault guns begin to take a toll on our Tigers, which by this stage had not destroyed a single piece of Soviet armour

Panzershrek waits ready to fire at oncoming Soviet armour

Reinforcements come on - note the smoke screen around the Soviet assault guns in the village

More reinforcements come on. The half-tracks quickly realise they are incapable of doing any damage and withdraw to the rear, the infantry runs forward to get into assault positions. The Soviet armour lacking HMG is vulnerable to assault if we can get into position quickly.

Soviet heavy armour moves into assault. Lacking Panzerfausts the Fallschrimjager can do little to repel them.
Half-tracks move past the hulks of burnt out Tiger tanks.

Soviet assault guns emerge from the Smoke ready to attack only to be ambushed in the flank by the Pak 40s. The Paks take out 5 Assault Guns halting the Soviet advance on this flank. Unfortunately on the other flank the Tigers are all taken out effectively destroying our companys morale and ending the game.

A difficult game to play for us but one that imparted a couple of lessons. First, my final list has been edited to give one of my FJ Platoons Panzerfausts - this meant losing the Half-Tracks. Some tweeking also meant I could add another Panzershrek giving me a total of 3. We also learnt, the hard way, that our list is vulnerable to morale failure if the Tigers go. Consequently, we will be keeping them back to fire at long range playing more defensively.

One more practice game this Thursday then its tournament time.... expect lots of pictures next Monday

Dwarf army for next tournament & Dwarf unit filler

2011-07-14T11:25:00.003+12:00

Nearly finished my repainting project, as far as my tournament army for August goes, but the overall shape and theme of the army is pretty much complete.

2400pts of Dwarf goodness (should expand out)

Dwarf unit filler

Just a few finishing touches to make on one unit banner, and some Silfor tufts to apply to various bases/movement trays and they are all done.

Battle Report - High Elves vs. Orcs

2011-07-14T09:53:00.005+12:00

Now for something very different a battle report from a guest blogger - in this case my mate Adam who took my place, and my High Elf army, at a recent WHFB campaign tournament after I had to withdraw for personal reasons. He not only took my army down to Wellington for me, but competed extremely well and has kindly started writing up reports on all of his games to boot.

Deployment – Orcs

Deployment – High Elves

My plan with this deployment, was to use the forest on the left, as a way to split the orc army into manageable sections, namely where the leadership of the general and with the BSB was out of reach. So I put the lions and Dragon Princes (DP) to hold the left flank. In the middle I would use shooting to take out the chariots and mangler squigs depending on which posed the greatest threat at the time. Then the eagle on the right flank would take out the rock lobber, using the cover of the building and the forest to make without being shot to pieces.

The spells for the archmage in this game were:Dwellers below; Flesh to Stone; Throne of Vines; Shield of Thorns; and Regrowth. The objective for the mage was then to focus on eliminating anything left behind after shooting in order to make sure there were no support units interfering in the big combats with the spearman or phoenix versus the savage orcs and big orc unit.

High Elf Turn 1
-The DP charged the wolf goblin riders who elected to flee, while the rest of the army moved up. In the magic phase both throne of vines and flesh to stone were dispelled, with the archers only causing one wound on the mangler squig on the right.
Orc Turn 1
-Animosity caused both the unit of savage orcs on the left edge of the table and the unit the orc general and BSB in it to squabble, otherwise the rest of the army was fine, with even the goblin wolf riders being able to rally and move to in front of the DP in order to get them to overrun off the board if they charged next turn. The pump wagon moved into the forest and suffered two wounds, with the roll for the forest revealing it to be a blood forest. The orc magic phase was uneventful with the foot of gork being dispelled, and the hand of gork moving the pump wagon further down the left flank to be free of the wood. In the shooting phase the doom diver (DD) killed two DP, while the rock lobber failed to land a rock on the spearman.

High Elf T2
Both the DP and the lions charge the goblin wolf riders. I did this so that I could keep the lions and DP together on the left flank, and by overrunning off the board they would not get shot at by the Doom Diver (DD). The Eagle charged the rock lobber as well. Throne of vines was successfully cast, but regrowth was not being the end of the magic phase. The archers caused one more wound on the closest mangler squig. In combat we didn’t ever both to roll any dice, the goblin wolf riders were simply taken off the table, with the DP and Lions going off the board.

Orc Turn 2
Animosity didn’t affect any units this turn, with the unit of two wolf chariots on the left charging the spearman. The rest of the army moved up with the wolf chariots on the left, the pump wagon and mangler squigs getting into charge range. In the Magic phase the hand of gork moved the left mangler squig into the phoenix guard; while a large version of the foot of gork was able to kill seven phoenix guard, and even though the archmage failed the look-out sir roll the 4+ ward save meant nothing happened. The foot of gork then backfired onto the orc army killing 14 orcs out of the unit of orcs with the BSB and general on the left. In the shooting phase neither the DD or the rock lobber did much.

In combat the wolf chariots caused three wounds from impact hits, the spearman in return were able to cause four wounds killing a wolf chariot outright, while a wolf was able to cause one wound as well. The remaining wolf chariot broke from close combat, while the spearman successfully restrained in order to maintain a healthy distance between themselves and the rest of the orc army. The eagle was able to break the rock lobber crew and run them off the board.

High Elf Turn 3
The DP, Lions and Eagle came back onto the table this turn. With the DP not having enough movement to get out of the line of sight of either the savage orcs or the trolls they just turned to face the savage orcs, while the lions angled themselves to be able to either charger the savage orcs and support the DP or receive a frontal charge from the trolls. The eagle moved closer to the orc army in order to try and march block as many units as possible, while also trying to get a long charge on the lone goblin shaman next turn. In the magic phase, throne of vines was successfully recast, while flesh to stone was scrolled, leaving regrowth to bring back 3 spearman. In the shooting phase the mangler squig which had been wounded earlier was finally killed.

Orc Turn 3
Once again animosity didn’t affect any units in the army. That left the unit of 10 savage orcs on the left to charge the DP, with the DP electing to flee, letting the savage orcs redirect into the lions. The second unit of wolf chariots charged into the spearmen, with the remaining mangler squig going through both the phoenix guard and the spearman in order to get closer to the archers on the hill. The mangler squig was able to kill 2 phoenix guard and six spearmen. The pump wagon was alos able to roll high enough into the phoenix guard this turn. After these main moves, the single wolf chariot was able to rally, while the rest of the army moved up.
The orc magic phase a spelled called itchy something was dispelled, and hand of gork on the mangle squig was failed. In shooting the DD managed to kill the rest of the fleeing DP.
In combat the impact hits from the two wolf chariots killed eight spearmen with two wounds caused by the crew, and then one from the wolf giving a total of 11 wounds.

The spearman replied with a measly single wound, but then the BSB caused three wounds himself. This left the spearman needing three or less to pass their break test, with the re-roll from the BSB making the difference. The pump wagon caused a single wound on the phoenix guard with impact hits, while the phoenix guard were able to completely destroy the pump wagon in response. The combat between the savage orcs and Lions followed a similar trend with the entire unit of savage orcs being destroyed before they could even strike the lions.

High Elf Turn 4
In this turn the lions were able to charge the trolls in the rear, with minor movement from the rest of the HE army. In the magic phase throne of vines was successfully cast, allowing 4 spearmen being regrown with a successful cast of regrowth. In the shooting phase the remaining mangler squig was killed by the archers.

The combat phase saw the lions kill 1 troll outright and leaving one wound on another troll, the trolls broke fled from combat, with the lions failing to restrain from pursuing and going 7” after the trolls. This left the flank of the lions open to a flank charge from the orc unit the next turn. While the spearmen caused one wound on the remaining chariot, leaving the BSB to finish it off completely.

Orc Turn 4
In this turn the big unit of orcs including the BSB, warboss, and another orc hero; as well as the rallied wolf chariot in the centre both charged the unit of Lions. The large unit of savage orcs failed their charge on the spearman, while the unit of trolls was able to rally. In the magic phase both the itchy spell and the sneaky stabbing spell were disabled. While a large version of the foot of gork was cast with irresistible force on the phoenix gurad. The miscast killed three savage orces in base contact with the level 2 orc shaman in their unit, while the shaman itself suffered a wound as well.

The phoenix guard lost 7 of their number to the foot of gork, but it then failed to move to the archer unit, instead it rebounded onto the orc army again, yet instead of putting the rebound on the savage orcs I was hoping to kill some trolls since the large version of the spell caused D3 wound. This meant if I could clear the trolls I would have been able to put the phoenix guard into the rear of the wolf chariot. Unfortunately the foot of gork did nothing to the trolls which foiled the plan to rescue the lions. Nothing happened in the shooting phase however since the DD being unable to hit anything. The combat phase saw the lions kill 3 orcs out of the flanking unit, while the orcs accounted for 3 lions themselves and the chariot killing another 5 lions for a total of 8 wounds. Thankfully, the lions passed the break test on their stubborn leadership.

High Elves Turn 5
The eagle now charged the lone level 2 goblin shaman, with minor movement being the BSB moving from the spearman to the phoenix guard, while the archmage left the phoenix guard so that the unit could charge if needed next turn. During the magic phase a successful cast of throne of vines made it possible to regrow two phoenix guard. INSTEAD OF LIONS, WHAT WAS I THINKING?!!. *Ahem* While dwellers below on the large unit of savage orcs only killed 4 orcs. The archers in the shooting phase were only able to cause one wound on the unit of trolls.

The combat phase swas the lions kill another 2 rank and file orcs. This left the orc Warboss and orc BSB killed 4 lions equally between the (2 each), the rank and file orcs killing 1 lion themselves. Thankfully the lions once again passed their break test. The lions were then able to reform to face the orcs *Which in hindsight may have been a bad idea*. The eagle failed to do anything against the gobbling shaman, while the shaman passed his break test.

Orcs Turn 5
This turn started with the trolls charging the phoenix guard, while the savages once again failed their charge on the spearmen. In the magic phase “ere we go” on the orc unit was dispelled, while shooting from the DD killed 3 spearmen. The combat phase saw a single troll die to 3 wounds from the spearmen, and 1 wound from the BSB, while the trolls replied by causing 5 wounds on the phoenix guard. The combat between the lions and the orcs saw the lions kill 3 orcs, while the orc warboss accounted from 4 lions himself, and the BSB killing one lion letting the team down. This time, the lion’s did need the re-roll from the BSB to stay in combat. The eagle finally killed the level 2 goblin shaman.

High Elf Turn 6
This turn started with the spearman charging into the flank of the trolls. This was done in the hope that I could either wipe out the trolls in this turn of combat or at least buff the spearmen with regrowth or flesh to stone in order to ensure the spearman could handle a charge in the flank from the savage orcs. The eage was also able to successfully charge the DD crew.
The magic phase saw throne of vines successfully cast allowing me to regrow three phoenix guard *Arrrgggh!! Why did I not regrow the LIONS, WHAT WAS I THINKING??!! Shooting from the archers saw two savage orcs die. During combat, the remaining lion was able to kill the unit champion of the orc unit, before being killed, while the eagle broke the DD crew in combat leaving the crew to flee of the field. The spearmen that charged into the flank of the trolls were able to cause two wounds, while the phoenix guard themselves caused an extra three wounds on the unit, and then finally the BSB was able to add a further 2 wounds. The trolls unable to pass their break test fled, following closely by the spears while the phoenix guard restrained in anticipation of a charge from the orc unit. Unfortunately the spearmen did not run far enough to get out of the way of the unit of orcs.

Orc Turn 6
In this turn the what remains of the orc unit with the BSB, orc warbass, and another orc hero charges, breaks and catches the small unit of spearmen, while the trolls that fled in the previous turn were able to rally.

WIP - Dwarf Stonethrower & Artillery Crew

2011-07-08T09:04:00.003+12:00

Managed to get some more painting done, this time working on Adams Stonethrower & crew and the crew for my 2nd Organ Gun. Colour schemes same for both although I have made the green on Adams figures darker than mine at his request.

Stone-thrower & Crew

Organ Gun crew & Master Engineer

Adams Dark Green scheme on left, my lighter one on right (still waiting on two more lighter layers)

Still have detailing and some highlighting to do but figures are about 75% complete.

High Elves under a new commander

2011-07-04T12:03:00.002+12:00

Friend and fellow Dwarf player Adam took my High Elves off to Horned Rat for me this weekend. From the scattered reports I have recieved so far he did pretty well couple of wins couple of draws and had a good time.

Waiting on some photos and updates from him and I can post some battle reports etc - I mean just because Im not doing anything right now doesnt mean I cant showcase someone elses efforts.

Also been following Hobby Horses progress on his Avatars of War Dwarf Beserker regiment. The models look damn good - and long term they are most definately taking shape as an option for my Dwarf army. Slayers are the only unit I dont really have and the AoW models look pretty good as an affordable option - thinking of buying enough to field a horde of say 30-40 Slayers.

Fallschirmjager army list for Panzershrek X submitted

2011-06-29T14:03:00.001+12:00

Had the hard word and had to submit my army list for Panzershrek X the Flames of War doubles tournament I am attending next month (hopefully). Its a mixture of what I have painted, what I want to use and a little pragmatism in terms of getting something balanced. We'll see how it pans out. Will get at most two practice games in (again here's hoping) beforehand but thats its. List is:

Company: Late War Fallshirmjager
Briefing: Hells Highway, 3rd Fallschirmjager Division
Points: 1,100

Company HQ
w. Panzerfaust, 2xPanzershrek, 2xGW42

FJ Platoon
w. PF Command, 3 Squads

FJ Platoon
w. PF Command, 3 Squads

FJ Mortar Platoon
w. 2xMortar Sections

FJ Artillery Battery
w. 3x10.5cm Guns

FJ Anti-Tank Platoon
w. 4x7.5cm Pak 40

Ersatz Platoon
w. 1x SdKfz 250 & 3xSd Kfz 250/9

TOTAL 1,095

Commission work - sort of

2011-06-29T10:13:00.003+12:00

Well not really commission just painting my mate Adams old school Dwarf Stone Thrower for him, he like me is taking one to CTA 2011 in August for the Karak Eight Peaks tournament.

Was a little tricky to assemble mainly as I was using good quality superglue. Find that the cheaper stuff which tends to come out of the tube in a globby mass, as opposed to a clear liquid, works better as its easier to apply. Colour scheme will be fairly standard dark green - did for a moment think Adam might want something brighter. But ill sneak some colour in there somehow ;)

Bugger no tournament for me :(

2011-06-27T09:35:00.002+12:00

Was really really looking forward to this coming weekend as it was going to be my 2nd WHFB tournament of the year, and another of Petes campaign events. The High Elves were all packed and ready to go and everything was sorted - except the family. Due to a couple of health issues I have to stay home and have unfortunately had to withdraw from the event. I've also missed the last 2 club nights and will miss this weeks as well. Nothing serious just things I need to be home for.

But still I am getting some painting in - my 2nd block of 30 Dwarf Warriors is nearly finished, and my Dwarf unit filler is all done. Once the Warriors are complete I just need to add grass & stones to my movement trays and my Call to Arms army for August is all complete. After that its time to sort out a display board - still working on ideas for how I want to do it though.

Hopefully things at home will sort themselves out in time for Panzershrek X which is the Flames of War tournament - luckily in my hometown - that I am entering at the end of the month.... now I just need to get some FOW practice in.

Something for a rainy day other than painting

2011-06-24T09:37:00.002+12:00

Ok, I haven't played Warmachine for a long time and sold nearly all of my collection - principally as all the local WM players left town. But I absolutely loved the game, the fluff and the miniatures and even though I am not into PC or console gaming at all this game might just get me back into it.

Ersatz Recon Platoon Completed

2011-06-15T09:20:00.005+12:00

Finished these guys last night, another addition to my Hells Highway 3rd FJ Division list. The netting was a spur of the moment thing and is made from an old bandage painted with Devlan Mud Wash, will stick some foliage in it at some stage. Need to buy some more Silfor stuff first.

Vehicle camo isnt very flash, and I retouched it after taking these photos. Contemplating repainting them entirely in Dunkelgreb Yellow, but less dark, and doing away with camo altogether. Either that or remove third colour, the light bleached bone, and minimising the amount of green and dark brown on there. I definately over did it with those colours.

The tracks also need some rust effects on them etc - so honestly they are not that great but for now they look OK-enough to put on the table - hoping for a game next week.

Also planning on buying the new Monte Cassino book tomorrow. It not only has a new FJ list but also a New Zealand army one as well. I've been looking at options for a 2nd army and until I saw the NZ company a US Tank company was my preferred option. But a 2nd NZ Division unit would be pretty cool a nice tie in with my FJ whom they fought in Crete, Tunisia and Italy. That and my Grandad served with the 3rd NZ Division in the Pacific after initially being tasked to join the 2nd in North Africa so there is a family link there as well. My wifes father also served in the 3rd Division (he was quite old when he had her - we are the same age) a fact I didnt discover until after we had been together for a while. Small place New Zealand :)

Busy times ahead

2011-06-13T14:20:00.002+12:00

Getting into the busy time of the gaming year now, and a period I am definately looking forward to with multiple tournaments heading my way.

First up is Horned Rat IV a 2000pt campaign based Warhammer Fantasy tournament on July 2nd/3rd. Two weeks after that its off to Panzershrek X a 2200pt Late War Flames of War doubles tournament, my first ever FOW event. This one also has the added advantage of being held in my hometown. The following week there is FRACAS IV a one-day Mid War 600pt FOW event in Wanganui, and then 2 weeks after that Call to Arms a 2400pt Warhammer Fantasy event. This last one has two fantasy competitions; a standard event and the 12 person campaign event (which I am competing in) based on the Karak Eight Peaks campaign in the March 2011 White Dwarf.

All in all it will be a nice way to head into the end of my wargaming season which for me officially finishes in October when cricket starts back up again.

My army lists for each event are pretty much set, last weeks Dwarf game was a test of my Call to Arms list. I just have a little bit of painting to go to ensure I'm completely ready for each one. Notably 32 Dwarf Warriors, two 4x4 unit fillers and some movement trays for Call to Arms, and my Ersatz Platoon for Panzershrek.

I'll post some pics of each tournament army up soon along with the lists I am taking.

Holy Humbling moment Batman!!!

2011-06-11T22:14:00.003+12:00

Really not sure what to say about this but my little blog just hit 100 followers!?!! Some are regular commentators whose feedback I always appreciate, and truth be told also look forward to getting and sometimes adjust my blogging to fit. Others are bloggers whose sites I myself follow, many I have followed for quite some time.

I started this very personal project nearly 3 years ago - my first post "I'm a Geek" was made on July 2nd 2008 and I honestly never thought I would still be going with this. But I love the wargaming hobby and now this blog has become a regular and enjoyable outlet for me.

After 3 years to find that so many people actually take the time to read my ramblings is humbling and slightly surreal feeling. Its nice to know that people enjoy Stumpy Heaven and all it contains.

So to all of my followers THANK YOU for being part of this 3 year blogging journey with me!!!