Shiny Stuff From Forgeworld

This week I got some packages full of shiny stuff from Forgeworld.

The Two Imperial Armour Model Masterclass Volumes

Death Guard Deathshroud Terminators

The Terminators were my Xmas present from the boys so I'm especially looking forward to putting them together, then painting them. They will be my next selection for the Tale of X Gamers.

Deadline Day for NZTC Lists

Remember that today is deadline day for NZTC lists.

Legal lists must be lodged with Locky before the end of the day. If lists are not in - or the list is illegal - then your team WILL incur a 20 point penalty.

Get those lists in people. Have you team check them - either through Army Builder or Army Book.

The von Trapp Family lodged their lists earlier this week. Looking to see what others are running.

WoC - Two More Sleeps

There is a lot more information emerging on teh interwebz regarding the new rules for WoC. Warseer is alive with people who have the book in their hands.

Given it is only two more sleeps until the book is officially available I won't repeat the full info here. I'll take it that you have the wherewithal to check out Warseer, Dakka or TWF to read the relevant threads.

What I will do is give you some potted highlights as I see them:

• No more Puppet
• Skullcrushers go to 80 points, lose a point of Toughness, gain a Wound
• Banner of Rage = MoK only
• Revised EotG Table giving Stat increases (Stubborn is 12, only for units)
• Chariots are Core and Chaos Hounds fully count as Core
• Third Eye no longer steals opponent's spells
• Daemon Prince now has 2+ AS and much more viable
• Cost of Marks now on a "per model" basis

All of this looks positive. I do expected to see an initial wave of core chariots replacing Infantry. However we'll see in 6 months whether that proves to be the most interesting/effective build.

The three most annoying things have been addressed - Puppet, 3rd Eye and EotG shenanighans - and that is good.

Roll on Saturday.

Heresy Tales - The Legion Tactical Marines

With 31 January rapidly approaching I am starting to receive pictures of the completed squads. I will post them in this thread as they arrive.

1. Alistair Allan - Emperor's Children Loyalists

2. Cody Parlarto - Ultramarines (Painted by Glen Burfield)

3. Christian Pride (Shadowmancer) - Night Lords

4. John Murrie - Word Bearers

5. Charlie St. Clair - Sons of Horus

6. Dave Grieg - World Eaters

7. Pete Dunn - Death Guard

8. Glen Burfield - Raven Guard

Current Roll of Shame

1. Hagen Kerr - Space Wolves
2. Jack Dunn - World Eaters
3. Tim Joss - Imperial Fists
4. Glen Burfield - Raven Guard
5. James Milner - White Scars
6. Sam Whitt - Salamanders
7. Minitrol - Night Lords
8. Leon Colman - Iron Warriors

New Hobby Shop in Wellington

Saturday Ryan Lister and Wil Hoverd came around for some games. Wil mentioned a new hobby shop in Kilbirnie, Wellington.

On their way home they called in and here are Ryan's thoughts on the place:

So Wil and myself went to Kilbirnie to check out the new hobby store, and really liked it. It's on 34 Rongotai Road.

It's called The Hobby Stop and carries the range of citadel hobby like paints, glues, tool etc. Small amount of Fantasy and 40k actual models (but can order it specifics). Same prices as GW though he gave us a little discount on paints as we bought about 12 between us. 

They also carry battlefield in a box terrain, flames of war, train/military models, other hobby tools and paints.

It's run by a nice guy called Rick who we had a good chat to about many things. He mentioned he is looking to set up a gaming room out back, and has only been open since end of December.

Definitely worth a visit.

Tale of X Gamers - Heresy Edition: First Deadline Approaches

The first deadline for Heresy gamers is later this week and I think that a few are going to fail at the first hurdle.

So far I have seen half of Charlie's Sons of Horus and John Murrie's Word Bearers......and that's it.

I know that I am struggling with my Death Guard, having hit a real painter's block. Currently my tactical unit sits half painted on my table and I am unmotivated to finish them.

So what do you do in this situation? You HTFU!

Painting table has been cleaned. All distractions removed. Now it is just a case of head down, arse up and doing it.

When Buses Collide....

...the one with the Baby Vamp with Quickblood wins over that with Red Fury.

Yesterday Ryan and I had a bus crash in a game of Blood & Glory. With all my Fortitude in my bus and the critical part of Ryan's, it was a 6th Turn Winner Take All.

The Khandallah Bus (#43) won out due to the fitout out and modifications on the Baby Vamp. Red Fury isn't much good when you're dead :-)

In my later game - vs. Mike's Light Lizards - the Khandallah bus came unstuck. My Level 3 found himself a Level 0 on Turn 2 after having a miscast reflected from the Slaan. We were playing Watchtower and got through to Turn 6 when the game finished (Random Game Length). Mike was vigorously throwing Saurus Warriors under the bus - well the Vamp Lord had alighted and was assailing the tower on foot - hoping the Slaan wasn't going to have to step into the fight. He didn't and Lord von Fawkteethry skulked away to his Terminus.

Warriors Up For Advance Order

When I bought the new Ogres in late 2011. I thought GW might have jumped the shark with Bragg the Gutsman costing $73.

Well it appears this time they have lined up a whole school! The Throgg special character - again in Finecast - will set you back $113 (or AUD96).

IMO Bragg was a very nice model. This.....I'm not so sure.

Little Timmy better be a good boy this holidays to get Mum and Dad to spring for this.

The Forsaken have also been sighted and colour me unimpressed.

I thought GW might have binned this look after the mistake that was the CSM Possessed Space Marines released in conjunction with the Medusa V campaign. But no....they are back!

The pricepoint of $81 for 10 makes them more expensive than the Empire Greatswords.

Not all bad though - the Dragon Ogres and Chariot both look good and have realistic pricepoints, $94 and $64 respectively. This means that you should be able to pick them up for around NZ$60 and $40 on eBay or a US-based web seller.

What White Dwarf Tells Us About The New Warriors

Taken from the Warseer:

Stuff we know from White Dwarf:

Forsaken are a core choice. Forsaken are M6 and D3+1 A. Has it's own D6 chart. One result is ASF.

Chaos Knights now buy enscrolled weapons as an upgrade

WILL OF CHAOS is not listed beneath lords, heroes, knights etc. Only eye of the gods 

Mutalith has a bound spell ranged 18’’
Seems it does a toughness test (model/unit?) and there is chances of chaos spawns being produced

Marauders did not seem to have marks

Slaughter beast is a rare choice and is a bound monster. It is bound to your lord and can have the lords WS.

Gorebeast chariot is T6 5W. high Armour save (2+?). It has KB even on Impact hits. Slower than a normal chariot

Dragon Ogres are on 50 x 75mm bases

Two book items are:
chalice of chaos
soul feeder gift

MAGIC

marked casters can choose a different lore or stick with their mark:

Tzeentch: Lore of Metal
Slaanesh: Lore of Shadow
Nurgle: Lore of Death

Sig Spell: 
Tzeentch is Blue fire. 24" D6 SD6 MM. 

Slaanesh is Lash of slaanesh. 24" straight line form the base in forward arc of the caster. Every model under the line receives S3 AP hit. 

Nurgle Sig spell is a Template. You place breath tempalte at the base of the caster.
All models beneath are forced to test T or suffer 1 W with no AS. 

Nurgle Attribute is that on a succsessful cast roll a D6. On roll of 6 the casters T an W are both increased by 1 to the end of the game.

Slaanesh Attribute is for every wound caused by a spell, roll a D6. if a 6 is rolled the caster recieves +1ws/+1A/+1I

Tzeentch Attribute is for every 6 rolled on a successful cast, that caster recieves an additional PD. But only that caster can use the additional dice

Pre Heresy Update!

Well, with my forgeworld order finally arriving last week, I had some time to put it together and get cracking. As I still didn't have a good feel for how it should come together, I did the first five, and finished them last night during Djokovic's 5 hour get out of jail marathon. Overall I'm quite happy with how they came out. My one regret is that as these are playing pieces, I gave them a very heavy varnish. This killed the dust effect of the rust weathering powders used on the model itself. The base got away a lot better off and retained its dust look. This step wouldn't normally be required to such an extent so would be in a way I am happier with, but overall I am quite satisfied with the finished product.

5 down, 5 to go! How's everyone else getting on with their painting?

You may need to click each of those to make them bigger, or alternatively you can click HERE

- Charlie

US Postal Charges

Just received an interesting email from Hoard O'Bits, the eBay provider of GW components. In it they talk about new US postal charges:

"We just reviewed new postal changes going into effect next week. Amoung other things international shipping is going up double and tripple. Currently our smallest cheapest international package costs us to ship $2.76. The same package next week will cost us $8.28 to ship.

Smaller price increase to domestic mail, but other changes are expected that we still do not have all the details on.

In short, we will loose money on all our items the way we currently sell them. Massive changes need to be made. Neither our site nor eBay have a simple way to make these changes.

As of January 23rd we will pull down all inventory from our website and eBay. We will immediately begin a full inventory count and adding items back to both platforms with the rediculous new shipping profiles."

Checking on the US Post website it appears that new charges come into effect on January 27. Therefore if you are looking at ordering anything from the States.....Now's Good!

Vampire Counts Get A Run

On the weekend I had a game against Mike King and to have a bit of a change I got the Vampire Counts out for a bit of a run.

The last time I used them was at Guardcon in 2009 (the one in Takapuna) where they received the lowest comp score out of the 50+ attending (recurring theme for my armies :-)    ).

The list I used on the weekend was:

Mounted Vampire Lord - Level 3 (Lore of Vampires)

Mounted Vampire - Level 1 (Lore of Vampires)
Necromancer - Level 1 (Lore of Vampires)
Mounted Wight King - BSB

35 Ghouls - Ghast
39 Zombies - Muso
3 x 5 Dire Wolves

10 Black Knights - Full Command
2x 3 Varghiests
2 Fell Bats

Terrorghiest

Really enjoyed using the list and I can see me giving it a lot more games in the coming months. Not least for the reason that the army includes my favourite ever GW model - the Mordheim Witch.

The list seems to cover most bases except it is lacking in ranged attacks. This is compensated to an extent by the fact that it has four 20" flying threats (2 independent of Vampires), and 3 18" dog units.

Personally I enjoyed the Varghiest units and think that they are underrated by a lot of VC generals. I'm looking forward to using them more as I develop the army.

Warriors of Chaos - No Free Lunch

The release of a new book brings all types of optimism for players of that army [except for Dwarfs who never get a new book and would just grumble anyway]. However a lot of people seem to expect that they will only receive things, not that some things will be taken away.

If I was a WoC player - and I am because I do have a lovely WoC army - then there should be some expectation that you will lose some of the items that you have had in the current book. Why? Well because the Games Workshop way has been to limit Race-Specific Magic Items. Typically these have been between 8-10 items - Weapons, Armour, Arcane, Enchanted, Talisman and Banner - per book. So expect to see some of those cherished items disappear.

Which ones would I be most worried about?

• Infernal Puppet
• Book of Secrets
• Banner of Rage
• Access to Daemonic Gifts - 3rd Eye of Tzeentch, Bloodcurdling Roar, Stream of Corruption

The other area I expect some change is in regard to the Eye of the Gods table. It is not going to go - given the new Warshrine model - but expect functionality changes. Games Workshop can't be unaware of the ten minute start of game phase where WoC players roll on the table for EotGs. Eventually after 35 re-rolls the WoC player's opponent gets bored and says "Just take 3+ Ward and Stubborn on your Tzeentch Chosen". If that stays, well you can call my nephew Chimpface.

Which brings us to Magic Lores. I hope GW gives the WoC their own Magic Lores - as per current state. However, I have a feeling that with the imminent release of the Daemon book there will be single Nurgle, Slaanesh and Tzeentch lores that cover both armies. I hope not. It would be good if they were independent but I expect assimilation. Worse though would be restriction to Battle Magic Lores. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

So WoCers expect to lose some cherished treasures....(I am expecting a more mature reaction from you than Dwarf players when they get their eventual new book in 2014. They will want to keep all they have and get more. It ain't gonna happen Stunties. Try living in the real world).

February White Dwarf Warriors of Chaos New Release Pictures

After yesterday musing as to what will fill the gap for February, we now know!

WARRIORS OF CHAOS

Below are photos of the various units from the upcoming February White Dwarf. The two stars for me are the vanilla Chaos Chariot and the Dragon Ogres. They both look fantastic kits.

The "miss" is the Chaos Lord. Could they have made a less dynamic figure?

Not sure about the Slaughterbrute or the Mutalith Vortex Beast - I'd like to see more photos.

Suffice to say, it looks like Warriors are going to have some competition for slots.

NEW ARMY BOOK COVER

WHITE DWARF RELEASE SCHEDULE

CHAOS LORD

CHAOS CHARIOT

DRAGON OGRES

FORSAKEN

GOREBEAST CHARIOT

MUTALITH VORTEX BEAST

Ohhh Shinies!

The last 2 days have been happy mail days!

Here are some of the growths for my happy hobby collection that the worlds best postie has delivered recently...

After mucking around with cheaper knock off brushes for the last year, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and get the real deal...

All I will say for now is that I really wish I had gone the whole hog and bought this right away. The difference between this and the knock off I had is vast.

So Pretty... So shiny!

Grumbly Pete will be pleased I have bent the knee and purchased a tactical squad. With it taking so long to arrive however, I'll be cutting it fine for the deadline!

To echo my wife's words from last night, "that is far smaller than I expected!"

Meanwhile, this is huge! A great transfer sheet,  I am tempted to use this over the actual sons of horus shoulder pads.

A long time ago I purchased the first of these books, and it revolutionized how I paint my miniatures. I hope that this has even a fraction of the content of the first, it will be well worth it! Speaking of, one of you fuckers still has my first book, who did I lend it to again?

Last but not least, it's Peters favorite codex! Everyone knows how much he loves this.

Upcoming Daemons

Picking up more scuttlebutt on the interwebs about upcoming Daemons of Chaos/Chaos Daemons release. It seems to have slipped a month until March (not sure what is filling February).

New Models (cut this list into two equal sized waves - one with the codex, one following up a quarter later). 

• All four Greater Daemon plastic kits with named options
• Plastic Furies, dual-option kit with "Flesh Terrors"
• Plastic Khorne Chariot, herald, dual kit with a cannon, pulled by Bloodcrushers
• Plastic Tzeentch Chariot, herald, dual kit with "flame-beast" pulled by screamers, ( 40k: a Skimmer)
• Plastic Nurgle Palanquin, (chariot), carried by Nurglings, (combines with Nurgle GD kit for named character model - Ku'gath)
• Nurgle Plague-flies (40K-Elites - Jetbikes, WFB-Rares - Monstrous Cavalry)
• New Daemon-engine, bipedal with atypical porportions, uses ectoplasmic weaponry of CSMs, has numerous options for CC or Ranged loadout. (40K- Heavy, WFB-Special)
• New Daemon flying MC. (40K-Fast Attack-flyer, WFB-Rare)

Rules

• Daemon Princes with Wings will move slots in 40K.
• Look for across the board points increases in the codex/army book.

New Fantasy FAQs Too

Nothing that I would view as particularly startling.

http://www.gamesworkshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2940055a_WARHAMMER_RULEBOOK_v1.7_JANUARY13.pdf

http://www.gamesworkshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2940056a_Daemons_of_Chaos_v1.6_JANUARY13.pdf

http://www.gamesworkshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2940057a_Dwarfs_v1.5_JANUARY13.pdf

http://www.gamesworkshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2940058a_Empire_v1.1_JANUARY13.pdf

http://www.gamesworkshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2940059a_Skaven_v1.6_JANUARY13.pdf

Nothing much to see here folks....move along

New 40k FAQ's are up

Almost all races get something. Most of the errors in the new DA codex are already amended too, though a fair few actual questions are still to be answered in the coming months.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=1000018&pIndex=1&aId=3000006&multiPageMode=true&start=2

Enjoy!

NZ Warhammer Fantasy Blogs

I've updated my Blog Roll on the side of the site and included three new NZ Fantasy Blogs.

Shirts Off Warhammer - Ben Wadsworth

Not strictly NZ has Ben has decamped to Melbourne but....hey...we'll claim him as ours. Ben has been quiet as of late but I look forward to hearing his thoughts through 2013.

NZHammered - James Brown

Gas Monkey set up his blog in late 2012 because....as he says..."If people will read Pete Dunn's shite, then they'll read anything." Looking forward to his updates from the League of Extraordinary Nerdymen. He also has a team in the upcoming NZTC, the North Lancashire Darts Association.

NineInchCharge - Rory Finnemore

Another northen blog. Another of the Nerdymen, Rory posts on Warhammer, Epic and all types of ancient GW goodness. Empire player and latterly Vampire Count, Rory set the first day of the Masters alight with his Sylvannian Juggernaught before falling to the wiles of sophisticated southerners.

User Name on Dakka Dakka?

Sometimes you see something on TV that makes you do a second take.

On Monday night we were watching the latest episode in the new series of Louis Theroux documentaries on TV One. Here Louis was returning to the USA to see what had become of the porn movie industry. He had previously done a documentary in 1997 and here he was catching up with some of the original interviewees.

About 20 minutes in I did a double take. While he was interviewing one of the male porn stars my eyes shifted to the background. There on a table was an "Army Transport Motor Pool" carry case from Sabol Designs. Here's a screenshot:

Don't believe me? You can check it out on TVNZ On Demand.

Now I'm wondering what army does this guy play - Slaanesh is too easy! And what's his handle on Dakka Dakka?

Keep any comments tasteful.

Empire Greatswords

On the weekend I picked up 12 Empire Greatswords from Glen Burfield to add to an existing unit of 20 I already have.

Now I don't see Greatswords on the table much. I'm not sure whether it is as a result of the cost of the models - the new plastics were quickly dubbed "Goldswords" or because they are inherently rubbish.

They are WS 4, Str 3, T 3, AS 4+, Stubborn and can take a Standard up to 50 points. This statline costs you 11 points per model.

So on the face of it they look expensive. I can see Light Magic giving them some buffs and also Life.

Is there any mileage in running them? What size units? % wide or Horde. What banners help and which magic lore best supports them.

NZ Teams Championship

We are now only a month away from the NZ Teams Championship.

Today I'll be sending out an email to all the team captains asking them to confirm their team makeup. If any teams are short of members I'll be looking to provide a list of orphans that they can contact and make part of their team. Anybody who would like to be part of that list can contact me on pete@thefieldsofblood.com

Remember team lists are due in by 31 January.

Locky Reid has kindly offered to act as TO for the event. I'll be lodging the von Trapp Family lists with him by 24 January so that my team will get no benefit from me checking the lists for validity.

Really looking forward to this one.

A quick shout out bits scrounge...

Hi ho,

while I wait for my Sons of Horus to arrive, I thought to myself "Hmm, how can I best annoy Pete?".

The answer was obvious, based off his recent posts. I had one of two options:

- Go back in time, convince Gav Thorpe to not wait until late 4th edition to write his take on the Chaos Codex. Or;
- Do a Dark Angel army of some such variety.

As my flux capacitor is all juiced out presently, that left considering Dark Angels. I really hate painting dark green, and want a lot of termies in my SoH, so that leaves Ravenwing, who I think I can do fairly cheaply and paint reasonably quickly.

The good news is, a shit tonne of you either bought Dark Vengeance, or know someone who did! Plenty of you are I'm sure, desperate to depart from your Ravenwing Bikers. If you're interested in selling them, please either contact me here or if you prefer you could privately send me an email at charles.stclair@gmail.com .

Alternatively, if you also happen to know of a decent bits supply out there that has some at a reasonable rate, I can always go check them out too if you link me :)

- Charlie

Spikey Five Bellies on the March

At HomeCon III I took the following band of Ogres:

Slaughtermaster - Level 4 (Maw), Fencer's Blades, Glittering Scales, Earthing Rod

Bruiser - BSB, Sword of Striking, Enchanted Shield
Butcher - Level 1 (Beasts), Hellheart

9 Ironguts - Full Command, Standard of Discipline, Lookout Gnobbler
4 Ogres - Bellower
10 Gnobblers

4 Mournfang - Standard, Bellower, Dragonhide Banner
2 Mournfang - Bellower
Sabretusk
Sabretusk
Sabretusk
4 Maneaters - 3x XHW, 1x Great Weapon, Scout, ITP

Ironblaster
Ironblaster

My game scores were as follows:

Dawn Attack - Dave Appleby (Skaven) 19-1
Blood & Glory - Joel ven de Ven-Long (Empire) 20-0
Watchtower - John Tailby (Dark Elfs) 15-5
Meeting Engagement - Tom Dunn (Daemons) 15-5
Battleline - Hamish Gordon (Warriors) 14-6

So while I had 5 wins the games were closer than the scorelines show.

What Did I Learn:

1. In future I wouldn't take a Hellheart (in normal situations). I didn't like playing without a Dispel Scroll and while the Hellheart can close down a phase, it is simply too random for me to use as my Magic Defense. It's all about mitigating risk and the Hellheart is not worth a 25 point premium over a Scroll.
2. A Level 1 Beasts Butcher is next to useless. The default Wildform spell needs 10 to cast which means 4 dice in reality. A Firebelly gives you the Fireball spell which you can work at getting off on 2 dice. It also gives you some ranged firepower.
3. I much prefer Mournfang in pairs rather than in a four. The Dragonhide Banner is good but the investment means that your battleplan seems to centre on its delivery.

Highlight of the weekend was Smelly the Sabretusk killing Joel's Arch Lector, though I always enjoy a good old fail of the Look Out Sir roll against an incoming cannonball.

Disappointment of the weekend was Peter Williamson's High Elfs managing to hide from not only myself but also Tom's Daemons for the second event in a row. Don't make us come and find you!

The "Joys" of Trade Me

Once a week I check out the Warhammer section of Trade Me to see what is up on offer. [For overseas readers, Trade Me is a local equivalent of eBay. The founder of the site, Sam Morgan, says he came up with the concept but in reality that is like me saying I came up with the concept of a wargaming blog i.e. I copied someone else. However, I digress.]

Typically there are 250-300  items listed in the Warhammer section - or discoverable by the inclusion of Warhammer somewhere in the description. Sometimes you'll miss the odd thing if you search "Warhammer", this is when the Einstein who is trying to sell his Warhammer figures/books, somehow manages to miss "Warhammer" out of the title or description AND uses insufficient descriptors that they can be identified as such.

The first thing that you have to realise with Warhammer on Trade Me is that 90%+ is either a person/shop pretending they have a web presence or crap. You must sift through the chaff to find any kernels of value. That takes time and you should factor the value of that time into any purchasing decision i.e. are you better to not "invest" that time and instead buy new.

The reason for this is because Trade Me as no listing fee - that means Timmy can take his crap and put it up at no financial cost.

NatCon Registration Details

Mike King the NatCon Fantasy Umpire has asked me to post details of NatCon (Easter Weekend):

The cut-off for early registration is approaching, $50 up until 25^th January.

Go to http://huttclub.co.nz/events/nationals to register.

The Warhammer Players Pack can be found at http://huttclub.co.nz/events/nationals/warhammer-fantasy

I’ve been asked one question via email which was

Q: Do you allow all Bound monsters since there are ones in White Dwarf Mags, Storm of Magic and Monstrous Arcanum?
A: Just those in Monstrous Arcanum.

I was also quizzed a little a Homecon over weekend as what sort of list I might veto, I have no preconceived builds in mind, as the pack says, lists that would be absolutely horrible and not enjoyable to play against will be my main consideration. 

HomeCon III Weekend

Over the weekend we had 16 gamers at my place for HomeCon III. Five games at 2400 points with scenarios.

The main point of the weekend was to get some games in early in the year to remove some of those Xmas cobwebs. It allowed people to try out 2013 tournament lists, fun lists and new/different units.

The results featured a three way tie for 3rd Place between Tom, Peter W and Dave Appleby (who did a Williamson and picked up 20 points in the last round, coincidently beating a Williamson). Joel held off Tom in their final game, rallying two units to draw 10-10 denying Tom the 12-8 he needed.

James had a tough weekend with his new WoC army, while Mike reaffirmed why you don't see too many Centigors on the table. Tom wasn't overimpressed with the Chariot of Slaanesh or the Hellflayer - he thinks they are just expensive Fiends that can't march.

John had two games (Ogres and Empire) where his General was cannoned off the board in the first turn while I struggled to get full value out of the Hellheart.

As predicted, very little could stand up frontally to Hamish's Skullcrushers but they were vulnerable to been frenzy bailed.

From a gamer's perspective, the most enjoyable part of the weekend was seeing Simon's Dwarfs taking their heaviest loss in the game where they completely castled in 12" corner. Couldn't happen to a better race!

Pro Tip: Never send a Canadian Dwarf player to put the meat in the garage fridge. Come BBQ time 30 minutes was loss defrosting all the food after he instead put it all in the freezer.

HomeCon III - First Round Draw

By the wonders of modern technology Overlord has generated a random first round draw for HomeCon 3.

Here it is:

Table 1 - Tom Dunn (Daemons) v Wil Hoverd (Ogres)
Table 2 - Dave Appleby (Skaven) v Pete Dunn (Ogres)
Table 3 - Glen Burfield (Vampires) v Neil Williamson (Orcs & Goblins)
Table 4 - Ryan Lister (Vampires) v Sam Whitt (Orcs & Goblins)
Table 5 - James Millington (Warriors) v Joel van de Ven-Long (Empire)
Table 6 - Locky Reid (Ogres) v Simon Switzer (Dwarfs)
Table 7 - Mike King (Beasts) v John Tailby (Dark Elves)
Table 8 - Hamish Gordon (Warriors) v Peter Williamson (High Elves)

Round One is Dawn Attack

Heresy Swap Shop

Alistair Allan has some spare FW Heresy bits he is looking to swap:

Alistair is after more of the bladed weapons or if somebody has a good idea around building a power lance.

Warhammer Fantasy Terrain Cards

Tane - one of our local Dwarfs - has had a bit of time on his hands over the Xmas Break. I'd expected it is related to all those parts of the rules he doesn't need to consider - magic, combat and movement.

Anyway he has created a set of Terrain Cards which you can download here.

Here's Tane's thoughts. Being a Dwarf he has created some of his own "hobby-enhancing" cards that are optional if you'd like to include them:

Here are the word docs containing the terrain cards and the spell cards should anyone want to use them. I've checked and rechecked the wording on both against the rulebook, but there are likely to be errors, so players should always refer to the main book if in doubt.  I'm happy for them to be used by anyone anywhere; it would please me to learn that they were used at the Latvian Masters.

The terrain cards are all as per the book, with the following additions;

1.  'Normal' Hill/Swamp/Building/River (all categories):  I thought that a non-special terrain type would increase the randomness and I figured that not every river, building and hill is magical, even in the Warhammer world.

2.  'Dense Thicket' (Forest):  You've heard my gripes about LOS in forests.  This is a little like a 7th Ed forest, in that it blocks LOS unless a unit is 2" from the edge, in which case it can see out and be seen, and counts as in hard cover.  Units inside have LOS to each other.  No-one can march in it, except for units from the Wood Elf Army Book, or those with the Forest Strider special rule (like White Lions).

3.  'High Ground' (Hill):  This one blocks LOS through it, unless a unit is standing on it; in that case it can see or be seen over the crest.  But it might help the odd dragon rider out there.

4.  'Defendable Height' (Hill):  This is a throwback to 7th Ed, with the +1 CR if a unit is higher up the hill.  It might cause some debate, but I think holding the high ground should be worth something, and this didn't seem a problem in my 7th Ed games.

These additional cards are of course all optional, and may be discarded at a player's discretion. 

I'd suggest revealing all non-forest cards at the start of the game, before deployment, as a number have area effects that may influence gameplay even when not occupied.

The best way to use them is to print them out on paper or thin card and then laminate them.

HomeCon III Picks

Looking through the HC3 lists I have made my picks on what I think the podium will be be:

1. Tom Dunn (Daemons)
2. Sam Whitt (Savage Orcs, Toys & Night Goblins)
3. Joel van de Ven-Long (Empire)

From the other lists, Peter Williamson's High Elves will mince around the middle tables scoring a 20-0 in the last round to finish 6th.

In no game will Simon Switzer's Dwarf break their shackles and score more than 13 points. If they look like it then they will be struck down with nosebleeds and immediately shrink back into role.

Hamish's WoC will have a much better understanding of Frenzy after the weekend.

Unfortunately for Locky and Wil they will be competing for 2nd Placed Ogre as Spiky Five Bellies ventures forth from the Mountains of the Maw to wreck havoc.

40 games of Warhammer - It's going to be a great weekend!!

HomeCon III Lists

Sixteen are playing at HomeCon III this weekend at Chez Dunn.

Here are the lists.

Breakdown is:

Ogre Kingdoms - 3
Vampire Counts -2
Warriors of Chaos - 2
Orcs & Goblins - 2
Empire -1
High Elves -1
Skaven - 1
Dark Elves - 1
Daemons of Chaos - 1
Beastmen - 1

and (unfortunately)

Dwarfs - 1

Lots of Ruby Rings, Charmed Shields and Talisman of Preservation on show. Must have been big movers at Xmas sales.

Progress on Heresy Death Guard

Hopefully all of you that are participating in "The Tale of X Gamers - Heresy Edition" are making progress towards your first deadline - January 31.

I am in the middle of basecoating my Legion Tactical Squad and on Saturday had a couple of hours with Charlie looking at different weathering techniques. This was followed up on Sunday by watching the video tutorial by Miniature Mentor "Rust and Weathering Series - The DreadNought with Mathieu Fontaine" which gave some excellent tips that I'll be using on my Death Guard.

Once I have the base coats done I'll get some photos up.

New Giant Eagles

So finally I have found some good to come out of "The Hobbit". After me putting up with a month of movie overhype living here in the "Middle of Middle Earth", Games Workshop delivers the goods.

A new plastic kit has been released featuring two plastic Giant Eagles. This is a great option for both High Elves and Wood Elves and pretty much crowns the High Elves as the first fully plastic force.

The models are very nice and the two comprise a 16 piece plastic kit. Hard to get real fix on size but given the base is a large (60mm) flying stand, it seems the wing span is 7-8". This probably justifies the price point of $100 for the kit.

If you want further variety - and which High Elf player isn't going to have 4 eagles - then you can buy the Finecast special character.

This bad boy is a six piece Finecast kit and comes in at a whopping $80 here in New Zealand. It is a very nice and characterful model but the price point is certainly pushing the envelope.

They are currently on Advance Order at Games Workshop or usual stockists/webstores.

Australian Masters Changes

The Australians are going through the process of looking at qualification for their Masters for 2013. Ex-Pat New Zealander has taken over the running of the Masters for this year and has published his criteria.

Three areas of departure from recent years:

1. Removal of auto invite for highest representative from each State
2. Introduction of entry for any winner of 50+ player event regardless of ranking
3. Removal of invite to top ranked NZ player

Of these I think that the first two are retrograde steps. Why? Well, with regard to state representation, the size of Tasmanian and Western Australian events, in particular, is unlikely to see anybody qualify without extensive travel. I think that having their presence at the event fosters the wider community.

The second change is also, IMO, a backward step. For me the Masters (and Rankings) has always been to reward tournament participation. Therefore it requires a commitment to four (three in NZ) events over the year. Inclusion of someone who has played a single event at the expense of someone who has attended four and ranked highly would be wrong (again my opinion).

As to the last point, I personally don't see the rationale for the invite - apart from historical reasons - especially given that there has been virtually no NZ-domiciled attendance at Australian events in the past two years. However that is very much a personal opinion and I appreciate that others will have differing views.

Here's what I said on WargamerAU as to why I didn't attend the 2012 Australian Masters after receiving an invite:

I received the invite for NZ player for 2012. I chose not to attend for a couple of reasons:

1. It was scheduled for the same weekend as the NZ Masters for which I was TO

2. The NZ and Australian scenes have diverged markedly in the past 2 years, most notably in Comp. Subjective comp is unheard of here in NZ over the past 18 months with a Hard Cap comp being the norm. This is also lighter comp than what appears to be the norm in Australian circles.

3. The inclusion of the Army Swap rounds.

So these were all personal decisions by me as an individual rather than by the "NZ Scene". 

Other individuals might have different motivations.

In addition to this, I think the New Zealand scene stands on its own. Our Masters are as keenly fought as any similar event, including the Australian Masters.

My preference would be to see an event where the top 6 ranked players in each country played their equivalent over 6 rounds over a weekend. This could be done early the following year with the venue alternating between countries. However the Oz Fantasy scene seems to have become a little insular and I suspect few would travel to NZ to play.

Major Change to RHQ Rankings Site

Overnight some of you would have been advised by RHQ that they are changing the way they do the rankings.

 Previously they have been a free service funded by the ad revenue at the website. This is now going to change.

 From April 1, the service will now no longer be free for users. There are two ways that it can be paid for. Firstly, an affiliate (effectively sponsor) can pay to provide the service.For example Battlefoam is paying for 40k rankings in the USA, UK and Oz. The second option is that individuals will have to be to register and be ranked. This is slated to cost each individual USD $12.00 per annum. If you do not pay your ranking score will not be published.

This is a real shame.

Up until 2009 I ran the NZ rankings on a spreadsheet using the same formula as RHQ. It was a bit of work but it ensured that we had our own rankings. And it was free. RHQ offered to take it over in 2010 and have maintained it ever since. I don't think that there is much potential for a Sponsor to come through for New Zealand. I might be wrong and if anyone knows one that would be good to hear about. That means if we want RHQ to continue to maintain NZ Rankings it will need to be funded by the community.

I believe that the individual funding option is doomed to fail as unless there is a critical mass then the rankings will be meaningless and lose what ever initial support they have over time. This means that the way forward - in an RHQ world - for NZ might be through crowdfunding.

I have asked Andrew Galea how much RHQ would require to maintain the 40k/Fantasy rankings for NZ and if the some was reasonable I would seek to crowd fund it through Fields of Blood. If there was enough local support to continue RHQ based rankings then it would be up to local gamers to fund it.

If, for whatever reason, the RHQ route wasn't viable, I would seek a local solution to maintaining NZ rankings for 40k and Fantasy. As the total number of events in NZ GW games was less than 30 last year (Fantasy 17, 40k 11), it would not be too hard to go back to a local solution - be it blog or website based. Obviously it would not necessarily have all the bells and whistles of RHQ but it would at least be "ours".

I'll let you know when I hear back from RHQ.

2013 Rankings Change

I've noticed that RHQ have made a change to their rankings for 2013. In the past the rankings have been "Opt Out" where you were automatically included unless you actually asked not to have a ranking published.

However for 2013 this has changed to "Opt In". So what does this mean?

Well to be included in the rankings you need to register with RHQ. If you do not register your results will still be included in determine ranking points but you will not be assigned the points and consequently won't get a Ranking. RHQ have taken out those who have not registered with them as at Jan 1 so you have some people drop out - notably Masters participants Mike King and Raymond Dick.

As all the data is still there all anyone who has dropped out has to do is register and their Ranking will be restored. Alternatively if you want to still play events but not be ranked then the default "Opt Out" is there. Either don't register or if you have then ask RHQ to exclude you from the rankings table