FOB NZ Rankings - 40k Updated for Lords of War

The Lords of War results are in the rankings.

This was a one day event run at the Wellington Warlords yesterday and umpired by Carson Turnbull.

LoW attracted 12 players and was won by Dave Hodgetts using Tau.

End Times: Subterranean?

So what if the 4th End Times books continues the style of the first three?

"Faced with the ongoing battle between Chaos and Order and the likelihood of fallout into their realms, the Warlords of the Gobi, Dawi and Underempire put centuries of conflict behind them."

"End Times:Subterranean gives you rules to combine the three races that inhabit the warrens and holds of the World's Edge Mountains. Why? Well for no reason other than we don't know how to combine them otherwise and they are all short and live underground."

I think this would be a brilliant ploy. First of all from a hobby point of view you wouldn't need to paint so many Skavenslaves - you can just use Dwarf Warriors/Longbeards/Hammerers as slaves. I'd also quite fancy adding Fanatics to my Slave units and who knows it might make an otherwise underpowered unit useable.

Over time then GW could retire the Dwarfs as the Skaven and Gobi assimilate and improve on the Dawi warmachines.

I have seen the way forward and I like it!

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End Times Magic Items

There has been a debate "raging" on various forums as to whether characters who are part of End Times armies can take Magic Items from their parent books.

The argument against is that in those books it says something to the tune of (paraphrased) "Characters in a Beastmen/Warriors/Tomb Kings/etc army can take Magic Items from the following list". As they are now not part of that parent army they have no access to the items.

So a RAW argument which may or may not have been the intent.

However one entry in the upcoming Khaine book made me prick up my ears:

"If your army includes Imrik, Crown Prince of Calador, no other character in your army can have the star lance Magic Weapon from Warhammer Armies: High Elves"

-End Times: Khaine

That seems to me to indicate that the intent is that characters can access items in their parent book - otherwise why mention it?

I'm erring on the side of - like Supporting Attacks and Predatory Fighter - the intent outweighs the RAW. I guess we need an FAQ but I'm not holding my breath.

And no Dark Elfies, that doesn't mean your Masters can take the Star Lance!

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Basing Timmy the Terrorgheist

Finally got around to basing Little Timmy. Do you think I can claim hard cover?

 

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Jack's Dark Elf Painting

Jack has been painting more Dark Elves recently and has sent me some photos of models he has finished.

The lighting is not the best but you can see he's done some pretty nice work.

Yes, that's a Medusa! Mal Patel tells me that they are well broken. I wouldn't know. From what I've seen they don't sell them in New Zealand.

Now that's more like it. Here's something I'm used to - Repeater Bolt Thrower crew.

A Sorceress on Dark Steed ready to take her place in the Warlocks.

An another rare model - a Dreadlord on foot. I'd heard they existed but it's great to see one in the wild.

Jack's done a very nice job on these. Now he just needs to get them on the table and ruin someone's hobby.

Adepticon Here We Come

Tickets for Adepticon 2015 went on sale this afternoon.

I was very nervous as last year was an absolute nightmare in getting it all done - the system freezing two or three times. This year however it was a breeze.

Having experienced the Con this year I had a much better idea of what I wanted to do and so had a list of events I wanted to do.

Jack and I have signed up for the Teams Tournament and also for the first of the 1000 point events. I also had a list of seminars I wanted to attend and managed to get all my choices:

• Painting Skin and Flesh Tones (Mark Soley)
• Weathering Techniques ( Mr Justin - SWM)
• Hands on with Weathering Pigments (Mr Justin)
• Liber Metallica (Dave Taylor)
• Airbrushing Minis (Mr Justin)
• Battlefield Terrain (Dave Dresch)

This should leave plenty of time to take in the whole Con experience.

 

Really pumped after this year. Four solid days of Wargaming nirvana.

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Where Are The PEGs?

Reading a few of the news sites it appears that next week's releases - as shadowed by White Dwarf - is back to 40k.

Given that, it appears End Times:Khaine was a one-week wonder.

This really surprises me. I would have thought that there would have been at least some models supporting the release of what looks like a landmark book. However apart from the two book versions, the only other release is the cards.

For a long time there had been rumoured a new model representing the physical manifestation of Khaine. But this doesn't appear to have eventuated.

Maybe we'll get something new in a few weeks but that split release schedule would be at odds with what we have seen in the past 12 months.

As it stands we have a release with no new models.

GW & Stock Levels

The rage du jour over the weekend on the intrawebz was the selling out of the upcoming End Times: Khaine release from Games Workshop webstores.

The new books are released next weekend and went up for pre-order on Saturday morning. Games Workshop followed this up with an email announcement. Unfortunately in most countries both the Limited Edition and Hardcover books were sold out before the email hit your inbox.

Cue internet rage.

Depending on your view this "atrocity" was either symptomatic of Games Workshop's incompetence or a part of a masterplan that had them in league with the Illuminati and Montgomery Burns.

They were accused of:

• trying to force everybody to buy digital versions - and as such were thralled to the evil Apple
• purposely underproducing so as to limit their profits so the beancounters could have their way and kill Warhammer
• training people to line up early and buy pr-orders out of fear
• creating a climate of fear that would force people into GW shops next Saturday where they would have their pockets emptied
• boosting sales of other items as people were so despondent on missing out they had to console themselves by buying other unrelated items

Now I have no idea at all behind the stock levels we are seeing - but perhaps the fallout is that we are seeing greater demand than GW expected. Personally I'm surprised that they didn't foresee the demand that such a story progression would create.

Interestingly they are now rushing softcovered versions of Nagash and Glottkin to market.

Weekend Hobby Update

With the house empty this weekend I had planned to have a day's gaming yesterday. Unfortunately the End Times struck me down on Friday and I picked up one of the Leechlord's creations requiring a trip to the doctor.

Given this, I cancelled the gaming - not wanting to infect others - and instead devoted myself to some hobby.

And I generally got stuff done. The hobby room had the gaming table cleared as armies went back to their shelves - I have a game against Tane's High Elves Wednesday.

On the hobby table:

• Shields for all my Vampire Black Knights (now I feel I can claim the AS)
• Movement tray for Hexwraiths
• Magnetic basing for Eternal Guard
• Repainted parts of my Tomb Banshee
• Finished two Sisters of the Thorn stags and based them
• Started on the riders for said stags
• Created a scenic base for Timmy the Terrorgheist (now started painting it)

I also ran through a far few podcasts that had been building up on my iPhone. One of the interesting things was hearing how End Times armies that were great when Nagash was released are suddenly overpowered come Glottkin (yes I'm looking at you, TBS!). I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't swing back with End Times: DarkHighWood Elves.

And between all this I pre-ordered my copy of ET:Khaine (iPad) and the new magic cards.

7th Annual New Zealand Masters - Warhammer Fantasy Lists

The lists for the Fantasy Masters can be found here

The race breakdown is:

• Dark Elves - 3
• Warriors of Chaos - 2
• Dwarfs - 2
• High Elves - 1
• Wood Elves - 1
• Bretonnians - 1

By memory there are five Special Characters - three in one list!

Lots of BS shooting, lots of Warmachines, lots of Fast Cavalry!

What A Ride!!!!

I was sitting here this morning thinking what an amazing last two months we've had in the Warhammer World.

To say everything has changed would be about as big a statement as "Margaret Thatcher was unpopular with Miners".

It has been a real roller coaster ride with twists and turns coming on a weekly, if not daily basis.

And the "scary" thing is that we don't know where it all ends!

Looking back at the last few months let's look at some of these changes.

It all started with rumours of 9th Edition being released in September. We didn't get that and instead got what was termed an "Expansion".

• The Nagash book hit and nobody really knew how to treat it. We're these new rules? Was it a toolbox? Was the combined list overpowered?
• Fantastic new models, especially the Mortarchs - but every one - Nagash, Morghasts, Spirit Hosts - were a hit.
• These brought new rules e.g. the combined profile and what was that a harbinger for as well as the controversial 50% Lords / 50% Heroes rule. Was this just for End Times or all Warhammer.
• Coming with these was a serious advancement in the storyline - in particular the framing of the conflict being one of Chaos vs. Order. This reset all the old alliances and enmities.
• Characters could die! Everyone suddenly had their favourite character death - mine was Thorek (though I note we haven't seen the body). Old characters were breathed with new personality. I really liked Arkhan and enjoyed his tormenting of Mannfred.

And just as we were digesting all the Nagash info, Games Workshop dropped the FAQ bomb.
Suddenly it was truly a Brave New World.

Nagash was quickly - even by GW's more recent history - followed by Glottkin and the changes kept coming.

• More new models - for me the only miss was Gutrot - and another twist of the power level. While a lot of players - especially some vocal TK players - could live with the Undead Legion suddenly for a lot of people a combined Legion of Chaos was a scary thought.
• Beastmen received marks and suddenly came back into play - I dug out my Pestigors which now sit expectantly on the painting table.
• The story continued to move on. Characters died and came back and the Empire was truly up shit creek.
• And if Nagash was scary.....dum, dum, dum.....enter KFC

While we were catching our breath - and much sooner than anybody thought - Khaine is entering the arrival lounge. And what an entrance this appears to be!

• Everything that we've been told about the Elves is a lie. Malekith has truly been maligned rather than just being a very naughty boy. And Tyrion is the bad guy.
• The army lists appear to be redrawn so the "guys who really love the aesthetics of the Elves" can add Brolocks to their Frostheart aviary (or vice versa).
• And then yesterday's revelations that Magic may have indeed gone batshit crazy. New spells, Winds of Magic increased to 4D6 and every wizard a Loremaster.

There's an old Chinese proverb "May you live in interesting times". No-one is ever sure if it is a curse or a blessing.

For Warhammer those lines may be greyer than ever for some people.

For me, well I'm excited.

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Mordheim Comes to PC

The first GW game I ever played was Mordheim so I was quite excited when I say this:

This is just the Teaser video but there is a 10 minute game walkthrough on Youtube as well.

Can you guess my Warband?

Warhammer Magic Goes Batshit Crazy!

Ok the latest tidbit stalking the net ahead of the End Times: Khaine release:


Magic is now 4d6. No generating spells, you know ALL of the lore, regardless of level. Nagash will know every lore he has access to, for  example. Wizard levels only helps with casting/dispelling now.


Now I'm not sure this is real but if it does, well let's say there is an awful lot of Obsidian about to be mined and turned into charm bracelets.


All I can say is Horrors of Tzeentch look an awfully good buy. Finally :-)

Who Says GW is a Model Company?

We regularly hear GW describe themselves as a model company - presumably as distinct from a games company. That makes the cover of the latest White Dwarf all the more surprising/disappointing.

This is obviously the old Malekith model and given the brooding one is the poster boy for the next End Times release it gives credence to the circulating rumours that this book won't be supported by extensive model releases.

That's a shame as I think a dual Malekith/Imrik plastic kit would have had legs. Hopefully we will see some new releases - Avatar of Khaine presumably - but it looks like it is in the latter weeks.

 

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FOB Lite Comp - Where Is It?

Over the past couple of months I've been asked about potential updates for FOB Lite Comp. This has largely been inspired by the release of the End Times books and the recent FAQ from GW re character percentages.

Taking a step back, the basis of FOB Lite was to be a permissive comp system - with the caveat that it had "some" restrictions to knock the top off the more egregious combos. It has also been an evolving system with the restrictions lessening as more and more 8th Edition books were released.

The underlying philosophy was to not be too prescriptive as to what people could and could not bring. As a TO I have found that people want to bring their toys and it's only other people's armies that are broken.

The arrival of End Times has really thrown a spanner among the pigeons!

So what are my thoughts?

First, and foremost, we are in a state of flux. While we are always part way through a release cycle, End Times has amplified that tenfold. Things are very much a moveable feast until all the books are released and we see the final "shape". In the interim we see some races getting boosts - and I don't think anyone would argue that all ET releases have seen a ratchet up in power - while others wait their turn.

Secondly, Warhammer has fundamentally changed. New rules mechanisms are being introduced - e.g. Combined profiles - that drastically change the nature of the game. These are hard to fully reconcile within the existing FOB comp system without making calls that some people will like and others will hate.

On that basis I won't be updating FOB Lite to reflect the partial release of End Times. Once all the books are out then I will revisit that and see where things are at. It may be that comp is not needed at all and we have reached some sort of nirvana. I hope so.

Shadowing all this, is the expected release of 9th Edition mid-2015. Typically this sees a reset of all comp until things have been tried and tested under the new rules.

As to how this impacts upcoming events, the only one scheduled with FOB Lite Comp is the NZTC at the end of February. I have been discussing this with a few people and you can expect a definitive announcement in the next couple of weeks.

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Here Comes "The Host of the Phoenix King" - Choo Choo

Here are some interesting little titbits from the next White Dwarf:

There is the Host of the Phoenix King which seems to be a combined Asur, Asrai, Druchii army under Malekith and Teclis and the Aestyrion, who are loyal to Tyrion.

There is a third list mentioned but no details given other than: "In Warhammer: Khaine there is, once and for all, an absolute winner in the war for the Phoenix Crown. The third army represents the Elves that survive."

and

"In a game set during the End Times, Wizards of Level 3 or higher know End Times spells in addition to the other spells that they know. Each different End Times spell can be cast only once per Magic phase and cannot be dispelled if successfully cast (see page 8).

Most End Times spells are extensions of existing Lores of Magic and benefit from the lore attribute of their parent lore in the usual way. Any Wizard who knows the lore in question will also know any End Times spells associated with that lore. Some End Times spells are not associated with any lore (for example, Conjure Arcane Fulcrum) on page 10). These spells can be used by any wizard, unless they state otherwise."

and lots of new models:

Tyrion
Malekith
Imrik
The Eternity King
The Avatar of Khaine

Plus

Battle Magic: End Times consists of 22 cards (so it would seem that there are quite a few spells).

And finally some story spoilers:

Tyrion draws the Widowmaker, not Malekith.

There's a picture of Malekith, Teclis and the Everqueen at the head of a combined Asur, Asrai and Druchii army. This is 'The Host of the Phoenix King' list.

Malekith is stated as being the sole claimant to the Phoenix Crown and there's a suggestion that Tyrion might actually be the bad guy.

Quick get onboard the train before it leaves town!

NZTC Spots

One team has withdrawn from the NZTC so I have one spot open.

If you are looking to put a team together then please get in touch. Currently I also have one player looking for a team so don't worry if you don't have a full complement as I can furnish players.

In fact if you are an orphan and would like to participate, contact me and I'll put a team together for you.

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End Times: Elven Big Brother

So the 22nd of November is confirmed for our next instalment of End Times. And this time all is not well in the land of the Elves.

The word coming out of GW is as follows:

Over 6,000 years ago an Elven prince was denied his birthright. Now he seeks to reclaim it. The bloodiest, most tragic war of the End Times is about to begin. Be here on Saturday the 22nd of November to find out more.

They have even released a little video to go with it. Contained within is the secret text:

 

The flames await the Phoenix but the Dragon stands against him.

More angst than a teenager's Facebook page.

 

However I try to get the most important page reference - where it says you can add a Frostheart to your Brolock army.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Hobby Update - The Weekend That Was

So apart from my game versus Neil on Saturday, I managed to squeeze in a little bit of hobby over the weekend.

First I dug out the newly fashionable unpainted Pestigor I had in my model drawers downstairs.

I managed to find twelve of the little beasts and spent last evening removing flash and mould lines prior to painting. If I don't do this, the Prep Gestapo - Jack and Charlie - attack relentlessly.

They are now ready for priming and matching to the 25 I already have painted. I suspect I'll then do the normal headstone filler to give me the full 40 cow unit.

Downstairs I've had 19 Eternal Guard painted. I don't think they have ever seen the table in the seven years I've owned a Wood Elf army. With the release of the new book I thought "Wouldn't a unit of 30 be great! Or even three annoying units of 10?" Of course I couldn't face the thought of painting another Wood Elf so managed to talk Sam in painting an extra 12 for me.

Below is the finished unit:

Sam has done an excellent job matching the original style giving me a largely seamless unit. I have rebased the original - mixed herbs, static grass and SWM Autumn Leaves - and that helps tie them all together.

So is a horde of EG the new broken or will these stay dutifully on my shelf? Time will tell.

The eagle-eyed will notice a mummified skink on my work tray behind. Just a present from Nurgle the Cat!

 

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FOB NZ Rankings - WHFB Updated for Vermintide

The Fantasy rankings have been updated for Vermintide.


Alan Hughes, the winner of the event, enters the Top 20 for the first time.


The Best Army icons remain tightly held by the Top 10

Vermintide Results

The Vermintide event organised by Neil Williamson on Saturday attracted fourteen players - half of them attending their first tournament.


It was played with 1200 point armies over five rounds using scenarios that Neil developed for the event.


Here are the results:

Congrats to Alan Hughes on his first tournament win and Ryan and Hugh for podiuming. Nice to see Tane in the traditional JvdVL position.


As I understand it, Hagen Kerr won Best Presented for his Lizards - featuring an Oldblood on Carnosaur.


And Peter Williamson? What sort of form is that going into the Masters??!!??

Battle Report - Vampire Counts vs Warriors of Chaos 3000 Points

Yesterday the Warlords hosted Vermintide. Umpiring the event was Neil Williamson and knowing that there is significant downtime, I asked if he'd like a game.

We decided on 3000 points - no Grand Army, no End Times - and decided to roll up a scenario which turned out to be Blood & Glory. I had Fortitude of 7 while Neil had 6.

Vampire Counts

• Level 3 Blender Lord
• Level 1 Baby Vamp
• Wight King BSB with Nightshroud
• Level 1 Witch
• Banshee
• Cairn Wraith
• 2x 40 Zombies - Stds
• 40 Skeletons - Std
• 39 Ghouls
• 3x 5 Dire Wolves
• 2x 3 Varghiests
• 5 Hexwraiths
• 10 Black Knights
• Terrorgheist

Warriors of Chaos

• Galgruch
• Slaanesh BSB on Daemonic Mount
• 3 x 5 Slaanesh Marauder Horse - STDs
• 2x 12 Khorne Forsaken
• 5 Chaos Hounds
• Chimera
• Gorebeast Chariot
• 2x Chaos Spawn
• 3 Dragon Ogres
• Shaggoth
• Hellcannon
• 3 Skullcrushers

Neil rolled up Gateway, Blue Fire, Firestorm and Glean Magic while I had Vanhals, Hellish Vigour and 3x Invocation.

Here is the field of battle. The ruined tower is building, the two chapels are Impassable. The near forest was a Fungus Forest while far forest was Ordinary. The hills were, well, hills.

I deployed the Skeletons in the building and built my line from there. I knew Neil had to get at least one Fortitude from the "bus" to break me and I wanted to use it to try and dictate the battle. Hexwraiths are on my far left. My thinking was generally that them and the Vargheists were going to get the Marauder Horse which would break Neil.

Vermintide at the Warlords

Today Neil Williamson organised a five round 1200 point event at the Warlords.

This attracted fourteen players including 7 new to the tournament scene.

There seemed to be a good mix of armies there too.

I dropped in to give Neil a 3000 point game to help fill in his umpiring day (battle report to follow). When I left - after three rounds - Hugh Dixon was crushing all before him with Daemons.

I'll post the results once they become available.

 

Posted with Blogsy

New End Times Models on the Way

........unsurprisingly.


Both the rumoured Avatar of Khaine and plastic Vermin Lord have been all but confirmed.


There is also talk of additional Skaven kits (Yay) and a new warmachine for Dwarfs. This is some type of contraption with smashy fists. I'm hoping its a dual kit and they release a plastic Goblin Hewer updating the Storm of Chaos kit.


The real question is how much other Elf stuff we will get given they have not long released Dark Elves (and I guess High Elves). There has been talk that the number of new Elf kits will be relatively limited.


Any guess what we could see for the PEGs (besides Khaine)? I hope that we get a Malekith kit.

Back from Holiday

Okay, so I'm back from a week's holiday in Fiji.


Things should now get back to normal - internet coverage was very limited - an the posts should recommence.


I took the opportunity to read the Glottkin book while I was away and the End Times background continues to inspire me.


This weekend I intend to prime and start painting some bare metal Pestigors I have in the cupboard.


Putting aside the Chaos Ascendant material, the actual rules look okay. I have concerns from a balance point of view melding WoC, DoC and Beastmen but I'm not sure it's insurmountable (especially if you mono-God it). As Raffazza said on a recent Bad Dice podcast "At least it is not broken in a Dark Elf kind of way".


I really like the way that GW is moving the story arc forward and surprisingly aren't as averse to the consolidation of races as I thought that I'd be. I can certainly see that tournament organisers will have balance issues but they have that with the release of any new book.

End Times: Khaine

So the word on the street - and even making it's way to my bure in Fiji - is the next End Times book will be released in the next two months.

And it is the Elven volume!

So the PEGs are going to reunite to save the world.

But don't get too excited "white meat" - the fourth and penultimate volume is the trusted and honourable Underempire. No doubt they are coming to clean up the pieces before it all goes horribly wrong in Volume V: Arcahon

Kapiti Inepticon - 6/7 December

The Kapiti club are running an event on 6/7 December.

You can grab the details here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e7fpbcqcq91d8fy/Inepticon%20Tournament%20Pack.docx?dl=0

Opportunity for a final 2014 blast.

Posted with Blogsy

Dole Queue for the Daemonic BSB?

With the change to Daemon stability rules to bring them in line with Undead and no specific -1 wound due to presence of BSB, the role of the BSB in a Daemonic Legions of Chaos is greatly diminished.


Unless there is a specific banner you want and it is more expensive than the unit magic banner allowance or you're taking multiple units wanting banners.....he seems a bit redundant.


I'm expecting to see a few of them down at the Khandallah WINZ office.

Mr. Glottkin - Not So Large Afterall

Something interesting that I noted while reading through my new Glottkin book (bear in mind I have the electronic version not hardcopy) - Glottkin does not have the Large Target rule. This despite him being the largest Fantasy model GW have produced to date.


So what I here you say? Well it does have some interesting implications. It restricts his Inspiring Presence radius to 12" rather than the expected 18" (and KFC's 24"). This makes his Leadership 10 a little less impressive.


Bear this in mind if using or facing the Brothers Glott.


I may be missing something or it may be an oversight in the electronic version, so let me know if I'm incorrect.

2014 NZ Masters - Warhammer 40k

Pleased to announce the field for this year's Warhammer 40k Masters. The participants are:

• Haydn Korach (2013 Masters Champion)
• Christian Pride
• Dean Bradley
• James Davison
• David Foster
• Tim Adams
• Josh Evans
• Frank Redmond
• Shaun Moloney

Putting together the field has been a bit of a task with a significant portion of the higher ranked Warhammer 40k players being unavailable either because they are no longer playing the game or because they were unable to travel to Wellington for family or financial reasons. While this is totally understandable, it has required significant hours of work (and dozens of emails) to ensure that we have a competitive rankings-based field for the 7th Annual Masters. Corralling wargamers can be more difficult than herding cats.

The eagle-eyed will note that currently nine gamers are listed. There was a field of ten but unfortunately one player withdrew Monday. I am currently working to rectify that.

 Big thanks to Hagen Kerr for stepping up to umpire the event. I appreciate him giving up his weekend so that his peers can have a fun and competitive weekend.

 See you all in December.

Posted with Blogsy

2015 ETC Comp - The Framework

So the ETC AR Com has been busy and come up with the following framework for Comp at next year's event.

I have copied it below.

They asked Captains a series of questions and have then tried to toe a middle line based on the responses. Unfortunately by doing so they may have created a bit of a mishmash that satisfies nobody.

I personally see a lot of resistance to Scenarios given that they occur post the matchup process which encapsulates a high degree of skill.

Interesting they have decided to exclude the End Times armies. It might be harder to do that as more get released.

Special Characters is interesting. I suspect any mildly useful character will be banned leaving a bunch of characters no one will take. At that point you ask why bother? Better to just ban them all.

Anyway the formulation of the final comp set is going to be an interesting journey.

Ship in the popcorn!!

General Comp

All armies will be 2,400 points

450 point unit size cap

Simple Line of Site will be used

Undead Legions, Legions of Chaos and any armies from further End Times lists will not be used

Scenarios

The following five scenarios will be used with the 20-0 scoring system as described below:-

1: Battle line (normal game)

2: Dawn attack (army general and bsb may both re-roll their deployment rolls)

3: Meeting engagement (no reserve rolls, all units deploy on the board as normal)

4: Blood and glory - 150 vp's for first player break opponent, further 300 vp's if that player remains unbroken.

5: King of the hill - the player that holds the center point of the table at the end of turn 6 receives an additional 300 vp's - to hold this a unit must have fortitude (excluding bsb and General). If Center point is not held closest unit with fortitude gets additional vp's if equidistant then no-one gets them.

Before a game both players secretly pick which scenario they want to play,

Player A then rolls a d6
Roll of 1-2 - the game is played using the scenario player A chose
Roll of 3-4 - the game is played using the scenario player B chose
Roll of 5-6 - the game is played using the battle line scenario
(Note players may select battleline as their choice)


Magic

5 Dice Casting Cap will be in effect for all spells
Lore of Death spells will have a 4 dice casting cap in effect
The Lore of Shadow spell Mindrazor will have a 4 dice casting cap in effect
The Lore of Hashut will have a 4 dice casting cap in effect

Lore of undeath will be available to all wizards as follows :
4 dice casting cap
No ethereal units may be raised
Raised units give up victory points



Look out Sir 

Will be allowed against the following spells exact mechanism and number to be determined:

Final Transformation
Dwellers Below
Dreaded 13th


Special Characters

Special Characters will be allowed with some restrictions and will be dealt with after 1st core draft is produced, Special characters from End Times book will not be allowed.


Having settled on the above we are now working on the comp as detailed below.

Comp Approach

A pool comp system will be used where (working values) each army can select 5 choices from a pool of things and may take additional choices at the cost of having 100 points less to select their army from.

TK and VC will be able to use morgheists and morghasts

Beastmen, demons and warriors will be able to use blight kings

FOB NZ Rankings - Fantasy updated for Conquest

And so the End Times have arrived.

Congratulations to Basil Moskovis for being the "first" (and so far only) NZ player to wield Undead Legions at an event.

Looking at the results it seems as though the Elfpocalypse has largely bypassed Christchurch so far.

Well done to Rhys Hodgson on his win.

FOB NZ Rankings - Warhammer 40K Updated for Conquest

The rankings have been updated for Conquest Warhammer 40k held on the weekend in Christchurch.

This event proved to be the second largest of the year attracting 40 participants. Its inclusion sees Tim Adams enter the Top 10 and Josh Evans at #12.

Well done to Tim Joss for taking it out - I'm guessing with Imperial Fists

Wow...Thanks!

It must have been a slow news month.

The NZ Blog traffic stats are out for October and "Fields of Blood" achieved its highest ever ranking. Out of all NZ based blogs be they political, news, sports whatever, FOB was the 13th most popular - The Horned Rat will be very pleased.

Thanks to everybody who visits and reads the posts.

Games Workshop Painting Videos

Games Workshop get a lot of brickbats....however when they do something right they should get the plaudits.

Coinciding with the End Times releases they have been posting a series of videos on Youtube to help people with the painting of the models.

These are great and excellent fodder to watch when painting. They contain clear instructions that if followed are great in achieving pleasing results. I've included one here so you can get a feel for the videos.


And best of all they are free!

Hobby Update

Weather in Wellington was pretty patchy yesterday so managed to catch up on a far amount of hobby.

As you can see from the previous post, I finished my 40 Skeleton Warrior unit for the VCs. They required quite a bit of painting - livery and shields were red - to tie them in with my existing army. I've been doing this over the past couple of weeks. Once I had finished re-paint and wash I based them and then magnetised the bases.

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a box of Sisters of the Thorn from GW Lower Hutt as I wanted to expand my unit to seven (a local gamer has snaffled the other three). So while I listened to some podcasts yesterday I clipped and constructed the two Sisters. To avoid ridicule from Charlie and Jack I then spent 20 minutes removing mold lines. Finally they were sprayed black. These two models are next on the painting desks.

While spraying these, I also sprayed shields for my Black Knight bus. Up until now they have been running around sans shields. Given I'm claiming the armour save I better put them on.

Three or four months ago there was a lot of the old metal Eternal Guard on Trade Me. There were 25 models which was more than I wanted. I checked the bidders and the leading bid was local Woodie Rex Foote. A couple of emails later and we split the lot. Now the problem with buying Wood Elves is that you have to paint them....well no. I was lucky enough to talk Sam Whitt into painting them to match the existing unit of 19 and now I have 30+ Eternal Guard. Yesterday I started the basing process. For my Woodies I have made a basing mix from raiding the pantry for Mixed Herbs. This is then PVAed, painted and drybrushed before I add Static Grass and the SWM Autumn Fallen Leaves. I'm sure that a unit of 30 EG will become the new filth. Not.

On a roll now, I started making a textured movement tray for my Hexwraith unit. Using the Sarissa tray as a base I've added fences, dirt etc and now it is just waiting for the Static Grass.

So a pretty eventful hobby day with lots of niggly jobs done. Next tasks are the two Sisters and finishing the VC Terrorgheist.

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Much Needed VC Core

I have 110 Zombies and 80 Crypt Ghouls painted but no Skseleton Warriors. That's now changed as today I finished up a block of 40 to give me more Core options when playing VCs.

This was a refresher project where I picked up some Skellies on Trade Me and some off eBay that had were already painted. The models have had their shields/livery repainted, had washes applied and been rebased to match my army.

I noticed that the Standard Bearer didn't have a head....nor did the body he had on his banner pole. Rather than find a new one, I reckon it give the unit an excuse when it does something unexpected.

So now my Vamp Lord has the option of leaving his "bus" at home and striking out with the hoi polloi if he feels the urge.

 

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Tablescapes Detail

One of the things I noticed in my post the other day on the new Tablescapes tiles was that I didn't show the base of any of the tiles.

As you can see the base has considerable support underlying the detail. This is similar too - but not quite as extensive - as the GW Realm of Battle Gameboard. Certainly the tiles appear rigid enough to ensure that they won't warp.

Here is a close up of the rubble. It looks like it will take both paint and weathering powders well to achieve a good result. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can achieve.

 

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NZ Masters 2014.....Coming Soon

31 October sees the arbitrary end of the tournament season here in New Zealand, where a line is drawn for Masters qualification.

I have spent a large part of the last week emailing potential invitees to try and construct fields for the various events. The deadline for acceptances is tomorrow evening but the Warhammer Fantasy has crystallised and so I thought I'd list the players here so they can begin their planning.

• Dan Butler
• McCrae Louden
• Sam Whitt
• Antony Kitson
• James Brown
• Jeff Kent
• Kelly Gragg
• Greg Greenfield
• Peter Williamson
• John Willinbruch

The eagle-eyed amongst you will see that there are only ten players - typically the Masters field is twelve. That is because there were a number that declined their invitation . I fall into that camp preferring to umpire the event rather than play in it. All ten players fall into the Top 16 in the Rankings which means that the competition for the podium should be tight.

So good luck guys, see you in December.