WarMancer

Book Review: Legion of the Damned

2012-02-11T13:53:00.004-05:00

I recently completed reading this book on my nook. I believe it will be out in paperback later this month. Firstly, this book is mostly about the Excoriator Space Marines, a second chapter founding from the Imperial Fist. The Legion of the Damned do show up at the end though so the title is not completely a misrepresentation. Once this fact is accepted, then you can relax and enjoy the book, and in my opinion, one of the better read from the Black Library.

The main character is the Scourge, equivalent to a chapter champion, who is seeking to to redeem himself for a previous failure against the Alpha Legion (they are everywhere don't you know). He is tempted to wallow in his own despair but instead is forced to duty with men who loath him. There is nice juxtaposition here not just between despair and action, but also command and service, honor to self and honor to his chapter. And only the periphery of his awareness he is watched but his own personal demon. The character development is good for the Scourge, as well as others about him. There are the Ecclesiarch he is forced to serve, and the humans who serve as his attendants. There are also Sisters of Battle and Chaos Space Marines.

The writing is crisp and well paced. The plot unfold with some nice twist and surprises; stereotypes are present (perhaps more as archetypes) but not indulged. There are no superlatives and in large part, believable, yes believable even though 40k. Though the writing is mostly from the Scourge perspective, there are sufficient little vignettes to provide a 360 view of the event.

This is the first book by Rib Sanders I have read and I am rather pleased. Along with Aaron Dembski-Bowden he is an author to read for 40k. I look forward to his next book.

Update: Rob Sander just announced he is writing a novella for the upcoming Horus Heresy compilation here. This is most excellent. One of my favorite Black Library author writing about my favorite chaos marines legion.

WotR: Skirmish

2011-12-17T19:43:00.004-05:00

These rules modifications are meant to play WotR without moving trays. Why?
1. Skirmish game looks better on the table top.
2. Skirmish game allows better integration of terrain.
3. The WotR rule book contains all the profiles whereas many SBG sourcebooks are no longer available.

The rules are changed as follow:
I. Companies & Formation (p24)
Movement trays are not used.
There are no facings.
All models within a formation must remain within 1” of another model of the same formation.
II. Dice and Measuring (p27)
Measuring is from each model.
III. Move Phase (p32)
No model may move more than its move allowance.
All models within a formation must remain within 1” of another model of the same formation.
IV. Shoot Phase (p36)
A. Calculate Number of Dice
Shooting Directly: Each model with line of sight and range to a target generate one shooting die.
Accuracy Bonus: Apply for every 8 infantry models shooting directly, 2 cavalry models shooting directly, or single monster model shooting directly.
Supporting Fire: For every 8 infantry models, 2 cavalry models, or monster model in the formation that cannot shoot directly but has range to the formation’s target, an extra shooting die is generated.
B. Removing Casualties
Casualty models to be removed must start with the model furthest away from any command model of the formation. A command model in the formation is any any upgrade listed in the Command Companies section (p60) and any epic hero in the formation.
An infantry formation reduced to four models or less is removed in total. A cavalry formation reduced to one model it must also be removed as casualty.
V. Charge Phase (p42)
Choose Spearhead. The spearhead must be a command model upgrade listed in the Command Companies section (p60) or any epic hero in the formation. If the formation does not have a command model or a hero, then the closest model to the charged formation is the spearhead.
Move Remaining Companies. Change to move remaining models.
VI. Fight Phase (p46)
A. Calculate Number of Dice
1. Fighting Directly: Each infantry or cavalry model in base to base contact generates one die. Each monster model in base to base contact generates a number of attach dice per its profile. Each Galadhrim Knight model generates two dice.
2. Combat Modifiers:
a. Charging infantry and monsters: +1 die for every eight models.
b. Charging cavalry and flying monsters against infantry and monsters: + 3 dice for every model
c. Charging cavalry and flying monsters against cavalry and flying monsters: +1 die for every model
d. Battle Skill: +1 for every fight value higher than charged model for every 8 charging infantry models, every 2 cavalry models, or every monster. In addition bonus dice are generated for the difference between single hero model fight value and the target formation fight value .
e. Unstoppable Charge: +D3 dice for every 8 charging infantry models, every 2 cavalry models, or every monster.
f. Disordered: the maximum number of dice for a disordered formation is 1 for every 8 infantry models, every 2 cavalry models, or every monster.
B. Removing Casualties
Casualty models to be removed must start with the model furthest away from any command model of the formation. A command model in the formation is any any upgrade listed in the Command Companies section (p60) and any epic hero in the formation.
An infantry formation reduced to four models or less is removed in total. A cavalry formation reduced to one model it must also be removed as casualty.

Edit:
So we tried out a 500 points game this week and it did not work. This all comes down to the tactical lost of clear companies in both the movement phase, placement of chargers, as well as facing in combat.

GothiComp 2011 entries

2011-08-07T14:55:00.003-04:00

All the entries are here.

BFG: Kher-Ys Corsair Eldars

2011-07-30T17:30:00.007-04:00

My just painted Corsair Eldar, to match that of my 40k Eldar.
I've also submitted these pics to GothicComp annual BFG model competition.
For more information on GothicComp, go here or here for previous submissions.

The color scheme is similar to my 40k Eldar. And since I am planning on fielding Prince Yriel, and similar to Iyanden, have a large Wraith presence, Corsair Eldar seems a better fit than a Craftworld fleet.

My colors:
1. prime black
2. mechrite red sails
3. hormagaunt purple body
4. gunmetal "heads"
5. bleached bone jewels
6. necron abyss guns
7. adeptus gray "rods"
8. shining gold eldar glyph
9. purple wash

40k Kroots

2011-07-04T19:28:00.005-04:00

I love these models. Their rules are ok, a bit too easy to kill, but the ability to shoot with rapid fire 2 and fight with two weapons in hand to hand at strength 4 is good.

Colors as follows:
Prime: desert yellow
Hounds: Khemri brown
Ox: Calthan brown.
Belly: Tau sept ochre
Eyes: orkhide green
Maw: red gore
Nails: orkhide shade
Spikes: bleached bone
Jewelry: dwarf bronze
Cloth: knarloc green
Cloak: dark angel green over, orkhide shade under
Fur: gretchin green
Bones: bleached bone
Leather: bestial brown
Containers: scorched brown
Guns: chaos black
Weapon grasp: scaly green
Blades: gun metal
Wash:?

BFG: Litko markers

2011-06-23T19:31:00.003-04:00

A friend in my gaming group discovered and got some of these from Litko. I think they are fabulous though a tad expensive as i already have 2 sets of cardboard marker worth from two starter set. Note though that there is tentative plans for all torpedo markers to be bases on 20 mm x 20 mm bases.

BFG Fleet Overview: Orks

2011-06-18T05:00:00.020-04:00

Its been a while since I have blog reviewed BFG fleets. The High Admirals, GW's designated stewards for BFG, have been busy updating the rules and we are now awaiting formal approval for them. Their work can be viewed here. Personally I hope the entire rule sets get consolidated and published as BFG 2nd ed. I have taken the liberty to include some of these updates in my review of the orks under the experimental section. Secondly, I want to mention that the annual BFG modeling competition is once again near. More information for the 2011 competition can be found here. All of the Ork images in this post are from previous entries with the exception of the Ork ravager escorts, which is by flips001 at Deviant Art.

Background.
Just like in 40k, BFG Orks are presented with similar theme. Over all, they use crude technology though it can be surprisingly effective. Their escorts are above average in durability though primitive (less maneuverable) just like their boyz. Their cruisers are tough and highly veriable just like their meks and kans. They are largely a charge in and fight, just like in 40k. What is particularly fascinating to me about BFG Orks is their relationship to Necrons. Per fluff, Orks may have been engineered by the Old Ones to fight the Necrons. Necrons in BFG is particularly tough and among some considered as too tough. But the Necrons' lack of shield is easily exploited by Orks for hit and run attacks, boarding, and ramming (the latter two cannot be saved by the Necrons' notorious armor saves). These three abilities are among the Orks' strength.

Strengths.
Firstly, Orks auto pass All Ahead Full special orders. Note that auto pass does not mean auto perform as a preceding failure of another special order still means that no further special orders can be tested for. Thus all intended All Ahead Full special orders should be conducted prior to any other special orders be tested for. Though this only result in an additional 2D6" movement forward rather than the 4D6" for other fleets, it still facilitate the Orks to close early in the game. In addition, to ram a ship must first pass All Ahead Full and then make a leadership test. Auto passing All Ahead Full more than compensate for the lower Ork leaderships. Secondly and speaking of ramming, Orks have escorts designed for ramming. Ramming is easier to do for escorts against larger ship, requiring only a leadership test with 1D6 rather than 2D6 which mean these ram ships shouldn't have much of a problem hitting their targets. Normally each ramming ship rolls a number of attack dice equal to its full hull points against the target's facing armor and for regular escorts, this means 1 roll but the Ork ram ship gives your four attack dice rather than just one! The rammed ship rolls against the ram ship's front armor of "6". Thirdly, the Orks get a +1 on boarding rolls, only Space Marines do better. Fourthly Orks can field fighter-bombers. Fighter bombers are actually very versatile and reliable as attack crafts to take out enemy ordnance and for bombing runs. Each fighter-bombers that survive turret defenses will make D3 - defensive turrets bombing runs plus one, meaning Ork fighter-bomber is guaranteed to make at least one bombing run (per 2010 FAQ). Fifthly, Ork cruisers are 10 hull points rather than the standard 6-8 though their turrets and shields are only one each. Finally orks have heavy guns, 15cm batteries that inflict two hull damages for each hits and with the 2010 FAQ can fir simultaneously as its weapon batteries, thus avoiding any negative modifiers for blast markers. Together a very good list of strengths.

Weaknesses.
The first and biggest weakness to the Orks all their leadership roll is modified down one. Leadership is essential for special orders so this means other than All Ahead Full Orks are less likely to do any other tricks. The second weakness to the Orks is that they are limited to 6 cruisers in their list. These really are their best ships in my opinion and in addition, will limit the maximum number of battlecruisers and battleships to three. The third weakness to Orks in BFG is that with few exceptions, nearly all their weapons firing are limited to just one arc each, front, left or right. The last weakness is that many of their weapon and launches are variable with each attack. Personally I think this is more characterful rather than a weakness, but if it bothers you enough, take a warlord (with a reroll) and pay the upgrade to allow re-rolls for gunz firepower.

Fleet Selections: Cruisers
To really use the Orks' strengths, the fleet should be built around terror ship cruisers (pictured above). These are your carriers with a set 4 bays for fighter bombers or assault boats (for hit and runs). The terror ship is one of the cheapest (185 points) 4 bays carrier in the game and it has 10 hull points, 2 more than any other; unfortunately it only has one turret and one shield where other fleets would have two each. Like most Ork ships it is built to attack rather than defend. You could take a warlord with the shield upgrade; I think a warlord on a terror ship is a good way to go to give it that re-roll to ensure that Reload Ordnance special order. If points doesn't permit, or for variety, the other Ork cruiser the kill kroozer (155 points) could be considered. Instead of the terror ship launch bays, it has 4 heavy gunz each starboard and port.

Fleet Selection: Escorts.
The ram ship is self evidently the best Ork escort. It is the only Ork ship that has weapons that can fire in left/front/right fire arc and can turn 90 degree. The ram ship is also the cheapest Ork ship (25 points), fast at 25cm move, and as previously mentioned, it is built for ramming and a core strength for the fleet. A good alternative escort is the ravager attack ship (pic above) with torpedo capability potentially equivalent to most cruisers (1D6 strength launch). In addition, per the 2010 FAQ has the ravager at 40 points and 2 turrets (one of the weakness for escort is attack crafts). The other two escort classes are alright with one armed with D6 batteries (the onslaught) and one armed with 4 heavy gunz (the savage gunship). Between these two, I think the savage gunship maybe better with faster move (25cm rather than 20) and 5 points cheaper (30 rather than 35 points) though its weapons are only 15cm rather than 30 cm ranged.

Fleet Selection: Battlecruisers and Battleships.
Three of the four battleships available here are actually character ships, meaning you can field only one of each. The best is probably the Dethdeala battleship with the best weapon output, 4D6" All Ahead Full rather than 2D6", and armed with a strength 6 prow bombardment cannon. A good alternative is the Gorbag's revenge as it is a carrier capable of 5 +D3 attack craft launches and simultaneously D6+2 torpedoes. The combo of simultaneous attack crafts and torpedoes allow you to overwhelm enemy turrets. The other battleship is the Slamblasta armed with 2 prow 45cm ranged lances. The fourth battleship is the kroolboy with 6 prow heavy gunz and like the Deathdeala can All Ahead Full on 4D6". All battleships have 12 hull points, two more than your standard cruisers for about 50% more points, but have two shields and 3 turrets. They can also switch leadership with a cruiser. Included in this category is the hammer battlekroozer with the same hit points as your cruiser but 2 shields and 2 turrets. It has more firepower an almost as much bays (D3+1 rather than the 4). Since battlecruisers can be squadroned with regular cruisers to mitigate against ork lower leadership and share the warlord’s reroll, battlecruiser seems a better choice than battleships in general.

Fleet Selection: Others.
The Ork list also has options for a 600 points behemoth Ork hulk. It is ponderous in its movement, only able to turn every other game turn, but has its own 5cm gravity well! Its leadership is always 6 and its warlord upgrade options are slightly modified with shields costing 50 rather than 25 points. Naturally it is awesome in firepower and can serve as your pirate base in campaign games. The other special fleet option are roks, mobile planetary defenses with 8 hull points armed with torpedoes, gunz and heavy gunz (no bays). Roks move 10cm ahead each turn but can slide sideward on All Ahead Full; if this slide is 10cm or more than the new movement direction is in the same direction as the slide and this is the only way the rok can turn. I think both the hulk and the roks are amusing additions to the Ork list. A hulk and only roks list would be cheap to build financially but doesn't seem to build much on Ork strengths.

Experimental Rules Notes.
These are proposals to GW by the High Admirals. Firstly, there are clan squadron upgrade options. Goffs get an additional +1 for boarding and +1 bonus to test for ramming. Evil Sunz gets +5cm movement. Bad Moonz can reroll gunz number of attack die. Deathskulls get looted torpedoes or lances. Blood Axes can take Imperial Navy or Chaos escorts. Snakebites get free +1 bonus for Brace for Impact tests. Secondly there are more customization options to upgrade squadrons including ram prow (+1 leadership test for ramming and one auto hull damage before any dice are rolled), tellyporta (for 30cm rather than 10cm hit and run attacks) and Shokk-Attack lances. Thirdly are three new ships, a terror ship built for assaults (essentially a Goff terror ship), a light gun cruiser (though i am not sure why anyone would take this at 6 hull points even at 90 points), and an escort for assault (counts as two hull points for boarding value but test to ram on 2D6 even against larger ships). For more information on these options as well as the 2010FAQ go here.

Fleet Tactic
Your fleet should be built with a good mix of capital ships (cruisers and battlecruiser/battleship) and escorts (ram ships and ravagers). You will have the usual choice between many bays or only a few. Heavy ordnance would be hammer battlecruisers with 2 terror ships and some ravagers. Alternatively take a battlecruiser and two kill kroozers for a gun line. Always take at least 4 bays per 1000 points and with Orks, there should always be a place for ram ships. The Ork list also give you the option to take a warlord for every 500 points and while not mandatory, should always be considered. To start with, all ahead full toward the enemy and hold your launches until within launch and strike range. Your front line should be ram ships and your second line should be your ordnance ships. Also remember that ships on all ahead full cannot turn outside of gravity well so the initial orientation of your models will be very important to get the maximum out of your auto pass all ahead full. Your opponent with try to use his greater maneuverability to keep away. In summary I think if played to their strength Orks is a formidable fleet in BFG, competitive against Necrons but likely much less so against Eldar (extreme maneuverability).

Warp Rift

2011-06-09T18:51:00.005-04:00

Issue 32 is out and can be found here.

The Black Ship Inquisitor cruiser conversion by Mangozac is amazing!

Mangozac tells me the conversion kit is available for purchase at resin addict.

Rumor: BFG re-release in October?

2011-06-05T14:40:00.002-04:00

rumor from BoLS has a surprise from GW in October/Fall

i am hoping it is BFG revised.
1. nice pic of BFG in this month white dwarf
2. BFG updated has been received now 5 months, enough time for them to accept, condense, and sent to printer
3. there is usually a non-core release in the fall for christmas time

ofcourse it is mostly wishful thinking on my part as well
it could be Warhammer (though Warhammer is getting storm of magic this summer already) or even LotR!

BFG Images

2011-05-18T21:11:00.002-04:00

Some nice art work of BFG by Zach Graves
HT: Concept Ships

Ghost Hunting

2011-05-10T02:05:00.002-04:00

For whatever reason, we have been watching shows about haunting and ghost hunting. Like my previous post about surviving potential horrors I have given some thoughts about conducting and surviving a ghost hunting mission.

1. Plan for horror and mayhem. Assume there is a potential for a bad outcome and make plans accordingly. Thus know the rules for surviving potential horrors. This is not to say you cannot remain a skeptic, just that you have to be prepared for the worse. The worse could come as hostile supernaturals, hostile humans and animals, as well as hostile environment conditions.

2. Have the right mission composition. Mission size should be 6-9 members. If this is an "in and out" mission, six is sufficient as this will permit 2 active teams of 3 members each, the minimum size to be on guard and survive. If this is a "camp out" mission, bring 9 to allow for shifts with two active teams while the third sleeps. Each team of three should have at least one man and one woman. This allows for a broader empathic reception as well as targets for contacts. Each team should contain at least one if not all to be capable of deadly force. Each team should contain one member scientifically oriented, one member spiritually tuned, and one member psychologically aware.Scientifically trained provides for skepticism and critical analysis or interpretation. Spiritually tuned so as to remain open to what cannot be explained. Psychologically aware so to maintain team function and guard against potential subversion of team members. Preferably all members should have undergone some sort of background and psychological screening.

3. Maintain communication. All members of the mission must be in constant live communication with each other team members and mission members. All communications must be recorded for future reviews. The mission must also have communication with the outside before, during, and after. Before means someone else not on mission must be aware of the plans for the mission, including personnel, place, time of start and expected time the mission is to end. During the mission at least one member of each team is capable of independent communication with the outside world. In this day and age of cell phone, all team members should be capable of independent communication. After the mission is to end, there should be an automatic plan for a rescue should there is no communication to cancel rescue.

4. Establish a sanctuary. The sanctuary will serve as both the base of operation as well as a point of safety to retreat to. It must be defensive against material hostile as well as potential aggression against spiritual hostile. The sanctuary must also be independently powered and supplied. Do not rely solely on the existing power grid for energy and backup power generators must be brought. Supply should be sufficient to survive at least one of not two through three days longer than planned. The sanctuary should be large enough for one team to remain active in monitoring activities, one team to sleep, and one team to defend. For an "in and out" mission, the sanctuary should be just outside the structures to be investigated, preferable also guarding the primary entry and exit path. For a "camp out" mission the sanctuary should be just inside the structures to be investigated, preferable also guarding the primary entry and exit way. The ability to at least maintaining awareness if not control of the in and out cannot be understated.

5. Have the right equipment. Beyond the essentials for any mission, such as weapons,religious icons, communication equipment, survival gears, there will be additional equipment necessary for the mission. All members should be equipped with night vision goggles, helmet video cameras for normal spectrum as well as infrared. All video feed should be actively reviewed live back at the sanctuary by the base team. Otherwise the team members should have both hands free. The rest of the "ghost hunting' equipment should be deployed. These include video cameras (both night vision and infrared), audio recording devices, and any other monitors (electromagnetic, temperature, etc). Each location should be recorded from at least two vantages: one from the main entry way and one of the main entry way. Additional vantages could be acquired as needed. Camera views should be wide angle rather than through camera sweeps to reduce the chance of a miss as well as minimize energy consumption. They should be battery powered or powered by direct cable and wire to the sanctuary power source.

6. Consider dogs. Seriously, dogs would complement human abilities with their heighten senses in what they can see, hear, and smell. The dogs would have to be trained to obey obviously, and be large enough for aggressive actions. Each team of three humans should then be reinforced by a dog.

7.Have a back up plan. By back up I mean either plans for rescue and or reinforcement. The mission rescue teams must also be similarly composed as the primary mission team with the following difference. The mission rescue composition should be composed of 3 teams of 3 each. Two of the teams will enter and search, working in tandem rather than splitting up; the third remains outside to coordinate with the outside world. The two active teams must remain in close proximity as there is strength in numbers. This cannot be disregarded given that the primary mission teams have been incapacitated in some way, potentially due to hostile action or environment. Numbers are also necessary to assist in rescue and recovery of any survivors of the primary mission teams. The rescue team mission is not to investigate or to collect data but seek, rescue, and potentially destroy any and all threats. Thus everyone on the team must be capable and inclined for deadly force application. One member of each team must be medically capable to render aid.

Photon Cutter Dystopian Wars Templates

2011-04-23T16:18:00.003-04:00

Here is the movement templates for Dystopian Wars that I previously mentioned.

Rumor: GW to switch from metal to resin

2011-04-06T22:41:00.000-04:00

Plastics will stay as is but the metal models are being recalled and to be recast in resin?

Link

The GW games i play are predominantly metal: Warmaster, BFG, and LotR. I have an all metal SoB and Khand army already.
I wonder if these game systems will switch as well.

Movement Templates for Uncharted Seas & Dystopian War

2011-02-20T19:22:00.008-05:00

Recently I ordered these movement templates for Uncharted Seas from Photon Cutter Studio.

They were similar to the Litko templates except the turning templates allow a 180 turn, which i thought make them superior. I ordered them through my LFGS (which ordered them through Fat Boys Games distribution?). Unfortunately when i got them the medium turning template was missing and instead i got 2 large ones. I emailed Tom at Photon Cutter Studio and without hesitation offered me a replacement free of charge. I also inquired about a similar set for Dystopian war and he offered them for my troubles, Wow. Within 2 weeks they arrived an everything is great. Thank you so much Tom for a fabulous customer service experience.
I eagerly await the opportunity to use both sets on the table top. Have a go yourself if you play either Uncharted Seas or Dystopian War.

Tournament

2011-01-02T07:01:00.000-05:00

I found this site yesterday:
Table Top Tournaments

It appears to be an attempt to track all tournaments and players for table top games. Many many different table top games.
I registered :).

BFG: 2010 FAQ

2011-01-01T13:45:00.004-05:00

The latest FAQ is done. A total of 30 pages. I guess that is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because it should clear up many fuzzy items. Bad because it suggests the original rules set was rather fuzzy. Oh well.

But the greatest significance is that BFG still has life. It breathes!

oh, and of course, Happy New Year!

Christmas

2010-12-25T19:16:00.002-05:00

This has been a lovely Christmas day. Soft snow is steadily streaming down. I hope everyone out there has a safe, warm, and love fill day.

Uncharted Seas: the Factions

2010-12-12T19:56:00.008-05:00

I recently finished reading the rules for Uncharted Seas, a fantasy based naval game. I have decided to get into this game for two reasons. Firstly, I have been active in a map based fantasy campaign, and am in the early stages of planning a map based LotR campaign for the Spring. Secondly, I think the rules for Uncharted Seas appear sound and simple, and the model lines appear good as well. Both good rules and good models should allow for a fun experience. As soon as I play a game I will post further thoughts, but for now I want to talk about how to incorporate the 8 different Uncharted Seas factions into either Warhammer Fantasy Battles or LotR.

Elves are elves. With Warhammer Fantasy these could be either High Elves or Dark Elves. Certainly Wood Elves as well if they leave their green forest. With LotR these again can easily be representing High Elves in particular or elves in general.

Dwarves are also dwarves. With Warhammer as well as LotR these will fit well enough. Sure the Iron dwarves may be a tad more technologically advanced compared to LotR dwarves but close enough.

Orcs are orcs. They should fit with either Warhammer orks or LotR Angmar or Mordor list.

These humans are a perfect fit for Warhammer Empire. They should also be acceptable for Bretonnians. With LotR they could represent any humans but at a more technologically advance level. Personally I would keep these are Gondor, Arnor, and perhaps Rohan.

These undead should be fine with either Warhammer Vampire Counts or Tomb Kings. They might also be a reasonable option for the undead of Angmar or Gondor in LotR.

These guys are technically dwarves with magic casters so for Warhammer the natural fit would be Chaos Dwarves. However, if you leave the dwarves aside, they should be good for Skaven as well. The closest LotR faction to this might be Isengard.

Not sure how to fit these guys in with Warhammer but I think with the background of elite warriors, magic casting, and availability of flying dragons make these reasonable proxy for Chaos Warriors.

These guys might be good proxy for Ogre Kingdom because of their powerful cannons ... but not really. For LotR I think they might be reasonable Fallen Kingdoms of Khand in particular, but also Umbar and maybe Harad.

Don't know where to fit Ogre Kingdom but maybe the Ralgard might do. Just don't take balloons?

Edit:
On second thought, a ninth faction is coming out for Uncharted Seas, the Sky Pirates. The idea of a pirate fleet of balloons from the Ogre central homeland is fairly appealing.

Edit 2:
On third thought I think the Dragon Lords would also be reasonable proxy for Lizardmen. They have a carrier of mini-dragons that could be modified to be a carrier of terradon riders.

Warmaster Thoughts

2010-11-01T20:48:00.002-04:00

I love warmaster because how the army looks on the battlefield. I currently have three armies, Kislev, Dwarves, and Khemri. Kislev i bought because of the bears. Dwarves i bought because i got a good deal at an auction at a gaming convention once. Khemri was actually my first army and it is a great all around army. I currently have components for three more armies: High Elves, Skaven, and Lizardmen. High elves because the model line and the list is great. Skaven because i love the fluff and a horde of rats seems awesome. Lizardmen because they are my main Fantasy Battle army.

I build each army to 3000 points, with a core of 1500 points and 3 500 points additions, one for open field battles, one for besieging, and one for defending in a siege. These after all are the common battles for armies. Army components for open field battles are cavalry, chariots or large monsters. Army components for besieging are armored infantry and artillery. Army components for defending in a siege include archers, artillery, and flyers. I think flyers are important in defending in a siege because they can sally forth and take out enemy artillery. Thus it appears to me an all around army should be able to do all three. An army should also have a flyer mount so a hero can assist in an open field battle, in attacking defended units, and to sally forth with flyers. An all around army should have all four: flyer mounts, offensive units, besieging units, and defending flyers.

Here is my review of the different warmaster currently available.
Araby: flying carpet mount, knights & elephants, armored infantry but no artillery, and flying carpets.
Bretonnian (tournament list): pegasus, knights, trebuchet, and pegasus knights.
Chaos: dragon, knights & dragon ogre, armored infantry but no artillery, and harpies.
Demons: wings, steeds of Slaanesh & beast of Nurgle & greater demons, no armored infantry or artillery, and screamers of Tzeentch.
Dark Elf: manticore, cold one knights and the war hydra, repeating bolt thrower, and harpies.
Dwarves: no flyer mount, no cavalry or chariots or monsters, armored infantry and cannons, and gyrocopters.
Empire: griffon, knights and steam tank, no armored infantry but lots of artillery, but no flyers.
High Elves: eagle and dragon mounts, knights and chariots and dragon rider, bolt thrower, and eagles.
Kislev: no flyer mount, knights and bears, no armored infantry or artillery, no flyers.
Lizardmen: no flyer mount, cavalry and stegadon, kroxigors, and terradons
Orcs & Goblins: wyvern, boar riders and wolf chariots, black orcs and ogres and rock lobbers, but no flyers.
Skaven: no flyer mount, doom wheel, stormvermins and rat ogres and warp cannons, but no flyers.
Undead Khemri Tomb King: dragon, chariots and sphinx and bone giants, bone thrower and skull chukka, and carrions.
Vampire Countt: winged nightmare, knights and black coach, grave guards but no artillery, and no flyers.

The armies in bold have all the requisites, the italicized armies do not. I would rate them further as follows:
Top tier: High elves
Second tier: Bretonnian, Dark elves and Undead
Third tier: Araby, Empire and Chaos
Fourth tier: Demons, Dwarves, Lizardmen, Orcs & Goblins, Skaven, and Vampire Counts
Fifth tier: Kislev

Warmaster Khemri/Tomb King

2010-10-29T21:19:00.001-04:00

The Army:

Command & Cavalry

Chariots:

Skeletons:

Artillery:

Monsters & Creatures:

BFG: New Space Marine Rules

2010-10-23T14:54:00.001-04:00

Final updates for Space Marine and some eldar stuffs now available here.

Key content:
Venerable Battle Barge that may be an Imperial or Chaos battleship, grand, battle or heavy cruiser
3 variants for Strike Cruisers
and a fortress monestary

Warmaster Dwarves

2010-10-08T05:55:00.001-04:00

Chalice of Night Campaign

2010-10-04T19:33:00.003-04:00

This is the name of our fantasy battle campaign name. It entails gathering up the gems of the Chalice of Night go gain unspeakable power?

Anyhoo, here is my updated campaign map and realm within. The stars represent fortresses, the targets cities, the single dark circle my capital, and the numbers represent armies.

Fantasy Battle Campaign

2010-10-02T22:04:00.003-04:00

I recently joined a map based campaign for Fantasy Battle 8th edition rules. I will be fielding my Lizardmen.
Here is the world in its virginal state.

Here is my realm.

To my West and Southwest is an Empire realm. To my Northwest is a Bretonnian realm. To my Northeast I believe are some High Elves. To my East across the water are Skaven. Immediately North of me is a fortress of Beastmen.

BFG Model Competition 2010

2010-08-31T08:43:00.002-04:00

GothiComp 2010 is up and running.
Voting threads here
Gallery thread here

Comments on other entries to follow.

Empire: Peripheral Wars

2010-08-09T18:57:00.003-04:00

Found these pics at Concept Ships.
They appear to be for a game from Russia? Wish i knew more about it.

more images here.

Warmaster: Kislev

2010-07-24T15:51:00.006-04:00

Finally, my warmaster Kislev army pictures:

Space Tables at FTW Games

2010-07-15T22:33:00.002-04:00

Just waiting for BFG.

Tuesday Night, July 20th at 630p.

BFG Tau Gallery

2010-07-12T21:12:00.004-04:00

These are some pics of my recently finished Specialist Tau BFG fleet. I have also submitted some choice selections for GothicComp 2010. To submit your pics, send them to comps@tacticalwargames.net. There are two categories: Fleet and Ship/Squadron. Fleet category consists of 500 - 1000 pts worth of ships. Ship/Squadron category is a single ship, 2 light cruisers, or a squadron of escorts.

BFG "Demo" Game Session

2010-07-05T15:51:00.002-04:00

I am planning on a BFG gaming session at 630 pm on Tuesday night on July 20th at the FTW game store. If you have a fleet and know how to play, great; bring 500 pts. If you don't learn how to play, no problems. Bring what you have or I'll lend you some models. I'll help you learn to game.

BFG resources: Rules and Fleet lists can be found here and
Turn Sequence
How to inflict damage

FTW Game Store Review

2010-06-19T16:03:00.003-04:00

About a year and a half ago our local GW store closed down. Fortunately, our gaming community continued onward with games being played in basements and garages across the greater Richmond VA area. While there were a few game stores in the area, most were small stores with limited gaming areas. This month a new game store opened up in the Richmond area, FTW. FTW stands for "for the win" and their website is here. Here are my thoughts.

Space.: A
The store is rather spacious, with 8 4x6' tables with terrain to play on. This will easily accommodate most gaming nights and even a tournament of 16. There are also about 3-4 smaller tables that are meant for card game plays. Without these they probably have space enough for another 2 4x6' tables.

Stock: B
The variety of games and hobby supplies is good. There is Spartan games stuffs for Uncharted Seas as well as Firestorms. There is Flames of War, Confrontation, Warmachine, Infinity, as well as a few board type games as well as a few other such as Ultra Forge. Naturally there is a wall of GW products from 40k to Warhammer and LotR/WotR. There are also GW gaming supplies, along with Gale Force 9. Aside from the variety the amount of materials seems small for what i perceive as the more popular product lines: GW, FoW, and Warmachine/Hordes. As of this posting there is also not much in the way of card games, general board games ,or video games that might appeal more to the general public.

Customer Experience: A
Rob the owner is young but very friendly and seem like a good guy and an obvious gamer. He is friendly and will easily engage you in conversation as well as respond to your inquiries. There is a large couch in front of a large flat screen for video gaming. For 60 US$ a year you can also become a member of FTW gaming club, where you get 10% of your main product line. In my opinion 60$ is very affordable as this translate to only 5$ a month. You would easily spend more than 5$ at a matinee any random weekend.

Viability: Uncertain
I want this store to work out and stay past their 3 year lease. I believe they can expand into the empty space next door but in my opinion this is really unnecessary at the moment and for a long while. My greatest concern is that there just isn't enough products on the shelves. The store part of the space is at most 25% of the total space. The store caters to gamers by providing gaming space, but will gamers buy enough to make the store profitable or will they just game with what they have, and add only a few models here and there. The FTW membership could be and should be more perhaps (i understand the membership is to build a customer based community of sort rather than to provide income). And will the gamers be enough of a customer base or should the store also make an effort to appeal to the general public? I am glad that he does sell food and drinks but he should expand more in this regard.
Rob gets it as a gamer but will he get it as a game store owner? If not now, I hope he will be soon. The Richmond gaming community really needs this.

40k: Strategy Battle Game

2010-06-06T19:33:00.004-04:00

Looking at playing 40k with the following modifications

1. Turn Sequence
Player A moves, Player B moves
Player A shoots, Player B shoots
Player A assaults, Player B assaults

2. Priority
At beginning of each turn, each player rolls off to see who goes first. Ties go to the player who lost did not have priority in the last turn.

3. Tactic Points
For every 500 points of game size, each player has 1 Tactic point.

4. Use of Tactic Points
Tactical Move: one squad/unit gets to move out of turn. A player who does not currently have the priority may move one squad/unit before the player with priority. The player with priority may counter with a Tactical Move of his own. In this situation, both players roll off to determine which squad/unit will make the Tactical Move first. Each attempt costs one Tactical Point.
Tactical Shoot: one squad/unit gets to shoot out of turn. A player who does not currently have the priority may shoot with one squad/unit before the player with priority. The player with priority may counter with a Tactical Shoot of his own. In this situation, both players roll off to determine which squad/unit will make the Tactical Shoot first. Each attempt costs one Tactical Point.
Tactical Assault: one squad/unit gets to assault out of turn. A player who does not currently have the priority may move one squad/unit before the player with priority. The player with priority may counter with a Tactical Assault of his own. In this situation, both players roll off to determine which squad/unit will make the Tactical Assault first. Each attempt costs one Tactical Point.

WotR: Khand Battlehost

2010-05-15T11:46:00.008-04:00

I am dissapointed that there are no battlehost for Khand. While it is true they have no named heroes listed in WotR (one was named in Legions of Middle Earth though his profile was never published), there are actually four battlehosts without named leaders (Mordor's Black Legion, Fallen Realm's Mahud Wartribe, Mumak War Herd, and Host of Karna). Thus I have decided to try to make one for Khand, largely based on the Black Legion and the Mahud Wartribe.

Variags Raiders of Khand: 75pts + models.
The Khandish steppes east of Rhun and Harad are populated by the Variags, a belligerent and warlike people. Their realm is divided into fractious and warring kingdoms. Only by sheer personal might and charisma does one remain a Khandish King for long. While Khandish Kings normally sell their warriors out as sell swords, they will on occasions take to the field of battle themselves to lead their warriors. Khandish warriors will then fight all the harder when the gaze of their King is upon them, as favour won in battle invariably brings rank and wealth.

BATTLEHOST
1 Khandish King
3-6 Khandish Chariots
2-4 Khandish Mercenary Raiders (3+ companies)
0-4 Khandish Mercenary Warband (3+ companies)

SPECIAL RULES
Khand King: As long as they are within 12" of the Khandish King, all formations in this battlehost count as having a Taskmaster and are steadfast on a 5 or 6 instead of a 6. In addition, the Khandish King counts as an Army banner, but only to formations in this battlehost

Skilled Driver: All Khandish Chariots in this battlehost gain the Expert Rider rule and if within 12" of the Khandish King can re-roll the dice to determine how far they charge.

Chariot Charge: During a turn in which a Khandish King calls a Heroic Charge, all friendly chariots within 6" must declare a Heroic Charge. These extra heroic Charges do not cost any Might.

GothicComp 2010

2010-05-01T14:20:00.001-04:00

The annual modeling and painting competition for BFG is now open.
More information here.

And yes, there are prizes!

BFG Fleet Overview: Corsair Eldar

2010-04-11T23:11:00.003-04:00

GothicComp09 Submission

Background.
Of all the biological races, the Eldar are the oldest still interactive with the younger races such as humans, orks, and tau. As old as their civilization is, their technology is as expected more advance than these other races. Despite their technological prowess, they have an ancient foe that is even older and more advance, the Necrons. In BFG, they are a very strong fleet against all but the Necrons. In BFG the Eldar are represented by three lists, Corsair Eldar, Craftworld Eldar and Dark Eldar to represent their current fractured and scattered state. Corsair Eldar is likely the one most likely to be encountered in space by merchants and patrols alike (and equally likely to be the last encounters by these ships as well.) Craftworld Eldar and Dark Eldar will be discussed sometime future.

Strengths.
Even before any ships are placed, the Corsair Eldar fleet is at an advantage with leadership values at +1 (maximum of 10). Remember that in BFG higher leadership facilitates special maneuvers and actions in the form of Special Orders.

On both the offensive and defensive component of the game, Corsair Eldars are strong, very strong. Offensively, Eldar batteries, lances, torpedoes, and fighters are superior to the "lesser" races. Eldar batteries always count their target as closing (the most favorable aspect for targets.) Eldar lances can re-roll successful hits, yes successful hits, for up to three hits. Since lances hit on a 4+, each lance will on average inflict 0.875 hits (much higher than the average of 0.5 hits for most lances.) Even so the average can be misleading because a lance can actually inflict three hits each! It is understandable why lances are your friends when playing Eldar. Eldar advantages don’t end there because Corsair Eldar ordnance is extraordinary as well. Torpedoes can only be taken out by enemy turrets on rolls of 6+ rather than 4+, making them three times as likely to survive to attack the hull. Note when facing against combined Eldar torpedo and bomber attacks, save your turrets for the bombers rather than wasting them on the torpedoes. Their fighters are also more resilient in missions against enemy torpedoes, fighters, bombers and assault boats. Instead of being removed after neutralizing enemy ordnance as are most fighters, each Eldar fighter marker remains in play on a 4+.

On the defense Eldar ships are protected by holofields. Holofields provides a 2+ saves against lances, nova cannons, torpedoes, bombers, hit and run attacks, boarding, and even ramming. Against battery weapons a rightward shift on the Battery Gunnery table (less favorable for the shooter.) As if that isn't enough, once Eldar move in their movement phase to position to shoot, they can then move again in their ordnance phase to minimize becoming target themselves. "Minimize" because while most ships have no weapons in their rear, most ships can also turn to get their side weapon into play against Eldar ships seeking a safe area behind their target. An Eldar player should expect this and consider how to position your ships so that once turned, your Eldar ships are abeam to the enemy's (side) batteries (further weakening their best weapon against you.)

Shadow Cruiser by Arithon.

Weakness.
The first weakness of the Corsair Eldar are that they are 3 times as likely to suffer a critical hit each time they take damages as most other fleets: suffering a critical on a 4+ for each damage rather than on a 6+. Their second weakness is that all Corsair Eldar ships only have 4+ armors. However, any hits that might gain from the lower armor must first pass through the holofield. Overall I believe both of these weaknesses are more than well compensated by the strength of the holofield and enhanced Eldar maneuverability. A third weakness of the Eldar is that their movement rate is affected by where the local star is located. If the star is toward the ship's front its movement is only 10-15 cm (depending on the ship) and if the star is to its side the movement rate is 25-30 cm. Where the star shine from must always be considered. (And when facing Corsair Eldar maneuver toward them with the sun to your back). A fourth weakness is that while all Eldar ships, escorts and capital ships, may make a turn to face in any direction at the beginning of its movement, Corsair Eldar cannot turn at all once moved (though it does not have to move at all). Both of these movement issues are easily compensated for by the ability to move in your ships in your own movement phase and again in your own ordnance phase (not the enemy's ordnance phase.) The fifth weakness of the Eldar is that holofields are not shields, thus when any Eldar ships move through blast markers (once per move whether in its own movement phase or its own ordnance phase) it can suffer a damage on a roll of 6 (their movement is also reduced by 5 cm.) The final weakness of the Eldar is that holofields do not work against Necrons. Against Necrons Eldars thus will do rather poorly.

I do not consider Eldar weapon's limited range of 30 cm on all ships except the Void Stalker battleship to be a weakness because most fleets engage in the 30 cm range anyway.

Eclipse Cruiser by the Laughing God.

Fleet Selection.
All fleets should be built to maximize its strength and minimize its weaknesses. Strengths of weapons, holofield and double movement are available to all Eldar ships. Weaknesses are vulnerability to critical hits, 4+ armor and movement restrictions. Armor of 4+ and movement restrictions affect all Eldar ships. Since escorts only take one hull hit, vulnerability to critical hits doesn't affect it at all unlike with capital ships. Such analysis of strengths and weaknesses will likely result in Eldar fleets being a predominantly escorts based fleet.

There are four Corsair Eldar escort options. First up is the Hemlock, essentially a flying lance. Since a lance is the best Eldar weapon, this is a great option for only 40 points each. Second up is the Nightshade, a torpedo (2) ship also armed with a battery. Eldar torpedoes and batteries are both great and for just 40 points this is another great option. Next up is the Aconite, a battery ship. While Eldar batteries are indeed great and 5 of them are even better, for 65 points they are a tad expensive. However, if you might face other Eldar, including Dark Eldar, they could become very handy to overcome enemy's' holofield (or shadowfield for Dark Eldar.) Last up is the Hellebore, a great model in my opinion. Unfortunately, while the package of lance, torpedoes, and battery looks impressive, for 75 points it is too pricy. For 5 points more you can get the same weapon layout (1 lance, 2 torpedoes, 1 battery) with a Hemlock and a Nightshade. A Hemlock and Nightshade combo is also substantially more survivable as two targets capable of splitting enemy fire and having twice the damage capacity as one Hellebore.

The cheapest Eldar cruiser is the Solaris, coming with 8 batteries to the front and 4 hits points for 130 points. For the same points you can get 2 Aconites with 10 batteries and 2 hits points splitting fire between two Aconites. While most cruisers can sustain more damage prior to reduction of its offensive capability than a squadron of escorts, Corsair Eldar capital ship vulnerability to critical damage erase this edge in my opinion. The Solaris is likely better replaced by 2 Aconites. The Aurora at 140 points also has 4 hits points but is armed with 4 torpedoes and 2 lances. Similarly priced at 150 points would be 2 Hellebores that are over priced in themselves so I am not sure the Aurora is worth taking either. Both the Solaris and Aurora are Forgeworld models and as an American, this means both will cost more money wise as well. The next cruiser is the Shadow for 210 points with 6 hits points, 4 torpedoes and 12 batteries. For the exact same 210 points you can get 2 Nightshades and 2 Aconites, yielding the exact same weapon layouts with 4 hits points across 4 targets. Thus far all three cruisers are better replaced by escorts. The last cruiser is the Eclipse for 250 points. The Eclipse is the only cruiser with launch bays (4) and this alone makes this cruiser worthy of consideration.

The last ship available in the Corsair Eldar list is the Void Stalker battleship. This ship also has 4 launch bays but what set this ship apart from the Eclipse, and every other Corsair Eldar ships, is its 45 cm ranged lances (4) and 45 cm ranged batteries (8) with the ability to fire to the right, to the left, and not just to the front. The Void Stalker is available once your fleet is 1000 points (minimum actually fielded) or more. This ship should definitely be considered for inclusion once it becomes available.

Void Stalker by Arithon.

Fleet Tactic.
While Corsair Eldar have a significant amount of offensive and defensive capability, they should be used with care like a sharp blade rather than a blunt instrument. When on the attack, concentrate your fire on enemy battery ships first, hitting the enemy toward his rear. Such opportunities will not likely present naturally and as an Eldar player you must be both patient and manipulative. Hide among stellar phenomena if possible. When striking hit as hard as you can but if you cannot or were unlucky and did not, never linger. When you move in the ordnance phase, position your ship defensively to be abeam of your opponent batteries. Move in, attack, move out and away before the enemy can respond.

Additional info can be found here.
Originally posted at BoLS.

BFG: FAQ

2010-04-10T11:02:00.000-04:00

works on a new BFG FAQ has been started here.

40k: Number of Troops

2010-03-27T16:56:00.003-04:00

I recently read a very interesting article at BoLS. Though it is about how many troops to take in 40k, i think it is germaine to any other game systems as well.

In Annihilation, Troops are just another unit that can become a kill point by dying and generate kill points for killing other units. In most cases, Troops choices are less effective at killing and as easy or easier to kill than similar Elite, Heavy, and Fast Attack units. This is obviously an overgeneralization, but it matches the game design and is more accurate than inaccurate as a general rule. So in Annihilation, fewer Troops choices are better for most armies. The exceptions include Chaos Space Marines Cult Troops - Khorne Berserkers are very killy, Plague Marines are among the most durable, Noise Marines produce significant Dakka, and Thousand Sons have great antipersonnel fire and are the best unit to take Demolisher cannon hits on. Dark Eldar should generally take a maximum number of Troops, as they are a bargain for their killing power. Imperial Guard can go with a large number of Troops, especially if they have a Platoon that collapses into a Commissariat Blob. Yes, you can mount the platoon squads in Chimeras, but blobbing 30+ in Annihilation makes the unit essentially nonviable as a kill point for most armies.

In Capture and Control, most armies really only need two scoring units, as there are only two possible objectives. Reserving a unit to hold your own objective at the end of the game and sending another towards the enemy objective (often obliquely – no sense trying to hold an objective against counter attacks for 3 turns) is generally a good default behavior. If you are Eldar, you need at least two units assigned to each job, as Wave Serpents break down at the most inconvenient times, and walking Eldar Troops aren’t known for their durability. Guardsmen need more units for defense (and possibly offense, but Guard should focus on eliminating all enemy scoring units and/or contesting the far objective, in most cases) – I like 3 units in the area to hold my home objective, and I tend to devote the rest of my Guard force to immobilizing and then eliminating enemy contesting and capturing units. Space Marines often do well to Combat Squad a couple of units for home defense, working on the premise that killing two units is harder than killing one.

Seize Ground can have up to 5 objectives – so obviously you need at least 5 scoring units, right? No, not at all. In almost no cases should you be able to take more than 3 objectives – your opponent has to be really asleep for you to get to 4, and if you’re looking at 5 objectives, just go ahead and go for Wipeout instead.
Seize Ground is the mission designed for Space Marines. Combat squads mean that 6 scoring units are very likely for most Space Marine players, and each unit essentially has to be destroyed totally to be stopped. Eldar also love Seize Ground; mobility is really all they have going for them, so having a lot of objectives to hope to tank shock a Wave Serpent of Dire Avengers onto is a very good thing.

From the articles I take away the following concepts.
1. You don't need to contest all objectives, just the majority of them. If there are five objectives, you need to take 3 to win.
2. Troop choices need to be protected. They need to survive till the end of the game. There are several ways to do so. Firstly shield them in terrains. Secondly take either large units that are hard to reduce to less than half, or make them particularly resilient.
3. One to two troop choice should be mobile, held in "reserve" until toward the end of the game when they can rush forward and take an objective.
4. This means minimum of 3 troops and maximum of 4 troops.
5. Other force selections, whether it be HQ, elites, fast, or heavies should be taken to attack, and they really should focus their attacks on enemy troops as much as they can.

SBG: 1k of Good & Evil

2010-03-09T22:43:00.002-05:00

Tonight i completed 1000 pts of good and evil forces. Both are compact forces designed to both fit together in a small GW carrying cases. Both are also all metals and include models whose rules i believe are better in SBG than in WotR.

Good:
15 fountain guards + shields. yes shields, making them D7!
2 warrior of minas tirith with banner (i like placing a banner on either end of, but behind my battle line)
1 avenger +/- captain
1 captain
1 Elendil + shield
1 gandalf the grey
along with
15 dead warriors
1 dead king

Evil:
15 black guards
1 black guard banner
1 black guard captain
1 black guard taskmaster
1 generic ringwraith
1 witch king with crown of morgul
2 castellans & 2 bat swarms (1 of each together to hold my flank)
1 shade (the anti banner)
1 warg chieftain (fast responder)

Planning new Imperial Navy fleet

2010-02-20T11:18:00.004-05:00

I have been contemplating a new Imperial fleet for three reasons.
1. I want a fleet consisting of ships most veterans eschew: the Lunar, the Dictator, the Mars, the Overlord, and the Apocalypse.
2. I want a fleet to paint well enough for competition (or so i say now)
3. I want a fleet to name using cities from my favorite state of Texas, and naturally color schemed for the Texas flag.

I have hesitated until i found these prow.

Beautiful, no?

more details can be found in this thread at Port Maw and here.

BFG Fleet Overview: Space Marines

2010-02-02T04:00:00.003-05:00

Background. In the fluff, Space Marines power lies within each space marine as the epitome of a warrior. As such, space marines force relies on the power of each marine working in conjunction with each other in close encounters. This theme is carried on in how Space Marine fleets play in BFG.

Warp Rift Issue #21 cover.

Strengths. The primary strengths for the Space Marine fleet remains within the individual marine. In game terms SM has a +2 bonus to boarding actions and +1 bonus to hit and run attacks. As a reminder, boarding action can be declared in the end phase when in base to base contact with an enemy ship. Base boarding values + a D6 are compared; higher totals win. Each point of difference between the two totals results in a hull damage for the loser. Space Marines get a bonus modifier of +2 to its total but then Orks and Chaos gets a +1, Dark Eldar gets a +1 in the first round (but a -1 in each subsequent rounds) and Tyranids gets to chose the higher of two D6 rolls rather than be limited to just one D6 roll. Given that these other fleets also receive some bonus for boarding, the Space marine bonus of +2 doesn't really seem that significant. In addition, since part of the boarding total is based on the remaining damage points available added to its current turrets, Space Marines ship size must also be considered. The most numerous ships in a Space Marine fleet will be either strike cruisers with 6 hull damage points and 2 turrets or escorts; most chaos ships will be cruisers with 8 hull damage points and 2 turrets, or the ork cruisers with 10 hull damage points and 1 turret. Considering the ship size, the effectiveness of Space Marine in boarding appears essentially limited to boarding Imperial Navy and Ad Mech (both ally fleets), Corsair and Craftworld Eldars, Necron, and Tau.
On the other hand, the +1 bonus to hit and run attacks is tremendous. Hit and runs can be conducted by Space Marines in 3 forms. Firstly by thunderhawk gunships which are a cross between fighters and assault boats. Secondly by boarding torpedoes, which unlike regular torpedoes can make a 45 degree turn at the beginning of the ordnance phase and attack by hit and run rather than hull hits. Third and finally, Space Marines can make hit and run attack by teleport attacks. Teleport attacks are made by capital ships against enemy ships within 10 cm whose shields are down. Hit and run attacks is conducted with a D6 and checking against the Critical Hits table. Since the Critical Hits table spans from 2-12, most fleet fails on a roll of 1. Space Marines always inflict some damage. Against escorts, any critical damage means destruction; Space Marines can rapidly wipe out enemy escorts (except Eldars). Against capital ships at most 2 in 6 attacks will result in a hull point of damage but can be quite effective in crippling weapon functions.
Another manifestation of the power of a Space Marine is the average ship or squadron leadership is 9 and Marine "Admiral," the Master of the Fleet has leadership of 10 for a measly 50 points.

Red Scorpion By Martin Sharp, 4th place winner of GothiComp09.

An additional strength of the Space Marine fleet is the armoring of their ships: both Marine battleships (Battlebarge) and cruisers (strike cruisers) are armor 6 all around. Space Marine capital ships also have a unique weapon in the form of bombardment cannons with left/front/right firing arcs. Bombardment cannons are battery weapons that always hit on 4+. However like batteries the number of attacks is modified using the battery Gunnery table. This means that the usual sequence of using batteries to take down shields first will reduce the effectiveness of subsequent bombardment cannons shooting while shooting with bombardment cannon first will make be more effective at taking down shields while losing its 4+ to hit advantage to inflict hull damage against armor 5+ and 6+ hull. The rules do not appear to allow a simultaneous shooting with both bombardment cannon and batteries using different colored dice.

Weaknesses. Given the focus on the individual marine warriors, space marine fleets sometimes feel particularly like a "one trick" fleet. Space Marines lack the variety of ships and variety of armaments that allows other fleet to be all around competitive. Pure Space Marine fleets do not have carriers of fighters or bombers, and lances. Space Marines also only have two capital ships to choose from, the battlebarge and the strike cruisers. While the battlebarge maybe relatively comparable to most battleships in other fleets, the strike cruiser doesn't match up well against most cruisers. Thus the Space Marine fleet is more like a system to deliver marines to attack rather than a fleet of warships for ship-to-ship slugfests.

Fleet Composition. Given that BFG is a naval game, Space Marine fleet should include a battlebarge at first opportunity. It is the only ship that can go toe to toe with enemy ships. Unfortunately there can only be one barge at up to a 1k points fleet and a second for up to 2k. The rest of the fleet will be made up of either strike cruisers and or escorts. Given there are several escorts to choose from and only one strike cruiser choice, let us look at the escorts first. Space Marines can choose from among 3 Space Marine specific escorts and upgrade the 3 Imperial Navy escorts to Space Marine standards. Firstly is the Hunter escort for 40 points armed with 2 points of torpedoes and 1 point of battery. While 2 points of torpedoes may not sound like much, they can also launch boarding torpedoes, which make them very Space Marine. Hunters are better than the 35 points Space Marine upgraded Cobras. For an extra five points you get 5+ armor instead of 4+ and 35 cm movement rather than 30 cm. The Space Marine Gladius for 45 points has 4 points of batteries but when compared to the Space Marine upgraded Sword for 40 points, the only return for the 5 points difference is a 5 cm extra movement. In my opinion this might give the Gladius an edge as strike cruisers have a similar 30 cm movement as the Gladius while the Sword would be a slower 25 cm. As you might have guessed, the Space Marine Nova has a similar role as that of the Firestorm. However, for 5 points more it gains a 10 cm extra movement but loses one point of turrets. Among the 6 escorts, I believe the most worthwhile are the Hunters (much superior to the very useful Cobras for a small charge of 5 points).
Strike cruisers are nearly quintessentially Space Marines with armor 6, fast and maneuverable, armed with both thunderhawks and bombardment cannons. Model wise if you don't like the looks of the Specialist Games striker cruiser, look at the Grey Knights strike cruiser from Forgeworld.

Fleet Tactic. At 1k points, a Space Marine fleet should have one barge, 2 to 3 strike cruisers, and 3-8 escorts. The barge should hold off enemy capital ships with its 45 cm batteries while contributing to the fleet hit and run attacks with its own thunderhawks and boarding torpedoes. Strike cruisers, like most light cruisers can be played as super escorts to support and protect the fleet, or used offensively in pairs. The Hunters should support thunderhawks with their torpedoes. Defending ships must choose between directing their defensive turrets against attacking thunderhawks or boarding torpedoes but not both. While enemy escorts may be easily eliminated with hit and run attacks, these attacks may be better spent against enemy capital ships. The ability to take down a whole bank of weapons (dorsal vs starboard vs port vs prow) can really reduce a significant amount of offensive power of a capital ships, much more so than a destroyed escort in my opinion.

In summary, a Space Marine fleet is all about hit and runs. If you are looking for more diversity, there are alternative list available. An Armageddon list allows a mix of SM and Imperial Navy. Another option is to use the Chaos 13th Black Crusade. This is the list that most if not all Chaos Space Marine players should be fielding but without the use of marks of chaos, it could represent a chapter who has retained their pre-heresy ships or even to represent a pre-heresy marine fleet. Chaos Space Marine also has the +2 bonus to board, +1 bonus to hit and run, as well as the availability of thunder hawks. In truth, this may be preferable to a standard barge/strike cruiser Space Marine fleet. The 13th Black Crusade list would give you more ship options as well as being cheaper to purchase.

This post is a slight update of the one originally posted at BoLS

BFG Fleet Overview: Necron

2009-11-13T04:11:00.000-05:00

I plan for this post to be the first in a series of analysis of the various fleets in BFG. I want to start with Necrons for two reasons. Firstly, the Necrons are rated one of the strongest fleet in BFG. While most of us may not play BFG Necron ourselves, I do think it helps to understand how tough they can be so when we build our own fleet, we will continue to keep them in mind. Secondly, I am helping a friend start a Necron fleet and thus I have to apply some thoughts and focus for my recommendations.

Firstly, lets look at what the Necrons can do in the movement phase. They are a particularly fast fleet, their cruisers have 30 cm movements and their escorts move 40-50 cm. Their battleship though only move 20 cm, which is pretty average. Another aspect of their speed is where the standard All Ahead Full (AAF) special movement order generates an additional 4D6 cm (4-24 cm) in movements with no turns allowed, Necrons ' AAF is D6 x10 cm (10-60 cm) and a turned is allowed every 20 cm moved. For Necron players, their enhanced speed allow for faster closings and faster exits from the encounter. For playing against Necrons, this will necessitate concentrated shooting to inflict all the damage while you can.

In the shooting phase, all Necron attacks are particularly powerful, especially against all Eldars. Their batteries are called lightning arcs that always consider their targets as closing (the most favorable aspect compared to moving away and abeam). In addition, lightning arc attacks are not affected by the negative column shift modifier of Eldar holofields or Dark Eldar shadowfields. However, as it stands, no Necron ships has lightning arc with a range more than 30cm. The Necron lances are called gauss particle whips what can bypass shields on a to hit roll of 6. I think this sounds better than it actually works because most of us always fire our batteries before our lances, using batteries to take down shields prior to lances shooting. Holofields and shadowfields usually allow 2+ saves against lances but this is not allowed against gauss particle whip. Currently gauss particle whips are only available on capital ships with 45cm ranges. Necron main capital ships (tombships and scythes) are also armed with a unique weapon called the star pulse generator. With each star pulse generator all enemy ships and ordnance within 20 cm receive one hit against its facing armor (or 4+ for each ordnance marker, not wave) and once again, holofields and shadowfields offer no saves. Given these three weapons, Necron players should start with lightning arc batteries (when there are a minimal number of blast markers are in play to be negative modifiers), then the star pulse generator (not affected by blast markers but must roll against armor) , and then gauss particle whips (which only require a 4+ to hit and so best applied once shields are down).

One other special weapon available only as an upgrade for Necron cairn tombship is the sepulchre. The sepulchre destroys each ordnance marker (not waves) within 20 cm on a 4+. The sepulchre can also force a leadership test of one enemy ship within 20 cm. If the leadership test is failed, that ship suffers a permanent -1 to its leadership value for the game and cannot go on any special order, including Brace For Impact (BFI), until the end of the ship owner's next turn. For those facing against a Necron tombship, keep low leadership ships more than 20 cm away if possible or squadron them to maximize leadership values. In addition, since both the tombship and the line cruiser scythe are also armed with the star pulse generator, ordnance attacks should only be conducted within attack range so as not to leave ordnance markers on the table to be attacked.

In the end phase, Necron ships armed portals can make additional teleport attacks over the standard of 1 based on the number of portals they are armed with (3 for tombships, 2 for scythes and 1 for jackal escorts). The teleport attack restrictions of 10 cm range and no functional defensive shields remain in play but the restriction that the target must have less remaining hull points than the attacker is waved (though jackals can only attack ships with current hull points of 6 or less)

Tomb ship model by Asmodean GothiComp05 submission.

Against enemy shootings instead of shields Necron ships have saves, 4+ for tombships, 5+ for cruisers, and 6+ for escorts. In addition all Necron ships have an intrinsic all around armor of 6! Both of these make a Necron ship a very tough nut to crack. And if they have to go on Brace For Impact (BFI) their saves go to 2+ though this does reduce their armor to 4+. I have looked at this to determine whether it would be more effective to attack Necron ships with lances first, and then if they go on BFI and lower their armor to allow follow up batteries or ordnance attack to be more effective. It doesn't.

tomb ships gain nothing to brace against batteries; it stay at 3/36 per battery die
cruisers go from base of 4/36 to 3/36
escorts go from 5/36 to 3/36

against lances tomb ships go from base of 3/12 to 1/12 per lance die
cruisers go from base of 4/12 to 1/12
escorts go from base of 5/12 to 1/12

With a tomb ship, if batteries fire first, BFI really doesn't help so I would decide to brace based on the number of lance attacks. With a cruiser or escorts the gains of BFI against batteries fire is marginal, so I wouldn't brace if batteries fire first and again wait for the lance attacks. If lances fire first, I would decide on brace, which might later reduce ever so slightly battery attacks.
I am not sure it makes that much of a difference on analysis but I can see how firing batteries first might eek out a few additional hits. Thus when shooting against Necrons, I think it would be easier just to keep the usual order of batteries attack first, followed by lances.

The Necrons uses a different critical hit table which make them a bit more at risk for weapon failures and permanent leadership loss. This might be exploited by assault boats attacks and bombardment cannons, typical of Space Marine attacks. Also worth noting is that there are no Necron ordnance whatsoever; no torpedoes and no attack crafts. Necrons will use both turrets and the star pulse generator defensively in lieu of ordnance for defense or offense.

When choosing any fleet, the first question is what is your main stay ship class, battleship, cruisers, or escorts. As previously alluded to, there are no Necron carriers. One tomb ship battlship with a sepulchre is the same points as 2 scythes. Though a tomb ship has only 12 hits to the 2 scythes 16 hits total, its 4+ saves to the scythe 5+ saves make them fairly equivalent in durability. The tomb ship can field more lighting arc batteries but 2 scythes have more gauss particle whips and portals, and using 2 models will also extend the effective range and attacks of the star pulse generator. Given also that a tomb ship can only be taken for each scythes, it appears to me the scythe is the mainstay of the Necron fleet. The other Necron cruiser is a light cruiser with only 4 hits, only lighting arc batteries and 1 turret makes it a support vessel rather than a ship of the line. As a support vessel though it will grant the Necron player an additional +1 leadership (making the total modifier +2) for special order tests when there is an enemy ship on special order as well. Despite the 6+ armor the 6+ saves value for escorts make them the most vulnerable component of the Necron fleet. Of the two, the jackal is the superior escort as you get more for the points: 200 points with 4 jackal raiders get you 16 points of lightning arc batteries and a total of 8 teleport attacks that can be applied against ships with 6 hit points remaining whereas only 15 points of lightning arc batteries with 5 dirge raiders. I don't see the faster dirges make up the difference in value when compared to the jackal raider.

One last consideration. Necron capital ship destroyed but not a drifting hulk counts as twice its cost for Victory Points and thrice if destroyed and left as drifting hulk. More so than against other fleets, at least in VPs, it pays to concentrate your fire against Necron capital ships.

Cross Posted at Bell of Lost Souls

BFG Tactic: How to inflict damage

2009-09-18T04:11:00.000-04:00

Before I get further into each fleet list, I want to go over how, in game terms, you inflict damage on your opponent ships. In each and every phase of the game there is an opportunity to inflict damage. How is that for a wargame!

Movement phase.
To inflict some hurt while moving, you have to ram. To ram a ship must first pass a special leadership test to go on “All Ahead Full.” Then if the movement takes into base to base contact, a leadership test is immediately required to actually hit the target ship. This leadership test is easier when ramming a larger ship and harder when ramming a smaller ship. The result of ramming is a number of dice used to inflict damage; the number being dependent on size of ship. Shields are ineffective against ramming. Both ships are at risk for being damaged but if rammed in the side or rear, the rammed ship will likely take more damage than the ramming ship. Once ramming attack is completed, the ramming ship must move forward and completes its remaining move. However, a ship can only make one ramming attack per phase. Note that since ramming requires base to base contact, cruisers may opt to be on a large flying base rather than small ones, and thus increase its ability to ram. Obviously doing so will make it more vulnerable to ordnance attacks.

To inflict some hurt while your opponent is moving, you must have deployed ordnance attacks (torpedoes or bombers) in the path of his ship. Once in contact, ordnance attack is immediate.

Tau Emissaries by Lord Chronos, heat winner from GothiComp 08.

Shooting phase.
Always start shooting with batteries rather than lances. Each hits (whether damages is inflicted or not) typically leaves a blast marker on your target. Battery weapon effectiveness will be degraded if it has to fire at or through any blast marker. Since shooting is by one ship or squadron at a time, batteries based ships should fire first, mixed battery-lance ships should be in squadrons, and lances should be used to finish the destruction.

To increase a ship’s shooting effectiveness, consider rolling for that ship to go on special order “Lock On.” This will allow the ship to re-roll all misses. However, all special orders, except for one, must be declared at the beginning of the movement phase, so a little forethought is required.

The one exception to when to check for special order test is the special order “Brace for Impact!” Bracing can be tested for against any attacks made by your opponent, thus this is typically during your opponent’s shooting phase but can also be tested for during his movement phase (against ramming) or the shared ordnance phase, or the shared end phase. Bracing gives your ship a 4+ save against each damage inflicted but must be declared and test for before the number of actual damages inflicted is determined. Note that a failure to brace against one ship’s attack does not prevent rechecking when another ship attacks whether it be against the ship that previously failed a Brace for Impact test or another ship that has not even tested. In general, if you estimate that there is a reasonable chance your ship will be crippled in the entirety of your opponent shooting phase, not just from this one ship currently attacking, you should consider going on Brace for Impact.

One amusing target for attack during shooting, as well as during the ordnance phase, is to attack your opponent’s hulks. A lucky roll may cause it to explode and engulf surrounding ships with equivalent of lance attacks (4+ to damage). Note though that any ships within range can be damaged by such a blast, yours and his. If your ships are more resilient against such attacks, say by having hollofields or with active saves, it might make tactical sense as well.

Eldritch Path Thousand Sons Acheron by Giulio DDM, final winner of GothiComp 08.

The Ordnance Phase.
The decision to launch ordnance must be made at the beginning of the movement phase. This is because other than the launching of ordnance is free the first time and does not require the special order “Reload Ordnance.” Every subsequent launches require the special order to be passed and this has to be declared at the beginning of the movement phase.

Since the ordnance phase is shared, once you are done with moving your ordnance, your opponent will get to move his. Thus the first thing I do is use my fighters to take out his ordnance. This will clear the board for my ordnance to move and attack. Note that bombers or assault boats can take out an equal number of enemy fighter. This might come into consideration because a) he cannot reload ordnance until his own movement phase, b) he might fail his reload test and thus his other planned special orders as well and c) you might want to sacrifice some attack craft so that others may reach their target.

Since most torpedoes cannot maneuver and must move directly forward, I typically attack with my torpedoes first. Defensive turrets can only defend against either torpedoes or attack crafts. If there are threatening bombers within reach, your opponent will have to decide whether to waste his turrets against less effective torpedoes or save them for against a more vicious bomber/assault boat attack that may never come! Next I direct the bombers to their target. Unlike torpedoes, bombers can attack any enemy ship within range. Assault boats are killer against escorts but are less likely to kill capital ships. The basic assault boat attack has a 5 in 6 chance of taking out an escort. I save them till the end to finish the kills I need as I usually prefer to kill capital ships before escorts.

Imperator Ex Machina Venerable Battle Barge by ehlijen, heat winner from GothiComp 08.

The End Phase.
There are two ways to inflict damages in the end phase: boarding and teleport attacks. Since boarding must be declared in the movement phase when a ship ends its movement in base to base with an enemy ship, it seems best to resolve boarding before teleport attacks. Larger ships are more effective against smaller ships but both ships can be damaged.

Teleport attacks are made by capital ships not crippled or on special orders against ships without active shields within 10 cm. Teleport attacks are resolved just as hit and run attacks conducted by assault boats.

Final Thought.
You really have to plan ahead with BFG, starting with what special orders you want for each ship/squadron, and prioritizing the order to test for because once failing one, you cannot test the remainder. In addition, knowing how to inflict damage and more importantly how you want to inflict damage will affect your fleet’s ship choice, as well as how to safeguard against them.

BFG: Alternative Models 2

2009-08-28T20:14:00.001-04:00

From the Gothicomp gallery you will notice this ship:

This ship is from the Cold Navy line and for ordering info go here.
Interesting enough, I have several models from this line with ships for both Terran Republic and Mauridian Empire when they were metals (now resin).

In my search for more of these models i came accross Ninja Magic. Some of their models are shown below. They also are in the process of producing rules for their models and i will definitely keep an eye on them.

Gothicomp 09: Submissions Posted

2009-08-23T18:41:00.000-04:00

Gothicomp 09 submissions are now posted. Here are a few of my favorites. To vote go here.
My own submissions are here.

BFG @ BoLS Guess Post #2

2009-08-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

My latest BFG post at Bell of Lost Souls is up. It primarily look at BFG turn sequence.

GothiComp 09

2009-07-28T20:49:00.000-04:00

Each year the folks over at TacCom runs a BFG model competition. The deadline is July 31 so if you haven't done so, get going!

Here are my submissions this year.

1.5k Fleet category: Imperial Navy

Single model category: the Retribution battleship Uriel

1.5k Fleet category: Chaos Navy

Single model category: Acheron heavy cruiser Balberith

BFG: Alternative Models

2009-07-26T20:08:00.000-04:00

I plan on expanding my BFG fleet collection to include Orks, one of the Eldar fleets, and what ever else. I however do not like some of the GW models, especially with regard to Orks. So i have been eyeing alternative models from other companies. Before Mongoose stopped producing B5 ship models for their All Call to Arms game, they had a sale. I looked at the model line that I liked and picked up two fleets: Narn and Earth Alliance. (Since Mongoosed stopped making these models, Iron Wind Metals have acquired the rights to do so). Since I don't intend any of these to be my primary fleet, and certainly won't be using them in GW Tourneys, I think it might be nice have try some different models.

I have decided to use the Narn models as either Orks or Necrons. Fluff wise the Narns seems to have the more primitive technology. Their ships have a low wedge sharp profile so I that they might be harder to hit front on (thus their 6+ prow armor in BFG as orks) yet not as durable close in (hence a 4+ armor against attack crafts). In contrast their larger models have four pyramidal wedges in the corners seems to fit with the Necron monolith models. So they too might fit Necrons alright.

Narn ships to represent BFG ships.
Ka'Bin'Tak super dreadnought as Ork BB or Necron Tombship.
Bin'Tak dreadnought as Ork Terror ship or Necron Scythe cruiser.
G'Quan cruiser as Ork Kill Kroozer of Necron Shroud cruiser.
Var'Nic destroyer as Ork Onslaught or Necron Jackal.
KaToc escort as Ork Ram ship or Necron Dirge.

Narn color scheme
Base = Gunmetal with green wash
Hull = Iyanden darksun
Highlight = Mithril silver
Weapon = Red Gore
Engineerings = Tin bitz

The Earth Alliance ships will represent AdMech ships. They are ships based on the long axis similar to standard Imperial ships.
Warlock Advance destroyers will be AdMech Dictators.
Apollo Bombardment cruisers will be AdMech Lunars.
Marathon Advance cruiser will be AdMech Defiant light cruiser.
Delphi Advanced scout will be Gladius escorts.

Earth Alliance color scheme
base = Shadow Grey with black wash
Hull = White
Highlight = Shinning gold
Weapon = Chainmail

I have also been eyeing these ships from Spartan Games upcoming Firestorm game. Dark Eldars? Space Marines? Tyranids?
Firestorm models.

BFG at BoLS

2009-07-23T18:48:00.000-04:00

I am guess blogging about BFG at Bells of Lost Souls.

My first post is here. My next post will likely about the turn sequence and the one after that will be about the models. Afterward I will likely post about each fleet lists.

BFG Game at Hobby Town July 18th

2009-07-18T19:39:00.000-04:00

I played a 3.8k game of BFG today, 3.8k of Imperium vs 3.8k of Chaos. (We had a guest player, Harry, from Albany who found us on the web). I played Imperium. The scenario was Fleet engagement; we chose Wedge and Chaos chose Cross. The two fleets deployed on long edges parallel to each other facing opposite direction. This prevented the Imperial fleet from charging Chaos with its armored prow. We did what we could to maneuver toward the enemy but seemingly always one arc behind. This led me to realize that Imperium should not try to come directly toward their opponent but should instead come on at a converging angle so that the current enemy ships are toward the one corner of our front arcs, expecting that once the enemy ships move, they will remain in the other corner of our front arc.

Previously I have also been reluctant to leave bomber markers on the table because of fear of being taken out. However, I think that the chances they will be taken out by ship fire is remote (requiring 6s to hit). When enemy carriers launches fighters to take out your bombers they aren't launching bombers or assault boats against my ships. In addition, interesting enough, damages taken by attack crafts are renewable (with re-rolls) similar to shields. By having bombers out, I have alsos extended the range of my bombers to 40cm per turn.

Final thought, the obvious thought. Concentrating fires to cripple ships is more effective than spreading fires across many ships' shields.

BFG: Chaos Navy

2009-06-26T18:00:00.000-04:00

The typical Chaos cruiser is armed with longer ranged weapon battery and lance broadsides, medium armor (5+), and moderate speed (faster than Imperial and Tau but slower than Eldar and Necron). As such, the Chaos fleet is frequently successful by using their speed to attack from longer ranges. However, no fleets would allow itself to be shot from long range without trying to close range. Thus the Chaos fleet will need to counter this by either keep moving to maintain range or close and pass through. Keep moving typically will only work for so long given the limited table top playing surface. Closing and passing through nullify for a period their advantage in weapon range. There is a third option, and that is to close and pin the enemy with a portion of your fleet, while the majority stand from afar unmolested and shoot. Ships choices should keep the above in consideration.

The Cruisers:
The Slaughters = good. The slaughters have only short ranged weapons but compensate for this by having a faster approach and more powerful broadside than most Chaos cruisers. Given these atypical traits that set it apart from most Chaos cruisers, it should be used apart from the main Chaos fleet. Thus it might be used as bait for the enemy to chase, but few competent opponents would fall for this. The best use for the slaughter would be to close with the enemy fleet to force a firefight and thus pin the enemy. This is in essence an active bait role. If taken for this function, two (or three?) slaughters work better than a single ship. A single slaughters would be better as a counter attack or reserve cruiser.
The Devastation = good. Without torpedoes (the Chaos fleet is short on torpedoes overall) however, their attack crafts are less effective. Thus the attack crafts of devastations to be more defensive in practice, with only occasional opportunities to feign and or actually make an attack run. This is why the devastation is rated good rather than excellent. But given long ranged lances the devastation can still contribute to the fleet attack (its batteries are defensive).
The Carnage = excellent. The carnage can deliver 10 battery points at 60 cm and 16 at 45 cm, or 2,3, 6 attacks against capital ships abeam at 60 cm, 45 cm, 30 cm. These guns provide extended coverage against Eldar from afar and give the carnage the option to close for broadsides. This flexibility to attack from afar or up close make this an excellent ship.
The Murder = poor. Compared to the carnage, the murder has shorter range batteries and less firepower. While it is armed with 2 lances, the lances cannot combine with the weapon battery broadsides. The lances are forward firing yet the chaos fleet is best encircling the enemy at range.

The Heavy Cruisers:
The Acheron = average. This is a lance ship but at 60 cm no better than the devastation and at 45 cm adds only two more lances.
The Hades = average. The hades is in essence a murder with an extra two lance that can be added to its broadsides. If you are looking for a long ranged ship with both batteries and lances, then this might be considered, but two hades is probably not as effective as a devastation and a carnage.
The Styx = average. This is another carrier like the devastation. It costs 50% more, has 50% more attack craft capacity, but same number of lances. The devastation is a better buy.
The Repulsive = above average. Medium ranged batteries and short range lances seems an odd combination. It should be upgraded to have medium ranged lances instead. Having 10 hits rather than 8 means that you can take this ship into the heart of the enemy fleet and duke it out. It costs about 50% more than a slaughter and is armed 50% more as well, and while the slaughter is faster, the repulsive with medium rather than short range make the ship point effective. One thing good about it is the torpedoes it can add to the Chaos fleet.

The Battleships:
The Desolator = good. This is another lance ship but is actually reasonably armed. At 50% more than the devastation it actually has 100% more long ranged lances. True it is not a carrier but with a salvo of 9 torpedoes, it sufficiently compensates.
The Despoiler = above average. This ship firepower wise is about as effective as two devastations. But two devastations has 16 hits instead of the despoiler 12. But given that it can be upgraded to have torpedoes, the despoiler becomes the only combined torpedoes-attack craft carrier in the chaos fleet. That is why the despoiler is above average rather than poor.
The Planet Killer = above average. At 505 points it is very expensive, but also well armed with 18 points of broadsides and 6 lances at 60 cm. Then there is the armageddon gun that can be very devastating but requires reloading (which will also reload the 9 points of torpedoes) and it can misfire. I agree that it should be a unique occurrence to field.

The Escorts.
The Idolators = good. This escort has 45 cm batteries that do not suffer a column shift above 30 cm, along with 2 turrets make this a very capable escort. Add in the lance and this escort in a squadron very able to take on capital ships point for point.
The Infidel = average. Sure it adds torpedoes to the Chaos fleet, but to fire it as one salvo the ships have to be in base to base, which make it vulnerable to having one hit take down the shields on each of two ships in base to base. In general I am not a fan of torpedoes on escorts.
The Iconoclast = average. Poorly armored but reasonably armed, and cheap. You get what you pay for.

In summary the mainstay of a chaos fleet should be devastations and carnages. It should also contain a detachment of slaughters or a repulsive. Sprinkle in a squadron or two of idolators. Lead it with a desolator.

BFG: Imperial Navy

2009-06-24T21:19:00.000-04:00

The imperial navy fleet should be built around its workhorse, and this is the standard imperial navy cruiser. How the fleet will work thus will depends on the theme of the standard imperial cruisers. Imperial cruisers are defined with 6+ armored prow and short ranged but powerful broadsides. Thus the usual way to play imperial is to stick your fleet close together as you drive toward the enemy, secure behind the 6+ armored prow, shooting your nova cannons or torpedoes until you split and splinter their fleet with broadsides. Sticking together means the cruisers should work together, complement each other, and probably be squadroned. While it is quite reasonable to maintain a force apart from this thrust to harass and harry from afar, it would be unlikely to win engagements if most of your fleet plays this way. Most of the cruisers just do not have the range and both torpedoes and nova cannons are just not reliable enough at range to consistently win.

The cruisers:
The Dictator = good. A combined bomber-torpedo attack works better than either alone. When both ordnances are combined into one ship this means just one reload roll is needed.
The Lunar = good. Best when squadroned with another lunar or two. The combined batteries will be supported by the combined lances that will be there when you need and want it.
The Gothic = average. The gothic comes with powerful lances but is best used as a supporting ship, letting other ships fire their batteries first.
The Dominator = average. Though 12 pts of broadsides looks great, in play against capital ships abeam you get only 4 dice, probably at 5+ to hit. Abeam because against a smart opponent they will want to cross your fleet as quickly as possible and thus won't let you fire on closing. Meanwhile, as previously stated, the nova cannon with the scatter die is unpredictable.
The Tyrant = better than average. The tyrant gets 10 pts of broadsides and against capital ships abeam this is also 4 dice to hit, just like the dominator. However, unlike the dominator it can fire its batteries to 45 cm ranges which will prove handy, and not just against Eldars. This slight increased range make up some of the short comings of the imperial cruiser format. For about the same points as the dominator imo it is the better ship.
The Dauntless = less than average. The dauntless lacks the 6+ prow of the standard cruisers, making it less survivable as the fleet moves forward toward the enemy. It also lacks the fire power of the standard cruiser or even an equivalent points of swords or firestorms. It is almost as maneuverable as escorts and slightly more durable. The only advantage of the dauntless is that being a cheap cruiser, it allows you to take a battlecruiser or a battleship sooner points wise.

The battlecruisers.
I think all battlecruisers are average. The only advantages they offer are longer ranged batteries (but not much better than tyrants) and long ranged lances. Ranged batteries are really defensive fires and while long ranged lances are good, it is unlikely you can match the number of ranged lances other fleets can field. In addition, with the longer ranges, you might be tempted to play them separate from the main fleet. However, this will weaken your main thrust of more affordable cruisers spearhead.

The battleships:
The Emperor = above average. At 365 points it is the more expensive battleship. Going for it are 8 squadrons of attack crafts, including assault boats, up to 16 points of 60 cm batteries broadside (6 attacks at 30 cm against capital ships abeam and 3 attacks at 31-60 cm) or 10 points of 60 cm batteries forward (4 attacks at 30 cm against capital ships abeam and 2 attacks at 31-60 cm), and most valuable the +1 leadership. Against it are the 5+ prow and the 15 cm move that makes it vulnerable to not being able to turn if there is even just one blast marker in the way. Most would field the emperor apart from the main spearhead where it would be less effective.
The Retribution = above average. At 345 points it is the less expensive battleship. It has 12 points of 60 cm batteries broadside (4 attacks at 30 cm against capital ships abeam and 2 attacks at 31-60 cm) which is only slightly less than the Emperor but once you factor in the 3 lances and at over 30 cm ranges it will have more firepower. With the 6+ prow it will fit right in with your cruiser spearhead and thus be fighting at short range typically.

The escorts:
What escort to take really comes down to covering the deficits of the cruiser spearhead. If there are dauntlesses, you might not need them at all. If you are lance heavy with gothics, take Swords. If short on lances or relying on cruiser batteries broadsides then take Firestorms. Cobras should be taken with an emperor to get the attack craft-torpedoes synergy.

In general, an Imperial fleets should have many dictators and lunars, a few tyrants, some dauntlesses, and a battleship as your centerpiece. Such a fleet certainly won’t be a sure win but would be fluffly and reasonably competitive.

Painting To Dos

2009-05-30T18:32:00.000-04:00

With WotR, I recently placed a large order to field all my armies at 1.5k. I am having second thought on the blue color scheme of my easterlings and so will leave them alone for now without painting new easterlings. I am midway through painting Gondor and thus far am satisfied with their color scheme. They are second to next on the painting list. Next on the painting list will be:

BFG Tau
Tau primer: white
Tau highlight: bleached bone
Tau weapons: scales green
Tau Heroes 2nd highlight: dark angel green

Kroot primer: black
Kroot inner sphere: deneb stone
Kroot outer sphere: charadon granite

Nicassar primer: black
Nicassar: Fenris grey

All washes: sepia

After the Tau i hope to finish Gondor, then move on to:

Khand:
primer: black
skin: tallarn flesh
armor: dry brushed bolt metal
weapon: chainmail
cloth: Iyanden darksun
highlight: hormagaunt purple
wood: brown
arrow feathers: white
bow & arrow: gretchin green
leather: black
horse: grey
wash: sepia

WotR: Fallen Realms

2009-05-06T19:15:00.000-04:00

After reviewing WotR army list for the Fallen Realms these past few days, my impression is that to stick to a theme would be difficult but personally i would still like to try. In practical terms there are only three theme-able sublists: easterlings, harads, and corsairs as these all have an epic hero each and plastic core troops. Queen Beruthiel was a black numenorean per Tolkien lore but in game terms, could be fielded as any southrons and even as a male character wizard!

Easterling strengths are armored infantry and cavalry which can be supported by light Khandish cavalry and chariots. I don't see much point for Khandish infantry other than as small formation to flank with their 2-handed weapons.

Haradrims can be "upgraded" to serpent guards/riders for +1 Fight and +1 Courage for only 5 points more per company. This seems well worth it to me game wise but the serpent models are all metal, thus financial cost must also be considered. using the taskmaster the haradrims can have +1 per formation to come closer to the serpent troops. The far haradrims of Mahud fluffwise i guess should complement near haradrims but their infantry and cavalry, though great models, do not seems worth the point cost or the money cost to acquire. The half trolls though do seem very interesting. The ultimate back up for the haradrims of course is the Mumak.

The corsairs are light infantry and can have as rare formations the arbalesters as well as the black numenoreans infantry and calvary (Umbar was a black numenorean city after all). I think this gives them a good mix of light infantry, heavy infantry, missile troops and knights.

When taking the ringwraiths, Khamul and the Knight of Umbar seems natural for easterlings and the corsairs as well. The Dark Marshall should go with the black numenoreans (making them common formations) and the corsairs. The remaining 3, the Betrayer, the Undying, and the Shadow Lord i guess are up for grab.

LotR: SBG

2009-04-24T16:59:00.000-04:00

After playing LotR Strategy Battle game for the past year, I have decided it is unbalanced. To explain why, lets start at the beginning. Why do any of us play any games at all? I believe firstly it is about how appealing the theme is to us. When i say theme i mean a composit of background over all, particular aspect of that background made personal, and of course the gaming pieces themselves. The first and biggest thing going for LotR is the background so many of us are familiar with from either the books and or the movies. If possible, we all want a little corner of the LotR universe.

Once we connect with the background then we look at the rules of game play. Face it, some game systems are clearly better than others. In this regard, from the GW major games, I believe the LotR SBG has the best rules compared to Fantasy Battle or 40k. Thus it is a win win so far with LotR from both background/theme and rules. So we enter the game and choose a force for us. There are two reason to choose any particular force: theme and competitiveness. It is hard to choose just competitiveness without theme, especially since theme is one, if not the first, reason we chose to play the game to begin with. But with any particular theme, we still want our force to be competitive.

Though the game is set as good versus evil, I believe most people view this as sides rather than theme. Theme includes such concept as a Mirkwood force of elves, a city of Gondor, a tribe of Far Harad, or a force of Orc Uruk hai venturing abroad in day light. Here is where I think the LotR SBG breaks down. If you want a theme force, in general Good themes are stronger than Evil themes, and game play is subsequently affected.

Lets look at the essential phases and aspects of the game.
Movement: Usually this is fairly balanced between good and evil.
Magic: Seems to me that despite having only three wizards available, these are really powerful Good wizards and typically superior to Evil wizards. Their spells have more offensive capability and their pool of Will slightly more available. Rarely a Good army ventures forth without a named wizard. The edge goes to Good.
Shooting: The forces of Good have superior shooting in terms of elven archers and or Grey companies. This discrepancy is exaggerated even more when considering the poor shooting ability of goblins and orcs. It is no contest, the shooting phase belongs to Good.
Fight: Again on average forces of Good has better and easier access to higher Fight value troops (not to mention anything about characters yet). From Elves to Dwarves to many human options, in most fight encounters, Good automatically wins when they roll a six. This means Good statistically wins 7 out of 12 times overall. While an argument may be posed that these higher Fight value models cost more to field, the same cannot be true for an argument that fielding more Evil models can compensate for a lower Fight value. Whether facing one or three evil models, Good still wins 7 out of 12.
Might: It should be obvious that the heroes of Good have greater access to higher Might characters than Evil. I do not believe the option to take monsters can offset higher Might (much like more fighters cannot offset higher Fight value Good models). Think about it, having more Might and Fate allows a hero to win over monsters, breaking any tie and surviving most losses. And those monsters Good does not want to fight they can always shoot or magic against. Heck, even having more Might can turn the neutral appearing movement phase to favor Good over Evil.
Thus in my analysis in nearly, if not all, phases and aspects of the game Good has the edge.

Yes I know we can all build killer combinations to win with, but these combinations typically will be "unfluffly" and stray, if not violate, the main reasons many of us chose to play to begin with, and that is theme. If the common Evil themes are uncompetitive, it really becomes a drag after a while, whether you play good or evil.

Table Top Tactical Thoughts: Mobility & Function

2009-04-21T00:59:00.000-04:00

In my previous post on Table Top Tactical Thoughts, i expressed these considerations:

Force maneuverability means either out maneuvering your enemy to achieve and gain the objective, or limit the ability of the enemy to maneuver to achieve their own objective. Being maneuverable doesn't just mean moving further, faster, or even ignoring the effect of terrain. Being maneuverable means being able to move further, faster, and more effectively than your opponent. Always bear in mind that all movement has destinations, and the destination should be to acquire favorable terrain, achieve the objective, or limit your enemy maneuver. There are two ways to limit the ability of the enemy to maneuver. Firstly, use terrain defensively to channel the enemy to move down unfavorable pathways or slow them down from arriving at favorable destination. However, using the terrain favorably can be difficult as both sides will try to get the best terrain layout, and there is little control over the layout of terrain in general. A slow army can out maneuver the enemy by limiting a faster army effective movement.

My belief is that mobility is key to success on the table top regardless of unit types or function. Mobility allows strong units to engage their target of choice and allows weak unit to avoid being targeted.

Force neutralizing typically means either inflicting unacceptable losses to the enemy while limiting your own losses, or limit the enemy ability to inflict losses on your own forces as they strive to achieve and gain the objective. Typically there are two kinds of forces: melee and ranged. Melee does not necessarily means hand-to-hand but close eye to eye combat. Ranged forces is just as it appears, with missile weapons of some sort. While there are two kinds of forces, there are actually three ways to utilizing and neutralizing forces: take the fight to the enemy to destroy them with pure close up power (strong melee vs weak melee), stand and barrage the enemy into oblivion (ranged strong vs ranged weak), and deny the fight confrontation avoidance (weak vs strong). Most units are not capable of being strong melee and ranged strong, and if that does happen, they can potentially be neutralized by fight confrontation. In addition, we want to avoid similar match up of strong vs strong or even weak vs weak because this increases the chances of an uncertain outcome. We want to increase the odds toward victory, not leave things to chance alone, though chance is always a player.

The permutations are as follow:
Strong Melee and Strong Ranged = Alphas
Weak Melee and Strong Ranged = Betas
Strong Melee and Weak Ranged = Deltas
Weak Melee and Weak Ranged = Gammas
I used semi-generic designation because i want to applies the terms accross different game systems. When considering what is strong and what is weak, it doesn't apply to just what your forces can field alone but must also be referenced against what your opponent can field.

What are their roles on the table top?
The alphas should target either the enemy's betas or the deltas depending on which is the bigger threat to your forces. The alphas should not target other alphas as the chances of success are less in this regard. While conceptually the alphas can inflict great losses against the gammas, the time limitations of each battle/encounter/game means that what losses inflicted is unlikely to be the winning factor. To be selective, they need to be mobile.
The betas should target firstly the enemy's alphas or deltas. Targeting the enemy alphas first make better sense because a weakened alpha can be finished of with your own deltas or even gammas. Many gamers have an over reliance on their own alphas so weakening his game plan can provide you with a psychological edge. However, if your own force is light on deltas, then targeting them and ignoring the enemy's alpha might be preferable. Mobility is necessary only in so much as moving to get that shot.
The deltas should move forward and engage whoever is closest. Against alphas they will likely lose, against betas and gammas they should win, and against other deltas it will be a toss up. As they main strength will be close combat/melee it ultimately won't matter too much. Mobility is essential.
The gammas have two functions. First is to occupy objectives/terrain and let others fight the battle. The second is to sacrifice themselves as mobile terrain, sort to speak. Thus for both functions they should be mobile. More on this later.

BFG: Imperial, Chaos, and Space Marine.

2009-04-17T22:05:00.000-04:00

Last night at our club night gaming I introduced a few folks to BFG (using my Chaos and Imperial fleets). Happily, I have sparked interests and have been requested to provide input on 500 points fleet for Imperial, Chaos, and Space Marines. Here are my thoughts.

Imperial Navy.
When it comes to building the imperial fleet, i think the most important first consideration is what combination of 2 cruisers you can build from the plastic kit (which allows 2 cruisers but due to limited weapon options, it cannot be just any two cruisers you want). The combination are:
a) Carrier build: two Dictators or a Dictator + a Lunar or a Gothic
b) Cruiser build: two Lunars or a Gothic + a Tyrant or a Dominator
c) Battlecarrier build: two Dauntlesses and a Mars

Fleet build option A. The Dictator (220 pts) i think is a great ship because it is an all purpose ship with batteries, fighter/bombers, and torpedoes. All fleets in my opinion should have a carrier. Two dictators would be 440 pts allowing 1 admiral at 50 pts.
Alternatively you take a Dictator and a Gothic or a Lunar. If you companion a Gothic (180 pts) with the Dictator this would be a great combination as the batteries from the Dictator would take down shields allowing the 4 lances to follow-up for the hits. The Lunar (180 to 200 pts) has both batteries (to take down shields) and lances (to inflict damages) thus allowing it some independent action on its own. The Lunar can also be modified to carry a nova cannon (though somewhat unreliable, has great power and a range of up to 150cm!). Total would be 400 to 420 points leaving 80 - 100 points for an admiral or escorts.

Going to 1000 points you can again load up on Dictators but balancing the fleet out with attack cruisers like a Gothic + a Tyrant would be good as well. Between the Tyrant and the Dominator I think the Tyrant is a better ship with more upgrade options. Total of 375 to 395 points and thus room for escorts. More on escorts later.
Alternatively going to 1000 points you can get a Dauntless (110 pts) light cruiser and a battleship (335 - 365 pts). More on battleships later.

Fleet build option B. This would be an attack cruiser build at 500 points, relying on Lunars or Tyrant + Gothic. The Lunar being armed with both batteries and lances allow it to work independently. But since each ship has to finish firing before the next, they cannot effectively combine their weapons (unless squadroned togehter). In addition, they only have 30cm weapons other than the nova cannons. Two Lunars would be 360 - 400 pts.
A Tyrant and Gothic combination will allow the Tyrant's batteries to take down shields and the Gothic lances to finish the job. The Tyrant also has 45 cm batteries which will be helpful against pesky eldars. This build is 365 to 395 points.

Going to 1000 points the fleet will need a carrier of some sort, either a Dictator or a Mars. Again you can alternatively get a Dauntless (110 pts) light cruiser and a battleship (345 - 375 pts). The Emperor would be tempting as a fleet carrier at 365 points.

Fleet build option C. The alternative to fielding a Dictator as your carrier would be to field a Mars battlecruiser (270 pts) and take the required two cruisers to be Dauntless (110 points each). The Mars is not a larger carrier than the Dictator, nor does it have torpedoes to combine with the bombers, but it does have better ranged batteries, lances, and the nova cannon. The Dauntless are sufficiently mobile to protect the Mars' blindspots. This would be 490 points.

Going to 1000 points you can add a Gothic (as the Mars has the same modeling requirement as the Dictator) or a Lunar. Then you will have to either buy escorts, more Dauntless, or buy another plastic cruiser set but be able to only field one (if you are undecided between different cruiser this might be a nice option to build one carrier, one Gothic, one Tyrant, and one Lunar) .

Regarding escorts, they must be squadron from 2 - 6 ships. Thus when you look at their profile you should multiply the weapons value by the number of ships in the squadron as they fire act act in conjunction with each other. All three are pretty good but the Firestorm seems unpopular for some reason.

Regarding battleships, there are actually 4: the Emperor (365 pts is the correct value based on updated FAQ), the Retribution (345 pts is the correct value based on updated FAQ), the Apocalypse (365 pts) and the Oberon (335 pts). Only the Retribution has a move of 20 cm, the rest is at 15cm. The significance is that battleships has to move 15 cm before turning, and their move is reduced by 5 cm by blast marker. The 15 cm move battleships also cannot turn by "come to new heading" special order or if they move through even one blast marker. Of the remaining ships the Emperor is popular for the +1 leadership and the 16 points of batteries it can focus (which may be better than the Retribution). The Oberon is like a more powerful Dictator/Mars and the Apocalypse a more powerful Lunar.

Chaos fleet.
At 500 points take a Devastation (this is absolutely the best carrier in the list, perhaps in the game, based on points). Then take either a Murder or a Carnage. The Murder has lances but it cannot combine with the batteries; the Carnage has only batteries but can get a pretty good amount together). Two cruisers would be 360 or 370 points. Add a chaos lord at 50 points will take total to 410 or 420, leaving 80 or 90 points for upgrades or escorts. For escorts, the Infidels (2 for 80 points) lets you have torpedoes (rare in the chaos fleet) or the Idolators (2 for 90 points) which has superior batteries.

At 1000 points: since you already have 2 cruisers, you can then take a heavy cruiser. The Styx (at 275 points) is generally considered inferior to the Devastation for points value. The 2 remain heavy cruisers are essentially mirrors of each other; the Hades is a batteries ship supported by lances while the Acheron is a lance ship supported by batteries. Between the two, i would probably take the Acheron as it has more turrets and can concentrate both batteries and lances to the front (the Hades cannot). Thus you will have 310 points left. Since you now have 3 cruisers (2 standards and 1 heavy) you can now take a Desolator battleship or a Repulsive grand cruiser. However, since the plastic cruisers come 2 per box, you may want to build either 1 heavy cruiser and 1 standard cruiser (Acheron + Devastation = 380 pts) or 2 standard cruisers (2 Slaughters at 330 pts) along with a warmaster (50 pts), another escort (they come 3 per blister pack (40 or 45 points). The Slaughters are faster than the other chaos cruisers but also have numerous though limited ranged weapons.

Space Marine.
For a Space Marine fleet i would recommend at 500 points take 3 strike cruisers and 1 fleet commander (leadership 10). At 1000 points add 1 battlebarge, leaving 90 points for rerolls or upgrades. In my opinion there is little need for escorts as the strike cruisers can turn 90 degree like escorts and are much more durable in a fight. All strike cruisers and the battle barge can launch fighter-bombers so the fleet will be well protected against other carriers.

Table Top Tactical Thoughts

2009-03-31T16:33:00.001-04:00

Alliteration ally aside, I have been given some thoughts to the general nature of table top tactics. I have also considered how the table top tactic is different from actual battlefield tactics. The biggest difference is that with table tops, you get to choose your force whereas in real life, you must fight with what is available. This difference is what really sets wargames from real life (other than the whole death and destruction thing) so as gamers we have a unique opportunity to select our forces. What should go into the selection is contingent on what we must accomplish on the table top and here, the differences between real life and games do not differ that much. There are two essential goals in tactics centering on force neutralizing ability and force maneuverability.

Force neutralizing typically means either inflicting unacceptable losses to the enemy while limiting your own losses, or limit the enemy ability to inflict losses on your own forces as they strive to achieve and gain the objective. Typically there are two kinds of forces: melee and ranged. Melee does not necessarily means hand-to-hand but close eye to eye combat. Ranged forces is just as it appears, with missile weapons of some sort. While there are two kinds of forces, there are actually three ways to utilizing and neutralizing forces: take the fight to the enemy to destroy them with pure close up power (strong melee vs weak melee), stand and barrage the enemy into oblivion (ranged strong vs ranged weak), and deny the fight confrontation avoidance (weak vs strong). Most units are not capable of being strong melee and ranged strong, and if that does happen, they can potentially be neutralized by fight confrontation. In addition, we want to avoid similar match up of strong vs strong or even weak vs weak because this increases the chances of an uncertain outcome. We want to increase the odds toward victory, not leave things to chance alone, though chance is always a player.

Force maneuverability means either out maneuvering your enemy to achieve and gain the objective, or limit the ability of the enemy to maneuver to achieve their own objective. Being maneuverable doesn't just mean moving further, faster, or even ignoring the effect of terrain. Being maneuverable means being able to move further, faster, and more effectively than your opponent. Always bear in mind that all movement has destinations, and the destination should be to acquire favorable terrain, achieve the objective, or limit your enemy maneuver. There are two ways to limit the ability of the enemy to maneuver. Firstly, use terrain defensively to channel the enemy to move down unfavorable pathways or slow them down from arriving at favorable destination. However, using the terrain favorably can be difficult as both sides will try to get the best terrain layout, and there is little control over the layout of terrain in general. A slow army can out maneuver the enemy by limiting a faster army effective movement.

For future posts, I will explore how the above principles and thoughts apply to Battlefleet Gothic, 40k, Fantasy Battle, and LotR.

Introducing my club to BFG

2009-03-21T18:51:00.000-04:00

In a few weeks i will introduce my club (which mostly play LotR) to my favorite GW game, BFG. The fleet i will be fielding will be as follows:

The Imperial fleet will consist of:
the Lauviah Dictator class attack carrier
the Harbonah and Zaphkiel Tyrant class attack cruisers
the Melchisedec Dauntless class light cruiser

The Chaos fleet will consist of:
the Arioch Devastation class attack carrier
the Gamaliel and Kushiel Carnage class attack cruisers
the Beleth Slaughter class fast cruiser

I did not include any escorts because I wanted to provide each player an equivalent cruiser. There are two others players in the club with BFG experience so hopefully they will show up and lead a fleet each.

Warhammer: Characters Role

2009-03-13T14:00:00.000-04:00

With the new Lizardmen Army book out, I have returned to tuning my 5 separate Lizardmen armies (armies, not lists). As most, I started with thinking about Lords and Heroes and I have come up with the following in order of needs.

1. The General. This role is mandatory for all armies. First consideration is that he has to have the highest leadership of your characters. This stipulation alone means that if you want a wizard to be your general, he will almost has to be a Lord level character. Second consideration is that regardless of what army you play (though Vampire Count in particular) he must be protected at all cost. Even if you play a regular human army, many competition scenarios award extra points for killing your opponent's general. With this in mind, if you choose a fighter as your general, you will be unlikely to throw him into combat on a regular basis, making a Lord choice somewhat of a waste.

2. The Slayer. This role is essential for nearly all armies. First consideration here is that this character is designed to kill characters and or large monsters. As such, ideally he should be a Lord level fighter tooled up to fight, kill, and maim. However, a lord level character in most armies will typically will have the highest leadership and thus will be forced to be your general. Except for Lizardmen, a Hero is what you will end up with here. Second consideration is that his model should be as mobile as he can be in order to chase his prey down. A monster mount would be great but again most monster mounts are only available to Lords rather than Heroes. Finally, in the absence of characters or monsters to kill he can always hunt artillery.

3. The Battle Standard Bearer. This role is helpful for most armies. First consideration is whether you really need one or not. In order to get the best use of one, you will have to cluster your units around him. While this may not be such a bad idea, it may limit your force tactically. Second consideration is whether he will carry a magic banner, or be "inspirational" and armed for combat otherwise. Taking a magic banner will be the most traditional role but again would also make him more tactically limited. One options would be for him to function both as a "Slayer" and a BSB (Battle Standard Bearer). This combo advantage would be he would be more resilient in combat resolution and his disadvantage would be the higher 25 points cost. Regarding victory points if standard VPs are only awarded to over-running units, then this would not be a problem as he should be fighting challenges (and either winning or dying), taking on small units with easy wins, or re-rolling break tests and passing them. The third consideration is whether he can be a Battle Standard Bearer and a Wizard. Only a few armies allow this option but if possible, this would make a decent combo allowing the character to remain with the main battle line protected, inspirational, to either cast spells and or dispel them as a defensive wizard. Finally, only one army that I know of will allow you to take a General-Wizard-Battle Standard Bearer combination and that is Lizardmen. This is a great combo for a more balance offense/defense or just defensive minded Lizardmen player.

4. The Supporter. This role is really optional for all armies. The first consideration here really is whether you need to take a wizard for magical defense. This character will almost certainly be a Hero level. If you have already taken a wizard as your General, then he will be a much more powerful offensive spell caster. If you have not taken any wizards at all then it means you have gone with Fighters for your characters and might need some magic defense. The second consideration here is if you have no needs for a wizard in this slot, a fighting hero to lead/buttress a flanking force/unit separate from your slayer. Under most circumstances more troops might be better than another fighting hero.

First Meeting of the Richmond Warmancers

2009-01-29T20:20:00.000-05:00

More details here.

But i am intrigued and excited by the possibility that 2-3 others in the group has expressed an interest in playing BFG!

LotR Tactics 2

2009-01-26T17:46:00.000-05:00

Some thoughts on army list composition and the Reinforcement rule. If this rule is in play, then your battle plan will be thrown in disarray if you are not prepared. Thus because of the chance that the reinforcement rule might be in play, the army list should compose of 2 parts of equal or near-equal number of models wise.

1. The first half, the half starting the game. When troops come on as reserve, they do so not as a unit but as individuals and thus will not be able to function as a unit. This must be kept in mind. Missile troops should be considered for this force faction. By starting the game together on the board, missile troops can be grouped as a unit to shoot volleys. There will also be more opportunity to shoot earlier in the game both directly and indirectly. Secondly named heroes should be considered for starting the game. Most named heroes have special abilities thus these ability should be available sooner rather than later. Thirdly, support troops may also be better off starting the game because support troops are best within a unit rather than on their own. Support troops include spearmen, pikemen, or standards.

2. The second half, the half arriving as reinforcement. Reinforcement models are hindered by their delay entry into the fray time wise as well as distance wise. Thus mounted troops, flyers, and faster models are better troops for the reinforcement faction. These models are also typically viewed as higher power troops and will frequently be targeted by missile weapons. Delaying their presence to the battle also delay the number of turns they may be targeted. Similarly, low defense troops, typically cheap troops taken for their sheer numbers, may be better off as part of the reinforcement faction for similar reasons. Some support troops are reasonable reinforcement as well, as the can be directed toward spots on the table that may need combat support rather than opening a new offensive front. Un-named heroes, with their single fate points, make good reinforcement heroes.

3. Rolling for reinforcement. Since the rule stipulates that you roll for one model at a time, it may matter which models are rolled for first and which last. Even if you roll for all similar models at a time, the order of what models are rolled for still matter. Because there is a one in 3 chance your opponent will get to place where your reinforcement enters, it would be better off if he places your least useful reinforcement first, to fill up the least useful reinforcement entry location. The order to roll for are bowmen (if there are any in your reinforcement faction), warriors, warriors with shield, warriors with spear/halberd/pikes, cavalry, infantry standard bearer, cavalry standard bearer, and lastly, heroes.

LotR: Gondor & Rohan Colors 2

2009-01-20T21:22:00.000-05:00

Started painting Gondor. My current thoughts on colors for Amon Barad (Gondor led by Cirion & Madril) & Eastfold (Rohan led by Erkenbrand) are now.

Gondor:
primer: boltgun metal
armor: boltgun metal
shield: deneb stone
weapon: chainmail
clothe: charadon granite
cloak: knarloc green
bow & arrows: khemri brown
arrow feathers: white
leather: black
wood: calthan brown
flesh: tallarn flesh
hair: Iyanden darksun
wash: ogryn flesh

Rohan:
primer: black
armor: boltgun metal
shield: charadon granite
weapon: chainmail
clothe: deneb stone
cloak: knarloc green
bow & arrows: khemri brown
arrow feathers: white
leather: black
wood: calthan brown
flesh: tallarn flesh
hair: tausept ochre
wash: devlan mud

Richmond Warmancers

2009-01-17T23:10:00.000-05:00

With GW closing down locally, a few of us similarly minded gamers have started a gaming club, the Richmond Warmancers.

GW Stony Point Store is closing

2009-01-12T21:07:00.001-05:00

My local GW store here in Richmond VA is closing in 2 weeks. Some of us gamers are looking to start our own gaming club, at least in the short term. A likely location has been found. We would like to get in together on the GW modular gaming board. So far we have about 6 so that means one piece of the gaming board each. I would like to see us have 12 players and 2 gaming boards. Two boards means 4-8 players on the 2 boards, and perhaps another flat top table. I would like the club to cover at least the 3 main GW games, 40k, FB, and LotR.

Surviving Horror

2009-01-12T21:05:00.000-05:00

This is not meant as a serious post but it does not mean the contents are without application to real life. . In my household we have been on a horror movie bent of late. The perpetrators have been monsters and humans, supernatural and too natural. I have thus decided (like the book on preparing for the Zombie apocalypse) have decided to generate a survival directive for surviving horror (movies).

1. Do not deviate from the original travel plan. This is typically how you are placed within a horror situation to begin with. As a corollary to this directive is that you must travel well armed. No, bullets may not slow spirits, but there are plenty of flesh causing horrors out there that will indeed bleed.

2. Once in horror situations, be prepared to use deadly force. I am not advocating first strike/pre-emption. But if you find the body (or blood stained suggestions of one) of a travel buddy, then all restraint against the use of deadly force should be suspended immediately. Naturally, if you are armed and are at risk of becoming the first victim of the group, by all means pre-empt.

3. Stick together. United you stand, divided you will die. Stragglers will be picked off. Do not investigate anything or anywhere on your own. Do not even go to the bathroom on your own. I recommend a minimum of 3 persons per activity. Say you are going to the bathroom. One person does the business, one keep an eye out in the room, one in the doorway (leave it open) and keep an eye out in the hall/outside. You should also keep 3 for each watch sleep. Teamwork is essential for survival. This would suggest that the size of your over all team should be six, grouped into threes.

4. Believe your friends. When your friend reports seeing something too crazy to be true, take it on face value as being true. No potential threat should be dismissed, every potential intel should be considered. Your enemy cannot be underestimated. Never assume your enemy follows the same code of behaviour as you do, adhere to the same moral code as most might. A corollary of this is that if you yourself saw something too crazy to believe you must tell others of it without fear of dismissal or ridicule. Distrust breaks down the team effectiveness and cohesiveness.

5. Have a plan for actions. Do not wait to be victims. Your plan of actions should be firstly security and ensure survival of the team. Your plan of actions should be secondly about escaping from the current horror situation. This has to be the order rather than the reverse. You will die without the team, there can be no escape alone. Note that all good plans require knowing what the sequence of actions will be (stepwise progression works best) as well as alternative options. No plans, regardless of how good, will be effective without buy-ins from the team. And the combination of action plans + team require defined role for each team members.

6. Have faith. Believing in a higher power/purpose may not save you from a lunatic, but it may against un-natural forces. Even against the mundane, having faith that you will survive provides a positive goal to enact and accomplish your plan of actions. Faith cannot be under-estimated. If you don't already believe, consider starting to believe (there are no atheist in foxholes). A corollary to this is that if you do not already believe, while others do, do not dismiss their faith, instead trust them, trust their faith (see #4 above).

7. Do not believe there is a traitor among you. Doing so will tear the team apart and doom you. If there is a traitor among you then you are doomed already, but no point speeding things up by breaking up your most important resource, your fellow team members. If the evidence become incontroversial that a person is a traitor, and some team members have already died from betrayal, eliminate the traitor. Use deadly force if necessary. Under no circumstances should you continue travel with the traitor as a captive. He/she will certainly seek to escape bondage while with you and cause harm to your team. While not the best of options, leaving the traitor behind bound and silenced may be an alternative. Know though that if found by your enemy, the traitor will certainly act against you. Why is having a traitor means you are likely doomed? Because the team has already been weakened and fractured by the traitor as well as the process of rooting out the traitor. However, you can at least take solace in the fact that nobody likes a traitor, and that in all likelihood the enemy will eliminate the traitor themselves once his/her usefulness has expired.

LotR: Gondor & Rohan

2008-12-30T20:42:00.000-05:00

My current thoughts on colors for Amon Barad (Gondor led by Cirion & Madril) & Westfold (Rohan led by Erkenbrand)

Gondor:
primer: boltgun metal
armor & shield: boltgun metal
weapon: chainmail
clothe: charadon granite
cloak: knarloc green
wood & arrows: calthan brown
arrow feathers: white
leather: black
horse: brown
wash: thraka green

Rohan:
primer: black
armor & shield: boltgun metal
weapon: chainmail
clothe: deneb stone
cloak: knarloc green
wood & arrows: calthan brown
arrow feathers: white
leather: black
horse: brown
wash: devlan mud

LotR: Shadow in the East Colors

2008-12-12T20:35:00.000-05:00

Khamul & Shadowlord:
primer: black
armor and weapon: dry brushed bolt metal
clothe: necron abyss
cloak: black
leather: charadon granite
horse: black
wash: black

Mouth of Sauron:
primer: black
armor and weapon: dry brushed bolt metal
clothe: red
cloak: black
leather: charadon granite
horse: black
wash: black

Easterling:
primer: black
armor, shield, and weapon: dry brushed bolt metal
clothe: mordian blue
cloak: orkhide
wood: calthan brown
arrow feathers: deneb stone
arrow: knarloc green
leather: charadon granite
horse: grey
wash: blue

Khand:
primer: white
armor, shield, and weapon: dry brushed bolt metal
clothe: Iyanden darksun
cloak: orkhide
wood: black
arrow feathers: deneb stone
arrow: knarloc green
leather: charadon granite
horse: grey
wash: yellow ink

LotR Tactics 1

2008-11-26T21:09:00.001-05:00

For the past 6 months I have been playing LotR Easterlings, mostly at 700 points in the local store. What I have learned is the following.

1. Force Composition. I believe a balanced force should consist of three parts. A mobile reactive part, typically cavalry. A battleline part consisting of warriors. Both the mobile and the battleline should be led by a hero (for heroic actions) and a standard bearer. The third force should be a relatively immobile force of archers (or war machines). A hero might be helpful to conduct heroic shooting, but a standard bearer is not necessary.

2. Battleline. The battle infantry should be lined up in three lines. The first line should consist of high armored fighters with shield. The models in the first line should be spaced out a bit in order to stretch the flanks further out, but not so far apart that it makes it easy to be ganged up and charged by two models. The second line should be their supporter, which would be spearmen. The third line should consist of the hero, the standard bearer, and a few additional warriors. Cavalry should be lined up in two lines. The first line should be the main, the second should be the hero and the standard bearer.

3. Movement. Frequently it is better for the battle infantry to get charged than to charge, especially if there are sufficient warriors in the third line to react and counter charge. The second line of supporters should be directed to where it is important to win the fight, the unsupported models should shield if outnumbered. Cavalry forces should always consider heroic move to avoid being charged.

4. Heroic Action. The best use of Might point is for heroic action. For Cavalry hero should reserve Might pts for heroic move to avoid being charged. Infantry hero should use Might pts for heroic move to charge and pin down enemy models, usually as support for Cavalry. Missile hero should use Might pts for heroic shooting. Heroic fight should only be used selectively to attempt "sacking the quarterback." By quarterback I mean either the standard bearer, a weak combat hero, or to act against an objective.

5. Magic. Still haven't figure this one out.

LotR Colors

2008-06-14T10:59:00.000-04:00

Just a note regarding my LotR color scheme.
Unless otherwise stated, all are using GW foundation paint.

Easterling:
armor, shield, and weapon: dry brushed bolt metal
clothe: mordian blue
cloak: orkhide
wood: calthan brown
arrow feathers: deneb stone
arrow: knarloc green
leather: granite?
horse:

Khamul:
armor and weapon: dry brushed bolt metal
clothe: necron abyss
cloak: black
leather:granite
horse: black

Mouth of Sauron;
armor and weapon: dry brushed bolt metal
clothe: red
cloak: black
leather: granite
horse: black

Khand:
armor, shield, and weapon: dry brushed bolt metal
clothe: red?
cloak: orange?
wood: calthan brown
leather: granite?
horse:

Rohan:
armor, shield, and weapon: dry brushed bolt metal
clothe: iyanden yellow
cloak: deneb stone?
wood: calthan brown
leather: granite?
horse: tallarn flesh?

New Game

2008-06-07T18:54:00.000-04:00

Despite my intent of just sticking with the armies i already have and concentrate on terrain, i have started LotR.
But i don't regret it for two main reasons.
Firstly, it allows me an opportunity of getting some friends into gaming. Having friends to play with can never be diregarded.
Secondly, after skimming the rules, i think it is a better game system than Fantasy Battle. For battles, i think Warmaster does a much better job of representing epic battles.
And thirdly (yes, i said "two main reasons" but this is just a minor reason) is that the human armies i have chosen will allow me to use my human warhammer houses. So in a way, it is still about terrain?

The armies i have chosen are as follow. Each will be built to 500-600 pts.
1. Easterling
2. Rohan (Theoden's Host, but led by Erkenbrand)
3? Khand or Lorien
4? Lorien or Khand.

Book Review: Legion

2008-03-31T22:44:00.001-04:00

I read it all in one day, yesterday. It was a great departure from the other Horus Heresy books because though it is about the Alpha Legion, it was a view of the Alpha Legion from the outside. From this outside perspective, the mysteries of the Alpha Legion remains. Even though a significant fluff/plot twist was introduced, it only increase their mysteries.

Overall, well written and better than any of the other Horus Heresy novels. I give it 8 of 10.

Photo: Warhammer buildings

2008-01-07T19:05:00.001-05:00

Photo: GT Lizardmen Army

2008-01-07T19:00:00.000-05:00

Warhammer Terrain

2008-01-07T07:52:00.000-05:00

I have decided to make building terrain as my 2008 modeling project. I have started with the warhammer models by GW. While the fit of the pieces seems inadequate (the corners of the buildings do not glue readily at a right angle), there are plenty of left over accessory pieces that can be used for customization and home-made add-ons. Thus far i have build one fortified manor (with a custom roof for the tower), combined two towers to make a small keep, and combined two houses to make a larger one (with another custom roof for the addition). I am contemplating building another tower as a clock tower, and perhaps a fortified house as well. I will try to get pictures tonight to post.

New Year's Plans

2008-01-02T23:10:00.001-05:00

Last year I built an entire 3k army for GT. This year I think I will play the same army in all my tournament plays. As for building projects, I will focus on terrain. I have the City of Death kit for 40k and the Warhammer building set for Fantasy. I am really looking forward to this year's project. I need to get a digital camera for this.

Baltimore GT

2007-12-06T07:52:00.000-05:00

This post is a month past due but here it goes. I took a Sacred Host of Quetzl to the Baltimore GT this year. I took a ballanced list with 25% characters, 50% core, and 25% special. I took no large monster. I was rather shocked that some of the list i faced were so over powered.
Game 1: I faced a Tzeench demon list with a greater demon. Narrow lost.
Game 2: I faced a balanced lizardmen list. Marginal win.
Game 3: I faced a lizardmen list with a carnosaur (and a stegadon?). A tie.
Game 4: I faced a Nurgle list with a dragon. Wiped out (some very poor gaming decision on my part)
Game 5: A Knight's errant list. very balanced and characterful. A tie. My most enjoyable game.

Next time I think I will take some thing more powerful. Or at least gear the army to large (flying) creatures.

On a side note, I was also surprised that the 2 lizardmen opponent had not heard of the sacred host list.

Finish Line

2007-09-11T21:45:00.000-04:00

Unbelievable, but i have finished painting 3 battalions of Lizardmen!
Next step is to flock them, build moving trays, and write fluff for them.
In addition, i want to build and paint Kroq Gar now.

The last kits

2007-09-07T21:48:00.000-04:00

I know it has been a while since I have last posted, but that is because i have been surprisingly active painting my lizzies.
now all the skinks are painted. all the saurus warriors are painted. all the character models are painting. I am currently on the cold one riders and then 3000 pts of lizzies in 9 months are done. I still need to base them and generate fluff for them for the Baltimore GT.

Saurus Warriors 2

2007-07-21T17:04:00.000-04:00

Just finished my first batch of saurus warriors. Over all, the models are better than i expected but my painting algorithm and color scheme did not turn out as i expected. It is too late really to change my color scheme but the painting algorithm will be changed.

For my next batch, I will start as below:
1. Eyes = bad moon yellow
2. Skin = bronzed flesh
3. Scales & teeth= bone
4. Wash: a mix of 9 part water, 1 part blue, 0.5 part yellow
5. Mouth & feathers: magenta
6. Leather: snake bite
7. Wood: scorched brown
8. Weapon: brass
9. Jewelry: bronze
10: standard: burnish gold

there is something wrong with the washing step. maybe it is too dilute. i do not know.

yes, i really need to take some photos.

Golden Compass

2007-07-06T14:59:00.000-04:00

Daemon type: Ocelot
Daemon trait: modest, inquisitive, a leader, assertive and relaxed

71

2007-07-02T07:15:00.000-04:00

Finally finished all my skinks, all 71 of them. Over all it took more time priming and assembling them than actual painting them. At least it seems that way. Not perfect, but i think they turned out alright. Now on to the Saurus. I will have to modify my inking of them i think.

Skinks Blows

2007-06-19T09:16:00.000-04:00

This weekend I finished painting 20 skinks with blow pipes. I tried inking them and it did not work out as i expected, not bab, just not expected. I will take a picture and post it as soon as i can. Overall, it went faster than expected. Now onto skinks with javelins.

Baltimore GT

2007-05-01T22:06:00.000-04:00

Got my ticket last week. Now I have a deadline for finishing my Lizardmen!

Saurus Warriors

2007-05-01T21:59:00.000-04:00

I didn't realize that it has taken me so long to assemble the saurus warriors!
Over all i came to like the models more than i thought i would. I had problem with the fit of the leg to the body, leaving wide gaps. I tried to trim back the peg in the leg but this still didn't fit it. Otherwise, the arms fitted well, and there were plenty of options for the arms and head. Now i needd to prime them.

Saurus Riders

2007-03-19T08:37:00.000-04:00

I've finished priming and 90% assemblage of the saurus cold ones riders.

Overall I think the model kit was pretty good with sufficient variation and details. While the ball-in-socket torso-pelvis joint was interesting, I am not sure this really added much to the variety of poses. But it was a secure joint and again I think the arms-shoulder joint should have been of similar design as well. I am also perplexed as to why the shield arm was integrated with the shield itself. As such, I have not glued them to the body and this will likely leave a painting seam at the left shoulder attachment. I guess I can paint the shield-arm first, then glue them to the torso and then paint the torso. Weird.

Next are the saurus warriors themselves.

the Primarche

2007-03-10T20:25:00.000-05:00

I still maintain one of the missing primarch was female, and likely the invisible Primarche.

Because her geneseed was different from the other primarch, it was much more troublesome to implant. Her legion was thus much smaller than the other, and was primarily made up of women. After the heresy, the decision was made not to pursue this geneseed line further. After all, nearly half of the good and stable geneseed rebelled for chaos. It was decided what was left of her legion after the heresy was allowed to die out. The Primarche assented to this with a proviso, that should a way be found to stabilize the geneseed, and then her legion would be resurrected. Until then, all records of their existence would be expunged and the agreement was lost in the depths of the hall of records. Or perhaps there was never any intent to resurrect this legion and their record was expunged forever.

With her remaining legionnaires, she settled on the world of San Leon and started the martial training of women, waiting for the day the recruits could be implanted with their Primarche's geneseed. However, as the decades passed the Primarche soon became impatient and left San Leon to search for means to resurrect her legion. Being invisible, she was thus able to travel and work unseen. On San Leon, the years, decades and centuries passed until all that outward remain of those she left behind and their link to the Emperor was their name, the Daughters of the Emperor.

In the Age of Apostasy, the Daughters of the Emperor superiority was recognized and were recruited by Gore Vandire as Brides of the Emperor.

"Once more the Imperial Palace came under attack, though this time from forces loyal to the Emperor. For months, the walls of the palace withstood every assault until at last the Adeptus Custodes, the praetorian guard of the Emperor himself, sought out Alicia Dominca, the leader of the Brides of the Emperor and her most trusted companions. The Custodes took them before the Emperor, though what occurred there remains unknown. When they emerged from the bowels of the palace they renounced the name of Brides in favour of their original title of Daughters of the Emperor, and marched with barely-controlled fury to Vandire's audience chamber.
Codex: Witch Hunters

The Emperor remained in stasis, but at the foot of the Golden Throne the missing primarche revealed herself as both a Primarch and the primogenitor of the Daughters of the Emperor legion. During her travels and search, she came to understand the futility of trying to resurrect her legion using geneseed implant, for both political and scientific reasons. But she also understood that the power of the emperor lies not only in his physical prowess, manifested in his genes passed onto his primarchs. His powers also manifested themselves through faith, and this would be how she would resurrect her legion. This too was revealed to Alicia; she found this truth was undeniable both from ancient lore of the Daughters of the Emperor and from the power wielded by the Primarche.

It is believed that she has manifested herself both before and after the Age of Apostasy in the form of living saints. Though not all such manifestations are of the Primarche herself.

Also read: the Lost Legions

Cold Ones

2007-03-04T20:31:00.000-05:00

There are two things i want to comment on regarding the lizardmen cold ones. Firstly, the sculp and posing is only acceptable and far from inspiring. I think it would have looked better if the cold ones were more vertical and less horizontal. Secondly i think the modelling assembly was easy and this was a nice change from the skinks. I've finished assembling and priming them. Now onto their riders.

Skinks and tournaments

2007-02-25T19:39:00.001-05:00

I finished assembling my skinks tonight, all 72 of them. But they will remain in the primed state until i can get around to painting them.

Spoke to my co-lizardmen friend tonight. Originally we were aiming for tournament play in Chicago at the end of March but with the slow pace i am going building my army, i just don't think i will make it. If not Chicago the next one on the calendar is Atlanta at the end of April. Kinda skeptical about that one as well.

Skinks arms and torsos

2007-02-23T21:09:00.000-05:00

Spent the night assembling skinks. I hate assembling these models because the arm interface with the torso is flat. In order to stick them together it only take a few seconds but inevitably glue gets on your finger at minimum, it not glue and the arm itself. It would have been better to use some sort of ball and socket.

New Army

2007-02-12T12:17:00.001-05:00

One of my best friend got me into miniature wargaming almost a decade ago. I already had a history of wargaming long before that dating back a quarter of a century or so. It was the three dimensional aspect of the game that made it better than cardboard chits pieces. It was both the appearance of models on that table top as well as how the pieces feel in your hand. Chess players would certainly understands this when comparing computer chess to actual chess board games. The games we settled on were from Games Workshop, primarily Warhammer but also 40k and Battle Fleet Gothic. I have also delved into Warmaster and am very much interested in Epic as well.

About a year ago this same friend and i, now separated by a thousand miles, started talking about building the same identical army. The reasons were many. One was so we can directly compare our ability beyond army composition. Second was to share a common platform when talking about tactics. Thirdly so that when we visit each other we can play with an army that was already familiar. We decided upon a GW Warhammer Fantasy Battle army that would meet the requirement of GW Grant Tournaments, as these were the most likely events we could attend together. We scoured the army books for an army that would fit both our expectations and gaming needs. Firstly the army had to be affordable in terms of both time (hordes army like Skaven were thus promptly ruled out) and money (Demon and Beastmen armies were then eliminated). Secondly the army had to be tactically flexible and most of the Chaos armies as well as Dwarves were out. We considered briefly Undead (Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings) but saw them a too favored in tournament settings. We also considered Wood Elves but after several rounds of list buildings we just could not get something that felt right. We nearly settled on a Bretonnian army but were concerned they did not have sufficient resilience against armies such as undead. Finally we settled on Lizard men and after several months of tweaking the list, we agreed.

For Christmas we each bought the battalion boxes for our new army. Last night I assembled my first models.

2007-01-07T20:45:00.000-05:00