Plastic Legions

Club Night 7/14

2009-07-15T11:40:00.006-05:00

We have 1st meeting in July last night..despite spotty attendance from some of the regulars we are getting a consistent 4 or 5 games happening every meeting last night Bill and I played our 1st VC vs Empire match up in a long time. First time trying out the Steam Tank vs Bill and he brought out the Lv 4 on the Zombie Dragon for the only the second time playing me. Always
a good the unorthdox list we both played. ( I had no other artillery other than the Steam Tank, while Bill played with No BSB, and no mega block of vampire laden troops) work both for an against us. The Steam Tank works very well against VC..and although Blood Knights can on average pop it open like a can of tuna on the charge..Bill didn't want to commit them with letting them wreak their own havoc 1st..The ate up my Greatswords but got held up long enough to get into trouble. The Stank Cannon took down the Dragon.( being able to fire the cannon at other targets while in close combat is crazy powerful ability) The spell "Curse of years" is a personal bane to me..I can never , ever seem to shake it until it get down to 3+/4+ mass extinction level..after numerous dispel attemps (I threw 4 dice at it and came up with 3 "1"'s..I finally shook after it killed my BSB. In the end a last chance attempt by Bill to regroup with Dragonless Vampire General joining the graveguard was thwarted by the Rod of Command While put serious hurt on my almost wiped out swordsmen and General..I wasnt going anywhere allowing Luthor Huss and 9 Inner Circle Knight plus another full detachment to slam into both flanks at the bottom of turn 6. The Vampires were crumbled to dust in a rare Empire Massacre. As always I have some of the best games with Bill.

In other games Nate brought out his Lizards and took on Chris's crazy converted Wood Elves
the Lizards pulled out a Solid Victory there. Then Rich's Beastmen took on Chris's Wood Elves
in a serious all skirmishers games..in which the Beasts pulled out the Victory,

Finally Nate and I played a 600 Lord of the Rings games, Mordor Vs Rohan or more specifically Shagrat and the Tower Guard of Cirith Ungol VS Eomer and the Riders of Rohan Scenario was"High Ground" where we battled over a ruin on top of the huge hill set I have with my Realm of Battle table. Outnumbered 2 to 1 nate had his work cut out for him, although with 9 might, and being able to regenerate might he had a good chance..Eowyn and Eomer got a bit too ambitious and tried to take out too much too soon and got mobbed and went down early..while the Rohan captains took down my troll, I still had over half my troops remaining swarming all of the captured hilltop, while Nate was failing courage checks and down to 3 models..Rohan conceded and Mordor won the day...Great Game.

I did take a few photos..I will pop up later.

What's it take to get you to Paint?

2009-07-09T18:40:00.016-05:00

Admittedly, I am a paint snob. I rarely put unpainted models on the table unless it's a new army or a new gaming system I am trying to learn and I expect the same from my gaming pals. I don't play pick up games against people with unpainted models and I don't support or attend tournaments or events without a painting requirement. For me, the fun is playing the game, not winning the game..so in order to have fun playing I want as much eye candy as possible..when your beautiful 3000 pt army gets wiped off the table by another another beautiful 3000 point army, I barely remember the loss- just the glory of the game..when your painted army loses to some unpainted pile of featureless metal and plastic it makes me want to leave my army in a case for the next month.

I'm fortunate that the people I game with are like-minded in that everyone despite work, families, jobs, school and whatever excuse find time to paint their models, slowly but surely..I like watching how peoples armies develop over time, I've run things like our last painting challenge with the single hope of motivating people to paint. Appreciating the finer points of the hobby, i.e- the craft, will inevitable bring you far more satisfaction that every winning any tournament..think of it this way- While winning a GT or your favorite local tournament might be nice, it's soon forgotten after the next year's winner trump's your accomplishment. On the other hand, winning a Golden Daemon stays with you forever as others may join the elite but you're always a member. Figuring out what build trumps the current meta game for the season and having the luck of your dice back you up just doesn't impress me, winning best overall in a properly structured tourney, Battle/Sports/Paint/Comp does.

Games Workshop has recently seemed to lose the enthusiasm that always seemed core to the mission statement. In that "The Hobby" stands above all else in purpose. Recently, standards have dropped for GW sponsored events and demand to sell more product has pushed the creation of game systems designed to sell obscene amounts of models that an employed person could never hope to paint to a good standard in a lifetime. Other companies such a Privateer Press don't push the hobby as part of the core game platform..the result is no one paints their models as the norm..which I can tell you absolutely kills potential sales and interest in their games, either go pre-painted, or promote the hobby portion of the game..leaving it to a bare metal standard despite some wonderful sculpts just doesn't cut it.

My point in bemoaning the demise in the interest in painting is that its sad because its easy to get started and it is such a fundamental aspect of the hobby. Anybody, I mean anybody as long as you have two hands can paint to a three color standard. I've read all the excuses and they just don't hold water, if you have time to play games, you have time to paint. The only excuse that's holds any merit is " I suck at painting, or I can't paint" well everyone starts out that way, so I wanted to talk about a few things that can help you get motivated as well as teach you how to paint.. The focus here is on books as if you're reading this you are already versed on the value of Hobby Blogs.

Foundry Miniatures- Painting and modeling guide.
Hardcover 200 pages, around $30 USD.

I recently purchased the above and have to say it was great buy, I am always on the hunt for painting tips, new ideas..and particularly manufactures own opinions on painting their own models. This book covers it all. from beginner to expert..tons of color photographs, and real tutorials. I find this to be the best of the lot here, especially for the intermediate or the the beginner, but I say that with my current keen interest in Foundry's gigantic line of models out on the table. (I really like all the tips for converting metal miniatures here as well besides the paint.)

Games Workshop-How to paint Citadel Minatures-
Soft Cover 96, $25 USD

The first "how to" Book I bought back in 2003, when I started getting back into the hobby again, light in content..GW books often get crap for being more focused as product advertising more than tutorial..this book is pretty solid and goes over all the basics..they've released alot of awesome models since then..time for an update. find it used somewhere..definitely useful for beginners. Again there isn't much in here your subscription to White Dwarf didn't cover over the years..but you have that you probably already have or don't need this book.
(edit- apparently this book has been updated as its a different cover than my copy, not sure if the content's been updated)

Cool Mini or Not- the Ultimate Miniature Painting guide
download 400 pages, $10 USD

a compilation of articles posted on the CMON website. A great bundled resource but since you can all the content for free by cruising the database its not mandatory, but buy it for easy point of reference. The bar at CMON is extremely high, and many of these articles are very advanced and while they look easy on paper, application requires practiced techniques..but at 400 pages there is plenty for all. definitely worth checking out.

If you can find time to check out these books and still not find motivation to paint..give it up already, case closed- I sending the Great Unclean One to your house to eat you.

Battle Report - The Empire vs Beasts of Chaos

2009-06-30T16:23:00.009-05:00

6/23 Plastic Legions HQ

Beasts of Chaos

Wargor GW, Heavy Armor, MoS General 88

Great Bray Shaman Lv4 Mos, additional hand weapon 244

Bray Shaman Lv2 Braystaff, Lore of Death, 116

4 Minotaurs, 2nd hand wp. MoS 196

5 Minotuars GW MoS + Bloodkine 270

20 Slaanagors MoS, Warbanner + Champion, Std & Musician 315

Beast Herd 10 Gor, 7 Ungor Foe-Render + Std & Musician 133

Beast Herd 10 Gor, 5 Ungor Foe-Render + Musician 115

Beast Herd 10 Gor, 5 Ungor Foe-Render + Musician 115

Beast Herd 7 Gor, 7 Ungor Musician 82

5 Warhounds 30

5 Warhounds 30

5 Warhounds 30

5 Warhounds 30

Fiend of Slaanesh 75

Fiend of Slaanesh 75

Shaggoth, GW, Light Armor 306

Pts: 2250 Models: 116

The Empire

General of Empire- Full Plate, Great Weapon, Rod of Command, Holy Relic, Barded Mount
Captain of Empire- Battle Standard Bearer, with Imperial Banner, Full plate, Barded Mount
Warrior Priest- Great Weapon Armor of Metoric Iron, Icon of Magnus
Battle Wizard- Lv1, Dispel Scroll, Wizards Staff

24 Swordsmen Full Command with War Banner
- 9 Free Company Detachment x 2

10 Handgunner, Marksman w/ HLR

12 Knights of the Blazing Sun, Full Command, Steel Standard

20 Flagellants

19 Greatswords Full Command
- 9 Swordsmen Detachment

Great Cannon x 1

Steam Tank

Rich's return to WFB was a good one, Having only once played a pure BoC list and Rich using things he was unaccostmed too (as he normally ran a Chaos List with heavy beasts in 6th ed) -I think the game was a surprise for both of us.

Deployment

Rich had his several groups of Minotaurs, his Shaggoth and Fiend and Shaman on his Left Flank, Herds up the Middle and more herds on hid right flank with some Hounds, he had two units of Beast herds and another unit of hounds in reserve for Ambush.

I had my Infantry up the middle with Flagellants on the left and Greatswords on the Right, I had the Stank on the far left Flank and the my large unit of Knights on the Right Flank. My Wizard and Handgunners were poised to rush into the Watchtower ASAP. I had a lone cannon on the hill at the edge of my 12"line toward my left side of the table.

1st Turn- Empire

I advance my troops, take the watch tower. Cannons put wounds on the Shaggoth, Kill one fiend and a Minotaur.

1st Turn- BoC

Rich advances his troops, moving his heavy hitters toward the Stank, cautiously moving the rest..I can tell at the bottom of 1, My knights are in trouble if I can't a charge off to many units, around the them..my cannon won't last long wither. The Shamans hit me with nasty spells..BoC
is still using the old hated spell list from the 6th ed chaos book, titilating Delusions, Excoriating torment, the dreaded "Hold" spell I take some lumps, nothing major.

Turn 2- Empire

My Blocks march ahead, my Greatswords are heading toward the one trouble shaman. Tank and Cannons dont do much this turn. I inflict some minor causalites with my handgunners

Turn 2- BoC

The Shaggoth Charges the Steam Tank, I had rolled maximum Steam points for Stank this turn held plenty in reserve for the inevitable charge.
The Stank grinds the Shaggoth to paste but does take a wound from the beast. Rich makes out in the magic phase "Holding" my Knights..they are now basically going to be surrounded. ambushers come on and are in my backfield, trouble is coming

Turn 3 Empire

The stank and cannon shoot, I get off a good steam template on the ambushing beast herd..followed by handgun fire makes them run off the board.
My infantry is still unengaged positioning. My knights are held..My wizard miscasts (1st of two, I have been miscasting like SoB lately)

Turn 3 BoC

Rich sends his Mino's at the Stank, same result the put a wound on it but a grinded and broken. My knights and Cannon are charged...I am wiping up the right side of the board while Rich the left..I need to turn my blocks to suit the change in the direction of the battle...

Turn 4 Empire

My General and Infantry blocks charge a herd and smash it moving into another unit my Greats do get to move facing the right direction now in the BoC backfield. My Flagellant are tarpitting a nasty block of Minotaurs of the left side...my cannon is gone, my knights lose and break only to be run down next turn . Instead of moving my Stank toward the middle of the board here, I stupid have it charge his one Shaman that is driving me crazy..I can't catch it but hope my Greatswords can next turn..it doesnt work and a low steam point roll basically puts the Stank out of action at this pivotal point in the game. My Handgunners kill the remaining Fiend.

Turn 4 BoC

Rich, Seals the Deal here but getting successful "Hold" Spell on my General and his Swordsmen. His Minos who have eaten my Flaggies are poised next turn to finish me off..he repositions everything he can to help out this game winning melee.

Turn 5 Empire.

Can't break the hold spell...I am in trouble..My Greatswords eat up a herd but no matter, I take other detachment causualites through out, my Stank is way out of position and can't move enough to do anything

Turn 5 BoC

Rich's Minotaurs Slam into my Flank and I am held I cannot fight back...causalties are massive...getting a rear charge soon coming as well. I either already used the Rod of Command on a bad round of Combat, couldn't use it because I was held or it just didn't bother, because there was nothing I could do the next round (everyone was out of position) it mattered not., I get shattered and caught..General BSB, Banners...600 points plus all the extras..even with my Greatswords, Stank and Handgunners and Wizard..there is nothing I can do to come back from that....its late so we call it

Beasts of Chaos- Victory!!-

Welcome back Rich!

Battle Report- The Empire vs Tomb Kings

2009-06-27T13:44:00.005-05:00

6/23 @ Plastic Legions HQ

Tomb Kings of Khemri

Tomb King, Destroyer of eternities, Collar of Shapesh, light armor 268
Lich Piest, Hieratic Jar, Dispell Scroll 165
Lich Priest, Staff of Ravening 160
Icon Bearer, Icon of Rakaph, light armor 107

28 Skeleten warriors, light armor, shield, full command 277
19 Skeleton warriors, bows, light armor, full command, banner of the undying legion 221
4 Chariots, Standard and musician, Mirage standard 210
2 tomb swarms

24 Tomb Guard, Light armor, shield, full command, war banner 343
4 carrion 96
1 scorpion 85

1 bone giant 220

2242 pts, 86 models

The Empire

General of Empire- Full Plate, Great Weapon, Rod of Command, Holy Relic, Barded Mount
Captain of Empire- Battle Standard Bearer, with Imperial Banner, Full plate, Barded Mount
Warrior Priest- Great Weapon Armor of Metoric Iron, Icon of Magnus
Battle Wizard- Lv1, Dispel Scroll, Wizards Staff

24 Swordsmen Full Command with War Banner
- 9 Free Company Detachment x 2

10 Handgunner, Marksman w/ HLR

12 Knights of the Blazing Sun, Full Command, Steel Standard

20 Flagellants

19 Greatswords Full Command
- 9 Swordsmen Detachment

Great Cannon x 1

Steam Tank

This was a 2250 battle between Chris's Tomb Kings and my Empire. We did this battle once before quite awhile ago..it was quite an interesting game then (where one my Cannons took his screaming skull and Heirophant 1st turn with a well placed shot and perfect bounce and he was making crumbling checks from his very first turn and he still won) and I was sure this going to be as well. This was also my first chance to try out the new Empire Steam Tank. Mine is still WIP..but done enough that I had to get it on the table.

Deployment

Khemri was deployed with his infantry in blocks up the middles, archers on the flank, chariots on the other flank with the Bone Giant and the Carrion hidden from sight toward the center of the board. The Empire had Infantry in the middle all the way to flank with Steam on the short flank and my Cavarly all the way on my Left flank. My Cannon was in middle, shots would be tough but with large on the table..I'd figure I'd get some shots off.

Turn 1- Khemri

Khemri wins the 1st turn and starts off strong..using its painful magic..as much as I tried to stop it..I end up burning all my dice and my scroll trying to prevent those Carrion from charging my cannon 1st turn with the extra move from the spell in the magic phase..I am one dice short and Chris gets it off. the Carrion take out my Cannon before I ever get a chance to use it and over run off the table..he also racked a decent amount of kills from his archers this turn a great start for him.

Turn 1 - Empire

I quickly get my Handgunners and Wizard into the nearby watchtower and look to put them to work..I plow the Stank straight away anxious to see what it can do. my flanks march full speed ahead while my center creeps up to see whats about to happen

Turn 2 -Khemri

Chris strategy is use the extra movement possibilities in the movement phase to his maximum advantage..he's trying to set up flank charges on my oncoming cavalry and advancing his infantry blocks, both his swarms and his Scorpion come up in turn 2 and are in my backfield he also has his Carrion back on the board and in my backfield..I am not liking this one bit,again I take casualties from ranged fire on my detachments.

Turn 2- Empire

I end up turning my stank around to facedowm some of the backfield attackers that are threatening me..I move my infantry ahead mine cavalry is in his archers face ready to charge or take one. My Greatswords are squaring off against the chariots. My Wizard and Handgunners inflict some hurt on the Carrion.

Turn 3- Khemri

Chris gets off alot of charges..His infantry block with his general charges my general and his Swordsmen..his scorpion rear charges one of my detachments which elects to flee, my other detachment successfully countercharges, My Knights get charged by the archers. My fleeing detachment is caught and run down by the tomb scorpion..but my Flagellants are poised to charge it next turn. Chris moves the Bone Giant into the fray during magic phase on the flank of my countercharging detachment. Combats are intense both our generals are locked in a challenge. My BSB kills his Heirophant which makes his start making crumble checks, I forget who won the 1st round but we stayed locked with plenty of causalites on both side. My core Knights who suck accept when charging use there superior numbers to actually win the 1st round of combat against the archers..chris takes his causualites and keeps fighting,

Turn 3 Empire

My Flagellants charge the tomb Scorpion, my Stank repositions itself headed toward the combats, my Greatswords charge the chariots, My Handgunners finish of the Carrion. In close combat, My flagellants blow thru the tomb scorp and right into the flank ongoing huge combat, that turns out to be my ace in the hole..I have huge round of CC..My General Kills his General..my Flagellant martyr and do a ton of causalites..my combat res is so high everything including the Bone giant pops this round, Not to mention both my greatswords prevail and my knights wiping out both there opponents. huge turn for the Empire..the game is essentially over.

Turn 4 Khemri

Chris charges his Tomb Guard into the Stank hoping to do some damage not realizing what a tarpit it is against a S3 infantry block..undamaged at this point I end up with 9 steam points to put into grinding essentially shredding most the unit during the close combat phase..Chris concedes at this point realizing it is just not Khemri's day.

Result- Empire -Massacre

Conclusions- Chris started out very strong but had some very bad breaks..the Tomb Scorpion charge worked to my favor immensely as he left himself a sitting duck for my Flagellants to flank break. The Stank was mostly a deterrent this game and I didnt use it all that well..Chris could figure out how to wound it, until it was grinding up his Tomb Guard. In the End my Close combat dice went exceptionally well on all fronts with large static res's on top of that..its just damn tough to beat the Empire when the dice gods are loving you. Great game to Chris. best part about this game ending early is I got to play Rich's Beast of Chaos..another interesting game where I learn that the 6 year old army book is still playable in the current environment!

Battle Report- Empire vs High Elves

2009-06-19T15:04:00.027-05:00

6/17 @ Chicago Battle Bunker

Wednesday night was the new incarnation of veterans night at the Chicago Battle Bunker. Listening to the grievances about the earlier store closing hours, current manager and all around great guy, Jeff W. extended the wednesday hours to accommodate veterans or any and all whose work schedule or life prevents them from getting there before 6pm. I just had to make an appearance at the opening night, although honestly given my own bi-weekly club night with guys from our local store I can't see myself getting out there more than once a month. I made the trip out without a game set up in advance which is something I never usually do, but figured there be enough folks there so I would find someone to play. Luck had it that Brian (who posts as Elvenrain over at IWFB.org) was in the same boat.

In my opinion Brian has the best looking High Elf army in the Chicago metro that I've seen to date, so the camera was coming out for this one. Brian was running his list for November's Core Competency tourney, I had a list that met Core Comp rules so a game of classic warhammer was to be had, I was glad we both had low power lists as this only my second WFB game since Adepticon and Brians 1st..so I am sure we were both pretty rusty.

Empire vs High Elves 2250
High Elves

Noble w/Dragon Armor, Great Weapon, Shield, Reaver Bow
Noble w/ Dragon Armor, White Sword, Talisman of Loec

Lvl 2 Mage w/ Seerstaff of Saphery, Dispel Scroll
Lvl 2 Mage w/ Silver Wand and 2x Dispel Scroll

20 First Among Equals Spearelves w/ Full Command and Lion Standard

20 Spearelves w/Full Command
20 Spearelves w/Full Command

10 Lothern Sea Guard w/shields

10 Archers
10 Archers

5 Shadow Warriors

5 Ellyrian Reavers w/Bows and Musician
5 Ellyrian Reavers w/Bows and Musician

2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
2 Great Eagles

The Empire

General of Empire- Full Plate, Great Weapon, Rod of Command, Holy Relic, Barded Mount
Captain of Empire- Battle Standard Bearer, with Imperial Banner, Full plate, Barded Mount
Warrior Priest- Great Weapon Armor of Metoric Iron, Icon of Magnus
Battle Wizard- Lv2, Dispel Scroll, Wizards Staff

24 Swordsmen Full Command with War Banner
- 9 Free Company Detachment x 2
10 Handgunner, Marksman w/ HLR
12 Knights of the Blazing Sun, Full Command, Banner of Valor
20 Flagellants

19 Greatswords Full Command
- 9 Swordsmen Detachment

5 Pistoliers Musician/ Outrider with Repeater pistol

Great Cannon x 2

Deployment- Standard Deployment with 5 pieces of terrain, 2 hills, 2 forests and a building, I won placement and put the building close to my lines with full intent to use it. My Army setup was infantry up the center with cavalry on the flanks with my handgunners and wizards near the watchtower for turn 1 entry. Brian was spread out a bit with infantry and Fast Cav on both flanks with his bolt throwers and archers up the middle.

Turn 1 Empire - The Empire won 1st turn and I tried to put it to good use. I captured the watchtower with my Handgunners and Wizard pretty much ensuring that I had 250 ish points survive the game and at a minimum contest the quarter, unfortunately I didnt think about the damage I could inflict on myself- but more on that later. My troops advance. My Wizard can't get a spell off due to my low casting rolls being easily dispelled. Shooting is the high point for me as my Cannons knock out both Bolt Throwers turn 1..can't hope for better than that 1st turn..unfortunately that was my shooting high point of the game.

Turn 1 High Elves- Brian advances cautiously, he wants to maximize his shooting and magic phase. One his wizards has the lore of metal and he gets to choose his spells..so of course he takes spirit of the forge..the bane of Empire knights...I use my scroll to counter his first one turn 1. His shadow warriors go visible to shoot me up, and I take some minor casualties from his archers. My Pistoliers, always a first turn target, lose two from the Reavers bows and I fail my panic check and they rout but are still on the board.

Turn 2 Empire- My Knights move forward to engage one Brians blocks of Spearmen containing a level 2 wizard, he also has some Reavers and Eagle there that I know he's going to use to march block and bait me..the forest on that side of the table is going to force me to commit my Flagellants to that side of board...my 6 wide block of cavarly is problematic here as my frontage is bit wide to have the manevuerbility I need..so I know I need to engage the bait crush it get past the danger of getting flanked and bring the Flagellants in to hold up the block and either re-engage the block or leave it move toward across the table..nice plan...but execution is the tough part. My other troops move ahead the shadow warriors are going to keep my
swordsmen detachment from helping out my Greatswords in there soon coming melee..my General and his troops move toward the rest of Brian's army. Shooting comes up empty.
I roll a misfire with one of my cannons..but roll a 5 ..so just lose the turn..other cannon overshoots or does nothing notable. My handgunners shoot up the Reavers on my left side and they run..but not off the board. My Pistoliers have rallied as well. My Wizard again fails to get spell off.

Turn 2 High Elves. Brian sets up the bait on my Knights with his Reavers. So I'll need to charge him next round and if I dont stick I'll get flanked charged for sure by his block and his eagle..if he runs I can catch him and escape the flank with a good roll. My guess is he'll stick and gamble on my bad dice somewhere to get me at the disadvantage. His other block of Spears sets up for a charge with my Greatswords. Always strikes first with Elven Spearmen you want to be charged..so I am going to oblige. Greatswords with a priest can hang with the best with average dice...I could sure use my detachment here but its going to be blocked by the shadow warriors who shoot me up. I make a critical error here in not moving one my detachments from my Swordsmen block over to the help the greatswords, instead choosing to leave them with my largest block. Magic and shooting for Brian are minor this turn.except Archers can see my Pistoliers and I take another two kills routing again this time off the board. Brian flies one of his eagles behind all my troops to march block and is braced to charge a cannon next turn. His Routing reavers rally

Turn 3 Empire- Turn 3 is usually the game decider, and this game follows suit. My Knight charge his Reavers who elect to take the charge, My Greatswords charge his Spearmen and my Swordsmen charge his shadow warriors. The rest of my troops move ahead toward the
the Spearmen and archers on that other side. I kill the eagle with a nicely placed cannon ball from one cannon, the other cannon again misfires and this time blows up. My handgunners shoot up the Reavers on that side, killing two...but the lone one makes the panic check. My Wizard this time Miscasts..I roll a 1 so he loses a level and take a strength 8 hit...I take the wound but can still cast my regular fireball...it doesnt go off. In Close combat my Knights crush the Reavers as expected but I roll a freaking "6" on 3d6 on the overrun and do not escape the flank charge on top of that I didnt move my Flagellants far enough on the preceding turn so even if I survive the turn I don't think I am close enough to get in help at the top of turn 4..not good. My swordsmen draw with the shadow warriors, and my Greatswords win a very close /close combat (by 1 I think) with the other group of Spearmen containing a killy High Elf Noble, But Brian makes
the Leadership Test..they hold.

Turn 3 High Elves- Brian of course flank charges my Knights with his Block of Spearmen and remaining Eagle, he's trying to bait my other large block with the 10 Sea Guard for a similar flank on the other side. The magic phase is nail in coffin for my knights as brian rolls an irresistible spirit of the forge and 4 of my knights go POOF before the combat even starts
(Spirit of the Forge was FAQ that it can be cast in combat making it even more painful) The High Elf Archers fire is directed at my General and his block and its detachments..I take a few casualties but nothing major. In close combat again my Knights I shocking dont lose a model due to kills and even do a couple back..but the static res and flank I still lose by 5..making me need a three on the break test, I roll a "4" and we recalculate to double check..I run and the eagle of course catches me..and my Knights are done and Brian captures a Banner. My Swordsmen beat the Shadow Warriors this time but the make their break test, My Greatswords lose this round of Combat against Brian's Spears but I am Stubborn 8 so I make my test and stick.

Turn 4 Empire
My Flagellant charge the Spearmen that killed my knights, Charging ASF spears with Flagellants is nothing but a two to three turn tarpit..I know I will never get a chance to strike back..all I can do is keep them out of the rest of the game. Again bad placement with these guys.I could have used them on the other flank of something where they would have been an arrow magnet or more of a threat, here they were basically useless. With everyone otherwise engaged I ignore the Seaguard bait and move my General and his block ahead toward the other large block of spearmen. My Wizard now a level 1, throws a 3 dice fireball (wizards staff) at the Sea Guard..It goes off but a low roll, Brian scrolls it away as my magic options are nerfed. In the shooting phase my Cannon tries to take out a bunch of Spearman infantry..I manage to get a full rank, and my handgunners get a few more plus putting 1 wound on his other noble..courtesy of the Hochland Long Rifle. In Close Combat my Greatswords are losing the war of attrition against Brians Spearmen and my Flagellants are getting crushed but holding, my Swordsmen kill the shadow warriors..and there is a chance I can get the in to help my greatswords -I'm hanging on but by my fingernails.

Turn 4 High Elves
Brian is trying to position his Seaguard and Spearman in a way to make sure he gets the flank in when he engages my General. In the shooting phase Brian starts shooting at my loose detachments and swordsmen..I take a few hits but at this point I need even man I have. The High Elf Level 2 wizard with the Lore of Metal crushes my hopes for last minute aid to my Greatswords by landing a spirit of the forge on my swordsmen detachment whom ran down the shadow warriors. Not only does brian roll another irresistible but he rolls 11 hits they are strength 3 but he rolls enough 3+ to kill the 8 guys left in the unit. my Greatswords finally fail there stubborn 8 with a "10" break and get run down and My flagellant take another bunch of
causalities leaving a lone guy holding up the unit..the right side of the board for me has evaporated the High Elves are taking the battlefield.

Turn 5 The Empire

Seeing the 15+ man strong unit of Spearman and his killy Noble is now on the loose after killing my greatswords and heading toward my rear My General and his charge the other unit of Spearmen containing Brians General. I know its close but not close enough its 8.5 inches so I am short not good. I now try to move my out of position detachments to block the flank charge from the Seaguard, but since they are march blocking the detachments I can't get close enough. Sigmar is not with Empire this day as in magic phase my wizard rolls his second miscast of the game again with "10" and dies then is the shooting phase my other cannon bearing down on the Spearmen heading toward my rear MISFIRES and blows up!..damn I just gave brian 250 points in my own damn turn with shit dice rolls. In Close Combat my last Flagellant goes down..things are looking grim.

Turn 5 High Elves- Brians General finally charges bringing in 10 Seaguard on the flank, he moves his other unit of Spearman in for the kill,Shooting and Magic continue to be directed at my detachments but brian hits a little of his own bad dice luck and I survive unscathed
My General and his swordsmen have some close combat luck and despite the flank and some losses I win the combat thanks to a large static res and some overkill wounds from my General in a challenge, I wasnt worried as my General had the Rod of Command if I needed it, I can now get my Detachments in the next turn.

Turn 6 Empire. My detachments pile in on the rear and flank of the flanking Seaguard. I think I have this combat for sure but we will see, if It holds another turn and with the other now free and mobile unit of Spearmen is heading straight at the rear of my block and that will be end of me for sure. The combat ends up a winner for me as My General kills his General in a challenge but my General does take two wound fails 2- 5+ armors save and 2- 4+ ward saves, it doesn't matter as he breaks and I run down both units and pick up a banner..a big point swing pulling me out of total massacre territory. I know Brian had it won at this point but by how much.

Turn 6 High Elves
Brian charges the closest detachement with his remaining Spearmen. despite some bad luck..his static res is enought to break them even with my generals leadership and a reroll. They break thru and kill them and the game had ended.

Scoring- all Additional points were a wash and it became a straight points battle..I still has decent amount of points on the table due to my General and BSB being alive and 1/2 point for the unit, plus my Handgunners in tower were unscathed. Brian had 3 heros, 2 units of Spear
2 units of archers, 1 eagle and 1 Reaver left on the table. End result was High Elves by around 600 points Result- High Elf- Solid Victory

Great game to Brian, I had a bit of bad luck backed up by a few poor decisions and I think he played it pretty much perfectly, and without his bolt throwers all game. Props to him and his kick ass looking army..this a great example of why I play this game, I look forward to the rematch!.

Plastic Stank- WIP

2009-06-12T00:47:00.011-05:00

Here we have the new Empire Plastic Steam Tank. I've played without one for years not wanting to get and fiddle with the expensive metal model and I never thought I'd really like it, but as time as gone on and the WFB meta game expands. I find myself needing one from time to time. Now its plastic..although annoying only about $7 cheaper than old metal model but thankfully its a great kit. Although pictures of the painted sprues these are all over the new White Dwarf...I thought I through up some shots of the unpainted sprues and go into some WIP shots.

Good selection of extra parts, and alternative cannons, you can model a more traditional one
with all the Sigmar Heraldry or one that comes from a more obscure province. I really like the fact the driver is an full model not just a bust plus you can model it so you can see inside the tank and since there is some nice interior detail you might as well paint it.

Rear Assembly complete, alot of little gaps and things to sand and fill...this is assembled with just a rough cleaning...obviously I have some work to do.

Rear of the tank, again..awesome detail..I love painting stuff like this..time consuming sure
but the results are great.

Boiler front and interior assembly.If you are going to have an open top this section needs to be painted first before you assemble the rest of the tank... lots of great details here. The gun also snaps in, so you dont have to glue it and the gun elevation is moveable.

I will add more photos here until the project is complete...It is going to take me awhile as I am working on few other things as well right now. I expect it to be built by Sunday night..and then primed so I can take it out to play on the 17th..I don't think I will get to painting it until mid-july but we will see. check this post periodically for updates if you're interested.

Osgiliath Project: Phase Four, The City Tiles

2009-06-06T11:35:00.016-05:00

Back in January, I showed off some recent pieces I created for this. The project has under gone several major changes over time as I slowly figured out what worked and what didn't. I originally planned to make city tiles very early on, before I changed the city walls and ideas on building construction. Organizing and planning the city tiles proved alot more challenging then I had initially thought. too many different sizes was inflexible and I was not happy with experiments I did with plastic card tiles. As I worked on the stuff for the Spanish Main campaign, (several structures of which have cross use for this) I started revisting Hirst Arts..while the initial learning curve turned me off (as well as the mess) Inspired by friends work- I have gotten over it...worked thru the learning issues and have been getting great and most importantly consistent casts. The city tiles will all be of Hirst Arts casts. Similar to what you see here ( courtesy of Shifting Lands and admittedly my inspiration for the Hirst Tiles) While my tiles aren't quite as flexible as therethey will work nicely with the structures I have built.

Example tiles courtesy of www.shiftinglands.com/cityplan.htm

Overall we have 12, 12 X 12 tiles each consisting of one structure, The tiles and buildings are as follows
3 sections of wall, 2 with towers
1 seperate tower wall section,
3 ruin building tiles with ruined building
1 Church (damaged)
1 large plaza (ruined)
1- 4 story tower (intact)
1- private home (intact)
1- administration building (intact)

I think you can about catch most of tiles in this picture. there a couple buildings missing
and some the other details..it will come together very quick once the tiles are complete.

Besides the previous shownt statues...I have miscellaneous rubble and arched walkways, probably a few trees... coming..overall it will be a dynamic and challenging board for skirmish games..if I want to add some new or expand it, just build a new tile or move the whole thing over to a bigger table and expand. If you saw my last Lord the Rings gaming update we played in semi finished configuration of the final just to see how it played..I thought it played great and can use the extra terrain to minimize the effectiveness of calvary models..(after all your in a city)

You can barely make it out but the piece of rubble thrown by a catapult will be represented
in a trench that follows the gap in the broken wall.

Camera Flash on to catch the detail of the some of the finished pieces and the tile layout

I am confident I am on track to get his entire project finished by August..one year after I started it, I still have few challenges to over come with constant changing design ( mainly the tiles are siting on top of the beach..so I need make something to make the transition make sense.
Looking forward to a finished game on the completed project!

Laying out the tiles is labor intensive, there is alot of cutting and filling that needs to be done
to get the nice neat look of the example tiles I've shown above. A friend of mine cast some larger cobblestone pieces making his own molds which lets the cobblestone casting for this
(the majority texture) go a whole lot quicker.

look for a gallery update on the whole project so far soon.

GW update- Chicago Metro

2009-06-06T10:48:00.007-05:00

Some good news on the GW front, at least here in the Chicago metro. As some of you who read this know I am friends and game with several GW employees (three being metro store managers -I talk to these guys on a semi-regular basis.) You also know I have no problem being critical when need be (because of course I know better right?- note sarcasm.) Of course I want to support these guys because I spend money there, I like these guys and want them to do well.
I am now quite psyched to report that it seems the boys upstairs at GW Corporate have gotten the message that people are none to happy with the recent policy changes made company wide the last 6 months in terms of the way and hours that stores operate. Starting with Chicago Battle Bunker-we've got a trial period starting coming on June 17th with a 10pm closing hour, with suggestions that this could go as late as 11pm if things go well. For at least the last 3 months Vets or any gamer that works for a living have essentially been shut out of GW stores because of the 8pm closing time and with Chicago rush hour it's nigh impossible to get to a shop and have time to get a game in- unless you live or work right next to one. The 10pm closing hour makes weekly club outings a possibility again and the Bunker certainly has the room. A couple things about the expanded hours.They are conditional meaning if people don't show up, it wont last long so don't whine on your favorite forums about the store hours and don't show up when you have the chance. Also use your head and if you are going to buy something buy at one of these events after 8pm so they can see the expanded hours are generating sales. That's what we used to do at Oak Park and it certainly made a difference for awhile. Speaking of Oak Park..rumor has it a return to our weekly club night with a 10pm hour is once again a possibility, this would be cool..as while hosting at my house is turning out pretty well..we just cant get the numbers we had when it was at the shop, I'd love to have the option anyway..because getting larger events off the ground needs the weekly participation that only the shop can offer. For you folks on the north side of the Metro, again rumors circulate that a weekly late hour at the new Niles shop is a strong possibility as well. This is good news for club gaming, let GW know you want it by showing up. I'll be at the Bunker on the 17th and will have more this as it comes.

Chaos in the Old World

2009-05-28T15:04:00.005-05:00

Might be time to talk about more boardgames here at Plastic Legions...while we had a blast on our last drunken foray into Talisman, FFG pulls out the suprise with this. I am sure this has a little more meat on its bones being an FFG designed game than the former does and that makes me very interested. I am sure I am not the only who stops by here who is interested in giving this a spin!, Warhammer board games with cool miniatures? Whats not to like. Personally I can't wait, a nice alternative to the GW re-release of Space Hulk for the Fantasy inclined.

Tuesday Night Gaming

2009-05-27T00:01:00.011-05:00

Plastic Legions HQ, 5/26

Despite the Legends of the High Seas campaign its been a relatively slow month for me. Games Workshop new policy of store hour cutbacks have prevented me and countless others out there from being able to game in their shops. Even thou I want to come in and spend my money there I can't, because getting there before it closes to buy some paint is hard enough forget about trying to get a game in...The Chicago Battle Bunker closing at 8pm was the nail in the coffin for me. Outside of a special event.. like a tournament that I plan on for months or having a very rare free Saturday. If I do get a Saturday free..Oak Park runs its events for beginners on weekends and getting to the battle bunker is traffic nightmare there and back so I barely have time to get a full game in before I need to leave. My options for playing WFB are now limited to twice a month at my own hosted club night (glad I got my fill with those 18 games in the month before Adepticon because I wont be seeing 18 more games of Fantasy outside a tournament until probably 2011).

Tonight was return to a classic, The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game..this is the game all the rule sets for those Historical Skirmish games I talk about are based on. This game simply rules and its too bad it never got more popular..While I like the new War of the Ring, lets be honest. GW wrote WotR to help try to sell the huge amount of unsold back stock of product they had laying around because they were not capable getting the game to catch on due to the terrible way they marketed it. Again- I like War of the Ring but its overly simplified and walks a razor thin line of throwing all strategy aside to pure luck by the crazy number of dice thrown. Whether Lord of the Rings SBG falls into the no mans land of the Specialist Games still remains to be seen..GW has more than likely run the course of potential supplements or are close to it..thankfully the new models are dual purpose and you can get alot of milage out of both games.

Tonight I played a pair of 500Pt SBG games, Billy (not Bill, Billy is the other Bill) brough both Umbar and Harad and showed me why Sauron made them his allies and not his enemies.

Mordor vs Harad - Domination

Mordor

Shagrat
3 Uruk Hai
10 Orc HW& Shield
8 Orc Spear
Orc Capt.
Orc with Banner
6 Warg Riders , HW & Shield, Bows
Troll

Harad

Suladan
Hasharin
Raiders
Serpent Guard
Infantry with Spears

In Domination the objective is to capture 4 specific points on the board...in this game it was each corner, we both deployed in opposite corners so we had to defend our own corner while trying to capture the others. Billy deployed in the city, while I deployed outside on the beach. Although Billy won most of the Priority rolls..he put alot of man power on killing my troll which allowed me to spread all over the board..my Warg Riders managed to do plenty of damage this game removing three of his intercepting Raiders allowing me to capture the church with infantry and send some Warg Riders after his own base removing the lone defender with some arrows. My Orc Captain led his own assault team to remaining quarter, and although he couldnt climb to save his life..his men held off the deadly lone Harshin long enough for Shagrat to break the will of Harad and start the courage checks..The Assassin routs..I know have all four control points.. The game continues and Suladan battles his way back..causing me to rout and many of my troops start to flee the battlefield. I lose one Objective due to routing, Shagrat and Suladan have an epic throw down and while the Castellan of Cirith Ungol goes down..his men holdfast and games ends with Mordor the victor.

(1st time I've got to game on my Osgiliath Table, while its still along way from being done, its slowly coming together and quite playable in the rough shape its in and I am currently working on 12 x 12 " city tiles of different textures (cobblestone, Flagstone, Brick) to really bring it to life I should be updating soon.)

Mordor vs Umbar- Contest of Champions

I ran the same list, this time Billy brough Dalamyr, an Assassin, Captain and Bosun with a bunch of Corsairs and 8 Arbalesters. Fate and Luck abandoned Mordor this time..as the Arbalesters shredded both my Troll and Warg Riders like pincushions. Without their support and my forces split, My Orcs were eaten alive my Corsairs, Shagrat couldn't convert anything losing numerous fights to a "hand of fate" die roll, while Dalamyr was stacking up Orc bodies like firewood for the winter..Once the routing started it was all over..Shagrat proved why he's the toughest S.O.B Orc hero in the game, He sticking around until the very end (most of it surrounded)..but eventually Mordor was tabled.

( I've changed my Walls to these pieces for the table, much more practical to play on, plus they are taller and look the part)

As you can see from my brief recaps while I brought the same army and we played on the same table- both games were completely different. Billy's heavy support (the Arbalesters) was devastating and while my superior number and Cavalry won me the day against a smaller more specialized Harad force..I was softened up enough to get crushed when I met the seasoned Pirates of Umbar. Both these game were dynamic and exciting and its the kind of stuff you often don't get a chance to appreciate in the larger format games like WFB,WotR, 40K, etc.

We also had some Warhammer Ancient Battles going on. I've been struggling getting my Celt Army built..I am not loving the models from both Wargames Factory and Warlord Games that I have. Both have significant issues that bug me and when you are building tedious multi part plastic models you'd better love what you are doing or you will go nuts. I still love the game but am debating dumping all the plastics and just going with Foundry's Models..I am so impressed by the recent Foundry stuff I got...That a 1000 points of Foundry Celts would be simply amazing to paint, however its pretty steep luxury at around $300 USD to replace the $80 of plastic troops I have built. Anyway I gave up my WAB game to Chris since we had an odd number of players tonight. He and Rich did the Arab vs Celt rematch and the Arabs carried the day once again..With a new WAB campaign open to all being hosted by Adeptus Windy City and the new book coming this year..I expect to see alot more WAB ahead..what models I will be using is another story.

All in all a great night we were missing some bodies but I expect to see us back at close to a dozen for the next meet.. That's it for now, June is coming and June is about the Empire!

The Spanish Main - Post Campaign Wrap

2009-05-21T09:56:00.012-05:00

So the evening long campaign for Legends of the High Seas took place last Friday night, and much fun was had and beerconsumed. We had our share of issues from getting a later start than I had planned to round 1 games taking too long. By the time we got round four going it was already almost idnight...and someone had already dropped in round 3 forcing a 3 player FFA the previous round which wasn't ideal. So in the end we only had 4 players for "X marks the spot" it turned into a blood bath on end between the Royal Navy, Spaniards, and Chinese Pirates...who basically killed each other off...while the sneaky green skinned pirates ran off with the gold...I went into round 4 at 3-0 and a crew of 15 and was the 1st player to arrive on the island, so I split up into 3 groups of 5 to hunt for the gold. Luck wasn't with me this game and I was taking fire from all sides. Eventually I ended up voluntarily routing with only 2 Heroes left.. Even this 4 player game took over 2.5 hours so by the time I shut the lights off and went to bed it was 3AM... a good time but lesson learned..the event was too long...Better organization and time management is a gimme and potentially a normal round for game 4 instead of big group game that's bound to eat up the clock are in order. I'll need to some homework on making a 1 day or evening campaign event work..there is already talk of doing another one..and I am quite happy we have a whole bunch of people eager to get in some Legends of the High Seas...despite the issues with time, I am calling the event a big success.

Some of my Spanish Privateers hunting for the treasure in the final "X marks the spot"
unfortunately I didnt get the mileage I wanted to out of my Cannibals...for having twelve "x" markers Cannibals only came up once! (if the treasure wasn't found..the marker had variety of game effects you rolled on 2d6, Cannibals were on the list twice..(4 and 10, ) I should have made
4,5 9,10

You know you've drank too much beer when your miniatures start getting attacked
by giant parrots!!! Argh..

Tavern Fight!

2009-05-15T10:49:00.010-05:00

Last night one of my fellow Pirates stopped by in preparation for our Spanish Main campaign for Legends of the High Seas which takes place tonight! here we have Jasons awesome Tavern Fight battle board Jason put hours of pain staking work into this all the way down to the awesome liquor bottle and wooden stump seats and bar tables and mainly all green stuff work. The table itself is all from various Hirst Arts molds, you got the standard block, small brick, cobblestone and accessory molds in action here. at this point I think I've posted all the terrain that is on the tables..I will save the few missing set ups for my full report on the evening which I post this weekend. it's been a great month of Legend of the High Seas and it all comes to a head tonight!

These liquor bottle tokens as well as the seats are all improvised weapons
in this scenario, you fight completely unarmed except for using these tokens.
Jason did an incredible job on these!

The stairs and walkway here are carved basswood..again
excellent work

Castillo de San Cristóbal

2009-05-11T08:17:00.009-05:00

The Spanish Main campaign is this Friday night, here is another new piece of terrain I've completed which is set up here as the "Castillo de San Cristóbal" or San Juan Prison if you'd like, for the Prison Break Scenario.

The attacking players view as the scenario begins

The piece is actually 8 sections that fit together in variety of configurations
these pieces will also be the walls for my Osgiliath Table, which is slowly but surely continuing forward, expect a major update for that in the next month. The pieces are by Miniatures Scenery, AUS or CNC workshop as they are also known. I currently own a lot of their stuff
and if you familar with it you can see the modification's I've made to the stock kit..every thing is made from 1/8" MDF so it very easy to make your own bits to dress up the stock pieces.
Basically here all I did was square off the jagged walkways..to make them look like walkways as opposed to a collapsed roof..I also added interior detail to the inside walls for appearance sake.

The front gate is custom piece as well, a piece of MDF cut to fit and dressed up
with some different sized plastic I-beams I had laying around from my 40K bitz.

Here is a close up of the texture I applied to all these pieces...standard Krylon textured spray paint. Getting the application correct was a bit of a learning curve but the end results are great. the Spanish Soldier is one of my finished member of my crew of Spanish Privateers who will playing in the campaign and defending this prison in round 1.

I've got one more update of buildings before the event takes place so look for that soon..I may even get my crew done in time to photograph and post them!

On the new GW June releases

2009-05-08T17:57:00.007-05:00

Here a brief update on my last GW post

This one slipped through the rumor cracks. This is the first time I've seen this, pretty cool however its somewhat redundant with the Arcane Ruins...but it seems to me combining both those kits could lead to a really nice scenery piece...since I have an unbuilt Arcane Ruins lying around this looks like something I will pick up.

Also released is a new Empire Battalion including the much talked about new Greatsword kit.
Seems like the $41.75 for ten plastics was not a misprint or website error.. even with the extra bits included in the kit, I still waiting to see someone from GW justify a 95% price increase over the standard $22 troop box. Battalions have $90.00 for good long while and that is seen by most as a pretty good price. If you notice the price isn't listed for this yet while the GW bean counters figure out how to price it. This is a much better battalion troop wise than the previous one...30 state troops is what should be in a battalion, plus you get Knights and some Greatsword as Specials. Problem is the retail on these individually is $142.75..that kind of blows the battalion pricing concept out of the water I'm guessing GW stamps a $130-135 retail on this..... so you get a slight deal but the problems/questions remain. Why are the Greatswords so expensive?, and if you going to bump the price that much Then the Empire needs new Knights!..8 Knights is a left over from 6th edition you want 5 or 10 these days Eight's somewhat useless and your paying extra for unused models. New Knights along the lines of the new Chaos Knights would go along way to justifying the price increases..instead this isn't really any kind of deal. As an Empire player your better of just buying 4 boxes of state troops because Empire Knights can be had cheap as hell on ebay simply because they have been around so damn long! Just a bit of wisdom from a guy with a 4K Empire Army, PASS on the new battalion. Greatswords look cool but you need 20 models to have a really useful unit, So with sales tax your looking a $90 for a plastic unit? I don't know about that.

Santa Domingo, Hispaniola.

2009-05-03T02:06:00.014-05:00

A combination of our club night getting moved to my place as well as my upcoming Spanish Main campaign, I am fortunate enough to have alot of other peoples work at my house. One the great things about gaming with alot of talent people is when you all get your stuff together the results are pretty awesome. Today I started putting tables together for the Scenarios of my upcoming event and I was happily suprised when I realized how much stuff I current had at my disposal and how well it all works together. Below we have my "town" for my Legend of the High Seas event coming uo 5/15. I still need to add my dock, but this is a great layout with a dozen buildings, 4 of them borrowed from friends including some vegetation from the Pirate Castle, there are 5 tables for the event...I'll be showing them all of in the next few weeks but here, you go- Santa Domingo, Hispanola circa 1719.

Thanks to Bill, Billy for the Flying Tricycle stuff and Rich for the tropical vegetation!

As an added bonus Tim from Cursed Treasures who is the author of the High Seas book has been kind enough to trade me some of his painted Cannibals for my upcoming event. These models from old glory look awesome and I am very happy to own some of Tim's work...these guys will show up as NPC's in the event..and will surely throw the players a curve ball..nothing like being a pirate and having to worry about the Royal Navy and then the Cannibals show up. Tim sent me a bunch of stuff but also included here are some awesome markers for "X marks the spot" thanks again Tim!, I'll make sure I keep track of the body count for you.

painted by Tim Kulinski

On the price increases...

2009-04-27T12:26:00.006-05:00

OK, I got good dose of the latest internet outrage doing the Blog and Forum surf this weekend. Everyone seems to be pissed off about the GW price increases to the point of several people have started organized boycotts of GW product. While the boycott isn't anything that will have any effect..organized boycotts do not exactly spread goodwill in a time when all you have done is create Ill Will among your customers over the last 6 months. It's one thing to increase prices over time, in fact its pretty much a business necessity but Games Workshop seems to go about in their own special way. First they announce a price increase on metals and some plastics late last year, then they announce another price increase on the plastics this year within 6 months of the last one. Sort of a "we screwed up and didn't raise prices enough" (I'm seeing that as a general theme here) Then several high profile products had their prices increased after being advertised at a lower rate. (Realm of Battle, Valkyrie) Now we have the fancy new Empire Release in June featuring the "new" plastic prices. People in general have spitout their morning coffee when they got a look at that one. As an Empire player I am not happy, not so much because the prices are crazy expensive but because there is no rhyme or reason to the price increases. The 10 man Greatsword box, that I assumed was going to be $22, (the same price as 5 metal ones) is now $41.75! Apparently there is ton of stuff in the box as in its three or four sprues so it was intended to be a $35.00 box, which is a 19.3% increase..that better be the case otherwise its almost 100% increase and how do you justify this? this kind of kills the kit for me. While I am not one to quibble about price on something I want...considering I already have 15 Greatswords and 4 converted ones I really only need 5 more...so I am better off just scoring some old metal ones. The 10 man archer set..is up from $22, to $24.75..that seems like the only reasonable price increase at 12.5%, If they had stuck to a 12.5% increase across the board..I don't think we would have heard much complaint. But then we have the Steam Tank..so much for the big savings over the metal one..at $57 and change its now $7 less then the old metal one, granted its a much better kit and I am buying this despite the 15% increase. That's 15% IF this was originally a $50 kit. Well its allot less plastic than say a Valkyrie which was initially a $50 kit too..in reality its on par with Stegadon meaning the new Stank should have been a $40 kit so its probably an over all 40% increase!!!!, when you slap a 12.5% increase on one new product you predict is not going to sell as well as another product then put a 40% increase on the one that is going to be more popular..this doesnt let your "times are tough we need a marginal price increase across the board to help support the company" argument stand up to scrutiny

Point being here, GW is all over the map with the price increases. When you are not consistent, it comes off bad, as either price gouging or blatant taking advantage of customer loyalty. There was a rumor a week or so back regarding the now Chinese manufacturing of GW product..if that's true, isn't the point of going to China to lower costs?..so letting that cat out the bag at the same time as the price increase announcement, will most certainly rub people the wrong way.

This "Screw you" mentality that GW puts forth toward its customers is just another in a long line of serious head scratchers in the last 6 months..from the mysterious and inept canning of the official tournament scene, the botched product releases, the staff and store management shake ups, making it no secret of purposely trying alienate hobby veterans, the shenanigans during Adepticon and now these nasty arbitrary price increases- these guys seem to be their own worst enemy. I understand they are public company and liable to stockholders but when you start treating your loyal fan base of customers in the "us" versus "them" the stock price is eventually only going to go one way. If I were a stock holder of any magnitude I'd be demanding GW's CEO resign out of utter incompetence or least as a result of signing off on having a public relations department that operates like a bunch cast extras from "the Road Warrior". I hate to seem to always be writing negative things about GW, but I have to call them like I see them...I'd love to talk about something "great" they did...but they seem to be working extra hard to toxify their relationships with their customers..well at least thats working!!!

Edit: I just read that there is speculation that the new Empire Heraldry book and they Greatsword box got their prices accidentally swapped on the website..which makes one hell of alot more sense meaning the greatswords and archers are the same price with a 12.5% price increase. The Stank is still very expensive...but if this is the case...GW gets a pass on this one...there are still numerous issues..but the price increases for the most part are acceptable. although, you think they would have caught the error by now?

The Spanish Main

2009-04-23T01:49:00.015-05:00

Here are some more shots of what I have been working on post-Adepticon. After the success of our last club meeting. Legend of the High Seas has really hit high gear. The smaller Historical skirmish games are much easier to get started with than say Warhammer Ancient Battles due that you only need 10 models or so..There are a plethora of great miniatures by a whole bunch of companies out there for for both Legends of the High Seas and Legends of the Old West...we will be playing both here at Plastic Legions, but LotHS has won priority.

You saw Rich's awesome Pirate Castle last week, and here is some of my new creations. The Spanish round fort and tropic vegetation are converted from the "Weapons and Warriors" pirate toy set..long out of print from pressman games in the mid 1990's. You can get lucky like I did and find a complete one on ebay for around $25. there is ton of useful props included about a dozen ship cannons, several boats, the fort, the trees, artillery, etc.it all scales up well in 25/28mm. (The Spanish flag is from the WFB Empire State Troops box..I always hated the standard that came with that box and I finally found a way to convert it make all kinds of useful banners)

There square building is the sand series by Miniature Sceney Aus I have four of these buildings the rest are still on the paint bench by should be done by the weekend. I'm not sure why these kits are not more popular, as of right now there are my favorite terrain piece to work on...I have quite of bit of their stuff and you'll be seeing it show up everywhere on my tables. From the stucco style buildings here (coincidentally perfect for Old West) to their Pantheon Series which works from everything as San Juan Prison to the Walls of Osgiliath.

On may 15th I am hosting a one day Campaign for LotHS...unoriginally titled "The Spanish Main" It will be four rounds as up to Eight Crews try to gain the wealth and experience to go after Blackbeards Treasure, all the while trying to outwit or outright kill the competition while avoiding the Royal Navy, Cannibals, and whatever else I throw at them. Where using 6 scenarios from the rule book over about a dozen games concluding with a huge FFA version of "X" marks the spot at the Pirate Castle on a 4 x 8 with everyone involved "The Spanish Main" has its own blog for the players of the campaign and will layout the narrative any special rules and basically track the goings on until the event. results will be posted there and I will leave it for awhile until we do another one. We may run something similar on our club night...This one day, one shot campaign is an experiment for this type of event as long as you've got lots of terrain and the space..I can see it happening for several of the skrimish games..Old West, even LotR SBG. This first one is on a friday night..so that means we are breaking out the Ale!

I'll you guys with some shots of the my Pirates...I have about 40 or so...
sadly only the crew you see here is painted..but I am working on that.

Give it up for the Pirates!!

2009-04-15T00:33:00.013-05:00

Plastic Legions -Club Night 4/14

We had a great turn out tonight for our 1st meeting of Tuesday club night since we were excommunicated from the store. Head count was 8, We were missing some notable characters from the group, but hopefully we'll see them next time. A couple notable local bloggers were in attendance Rich, who brought his awesome Pirate Castle terrain over (that many of you saw at this years Adepticon) and we threw down with some Legends of the High Seas, and then Jeff put his foot in water playing Hordes with a couple of the guys..Of course we had our obligatory Warhammer Fantasy games...Chaos vs Wood Elves, and Chris G. and I played a crazy 1250 pt match Daemons vs Wood Elves as the final match of the evening. Definitely had plenty of room and I think we can easily go to 12 people and not feel crowded. Lots of talk going on about doing some events, a Campaign and alot of interest in Historical gaming which is cool. Next meeting is in two weeks. Three cheers for the basement!.

One my pirate crew "ol savage" keeps an eye out for rich's sea dogs.
(Privateers)

Some of Rich's Privateers guard the prisoner

My Pirate ship on the beach head, lots of work to still do on it -

Two of my crew attack one of Rich's men, a pistol in the face works.

My Captain "Lucky Jack" wasn't so lucky, after using up his Fame during the fighting
I used my 2 re-rolls (Lucky-archtype) on two courage re-rolls...finally I fail his Courage test and the rest of his men routed
the end of our third game this evening.

Adepticon- WFB Escalation scores.

2009-04-11T16:41:00.008-05:00

I noticed when the scores were released on the Adepticon website, that Escalation final scores were not sorted and posted in the normal manner. Instead they were placed by Battle Points instead of by player overall score and then using Battle Points as the tie breaker for identical scores. (The way its posted may be the intent I am not sure) Anyway I re-entered the data and properly sorted it. So if you played in Escalation you can see your overall final ranking here instead of slotting it by how many Battle Points you earned. This changes the posted list quite a bit as the original scoring isnt taking soft scores into account.

Adepticon 2009, Part 3

2009-04-08T21:42:00.013-05:00

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

While Adepticon is an awesome time and I've watched it double in size since the first time I showed up as lurker, back in 2006. I think there are a whole bunch of things that need mentioning from glowing praise to some criticisms mainly about Games Workshops involvement (or lack of.) but I want to start out with the GOOD!!

The People

The Staff- Across the board the people who run and organize Adepticon should be singled out and thanked. This is fan run convention and one that has surpassed Games Workshops own events to such a level that have readily admitted they cannot compete with this and have competely abandonded the tournament scene for the near future. The countless hours the Adepticon team put into the event start many months before the event occurs not to mention the hours of setup and teardown during the event itself. So here's to all you people from the staff to the volunteers that run this awesome event for us. Thank you for your hard work and dedication...I know you all get thanked alot, but let me thank you all again.

The Players- I am in awe of the awesome people I meet at this thing..from the guys always at the top the tourney circuit, to the golden daemon winners, the black library authors, the game design authors, the bloggers, the speciality product manufactures all the way down to the guy you've never met before from another state who sits down in front of you for a game and turns out to be an awesome dude. I met some really great folks this year. I like to play as much as the next guy but for me this event is about the camaraderie of the people dedicated to this hobby... its not about the tournaments they are just the vehicle for the greater purpose.

As you all know Fantasy is my main game and I was pretty busy this year I didn't get to any 40K coverage I wanted to get so you'll need to look to others for that, so my apologies. I'd like to mention a bunch of people here I feel are instrumental to the success of the events and hand out a little praise from a guy who appreciates it. First up the people on IWFB.org., These folks run the Fantasy Events and many of volunteer to help with the Fantasy tournament at Adepticon. All the theses event were very well attended and well run..there are a few outstanding issues with the Championship tourney that I will get into in a moment..but let me stress any criticism I have is minuscule in comparision to the great time that was had. To the all the folks at IWFB.org...you know who you are...thanks again. Second up, the Lord of the Rings crew who congregate on the Adeptus Windy City Forums, I've seen the LotR events at Adepticon go from a half dozen tables outside in a cold wet tent at the Marriot a few years back to where it is now with no signs of slowing down...congrats to those guys for making it happen bigger and better every year, and now they have War of the Ring to work with as well, it will be great to see what they bring to that. Next up I need to mention the guys up in Minneapolis who are affiliated with the Warbringers club, your artistic talent, gaming skills and sportsmanship are second to none it was great hanging out with you guys and if there was a best club award you would
have gotten that too!. Ok Last but not least a shout out to both Rich Nelson ( for the Hirst Arts Seminar, all the Terrain he brought this year and for spearheading open gaming at Adepticon) and Tim Kulinski for not only for his LotR input but running WAB and the other skirmish games including writing that Legend of the High Seas book we all love. remind me to buy you both a drink the next time I see you LOL!..

The Venue

Its pretty much the general consensus that this was the best venue yet for the event. I've already run thru the main points in part 1 of why it was so much better and there tons of threads on all the forums about the hotels successes. I look forward to Adepticon being here for a good awhile. The Lombard Westin was all good, great decision whomever made it and it paid off.

Ok with all that ass kissing out of the way..lets move on to the BAD stuff!!!!

Composition Scoring-

While this applies only in the context of the fantasy events it continues to be a continued thorn in the side of many organized events. Personally I love Comp Scoring for me the game isnt about how many 6's you can roll at the Opportune time but about the whole package. Not only can you play, but does your army look kick ass and are you a good sport ?. Can you look outside your own ego to graciously lose and still promote the hobby with own stuff and still have a great time? There are ton of people at these events who can handle that, but unfortunately many that can't. Composition Scoring this year was a player and judge scored 25 wopping points. you got 5 scores and the highest and lowest dropped and the middle 3 averaged.
Why some people would want to bring there stupid broken crap to an event like this is beyond me, You can't win anything and all you get is the disdain of countless players there. I understand many of these people are trying overcome their personal shortcomings when they bring an army with 28 power dice but seriously go see a pychologist first, then come to the tournament second. Debates are already going here locally about how to fix comp scoring for next year.

If your unfamiliar or don't quite get what I am talking about Let me give you an analogy.. Imagine the Fantasy Championships being a boxing match.. you're told the rules, you're told how the event will be scored. You agree to the conditions and you show up at your boxing match with your gloves on and ready to go for a fairfight...however your opponent steps into the ring and instead of Boxing gloves he comes in with a AK-47, on top of that some of other boxers are one- armed and they get matched up against the AK-47's guys because AK-47's don't the get spirit of the event or aren't honest with themselves about the kind of army list they are showing up with. Even thou a system has been created so that they supposed to play other guys with AK-47's, many dont because they aren't honest, don't know any better or because they just aren't sure there AK-47 can handle the other AK-47's so they really want to fight the Boxers. I say lets the Boxers Box, the one armed Boxers try to hang in there and the guys with Automatic Rifles blow each other away...that's they why I see it, actually I'd prefer that everyone just brought their boxing gloves but figuring out how to get there is a difficult road...Well see how it works out next year...but alot of people didn't have the best time this year because some people just suck period. I can't talk about Comp for more 5 mins without getting into an argument so I am not the best guy to debate about this...I figure since GW admits they don't write rules for Tournament Gaming...I figure that Tourney Organizers ought to be able to adjust the rules to create a fair playing field..alot of people don't see it that way...but Comp Scoring remains an outstanding and negative issue this year. I only had one crap game and it really wasn't that big a deal....others were not so fortunate. My motto on comp is never bring an army you wouldn't want to face yourself..stick with that and you are usually ok.

The 40K Team Tourney-

The 40K team tourney is biggest thing at Adepitcon. Its the biggest event and should be treated as such..however its not and that is creating problems. Team Tournament displays have just gotten out of hand...when players from the 40K team tourney are setting up displays on open tables of the Fantasy Tourneys while the tourney is still going on..its time for a reality check 40K people, I want to say these guys didn't realize what they were doing and...even if someone told them to do it, they should have had the common sense to figure out it wasnt cool.
40K displays need there own dedicated area to set up and do their thing they need to removed from the gaming hall during the events because they've just gotten out of hand. Its cool- I love the art and creativity, but when its becomes a negative element on the other events it needs to get put in check..sorry. I'd love to see all these large displays set up in one ballroom the night before the event so late friday you could cruise thru the gallery of all this awesome stuff and take photos..then the next day you take your models to the tables on smaller trays for the games.
Well maybe next year...

Ok now for what you've all be waiting for THE UGLY...no suprise here...

thank you, Games Workshop.

There were no shortage of current and former GW employees running around at Adepticon this year. I heard all kinds of scuttlebut from various people, what's true and what's not, I don't know but this weekend was a public relations disaster for GW. Lets start with continued fallout from the recent GW downsizing. The firings...all the guys involved in US GW events are now gone including Allen who ran the Chicago Battle Bunker forever, He was promoted twice since last yeat only to then be summarily fired. Canning Allen anywhere around Adepticon time of year was idiotic....I don't know the guy personally but he was a staple here has lots of fans, getting unceremoniously fired from the company he loved after accepting a couple big promotions doesnt go over to well. You'd think they find another spot for him but the news of his termination spread around like wildfire compound with even the bigger NEWS..that there were going to be NO GT"S this year Great time to announce it guys..during the biggest indy tourney of the year! when everyone is in the same room so the new spreads instaneously, way to pump people up about tourney support!

Speaking of GT's I also finally got the skinny on the Dave T's termination that freaked everbody out last summer. After last years Chicago GT we were all commenting while it wasn't as well attended as some would like it was was a very well run tournament. Apparently Dave wasn't fired for anything he did but his dipshit boss was of the opinion that since TOURNAMENTS RUN THEMSELVES (can you freaking believe that?) they were over staffed and he (the boss) was told to cut one of the two tournament organizers loose to save money. Guess who got the short straw?. Of course a few months later Mr "tournaments run themselves" gets canned as well. Thats three in events management right there, and there are whole lot more..I guess up in GW Canada's pink slips were fast and furious as well, and now the guys in Baltimore are trying to figure out how to oversee the large amount of stores and people through the great expanse of Canada and realizing its not going to be easy being a 1000+ miles away. I won't go around naming names...but GW is seriously having an identity crisis...taking loyal employees who are life long hobbyists and throwing them to the sharks isn't winning the Company any new fans among us adults out there. Getting a promotion from GW is now akin to the scene in "Goodfellas" when Nicky finally gets "made "and they take him down the basement for "The Party"- no good, I feel for several of my friends that are currently employed by Games Workshop, hopefully these black days at GW will pass soon.

The other complete disaster was after all the saturday tournaments where complete but before the Big Awards where announced. GW was allowed to run its new product slideshow just like they did after last years Chicago GT, only at the Chicago GT they had the brains to do it AFTER the Awards not before...I know they need some time to get the awards together but announce a time and let people go to the damn bar already, and comeback when your ready. Last year I went to bar and had great laugh..came back for the awards..no problem. IF they even did the slide show last year it somehow was pulled off without being as hamfisted and dumb as this one was. This time we get Josh , GW midwest regional manager who puts on the lamest new product demo..I've ever seen there was nothing new...they bring out out same old stuff that has been everywhere on the internet for the last 4 months, War of the Ring and Imperial Guard.. I've had the same pictures he ran at the slideshow on the blog here since February 8th!. All while he's trying really hard to rile people up to be excited and you could basically hear crickets chirping. Imagine this- its Saturday Night of Adepticon, the days tourneys are done and people are tired they want to hear the awards and go party or even go home. but he's holding the room of 500 people captive for over an hour rambling on about how awesome the new Ratling Snipers are...the amount of people that gave a shit about this I could count on one hand, while the amount of middle fingers I saw pointing his way was at least a couple dozen before I stopped looking around. Please, please Games Workshop..you seriously need to hire some professional public relations people...what's going on right now companywide in the last couple months is a comedy of errors.

Let me clarify thatI have no problem with Slideshow, In fact I like the slideshow but considering the god awful, tackyiness and bad timing of this one..he needed to drop a bombshell to get over on this crowd. and he didn't....I was going to say a few words about the lopsidedness of GW's input at Adepticon versus their expectations but am not going to bother, Besides watching my pal who works for GW's face when I told him there were at one point 320 something games going on at Adepticon this year says it all. I like Games Workshop and I am not trying to be cruel but they need to cure themselves of this "foot in mouth" disease, and quickly.

Earlier today I looked back over the last month and realized I've played 18 games of WFB in the last 30 days..that is ton of gaming for me, I average about a 5th of that normal so I am going to take a break. I will be back later in the month with some focus on some other games and bunch of new terrain I've been working on.

Ok that's a wrap on my 8000 words on Adepticon 2009, I know, 8000 words!!!!!!?? ( I dropped all three posts into MSword and did a wordcount) .Anyway I'll shut up already, but hey! thanks for reading.

Adepticon 2009, Part 2

2009-04-06T21:15:00.027-05:00

Saturday 4/4

Warhammer Fantasy Championships

Despite definitely regretting the shots of tequila I had the night before at the hotel bar the Championships got rolling without a hitch. The Championships are a 2250 event with full points for player judged Sportsmanship, Appearance and Composition...the later of which many people must have overlooked because there where some seriously ugly lists going on that just were not cool...this isn't a no comp GT. There are wide variety of people who attend these events for different reasons..if you show up with a barely painted army and a win at all cost list you pulled off of Warseer, you are not in for a good day, even if you go 4-0. That's the bad part, for the good part let me say that this year this was the most awesome display of artistic talent I have seen at an event yet..If I made the top 25 in paint scoring I will be a very happy man (I don't know yet, I haven't seen the scores) This event is the premier Warhammer Fantasy Event for North America.. Alot of great people were here coming from all over country and it showed. With that introduction on with my games.

Round 1- Empire Vs Dark Elves (Tyler/ Chicago)

I didn't think with the Battle Point bidding* going on I'd pull DE 1st round but OK, fair enough. He had a pretty decent DE list, Corsairs, Executioners, Blackguard, 2 units of Crossbows, 2 Bolt Throwers, Dark Riders, a Hydra and 10 shades fronted by Dreadlord with two Sorceresses, I had to figure he had 2 assassins in both elite units and I was right. The scenario here was called the Deceiver and I had played it in a practice game, Objective- to kill the enemy General..easier said then done. We were on one of the new Citadel Realm of Battle tables for this game so we both had hills for our artillery with a woods in my backfield and Watchtower close to his...set up was pretty standard..I knew his shades where going into my woods so I had my flagellants right there ready to go after them. Game starts out ok..I hit one BT with Cannonball but only kill the crew and roll a "1" on the machine..too bad you only need one guy to operate the BT as he just moved a crewman over to man it. We traded a lot of back and worth shooting...he has his Dark Riders on my right flank and they where a serious pain in ass, I couldn't convert on any of the chances I had to kill them I am forced to use my Knights to protect my Artillery dodging spells the whole time..Tyler runs his General and Executioners in the Watchtower and leaves them their all game, which was fine by me..That way I didn't have to deal with them..My Swordsmen and Characters are dancing around with the Hydra the whole time...I do hit it with a cannonball but only get 2 wounds..the shades eventually take down my Flaggants and I only kill 5...(my dice in that combat where awful). Eventually I see a chance for my Inner Circle Knights to Charge the Corsairs..I do blow thru them and into some crossbows with a sorceress and I go right thru them barely missing hitting one Bolt Thrower on the overrun (damn) now am sitting right next to it on the far table edge.
At this point I am looking good..he leaves his shades in woods to hold the quarter...but my swordsmen are below half and I am taking alot of breath weapon damage..I am shooting at the Hydra every round but can't get a wound. ( I had to give up cannons in round three when I went after the corsairs..(Dark Riders swooped and got them) I should had my Arch-Lector and BSB come out of the unit then spin around so he couldn't avoid both but oh well..My Greatswords eat bolt thrower and magic fire but I have them and their detachment in his D-zone ready to mop up..then the worst thing happens..Bottom of 5 both my Knights and Greatswords Both fail panic tests from shooting both with "double sixes" my knights run of the board and my Greatswords turn around and by the time I can rally on the top of six I lost my chance to grab some easy extra points going thru both BT's and hopefully into the crossbows round 6...instead I get charged by the executioners and the assassin wastes most of the unit. Without getting the hydra or Shades to below half...I only killed his Corsairs and Crossbows and one Sorceress, while he got full points for Cannons, knights, Luthor Huss, my swordsman and Greatswords plus detachments...additional points were a wash..but he was up +500 VP in the end so he won. I did manage to pick up + 5 battle and +2 objective points for a "12" (5 for loss + 7_ which is pretty good as good as draw..basically..so I was fine with that.
I gave Tyler a pretty good comp score for that list too. It could have been, and I have played way way worse against Dark Elves.

FUN 5, SPORTS 5, COMP 5

* Battle point Bidding. For those that don't know let me explain- when you start the tourney you are asked to assign yourself a number 0-5 and that number you bid is used to adjust your score either +/- the amount you've bid at the end of each game and against your rounds point total..so if you won a game were you'd get normally get 15 points, if you bid 5, then you'd get 20. If you lost you'd get 10- these extra points only applied to the best General Award and this also what they used to figure out the seating round 1..so for instance if you brought a kill em' all list and were painted to a 3 color standard you needed to bid 5, you'd be matched with other 5's round 1. If you were looking at high soft scores you want to bid 0 as losing a game would only hurt your overall score, ( I bid Zero.)

Round 2 Empire Vs Empire (Lance/ Indiana)

Now I am going to be pretty critical of Lance here, and its not because he wasn't a cool guy...He was, I liked him personally quite a bit..and we chatted throughout the event but I am very critical about his list and how he played against me. His list was just awful,
Arch Lector on the War Altar, Plus a Steam Tank plus the Rocket Battery, then 10 Outriders , two hochland long rifles, Pistoliers, Two Level 2 Wizards, another Warrior Priest, Inner Circle Knights with Great Weapons, Core Knights with Lances...20 Swordsmen, and two units of 10 free Company..one of which was NOT a detachments but a regular unit. That was the biggest bullshit right there..if you are dropping all that shooting the table, as least drop some infantry putting down 10 free company as a core choice is really- really cheesy I mean with all that magic and shooting he should have just put a Land raider on the table it would have been the same thing. His entire Core came in at 374 points..which is patheticly low for Empire. This was literally like bringing a sword to a gunfight he had a ton of magic on top of that. Ok the list sucked, but I get why he did it..its designed to take on VC and Daemons..unfortunately Lance played Jon Cash first round and lost to his Empire with Dogs of War Army...so he gets me next with Empire again..I am sure he was frustrated by this so in retrospect I can cut him some slack..but I wasn't happy about the game. besides the lopsidedness of the armies I did something dumb that ended up making things worse- I put my Cannons both on one side to make protecting them easier but left myself a blind spot to shooting..Little did I know he would hide the War Altar and Stank in that blind spot most of the game...I mean at least give me a chance. I spend most of my time trying to move around and avoid getting flanked by the tank..which my Greatswords ended up failing at anyway. I did kill some of his stuff. The Pistoliers, 1 unit of Outriders, his Core Knights, and I did blow up the War Altar Late game. He even hid his ambassador behind a building in the D-Zone so I couldn't ever get to it even thou its designed to be in your generals unit..(I realize being on the War Altar he couldn't but give me a break will you) Anyway my biggest gripe as Lance played me like I was running a Bloodthirster and Three Heralds when he was actually playing an mostly infantry Empire Army, he could have brought it to me gave me a chance and still crushed me, instead he played way too defensively just shooting/casting at me waiting to charge the tank in....Needless to say I got Massacred with no bonus points- I score a "5" for the round. I was pretty brutal on Lances player judged comp score giving him a 2 out 25. Should Lance somehow read this...Nothing personal guy..I like you but this was my least favorite game of the weekend.

FUN 2, SPORTS 4, COMP 1

Round 3 Empire Vs Vampire Counts (Randy/ Memphis)

After the last game I was in dour mood, and surprised that now that I am down in the basement (the bottom tables) that I draw a VC player. Meaning this guy is 0-2 as well there must be a reason. I quickly saw why..the guy had massive unit of Blood Knights as in 10 including two characters one being the 400+ pt VC lord the other being a 250+ pt Vampire BSB with the Drakenhoff banner. so we are talking over practically the Entire Army's points in one unit, other than that he had two other Vampire Characters, 2 Units of 20 Zombies, a Corpse Cart, 4 bats, 10 ghouls, 12 Grave Guard and a Vargulf..that the whole army. only 380 points of Core Troops I knew there wasn't a damn thing I could do about that "death star" unit..out side my cannons so I split them wide and deployed to one side figuring he put the sickness on the weak flank and he did...I did have my Knights and Flagelants the end of my linee just in case I needed a speed bump from that freight train. Another problem Randy had is he didn't know his own rules that well thankfully I play VC alot and have the book, he put his list on the table right in front of me while we were setting up and when I glance down at it to get his name spelling as I saw he had the Crown of the Damned..and while I didnt say anything I was annoyed that he didn't bother to test for stupidity until I reminded when it really mattered at the bottom of turn three. (more on that in second) also Randy seem unsure of how to pull his kills from negative combat resolution like it had never happened before. I'm not saying it was malicious..but you expect a bit more in an enviroment like this.
Ok with all that aside let me tell you how I won this game...Top of turn three after hitting a brief speed bump call empire crossbowmen the VC Freight Train overruns but is to the right of my Cannon on the flank. The overrun is far enough that the unit ends up behind my cannon. I spin around a drop a grapeshot Template.. on the unit I have 3 fulls and 5 Partial...no I never do squat with grape shot 9 times out 10 when I do I misfire..so I am not that optimistic, however I somehow roll an Str 8 hit!, 5 partials -I get them all...8 shots..roll to wound NO "1"'s every body takes a strength 8 hit. Randy's Lord has a 4+ ward and 4+ regen..everyone else get just the the Regen...his regen dice are bad...I kill 5 blood knights right there. On his turn...I bring up the Stupidity thing..he apologies rolls and gets BOXCARS..he's stuck..next turn I do the grape shot again again I roll an str 8 again but this time I only kill two more Blood Knight..I know have 1/2 points for the unit. Meanwhile I killed one other vampire running about alone with the other cannon...My Knights eat up his 4th Vampire, the Graveguard and his Ambassador (for Scenario points scoring)..In the end with extras I had only lost a cannon, 2 detachment, some handgunners and my crossbowmen..while I killed half his Blood Knights, His Varghulf, his Grave Guard, Two Vampires characters, his Bats and plus 1 raised unit of Zombies, plus I had a captured banner. I was up by around +700 points more than enough for the win also picking up 3 Battle and 3 Objective for 21 total points..

Fun 3, Sports 3, Comp 1

Round 4 Empire VS Ogres (Todd, Michigan)

Todd was an older fellow like myself..when I saw he had Ogres I was psyched..as Ogres/Empire is a fair match up I knew where in for a good game...He had the hardest list Ogres can field..Scrag, 3 Butchers, 2 Gorgers and 2 Scrap Launchers, the amry was filled out with Bulls, 3 Leadblechers a Bloclk of 20 noblars..and 10 of the noblar skirmishers..part of the scenario was about holding terrain features..so I went immediately trying to grab as many as I could from the get go and it saved me in the end...not only did I end up with an extra 200 VP from that it saved alot of my Core units which I picked an extra battle point from and my Knights managed to handle Lead blechers, a Gorger, a 4 Bulls by themselves plus grab a table quarter and terrain feature by themselves (my Inner Circle Knight were tourney MVPs for me, they let me down running away in game 1 but were otherwise solid all weekend) The game boiled down to huge multi combat with everybody involved... My bound and his Gut spells were everywhere .I had unbreakable going alot, Todd had his beefy Ogres spells going alot, In the end he didn't break my Greatswords or My Swordsmen..he got 1/2 for both, one cannon and my BSB....It was just under
a 300 point difference and Draw thanks to the extra points I picked..I end with "12" total points
(10 for a draw + 2 battle) and I was happy..this was my Favorite Game of the day..Todd was a great guy...I hope I get to play him again one of there days. For an Ogre list its was a tad unbalanced (all magic)..but its Ogres and they arent really capable of being that competitive..I think I comped him a 14 or so...but I'd call the list fair for this environment.

FUN 5, SPORTS 5+ COMP 5

Overall Results 1-2-1 Battle Points 50 , Soft Score 79!!! (one of three with highest score of 79)
129...a 5 way tie for 24th place out of 120 overall points and 28th place individually.
I seriously can't believe how well I did!!
I did better than I expected Saturday and worse than I expected Friday ..par for the course I guess

Here are some more photo's from Saturday

My game 1, Vs Dark Elves..say what you want about the realm of battle but it sure looks good in photos.

I loved this Chaos Army by a fellow named Adam (One of the Minneapolis guys)
the tones are definitely in the painting style I work in, the army conversions with awesome
particularly this Chaos Warshrine below

I also loved this Wood Elf army..I'd seen this before the last few years it looks better than ever
the Treekin from the Citadel Trees is a no brainer...these are the first ones I've really liked.

This converted forest army by Dietrich Stella was so off the wall I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be Wood Elves or Beasts or what. In fact it turns out it "counts as" Warriors of Chaos...the Fairy Forest theme here was the best...this was one of the top armies there.

(Above )Jeff Schlitgen's Plague Bearers..the Ogres converted to Daemons theme
was well presented here and perfectly executed with that and a 4-0 record on the day
netted Jeff the overall on Saturday as well. Huge congrats to him .Winning best overall in two events is something else. (Below) A shot of most of Jeff's army , note all the conversions of the Juggernauts and the furies made from bloodletters and Forge World Tyranid parts..

Ok that's my Saturday wrap up...unfortunately this year I had two tourneys which boiled down to 7 games in about 36 hours.. made it tough to check out any 40K or LotR or specialist games like I did last year, I just didn't have the time...I couldn't be there on Sunday this year....but I wouldn't be suprised if Adepticon eventually becomes a 4 day event. Next year I am going to make the extra effort to cover more stuff outside my own games. I will finish this year up with overall write up on the Best and the Worst Adepticon had to offer..including some GW achievments and blunders.
Coming soon.

Adepticon 2009!!

2009-04-05T14:40:00.024-05:00

Here is the first of my three part write up about the event. Friday and Saturday tourney reports and a third part with general observations and commentary regarding Games Workshop and the now National Premier Event for the hobby- Adepticon.

Adepticon Part I

Another Adepticon has come and gone for me, while its still going on today..for me the 2009 experience is over as I am sitting (today) sunday out. Let me start with the preliminaries before discussing my tourney reports. This is my fourth Adepticon, my third as a blogger and each year this thing just gets more and more massive. The venue change from the Rosemont Omni to the Lombard Westin, was a great decision as this hotel was about perfect. Free parking, tons of great food in the hotel and withing walking distance, a courteous staff, the ballrooms and accommodations where great. My only minor complaint would be in the layout of the event. The second ballroom room where all the Specialist games, Historicals, and Lord of the Rings were being held was far enough away from the main ballroom that I barely ever got there, I couldn't even find the rooms where the events and seminars where on Saturday as there was a different event going in the hotel and it looked like stuff was moved around .In my limited time away from my events it was enough of pain to get over and find all the rooms that I didn't get to see all the people I wanted to...at this point if I could I would go back tomorrow just to BS with the people and bloggers I never caught up with. Regardless the Westin was top notch out of 5 stars for convention venue I'd give it a 4.5...that's the antithesis of the previous location.

Friday 3/3

Warhammer Fantasy Battles - Escalation.

Although the Escalation tourney didn't have check in until noon with dice rolling at 1pm..I was as pysched to get there as the next guy. Despite some delay getting out of the house and bad traffic on the way out I still got there around 10 am....by 10:30 I had hooked up with my partner in wargaming crime Felix and we were making the rounds, checking out the vendors and running into various people we know. Felix who is a serial poster and moderator on the Dakka Dakka forums knew a lot of out of town people..and we both at this point know of alot of people between our metro area gaming scene and people we've both met thru the net There was no shortage of people to meet and talk to.

Escalation came in at about 40 people (Devastation too.) so we had 40 tables of Warhammer going on lunchtime friday. A cursory tour of the everyones display before round 1 was eye opening..there were so many kick ass armies..my mouth was on the floor not only the painting but the conversions and displays..I knew immediately my work was more than cut out for me if I wanted to accomplish my meager goals this year, which were A) Win a few games because last year I went 0-4., and B) do well enough on my Soft Scores, specifically appearance that I could hang with the big boys, specifically that coveted appearance check box that reads " this army is in the top x% percent of all armies in the event"...so with my ego firmly in check I sat down to roll some dice on game 1.
Game 1 1000 points- Empire Vs Empire, (Jeff from Atlanta.)

Ok, I must admit I have been playing Empire for going on three years and never played against my own army. This was the 1st time. Odd I thought I don't know any local guys that play Empire, whom I've actually ever got to play. Because when you want a friendly game...you just don't want a mirror match. 1000 points in unsual format and I brought a pretty tough list for 1000 points....Jeff's list was:
Warrior priest
20 Swordsmen, detachment of 10 Halberdiers,
20 Swordsmen detachment of 10 Free Company
1 units of 5 Core Knights
1 unit of 5 Inner Circle Knights
Mortar
Great Cannon.

This game was pretty straight forward...I lost first turn and immediatley got hit dead center on my block of Swordsmen with the Mortar- OUCH...not only that but he did it again next turn...my Swordsmen where completely nerfed by my turn 2 and I had to change my strategy. fortunatley my combo of Flagellants., Pistoliers and Knights with Great Weapons was pretty lethal...my Flagellants over ran thru the unit of Jeff's core knights then overruns right into the Cannon, while my detachment and BSB ( who charged out of the depleted Swordsmen) hit his detachment blew thru them into the mortar..my Pistoliers rode up shot the Halberdier detachment to hell, they panic run away never coming back. The following turn My Knights came up charged the front of parent block of the detachment that ran off, and then I charge my pistoliers into the flank..we break them easy run them down and hit the other block in the rear and flank...who again breaks and is killed...Jeff's remaining Knights tried to make a comeback but
they had units coming at them 3 ways by the bottom of 5...in the end he had two knights left period I had lost 19 of 24 swordsmen....I also picked 2 extra battle points and 5 objective points...for a score of 21, ok great! I won, but getting 21 out of 25 points round 1 was going to get me a tough match up round two as I'd be probably be in the top 10 tables. My opponent Jeff was a good ole' boy from down south and it showed-he gave me the "5" for sports which makes you explain on the scoring sheet "why" you opponent was your "new best friend"....as Jeff explained it was because he wanted to buy me some Tequila shots later (which he did)...nice and I'll take it but not necessary...the obilatory "4" on sports was more that good enough for me and that what I gave him...but props to Jeff, a stand up guy..(and good player, he guess ranges were aces and it was a closer/ tenser game than my write up here probably sounds)

If you remember from last years write up, I have personal scoring system I use for my write ups about games in tourneys, Fun/ Sports / Comp rated 1-5. These have nothing to do with the actual tourney scoring but are certainly representative on how I scored my opponents soft scores. Jeff gets max from me here....FUN 5, SPORTS 5, COMP 5.

Game 2- 2000 points- Empire vs High Elves ( Bryan from Chicago)

I'd never played Bryan before but have seen him around tons, he's a regular at the Chicago Battle Bunker...and we chit-chatted occasionally at last years, Chicago GT, and our local Core Competency tournaments...I've seen Bryan tourney armies before and they are always pretty nasty. This time I felt luckly as soon as I heard the guy on the Dragon wasn't an Arch-Mage..so I wouldn't be dealing with brutal magic as well. Bryans full list was -

Price/ Star Dragon
level 1 mage
Noble- BSB

11 Archers
10 Sea Guard
9 Dragon Princes
Eagle
3 Bolt throwers.

Not alot of models, 44 to my 124...I out number him 3 to 1 but he hits way harder. pretty straight forward game, the Sea Guard captures a building and turtles up there....I stupidly think my 20 Flagellants get them out and move around behind, either into back of the Dragon Princes or into the Bolt throwers, but somehow the 10 Sea Guard hold up the 20 crazed madmen all
game due to my wretched dice....I also spend way too many resources trying to kill the damn eagle..none my shooters can hit the broadside of a barn. by the time I do kill it the Bolt Throwers hurt me a bit. The dragon flew the up towards my second cannon gets held up a round by my
crossbows there to protect it. I get a chase to fire a cannon at it and cannonball his Prince, who fails his save and takes 6 wounds.. The Dragon is now riderless running around via the monster reaction table Frenzied with Hated....great.(sigh) but at least I did kill his general. The rest of game came down to a huge combat between all my infantry and the Dragon Princes and the Noble...it lasted Three Rounds and I had 2 Chances to break him with huge static res's on both sides. But he has the High Elf bane of my existence the "Battle Banner" Both rounds I win but the banner gets me with it's D6 bonus addition to the rounds CR, in fact the second round he needs a six not to lose combat and rolls a "six".. Round Six the Dragon is in my Flank and my large block of Swordsmen finally break with my BSB dead...my Greatsword stick with the Dragon Prices but the Dragon cuts down the rest of Fleeing troops..giving Bryan the easy +300VP with addition support from Banners and my General, If had my Flagellant around to block that flank and potentially tarpit that frenzied Dragon, I probably drew or even could have won this game...my shit dice early hurt me bad, killing the eagle bottom of one with my pistoliers would have invaluable but I flubbed 12 shots...only needing three wounds..getting 1 and then end up eating bolt thrower fire and I losing the second cannon which would have a dragon in its sights the rest of the game...too bad that's not what panned out. Cest la vie.

Bryan is fun laid back guy and fun to play despite the hard list ( I realize he is a good player so he needs to compete with VC/Daemons and DE)...but I thought for 2K escalation the list was excessive...so I have to ding him on comp a little but otherwise he was all 5's.,

FUN 5, SPORTS 5, COMP 3

Game 3- 3000 points. Empire vs Orc ( Alex N. from Chicago)

When I saw I was playing Alex I knew I was screwed...I had faced him in round 3 of our local "Core Competency" tourney last September with his Dark Elves and I got schooled by the master. A 20 year vet of the game, this guy knows what he is doing. I was somewhat optimistic when I saw he had Orcs and not DE...I play Orcs alot and only ever lose to one guy (my bud Anthony ) but outside that I basically beat Orcs up the rest of time including two Orc armies at last years GT. This was a tough Orc list for me, I've never played Orcs at 3K and the Wall of Orcs with 4 Shamans, One level 4 and 3 level 2's was brutal. I thought I could deal with the wall of Orcs...but Alex feinted me, just like he did the last time I played him and I fell for it again!

Last time I played Alex and his Dark Elves..he baited me by stacking his Cold One Knights and Lord on the flank with some fast cav backup.. I responded by putting stuff that could handle it on the same side..he ran 15 witch elves and 10 Black guard up the middle..I thought his Cav was my main threat and my huge blocks could handle 25 models coming at my 60...the DE book was new and I had no idea the pain the Witch Elves could dish out with cauldron and the BSB in the unit..meanwhile my heavy stuff is waiting for a fair fight that never happens while my infantry gets slaughtered and then my cavalry and remain units gets caught in the pincer from both sides.
During this game he drops the giant early my right flank, and I am of course worried about that because a Giant on your flank is hell. I drop my Inner Circle Knights that bust Giants up plenty as a counter plus I have shooters over there as well...as the game goes on the Giant is hiding behind a building just sitting there I cant get an angle on it to charge with setting myself up for getting flanked charged..I should have put my Flaggies there and forgot about it..instead I end up worrying about the stupid giant and I am getting hammered by spells and the wall of 4 blocks of 20+ orcs is coming at me...I don't have Karl Franz to turn that wall around (echoes of previous game) So when the wall comes crashing in I am not set up properly and decimated...In the end I get tabled in a 3K game- brutal!...., one of the worst beatings I have ever taken, props to the master. As for Comp It is a 3K so your Characters should be a bit out of balance, this list was "ok" I think but a little less magic would have been just fine for all comers in this event.

FUN 5, SPORTS 5, COMP 4

RESULTS

Althought the final results so me at 41st out of 52..its actually an error on the person who put the list together.its listed in order of battle points with no soft score reflection you should take the total scores and list ties in battle point order .if you check my score of "98" you will see that I finished somewhere in the top third, someone pointed that out me so thanks!

Ok best part about this was all three of the guys I played were great guys and great players, I really appreciated all three games and the good time that was had. I went 1-2 for the tourney and it could have easily been 1-1-1 with change of a die roll or two. I knew my Soft Score, which some of us jokingly now call "The cool points", was going to be pretty up there so my meager battle points should get a big boost to my overall score . I also knew my appearance was pretty high because I had numerous painting judges coming back for the round 3 visit. I found out before scores got released that I made the "top 5" armies of the tourney in appearance along with my pal habitual tourney champion Jeff Schiltgen and multi Golden Daemon winner Dylan Gauker (of the Minneapolis Warbringers club -more on these guys in the part 3 write up) and two other guys whose names are escaping me...(pretty sure Jon Cash was in there top 5, if not he should have been) so I did get that coveted appearance boost from the "this army is in the top x% percent of all armies in the event" bonus I wanted. When the results where posted Saturday morning I saw that I had the Highest Soft Score of the entire tourney with a "64". In many tourney's there is an award for that...unfortunately not here...but just doing it is more than good enough for me, so Mission Accomplished...anything positive happening at Saturdays Championship was all gravy from here on out for me.

Here are pics of some great armies I took on Friday.

From Escalation Game 3, Alex had a really great looking Orc Army...from the Giant all the way down to the perfect checkerboard patterns everywhere..really great job.

I loved Jeff Schiltgen's Empire army of the last couple years and he came back with a knockout Daemon Army this year. Tons of great conversions and master paint..Jeff took the best overall award going 3-0 with stellar appearance awards.. Congrats Jeff. .

Jon Cash's awesome Empire with Dogs of War "Conquistador" style army..tons of great scratch builds and conversions.

Last but not least by any stretch Elliot Vigils awesome aquatic themed Daemon army this army is so converted you could probably run it a more than just Daemons. look at these converted Bloodcrushers these guys are riding giant hermit crabs with Ogre heads!!.

My favorite pic of the day, Elliot's version of Spring Break at Adepticon for us wargamers. This was the closest thing we saw to any ladies flashing us their lovelies all weekend.

I have plenty of pictures of all theses Armies and more...I will post more in the Saturday Wrap up and then the bulk to my Adepticon 2009 Gallery ...Thats it for now, Part 2 soon.

The heart of The Empire

2009-03-31T00:46:00.014-05:00

Road to Adepticon IV

So here is my current Empire Army in its finished state, this is 3000 points, once you add items to the characters. If you've been reading the blog here at all there isn't much new other than my Arch Lector character (the guy with huge cape) got a finely detailed horse to match the BSB so they are on the same page. If you read the sidebar you saw my mural idea for the rear panel of this display did not pan out...when I look at these photos I can see in my mind how good it would look and I'll have to take another stab at for later in the year. For now- this is what going to Adepticon 2009. I have been working on this Army since December of 2006, and its come along way. I am quite happy with the way its looking, most of my best work is in this Army. I broke out everything in the photo and what list its in for the tournaments below, now items are listed as I'm still not 100% sure on some of those and I'm sure I will be tweaking the nuances of lists until Thursday. That's it for now...I be doing a write up on Adepticon 2009 in its entirity late Sunday or Monday.

My box display base...simple and effective, easy to carry around between games
The combined forces of Hochland and Talabecland on the march!

My BSB (left) and sometime Army General or Captain (right) as he is this year

Knights of the Blazing Sun following my Pistoliers, My Arch Lectors new Horse
can be seen here...the plastic horse from the general kit details out nicely if you take your time
I should have done that awhile ago.

I love trying to get close up mob shots like this. My mounted Warrior
Priests Rides with the Knights of the Blazing Sun, Banners flying everywhere!

Another Warrior Priest leads the Greatswords and Flagellants
two of my key units.

My Wizard only shows up the second half of Escalation
here's hoping he performs better than usual.

The Empire Treasure and one of two pet monkeys (my objective Marker for Escalation)

Lords

Arch Lector on Barded Warhorse Championship, Escalation 3k
General on Barded Warhorse Escalation 2K

Heroes

Captain - Battle Standard Bearer- Barded Warhorse- Championship, Escalation 1k,2k,3k.
Warrior Priest- Great Weapon- Championship, Escalation 1k,2k,3k
Warrior Priest- Barded Warhorse, Great Weapon- Championship (as Luthor Huss), Escalation 3K
Battle Wizard- Escalation 2k, 3K
Captain- Barded Warhorse, Hand Weapon and Shield- Escalation 3K

Core

26 Swordsmen Full Command- Championship, Escalation (all)
9 Free Company Detachment x 2- Championship, Escalation (all)
9 Swordsmen Detachment - Championship, Escalation (2k,3k)
5 Archer Detachment- Championship
10 Handgunners marksman with Hochland Longrifle - Championship, Escalation 2k,3K
10 Crossbowmen (musician) Escalation 3K, Championship
20 Flagellants- Championship, Escalation (all)
5 Knights with Great Weapons - Escalation 1K
6- Knights of the Blazing Sun Full command, lance- Escalation 2K as Core.

Special
12- Inner Circle Knights of the Blazing Sun Full command, lance - Escalation 3K
9- Inner Circle Knights of the Blazing Sun Full command, lance- Championship
1-Great Cannon- Championship, Escalation (all)
1- Great Cannon- Championship, Escalation (2k,3k)
5-Pistoliers- musician, outrider with repeater pistol... Escalation 1K.2K
19 Greatswords full command- Championship, Escalation (2k, 3k)

Rare
Helblaster Volley Gun- Escalation 3K
Helstorm Rocket Battery- Escalation 3K

One week to go!

2009-03-27T13:51:00.004-05:00

Road to Adepticon part III

This time next week..I should be well into game 1 of the Warhammer Fantasy Escalation tournament. All my free time of late has been geared toward preparing for Adepticon and both the Escalation and Championship tournaments I am entered in. Currently I am finishing up an extra horse I wanted to do for one my characters and Saturday I am finally starting this mural I want to add to my display base whether it makes it our not is dependent on how it comes out. While my freehand painting has gotten stronger over the years I am no trained artist by any stretch. I'll know whether my mural makes the cut on Saturday so I don't waste time on something I don't end up using. . I still want to touch up my Greatswords...but that will be the last few nights before the event. No more staying up until 4am the night before trying to finish that last unit you realized you needed. That is no fun, and for not having to do that I am thankful I must say if you play competitively at all, its just so much more relaxing once you have that one painted army you can fall back on, and if its got depth even better. After the new wave of Empire releases this summer I'll be able to field 4K painted so I am pretty much done with Empire, outside of anything themetic or additional characters I get motivated to do. Optimistically I want do the friday Lord of the Rings event and then either WFB Champioship or WAB singles on saturday and the either the WAB or WFB team tourney next year. So that's going to dicate how move ahead toward next year.

I've done a bunch of practice games mainly geared at the Championship with a couple different lists..my current list is definitely performing the best at 2-3 taking only one massacre (Bills VC) Giving the round 1 "best general" bidding system for the Championship, I am unlikely to face WAAC (win at all cost) tier 1 armys..meaning I'm not planing on facing any VC, Daemons of Dark Elves in round 1...so my last two practice games are against Lizards and Orcs on tuesday. The escalation tourney on friday should be alot more casual as its no special characters with list restictions so because of requirements and the point totals you should see more balanced lists.

I've got a great 1k list that should do very well and a well rounded 2K list, 3K is going to be a crapshoot because with two lords per army on the table things get crazy...I fully expect to see Dragons, Bloodthirsters and every other kind of big baddy...I opted for only 1 lord at 3K and am taking hordes of troops..my 3K list is 180 models..I plan on holding as many table quarters and objectives as I can to mitigate troop losses. I post some finished shots of my display before I head out, other than that look for my full Adepticon write up post event..I will post up some pictures during the event If I get the chance..looking forward to seeing some you guys next weekend!

White Dwarf # 351

2009-03-23T22:07:00.011-05:00

I'm not going to make it a habit of advertising each months White Dwarf here, but this months has some significance. I know other people have it already as I've seen it mentioned on some of the more popular forums out there I just wanted to mention a few things. Outside of the huge War of the Ring feature ( which is ringing a bit hollow with me given that GW's current anti-veteran policies killed the awesome store wide campaign we were going to run thru the club.), the shots of the new Empire Huntsmen (which I am meh, on..the rumor of it being all new Militia was much more exciting) and of course the umpteenth porn-like tank spread ( you can't just have one super heavy right!) There is ton of awesome custom terrain featured in this issue..everything from set pieces for the all major LotR battles, some truly great Warhammer stuff AND best of all these custom Mighty Empires Campaign Maps..
Being a Mighty Empires junky..I cannot help but be truly inspired by these and I will be working on my own campaign map this summer, something of a similar depth of what you see below.

All three of these are just brilliant.