The tales of heroic victories, disheartening losses, moments of inspiration, and of moving little plastic toys around on a table for a couple hours with other grown men. Come on in and make yourselves comfortable - you're in the captain's house now. *none of the images, models, videos, etc. are backed by Wyrd, Games-Workshop, Privateer Press, etc. we're a couple of dudes in a basement who still play with toys, don't sue us please!
Showing posts with label warhammerfantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label warhammerfantasy. Show all posts
Hey all! Happy to be back posting for you today. Nothing long today, just want to direct you guys to my most recent update concerning Rise of Empires in the Age of Beasts Campaign. Posted some pictures of the most recently painted models for AoS that I have done, which include a bunch of Silver Tower models, as well as some characters for my Skaven! Take a look here! Or, feel free to look through the pictures of the models here as well:
I've also begun to purge some of my collections off. As it stands right now, I am selling a good chunk of Malifaux, all of my Guildball, and my Chaos Space Marines. I felt like it was time to move on from the CSM, just too much baggage with them to be enjoyable anymore.
As such though, I have opened some of my older boxes of models, and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of Space Marines that I had laying around. Looking at that amount of stuff moving forward, I have decided to get back into Warhammer 40k, starting a Black Templars force. I have started to rebase a good amount of the models, starting with those pictured below. I have plans to pick up a flyer at some point in the near future, as well as a couple of other odds and ends to fill out what I have at the moment.
Hey hey hey! It's your favorite blogger here to talk to you about the dangers of goal setting - if you set em, more than likely you are going to complete them!
So, what have I been motivated to complete since my last post here a little over a week ago? I HAVE A PICTURE FOR THAT TOO.
I did a thing in the bottom right over there and completed (to a tabletop standard) a couple of models from a range that I have never painted before. I did this by getting my Alchemist team completed for Guildball in time to go and get some gaming in at the beach against some buddies of mine from Atlanta.
Here is some photographic proof that I can indeed complete models in a rather quick fashion should I so choose to do so!
I really enjoyed playing Guildball over the weekend. It is a refreshing change of pace from the types of games I was playing before in that you can get it done in a little over an hour in most circumstances. These games that I was playing were learning games, and as such they were all more geared towards helping me along with the game system and learning the niceties of the system. I played against both an Engineers Guild team and a Union Team. I lost all three games, but as the weekend progressed it was closer and closer. The final game I managed to score 6 to his winning 12 points. Other games before this I had failed to score a single point with my team either time.
I really am enjoying Guildball, but I definitely need to get more practice in with the team that I have and - of course - pick up the rest of the Alchemist models that I don't already have. Which of course will lead to grabbing more Union team members, a Union team, and then grabbing another team after that as it snowballs out of control. But that's ok! Who gets into tabletop games and doesn't have that happen to them over the course of their gaming life?
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In other news, I have postings about the news! That's right folks, I have just a few items of business that I would like to bring to the attention of the model loving public.
First, the birth of the Skaven Pestilence Battletome and all of the delicious wonders that entails:
I have not broken down and purchased the Virulent Horde yet, but man alive that is a good looking box set if I have ever seen one. I am not a huge fan of getting another Plague Furnace, but the thought of just about everything else in the box set makes it well worth basically getting a Furnace and a catapult for free an ok prospect. I am giddy with excitement over this release, for fairly obvious reasons I think. I love my Plague Rats almost as much as I love gaming in general, so these are near and dear to my heart as a Skaven player.
The other Age of Sigmar news that has my blood and creative juices flowing is the grand entrance of the Sigmarite Cavalry, and the hints of Stardragons coming to their aid soon. These models, while pricy, are some of the coolest things I have seen. I really dig the whole vibe of the crossbowmen armed cavalry, I think they are probably the best looking of the bunch with the axes coming in a close second.
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Anyway, this is all I have for you today. Look for the ever increasing tide of Clan Festerscar to make a reappearance on the Realm of Ghur, and for more painted Guildball models to show up on this page in the near future! Until next time, dear readers, happy gaming!
Katalyst is the one who will break the secrets of life everlasting. The same might not be true for those that he is across from on the pitch.....
Hello all, Sinscaptain here to talk about the elephant in
the room – Age of Sigmar – as well as some general hobby updates and all the
regular jazz.
Hold on to your butts, it’s going to be a long ride.
I’d like to open by saying that this article has been difficult to write. I am, for the most part, a very opinionated person when it comes to my selection of gaming ventures. I have toned myself down considerably from the flaming rhetoric that this blog used to be, but every once in a while, that still peaks out from behind the cage it is locked away in.
Today may turn into one of those days.
For those of you that live without regular access to the outside world, Warhammer Fantasy has been replaced rather explosively by Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. Contrary to what rumors were making the rounds for the past 6+ months, there is no 9th edition coming. We have our Games Workshop fantasy game, and it is Sigmar.
A little background before we delve fully into the new world that is Age of Sigmar. I have been a fantasy player for about 5 years total. Now, I realize that this is not as long as some of you old beards, but I have played through all that was 8th edition - highs and lows, triumph and defeat, etc etc. It was a damn good time. I managed to sway about 6-7 people to play WHF during that time, and we all had a blast. Some of my fondest wargaming memories are of my Skaven going ballistic or turning tail and running for the hills. My preferences have always been for regimental combat, magic, and my ratmen.
The End Times were an exciting proposition for me, as I might be able to sway even more people into the Fantasy fold. However, that didn't come to fruition, but I still got the ride of a lifetime reading those books, or listening to Garagehammer talk through them. Sure there were odd rules that started to pop up in the later books, but people were still enjoying the fluff and reading about the war to end all wars in Fantasy. What could possibly go wrong?
Oh, right.
They could blow up the entire world. Which they did.
So, what comes next? Age of Sigmar! Sigmar, god-king of the Empire holds onto a shard of reality, baddabing he gets rescued by a giant dragon in spaaaaace!!! And then makes a new set of worlds yo. Then, Chaos starts to sneak back in, and so Sigmar throws up some deuces and locks himself in the Realm of Azyr and parties hard with his bros for a couple centuries.
Fast forward to the Realm of Fire, where cannibal Khorne bros are enslaving ALL of the people making a huge pyramid when WHAMO!
Yes, weep mere mortals! The Stormcast Eternals of Sigmar are here with hammers and thunder, deepstriking in on bolts of magical lightning!
So, these bros are pretty cool, honestly. They have hammers, swords, shields, BIGGER hammers, dual wielding hammers, BIG swords, crossbolters, pixie elfie bows, and giant cat dragon lizard things. Overall, every badass thing in the book, with a dash of 40k and entirely too few hammers thrown in.
It's hammertime baby.
Oh, and there's some Khorne guys too yo.
Again, these are some cool models. All of these, models come in the new Age of Sigmar starter box which features the Khorne Goretide against the Stormcast Eternals of Sigmar in the first installment of the Realmgate wars. $125 grabs you a nice selection of models to get the game going.
"Game you say? Tell me about it sinscaptain!"
I will dear friend!
Age of Sigmar has 4 pages of rules, which is nice considering Warhammer Fantasy 8th had something more like a gazzillion pages. Scientifically proven.
So, 4 pages of FREEEEEEEEEEErules, heres the skinny:
No more points or army selection rules - there are some unofficial army comp rules making the rounds, but most people either go by model count or wound count to organize battles.
Initiative rolls at the start of every turn.
Models can move, shoot, and charge all in the same turn. They can shoot into and out of combats without consequences.
Everyone takes battleshock tests at the end of the turn, which are similar to the old rules for undead moral tests. However many you fail by is how many models you pull out. So, D6 + Dead models for the turn - Bravery = # extra models that die.
Every game, at the moment, is all about killing all of your enemies models.
Magic is dumbed down to every wizard knowing 2 spells plus 1 unique spell for flavor, and all tests are done on 2D6 trying to beat a number. Enemy wizards within 18" may attempt to dispell.
If you choose to play with 1/3 less models then your opponent, you can pick a sudden death objective to try and beat by 6 turns in order to win.
Thats pretty much all of the main points. Every army has received "War scrolls" for each unit - for FREEEEEEEEEE- to use until they update "all" of the armies to Age of Sigmar. They have all the info you need, including the static to hit and to wound rolls that you need - that's right: static TH and TW rolls. A goblin hits Nagash just as well as he hits a skaven slave. Kinda weird, but speeds up the game nicely.
I've linked the page to all of the rules and war scrolls everytime you see FREEEEEEE.
WHAT DO I THINK?
So, now to the *brief* editorial on what I think this all means.
I am split. Part of me, the huge fan of Warhammer 8th Edition and regiments, movement trays, ridiculous magic phases, etc etc? That part of me hates this game. It is NOT Warhammer Fantasy. It is some cruel joke by Games Workshop. It's a dumbed down version of Warhammer 40k take what you want, unbalanced, polarizing, "spread a single line of guys in a line and march em across the table" BS, where everyone wants to be Tau with a bigger gun. The rumors swirling about Slaanesh being abducted or forced off of his throne makes me livid. Grrrrr.
The other, more rational and understanding part of me thinks that this game is great. It does everything that we wanted for Warhammer Fantasy - reduces time constraints, barrier for entry money wise, reduces complexity, moves the story forward, lets everyone get what they want from the game, and overall makes for an enjoyable gaming experience. This will be absolutely fantastic for getting new players into the game and having a blast with beer n' pretzels.
We've already gained 3 new fantasy players because of Age of Sigmar, including Matte himself. Life is good, man.
Overall, I would give Age of Sigmar a solid 6.5 out of 10 on the wargaming scale. It's better than your average game, but it doesn't quite feel like a solid replacement for Warhammer 8th. Of course, I reserve the right to change my opinion as we get more games in and more books/models are released. But overall, make an informed decision for yourself. Don't be that asshole who burnt his entire collection. People like that make us ALL look like Neanderthals. We don't need to be nerd ragers. We need to be united in the hobby, even though we have differing views of how the game should have come out.
Basically, it boils down to this: be adults, make a decision, and don't be an ass about your choice on the internet. Otherwise, Papa Nurgle will come to get you!
"Neeeeeeeerd rage feeds meeeeeee, hur hur hur"
So, the title reads that I need a Keg....
I'VE GOT ONE!
Meet my converted Soju Golem for Malifaux. The regular model didn't much catch my fancy, but I didn't want to shell out for the Nightmare Whiskey Golem, so I gave him a staff and a little bit of character to the face with some eyebrows, and boom. Done. Just need to throw some paint on him and Brewie will have an angry robot kegger to throw.
In addition to the Soju Golem, I built Yin for 10T Brewmaster, and for my incoming Yan Lo crew. Toshiro will be painted up to go with the Yan Lo crew as well. I also built a Tuco from the male TTB kit, just because I figured that he would be fun to have.
Well folks, hope that this little article will hold you over until I can get some pictures of my Brewmaster crew up - painted by Matte for me. They look absolutely fantastic, so I cannot wait to show them off. I will attempt to get some pictures of the swamp board in progress, as well as any games of Age of Sigmar or Malifaux that are played this week.
So, my minions, go forth and game! Until next time, this is Sinscaptain signing off.
Ahhh, welcome younglings - 'tis I, Sinscaptain! Back with another Malifaux Thursday battle report update, a Brewmaster spotlight (or atleast initial impressions), a project my gaming group is getting ready to work on, and some rumblings and thoughts on the Age of Sigmar for Warhammer Fantasy! Lots to get through today, so lets get started.
So yesterday I was able to snag our regular weekly match of Malifaux. Unfortunately, I have already broken the streak for taking lots of pictures, and the other members of our gaming group were occupied giving demos or playing, so there is a lack of pictures this time that is unfortunate as we had an absolutely lovely table provided by Matte to play on.
Sinscaptain's Schemes: ALitS (Revealed) and Breakthrough (Revealed)
<AUsome Friend>
Pandora [~ Cache]
+ 2-3 upgrades
Candy
+ upgrade
Baby Kade
+ upgrade
Teddy
Sorrow
Sorrow
Poltergeist
<AUsome Friend> Schemes: Assassinate and Plant Explosives
My thoughts on taking this crew for these schemes was that Fingers and a Shinobi would be able to run off and throw down some markers wherever the enemy wasn't headed, while the other Shinobi, Brewmaster, Merris, and the Boar were meant to stop any kind of schemes from my opponent, as well as go after any heads they can get.
Game went great! Since I was just learning Brewmaster and my opponent was playing his 4th game of Malifaux, we only got to turn 5 before we called it. He did manage to kill both Wesley and Brewmaster so that he earned his full assassinate points before turn 4, but not before Brewmaster threw down 6 poison on Pandora and brought her down to a single health so that she'd die to poison. I only managed to snag 2 heads the whole game, but that was about the same as Pandora and Co. Plant Explosives ended up being difficult for Pandora to get since I spread my crew out quite a bit, while I managed to sling both a Shinobi and Fingers through the middle - while laying scheme markers for LitS - and get to the deployment zone for some Breakthrough goodness on the last turn. With all of that, I managed to snag 8 points in the game to his 6 - he had 2 heads, full assassinate points, and a single explosive marker go off.
Like many headhunter games, it was more cat and mouse than anything this game, which means there usually isn't much killing. Had I been playing Collodi or Zoraida, there would have been more pulling and luring to get heads. However, Matte has been painting Brewie up to look beautiful on the table, so I had to give him a try - and I love him. Probably the most cinematic point in the game was Brewmaster and Pandora going at it, which I imagine would have been Brewmaster smacking Pandora around with his bamboo pole while she tried to summon up sorrows to defend her and attack Brewie. Overall, a great learning game for both of us. I am really looking forward to getting some more games in with Brewmaster to get the hang of him completely.
Brewmaster.
A Gremlin from beyond the misty mountains, Brewmaster has risen in prominence among the denizens of the Bayou for his many variety of Moonshine that he brings with him. His loyal band of Drunken Kung Fu masters follow him out of sheer alcohol dependence and loyalty. Many of the other Bosses know that to stand against the Brewmaster would be foolish, as their own boys might turn against him in order to get some of the Brewmaster's glorious 'shine.
This guy is dual faction Gremlins and Ten Thunders with key words "Gremlin" and "Tri-Chi", which is what all of the models from the Closing Time box set are at this point. Brewmaster is an amalgamation of control master and condition distribution master. His main condition is of course poison, which he can dish out a kegger of to everyone at arms length. He also has means to reduce the enemies effectiveness with abilities to make negative flips to all duels for an enemy. His upgrades give him a slew of other options for dishing out conditions and ending the effectiveness of enemy models through paralyzed.
I really think that the main focus of a Brewmaster crew is to shut down an enemy and make sure that your models can get where they need to go so that they can complete schemes and strats while the enemy deals with negative flips, poison, and paralyzed. This makes him a master that, from now on, probably wont see action in many of the killing strats (reckoning, headhunter, or collect the bounty) just because his crew really isn't as good at dealing strait damage to people. They are great for running around and having schemes, but for the most part I think that killing still belongs firmly in the camp of Ophelia for my Gremlins.
For what to take with Brewmaster, I will probably always take Fingers and Apprentice Wesley - being able to come back from death makes Wesley invaluable, while Fingers is a premier scheme runner and can hold his own against those that would take him down. He is a little steep in the SS department, weighing in at two and a half piglets in cost, but I think that he is well worth the cost. Other than that, I really do enjoy the Moon Shinobi, who can deal a respectable amount of damage with the right modifiers since they make all negative flips positive flips and vice versa. Merris was a great addition to the crew for her Flaming Bottle attack and the fact that she can discard a card to drop a scheme marker. However, I may drop her and definitely the Wild Boar in favor of taking Sammy LaCroix with Brewmaster's fourth upgrade and then having left over SS in the cache. I will have to give that a try the next time the schemes look like they would favor something like that.
Like I said at the beginning, this is a very cursory first play through thoughts on Brewmaster. As I play him more, these thoughts will become more refined. I have to master the path of Brewmaster after all.
As we wrapped up our game yesterday on Matte's gorgeous Secret Weapon Miniatures Tablescapes with Angry Mojo Games Graveyard MDF Terrain my girlfriend expressed an interest in building her own table, and had been for a few days. At this point, we began to map out everything that we needed to make for this table - which was decided would be a detailed Bayou board (as it could be home to my Gremlins and most of my Neverborn models, but that is just a happy coincidence)
So, we set about making plans. It will be a 3x3 board, perfect for Malifaux or getting skirmish games of Warhammer Fantasy in. It will have about 1/3 of the surface covered in water (and thus severe terrain for Malifaux). We will build tree bases, stilt buildings, huts, a broken down airboat, alligator nests, and other such swampy things. We are all extremely excited to get to work on it, and I am sure that both Matte and myself will be posting many updates concerning our table in the near future. Below are some images that we really liked and will use as inspiration.
And finally, to wrap up this post, something that I hold near and dear to my heart:
WARHAMMER FANTASY
WHF is near and dear to my heart. When everyone else wanted to play with Bolters and Chainswords, my imagination was captivated by the ideals of wizards literally pulling comets down from the heavens, ratmen swarming over the Old World, giant lizard people riding atop dinosaurs, desperate men firing round after round out of their muskets at advancing undead legions, all while mighty heroes ride their massive beasts of war and hurl eldritch blasts at each other as they close in to strangle each other with their bare hands if need be.
Desperate struggles of average men in the face of terrifying odds armed with nothing more than a shred of armor, cloth, and maybe a half rusted sword against foul daemons of the warp and massive tidal waves of greenskins always seemed more moving then armies of super humans with nuclear warhead bullet machines mowing down X, Y, or Z. That game was always about the lighting fast mobility of tanks and bikes clashing with each other in huge explosive collisions and titans blasting each other from across continents - but this is about Warhammer Fantasy.
I have 2 Skaven armies - a themed Asian Skaven army that is WIP and an almost entirely Plague Skaven army. They were the first models of any that I willingly and excitedly painted. I had named characters in my army that I had come up with. I scoured around to find old metal models in FLGS to complete my army, or converted up models to match my mental image of what they should look like. Long story short? I love Skaven and I love fantasy.
And then End Times came out. Nagash, Glottkin, Khaine, Thanquol (woo!), and Archaon. All in a line. Gorgeous models and ridiculous rules abound. Exciting times for all, and an apparent revival of Fantasy.
And then Boom. All gone. CNTR+ALT+DLT.
You can imagine how this made me feel. Then rumors swirling about huge simplification of the rules, removal of whole factions, armies maxed out at 50 models, ROUND BASES, and other things.
This is not what I signed up for. I signed up to push units of 60 puss riddled rats down my opponents throat while cackling gleefully and shooting my own models with guns that were just as likely to blow up in my face.
I have been salty to say the least.
However, I have been swayed, mostly due to Matte talking me off the ledge repeatedly, to maintain cautious optimism for the future of my gaming love. Malifaux is my main game - I would be lying if I said otherwise. But Fantasy was my first car. It didn't run all that well, it smelt kind of stale, and it's been used and abused for 30 years before my time, but it made you happier than anything else. It is all warm fuzzy memories and good friends and simpler times. So, here are the rumors that I have read that actually sound like they could be slightly true - gathered from various sources around the interwebs.
++SALT SHOULD BE USED++
Age of Sigmar wont be 9th edition, it will be a set of Skirmish rules that are meant to get people into the game.
The box is supposed to be Empire/Holy Knights/"Good Guys" vs some amalgamation of Chaos - some say there will be daemons, some beastmen, others say just Chaos Warriors.
There are rumors that this will feature round base fantasy models that can go in skirmish formation, loose formation, or blocked up like we currently know with all sorts of benefits/set backs for each of these formations.
Rules - or atleast 4 page starter rules - will be available for free online as a download when Age of Sigmar releases. Personally, I think this is the most BS. I saw the pictures of GW's website, but I am still not going to believe it.
All factions will still be playable to some extent.
There will be an ungodly amount of releases for something along the lines of 6 weeks - supposedly - with the Big Rule Book coming out at the very end after everyone has spent all of their money on Age of Sigmar stuff.
Alternate Rumor states that Age of Sigmar IS 9th edition, and we will see this game scalable up to army level games.
A lot of people are saying that this will be similar to an upscaled Lord of the Rings game that GW made/makes.
As of this morning, new models have been spotted for the Age of Sigmar starter box
And with that bombshell, I hope you all have a great day.
So, by the time you read this it will be Monday here on the Eastern Coast of the good old US of A, which means that it usually is my first of two days off!!!
However....
This week I've been called in for some extra time to help do a little summer cleaning. Usually this is not a bad thing - mo money is never a bad thing because that means, you guessed it, mo tabletop!
This Monday was going to be the day that I get final preparations done for my weekly expedition to the hobby shop - namely by finishing building a group of Samurai Stormvermin, getting some sand on their bases, and priming a metric ton of models to get ready for the game day. However, that isn't in the cards for tomorrow during the day, so I will most likely get the building and basing done and get the pleasure of playing with plastic colored models *shudder*
I suppose now would be as good a time as any to tell you what the major happenings of the week are, and what will be going on Tuesday night down at the shop....
To start out with, I have been hard at work getting these lovelies ready to join a big unit of Stormvermin for a few small introductory games of Warhammer Fantasy
Awwwwww yeeeaaaaaah. I finally got around to actually building some freaking katana wielding rats! These stormvermin, which will be added to my existing block of 20, will be awesome when they are down. However, I have to get 9 more done by the end of tomorrow night in order to have that nice block done..... Plenty of time
Here they are all blocked up with what I have together. I have 11 built of the second 20. Just need to slap some sand on the base and they will be "ok" to go. Id love to have them completely painted and based with a new movement tray... But I only get a few hours of hobby in a week at this point in time, so it isn't as much of a priority to get these guys done speedily, when I know that it will take a few weeks regardless of how quickly I slap them together (so I might as well do it right yeah?).
Here is the lovely army that I will be taking to the shop on Tuesday to play a game against the new Wood Elves, possibly Warriors of Chaos or High Elves too.
Really nothing fancy here, just wanted to try some new toys and teach some new guys with a list that isn't "meta". Stormvermin will have the BSB and General in it, while the engineer plops in with one of the Night Runner units. Night Runners and Giant Rats will run ahead to try and block unfavorable charges and pin some units down for a turn or two.
I've never used Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but they seem really cool. Same story for the lightning cannon. Should be interesting for all of the toys on the table to go at each other. Doom Flayer just sounds freaking cool to use - plus I didnt think running both a Doom Wheel and a WLC in a 1000 point game was all that fair on newbs.
DIE DIE MAN-THINGS
So, with all of the Fantasy gaming aside, the other big things going on at the store this week are the start of a new 40k Kill Team League, in which you... bring a kill team and play some games. Easy huh? I'll either bring some Thousand Sons (AP3 Bolters son) or some cultists with a few possessed to make things interesting.
Probably nothing too fancy in the end.
AND ANOTHER THING!
Infinity is looking sexier and sexier. So much so that I bought this....
The Japanese Sectorial Army, some D20, and a second Tohaa Clipsos. I've never played a single game of Infinity, and I regret that more and more with each passing day. I have a Tohaa army, a Japanese Army, and now I went out and purchased some more Yu Jing stuff today to go with my Japanese Sectorial: A Raiden Seibutai and a Tokusetsu Butai Doctor/Engineer. I honestly have no idea how good or bad any of these things are. From my understanding, there are really no bad choices - and I just really freaking liked those models, so how could they be bad? Same goes for just about every army/model/game I pick up. If the models follow the rule of cool, how bad could they be?
Now, when I need a break from all of the rats that just keep coming, I have 2 Infinity forces that need some love - starting with those gorgeous Tohaa models. Anyway, that's really all that I've got for tonight guys. I'll post more progress photos as they come, and I will make a solid effort to post photos from the games happening on Tuesday. Until then, may the dice forever cock up in your favor.
