Club Night 17th December

Despite a return of the snow I braved the weather for a couple of games of Warhammer with Duncan. Now Duncan has sold all his Warhammer armies, but having watched a few of the games Luke and I played wanted to give it a go again, which is good as Warhammer with Duncan is always fun.

He borrowed my Daemons and some of my Beastmen a proxy units to try out a fully fledged Daemon army. I took two armies with me, a knightly order based army led by Kurt Helborg and an infantry army similar to the one I had used against Mike a while back.

In the first game I used the knights and after some initial manoeuvring for position I launched my attack. Unfortunately some of my charges fell short and I found my self embroiled in combats with my flanks exposed. On the right my Pistolliers had fallen to the seekers and my small units of knights was struggling to hold off the two fiends. On my left I had fallen short of the horrors and the Bloodletters, but manage to get the unit with Kurt into the Dameonettes, but failed to wipe them out. The Bloodletters then followed Skulltaker into the flank, only to be charged in the flank themselves by another unit of knights led by Ludwig Schwarzhelm. This titanic battle continued until Kurt fell and then the rest of the Reiksguard shortly followed leaving the Daemon victorious.

The second game saw me take my infantry army in a battle of the pass. I actually found this slightly problematic as my army could not deploy successfully in the narrow defile. and it didn't get better from then on. My cannon was ineffective, the knights choose to flee from a charge by a fiend and rolled a double 1, getting eaten for their troubles and leaving my right flank dangerously exposed, although the archers on the other flank did a better job against the chaos furies. Although the flagelants held up the Dameonettes, the seekers poured round the flank and threatened to fall upon the rear of my line. On the other flank the Greatswords managed to hold the fiend and cut down the Masque.

In the centre, once again a titanic battle occurred. I had misjudged my angles and a fiend had pounced on the flank of my free company cutting them down and falling into the flank of my halberdiers. Frontally charged by the Bloodletters, I retaliated with a supporting charge from my swordsman. As Daemon and man hacked and slashed the casualties mounted and no-one know who had the upper hand until the final tally, when it was found the Empire had lost by a considerable margin, and failing their leadership fled and were cut down. All that was left was for the seekers to destroy the handgunners, and all that was left was the valiant Greatswords, surrounded ion all sides by the varied forces of chaos and with no hope but for a brave but futile last stand, we ended the game.

Above: The Empire army defends the pass ,
Below: The seekers approach the rear of the Empire army

Below: The final titanic battle (with Beastmen pretending to be Bloodletters!)

Two great fun games that reminded why I enjoy games against Duncan, Often defeats but I always learn form them and he is a very astute opponent that keeps you on your toes and always provides a challenge.

Club night 20th August

Tonight I played a couple of small (1,500 point) Warhammers with Mike to get a bit more practice of the rules. He took Tomb Kings, while I took my Empire. I built the army around a 38 strong halberdier unit led by a General of the Empire with Icon of Magns, to avoid those pesky fear and terror tests, and a warrior priest, so the unit became a horde. They had detachment's of 15 swordsman and free company to support them. To this I added 15 Greatswords, some flagellants, a great cannon, a small unit of 5 knights and a battle wizard with the lore of light ready to banish the undead foes.

The first game was very short and sweet. The new magic rules made it very difficult for the Tomb King Priests to cast any spells, even though my Wizard killed himself with his first spell. My Knight and Greatswords saw off one unit, and the flagellants cut down the bone giant and it was quickly all over.

Mike made some tweaks to his army list and we lined up for a second game.

This time again the Tomb Kings struggled. Again their magic was ineffective, the way they use magic will need some closer examination. On one flank their cavalry was successful in grinding down the knights, and then the Greatswords, thanks to presence of a later of khaine giving them bucket loads of attacks. A double 1 meant the Bone giant rolled the only score that stopped its charge, so was again attacked by the flagellants and crushed. The frenzy, re-rolls, extra strength from the flails, and now an extra rank, really make them very tough troops in the first round of a melee. In the centre the halberdier block fought its way through and again the Empire claimed victory.

The change in the magic rules made it very tough for the Tomb Kings, with an average winds of magic roll I had enough dispel dice to stop almost all of their magic, preventing that unearthly vigour that usually makes the difference for undead, combined with the reduction in the effect of fear made it difficult for them. Time to visit the forums and get some advice before the next game.

Warlords Doubles Tornemant 13th June

I, and a very sleepy Luke, just off a night shift, headed down to Wargames heaven in Brighton to participate in Warhammer double tournament, and to meet up with the lads from Pompey. AS we needed painted figures, Luke used his dwarves and I finished off my bright wizard to add to my empire. With a force built around fire-power, we were not going to do amazingly, but avoiding any serious defeats was our aim.

Game 1: Vs. Double Daemons 835 to 1172, minor defeat
Our first game was against a combined Daemon army, led by two Khornate heralds on Juggers supported by a horde of fleshhounds. We managed to shoot off most of the fleshhounds and take the charge on our toughest units, but even so there was nothing we could do to stop the combined might of the two heralds. We did stop the flank attack from the fiends of Slaanesh, but with the rest of the army hiding outside our gun line there was little we could do to score any more victory points.

Games 2: Vs. Dark Elf & Skavern 1090 to 825, minor victory
Our second game combined the shooting of a Dark Elf army with the numbers of a Skavern army. It was a vicious close game, but the highlight was the Hydra charging the steam tank, failing to hurt it and fleeing, only to be run down by it the following turn!

Game 3: Vs. Dark Elf & Orc 1046 to 1088, draw
The third game was against an army not dissimilar to the previous one we had faced, although the Orcs had slightly less numbers and more combat prowess than the Skavern. Again it was a tight close game that was highly enjoyable.

Game 4: Vs. Double Skavern 330 to 1697, massacred
Our last game was the least enjoyable, and very one sided. However this should not take anything away from our jovial and likable opponents. Unlike some armies present they had a fairly balanced army. However we made the mistake of letting them go first, and then, when they unveiled their Storm Banner to prevent us shooting, it was almost all over. The fact we failed our rolls to fire our cannon and the steam tank did not help. Nor did the fact that once the steam tank took some slight damage, I could roll nothing but 6's for the steam points so it just took more damage and did nothing. The only highlight was that we almost killed the plague furnace, by cleverly running away from it into a wood. It was stuck with just 1 wound left, but there was nothing left to finish it off.

We finished a lowly 12th, but most disappointing was that we picked up no most sporting awards. I suspect there may have been some partisan scoring going on here as one thing Luke and I always pride ourselves on is that we play games in a friendly manner and try to have fun first, with victory second.

Club Night 19th February

Finally got round to trying out the new Beastman army against Duncan's Empire. At 2,100 points I got to use a bit of everything and see how it all worked, while Duncan used a fairly typical army of his with some big infantry blocks, artillery, a small unit of knights and a Steam Tank and War Altar.
The Empire took the first turn and manoeuvred into position. The gun line then opened up. A mixed blessing as the Volley gun immediately misfired and destroyed itself, but not before unleashing 30 shots at the Bestigors who lost over half their number. In the Beastman first turn the horde surged forward, ready to charge the next turn. In the magic phase the lore of wilds was negated by a dispel scroll and the use of Steed of Shadows on my general also stopped. Duncan clearly suspected there was a reason I wanted to hurl my Beastlord in to combat
Duncan then charged the Minotaurs with his knights and continued to finish the deployment of the rest of his army. His fire was hampered by my use of the Chalice of Dark Rain, but in the combat things went badly for me. The Minotaurs underperformed and were ridden down by the Empire knights. In retaliation I charged the pistolliers with my Centigors and moved the rest of the army forward. My level 2 Shaman had been contacted by the knight so I tried to use Steed of Shadows to get him out of danger but Duncan was having none of it and dispelled it, leaving him to be cut down. Fortunately my Centigors managed to cut down their opponents and overrun to a spot behind the knights.

After another salvo of fire from the Empire the Steam tank charged the Bestigors, now led by the Beastlord. Despite the loss of all the Bestigiors, I revealed my Stonecrusher mace and inflicted heavy wounds on the tank, and rolled an insane Bravery for my General to keep him in the fight. In retaliation I launched my charges, Chariots impacting along the line, but unfortunately held everywhere. By weight of number on my left, and by the insane bravado of the flagellants on the right. In the centre my Beastlord finished off the steam tank, while on my left the chariot broke and was run down, opening up a unit of Gors to be charged by the swordsman, free-company and war altar. Ont eh right the other Gors got in against the handgunners, but the chariots where destroyed by a flank charge from the spearman, despite finally finishing off the flagellants. On the other flank the knights had destroyed the Centigors and turned around to return to the fray on the centre.

The finally play was as the Beastlord charged the Grand Theogenist on his War Altar. Once again using his Stonecrusher mace he destroyed the War Altar and dodge the return blow from the Mace of Helstrom. In the next turn the Beastlord again stuck first, and landed all 4 attacks on his target, now no longer protected by the power of the War Altar. But disaster struck, only 1 wound was inflicted (despite only needing 2+ to wound), and the return below hit home and crushed the mighty Beastlord.

A victory for the Empire, but still some practice needed with the Beastman and they are definitely a more competitive army than they have been for some time.

Warlords Double Tournemant 11th October

On Sunday I headed down to the new shop in Brighton, Wargames Heaven, for Brighton warlords annual doubles tournament. This will be my third year attending, but the first year it has been held in the shop. Located in the Imperial Arcade where many years ago a toy shop used to be. It has a varied stock of products, mostly GW and FOW, but also some Perry and Warlords games as well as other bits and pieces. They also have the full range of Vallejo paints, including model air which I will be getting from there in the future. But this Sunday it was up in the gaming area with Matt as my partner and ready to play some Warhammer.

Our army is pictured here, from left to right, 20 High Elf spearmen, 10 High Elf archers, 5 Dragon Knights, an elven noble with battle standard, Warrior Priest of Sigmar, 5 Empire Knight, 15 Greatswords with detachments of 5 archers and 6 halberdiers, 10 Empire swordsman, 10 handgunners.

Game 1 matched against Grant and Vaughan with Chaos and Dark Elves. This army was a proper tournament list, with the main elements being a frenzied Khornate lord on a massive jugger with the helm of many eyes and the blasphemous amulet, a dark elf noble on a chariot with a 1+ save and the crimson death and a war hydra. And we lost! My knight charged the hydra and won, but it passed its break test and then eat the survivors, the dragon knights charged the chaos knights and the Khornate hero. Despite my use of Van hostmens speculum with my Warrior priest I was slain and our Battle Banner only added 1 to our combat resolution, so we broke and where run down. After that it was just a matter of time. 126vps vs 2497vp meant we were massacred.

Game 2 was against Rik and Jamie with their double chaos army (spotting a chaos theme here, was definitely the army that featured most, followed by dark elves). It stated bad from the off-set, they got the 11 roll on the eye of the gods for their chosen, upped to 12, giving them a 4+ Ward save going up to 3+ with their mark of Tzeentch. By the time the war shrine had given them +1 attack in addition to their banner of rage meant this was an awesome unit we wre going to struggle to take. Under that is exactly what we did, after the dragon princes had fled from a terror causing unit they where trying to charge, and my knights bounced from the uber chosen of doom it was just a case of adding up points. 192vps to 2497vps and we had been massacred again.

Game 3 followed a lunch break where Matt and I reconsidered our plans! We came up against Steve with a pure Orc army, not a gobbo in sight! He was paired with his brother Tony using a beast army made up of Fimir models. This army was quite unique looking and a really beautiful idea. This time Matt and I continued with our usual plan of the infantry in the centre and the cavalry on the flanks, but placed both our heroes in the greatswords to make a really tough unit. And it worked, my knights took out the minotaurs and a herd. Although the dragon knights got caught by the chariot after killing the bestigors, the spearmen behind them took it out, while the greatswords and the heroes munched their way through the Orcs in the centre. With 2395vps scored against 468vps we had finally managed not only to not get massacred, but to inflict one of our own.

Game 4 was against Dan with High elves and Chris with Wood elves. White lines of chrace and a tree man where going to cause us some problems, but again our heroes joined the greatswords and we began our advance. The Dragon knights gain where not successful, but they draw a great deal of bow fire that could have been directed elsewhere. My knights took out the dryads and overran them. In the centre the hochland long rifle and my archers kept a continual fire in the general direction of the elf mage and kept her ducking for cover. A slight mistake from Chris' tree signing moved the wood with its white lion contents to a position where we could charge ti in the flank with our greatswords which after a few turns against the stubborn lions finally broke them. To finish off the game despite the use of two dispel scrolls to stop my prayers of sigmar int he final turn i got off my first and only prayer of the day and used soulfire on the wood elf archers. After the best game of the day we totted up the point and we had narrowly lost and had so much fun I didn't write down the scores!

Although Matt and I didn't place as we expected after our first two games we had a good day and where the only one of our three teams not to win a prize. Rik and Jamie got best army
and Chris and Pete look very disinterested as they only place 3rd!