A much needed update!

So first off apologies for taking so long to get a new post up. It's been over a month now since my last post which is pretty disgraceful really. The problem, as always, has been time. Anyone who regularly keeps up to date with my blog will know I like long posts (well that's how they all seem to end up anyway). As you can imagine these posts can therefore take a while to write 2 to 3 hours usually, and while I enjoy writing them, it can feel a bit too much like procrastination writing them. As the deadline for the Weymouth Waaagh approached it dawned on me just how much painting I had yet to do. So it seemed to me to be a much better use of my time to spend that 2 to 3 hours I would have spent writing posts to paint instead. At the time of my last post I still had 20 Saurus, 10 Temple Guard, a Salamander, 2 Scar Vets and possibly some Skinks left to paint. Plus I still had to buy a Slann and some Chameleon Skinks to finish my army and get them painted as well.

Well in case you hadn't figured it out, the fact that I'm writing this now means that yes, I have got my entire army fully painted, complete with movement trays and all fully magnetised. The Weymouth Waaagh Tournament is this weekend so I wanted to get a post done before then to bring everyone up to date, do an overview of my army and how I've found it plays after my practice games. Then I can do another post next week reviewing how I did in the tournament from a blank slate. I'm going to skip the Battle Breakdowns, I've played 13 games since my last post, going through them one at a time is far too much of an uphill struggle. Instead I'm going to go through each of my units one at a time, show some pictures, talk about how they've performed and perhaps throw in some anecdotes . At the end I'll talk about my overall record and perhaps make some predictions for this weekend's tournament. At the least I'll talk about the goals I'm setting myself, being my first tournament I'm obviously not going to win, so instead I'm going to redefine winning, that way I can better judge my success or failure.

So without further delay here is my full and complete 2400pt army:

The Scar-Vet/Old Blood on foot, the Skink priest and one of the Cold One riders don't appear in my Tournament army but I've included them here for the sake of completion.

I'll start with the core, 2 units of 20 Saurus with full command and 2 units of 10 Skink Skirmishers.

Not much different to what you've seen before but now there twice as much. Was a little worried, particularly painting the 2^nd Saurus unit, that I wouldn't get them painted the same. If I look closely at them I can notice the difference but I don't generally and I think unless you're specifically looking for differences no one would notice them. The Skinks have largely been muddled up, so I don't notice any difference. I did go back after painting the 2^nd unit of each of these and dot the eyes. Originally I didn't bother, but after doing it on the first two characters I thought it really brought the models to life. I have to admit that the eyes aren't great on all the models but it doesn't matter in the units particularly, I've always said I'm only really aiming for a good table top standard, but I think dotting the eyes does make a difference.

As far as in game goes, I'm kinda regretting taking spears on my Saurus, I don't have to lose many models before they come irrelevant and they cost 40pts between the two units which is massive when you're doing that final tweaking, and trying to squeeze as much into the army as you can. There have been times when I wished I had the 6+ ward, I still don't think the parry save is that great but every little helps. If the spears didn't cost any extra points I don't think it would be an issue. At the end of the day though I've modelled the Saurus with spears now so there's no going back. Plus I think the models look cooler with spears anyway.

I have toyed with combining the Saurus units into on bigger unit. I like the idea of having 28, 4 ranks of 7, I don't think there's much point in going as far as a horde, plus with spears anyway this unit will be getting 29 attacks. At this point its fairly mute anyway, I wouldn't meet my core requirements if I did this, when I get a Skink/Krox unit then I may make my Saurus unit bigger, but at the moment 2 units of 20 give me a lot of flexibility, I just have to, as always, be careful when picking my targets and generally I have to multi-charge with them where possible.

The Skinks do fairly well, they aren't quite as good as in the smaller games where the large amount of table space meant it was easier to manoeuvre around the opposing enemy. I don't seem to have huge amounts of luck with their poisoned attacks, rarely do I seem to get the average three 6's you'd expect from 20 shots, plus a lot of the time I seem to face armies without ideal targets for their poisoned attacks. Still, you can't underestimate their usefulness, when all else fails they make nice charge blockers, if anything I probably don't have enough of them and I plan to get another 2 units of 10, although due to the comp for this particular tournament I could only include another 9 because of the restriction on the number of shots you can take.

Onto Specials, although I'll leave the Temple Guard until I talk about the Slann. First the Cold One cavalry:

OK so you've seen these before, nothing new to see here. I still only take 7, although for a while I was taking 6, the extra 35pts saved giving me freedom to play around with magic items, but now I've got over that phase I'm back up to 7. I've played around with their banner a bit, I've dropped the gleaming pennant, instead I deploy them near my Slann and get them into combat quickly, meaning stupidity isn't really an issue, although there is still the occasional failure and I do get jittery when they are over in my opponents half, away from the Slann.

I did toy with giving the flaming banner, strength 5 on the charge would make them good monster hunters. Instead, however, I've given them Huanchi's Blessed Totem, which is one use only and gives them an extra D6'' onto their charge range. This item is gold. This item gives them a potential charge range of 25'' and a pretty reliable range of about 20''ish. Often people will place their units within 19'', which is their normal maximum charge, in order to tempt you into attempting a charge. I've not used it in too many games yet, but when I have its worked perfectly and in some of those I'd have to say they've won me the game.

Playing against Tomb Kings my opponent had a unit of 3 Chariots sat between 2 War Sphinx on his deployment line. The range was 19” and I managed it rolling two 6's with just swift stride, so technically I didn't need the banner in this instance, but having the banner gave me the confidence to make the attempt. The Cold Ones easily swept through the chariots taking my opponent completely off guard, they ran amok behind his lines, taking out a catapult, finishing off a large unit of archers, a unit of carrion and finally finishing off a second unit of archers with his Heirophant in it.

In a game against Wood Elves with a river running across the centre of the board, my Cold Ones were getting a beat, sat opposite two units of archers, a smaller one and a larger one with about 20 models and the general with a bow giving him 4 shots with no armour saves. It was that magic bow that really did the damage. With only 3 Cold Ones left I had to act. 22'' (maybe 23'') away from the smaller unit which was slightly further away, but I was worried about the stand and shoot from the lord (waiting a turn wouldn't have helped much as I still had to get across the river which you can't march across). Basically if I didn't try it they would have been dead. So I got two 6's on the basic charge and managed the extra with the help of the banner. Its worth noting if he had any idea that I could charge that distance, he still had a couple of inches he could have moved back. Again he didn't see it coming. The Cold Ones managed to kill the first unit of bowmen in a perfect two rounds, allowing them to reform and charge almost immediately into the second larger unit with the Lord. Against that many I didn't expect to win particularly but hoped they would hold them up long enough for the rest of my army to get there. As it turns out I managed to cause them to flee and my cavalry easily ran them down. Now this didn't win me the game as such, the rest of my army was doing a good enough job of that on its own, but I wouldn't have won by such a comfortable margin if the Cold Ones hadn't made the charge. For a start the Cold Ones would have died giving him another 300 odd points plus there was a unit of Saurus also suffering under fire from those two units which would have likely been destroyed and the rest of my army was too far away to get to these units without suffering massive casualties themselves.

So yeah my Cold Ones have definitely proven their worth. Admittedly there are just as many games when the unit seems to get taken off easily enough, but I don't rely on them, its just nice when they work. They are expensive however, and I still think they will probably be one of the first things I drop if I get new units as like I say they aren't essential. I had toyed with swapping them out for a Steg as they are similar points, but money and time won that argument, although I will be adding some at some point.

Next are some Chameleon Skinks:

I'm not sure if I like how I've painted these, I have to admit that I wasn't sure how I wanted to paint them. I decided to go for a more natural tone, as my army as a whole is pretty bright. They also have a lot more little lizards tied to their body. Presumably this is where they get their poisons from. So I started painting these different colours and for a while I seemed to find more and more of these things. It started to look a little silly as I had painted them pretty bright and with about 4 or 5 different colours. In the end I dulled down the colours of them so it didn't look so bad. Like I say I'm not so happy with them over all, but not so much that I can be bothered to re-do them. We'll see what I feel like if I get another unit of them, then I may strip them and paint both units together.

As far as how they do in battle goes, well I need more practice with them I think, particularly when it comes to deployment with their scout special rule. Again I feel like I need more to get them to work as one unit is too easy to deal with. Luckily they are a low cost unit so its not so much of a loss if I lose them. Those rare times an opponent leaves an opening behind his lines for me to deploy them in they become handy as a distraction if nothing else as your opponent diverts a unit to deal with them. Obviously this is better against some armies than others, against the Tomb Kings they only diverted a unit of 5 horse archers (as a side note my Chameleons caused 5 wounds and a catapult but still couldn't kill it as the wounds kept getting magicked back) but in another game they diverted a small unit of marauders with a Chaos Sorcerer in, which I thought was a little over kill, but then I guess if I fled and rallied from him he could have used magic missiles on me.

But yeah the distraction seems the best use, they've not really taken much out themselves, but like I say this is one unit I could use more practice with, especially as they tend to die pretty early so I don't get much use out of them.

Rares. Two units of Single Salamanders with an extra handler in each:

You've already seen one of these and to be honest the second isn't all that different painting wise. I do have to admit I didn't paint the second one until after I had painted the second block of Saurus, at which point I had already brought the rest of the models for my army. So much of not buying new models till the old ones are painted. I got panicked a little by the approaching deadline of the tournament and realised I needed to practice with the full army. But I guess that's a lot of excuses really.

These guys are still gold. Unfortunately a lot of opponents know this and do what they can to deal with them quickly. Also they suffer from the same problem as my Skinks in this size game as there isn't as much room to manoeuvre and run rings around the enemy like I did in the smaller games. But then I guess they are just better against some armies than others, and I suppose I have to hope my opponent doesn't realise quite how much of a threat they are. I have to admit that I can be a little gun-ho with them, they ideally need to range ahead of the main army to get some shots in before lines meet. I guess they do better when I'm taking a more aggressive stance, if they advance with the rest of my army the opponent has more threats to deal with, if I'm being more defensive advancing these alone can leave them exposed. Still by keeping them in units of one its not a massive loss when I do lose them.

On to Characters. Heroes First:

I wont talk about the Scar vet on foot or priest as I've not used them in my 2400pt games. But the two mounted Scar Vets are solid additions to the list:

Both of these are awesome. When I first included them I have to admit I wasn't sure how to use them or what purpose they would serve. But with the internets and podcasts like HeelanHammer raving about them I thought I'd give them a go, and I've not looked back. They both have 1+ armour saves, one is re-roll-able, one has 5+ ward, with T5 they can take a lot of damage. One is armed with a great weapon with Venom of firefly frog making his attacks magical and poisoned and the other has the Burning blade of Chotec, giving him flaming attacks and an extra -2 to armour saves.

The beauty of these two is their versatility. They can tank small units pretty well by themselves, do decent damage to large targets, add extra punch to a unit. Sometimes I have them running around by themselves, or in Saurus units or the Cold Ones. Together they've decimated a unit of 6 Treekin, one tanked and finally destroyed a Hellcannon, one took out a unit of Tomb King Chariots by himself, they make good war machine hunters should the opportunity present itself.

Their biggest weakness is that they only have 2 wounds, so you don't need to get many attacks past their defences to finish them off. The beauty of it is though they are only 160pts so its not the end of the world if you lose them. You may have noticed that I've said that a lot, but that's what I like about this army, there's nothing in my army so expensive or fundamental that in isolation I don't mind losing.

That is until we get to my final unit:

Yep this is the big one. 1070 victory points up for grabs in this unit alone. 490 for the Slann, plus 100 for being the General, 100 for being the Battle Standard Bearer and 380pts for the Temple Guard including capturing their standard as well. This has taken some getting use to. Before getting a Slann I didn't think any part of my army was too important to lose. In my first game I was far too aggressive with this unit and got massacred as a result. It's quite annoying actually that the Slann has to go into the Temple Guard unit, sure it makes the unit stubborn and immune to psychology, and the Slann can hide in the second rank, but the Temple Guard are my best combat unit but often I have to hold them at the back to protect the Slann. Ah well not much use grumbling about what I can't control.

But yeah its amazing how important this unit is. In a game against warriors last week I was winning up until turn six when his block of warriors managed to get the charge against my Slann's Unit (I had tried everything I could to prevent this and so nearly succeed and have since thought of ways I could have prevented it) this turned what could have been a 13-7 into a 13-7 lose. In the game against High elves a last turn Purple Sun turned a 20-0 massacre into an 18-2 win. OK that last one isn't too much to cry about but was annoying as I had only lost one unit at that point and had very much dominated the game.

I've learnt a lot on how to best use the Slann in the magic phase. At first I was attempting to cast a lot of big spells but I've since discovered its more prudent to cast lots of smaller spells. You get the most our of focused rumination that and you're more likely to get a decent number of spells off. I take lore of Light and have started taking lore master for him, it just opens his options so much. When I was just taking the 4 spells I would find only 2 of the spells might be worth casting at any one time, taking all spells really does let me take advantage of having generally a lot of power dice. I did take Sole of Stone for a while for miscast protection but with Cupped hands allowing me to ignore one on a 2+ I've not found that I've needed it much as I don't miscast much and half the miscast results aren't that bad. I take Becalming Cogitation as well for some magic defence forcing one caster within 24'' to discard 6's when casting. This one become less useful as a knowledgeable opponent will keep his important casters out range and its still possible to be within 24'' of the unit put not 24'' of the Slann (which I discovered against Skaven when half my unit got taken off by the 13^th spell turn 1)

I'm enjoying Light magic, it has a nice range of spells and you can get some pretty tasty combos off. A Warsphinx managed to charge my Temple Guard. I managed to get Speed of Light off giving me WS and I 10. Most units will be hitting me on 5's with this spell but I also got Pha's protection off meaning I was being hit on 6's. This combination of spells allowed me to survive long enough to get the 6's I needed to kill the beast. Speed of Light is easily the best spell in my book as it has both offensive and defensive qualities, you hit the enemy easier and its harder for them to hit you. Also the high initiative is the best defence for the Lizards against spells such as Purple Sun which require an Initiative test. Time Warp is nice, Always strike first, +1 A and double movement, and it tends to be the one people are worried about most but I think Speed of Light is better especially when its only a 16+ to cast it on all units within 12.

When this Tournament is over I think I may have a play and try out some other laws just to see what they are like seeing as the Slann has access to all of them.

I'm pretty please about how I've painted my Slann, again I wasn't sure how I'd paint him and there was quite a bit of making it up as I went but I'm happy with how it turned out. I think he's easily my best painted model, which he should be being such a centrepiece to the army. Again I was worried about getting the second half of the Temple Guard painted the same but I'm happy with how they've gone. I need to go back and do the eyes, it was a time issue why I didn't go back over them. You don't notice on the table top though so its not so bad..

Well that's everything, and well it should be as this post is already at 3500 words long. So I just want to end on some final thoughts over all going into this tournament. My record with this army isn't so great. I've played 27 games and only won 11 with one draw. Just taking my last 11 games which are the games at 2400pts and using basically the same army I'm taking to the tournament I've only won 3. However, using the 20-0 system in these games out of a possible 220 points I've gained 95 which is a little under half. I think if I get a little under half the points available at the tournament I'll be happy. If I get less than 15 out of a possible 100 I think I'll be disappointed, and I'll probably be disappointed if I lose all my games. Like I said earlier on there's no chance of me winning but I really hope I'm not bottom. Somewhere near the middle will suite me fine.

Not a hundred percent sure on how the painting scores work. I think every gets 5 points standard, the better armies get 8, with those being considered for best painted a 10. I think you only get less than 5 if you don't meet the required standard. I hope I get an 8, its difficult to say when I'm not sure how its judged, there's only 26 players as far as I'm aware as well so I guess its quite possible not many have put the effort in but who knows.

Next week I'll post a tournament review with a breakdown of my games and what not.

So this post is 4000 words now, so congratulations if you've made it to the end and I've not bored you too much, but then it is quite a milestone for me and it has been a long time since my last post.

Anyway. Till next time.

Battle Breakdown Part 4

So here's the next part of the battle breakdown, hopefully just one more after this and I'll be caught up. I'll leave the preamble to a minimum and get straight down to it

Game 11

This was on the same day I played the Wood Elves this time against Jez and his Bretonnians this time in the Battle Line scenario, still at 1400pts. Can't remember the exact make up of his army something like, 2 units of realm knights of around 6 and 7 models. A unit of Errant Knights, 2 Trebuchet, about 4 small units of peasant archers, A general, Standard bearer and sorceress (I forget what level).

I messed up with my deployment with this one I think. There were some walls and fences in the middle of the board near my deployment. I figured these would make good defensible positions to receive the inevitable charges. Of cause he deployed his Knights on a flank with the intention of simply going round these fences. Pretty obvious really if I had thought about it. This wasn't too bad, but it did mean my Temple Guard struggled to get into the fight and failed a charge at a crucial moment. My Cold Ones managed to get a charge on one of his knight units and then survived a subsequent charge from his other realm unit. In my next turn both my Saurus units charged in. I believe the Saurus was in the front of the unit, but had the temple guard made it, their charge would have been in the flank. My Old blood was also in the Temple Guard unit.

The Temple guard eventually managed to charge but by that time the Errant unit had charged the flank of the Cold Ones and both they and the Saurus had fled by then and I'm pretty sure run down too. Can't remember now if my Temple Guard managed to finish off on unit of Knights, I think they may have run out of time.

My Skinks and Salamanders in the mean time were over on the opposite flank, racing down the board to take care of the Trebs and archers. In the first or second turn the Salamanders fired at a unit of archers. They didn't do many casualties but all casualties require a panic test, and with such poor leadership they ran. However, they didn't quite manage to reach the board edge and rallied. These peasants were the bane of my Sallies and Skinks. My Skinks ignored them and went for a Treb causing a couple of poisoned wounds on it but not killing it. These same peasants then charged the flank of my Skinks! I wasn't expecting that (possibly foolishly). I can't remember now what happened to the Skinks in the end but what I do remember is one of my Salamanders and all the handlers were shot to death. The remaining Salamander took his Monster Reaction test getting the RAAARGH! result giving him hatred and frenzy for the rest of the game. He chewed up the Peasants who by all rights should have been gone turn 2 and went on the finish off the Treb (I believe the other Treb blew up on a miss fire at some point).

This game was a loss, relatively large in Victory Points although it was pretty close and all rested on one big combat in the middle, which was very close and even but eventually went in his favour.

What I learnt: Well I guess take more care with deployment and try to anticipate more what my opponent is likely to do. This wasn't helped by him having so many small units of peasant archers, which basically meant I was putting down my important units before he placed his.

Its worth noting that for my first couple games with the Salamanders (including the next one) I ran my two Salamander packs in one unit. Over the course of these games it quickly became apparent that separating them into two units would be much more useful although I wanted to give them a go like this for a couple of games.

Games 12 & 13

These games were both against the same opponent, Kenny Goddard with his Dark Elves as part of the campaign in Poole, although they took place one week after the other. His army consisted of a level 4 Sorceress with Dark Magic, 3 or 4 units of 10 Crossbowmen, a unit of Spearmen, a unit of Cold One Knights, a Repeater Bolt Thrower and a Hydra.

The first game was battle for the pass so playing lengthways with a short frontage. I wanted to save putting my Temple Guard until last, so they could go after they Hydra (what with having the flaming banner and all). There was some terrain in the middle which effectively divided the battle in half although there was a gap to cross over. My Cold Ones and Salamanders went on the left opposite his Crossbowmen, Bolt Thrower and Spearmen, with his Sorceress in one of the Crossbow units. And my Saurus and Skinks went on the right opposite his Cold Ones, one unit of crossbowmen and Hydra nearer the centre of the board. My Temple Guard set up behind the Cold Ones with the plan to turn right and head towards the Hydra once the Cold Ones had moved ahead.

But then disaster, my Cold Ones fail their Stupidity test (I forgot I had the Gleaming Pennant) and so my Temple Guard were effectively boxed in. My Salamanders advanced anyway which was probably a mistake. As my Cold Ones were so far behind, the Salamanders were a little all on their own and became victim to pretty much all of the Dark Elves magic and shooting and were quickly dispatched (he may have had to shoot them with some things turn 2 but not much). The following turn the Cold Ones failed their Stupidity test again! This time I remembered the gleaming Pennant so re-rolled the test allowing them to move and allowing the Temple Guard to start moving over to the right flank. On the Third turn the Cold Ones once again failed their stupidity test, at this point I am reminded of all the people that have claimed Lizardmen don't need to worry about leadership tests. They did eventually manage to get into combat with the sorceresses unit, however they had suffered so much shooting by this point that they had little effect and a counter charge by the Spearmen block sealed their fate.

Over on the right the Hydra and Cold Ones managed a combined charge on my Saurus block before my Temple Guard could get there to support them and for the first time witnessed how devastating a Hydra can be. I managed to kill a couple of Dark Elf Cavalry (the Skinks had killed one before they got into combat as well I think) but it was the breath weapon in particular that sealed their fate even with my general in the unit. My unit fled and was run down.

I had very little on the board by this time and had done very little damage to the Dark Elves. I did finally manage to charge the Hydra with my Temple Guard who managed to take it out, a small consolation but over all a massive loss to me.

What I've learnt: I would like to blame the loss of this whole battle on stupidity tests, that first failure properly held up my battle line and allowed the enemy to take my army apart piecemeal. However I have to acknowledge my own errors. I probably shouldn't have placed my Temple Guard behind the Cold Ones to start with, I should have remember the Gleaming Pennant (it was the first stupidity test that cost me the most problems) and its the reason I take the item. When I failed the test I probably shouldn't have advanced the Salamanders so much and thus isolating them.

The following week however, in game 13 I got the opportunity for revenge. This time the scenario was meeting engagement. I believe Kenny kept the same army, I made a slight alteration splitting my salamanders into two units. Kenny suggested we played on the 4'x4' table that was available down the club, playing relatively small armies I didn't think this would be too much of a problem but as it turns out I think this may have severely hampered him and cost him the game, which I'll explain in a bit.

I got lucky when rolling to see what units were held back, only my Temple guard didn't start the game on the board. Kenny however had to start without his Hydra, Cold Ones and a unit of Crossbowmen. The reason the small table size cost him I think in this scenario is without his heavy hitters on a bigger table he could have set up further back meaning by the time I got to him his army would have regrouped. This wasn't helped by me getting the first turn, so even though his reinforcements didn't have far to go to get me my units were already on top of his.

My Saurus charged his Spears and with the help of my Cold Ones made short work of them, the Cold Ones running them down. On turn one my Skink Priest managed to cast Comet of Casandora which fell to the table just as his reinforcements arrived, I rolled well for the range, and again because of the table size his units were bunched up meaning all of his units bar a unit of Crossbowmen were hit (including the spears). The damage inflicted wasn't quite so impressive but was definitely helpful. One of my Salamanders was killed quickly by shooting, the other however, managed to line himself right along the line where his reinforcements were entering, causing some good damage to his crossbowmen and Cold Ones.

As my Cold Ones had pursued the Spears unfortunately the were right in the path of the Hydra and his Cold Ones who made short work of my unit. My Saurus block with General at this point were approaching the hill with the Dark Elf Crossbows and Sorceress. Kenny could see the charge coming so tried to move his wizard away to safety where my big block wouldn't fit. In my turn I cheated slightly. My Old Blood left the Saurus unit and charged the Sorceress solo. This was fine and I don't think Kenny was expecting it, the cheating came when I also charged the Saurus into a Crossbow unit. For those that don't know, a Character can charge independently out of a unit, however the unit he was in cannot charge in the same turn. A unit, however, cannot leave a character behind when it charges. I call it a slight cheat because it didn't make much difference, give the choice I was always going to charge the sorceress, the Crossbowmen were more just a bonus at that point. Unsurprisingly my Old Blood made short work of the Sorceress with his 6 Strength 6 attacks.

Kenny threw in the towel at this point, he had his Hydra left (although my Temple Guard were getting close to him and he was facing the wrong way to my units after pursuing the Cold Ones), 2 Cold One Knights, who again were facing the wrong way and miles from my troops, and a smattering of Crossbowmen here and there, all of whom were in positions to be taken out by my units in a turn. I had lost my Cold Ones and a Salamander pack, but I was obviously in the stronger positions and had plenty of turns to mop up the rest of his army. I can't remember now if that was at the start of his turn 3 or 4.

What I learnt: Playing on a 4'x4' table probably isn't a good idea, it has a much bigger effect than you might realise especially when you end up playing a scenario where deployment is a little unusual. Probably the biggest lesson I learnt, however, was...

...revenge is sweet!

Games 14

This week I played another campaign game against Dave and his Dwarfs again (see game 7). I lost that game previously so this was another opportunity for revenge. The scenario was Battle Line and the points 1400 again. His army was similar to last time, although he had bulked out his warriors unit which was deployed as a horde with his general and Battle Standard in. Again he had a unit of Iron Breakers with a Runesmith, a unit of Quarrellers a Bolt Thrower and Gyrocopter .

His deployment, my left to right, Gyrocopter , Iron Breakers, Warrior Horde, Quarrellers and Bolt Thrower. Mine was Salamander, Cold Ones, Temple Guard, Saurus with Old Blood, Salamander. My Skinks were also on the left behind the Cold Ones.

His army held back and waited for me to come to him, which I was happy to do shooting him with magic and Salamanders on the way. My Priest managed to cast chain lightning early one hit almost everyone of his units causing a little damage to each but most importantly killing 5 Iron Breakers. My Salamanders got on each flank and flamed down the length of his line, crucially killing another 5 Iron Breakers and a perfect shot on his Quarrellers killed half his unit and a few warriors. When I got close his Iron Breakers charged my Temple Guard and his warriors charged the Saurus which would have hit the Temple Guard as well. Luckily for me he failed his charge. In my turn, now that his Iron Breakers were out of the way, my Cold ones could charge the flank of the Warriors, with my Saurus charging the front. However, this time the Saurus failed their charge forcing the Cold Ones to go it alone.

The Dwarven Lord made way into contact with the Cold Ones and over two rounds of combat wiped them out effectively by himself. Meanwhile the Temple Guard were fighting the Iron Breakers in a re-match of their fight in the last game. Although my General was in the other unit this time, the Iron Breakers were only half the size they were before due to Salamander fire and magic earlier in the game. The Temple Guards high strength and attacks gave them the advantage on even numbers and eventual took out the Iron Breakers.

My Saurus finally managed to charge the Warriors. I can't remember now who challenged who, but our generals met in combat. I was wondering at this point if he remembered how I was armed from the last time we played. I later asked him and he said he thought I may have changed it. The Dwarf was armed with a great weapon so I went first with my 7 strength 7 attacks (his BSB was in the unit as well remember). I wish I had made a not of how the Dwarf was armed, I killed him easily enough. He definitely had a 1+ save but he wasn't set up as the unkillable Dwarf.

I can't remember exactly what happened next, I think he held for one turn at least, and I may have killed his BSB as well but within 2-3 rounds of combat he ran and I caught him at which point Dave called the game with only a few Crossbowmen, maybe his bolt thrower and the Gyrocopter still left. His Gyrocopter didn't do much by the way, think it killed a Temple Guard and a few Skinks. His Bolt Thrower killed one of my Salamanders. My Skinks tried to poison the Gyrocopter but didn't get quite enough wounds. I had forgotten about the lore attribute for heavens magic which causes an extra D6 Strength 4 hits on any enemy flying unit when another spell is cast on them. I probably would have tried to cast a cheap spell on it just to finish it off.

What I learnt: Not huge amounts I guess, you don't learn as much from a win I find. I should try to remember my lore attribute, its not often it comes up but could be handy. My Salamanders really shone this game, often they miss fire, get shot before they do much or simply miss, but this game I got some cracking shots. I suppose the lesson is more for opponents, you really need to include some small flexible units that can deal with these sorts of things, I'm going to be including more of these types of units as my army grows.

So that's games 11-14 and Part 4 of this battle breakdown done and dusted. Just one more part and 3 more battles to go. After that I want to do an overview of how I felt my army has performed so far and what lessons I'm taking into my 2400 build. After that I want to go into my 2400pt battles a little differently as I start to practice for the Weymouth Waaagh in July.

This post has been another long one, although I guess if you've read this far you don't mind. I'm getting quite a few views on this blog now, and a few followers. I've had a few comments, people saying they like the blog but just want to ask for more comments and criticisms, particularly about the style of blog, are these battle break downs too long winded?, do I need to proof read more (I have to admit I skip the proof reading when my post is this long)? does a lack of pictures detract from the reports (I keep meaning to take pictures, so far I either forget the camera, forget to take pictures, or like in my last game forget to charge the battery)? Does the general overview of the battle work or do you think more detail would be needed (I am admittedly writing some of the reports 5 weeks after they occur without any notes other than who I played, the scenario and whether I won or lost)?

Anyway you can post comments here (anonymously if you don't have an account), message me on Twitter or the various forums I'm on (particularly TWF) as Whispers of Chaos.

Till Next Time

Battle Breakdown Part 3

Its been a few weeks since I've done one of these and its about time I got caught up. Since I wrote part 2 I've added a battle log to the blog. You can find it by scrolling down to the very bottom. It contains a list of every game I've played in 2011. I've left out whether I win or lose until I can write these battle reports, so as you can see I've got some catching up to do. This post is pretty long, longer than I originally expected, so you may want to consider getting yourself a Tea or Coffee before reading, although it is easily broken down into separate battles

Game 8

This was another Campaign game, this time verses Jake with his Warriors of Chaos and was my first experience of having to deal with a death star unit, albeit a mini death star as the points for this game was still only 1200pts. His army consisted of a unit of 10 marauders, a Hellcannon and the rest of his points were in one unit of Warriors of Khorne, with a level 2 Sorcerer with Lore of Nurgle and a Khorne Lord on Juggernaut. The scenario was Battle for the pass, which I've played a few times at this kind of point level now, I don't find it makes a huge difference as the armies are so small, but what makes it interesting is that generally, even when randomising terrain, you tend to set it up with a mind to playing games down the width of the table. So when all of a sudden you're playing length ways, I find the terrain is a little more random and interesting.

Anyway I was using the same 1200pt list I've used for the last couple of games. See previous Battle Breakdowns for details. So his Warriors and my Temple Guard and Saurus unit set up opposite each other. I set up a little further back but not much, I wanted the chance to get some magic off to whittle his unit down, although I know I didn't succeed. My Skinks set up on the left of these two units opposite his Hellcannon, both units near the board edge. There was some impassible terrain in the middle of the board so my Cold Ones set up on the other side of it, his Marauders were set up across from them. I had the first turn, I raced the Skinks as far forward as I could aiming to poison the Hellcannon to death. I figured the Warriors would ignore them, my two Saurus units being the bigger threat. My Coldones advanced likewise on the right flank, the plan was to dispatch of the marauders quickly and turn to face the rear of the warriors as quick as possible. My two Saurus Units remained stationary waiting for the Warriors to come to them.

In his turn Jake declared that he had to charge the Skinks because he was frenzied, I cursed myself for forgetting such a simple rule. Of cause upon checking later I realised he could have taken a leadership check not to charge. As it turned out this worked out better for me. I can't remember if I fled and he caught me or if I stood and he slaughtered me (I may have stood as a flee would have likely taken me off the board), either way he ended up in the perfect position for my Temple Guard to charge him in the front and my Saurus with General to charge in the side. Which is what I did in my turn. He of cause had to challenge which he did with his Khorne Lord and I accepted with my Old Blood. This would be the first real test for my Old Blood. The Khorne Lord stuck first but the Old Bloods defences held firm, T5 2+ save and 4+ ward is a tough nut to crack, although he did manage to get one wound off (I believe I forgot the -1 to hit because of my glittering scales, a mistake I keep repeating). At this point I said I may as well do my Lords attacks in the challenge as it doesn't make any difference and I figured it would be more dramatic (a big mistake which I'll talk about in a minute). Now these were ideal conditions for my Lord, 2 characters in his unit meant the sword of anti heroes provided me with +2S and +2A, giving him 7A at S7. He made pretty short work of the Lord despite a regeneration save.

The rest of the combat was bloody so despite killing his Lord I still lost the combat by one although I passed both my saves. Now here was the mistake, well 2 mistakes, that lost me the game. First off, I forgot to add the +1 combat resolution for charging so the combat would have been a draw. Not that big a deal maybe but consider my first mistake. I took my Old Bloods attacks before his warriors. A Lord on a Juggernaut takes up 4 models worth of space. If we had considered it at the time we could have just taken this into account but we didn't. So 4 extra Khorne warriors, two in base contact and two supporting, that's an additional 8 attacks. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to assume he probably would have caused one less wound if not more and it would have only of taken one less wound for me to have won the combat (assuming I remembered the +1 combat resolution for charging). Now he's only Leadership 8 now his Lord is dead so with a couple of modifiers and no Battle Standard he may have run there and then (I don't think he was steadfast but I can't remember), with a good chance at least one of my units would have caught him. More importantly he would have lost frenzy, and with two units in contact that was about 8 or 9 attacks in the following round that he wouldn't have had.

As it was in the following round his Champion challenged and my Old Blood once again accepted. This turn he wasn't quite so indestructible and managed to cause the two wounds needed to finish him off (If he had had one less attack...ho hum). So the lowly champion succeeded where the Lord could not, you can't help but laugh at stuff like that. At this point now my two units are getting too small to put up much of a fight and soon run, the warriors spend the rest of the game finishing off these two units or chasing after them after they've fled.

Meanwhile the Cold Ones go on a bit of a goose chase. The marauders flee at every charge and move as far away as they can in every movement (we played the whole moving backwards rules completely wrong and he was moving much further than he should have been able). The Hellcannon misfired once or twice and spent a couple of turns running towards the Cold Ones firing at them when able and killing a couple of them. My Cold Ones had the opportunity to charge the Hellcannon at one point instead of the marauders, a much more tempting target for sure. However, this was the turn they failed their stupidity test and so instead move D6” forward, which took the Hellcannon out of arc to charge the following turn and so I continued to pursue the Marauders whom I finally caught and defeated in combat. Instead of pursuing, however, I elected to reform as another opportunity to charge the Hellcannon arose on the final turn, these two units were still locked in combat at the end of the game.

What I learnt: Well a lot about the rules, most of which I've already covered. There's definitely a wider point of not being flippant with the rules like I was with the combat order, assuming I knew better or it didn't matter was hubris that just bit me on the ass in the end. This game also highlighted the importance of looking over the rules after a game and considering what happened, many of these mistakes I didn't realise until many hours after the game, but now I've discovered them and considered the implications on the game I've learnt them all the better now.

Game 9

Once again a campaign game, this time verses The Joe of the Black Sun (checkout their new podcast btw, link on the left of the page) with his High Elves still 1200pts. This time it was watchtower which I've not played since my first game.

Not huge amount to say about this one, suffice to say Sword Masters in the tower are difficult to beat. He started in the tower, my Saurus block moved in turn one and shifted his Sea Guard out. His Sword Masters charged in later and made pretty short work of my Saurus. The tactic I've learnt to use against High Elves, of isolating and picking on the Sword Masters, then dealing with everything else is pretty much nullified by the watchtower scenario. Everyone is too focused on the one point. I tried to get my other units around the tower to assault the sides of the Sword Masters but all his other units were in the way. My Temple Guard with General received a combined charge from a Lion chariot and small unit of Sea Guard. The Temple Guard were wiped out forcing the General to flee, only the chariot pursued and failed to catch. My general rallied and eventually managed to destroy the chariot on turn 6 at which point the game ended with the High Elves occupying the tower and with very little of my own troops still on the board.

Just before the game ended I commented that my General was going to try and charge the tower next turn. Joe flippantly remarked that I didn't stand a chance with 10 Sword Masters directing their attacks against me, I thought there was a slim chance, but more importantly it was my only chance. As it turns out we never got to find out. Considering this later I realised I had a much better chance than even I realised at the time. Now first it has to be said it wasn't the shortest of charge distances so I may not have reach anyway, but if I did I probably would have won combat. For a start in a building only 5 models can direct their attacks against single characters. Because of my high weapon skill, high toughness, 2+ save and 4+ ward statistically the Sword Masters should have only done 0.76 wounds. I can't remember now if he had his wizard in the unit, which would have activated my Sword of Anti Heroes, even if he didn't I statistically should have caused 2.5 wounds winning the combat. And this isn't taking to account that my Skink priest was still alive and may have got a buff or hex off. Sure he was still steadfast but I don't believe he had a standard bearer around. If he had fled he may have found it difficult to shift me. Alas we'll never know what may have happened.

What I learnt: Well this was the main thing I learnt, and has made me think maybe I should have stuck the general in the Saurus unit that attacked the tower in the first place. I think what put me off is what Simon said in my first game while he was teaching me, that I may not want to declare my character as one of the ten as he could declare all his attacks against my character and take him off. That's why I sent him off to do other things. But yeah when the character is as tough as mine, and only 5 models can attack the odds are a lot better. I also learnt that flaming attacks re-roll to wound when attacking buildings, it never came up in this game but Joe pointed it out. A handy bit of information for the future.

Game 10

This game was in a new venue, the Warhammer Club in Dorchester, basically a home built gaming room with a small handful of players, and I have to say its a very nice place to play. The Poole Store is great when you have a couple dozen people, but Paul's gaming room is ideal when there's just a couple of you, its the sort of thing I'm sure all us gamers dream of having one day. The first game was against Paul's Wood Elves, the scenario was battle for the pass and this time we were playing 1400pts.

Yep that's right I had an upgrade. OK if you've read the prior post with the big picture of the Salamander this wont be a surprise to you, but yeah I brought two Salamanders on the night I played Joe. I was going around in circles that night deciding whether or not to buy them, basically deciding if I could afford them. After the game with Joe I thought 'you know what would have been handy dealing with those Sword Masters? Some Salamanders' especially with the whole re-rolling wounds with flaming attacks.

Two Salamanders added 150pts to the total so figured I'd add in a few magic items to round the army to an even points number. I added the flaming banner to the Temple Guard (well everyone's got to have one) and The Gleaming Pennant for the Cold Ones allowing them to re-roll their first failed leadership check. I've found I tend to fail one stupidity test over the course of a game so this 5pt magic item I figured would help mitigate that. I also gave a couple of trinkets to my Skink Priest, the Plaque of Tepok and the Curse-charm of Tepok. This guy obviously has a thing for Tepok. These give him an extra spell (incredibly useful) and can force the enemy to re-roll one miscast roll (might be useful if I ever remember I have it)

Anyway back to this game. Paul had 2 Units of Dryads, 3 units of glade guard one with a level 4(?) Life Sorceress in and a unit of Way Watchers with a noble in which deployed annoyingly behind my army. Oh and he had an Eagle, possibly two I can't remember. My plan was to ignore the Way Watchers and move as swiftly as possible towards the enemy, I figured I could leave them behind. But then turn one and his Way Watchers kill my Skink priest and it suddenly occurs to me I've not really played against a shooty army before and definitely against units with the scout rule so I was sloppy with the placement of my priest, I normally deploy him behind a unit and thus I did here without considering the scouting units. Rookie lesson learnt.

I think it was probably around the time my Skink Priest's head hit the floor that I decided I did need to deal with those Way Watchers, if nothing else there was a reasonable amount of points there. Think I was reluctant to waste a turn reforming but luckily Paul gave me a way out, he placed an Eagle in a position to be charged by my Cold Ones, after slaughtering the feathered creature I combat reformed to face the Way Watchers who died just as easily once I caught them, although the Cold Ones did have trouble getting back to the fight after that.

There's not huge amounts to say about the rest of the battle. It was largely me running forward trying to catch his units while he caused as much damage as he could with magic and shooting. When I did make contact I mostly killed what I touched, although I had some trouble with Dryads. The Salamanders had some pretty good shots at one point taking out half the Mage's unit, although many of these came back through life magic. I did get all excited when I flamed the Dryads, they are flammable after all, only to find of cause that flammable means they take double wounds but they only have one wound anyway. That was disappointing. The game was a win for me anyway, not massive win I don't think but fairly comfortable I think

What I learnt: Well first off be careful where you place wandering priests, especially where there's lots of shooting and scouts involved. Salamanders are really fast, they can easily move round the flanks of units and are best doing that to get better shots anyway, but what's interesting at this point it makes them difficult for the enemy to deal with them and I find it quite amusing to force an enemy to spin in circles. Life is a very common lore, I don't think I've actually faced any other lore from the main book, only army book lores.

OK I was going to write another battle but this post is pretty long as it is, possibly my longest. I'm playing my first 'proper' sized game Tuesday and first time with a Slann. Its only 7 weeks till the Weymouth Waaagh so I figured I needed to get practising with a full army as soon as possible. I've got 7 more battles to write about and I want to try and get these finished soon so I can focus on talking about Tournament preparation in my battle reports.

Till next time

Reinforcements and magnetization

Two posts one day! To be fair its been two weeks since my last post so making it up for a second mini post. I mentioned in my last post that I got some more Lizards so I figured I'd give a quick update as to how I'm doing. I'll carry on with the battle reports in a couple days, I want to get them up to date this week, and in that I'll talk more about my current army composition in that. For now I just want to talk about my new stuff from a hobby perspective:

So just before Easter I got myself two Salamanders:

Part of me has regretted going with the basic blue for my Saurus and Skinks. Part of me was playing it safe by using a GW guide, but after not painting for so long who could blame me. But I do genuinely like the blue scheme. So I've decided to use the other creatures in the army to experiment a bit, and thus we have a yellow Salamander. Now can't claim I came up with this scheme, I did trawl through Google images looking for inspiration and there's a similar scheme in the Lizardmen book...but no guide to follow. I do need to learn to pay more attention to detail though:

The gap in his leg is a little conspicuous. Don't think I noticed it until I started painting, I know it definitely didn't look so bad before and after it was under coated. That leg was fiddly as hell to glue on without gluing your finger to the model, but yeah I should have paid more attention and got it right, or filled in the gap with green stuff. Think I was a little too eager to get this one on the table.

There would have been two here but one was missing a head and I didn't notice until I got home (damn you GW). To be fair to them I rung up my local store as soon as I realised and Owen arranged to get a new one sent to me direct so fair play.

These guys have been awesome by the way. They often get killed as people try to deal with them as quick as they can but when they work they really work. In the last two games alone they really earned their keep. But I'll give you more details on that in a later post.

I've also been doing some experimentation with magnets. I ordered them from Blue Daemon via Total Wargamer (not happy with Total Wargamer, took 3 times longer to get to me than they originally said). The magnets are great but not had so much luck with the flexi sheeting as yet. I've been trying to magnetise the movement trays I've already made and the flexi sheeting just isn't powerful enough to work through the tray. So for now I've done magnet to magnet like so:

Remember my Saurus from my second post?

Each now has a magnet glued underneath in the same position

Ranking them up on the tray, I then let go of magnets underneath the tray so they would fix in the spot they were to be glued. Held the unit up and drew around the magnets, so that they could easily be glues in place. Extreme care was taken to make sure the magnets were the right way round.

So now I can play Warhammer on the ceiling. It's really not difficult to remove the models either, I feel like the magnets are just the right strength. There are a couple of problems with this method mind. First look again at the Saurus unit, you might just be able to see that the unit sits a mm or two above the ground. That's not that much of an issue to be honest, I doubt you'd notice without me pointing it out, even if you see them in the 'flesh'. Second it requires 2 magnets per model. Again not a massive problem but I would have to take real care to ensure the magnets are the right way around. The last problem is the kicker. My Saurus all rank up fine because the magnets are in the same place under all their bases. The Saurus are all on diagonal slot bases, my characters however are on straight slot bases meaning the magnet can not go in the same position.

I've just ordered some steal paper to line the movement trays with, I'm looking forward to seeing how it works. I may have to build all new movement trays with the stuff incorporated in it, but hey I need to build more anyway so that's not that big a deal.

I'm loving the idea of magnetising my units straight into my carrying case, it would make things so much easier. Not sure if the magnets would be strong enough to be able to carry them vertically...everyone I mention this idea to looks at me like I'm insane...but I think I will try it out (maybe not with metal miniatures). If I do I think it may be better using a magnet to magnet bond rather than the sheeting, as it's stronger. We shall see anyway...

Good habits and getting distracted

I'm going to take a quick break from talking about my battles to talk about painting. Not so much how to paint but getting into the habit of painting.

Back in my introduction I talked about how it had been years since I had done any painting and how I've not had a fully painted army since I was a kid. Now already I have about 1300pts of Lizards fully painted and the majority was completed in only a matter of weeks. There are several factors that have contributed to this and I want to talk about them today. Now I don't want to claim that this is the only, or even best way to go about getting a good painting habit but it this here is what's worked for me. Everyone is different, but if like me you have had trouble getting armies painted then you may find some of these tips will work for you

Establishing a painting area

I'd probably consider this one of the most important factors for me. I've never before had a dedicated painting/hobby area, I've always set up temporary areas on desks, coffee or kitchen tables that needed to be used for other things. Either my painting equipment would have to be packed away as soon as I was done, or the painting area would end up sharing space with empty plates, books and coursework. Either way the act of sitting down to do even an hour of painting would involve a hefty amount of tidying or packing/unpacking, and when I say hefty it might not even be that much extra effort but it would generally be enough to discourage me from sitting down to hobby at all.

Now for the first time I have a dedicated painting table:

Now the biggest hurdle here is finding a space in the house to fit a table. I know I would have had trouble in some of my former abodes, but you don't need much space. This table is only 3' by 2'. I basically found a space tucked out of everyone elses way and cut the table down to size in order for it to fit. Having the shelves makes a big difference as well, meaning I can have all of my tools and paints out in front of me and easy to hand. (Keen eyed readers will also notice the Vodka and bottle of JD close to hand also :p). The cook book stand thing is pretty handy as well, at first any notes or guides I was using were just put flat on the table, which not only took up more space but also meant they would usually get wet. The one thing I'm missing is a day light bulb, which I use to use years ago, but they're a little more difficult to get hold of these days for some reason, although admittedly I havn't really looked about all that hard.

Something to listen too

Now this one very much comes down to personal preference. I'm pretty sure everyone must have something to listen to while they're painting, even if it is just the person sat next to you, I don't know anyone who paints in silence. In the past I use to listen to music, which is OK, no real problems with it. The last time I did any painting (2 years ago) I would paint in front of a TV watching a series on DVD...one I had seen before so that it wouldn't distract me too much and would be more like background noise. It didn't go entirely according to plan as I found myself taking frequent breaks as it got to a 'good' part. I think limiting yourself to audio is the best way, as painting is obviously a visual activity and so has to compete with the TV.

What I've found works best is podcasts, specifically Warhammer related podcasts. When I started up painting again I listened to a podcast for the first time, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. What I expected was a bunch of nerds sat around talking how awesome mindrazor is, you know, those gamers who take the game far too seriously. As it happens the people on these podcasts are generally a lot more rounded than I imagined, and even when there are ultra-competitive presenters on the shows they are normally balanced by more hobby and/or fluff centric presenters.

I've put links to my favourite podcasts on the right of my page if anyone is interestred. When I started listening to these I went back and started listening to their shows from around September October last year, basically from not long after 8^th edition came out. It was good to listen to how more experienced gamers were handling 8^th and particularly what tricks they learnt and pitfalls to avoid, as such I found this an incredibly useful tool when it came to learning the rules myself. There are lots of things I like about these podcasts and I wont list them all, needless to say I find them incredibly entertaining and informative.

As far as encouraging me to paint goes 1) I found it encouraging to listen to hobby related material, I found it kept me in the 'Warhammer mindset' and meant my mind didn't wander, and 2) episodes are a couple of hours long. I batch paint and often I'll say to myself, 'I'll get to the end of this coat and then call it a day'. Listening to podcasts I frequently find that I will continue to paint as I want to listen to the rest of the podcast or segment. I think this whole mentality is helped by the fact I only paint when listening to podcasts and I only listen to podcasts when I paint. The two go hand in hand in my mind.

One last note on this point, I've tried listening to Black Library audio books while painting as GW recommends. Admittedly they're great, and again I wasn't sure what to expect but I really like them, however, they tend to be fairly short, only an hour long. Now they're nice for a change but they're not very good if you plane to spend the better half of a day painting.

Having a goal

Now this doesn't have to be too rigid or too big. In fact I tend to have several goals at a number of levels as far as painting goes and I've touched on this before. The first is part of the overall philosophy I'm trying to implement as I've talked about previously i.e. not to buy new miniatures until the old ones are painted. I've also signed up for a tournament, the Weymouth Waaagh which is being held in July. Therefore I need to get a legal army painted by that time. Although I've only just signed up for this a couple weeks ago, I had this in mind from the start of the project, but didn't want to commit to it as I wasn't sure if I would be able to meet the target.

These are my overarching goals, I don't tend to break them down too much, for example I don't say to myself 'I will get this Saurus unit painted in the first week of April and these Skinks in the second' or anything like that, although I have sometimes made the extra effort to get models painted by our Thursday games night. The most common goals I set are more on the micro level, such as 'I will get the gold finished on these models before I go to bed' or 'I'll get the next layer of skin painted on these models before I have my next cigarette'. These types of goals I find the most important and ensure a unit gets done.

Regular gaming

This is quite a simple one really. Not only am I trying to get an army fully completed but I'm also trying to learn how to use it and learn how 8^th works, as such I'm making sure I go down to the weekly games night and get at least one game of Warhammer in each week. The added benefit of this is I'm finding putting my unpainted miniatures out onto the table is another incentive to get them finished. Now a lot of people don't mind unpainted miniatures, and its never bothered me too much in the past but now I have most of the army painted the unpainted models are really bugging me.

Getting Distracted

I have to admit my paint regimen has slackened somewhat of late and it all began when I ran out of Lizards to paint. I got through them much quicker than I expected and when I was done I realised I couldn't afford to buy any more for a while. So in an attempt to keep in the painting habit I decided I would get started on painting on of my 40k armies. The problem was which one. I've also been distracted by playing Bloodbowl and Battlefleet Gothic alongside my Warhammer games. If you look again at the pictures of my work table you will notice Hormagaunts, Chaos Gothic ships, a painting guide for Deathwing and a chopped up Carnifex which is a work in progress of a Hive fleet I decided to build.

(One of the Tyranid Cruisers from the fleet I've been working on)

I also assembled, under-coated and base-coated a Word Bearers army. Without any Lizards to focus on I've found it very difficult to decide what else to focus on and as such have just constantly fluttered between project to project. 40K was particularly difficult to decide on as it soon became apparent that whatever I did finish I wouldn't be likely to use for quite a while, so this goes back to the whole point on setting goals and regular gaming. I did get one of my Chaos Ships painted in Word Bearers colours, but again I only played a couple games of Gothic so I've not been incentivised to get more done.

The main downside to this whole affair is that I've found other things to do with my time. When I was painting my Lizards every spare moment was spent painting. When I didn't know what else to paint I found myself playing computer games more for example and now I have more Lizards again I struggle to find myself painting in that 24/7 mentality again. But then that's not necessarily a bad thing and I definitely should not try to force myself to paint that much and instead let it come naturally. I will let you know how I get on.

Battle Breakdown Part 2

This is Part 2 of my Battle Breakdown. Sorry for the lack of pictures. Once I've got these initial reports written I'll try to give reports one at a time with a bit more detail, then I'll be sure to include pictures with the reports. Its worth bearing in mind that some of these battles occurred weeks ago and as my memory is a little hazy this is more of a report on the highlights and what I took away from these battles rather than any in depth analysis.

Games 5 & 6

Both of these games took place on the same games night and against the same opponent with High Elves. Not many turned up for the campaign so we never did a campaign turn on the map (a recurring theme in this campaign) however even when this has happened I have been able to get a game in against someone in the campaign and this is what happened here. So this was at the new points level of 1200 points, the first try with my upgraded characters. His army consisted of a unit of 20 or so Sword Masters, 20 Spearmen, 2 units of 10 sea guard a level 2 Mage and a Bolt Thrower if I remember correctly. He combined the Sea Guard into one unit for the second game. The first battle was Battle line scenario and the second was meeting engagement.

Not huge amounts to note in these games really, I won both. I managed in both games to gang up on his Sword Masters meaning I could soak up casualties and still hit back hard. I've learnt from my previous games that while Sword Masters hit hard they can't take punishment and crumble easily as long as you can survive those initial blows. In the second game I even managed to lure them into a trap by sacrificing my Skinks. To be fair I was lucky with his charging rolls, but it meant his unit was perfectly placed for a combined front and side charge with my Saurus and Temple Guard. He was pretty unlucky in the second game, my entire army turned up par the meeting engagement rules were as he was a couple of units short

What I learnt Once his Sword Masters were dealt with the rest of his army was pretty easy to mop up, the High Elf core really doesn't have the hitting power or survivability to deal with Saurus'. Having played 4 of my 6 games against High Elves I have a good grasp of how to play against them. Gang up and deal with the elite units and the rest is no problem. In bigger games I may not find this formula so simple.

So how did my new Characters do. Well difficult to say. My Old Blood wasn't attacked once in either game so I never had the chance to test his survivability. I don't believe his Anti Heroes sword came into effect either. To be honest I figured he wouldn't always be of use, he's there to deal with stuff the rest of my army can't and in these battles none of those were present. He didn't die and that’s really his main objective. My Priest was a slightly different story, he's become more useful in every game I've played, but I think that’s more down to me getting use to using magic. Its not that he was spectacular but I found a lvl 1 was pointless where as a lvl 2 actually does something.

Game 7

This was a campaign game, 1200pts, Battle line against Dwarfs. Based on what I've read and heard about Dwarfs in 8^th (remember I was considering collecting them over Lizards) this wasn't exactly an optimised list. Not a Great Weapon or grudge thrower in sight! He had 2 Units of Dwarf Warriors (may have been as few as 15 models a piece I can't remember now), 16 or so Quarrellers, a unit of Iron Breakers (15 or 20 strong, a Bolt Thrower and a Flame Cannon. He had a Lord in one of the warrior units and a Runesmith in the Iron Breakers.

My Cold Ones Set up opposite his Flame Cannon and one unit of Warriors. My Saurus set up in the middle opposite the other unit of Warriors with his Lord in. My General set up in the Temple Guard opposite his Iron Breakers on the right flank (I figured they had the best chance of beating his armour). My Skinks also set up on the far right and his Quarrellers set up between his Lord and Iron Breakers, along with the Bolt Thrower.

On my Left the Cold Ones ran up the board swiftly dispatching his Flame Cannon and over running into his Warriors locked in combat until almost the end of the game. In the centre my Saurus and his Lord with Warriors met head on. The Dwarfs won this combat running down my Saurus. The Dwarfs then reformed and then headed back towards their lines in the direction of the Cold One Cavalry, aiming to charge them in the rear. On my right flank the Temple Guard advanced while the Skinks sped along the flank to make a nuisance of themselves. The Iron Breakers manoeuvred to chase down the Skinks, but their speed meant they could quickly move round the Dwarven flanks and out of their charge arc. The Iron Breakers soon gave up on this idea and turned to face back towards my lines although they had lost a turn in this pointless endeavour.

At this point my Temple Guard and general had a choice, charge the Iron Breakers who were closer and thus the more certain charge, or charge the Quarrellers who would have been more difficult to reach but easier to defeat in combat. I decided on charging the Iron Breakers, I would have seriously screwed my self if I had failed the charge and the same goes if I couldn't finish the Quarrellers quickly before the Iron Breakers could reform and charge my rear. In hindsight it may have been worth a shot, I can't remember the exact distance I needed to roll but I'm certain now I would have finished them quickly. As it was I charged the Iron Breakers and over a turn or two all of the Temple Guard were destroyed and my General fled. He managed to escape and rally, however, and was charged again by the Iron Breakers.

My Skinks meanwhile were at the back of the Dwarven lines. A combination of offensive magic and blowpipes destroyed the bolt thrower. The Quarrellers turned and they and the Skinks exchanged fire for a couple of turns before the Skinks eventually fled. With only one model left they managed to rally on the edge of the board and hide from any further shooting saving me the points.

In the last turn of the game my Cold Ones defeated the Warriors who fled off the board, my choice here now was to follow them off the board, saving the victory points or to reform facing the Lords unit who were by now in an easy charge range. I didn't think there was much chance of winning the combat, I only had 4 or 5 riders left and he had about a dozen Dwarfs plus his Lord. It was the Lord who scared me although he had minimal equipment. I decided to run off the board and save the points, putting my hope in the right flank. Again I kind of regret this decision, although I made the safe choice I was putting all my eggs into one basket in the other combat. Looking back I doubt the warriors would have wiped out the Cold Ones, their 2+ save would have soaked up most of their damage. I may have even won, if I was lucky, each of my models gives out 3 strength 4 attacks needing 4's to hit. If I did lose the unit however, that would have been 300pts and the game. The same goes for him but again I probably wouldn't have wiped him out and I would have been relying on a failed break test, although I would have likely caught him if I had. There were a lot of what ifs and I think I made the right decision, its just one of those situations where I wish I could have seen what happened.

So my last hope was on the right flank, my general verses his Iron Breakers with a Runesmith in the unit. I was actually a little more confidant here than I was when the Temple Guard were alive, remember my Old Blood is built to survive, with toughness 5 a 2+ Save and 4+ Ward, also even though I wasn't in base contact with the Runesmith I still got the benefit for my Sword of the Anti Heroes, meaning I had 6 Attacks at Strength 6 and needing 3's to hit. This combat lasted a few rounds, while the Dwarfs couldn't hurt me the Standard, Rank and Charge bonus meant I lost or drew a couple rounds, largely because my Lord fluffed his dice rolls. But I never lost by much, and with leadership being rolled on 3 dice, I wasn't going anywhere. I slowly whittled him down however, until he lost his rank and could only rely on his standard for combat resolution. He was however steadfast. But on the final combat of the game his unit fled, a mighty 9” which unfortunately was too fast for my Old Blood to catch.

The Dwarfs had won by about 200pts, we checked and the Iron Breakers with the Runesmith were worth around 300pts so if I had caught them that would have swung it for me.

What I learnt: Dwarfs are tough, but so are Saurus so this battle was like two brick walls colliding with each other. Still not sure about the decisions I made but I guess that's always the way when a battle is this close. I need to get my units working in conjunction more, in this battle they were all fighting their own little battles, but its not like the Dwarfs managed to gang up on me. Also worth noting my general does pretty well taking on small units by himself, something to bear in mind.

Game 7's report was a little longer than expected so I'm going to leave it there for now and bring the rest of the reports to you shortly.