...again to Warhammer

The Ghoul Factory

2010-07-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

My least favorite part of Warhammer, and war gaming in general, is assembling miniatures. I really, really dislike it. However, until assembly is complete no games can be played. I received my first order for my new Vampire Counts army the other day, and finally had sometime to start assembling Ghouls during the kid's naps today. I have 10 do, and 29 more in process. I figure I should have my batch of 120 Ghouls assembled up sometime in the middle of next week. They go together pretty easy, although the arms can be a bit of a pain in the butt.

A few picture of progress thus far:

Bodies and legs

Waiting for bodies

Updated Vampire Counts Army List

2010-07-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

My order arrives tomorrow. After much fiddling, this is the army I have decided to build. Very excited to get assembling ans see how this army plays.

I am not 100% decided on the lores for my two main casters yet. The caster lord will likely take either Beasts(very fitting) or Light (completely wrong but oh so useful). The regular vamp caster will either stick with the Vampire lore or use Death. That is something I will need to play around with.

3000 Point List

Vampire Lord (Sword of Strife, Armour of Destiny, Ironcurse Icon, Red Fury, Infinite Hatred)

Vampire Lord (Charmed Shield, Helm of Commandment, Forbidden Lore, Master of the Black Arts)

Vampire (Sword of Anti Heroes, Nightshroud, Ghoulkin, Infinite Hatred)

The Ghoul King (Wight King using Strigoi model) (BSB, The Flag of Blood Keep)

Vampire (Beserker Sword, Flayed Hauberk, Luckstone, Forbidden Lore, Summon Ghouls)

37 Crypt Ghouls + Ghast (Combat Lord and BSB go here - Horde Formation)

28 Crypt Ghouls + Ghast (Combat Vamp Goes Here)

Corpse Cart (stays in 6" of above units)

28 Crypt Ghouls + Ghast (Caster Vamp Goes Here)

20 Crypt Ghouls + Ghast (Caster Lord Goes Here - Behind Horde)

4 Cairn Wraiths + Banshee

2 x Varghulf

Vampire Counts (and other) FAQ's updated

2010-07-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

GW has issued a new update to the recent FAQ's that were released for 8th edition. There are a couple of changes, but the most important one for Vampire Counts players is the addition of:

"Break tests

Change to “All Undead units have the Unbreakable and

Unstable special rules.”"

The big change here is that in 7th edition ward saves and regeneration could be used against these "crumble" wounds. In 8th the Unstable rule (BRB 78) states that no saves are allowed. What I find most interesting about this FAQ is that it does not specify what part of the Break Tests section to replace with this new wording. I wonder what happens to the part in the VC army book about each undead unit in the combat suffering the wounds?

There is a link to the page with all of the FAQ's in the sidebar.

Army Builder Files

2010-07-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

Very happy to see that a couple of people have been working on updating the Army Builder files to 8th edition. They have done a ton of work already, but I am sure they have tons more to do. The files are very usable now, even just with the percentages and magic item updates. Huge thanks to Silks, karlhunt and any others on Warseer and elsewhere who have worked on these files.

You can find the details, discussion and downloads in this thread on Warseer.

BRB in the house

2010-07-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

Montags got the 8th edition rule books in today, and I stopped by to pick mine up. I had seen the book before, but you really cannot appreciate just how massive it is until you carry it around a bit. Quite happy to have the book now as I was getting tired of looking up rule snippets in online forums.

I recorded a short video of the book, and included a quick trip to the baby scale. At 512 pages and more than 4 lbs it is quite a lot of book.

Bases, Movement Trays and Flock

2010-07-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

I always regretted not doing a better job with my basing in my previous WFB armies. I decided that I wanted to make this new army very consistent with my basing, and extend that out to my movement trays. Nice bases go a long way towards making the army complete. Along with nice bases I wanted strong magnets so that this painted army can sit out in my game room and travel short distances inside of the magnetized movement trays.

After looking around, and doing some reading, I decided to purchase bases, magnets and flocking materials from Gale Force Nine. I ordered movement trays based on my current army list design. I think I am pretty well settled on unit sizes and types, and the trays are pretty standard size anyway. I did order one of the new GF9 horde trays for my Ghoul horde.

Sample from Gale Force Nine Site

After looking at the various basing options I went with the Parched Pasture basing kit. I have always done very simple bases in the past, so I am looking forward to a nice layered effect. This looks like it will provide a suitably Vampire Counts looking base.

Buying bases and movement trays for everything is quite a bit more expensive than other options, but I am hopeful that it will make for a nicer overall army. I am ordering the first miniatures for my army tomorrow, and will be getting started towards building the first 1000 points next week.

8E Vampire Counts Army Thoughts

2010-07-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

Updated: I keep messing with the list!!

As of right this moment I am leaning heavily towards a Vampire Counts army. I used to play VC, and still have some miniatures. I would love to try something new like Skaven, but I always found VC to paint up easily which will be nice. I picked up a copy of the army book yesterday and have been reading through it. Lot's of little (and big) changes from what I remember in 6th edition. I like some of the new plastic models that are available, especially the Tomb Guard, Corpse Cart and Ghouls. With that in mind I set out to build an army to take advantage of them.

I am building to 3000 points because there is a lot of talk online of games being played at that level, and I like the options. I should not have a problem cutting it down to 2500 or so as needed. This list comes out to 3000 exactly, and I will likely rethink powers/items for the vamps. Just added some for points purposes. I plan to use the Strigoi miniatures for all the vamps. The grave guard are not 100% in holding with the theme, but I felt like I needed something with an armor save and some hitting power.

Unit 1

1 Vampire (
Talisman of Protection,
Avatar of Death, S
ummon Creatures of the Night,
Summon Ghouls)

23 Crypt Ghouls (Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead)
1 Crypt Ghast

Unit 2

1 Vampire Lord (
Blood Drinker,
The Flayed Hauberk,
Crown of the Damned,
Infinite Hatred,
Red Fury,
Walking Death)

1 Wight King (BSB, S
word of Kings,
Nightshroud)

47 Crypt Ghouls (Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead)
1 Crypt Ghast

Unit 3
1 Vampire (
Sword of Battle,
The Cadaverous Cuirass,
Ghoulkin,
Summon Ghouls)

23 Crypt Ghouls (Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead)
1 Crypt Ghast

Unit 4
14 Crypt Ghouls (Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead)
1 Crypt Ghast

Unit 5
14 Crypt Ghouls (Causes Fear; Poisoned Attacks; Undead)
1 Crypt Ghast

Unit 6
1 Corpse Cart (Balefire)

Unit 7
1 Corpse Cart (Balefire)

Unit 8
1 Vampire (
Spectral Form)

2 Cairn Wraiths (Great Weapon; Causes Terror; Ethereal; Skirmishers; Undead)
1 Tomb Banshee (Causes Terror; Ethereal; Undead)

Unit 9
1 Black Coach (Causes Terror; Chariot)

Unit 10
1 Varghulf (Vampire; Causes Terror; Hatred; Regenerate; Undead)

Unit 11
4 Fell Bats (Flyer; Undead)

Unit 12
10 Dire Wolves (Fast Cavalry; Undead)

... again to Warhammer

2010-07-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

In August of 1999 I endeavored to keep a promise I made to my wife of just two months to quit smoking. I came up with this idea that I would "allow" myself to buy into the very expensive hobby of miniatures war gaming if I quit. I had been considering it for a while, and then one day I drove to Horizon Games in Clear Lake. I threw my lighter and what remained of my pack of cigarettes in the garbage outside the store and went inside. I had already decided I would play Lizardmen, they were in the 5th edition box set, and I came out of the store with the starter box, a Slann Mage Priest, and the magic box. I stopped at the store on the way back home a grabbed a giant bag of sunflower seeds. Between the seeds and a lot of miniatures assembly/painting I actually managed to quit on that day.

Over the next 4 - 5 years Warhammer was my primary game. I played at least every weekend, and sometimes more often. I met up with guys at Rice University, we started a Yahoo! group, and started organizing and building the Warhammer community in central Houston. All was good. We started holding tournaments at stores around town, and travelling to the other Texas Indy GT's. I went from one army to 4, and added 40K, Warmaster and Mordhiem to my mix of Games Workshop games.

It was about 2003 when my interest in the game started to diminish though. All of the tournaments meant that games had become far more competitive, and I was honestly just not as good as many of the more competitive players. Games became more about testing out the latest combo for an upcoming tournament than about just playing to have fun. It was no longer like the Saturday mornings over at Rice. In 2004 we moved to Dallas, and I started playing board games with the group up there. Board gaming became my focus and I left Warhammer (and most miniatures gaming) behind.

I have watched the game over the years, and seen the armies brought to tournaments like OwlCon (even played in a tournament at OwlCon a few years ago). It really seemed that the power armies had taken over, I was glad I was not a part of it.

Ever since 8th edition was announced I started thinking that it was time for me to re-examine the game and see if it had anything to offer me. While I still see massive potential for "cheese", I think that some of the changes they have made are meant to address the issues that have. I have heard it said that this edition dumbs down Warhammer. I don't agree. I have always felt that if you wanted a strong tactical game you should be playing something else. Many of the fiddly rules and restrictions didn't make the game more tactical, just more fiddly and argument prone. *th edition seems to have worked many of these things out (mostly with movement). I think they have made a game that is cleaner and should be more straight forward and fun to play.

Because of this feeling I have decided that it is time to play again. This blog is going to be about my journey back into the game. My army, my assembly and painting, my wins and losses. If you are a Warhammer Fantasy Battles player there should be something of interest her for you.