Battle for Leichtwasser Pass Part 2

This is part 2 of a battle between Warriors of Chaos and Vampires. Part 1 can be found here.

The pass up until this stage, has all been about movement, and careful planning. The following turns will not be as light!

Chaos Turn 3

This Chaos start with a few charges. The lack of  action grates at them, and they unleash there beastly howls and get stuck in. The trolls charge the skeletons with the Vampire Thrall in the unit. Really wasn't sure how that would go, but was hoping their regen save would help hold them up. The Gorebeast chariot decided to help out the Skullcrushers and get rid of the obvious bait trap. It wipes them out, and I choose to overrun, to get out of the Skullcrushers way, and put some pressure on the Crypt Fiends.

 

Magic again was completely ineffectual. Still at this stage, had not been able to do a single wound with it. The Terrorgheist still there on full wounds. I knew this wasn't going to be good. Into the combat, the vampire does 1 wound and the skeletons none. The trolls however go on a rampage and do enough wounds to help crumble the unit to less than half, as well as put a wound on the vampire thrall. Very unexpected!

Vampire Turn 3

Not to be out done, the Crypt Fiends and Dire Wolves charge my unit of Warriors, and the zombies move up to support. The Terrorgheist moves to eliminate the Gorebeast chariot before it inflicts some real pain. magic wise, I think he raised more skeletons and healed a wound on the vampire thrall. I think that was it for magic though. Shooting, the damned Terrorgheist does 4 wounds to my chariot, but it lives to threaten another day!

Close combat goes well for Chaos. The trolls kill everything but a skeleton champion. The Warriors unit, with the aid of the flaming banner do a few wounds to the Crypt Fiends and a few wounds to the Dire Wolves. I think they lost 1 Warrior in return. I win thus doing a few more wounds.

Chaos Turn 4

You'll notice the absence of the Gorebeast chariot. Well, it was left on 1 wound, so idecided to risk it and charge across the river into the side of the Crypt Fiends. Then I promptly roll a 1 for difficult terrain. The Terrorgeist now is behind my lines, out of sight (again) so I decided to take another risk (as it can get my anywhere now), and just move the Skull Crushers up to threaten his units (just like the Gorebeast).

Magic again does nothing, combat goes well. The skeleton champion gets torn apart, and my unit reforms to threaten the Crypt Fiends. The Warriors again chop down a few wounds suffering very little in return. I elect not to reform, to keep the frontage small. The Crypt Fiends fail their leadership to reform, getting more in.

Vampires Turn 4

The zombies reform to keep my trolls out of the action and potentially tarpitted for the rest of the game. Magic heals up some Crypt Fiends. Shotting, my friend rolls two 6's for the Terrorgheist scream, and in the second game in a row, my Skullcrushers are killed outright. Not looking good at all.

Chaos Turn 5

Not a lot I can do now. I have nothing to stop the Terrorgheist killing my units. The trolls are blocked by the zombies, which I highly doubt I will get through. So they just reform.

Magic again does nothing. Warriors knock some more wounds off the Crypt Fiends. The small frontage and the high resiliency of the Warriors ensures that they are winning, albeit slowly, this battle of attrition.

Vampire Turn 5

 The Terrorgheist fly's behind my lines and the zombies charge the trolls.

Magic happens, and the Master Necromancer finally gets off Hellish vigor.  I had bee stopping that for ages, as poison re-rolls is not nice. The Terrorgheist continues its rampage, rolls high and kills outright 5 Warriors. Close combat arrives, and the trolls obliterate a pile of zombies, but they are in no danger of loosing too many. The Warriors again do a few wounds against the Crypt Fiends, so there are only 2 left.

 Chaos Turn 6

Things are looking dire. Magic again, rears its fickle head and does nothing. The trolls wail on the zombies doing a host of damage (think they got rid of 20 or so models with kills and crumble). The Warriors start to struggle against the Crypt Fiends, due to diminished attacks. 

 Vampire Turn 6

The Terrorgheist, still not satisfied with itself, continues to be a pain in the rear and charges my Warriors in the rear. Magic, he gets off Hellish Vigor again. Shooting, another 5 Warriors are screamed to death. In close combat, the trolls kill another swathe of zombies, but not enough to kill the unit. The Warrior unit, unsurprisingly gets wiped out.

End game turns into a solid win for the Vampire Counts!


Final Thoughts.
I hate Terrorgheists. They really just wreck my day. I knew it was a threat from the begining, but my total lack of magic (not getting anything through) and its ability to fly, meant it became impossible to counter. With it on full wounds for the whole game, the screams just annihilated my best units with ease.

My other units did well, other than the Gorebeast chariot, but I just out that down to it not being painted. My Warriors held well, and the theory behind the flaming banner on them to eliminate the Warpflame special rule, of giving enemy units regen seems sound. The trolls did amazing, wrecking the vampire thrall, skeletons and probably the zombies if time allowed. I do like my trolls.

All in all, a great game, although before the next one, I need to think of a way to counter the Terrorgheist. That thing just ruins me!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Battle for Leichtwasser Pass Part 1

I have another battle from a game recently. Again I was playing the dastardly forces of Chaos and my friend using his cool list of Pirate Vampires led by Luthor Haarkon. This game was smaller than the others, being at 1200pts. I usually don't like these point games for Chaos as they are way to small, but I thought I'd give it a try anyways. Here are the forces!

 Forces of Chaos 1200pts
'Tormentor' Chaos Sorceror (Lv2, Chaos Familiar, Talisman of Protection, Charmed Shield, Mark of Tzeentch)

20 Chaos Warriors (Shields, Full Command, Mark of Tzeentch, Flaming Banner)

6 Chaos Trolls (Additional Hand Weapons)

3 Skullcrushers (Ensorcelled Weapons)

Gorebeast Chariot

No BSB was a risk for me, however being Chaos, mean that I really couldn't afford much when it came to characters. My main thought was two things, I knew he would take a Terrorgheist, and I had to deal with that. I hoped I could try and catch it our with the fast moving units, such as the Skullcrushers, Gorebeast Chariot or the Trolls, and might get lucky and magic it off. Here's hoping.

The second thing I was planning for was the regen. Since a lot of Tzeentch magic has the ability to give the enemy regen, I thought I might mitigate that by putting the flaming banner on my main unit of Warriors. Flip side of this meant that I could not take the Banner of Discipline, and bump my leadership. Hope that doesn't turn round to bite me!

 Haarkon's Reavers 1200pts 
 Master Necromancer (lv4) (in the zombies)

Vampire hero (in the skeletons)

20 Skeletons (Full command)

20 or 30 Zombies

8 Crypt Fiends

6 Dire Wolves

6 Dire Wolves

Terrorgheist

The scene is set and the die is cast. His Dire Wolves vanguard up, and I get first turn. Naturally we rolled Battle for the Pass, with a river flowing down the middle of the table. We have yet to find out what it is.

Chaos Turn 1

 My forces trundle up, not too far as I am acutely aware that the Terrorgheist is the number 1 target. Last few games it has just wiped me out. So cautious movement all round, so it can't get behind my line and call it game. My magic is totally ineffective, considering I rolled a 2 for the winds of magic, I did nothing. That was my very effective turn.

Vampire Turn 1

The pirates are on the move! His units move cautiously up and his Dire Wolves again try and bait my Skullcrushers by being 21" away. Magic wise I think he added some more zombies to his unit, and he might have got a buff off as well. Terrorgheist too far away to scream, so its his turn over. 

Chaos Turn 2

 My turn was very unproductive. Cautious movements all around. Still trying to catch the Terrorgheist. The Warriors and Trolls move carefully forward towards the Vampire lines. Magic, although the winds were kind, I was unable to cast anything or even do a single wound! Some liquid courage eased my burden however.

Vampire Turn 2

This turn we find out why this is called Leichtwasser Pass, the river is a river of light! The Crypt Fiends frolic in the shallows and get rewarded with a Behuna's Timewarp! The Terrorgheist see's this and also goes for a splash, and also gets a Timewarp! The rest of the line moves up, so to speak into the Warriors grill. Magic was not too eventful and no shooting as the Terrorgheist is still out of range.

That concludes part 1. So far, not a lot has happened, just movement shenanigans. magic has also not reaped much. Thankfully also that Terrorgheisthas not don't too much either!

I'll try and put the next part up soon. <Part 2 can be found here>

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Battle of Krap'r Tower

This battle took place a few weeks ago, which uses those lovely GaleForce 9 water features I have already mentioned. This was a 1600 pts Battle line game that took place near Krap'r Tower. One day we wil do that particular scenario, though I am sure you can make a guess as to what it is.

Anyways, I took my Chaos Warriors, as I was in the mood for them recently, that and they are mostly painted. Here is the list I took.

'The Tormentor' Chaos Sorceror Lord (Lv 4, Flaming Breath, Talisman of Endurance, Enchanted Shield, Mark of Tzeentch, Soul Feeder, Sword of Might)

'Astaroth' Exalted Hero (BSB, Talisman of Protection, Mark of Tzeentch, Daemonic Steed, Third eye of Tzeentch, Shield)

20 Warriors of Chaos (Full Command, Mark of Tzeentch, Shields, Banner of Discipline)

5 Warhounds

5 Warhounds

8 Chaos Trolls (Additional Hand Weapons)

3 Skull Crushers (Ensorcelled Weapons)

I like Tzeentch so that's what I took for most of my units, apart from the Skull Crushers of course. I really wanted to try them out again, to see if inspiration would strike me to actually finish painting them, or perhaps they would die horribly.

Here is my friend Cail's Army, themed around Haarkon's Undead Reavers (awesome theme).

'Haarkon' Vampire Hero

Vampire Hero BSB

lv4 Necromancer

20 Skeletons

20 Zombies

20 Zombies

6 Dire Wolves

6 Dire Wolves

8 Crypt Ghouls

Terrorgiest

Not too sure about the equipment, but I'm sure there is some of the usual items for the heroes.

 This shot looking very 'cool'. My general joined the Warriors, and the BSB took his usual home in with the trolls. The water features do look quite nice I think you'll agree. 

 I get turn 1. I declare some charges on the vanguarded Dire Wolves. Considering that its been awhile since I had a game, I charged the trolls into the wolves, intending to overrun past that undead unit (with Haarkon, and vampire BSB), on the right, further into his lines. In hindsight, a very stupid move, and my friend knows it, as he now has it on film.

 The rest of the army looks on. I also foolishly decided not to move the Warriors, which meant I was out of range for my spells. Again, not thinking.

 It may not seem I have moved, but my trolls wiped out the wolves, tried to over run, and ran 2".

 His turn 1, he charges, and kills and runs down my trolls and BSB. I think I 'ran' 4" or something. Terrorgeist looms scary in the middle. Other units shuffle around, his lv4 necromancer with the zombies goes into the tower, and will spend the rest of the game, raising more and more into that tight cramped space.

 My turn 2, the Skullcrushers make a long charge against the zombie unit in the forest, wipe them out and overrun into the side of the Crypt Ghouls. My trolls should have taken lessons. I send in the second unit of warhounds into the centre to help out the last lot. Seriously thinking of upgrading them to Maruader Horse...You'll also notice the absence of the Terrorgeist, who I managed to magic off with Gateway!

 Face off between my main unit and the unit with Haarkon and the vampire BSB. I decide not to charge, in order to cast another lot of spells.

 So in his turn he charges, Rolls okay, does 2 wounds in total, I roll like an idiot, bolstered by the 5+ regen save I gave him (thanks Tzeetch magic), and do hardly anything. I lose by 1 or 2, break and get run down. My Skullcrushers however systematically crush and decimate his unit of Crypt Ghouls.

 That 1 model that I failed to kill in the centre with the warhounds, gets raised to full and put in the way of my remaining Skullcrushers.

I charge, kill the wolves, and overrun into the Haarkon unit. In a desperate gamble, I put all my attacks on Haarkon and manage to take him out! I loose the combat, but pass the check. Game over!

Very clearly a massive win for Cail! Well done!

Post Game Thoughts...
I can't really blame the dice (cept for the Warriors combat), as I really didn't play well, taking stupid chances and then they turned bad real quick. The only redeeming unit in my army was the Skullcrushers. Smashing through 20 Zombies, 8 Crypt Ghouls, 6 Dire Wolves, and Haarkon himself. Not a bad outing for the only unit not painted in my army! Unsurprisingly, they are on my painting table as I type this.

However it was great to get a game, especially with the new water features, and its always great to learn from a loss. Next time Haarkon! Next Time!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Review: GaleForce 9

A friend of mine has been lamenting the fact that we have no water features in our terrain collection. So being the kind and considerate soul that I ma I had a look for what I could do to rectify the situation. Ultimately, due to time constraints I knew I wouldn't be able to make it (despite some excellent tutorials out there), but would have to buy it. There is tons of resin casters out there so I looked there, but they seemed rather expensive. Then I found GaleForce 9. Prepainted terrain peices? Sounds good, although I did question how good is it painted?, or would I simply have to repaint it? Ultimately I gave them a shot, to see what it was like. Here is my result.

 Fully painted sounds great, but I wasn't sure of the quality. Picture looks nice though.

 

Nice info on the back. The dimensions seemed okay, and its nice to have the base sizes represented in the lower left corner. 

 Nice neat polystyrene packaging.

 This I was rather impressed with. Custom cut to fit the exact river sections. Very nice and snug. Awesome for storage.

 The back looked promising as well. Not too hard, a little flexible, and not too rough as to damage the table.

 This I considered a little odd. As I intended this for our gaming table, which is not verdant green, I could live with out this tiny sachet. However I seriously doubt that thing could coat much, let alone three river pieces.

 Not a hope for this to do that.

 Ultimately the final test as putting it together. And as I suspected, there is infinite ways to combine them, even with the other River expansions that they have released.

Overall, very happy with the purchase. I also got River bends, Ponds and River islands I believe. Not too expensive for a ready made river sections that are durable and come pre-painted. Considering that the River sections come pre-painted, very close to my existing table, so much the better.

If I was buying this for a nice green table, I'd admit to being a little irritated by the small sachet of green static grass, but then again, most gamers would have scores of the stuff, let alone if you did a table with it, so not too big an issue. I'm just glad they let you decide what extra flock to put on the sections. Makes it very customisable to anyones table.

So I say if like me, and you were hounded by a Lizardmen player, that wins more than he loses, about the lack of water features so he can use his special rules. This might be worth considering. Then again, you could always tell him to bugger off.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Empire Knights Panther

This has been a very slow month for painting. A lot of things going on at work and unfortunately not the energy to do much when I do get home. On the plus side, I do have holidays in two weeks, so I'm looking forward to getting some more painting done then.

However I have managed to paint something for fun, and that's an old Empire Knights Panther Grand Master. I've got a box of old Empire that a friend gave me when he exited the hobby, and in there is a few Knights Panther, enough even to make a unit. Since for me Knights Panther has always exemplified the Empire for me, ever since the famous John Blanche picture gracing the Empire in Flames old RPG series. So I thought I'd paint some up, if anyting I can use them as allies for my Dwarfs.

I shamelessly copied the colour scheme out of the old 4th/5th Edition Warhammer book. I'm also intending in copying the banner in there as well.

So here he is, ready to wreck ruin.

A lot of fun to paint. I really do like the old Empire Knights, such great detail on the models. I do have a standard and another 4 Knights Panther as well, so I'm slowly working through them.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers!

Ruined tower

Its been a very busy month, but I have finally got something of note to post. Considering most of my armies are painted, and the battle board is painted, it started to irk me that the terrain we were fighting over was the usual ghost grey of the unloved. So I set myself the job of painting some of it.

Here is a ruined watch tower, from GW though it might be OOP, I have no idea. Really cool piece that has seen action in every game we have played. So I thought to give it some of its former glory back and paint it. Here is how I went.

 I saw that the details within suggested it was a wizards tower or wizards outpost at some stage. So i decided to paint the ground relief of the winds of magic the colours they are. There is also a Tzeentch symbol half hidden in the bricked doorway hidden at the back.

 Lovely rusted gate. Also rusted all the metal holds on the side, with nice streaks of rust going down the stones.

 Applied some nice verdigris to the Sigmar symbol, first time I've used the GW technical paint.

 Can't be Warhammer without the sculls. They look good now, but were a pain to paint as always.

Did some OSL for the lit candles. Think it pulled off well.

There we have it! Some finished terrain for our games. Working on somehing different for Fantasy at the moment, and having a great time reading through Nagash. So many dead Special Characters, its amazing!

Till next time.

Cheers!

Hrothgar Dethfist

Hrothgar Dethfist is the Warboss of my Orc army. Key word, Orc army. Ages ago I posted up some of my Orc Big Un's, and have been chipping away at this monstrosity for ages. I've finally finished him off and can present. So far Hrothgar has been played on one battle where he got shot to death my Waywatcher arrows, but you have to expect that considering 'new model syndrome'. I'm hoping my next game with double giant, wyvern list will do a bit better, especially with this guy painted. Or maybe not.

Anyways, here he is.

 I decided to go with a red wyvern as opposed to a green one, just as its a little different, and I thought it might complement the army more considering my army at this stage has red armour. The skin is done in my usual method, a dark army green, black washed and then highlighted with a lighter camo green.

The blood on the axe is my usual method of Tamiya Clear Red acrylic mixed with a little black. Excellent paint to do blood effects. I know GW now have their own, by I have a big stock pile of Tamiya, and have yet to use 1/4 of a bottle. Great stuff.

 The wings took awhile with layered and washed bone colours, highlighting up to off white.

 The banner itself is molded on there this time, so was a little easier to paint. Very convenient that I stuck with the ogre face for my army motive!

The model in all its glory, and yet to reap some. Hopefully soon it think. The mushrooms I think were a nice touch, though in hindsight, I'm not a fan of the gold. Might redo that. Though there is plenty to paint for the time being without going back over things so I shall leave that for now.

Thank again for looking!

Cheers!