Malifaux: UK GT 2012 round up

I thought I'd share some thoughts on the UK GT.  I'm not going to go play by play, just give my overall impression of the event and the five games I played.

The format for the event was five games, fixed faction, with sizes varying from 30SS to 40SS.  Three games were played on Saturday and two on Sunday.  I played Outcasts as my faction, and I ran the Viktorias for all five of my games.

My aim for the tournament was to win 1 game, with my stretch goal being to win 2 games.  I managed to surpass this and actually win 3 games!  On Saturday I managed to get 3 wins in a row which was pretty surprising.  Going into Sunday I was on table 4, but I went on to lose both my games on Sunday.  The final results aren't published yet, but I think I'm somewhere in mid-table which was a good showing for me.

All five games were really good, and I played some masters I've not played before.  I played Ant with Kirai, Chris R with Von Schill, Graham with The Dreamer, Joel with Zoraida and Collodi, and Bram with Ophelia.  All 5 were great games, the one against Joel was the standout one.  It was one of those games where I was having to think hard about every move and it swung in both our favours throughout.  Joel went on to win 5-0 and finish 2nd overall.

The event was an absolute blast, I had a really, really good time.  If you're in any doubt about attending a Malifaux GT or a tournament, then you shouldn't be.  Everyone I played was really nice, and I'd play any of them again in a heartbeat.  The GT was very well run and well organized by Jo and James, and I will definitely be back next year.

Edit:  The final results are up now, and I finished in 24th place of 54 players meaning I just squeaked into the top half of the table.

Malifaux: York Garrison Doubles Tournament

A couple of weeks back, I played in my second Malifaux tournament, this time at my local club and run by And (guildmonkee on the forums), our local henchman.

The format was a 40SS brawl with a shared fate deck.  Each team had to nominate a single Boss master that had to be used in every game but then were free to use any other Brawl compatible master for each game.  The 40SS could be split in whichever way the pair wanted.

My original plan was to play Pandora with Lilleth, but my original partner was unable to make it which left me at a bit of a loss three week before the event.  Fortunately, clubmate Jake was short of a partner and was playing Lady Justice.  The only master I have that was compatible were the Viktorias, so it was decided that would be what we would play.  In the event we pretty much ended up playing a Guild crew with the addition of the Viks.  This was a bonus all round as it meant I could learn about both the Viks and Lady J in one.  The downside of the Viks in Brawls is that they cost 5SS to use.

In the tournament run up, I got in a couple of games with the Viks, taking two wins at 35SS singles vs Colette and Kirai.  We also played one doubles warm up game which we also won against And and Sam.  That game took a long time as And and Sam were running McMourning and Kirai and so had a ton of activations.  Since the tournament was 90 minute rounds, and the game took the best part of three hours, And and Sam decided to switch faction to run guild.



On the day, it was a great turn out.  There were 12 teams in total, from both local and further affield (Harrogate, Norfolk, Manchester, Leceister, Sheffield).

Our games panned out like this...

Tournament game 1 - Shared Treasure Hunt
We knew the draw for game 1 in advance so we knew we were drawn against James and Craig (mythicfox and ukrocky), and so we also knew this would be a tough game as they're both very, very good.  They ran Marcus and Colette.  We had Lady J, the Viks, Von Schill, couple of Witchlings, Nino and something else that I can't recall.
It was a great game, and we came pretty close to getting the treasure at the end.  Colette is so fast, she had the treasure in her hand and was half way back to her deployment zone in the first turn.  Both Viks had a good go at taking her down, forcing several Slow to Die healing flips from her but she slipped away.

The best moment in the game was Sword Vik getting stuck in combat with a Jackalope by failing her disengaging strike.  Sword Vik turned round and hit the Jackalope and got a double severe on the damage for 12 wounds.  Turned out though, they'd taken an unannounced Frame for Murder on the Jackalope...

In the final turn Collete was holding the treasure in her deployment zone with Von Schill bearing down on her, but it closed out an 8-2 loss to us.  We got our 2 points from the Raid scheme.  There's also a brief write up of the game on James' blog at mythicfox.com.


Tournament game 2 - Shared destroy the evidence
We'd dropped to table 5 now, and we were matched with another Harrogate team, this time Adam and Steve (Iron Skies and scurry on the forums).  They took Hoffman and Leviticus, along with Collodi and 8 Marionettes.  We took Lady J, the Viks, Von Schill, Nino, Sam Hopkins and some other bits.  Scheme wise we took Breakthrough, Stake a Claim and First Blood.  This was the only game where we took 3 schemes, figuring First Blood would be easy given Levi would almost certainly be killing the Canine Remains he'd bought with him to get a second Hollow Waif.

I've not played against Collodi before, so we were in for a shock.  First turn, first activation, Collodi activates, companions every marionette, makes them all Fast, and two of them melee experts.  He then dances across the table with his puppets, destroying every evidence counter, and putting a serious hurt on Nino (who'd they'd grudged) and Sam Hopkins (who'd they'd got Kill Protege on).  It was an incredibly impressive move since neither me or Jake had seen it before, and they were very sporting about it.  Collodi had done his job and got 4 VPs straight off, but it had left him within a few inches of Lady J and both Viks so he didn't last any longer than turn 1.

The remainder of the game saw us move across to engage Levi and Hoffman.  We managed to get the drop on Levi about turn 3 or 4.  Von Schill killed him and then we managed to take out the Waifs on the same turn ensuring he couldn't come back.  Hoffman went down as well due to some back luck on their part as they failed to get Protect on him from the Guardian.  Lady J and the Viks went to work, and we cleared the table, acheiving all our schemes and destroying the remaining evidence.

We won 9-6, and we'd achieved our goal of winning a game.


Tournament game 3 - Shared claim jump
This was the last game of the tournament as the fourth game was dropped due to time constraints.  We didn't really struggle with the times but alot of people did, especially people playing Ressurectionists, or with alot of activations.  With dropping the fourth game, it meant this one could be played to a conclusion by everyone.

In this one we played the last of the three Harrogate teams, Ant and Liam (Stryder and Shut Up on the forums).  As with all the Harrogate guys, these guys are great players (Ant is ranked number 1 in the UK).  They played Kirai and McMourning, both with their Avatars.  We went with Lady J, the Viks, Von Schill, Executioner, 3 Witchling Stalkers and Fransico.

The game seemed to be going pretty well early doors.  We got our Kill Protege early on (Sword Vik killed Datsu Ba) and Von Schill managed to Steal Relic from McMourning but subsequently died.  We then consolidated around the claim marker, but of course being Rezzers they'd spent the early turns getting prepped for the manifesting of their avatars.

Turn 4 it went down hill...  McMourning and Kirai both mainfested and ripped us to pieces.  McMourning's "Crawling Doom" ability which gives negative flips when you're near him meant we really struggled to put him and the Simulacrum down.  I think in the end they pretty much tabled us.

Result was a 10 -3 loss to us.

Overall, we finished on 3TP and a -10 VP difference so we ended up placing 11th of 12 teams.  We faced three very tough teams though, and it turned out we'd played the winning team (James and Craig) and the second place team (Ant and Liam) so I think we did pretty well overall.

We didn't come away empty handed, as we did take the Best/Worst luck prize.  Not sure which one we got it for as we had some heavy doses of both!  Prize was a cool certificate and a retro fate deck.

I'm looking forward the the GT now.  I'm going to be taking the Viktorias to that as I really like their fast, beat face style of play.

If you want to hear other's experience of the tournament, check out the Malifools episode 14.

Malifaux: Pirate Gunslinger all done

Avast! Here be me Pirate Gunslinger:

It's been 10 years since Captain John Butler, known as One Eyed John, crossed into the Breach, on the run from the Naval authorities of four countries.  These days, bereft of a ship and a crew, he spends his time in the taverns around Driftwood Docks, selling his guns to the highest bidder.

Malifaux: The doctor will see you now.

There never seems to be enough time to get games in with all your shiny toys does there?  After the end of the York Garrison League last month I was looking forward to playing something other than Nicodem (I've played almost 20 games in a row with the undertaker) so I got my new Molly and McMourning models painted up.  Then Avatar Nicodem arrived and I got distracted with that...

Anyway, here is Dr Douglas McMourning.  The base is a little wonky on him but I might re-base him at some point.

One thing I've always hated about the McMourning artwork is his ginger fright wig and I briefly considered sculpting a hat or something on him but in the end I settled for giving him grey hair instead of ginger.

I need to get some practice games in with the good Doctor now as I plan on playing Ressurectionists at the UK GT (if I can get a pass for it), and he'll give me a second option after Nicodem.

Malifaux: Avatar Nicodem first game

Early this week I played my first game with Nicodem, avatar of decay against guildmonkee's Rasputina crew.

It was a chance for me to try out the avatar and see how things work with him, how to manifest and so on.  I tried a few things with the crew as well using models I've not used before:  Madame Sybelle and started the game with a Flesh Construct, plus I took 3 dogs, a punk and the convict gunslinger.  The strategy was shared Contain Power.

I wanted to get manifested early doors, so I went for the dog-kill-summon method.  This meant I pretty much spent the first turn arsing about in my deployment zone killing dogs to Arise and fulfil one of his manifest requirements, then manifested in turn 2 to give me the most time to give him a good chance to work.

Some things I learnt:

-I need a fast way of killing dogs in the early turns.  I ended up with my crew spending all their time killing dogs and nothing else.  That's not too bad in Shared Contain Power but in other strategies this is more difficult.  Conventional wisdom is to use Rafkin to bomb them with poison to do this quickly so I'll need to get him.  I had hoped to use the Punk Zombie to pulse them to death but I didn't get the mask that spell it needed.

-The avatar got manifested turn 2 as an all action, which obviously costs Nicodem a whole turn.  I thinking Nurses might help here:

• Turn 1, Nicodem uses Arise to raise at least 3 Mindless Zombies
• Turn 2, Nicodem acts as normal taking his normal actions
• Turn 2, Nurse casts Massive Dose (Speed) on Nicodem, giving him Reactivate
• Turn 2, Nicodem re-activates, uses his (all) action to manifest.  As part of the mainfest steps, you end all effects on Nicodem, Avatar of Decay, which I am assuming includes Speed ensuring he doesn't get sacrificed.

I'm not 100% sure on this one, I might stick it on the forum.

-Nicodem is hard to put down with zombies around him, but blasts, pulses and auras will do it and take out his MZ.  He died to Snow Storm's shatter ability as I forgot about it.

-Rigor Mortis is still awesome.

-In the starting list above, with hindsight I should have taken a 4th dog and killed that giving me 4 corpses counters.  I had 3 crows in my hand turn 1, so with 4 corpses counters I could have summoned the Rogue Necromancy and made my Soulstone spend back with interest (4 dogs is 8 SS, RN is 10 SS).

-One sticky rules question that came up was around his "Restless Dead" ability.  The wording says:

After a non-Mindless Zombie Corpse Counter is placed on the table within 6" of this model, this model may Place a Mindless Zombie into base contact with the Corpse Counter and then discard the Counter.


This caused us some confusion as to it's meaning, and we played it that the MZ died, dropped a corpse counter and then came back again.  Looking at the forums we weren't alone in this confusion, but this is not the case.  Here's the ruling and clarification from Ratty:

After a Corpse Counter drops from a model that is not a Mindless Zombie, Place a Mindless Zombie touching the Corpse Counter and then discard the Counter.


Mindless Zombies do not cycle like Malifaux Rats. So if someone kills Bishop, you will get a Mindless Zombie, if you kill that Zombie you will not get another one, you will just have a Corpse Counter lying on the table.

So we'll know for next time.

-I forgot he was Terrifying for the whole game.  My fault.

I'm looking forward to running Nicodem, Avatar of Decay in future games.

Malifaux: Molly completed

Miss Molly Squidpiddge, investigative reporter for the Malifaux Daily Record (deceased):

I loved painting this model.  It's a great sculpt with a lot of character in it.  I think Molly had one of the best stories in book 3 which is one of the reasons I wanted to get her model.  The image of Molly pushing Phillip in a pram with Mrs Choke the re-animated eyeball tucked behind her ear is one that Wyrd should capture in a miniature.  If Rezzers win the Dead Heat campaign, that's the mini I hope we get.

4 Years of Blogging

Somehow I've managed to get through four years of running this blog.  I've not been as attentive of the thing as I should have been, but at least I've stuck with it.

Here's to the next year!

Malifaux: Pirate Gunslinger WIP Part 2

I've got some more work done on the pirate gunslinger:

I've added the jacket, and the epaulettes.  That's going to be a medal on his chest when it's painted.

The back of the coat needs a little more smoothing out so that's next on the list.  After that, I think I might be done with one.

Malifaux: Necrotic Machine

Just a quicky paint job finished on Molly's totem, the Necrotic Machine:

Not much to it, mostly just drybrushed Tin Bitz.  The verdigris could stand to be a little more green, it came out a little bit blue.

Molly herself is on the painting table next.

Malifaux: Pirate Gunslinger WIP Part 1

The Convict Gunslinger is pretty cool.  He's got cool rules, he's good in game, and anyone can hire him.  The model is nice and chunky, and he looks pretty bad ass.  The only thing I'm not so keen on is his head.  His face looks a bit odd, and I really not a fan of his little mohawk.

So I knew I wanted to change this and kind of make him a bit more bad ass.  My initial thought was to make him look a bit like Sirius Black in his wanted poster:

So he needed new hair first up.  First thing that went was the mohawk, then the greenstuff hair went on.  I was largely making this up as I went along, so I went with adding an eye patch as I was on a roll.  This gave him a Snake Plissken sort of look.  But then I hit on what I was really leaning towards... a pirate!

First thing a pirate needs:  a tricorn hat.  Second thing:  Big beard.  Here we go:

I'm liking the look.  The hat might stand a bit more smoothing out with some liquid GS, but I guess a pirate convict would have a fairly battered hat anyway.  He's probably going to get some form of coat next, maybe some epaulettes.

40K: Painted Bloodthirster

This got finished a while ago, but I've only just got round to posting it.

It's a Bloodthirster, the conversion source is pretty obvious.  The Balrog looks more like a Bloodthirster than the actual Bloodthirster which, like most of the Greater Daemon models, really needs an update.

I'm pleased with how the wings came out.  Last time I painted a pair of Balrog wings, I used stippling to get a natural effect.  This time I messed around using weathering powders, and then a wash of Burnt Umber oil paint near the "fingers":

My first experience of building with plasticard.  Needs a bit of practice I think.

If I ever get any further with my Chaos Daemon's army this guy will be in it.  Until then, he acts as a Summoned Greater Daemon in my (increasingly less played) CSM army.

40K: Inquisition Models

I've been trying to get on top of my Grey Knights Inquisition army recently.

I've painted up my Ordo Malleus Inquisitor which I converted (WIP pictures) a few months ago:

I've also been working on the cheap troop choices.  Firstly some Crusaders:

The GW crusaders are both expensive and there's only two models, so these are converted Cadians.  The heads are from Pig Iron which I used before for Warrior Acolytes in the old With Hunters Codex.  The shields are by Scibor.

And the rest of my 3 point objective holders:

 Heads and backpacks from Pig Iron, the rest are standard Cadian parts.

Malifaux: Quick trick with the Necrotic Machine

Just a quick one to report something I've been trying out with the Necrotic Machine and Nicodem.

The Necrotic Machine has a (0) Action called Create Undeath:

"Target non-Master living model receive the Undead Characteristic"


This has been errata'ed to include a 2" range on it now, but it's still not resistible.

In my Nicodem crew, apart from the man himself, you don't usually have many living models.  What I've been playing with is using it with the Convict Gunslinger and then make it Undead.  Not only do you then make it immune to Morale Duels, since it's Undead, but it's now a friendly Undead model and so benefits from Nicodem's Bolster Undead, +2Cb and +2Df aura.  He's now shooting at Cb8, paired, with rapid fire.  Makes things die.  I've tried it and it proved to be pretty nasty, pinging off most of a Silent One (who ran and hid) and finishing off an exposed Rasputina.

The same trick will work with Ronin, Mortimer (almost makes him decent), Rafkin etc.  The ability is also "non-Masters" so it will work with Von Schill as well...

The downside is that it competing against the Grave Spirit who gives Nicodem Armor +2 and it 1 SS cheaper.  I guess it depends on what crew you're facing as to whether that's worth it.

40K: Saint Celestine

I've only had one chance to get a game in with Saint Celestine, and she wasn't painted then.  She did so well in that game, mauling some wounds off a Trygon and then cooking a huge pile of Hormagaunts, I thought she deserved a paint job.

I enjoyed painting this model alot, she's got a lot of detail, and a lot of character in the face.  I neglected to pin the cloak, a desicion I am probably going to regret in the future i.e. the first time I have to play on the bloody Realm of Battle boards they have a WHW with the hills that metal models slide down.

Blood Bowl: Making my balls sticky

Couldn't resist that post title...

Anyway, when you're playing Blood Bowl, it well annoying when one of your models has the ball:

So you pick him up and the ball rolls of his base.  Especially true when you're using the old plastic ball from the 2nd Ed box like me.

With a bit of light hobby you can get it to do this:

As I mentioned the ball is plastic, so I drilled a hole into it and inserted a short piece of paper clip.  Next add this:

A small magnet to the bottom of the base.  The ball is light enough and the magnet strong enough to hold it through the base.  I've done my whole team like this, but you could quite quickly and easily do this for your main ball carriers.

This won't work with heavier, metal balls (I've tried), you'll need stronger magnets for that.

Malifaux: Ice Breaker Tournament Report

At the end of April, I played in a one day tournament at Harrogate Wargames Club. This was a 35SS, fixed faction event, played over four round.

I'll admit, I was pretty nervous about the day. I'd only signed up about 10 days before after my buddy hunter_b had told me about it, which didn't give me much time to prep. I got some stuff painted up (Belles and the Rogue Necromancy) and managed one practice game at the club against Steve's Leviticus crew (Steve smashed me 8-4). So with 7 games ever under my belt, I was a nervous as I didn't want to spoil anyone else's tournaments with my noob playstyle. The round were 90 minutes as well which I thought might cause me issues since I'm not the fastest Malifaux player in the world.


Anyway, on the day my fears proved unfounded, and I had a great time. The time limit never really proved to be an issue with most games getting to the end of turn 5 anyway.

This is how the games broke down, as far as I can re-call anyway:


Game 1- vs Lady Justice

This was against guildmonkee who is my local club henchman so it was a friendly face for the first game. It was shared destroy the evidence. He had a elite Lady J crew, with the Judge, Executioner, Samael Hopkins, Santiago Ortega and a Convict Gunslinger. I had Nico, grave spirit, Bête Noir, some belles, couple of Crooked Men, 2 dogs and a punk zombie.

Nico was giving out paralysed like candy, which protected my crew alot, and I got 2 Flesh Constructs and a Rogue Necromancy summoned which kept Lady J busy. I didn't manage to destroy the evidence, but got both my schemes (hold out and bodyguard) and managed to kill Lady J will a belle on the last flip of the game.
Result - 4 - 2 win to me. Achieved the win I wanted to get, so happy days.


Game 2 - Vs Avatar Seamus
I was on table 4 now so I was punching above my weight. This was shared slaughter against Mike3838 from Musings of a Malifaux Noob, I took a similar crew to game, except I took a Hanged figuring I might get the negative twist on WP triggers on to Seamus. Didn't work, I lost pretty much everything except Nico at the end and Mike took the well deserved win.

Result - Loss, something like 5 - 3.


Game 3 - Vs The Vicktorias.
This was against my friend hunter_b on table 6 (of 7). This was shared treasure hunt.  Hunter_b got Von Schill to pick up the treasure turn 2 but he didn't move after that as he was paralysed or in melee. I had grudged Taelor which I got for 2, didn't get the Kill Protege which was my other one. Hunter_b got his eye for an eye scheme and 2 for carrying the treasure (irrc).

Result - Loss to me, 4 - 2 I think.


Game 4 - Vs Predita
This was shared reconnoiter, so I took a massive crew to spread out over the board. My opponent, Jamie,  took the Perdita family minus Abuela, plus an enslaved nephilim and the Executioner. I didn't play too well,  forgetting to Bolster Undead in the turn 5. That would have given me better chance to kill Perdita who was on 2 wound with no stones and in melee with a punk zombie. Didn't do it, punk zombie died. Final nail was on the last turn, I needed to flip a 3 or better to summon a model and deny my opponent one of her schemes. I flipped a 2.

Anyway, I got one scheme and 2 of 4 table quarters. Final result was a draw, 4 each.

Great event, I really enjoyed it and it was a good chance to get 4 games in a single day.  I ended up finishing 10th of 14 which was 4 places higher than I was expecting to finish.

Malifauxing like a fiend

It's been a while since my last update, but I've not been idle.  In fact, I've been pretty busy hobby wise, focussing alot on Malifaux (did a bit of 40K as well).  I've painted some stuff for my Nicodem crew, played 8 games in three, including a four game tournament and the first league game at the club.

First up then is the models.  I wanted to get some done ready for the tournament, mainly the Rotten Belles and the Rogue Necromancy, and I did the Hanged and Bete Noir ages ago and not got round to blogging them.

 A trio of Rotten Belles:

I bought these to go with my Molly crew, but they've found their way into every Nicodem list since then, they're just so useful as utility models.  One even managed to kill Lady Justice in melee which was a bonus.

The base inserts are from Fenris Games, and for Molly and her crew I've used these to represent the Quarantine Zone.

I release most people think Molly sucks, but her background is really cool, especially the stuff in book 3, which is why I wanted to get her.

Also originally for Molly, but he's made a few appearances, the Rogue Necromancy:

I didn't have a base insert big enough for him, so I had to sculpt the cobbles from Miliput for him, and they turned out pretty well:

The Rogue Necromancy is my summon of choice now if I have four counters for Nicodem.  He's made of glass, but he can destroy things if he gets close.  Even if he does die, chances are the other crew has had to spend a reasonable amount of AP of chopping through his 10 wounds so it's all good.

This lot I did ages ago, 2 Hanged and Bete Noir:

I've run the Hanged in 3 games now, and I'm not convinced.  I can see a place for them against living crews maybe, but I'm not sold.  I probably need a few more games with them I think.

More to come in future post on gaming.

Finding an alternative to Warptime

The latest round of FAQs which GW released last month put a bit of nerfing on Chaos Space Marines. I've run Nurgle Daemon Princes with wings and warptime since the Codex was released, but with the FAQ of Warptime I'm not feeling the love for that power.

To re-cap the FAQ states:

Q: Does Warptime allow the psyker to pick and choose

which To Hit and To Wound dice he will re-roll? (p88)

A: No. He can decide after each To Hit or To Wound roll

but he must re-roll all dice or no dice

I'll be honest, I've never used it like this, nor have I seen it played like this, but the FAQ is pretty clear. All you're now mitigating against is a particularly bad set of rolls like 5 misses or similar. Given Warptime is reasonably pricey in points, IMO this is not worth it.

At a small tournament last month, I dropped Warptime in favour of Wind of Chaos which is more points than Warptime (30 points IIRC so 5 points more). I did find it useful in most games and I think it probably made it's points back in most cases.

Alternatives for a Nurgle Daemon Prince are not great. Doombolt is weak, Gift of Chaos is amusing if not all that useful and Nurgle's Rot is meh against most thing in power armour (OK against hordes I suppose).

So I think Wind of Chaos is where I'll be for now. Of course, if I drop WoC on both Princes that would be a 60 point saving which is almost the cost of an Obliterator...

Blood Bowl Necromantic Team: Painted

I've been feeling the Blood Bowl vibe recently, and so finally got my team painted up.

They're more or less named the same as they are in the online BB league I play in.

Here they are: the Rotting Remains.

Two werewolves, 1 - Skokurg the Furry and 2 - Caleb Whitemane:

Two Wights, 3 - Robin the Cold-Hearted and 4 - Sikvor the Revived:

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!

6 - Jack Splinter

7 - Toby Hearted

8 - Brainy the Hungry

9 - Dearly Departed

12 - Halo Shoemaker

Ghouls:

10 - Mudgrinder

11 - Spinemuncher

I've just got to do a Flesh Golum or two now. I might use the new Crypt Stalker models for that.

Uriah Jacobus, Protector of the Faith and Tournament Update

I had a mad rush on to get the last model painted up for my Sister of Battle army for a small Freebootaz tournament which took place at Warhammer World in early February.

The final model to paint was Uriah Jacobus:

The tournament I used my Sisters in was a 1000 points per player doubles tournie (Saturday was singles when I played Chaos). My list was:

HQ:

Uriah Jacobus, 9 Death Cult Assassins (225)

Troops:
Battle Sister Squad, 1 Melta Gun, 1 Heavy Flamer, Rhino (190)
Battle Sister Squad, 1 Melta Gun, 1 Storm Bolter, Rhino (173)

Fast Attack:
7 Seraphim, twin inferno pistols (140)

Heavy Support:
Exorcist with searchlight (136)
Exorcist with searchlight (136)

I had been due to team up with an IG army, but my partner was ill and couldn't make it down. Fortunately, someone else stepped up and I teamed with his Grey Knights which proved to be a pretty good combination (since we won!).

Uriah Jacobus was awesome as a force multiplier, for several reasons.

Firstly, he gives you a re-roll of your dice to generate Faith Points each turn. At 1000 points, I didn't find this particularly essential as I rarely used more than one or two points per turn, but since the Faith mechanic doesn't really scale that well, in larger games I can see the re-roll being important.

Secondly, he carries the Banner of Sanctity. This gives his unit +1A and Feel No Pain. Combined with Death Cult Assassins this is brutal. FnP is handy since they only have a 5+ save (and assuming you can make FnP rolls which I never can), but +1A is also pretty nasty.

Thirdly, he has the Righteous Rage special rule. This is identical to a Space Marine Chaplain's Liturgies of Battle rule, so it gives re-rolls to hit on the charge.

Fourthly, he's Stubborn and Ld10. Being an IC he confers this on any unit he joins.

The unit I ran above (Jacobus and DCA) had 45 I6, WS5, S4 power weapon attacks on the charge, with re-rolls to hit. Against a 5 man GK terminator squad, this ended up causing 27 wounds with no armour saves. Next game, they carved through a SM tactical squad like they weren't even there. The weakness of this unit is that if you can be out Initiatived (like assaulting into cover) you are going to get hurt as DCA are not that survivable. You're also vulnerable to getting left in the open after an assault and then being shot to pieces.

Ogre Rhinox Rider

I've been lax on blogging recently, but I've been doing a reasonable amount of hobbying since Christmas.

This guy has been sat on my painting table since Christmas 2010, so I finally got round to painting him up. A Forge World Ogre Rhinox Rider:


This was a great model to paint, and Forge World have even updated the rules for the beast:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/r/Rhinox.pdf

I've also picked up the new Ogre Kingdoms book and drawn up a list using the stuff I currently own. I just need to convert a Butcher/Slaughermaster and a BSB and I can run it at 2000 points, assuming I can use the Rhinox rider (who seems a bit undercosted to me, but I'm no expert on Fantasy).

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Conversion

This is something I've been working on on and off for past couple of months. It's an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor for the all Inquisition Grey Knights army I'm planning on doing:

This is easily the most ambitious sculpting I've ever attempted and I've learnt alot about doing it in the process. I'm pleased with the result, and I hope to do a decent paint job on it.

The conversion is based on a WFB Chaos Warrior, with a leg swap to give him a more power armoured look. The head is taken from the Space Marine commander box. The remainder was endless green stuff work.

Two major lessons I learnt from this project:

1- Only ever work on a small part of the model at a time, don't be tempted to do big swathes of it at once or you'll spoil what you've just done.

2- You always need less green stuff that you think you need. Some of the amounts I ended up working with on this model were minuscule.

Hobby Resolutions

It's that time of year again, where I can review what I did (or didn't) get done in the hobby year 2011.

This is what my resolutions were last year:

1- Buy less models, and paint the ones I've got -FAILED

2- Finish my Witch Hunters to the 1500 point list I've written (I technically have more than 1500 points worth) - FAILED

3- Finish my Ogre army - FAILED

4- Play some Malifaux - DONE

5- Play 25 games of either 40K or Fantasy - FAILED

6- Get some work done on my 40K Chaos Daemons army - FAILED

So in all in all not that great a result. Must try harder.

So for 2012, I am resolving to:

1- Get Witch Hunters to 1500 points

2- Get Inquisition army to 1500 points

3- Play more games this year than last year

4- Play Blood Bowl on the table top, paint my BB team

5- Play another game of Apocalypse