Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to all you Warhammer players out there. May your holiday be merry and bright. Live, laugh and love with your family and enjoy opening all your gaming related presents!!!!!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
The Waaagh Cast Cup! Season 2 - Playoffs!
The playoff games have finished with decisive 0-2 wins for both games. We see the Bogenhafen Bell Ringers come to the championship game hoping to score a 2nd year ring for themselves and the fresh and new Hairstyle Hero's make their appearance into the arena. Read about it all in the newsletter!
Download the Waaagh Cast Courier Newsletter! : Playoff Newsletter
Thursday, December 20, 2012
A Campaign... as yet unnamed.
So, some friends (a couple who have done the tale of gamers articles with me) and I are going to play a campaign. We're going to go whole hog on this and really give it a go. We've gotten a Mighty Empires set and are going to use most of the rules from Blood in the Badlands supplement book. We're making some serious exceptions of course. We can't use the scenario's directly from the book as there are only 5 players and also with only a single tile set we'll be running a smaller map (which makes sense with fewer players). As a start though we each have to make our General and his Lieutenants as well as put together some army markers for the map.
I've selected to play my Bretonnian's for the campaign and since I've already ordered markers and the three characters are open knowledge than I figured I'd list them here. I've given them titles that are equivalent to their virtues which really dictates how they'll be played in game. I'm pretty excited frankly. I'll post some pictures of the army markers when I get them and start putting them together. I'd expect at least a week though seeing as Christmas and New Years are going to shut me down for a bit here. Keep an eye on the blog though. I'll be posting pictures of the map, games, etc...
The current plan for the army markers is to use Warmaster models. They look great on the map tiles and were used by the GW guys during their BitB campaign. I can't say that every one of us will go this way, but I'm definitely in it for the fun so I'm going for it.
Characters:
Louis the Heroic
Lord
-Pegasus, Shield
-Virtue of Heroism
-Sword of Swiftslaying, Dragonhelm, Mantle of Damsel Elena, Potion of Foolhardiness
--263 Points
Harod the Confident
Paladin
-Warhorse, Lance
-Virtue of Confidence
-Gauntlet of the Duel, Enchanted Shield, Luckstone
--128 Points
Roderick the Impetuous
Paladin
-Warhorse, Lance, Shield
-Virtue of Impetuous
--115 Points
I've selected to play my Bretonnian's for the campaign and since I've already ordered markers and the three characters are open knowledge than I figured I'd list them here. I've given them titles that are equivalent to their virtues which really dictates how they'll be played in game. I'm pretty excited frankly. I'll post some pictures of the army markers when I get them and start putting them together. I'd expect at least a week though seeing as Christmas and New Years are going to shut me down for a bit here. Keep an eye on the blog though. I'll be posting pictures of the map, games, etc...
The current plan for the army markers is to use Warmaster models. They look great on the map tiles and were used by the GW guys during their BitB campaign. I can't say that every one of us will go this way, but I'm definitely in it for the fun so I'm going for it.
Characters:
Louis the Heroic
Lord
-Pegasus, Shield
-Virtue of Heroism
-Sword of Swiftslaying, Dragonhelm, Mantle of Damsel Elena, Potion of Foolhardiness
--263 Points
Harod the Confident
Paladin
-Warhorse, Lance
-Virtue of Confidence
-Gauntlet of the Duel, Enchanted Shield, Luckstone
--128 Points
Roderick the Impetuous
Paladin
-Warhorse, Lance, Shield
-Virtue of Impetuous
--115 Points
The Waaagh Cast Cup! Season 2 - Week 10 Newsletter
The general season has been completed as we head into our play-off games this week! While everyone played their hearts out, through much blood and sweat 4 teams came through to make the play-offs. Facing off this week to find out who will make it to the finals of 'The Waaagh Cast Cup!' Who will win? Only time will tell. You can read about week 10 and some interviews with the play-off competitors in the newsletter!
Download the Waaagh Cast Courier Newsletter! : Week 10 Newsletter
Monday, December 10, 2012
The Waaagh Cast Cup! Season 2-Week 9 Newsletter
Week 9 has wrapped as we move into our final week of open play. At the close of this week we should have our play-off announcements so definitely keep an eye out for that. Until then though, check up on this weeks happenings below!
Download the Waaagh Cast Courier Newsletter! : Week 9 Newsletter
Sunday, December 2, 2012
The Waaagh Cast Cup! Season 2-Week 8 Newsletter
I have no excuses for what you'll see in this weeks newsletter. No deaths! Not a single one! The Apothecaries really stepped up their games this week and put in the extra effort to bring those broken boys back from the nearly-dead. Also, there is only 2 weeks left before the play-offs! How exciting. I feel there are certainly a couple of teams which clearly have shot at the top spots.
Download the Waaagh Cast Courier Newsletter! : Week 8 Newsletter
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Bretonnian Distraction: No Excuse...
Wow... Seriously 40 days since I last posted about the Bretonnian army and I'm showing a serious lack of dedication to this army. I don't know why; but I absolutely hate painting horses. Something that bodes unwell for this project. That said, since its been so long I decided that I should post some kind of update as to how things have been going.
On Oct. 14th I posted that I'd finished the 1st 8 man unit of Knights. Somewhere between there and I'd say early November I managed to complete a unit of 16 Peasant Bowmen with Command, Brazier and Stakes as well. I shortly after that began work on the 2nd unit of Knights but that has been very slow going to say the least. I got distracted and painted up the unit of Rat Ogres for the Extra Life gaming and then with Thanksgiving and our 2nd season of Blood Bowl running strong just haven't gotten myself to sit down very often.
I'd say most of my hobby time in early November was spent slowly building movement trays for the army. They are made of a pressed birch plywood paneling used in remote control airplanes. I use basswood square strips for the edging. All of this can be procured from most local train/plain model shops but I buy most of my stuff from Hobby Lobby. I've also ordered metal tray inserts that will fit inside of these trays from Shogun Miniatures whom I also bought all my movement trays for my Skaven army. I decided to make my own for this army though and just get the inserts this time around. Flock doesn't adhere to the metal flanged trays well and the paint scratches off easily too. Yeah, this cost me a little more in the end but quality and end result should be worth it.
The last two weeks I've been getting in practice Team games with Ryan and refining lists. I'm still unsure of a Trebuchet because of its unreliability; but it also gives us a higher chance to stop things like Steam Tanks, etc... I've also been building a unit of Pegasus Knights. I would just like to state for the record that I dislike having them on a tray, but it just seems to make sense to me in this edition. I've clipped them pieces of rod to keep them at difference heights and so that when you push them together for the charge they can actually touch bases; this left the bases looking quite naked so I've added some bits and pieces to them for show. A piece of ruined archway from the Abomination kit. Some slate rock and a gravestone to another and finally a tree trunk which was once a Giant club. Below are some pictures for perusal.
On Oct. 14th I posted that I'd finished the 1st 8 man unit of Knights. Somewhere between there and I'd say early November I managed to complete a unit of 16 Peasant Bowmen with Command, Brazier and Stakes as well. I shortly after that began work on the 2nd unit of Knights but that has been very slow going to say the least. I got distracted and painted up the unit of Rat Ogres for the Extra Life gaming and then with Thanksgiving and our 2nd season of Blood Bowl running strong just haven't gotten myself to sit down very often.
I'd say most of my hobby time in early November was spent slowly building movement trays for the army. They are made of a pressed birch plywood paneling used in remote control airplanes. I use basswood square strips for the edging. All of this can be procured from most local train/plain model shops but I buy most of my stuff from Hobby Lobby. I've also ordered metal tray inserts that will fit inside of these trays from Shogun Miniatures whom I also bought all my movement trays for my Skaven army. I decided to make my own for this army though and just get the inserts this time around. Flock doesn't adhere to the metal flanged trays well and the paint scratches off easily too. Yeah, this cost me a little more in the end but quality and end result should be worth it.
The last two weeks I've been getting in practice Team games with Ryan and refining lists. I'm still unsure of a Trebuchet because of its unreliability; but it also gives us a higher chance to stop things like Steam Tanks, etc... I've also been building a unit of Pegasus Knights. I would just like to state for the record that I dislike having them on a tray, but it just seems to make sense to me in this edition. I've clipped them pieces of rod to keep them at difference heights and so that when you push them together for the charge they can actually touch bases; this left the bases looking quite naked so I've added some bits and pieces to them for show. A piece of ruined archway from the Abomination kit. Some slate rock and a gravestone to another and finally a tree trunk which was once a Giant club. Below are some pictures for perusal.
Monday, November 19, 2012
The Waaagh Cast Cup! Season 2-Week 7 Newsletter
This week see's our most seriously packed newsletter ever! Our reporters really got some extensive coverage of some of the games this week which makes this one of our best newsletters ever to read. Go check it all out!
Download the Waaagh Cast Courier Newsletter! : Week 7 Newsletter
Sunday, November 11, 2012
The Waaagh Cast Cup! Season 2-Week 6 Newsletter
Another exciting week of Blood Bowl has come and gone here at The Waaagh Cast Cup! Now passing the 1/2 way point in the season we're seeing our leaders come to the front of the game and possibly locking their positions for the play-offs! Let's keep an eye out for The Outer Gods, The Hellpitsburgh Stealers and The Northern Knuckleheads. Their putting up some serious numbers!
Download the Waaagh Cast Courier Newsletter! : Week 6 Newsletter
Sunday, November 4, 2012
The Waaagh Cast Cup! Season 2-Week 5 Newsletter
We get some exciting news this week with our most action packed newsletter yet. Not only we're there numerous deaths this week but a bountiful basket of broken bones as well. Not to mention the Waaagh Cast Cup now in its 2nd season has finally seen its first Zombification! Congratulations goes out to the Hairstyle Hero's for killing and then Zombifying The Outer Gods Chaos Warrior Yog Sothoth Jr. You can read about everything in this weeks newsletter!
Download the Waaagh Cast Courier Newsletter! : Week 5 Newsletter
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Mini Narrative Campaign - Opinion's and Thoughts
Chuck and I had originally recorded about 40 minute worth of content to go along with this, however when I returned to edit the sound files we discovered that the microphone I have appears to have been broken at some point in time. There was a loud buzzing throughout the recording that no amount of noise reduction filters was going to get rid of. Being a fair stickler for quality as I can manage I refused to let this go so Chuck and I have compiled our thoughts into writing instead.
I have provided a scan of the scenario's we used excepting the Siege Scenario from Blood in The Badlands as that book is both still in print and more of about 5 pages than 1. Still, this will at least give you an idea of what we're talking about in each one.
Game 1: Scouts & Picketts
(Skirmish Scenario)
Joe:
You can tell when playing with the Skirmish rules that the game clearly was not designed for 8th edition. Beyond the obvious differences in movement being double for a charge and random the number despartiy for 2-4 point models probably didn't exist in 6th. I'm sure they didn't intend for you to be able to field 80 men in a Skirmish game but with the low cost of troops in this edition you could easily field making it last far too long for what it is. The scenario was interesting and fun. I think that some of the rules are a bit over used or not strong enough such as the knock down/out of action results.
Chuck:
Definitely like Joe said above. A game meant for another rules edition, but it did bring back the classic 6th style play. The real fun was the ability to resort back to a Mordheim type of game play and move models individually of their unit making for a more free flowing game.
Joe:
The real difference in the game was model count. Luckilly as Skaven all of my troops are cheap; so much so that I even went the expensive route purcahsing Stormvermin. The reason I went this route was under the assumptiont that Chuck would be fielding Chaos Dwarfs and I would need the WS 4 to have a chance at success. The choice of Stormvermin is in the end what won me this mission.
Chuck:
I ended up using Hobgoblins as the Dwarfs were not only too expensive, but they also broke the rules of the scenario that we couldn't have models with an AS better than 5+. I thought the Sharp Stuff throwing would give me a little extra power and in the beginning it did take a couple of guys down, but eventually Joe's WS4 S4 won out.
I have provided a scan of the scenario's we used excepting the Siege Scenario from Blood in The Badlands as that book is both still in print and more of about 5 pages than 1. Still, this will at least give you an idea of what we're talking about in each one.
Game 1: Scouts & Picketts
(Skirmish Scenario)
 |
| Scouts & Pickets Scenario: General's Compendium |
You can tell when playing with the Skirmish rules that the game clearly was not designed for 8th edition. Beyond the obvious differences in movement being double for a charge and random the number despartiy for 2-4 point models probably didn't exist in 6th. I'm sure they didn't intend for you to be able to field 80 men in a Skirmish game but with the low cost of troops in this edition you could easily field making it last far too long for what it is. The scenario was interesting and fun. I think that some of the rules are a bit over used or not strong enough such as the knock down/out of action results.
Chuck:
Definitely like Joe said above. A game meant for another rules edition, but it did bring back the classic 6th style play. The real fun was the ability to resort back to a Mordheim type of game play and move models individually of their unit making for a more free flowing game.
Joe:
The real difference in the game was model count. Luckilly as Skaven all of my troops are cheap; so much so that I even went the expensive route purcahsing Stormvermin. The reason I went this route was under the assumptiont that Chuck would be fielding Chaos Dwarfs and I would need the WS 4 to have a chance at success. The choice of Stormvermin is in the end what won me this mission.
Chuck:
I ended up using Hobgoblins as the Dwarfs were not only too expensive, but they also broke the rules of the scenario that we couldn't have models with an AS better than 5+. I thought the Sharp Stuff throwing would give me a little extra power and in the beginning it did take a couple of guys down, but eventually Joe's WS4 S4 won out.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Flat Con 2012
Our friend Kevin Flemming ran the fantasy event this year at 1,000 points and 3 rounds. He also stepped in as ringer with his Dwarf army as we we're 1 player short of 8. The participants names and armies are below. Not pictured are my own Skaven army and Kevin's Dwarfs.
 |
| Brandon Prouty - Orcs & Goblins |
 |
| Steve Gruenwald - Orcs & Goblins |
 |
| Chuck Jiardina - Chaos Dwarfs |
 |
| Aaron Lacey - Lizardmen |
 |
| Unknown - Warriors of Chaos |
 |
| Unknown - Skaven |
The Waaagh Cast Cup! Season 2-Week 4 Newsletter
Week 4 has closed and with a ton of other things on my plate right now we'll just get right to business.
Download the Waaagh Cast Courier Newsletter! : Week 4 Newsletter
Extra Life Mini Narrative Campaign
So Extra Life has come and gone. Well technically it came and went two weeks ago. However, as I had previous engagements (a wedding) to attend I had to postpone my participation one full week. Luckily it happened to fall on the same date as Flat-Con. A Board Game convention in Bloomington, IL. As it had been a while since I've been off for some Warhammer and Chuck lives in Bloomington, we decided to attend the tournament as well as get up super early on Saturday to start my 24 hour gaming marathon and so we did. We chose well ahead of time to do some narrative campaigning. The General's Compendium has a small 3 tier tree campaign set up with a lot of nice narrative and so we decided to play that. This is the resulting story.
The Worlds Edge Mountains that borders the Chaos Waste is home to both the race of Dwarfs and Skaven. The Skaven in their constant search for more of the fouls substance known as Warp Stone have always sought to delve deeply into the earth searching and when able have used the already constructed Dwarf miens, many times after lengthy wars with their inhabitants. Sometimes a particularly greedy Warlord will even seek the precious magical rock on the far side of the mountains ranges in the Chaos Wastes itself. This is one of those times.
Warlord Snarlsqueek of Clan Skaar and Greyseer Scarclaw have begun to encroach into the Wastes seeking the precious stone. It isn’t long before they encounter settlement within the foul land in the form of Dwarfs. Except that unlike the Dwarf’s that they are used to facing these appear to be a corrupt sect who enslave the greenskin race and bend metal to their will while encasing Demons into shells and constructing great machines of death. An immediate strike would be unwise and the two lords send forth a scouting parting to obtain information about their soon to be enemy.
Knowing that simple slaves would only attempt escape so far from their captors and that regular warriors would be far to nervous to gain any real information the lords choose to send in a group of their elite Stormvermin aided by a small group of Night Runners hired from Clan Eshin. The scouts had reconnoitered in the borderlands of the Dwarfs gaining valuable intelligence on troop movements, strongholds and defensive positions. Unfortunately, unaware that it had happened a group of the Dwarfs had spotted them and had been tracking them for some time. Uncertain as to the strength of the invaders the Dwarfs send a small contingent of their enslaved Hobgoblins ahead of the scouting force to lay in wait in an attempt to entrap and destroy them before they could return to their commanders with the gathered intelligence.
The Hobgoblins burst from a hidden position and with the element of surprise pelt the invades with many sharp things that they had scrounged from their masters. Knowing that death lay both here and upon their return should they manage it they felt compelled to at least fight for their miserable lives. The Skaven fought viciously and being better trained and armed they eventually felled the greenskins forcing the few who were not laying dead or dying to rout and return to what would surely be a terrible fate at the hands of their taskmasters. The Skaven that remained returned to the lords with the information. They had found a slim pass defended by a lone watchtower the garrison defending it left to watch for enemies, defend against marauding warbands and ward off fell beasts. The pass beyond leads to a large castle which would surely provide much plunder as well as an excellent stronghold from which to cement their operations in this land.
__________________________
Warlord Snarlsqueek of Clan Skaar and Greyseer Scarclaw have begun to encroach into the Wastes seeking the precious stone. It isn’t long before they encounter settlement within the foul land in the form of Dwarfs. Except that unlike the Dwarf’s that they are used to facing these appear to be a corrupt sect who enslave the greenskin race and bend metal to their will while encasing Demons into shells and constructing great machines of death. An immediate strike would be unwise and the two lords send forth a scouting parting to obtain information about their soon to be enemy.
Knowing that simple slaves would only attempt escape so far from their captors and that regular warriors would be far to nervous to gain any real information the lords choose to send in a group of their elite Stormvermin aided by a small group of Night Runners hired from Clan Eshin. The scouts had reconnoitered in the borderlands of the Dwarfs gaining valuable intelligence on troop movements, strongholds and defensive positions. Unfortunately, unaware that it had happened a group of the Dwarfs had spotted them and had been tracking them for some time. Uncertain as to the strength of the invaders the Dwarfs send a small contingent of their enslaved Hobgoblins ahead of the scouting force to lay in wait in an attempt to entrap and destroy them before they could return to their commanders with the gathered intelligence.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Bretonnian Distraction - Rat Ogres
I've been sitting on these guys for ages and I finally got a reason to finish them up recently. Namely that I hate painting Knights and I've been working on the Bretonnian's and I hate them. You can see from the pictures that 7 of the 8 Ogres are all made from the Island of Blood models just with some variation in poses, pieces, etc... I don't understand why GW didn't make some new plastic kits for these guys when they re-released all the other Skaven models, but who knows. So these are them. Hopefully you guys all think they look good. The 1 Rat Ogre that isn't IoB is the bell ringer from the Screaming Bell with a flail I built him. I dig it.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Once Upon A Hobby – Warhammer Generals Compendium
Ah, here we are again, but now we have with us the big boy of hobby extra’s. The Generals Compendium is a large 176 page behemoth that is packed full of so much hobby goodness it really makes the eyes water. So lets get into a little more in depth discussion here.
The book is broken down into nine chapters over its course. The first four chapters of the book deal strictly with ideas and information pertaining to campaign play. The first chapter is simple campaigns, like ladder and tree campaigns. This will be what Chuck and I are doing; in fact the Tree that we will be using is straight out of this book on page 11. Chapter 2 goes into Map Campaigns and the ideas and rules for that. It goes through a full rule set for the campaign and how to keep track as well as giving you a bunch of modeling and hobby ideas for the map itself. Chapter 3 is a campaign setting that they have provided for you “Campaigning in the land of The Border Princes”. As a campaign setting it provides everything you need about events, landmarks, etc… awesome for anyone looking to launch a campaign and not have to come up with things all on their own. The fourth looks into Game Mastered campaigns. This is a chapter that I haven’t read as I have no interest in this style of campaign as it requires the person running it to not play and frankly, my hobby time is going to be spent playing, not doing bookwork for others.
Chapter 5 is dedicated to competitive play such as tournament focus. I like this chapter a lot because of some of the ideas in it. Deathmatch challenges, hidden set ups, etc… It’s a great read for ideas if you run a tournament yourself, and could probably give you some great ideas even if you don’t use what is directly provided for you there. Chapter 6 goes through what it calls, “Hostile Terrain”. This chapter deals with scenario’s that have special rules for terrain such as raging rivers, dry deserts, poisonous plants and dangerous woods. Well worth a read, not to mention there are a lot of hobby articles in this chapter for building terrain as well. There are some tables in here that look really good and if I didn’t already have a table I’d be modeling one up out of here for sure.
Chapter 7 may actually be the one chapter that seems to be nearly useless at this point given that 8th edition actually contained rules for allied armies. That said, there’s no reason that you can’t abide by this table. The chapter contains rules, ideas and scenarios based for mutli-player games. This can include allied armies, players playing multiple armies in a game, etc… The most interesting parts of this chapter pertain to the rules you can apply to armies being untoward with each other. Again, this is covered with the suspicious allies part of 8th edition, but some of these rules could still be used and add some flavor to the game.
As we move into Chapter 8 we see a real divergence from regular Warhammer in a big way. Boats. Yes, that’s right; I said boats. A whole chapter dedicated to using boats of different sizes in a game. All the way from dinghies up to large multi-mast sailing vessels. There are special rules, turning templates, unit structures and a ton of other stuff. Naturally as this was a hobby book it also contains construction ideas/articles and some excellent resources. In fact, my Empire army which is Stirland River Patrol is going to be using one of these boats for their display board. Assuming I ever actually finish the damned thing. While I think this chapter is pretty great in terms of interesting rules it also adds a lot of extra rules to what can already be a complex and confusing game. I wouldn’t suggest trying these unless you were a seasoned player. Maybe I’ll try them out one day, but not likely anytime soon.
Chapter 9, the final chapter in the book moves into a fantastic section that really excites me personally. Sieges, Raids and City Sacking. Sounds great right there doesn’t it? This chapter not only has some amazing modeling ideas and articles in it as far as terrain is concerned but also contains a lot of really awesome information to add to the siege rules you already have. There are extra ideas for upgrades to fortresses; the ability to sack a cities buildings as well as the walls and neat ideas for loot. There are rules for special buildings in the city that get sacked such as stables or armories which can give advantages to the enemy who is attacking and detriment to the defenders. I love this chapter.
So while I didn’t say it much, there is an average of 3 or 4 scenarios per chapter and more than that in some of them. If you wand to ignore absolutely everything in this book as far as rules and scenarios in concerned, it is still 100% worth it simply for the inspirational ideas you get from looking in the different modeling and hobby articles. There are a lot of pieces in this book about ideas for terrain and you can really get some great ideas from it. There is even a small article on building a Motte & Bailey fort for those of you who don’t want to buy the big expensive Warhammer Fortress and still want to give siege and city assault games a try. I can’t really tell you enough how much anyone who wants to have some great inspiration needs this book so I’ll drop a load of pictures below for you to peruse. The book can actually be difficult to come by but if you see it for a reasonable price, its well worth it.
Chapter 5 is dedicated to competitive play such as tournament focus. I like this chapter a lot because of some of the ideas in it. Deathmatch challenges, hidden set ups, etc… It’s a great read for ideas if you run a tournament yourself, and could probably give you some great ideas even if you don’t use what is directly provided for you there. Chapter 6 goes through what it calls, “Hostile Terrain”. This chapter deals with scenario’s that have special rules for terrain such as raging rivers, dry deserts, poisonous plants and dangerous woods. Well worth a read, not to mention there are a lot of hobby articles in this chapter for building terrain as well. There are some tables in here that look really good and if I didn’t already have a table I’d be modeling one up out of here for sure.
Chapter 7 may actually be the one chapter that seems to be nearly useless at this point given that 8th edition actually contained rules for allied armies. That said, there’s no reason that you can’t abide by this table. The chapter contains rules, ideas and scenarios based for mutli-player games. This can include allied armies, players playing multiple armies in a game, etc… The most interesting parts of this chapter pertain to the rules you can apply to armies being untoward with each other. Again, this is covered with the suspicious allies part of 8th edition, but some of these rules could still be used and add some flavor to the game.
As we move into Chapter 8 we see a real divergence from regular Warhammer in a big way. Boats. Yes, that’s right; I said boats. A whole chapter dedicated to using boats of different sizes in a game. All the way from dinghies up to large multi-mast sailing vessels. There are special rules, turning templates, unit structures and a ton of other stuff. Naturally as this was a hobby book it also contains construction ideas/articles and some excellent resources. In fact, my Empire army which is Stirland River Patrol is going to be using one of these boats for their display board. Assuming I ever actually finish the damned thing. While I think this chapter is pretty great in terms of interesting rules it also adds a lot of extra rules to what can already be a complex and confusing game. I wouldn’t suggest trying these unless you were a seasoned player. Maybe I’ll try them out one day, but not likely anytime soon.
Chapter 9, the final chapter in the book moves into a fantastic section that really excites me personally. Sieges, Raids and City Sacking. Sounds great right there doesn’t it? This chapter not only has some amazing modeling ideas and articles in it as far as terrain is concerned but also contains a lot of really awesome information to add to the siege rules you already have. There are extra ideas for upgrades to fortresses; the ability to sack a cities buildings as well as the walls and neat ideas for loot. There are rules for special buildings in the city that get sacked such as stables or armories which can give advantages to the enemy who is attacking and detriment to the defenders. I love this chapter.
So while I didn’t say it much, there is an average of 3 or 4 scenarios per chapter and more than that in some of them. If you wand to ignore absolutely everything in this book as far as rules and scenarios in concerned, it is still 100% worth it simply for the inspirational ideas you get from looking in the different modeling and hobby articles. There are a lot of pieces in this book about ideas for terrain and you can really get some great ideas from it. There is even a small article on building a Motte & Bailey fort for those of you who don’t want to buy the big expensive Warhammer Fortress and still want to give siege and city assault games a try. I can’t really tell you enough how much anyone who wants to have some great inspiration needs this book so I’ll drop a load of pictures below for you to peruse. The book can actually be difficult to come by but if you see it for a reasonable price, its well worth it.
Monday, October 22, 2012
The Waaagh Cast Cup! Season 2-Week 3 Newsletter
Week 3 closes up with our first couple of near blowouts, with the Skaven opening up the speed games in our second division; while we also see quite a few deaths from our 1st. A prediction now for Bash vs. Dash come super bowl time!
Download the Waaagh Cast Courier Newsletter! : Week 3 Newsletter
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Once Upon A Hobby – Warhammer Skirmish
Discussion time again boys and girls. Today we get to discuss the book mentioned in the previous post ‘Warhammer Skirmish’. We talked last time about how great the Appendices of the 6th Edition WHFB Rulebook were and how the third appendix contained rules for Skirmish games. That is to say, small squad level games with a handful of models instead of giant rampaging armies. These games are excellent ways to squeeze in a game of some Warhammer in which you may have limited time to play like a lunch hour from work, or perhaps if you finished your normal game, but still have maybe an hour to kill before your off to do whatever you do in your day to day life.
First let’s discuss Skirmish a bit more.
Skirmish is based off of the idea that you use normal models from the GW range, but instead of whole units you use single models and they move and act individually instead of as a whole. A sample grouping may be something like:
Dwarf Thane 65pts
Dwarf Thunderer 11pts
Dwarf Warrior x3 24pts
Of course there, once you drop to this level your not even required to field a Hero, but can simply use unit Champions. Also as there are no units, a Banner and Musician become pointless. All the other normal rules are in effect. Even magic still has a place in the game although you must fudge the rules a little bit for it to be effective. You play the game just like normal from there out; moving, shooting, casting, fighting just like in a normal game of Warhammer. The main differences being that when you lose your last wound you may not be entirely out of the game. In fact there is a good chance your men may just get back up to continue fighting on. Of course, men will only stick around so long and so the route rule exists which states when your force is down to 25% or less of its starting models you take a LD test at the beginning of every turn to see if your men flee the field or not. Its all quite interesting.
You and your opponent are free to just duke it out as normal, attempting to completely wipe each other out, but more often than not you’ll want to decide a reason for the groups to be fighting. This goal oriented play makes Skirmish a more enjoyable game as simply running at each other with the purpose to kill at such small model counts may be quite boring. As such I think this game really shines in scenario play which is where this book comes in. The Warhammer Skirmish booklet contains 25 scenarios already put together for you to play, each with its own evocative theme and reasoning behind it. They also specify what armies and models would be used although the book also states that these are simply guidelines and you should use whatever armies/models you feel you would or those that you own.
There is a nicely written preface in the book which speaks as to why you might want to play Skirmish scenario’s as well as a handful of extra rules that were not contained in the Appendices of the 6th Edition book. It goes over the ideas of things you’ll need such as the size board, and some simple terrain, but it also explains that you can really go to town with Skirmish games. Most of the scenarios contain some extra information about how to fit them into the picture of larger games such as suggesting that a scenario which has you attempting to gather up loot from a battlefield may provide the winning player with an extra allotment of troops over the point’s value of a regular sized game. Or perhaps a mission where a small band is escorting a wizard will decide whether or not you can field a wizard in your next game. A number of the scenarios also contain some extra tidbits about building special pieces of terrain for them which may or may not be required. There are plenty of nice full color pictures of conversion work that the GW hobby team had built just for the scenario’s as well as pictures of wonderful Skirmish battlefields that they used which really inspire the creative side of me and I assume you.
Finally the book ends with a discussion about linking the Skirmish games into a campaign perhaps involving multiple players. They even go so far as to have a handful of employee’s play out a small simple campaign using some of the Skirmish scenario’s to influence the final battle so that you can really get a grasp on what they’re talking about when they discuss so often linking games together.
Overall, I’m a big fan of this book. The specialized tables, terrain and scenario ideas really do inspire. I’ve thought so many times about building special boards and the like just for games but usually cannot justify the idea. Maybe if I owned a game store. However that said, I see no reason that a tournament style player couldn’t look at these boards and easily get some good ideas for an army display board. If you’ve played Skirmish and liked it I think this book is probably a must have. I loved the squad based games when I was first getting into the hobby and while I haven’t played any in a long time I’m hoping that Chuck and I really enjoy the scenario that we’ll be playing in our small Tree Campaign.
To give you some more thoughts as to whether you might want to go out and hunt down the magazine I'll post a bunch of pictures below for you to browse.
Skirmish is based off of the idea that you use normal models from the GW range, but instead of whole units you use single models and they move and act individually instead of as a whole. A sample grouping may be something like:
Dwarf Thane 65pts
Dwarf Thunderer 11pts
Dwarf Warrior x3 24pts
Of course there, once you drop to this level your not even required to field a Hero, but can simply use unit Champions. Also as there are no units, a Banner and Musician become pointless. All the other normal rules are in effect. Even magic still has a place in the game although you must fudge the rules a little bit for it to be effective. You play the game just like normal from there out; moving, shooting, casting, fighting just like in a normal game of Warhammer. The main differences being that when you lose your last wound you may not be entirely out of the game. In fact there is a good chance your men may just get back up to continue fighting on. Of course, men will only stick around so long and so the route rule exists which states when your force is down to 25% or less of its starting models you take a LD test at the beginning of every turn to see if your men flee the field or not. Its all quite interesting.
You and your opponent are free to just duke it out as normal, attempting to completely wipe each other out, but more often than not you’ll want to decide a reason for the groups to be fighting. This goal oriented play makes Skirmish a more enjoyable game as simply running at each other with the purpose to kill at such small model counts may be quite boring. As such I think this game really shines in scenario play which is where this book comes in. The Warhammer Skirmish booklet contains 25 scenarios already put together for you to play, each with its own evocative theme and reasoning behind it. They also specify what armies and models would be used although the book also states that these are simply guidelines and you should use whatever armies/models you feel you would or those that you own.
Finally the book ends with a discussion about linking the Skirmish games into a campaign perhaps involving multiple players. They even go so far as to have a handful of employee’s play out a small simple campaign using some of the Skirmish scenario’s to influence the final battle so that you can really get a grasp on what they’re talking about when they discuss so often linking games together.
Overall, I’m a big fan of this book. The specialized tables, terrain and scenario ideas really do inspire. I’ve thought so many times about building special boards and the like just for games but usually cannot justify the idea. Maybe if I owned a game store. However that said, I see no reason that a tournament style player couldn’t look at these boards and easily get some good ideas for an army display board. If you’ve played Skirmish and liked it I think this book is probably a must have. I loved the squad based games when I was first getting into the hobby and while I haven’t played any in a long time I’m hoping that Chuck and I really enjoy the scenario that we’ll be playing in our small Tree Campaign.
To give you some more thoughts as to whether you might want to go out and hunt down the magazine I'll post a bunch of pictures below for you to browse.
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