Week 18 has ended! Season 1 of The Waaagh Cast! Cup! is officially over. We've crowned ourselves a champion as well. Eric M. and his Bogenafen Bell Ringers (Humans) have won through the day. Ryan G. and the Talabheim City Chiefs (Humans) have come in 2nd place while myself and my Longbeard Brawlers wrap up 3rd. It was a brutally long season and I want to thank everybody who participated in it. It was great fun! Look for the announcement both here and on Twitter for season 2 which will be announced in Sept. Thanks for participating and reading!
As an afterthought I've decided to add the rankings tables to the post. Basically the game keeps track of a number of categories of information and provides rankings in form of the top 10 players for each. I thought it would be interesting to see where certain teams fell on rankings. You can usually use these charts to easily see who is a passing team/running team. It also definitely shows you the most brutal teams in the forms of kills/injuries getting named the most violent players. Take a look at the spreadsheet below to check out some numbers. I'll add some notes on there that may or may not make interesting reading. Again, thanks!
Well here I am after having a long weekend of Warhammer fun. I’m going to take the opportunity to go over the list and the games I played, etc… The usual things you’d expect to read from this kind of post. Towards the bottom I’ll of course link the audio and video that I cobbled together whilst I was at the tournament and without further ado.
My list:
Greyseer – Earthing Rod, Talisman of Edurance
Chiefan – BSB, Shield, Storm Banner
Warlock Engineer – Level 1, Doom Rocket
Warlock Engineer – Brass Orb
Plague Priest – Plague Furnace, Flail, Ironcurse Icon, Dispel Scroll
3 units of 5 Giant Rats – 1 Packmaster
2 units of 40 Slaves – Shields, Musician
35 Stormvermin – FC, Banner of The Underempire, Shields, Warpfire Thrower
30 Plague Monks – Standard, Musician, Plague Banner
2 units of 5 Gutter Runners – Slings, Poison Attacks
2 Warp Lightning Cannons
Abomination – Warpstone Spikes
So the list… It is a dirty list, though not nearly as dirty as it could’ve been. I took Champ in Slaves to make up points and same with the Champ in the Stormvermin as well as the Warpfire Thrower. I literally struggled to get the 600 required for the core choice at 2,400. I could have turned a unit into Clanrats, but ended up going Stormvermin and gave it a whirl.
Game 1 – Joe Gero (Warriors of Chaos)
Joe had some Khorne Knights, Khorne Warriors, a unit of Nurgle Warriors, and characters. His army was pretty much designed to get up on you and kill you in combat which isn’t unusual for Warriors at all, especially when you go Khorne. The game really was I think going his way, both my Slave units had disappeared, Abom was dead, Plague Monks had been killed along with the furnace and the Stormvermin had literally been backed into a corner, but through some magic I had his army down to 2 Khorne warriors in 1 unit and 9 plus his BSB and Lord in another. Final turn I charged my Stormvermin at the 2 certain they would win and although I felt dirty afterwards for it I used the 13th spell and rolled just what was needed to take off his other unit with his Lord and BSB in it securing me a victory by tabling for a 20-0 win. Joe is a great opponent and it was a super fun game.
Game 2 – Mike Ballard (Demons of Chaos)
Mikes list had some single Fiends, and then 1 of each Bloodletters, Horrors and Demonettes, a Great Unclean One and other such Demonic things. I concentrated all my shooting and magic onto his Bloodletters who did eventually disappear. The GUO ended up in a Slave unit which steadfasted their way through the rest of the game even getting him down to 1 wound a number of times, but as Mike was running Lore of Life he kept bringing him back up and I never quite finished him off. The Abomination and another Slave unit fought and killed the Demonettes and the rest of the game was very stand-offish. At the very end of the game I threw 13th at the Horrors and Dimensional Cascaeded. This turns out to be one of my biggest regrets of the touranment. BiTS was running a Bingo card for prizes which you would get if you marked things off of your card and 1 of the boxes was cascade yourself. I was so excited to tick off the box I didn’t think about re-rolling the result with the Earthing Rod. This not only gave Mike the win in the game but also the bonus points for breaking my own fortitude. After I realized this an hour or so later I was just gutted and really cursing myself for suffering the 11-9 loss. Had I not given him the 300 point Greyseer I would have either won or we would’ve drawn, I’m not 100 sure, but I know I wouldn’t have lost.
Game 3 – Brad Schwandt (Skaven)
I figured I’d end up fighting another Skaven at some point, I just wish it hadn’t been Brad’s. I make no excuses for my list not being dirty, but Brad’s was dirtier in my opinion. I think it was roughly 120 Slaves, 2 Greyseer’s, Abom, 2 Cannons and 30 poison Gutter Runners. The Gutter Runners made short work of my Furnace and the Cannons mostly did nill for either of us. The game really ended when Brad got Plague off and literally took off about 60-70 models out of my army. It was horrifying and there was nothing I could do about it. Once the Abomination went down on the bottom of turn 3 I called it as I’d lost basically everything at that point and didn’t feel like dealing with the futility of the continued beating.
Game 4 – Dave Witek (Vampire Counts)
Excitement was high coming into this game as I got to play Dave from Garagehammer whom I consider a good friend, and since we’ve never played we were both pretty excited. Although Dave did quite a bit of moaning about Skaven filth. Dave ran what turned out (I don’t think it as intended this way) to be a nice points denial list. Most of his points were wrapped up in the Coven Throne and his Black Knights/Hex-wraiths. I held back in a corner to avoid combat with things that could easily kill me and sent the Abomination after the Crypt Horrors. It took a couple turns but I did eventually magic missile the Hex-wraiths to death. Dave and I were both groggy and tired with nasty head colds and Dave forgot to charge his Black Knights two turns in a row which I took advantage of to drop the Warpfire Thrower on them knocking them down to only 3 models left before eventually killing them off. The Abom somehow over 5 turns never killed the Crypt Horrors (he totally should have) and I missed his coven throne with my Plague furnace charge by an inch. Dave did a fantastic job all things considered of holding me to a small victory 11-9 in my favor. Game 5 – Rock Uebler (Ogre Kingdoms)
I knew at some point I’d face these too. With 9 Ogres and 9 Dark Elves being the most numerous armies represented it was nearly a given. Rick was running what is basically the standard list, 2 Mournefang, Ironblaster, Iron Guts, Slaughter, Butcher, BSB, and the big difference is he had a Thundertusk instead of 2nd Ironblaster. He actually out-deployed me with his chaff of Saber’s and 10 man Gnoblar units. This resulted in his heavy hitters being on my flank. He managed to accidentally knock my Brass Orb engineer off the table on turn 1 through lucky panic checks from a rock that deviated off its intended target and really putting me on the back food as I’d planned on the Orb handling at least 1 unit of Mournfang. Once he got to combat with me things just disappeared quickly. I managed to Cracks Call the Thundertusk off and the Cannons did do a significant amount of damage. Sadly I lost 16-4 which had my Stormvermin not failed 3 rally checks to run off the table probably would’ve been closer to a 12-8, but a loss regardless.
Overall:
So, my takeaway thoughts on the tournament. First the tournament was a blast. It was super fun, and that’s really what Grant, Chris and Steve are looking to do. The hotel was very nice and the rooms spacious and clean. The tournament was big enough it had to be in two conference rooms, but that also gave the tournament more space so that there was a comfortable amount of room between tables, no bumping into the other players. It was definitely a great tournament.
My list while it had the teeth didn’t perform as well as I would’ve liked. I think generally most of my games were screw ups on my part. If I hadn’t let my Seer kill himself in game 2 I may have won or gotten a draw. Against Brad I’m not sure what in the world to do, there are really no good options when ½ of your army literally disappears because of a single magic phase. My loss in the last round to Ogres I definitely could have positioned better. Even having been out-deployed I chose to move the Plague Monks forward and into the charge range of the Mournefang. The worst part of the tournament is I have to learn to remember things. I only threw the Brass Orb twice in the tournament as I kept forgetting it and I forgot to use the Stormbanner and Under Empire banner almost every game! Especially against Brad the Stormbanner could have made a massive difference in keeping the furnace alive. I can see places to change things but this was an important learning experience, but I’d also like to change some units about and experiment more as well, so while I came out of the tournament with a losing record I think it really boils down to inexperience with army.
I ended up coming 54th of 77 which means I didn’t even make the top 50% of players, but I won’t let that discourage me though and I plan on sticking with the Skaven through the year for tournaments. I failed in my usual goal of more wins than losses, but that’s okay. The tournament gave out a boatload of awards including a certificate for each Best in Race as well as the usual Overall, General, Appearance, Sports but they also had awards for Best Terrain piece and then the Hoodoo Voodoo award which was for the player encompassing the spirit of ‘fun’ for the weekend. I’ll proudly say I won this award, and while it obviously wasn’t the most sought after award I’m quite happy with it and the accoutrements that came with my station.
With all this done and said let’s get to the last bit of my post here. Below you’ll find pictures of other armies and the hall that I took as well as videos and audio that I recorded during the tournament. The first video is the best in race certificates while the 2nd is the actual awards ceremony. Apologies about the audio quality. I was as close as I could get and still have a table for the camera to sit on. Finally the recording is just bits and pieces of interviews I got over the weekend from other players including a number of other podcasters out there, so I hope you enjoy the content.
Week 17 has finally concluded, albeit a tad late. That said, we are in it to win it now! Three teams are sporting solid shots at 1st place depending on how the week 18 games go. The Bogenhafen Bell Ringers, Talabheim City Chiefs and Longbeard Brawlers. It really could be anyone's game here and I'm really excited to see how it all concludes!
As you have read, Joe and I got our 1000 pt game in last week, and I thought I would just throw up some thoughts on it and update you on my Mournfang. The games went pretty well, and my army did about as good as I expected. Here are a few things that I took away from these games.
First, fear is a complete game changer at low points. It seemed like every time I got into combat with Joe's Spear horde, he failed his fear test and I just slaughtered him.
Second, when artillary is on, it is very tough to get to it. I had 2 sabertusks, and the first game they got to the hellblaster and the cannon blew itself up. Very easy win for the first game for me. Game 2, his artillary could not miss, and it brought the pain. I ran every thing I could towards it, but to no avail. Engineers are key.
I also finished 2 of my Mourngfang for the up coming Blood in the Sun tourny. I like how they came out, but there is somthing about the models that just doesn't sit right with me. I don't know what it is, but as far as I can tell, it is the model and not my paint job that has me taking a 2nd look at them. However, with the way they play, i'll take them. I have used them in a couple of games now, and except for the one were Joe's hellblaster took them off, they have always gotyen their points worth. I think I will stop at 4 of them though. Multiple units of them are really good, but I can not see it being a very fun army to play. Anyway, here are the 2 that are finished.
So Ryan and I finally got our 1k game in the other day for our little Tale of Two Gamers. We managed to squeeze in two games which was great, but the reason we did is because the 1st game was over just that fast!
Game 1 was Dawn Attack. You can see in the picture below pretty much the setup, although Ryan had already made his first moves in the pic and my cannon had already blown up. I took Shadow Magic but my shooting was quite ineffective in this game. The Magic also did very little for me.
Ryan made a couple of long charges here which basically blew the game up. He also had a Gorger not that it mattered much. The 2nd picture was halfway through Ryan’s turn showing his charges. He also moved that other Ogre unit up to block my Flagellants from getting a flank on the Mournfang should the Spears not break. Well, the Spears broke, and at that point everything basically disappeared from the table except my Handgunners which obviously weren't going to win the game.
Our second game we got Watchtower. Again you see the picture below Ryan and I had both started moving before I remembered the camera. Oops... I took Lore of Metal for this game and again it was pretty ineffective. I did get Plague of Rust off on his Generals unit twice completely eliminating his Armor Save. Also what isn't in the picture is the Mournfang who were right in front of the Flagellants but my Volley Gun rocked on fire and out of 20 shots killed the two of them in one round.
In the 2nd picture here you see what will basically be the primary combat of the game. I made a long charge with the Flagellants and they did some good damage, but died and gave Ryan the free reform to face the flank of my Spears so that he would get a super charge off. My mistake. He does get the charge off and slaughter I think 16 of the Spears who then broke. Luckily he only pursued with one unit and I managed to survive. His Generals unit turned to go and collect the Handguns and Volley Gun.
Much to his chagrin the Volley Gun turned his Generals unit into dust which was great for me! My Spears rallied and reformed a bit to receive yet another charge and my Handguns turned to face his last unit on the board. The rest of the combat was ineffectual. He killed some, I did a wound here or there, managed to be Steadfast for a round. Turns 5 and 6 I moved my Engineer off into the tower which is what technically gives me the victory here. I don't know what VP's would've brought it too, but a loss and a win seemed good to me.
So, what did I take away from thesee games?
Well, I'm terribly disappointed in my Handguns. I knew a unit of 10 wouldn't achieve anything, but I had hoped adding the extra 4 guys would have made it at least a little useful but it has consistently underperformed in all 3 games I've used it. The Volley Gun did absolutely nothing in game 1, partly because Ryan got a turn 2 charge on it with a Sabretusk. In game 2 it completed destroyed the Mournfang and a unit of 5 Ogres and a Bruiser. Mind you it had an Engineer on it that increases its cost from 120 to 185 in essence, but damn it was hot in that 2nd game.
The cannon is obviously good, and the Warrior Priest got a lot of his prayers off over the games which made him nice. Oddly the 10 Flagellants were pretty cool. They put out a ton of damage, of course they only ever last 1 round, but still the turn around is impressive. The Spears/Magic was a failure at this level. I kind of expected that though. The list I'm working on is built around some kind of good Augment Spells making the Spear unit into a combat block which it isn't naturally. With only a level 2 both games I was hoping to get spells that would help me, but both games I did not get those spells. I'm hoping that at level 4 I'll get more spells to help me solidify what’s happening to them and make them much more vicious. I know they aren't much of a combat block on their own, but they are what they are and if I somehow can't make it work at some point then it seems the list may be relegated to fun/friendly games and never see a tournament.
I had good fun, playing at 1k, but I think the Empire is missing a lot at low points that it needs to deal with Ogres. Too many attacks at high strength and I can't manage to wound him for anything in hand to hand. At 1,500 in July I'll be looking at adding more punch. Either by bringing up the Flagellant unit or adding the Knight unit which I'd like to get in, but I'm not sure I will be able to by the end of July. We'll have to just wait and see what I manage.
So I've nearly completed the Dwarf Brew House and I thought I'd throw
some pictures of it. It isn't finished being attached to its base yet
and not everything is glued together, but you get the general idea from
the photo. I also have some other smaller finishing touches to add to
it.
I don't know that it'll give me a shot at winning the BiTS terrain contest or not, but I have to say I'm satisfied with the outcome of it. I ended up painting it in my Empire themed colors, so perhaps its an Empire Brew House, but what do you do.
Week 16 has concluded and some shifting has occurred. The #1 Talabheim City Chiefs have finally dropped after being defeated twice in a row by the High Elves 'Straight Outta Ulthuan'. The Longbeard Brawlers have crawled back up into 2nd while the Bogenhafen Bell Ringers have finally fought their way into first!
So for Blood in The Sun which is coming up shortly here in just 3 weeks. BiTS has a lot of bonus points/awards, and things you can get for doing stuff. One of the things you can do is build a piece of terrain for the terrain contest. Just for participating you get a re-roll token, but as it's a contest I have to also assume there is a prize perhaps associated with it. As such I've decided to do a small write-up on the piece I'm building.
The Dwarf Brewhouse
I chose the brewhouse because... well frankly I like my Dwarf army. Also it's rules are pretty good. Any unit within 6" is both Immune to Psychology and Stubborn. Dwarf units within 6" are so fanatically defensive of it that they become unbreakable. They must also pass a LD test at -3 to move away from 6" of it. They just refuse to give up their ale.
First I began with the only piece of terrain I didn't have built. A Games Workshop tower. I have to say that the GW plastic terrain kits go together extremely well as I've never built one before. I grabbed a bunch of extra bits to add to it. A Barmaid who I got as a cheerleader for my Human Blood Bowl team but never painted. I took a gun off of the tower kit and replaced it with a telescope. Nothing like some star gazing when your drunk. A wheelbarrow, a chest, a cage of burning coals. Plenty of extra little bits to add flavor.
The pipes are Plastruct tubes that I heated a little with a lighter until I could bend the elbows required. The two large tanks of beer I made from wood slat flooring for dollhouses. The smaller barrels I actually acquired from an old display board I had.
Here is the basic assembly. The two large beer tanks will be feeding beer into the tower through the pipes. I'm going to add a small spicket on the side of one of the large tanks to fill up the barrels. The wheelbarrow will probably have a barrel in it by the end. You can hardly see the telescope up top but its there. A ladder, the barmaid. It'll be pretty good when I'm done. As long as I don't jack up the paintjob that is. I'm pretty excited to get to painting this bad boy.
Alright, June is here and I need to get 1000 points together. This month I have been working on some Mournfang and they are progressing nicely. My list is as follows:
My gaming plan again is to just run forward and see what these guys can do. The Mournfang and Sabertusk's will hopefully get to his warmachines in a timely mannor, and the 2 units of bulls will clean up his hand to hand units.
My painting plan this month is again the Mournfang. I needs to get 4 done by the end of the month because I am attending the Blood in the Sun 2400 point tournament, and I sent in my list including all four. The way I see this going, is getting 2 posted up to the blog this month, then the other 2 will be finished just in time for BitS, so they will not make the blog until July.
Week
15has finally ended and boy has it seen some upsets. The previously high ranking Dwarfs go down to the Cotton Blossom's in a scoreless 4-0 loss while the 1st place Talabheim City Chiefs also lost to the other High Elf team Straight Outta Ulthuan 5-1, but managed to hold their 1st place position in the league.
