The Waaagh Cast!

An Abomination!

2012-01-27T16:51:00.002-06:00

I'm done for January, huzah!

Having tonight hit the Abomination with a dull coat he is in the finished pile. I don't think its my best paint job ever, but I knew it wouldn't be going into it. I've never been very good at painting up a large area of skin. Wings, large patches of open area. They just aren't in my skill set.

I don't think he came out terrible, but I think that a more competent painter could've done a lot more with him.

As far as changes to this model go though. I removed the little piece of stonework that his hand would be holding, I didn't like it. I also hated the engine and wheel thing that goes in his butt so I left those out and made a big belt to wrap around him out of green stuff that would hold that piece of armor on his back. There is a large divot on that armor for the engine which I had to fill in and I stuck a big Skaven banner top on which isn't visible in the picture, but that's it really. I left off all the mechanical stuff because I really didn't any of it. So, that said though next month I literally only have to paint a Plague Furnace and my 2,500 points will be complete!

What an Abomination!

January 8,000 Point Game

2012-01-18T19:25:00.002-06:00

So to celebrate MLK day (that is the fact that 3 of the 4 of us were off of work and I took some PTO) the four of us got together to play a game. Ryan brought his Ogres, Dave the Beasts me with Skaven and our friend Dan with his Warriors of Chaos to round out the 4 players. We went for a team game and deciding that Ryan and I had the most experience separated ourselves with Dan and Dave rolling to see who ended up where. I was teamed with Dave and his Beasts while Ryan ended up with Dan's Warriors.

To save on complications and time issues we chose not to run a scenario or any kind of crazy terrain. with 8,000 points on the table the game was going to take plenty long enough without adding extra rules to it. We also chose to use all 8ft of the table seeings as our 1,500 point 3 player game saw us with almost not enough room to actually deploy our armies.

With the preface out of the way we set up.

The Skaven/Beast battle here on the left, while the WoC/Ogres are pictured to the right.

Dave and I got the 1st turn and chose to essentially move very little. We wanted the 1st round of war machine fire knowing that Ryan and Dan with almost no shooting would be looking to close the gap very quickly. Dave had his 1 unit of 5 Ungor ambushers come up from the right flank behind Dans dogs and Marauder horsemen for harassment. Daves other Ungor moved forward to nearly mdidle table length while all my Giant Rat units moved forward as well. My Gutters scouted intot he central tower.

Dan and Ryans 1st turn saw some of Dans Warhounds charging the Ungors at mid table. Ryan charged his Leadbelchers at the Gutter Runners in the tower, to which I killed on on the way in, lost 4 of 5 in combat and managed to hold on the Steadfast Leadership of 7. Everything else moved up heavily for turn 2 and 3 combats. You'll see the left of this picture (Dan's side of the board) that Ryan had a large Ogre unit there and Dan had both a unit of Chosen as well as some Knights that he is moving in the picture.

Me and Dave's turn 2. The Abom. made it to the Warhounds at mid table killing them. The Monks and Gor herd moved up to intercept Knights while Ryans Ogres moved for Hellpit.

I moved my Engineers out of their units into range to use their toys. The Brass Orb thrown at the unit nearest the tower containing Ryan's Slaughtermaster missed. The Doomrocket though which was fired at the large unit of Marauders in the bigger picture above between the two houses killed about half of them causing them to panic and run as seen in the two smaller pictures. My Greyseer teleported behind Dan's large unit of Khorne warriors on the far left. You can barely see it in that small picture on the left, but I killed about half of that unit with the 13th.

Combat is joined! This is the turn where all hell breaks out. I had brought my Stormvermin in the left picture up to hit what I thought would be the side of the Ogres. Sadly we faced them wrong.

This led to Ryan charging, killing and overrunning Dave's skirmishers in his turn 2 and making it into my Stormvermin which Dan had brought the remains of his Khorne Warriors into giving that unit of Ogres 2 combats for the round utterly dominating my Stormvermin unit and killing them. His Horsemen had charged the Doomflayer accompanying the vermin and although it died it killed them in response as they fought at the same Initiative. On the right you can my Slave unit sitting idle on the hill while my Clanrats had on our turn 2 been set up to give the flank charge on Dan's Knights should they charge the Ungor unit which they did.

This picture represents both excellent planning and the result of horrendous planning. My Clanrats made their flank doing exactly what Dave and I had set them up to do. The Plague Monks although having lost combat to the Chosen had held as I knew they would. The poor planning came where the Ogres and Khorne Warriors had slaughtered a full 30 man Stormvermin unit. It was sad. At this point I also used my Engineer's who no longer had their toys to plug up the Ironguts to the right of that central tower. One at a time they moved in, angled off so that Ryan would have to charge and kill and then reform to ever get towards the big units left. I did this with both engineers separately thus plugging that unit for 2 full turns. The best use I think I've ever gotten out of them. Also on the far left you'll see the Abomination finishing off those Khorne warriors in the flank. Of course it left him wide open for the Ogres but it had to be done. Also I've never used the Abomination before so I was really wanting him to see combat.

The result from the previous combats, the Chosen have become more heavily depleted while the Knights have fled from a lost combat. They rallied immediately after though and turned to rejoin combat in the future. What you really can't see here is that there is a Scraplauncher behind that tower and a little to the left. He charged my Clanrats which as you'll see in the next picture happily ran away to live another ratty day and he then failed the re-direction into the Gor herd.

This picture shows the true horrors of war. The last engineer preparing to stuff up those Ironguts. The Clanrats fleeing from the Scraplauncher and something I did not expect to see out there on the left. Ryan charged his 5 Ogre's and a Bruiser BSB into my Abomination, at which point the Abomination proceeded to suffer two wounds while doling out a tremendous 10 in return! The Ogores broke and were ran down setting the Abomination up to go and finish off that Knight unit in the next turn which they actually never got the opportunity to do.

Dave charged his Gor herd into the Knights and succesfully got off Mindrazor. He handily chopped what remained up and with a combat reform turned to get the Leadbelchers out of the tower. So before that happens the Leadbelchers fired off a volley and killed the Abomination. What you can't see out on the right flank here is that the big Marauder unit that had been running at this point had rallied, and those white models just barely in frame are Dave's Bestigor getting chewed up by the Marauders Flails. My Clanrats had rallied at the bottom and you can see one of Ryan's Gorgers having just completed eating my WLC.

Here Ryan has finally gotten his Ironguts unplugged and between them and a Gorger the Slave unit has disappeared. His 2nd Gorger has come up and as you'll see in the final picture below finished off the Catapult as well as chased the Plague Monks off. You can see in the right Dave's Minotaurs completely out of position to kill the oh so tasty Marauders near them as they got sidelined by one of Ryan's Sabertusks using it just as I had my Engineers.

Here we see the final moments of the game. The Bestigor are dead, my Clanrats hiding in a tower to avoid the charge by Ironguts and Dave's Gor herd doing the same by moving past the tower to avoid the charge. It was a truly bloody affair. All told the damages after being added up had Dave and I in the winners circle at about 2,600points to around 1,700. After a LONG day of playing we clocked in a truly phenomenal game with some great knowledge to take away.

Speaking of that knowledge, I can't say much about the others thoughts but I'll give mien. The Abomination is something I probably should have been running since 1,000 points. I hadn't because I didn't own the model and I was pretty sure I just wasn't using the army properly; I also knew it didn't have any hitting power but I had no idea how much the Abomination would fix that. Turns out, it fixes it a LOT! I don't want to say the army 'needs' an Abomination, but it is awfully damned helpful. I also imagine that versus regular Infantry armies it isn't as necessary as I think I'll find it against Ogres.

I fielded two weapons teams in this game and after having tried again and again to use them previous to this I have finally decided that the internet is about as correct as they can be, in the fact that they just aren't worth the points invested. I threw the Stormvermin away in this game, talk about a lot of points. However this was my own fault as I'm the one who instructed Dave on how to place them. It was my own folly not having the Skirmishers placed correctly for the re-direction.

My Warp Lightning Cannon's did absolutely nothing this game. I've known that the WLC is something that almost needs fielded in pairs just to create the redundancy necessary for them to be effective in a competitive environment but damned this helped cinch it. In a game where I could've really used them against some tasty it utterly failed me. The Catapult is another waste of points. I know I've only fielded it this one time, but literally against the army it seems designed for (Warriors of Chaos) it managed to kill only a 4 or 5 models durign the entire game. For 10 points less I could take that 2nd WLC.

Well that's it. I hope you all enjoyed the report. I'll try and get the others to post here too or in the comments of this thread about what they took away from the game too. Hopefully you'll all get something useful from the report. Also, even though Dan isn't writing the articles with us, he is just getting that Warriors of Chaos army going I'm going to drop him a line to get his thoughts on the game as well.

Dave's Thoughts:
First off... That was a fun game. Skaven and Beasts made a pretty good team. For me the Gors won the MVP AGAIN!! Every list I make MUST have a big block o' Gors. Withering helped them blunt what would have been a storm of death that is 10 Khorne Knights and an Exalted Hero on a Juggernaught. Dan is really improving, but dang he had it rough a few turns. I had a wizard with pit and Joe had 13th and some Warlock toys. They never seemed to work on any of Ryan's units, but when used on Dan they always worked to full effectiveness.

What won us the match had to be how we handled our left flank. The Abomination and Gors really did the dirty work and broke it down. Joe using his characters to effectively block up Ryan's heavy hitters. Although Ryan stalled my Minotaur bus (like 700pts of Minotaur's). His Sabertusks totally took them out of the game. I really should have put them closer to the center of the line and away from those cats! They have to be the best chaff in the game, and he really knows how to use them.

I need to work on deployment. Having that many points out of the game could have cost us. Bestigors needed a little more support to be truely effective and it is about time I finish and use my Shard of the herdstone. All in all, I can't wait to play another big team game.

As far as fleeing in the last turn... I will blame that on the rats!

Ryan's Thoughts:
This 8,000 point game was a lot of fun, but I have to say that it was because of playing it with friends. Spending 5 hours playing a game this size with random opponents would not have been nearly as fun. It is always good to get out of the house and just hang out and get a game in.

I really didn't take away anything earth shattering from this game though, just a few little things. Number one, 8th edition is not a quicker game than 7th. We kept the game rolling pretty smoothly the entire time, and it was still a long game. We only looked up the random rule here and there, and just went with our gut and memory on the rest of them.

Next, the Abomination is pretty ridiculous. I have not read all of it's options that it can do so I am hoping that there are some less than great results that it can get, but it really was a beast in this game. It slaughtered my unit of Ogres with my BSB with ease. Joe also did a great job slowing down my unit of 8 Ironguts with the Slaughtermaster in it. That unit never saw a legit combat. He just kept throwing little things in front of it to slow it down. In the end, it killed less than 100 vp's the entire battle.

Finally, I was really disappointed in the Lore of the Great Maw spells. Since we were playing the full eight foot table, my spells really didn't do much. Three of the four augment spells only have a twelve inch range so I really could not support the army like I wanted to, even with them being boosted it is still only a twelve inch range. I don't think this is the lore's fault, but if I know that I will be playing on a eight foot table again, I will most likely take two casters.

Overall I had a great time, and it really put me back into the hobby frame of mind. I am painting again, and should have the Ironguts finished this weekend, then I just need to finish up my BSB. Once I get him together I will throw up a picture to the blog. Also I'd like to add, that during the bottem of turn six, both Joe and Dave chose to flee as a charge response from multiple charges instead of fighting it out. To that I say COWARDS!

Dan's Thoughts:
This was my 3rd game of WHFB and I have to say that each time I play it gets better and better. A lot of it has to do with the ability to play with friends that know that game and are willing to spend a few seconds to help when needed. The game started great and I spread out all my units I kept thinking to myself that Ryan and I had too much and it was going to be an easy game. Little did I know that the Skaven and Beastmen together could field so many models and are a huge force to reckon with. The sheer numbers of Skaven and Gors made some issues for my smaller units (WOC Khorne and Marauders). One big thing I did learn is, it isn't a bad idea to play around with different builds. I would honestly have taken more warriors of Khorne and left out some of the unit's I added just for fun. My unit of 3 Plague Ogres really didn't do anything and I could have poured the 150 points into the Warriors or added a few more Knights to my "deathstar" unit. I was really surprised that my chosen didn’t do better. I rolled the +1 toughness gift at the beginning of the game and thought for sure that high point unit would have done more, but alas a large unit vs. 10 Chosen seemed to just outweigh them by numbers. I also gave them the Plague Banner and forced people to take a toughness test when in base contact with my banner holder. I think we missed it a few times though, and I may end up running these guys as Khorne or just Undivided later on.

Ryan, Joe, and Dave were awesome and able to help me with some of the tactics. I am so used to playing 40k and just putting out armored units and not having to worry about where they are placed. This is totally different and with Ryan's help I was able to place some of my units better than without. I did learn that not all "chaff" is bad. I really thought my 10 mounted Marauders of Slannesh were more of an easy kill unit and was surprised that it lasted as long as it did and was able to clear out some smaller units. I also learned that it is not the best idea to place your sorcerer into a unit of Marauders. A few hits caused them to fall back and run away because of bad leadership rolls and spent 2 turns unable to cast any of the spells I had. I think in the future I may end up putting the sorcerer in a unit that may be better suited for combat.

All in all the game went really well. I’m happy and feel like I learned a lot. The downside of this is that some rules questions came up about a few small things and felt out of the loop because it was rulings for a tournament type of setting, but alas that’s my fault because I haven't played in an actual tournament yet. I do plan on spending some more time reading some of the rules more and going thru my army book to see if I can tweak the army a little. I’d also like to add is some sort of artillery (either a Hellcanon or CD Magma Cannon). I really think having a unit like that may have helped to stave off some of the larger Beastmen units and Skaven blocks. All said, I can't wait for the next game.

Chuck ToFG: Ironblaster

2012-01-17T21:10:00.000-06:00

Well figured I would post the start and semi-assembly WIP and give an update. This is a dual cannon from the Ironblaster from which I have already partially assembled and painted. 95% of the model is already assembled and about 20% painted. All parts are glued just not assembled. It is smarter at this point to piece the model together as the painting is being completed because of areas that are hard to get to. Hopefully, by the end of Feb. we will have this ready to put on the field. The Steam tank molds came out ok but I didn't use those in the final product. Though you can see the Steam engine portion in the front as the driving force of the cannon, replacing the Rhino.

Ironblaster!

Ryan G. ToFG: Dec. Recap

2012-01-14T14:17:00.001-06:00

Good evening to all you Waaagh-ladites out there. I just wanted to throw up my December report to the blog real quick. December was an appauling month for me, as it had the holidays, and then I went on a vacation at the begining of January. I did manage to get 4 things painted though. I finished my Butcher, Gorger, and 2 Ironguts.

The Butcher which I'll be using as my Slaughtermaster in the 2000 point list. I tried to a few things to make him stand out, his Iron Gob and chains of gold instead of silver. I also went over the blood on his apron with gloss varnish to give it a wet look. I'm still in the air about the blood, not sure how hard it'd be to correct now that it has varnish on it. I cut his top knot hair off as I hate that look. Even with my 40k Orks, I cut them off.

I wasn't sure how I was going to paint my Gorger's since I'm doing an African theme. After thinking it over, I figured they would still be pale even in Africa based on their fluff, so that's what I did. I added red to the mix to try and get some definition on them and figured they may get sunburnt in the process. I haven't heard much about the Gorger's this edition, but I like them. I like ambush and unbreakable, but turn 3 combat is rough. I plan on taking 2 at 2,000.

I quite like how the light grey is contrasting with the dark skin on my Ogres. The pictures don't really do it justice, but it really makes them pop. Ironguts are probably the easiest models I have painted so far, as so much of them is just metal. Overall, I like how things are coming along quite nicely.

I also recieved a Stonehorn/Thundertusk for christmas this year, and was just wondering if any of you had play tested them and which you liked better. I have not tested either one, but I'm leaning more towards the Stonehorn because it is a better fit for my play style. Run it straight at my opponent and hope for the best. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

For my 2,000 point army, I'll be upgrading the butcher to a level 4 Slaughtermaster, adding another Gorger, and converting a Hunter model into a Bruiser BSB. I also got 6 more Ironguts left over from last month that I have to finish painting up.

The above will put my 2000 point list as follows:

Slaughtermaster - level 4. I didn't give him armor as that is against the spirit of the rules, and did not want to be a wonky power gamer. *cough*Chuck*cough*
Bruiser BSB
2 Units of 7 Ogres w/full command
1 Unit of 4 Leadbelchers
Scraplauncher
2 individual Sabertusks
1 Unit of 8 Ironguts w/ full command
2 individual Gorgers

This puts me at 2000 point exactly.

Also, to Wallshammer who suggested I try out purple wash on my Ogres I wanted to let you know that I did try it, but I like the way the black wash looks better. Thank you for the suggestion, and I look forward to any others that you or anyone else has.

Finally, Dan is the other local guy that is not participating in the ToFG, but is joining us for the big battle's at the end of each month so they are more even. If you want, you can follow him at: http://www.clangclangdie.blogspot.com

Cheers,

RyanG

Orc'z is da best!

2012-01-13T21:42:00.001-06:00

As I continue plugging away on my WHQ set as well as my Skaven tonight brought me to the finish of the WHQ Orc models. You can see the hand weapon shield ones in a post below, and here are the ones armed with bows. Again, no white box; but when I do actually have it finished I will be taking higher quality pictures.

Chuck ToFG: Ogre Update

2012-01-11T20:44:00.001-06:00

Updating Everyone with my list for January. I am now pumping it up to 2,000 points.

Total Roster Cost: 1994

Slaughtermaster
      1 Biting Blade
      1 Charmed Shield
      1 Greedy Fist
Bruiser
      1 Enchanted Shield
      1 The Other Trickster's Shard
Ogres (12#, 407 pts)
   11 Ogres FC +HW, LA
6 Leadbelchers, musician
1 Sabretusks, 21 pts x3
3 Maneaters, bellower, standard, brace of pistols, light armor
      1 Banner of Eternal Flame
2 Ogre Mournfang Cavalry, bellower, heavy armor, ironfist
2 Ogre Mournfang Cavalry ironfist, standard, heavy armor
5 Ironguts, 235 pts = 5 * 43 (base cost 43) + Bellower Mus 10 + Standard Bearer Std 10
10 Gnoblar, 35 pts musician

This is a picture of a trial run with the ogres before I broke up the mournfang calvary into 2 units. I then upgraded the Leadbelchers to 6 and dropped a Ironbreaker to make room. The large unit of Bulls houses the characters and varies its own formation to maximize attacks or ranks depending on the situation. My Adepticon list will hopefully see a unit of Gnoblars addeda nd a Large Ironblaster cannon thats a WIP now. Additionally I am putting the final touches on a large BSB with the Ogre from the IronBlaster Kit.

WHQ Orcs, Rats and a little something else...

2012-01-10T16:59:00.000-06:00

So I said I'd get something up soon and here's what I have. I'd put up pictures for ToFG but all I've been doing are Stormvermin which are pretty boring. I have however completed the 6 Orcs with Sword/Shield for WHQ along with the 12 Giant Rats.

Click for the big picture as usual. I'm pretty happy with the way the old school shield on the one Orc came out with the read face type emblem. Giant Rats we're nothing particularly special. Sorry the pictures aren't better but I didn't feel like getting the whitebox out.

Also I've cast my 1st two pieces for a project I'm working on. I'm trying to scratch build an Empire War Wagon from back in the day. Since the piece currently goes on eBay and such for around $150 I'm trying to do it for significantly less. These will be the sides of the cart. A lot of air bubbles, but nothing some Liquid GS wont fix.

Joe F. ToFG: 2,000pts.

2012-01-07T13:38:00.002-06:00

Okay, so we all know that December was terribly lackluster in terms of our games/painting/hobby went. I finished some small things but not a single one of us managed to complete our goal for last month and even worse I think we only really got 2 games in between all 4 of us that we wrote reports for.

Still with all that we are in January now and technically at our 2,000 point level. I'm about 10 models shy of completing my Stormvermin unit, and in liu of not having time and deciding that I'll probably never use them otherwise I've begun using my 2 completed Rat Ogre as unit fillers to buff the Clanrats up to 35. Convenient I know.

The best thing about 2,000 points is that I don't have to add much. This month will see me hapilly adding only 2 models tot he army. A Greyseer (who I actually painted last month for a tournament) and an Abomination which I have assembled but still need to green stuff some of the line work on and paint. Give the Abomination Warpstone Spikes and that's 490 points of my 500 points for the month. Excellent choices!

Keep tuned, I'll do my best to get some stuff posted soon!

Chuck ToFG: Ogre Characters

2011-12-31T21:37:00.002-06:00

Top Banner view,
the wood is from the building kits

Front Face View

After shifting my Battlemaster BSB into my Maneaters, partially because he matches the other 2 I painted, I had to do a new BSB. IJ ended up taking the Ogre from the Ironblaster kit and making him into my new BSB. He is leaning back on a hard plaster moulded base with a little styrofoam mound on top of that. The Pole is not yet finsihed so its kinda of a work in progress image. But its lots of plasticard and alot of ogre bits spewed out! He is large and in charge!

Rear end!

Reaper Ogre Ma

This is my new caster. Not an official GW model but I threw some bits on her like a new arm and new supplies on her pelt. The staff is painted similar to an ember so that she could be treated as a fire mage.

Chuck ToFG: Update

2011-12-31T21:21:00.002-06:00

10 gnoblars painted up for the 2200 list at Acon!

Well I have been pretty busy working on the Ogres. First I assembled and started to paint up 45 gnoblars. I only finished 10 though, because it got tiresome and I don't think I'll be using 4 units of 10 in my army for a high deployment ratio. I do like the little guys and they give some character to the battlefield. They don't cause panic in my ogres if they die and I also plan on adding some to other Ogres for the classic effect.

Happy New Year! and a Battle Report!

2011-12-31T14:50:00.001-06:00

First to all those around the globe who follow the blog, Happy New Year! I hope that your 2011 was as wonderful as my own and wish you great prosperity and fun gaming in 2012!

If you want my look back at 2011 you can see a previous blog entry here: 2011 Rear End Review. However as many do I thought I might throw a few resolutions for 2012 in just for good measure!

Finish the Skaven Army (Honestly I should be able to complete this easily before summer 2012.
Finish the Empire army I've been tinkering with for 3 years. Maybe near end of 2012.
Get a placement at a GT. I've never gotten an award from a GT, I'd like one. Doesn't matter what, but something would be good. Hopefully the Skaven will provide.
Get at minimum 52 games during the year. I've managed this and more 3 years now, I don't see this being any problem.
Play every board game I own at least once. Anything unplayed by the end of 2012 is to be culled from the collection of 100+ board games.

There you go. Gaming resolutions. 5 of them I thought should be plenty, and I think they are all reasonable goals as well. What are your resolutions?

Now for the Battle Report!
Ryan G. and his Ogres VS. my Skaven at 1,500 points. Meeting Engagement!

Honestly, we forgot to start taking pictures before turn 2 so this is actually the bottom of turn two. Meeting Engagement is bad for me as it is basically guaranteeing Ryan his turn 2 charges. I tried to hide behind some woods and throw Slaves and Giant Rats into him to slow him up but to nearly no avail. The Slaves which you can see as mostly an empty tray towards the middle disappeared quickly due more to my own insanity. I fired a Warpfire Thrower through them in hopes of hitting more of Ryan than myself but failing that by only rolling a 2 on the Artillery Dice and roasted about 12 of my own guys. Oops...

Around turn 3 the Slaves had imploded as the Clanrats come around the forest to go to where the Slaves have recently vacated some space. The Stormvermin in the bottom of the picture now certainly bound for combat roll up to the forests edge in what hopefully wont be a completely lost combat. The Plague Monks in the middle are holding; mostly due to Ryan's terrible dice rolling than any luck of mine.

Ah, and then it all falls apart. The Stormvermin engage while the Plague Monks broke. The Bruisers unit combat reforms at the end of my previous turn so that on Ryans he can charge that Clanrat unit above in the flank. I flee keeping him off of me for another round. It should be noted I've not had a General for 3 turns now, his Brass Orb didn't hit anything and he ended up fleeing before the Plague Monks as I'd taken him out early on to try and throw the Orb.

Blurry photo's right? Yeah, you don't wanna see this anyway. LOL! The Plague Monks made it off the board as did the General. The Stormvermin lost and ran off the Board leaving the poor WLC to die shortly thereafter. His Bruisers unit makes it to the Clanrats wiping out somewhere around 10 of them in the 1st round. They hold but to what avail? The game is over... Ogres are proving to be a very difficult army for me and the Skaven. I know that this should improve once I get to the 2 and 2,500 point levels as I'll be adding some actual hitting power into the lists like the Abomination and the Plague Furnace which can with decent dice deal out significant damage. A work in progress... Its hard for me to get over my old Dwarf tactics of just go get 'em because that is something the Skaven do NOT seem capable of doing.

I really want to keep some Weapons Teams in the list, but I have yet to have one perform enough to come anywhere near justifying its nearly 100 point cost. I feel they may be left out in the end, destined for fun games and not those at a tournament. I also believe my 2nd WLC will soon be entering the fray. Redundancy is the key. The 1 never seems to do much before exploding, perhaps 2 will. 2,000 will see the addition of the Greyseer for certain and probably the Abomination to give my opponents something serious on the table to worry about. I have got to get my head wrapped around this army before Adepticon and I do okay against infantry lists, but Ogres just seem too danged hard to wound while there mass number of attacks back seem to relegate my larger numbers to nearly pointless. Frustration...

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T22:36:00.004-06:00

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch
over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and
the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the
angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David
a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall
find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly
there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and
saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill towards
men.

-Luke 2:8-14

"God bless us, each and every one."

2011 Rear end review...

2011-12-21T16:49:00.002-06:00

So as 2011 rapidly draws to a close I am aware that I have played my last game of the year. I managed to make it a practice Blood Bowl game against my friend Ryan to which my Dwarfs managed a draw against his Humans. A good game all in all. Still with the year end looming I thought I'd take a look back at some information for myself as well as maybe some of the things that I think highlighted the year.

First, I keep track of my games every year. You can call it vanity (although once you see my loss record I think you'll forget that idea) but I like to call it justification. I view it as proof to myself that my hobby earns it's well spent money. I've aggregated my information from a spreadsheet and will put it below for the discerning reader to look through for fun.

In the year 2011 I played a total of 56 games between Warhammer Fantasy and Blood Bowl. Of these 56 games I won a total of 25 (44.64%), lost 26 (46.43%) and drew only 5 (8.93%). Having lost more than I won makes me want to cry. Last year I managed to pull off the 50% W/L ratio, but apparently not so this year. Part of this I attribute to many games at the end of the year being with my Skaven army that I quite admittedly have no idea how to play properly.

Still, I go further... Of those 56 games 49 we're Fantasy in which I won 22 (44.90%), lost 25 (51.02%) and drew 2 (4.08%). I cry more! Still here's where I get to bring up that most of this was due to Skaven as I break it down by army.

Dwarfs - Total games played 28
Wins 15 (53.57%)
Losses 12 (42.86%)
Draws 2 (3.57%)

Skaven - Total games played 17
Wins 6 (35.29%)
Losses 10 (58.82%)
Draws 1 (0.00%)

Wood Elves - Total games played 4
Wins 1 (25.00%)
Losses 3 (75.00%)
Draws 0 (0.00%)

Here we can see that I am still doing the best with my Dwarf army. Even in its constructed for 7th edition form with blocks no larger than 20 (25 with Slayers). The Skaven, you see have had a rough time; and I've only been playing them really for about 4 months. The Wood Elves I only played at Adepticon this year in the 1,000pt. tournament which I did not expect to do well in anyway.

Breaking down simply tournament data speaks a bit of blissful thought though. Out of my 49 games of Fantasy 31 we're played at Tournaments. Given that I (kept less accurate information here) played mostly Dwarfs in my tournaments I scored a 15 in both the win and loss while only managing 1 draw in a tournament setting. I know I played Skaven in at least 6 of these games; I also know that out of those 6 I lost 4 of them thus leaving me to continue stating the trend that I'm still better with my Dwarfs.

My Blood Bowl gaming has garnered a whopping total of 7 games this year. 6 of those being played at Adepticon's Stupor Bowl tournament and 1 having been played literally yesterday. All the games we're with my Dwarf team.

Wins - 3 (42.86%)
Losses - 1 (14.29%)
Draws - 3 (42.86%)

So, statistics... If I we're a more intelligent person maybe I'd graph this out and see the trending data of what time of year I perform best, or perhaps be able to figure out what opponents from what geographical area I do the worst against, but I'm satisfied that I have any data at all to look at. In the end what matters to me is I played enough games over the course of the year to have had 1 game played for all 52 weeks in a year. I also have a goal of having at least a 50% win ratio which was denied me this year by a single game. If only I hadn't bothered playing one of those losses with the Skaven army. Alas, twas not to be.

However I digress... Looking away from my statistics I think back on the year as a whole. For Fantasy it has been a pretty exciting year. We've seen the coming of 3 new army books, a supplement and a campaign. Out of all this I believe that Storm of Magic seems to be the largest failure for the game int hat nobody in our area plays it or is even the slightest bit interested. Blood in the Badlands really got my the most excited. While no army book came out this year for an army I own at least this book gave us new rules in the way of siege games which is something I'm much more interested in than in slinging gargantuan spells around that smash and blast whole units from the board.

We've seen the birth of what I refer to as the Giant Monster Model craze. Although this isn't just in Fantasy, its trending that way with 40K and the vehicles int hat game as well. I have to also however admit that the models from GW are looking better and building better than ever. The kits are also costlier than ever but given the product quality you can't much complain. Unless of course your talking about Finecast. I have yet to purchase a single model from that line but expect I will eventually. I have no excuse for not buying any other than I haven't wanted or needed one yet; however I must admit I've heard both good and bad in just about equal amounts.

My Skaven army that I'd gotten most of the models for last fall and didn't start painting until this fall have really been coming together. Hopefully at some point I'll figure out how the hell to play them and start winning. Until that point I guess they are just a fun army, much like the Goblin horde I played many years ago. Wacky, silly, fun and occasionally winning.

I can't single out specific things from tournaments as memories to share because frankly when I attend a tournament I tend to get a bit drunk and forget most of it. Ah, friends... I do love the comradeship and people whom I have the privilege of being friends with and spending weekends knocking about with whilst away from home.

Finally the big note for me and Fantasy this year ended in the shut down of The Waaagh Cast as a permanent podcast. My goodness there we're just so many at the time. Oddly enough when I shut down it seems that 4 others disappeared with me which was a bit on the odd side. Still we we're replaced with great shows who were either just starting up or had been going for a shorter time than ourselves like Garagehammer, Ohiohammer, Pointhammered and the old stand-by's such as Heelanhammer and Bad Dice which we're still there. I love listening to them all and actually being friends with a number of the US podcasters leaves me extremely happy that I had ever set out on the endeavor in the first place.

I figure I'll finish this up with a thank you to all those who still follow the blog. Hopefully 2012 brings nothing but joy to you all and great gaming opportunities. I'll see a most of you that I know at tournaments throughout the year, I am attending Adepticon as always, and will likely be going to Blood in the Sun and whatever Alex Gonzalez decides to run this fall. Hopefully the Skaven will be done by summer next year and I'll be able to put my work onto that blasted Empire army I've been tinkering with for 4 years. I plan on making recordings from the GT's that I attend so watch the blog for those postings after the events for some audio love from me.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all and I'll see you all next year, god bless.

Holy Paintbrush Batman!

2011-12-17T11:32:00.000-06:00

So I've been painting. A lot. Unfortunatly not my Skaven. Well, at least not much of my Skaven. I've managed to finsih my Warpfire Thrower and Greyseer. I've also finished a chunk of my Warhammer Quest set. So, since I said earlier this week that there would be pictures coming, here they are. Enjoy and as usual you click for a much larger picture.

Oh and before someone says something snarky about the color scheme of the Mino's remember I'm painting them in the mid 90's style. Yes that means garishly bright colors, but I figured I'd go for the nostalgia.

Greyseer converted form the Island of Blood Master Moulder with Shock Prod

Warpfire Thrower from the Island of Blood, with added cinematic flame.

Minotaur from WHQ

Bats from WHQ

Spiders from WHQ

Snotlings from WHQ

Chuck ToFG: To Blast that Scrap!

2011-12-17T08:06:00.002-06:00

After many debates and thoughts I actually picked up the IB/SL kit at the december tournament in Springfield, IL. I have ravaged the forums for info, tips and tricks. Waited until the FAQ came out and neutered my poor Ironblaster....sigh. However, I want to take a different approach then my dear and very admired friend / fellow ToFG gamer Ryan. So I have chosen to go the route of Ironblaster. I have even used it in one game, proxied of course, to try and gauge how well it will work.

Found a couple bits to convert it with since I like conversions:

ebayed so I can use different wheels


ebaying also to use wheels and pistons from the STANK. I won't be using the small cannon lol

In my first game versus Bretonnians using the Ironblaster we only did 3 turns, however in those turns I did manage to kill 5 knights and a trebuchet. I will say the reroll ability to ensure maximum distance is a big plus. We will be testing it out before adding it to the January lists. Additionally bits for the Blaster won't be in until christmas so while I have the Kit assembled in pieces I won't be posting anything until its together.

Merry Christmas, etc, etc...

2011-12-13T21:24:00.000-06:00

Oh Christmas Tree!

So I became aware today that there has been a bit of inactivity on the blog lately. Well, a lot of inactivity! Tis the season for ho, ho, ho and all that and as expected everybody's ability to get in some much needed hobby has been reduced to nearly nothing. Beyond shopping, wrapping, card sending, Christmas plays and more! we've been to busy to really do much of anything. in fact I don't' believe a single one of us has even played a 1,500 point game yet.

That said I have managed to squeeze just a little bit of painting in here and there. Hopefully by the end of this week you'll see a blog post from myself at least with my Warpfire Thrower and a lot of my Warhammer Quest models I've been working on. While they aren't pertinent to the ToFG articles they are what I've been doing so expect to see them!

And to all you and yours, Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc...

Chuck ToFG: Reaper Ogre Mage

2011-12-06T18:56:00.000-06:00

I got my female Ogre miniature in today from Reaper; I'm going to cut off the choppa and add an ogre club. I also got some livestock to add tot he belt. The staff I am going to paint up like burning fire wood, hopefully useful for a fire-belly mage or regular caster, and she is a heavy one!

Chuck ToFG: December 1,500 pts.

2011-12-03T07:29:00.001-06:00


1500pts Orgre Rock Guts Tribe

The list for December is as follows:

Ogre level 3 SlaughterMaster Iron Fist

Bruiser BSB, Heavy Armor, Iron Fist

6 Ogres +HW, Standard, Musician, Champion, Look Out Gnoblar

6 Ogres IF, LA, Standard, Musician

5 IronGuts Standard, Musician

1 Sabretusk

3 Mournfang Cav., LA, Iron Fist, Musician

I added the wizard and a smaller unit of Ironguts. I feel that at 1500pts the threat of magic dealing more damage is more real. I need everything magic wise to help balance out against other races that trump the magic phase like HE, Lizards, and DE. I have tried and thought about the Maneaters and come to conclusion that having them in a group of 3 scouting would be the best threat to an enemies flank. So at 2,000 pts. I see myself probably taking them and making the wizard a level 4. I'm not sure what I'll do with the leftover points after that though.

Ryan G. ToFG: 1,000 Pt. Wrap-up

2011-11-30T20:39:00.001-06:00

So the 1,000 points month is done, and I have to say that I am still enjoying the Ogres. It has not been too painful keeping up with 500 pts. per month, but I cut it pretty close this time.

Here are my two lions that I am using for my Sabertusks. These guys proved to work pretty well, but are very fragile. I like them for the extra drops for the army during the deployment phase.

The Scraplauncher also did rather well. Its not a game breaker, but is useful for killing off the last bits of chaff, or even going into a combat for some additional support.

For next month and the 1,500 point list I'm adding a Level 2 Butcher, 6 Ironguts, and a Gorger.

Only 4 Ironguts are pictured because the other two had to take a bath to have their paint stripped off them. This unit will add some major hitting power to my army, but I'm not sure how much I will need it at this point. We'll see if the points are worth this unit at this time or not. After my last game with Joe, the spell Crack's Call made me realize I am going to need some magic defense or these game will be very one sided. A Butcher with a dispel scroll should get the job done for the time being. The Gorger is just there because I like them. Its good for artillary hunting, or for that extra flank support.

Ogre Kingdoms have shown themselves to be a very solid army so far, and I'm excited to see how they will perform at higher points levels.

Cheers,
Ryan G

Joe F. ToFG: 1,500 Points December/January

2011-11-28T21:54:00.001-06:00

Well, here we are preparing to go into the month of December. Our 3rd month for the ToFG articles and the increasing of our lists from 1 to 1,500 points. Due to the heavy load of family events, snow, kids, etc... our current plan is to continue our 1 off games as we can but we will likely be putting off our 3-way game until January. This will not only give us all time to deal with family during the holidays without having to rush to get something together but it also gives a 4th friend of ours time to get a Warriors of Chaos army up and running. If he does he wont be joining the ToFG articles but will be joining us during our big games to turn them into 2 on 2 games.

So for my 1,500 point list I have to paint yet another giant chunk of models. Given Christmas then I'm going to have a little bit of extra time from skipping our 3rd big game for a little extra time. I've added my Stormvermin unit to the army at this point. I've split the Giant Rats into small distracting units and added some Weapons Teams and Slaves.

The base list:

Warlock Engineer
-lvl 2
Chieftan
-BSB
30 Clanrats
-Shields, FC, Warpfire Thrower
30 Slaves
-Shields, Musician
30 Stormvermin
-FC, Shields, Doomflayer
2 Units of Giant Rats
-5 Rats, 1 Packmaster / Per Unit
30 Plague Monks
-FC, Plague Banner
2 Units of Gutter Runners
-Poison, Slings
Warp Lightning Cannon

I haven't added on all the banners or magic items yet, but this is the base list I'll be working with. A total paint requirement of 33 models. I got lucky on having already gotten 5 of the Stormvermin done a while back and the other 5 Clanrats for each unit. Its going to be tough but like I said the little bit of extra time I'll have into January should help.

The Horde Grows...

Joe F. ToFG: 1,000 November 3-way

2011-11-28T21:17:00.001-06:00

So for our November 1,000 point 3-way game we got together and decided we would give good ole GW ingenuity a try. We played the 3 player scenario provided in the back of the full sized big red book. It turned out to be our mistake. See I never claimed to be a superb scenario writer, but after a number of issues trying to write our 1st 3-way scenario I thought we'd give this a shot and we found it to be even more unbalanced and messed up than the 1st. So alas, here sits the battle report, and the hope that we'll soon have a 4th person so that in the large games we can do teams.

The game begins with me literally being forced to set up my entire army in the middle of teh table. Ryan's Ogres sit on the right while Dave's Beastmen are on the left. There are 3 poker chips on the table, two in plain view and one behind the far tower in the picture. These represent objective points. I get to go first for all it mattered and as this scenario specifically breaks the common turn order it messed up a lot of things.

The picture doesn't show it but the two Clanrat units that were in the center had been killed a turn earlier. Being started in the center and only 10" away from enemies meant big 1st turn charges for the Ogres. All sorts of in his favor. Dave lost a whole unit of Gor to a panic test caused my WLC which also in this picture has been killed. It was only I think turn 2 at this point. It was bad.

Here we can see that the combat above has ended. The Plague Monks we're ran down. The Minotaur are dead and my Giant Rats are moving off towards the far board edge. Dave is having no better luck dealing with the long moving Ogres and their many attacks as here we see his Bestigor getting beat on by a unit of Ogres that had yet to lose a single man.

Dave did manage to hold for a round. Not that it was to last much longer than that. At this point Ryan controlled 2 of the 3 Objective Points as well as having earned a 3rd for killing my General. The Bestigor lost this time and ran, they managed to get lucky and avoid being ran down just to get force fled off the table before having a chance to rally.

Here we see the final play. Dave's Bestigor running and literally the only models I had left were those Giant Rats and a Gutter Runner in that far tower. Ryan completely dominated this game. Me getting sandwhiched early on put me in a horrible spot. Ryan getting the 1st turn charge left me out to dry.

So, as you can tell from the comments the game was pretty bad. The scenario that GW wrote in the book seemed interesting and it was definitely that. Unfortunately it was not nearly awesome enough to ever warrant playing again. Starting in December I'll be writing our Scenario's again. I'm not 100% certain how I'll do it but I'm going to have to come up with something. Ogres are super hard to slow down without at least 1 turn of shooting and magic to do some early damage and 1st turn charges ruin games... It's rough to say the least.

Chuck ToFG: Ogre Update

2011-11-26T16:45:00.001-06:00

I've been working on the potentially display board for the Ogres for Adepticon 2012. Also thought I would throw out a picture during Thankgiving Day weekend. Happy Turkey Day and weekend everyone! I'm also playtesting a unit of Maneaters for 1500pts - maybe Scout/ItP or Sniper/Poison combo. I'm curious to see how they'll work out.

Joe F. ToFG: Skaven VS. Ogre's

2011-11-21T19:59:00.001-06:00

Got together to play Ryan's Ogres today. After the severe beating I took from Chucks I was needless to say worried. Of course there was some seriously bad luck against Chuck when the Genera/Engineer blew up on the top of Turn 1 taking 1/3 of his unit with him. Still, trepidations to say the least.

Here we can see the initial deployment. From left to right he Skaven are: Giant Rats, Plague Monks, Clanrats with BSB, WLC, Clanrats with Engineer, Gutter Runners way out in the middle. On the opposite side from left to right: Leadbelchers, Ogres, Ogres with Bruiser, Scraplauncher, 2 single Sabretusks. I won the option to go first and did so hoping to get an early jump off with the WLC.

That early jump off with the WLC didn't work out so well. Misfire and 1. Yup, top of turn 1 and I'm 90 points in the hole. On the other hand the top of Ryans turn 1 he charged my Gutter Runners with 1 of his Sabretusks. I killed it with a stand and shoot causing a panic check in the Scraplauncher which went right off the board. A good laugh was had by both of us.

Here's a solid view of about the middle of Turn 3. You can see things getting ready to really begin as far as combats are concerned. The units are linine up nicely and such. The charge being measured here is a Sabretusk intot he flank of the Gutter Runners. I had faith they would kill him in hand to hand. Which they did.

The first combat engages. I was really hoping for better performance form the Monks. They lack the hitting strength that they require. Everytime I've used them with the Plague Banner they end up with 20ish hits, but only ever manage about 4 wounds. They ended up losing almost 15 guys, and barely held. Ryans other unit should have hit the other unit of Rats but managed to fail the charge which was good for me.

Now you see why it was good for me. Big charge. The green Clanrats even got Death Frenzied. We won this combat and ran down the Ogres. It left me all messed up and turned out to be a bummer of a deal. I should have reformed my Monks but didn't which lead to the Blue units eventual demise as the Leadbelchers currently not in this picture hit them in the flank.

The end result from that mistake of not reforming the Monks. Luckily the Leadbelchers rolled a terrible pursuit and the Ogres had chosen to hold and reform. Lucky me, the Blue unit survives for a while after this being a hinderance to Ryan. My green unit ended up walking into the house for a few turns after this to hide from the big bad Ogre unit who eventually finished off the Monks.

The end of the game. His Leadbelchers finished off the blue unit. The Gutter Runners finished the Leadbelcher. The big Ogre's killed most of the green unit and made them run. I got lucky and at the bottom of turn 6 Ryan declared the charge. I manged to stay literally just on the table and he didn't catch me thus preserving me enough points to call the game a draw. About 623.5 to 692 in Ryan's favor.

This game was crazy with some seriously big swings that neither of us could believe. His dice would be terrible or my dice would be hot. It was a fun game with a lot of back and forth. I feel like I need more shooting of some brand. You'll be seeing the re-introduction of Weapons Teams in my next list for sure. I just feel I don't have the hitting power to deal with so many Ogres and need to kill more before the actual combats. Of course if the WLC didn't blow up turn 1 that may have been a little different, but who knows. Also my magic this game didn't do much. I didn't mention in the report anywhere that I had Cracks Call but I think it only ever killed 3 Ogres. I'm really torn on what to add next month. We'll just have to wait and see.

Board Game Review: Blokus Duo

2011-11-19T19:41:00.001-06:00

Blokus Duo is a two player game that I picked up for my wife and I to play. I've heard plenty of people suggest this game and many say that it is a lot like chess in that anyone can play, but it could
take a really long time to master and become really good at it.

The game is small and quite cheap at only $10.00 and that was retail at Wal-Mart which means it's also an easilly accessible game. If Wal-Mart carries it than the chances are so do other large stores such as K-Mart and Target. Each player chooses a color (this game came with orange and purple). Each color has a large set of different shaped pieces, much like those in the video game Tetris for the old Nintendo's. There are of course pieces that are shaped far from anything you'd see in Tetris, but you get the point.

There are two small circles on a the game board which is a large grid I believe 10 by 10 but I could be incorrect. I hadn't thought to count the spaces available. To start one player must choose a single piece and place it so that it is touching one of the circles. The other play chooses the other circle and then play begins in earnest. You then place pieces next to yours trying to block off your opponent while placing all your pieces.

You must be diaganolly adjacent to one of your own pieces. You cannot touch the sides of your own piece, but must be touching at one of it's corners. This is much harder to expalin in words than using a picture.

The game is really quite enjoyable. My wife and I played a number of games of it in all of 30 minutes. It plays very quickly. It was fun but too quick and thus to repetitive. Not bad, and for $10 it was worth the money for an occasional pick up but extended play will make you wonder if it was really worth it. I'd like to try the full sized game which is 4 players as I feel that it would be a better game overall and less likely to experience burnout with.

Chuck ToFG: Massive Bases

2011-11-19T05:54:00.001-06:00

Ogre Update just wanted to show that we are still progressing with the bases conversions. These bases are simply made from cut styrofoam with a hot wire cutter. They are big and look good!

Ryan G. ToFG: Ogres VS Beastmen

2011-11-18T18:03:00.001-06:00

Okay, so here we go again with a battle report. Month two; we are at 1000 points, and I am battling Dave and his Beastmen army.

We played a normal battle line scenario, and my list contained:

Brusier - General
7 Ogres
8 Ogres
3 Leadbelchers
Scraplauncher
Sabertusk
Sabertusk

I don't remember exactly what Dave had, but it pretty similar to the one he battled Joe with except he swapped out a Bray Shaman for a Wargor. It started off with me getting first turn, and marching straight ahead at him. Did some shooting, missed with Scraplauncher, and minimal wounds from LB's. His turn was moving forward, most things straight forward, but did put Harpies to the side of the Scraplauncher, and hid one of his casters in the tower. In Magic, he cast the buffed Amber Spear at Scraplauncher and did 3 wounds.

Turn two was again uneventful for me. Just repositioned my troops, scraplauncher again missed, and LB's killed 2-3 bestigors. His turn 2 he charged both the Bestigors and Harpies into the LB's, and move the rest of his stuff forward. Again a buffed Amber Spear hit the Scraplauncher, but only did 1 wound leaving it with one left. Bestigors and Harpies destroyed the LB's and chased them down.

Turn 3, I charged my 7 Ogres w/ Bruiser into his Minotaurs and my 8 Ogres into his Bestigors. Shooting did much better for me as I hit a pile of scrap on top of his wizard in the tower and killing blowed him. Both units of Ogres were successful and broke both his Mino's and Bestigors. The Bestigor breaking caused the Harpies to panic, but my Ogres by the Mino's only managed to roll a 3 for pursuit and were left out to dry for a flank charge by Dave's Gors. He then charged my Ogres in the flank on his turn with his Gors. He caused my unit to break, but failed to run them down. He also failed to rally with both the 1 remaining Mino, and his Harpies, and the Harpies ran off the table edge.

Turn 4 I had no charges so I just rallied and repositioned my remaing units. Scraplauncher killed 3-4 Gors and then on his turn he charged the Gors back into my Ogres. This time he rolled snake eyes for his primal fury and became frenzy as well. Again he broke my Ogres and this time managed to run them down.

Turn 5 I took my 2 Sabertusks into his last Mino to try and gather the rest of those points. I managed to do 2 wounds, but then he killed one of my Sabers. His turn he repositioned his troops and then got off a Wyssan's on his Mino making him toughness 5. He then killed off the remaing Sabertusk and his Mino survived the battle.

Turn 6 was really uneventful, as we were both out of range to get back in combat with each other so the game ended. Overall it was a draw with him getting 703 vitory point, and myself getting 606. Very good game, and could have easily went either way. Had he just gotten that extra wound on the Scraplauncher, or had I got the final wound on his Minotaur it would have been a win for either of us. Great game, great time.

Cheers,
Ryan G

Joe F. ToFG: Skaven Plague Monks

2011-11-17T21:54:00.001-06:00

Wow this unit took me almost the entire danged month. I powered out the Giant Rat unit early on and then hit a wall something fierce. However, I did manage to finish them tonight. 7 days before the completion due date, here they stand. I think the Champions Book came out really well. Not very satisfied with the banner though. My free hand ability is terrible. Luckily I'll only ever have to paint I think 1 more banner for this army and that's some way down the road and its not even cloth so there wont be any freehand to it.

Again, the book looks really nice in my opinion. The unit as a whole I think came out pretty well.

Sorry I decided not to bother getting the white box out for the photo shoot here. I just didn't have the energy and I only took the two photo's.

Mino-Rawr! Warhammer Quest

2011-11-15T21:49:00.001-06:00

So, I've been putting this off for far too long and I've finally begun painting my Warhammer Quest set so that I can run the game at Adepticon. This is the 1st model I've done. Well I've actually drybrushed all of the stone archways but those don't really count as painting becasue like I said I drybrushed them all. I know you can do a lot of heavy detail work and different colors if you want. I've seen 'em done that way, but I felt that a stone archway is a stone archway and that's what I went with.

Plastic Minotaur Circa. 1995

So here we can see the Minotaur in all his ancient model glory. Given the theme of the game and its age I even went with the garish color schemes from that day and style for nostalgia factors. The bright red gloves and belt I thought were pretty hilarious and the checkered loin cloth are really quite close to the models pictured in the rule book for the game along with the stark highlighting style used. Ah, yes... Warhammer Quest. I'd say its time to go delving.

Chuck ToFG: Ogre VS. Skaven

2011-11-12T14:01:00.001-06:00

Chucks Part:

Well Joe and I played in the back at Gryfalia's Aerie at our November tournament. Initially things looked like they could either way. He had a level 2, a multi-wound cannon and poisoning scouts on my flank. It would come down to dice and leadership checks to determine if I could get to him. This is our turn 1 and deployment pic!

By turn 2 both of our heavier flanks had come around. My Mournfangs into his Clanrats and his Giant Rats into my Bruiser/+HW ogres. I kept my Leadbelchers out taking pot shots here and there but didn't commit with them on the plague monks (Without realizing he had the Plague Banner in them).

By turn 4 the rats had run away, the Clanrats had failed checks and ran after 2 rounds of combat with the Mournfangs and the Ogres with Ironfists kept up with Plague Monks. They did put some wounds on the ogres after a round or two. Joe actually hit all 20 time with the Monks the first round from the standard. I made 4/9 saves with my 5+/6+ saves. Turn 4 my Sabretusk charged in and killed the WLC, and the Leadbelchers charging and afterwards running away the Bruiser's unit of Bulls then went in and cleaned up.

I like my list so far it has gone 3/0 versus Skaven, Empire, and Wood Elves. Changes for December... I will probly increase the Leadbelchers to 4 with a Musician and take another Sabretusk. I am on the fence with regards to another Mage/BSB or Ironguts, though I probably could go cheap and take a unit and the characters.
-----------------------
Joe's Part:
Chuck is quite correct. The game started out as normally as any and if you'd seen the first batch of rolls from me you'd have thought immediately, "Ooh, here comes Skaven badness". However, that badness came in the form of a turn 1 implosion from my Engineer killing himself and half of his unit to immediately remove my magical ability from the game. This would hurt my army pretty significantly anyway. Even more so though that Ogres have so many wounds to get through before they begin losing attacks. At the low points I really depend on the magic to do some killing for me and here it was gone before it had done anything at all. The WLC never got a good hit only occasionally clipping and at low Strength. The Gutter Runners did okay, even forcing the Leadbelchers to flee from a Stand and Shoot reaction when they tried to Charge. The Mournfangs are super powerful, but I was really amazed at how long it took them to clear out 25 Clanrats. I believe it was 3 rounds of combat and that is somewhat because of dice, but I think that it is also very much the Steadfast ability at its best. The game was good, I think with magic having not crapped out on me it may have been a better/closer game but c'est la vie and what not.

Joe F. ToFG: 1,000 Skaven VS. Beastmen

2011-11-12T02:02:00.001-06:00

So I got together with Dave tonight to get a test game in at our 1,000 point level. Although you could look through old posts until you find the lists I'll re-iterate them here.

Skaven:
Warlock Engineer - Level 2, Warp Energy Condensor
Chieftan - BSB, Dragonhelm, Shield, Luck Stone, Screaming Sword
2x25 Clanrats - Full Command, Shields
23 Giant Rats - 2 Packmasters
25 Plague Monks - Full Command, Plague Banner
5 Gutter Runners - Poison, Slings
Warp Lightning Cannon

Beasts:
Bray Shaman - Level 1, Screaming Sword
Bray Shaman - Level 1
Bray Shaman - Level 1
25 Gor - Standard, Musician, Extra Hand Weapon
20 Bestigor - Standard, Musician
3 Minotaur - Extra Hand Weapon
5 Harpies

For some odd reason I didn't get a picture of the whole board after set-up but this was Daves right flank. Minotaurs and his big Gore block. Actually this is at the bottom of my Turn 1, I've already poisoned one Minotaur from the Building. There is a Mage behind the Minotaur and 1 in the Gor block. To the right of this picture is a unit of Bestigor also with a Mage and some Harpies hiding behind a tower.

So here you can see the rest of my army set up. His Bestigor in this picture are nearly off of the board. The WLC had a good hit killing I think 7 or 8 and he panicked. He did rally at some point just on the table edge to stay in the game. The Harpies are grounded behind the tower due to a Warp Gale while I begin my advance across the board.

This is the picture at the end of the game. It really doesn't do justice to the carnage that was had. His Harpies eventually killed the WLC. His Bestigor beat the Giant Rats at which point the Plague Monks hit them in the side and powdered them. The Clanrats you see had a lucky turn where Dave's dice turned against him and he lost combat to get ran down by them. His Minotaurs although way out of position survived by eating one of the Clanrat blocks and later charging and managing to catch the Giant Rats who were fleeing from their own lost combat.

I feel the lists both performed pretty well for what they were. Dave and I discussed a number of things, primarily among the things were how to try and fix his leadership issue. The highest he could achieve was a 7 in this game, and while my own high for LD was only an 8 it was still there. I really missed my Weapons Team in this battle. I know deep down that the Mortar does very little but I like it for that extra little oomph it can add. However, I went from 25 troops to 100 this month so now with my force heavily bulked up I know that next month at the 1500 point level I can start adding the rest of my little toys and things. Dave picked some really cool models from I think it was Hordes or War Machine for his Harpies as he felt the GW ones just weren't up to snuff and these look tops. It was a solid game and very close. It should have been closer if it weren't for Dave's crappy dice rolls in combat. The last round where I defeated the Gor block with Primal Fury active he managed to kill only 1 Clanrat. It was abysmal. Plague Monks are tops, they did a lot of damage when they got into the Bestigor; I still feel though that I'll be adding a Priest to the unit to ensure that they get the proper killing power they need.

Chuck ToFG: Bases!

2011-11-08T20:25:00.001-06:00

Well I'm looking to rebase several units including the 6 Bulls and Leadbelchers. I'm going to post some pic's later this month but I've got to get out the flat 5ml. GW stock plastics. Nothing wrong with them but there are so many other options out there, here's a couple that are pretty reputable and produce some good stuff.

http://www.back2base-ix.com/
http://www.darkartminiatures.com/

Dave ToFG: Dave's Beasties

2011-11-07T07:31:00.004-06:00

What have I learned? Warhounds are total junk, and Centigors are way over costed! Back to the drawing board.

I picked up some mino's and some models to use as harpies. Interested to see how these treat me. If the harpies don't pan out I may try da chaos pigs.

The list im looking at for Month 2 is somthing like this:

Bray-shaman - Shreaking sword, general, lore of shadow (maybe)
Bray-shaman x 2 - lore of beasts
Hero 239pts/250pts
30 Gors - full command
Core 265pts/250pts+
5 Harpies
20 Bestigors - mus, standard
3 Minotaurs - AHW

I may be missing the mark, but I'll run with it and may tweak it some more. The plan is to focus the 2 Beast Shamans on the Gors and Mino's if they need it for Wyssans. the Harpies are there for any warmachines and a flank charge. If this list fails, I will be switching out a shaman for some more feet on the ground.

FER KAOS!

Chuck ToFG: 1,000 Pts. November List

2011-11-06T09:13:00.005-06:00

after some more larger games I decided to paint my Mournfangs. I feel that i need a hard hitting fast unit to take out enemy anciallary troops and the models look sick.

So after some heavy debating I kept in my list alot of what I had, didn't take the BSB or mage yet because I still feel i need more troops on the field to deal with horde armies and the elites alike.

Bruiser General
Biting Blade, heavy armor, pistol, Enchanted Shield

3 leadblechers

2 independent Sabretusk kittens

3 Mournfang Cavalry, heavy armor, IronFist, Standard and Musician

6 Bulls Standard and musician

6 Bulls, additional hand weapon, standard, and musician

I think my game this time will be against Empire but we will see. Also bought my Adepticon 2012 badge. See you all there!

AND working on newer bases for the Ogre Bulls. I feel that my army is going to be mountain themed.

Joe F. ToFG: Giant Rats!

2011-11-05T14:58:00.004-05:00

I completed the Giant Rat unit today. 23 Giant Rats and 2 Packmasters. Pretty basic colors and everything. I wish I'd gotten a better angle on the picture but I wasn't about to re-shoot.

Ryan G. ToFG: 1,000 Points

2011-11-01T19:34:00.002-05:00

Month two is here, and we have now increased to 1000 points. My army did extremely well at 500 just because of the brute force of it. Nothing that Joe and Dave had could stop my main block of Ogres if it got into combat with them. So for this month, I kept the same strategy, and we'll see if it will pay off.

My 1000 points are as follows:
Brusier - General
7 Ogres w/ full command
8 Ogres w/ full command
3 Leadbelcher w/ Bellower
Scraplauncher
2 Sabertusks in 1 man units

I chose to still only have one hero, because I think the troops are going to be more important at low points. I really do miss magic and a BSB though, and think they will be coming out to play rather soon. The Ogre blocks will again try to close the gap quickly and get into combat asap. Leadbelchers are just amazing, and in my opinion so far, should be in every Ogre Kingdoms army. I really like the Scraplauncher model, but have not really had a chance to use it, so that will be interesting considering I have a lot of toughness three targets in both Joe and Dave's amries. As you can see in the pictue, I am not using the normal GW Sabertusk models, and have decided to use some lion models I found through Crocodile Games as substitutes. They fit very nicely into my African theme, and I severely dislike the GW models. The lions are a bit smaller than I had hoped for, but when comparing them to GW horses, then are to scale to what a lion should be to a horse so I am happy.
I am almost done with the launcher already, then I will get started on the sabers. I am still enjoying painting this army, and I hope I continue to enjoy playing it. I have over doubled the model count this month which was to be expected. For these first few months, I am trying to include units that I feel I will use in the army 99% of the time so it might not make for the best build right now, but it should pay off in the end.

Thanks,
Ryang19
www.ryanshouseofblogs.blogspot.com

Joe F. ToFG: November List

2011-11-01T11:57:00.000-05:00

Okay, so having gotten in 4 games with the 500 point list and then playing the big game I realized quickly what the list didn't have which was any kind of combat potential. Ryans Ogres on the other hand accelled at combat while I was left completely dependant on my shooting. This month I'm going to change it up. Knowing that my end list for Adepticon will have at least 4 big blocks in it I know that I can solidly work in that direction and that is exactly the way I went for this month. The army list as a whole will now compries:

Warlock Engineer - General
Chieftan - BSB
23 Giant Rats - 2 Packmasters
25 Clanrats - FC, Shields
25 Clanrats - FC, Shields
25 Plague Monks - FC
5 Gutter Runners - Slings, Poison
1 Warp Lightning Cannon

I've chosen to get rid of the Weapons Team as it really seemed quite useless. I mean a 5+ to wound anything is nice and all, but for 65 points, I mean that's half the cost of the Giant Rat unit so I decided just to build the Giant Rats. 4 blocks should give me a definate number advantage. Hopefully I can stick a unit in and hold there necessary round to get another in the flank and give me the static win since the Skaven aren't exactly going to kill a lot. The Plague Monks though are a definite hitting unit as long as my dice don't abandoned me. The picture of the whole army together at this point.

You can see right away the addition to the army for this month as its all simply primed black. The BSB is on the left, a very simple work from the IoB set. I'm really stoked to get to work on this and get going. A total addition of 75 models from 500 to 1000 points. Hooray for cheap Skaven!

Joe F. ToFG: A couple additions

2011-10-30T09:44:00.004-05:00

So as usual I've been working on some things between the usual stuff and this time I've built a Plague Claw Catapult. Its a conversion from the last edition Screaming Bell that I had sitting. As I had all the bits for the Warp Lightning Cannon/Plague Claw Catapult kit having built two of the Cannons I decided this seemed like a great way to utilize it. I also wrote a conversion article for the Skavenblight Gazette which is the e-zine for The Underempire Skaven Forums so check that issue out. It should be hitting around December if I'm correct.

Just a Rat Ogre holding a hapless Empire captive.

My Plague Claw Catapult converted from the last edition Screaming Bell.

Ryang G. ToFG: 500 Pt. Wrap-up

2011-10-29T08:36:00.001-05:00

The other night Joe, Dave and myself played a three player game for the wrap up of the 500 point month. I won't go through an entire battle report since Joe already has, but I will more or less just give my opinion on my army at the 500 points. Also, now that baseball season is over, I will be able to get more painting done. I have fallen behind a bit, but Congratulation Cardinals!

Leadbelchers at 500 points are awesome. They always got their points worth, and really helped me win this final battle. They are great at shooting the smaller things, and can still hit just as hard as normal Ogres in combat as well. These guys are going in every Ogres army that I build.

Then there was the Ogre Bulls, or just Ogres now I guess, but they were also amazing at low points. It just seemed that both Joe and Dave could do nothing about them in combat. It's just too many attacks, and too many wounds.

Overall, I am still happy with my choice for Ogres, and can't wait to get the 2500 points done so
I can take them to a tournament.

Thanks,
Ryan

Chuck ToFG: Mourn Fang Banner

2011-10-28T19:48:00.005-05:00

These are the additional images requested for the Mournfang units banner top. Hopefully we'll get some army pictures together in November when we hit 1,000 points. Enjoy!

ToFG: Big Game #1

2011-10-27T16:44:00.001-05:00

So a few days ago Ryan, Dave and myself got together for our 1st end month game of our article. I wrote up a set of storyline scenario's for us to play. We gave Ryan an additional contingent of 20 Empire Spearmen with shields and a musician as well as 5 Empire Handgunners to defend a small Empire village. (6 Buildings in the center of the table) Dave's job was to have his Beastmen just raiding about burning buildings by either entering them or throwing torches on a 5+ when within 4-6" of a building. My job was to collect slave tokens by entering and then exiting buildings.

After deployment here is our Board. Dave was lined up along the small forest of trees in the back while I was coming up from a sinkhole represented by the green base. Ryans Ogre Bull unit faced me while he sent the Spearmen after Dave. I tried to be cheeky and send my Gutter Runners in by that far building in the back, but on turn 1 Ryan was able to see them with his Lead Belchers and smoked them. I was most displeased.

Turn 1 for me and Dave was pretty shoddy. Dave moved forward in a most threatening manner charging Ryans Spears and not only defeating them but catching them. My Skaven hardly moved waiting for some damage to be done to the big Bull unit, but fate was against me and my magic not only failed but the WLC also misfired and turned the other direction. I was betrayed I say! Dave tried to throw torches at buildings but failed all his rolls.

Turn 2 you see Dave's Gors running away there in the back. Ryan s Bruiser though hard to see on the right was going to hit them in the flank after their successful kill of the Spearmen block and he decided to skidaddle away from that thing. He continued to unfortunatly fail at burning houses while Ryans Lead Belchers destroyed his Warhounds that were between the Bruiser and his Gors. My WLC failed again, but as you see the Ogre Bulls running away I managed to irresistibly kill 2 of them along with 7 of my own Skaven with a Warp Lightning Spell from my Engineer.

With the Bulls rallied I moved the Skaven off to go around that far side of the building to attempt to get a token before games end. Dave rallied his men behind that far building and the turn ended pretty uneventfully. Lots of rallying leads to lots of nothing much happening.

Here you can see my Clanrats are no longer near the building. His bulls managed to see the last rat or two and declare a charge in my flank. I was having none of that so I took off. Dave decided at this point to charge his Gors into Ryans Lead Belchers and though he won combat they held. The Bruiser who you can't see at this point was behind the little church in the center. I had teleported my Engineer into that building to the left of it and irresistibly Warp Lightninged 3 of his 4 wounds off but insultingly killed myself.

This is the point where we ceased taking pictures. I know Ryan has some on his phone that perhaps he'll post later in his own report. He turned those Bulls around after that last shot as he didn't see me doing much. Daves Gors did indeed die and at the very end of the game he managed to finally get lucky and burn a house down, while on turn 5 I rallied those Clanrats and on turn 6 managed to make it into a house. All in all, I feel that Dave and I were really fighting the uphill battle. Not necessarily because any one reason, but Ogre are very strong at 500 points it seems. We could never quite do the damage we wanted to, not with magic or anything else. I think we both lacked the troops to deal with him honestly. Our single blocks were just no match for his 1 block. Something we both plan to remedy in our 1000 point lists that you'll see us discuss in a few 5 short days on November 1st!

The Scenario's weren't terrible, I think I definitely need to work a little harder on them. There were some questions brought up and things I missed on the initial writing. Still I think it gave the game a more interesting feel than just, hey we're killing eachother. I'm looking really forward to November, both from the painting perspective but definitely from the gaming side of things. As a bonus in November we're running one of our Gryfalia's Aerie tournaments which means that Chuck and while running will be able to get in a game with our 1,000 point lists. I'm very excited to give it a whirl. Hopefully you all are enjoying the articles!

Chuck ToFG: MFers Added! :)

2011-10-27T07:21:00.008-05:00

Just wanted to Give a picture of the progress I have done on the Ogres. We will get better pictures in later and the bases still need static grass. But the plan is to have 4 Mournfang Cav. ready to go in the 1,000 point list coming up for November. These are modeled a little high to give them a staggered height look. Also contining with the kit bashing from the Orcs and Goblins kit. The banner is my first actual free hand try. I will get better pics of that too.

Chuck

Ryan G. ToFG: 500 Pts Down, 2000 to Go.

2011-10-16T13:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, here we are on the 16th of October, and I just finished basing my first 500 pts. Figured I would throw up some pictures to show off my progress. Again, I am going for a African Plains theme. Let me know what you think and any suggestions you might have.

First up is my Bruiser.

Next is my unit of 6 Ogres with full command.

Finally, we have the LeadBelchers.

I have enjoyed painting them so far, and hopefully I can continue my interest in them.

Thanks,
Ryan G

Board Game Review: Crokinole

2011-10-15T08:27:00.000-05:00

If you've ever played Jenga than you've played at least one Dexterity game in your life. One of the things that I learned when I started really getting into board games is that Dexterity games are hard to make well and even harder to get into mass production. I also discovered that most of these games are large, heavy and I find them to be way fun.

Crokinole is a game that was created in the 1800's in Canada I believe. Crokinole is a large circular game board with a number of circles on the board representing scoring areas and the innermost circle has a set of pegs around it helping block the very center of the circle where a small hole is drilled into the board. Your goal is to score points up to a pre-determined amount and that center hole is the fastest way to do it.

Each player is given a number of playing pieces generally called discs although I've heard other names and the goal is to place your disc on the outermost circle line of the board and flick it into that center hole. If you get the center hole then you retrieve your piece and earn 20 points. If not than you simply sit in the middle until your turn comes up again. The catch here is that once there is a piece on the board of your opponents than you must hit it at some point during your move with your piece. This is where the skill comes into the game.

Ricochet shots are key. You bounce your piece off of the pegs in the middle, off of your own pieces and off of your opponent’s pieces. If your piece fails to contact an opponents or contacts one of your own and then it or the one it hit fails to contact an opponent’s piece than your pieces are removed and you'll get nothing for them. After each opponent has flicked all his pieces scoring is completed. A Crokinole Board has 3 quadrants for scoring. The outer most quadrants is worth 5 points, 2nd is 10, the middle circle inside the pegs is 15 and the hole in the center is 20. Scoring is done in a negation way. So if I scored 30 and you scored 20 I would only actually earn 10 points.

I'm not certain what is about this game that really makes me happy to play it. I suppose it’s the direct player confrontation that exists. You’re specifically playing against an opponent. I suppose it’s the same thing that made me like Chess even though I was terrible at it. There is more strategy than you'd think looking at it. That strategy involves high amounts of skill also. You have to be able to flick well and judge your geometry. I guess it’s kind of like a board game version of Pool. Another game that is in the same ilk as Crokinole is Carrom and that really is tabletop pool, but using wooden discs instead of balls and flicking the cue ball/disc instead of hitting it with something.

One of the most bothersome things about Crokinole is that a game board is generally made of really nice high quality wood. That means the game is not only a beautiful game but also very expensive. Just like a fine piece of art or furniture you can expect to pay upwards of $200 USD for a board. This is because nearly all the makers of these boards hand build them and it takes a lot of effort and love. There is a company (Mayday Games) who has begun producing a mass production board for $150 USD that is okay quality; but if your really going to buy a board than you may as well spring the extra $50 and buy the really nice one.

There is a cheaper entry into the game. A tournament board is 26" across and then they have an outer area or ditch for pieces that fly off the playing surface or are knocked off to keep them from flying across the house. However in the late 1800's early 1900's the Carrom Company was mass producing smaller boards as family game deals. These boards are seen quite often but many have no idea what they are. They were double sided, usually one side would have the Crokinole Board and the other side would be a Carrom Board with a checker print/backgammon and other games of those types made on the board so that you could averagely play 5 to 10 games or more on the single board. You can find these older boards at garage sales, estate sales, or even eBay for fairly cheap.

This is the board I got. I got it for $35 USD from eBay. As these boards were smaller the game was made with wooden rings instead of discs; but it still provides a great entry into the game. Honestly if money wasn't an object to me (Sadly it is) I would happily buy a handmade board because I have seen some truly majestic boards on-line from the companies that make them. I highly recommend this game as I find it extremely entertaining and it can accommodate 4 players at a team level. Super fun, I suggest you all check it out!

Link to the BGG Page for Crokinole

Joe F. ToFG: Warlock Engineer

2011-10-13T21:38:00.003-05:00

New Warlock Engineer. Pictured next to the previous one I painted for comparison. Both are the same model from IoB. Left is model as comes. Right is modified. Arms re-positioned. Weapon swapped on left hand for hatchet that was attached to other IoB hero. Wires, backpack and end of barrel removed. Head swapped with another rat head. Can't remember where from; probably basic Clanrat sprue.

Joe F. ToFG: Lord on Bonebreaker

2011-10-12T22:29:00.000-05:00

Okay, so it is very likely that this model will never be used during the ToFG; but I wanted to paint him up really badly and since I was done with my 1st month list I took the time. I converted him out of the Hero from the Island of Blood set and 1 of the Rat Ogres. Mostly just re-positioning of arms, a little modding with the jewelry chain and a big poleaxe from the Orc Boss kit. I think he looks really awesome as a model; but in game he just can't do what he needs to do in combat and he's too easy to single out. Also I tried to lighten the picture a little so you could see him because the i-Phone for all its wonder takes the crappiest pictures. Eventually I'll dig my real camera out again. I swear!

Warlord on Bonebreaker

Chuck ToFG - BSB Conversion Painted

2011-10-12T15:23:00.002-05:00

Same as the last 1992 Ogre; shields added, face cored out and black orc banner top added, new arms and weapons added. The banner consists of Giant Bits, a Steam Tank wheel, and standard Gnoblar Basket.

Front

Rear

Fresh Meat!

Joe F. ToFG: Rats vs. Beasts

2011-10-11T21:04:00.002-05:00

Met with Dave tonight to get in a quick game with our 500 point lists and had some good discussion afterward on ideas and thoughts of list development.

This photo was after turn 1. There was a unit of Centigor in front of the Gutter Runners. They were gone at this point naturally. The lightning cannon turned and misfired off into the woods. The Warlock Engineer Miscast and blew a chunk of his own unit apart forcing them to panic away. Stupid rats...

This is around turn 4. I'd rallied, the Runners had killed the dogs on the right and the dogs on the left got the WLC. Things we're shifting around to stay out of charge arcs and distances so I could keep putting magic and shooting pressure on him.

The eventual end of the game combat. Dave made that super charge against me with the last 5 Gors on the bottom of Turn 5. I killed them of course, well all but 1 which got killed by the run down. Afterward on turn 6 I charged the dogs killing all but 1 and while I didn't catch it, the last did manage to flee off the table at the bottom of turn 6 giving us a difference of about 60-70 points. A draw by the book.

So it was a fun game that I thought could have gone either way for a little bit. After I got his Gor block whittled down to 5 though I was pretty confident in a victory. The WLC did nothing; damned thing... We discussed dislike of the hounds and the fact that perhaps in a differing environment that he may be able to get the Centigors to work somehow; but unfortunately both Ryan and I have mobile gun platforms in the form of Leadbelchers and Gutter Runners meaning that they are likely never to survive. Magic while quite active never really added a huge impact to the game. Well, the Engineer got sucked into the warp on the last turn, which was the second time I'd miscast on 3 dice in 1 game. Dice hate me. Really looking forward to next month along with the end of this month when we get together for the 1st big 3 player battle that I have yet to write a scenario for, but I plan on it.

Chuck ToFG: 500pts vs. Beastmen

2011-10-06T22:13:00.009-05:00

Well I changed my list, what a shocker. I traded out a Leadbelcher for 2 Sabretusks and combined my Leadbelcher unit into a unit of 3. I still kept my 6 Bulls the same and Bruiser.

For Turns 1 and 2 I pointed my leadbelchers at the likely targets(Minotaurs!). The dogs harassed the flanks of the enemy and ended up getting in the way where they could.

The bulls played excellent. On the Charge they hit with varied strength-ed impact hits. The Bruiser Str 6, and some bulls Str 5 if they had a rank behind them. The Bruisers 4 attacks did wonders. Especially hitting on 3's and needing 3's to wound. But the pain came with the 18 attacks from the bulls and then 4 stomp attacks. I did enough wounds to make him flee and eventually catch him the following round.

I can definitely say that having the dogs as first turn deployments, harassers, and getting in the way of charges allowed my bulls to focus on combat longer without the chance of getting flanked. During this game i did not roll a 10+" to charge but if you do you get d3 impact hits vs. 1 per bull in the front rank. I can definitely see that as a game changer. Additionally, the impact hits sometimes finished whole units off(when there were only a few remaining of course.

Joe ToFG: Rats...

2011-10-05T15:29:00.005-05:00

So, as you could all see from the start pictures most of my 500 point 1st month project was finished from the word go. Hoever I did have to paint a Plague Wind Mortar and 5 Gutter Runners with Slings. I finished those models up just this afternoon having gotten most of it complete at our 1st joint paint night.

The picture isn't super, but you get the idea. Also I hadn't gone over the Plague Wind Shells with 'Ard Coat yet so they aren't glassy in this picture but that was done also this afternoon. With these done and Ryan and I having snuck in some games earlier I'm technically done for the month; but that doesn't mean I wont keep working. I have some other ideas I want to plan up and I could certainly stand to play a little more with the list.

Chuck ToFG: 1992 Ogre Conversion 'Bruiser' Painted

2011-10-01T16:53:00.008-05:00

Well Started last night when I was home alone for hours on end. Started with basic base coats of foundations. Then used Badab Black wash over everything and then rehighlighted with the same foundation. I matched the closest regular GW paint I could to the same color like catachan brown and snakebite leather. Used them 1:1 and then worked my way up to pure snakebite leather. If I went any further i would would highlight with Snakebite leather:Bleached bone 50:50.

The Green starts with Gnarloc Green, Green Wash, Gnarloc Green highlight, then Gnarloc: Goblin Green. After that I start streaking the Goblin Green for the muscle look. Finally just a little bit of Gnarloc Green:Rotting Flesh. Somtimes Badab Black or Ogryn Flesh washes in the recesses but not always.

I had the picture the Right Great Toe coming out of the Shoe!

Going to work on each Ogre and get them eventually to this caliber or better. Basing next, but right now I don't have a base for him...

Chuck ToFG: 1992 Ogre Conversion

2011-10-01T13:46:00.009-05:00

Just wanted to point out the old model that is on the Ogre Stronghold Website: That big black ogre in there is this guy:

I cut the arms off and added bits from the Sabretusk box set I picked up at the local store, Gryphalia's Aerie.

I am currently painting him up and hope that the big guy splatters some blood!

Ryan G. ToFG: Ogres Vs Rats

2011-10-01T13:25:00.000-05:00

Here it is, Oct 1st and the Tale of 4 Gamers has officially begun. With that being said, Joe and I cheated a bit and played a few 500 point games the other day, so I figured I would do a quick battle report on them. We played 3 games in total, and I think it only took us about an hour and a half in total to play all 3.

Game 1:
Game 1 was probably the fastest game I have ever played. Joe got first turn, and went to cast a spell at my Ogres and miscast, causing his wizard to became level 0. I was smiling ear to ear, because I knew I now had this game in the bag. He then fired his lightening cannon into my unit of 6 Ogres and killed 3 of them. My Unit, including the Bruiser, then proceeded to fail their leadership 8 panic test and I rolled high enough to flee off the table. I had not even got a turn yet, and all I had left was my 3 Leadbelchers. So much for having this game in the bag. We called it at that point and set up for game two. Solid victory for Joe, and I just kinda stood there in shock. Stupid dice!

Game 2:
Joe was nice enough to let me go first this time, and I quickly closed the gap. My Leadbelchers took out his Gutterrunners, which are ridiculously good for a unit of skirmishers. His magic and shooting took my 6 Ogres down to 3 plus the Bruiser, but I then got into combat with his Clanrats. His rats held for a few turns due to steadfast, but I eventually broke him, and that was the game. Victory to the Ogres and we were now tied one game a piece.

Game 3:
Joe again went first this game, and I thought it was gonna be a replay of game 1. His cannon once again took out two Ogres on turn one and I again panicked. However, my Bruiser was not in the unit this game, and this time I remained on the on the table and was able to rally. My Leadbelchers again took out the Gutterrunners, and my Bruiser was headed towards the cannon. My Ogres made it to the Clanrats, but were only 3 strong, and only lasted a turn before they were broken and fled from combat. The Bruiser took out the cannon, and my Leadbelchers charged into the remaining Clanrats and broke them. Overall, this was a very close game, but I pulled it out in the end.

Overall:
Overall, 500 points is a very frustrating, but fun points level to play. One bad dice roll really changes the outcome of game, but it is also very fun to play and laugh at the truly randomness of these small games. Going first I have found is also a big deal at small points. I look forward to playing the other 2 Gamers and see how those games go.

Adios,
Ryan G. www.ryanshouseofblogs.blogspot.com

Tale of Four Gamers Introductions #4

2011-10-01T07:17:00.002-05:00

Chuck Jiardina:
Well my name is Chuck and I have been in the Fantasy hobby for over adecade. I've helped run a Tournament series and Co-Hosted theWaaaghcast. Additionally, I've worked on many armies; DoC, WoC, HE,O&G, Brets, and VC. During my work on O&G in 2011 I painted andconverted up some Ogres with Orc parts thus the OrcOgre was formed! Overthe past few months i have worked on basic units but nothing special with theadvent of the new book its time to test out the army at a small level and workmy way up!

OrcOgre list:
Bruiser General: Ironfist, Heavy Armor, Ogre Pistol
6 Bulls: Standard, Crusher
2 Leadbelchers
2 Leadbelchers

Cost 496

Ideas/Strategy:
The general idea of the list is to deploy the leadbelchers on the flank of thebulls with the bruiser in the middle. Use is leadership 8 for anypsychology tests I have to take. The leadbelchers can take a pot shot at anyincoming threats or redirect them for a turn. The bulls with the Bruiser will be able to either take a charge or breakany enemy units. My common opponent willbe Orcs and Goblins so I will have to deal with small cheap units with multipleranks.

Tale of Four Gamers: Introductions #3

2011-09-30T17:50:00.000-05:00

Dave Dickey:
I have been in and out of the hobby since I was in junior high (like 13years). Mostly a 40k player, but have always had some fantasy. I got intofantasy with Mordhiem actually. The feel of it was so interesting, this dirtyburnt out city abandoned and now scavenged by criminals and cults. Tell me it’snot sweet! From there I got lucky and got a huge VC army off eBay for cheap.The problem was it was all over the place. I never got much more for it so myinterest waned. A while after ogre kingdoms came out I quit (the first releaseof course) and I had got a bunch of them and a few beastmen. All the ogres gotkilts (with my family tartan) and I put together some of the beastmen. After afew games and one tourney I got too busy and everything began to gather dust.Also moved back to my home area dusted off my 40k, made a table in my basement(gray/black) for cities of death. With this I hope to get back into fantasy aswell. So I picked beastmen. I know what you are thinking “No one plays them,and they bad!” They have always been a bit over looked. That is where theallure is for me. To go a road less traveled. While I am in this I will also beworking on Blood Angels and terrain for my board, so I might throw in somepictures of those.

October List:

Bray Shaman – General, Level 2, Gnarled Hide

10 Warhounds

15 Gors – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapons

5 Centigors – Full Command, Throwing Axes

500 Points

Idea/Strategy:

I plan on using the Centigors and Warhounds to be the quickflankers, trying to hit any ranged weapons they may have; or hitting the flankof any block the Gors engage. Depending on what the Shaman gets for spells hewill be in with the Gors most of the time to buff them with augments. I plan touse Lore of Beasts so if he gets the bolt thrower magic missile I might havehim run around on his own with screen from the hounds. At 500 points its hard to get any morecomplex with this list. Also doesn’thelp that I haven’t played 8^th edition or the newest Beastman booksince it was released.

Tale of Four Gamers: Introductions #2

2011-09-29T20:05:00.000-05:00

Ryan Goleman:

My name is Ryan, and I’ve agreed to join Joe in his Tale ofGamers. I’ve been playing in the hobbyfor 15+ years with breaks here and there; but most of my Fantasy experience wasin 7^th edition and I’ve been enjoying 8^th a lot sofar. My favorite army has and alwayswill be Lizardmen, but I’ve decided to update my Ogre Kingdoms for 8^thso that I can have two armies to play. Beside, at least one of us had to jump on the Ogre bandwagon,right? Plus the 500 points a monthshouldn’t be hard for me to pull off because of the armies small model count.

OctOgre List:

Bruiser – General, Irontfist, Heavy Armor, Sword ofStriking, Dragonhelm

6 Ogres – Full Command, Ironfists, Lookout Gnoblar

3 Leadbelchers – Bellower, Champion

495 Points

Idea/Strategy:

To start, I’m not the best painter but not the worst. That said, I am a firm believe that if youcan’t paint the best, paint different so my Ogres are going to be a ‘losttribe’ with an African Plaines type theme. I’ve personally never done this before and I thought it would give me anopportunity for neat conversions. Thestrategy behind the army is pretty straight forward. Put the Bruiser in the Ogres and smash myopponents face. The Leadbelchers arethere to ‘hopefully’ handle small quicker things that the Ogres can’t get togrips with. I have forgone magic at thispoint level as I don’t feel it will be a game breaker and the Ogres are good atclosing ground quickly. I’m lookingforward to this project and hopefully I can make it to Adepticon and show offmy hard work.

Tale of Four Gamers: Introductions #1

2011-09-28T19:46:00.001-05:00

So being only a few days out from October 1st and thus the start of our Tale of Gamers articles we are going to begin introductions. Starting with of course myself and then daily moving on to our other participants before we really begin.

Joe Flesch:

If you’re reading this then you probably already know who Iam and what I’m about. If for somereason you picked up onto us after the podcast had already ended I’ll throwjust a smidge of information up about me. I’ve been in the hobby for 15+ years and have played nearly every gameGW has ever produced. I ran the podcastfor 3 years. I’ve played 7 differentarmies for Fantasy and for this set of articles I’ll be working on Skaven. I once ran an all Goblin Horde army andreally miss the feel of it after having sold it a number of years ago. Sadly this means that 500 points can containnearly 50 models. This is going to berough on me as a painter/hobbyist, but I believe I’m up for the challenge.

October List: 497.5

Warlock Engineer – General, Level 2, Warp Energy Condenser

25 Clanrats – Full Command, Shields, Poison Wind MortarWeapons Team

5 Gutter Runners – Slings, Poison Attacks

Warp Lightning Cannon

Idea/Strategy:

I know that painting a horde is going to be a roughchallenge but it is also a small blessing at low points games. The versatility given by such a cheap armymeans I’ve managed to squeeze in a wild a mount of stuff at 500 points. A level 2 as a general gives me access tomagic, not a ton; but enough to do damage, as I can voluntarily take a MagicMissile spell. A fairly big sized blockof Clanrats gives me a nice bunker for the Mage as well as the combatresolution numbers to reliably sit in combat for a round or perhaps 2 dependingon what I’m fighting with Steadfast. Thefact that they also get a Mortar is helpful as I can use this to get throughhigh armor saves by simply rolling a 4/5+. The Gutter Runners should give me exactly what I need to send off otherplayer’s war machines and the Warp Lightning Cannon gives me access not only toa template weapon but the ability however fickle to really slice through armorand do multiple wounds to larger creatures.

Core Competency 2011 Coverages

2011-09-28T15:40:00.000-05:00

So Core Competency 2011 has come and gone and with it plenty of little bits of coverage. As I don't produce a full featured show anymore you can't expect a ton from me; but I did do some video recording and audio while I was there and here it is collected. Any pictures I took you can find on the Twitter account, although I've taken the two best pictures and put them int his post with everything else. So I hope you enjoy what I've got here for you.

The first picture here is Joe Rodgers 3 Treeman eating my unit of Dwarf Warriors with Great Weapons and Shields. They died in a bloody heap, along with most of the rest of my army. I threw everything I could and as you can see by the wound counters I did some damage; but nay it wasn't enough.

This second picture is of the Best Appearance winner Brian McMillan's Orcs & Goblins Army. Azhag The Slaughterer which he's using as a Black Orc Warlord and I found to be just so beautifully painted I had to take a picture. It was a wondeful paint job on a model that costs so much I wouldn't buy it just on the basis that I couldn't do it justice in the painting.

Below here are the two video's which are compilations of many clips I took on my Flip camera throughout the weekend. Pieces of Battle Reports, some talk with other people and a recording of the Awards being handed out. Enjoy.

Finally we come to the audio recordings that I compiled over the weekend. After having sold my equipment I found a great recording program for my iPhone that enables me to jack in a 1/4 3.55mm Microphone into the iPhone and honestly it records almost as well as a XLR Microphone does professionally. Being thus impressed I decided to use this set up and then promptly forgot the Microphone at home so there is a fair chunk of background noise throughout there recordings as the input was just the phone itself. Still, it didn't turn out too bad and I hope you all enjoy listening to it. Please let me know if you enjoyed this type of coverage and anything you'd like to see change a bit in the future! Thanks again!

Listen Here:

or Download Directly below:
Core Competency 2011 Episode

Tale of Four Gamers

2011-09-20T17:53:00.001-05:00

So for those who have been around the hobby and White Dwarffor ages, the premise behind this is going to be obvious. For those who haven’t we’ll take a moment toexplain. The Tale of Gamers was a set ofarticles that would be occasionally put into a White Dwarf. Four writers from GW would get together andset themselves a goal of constructing an army over a period of time, building,painting, playing incrementally each month. They would restrict themselves to a specific budget of some kind be itpoints or money and a monthly schedule a WD was a monthly publication. The articles would go over there chunks ofarmies, why they chose what they did, pictures of the painting, strategy ideasand coverage of a game they’d play every month with what they had painted up tothat point.

This is the plan for a series of Blog Posts that me and somefriends will be doing here on The Waaagh Cast blog. Starting on Oct. 1^st a group of meand friends will begin our own Tale of Gamers. We are giving ourselves a 6 month time limit and building up a 2500point army. From the 1^st ofeach month we will construct a 500 point chunk of our armies and finish thatpiece of the army to completion. Duringthis time we will post pictures, and our ideas for what we’re doing to theblog. We’ll get together once duringthis period of time as well for a group paint night to bounce ideas and sucharound as well which we may or may not record for some content.

Between the 26^th and end of each month we willget together again where we will all play some games and post reports, ideasand pictures of what has occurred. We’lldiscuss what we felt was good or bad about the lists, and what we’ll want tofor improvements. For those quick atmath you’ll realize that 500 point chunks up to 2500 points is only 5months. The 6^th month will beused to get together and build display boards. The ending goal is that right before Adepticon 2012 we’ll each have a2500 point completed and tournament ready army. Not that all of us will be playing in the Adepticon tournament; but it’sstill a great goal to work towards.

We’ll all begin this shindig by cheating a bit. We each have an army that is already started;has some stuff assembled and little bits painted, etc… Still this will likely only see us throughthat 1^st month and come the 2^nd month we’re going to haveto kick ourselves into high gear on the painting runs. The run up to the start of this will see acouple posts by me introducing the group and armies we’ll be working on. After which we’ll all be posting onto theBlog at our own leisure. I will likelybe the most prolific poster; but I will do my best to encourage the others topost often as well, forcing them to post at least twice a month.

I hope you enjoy the articles and please let us know yourthoughts as we go through this process by posting comments on the blog posts.

The Display Board

2011-09-12T20:17:00.000-05:00

So we're going to discuss display boards in this post. Once upon a time these were largely rare, but over the last 5 or 6 years have become a mainstay piece of hobby here in the US at least. When going to a large scale tournament like Adepticon you expect to see some pretty amazing boards and sometimes you do. There are still guys toting their armies around in empty cardboard soda pop trays; without question there probably always will be as long as there are new people getting into the hobby. However it is more common now that when attending tournaments to see fancy display boards. They can range from extremely simple to overly extravagant. Adepticon really shows off both. I've seen massive 40K Team Tournament Displays that costs hundreds to thousands of dollars. Mine have never been so extravagant but they are designed to generally be effective and cost efficient.

I've just recently in the last couple of days re-built a new Display for my Dwarf army. My old one while I liked it for the theme was old and beat up and probably wasn't doing me any favors in the paint scoring department. Generally at tournaments your display board will get you a few points in your painting category for having put in the effort to help your army look all the better. I do not think that a display board will ever be the difference between losing or winning a tournament but I could be wrong.So fro this let's go over materials. Most hobbyists will have the necessary things to start with such as exacto blades, paints and brushes so lets discuss the things you'll need that you may not have.

Housing Insulation Foam:

You can buy this stuff in sheets of 8'x4' from pretty much any building store. Lowes, Home Depot, Menards, Ace Hardware, etc... They all carry some kind of it. You can find it in smaller sheets and varying thicknesses. The kind I used is pictured. Blue 2" foam in an 8'x4' sheet. It costs about $25 when I purchased it. Keep in mind that was a couple years ago for building terrain so the price may be a bit different now.

Hot Wire Foam Cutter:

Also available in many, MANY shapes, sizes and configurations. This is not the one I used. The one that I used has a single copper rod extending from a handle with a plug so that I'm not restricted to the size of foam I can cut. The on pictured for example would only be able to cut a specific range of thicknesses based on what you could fit into that fork. These range in prices as well, but my particular one cost about $25 from Jeffery Allens Crafts.

Metal Poster Frame:

This may seem unneccessary at first. I mean why does a board need a frame right? Well, you'll figure it out after you don't use it and you kick the board while its under the table your playing at a couple times. Or run it into door frames, corners of walls, etc... This stuff is just there to save the edges of your board. Although it does also add a bit to the aesthetic look of the board and show you went that extra step. You can buy these things in sectionals from places like Hobby Lobby where the cost tends to be about $10 for 2 sections. You can buy them anywhere from 6" up to like 40" so you can really customize the size frame/board you want to build based on the sections you purchase.

Spray Paints:

Many spray paints contain caustic chemicals that generally melt styrofoam of any kind when sprayed on them. There are some however that you can get from hobby shops which are safe. Valspar in the middle is actually a regular spray paint that if you spray it in thin coats will not eat your foam. The two cans on the sides are Krylon Stone textured spray paint. This stuff is designed to not eat foam and the reason I chose these is that it eliminates the need to flock the board after painting as this stuff is essentially flock and paint in a can. It does spray on heavy texture and thin paint though which is why I bought the Valspar paint to use as a base coat before hitting the board with the stone.

Stage 1: Frame and Base

Its a little hard to see in the picture but I started with a 27"x20" poster frame. I usually try and put a piece of MDF board under the foam in the frame but I ran out on my last project and didn't feel like buying more so I took an extra step in the construction of this board. I used the foam cutter to cut grooves into the sides of the 2" foam about 1/2" up from the bottom and fit the frame directly into/onto the foam. This provides less center support for the foam but I don't believe it will break from weight. I could later of course be proven wrong. I then took another pieces of foam 10" wide and 27" long and rough cut a big chunk out with a carpenters blade. I then used my foam cutter to shape it better for what will be cliff faces.

Stage 2: Additional Layers

Irresponsibaly I smashed forward without taking enough in between pictures. This however has had 2 extra layers and some other things added to it. The 2nd layer was additional cliff height on the left and right. This is also the point at which I took the 1st layer and in conjunction with the 2nd layer cut open the large cave entrance. I carved larger holes for some cake pillars I had on my previous display board so I could re-use them. They aren't anything exceptional looking; but I feel they add just that little bit to it. Then there is a 3rd layer on top of that. I also sat my movement trays onto the board to figure out how I would generally arrange the army and make sure that it would all fit well.

Step 3: Flock It

Again with irresponsible picture taking. In retrospect I wish I would've taken multiple pictures of the paint process. I know it was only spray paints but hey, it came out really well I thought. First I cut out a angled piece in the front center for a nameplate which adds that little extra bit and I think is especially important in helping to get those players choice points having your name right up front. Then of course I had to masking tape the frame and I masking taped some thick paper around the hills so as not to get the green spray flock on the mountain. Sprayed the sections separately and then sprayed the road when it was all done. Of course I then had to immediately get my army out of its case and set it up to see the finished product. Well close to finished... I still have some final touches to do such as the nameplate and some small embelishments I plan on putting in, but otherwise its essentially complete.

List:
Foam - $25-30 for a massive sheet (use on other projects later)
Hot Wire Cutter - $25+
Poster Frame - $20 and that's really as big as you want a display base to be
Spray Paints - $10 for each of the Stone Paints, $5 for the Valspar
Total: $80 and up depending on what you get

This appears extremely high, however when you consider that you'll probably use the rest of that foam and paint for hills, towers, other scenery pieces you'll get your moneys worth of all of these things.

A display board doesn't really take that long, and I built this one over the course of 2 days. If you've spent as much time on your army as I have and if your a better painter than me likely more time then it behooves you to go this little bit further in the creative process. Hopefully you've gotten some ideas and useful bits from this. Thanks for reading!

Board Game Review: Railroad Tycoon (Railways of The World)

2011-09-12T13:09:00.001-05:00

So, today I'll throw a little discussion about one of my favorite games, although probably one of the least played at only about 5 or 6 plays and that is... Railroad Tycoon! A much heavier game than those I've reviewed thus far, but definitely one of great interest to me.

Railroad Tycoon is a very heavy Euro-game that is designed around route building, economic engine building and pick up and deliver mechanics. I say that this game is one of my favorites for a reason. It is large, beautiful and thought provoking. It takes a lot of thinking and while I"m not a huge fan of super deep euro's somehow this one took my hook line and sinker from the 1st play. When I say large and beautiful I mean it. With a board that measures in at about 36x45 inches it is BIG! To give an exmple:

And since that doesn't quite give you the full impression here is a picture for reference with people in it playing...

That's a big damned board! The game takes place on the east coast of the United States at the beginning of the railroad era. You take the place of a railroad baron starting up a company to make your fortune and be famous. There are a number of railroad baron cards dealt randomly at the beginning that give specific bonuses of you complete there objectives by games end. One of the most thought smashing bits of this game is the economic engine. Everybody starts out with $0 in the bank. The only way to get money to build things and start is to sell shares in your company; each share being worth $5,000 dollars. The problem being that you can never buy these shares out and at the end of each turn you must pay dividends of $1,000 for each share issued. That means that if you for some reason haven't earned enough money over the course of a turn to pay your shareholders their dividends you must sell more shares taking on more in-house debt and pay more dividends later to cover your dividends now!

Its a rough world starting a business... Each turn consists of 3 phases during which you can build, deliver or grab a card. The cards that are placed in play vary in their goodness. Some are super awesome like getting to build 4 tracks for free (a track costing $2,000 on open ground means that if you spend an action to take that card you've essentially earned $8,000 dollars. Super cool! After you've connected some cities via routes that you build you can then deliver goods cubes from one city to another city that matches the color of the cube you are moving. This is the winning mechanic of the game. Every delivery is worth a victory point on the track, and the higher the victory points, the more money you earn at the end of each turn. There is a point as in any real life business of diminishing returns. When you hit 50 VP's you actually start earning less income. It's crazy awesome! You want the points, but at some point you are almost forced to slow yourself down. Like I said. Heavily thought provoking.

There are a ton of cubes all over the board, but as you start emptying cities the game draws closer to the end. The game plays 2-6 players and the end condition (cities emptied of goods) is less for the fewer players and scales up for more; 6 players having to empty 16-18 I believe, I can't remember 100% right now. Players as one of their actions can for $10,000 improve a gray city that doesn't have a color assigned yet though thus giving it more cubes and extending the game to try and help them garner the points needed to compete. Its a good mechanic I think. I say that this game even though it is great and everyone I've played it with has loved it makes it to the table rarely is for a reason. Out of the 5 or 6 plays I've played, its always been with 6 players and those games generally take 2-1/2 to 3 hours to complete. When your playing with 5 new people who must learn the game you can bet pretty heavily on the 3+ mark. That said, I still love it and try desperately to get it to the table at every chance.

My wife has no opinion on the game as her back is in pretty pore shape and she wouldn't be able to sit for 3 hours at a table to play it. I think she'd be cool with it, but I don't think this would be on her top 10 for sure. Especially because of length. The copy titled Railroad Tycoon is actually out of print as well; and has been for I think 6 or so years. A year ago it was re-printed by Eagle games titled "Railways of The World".

The reprint is just as beautiful, but some definite improvements have been made. The board has been trimmed down; not a lot, but some. The victory points track which in Railroad Tycoon is part of the main board has been removed and given a board of its own to help keep track better. Some new cards were printed and some changed and the colors are generally more vibrant. A downfall of this game is the price tag. MSRP is around $75 which is pretty damned expensive for a game. Still, I think its amazing and worth every penny. That said I traded a $50 board game for it on the geek. Woohoo! If you can get a play of this game in I highly recommend it. Its not for everyone, but damned its good.

The links for the geek!
Railroad Tycoon (The out of print one)
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17133/railroad-tycoon
Railways of The World (In print)
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/5641/railways-of-the-world-series

Empire Spear Musings

2011-09-10T08:22:00.005-05:00

So I haven't written anything about Warhammer in a bit and I thought it due time. So today I'll be musing on that Empire army I've been working or a so long and how I maybe intend to make the Spearman unit work.

So if you don't know the Empire army that I've been working on was one of my old friends who moved far from here (IL to NY) and left his armies behind with the invite to play them. Well, I couldn't just play it... See he bought a lot off of eBay and the stuff he didn't, well... he wasn't the greatest painter on the planet which is nothing you can really fault anyone for. However, since I do plan on playing it in tournaments I decided it needed some work. You've (if you've been reading the blog that is) seen my post about working on the Spearman unit.

See at one time he owned 20 Swordsmen, 20 Spearmen and 20 Halberds. Unfortunately 20 men is not enough for 8th edition in most games and his Halberds and Spearmen literally had 90% of the tips broken from their weapons when I got hold of them. Since I couldn't find a place on the net to get replacement Halberds I decided to turn the 2 units of 20 into one giant unit of 40 Spears. If you read any internet wisdom Spears are near total garbage in 8th edition. At least when compared to Halberds because of the higher Strength attack.

There is a solution to this however. MINDRAZOR! Yeah, I know, I don't like the sound either, but you have to admit that it does solve the low Strength issue. See a unit of 40 Spears ranked into Horde formation can put out a lot of attacks. Assuming full command and you charge your receiving 31 attacks. If you get charged you get that 4th rank so the full 40 attacks. That's quite a few attacks at (if you get Mindrazor cast on them) strength 7. Needless to say that's a pretty heinous round of attacks.

Of course, the problem here is banking on not only getting that spell but on successfully casting it. So you'll be leaving a lot on this unit to chance. There is at least 2 other tacitcal options that you can choose to make this unit useful.

The first is still relying on magic but a significantly less powerful spell. Taking a Wizard with Lore of Beasts. The Signature Spell for Beasts is Wyssan's Wildform. This is great in two ways; you not only get +1 Strength so that your mass of attacks is at Strength 4 which causes a significant bit more damage then 3 as on average you'll be wounding on a 50% chance as opposed to a roughly 32% chance per hit. The other thing is the unit becomes Toughness 4 meaning that the odds they'll survive those attacks back increases quite a bit as well thus leaving the unit alive and in place longer.

The other way to increase the units effectiveness is by placing a Warrior Priest in the unit. This has multiple benefits as well. First is that the unit will gain the Hatred special rule allowing them to re-roll all of their missed hits in the 1st round of combat. This at the Spearman's puny Weapon Skill of 3 can be a big difference. The other is the prayers that the priest can cast. Well, one prayer really and that is Unbending Righteousness which makes the Priest and the unit he has joined Unbreakable ensuring that they will sit in combat until the day is done. Of course again this is relying on a casting roll, but at the lowest power level to get off of any of the things thus far mentioned.

My current plan is to use a grouping of these bonuses. I plan on putting the Warrior Priest in the unit and then either fielding a Shadows Wizard or Beasts Wizard. I know I could do both, but that just seems overkill. I will probably go Shadows as a test first as the other spells in that lore seem more useful to me than Beasts. Along with the Priest this means in a squabble the unit will be swinging if charged 31 attacks with re-rolls to hit at Strength 7 if I get the spells off. And even if that mass of heavy attacks doesn't kill enough to win you the combat they should be Unbreakable anyway.

I'm well aware that this is a lot of faith on numbers but I don't plan on the army being super competitive, just fun. Plus if things start to go south or you believe they will you can always reform the unit into a long block instead of wide losing your Horde formation but gaining Steadfast for another round or two of combat.

There are numbers of other things that are possible with this unit, such as giving the Priest the Stubborn Crown or getting items that auto pass break checks and unit banners that give bonuses, but we'll leave those for now. Hopefully you found this of interest and it gives you readers something to think about.

You Magnificent Bastards!

2011-09-08T16:55:00.003-05:00

A blog worth noticing. This group of guys consists of many of the Illinois/Wisconsin guys from the area. Created by the boys from Pointhammered. They are all excellent converters, painters and hobbyists and this is a grouping of their thoughts/blogs and other such things.

It's definitely worth taking a long look at. There are rules highlights, explanations, tutorials, ideas, and just a ton of stuff worth looking at. Go check it out.

You Magnificent Bastards!

Board Game Review: Roadkill Rally

2011-09-02T18:22:00.000-05:00

Not an outrageous thinking mans game; but just good solid ameri-trash fun. You take the role of a driver in a road rally race who is not only attempting to get to the finish line 1st; but kill as many pedestrians along the way and shoot your opponents all the while. It is very reminiscent of the old 70's flick Death Race 2000 which had Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine in it. If you haven't seen that go check it out. It's a bad flick, but in a good way.

So as I said, you drive around this crazy track full of obstacles and tight turns trying to hit pedestrians and shoot each other. Now this game runs afoul of all the things you'd expect. For 1 it's kind of campy. It has to be. I mean you can't create a game about killing old people and children and try to be serious about it; nobody would buy it. 2 is the backlash that the game has gotten for the exact reason stated in 1. Killing old people and children. Now the game is satire and a lot of people don't get that; but it is what it is. I can ignore the social implications for the entertainment value that the game can provide. Playing this game doesn't mean I'm going to go run down kids and granny's nor does it mean I agree with those who in their jacked up minds would. It means that I enjoy games and this is a game.

The game is heavily ameri-trash style using dice and cards to determine outcomes. Every player is given a dashboard to keep track of their statistics. On this card you keep track of your speed, how many people you've killed and how many opponents you've shot. You also have your three primary pieces of equipment placed above the card which will generally consist of a gun, some armor and then some other little gadget to help you along the way.

You use the dice in the game to decide whether you've run someone over or whether you are successful at shooting your opponents. It's a very basic system. The damage caused to opponents is taken from their hand of cards. Each player starts with 7 cards and at the beginning of each turn can draw up to 3 cards if they have less than 5. Cards are VERY important.

When you shoot an opponent they must give you cards equal to the amount of damage your weapon did thus increasing your hand. However there are a lot of ways to lose cards from your hand as well. You can of course play cards to activate the effect on them, you can discard them to speed up or slow down an extra 20mph past the regular limits, you can lose them going through obstacles, and you could lose them to other card effects. Beyond this you must also discard cards to power your weapons up so that you can shoot other players. There is a LOT of card cycling in this game. Once you've lost so many cards that you can no longer discard you Wipeout. Basically you lose one of your attached gadgets, cease movement, drop to 20mpg (lowest speed possible) and you take a -20 points at the end of the game.

Wipeout 3 times and you can, depending on the variant your playing, no longer make pit stops to fix your car or are eliminated from the race. The components for the game are really nice. The tracks are made of heavy duty card stock as are the tokens. The plastic playing pieces are good, but a little silly looking. You definitely get what you pay for in this game which is good considering the MSRP of $60.00 USD. I'm still going to have to call this worth the price.

The game seems like a lot of fun and with the right crowd I can imagine it would be. Check out the Board Game Geek page and see what it looks like. Keep in mind it's a game, but if someone you know picks it up or you get a chance I think it's definitely worth trying out whether you decide to pick it up yourself or not. I have to also state that I have at this point traded the game away. Not because it was bad, but because there are assuredly better. Still if it sounds like something you might like go give it a drive.

The Board Game Geek Page for Road Kill Rally

Appeal To The Masses

2011-08-31T21:19:00.002-05:00

So, in the process of working on my Warhammer Quest set I have run aground of not having all the models. I have procured a great many that I needed via forums and friends, but now I appeal to you the masses. I am looking for 3 Snotlings and 12 of the Rats pictured below. If you have them and are willing to part with them please send me an e-mail and work us up a deal. It would be most appreciated!

Thank you all!

Board Game Review: Wits & Wagers

2011-08-29T10:57:00.000-05:00

So I'd been thinking of doing Board Game reviews on the Podcast and with it having ended and me never achieving that goal I'm definitely going to use this Blog as an outlet now. I'm an avid Board Gamer and love them as much as Warhammer so you can definitely expect to see some Board Game Reviews coming through here. Hope you enjoy them!

I won this game out of a Christmas Geek-list on Board Game Geek from the creator, Dominic Crapuchettes. Part of the agreement was that if you entered the contest and won that you would write a bunch of reviews on some of the larger retailers websites, Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target, etc...

So happily I won and while I didn't win early enough in the thread to win a bonus game I was thrilled nonetheless. The game is a lot of fun, and very quick! It can also get people playing who may not necessarily enjoy trivia games on the average.

The game takes place over 7 rounds, each round consisting of a single question. Each player is given a marker and a dry erase board and 2 cardboard betting chips. The 1st question is read out loud and every question has a numerical answer. Each player writes down their best answer/guess on their dry erase board and after all the answers are written they are placed in order from smallest to largest on a green felt betting mat, somewhat like a Craps mat from a casino. Each answer depending on where it falls in the order has specific payout of odds.

The players look at the answers and then place there betting chips on answers that they think are correct. They can place their chips on two separate answers or on a single answer and nothing requires them to bet, although you can never lose your original two chips so there's no reason not to at least bet those.

After everyone has placed there bets the answer is read aloud and odds are paid out. Anyone who bet on the correct answer receives chips according to heir bet and the payout odds. So if you chose let's say a middle-ish answer with odds of 3 to 1 then if you'd placed 1 of your cardboard chips you'd receive 3 poker chips. In the successive rounds you can not only place your two cardboard chips, but you may if you wish increase your bets by placing your poker chips under the cardboard ones. However if you choose the wrong answer you lose these chips, while obviously if you choose the right answer you get even more chips!

After seven rounds the person with the most chips wins. It's a very simple game and while it wasn't a huge hit, everyone certainly seemed to enjoy playing. The game accommodates 7 players, after which you can of course form teams to increase player numbers which I've heard is pretty fun; but I have yet to play it with more than 7. The game is great for a number of reasons. The first is that people who may not like trivia games but love gambling will probably be sucked in due to the betting mechanic. Second and this is my favorite part, is the fact that you don't actually have to know the answers to win; you just have to be able to guess who in your group will since there is no requirement to bet on your own answer.

I definitely give this game a big thumbs up, I'm pretty fond of it, its' certainly worth checking out; I've put a link below to the Board Game Geek page.

Wits & Wagers

Dead Pokey!

2011-08-27T16:18:00.004-05:00

So you've all heard me talk about re-doing the Empire army of our friends and very likely never seen any progress on it. Well I finally got done re-building the big Spear unit. It started out as 20 Halberd's and 20 Spearmen with command models, but as every single tip of every weapon was broken I had to replace them. With no place on the net that I could find replacement Halberd's I went with Spears since I already had a ton of Pikes for a Dogs of War army I was going to do once upon a time. I have to repaint them and finish building the custom bases for the unit to end up on later but I thought I'd help myself by showing the progress.

Note that these are the older models, 5th or 6th edition I'm not sure, but they are a fair bit smaller than the current models produced by GW. I had to drill out every hand on every model except the musician. Now you know what took so long. Sheesh...

Bugman Ho!

2011-08-22T15:31:00.001-05:00

So here, just days after I literally finished my final Dwarf model to be painted and completed the entire army I receive a package from the UK. A wonderful listener by the name of Tony send me a wonderful little gift to thank me for the years of work we put into the show. It is heartily appreciated! I was touched and I just had to share it. Thanks Tony!

Slayer Pirates

2011-08-19T22:30:00.002-05:00

Just in time for a tournament on Saturday, (about 8 hours in time) I finished my unit of 15 Slayer Pirates. The pics here are junk. Oddly I got rid of my Blackberry and got an iPhone only to find that the Blackberry is the far superior phone for photo's. Oh well, you can't win them all!

Regardless I thought I'd throw the pics up to show that I finished them! Along with my last cannon which I didn't take a picture of I no longer have any unpainted Dwarfs! I'd say that's cause for a celebration!

Long Drongs Pirates

2011-08-09T22:27:00.003-05:00

So in an Episode not all that long ago I discussed attempting to finish every Dwarf model I owned. At the time that consisted of a Organ Gun/Cannon and Crew, 15 Long Drong Slayer Pirates and a Character. I've since completed the War Machine and Crew and Character. I have not however completed the Pirates. I hate skin. I'm also big on procrastination. However since there is a tournament on the 20th of August that I plan on attending with them and finishing so few models should have been a simple task. I have had these guys sitting base coated for somewhere round 3 weeks now. So last night in an effort to push myself I demand that I finish them in groups by sculpts. I finished these two last night before bed. I still need to base them and put on a dull coat but at least its some progress. Finally...

The Equipment

2011-08-06T14:55:00.003-05:00

The equipment has been sold! :)
Thanks to everyone who inquired, hopefully the new owners will get it going soon as they were expressing interest in doing a WHF cast.

Going a Questing!

2011-08-05T18:04:00.009-05:00

So as you may be able to guess this post will be about a game. Quite specifically Warhammer Quest! Possibly one of the greatest GW games ever produced in my humble opinion. Well, mine and just about everyone I know that plays Warhammer, and those that haven't played it would probably soon say that it is the best shortly after they play it for the first time. Yes, it is just that much fun!

For those that do not know Games Workshop worked with Milton Bradley in the late 80's (well 1989 to be specific) and produced a wonderful mass market fantasy board game called Hero Quest followed very shortly after in the same year by Advanced Hero Quest.

These were amazing games for what they were. They came with gobs of great looking components, fun fantasy gameplay that was borderline roleplaying like D&D and it was a nice simple introduction into the Warhammer world with some pretty simple mechanics. As a child I never received either game but from what I heard they were a blast to play and now fetch a fair price on eBay. However due to the fact that they were mass market games they enjoy nowhere near the prices that Warhammer Quest does.

See in 1995 Games Workshop took what they had learned working with Milton Bradley and said "We can do this better ourselves." and from that decision comes this amazing game. To say it was full of components seems pretty weak sauce, its a see it to believe it type thing.

See? Now you believe me. The game built off of everything that the other two games did but also jumped full force into the Warhammer hobby. The plastics were all gray and no longer colored so they really begged to be painted. The game introduced the stat line from Warhammer that we're all so familiar with now. The board was modular and so every game you played with vary and be different in some way or shape. There were more treasures, more monsters, more roleplay and more complex rules. This was a gamers game and nobody questioned it. The problem is that it had a very short lifespan. As I said earlier it was released in 1995 and succinctly went out of print (OOP) in 1998 so only had an active shelf life of 3 years. For a hobby game that isn't terribly long.

The game was built on a fairly basic premise that we all know. The dungeon crawl. You get a group of adventurers who go into a dungeon, stab the bad guys, sometimes save the innocents and always, ALWAYS grab the loot.

The mechanics were generally quite simple and straightforward. You moved, you explored, monsters appeared, you fight and either win and get treasure or die and the game is over. Thew wonder of the game is that you could easily play one off games like you could in Hero Quest that would take roughly 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Very simple and fairly quick. The glory was that you could add the roleplay rules and expand your character. Where in Hero Quest you could only take treasures from dungeon to dungeon this system allowed you to level up your character and watch them grow. They gained skills and fantastic treasures. They went to town and had more adventures on the way and once they were there.

I have never played this game with someone who afterward didn't love it. I'm sure my wife would make an exception to that rule which is exactly why I would never play it with her. With the short shelf life of the game and the ludicrous popularity and zealous actions of people like me to get it the game can now in a compete state fetch anywhere from $200-300 USD. My copy is incomplete and I managed to get lucky and only pay around $80 USD in 2003 or 2004, I can't remember when I actually got the copy. I had a copy years before that sadly was stolen out of my car one day. I cried. Literally... I would've been happier if they'd stolen the car and left the game on the sidewalk.

The game was supported pretty heavily by GW too which made it seem more shocking when they suddenly cut it off. There were 9 different character packs released in case you didn't' want to play with just the Barbarian, Dwarf, Elf and Wizard. There were also two more that were released as Mail Order Only packs. There over 30 articles adding rules, material, scenarios, campaigns and ideas between White Dwarf and Citadel Journal. It had its own mini publication Deathblow that ran for 3 issues near the end of the games life cycle. Lair of the Orc Lord and The Catacombs of Terror.

Anyway, I bring all of this up to make a point. I was rummaging around in my games area about a week ago and ran across mine. Its in a toolbox now, the original box (for which you can see the art at the top of this post) long ago having been destroyed. The roleplay book is in a 3 ring binder as we used it to the point that it literally fell apart. Also as the gameplay picture above shows a set that is all still unpainted mine is too. When I ran across it I realised its been almost 3 years since I played it. I was hit with a sudden need. I decided that I shall paint my set finally. No simple task as it has over 85+ models in it that require painting. I've also started scrounging forums so that I can obtain the few models that I am missing to make the set complete. I've already rounded up quite a bit. My goal is to paint my set for Halloween at which point I will invite a group of 4 friends over and we will play the games main campaign which is a 3 level dungeon. Its got me REALLY excited.

I also plan to bring it with my to Adepticon in 2012 and on Friday night and probably Saturday night run some games of it outside of the Fantasy hall for fun. I feel extremely confident in saying that it will not be hard to find players at all. So you can keep your eye on this blog to follow my progress. By the end of August I should have obtained all the models and throughout September I'll be working on it. Yes I know I should be working on my Skaven army but this thing has really gotten into my head. In the end if you've never played this game I can't recommend it highly enough. If you have played it but its been a while I highly recommend you drag it out as I'm doing. I own a TON of games and this is easily on the top of the list as being rates a full out 10! Warhammer Quest, go get some.

I've tossed a link to Board Game Geek's webpage for it. BGG is probably one of the most useful Boardgaming websites ever and I highly recommend its use. It can be somewhat confusing at first but the amount of information there is amazing. Check it out.

Link to Board Game Geek:
Warhammer Quest

Episode 64 : The Storm Crashes Down

2011-07-30T14:10:00.000-05:00

Episode 64 : The Storm Crashes Down

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and Schone Doville
News/Rumors/Feature : Warhammer Forge, Vampire Counts, Power Scroll, Ogre Rumors, Core Competency
Feature : The Storm Crashes Down

We start our episode out as normal covering our wonderful sponsors. We then delve into our fairly... well into Chucks fairly heavy week as he attended a tournament 'Invasion Kenosha 3' while I only just managed to get a single game in since our last episode. Its good to hear that Chuck and the others did well and The Waaagh Cast! won the Club Award at the tournament. We get out of our weeks and into some extensive news/rumors segments.

Warhammer Forge released a character riding their latest beast, the Carmine Dragon. We then get into all the new Vampire Counts things being put up on advance order. We cut through our thoughts on them as well as a little bit of rules rumors for them that are reported to be in the newest edition of White Dwarf magazine. We also disccuss an erata that is rumored to be in White Dwarf as well which is very interesting and really gets us kind of excited. We finally cover some Ogre Kingdoms rumors from Warseer before plugging Core Competency again and then get into our main segment that you'll just have to listen to!

Warhammer Forge: Elspeth Von Draken on Carmine Dragon

Advance Order: Vampire Counts

Ogre Rumors on Warseer:
http://www.warseer.com/....

Core Competency Link:
http://www.iwfb.org/forums/

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 1hr 23min 17sec

Episode 63 : The Storm Hits

2011-07-16T06:55:00.013-05:00

Episode 63 : The Storm Hits

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and Paul Frischkorn
News/Rumors/Feature : Black Library, Warhammer Forge, Blood Bowl?, F.A.Q.'s, Core Competency
Feature : Storm of Magic Discussion

We as always throw out our wonderful Sponsors first, Gryfalia's and CCG as well as our singular sponsor Paul. We just want to let you know how much we appreciate all our listeners and sponsors. We cover a pretty quick hit of our weeks in Warhammer which weren't completely eventful. We do cover my first game of Storm of Magic with the Dwarf's Vs. Brettonians. Decidedly SoM is a very interesting expansion to Warhammer. We push through the News/Rumors covering a couple of Black Library Novels, the new Dread Quake Mortar from Forge World, strange scuttlebutt about Blood Bowl a quick note about the latest F.A.Q.'s and finally a lengthy interview with Alex Gonzalez the tournament organizer of Core Competency.

For our feature segment we delve into the Storm of Magic expansion for Warhammer. We cover most of the ground rules for what is involved with the game and the basic SoM scenario. We go through the new special miscast table for SoM. We also take a touch on a number of the magic items and discuss a bit of our thoughts on the Bestiary section and why exactly it excites us to play this game.

Black Library Novels:
Nagash Immortal

Hour of Shadow

Warhammer Forge: Dread Quake Mortar

Warhammer F.A.Q.: Tomb Kings and Lizardmen
Link to GW's F.A.Q. Page

Core Competency GT Information:
September 24th and 25th; Core Comp. is a 2400 Point's, Special Characters are allowed. You must bring an 'Ambassador' model on no larger than a 40mm base. The theme for this year is 'Real Gamers Wear Pink' in support of Breast Cancer Awareness. Your Ambassador should be wearing a Pink Ribbon or some kind of Pink should be on the model. You should bring 7 copies of your list, 1 for each opponent, yourself and the T.O. Registration is $35 before Sept. 1st and $40 afterwards. You can pre-register by using PayPal at e-mail:
Locasion is:
1524 Butterfield Rd. Suite A
Downers Grove, IL. 60515

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 2hr 36min 29sec

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T07:49:00.004-05:00

Happy 4th of July
I hope that you all have a wonderful Independence Day celebrating our country. God Bless us, each and every one.

Episode 62 : Game Gab

2011-07-02T12:08:00.008-05:00

Episode 62 : Game Gab

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and Chris Mullins
News/Rumors/Feature : Storm of Magic Pre-order, Black Library, Warhammer Forge, Avatars of War and Far Future

This show we have a newer player who just recently started playing Fantasy join us and add a little bit of a new voice tot he show. We go over our large number of games since we've all been to a local tournament as of late and I've been at two. A lot of other gab is in this, but we stay on target fairly well.

The latter half of the show is all news. We discuss prices and thoughts on all the Storm of Magic pre-orders. We move through to some Black Library books, two of which are tie-ins to the Storm of Magic release. A new Dragon released by Forge World and finally a new Wood Elf Hero released by Avatars of War!

Storm of Magic Pre-orders:

Black Library:
Razumov's Tomb:

Dragonmage:

Sigvald:

Warhammer Forge: Carmine Dragon

Avatar of War: Wood Elf Hero

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 1hr 42min 26sec

Episode 61 : Storm of Magic

2011-06-19T14:40:00.000-05:00

Episode 61 : Storm of Magic

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and Chris Mullins
News/Rumors/Feature : Forge World Chaos Dwarfs and Storm of Magic Pictures/Releases and Rules Rumors

This Episode Chuck and I start by of course thanking our wonderful Sponsors. Chris who singularly sponsored this and the next show is also the wonderful person who donated the Foot of Gork Template that we gave away on the last show's Twitter Contest. Congratulations again to 'The Prophet' for winning that awesome template and thanks to Chris for putting in the effort to have them made. We discuss our weeks which are fairly thick this time as we've both been actually playing and getting stuff done. Exciting I know.

We forgo our usual Feature segment's this episode to discuss the big chunk of News/Rumors we have. Warhammer Forge has released the two other War Machines for the Chaos Dwarf line of models. The Magma Cannon and Deathshrieker Rocket Battery. Both are really good looking models. We then move into the more important bit of news that is the Storm of Magic releases and rumors that are due out in July. The models are amazing looking; but the rumors to me seem pretty ho-hum. Hopefully you all enjoy the show!

Chaos Dwarf's: Magma Cannon and Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher

Storm of Magic Releases:

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 1hr 17min 00sec

Episode 60 : Forge World Chaos Dwarfs

2011-06-05T13:43:00.007-05:00

Episode 60 : Forge World Chaos Dwarfs

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and Tim Gleese, Scott Tipsword and FIND NAME
News/Rumors/Feature : Forge World Chaos Dwarf Rules

So here we are coming at you a single week after our last episode to keep ourselves on schedules after the last short delay. We get to thank multiple people for sponsoring this show as we discuss the rumored 'Forge World Chaos Dwarf' rules that were found apparently by a number of people and a good listener was kind enough to e-mail me. So with that in hand we discuss and find that it takes up our show for the week. The episode is short, but hopefully everyone finds it interesting. If your interested in seeing the rules they are floating around in a number of places on the web, just Google "forge world chaos dwarf list" and you'll find them eventually. You may have to sift through some places first, but there out there.

Forge World: Chaos Siege Giant

Foot of Gork Templates:

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 0hr 55min 23sec

Episode 59 : A Couple of Tournaments

2011-05-29T14:30:00.005-05:00

Episode 59 : A Couple of Tournaments

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and Mike
News/Rumors : GW Embargo, Response, Fine-casting, Price Hikes, BRB FAQ 1.4, Warhammer Forge, Interview with John Gaszak from Invasion Kenosha 3
Feature : 'Ard Boy'z Round 2 and Midwest Rampage - After Action Reports

We start out naturally thanking our wondeful sponsors this episode including Mike (A.K.A.- Amysrevenge) from the forums. We then get into a really lengthy what we've been doing section, followed by an even more lengthy news and rumors section. Tons to discuss! The new Embargo placed on European Independant Retailers by Games Workshop, the Fine Casting model line, F.A.Q.'s and more!

We move on to Warhammer Forges release of the first Chaos Dwarf models in the line before we move over to have an interview with John Gaszak plugging the Invasion Kenosha 3 single day tournament GT in Wisconson! We complete our show with a whopping ton of talk about the two tournaments we attended over the weekend. Chuck attended the Midwest Rampage held at our sponsor Gryfalia's Aerie and I went south a couple of hours to attend Round 2 of the 'Ard Boy'z tournament at Fantasy Books and Games in Fairview Heights, IL.

Studio Level Terrain Sponsor:
Studio Level Terrain

Games Workshop Relevant Links:
GW Embargo News from Maelstrom Games
GW Response via Webteam on Facebook
GW Announces Finecast Miniatures Line
GW May 2011 Price Rise List
GW BRB F.A.Q. 1.4

Warhammer Forge:
Chaos Dwarfs

Invasion Kenosha 3:
Invasion Kenosha Website

'Ard Boy'z & MWR Video's:

Chuck' YouTube Videos' from MWR:
Chuck' YouTube Videos' from MWR

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 2hr 16min 23sec

Episode 58 : Filler

2011-05-08T09:00:00.004-05:00

Episode 58 : Filler

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and John Gaszak
News/Rumors : Midwest Rampage 6
Feature : Filler Discussion

For this Episode we have along with our wonderful FLGS sponsors John Gaszak who is the T.O. for Invasion Kenosha 3 support our show. So if you have some time and your looking for a great single day tournament in the Southern Wisconsin or Northern Illinois area check out Invasion Kenosha! Links below! The last couple weeks have been pretty shy on the Warhammer Fantasy news so the only thing we have in the news/rumors section is an interview with Midwest Rampage T.O. Jim Emerick discussing his tournament now in its 6th consecutive year.

For the primary show segment we throw in some filler, literally! We take an in depth discussion on Unit Fillers. What should and shouldn't be aloud, our thoughts on sizes and design ideas as well as the results from a number of polls that we organized on numerous forums to get public opinion on the matter. While not a necessary or integral part of the hobby this always hotly debated piece is becoming even more prevalent in 8th edition and we'll discuss why.

Invasion Kenosha 3:
http://www.invasionkenosha.com/

Midwest Rampage 6
http://midwest-rampage.jimemerick.com/

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 1hr 55min 54sec

Episode 57 : Bowls of Blood

2011-04-24T18:00:00.000-05:00

Episode 57 : Bowls of Blood

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games
News/Rumors : Warhammer Forge, Storm of Magic, Avatar of War, Waaagh Aerie, 'Ard Boy'z Round 2 Talk
Feature : Blood Bowl Chatter

We begin the show on a somber note as one of our long time Warhammer Friends from Central Illinois passed in the last two weeks from a long battle with cancer. After a moment of silent respect we move along into what we've been doing. Discussion of our 'Ard Boy'z games along with our usual business fills the first chunk of the show naturally before we move into some nice news/rumors segments. We go into Warhammer Forge's latest models from the Chaos side the Tamurkhan on Toad Dragon, Sayl the Faithless with Nightmaw and finally Kazyk the Befouled on Rotbeast.

We move along afterward into Games Workshops announcement of a WHFB expansion set for release in July according to their blog. Our thoughts on the increased idea of big monsters and even crazier magic than is currently in the system. We see that Avatars of War has finally put up the 'Berserker' (see Slayer) plastic regiment up for pre-order which excites all the Dwarf players out there. We mention the date of our next tournament we'll be running in Bloomington Illinois on the 25th of June. We discuss some future of extra shows.

Finally I get together with Jason Christian a wonderful player I met at Adepticon this year to go over some Blood Bowl! Him and his friends are avid players of the game and since I'd wanted to do a show about Blood Bowl before Adepticon and didn't get to it, I figured I should definitely take the opportunity to get to it afterward. We cover just the bare bones basics in our discussion so look for some more in depth discussion in a later episode. Hopefully you guys and or gal's enjoy the show!

Forge World:

Games Workshop - Storm of Magic:

Avatar of War - Dwarf Berserkers:

Domus Rules Blog:
http://domusmaximus.blogspot.com/

'Ard Boy'z Round 2 Scenarios:
2nd Round Scenario's from GW's Site

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 2hr 6min 24sec

Episode 56 : Post Adepticon

2011-04-10T21:04:00.000-05:00

Episode 56 : Post Adepticon

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and singularly by Donald Duval
News/Rumors : Gale Force 9, Tomb Kings, Contest Winner, 'Ard Boy'z Scenario's
Feature : Interviews from Adepticon

This episode Chuck and I delve into my post-Adepticon goodness. Our discussion of recent events therefore is fairly lengthy. I discuss in short each day I spent at Adepticon. Friday my 1k 'It's How You Use It' tournament. Then Saturday and Sunday I go quickly over all 6 of my games from 'The Stupor Bowl' Blood Bowl tournament. We discover that Adepticon is, as always I really great time! The news/rumors section see's us discussing a lot of new stuff that Gale Force 9 is bringing out for Warhammer Fantasy players. We then move on to Games Workshop's newest pre-release Tomb Kings models along with some rumors dug up from a couple of forums. We go over the 'Ard Boy'z scenario's at the end.

The main segment of the show involves us very little. While I was at Adepticon I managed to do exactly what I'd planned while playing in the Blood Bowl tournament which was do interviews with multiple people of interest. I've got short 10 or so minute interviews with Nathan Long from Black Library, Ronni from Mantic Games, Joe from Gale Force 9, Mike Muller from N.A.F. and Stupor Bowl and finally a very short shot with Craig Gallant and Rafe Granger from The D6 Generation.

Insanely at the end of everything I somehow managed to delete the last probably 10 minutes of this episode so it will end quite abruptly after the interview with Craig and Rafe. Oops... Still, I hope you all enjoy!

Gale Force 9 - Tokens, Trays and Fantasy Terrain:

Games-Workshop - Tomb Kings Models:

YouTube Video's from Adepticon! and GF9 Tower of Woe:
Adepticon Random Clips

Blood Bowl:Day 1 Clips and Awards

Blood Bowl:Day 2 Awards

Gale Force 9:Tower of Woe

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 1hr 59min 14sec

Episode 55 : O&G Discussion

2011-03-27T14:15:00.000-05:00

Episode 55 : O&G Discussion

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and singularly by Tim Cleese
News/Rumors : Avatar of War, Mantic-Games, Fantasy Flight Games, 'Ard Boy'z, Forge World, Adepticon, Midwest Rampage and Invasion Kenosha
Feature : O&G Discussion from Chuck & Da-Warpath!

This show comes at you an extra week late which means an extra helping of news. Great that we have something to talk about that's coming up with hobby since it's been so slow recently. We also have a small chunk of 'what we've been doing' since it's been a while which mostly involves me playing Blood Bowl and getting ready for Adepticon. New's and Rumors kicks off a lot of upcoming stuff. Avatar of War has a new model out, Mantic Games is getting out their Orc line along with a 2 player game I presume which is their version of Warhammer Quest. Fantasy Flight releases a expansion pack for Chaos in The Old World board game. 'Ard Boy'z tournament dates, store locations and preliminary scenario's are released!

We also discuss some Forge World models that are to be available at Adepticon which leads us into a quick overview of the list of Vendors who will be present at Adepticon this year. Finally we wrap up the segment with discussion of two Indy GT's coming up in the near future, Midwest Rampage and Invasion Kenosha III. For our feature segment Chuck takes a lot of notes from a thread he stasrted on Da-Warpath O&G forums and discusses some community thoughts for Q&A's and things that people feel are and are not good from the 8th edition Army Book. Also I should say that in an effort to have this show posted only a week late instead of a week+ we forgoe pretty much all the usual editing from the show so there are some definite spots you'll hit that sound sloppy. What a pity right? I hope you all enjoy the show and I look forward to meeting a great many of you at Adepticon this coming weekend!

Avatar of War - Marauder Warlord:

Mantic-Games:
Orc Warriors:

YouTube of Dwarf Kings Hold!:

Fantasy Flight Chaos in The Old World Expansion:

'Ard Boy'z Information:>
Rules: http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1730403a_Fantasy_Ard_Boyz_2011_Rules.pdf
Scenarios: http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1730396a_Fantasy_Ard_Boyz_2011_Prelim_Scenarios.pdf
Locations: http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1730404a_Fantasy_Ard_Boyz_Preliminary_Locations_2011.pdf

Forge World Adepticon Hellsmith:

Adepticon Vendor Hall Line-up:
Armorcast, Badger Games, Battle Foam, Battlefront, Black Library, Blue Table Painting, Coolminiornot.com, Dice Head Games, Forge World, Gale Force Nine, Game Room, Geek Nation Tours, Last Square, Mantic Games, Miniature Painting Authority, Outpost Games, and Warlord Games

Indy GT's MWR & Invasion Kenosha:
Midwest Rampage:
Invasion Kenosha III:

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 1hr 22min 47sec

Episode 55 Delayed...

2011-03-17T20:56:00.000-05:00

Due to Chuck being on Vacation and myself being quite busy this coming weekend, Episode 55 will be delayed for a while.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Episode 54 : Potpourri

2011-03-06T14:50:00.002-06:00

Episode 54 : Potpourri

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and singularly by Grant Fetter
News/Rumors : Avatar of War, Black Library, Warhammer Forge, Battlefoam Raffle for Adepticon
Feature : Free Form

We start off the show thanking our sponsors and all those who joined us for our 1st life recording before moving on to our 'What's been up segment' where we discuss some games we've had lately. We talk a bit about the painting contest on our forums that we've been doing for a couple weeks now. For our News/Rumors we discuss yet another new Avatar of War Dwarf character. A fair chunk of Black Library news as far as new books, ebooks and a number of audio books being made available through them. We also throw out the info for a Raffle being held at Adepticon by Battlefoam which if your going you will probably be interested in.

Our main feature doesn't really exist this time as such. We have no real specific topic that we discuss, but we answer some questions from the live chat room at the time of recording as well as take a couple of phone calls. As a result we talk about a lot of random stuff and have a good chunk of information dropped on us about the Blood in The Sun tournament in Northern Illinois in July.

Avatar of War - Dwarf Noble :
Avatar of War Site Link

Black Library Link :
Black Library Link

Warhammer-Forge Pics / Links :
Warhammer Forge Link

Adepticon Link - Battlefoam Raffle Link :
Adepticon News Page Link

Blood in The Sun GT
Blood in The Sun Main Website

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 1hr 32min 44sec

Live show embeds! Check it out!

2011-03-03T20:47:00.001-06:00

Free TV Show from Ustream

The Waaagh Cast! : Live???

2011-03-01T15:15:00.006-06:00

Yup, you read it right; we're going to finally do something with the USTREAM account that we've had for nearly 2 years. We're going to try this Thursday to record the show live. It is very unlikely that we will be running a video stream, but the audio will be running. So please stop by the USTREAM this Thursday evening at 9 o'clock US Central time! We really want to encourage all to come log into the chatroom and participate with us so that we know if this is something that will have the demand to continue.!!!!
Links below!!!

When!:
Thursday, March 3rd 2011
9:00p.m. US Central Time

U-STREAM LINK!:
http://www.ustream.tv/channelthe-waaagh-cast

Episode 53 : Adepticon Interview

2011-02-20T14:02:00.010-06:00

Episode 53 : Adepticon Interview

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and singularly by Chris Leapley
News/Rumors : O&G , Tomb Kings Announced, Warhammer Forge, Contest Winner
Feature : Adepticon Interview with Alex Gonzalez

We being the show as always with our 'What's been up segment' where we discuss signing up for Adepticon and what the plans are for that. We also squeeze in just a bit about the little painting contest on our forums that we've been doing for a couple weeks now. For our News/Rumors we discuss the new O&G Army Book which is currently in stores via the GW Black Boxes and the new models that accompanied it. We discuss the fact that Tomb Kings has been witnissed on the horzion and voice our hopes for more frequent army books and speculation as such and finally end with just a touch on Warhammer Forge.

Our main feature has me conducting a telephone interview with Alex Gonzalez the new man in charge of the Warhammer Fantasy events at Adepticon! We discuss which tournaments/events are being held, some insight as to why they chose certain points level's/formats and what can be roughly expected of scenario's. We also discuss a little O&G together since Alex is a long time avid Goblin player and what he thinks of the new book.

Pics of O&G Pre-release Models :

Tomb Kings Pics / Links :
Link to the GW Announcement

Warhammer-Forge Pics / Links :
Warhammer Forge Link

Adepticon Link :

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 1hr 22min 22sec

Super news everyone!

2011-02-12T10:25:00.002-06:00

Super news everyone!
I met my asking for pre-orders and have ordered the 1st sets of dice. I've ordered an extra 4 sets past what I have pre-orders for so while I'm not taking new orders if you e-mail me I'll let you know if I have any left and you can then order one of the extra sets.

Thank you again to all the listeners!

52 is fixed

2011-02-06T09:28:00.000-06:00

It's working; it's alive!!!!

Host is jacked...

2011-02-05T07:25:00.000-06:00

For those of you who have the page on an RSS feed, I am aware that currently my host for my files isn't allowing #52 out. It's uploaded and posted, but for some reason or another LIBSYN isn't working the way it is supposed to. Hopefully this will be corrected soon. Thanks for your patience.

Episode 52 : Waaagh Paca!

2011-02-05T07:00:00.004-06:00

Episode 52 : Waaagh Paca!

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and singularly by Chris Leapley
News/Rumors : O&G Rumors, MWR Venue Found, Waaagh Cast! Dice Fundraiser
Feature : Waaagh Paca Recordings and Game Discussions

This show starts out with a different order than our usual shows. We recorded a pre-amble after the tournament in which we discuss all of our games from Waaagh Paca. We also go over some O&G Rumors that were recently e-mailed to me bya listener and after that we push into the recordings from Waaagh Paca! This is where we drop back into our mostly normal format. We thank the sponsors, discuss some lists, and talk about a few bits of news. Namely that MWR has secured a venue so they are on for May. Link below. We discuss that we are indeed doing a dice fundraiser for the show. $15 donation nets you 10 custom Waaagh Cast Dice! We then have a lot of recorded stuff from Waaagh Paca with lots of discussion and talk. We come back to close the show with a post recorded bit and that wraps us for #52.

Midwest Rampage :
http://www.midwest-rampage.jimemerick.com/

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 2hr 01min 33sec

Episode 51 : Waaagh Preperation

2011-01-24T00:00:00.001-06:00

Episode 51 : Waaagh Preperation

Show notes:

Sponsorship : Tales of Battle, Gryfalia's Aerie, Capital City Games and singularly by Brad Schwandt and Jacob Murphey
News/Rumors : Skaven Wave 2 Thoughts, Army Builder 3.3, Fantasy FAQ's, Black Library
Feature : Army List Discussion for Waaagh Paca!

This episode starts out with our usual sponsors, and while the singular sponsor did not specify a note I used his segment to mention a tournament that we missed talkinga bout in our Big Five-O episode called Invasion Kenosha (Links Below). We break into what we've been doing; but end up having a fairly small segment as we discuss more of it in the main part of the show. I should note as well, that apparently someone (actually both of us are guilty) had their Facebook chat up and you'll hear it throughout the show. Sorry...

The News/Rumors, I discuss the black box for Skaven 2nd Wave at our store. Only came with Abomination and WLC/PCC, but I discuss my thoughts there. We talk a little about Army Builder 3.3 release/update; a couple of Fantasy F.A.Q. updates and finally some Black Library pre-orders. Our main segment has us talking about and going over our Waaagh Paca lists and how we think we'll go as well as talking about some games we've had with our finalized lists. We finally cut the show discussing a few more idea's for fundraisers for the show. E-mail us and let us know what you think of all these ideas. This show was of course short; moreso due to us forcing a recording before I went on vacation for 4 days and us needing a show to smash out so hopefully you all get something from it.

Invasion Kenosha Link :
http://www.invasionkenosha.com

Please if you enjoy the show leave comments on the blog; if you have I-Tunes please leave I-Tunes Reviews. Any questions, comments, suggestions e-mail us at joe@waaaghcast.net; you can also call and leave voicemails at 1-217-883-4598 or username: waaaghcast on Skype. As always Thanks for listening!!!!

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Episode Length 1hr 03min 34sec

The Waaagh Cast! Dice!

2011-01-19T18:10:00.004-06:00

Super news everyone!
Chuck and I have decided on 1 of a number of possible fundraisers for the show and here it is. DICE! One of the things that we have to do though is take pre-orders for the dice so that we can afford to order them in the first place. If I had the money to buy them first trust me I would.

To receive a set of 10 Custom Waaagh Cast! Dice all you have to do is donate $15.00 USD to the show via our PayPal link on our front page at http://www.waaaghcast.net. It's just over on the right side, but to help out those of you who are linking here from forums I'll put a link at the bottom of this post as well. When you donate just add a note to the donation saying DICE and your mailing address. Chuck and I are very excited to have our own dice for the show and hopefully you will all help us in our fundraiser and help us order a ton of dice!

As for the Pre-order thing. I will submit the order to the manufacturer when we have received either, 20 Pre-orders or at the end of February. I will keep everyone up to date with that and the dice will be mailed out promptly upon their receipt.

Please help support the show and get in on this opportunity!

PayPal LINK!!!