Full Stop...

Yup, in case you haven't guessed it my hobby has ground to a full stop lately.  That includes the podcast.  This has nothing to do with lack of motivation but more lack of time.  The holidays are hectic for everyone but combined with both of my sons in scouting and the other family activities of my usual cohort of friends that record the show with me we not only missed Novembers show, but Decembers as well.  Apologies intrepid listeners.

I've continued grinding on though with my painting quest as of late.  I've completed an Orc Blood Bowl team, and am furiously working on the Humans.  These are just the base sets, but I was impressed with how well the Orcs held up considering their age.  I bought, assembled and painted two Great Eagles.  Finished my 5th ed. Marauder Giant as well as a Dragon and Rider.  Did some Freehand Banners on the Empire as well as finishing a unit of Handguns, Halberds and Knights.  Also the last of my Dwarfs in my Ironbreakers.  Most of this can be seen in my Twitter feed so go there and check out the photo's! https://twitter.com/Waaaghcast/media

I plan to be back with a show in early January that I'll probably end up recording sometime in mid December.  At least that's the plan.  Stupid holidays...

The race is on!

As is often the case with those in our hobby we often do our best work (or at least fastest) when deadlines are looming ahead.  Be it last minute painting in the week or even night before a tournament to slamming an entirely new army together in a specific amount of time for some kind of hobby challenge or article.  We’ve all been guilty of just stacking our projects up on top of eachother until we’ve lost track of what it was we were trying to do and things slip off to the wayside to be forgotten for months or even years.

With the new house/game room and a new army to tickle my fancy I’ve really been on the hobby horse lately and now I’ve decided to drive myself towards a goal by year end.  I could simply say to finish as many projects as I can, but that leaves too much open to chance of me slipping off track.  While finishing as many unfinished projects is certainly a goal in its own, I’ve also decided to drive myself to get the 3 armies I have painted up to 4,000 point legal lists using the current game rules.  This isn’t too difficult as I’ve already got well past 3,000 painted for most of the armies but sometimes it’s that final drive that’s the hardest.

As it happens I’ve already finished my Skaven army to this level having painted the Verminlord last month.  My Dwarfs are actually already able to be fielded at 4,000 which is why they are on the back burner with my collection only currently having 21 unpainted models.  My Empire need the most work.  While I can do 3,000 with what I have, the place the army lacks is the ability to hit the 25% core requirement.  To fix this I’m adding a second unit of 10 Handgunners, 2 Handgunner Champiosn with Long Rifles and a unit of 25 Halberdiers to the list.  Also I’m painting a unit of 5 Reiksguard Knights to use as a chaff blocker.

Since I have my Empire out and on the table I’ve also decided to spruce some things up.  The army was a secondhand army when I got it and while I’ve fixed it up as much as I can and it looks pretty good now, I’ve been trying to find ways to improve its appearance scores.  The paint scheme is pretty basic and the conversion work is super simple which aren’t earning me too many points.  The basing does fine and the theme and display are good so that really only left me one place to try and earn an extra point or two and that was in the ‘freehand’ category.  Now, I should say that I nearly have palsy as bad as I shake, but I decided to give it a go.  Especially since my Empire is old and the banners are the large flat open ones from the older edition models.  You can see the results above.  I have 3 banners in the army with this look and then I have a unit of Knights Panther and Demi-gryphon/Crocodiles which I haven’t decided on what to do yet. Eventually I’ll get to that too.

That’s all I have.  Just a little plug about what I’m working on.
Hobby on fellow readers.  Hobby on.

Episode #77: Assassins and Slayers

Hello and thanks for joining us on Episode 77 of the Waaagh Cast!

In this Episode friend Ryan G. and I get together to plays some small narrative scenario's from the old Skirmish book.  Namely the aptly titled Asssassin! and Slayers! scenarios.  I bet you can't guess what the stories are for these two games!

We talk about a couple of tournaments and as stated in the show here is the link to the Screw City GT.

The last half of the show is primarily us talking about hobby and all that we've done since our last show way back in June.  Hopefully it isn't too boring for you all to listen to.

As always, feel free to write the show, leave comments, reviews, suggestions, etc can all be emailed to us or left here on the blog.  Thanks for listening!

Picture 1 is the initial charge into the General's tent and the troops awaking to the sound of fighting.  The 2nd is the Assassin making off after the dirty deed has been done.

The Assassin makes it away in this final picture from the first scenario and the other pictures from the Giant turned out too blurry to really use, but if the one picture doesn't give you the idea of some Slayers about to find their doom, I don't know what will.


Download the show directly from this link: Episode #77
Run Time: 1 Hour 08 Minutes 54 Seconds

The In-Between

June 30th was my last post...  Wow, time flies when you get busy, and flown it has.  I haven't recorded an episode or made a blog post in over 60 days.  I suppose some of that can't be helped.  Having to pack up your home and move into a new house takes some time, even over a short distance such as the 15 or so miles we moved over the last 2 months.  Then of course you have to do some painting, cleaning, building, fixing.  Home ownership is as time consuming as our hobby.  Hell it takes me two days now to get my lawn fully mowed.

However, I'm here to let everyone know that I'm still alive and kicking and the show will resume its recording schedule hopefully by the end of September.  I haven't however been completely resting on my laurels though, and to prove it I've got pictures!

Let's start in from the beginning.  Our last show was recorded towards the beginning of June.  Since then quite a bit has happened actually.  Towards the end of June some friends and I attended the Blood in the Sun tournament up in northern Illinois.  We participated in both the Friday team event and the Weekend tournament.  I took Dwarfs to the team and went 2-1 which is better than I'd been doing with the army since the new book came out.  I then ran my Empire to a 3-2 record over the weekend.  Along with that though came the bits trade on Saturday night.  Always been a keen observer of great deals I found myself another this year.  An entire Lizardmen Army for $50!  What a steal!

The Carnosaur, Stegadon and newer Terradons were something I picked up later, but the 50 Sarus, 11 Cold Ones, Slaan, 28 Skinks, 12 Chameleons, 3 Terradons and Scar Vet on Cold One and Foot were the find.  Pretty amazing deal since the Slaan is $50 on his own.  I guess I know what army I'll be working on for the foreseeable future.

Episode #76: The Armory-Weapons

Good day everyone,

Thank you for joining me and my friends for Episode #76 of The Waaagh Cast!  A month late but still here I have to apologize for that.  June is always a very busy month for me with many birthdays, anniversaries and other family obligations and this year it just got in the way of me getting an Episode produced and out on time but here it is; what was intended to be June's show out now for July.  As I discuss in this show I must say ahead of time that I've sold my home and that I may be quite busy this month as well so don't be shocked if I don't get an August show out on time either.

To move on though, in this Episode I'm joined by friends of the show Ryan and Dave to go through a chunk of the main WHFB Rulebook discussing all the Magic Weapons available to everyone in the wider game.  Its an interesting topic to hear the different views and opinions on the items and who we think might be able to make use of some of them. 

Hopefully you enjoy the show and as always if you have questions, comments or feedback feel free to post it here, or get hold of us through e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.  Thanks for listening!

Download the show directly from this link: Episode #76
Run Time: 1 Hour 06 Minutes 01 Seconds

Episode #75: Skirmish in a Wider World

Hello loyal listeners,
Welcome back for our 75th Episode!  I'm joined in this one by our old co-host Chuck to play out a short 4 game campaign which will be influenced by the Warhammer Skirmish scenario's printed back in 2003 by Games Workshop in the above shown book: Warhammer Skirmish.  Chuck and I basically follow along a small campaign that the game studio played through in this book which takes us through 3 specific scenarios; Cut the Bridges, Baggage Train and Storm the Barricades!  These games take place previous to a full size Warhammer game and incorporate the victories and defeats into bonuses are drawbacks for the winning and or losing forces in each game.

The Skirmish scenarios being played out have much more involved storyline rules and objectives in them which can really give you a much more narrative feel for your gaming.  This as far as I'm concerned only improves the game.  Chuck and I took a lot of pictures which will be listed below in the categories of Games 1, 2, 3 and 4 and hopefully you, dear listener will find them interesting to browse through.  I also want to state for the record that there was some microphone issues during the discussion of our final game which is unfortunate but hopefully wont detract too much from the show.

Hopefully you enjoy the show and as always if you have questions, comments or feedback feel free to post it here, or get hold of us through e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.  Thanks for listening!

Download the show directly from this link: Episode #75
Run Time: 1 Hour 05 Minutes 06 Seconds

Sad Panda Announcement...

Due to circumstances that are completely within my control, but ones which cannot be avoided we will be missing our next episode that would regularly be out on the 2nd of April.  I would like to apologize for this inconvenience.  My family and I have been quite busy over the month of March fixing and preparing our house for sale so that we can move this spring.  I also switched jobs this month after 6-1/2 years with my previous employer.  It has been a long and difficult month, both time wise and financially for us.  However for the betterment of my family; which I think everyone can accept family comes before hobby we have to get things done and that means sacrificing hobby time and podcasting for a short while.  We should be able to crank a show out for May as we really should be finished with the major jobs on the house sometime early to mid April.  Thank you for your understanding.

Episode #74: Dwarf Review

Hello everyone and thanks for joining us for Episode #74 of the Waaagh Cast!  In this episode we're joined by our old co-host Chuck to discuss the new exciting in Warhammer Fantasy that is the new Dwarf Army Book!  We're very excited to get into it and discuss the differences from the last edition to this new edition.

We hope you enjoy the show as it's a bit longer than our average shows but it takes a while to cover a book and we really didn't want to skimp over it.  Very exciting and very excited!

Download the show directly from this link: Episode #74
Run Time: 2 Hour 00 Minutes 36 Seconds

Warhammer Dwarfs: Initial Impressions

So its finally happened.  Games Workshop went and gave the Dwarf army a new book.  It isn't like this was a surprise, many of us knew this was coming.  The company has been releasing new models over the month of February, and while the book wasn't in the initial two weeks of releases it is out now and I have my copy.  I picked the book up last night and so have literally only had it for about 8 hours and thus all of what follows are simply my initial impressions of the book and should be taken as such.  Warning!  I am going to complain a lot.  However I'm also going to type just as much that I am really excited about.  Warning out of the way let's begin!

First I'll cover the book itself.  The hardcover is of course nice just as all the hardcover books have been.  The full color is great and used very well in this book.  I really liked the map in after the timeline section.  The fluff is good although I admit to not having read all of it yet.  The cover is a great piece of art and speaking of such the artwork throughout the book I really enjoyed a lot.  I saw a lot of new and definitely some old, but overall I really enjoyed it.  The book seems well organized and easy to follow with.  A+ for the book itself.

Staring with the complaints I will go over the things that have been changed significantly (for the worse in my op) since the last book and go on.  The Organ Gun retained its original points cost and was upgraded to two artillery dice and a 30" range.  It did however become BS shooting which with the entire Dwarf army barring Hero's is BS 3.  I don't know if you've ever tried BS 3 shooting or not but it isn't good.  The Organ Gun can now also have 50 points of Runes which means you can make it better by giving it a +1 to hit rune.  This will increase it to 145 points and if you also invest in an Engineer character at 70 points you will be hitting on 3's, 4's at range.  So for 195 points you may get some good usefulness out of the gun but at that cost your losing quite a bit extra out of your list.

Goals and Meandering Thoughts

So here I am in mid February with a little post just to talk about what's up in my hobby. Number one is the fact that having finished my Skaven models on the 2nd I've moved on to some Terrain hobbying which is number 8 on my New Years list. To that end I have finished painting the parts for my graveyard.

Now the piece isn't completed yet.  All the parts still need a clear coat which I can't currently do because of the cold weather.  Also the base that is on is just a random forest base I had lying about so I have to construct its actual base for its permanent affixing.  Other than that I'm quite happy with how it turned out.  Tomorrow I'll be priming a bunch more terrain and tonight I began work on a well house for use with the Fortified Manor that I've got.

Episode #73: Triumph & Treachery Review

Hello everyone and thank you all for joining us once more for Episode #73 of the Waaagh Cast!  This episode finally see's our group getting around to covering the Triumph & Treachery supplement from Games Workshop and discussing both its rules and our personal feelings on it.

To check out the Battle Report from the game that Dan, Ryan, Dave and myself played you can click the link here to see it: Triumph & Treachery Battle Report.

We have the opinions of myself, Dave, Ryan and Chuck all gathered up into one so if your at all interested in T&T this episode is a definite listen for you!  Thanks as always and we hope you enjoy the show!

Download the show directly from this link: Episode #73
Run Time: 1 Hour 28 Minutes 52 Seconds

Setting Goals...and Completing them!

Goal check-in time!

Let's review the goals.

1. Buy No More Than 5 New Board Games
I think in 2013 I bought in the realm of 10 new games.  I think I should be able to stick to 5.
2. Participate in X-Wing League or Run Season 3 of Waaagh Cast Cup Blood Bowl League
I'm uncertain this will work.  Running the BBowl league is a lot of work and the local X-Wing
3. Play 4 Supplemental Rules Games
This one I can feel as practically done already.
4. Complete the Skaven
Totally doable
5. Paint 1,000 Points of Orcs & Goblins
Also completely doable
6. Attend Minimum 5 Local Events
Again! Completely achievable goal here.  Especially with me nixing out all out of town GT's except for BITS.
7. Top 10 Finish
This is a crapshoot.  With BITS being a 100 player tournament this year and me never scoring super well in tournaments I'm going to somehow have to take a hard army that doesn't make people hate it, play it well, somehow improve my sportsmanship scores (although I don't think I'm a bad guy I always perform low/middle in this category) and then I have to manage to get decent paint scores.  Not impossible, but I don't feel it is super likely.
8. Assemble 5 Tables of Terrain
Another uncertainty.  Last year I managed to assemble enough terrain to cover 2 tables, but none of that is painted still.  To paint and assemble not only those, but another 3 I think will be rough.
9. Run the Tournament
Dependant on the previous goal.  If I can actually get the stuff together this is totally achievable, but without the terrain clearly a failure.
10. Lose Weight
I have to get back to running and working on this.  Starting on new years day I began tracking my calories again with a resounding punch as I went a bout 1000 calories over that day.  As of the writing of this article I'm standing fast at my calorie goals the last couple of days.  Getting back to running is a bit more difficult.

The New White Dwarf - Thoughts...

Well the new brand of White Dwarf has begun today and with it the opinions of many gamers abound on the internet.  As I am one of many strongly minded gamers I figure I'll throw my 2 cents into the pot while the mag's are fresh in my mind.

Last night at midnite I was at our FLGS to pick up the mags and play some board games.  I purchased the White Dwarf Weekly as I intend to do for the first full month of its run.  While I did not purchase visions I did have a good long look through it from a friends copy.

Let's discuss the Weekly first.
The magazine is full size as the old White Dwarf magazines and seems pretty well put together.  The pictures are good and the stock it is printed on seems thicker than regular magazine paper giving it a sturdier feel.  It is composed well and everything reads as such.  They discuss the new models that are going up fro per-order to be released next week.  Included are the builders notes discussing why they sculpted the models as well as some painting and assembly articles.  Not big ones, but they aren't terrible either.  Their are of course a number of bits discussing upcoming releases still and an article by Jervis which in this 1st issue discusses a silly little game to decide who will go first in a battle.  A simple push your luck dice rolling game.  There was also a small discussion and rules "peak" at one of the new Dwarf special characters which gave you some of his rules but I'm certain not all.  Particularly since his stats and info didn't include his mundane equipment such as Gromril armor which was discussed int he accompanying article with him.  While I did enjoy the Weekly magazine I think that it was left lacking a bit.  There was no gaming article or modeling article which are two of the things i want to see.  I appreciate the painting article though and liked it.  Overall I'm middling on this magazine.  I will give it every hope that GW begins putting a little more pertinent content into the magazine and if they do it could/should be worth purchasing.  If I were to give it a grade I would say B- to a C.

Triumph & Treachery Battle Report!

Triumph & Treachery!
We were so excited to get around to playing this finally.  I'm going to start by quickly going over the players and our lists and some other basic information before I get into the battle report proper.  The lists are not going to have all the equipment or exact numbers and everything listed as I don't have copies of everyone else’s lists, but you'll get the idea.

Players and Lists:

Joe - Empire with Dwarf Mercenaries
Warrior Priest on Horse
Level 2 Light Wizard
20 Spearmen with Standard, Musician, Shields
9 Inner Circle Knights with Full Command and Standard of Discipline
Great Cannon
24 Flagellants

Dwarf Thane
10 Quarrelers with Great Weapons

Ryan - Lizardmen with High Elf Mercenaries
Scar-vet on Cold One
30ish Saurus
2x6 Chameleon Skinks
Bastilidon
1 Salamander

High Elf Noble on Horse
Tiranoc Chariot

Episode #72: Warhammer Battlefields: Border Wars Pt. 3

Hello everyone!

A little later then usual, I aim to have the shows out so you can download them on the first Tuesday of the month in the morning so I usually upload them Monday night for me, but I've been sick recently.  Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years and thanks for joining us to wrap up the iOS Campaign games.

Hope that you all enjoy the show!

Download the show driectly from this link: Episode #72
Run Time: 1 Hour 7 Minutes 49 Seconds

Setting Goals

New Year’s Resolution - Organize!

So with the New Year and my new year’s resolutions set I have to get ready to start doing them.  Last year I took a willy nilly approach, never really concentrating on doing specific things, and certainly not doing them in any discernable order.  This year to help me achieve my goals I'm going to prioritize and set the goals into specific orders.  First off, let's take a look at my goals and let me make a snap judgment on whether or not they will get finished.

1. Buy No More Than 5 New Board Games
I think in 2013 I bought in the realm of 10 new games.  I think I should be able to stick to 5.
2. Participate in X-Wing League or Run Season 3 of Waaagh Cast Cup Blood Bowl League
I'm uncertain this will work.  Running the BBowl league is a lot of work and the local X-Wing
3. Play 4 Supplemental Rules Games
This one I can feel as practically done already.
4. Complete the Skaven
Totally doable
5. Paint 1,000 Points of Orcs & Goblins
Also completely doable
6. Attend Minimum 5 Local Events
Again! Completely achievable goal here.  Especially with me nixing out all out of town GT's except for BITS.
7. Top 10 Finish
This is a crapshoot.  With BITS being a 100 player tournament this year and me never scoring super well in tournaments I'm going to somehow have to take a hard army that doesn't make people hate it, play it well, somehow improve my sportsmanship scores (although I don't think I'm a bad guy I always perform low/middle in this category) and then I have to manage to get decent paint scores.  Not impossible, but I don't feel it is super likely.
8. Assemble 5 Tables of Terrain
Another uncertainty.  Last year I managed to assemble enough terrain to cover 2 tables, but none of that is painted still.  To paint and assemble not only those, but another 3 I think will be rough.
9. Run the Tournament
Dependant on the previous goal.  If I can actually get the stuff together this is totally achievable, but without the terrain clearly a failure.
10. Lose Weight
I have to get back to running and working on this.  Starting on new years day I began tracking my calories again with a resounding punch as I went a bout 1000 calories over that day.  As of the writing of this article I'm standing fast at my calorie goals the last couple of days.  Getting back to running is a bit more difficult.

New Year, Same Ole’ Shite

So 2013 is in the books and done and with it much has occurred in the realm of Warhammer.  The game is into its late stages of 8th edition (or at least we assume since 9th should be due this summer). All but 5 books remain to be done to bring them into line.  Multiple expansions or additions have been given to us in the forms of campaigns, additional rules, iOS packets, etc...  Tournaments have been won and lost, much money has been spent and many dreams have both been realized and collapsed.  In the space of a year I have painted and sold an army and played a boatload of games and per my usual I have kept track!  So let's knock back some statistics shall we.

I keep track of the number of miniature games I play every year, assuming that if I get in at least 52 games a year (1 per week) then I have justified the cost of my hobby to myself.  Honestly I ought to be getting 2 games in a week to really justify it but let's keep it realistic here, I mean; I am married and have 2 kids.  2 games a week isn't likely to happen.

So let's get started.
I have played 63 games this year.  A fair abundance of these have of course been tournament games and I've used a number of different armies this year throughout it.  Let’s examine some numbers.