And now for Something Completely Different!

Well it is the second time I have had something completely different up on the blog. This has to be the strangest though. I found an elf miniature that was hanging around unpainted since my last DnD campaign and I decided it was high time he got painted. So I went with something I haven't tried before, blue skin. I think it came out fine. It is exteremly blue at least! I was inspired by the Malifaux Gamelins I saw over the weekend. I never really paint with blue and I wanted to try it. I guess this guy can be a drow or something? I am sure they have blue skin, well maybe blue tinged skin or something. I kept the clothes in a neutral grey colour so that they wouldn't offer too much of a contrast. I also shaded them differently than normal, with a grey galze. This came out better so I think I will stick to it. The swords were done simply just a blue wash over an already black washed metal. So now that he is done I want to play DnD... too bad it just isn't popular here in Germany.

Did your land just fall?

I picked up the first of the Dungeons and Dragons Essentials line recently. I am not sure what I was expecting from the Heroes of the Fallen Lands but I was suprised when I got it in the post. Firstly it is A5 in size and a paperback. I was used to getting my Dungeons and Dragons books in A4 format and hardback. I really liked that format, especially as it sits easily on my shelves. Not to be put off by a books cover I delved in. The next thing that hit me was how the pages looked the same as the larger books but were just a lot smaller. The first few pages have been shrunk to fit the new format rather than being reformatted. Its not so bad but the font sizes are a little on the small size. Getting deeper into the book was an improvement to an extent. The powers and tables presented really seem to belong in a larger book that can hold them better. Its not so bad but they do seem to float on the page a little and not sit in its confines well. However the graphics, both old and new, are fine. I can't really complain much to be honest as the book set me back less than €15 which is more than half what I remember paying for the Players Handbook 1.

The general game rules haven't changed and are presented pretty much the same as they were before. The classes and races however are different... quite different. I was expecting this from the reviews I had heard online of the book. However reading through the Dwarves as an example I was delighted to see that you are not as confined as before with the selection of powers and abilities. You can choose where you want your ability boost to go rather than being restricted to two as before. Okay so you are restricted to three now but this really allows for the Dwarf player to try out less than optimal classes than before. Thats always something that annoyed me just a little. The races were very much stereotyped into what they could be simply because they couldn't apply their bonuses where they wanted them. At least now thats somewhat better.

Reading through the classes I didn't see as many changes. They basically function the same. The powers have been reworked especially in the case of the Fighter. For me this is an improvement but in some ways I miss the older way the Fighter worked. He really made for a tatical piece on the playing board. The new fighter doesn't benefit from daily or encounter powers. Instead he will be making basic attacks and
applying bonuses based on the stance he is in. I can't describe these too well as i just don't remember them. However this will still make for some fun and to newer players make more sense. It does I suppose portray a warrior better than the previous system. It just doesn't feel as cool! However as mentioned my players, the ones new to fourth at least, couldn't understand why they were only allowed to do a certain attack once per day. It felt far to similar to the wizard and his spells. It also evoked more of a mystical warrior than a dirty brawler! Hopefully we can try out these new classes soon. Ravenloft is working out well and maybe we can make a shift to fourth if the players and GM are up for it....

Getting back on track

I picked up this miniature during the week while browsing a local games store. I wanted to get something to paint that wasn't going to invlove too much work and concentration. The house move didn't quite go to plan due to the weather here. That means we are pretty much without any furniture and as such I don't really have space to paint at the moment. The apartment is just filled with boxes. The Kobold King is a Reaper model, I am assuming generally used for roleplay. The details are fine but it differs from GW and Privateer Press models quite a lot. The sophistication of the textures is pretty simple which actually makes the painting more difficult. For just under two hours work he came out quite well. I am actually tempted to get a few more Kobolds and making a regiment of them. As to what I would use it for I have no idea but maybe it would be good for a scenario or something.

I do seem to have found a decent roleplaying group finally. At the moment we are doing a few one off games testing different systems. I hope that after a while we will be able to get into a campaign. The last system we tried was Red Line, a Mad Max setting using DnD 3rd edition. It was good and hopefully next weekend we can finish off the scenario we have started. I have been reading a lot since I can't paint much at the moment. I have picked up quite a few of the latest Dungeons and Dragons books. Some of them have proven pretty good but I think the generic setting hampers them from giving good details. The Underdark is a really iconic setting but in the attempt to make the game more fun they neglect what makes it so good. Essentially the game is presented in this setting as the same as others with a few flavour changes. A bit of a pity I think.

I am still continuing with the Chaos army though progress has been slow. The next tournament coming up is at the beginning of March. Sadly I won't have the army done to my satisfaction. I mihgt then take my Dwarves along instead and it also provides with a decent army to bring back to Germany. I am hoping that with the coming of the newest edition Dwarves may somehow get a boost. They are one of my favorite armies of all time but they are a little boring to play over an extended period. I am generally able to play a tournament with them but afterward I get bored. It would be nice to have a second army here though.

A weekend of blood in Gorey

I have returned intact though my army hasn't arrived unscathed. Well I haven't unpacked it yet but already I know a few things are broken. At least the packaging kept it to a minimum. A few arms and heads broken are not too bad. The tournament was great. It was not what I expected and coming fifth was a suprise. Sadly my travel plans clashed with my weekly Dungeons and Dragons game so I wasn't able to take part in the first session of the newest scenario. I thought my flights were early in the day but actually they were quite late. Hopefully I can catch up! The last scenario finally finished the previous week. Lysimakos did well, surviving the zombie ambush that decimated the party. We finally got a map working and while it was not perfect it helped a lot.

As for the tournament I had a great time. It was held in Gorey, Co. Wexford. We all headed down the night before and after a good feed of pints there was plenty of hi-jinks! At least the hang-overs were not too bad. The draw paired me up against an Ogre player for the first round.

Game 1: Grimbolds Host vs. Ogre Kingdoms
My opponent, Karl, was from the 'Drogs of War' club. I had played there a few months ago with my Ogres and preformed well. Karl had got a copy of my list and based his upon it. That was a pleasent suprise. He did include a Hunter that I generally avoid but it almost proved a game winner.
I won first turn and moved forward. I needed to be weary of his Hunter placed out on the left flank. He was equipped with the Greyback Pelt which allowed him to ignore difficult terrain. Karl advanced his army to meet mine int he centre of the board. I had set up my right flank well with difficult terrain giving me a perfect position behind to set up baiting units and knights ready to intercept failed charges. On the opposite flank the hunter forced my hand. My flanking knights were vulnerable to a charge from him. I had to charge my Marauder Horsemen in to attempt to do some damage. As I wasn't paying attention the dogs accompanying the hunter took a wound each. Instead one of them should have been removed. In the end this proved important as their return attacks decided the combat. My Marauders lost and fled. I had positioned the knights so that their flank was not vulnerable anymore from the hunter.
Karl, while being an inexperienced player, did not fall for my baiting and positioned his regiments excellently to bait me! His hunter didn't charge but his dogs did. My left flank began to crumble due to gnoblar shooting and Leadbelchers taking out half of the warhounds there. The knight defeated the overrunning dogs and held their position. In my turn I was able to charge the knights into both the hunter and the Leadbelchers due to them being lined up. I slaughtered the Leadbelchers and this caused the Hunter to lose combat. While I was not happy to have my knight buried in difficult terrain for the rest of the game, I had to run down the Hunter. I thankfully managed this. My magic began to work well in this turn. The combination of Pandemonium and Hellshriek caused most of his army to panic. The spells prevented him from using any characters leadership for tests. Hellshriek forced everything within 18" of my rapidly advancing general to take a panic test. His three most dangerous regiments panicked! I was forced however to intercept his gnoblars with some marauders though and in the next turn this proved fatal as it allowed the giant to get into the marauders flank. (The marauders actually lost combat against the gnoblars!).
The giant ended up in combat and due to the fact that the gnoblars had a greater unit strength when the Marauders fled the giant thundered towards my knights. Thankfully he ended up an inch short of the knights. I was able to cast Flickering Fire twice into the giant leaving it on a single wound. I also stated mopping up regiments in the centre that had been fleeing. The Ogre magic phase finally fell apart when he miscast and killed both his Butchers. The infernal puppet is great! The giant did manage to get into the knights and slaughtered them on a jump up and down result. The single knight left did prove brave enough to take the last wound from the giant though!
The game was quickly over after this point. While his general rallied at the board edge everything else was dead or mauled. The reslt to me was a 16-4 win. Karl played a great game. While being inexperienced he was able to position his regiments perfectly a skill many generals are not able to do at all. He suffered badly from the combination of Pandemonium and Hellshriek over the course of the game. I was lucky that he gave me a chance to tet out the army. I quickly realised that I had a huge army. Terrain placement oftern forced me to crowd together too much. I also realised that the slower elements of my army formed an excellent reserve!

Game 2: Grimbolds Host vs. Dwarves
In this game I played a very small Dwarf army commanded by Padraig, another of the "Drogs of War". His army was focused on shooting but I felt it wasn't honed. He could easily have made it much nastier in my opinion. He had a small hill in his deployment zone and fell straight into a trap during his deployment. As I got to choose sides I gave him the hill. It had a wood in front but it provided a dominant view of the centre of the board. I had more regiments and deployed my more sacrifical troops to the centre. Once he was fully deployed I placed knights and marauders ready to sweep around the wood from under cover and unto the hill by the second turn. He had placed the flanks of his army against the hill and most of his shooting unto it.
Everything went to plan in the first few turns. He had placed a cannon and bolt thrower far out to his right to provide enfillading fire as I attacked his left flank. I was able to get my marauders horsemen across the board supported by the dogs to take out these machines. While that was happening I swept unto the hill taking minimal loses and destroyed his firebase. My centre advanced to keep him under presure and prevent him from turning his units to face my flanking knights. I mopped up his smaller regiments and managed to get my knights into the front of his longbeard regiment. I didn't want to charge his blocks as I felt I couldn't break them from the front. I had managed to get Treason cast on his longbeards in an earlier turn and they slaughtered themselves. This meant the knights, that I made frenzied, swept through the remainder of the regiment and over ran into the front of his Ironbreakers and Lord. In my turn I was able to charge the flank of this regiment with the knights that had swept through his firebase and I again slaughtered the regiment with the hel of frenzied knights! The game was over at this point and I scored a 20-0 massacre!
Padraig lost due to the fact that he didn't notice I had an easy route into the bulk of his army. He isolated some of his machines rather than castling fully around the hill. If he had I don't believe I would have had such an easy ride! He also made a few less than optimal choices in his army selection. His list was fine but could have benefitted from a few changes, such as Hammerers instead of Ironbreakers!

Game 3: Grimbolds Host vs. Dwarves
My two good wins saw me on table two against Lenny's Dwarves. Lenny plays with my own club the Underground Gamers so I knew him well. He also played in the 2009 ETC and did well. His Dwarves were optimised and he knew how to use them. I considered, really considered, hiding in the corner of the table behind a hill and taking a draw. I didn't want to charge into the face of his guns as I knew I would come out the worst. Thinking hard I decided that playing Warhammer was why I travelled to Gorey and I might as well have a proper game! Caution was thrown to the winds.
We both deployed deep in our alloted zones. I didn't want him to be able to take advantage of any shooting in the first turn. Thinking about it I could have gone forward much more as his twenty four inch guns wouldn't have been able to shoot in the first turn anyway.
He won the first turn and managed a few shots. He killed some knights but nothing panicked. This was his best turn of shooting for the entire game. He had anchored a flank on some woods that enabled me to move around again with my marauder horsemen. As his guns are move or fire he wasn't able to retaliate against them. I moved forward into the range of his guns. By the second turn my hounds were almost gone but the knights were still doing well. Having learned from the second game not to charge hounds into dwarven warmachines I instead mover the remnants of the regiments infront of the guns to prevent them shooting anything else due to the lack of a line of sight. I was also able to cast delusions onto his Longbeards forcing them to move infront of his organ gun restricting severly its line of sight.
By turn three I was able to charge the flanking marauders into his crossbowmens rear. My knights crashed into his Longbeards front. The foot elements of the army were getting very close to his line and I was able to use magic to the fullest extent casting Flickering Fire into his machines and decimating the crews. I wasn't able to make my knights frenzied sadly! The knight inflicted a lot of wounds unto the longbeards and while suffering none in return they fled seven inches. Thankfully the dwarves refused to follow. This proved decisive. The marauders inflicted a good few casualties against the crossbows but didn't manage to break them.
The organ gun thankfully misfired and blew intself to pieces. That proved fortuitous as the knights were then able to rally without suffering casualties right in front of the Dwarven line. By this stage the shots being taken at my line were much reduced due to the lines of sight being blocked and casualties. In my turen I rallied the knights and prepared them for a charge into the Longbeards. My Chaos Warriors and Marauders reached a threatening position and the marauder horsemen began to grind down the Crossbows. I also got delusions off on the Hammerers and General forcing them to reveal their flank to the Chaos Warriors to exploit the following turn. I finally broke the Crossbows leaving three Marauder Horsemen to ravage the back of the Dwarves.
In the fifth turn the Knights crashed into the Longbeards. This time they were frenzied and they smashed through wiping the regiment out. The Warriors charged the flank of the Hammerers and won combat easily. However the stubborn warriors passed the break test as expected. The Marauder Horsemen didn't do so well. They charged the Bolt Thrower with Master Engineer. The stand and shoot reaction wiped them out... ouch! Combat between the Warriors and Hammerers continued through to the sixth turn, the Sorcerer Lord killed the Battle Standard Bearer in a challenge in the previous turn, which I forgot entitled me to a roll on the Eye of the Gods table! The Warriors finally lost combat in the last turn due to not having a musician. This meant that the Dwarves scored 800 victory points on the strength of having a musician. This made the game a draw, but with 100vps in my favour. I almost had them!
I wasn't happy to say the least. I had eleven points spare in my list, enough to buy a musician. Well I won't leave home without it next time! The draw was a decent result in the end but defeat was really snatched from the jaws of victory during this game.

I finished the tournament in fifth place due to not scoring anything for painting. I have to say I didn't expect to do this well. I managed to avoid Daemons and Vampires on the way up which possibly helped a lot. I don't think I would have managed to get good results against those two armies, especially considering the nasty lists I noticed around the tables. The army proved it is capable of acquitting itself well on the board. The choice of Slaanesh magic for the lord really made the magic phase a challenge as I often ended up with ineffective spells. He was still capable of causing harm but I believe if my opponents had paid more attention to what I was capable of casting they would have realised that some of my spells were not worth it and they had nothing to fear from the threat of me casting them. Tzeentchian magic is amazing though. Flickering Fire is the best spell in the game plus Treason and Pandemonium makes for a great magic phase. I have noticed the combination of Pandemonium and Helshriek makes for a lot of failed panic tests. The Slaanesh spell that makes the knights cause terror is also excellent when combined with Pandemonium! For the next tournament I will have to change the army as it is under ETC restrictions. I still think it can do well and look forward to playing with it in the future. Congratulations are due to Alan Heffernan for a very impressive win with a decent Dark Elf list.

The tournament itself was excellently run. It was approached in a very professional manner. Every player was given a bag of goodies including counters and custom dice. I hope a lot of other tournaments decide to do the same, getting dice is great! While a lot of the lists were hard there was very few obviously 'cheesy' lists. I only saw two or three lists that I felt the players had gone a little too far. Thankfully I didn't have to play against them. There were a lot of Dragons flying around so I have to think about how to deal with them in the future. Looking at the newly posted rankings I am in fourth position due to the fact that painting scores are not counted (thankfully!). I wonder how this will shape up after the next tournament?

One day to go!

Everything is packed! One more day left. I will be glad to leave the Wasps behind at least. The little feckers seem to think my room is paradise as every five minutes one flies in. At least Buddha will be happy as I have not resorted to flattening them yet!

I noticed that a new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is coming out. Looking through the initial description I am not too excited. It seems to have gone the same route as Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. It might seem strange that I actually like the new 4th edition but not the new Fantasy Roleplay. The problem I have with what I see of Fantasy Roleplay is that they have abandoned what made their game unique. The atmosphere and horror of the Old World would not be as good as it is if you are actually playing a capable hero rather than the useless beggar.

I wasn't able to pick up all that I wanted from the local GW. So at the moment I have no spawn and no Deamonettes. I will have to huntdown the GW in Hamburg. I haven't even been able to find the address yet. Strangely White Dwarf has the addresses of all its shops in Europe except for Germany. I would havethough that they have a lot of shops there, Maybe not? I am looking forward to getting this army started. I have had it lying around for quite a while but have not been able to do anything with it at all. Hopefully the impetus lasts longer than the normal new army fever.

I am going to be attending the ranking tournaments in Ireland for the ETC. I don't know if I really want to compete at that level of Warhammer but at least if I do well in the qualifiers then I have the option. Its great, finally the Warhammer scene gets going in Ireland and I am leaving eh? Ah well it seems to be fairly active in Germany to. I am going to need a better carrying case to bring the armies around to all these upcoming tournaments. I have looked at what Battlefoam are offering but I am still unsure if it is good quality for the price. The custom cut foam seems interesting but I honestly dont think it is that useful. I see it being useful for Warmachine and Hordes where the beasts are heavy and have small connection points between the components. For the plastic GW modles like the new dragon I don't see it being as useful. As I won't have many models that need to be protected like this (it would have been handy for my Ogres though) I think I will just get the standard Warriors of Chaos trays.

A new character

I have taken up an online DnD game recently to at least get the experience of being a player rather than always Games Master. So far there haven't been many sessions but as we are doing them on a weekly basis we should get a good few sessions under our belt during the coming few months. Iam really excited about it as so far its been great. The mix of players is stark with three english players, an american and a czech. It does bring an interesting mix to the table (screen?) and having two girls in the group changes the dynamic from what I am used to.

So far the technical difficulties have ranged from lost mics, inability to connect to each other to the fantastic incident of the missing keys! One of the players, Jory from the states, began the first session missing the y, h, and g keys of his keyboard due to a spilled drink. This left his character with a wonderful french accent during the game. Hopefully he can keep it up once we reach as far as voice chat for the game! Anyway here is my character roughly fleshed out with some extra historical background. I should probably have elaborated more on the character than the History!

Lysimakos:
"I am Lysimakos, great warrior and member of the Golden Band. A group of sacred warriors devoted to Kord.I have come to the guild as the proud tradition of my family dictates. My vows to the Golden Band also dictate that I must travel the world before I can inherit my titles."

Lysimakos was born on his families estates in near the town of Spolep in the kingdom of Phocis. His father holds the hereditary title of "Defender of the Temple". It was granted to the family by the Basilius in recognition of great bravery in the war against the Liminates over two hundred years before. The temple in question is the Great Hold of Kord, a massive structure, built high in the Suruat mountains. Lysimakos stands to inherit this title but to do so he must fulfill the vows of the Golden Band and become an inducted member. Only then can he assume the title. To this end he journeys the lands to the north hoping to earn great reknown that will entitle him to a place amongst the Band.

He was a quick study at the guild and earned the favour of Master Adoy another native of Phocis. He studied the traditional forms of warfare of the south that favour the hoplon shield and a bearded axe. He is brave though not foolhardy and likes to think tactically about his situation. He is proud of his heritage and carries himself with a noble bearing. He has little time for the peasants and views them as a general nuisance.

The Golden Band:
The Golden Band are a fellowship of warriors founded two hundred years ago in the kingdom of Phocis. After the great war against the eastern armies of the Liminates the surviving heroes formed the Golden Band. Their goals were to plague the realm of the Liminates and as such they broke themselves down into small groups of about thirty warriors. Each group had their own ship and they raided the coasts of the kingdom constantly. A number of the groups combined and managed to sack the Liminatian town of Eryt. The only people spared in the sack were the priests of Kord that inhabited the temple within the town. The warriors were fearful of incurring the wrath of the God, especially as they spent so much time at sea. The priests were still taken hostage and one was given to each of the groups that had taken part in the attack. This quickly gave rise to the tradition of each of the groups being accompanied by a priest of Kord and the band adopted the lightning bolt as their symbol.

After the slow decline of the Liminates due to their loss in the war with Phocis and her allies, the Band was left without a true purpose. Within fifty years of their founding most of the original members were dead. The replacements had begun to take contracts as mercenaries in the east for their prowess and bravery were renowned. The size of the divisions was increased from the original thirty to one hundred and the traditional lochaber axe was replaced with a spear. Military drill and close rank fighting became the standard training regime replacing the emphasis on personal ability and style. Within another fifty years the Band had reached their peak. Division sizes had been increased to five hundred men. The wealth the organisation possessed enabled each of the divisions to be armoured in bronze ensorcelled scale mail. They were engaged across all the lands that knew war in this time and they soon adopted the motto: Quae caret ora cruore nostro? What shore knows not our blood.

The need to replace casualties in such large and busy divisions caused problems for the people of Phocis. Most of their young men were forced away to war for years on end with many not returning at all. Eventually hiring was conducted outside of the Kingdom. Recruits were taken at first only from neighbouring states of Atraps and Sebeht. Soon however hiring was undertaken all across the southern states. This caused much resentment throughout the forces as tribesmen of the sands and other such wildmen were mingled amongst the more superior feeling civilised states. After a serious of disasterous wars internal squabbling broke out when the Master of the Blade, leader of the Golden Band died suddenly. No clear successor could be elected from the council and instead alliances were formed promoting different leaders. Soon the divisions were mustered and internal squabbling turned to bloodshed.

One hundred and twenty years after their founding the Golden Band were almost destroyed. The great divisions had slaughtered each other and then broken up into roving bands of mercenaries and marauders. The noble aspirations and worship of Kord forgotten by all but a few. Of these few Agathon of Nomarcal gathered his loyal followers and returned to his native Kingdom of Phocis. Here under the stewardship of the Basilius and High Priest of Kord the order was rekindled. One hundred and twenty nobles of the country were awarded with membership of the Band. These were divided as tradition dictated into groups of thirty and charged with the defence of the land.