Brawler Bash 2012 Results!

Brawler Bash V, our local Warhammer Fantasy Grand Tournament, finished this weekend with thirty-four participants.  As always, it was an awesome time, with great opponents and a good time had by all.  We had people come in from all over the eastern seaboard.  Not bad for a GT on the same weekend as Adepticon! 

Prizes were given for Bash Grandmaster (Best Overall), Bash Battlemaster (Best General), Bash Crasher (Best Sportsman),  Bash Brush (Best Painted), Player's Choice and Top Club.  The Overall, General, Sportsman and Paint categories also gave out second and third place prizes. 

I ended up taking Best Overall and Best General home, which is my first #1 overall finish in a Grand Tournament.  I've been finishing in the top five with my Beastmen for a couple GT's in a row now, and was thrilled to take the top spot.  I literally couldn't have done it without my amazing club, The Fancy Lads, and we were lucky enough to take home The Top Club award, which I hope will hang in our local store when they move to their new location in September.  Until then, I hope to pass it around for various club members to keep it from week to week. 

 The Grandmaster's Sword for Best Overall

Top Club Prize

Best General

The Mug for Best Overall (Because you can't swing a wooden sword wildly and irresponsibly around the house without a mug of beer to go with it).

Big congratulations to Joel Busta for taking Best Sportsman, Robert Brandon for taking Best Painted, and Dan Pace for taking Player's choice. I'll get the rest of the award winners listed when the results are published, as I probably can't list them all correctly from memory.

In related news, Erik Lindley is retiring from running Brawler Bash due to time commitments, and I'll be taking over running the tournament next year with help from The Fancy Lads.  Brawler Bash is a great tradition for Warhammer Fantasy, and we plan to keep it that way.  We're already planning for and looking forward to Brawler Bash VI in 2013. 

I believe my Beastmen will retire as well, and be shelved for a while.  Best Overall is a good way to go out.  I'll work on finishing up the painting 2500 points of Wood Elves and go with them for a while.  After almost three years of Beastmen, it'll be a very different change of pace.

For those interested in my 3000 point Beastmen list, here's a rough outline:

Beastlord with Crown of Command
Level Three Lore of Death Great Bray Shaman
Level Four Lore of Shadow Great Bray Shaman
Wargor BSB with Beast Banner
Level One Lore of Shadow Bray Shaman
Level One Lore of Beasts Bray Shaman with Shard of the Herdstone
44 Gor in Horde Formation
44 Gor in Regular Formation
10 Gor
22 Ungor
Two Tuskgor Chariots
Two Razorgor
48 Bestigor with Flaming Banner in Horde Formation

The list puts a lot of tough models on the table, and can take a beating in close combat while dishing a lot of nasty attacks out. The general and BSB usually go with the 44 Gor in horde formation, with the Lore of Death Shaman riding with the Bestigor and the Lore of Shadow Shaman switching units depending on my opponent's deployment.  Everything castles around the Ungor bunker and the Herdstone to start the game and then moves forward quickly and aggressively in while the chariots and Razorgor move around the flanks.  I use the ten Gor to ambush the soft parts of my opponent's army if possible.

Anyway, I'll try and get my five battle recaps (with five great opponents) up this week, as well as the full results and award winners when they are published.  See you then!

Oh Jabberslythe, Where Art Thou?

He's a painted Jabberslythe, and he's been out on the town.  The trick was to get the reddish orange hair in, and the leathery purple wings, so as to match him to the rest of my Beastmen. 

On the battlefield, he's done his Jabbery best.  I played him in a tournament a couple weeks ago, and he took out a group of Empire Light mages in game one, and then killed a High Elf Level Four in the second game.  He's not super tough, but his mobility is very nice in getting around the board and into areas your opponent doesn't want. 

Still, I'm not sure he does much that couldn't be done by a Razorgor at one fifth of the cost, so you'll probably see him in my army, but as a nice Gor unit filler like in the picture above. 

Jabbersclythe Model Review

My lovely wife got me the Jabbersclythe for Christmas, and I couldn't wait to put it together over the weekend.  This is my first large finecast model, and it had its ups and downs.

Overall, the Jabbersclythe didn't really have big finecast problems as much as it had some bad model problems.  Parts of it really didn't fit together well at all, which is something I've had happen on quite a few metal models from GW and Privateer Press.  There was a nice theory that the arms should attach well to the hands and tree trunk and ground piece, but in practice, that was where I had to do a majority of the greenstuffing.

In terms of miscasts, I did have to fix a small piece of one of the Jabbersclythe's horns, and fix one of his wing bones back together.  This was a total of about five minutes of work.  There were gaps between joints, as in any model, that were easily filled with liquid green stuff. 

The model itself is gorgeous and nicely detailed, and I'm excited to paint it.  I'm also glad to have the wings be a light material that went on easily, as I've had nightmares with metal wings in the past.  So while the Jabbersclythe did have some structural faults, it's still a decent model overall, although perhaps a bit much for a beginner or someone uncomfortable with green stuff.

Pictures of GW's New Beastmen Monster Models - Ghorgon, Cygor and the Jabbersclythe!

Whoa!  I told you there'd be posts this week!

From @Channel_4_News on Twitter, here are pictures of the new Ghorgon, Cygor, and Jabbersclythe models.  The Ghorgon and Cygor are apparently one plastic kit, and the Jabbersclythe is Finecast.   I actually run these things pretty regularly (I call them my 275 point handicaps) and am pretty psyched to add the big monsters to my Beasts!

Southern Assault Tournament Report: Rounds 1-3

Saturday started at 5:30 a.m. and getting up to travel down to Charlotte, NC.  The Fancy Lads were represented by myself (Beastmen), Tom (Ogres), Lance (Dwarfs), Collins (High Elves), and Ian (Vampire Counts).

My army, in short:

Doombull with 1+ armor save giving more attacks
Level 4 Shadow General
BSB
Level 1 Beasts
44 Gor
10 Gor
10 Ungor
10 Ungor
5 Ungor Raiders
5 Ungor Raiders
5 Minotaurs
24 Bestigors
Razorgor
Ghorgon

Games One vs. Tomb Kings

This was my first game versus the new Tomb Kings.  Matt was my opponent.  He had a 1,300+ point unit with his King, Hierophant, Tomb Guard, and some other characters.  My opening game went well, and I destroyed his Catapult and Snake Riders with ease, and set up for a combo charge on his main unit from the front and flanks.  Unfortunately, Matt had the mask that causes Terror, and I had terrible leadership roles, so he made my Gors and Bestigors flee in his turn. 

Sometimes, this is how the Beastman game goes.

With my army now grossly out of position and trying to rally, he cleaned things up fairly easily.  I failed SIX more terror tests over the course of the game, constantly fleeing (but getting all the bad leadership rolls out of the way for the tournament).  I did manage to save my General and Bestigors through constant running away, and salvaged a major loss instead of a massacre.  I lost 14-6.

The Fancy Lads finished 0-5 in the first round...not too great and our worst start since, well, ever.

Five to Six Thousand Points of Painted Beastmen

There it is, my complete Beastman collection, all painted.  It's not on its actual display board, but on a bigger board where it all fits.  The points are based on how you choose to count upgrades such as command and wargear, since the army can build many different kinds of lists.  The models are:

Two Wargor/Beastlords
One Wargor BSB
Three Great Bray Shamans or Bray Shamans
One Malagor
One Gorros
One Doombull
One hundred Gor
Sixty Ungor
Seven Razorgor Chariots
Twenty Chaos Warhounds
Fifty Bestigor
Six Minotaur
Two Razorgor
Ten Centigor
One Giant/Ghorgon/Cygor
One Herdstone

for roughly 270 models and 5,000 to 6,000 points.

Total project time was roughly nineteen months, which includes painting about 2,500 points and then stripping it as unsatisfactory, and then painting the entire army again. 

Painted Beastman BSB with Defiled Bretonnian Banner

This is the final piece I painted for the Beastmen, and one of the most fun.  I replaced the stock figures left hand axe with a chopped down version of the Bestigor great axe, and then used green stuff to create a "loop" that holds the banner to his back.  Freehand is really not my strong point, but I gave it a go as I really wanted the BSB to look good.  The banner has a grail on the front, and a scroll reading "Pax Louis".  I figured defiling a Bretonnian army was nice and fluffy, and I might be able to draw a grail without it becoming a disaster.  Hope you enjoy!

Battle Report: Beastmen vs. Daemons of Chaos, 2500 points

While I forgot to take pictures, here's a quick summary of a game I played this Tuesday against Bart's Daemons of Chaos.

I took:

Doombull with rerollable 1+ armor, 5+ ward, ASF sword
Level 4 Great Bray Shaman with 4+ Ward and Lore of Shadow
Wargor BSB with 4+ Ward Armor, Great Weapon
Level 1 Shaman with Lore of Beasts, Dispel Scroll
44 Gor with Banner
10 Gor with Banner
10 Ungor with Banner
10 Ungor with Banner
Five Ungor Raiders
Five Ungor Raiders
Five Minotaurs with Banner
24 Bestigor with Flaming Banner
Razorgor
Ghorgon

Bart had:

Lord of Change that knew all of the Lore of Tzeentch
Level 2 Herald of Tzeentch that knew all of the Lore of Life, and was a BSB with a stubborn banner.
10 Horrors to bunker the BSB.
3 Bloodcrushers accompanied by a Herald of Khorne on a Juggernaught.
~30 Daemonettes with a Herald of Slaneesh
~30 Bloodletters
6 Flamers

We played Battleline.  The only terrain that came into play was a Wyrding Well in the middle of the board.  I deployed my Ghorgon and Ungor block on the right, Razorgor and Raiders on the left, and left the Minos, big Gor block, and Bestigor in the middle.  I left the small Gor unit and second units of Ungor and Raiders in Ambush.  Bart deployed his Bloodletters and Daemonettes in the middle with his Flamers, and put the Bloodcrushers and Lord of Change on the flank opposite my Razorgor.

First Turn

I got first turn, moved up aggressively, and then used Wyssan's Wildform to buff my Minotaurs so that they would be a less tempting target for shooting.  Bart also moved forward but didn't charge, and then killed some of my Bestigor with shooting and magic.

Second Turn

I charged the Flamers with Bestigor, the Bloodletters with Minotaur, and Daemonettes with Gors and the Ghorgon.  Magic led to reduced weapon skill for the Bloodletters and reduced toughness for the Daemonettes, although my Level 4 miscast and became a Level 1.  I won all three combats, almost wiping out the Daemonettes but not doing anything too terrible to the Bloodletters and Flamers.  My razorgor moved up to block a future charge from the Bloodcrushers and keep them from assisting the Flamers for a turn.  In the bottom of turn two, Bart killed the Razorgor and his Daemonettes were wiped out.

Third Turn

At this point, the Minotaurs wiped out the Bloodletters, and the Bestigor wiped out the Flamers.  In addition, the Ghorgon and some ambushing Ungor raiders charged in and killed the Horrors and Daemon BSB.  My minotaurs, except for the Doombull, were killed by the Lord of Change's magic.  Bart's Bloodcrushers killed my BSB and Bestigors, but then overran into the solo Doombull, where they were punched hard in the face and died.

Fourth Turn

My Ghorgon charged into the remaining Herald of Khorne, which was killed by the Doombull.  Because of where the Lord of Change was positioned, the Ghorgon could have overrun into it on the roll of a seven, but unfortunately only overran five.  At this point, we called the game as a massacre for the Beastmen.

Painted Malagor, the Dark Omen

At first, I didn't really like painting the Malagor model.  The sheer amount of bling on this guy is ridiculous, and he took about three times the amount of time just to base coat as a regular model does.  Even when I finished with the base coat, I wasn't thrilled, because he has a lot of purple cloth going on in the middle.  After washing and highlighting, I decided to add the green stitching to the cloth, and I think it broke up the colors and made the model look a lot better.  .

Gamewise, the Malagor model will generally take the role of my second caster, since I use my Skeletor model as a Level 4 Great Bray Shaman.  For instance, last night I played against Bart's Daemons of Chaos, and used the Malagor model as my Level 2 Lore of Beasts Shaman.  He's a nicer model than the regular Bray Shamans, and stands out a bit. 

Painted Ghorros Warhoof

Ghorros almost makes me wish I owned a lot more Centigor.  If I did, I would love to field the core Centigor army with him running the show.  If nothing else, I think it would be a lot of fun. 

I'm really pleased with my painting on Ghorros.  In these last three models I've done for the Beastmen, I've tried to really emphasize giving multiple levels of highlighting and shading to each color on the model.  I even don't hate the horse part of the model, which I generally always have in the past.  Horses were probably the most frustrating and tricky part of painting Bretonnians, and that hasn't really changed. 

Anyway, comments are welcome as always.

Painted Centigor

There's nothing more satisfying than knowing that a unit of models that has almost never actually hit the table for you, and probably won't hit the table anytime soon, has one of the better paint jobs in the army.  I like the Centigor concept, actually love the models (which some people seem to really hate), and think the Drunken rules are pretty hilarious.  But Sweet Raptor Jesus, these are a terrible unit in Warhammer.  Moderate toughness, pretty poor armor, and low initiative?  Check, check, and check!  Close to thirty points a model?  Oh yeah! 

I realize that there are some people that make these guys work in a decent fashion...but they're just not for me...and I've been running a Giant in my army recently.

But hey, with this new paintjob, maybe I'll give them another shot at the big time.   

Weekend Update: August 22, 2011

This past weekend, I painted the dozen Ungor I had left, as well as my last Beastman Chariot.  This means that I have Malagor, Gorros, and a BSB left to paint on my Beastmen, and the finish line is in sight. 

Finding those Ungor last month was a pain.  I had painted the Ungor that I had almost a year ago, and then just randomly found a dozen more while reorganizing my office.  There's not a lot of joy in painting even more Ungor, but I used the character models as a motivator, as I'm excited to get to them.

I'll need to do a few things to finish off the army once all the models are painted.  I'm short a few extra movement trays for things like Warhounds and the like, and I plan on making a nice display board for the army as well.   I'm not allowed to touch any new army stuff until that's done...of course, I'm the one who set that rule, but hey, you've got to stick to something.

Congratulations to Team USA at the European Team Championship.  The teams came in sixth overall in Fantasy and third overall in 40K, which is a pretty good showing.  The constant Twitter updates from Rankings HQ and Heelanhammer, among others, were particularly fun.

Percival the Painted Beastman Giant

Percival was a very lonely giant, etc. etc., blah, blah, blah.  I'm not very good at writing background (or at reading other people's army fluff), so I just won't. 

Percival began life as a giant kit.  He got his greenstuff fur and pants, and lived life briefly as a Cygor in 7th edition.  In 8th, I wanted him to be a giant, and be more beasty, so I found a metal Gorilla and gave its head to Percy.   I also greenstuffed vines around him and a gem in the center of the vines, in order to demonstrate his "just summoned by a bray shaman" nature.

All in all, he's been a ferocious, fierce, and funky Giant.  He's eaten a hero or two, and smashed a Slaughtermaster and Hell Pit Abomination on the way. 

Beastmen Roundup - What I have Left

Having finished up the Minotaurs and Centigors over the past few weeks, I find myself in the homestretch for the Beastmen.  The other day, I sat down and made a list of everything I have left to do.  I have to figure out what to work on next, and only have a few candidates left:

1 Giant
13 Ungor
Malagor
Converted Beastman BSB
Gorros

A Display Board

Movement Trays for a second group of fifty Gor, the Ungor, Ungor Raiders, and Warhounds. 

I hope to finish up in the next month or two, if I'm lucky...just have to get through the home stretch!

Painted Minotaurs!

So my painting, in general, has been taking slightly longer, because I'm a) winding down the Beastmen and b) have had a slight uptick in painting quality, which is in turn leading to me taking more time per model as I internalize new techniques.  I have been working recently on Minotaur and Centigor, and am pleased with the results.

In the Minotaurs, I'm particularly pleased with the skin, metals, hair, and with the basing.  They're well shaded, and the metals have a decently rusted look.  I should have done a bit more work with the purples, especially on the banner.  One thing that I want to work on overall with my next armies is more dynamic basing...but it's tough with the current Beastmen as they're assembled and glued to their bases, as well as the fact that I already have a ton of models done with just the yellow grass / green grass / sand basing.

Anyway...thoughts?

Weekend Update: July 25th, 2011

This weekend, I finished painting my minotaurs.  That may not sound like a ton, but they've been on my desk for several months, and between delays, being busy, and painting the Arachnorok, I hadn't had a chance to get them finished.  Not only are they now finished, but I really like the standard to which I painted them.  I hope to have pictures up this week.

I also finished A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin.  I enjoyed it immensely, and thought the plot advanced significantly, even as I'm left wanting the next book NOW!

I also have put some of my unused stuff on Ebay for cheap, if you would like to check it out.

Imperial Guard Baneblade for Apocalypse

Beastlord with Great Weapon New in Box 

Warmachine Harbinger of Menoth Assembled and Primed

Beastmen Tournament Short Battle Reports from the July 9th Sci Fi Genre Warhammer Fantasy Tournament

Wow, work really threw me for a loop this week!

Last weekend, I got to participate in a 14 player Warhammer Fantasy Tournament at Sci Fi Genre in Durham, NC.  While it wasn't Blood in the Sun (which also happened that weekend, but I couldn't make the trip), it was a well run tournament and was a ton of fun.  And *spoilerth* my Beastmen ran away with the top prize.  While I didn't take notes or pictures for full battle reports, here's a quick rundown of my games.

I was especially pleased with my day as I had brought what I consider to be an extremely soft Beastman list, which consisted of:


Wooly Bull, a Doombull with Sword of Swift Slaying, Talisman of Preservation, Ramhorn Helm, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor and Shield

Shambo, a Level 4 Great Bray Shaman with a Talisman of Endurance and the Lore of Shadow

Hordor, a Wargor BSB with Armor of Destiny and a Great Weapon

Shamalama, a Level 2 Bray Shaman with Lore of Beasts and a Dispel Scroll

45 Gor with Full Command and Additional Hand Weapons

Two Units of Ten Ungor

Two Units of Five Ungor Raiders

Tuskgor Chariot

24 Bestigor with Full Command the Flaming Banner

5 Minotaur with Additional Hand Weapons

Ricky the Razorgor

Robby the Razorgor

Percival the Giant

Game One

In my first game, I drew Ben H., who has a very nicely painted Skaven army that is almost finished.  I've played him before and he is a great opponent who seems to really enjoy playing.  He had a Grey Seer, Level 2 Plague Priest, Two Warlock Engineers, a BSB, 4-5 big units of Clanrats/Slaves, 40+ Stormvermin, 40+ Plague Monks, 6 Rat Ogres, 2 Doomwheels, and a Hell Pit Abomination.

What he didn't have was any shooting.  Since my Minotaurs generally die to light shooting, they breathed a sigh of relief.  I was still worried about the combined power of the Plague Monks, who I guessed had the scary banner which allows them to reroll hits and wounds for one round, and the Stormvermin who had a Skavenbrew character to make them extra mean.  Fortunately, Ben H.'s dice helped me out.  The Skavenbrew rolled a 1, so it killed a few rats instead of helping them.

I managed to get a Pit of Shades off on the Plague Monks, and took off 15 or so of them.  In his first turn, Ben H. then miscast with his Plague Priest and ended up removing it from the game and having to place a large Blast Template over his Plague Monks.  In the end, eight of them remained.   Meanwhile, I had managed to ambush some Ungor, and was using them to steer his Hell Pit Abomination off in the opposite direction of his fighting.

This allowed me to concentrate my Bestigor and Minotaurs into his Stormvermin / Chaff, and in the first round of combat my Minotaurs rewarded me by doing twenty-one wounds all on their own to the Stormvermin. 

After that, it was a matter of mopping up.  Ben H.'s Grey Seer had been hiding in a unit behind the Plague Monks, and the Gor finished the Monks and then had the Seer for dessert.  The HPA was contained long enough so that when it got into the fight, it had to do so against flaming Bestigors.  A good game, and a massacre for the Beasts.

Game Two

My good friend Tom was my second round opponent, and was also rocking Skaven.  This one will be brief, as it really comes down to Tom's dice not working.  He fired Warp Lightning Cannons, nasty Skaven Spells, and general scariness at me, and everything either missed or didn't go off.  He did have a Plague Furnace, which I had to redirect using my Giant of all things in order to whittle down his other units first.  At the end of the day, Tom's dice handed me a massacre.

Game Three

At the top table, I drew Mark and his Chaos Warriors.  Mark had a roughly 1700 point unit consisting of 35+ Chaos Tzeentch Warriors, four mages (Level Four Death, Two Level One Shadows, and Level Two Tzeentch), his General and BSB).   He also had a unit of 20 Chaos Warriors, Two Warshrines, and Five Marauder Horsemen.   His general goal that day had been to give the big block of Tzeentch Warriors a 3++ Ward Save (I hear it's the new black) and mow down everything in the opposing army.  His first two opponents had obliged him in combat, and had been mowed down. 

Since Mark's army was so small, I held everything out of ambush and simply deployed my inexpensive junk units (Ungor, Razorgor, Chariot) while he had to deploy his whole army.  Once his giant block was down, I deployed my expensive stuff as far away as possible, on the same side of the board as the rest of his army.  Long story short, I then proceeded to put Ungor Raiders and Razorgors in the way of his giant unit while using my army to kill off the rest of his army.  At the end of the game, Mark had managed to kill 160 points, while I had 450 or so for the win, and I think he might have learned an important lesson about Death Stars.  Wait, not the one in the link, the one about eggs in baskets. 

So the Beastmen won first place, with second going to Rob's High Elves, third going to Mark's Chaos Warriors, and fourth going to Ben H.'s Skaven.  I had a bit of a lucky draw on my day, as there was very little shooting to really hurt me, and my army performed well against its opponents.  I'm comfortably achieving my goal of being the southeast United States Mark Wildman, striking fear into the hearts of my opponents with a subpar army book.

Weekend Update: July 11th, 2011

With the wife out of town this weekend and nothing else planned, there was little to do except engage in some serious hobby action.  Saturday saw a nice fourteen man local Warhammer Fantasy tournament (it was no Blood in the Sun, but it was still really fun), and my Beastmen taking first place for the first time!  I hope to have a summary of the tournament up for this week.  On Sunday, I broke out the always awesome and amazing Battle of Westeros with my buddy Brian, and we played through scenarios 8-9 out of 10, which means we may finish up the main game scenarios very soon.  It was a great way to spend a Sunday, especially with Dance with Dragons coming out tomorrow.  All in all, a full and rewarding hobby weekend, although I didn't get around to painting like I had hoped to do.  

Weekend Update: June 27, 2011

I had a pretty great hobby weekend this time around!  Not only did I finish assembling the Arachnorok spider for Lance on Friday afternoon, I then headed out to Heroes Headquarters in Mocksville, NC for a Warhammer Fantasy tournament with my mighty Beastmen.  I went 2-1 and came in third overall in a field of about twenty-two, so not a bad showing.  One of our locals, Collins, managed to take home Best General.

Most importantly, I had three really good games against two people that I've played before and enjoyed playing against and one person who I've known for quite a while and never had the chance to play against.  They were all fun and challenging the whole way through.

On Sunday, I got some heavy work done on the Spider, and put down several layers of base coats, washes, and highlights.  The body is now done, but I still have to work on the trees at the base, the little spiders on the big spider and on the base, and the howdah.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Update: June 6th, 2011

It's my belief that a great many of us manage to get some hobby and gaming time in over the weekend more than any other time.  Assuming that to be true, I thought I'd start using Mondays to catch up on the blog with the things that I did over the weekend in terms of hobby and gaming, and hopefully hear from a few of you as well.  I figured I'd try this out as a regular Monday fixture, and see how it goes.

So this past weekend, I went to a 40K tournament on Saturday, which was a lot of fun.  I hadn't gotten to go to a 40K event in about six months, so I was a bit rusty, but went 2-1 with the Blood Angels.  I beat an Eldrad Eldar and Razorback spam Space Wolf army, but lost a tight game to an Imperial Guard list.  I also lost my voice! I was pleasantly surprised with my 40K performance, and will hopefully have some battle reports up tomorrow or Wednesday.

On Sunday, I finished up some Chaos Warhounds that I've had kicking around, and came that much closer to finishing up my Beastmen.  I really dislike the Warhound models, and they were slowing me down considerably.  I have ten Centigor and thirteen Minotaur left to do, as well as a Giant and some Character models.

So what'd you crazy kids get up to?