Weekend Update, Spooky Halloween Edition 2011

I was sick all weekend, which is so much fun.  On the upside, between not being able to go anywhere and not being able to do anything that involved any real activity, I got a lot of hobby done. 

*  I finished painting nineteen Glade Guard and fixing them on their bases. 
*  I painted the Skabarus, the Skaven ship from Dreadfleet.
*  I painted another Dreadfleet island. 

Apparently, I should be sick more often, at least in terms of hobby stuff.  On the other hand, I have to head to work now still feeling like crud, so I don't think on a whole it was worth it. 

Initial Wood Elf List for Tale of Painters

I've been putting together my list for Tale of Painters on Warseer for my Wood Elves, and come up with the following:

Level 4 Spellweaver with Lore of Life, Talisman of Protection, Dispel Scroll

Highborn with Great Eagle, Armor of Silvered Steel,  Stone of the Crystal Mere, Potion of Strength, Great Weapon

BSB with Armor of Destiny, Shield

Twenty Glade Guard with Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame

Ten Glade Guard with Standard

Ten Glade Guard with Standard

Ten Glade Guard with Standard

Four Treekin

Treeman

Treeman

Great Eagle

All for 2500 points.

I know the Highborn is a bit much, but I have the fancy CoolMiniorNot model and really want to paint it up for early use.  Thoughts?

Painted Dreadfleet: The Flaming Scimitar

Our local player Bart painted up The Flying Scimitar, and through a great paint job I've come to really enjoy the ship.  The elementals were very well done, and add real character to the piece.  This is also the first ship where you can see the etched sails painted, and how they really look like freehand work and make the sails look fantastic.

In game, The Flying Scimitar has been my favorite ship to play as so far.  It's fast and pretty maneuverable, although it doesn't pack a ton of guns.  The Djinns allow you to move faster or shoot an extra flaming gun, so you can choose how to upgrade your ship each turn to best improve your game.

Weekend Update: October 24th, 2011

There's not too much to report this Monday, but not for lack of trying.  Have you ever had it happen that you work a lot on a project, for what seems like little result?  That's what happened to me this weekend with the Glade Guard.  On Friday, I painted for a many hours, and I swear at the end of the day didn't have much to show for it.  On Saturday morning, I put in some more time painting, and have three finished, and sixteen more just needing some clean-up and basing.  So I'll continue to work on them this week, and hopefully finish up by the weekend. 

I suppose I had forgotten what painting entire units is like, and the work that goes into doing so.  Each step takes much longer when it comes to twenty+ models instead of one.  Plus, I missed one model early on, and now have one that is just primed while the others are close to being finished!  Oh well, at least it keeps me busy!

Dreadfleet Painted Ships: The Curse of Zandri

Our local terrain painter and all around 40K Guru, Dale, picked up the Curse of Zandri to paint.  I like how he added a lot of contrasting colors to the model in order to really make the different parts stand out from one another. 

In game, we don't have a lot of experience with The Curse yet.  It featured in Scenario Two, but was rammed to death by the Swordfish immediately.  Whoops! 

Dreadfleet Painted Ships: Grimnir's Thunder

Our gaming group has gone to work at painting up Dreadfleet, and the results are pretty cool.  We divided up some ships, and I started with Grimnir's Thunder, the Dwarf Ironclad.  I started with this one because I thought it was probably the easiest to paint out of all the ships and would be a good warm up, as it doesn't have a lot of the etched drawings or sail painting that many of the other ships have. 

In game, Grimnir's Thunder is what you'd expect a Dwarf ship to be:  tough and slow.  It did do some real damage to it's opponent in the third scenario, which we played on Tuesday, as it managed to put a few good broadsides and boarding actions into The Black Kraken.

I tried to add as much color as I could to the detail of the ship, using emeralds, bronzes, and greens, in order to make it a bit less dull than it could have been.  An ironclad doesn't lend itself to a colorful nature, but I think in in the end it turned out pretty well, and strikes a contrast to the other ships on the table. 

Blog Suggestion: Casualties of a Paintbrush

Here's a chance to check out and subscribe to a great blog while it's still new.  Casualties of a Paintbrush is a great new project from one of our pool of great local hobbyists and players.  You can see the evidence of great painting above, and Whatadive's constantly cycling projects are always a treat to see painted.  He's also a great player, and multiple tournament winner, so his insights and advice into the game will be fun to read.  So check out Casualties of a Paintbrush, I tell ya!

Weekend Update: October 17th, 2011

Not a bad weekend for the hobby this time!  On Saturday, I played in a Warhammer 40K Doubles Tournament with Bart.  We both took Space Marines, and ended up coming in second out of eight teams, after playing against a Tyranids/Deathwing army, a Sisters of Battle / Grey Knights army, and a Tyranids/Necrons army.  A great tournament all around. 

I also painted up one of the ships and three islands from Dreadfleet, which was great.  The ships are so incredibly detailed!  The only thing I seem to be stalled on is painting up my Wood Elf Glade Guard, but I'm hopeful that I'll get something done this week. 

Initial Dreadfleet Thoughts

Yaarrrrggh!  I finally got a chance to play the first two scenarios of Dreadfleet the other night.  Here's my initial thoughts:

*  It's random!  This probably isn't a game to really bring the big competition guns to, as it often involves rolling a small number of dice and looking for high numbers of each die.  There's a good amount of tactics in maneuvering, but once those dice roll there's a lot of chance involved.  As long as you're aware of that, and in the game for a good time and not to omgstompface, you'll enjoy the game!

*  It's a lot of fun!  We had one of our group read out the scenario fluff in his best pirate voice, and there was a lot of joking around and general silliness during the game.  The rules are easily picked up by wargamers and won't be too much trickier for non-wargamers, and let you get down to sailing, shooting, and looting quickly and efficiently.

Short Dreadfleet Unboxing Video

I received an iPad as a gift, and have been wanting to test out the video function.  I'm liking the ease of use, and hope to make some good Video Battle Reports and Game Reports for the blog.  My first video is a short overview and "unboxing" of Dreadfleet.  The contents of the box are incredibly high quality, and a real joy!  Please excuse the poor sound quality, as it's my first time making a video on the iPad. 

Weekend Update: October 10th, 2011

Avast, and all that!

I was out of town most of this past weekend, and only got back in yesterday...but we still had some hobbying going on!  Before I let, Dreadfleet came in, and unpacking the box was a real treat.  Yesterday, when I returned home, I wanted to get right to the ships, but finished putting together and pinning my Glade Guard instead.  I want to make sure I'm focusing on them and making constant progress so I don't get stuck doing nothing on the army.

Anyway, I read the Dreadfleet rules, and will be hastily assembling the game tonight, as tomorrow night is Dreadfleet's first run with the Fancy Lads. 

Southern Assault Tournament Report: Games 4 and 5

Game Four vs. Daemons

After the obligatory four hours of sleep, I crawled out of bed on Sunday morning for day two of the GT.  I was feeling a bit rough, but luckily I drew Joel, who is one of my favorite opponents and an all around good guy, for the Fourth Round.  He had an entirely Nurgle Daemon army, led by a Great Unclean One.  Joel has a fantastic looking army, and ended up winning Best Painted for the tournament.

The game started off well for me, as I got off two Pit of Shades and decimated two out of his three Plaguebearer units.  I then decided to mix it up in close combat, and that didn't go as well.  Luckily for me, his Great Unclean One sucked itself into the warp on a miscast, and that allowed me to mop up the rest of his army.  I ended up with a 20-4 massacre.

The Fancy Lads continued to weather the storm, and were now 11-9 on the day.

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.

Weekend Update: October 3rd, 2011

Whew!  So the Southern Assault Warhammer Fantasy Tournament is in the bag.  It was a ton of fun and very well organized, and I look forward to doing it again next year.  The winners: 

Best Overall: Eoin Whealen
Best General: Bobby Ash (2nd to existing winner Eoin W.)
Best Tactician: Travis Hill (2nd to existing winner Eoin W.)
Best Hobbyist: Todd Klimpel (2nd to existing winner Bobby Ash)

Best Sports: Tom Geater (2nd to existing winner Travis Hill)
Best Painted: Joel Busta (2nd to existing winner Bobby Ash)
Players Choice Paint: Robert Brandon
Top Team: Kobra Kai

I came in 5th overall, and had a 3-1-1 record.  I should have a full tournament report for my games up this week.   Thanks to Dan and Jerry, who organized the event, for a wonderful weekend.