Breakdown

Ok fine I'll put it up. Most people have already seen it anyway, so meet Jasper:

 He's a Plague Hulk that I'll be using as a Nurgle Soulgrinder. Forgeworld make very pretty models.

 Because of the ridiculous pricing we have here in Australia, it's actually cheaper to get him sent from the UK via the official Forgeworld site than to just walk into a GW store here and buy one. He took me about a month all up to get done after painting started and is also the first model I've painted in pieces before assembling. I'd like to see him in action, so hopefully I'll get a game in sooner rather than later.

Speaking of games, the table is making some slow progress, currently looking like this:

 It's not entirely clear from the photo, but we've cut a frozen lake and river into it. Next we will be gluing it to the frame and putting snow over it before any details go into the lake and the river. All in good time.

In other other news, 10 more Bloodletters are painted and waiting to be based. I've gone with a different method of painting this time around and will put up a tutorial for it when I do the next set - only 30 to go!

 Next update will be either the tutorial or the completed board being put up. Should be a good one.

"That's disgusting. Nice work."
  -Various comments on Jasper

A filthy, filthy liar.

This super secret project thing has taken longer than I would have liked. I finished the painting and assembly this afternoon, now there's just varnish and basing to go. It looks... amazing. In a couple of weeks I'll have pictures up - after I've brought it out in a game.
Before that ther's a fair bit to do, including assembling some of the new chariots, Screamers, Plaguebearers and a Soulgrinder. After seeing some amazing pictures I'm considering converting one up with an Arachnarok, which would also fit with a spider Fiend conversion I'm going to be doing.

Sadly no pics at all this update, but in related news we have started work on the new tabletops. The general look is a sheet of foam core board on top for easy shaping of the terrain, followed by a big sheet of ply with a pine frame underneath for rigidity. Initial tests are looking good and we're planning a snow theme for the first one.

There will be a bunch of shaping in the board to make it unique, and the construction of that will more than likely be the topic for the next update. Using a single huge sheet of foam and ply will let us have a slightly less convenient board storage-wise for the benefit of it being able to look pretty great. We're working on ideas for the features, which are ranging from permanent flat board features, to modular objective based features with custom rules, to removable terrain.
One of the drawbacks of the move is that we now have almost no forests/hills/buildings, so once the table is done that will be the next step in this being a somewhat awesome Warhammer hub.

Not expecting a whole lot of progress this week with 2 evenings being lost to other commitments, but the basing of this project should be done by Friday night if I can keep at it. Keeping it short and sweet this update, I promise lots of pretty pictures next time.

"I loot the corpse."

Horrors finished

Definitely switching to a fortnightly update for a while. At least until we get the table set up here and I can get some battle reports going. Hopefully by the next update I'll have the super-secret project done and I can post about it, but until then here are the Horrors, based in a method that I think I'll be sticking with for a while.

They don't rank perfectly, but it looks like they could be worse. I was worried, what with all the arms and such.

In other news, we've got the new 40k pack in the house and were having a very quick game this arvo. So far it seems very easy to pick up, since the hit and wound tables are largely the same as fantasy.

I was bored at work this weeks and came up with some new variants on the game, just to change things up a bit.

Squall of Magic

The winds of magic move in surges in this region, and without arcane fulcrums to control them they are wild and dangerous to caster and target alike.

Each friendly magic phase a player may choose whether to attempt to restrain or to unleash the full force of the gale. A restrained magic phase is resolved normally, with the exception that any successful dispel attempt causes a S3 hit on the dispeller.

A boosted phase uses 4d6 power dice (highest 2 to dispel) and causes a S3 hit on both successful casts and dispels.

Restraining twice in a row causes a S4 small template to hit every friendly wizard, with the hole placed over the wizard’s base.

Jetstream of Magic

Each magic phase 2 dice are in the power pool and one in the dispel pool.

Models which are able to channel may choose to channel up to 5 dice, gaining +1 to channeling for each die over 1 they roll. If more than one attempt is successful, consult the following chart.

Dice Rolled	Effect
2	S3 hit on the wizard
3	S4 small template over the wizard
4	S5 small template over the wizard, no armour saves allowed
5	S6 large template over the wizard, no saves of any kind allowed

No upper limit is placed on the power or dispel pools, although the upper limit on dice to cast a spell remains at 6.

Déjà vu

Every player turn there is an additional phase, announced at the beginning of the turn. On the roll of a 6, you may choose when this occurs; otherwise it takes place immediately after the original phase.

The phase and remainder of your turn is treated as if the first time around never happened, although RiP spells and those which last until the next friendly phase remain in effect. Spells which cause continuous damage are only resolved on the first phase.

If you have moved in the first phase and not in the second, you may fire move or fire weapons and shoot without penalty. A cannon misfiring and exploding remains destroyed, but other misfires are ignored in a second shooting phase.

If you have charged into combat, you count as having charged in both combat phases.

Eternal valley

When moving, units may choose to enhance themselves by marching at triple the movement speed or by marching normally with the fast cavalry rules for reforming. Swift reforms allow a normal march and regular reforms allow basic movement.

All units charge with an extra D6 and swiftstride, totalling 4d6 at the highest 3. Units which normally have swiftstride roll 5d6 and use the highest 3. This also applies to fleeing and pursuit.

Every charge counts as being downhill.

Bloodrage

All characters and champions must issue or accept challenges when it is possible, with Lords being required to challenge first, then heroes, then champions. Any number of challenges can be issued in a combat.

If there is no opponent for a challenger, they fly into a fury to find an opponent and gain +3 attacks. Any fighter which causes overkill gains back a number of wounds equal to the overkill (without going over the wounds on their profile).

Giants!

Every #6 spell is replaced with Alakazam!, which summons a giant into the front of a unit anywhere within 20” on a 16+. This giant is worth no victory points and disappears at the start of your next magic phase.

Beware though, because any miscast causes a mighty foe to be summoned in base contact with your wizard. On a 3+ you face a giant, while a 1-2 causes a Cygor to appear. This disappears at the start of your next magic phase and the miscast cannot be ignored.

If the wizard is killed the monster disappears at the end of the phase, before CR is resolved. If the monster cannot be placed in contact with the wizard it appears attacking the rear of the unit.

Just changing things up a bit. Giants! is largely based on a tournament format that I heard about a while ago. It sounded like fun.

I also came up with a new lore of magic. Mostly based on illusions (inspired by my D&D character). I know that shadow is supposed to be all about deception and such, but it really doesn't have any spells that reflect that. So here goes:

New Lore – Lore of Transience

Lore Attribute – Suspension of Disbelief

Once you’ve accepted one illusion as fact, it’s easy to accept another. For each active spell (friend or foe) from the Lore of Transience active on the field, the difficulty of casting for subsequent spells is reduced by 1.

Signature spell: Fortification of Smoke 5+

Fortification of Smoke is a summoning (illusion) spell with a range of 48”. A towering wall 2D6” in length is placed entirely within range of the spell. The wall completely blocks all line of sight and lasts until either the following friendly magic phase or until it is contacted by a unit attempting to garrison or an artillery shot hitting it.

Wall of smoke may be boosted to be 4D6” in length, in which case it is cast on a 10+

1. Army of Reflection 4+

Army of Reflection is an augment  (illusion) spell with a range of 18”. The target unit appears to have double its current number of models for the purposes of combat resolution and steadfast. The illusory reinforcements cannot attack. The spell lasts until the start of the next friendly magic phase or until the false models are hit or charged.

2. Cloak of Abandonment 10+

Cloak of Abandonment is a hex (illusion) spell which targets and enemy character within 24”. The target may not confer leadership to its unit, provide inspiring presence, hold the line, or any visually inspiring effect until the start of the next friendly magic phase.

3. False Colours 13+

False Colours is an augment (illusion) spell with a range of 12”. The target unit appears as a friendly unit to enemy forces for all purposes until the start of the next friendly magic phase. The illusion falls if an enemy unit is attacked by or moves within 6” of the target unit.

4. Shadow Beast 14+

Shadow Beast is a summoning (illusion) spell with a range of 18”. A non-character monster is summoned as having charged an enemy unit, resolving terror tests as normal, until the start of the next friendly magic phase. The monster takes and deals no wounds, but illusory wounds caused to and against it are counted towards combat resolution. The illusion breaks if the monster flees.

The caster may choose to summon a real monster instead, taking and dealing real wounds. In this case, the spell is cast on a 20+.

5. Fresnel’s Fleeting Fortitude 15+

Fresnel’s Fleeting Fortitude is an augment spell with a range of 12”. The target unit gains +1 wound per model until the start of the next friendly magic phase.

6. Permanence 25+

Permanence has a range of 12” and may target any active spell with the (illusion) descriptor. The target spell becomes shall remain in play for the rest of the game. These spells may still be disrupted if it is possible, but will re-establish itself at the end of the phase that the disruption stops.

There we go. Back to painting.

"I summon a giant fake dragon."

"A dragon?"

"Yes, a big one. Facing the ogre and those 2 guys."

*Dice are rolled*

"They start running away."

-D&D excerpts 

Neglect!

Looks like I missed a week there. My bad. Not that I've been forgetting, I've just both been busy with other things and had not much to report.

No games since last time, but I've painted 10 Horrors and will be basing them next week after I've moved house. If D&D is at our new place this weekend I might get the chance to do them then instead, but we'll see. Without further ado, the Horrors:

In other news, I received reinforcements today in the form of the recently released models. Lots of chariots, Plaguebearers and other models. There's also a Soulgrinder in there and I got a surprise model that I'll post about after he's painted. So pretty.

I also got some more Bloodletters, bringing my total up to 80. Two hordes, muahahahah! I've written up some particularly evil looking lists, not all of them using the BLs, and I can't wait to use them. After this weekend I'll be living in something of a Warhammer hub, so the chance will be coming sooner rather than later.

As promised last time, the Herald and OOP Horrors:

As a closing note, I've added up all of the base points in models that I own. Without upgrades or gifts... over 10,000 points. Versatility FTW.


"I'm a beguiler. We beguile things."
      -Excerpts from last week's D&D character creation session

New Daemons

I managed to get my hands on the new White Dwarf Monday, thanks to my office moving exactly half a lunch break’s walk away from the local GW. Let’s go over the updates to the old models first.

Flamers will now no longer be taken by anyone in fantasy, except maybe as a joke. The multiple shots penalty now applies, which means a huge drop in the number of hits that they get in. Since they move every turn – because that’s how they work – they’re now hitting on 5+ instead of 4+ with no other modifiers, with cover/long range changing it to a 6.

After they do whatever damage they manage, you then roll a D6 and on a 6 they do D3 more wounds with no armour save. Sounds good? If it’s a 1, then the enemy gains +1 to their regen save for the rest of the game. Instead of being able to chip away at the ranks of a huge block of enemies, I would now avoid it on the possibility of improving my enemy.

Their strength has also been nerfed from 5 to 4, and the points raised by 5 per model. They’re now also special rather than rare. More on the reasoning behind all of these changes by GW later.

Screamers have been changed completely from an annoyance unit to flying combat. They’ve retained their slashing attack, but it’s been nerfed. They can only hit one unit rather than several and do D3 hits which hit on a 4+. So on average that’s 2 shots which then goes down to 1 hit, making it exactly the same as before. The nerf comes from the hit now being S4 rather than S5. Their buffs are pretty good, now having S/T4, an extra wound and 3 attacks. Wounds against large targets now multiply out to D3.

They’re now 10 points more expensive, which is justified. The upper unit size cap has been removed, so I've had evil plans of 50 Screamers advancing as a wave over the enemy. Joy.

As with everything from GW, this release is all about money. They have released some fancy and expensive new models as the Slaanesh Chariots and have introduced the Soulgrinder to fantasy. Since Flamers were taking up the rare points that these need, they were nerfed into oblivion and then moved to special to free the points up. To make things even more profitable, the Soulgrinder is unchanged from the 40k release except for a new base, so GW gains the income of a new model without the cost of a new mould. They’re releasing new Screamer and Flamer models at the same time, which was initially a bit confusing considering that nobody wants Flamers any more, but I’ve heard they got better in 40k.

Anyway, on to how the Soulgrinder is the new must-have unit. He’s T7 with a grapeshot cannon as standard, and can move 8” and shoot. When he gets into combat a single model in base contact takes an initiative test or is hit automatically by the 4 S6 attacks. For a bit extra he can swap all of his attacks for a S10, D6 wounds attack. He can be upgraded to have a stone thrower, flame cannon or bolt thrower -with the bolt more expensive for some reason- in addition to his grapeshot gun, firing one of them per turn.

Word around the internet is that he’s about worth his points, which is a relief considering the track record of fun but overpriced monsters. Looking at you, Beastmen.

The other new models are the Slaanesh Chariots which come in 3 flavours. The basic chariot is now S4 instead of 5, but can be taken as a special, rather than just a Herald mount. The Hellflayer takes it a step further and uses an Exalted Alluress who gains an extra attack on the charge for every unsaved wound caused by the impact hits. There’s just one chariot box which can be used to make either of these.

If you’re feeling particularly unhinged then you can combine 2 chariot sets into an Exalted Seeker Chariot, a nasty piece of work with an Exalted Alluress, 4 Daemonettes, 4 Steeds and 2D6+1 impact hits. It can be taken as a Herald mount as well, displacing a Daemonette. This one has 8 wounds instead of 4, but is still S/T4. It doesn’t come cheap, but I want to try it out anyway. On closer inspection of the rules, the Exalted SC doesn’t give extra attacks to the Alluress. Hopefully that’s just a typo, but it certainly dims the shininess of that choice.

As far as I know, these are the only chariots to have riders on the mounts pulling them, granting the ESC a grand total of 16 attacks on top of impact hits without the Herald. With a Herald it’s 18 attacks, 14 of which are ASF and 4 of which are poisoned.

While I could bitch and whine about the Flamer nerf and the blatant money grab by GW – and have a bit – I’m not going to any more. Overall this update is a good thing for 2 reasons. The first is that my lists were looking a bit samey and I’m glad to have more variety to play with. The second is that when they rewrite the Daemons book they’ll look at the changes that they made and be able to adjust them again - got to sell those new Flamer models, right?

In the past week I've finished the old Horror models and done my second Tzerald. I'll get some pictures up eventually, but for now I'm busy with another 10 Horrors.

Change

It’s never been so good to be evil. Rumours, leaks and teasers have been bouncing around the internet of new Daemon models being released next month with a rules update in White Dwarf; for the first time in over a decade I will buy a copy.

Considering the lack of decent pictures available I’ll keep you entertained with a couple of pictures of the OOP Horror models I’ve been working on this week. The musician:

Some of the new models are plastics of old metal models (new, not recast in finecast – thank god). Plastic Flamers, Screamers, Nurglings and Plaguebearers are included in here, and I think I saw something about Fiends, Beasts and some heroes and lords as well.

Flamers and Screamers are allegedly getting a rules update (nerfing one and buffing the other). I would hope that Plaguebearers would be getting updated too - no point in releasing the models if there’s no great reason to buy them.

Someone started a rumour of Bloodletters being nerfed to S3 with great weapons. Word is that it’s just someone making stuff up, but unless it were accompanied by a decent price drop then it would just be ridiculous. Plaguebearers are supposed to be the slow ones, damnit.

The big excitement is the new additions to the army. First of all: Soulgrinders. They’ve been around in 40k for a while and I’m a bit torn on them. On one hand we have a new big gribbly thing, which is awesome. I’ve liked the model since I first saw it too, and even considered buying one just to paint it. On the other hand it doesn’t fit too well aesthetically with the rest of the Daemons army (although Juggernauts seem to have gotten away with the mechanical look alright). I’ve heard that he’s going to be something like T7 with 5 wounds and the option to act as a stone thrower or grapeshot. Purely from the look of the model I’m expecting him to want to get into combat too, so hopefully they aren’t move or fire weapons. He’s going to need a massive base I think. Apparently the GDs were too hard to hit with a cannon.

If it comes with the option for giving it the mark of a God, then I may just have my excuse to buy a Plague Hulk from Forge World.

Oh yeah, here’s my Horror champion:

A bit of a blatant reminder of the bad old days where they could only produce practically 2D models, isn’t it? There’s a tail that I can attach but I’m not a huge fan of the look of it.

Now for the actually new new model, which is a Slaanesh chariot. It might be a 2 model kit (like the Empire got with the Luminark/Hurricanum) for a regular style chariot and what is being called a Hellflayer. It looks a bit like a Seeker-drawn combine harvester, which is just a beautiful concept for me. It harks back to the good old days in GTA: San Andreas when I drove farm equipment through crowded streets. Fun times. I’m expecting it to work like a chariot with extra impact hits or something, but having it damage enemies by moving through them like the current Screamer/Hexwraith rules would be pretty epic.

I’ll be saying more once I get my hands on the White Dwarf this weekend. TBH I don’t care if they do what people who still think it’s 7^th ed. want and nerf Daemons back to hell. Doing so through a WD update gives them time to test out the changes before a new army book so anything that goes too far can be switched back (or anything that doesn’t go far enough can be taken further).

I’m not good enough at writing lists or playing at the moment to be able to limit the strength while remaining viable in a battle, so a nerfed army where I can bring whatever filth I want and have no complaints would probably be good for me.

Whatever the outcome, this is ideal for me: getting an update after long enough for me to have an opinion on the changes without taking so long that I get bored with what I have.

I was getting worried too; it’s been more than a week since I made a frivolous purchase.

A final word: non Daemon models rumoured to be release next month include recast finecast High Elves and Beastmen and an all new Great Bray Shaman model. I’m not seeing many people bothering with the finecast considering the cost and quality problems that we are all too familiar with being applied to old models, but the new stuff might be worth a look.

"Somebody once asked could I spare some change for gas,
I need to get myself away from this place.
I said yep, what a concept,
I could use a little fuel myself,
And we could all use a little change."

-All Star by Smash Mouth

Deployable

Right. That's done.


























I've left 2 standard bearers just holding poles for the moment; they'll be finished off when I paint some more rank and file to replace them.

Last weekend was mad fun. A 2000pt battle with 1200 of O&G on one side, 1200 of Beastmen on the other, and 800 each of Nurgle and Khorne to help each of them out, respectively.
Rolling dawn attack resulted in some epically bad deployment, with everything being deployed to either the centre or each side's left. We rolled a civil war (Garden of Nurgle, and General dies, you lose. We made this the non Daemon generals since they had the bigger armies.)

Highlights of the game:

• Bad chariot placement (too close) got it charged by Nurglings, tying it up and eventually killing it
• Herald of Nurgle and his unit charged a Ghorgon and got Miasma of Pestilence off, obliterating him without taking a wound
• A Bloodcrusher failed a march test 7.5" from the Mangler squigs. Next turn he got in and nobly sacrificed himself to save the Gors, taking like 11 wounds.
• HoN unit overran the Ghorgon into Flesh Hounds near a Shrine of Sigmar. Wards re-rolled but regen didn't. With Miasma still up, they didn't stand a chance. Overran again into Minotaurs. Miasma got up again and made them break from combat, getting caught.
• Bloodletters ran into some conga River trolls, killing them.
• NG bus and Gor bus got into combat in the middle of the board. Nets were used to great effect and they whittled each other down.
• HoN unit got into the back of the Gors and Miasma again worked to great effect. A devestating round of combat left them with just a couple of ranks left. Double ones miraculously kept the game going.
• Bloodletters charged the side of the NG. Savage Beast of Horros went off from the Greater Bray Shaman. Goblins netted themselves. Black Orc Boss declared a challenge to try to save himself from Bloodletter Killing Blows. Herald of Khorne graciously accepted.
• Horros and Firestorm Blade had the HoK at S10 with 6 attacks. Got 6 hits. 1 Killing Blow. Despite all that the Nurgle forces did (and the Beasts side being down to Bloodletters and Beast characters), it was a victory for the Beasts and Khorne.
• After that combat, the Plaguebearers stayed Steadfast by a single model. Had he died, they would have mostly exploded.

I made it sound like a very Daemon-centric game there. Thanks to the bulk of the O&G army being in one corner and some poor luck for the Beastmen with Miasma (it really shouldn't have gotten through that many times), it kind of was. Particularly with Daemons taking the rear and flank of the main units of each army at the end.

Frankly, I'm just surprised how I remained impartial through the entire game.

"Man, fuck Daemons."
   -Jolly