Atmospheric Objective Markers

Hi, Sara here with my first article on this Blog (Finally got the darned thing to log me in without hassle.). I will be posting hobby related material here and I hope it will cause some inspiration for all your wargaming junkies out there!

When it comes to objective markers, the usual ones are those green flags or spare change. Why not spice things up with your own set of custom markers? You can actually add a lot of atmosphere to your armies with a nice set of scenic markers and also add a boost to your display board for tournaments. I will show you my Tyranid and Ork markers that I have made using those large flat 60 mm bases (Think they are the titan bases for epic).

You will have a lot of spare bits lying around, like weapons, biomorphs, spare arms and heads for example. With my Tyranid bases, I went with somthing simple yet gribbly by using those infestation markers that come with Genestealers. Then I take some Adrenal Gland bits and tie them all together with some Greenstuff. Then some paint and gloss varnish to finish them off and now I have a set of infested landscape for my bugs to defend.














For my Ork horde, I have lots of spare weaponry and vehicle parts laying around. I created little weapon cashes loaded with Orky goodness. One pile of Stikkbombs, one pile of Rokkits and a Big Shoota hold being tended to by Grots. The Rokkit pile was made from cutting the Rokkits of the Kombi weapons that come with the Nob kit, and the Grot poping out of the pile is the backpack found in the Loota/Burna box. Stikkbombs are quite common in Ork kits. An Ammo Runt from the Nobs kit is charged with carrying the Stickbombs to the pile. The Big Shoota pile has one Shoota from the AoBR set, and one from the Deff Dred kit. The Grots are from the Grot boxset. The other 2 objectives are fluffy to my Ork Army, who horde the bones of all they slay and offer them to Gork/Mork in giant piles. The Grots are from the Grot boxset and the skulls are from the Pile of Skulls blister and various kits/bits bins.









































With large scenic markers like these, you should check if its ok with your opponent to use them. Better be safe and check with tournaments too, and see if there is any objective size limits. I have a set of small ones just in case, and they are just the small pile of skulls, which I do not have a photo of at the moment. Small objectives can also be small ammo staches, wounded troops, the options are endless. It just takes an imagination and a pile of bits to create some scenic objective markers for your forces!

Project Blood Angels

Well this will just be a short update. Starting with a little info on me not that it matters but it'll explain the small update. I got back from a holiday recently and after getting back and trying to get my sleeping schedule back on track I have been feeling pretty sick this week. So painting didn't come easy this week but I did manage to hammer out one of the small 6 man squads that will be going in Razorbacks in my list.

I have 2 6 man squads that will be in Assault Cannon Razorbacks (or Lascannon ones, I haven't fully decided yet). Also today I picked up more paint as I have two more infantry models left then I move on to tanks. I picked up the last Razorback I needed today, I will be putting that together tonight. Two of the Rhino/Razorbacks have started to be painted. The third is only primed and the last of course is still in pieces. I hate painting tanks but that will be all I have left I hope after this weekend.

So with all that out of the way, here is the small 6 Man team. The sergeant in the picture is the one in my test game that became the super sergeant with The Sanguinars rules. It helps having a WS5, A3 two wounded power fist sergeant in a squad. His two wounds meant that even when the Grey Hunters in my test game hurt him he was still able to use his 3 base attacks plus the 1 for the charge (5 because the Sanguinar was near him) and hitting on 3's and wounding on 2's meant that his little 4 man team at the time was able to wipe out a 8 man Grey Hunter squad with a wolfguard and mark of the wolven guy without trouble.

I appologize for the pictures I tried to get close up shots but the camera liked to focus on the guys in the back row. Oh well you get the idea.

TK Battle Report The Dwarfs advance!

Had a great game against the Dwarfs today. So here are some of the pictures I took... can't wait to have everything painted!
This is just after TK movement 1. The dwarf first turn was rather uneventful, both rockthrowers failed to harm the catapult (rolling 1's to wound every time). The organ gun killed 6 skellies from the skeleton unit and the bolt thrower missed the bone giant. The anvil of doom failed to cast a basic rune (another one) but was only out of commission this turn.

The skeletons advanced. The skullypult missed the anvil (misfire) and the Banner on the skellies burned out after raising 4 skellies ( boxcars on two dice, so much for that bound item) Magic and shooting saw a few of the hammerers go down. The tomb scorpion on the far right lined up a charge against the bolt thrower.



The dwarfs continue their relentless advance, spreading out from the forest that ended up being a normal forest... hehe. The other hammerer unit moves up towards the archers on the left, and the ranger longbeards face off against the TK and his unit. Tomb king turn 2 sees the bolt thrower on the right charged by the scorp, the unit of hammerers on the left double flanked by ushabti and the bone giant... in this instance the casquet of souls went off and slayed a few dwarfs here and there. The swarms failed to show up (they had burrowed). In combat the BG and the Ushabti killed off quite a few hammerers but they failed to break, as dwarfs usually don't break grrr. On another note... thunderstomp is AWESOME.



In shooting the grudge throwers finally take out the skullypult. The other hammerer unit with the BSB charged into the combat that was raging on the flank, magically moved by the anvil into the rear of the ushabti... killing them off. The ushabti killed off a few thunderers from the original unit and then died... and the bonegiant killed all but 2 of them, the two remaining hammerers stayed... and help up the giant. The other charging hammerers decided to not reform and continue to face the giant... a giant in the flank is never a happy sight. In the TK turn the scorp, after finishing the bolt thrower in the previous combat phase moved to threaten the second grudge thrower. The swarms showed up and charged the other grudge thrower in the center of the line. Shooting killed a few of the hammerers in the BSB unit. In combat the giant killed the remaining hammerers from the first unit.


This turn (above) was a pivotal turn in the battle) Dwarf turn 4. The hammerers line up a charge against the giant... and. Fail as shown below. Meanwhile the ranger longbeards charge into the kings unit.



As the hammerers with BSB had failed to charge (above) then the anvil was struck to make them charge once more... lo and behold another one! The rune had failed to produce any results for the turn... and the hammerers stood face to face with a giant. But the giants sights where elsewhere... as he moved around the hammerers and was then magically charged into the ranger longbeard unit that was in combat with the king! (bellow) In the shooting phase the organ gun blew itself up trying to kill the swarms that had destroyed the central grudge thrower.



Also in that turn the scorpion charged the other grudge thrower (below) and the swarms charged the anvil.



This pic below is the one tomb swarm that heroically tied up the anvil for turn two rounds of combat!



Below is the last picture of the game, the hammerers lost the combat(thanks once again, to THUNDERSTOMP), and failed their break test. The BSB was too far to allow them to re roll. Seeing the battle lost the dwarfs returned admitted defeat as that was in their own turn that the combat had happened (turn 5) and there were still two more tomb king turns.



All in all, a great, fun engaging game. That unit of scouting great weapon totting ranger longbeards is quite the fright... good thing that I did not charge it, as it is designed to take charges. With throwing axes and the banner of slowness..

Anyway. I hope you enjoyed the report. I hope to get more and more up as I remember to take my camera to various games!

Cheers!

Screaming Death From the Skies

Working on my TK's. A lot. Here is a pic of one of the Screaming Skull Catapults that I am currently working on. C&C more than welcome... demanded! Hehe.

"dirty"

Tomb Kings take on The Lizzies pt 1 intro and lists.

So, today I had a game against Nathan and his lizardmen over at Phoenix Games, in Kitchener. Having a few hours to burn, I decided to go to the store and paint or play a pick up game. Nathan was running the store today, and after he had completed his game of warmachine he gladly accepted my challenge to a game of warhammer fantasy. At the choice of playing against High Elves or Lizardmen I chose the latter. No offense there Bro, but ill get you play your pointy ears many a time in the future, hehe.
Anyway, we agreed on 2200pts as we both had prepared lists. On a side note; I like 2200 pts, I started disliking the lower point value, but it is growing on me there are more choices to make at that point level because you just cant get "exactly" what you want in there... So lists have to be thought out very carefully. Something else is that we randomized the terrain and got a whole plethora of different things (that in the end really did not do much but could have, charnel pit, magic circle and a few buildings, as well as a forest and a haunted mansion...) The lizzies found themselves a long way from home.
On to the lists:
Lizardmen:
Slaan, lv 4, loremaster Life. BSB. Cupped Hands. Extra Power Dice per spell (for FREE!)

Skink lv2 dark cube thing (nasty piece of wargear, dispels a spell and on 4+ ends the magic phase...)

Scar vet w/Great weapon and armour of fortune

20 Saurus, FC

20 Saurus, FC

20 Temple Guard FC (razor standard, halberds)

Salamander

Stegadon

2 units of 10 Skinks with blowpipes

His list was, of course, centered around the power of the slaan. With the lore of life I would be looking at regenerating guards, stegadons that could regain wounds with successful casts and (with throne of vines) regrowth that was d6 +1... almost as good as any tomb king incantation for raising... i knew this was not going to be easy.

My list:

Tomb King- Scorpion Armour, Talisman of Endurance, Great Weapon, Ironcurse Icon
High Liche Priest- Cloak of the Dunes, Ruby Ring of Ruin

Liche Priest- Talisman of Protection, Dispel Scrol
Casquet of Souls

30 Skellies HW/Sh, Full Command, BoUL

17 Bows Full Command
16 Bows SB & Musician

2 Swarms

4 Ushabti

Scorpion

Bone Giant

SSC

So, the mission that we got was the 5th one. We had to roll for each of our units, on 1 they stayed in reserve... He had his entire army deploy I had it all except for the one unit of skelies with HW/shields and one unit of skelly archers.

He deployed first and set up close to the center of the table. I deployed as far as I comfortably could. And then proceeded to steal the initiative... yay.

Stay tuned for part two!

Project Blood Angels

So I had my first test game with my Project Blood Angel list. To give a brief history, there is a tournament in September that is 2000pts and I wanted to play my Blood Angels. Now I am taking my time painting my Blood Angels as best I can so I don't want to rush them. So in an effort to get a 2000pt list ready for this tournament, I wanted to have to paint as little as possible. So here is the list I am working with. Now, this list was built to be fast to paint, not to be overly competitive so don't cut on it to hard lol.

Mephiston

The Sanguinar

10 Man Assault Terminators (5 Lightning Claws, 5 Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield)

3 Sangunarian Priests

9 Assault Marines (Power Fist/ Meltagun)
Rhino

9 Assault Marines (Power Fist/ Meltagun)
Rhino

6 Assault Marines (Power Fist/ Meltagun)
Razorback (Twin Assault Cannons)

6 Assault Marines (Power Fist/ Meltagun)
Razorback (Twin Assault Cannons)



I got to play a test game against a friend of mine with his 2000pt Space Wolf list. Here is what I remember from his list.

Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf, Frostblade, Warrior Born and 2 Wolves

6 Thunderwolves with various upgrades

6 Long Fangs with Rocket Launchers, Wolf Guard attached with a Drop Pod (the Pod Dropped empty)

8(?) Grey Hunters with plasma guns with a Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor with a Cyclone Missile Launcher in a Drop Pod (the pod dropped empty)

8(?) Grey Hunters with Melta Guns in a Drop Pod

8(?) Grey Hunters with Melta Guns in a Drop Pod

8(?) Grey Hunters with Melta Guns in a Rhino

Predator with Autocannon, side Lascannons

Predator with Autocannon, side Lascannons

Not sure on the numbers or all the upgrades and such but this was the gist of the list.

We played Capture and Control with a Spearhead deployment. The best part of the game was a titanic battle between the Assault Terminators, Mephiston, The Sanguinar vs The Thunderwolf Lord and his Thunderwolves. Mephiston, The Sanguinar and 5 Assault terminators walked out of that fight alive. I sent Mephiston and two squads towards the Wolf base while I kept two small units and The Sanguinar at my base. I was able to clear both objectives with those combat beasts. The Sanguinary Priests and those Combat monsters, coupled with some bad heavy weapon rolls from the Space Wolf side meant I was able to almost clear the board of Space wolves by turn 5 where we called the game. It was a great game and I must say the list I tossed together just to get it painted quickly worked better then I thought it would have honestly done.

Project Blood Angels

Well the Family and I are back from our holidays and I have to say it was such a blast.

So knowing that I was going to be gone for around 4 days this week I started on a smaller project for my 2000pt army. I wanted to get the three Sanguinary Priests done this week.

So it is a small update but here they are, let me know in the comments below what you think.

Dragon Knight Studios: Tutorial Review #1: Bork'an Fire Warrior

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Let me know what everyone thinks! The more comments I get, the more I can fine-tune my ideas.

Dirties' Basics of Warhammer Fantasy pt1

With the release of 8th edition warhammer fantasy has taken a turn for the better. Tactically the game is more rewarding than it used to be as various issues have been addressed (firing in two ranks and volley fire, just to name a few). Because of the drastic nature of these changes the tactical knowledge of all past warhammer fantasy (WHFB) wargamers has been put to the test, challenged and changed.
In this series of articles I will explore various tactical basics that can help any commander improve their game. We are all new at WHFB 8th edition and it is time to re-learn what we thought was "the way".
Today we are talking about Hammers and Anvils.
As you can see in the opposite picture the enemy
unit is held in place and the cavalry then charges in and causes massive damage from the flanks or rear.
The unit used to pin the enemy unit in place is the anvil and the unit used to cause the damage is the hammer. In 7th edition, the game had evolved into a series of competitions about who could bring the biggest hammer. Hammer units, such as knights and other elite units could fight a fully ranked infantry unit to the front and escape with no damage dealt in return. Taking an army of infantry was paramount to suicide the only real units that stood a chance at holding the enemy at bay were units that were stubborn or unbreakable.

In 8th edition we have witnessed the rise of the lowly infantryman. Suddenly armies are using their "rank and file" more than ever before in 7th ed. Granted, armies that relied on heavy cavalry (such as Bretonnians) have taken a bit of a hit. This and the new percentages rule assures us that there will be more boots on the table. Together with the boots come a series of rules that have all allowed the rank and file to be the true backbone in any army. Units that at the end of combat, have more ranks than any enemy that they are fighting become steadfast and therefore gain the old stubborn rule. Also, the step up rule allows units to make attacks back no matter how many casualties have been suffered (usually) and the enemy unit is prone to take some damage in return. This means that we are seeing more brutal combats that can gruel on for a few turns when it is infantry on infantry.

And here comes the hammer. To break the deadlock you need units to butcher the enemy and cause massive amounts of damage or charge them in the flank or rear and hopefully disrupt and break them. The sooner you do this the sooner the units that were involved in the combat can reform to face the other battles on the field and lend their support where needed. This is all the more possible due to the free reform that units get after winning combat allowing them to better position themselves and get back to the thick of the battle instead of being stranded facing in a random direction for example.

So in 8th edition armies are composed of units that can take a charge and hold (the anvils) and units that can deal damage and break the deadlock(hammers) . The proper deployment of these units as well as the combination of hero support and spell support is key to combine it all and form an unstoppable and balanced force capable of dealing with the diverse missions in the book as well as the diverse armies that are seen on the table. These issues are topics for another article.
Join me next time when we will discuss some example hammer and anvil combination within each of the warhammer armies, and their theoretical application on the tabletop.

Cheers "Dirty"

Dragon Knight Studios: Tutorial Reviews: Overview

Dragon Knight Studios: Tutorial Reviews: Overview: "Hello again! So to kick off one of my semi-regular posts that'll be coming up, I'm writing this overview. My plan is to take tutorials that..."

Follow up to see what my crazy idea is!

Project Blood Angels

Ok so I got the second of the 4 sqauds done that I need for the Tournament in September. I mentioned that all the squads are kit-bashed and this one is the same as the others. What I forgot to mention is on top of the Tactical Squad box, Assault Squad box, Command Squad box, Sanguinary Guard box and new Death Company boxes I have also splashed in some of the 2nd edition old Death Company Models. As well I have add in some of the less old 3rd edition Death Company models. So that fives me a great range of models with Blood Angel iconagraphy on them that each and every model looks distinct.

I never wanted 2 models to look the same in this army and I think I have pulled that off.

Take a look at the next squad to get done. I'll keep plugging away.

Project Blood Angels

Ok folks time for another update.

So I managed to get one of the 4 squads done I need for the September tournament. My list has two 9 Man squads in Rhinos and two 6 man squads in Razorbacks. This is the first of the two 9 man squads.

I wanted to make all the marines look diffrent. In the codex it mentiones that Blood Angels are on average the longest living Space Marines. Also because they have the Gene Seed of Sanguinius who was himself an artisan most Blood Angels take great pride in making their own armor be a work of art. I took this to heart and really wanted the squads and marines to look like Blood Angels rather then just red Space Marines as my old Blood Angels looked.

So with this all in mind I took to kit-bashing the squads together. Each squad has a mix of parts ranging from the Tactical Squad Box, The Command Squad Box, The Sanguinary Guard Box, The Death Company Box and The Assault Marine Squad Box. Not to mention a few other random bits I had laying around. So here is a look at the first squad for the tournament.

Project Blood Angels

Well...I finally got him done, not my best paint job but not my worst. After looking at him, honestly I think I just don't like the Mephiston model.

I think one of my long term projects will be to attempt to convert a Mephiston out of an Astorath body. But that is a project for another day.

With Mephiston done it looks like I need to finish up 1 Sanguinary Priest, one power fist sargent and 5 Assault marines and all the Infantry is done for the 2000pt tournament.

That'll leave me with 4 tanks to finish up, 1 just needs some touch ups, 1 is about 90% done and 2 need lots of work.

It is doable though I think for the September tournament.

On a side note I had a blast at the team tournament, taking Cody to his first tournament was so fun. And winning best painted was a bounus. Since 80% of the army was painted by him anyway it was fitting he got the prize. So we came home with another 5 Loota's. So he is up to about 1000 points of Orks which isn't bad since he started collecting them about a month ago.

Project Blood Angels

Ok,

So the second part of the project I wanted to get done was the terminators. I had a few of them done. So it wasn't going to take to much to get them all done.

They were not that difficult to get done, I love painting the terminators. The things I am dreading to paint are the tanks and Mephiston...Mephiston because for some reason, he is the first special character I have ever owned. I have owned two Mephiston models now over my wargaming career, however I have never been happy enough with my painting of either one to finish the model. So for fourteen or so years of playing this game and Blood Angels, I have attempted to get a Mephison done and have never finished. I don't know what it is about that model but I just get painters lock. Sort of like writers block but for painting models. Every time I pick that model up I just can't get paint on it or I don't like the look of the paint on it.

OH well I will eventually get him done I guess. The other thing I am dreading is the tanks. Only because well I just hate painting vehicals. I have 3 tanks to finish before the next tournament.

Well here is a few pictures of the Terminators.

Project Blood Angels

Hey all,

In an attempt to get this Blog site up an running I am going to try doing my army updates here.

So what I am attempting to do is get my Blood Angels on the tournament scene. Now the tank heavy list is what I will be building up to. However for now I want to play them rather then my Eldar. So the next Tournament is in September. Now most of Tournaments this year were 1850 points so I was trying to put together an 1850 list that would require me to paint as little as possible. However I just found out that it will be a 2000pt list. So I have had to change the list.

Now the list started with Mephiston and the Sanguinar. That was the fastest way to get the most points into the list. So next way to paint the least but use up a lot of points? I added 10 Assault Terminators. That together pretty much took up 1000points of the army with 12 models. The next tournament I am not going for top spot I am going to have some fun and maybe best painted. We'll see how it goes.

So the first model I want to show off for this project is the Sanguinar.