Totengräber's Workpläce

I went to the Game Preserve (Fashion Mall) last night with the intent of making someone there (hopefully someone I knew) re-teach me how to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Back about 3 years ago I played Lizardmen and helped my eldest son with his Empire army. I haven’t played at all under the 7th edition rules, but I had heard about some of the rules changes.

Jared was there, but had just started a game vs. a Wood Elf player. Jared was playing Dark Elves. His army was highly mobile with 2 units of Dark Riders, 2 chariots, a unit of Cold-One Knights, some scouting infantry, and mounted characters (one was a sorceress). It looke dlike a pretty even game, but Jared came out on top, I believe. Soon thereafter he and I sat down to play. Here’s the list I brought:

• Damsel (Lvl 2, Warhorse, Lore of Beasts, 2x Dispel Scrolls) – rides with KotR
• Paladin BSB (Virtue of Empathy) -rides with KE
• Men at Arms x25 (FC)
• Peasant Bowmen x10
• Knights Errant x8 (FC)
• Knights of the Realm x8 (FC)
• Pegasus Knights x3 (Musician)

It was a quick game that I was pretty sure I was going to lose anyway. The Lizardmen never really had a lot of cav and I didn’t have that great of a record with them anyway. During most of the game my leadership tests, even with LD 8 most of the time, failed usually by 1. Bowmen ran off the board after getting to shoot once and 3 of their number dying. PK took care of a Dark Rider unit, but not without being held up by its sole survivor. The other units all got flank charged and subsequently destroyed. Something I did forget about with the unit with the Damsel was the Magic Resistance, which I don’t remember if that might have helped. Either way, it was a good re-introduction into the game that I used to really like. I look forward to playing more in the future.In fact, I’m pretty jazzed to get started painting the Knights.

I’m hoping to get at least two games in tonight. Not sure if I’ll end up playing Hordes or Warmachine, so I’ve made quick lists for both.

Warmachine: Basic Deneghra Assassin List:

• Warwitch Deneghra
• Deathripper x3
• Skarlock
• Pistol Wraith
• Bile Thralls x8
• Mechanithralls x9

349 points, 14 VPs

Hordes: Basic Morghoul List:

• Master Tormentor Morghoul
• Basilisk Drake
• Basilisk Krea
• Ancestral Guardian
• Paingiver Beast Handlers x5
• Praetorian Swordsmen x10

345 points, 14 VPs

I’m not real sure how I feel about the Hordes list; I just didn’t want to use the Starter box plus extras, I wanted it to be something different. The Warmachine list I’ve played something very similar many times. It’s fun for me and my opponent because I go for the Warcaster kill, but I’m not all that much of a tactical thinker, so my opponent has a chance to counter it.

Oh well. we’ll see how it goes.

Yep. Just went and purchased the three army books to go with the full rulebook I purchased a little while ago. I’m trying to decide to either build up the UNA from the Damocles box or start a Red Blok army. Jeff’s been talking about Red Blok, so I don’t want to “steal his thunder”, but those Kolossus are making it difficult. ‘Course, I could wait and start Karmans once they are released next month.

Just some minor cosmetic and functional changes. Download the newest version here.

The Rat army was released yesterday. I added it to the banner sheet today. No other improvements were made other than to correct the numbers of members in a War machine unit where servants are added. I used to have the number of machines and then the number of servants. That screwed up the column where numbers were calculated, so I made it so the number of servants is listed in the name of the unit (i.e., Cannon / Servant (3) ).

Download the banner sheet here.

I updated the Spinespur Army Builder 1.5 to create card-like grids on a separate sheet for printing and using as cards during games rather than a roster sheet. Just a mod that I thought might be useful.

Last night I got started on my project for the NACORD Mini Exchange. The Mini exchange is sort of like a “Secret Santa” kind of thing, only with miniatures instead. I can’t really disclose too much other than to say I got a good start on the one I need to do.

The other awesome thing is that while I was working on my project for the Mini exchange, I was also trying to teach my girlfriend (I like to call her “Future Wife”) how to paint miniatures. Since we met we’ve been talking about her trying it to see whether she likes it or not. I gave her a selection of figures to choose from including Bretonnian damsels, Skarre, and a Rackham Banshee. She began with the Rackham Banshee (a woman after my own heart!). It was amazing how quickly she was catching on once I explained basecoats, inks, and highlighting.

Once she finished with the Banshee, she decided to start on a Reaper Vampire figure. He has some flowing robes and is in a very dynamic pose. I was highly impressed with her ability to highlight the cape such that the paint was very well blended and in all the right places. It was awesome for a second try. She says she enjoys the painting aspect of the hobby and we’ll probably do more in the future. How awesome is that?!!

(images in this  post are for reference, they were not painted by me or Future Wife)

Yep, more updates to the Confrontation: Age of Ragnarok Banner Sheet. I had some complaints about the amount of ink needed to print the sheet, so I took out some of the black/grey areas. I also made it so the header for the file repeats on printed sheets. I also widened the abilities fields and the artifact/ritual/communion descriptions. Mostly cosmetic stuff.

Download it here.

Unfortunately, I didn’t end up playing. I did, however, end up watching a couple of others play. It was Hyena vs. Lion. The Hyena army was looking pretty good when I checked in toward the beginning. Funny thing was the Lion player felt like the game was over somewhere after turn 2 or 3. The Hyena player ended up suggesting a strategy that involved the Lion player’s Knights (with Dragan) charging the Flesh Eater unit (with Shurat). The Flesh Eaters failed their Courage test due to Hyperian and were in rout. The Hyena player had forgotten about the ability to spend Elixir to automatically pass Courage tests. The Lion player used the “Kill ‘Em All!!” tactic to effectively decimate the unit. Dragan has a Strength of 20+ on the charge due to Charge Strength and the Torc of the Lahnars artifact. In the end, the Elixir points were very close, but the Hyena army was all but annihilated. I guess that’s a good thing to say for the system; even when your army is mostly gone, you can still win by controlling objectives.

On the NACORD boards, they put up the C:AoR profiles for the CORD LE’s. Plus there were some corrections to the Boar list. Finally, I made the banner sheet to where there are 5 banners to use at once.

So, feel free to download it here.