One of the displays at the Warhammer World opening event was this little diorama from the End of Times.
I find it interesting, if not somewhat worrying that the models are all in a loose skirmish formations. Although the diorama makes for good dramatic/narrative effect, lets hope that it is not a sign of things to come for 9th...
At the time of writing Nationals are just around the corner. Three days and eight games of war dollie goodness! I've been wanting to try something a little different with my Dark Elves so came up with the following: Dreadlord, CoT, Dawnstone, Black Dragon Master, Ruby Ring, BSB, Dark Steed Master, Charmed Shield, Mnticore 2 units of 14 Dark Riders 4 Repeater Bolt Throwers 7 Shades 2 units of 5 Brolocks 1 Hydra!
WIP of my Dark Elves War Hydra
Basically I have been working on this guy and wanted to put him in a list. Of course any good general knows that one big gribbly needs some buddies for moral support! Balls to the wall that tells me a naked Manticore rider was in order! Not to be outdone, any Dreadlord worth his salt will have the biggest and most badass mount there is, so a Black Dragon was in order. After taking one of the more filthy variants of Dark Elves riff raf and winning Equinox with that I wanted to take something different... I hear its a smaller field at Nationals this year (Auckland, what is going on with you? Even Christchurch can rustle up more!) so I'm not expecting any great things. With no level 4 sorceress its going to be push it forward and 6 dice Doombolts all around!
Over the weekend I attended my first tournament of the season, Equinox in Auckland Having not played any games of WHFB since August of last year (thanks to ETC withdrawal...) I decided to substitute skill with a filthy list and luck...
The boys in pink ride against Ross's minions of Chaos
Dreadlord on Dark Steed, Giant blade, OTS, Dawnstone... L4 Sorceress on Dark Steed, Dispel scroll, Dragonbane gem and Shadow magic? (why!?) Master on Dark Pegasus, Twilight... Master on Dark Steed, BSB, Obsidian amulet, Dragonhelm... 13 Dark riders, Rxb, command 14 Dark riders, Rxb, command 3 RBT 2x 7 shades 5 Brolocks 13 Brolocks and a Brochamp... Rusty as ever, the draw gave me John (Brets are dead!) with some Teclis filth... Very disapointed he didnt take the spell selection he had posted on the ACG forums.... boo John. booo. High Elves matchup ever being a pain, game played out to be a draw until some of the boys in pink that had strategically withdraw to a corner (read, cowering trying to get out of range...) decided after suffering some casualties from a fireball that this stuff wasn't for them and made and quit the field... breaking my army and handing over 700vp's last turn.. .well played 7-13 loss Round two I faced Chris's Tomb Kings. Apparently they still exist in Jafa land. Dropping the first game, I though stuff it, lets push it and get a game (instead of the usual Dark Elf shenanigans...). I rolled his left flank which only had a small unit of Ushabti with great bows, pit of shades took care of a war sphinx while his casket exploded and decided to kill my Dreadlord! Miasma made sure his shooting wasnt an issue. I cleaned up the rest of the army leaving a unit of chariots for a big win 20-0 Last game of Day 1 I played Evert and his Lizardmen. Usual LM vs DE mischief happened. His Scar vet threw caution to the wind and started rolling through shades, bolt throwers and Peg Heroes like theres no tomorrow. The last bolt thrower however managed to luck a single bolt killing the old lizard. Game was basically DE shooting > LM shooting after that with it going back and foward several times. Small win 14-6
Round 4 tables 1, 2, & 3. Dark Elves hold the left on all tables, 'others' on the right.
First game, day 2. Ross was up with some WoC sprinkled with Slannesheee goodness. Apparently there's some rule that Brolocks don't like Slaneesh stuff. Who says they are not balanced! Who would have thunk. Being more mobile and with no return fire to speak of, we played on Ross's side of the table. Game can basically be summed up with me shooting off most of the threats and Ross failing some panic checks he shouldn't of. A decent win for my Elves 17-3 Game 5. Civil war. Ryan's DE vs mine. Ryans on the NZ ETC team this year with his DE. Meeting engagement is the scenario of the day and we line up. Instead of doing the wise thing and cornering it up, playing safe and taking a 10-10, I though we should make a game of it. I dropped my scouts on the left flank and van guarded the center. Small arms exchange had my scouts survuve and take of his one. I then dropped one of his Dark rider units to 1/3rd strength and used the scouts to cover the Peg riders advance. A combination of Miasma helped reduce the return fire and I took the flank forcing Ryan to abandon his Bolt Throwers and come across to the center. We had both set our bolt thrower out of range of each other, so now his army was in range of mine. Big win for me which we both agreed was probably down to Ryan not dropping 1 unit of scouts on my right to threaten my bolties. 19-1 Last game vs James. Went into this one knowing that I was at a disadvantage. I had no real way of dealing with his infantry bunkers, not to mention the Star dragon. Seams my terrible choice of shadow magic paid off again as the star dragon fell into a pit (of shades). Rider survive though... Our bolt throwers exchanged fire most of the game, but my Peg rider decided to suicide on his left flank! I failed to finish off a unit of Silver helms and the game ended a small loss for me. Better than I anticipated. 8-12
Mr Tibbles Dark Elves pre final transmutate. Note James's Star dragon is still alive!
So two minor losses and 4 wins I end up with a raw score of 85, with James closing me by 4 in the last round. HE needed a 14-6 win to pip me at the end. I think we both thought we had dropped down the order as we heard Ryan and Kelly had decent wins last round, so was pleasantly surprised to find out I had won Equinox! The field was dominated by #elfapocalypse and WoC, which I guess is a sign of the times. Big thanks to all my opponents for some entertaining games, and to Phil for all the time put in to making things happen! 1st event of the year for me and can confirm filth and luck are a substitute for skill. Just ask James about Star Dragons and final transmutate...
WOW! 2+ save infantry and shooting cannons twice! Double steam gun templates and Magic in a Dwarf army. This would almost make me want to brush off the old stunties and make some people cry.
Its almost as if GW had a 2400 point competitive tournament in mind!
Then there's the Elves. Themey (is that a word), however not filthy. No magic makes the Elven host cry...
Yup, thats right. Malekith da man (or, err, the Elf...)
Not only does Malekith become the new Phoenix king after being denied his rightful throne 6000 years ago, he ups the anti and becomes the shadow element as well.
This truely is the End of Times. Brolocks, Sisters, Wild Riders and 8 repeater bolt throwers in the same army...
So what I can gather from this, Tyrion (biggest prick of them all) draws the sword of Khaine. On the other hand, Malekith is revealed as the victim of a plot from 6000 years ago to deny his birthright! Teclis, the Everqueen, Malekith and co reveal more on the plan to use Nagash as their puppet... Oh and heaps of Special Characters die. I think you will find if its not plastic, its dead!
The Elven civil war ends... Surely this is the End of Times...
This coming weeks White Dwarf reveals Khaine: End of Times... What is disappointing is seeing the old Malekith model on the front cover. If ever there was an opportunity to do a dual kit Malekith and Imirik this was it. And the rumours ares thick that there will be no new models with this release. With all the leaks coming about it seems as if the current story theories are correct. Malekith and Teclis are plotting together to ensure Chaos does not end the world, thanks to the sacrifice of Tyrions daughter with the Everqueen, the impure blood caused Nagash to be reborn not at full strength, thus ensuring he did not march straight to his doom at the hands of the Chaos gods. Is Malekith the true puppet master of the end of times? Nagash just a pawn in his larger game? How long will Malekith take to break the newly forge alliance o the Elf Apocalypse? The one good thing that marches out with this release is all the cries of anguish from the sudo Elven players who somehow think that the High Elves are a force of pure good. Never has this been true of the self centered self serving fairies. The "prophecy" of all the Elven races joining forces to stop a great evil from destroying the world has been intertwined in the WHFB lore for at least a decade now. For some however, this is indeed the end of times. Long shall Nagash's reign be. Will someone think of the forest goblins!
The end times are indeed upon us. In a master stroke, GW hires someone with enough talent to make a good promo-teaser video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfmAysyadhA The Elven Apocalypse has arrived...
By now most people would have read the rumours about four campaign books starting with Nagash, along with other morsels of information on potential upcoming releases for WHFB. But lets take a moment to reflect on the past year or so of rumours that we have heard. So I mooted a few days ago that I thought there would be another book in the series continuing on from Nagash, but based around Daemons. This made sense, as Nagash is being painted as the anti hero come to save the world from Chaos, of course only to bend it to his will instead! With my surmising that there would be more books, I suggested that the Plastic Greater Daemon models could be released with this next book based on Chaos. Unsurprisingly, a few rumour mongers started talking about this the following day. Now we have had several claims of knowledge of Greater Daemons, and some insisting they had seen them (or pictures) however wishful they might have been. Nothing concrete as of yet, but seeing them released soon would not surprise me. But lets look at the larger scale of things. This year we have had rumours of advancing the timeline: check, mass kill off of characters: check, multiple armies in on book: check, and the return of some old favorites: check. All sub themes in the new Nagash book! Way to many correlations to be coincidence? To be fair, there was a lot of scare mongering from the hysterical that 9th edition would wipe the slate clean, and all army books would be obsolete as 9th edition would herald in new army volumes encompassing multiple races. There is some truth there, but as it turns out, the order and scope of what was rumoured was, as it often is, put out of context. Things starting to fall into place...
So we currently are in the mist of rumours that summarize as the following: We are getting four books that each focus on multiple races that will advance the Warhammer timeline in a lead up to 9th edition. Sounds far more plausible yes? Now we don't need to look into our crystal balls to surmise that these campaign books will introduce us to new rules and concepts which might well be the norm in 9th edition. I personally am looking forward to the characters and monsters profiles being merged that we see in Nagash. We have had the prelude for this in the form of Monsterous Cavalry throughout 8th. I welcome any rules that will encourage/make viable fielding characters mounted on chariots and monsters in this cannon infested landscape. Is the proliferation of cannons in the current edition Games Workshops way of balancing the field when combined profiles are introduced (the complete opposite of what they did with fliers in 40k). Buts lets think back even further. Rick Priestly was rumoured to have quit over his want to advance the Warhammer timeline into an apocalypse error with his Warhammer Forge narrative series that stated with Tamurkhan - Throne of Chaos. We see several themes crossing over with the latest set of rumours. Rick was reported to want to "advance the timeline", kill off several special characters and produce a set of four (or eight) books detailing the end of times. Nurgle was to attack the empire in Tamurkham, Tzeentch was invading Lustria, Slannesh was getting stuck into Ulthuan, and Khornes hounds where at the gates of Naggaroth. Sounds all to familiar dosn't it. Was Rick really wanting to do all this, or was he against it? Was the rest of the series of the Warhammer Forge books canceled due to poor sales, or was the plot to expansive to be covered by Warhammer Forge, and the idea was transfered to the Games Workshop team? We never got a concrete answer out of Forge World, and the "lack of sales" theory is bogus. More likely (as has been suggested), the sales are fine, but just very small volumes compared to the money tree that is 30K! So we know Rick left, but never exactly why. There is always some truth in any rumour, so reading in between the lines I think it is more likely Rick may have left because his idea was taken off him, rather than turned down. I mean why would they produce the first timeline altering book and then decide not to change the timeline...
So, in conclusion, I think we will see the roughly following: Book 1: Nagash reunites the undead, fights Chaos in Kislev/Empire. Book 2: Details the Chaos forces, re-introducing combined Realm of Chaos armies Book 3: The invasion of Lustria! and Skavens part in the whole conflict. maybe some Brets here too. Book 4: Details the Elven forces fight, Dark Elves being invaded in the north and High Elves of Ulthuan.
With the ETC coming up fairly fast I thought it prudent to spend some time preparing the final parts of my army. I leave for Europe in under two weeks and still have alot of work to produce a table top standard army...
I've purchased a set of Dark Sword "Thief of Hearts" models to represent my Dark Pegasus characters.
The models are incredible. Each has a very high standard of detail and are fairly well proportioned. No ham fists here.
I've mounted them on 40mm bases and given them the old 3 colour shaded base coats. I'm looking forward to painting these, just have to find the right motivation.
Dark Sword have a very large range of highly detailed models, including an extensive range of Fantasy and Game of Thrones 28mm figures. I ordered 5 from the "Thief of Hearts" range, and Dark Sword where kind enough to throw in 2 free miniatures! I got a Danerious from GoT and a elven sorceress of foot!
I highly recommend having a look at what they offer and supporting this boutique miniature company!
Some other things I have been working on are these Shades. They are a combination of Dark Elf Corsairs, High Elf Shadow warriors and Dark Riders, with repeater crossbows from the Dark Shards sprue
Horned Rat VII was run over the weekend and attracted 26 players from throughout New Zealand.
It was run under ETC comp and played on ETC terrain. Many thanks go to Pete for not only putting up with about 20 gamers taking over his home, but for organising and supplying all the terrain for the event.
My much vaunted Dark Elves managed 3rd overall and 60 something battlepoints. McCrae managed to establish Dwarven stubbornness as a weapon and succeeded in placing his throng on the second step. And finally Dan set a tall order to follow taking out his second tournament this year with WoC
So with the ETC comp we managed to get 7 different races in the top 10, with Dwarfs, Empire and Tomb Kings taking a double stake. Even Beastmen made a showing in 8th! Well done Stewart.
Disappointment of the weekend goes to Jeff Kent proving that no amount of drill can prepare you for the trepidations of a weekend of war dollies.
The lists are all in and by now every team should have had a good go at reviewing potential matchups. The lists this year are definitely a step up from last, with 90% of the field bringing what can only be called a "competitive" list.
Of course there are the usual cry babies who a lambasting over such abstract terms as "copy & paste" and "netlist". Some have even called the tournament boring. Well here is a clue to all those haters out there. HTFU.
There is no peer/panel/subjective comp to be seen here (except the team called panel comp.. stupid Aussies can't let it go!) fixed it for yah =)
The breakdown this year is very interesting in that just about every team has arrived with a different team composition. Not only that, when you start reviewing the lists individually you start to see stark variation in the list designs. There is not 9 Throgg lists like some claim... However there is always one exception to the rule, this time being Empire. The other lists have a huge degree of variation to them and waves a good flag for the low/0 comp community (read real Warhammer).
Apparently, not to be undone by the Juggernaught factories of Khorne, The Empire has founded a new breeding ranch for Demigryphs, and the Nulu artillery school has been hard at work increasing the number of steam tanks and cannon in the realm. And as there is always an exception to the rule, there is also always an exception to the exception... the special snowflake this time is Alan from team Basiliers who seams to have submitted the same list as last year...
So on to the important stuff...
I'm taking a Krak at picking the top teams this year. In no particular order...
The Vonn Trapp Family
Current reining Warhammer champion of the >country< and current holders of the NZTC cup, only a fool would discount Pete and his offspring. They bring Warriors, Dark Elves, Daemons and Skaven to the party, which, IMO is close (ruined only by the rats!) to a perfect combo for team design. Can they hold on to the old mug or will the even make the podium? No doubt the team will have to carry Pete's Skaven as everyone knows they are so hard done by these days...
Wolfpack
The team with the dream. Can they dethrone the coven of evil? Arguably one of the strongest team designs including Warriors, Daemons, Empire but once again being let down by rats. If they had some good stout Dwarfs (snigger) or more seriously Dark Elves they would be a shoe in. Wolfpack has the potential to be the kingmaker, but it all depends on their day one performance.
Stonesfall Massive
Packing Warriors, Ogres, Daemons and Empire, this is another team that has a good mix of armies. The only thing holding them back will be if Joel chokes every round or not.
Panel Comp
Trying to embrace the spirit of Warhammer, I have included some of our unfortunate cousins from across the ditch, despite the name. Warriors, Skaven, Empire and Dark Elves make the combo. Having no Daemons will be a sore point however can the Aussies compete to the same level without all the handicaps they place on the game? They will either finish top 5 or bottom 5!
Team with the Guy.....
Dark Elves, High Elves, Daemons and Empire. Oh so close, except for that Guy. The guy is obviously the High Elves player, and the full name is obviously the "Team with the Guy that let down the rest of the team by taking High Elves to a serious Warhammer competition..." If they switched out High Elves for Woc, they would be the Dream Team!
DILF
The gay bandwagon team arrives in all is glory, no smack post would be complete without talking about DILF's. If they can stop day dreaming about having their very own sugar daddy, or checking out the opposition they may just have a chance. Although not the strongest combination of armies, they afford an interesting mix which is sure to give some teams a headache. just be careful of them offering you a drink as they may have slipped something into it... You have been warned
So that leaves my Team. Where will we come? Rocking Dark Elves, Lizardmen, Vampire Counts and Dwarfs its an obvious run for the wooden spoon here. Packing a Lizardman Bus, a new player that's never played in a tournament before, the slowest Warhammer player in the universe and an infantry DE list that I have never tested before, with a bit of luck and some ace matchups we will middle pack in about 7th (+ or - 6 places)
So who will be the Winner? Who wins out of Blackbreard vs Al Capone?
Parting shot: Best team composition IMO would have been Dark Elves, Daemons, Empire, and Warriors. Interesting nobody took it...
So Peter has released the lists to the dubdubdub. You can visit here for the full list details. So its time for the big run down. Plastic Krak is proud to present its Krak Team! Tim "the Executioner" Joss (Kaptain)
Choppy LordNaked chickPsyco chicks on fireDouble flee horse dudersExecutionersMore executionersdid I mention executionersSome Black Ark hardwareoh, and some Brolocks
Hagen "6 Dice" Kerr
Tetto Eko Scar Vets & Skinks Seriously thats all
Neil "Old man" Williamson
Runelord on AnvilThaneBSBLongbeard RangersGreat WeaponsMiners miners miners!Some cannonsA musical instrumentand a choppa
Ben "Blender" Crum
Blender Vampy Lord Baby Vamp Necro Ghoul Hoard Wolves Meatsheild Ghosts Black Knight Bus Big flappy bat vamps Huge flappy bat vamp
We are now closing in on the final stretch. In a little under two weeks, the windy capitol will be hosting a bunch of bridesmaids and the winning team! We have past one of the last milestones on Friday midnight Kiwi time. All lists have been submitted and finalised by now. After the stark appraisal from resident self proclaimed Warhammer guru Pete Dunn, our team had to go back to the drawing board.
Now the original draft was to shock and awe by using Old World fluff to confuse our opponents to our underlying strategy. After running a few scenarios (I started watching Season 2 of House of Cards, that s*@#s amazing!). We had come up with the combination of Dwarfs, High Elves, Wood Elves and Brettonians (High Elves was later swapped to Tomb Kings). Upon closer scrutiny, we realised that the matchup process may be more difficult than anticipated...
All cause for worry, but the most disturbing was the revaluation of a rat being caught in a trap in the garage. It was assumed that Pete had sent spies to all the other teams Captains but now I had proof. No sooner had I found the rat (nothing better than a dead rat I tell you) than I double guard duty on KastleKrak and enlisted the services of my pet guard dog Sam.
Here is Sam Standing at attention. Nothing gets past him! Note supper long tongue, perfect for licking spies to death!
Sam also does a great Sphinx impersonation. He plans on guarding for a long time...
Here he is savagely mauling the next door neighbours kids ball that attempted to infiltrate the back yard...
Seriously that dog is a psychopath. This morning he found a hedgehog in the garden and started throwing it up in the air like a ball before digging a hole and attempting to bury it alive... you have been warned!
So all this has lead to an 11th hour decision to change the team makeup. We will now go for a much softer approach to at least give others a chance (in the fluffy stakes).
Our new team will consist of the following:
Scar Vets
Executioners
Terrorgiests
Miners
Now that we have left the filth at home we can feel all warm and fuzzy about ourselves next weekend. For the safety of all others I will however be leaving Sam at home. No doubt some sneaky rat will try infiltrate KastleKrak whilst I am gone. Best be safer rather than sorry.
As the title says, Avatars of War have released full images and a pre order for their new Vestals of Nemesis or Witch Elves analogue.
Seen here they look to be a nice cohesive unit
These new close ups reveal a few similarities to the Games Workshop ones they are intended to compete with. Some of you may remember this post where I compared the two.
Not to sure of the standard bearers pose and standards offset
Here is a picture of the complete parts set for twenty Vestals of Nemisis
Avatars of War have a great deal going for pre orders. 30 Miniatures for 35 euros. This is normally the price of 20, however you miss out of the exclusive miniature which is only available in the 20 pack.
I have ordered a set of these to compliment the 30 games workshop ones I own already. It will be interesting to compare the two in closer detail. Avatars of War may have come to the party a little late with this launch however I think many of you will still be interested in these which run at aproximatley half the price of the GW origionals. The new models from Avatars of War ship in April, so a fairly long lead time for orders, along with their new assassin models previewed here
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