Nationals silliness

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!

White Dwarf: Visions is changing format

Picture says it all really. After 18 months a refresh is in order. I wonder if there will be a content change or that the formula of pretty pictures is working a treat..?

Raging Heroes TGG2 Kickstarter

Raging Heroes have launched their second TGotG Kickstarter, this time focusing on Elven factions from both Scifi and Fantasy settings.

You can find it here. But you will need to be quick, as this is only available to back for two weeks! They are already at $450k

Now as many will be aware, Raging Heroes has made a complete hash of their projected delivery times from their first Kickstarter campaign, with many (including me) still not receiving anything so far (at the time of posting this) after two years....

But I am a glutton for punishment. The artwork is once again stunning, and RH have been able to capture that in their miniature range with the first go round the merry go round. I've pledged for a lieutenant box and will be likely picking up predominantly fantasy range. That being said they have estimated March 2016 as a delivery date, so expect them in 2018?

In three years from now I will most likely want to refresh my Dark Elves so perfect timing? Ok I'm grasping here, but there is more than a passing interest in just a few models. I don't even intend to use them in a gaming situation, just to paint/collect (hoard). 

Looking forward to today's show and tell of the second freebie

Star Wars Armada hits the streets

Looks like you can finally pick up a copy of Star Wars Armada. Several online shops now have it in stock. Must resist...

Street price looks to be approximately $140NZD

Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii

Leaked pictures from this weekes White Dwarf reveal the new Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii

I'm personaly somewhat disappointed. I don't know what I was expecting but I wasn't humans with exotic weaponry. Think I may have been spoiled by the excellent work Forgeworld has been doing representing Mars. Guess I will wait and see what else is coming out with this release. I expect it to be somewhat the size of the Harlequin effort.

Rules look interesting enough, but very points heavy

All Hail Mars

All Hail Mars!

Adeptas Mechanicus has arrived!

Equinox 2015

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...

End of Times formations!

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...

Archaon, Endtimes, Wrathmongers and Skullreapers, all in one week!

This weeks White Dwarf

New Wrathmongers

and new Skullreapers. Such amazing naming convention...

The final installment of the End of Times!

Also on limited edition

Skullreaper rules

Wrathmonger rules

A quick glance at the rules and it seams that Skullreapers would be the better build. Same stats as the Wrathmongers, but 10 points cheaper once equipped with ensorcelled weapons. Wrathmongers have the better first round on combat with strength 6, but both are equal there after.