Category: Warhammer Fantasy Battle

Warhammer Fantasy Battle, or ‘light the blue touch paper and retire to a safe distance…’

I had my first game of WFB in like 15 years last Saturday. I was very excited at the prospect of playing some swords and sorcery stuff again, as it’s been a while. Me and Dethtron had decided on a 1500 point list, mainly to just get used to the rules and whatnot. The battle saw my small force of wimpy looking Tomb Kings vs. Dethtron’s veritable tank of an Empire army.

I won’t bore everyone to tears with a Batrep, but we did have a good game, with some truly ludicrous things happening. Dethtron very wisely put his ordnance on hills, which already got me worrying as I only had one Screaming Skull catapult to reciprocate with. So, I was facing a mortar, an effing great big cannon and a crazy looking rocket launcher thingy that looked like a pyromaniacs dream come true.

I pretty much stayed my distance and just unleashed plenty of volleys of arrows, while my Tomb King and unit of Chariots took to the flank to try and push them all to center field to end up as more arrow fodder. They ended up against a unit of heavily armored cavalry, after routing another unit of Pistoliers off the table. I was pretty certain that my Tomb King was doomed against these guys, but thankfully held them up in combat for a couple of turns, but alas was sent back to the void after being crushed under the hefty unit. Magic was thrown hither and thither (what?) with some dispels being successful, and others farting out into nothing.

We were trading shots for a while too, whittling each side down, although we both had abilities to replenish fallen troops, but I think I had a slight edge on the frequency and amount that this was used. Dethtron scored some direct hits with artillery but then suffered the Wrath of the Ancient Ones, as he rolled successive misfires on each of his artillery pieces, resulting in them being destroyed. Not only did this make me a little less worried about my troops getting mangled, but it also took away my primary targets for my ‘deep striking’ Tomb Scorpion and Tomb Swarms. While my Scorpion’s performance was a little lackluster, the tomb swarms held up two of the Empire units, resulting in him losing his Wizard, and consequently, his army general. With no spells being thrown around (and also no dispels) I was given a little more flexibility.

All in all it was a great game. I quickly learnt some strong and weak points concerning the Tomb Kings forces and am pretty excited to have a go at a larger game with some other unusual pieces added.

After going toe to toe I only just squeaked out a victory, which I am sure was mostly due to the unlucky misfires from the artillery, but it was still a blast. Geddit? Artillery? Blast? >sigh<

While 40K is still my favorite, this was a helluva lot of fun, who doesn’t like throwing fists full of dice down?

Mustering the forces for Warhammer…

Next month will see myself and my gaming partner in crime Colin/Dethtron getting together to have a small slap-about with the new 8th edition WFB. We just wanted a small game, to get used to the mechanics, as we are 40K players mostly, with neither of us actually playing a game of WFB for many years. So, we decided to set a 1250 points limit. Colin will be fielding his stalwart troops of The Empire while I will actually be dropping myself, lead weights and all, in the (very) deep end and busting out my Tomb Kings.

Now, I’m not sure how Colin fared in putting a list together at this point level, but I can honestly say that there is not that much open for a TK player at this level. To be honest, the new percentages update to the new rules (ftw) are a pain in the nether regions, but I’m sure over time i’ll hate it less and less.

I tried to spread the love out as liberally as I could with the limited points available.  My initial list ommitted a Tomb King/Prince (derp!) which was just a silly bloody mistake, as I was watching TV at the time as well. It also included both light and heavy cavalry and a unit of skeleton warriors armed woth spears and shields. I did a little bit of searching on teh interwebs and discovered that TK players seem to be suffering from Warriors of Chaos syndrome, in that their cavalry suck at the moment. With a WS of 2, I’d need an effing HUGE unit to be able to actually do anything worthwhile. So, back to the drawing board. It seems that for the most part, I want to be keeping the main body of my force at arms length from the enemy, while throwing as much missile crap at them as possible. 40 skele archers and a screaming skull catapult, with ‘skulls of the foes’ should (hopefully) fulfil this role, while my Tomb Swarms and fast moving chariots can start causing some problems while I bring up my minute regiment of Tomb Guard. Add a Tomb Prince in a Chariot and a Heirophant, and i’m really hoping I can at least hold my own, although I have a feeling that I am going to get my ass royally handed to me. here is my list:

Lords:

Liche High Priest – 245
Talisman of Protection – 15

Heroes:

Tomb Prince – 100
Great Weapon – 4
Light Armor – 2
Shield – 2
Chariot – 45
Chariot of Fire – 25

Core:

Skeleton Warriors (20) – 160
Musician – 5
Standard Bearer – 5

Skeleton Warriors (20) – 160
Musician – 5
Standard Bearer – 5

Tomb Swarm (2) – 90

Special:

Chariots (3) – 140

Tomb Guard (10) – 120
Musician – 6
Standard Bearer – 12

Rare:

Screaming Skull Catapult – 90
Skulls of the Foes – 20

Total – 1256 points.

I guess we’ll just wait and see what happens… In the meantime I am frantically putting the minis together in readiness, i’m about 80% done so far.

Thats it for now, ye skallywags!

Paul

EDIT: ok, looking this over again, i’m going to get railed. Right up the arse, possibly with a big spikey glove. I’m thinking we need to expand this to at least 2500 pts. Bugger.

An unnerving talent….

I was spacing out the other day, wondering what was going to be next on the project table for me to tinker with when I realized that all the armies I choose to collect, painstakingly paint and game with all seem to be obsolete (pretty much) or do so shortly after my decision.

Sisters of Battle.

Well, we all know where this is right now, well, we don’t, thats actually the whole point. I started collecting my Witch Hunters force back in about 2004 when I wanted to just start collecting and painting minis again. I bought the codex too. It wasn’t until I went uber serious with gaming again (thanks Colin) that I decided to ctually get a playable force together and went out nd bought the 40K rulebook too. Double whammy on this one. No less than 6 months after me buying the rulebook, then that edition was updated to the current edition. DOH! No matter. I picked up the mini ‘rules bits only’ book from the AoBR set, which I still use. Then, all of a sudden, we find out that the Inquisitorial forces of the Imperium are slowly vanishing. Are we getting an overhaul? are we going the way of the Squats? will we actually get plastic Sisters? The last few months have seen Witch Hunters stock disappearing from shelves, including the codex, and then, in turn, the stock becoming unavailable online through GWs web portal. There’s been a lot of nay-sayers and doom bringers on the interwebs, but conversely there have also been some very positive hints and possible ‘leaks’. For the most part, it seems to be the way of GW to snipe a line from sale for it to be released further down the line. This seems positive, although I hope it’s not going to be another year or two off. 50 points for a rhino? pffft! updated codex please!

Black Templars

I decided I wanted to dabble with the Emperors finest, Space Marines. I didn’t want a vanilla force, and certainly not Smurfmarines. I saw the codex for Black Templars and fell in love (figuratively speaking). Maintaining an almost grim, medieval kvltness about them, I thought they were perfect. Well, now I hear that these chaps will be getting a makeover soon, although I also heard on the grapevine they might be axed. I’m more inclined to believe the former rather than the latter, considering the fluff, and the the fact they are a progenetor chapter of the Imperial Fists. Still, I guess we’ll see. Just as well I am putting together an auxillary of Salamanders…. 😉

Tomb Kings

I got bitten by the WFB bug again, and with Colin amassing an Empire force, I wanted to get in on some axes and maces action. I went with Tomb Kings – Skeletons =cool. Egyptian skeletons with a host of nasty stuff and something akin to the Lost ark of the Covenant = epic WIN. I have managed to score an obscene amount of stuff on Ebay for this, which is awesome, so I don’t feel too bad about collecting this army. It wasn’t until I was surfing one of my regular haunts that I started picking up on other TK players getting twitchy as the army doesn’t seem to be getting any love, apparently because of it’s somewhat ‘fringe’ status, and it not being as popular as the usual Orcs, Chaos etc. I’m hoping for a new army book, although it has just been announced that Orcs and Gobbos are to be released in May, so yet again, something else that will probably be the end of this year, start of early next year. I’m reaaaally hoping they make some new minis to coincide with this, as the Liche Priests and Bone Giant minis = f*cking awful.

With so much being up in the air, i’m wondering whether to shelve the SoBs and TKs, concentrate on my Templars see what happens. At least I can proxy the marines :p

Which leads me to my Lizardmen. A newly refurbished army, new book, new minis, and i’m collecting them! HA! nothing can go wrong with this one….