Taking Better Pictures..Part II

Here we go with second part of my trial and error with miniatures photography. Hopefully this helps explain a few of the confusing parts and helps you take better pictures too. I'd like to thank Rich over at Chicago Terrain Factory, for prompting this and adding some key insight in some private discussions we had.

Last time we looked at miniatures photographed directing on my gaming table, this time we move over to standard neutral white background. I eliminated my homemade light box from the discussion as there is just no way to get enough light into the shot even with a 2.8 AV. Sure I could cut a hole in the top, and do some tests but I decided to just move directly to the neutral backdrop which in this case is a 2'x3" piece of white poster board. Per request here are some photos of the lighting set up.



Here is the basic set up, that clip-on light is actually held in my left hand directly above the camera pointing at the target when I snap the shot. Ideally your backdrop is supposed to be curved but I had to put slight kink in it to get it to stay put as I annoyingly couldn't seem to find any tape. Also note the bi-level workbench is great as the camera and tripod are on the lower level allowing the lense to take a close to horizontal shot of the regiment.



Here is the overhead lighting, the yellow work light contains 2 fluroscent bulbs, it's quite bright emulating 100 watts. The circular work light contains a clear GE, 100 watt blub. Both lights are approximately 3 feet above the target. I didn't experiment with moving the overheads close as I thought my results contained enough light to get the point across .



Here is my Swordsmen regiment, its 6 wide by 5 deep, 30 individuals miniatures, you don't see single formations much bigger than this in Warhammer so this works nicely as "large unit". The question regarding depth of field versus the Aperture value was posed last time and this answers it. This shot ISO 100, Flash OFF, Macro ON, AV 2.8, exposure +0 , one thing I noticed right away is that I was able to get a much faster shot on the white background. getting this shot off at 1/100. The 1st thing to notice here is that the formation is tilted slightly so we could examine the depth. The standard bearer is at the end of the row is out of focus and we only get a depth of clarity in the front corner of the regiment. This and all photos are taken from about 6-8 inches away.



Again exact same setting only difference is the AV is 4.0. notice on the clarity and depth of field is better, the speed is 1/60 I don't see any difference in detail outside of the better depth.



Here is the AV 8.0, exact same settings otherwise., To my eyes this picture is clearly superior in detail to the depth of field, you can make the visible face detail perfectly to the 4th row. and the freehand painting on the banner is crystal clear.

Conclusions here are pretty obvious you want to stick to the recommended AV of 8.0 on neutral backdrop shots, but don't be afraid to use lower aperture values on different backgrounds, the amount of extra light it lets in is very helpful. Keys things to worry are obviously the amount of light, and the hand held light is necessary, overhead lights alone don't cut in my opinion unless you are taking your shots in space that has lot of natural light. While I prefer to take my shots on the gaming table, I will definitely go back to neutral backdrop for some final shots from time to time. Next time I am going to look at the ISO setting and how it works in combination with your AV, Speed and exposure and how what you give up (if anything) to not get blurry photographs.

Battle Report-Empire vs Chaos

2250 points- 1/8 @Games Workshop, Oak Park

This game was against my pal Jeff who runs the Oak Park GW shop, Jeff is undefeated winning by massacre after massacre in our current campaign and I knew it was going to be a brutal game. For moral support I had the local crew routing for me and I also met uber painter Tim Lison who's a buddy of jeff's and told me to crush him with no mercy. He also said he thought my army looked "really great" which was very cool of him ( Tim has big fat collection of Golden Demons and Slayer Swords to his credit)

Being this is a Mighty Empires game, There are certain campaign rules in effect skewing things slightly. Given my Map assets and the weeks events, I have the Scouts campaign rule which has my opponent deploy his entire army before I do, then I get 1st turn. That is pretty huge in itself, not to mention I get "Survey the battlefield" as this weeks event - That lets me reorganize the board terrain, after we deploy it, but before we choose sides. On Jeff's side- he had nice amount of extra army points as he gets 100 for being the board leader, he choose to spend 100 gp for additional points, and his campaign event gives him 50 points of magic items for free. The Point totals where really 2250 vs 2500 for Chaos. Given the set up I had about a good a chance as any to beat Jeff, the odds should have been on my side, but I haven't actually played Chaos before so that would undoubtedly come up to bite me.

Army Lists

Empire

General of Empire w/ Griffon
- Full Plate Armor
- Sword of Power
- Enchanted Shield
- Holy Relic

Captain of Empire
-Battle Standard Bearer
-Armor of Metoric Iron
-Sword of Justice

Battle Wizard
-Level 2
-Power Stone
-Von Horstmans Speculum

Warrior Priest
-Heavy Armor
-Shield
-Icon of Magnus

29 Swordsman / Full Command
w/ War Banner (Ancestral heirloom)
-Detachment
10 Free Company
10 Spearmen

10 Handgunners
-Marksman w/ HLR

10 Crossbows
-Musician

12 Knights of the Blazing Sun
-Full Command


2 Great Cannon
5 Pistoliers
14 Greatswords
-Full Command

1 Hellblaster Volley Gun

2250

Chaos Mortals (Undivided)

Chaos General
Sorceror
Battle Standard Bearer
- Banner of the Gods


20 Chaos Warriors
- Full Command

20 Chaos Warriors
- Full Command
- Chosen

30 Marauders
-Full Command
-Great Weapons

10 Marauders
-Hand weapons

10 Marauders
-Hand weapons

5 Chaos Knights
- Full Command
- Chosen

5 Chaos Knights
- Full Command
- Chosen

5 warhounds
5 warhounds
8 Flayer Kin

2500


deployment diagram

Turn 1- Both sides made basic moves advancing, which dictated how the game was going to play out. After my intial moves it was clear that game was going to break down into two separate battles, My Knights, Pistoliers and General, vs His Knights, hounds and flayerkin, and everyone else on the other side of the field. Magic and Shooting phases delivered a couple minor losses to both sides. I ran my pistoliers up the right side hoping take a quick reform at angle and get a volley off so I retreat vs the oncoming charge, setting my knights up for flank charge. Unfortunately, I could rotate properly because of the woods and then I was short on my shot so I couldn't shoot, on Jeff's turn I end up doing a stand and shoot on some hounds to take two kills fail their break test and run off the board. The charging Chaos Knights bear down on my pistoliers take the charge and get obliterated the Chaos Knights overruning right into my Knights and General. (who make their leadership holding firm) Warhounds also charged my knights but where short. The Flayer Kin (who end up being a nightmare for me this game) fail the terror test from my general's griffon and are bogged down in the woods.

Turn2 -
Advancing movement on the left side continues. I had 5 archers ( that I accidently left of the deployment diagram) screening for my main block of troops. I didn't realize Jeff didn't have any shooting period. so my own screeners end up being a huge pain in the ass as I am trying to use them to block some oncoming units while I position my main force. My Greatswords, take the lead charging some Marauders and In CC, they take out half the unit but they pass their break test.. Shooting and Magic from my side wipe out one small unit of Marauders the few survivors go running. I use my power stone too prematurely here to make sure I got my wall of fire off, I did but too little effect, my artillery is barely connecting and not doing much to these big units. The Hellblaster is sitting idle without a target. Close Combat on the right really goes my way...I take break one unit of chaos knights and am locked in with other unit of hounds. My General is nearby waiting. On Jeff's turn he is really rolling horrible, the Fleeing unit of Chaos Knight runs off the board, the other unit of Chaos Knight charges my General but is blocked by my knights so they lock in with them. My Knights hold and destroy the remaining hounds on the counter attack and my General is ready to flank charge the chaos knight.

Turn 3 - Things are looking good for me at this point but quickly go to hell, chaos style. My General flank charges those Chaos Knights who are locked in with my Knights, together we break them, my Knights pursue and run them down and kill them. the dreaded Chaos Knights are out of the game! great! Stupidly however I have my general restrain (I should have kept them all together) allowing those flayerkin to rear charge my general and his griffon thinking I can handle them, which I should have, but I forgot about "killing blow" jeff lands 4 wounds on my general directly, two of which are killing blows. Amazingly I make both my 4+ ward saves, thanks to his holy relic. Now I only have to make 2 regular 2+ armor saves, no big deal right? WRONG I fail both armor saves, then fail both ward saves so I take two wounds, I'm still ok with 3 wounds right? Wrong again! because I let myself get rear charged like a jackass, and take two wounds I lose combat by 1 and so I need to make a breaktest and of course, I fail. I am 6 inches from and facing the edge of board on a Griffon!! see ya!! with the VP bonus for my general..492 points just flys off the board!! During the Greatswords combat, they hack down a bunch more maruaders but can't break them, because this particular unit is stubborn . Shooting and magic do miminal wounds if any in there respective phases.

Jeff's half of turn three is just as nuts. First of all his Chaos Choosen Warriors with his Sorceror charge my Swordsmen because of those stupid archers my Free Company cannot countercharge, and that allows his huge group of marauders to flank charge me, my spearmen got tied up out of position and cant countercharge either so both my detachments dont make this round of CC and I am going to lose my rank bonus, while he is going to get his. I catch a huge break in the magic phase when Jeff's sorceror miscasts, then rolls "snake eyes" on the miscast table. ripping the fabric of time and space killing his sorceror ( almost my BSB) and a few other guys die as well. unfortunately close combat doesnt go so well and I lose combat and fail my break test (twice with my reroll) because the flank charge broke me, I pivot and run to the right 8 inches, of course the Chosen CW, are closer being they were facing me and only need a 4 to run me down, they do of course and I lose my main block with two banners, 26 guys and my BSB..my Free Company panic and run the spearmen hold, what a disaster. With my General and and my main block gone and the corresponding bonus points, Jeff scored 1000 points this round.

Turns 4 and 5

At this point I have 10 knights left alone on the right side of the board alone with the 4 flayer kin All my shooters and artillery are ok and my Greatswords and Warrior priest are locked in combat with the chaos general, the regular chaos warriors and some straggling marauders who just wont die. I should have used my knights to run down those flayer kin and come around to my deployment zone. But again I hold waiting for the chosen who ran down my Swordsmen to advance as they are heading directly toward me. The damn flayer kin flank charge my knights locking them up until I kill them in turn 6 I just couple finish them off, and they end up killing 5 knights! My greatswords stay until the last man,eventually they and my priest fall to the Chaos General. I had one trick up my sleeve here, which instead of making my Battle Wizard the normal scroll caddy, I gave him Von Horstmanns Speculum, hoping to use my Wizard with my
Handgunners as bait and challenge a powerful unit in single combat. It "almost" worked, when my wizard challenge Jeff's general, he figured the game was almost over and maybe I was just screwing around. Then he played it safe and accepted the challenge with the unit champion. Despite the switched statistics- I roll like crap and don't kill the Champion, the rest of the handgunners fold like a house of cards against the chaos troops and they all die. Nice try. The only saving grace these two turns was I had a "wall of fire" up that those Chaos Warriors had to run through to move My Spearmen detachment also won combat against the huge unit of Marauders, but they held and subsequently wiped me out. That did set the Marauders up to face the Hellblaster Volley Gun point blank, I roll two "10"s then a misfire which is a "1" Kaboom!., it blows up but I get 20 shots landing 10 kills leaving the unit with 8 troops left.

Turn 6

My knights finished off those flayerkin but with 5 guys left, don't stand a prayer against 17 choosen, so I run back to my right table quarter to score with a captured standard from one of the units of chaos knights., After killing my crossbowmen as well in turn 5 Jeff's remaining Marauders take out one of my cannon, but the other one Grapeshots the crap out of him leaving only his BSB and standardbearer alive. It doesnt matter as those two manage to spike my last cannon. speaking of cannons I rolled very few misfires this game only two total with three pieces of artillery, i had two rounds of open fire from both cannons on those chosen and could only kill one guy because despite accurate guessing, I kept rolling "10"s on my first artillery die...instead of when I needed it on the bounce. Oh well. In the end all that was left on the table for me where. 5 Knights and 3 archers, while Jeff have 17 chosen Chaos Warriors, His General, 9 regular Chaos Warriors, His BSB and 1 Marauder Standard Bearer. Jeff picked up 2 table Quarters, 2 Standards, and killed my general so a bonus 500 to him and I got one table quarter and one standard so 200 to me. despite the only 21 unit difference in survivors with the extra points the score was 2572 to 1540, so +1032 to Jeff and a Solid Victory!
Congrats to Jeff, I take solace in not being massacred but it was still only 168 points shy, Until next time!


Turn 2- before my knights get into it with the second group
of Chaos Knights and their hounds



Turn 3, here you can see how my main force is out of formation, and blocked by my own troops and being charged by 50 enemy troops, textbook example of what NOT to do with your Empire troops.


Turn 3, If they just could have survived this one round of CC, I could gotten those spearmen in there and even the odds, C'est la vie!

Mighty Empires Round 5

Games Workshop, Oak Park 1/8


Current Scores (in Empire Points, 18 wins)
map post round 4 results-

Chaos (Black)- 9
Orcs and Goblins-6
The Empire- 5
Lizardmen (White)- 3
Vampire Counts- 2
Lizardmen (Blue)- 2
Bretonnians- 2
Chaos (Green)- 2
(Note, Ken our Orcs player had to drop out so he is being replaced by Josh also running Chaos )

Events

Chaos (Green) -Building Boom
Vampire Counts- Espionage
Bretonnians- Land Grab
Lizardmen (Blue) - Scouts
Lizardmen (White)- All of Nothing
Empire- Survey the Battlefield
Orcs (Orange)- Disaster @ Chaos- No effect.
Chaos- Treasure Trove


Revenue

Orcs (Green) - Mines +120gp (total = 120gp)
Lizardmen (Blue)- end of round 4= 410gp Mine 80gp (total = 490 gp)
Orcs (Orange) - end of Round 4 150 3 Mines - 220gp + war tax (total= 370 gp)
Chaos (Black)-end of round 4 20gp Mine +140 (total= 160 gp)
(mine destroyed during revenue phase)
Vampire Counts end of round 4 =4 gp , (total 4gp)
The Empire (total-0gp)
Lizardmen (white) Mine (total- 70 gp)
Bretonnians end of round 4- 170gp + Mine 90gp (total= 260 gp)

Challenges

Empire 2250 Vs Chaos (Black) 2450 (+100 LE bonus + 100 gp)
Chaos +1032 Solid Victory

Chaos (Green) 2000 VS Bretonnians 2000
Bretonians +1100 Solid Victory

Vampire Counts 2000 VS Orcs 2126 (126 gp)
Orcs, Massacre

Lizardmen (Blue) VS Lizardmen (White)
DRAW


Results

Chaos +4 EP, takes new tile, upgrades to a city
Orcs ( Orange) +5 EP, takes two new tiles, upgrades a mine.
Bretonnians +4 EP, 2 new tiles, upgrades to castle (land grab)
Lizardmen (White) +2 EP, takes new tile
Lizardmen (Blue) +2 EP, takes new tile
Empire +1 Ep, upgrades to castle
Vampire Counts +1Ep, Raids for gold +30 gp
Chaos (Brown) +1 Ep upgrades to Arcane Monolith
Orcs (Green) +1 Ep raids for gold 50 gp.

Ken our Orc (green) player is back in, as well a Josh our new chaos player, who becomes the brown player.

Taking Better Pictures..Part I

As anyone in this hobby knows, just about everyone is interested in taking better pictures of their work right? because what better way to show it off than taking photos and posting them on your blog or public forums. The amount of shitty photos I see get posted is annoying because there isn't really much point to posting blurry, out of focus or undetailed photos. Personally I am a complete photography novice, I never took a picture of a miniature until about a year ago, and over that time I think my photos have improved alot. To point where people are actually complimenting me on them. I was surprised to realize just last night, That I was making some very incorrect assumptions about what I was doing. (I'll go into that in a second) , So I figured I had to get to the bottom of this.

There are couple basic premises of miniature photography that I have pieced together from a variety of sources. Number one is ideally you want a neutral background, people recommend a easily built light box, a curved piece of poster board or some type of light tent. Number 2, is you want to use a tripod and use the "macro" or "super macro" setting on your camera. Number 3 is you want your flash off. as that burst of brilliant light washes out the color and detail of your miniature. finally, you need to manually set the shutter speed, exposure and aperture size.

This where I drive off the side of the road. I'm one of those guys that rarely RTFM, because I like to figure shit out for myself. Don't ask me why- its Sooooo much easier to read the manual, but I guess I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes down to figuring stuff out. SO If you go all the way back to early last year and look at my pictures in my homemade Light Box, they're dark, and kind grainy and I needed use "lightroom" bring up the color and contrast of the pics, because I couldn't get enough light in the picture with flash off, even with a 100 watt light right above the miniature itself. I tried all kinds of stuff, I couldn't get my pics better. I was using this mini photography guide I picked up somewhere, I had all the settings right. what was up?

I had read of course you want your Aperture to be as small as possible and your shutter speed as fast as possible in order to take good pictures., However with Aperture that small, no light is getting into the camera without a flash. your maximum speed is also contingent on how much light can into the camera as well. An Aperture value of F.4 was recommended to me right in the middle so I figure great...so that what I was using. Finally I said screw the light box, I am going to start taking pictures on the game table, and I am going to try a smaller Aperture. and add a ton of light. So I had my light above the table, ( a couple 100 watt fluorescents) and I also used a hand held work light behind the camera, but pointing at the target.
Bang -Suddenly my pictures got ALOT better, the color was there, the detail was great, the non-neutral background really wasn't distracting from the picture. I must been doing something right. Well, kind of- I inadvertently made my Aperture larger instead of smaller as in all the way down to F2.8. As I had assumed the smaller number was the smallest aperture. However its counterintuitive and the largest number 8 is the smallest Aperture. The thing is the larger the Aperture the more light gets into the camera and that's good. Here are some photo's I took today as sample with my W.I.P Knights of the Blazing Sun.

(note all pics are ISO 100 speed setting, with the Flash Off, and Macro ON, with my Canon A640 Powershot on a small Tripod. )






The above three shots are Aperture setting of F2.8, the largest it will go with a shutter speed of 1/30th which where It needed to be for the exposure to be at "+0" (what you want ideally, you can play around with the exposure but thats another topic)







These above three shots are an Aperture Setting of F4. The shutter speed is 1/6th
exposure "+0"








The final three above are an Aperture Setting F8, the fastest speed I could get and achieve a "+0" exposure is now down .3 seconds ( the slower the speed the sooner even the motion of taking the photograph starts making the picture blurry. Your ISO speed helps combat this.

Conclusions- There isnt a hell of a lot of difference in these pics at all, despite that my Aperture went from the largest possible to the smallest possible. There are subtle differences for example the 1st three have the shortest depth of field, you see the building to rear is a bit blurry but the Knights are very clear as you progress to F8, the background gets clearer with what I see as a slight cost to the clarity of the knights, its very slight..not even particularly noticable. The most important thing as this little demo shows, is the LIGHT.. overhead light and back lighting are key, obviously the ISO speed helps with any camera movement and Macro setting is for close up detail, but other than quality of your camera lense the amount of light getting in your picture seems to outweigh your Aperture setting. Shutter Speed and Exposure are directly relevant but even here we go from 1/30 to .3 which should be a noticable speed difference, (as when you get to around "1" things often get blurry), but I dont see much of one here.

In Part II, I am going back to my old lightbox and a new neutral backdrop and then compare.

GW Rumor Roundup

Updated 1/13

There are a tons of rumors flying around about GW releases for 2008, most of this stuff is complied from Bell of Lost Souls and Warseer but some of it is courtesy of what I hear hanging around at the store.

Feb- LotR- Harad Army Book...new Harad Miniatures- Previews are out., The Corsairs of Umbar are awesome...I am grabbing these based on how much I like the models.

March - WFB- Vampire Counts- Full previews are pretty available everywhere.- I'm sold my next WFB army.

April- Plastic Orc Stompa- This has been complete for sometime but they've had trouble fitting the whole thing on 7 sprues which is current box size maximum. the technology created for the Baneblade has opened the door for larger plastic kits, and had enable them to get more stuff on a sprue. So I hear it's done and on 7 sprues waiting for release. Not sure "when" this is actually coming out. April is my speculation. But considering its been done for a awhile now. They probably want it out sooner than later, so "by April" seems ripe.

May- Both Demon books for 40K/WFB...I guess the 40K one will be compatible with the new 5th edition before its even released, seems odd to me but I've read and am told this is happening in May

June- 5th Edition of Warhammer 40,000/ New starter Set Space Marines and Orks a new SM codex. unknown??- however fits the profile of the redone DA, BA and BT codexes talk of redoing the SM codex was in the air at Adepticon 2007, so a new 40K edition and a new SM codex go hand in hand. They dont need to do any new models so it's pretty much a given.

June/ July - WFB- Dark Elves...New Book, New Plastics but not core troops...Little else is known, June is speculation but trying to fill in the gaps considering alternating releases.

July/ Aug- Imperial Guard- New book and some new models like non Forgeworld Death Korp and some other cool stuff., Time slot is speculation on my part. But I hear/read the new guard is coming and way overdue.

I am also told there is big Mordor release for LotR with new models and a new army book, so consider, WFB/ Dark Elves, 40K/ Imperial Guard, and LotR /Mordor the most likely summer releases.

September/ Oct - Planetstrike. New game book for 40K, Large plastic kits and terrain pretty much confirmed. Plastic Valkyrie, Thunderhawk Gunship, Defense Laser, I assume a bunch of other accompanying terrain and buildings, everyone is saying of course plastic drop pods..but I hear they are NOT a done deal (technical issues) While Apocalypse wasn't my cup of tea, as the scale is too big and even team games the turns are just too damn long. Planetstrike sounds very cool, smaller battles with defined missions using flyers sounds great, combined with a new edition of 40K means I will definitely be dusting off my Marines!

That all I can think of right now, I hope there is some new Fantasy Terrain in there somewhere.

Thoughts on Army Building

Just some thoughts on building my Empire Army. Thankfully for the blog here, I have a good documentation of the process. I can see looking back that I actually didn't dig into this army full time until around the beginning of August 07. I definitely did some building and test painting previous to that, so at this point I've probably put 6 months of work in. Currently I have built and primed 140+ models of which 122 actually have made in the final list, I still have enough stuff built and unbuilt to field another probably 1000 points, so I will have no problem fielding 3K with some options this year.

Currently I have 75 models fully painted and based with the corresponding move trays done. Some units have extra trays for different formations. All my units are magnet based and my cavarly and riders are magnetized which is a real time saver if I want change some mounted units up. I have 47 models to paint and 13 weeks to go until Adepticon so I am not too worried about getting it done. I have to build a display base which should take me a day or two. I have an old picture frame that will look very nice and given the amount of models going on display not much is going to fit on it other than some textured terrain and some trees.

This is the point where I scare people off from the hobby when I talk about how long things take (If you're reading this and have any interest you already know how long things take)
I consider myself an average hobbyist. I have been painting miniatures on and off since I played D&D in high school 20+ years ago. I still consider myself a slow painter even thou I didnt get back into the hobby for real until about 4 years ago, when I took up painting Reaper Miniatures as way to burn off steam ( I find painting relaxing) It wasn't until I got into Warhammer 40K and WFB about a year and half ago that I felt my skills have really progressed. The reason for the progression is obvious, I spend roughly 10-15 hours a week working on things about 85-90% of that time has been this Empire Army, while 15% being other things, building Terrain, working with Foamcore, or other miniature models, I average playing about 2-3 games a month, but not all of my game time comes out of my hobby time, some definitely does thou. Spend that amount of time on anything You'll get better at it. I probably spent 20 hours a week playing the Guitar in High School and College and I got professionally good at that. Point being is you have to put the time in to get results.

One piece of advice that I got early on in this hobby has become my basic discipline and that's "try to do at least one thing every day, no matter what". I've found sometimes doing one thing can lead to a major break through skill wise which can really help you set or even increase the pace on the rest of your project. The other piece of sage advice from longtime GW hobbyists is. "Don't buy more than you can build". Well if you're addicted to this plastic crack like I am, you know how long that idea lasts. good advice, but not really practical if you got money in your pocket and the bills are paid.

I read about some guy on Warseer the other day who claims to have painted 80 models in two days!, I find myself asking why?. They don't look good, while they aren't horrible, its seems like a waste of several hundred dollars in models to paint them half assed in two days, just to say they are done. While 10-15 hours a week probably seems like ALOT of time to some of you, (And I am sure some on of higher skill level than I can do the same in half the time) for me it works. I don't sleep a ton so between 10pm when my daughter goes to bed up to 2am (when I do , if not before ) is golden time for me where I can do what I want. I'm not saying take on more than you can handle but set a pace that works for you and stick with it. If you do, you will find things become so much more satisfying because even when the games or ruleset gets you down (like the current post-apocalypse, pre-5th ed blues going on with many 40K players)
You can always take comfort and satisfaction in your collection of awesome models that you would never dream of putting up on eBay just so some bonehead can throw them in simple green and re-paint them all in two days.

Once Adepticon hits, I'll probably step it down a bit and a get few other things accomplished. I have some actual furniture for my house I want to build and I have alot of terrain and other models I want to play around with and I'm sure I am going to start buying Vampire Counts when they come out this spring. Thankfully now I know that I can put a tourney ready army on the table from scratch in 8 months and that feels pretty damn good.
-

Battle Report- Empire Vs Night Goblins

12/27 @ Plastic Legions HQ

This was a base 2250 point game and was the round 4 match up in our Mighty Empires campaign, so this includes Mighty Empires rules. There were a few errors most notably I forgot to use my "Scouts" rule bonus from the campaign map and Anthony forgot to use Skarsnik's "sneaky schemes" bonus. Both these are pretty huge so we called it an even screw up by both sides and played on. While writing this up it became clear that Night Goblin army list is illegal with 5 Specials. The extra special is due to that Anthony came with 2000 point list and I was geared up for 2250, so Anthony hurriedly added a Special and Core choice, not realizing he was already at his max special. No big deal, these are casual games, I am just pointing that out before someone else does. This was a super fun and very close game. but considering the above I am not going to write the turn by turn events, but I'll add few pics below.



ARMY LISTS

The Empire - Hochland Border Regiment

LORDS

General of Empire w/ Griffon
- Full Plate Armor
- Sword of Power
- Enchanted Shield
- Holy Relic

392

HEROES (3)

Captain of Empire
Battle Standard Bearer
Armor of Metoric Iron
Sword of Justice


Battle Wizard
Level 2
Dispel Scroll x 2


Warrior Priest
Heavy Armor
Shield
Icon of Magnus

391

CORE (6)

29 Swordsman / Full Command
w/ War Banner (Ancestral heirloom)

Detachment
10 Free Company
10 Spearmen

10 Handgunners
Marksman w/ HLR

10 Crossbows
Musician

12 Knights of the Blazing Sun
Full Command

880

SPECIAL (4)

2 Great Cannon

5 Pistoliers

14 Greatswords
Full Command

RARE (1)

1 Hellblaster Volley Gun

587

Total = 2250


Orcs and Goblins- Skarsnik's Night Goblins

LORDS

Skarsnik, Warlord of the eight peaks
Gobbla

205

HEROES (3)

NIght Goblin Shaman
Horn of Urgok

125

Night Goblin Shaman
2 Dispel Scrolls

135

Night Goblin Big Boss
Great Squig

132


CORE (7)

30 Night Goblins
Full Command
3 Fanatics

212

29 Night Goblins
Full Command
3 Fanatics

209

20 Night Goblins
Archers
3 Fanatics

135

10 Goblin Wolf Riders
158

10 Spider Riders
148

10 Spider Riders
148

4 Snotlings bases 80

SPECIAL (5)

2 Spear Chukka 70
1 Rock Lobba 70
10 Squig Hoppers 150
6 Night Goblin Squig Herd 60

5 Orc Boar Boyz 148
Full Command

RARE (2)

1 Doom Diver Catapult 80
2 Snotling Pump Wagons 80

Total= 2345

+95 points (uses Mighty Empires Gold)


SCORES

THE EMPIRE

Enemy Units Destroyed-

Night Goblin Big Boss- 132
20 Night Goblin Archers / 3 Fanatics- 135
2 Fanatics- 50
10 Spider Riders- 148
10 Spider Riders-148
4 Snotling Bases- 80
Rock Lobba-70
10 Squig Hoppers - 150
Squid Herd- 60
Orc Boar Boyz- 148
1 Snotling Pump Wagon- 80

1201

The Empire had no other scoring


SKARSNIKS NIGHT GOBLINS

Enemy Units Destroyed

Warrior Priest 121
10 Spearmen 60
5 Archers 40
10 Handgunners 105
10 Crossbowmen 85
12 Knights 276
1 Great Cannon 100
5 Pistoliers 107
14 Greatswords 140
Hellblaster Volleygun 110

1144

Captured Table Quarters (2)
200
(Campaign event, Espionage, denys 1 table quarter)
=100

Captured unit standard (1)

Greatswords standard captured by Pump Wagon = 100

Total 1344 -1201 = SKARSNIK'S NIGHT GOBLINS +143

DRAW


Deployment- you can see the full terrain set up we used, made for an interesting setup
wish I had remembered to use my "Scouts" advantage



Empire Line- My General and my main block of 50 troops , then my shooters right in the center and then my knights and greatswords on the left flank. Pistoliers were behind me on the far Right Flank.

Night Goblin Line- Lots of Goblins!!



This is turn 5 or so....