Mighty Empires V- Round 6

2/24@ Games Workshop, Oak Park


Standings after round 5


Good Team- 29

Bill- Wood Elves - 8
Bob- Ogres - 6
Chris- Bretonnians- 9
Leo- High Elves -4
Nate- Lizardmen- 2

Evil Team- 33

John- Daemons of Chaos- 7
Joe- Warriors of Chaos- 4
Kenny- Daemons of Chaos - 10
Billy- Skaven- 8
Andre- Tomb Kings- 4

Round 5-The Bad Guys win one!


Strategic Events

John- Headhunter
Ken- Survey the Battlefield (via praise)
Bob- No Guts, No Glory
Bill- Land Grab
Billy- War Tax
Nate- Scouts
Leo- Building Boom
Andre- Diplomacy
Joe- All or Nothing
Chris- Survey the Battlefield

Campaign Events

John- Corruption -100
Bill- All is Well
Billy- Famine -150 ( again!!!)
Andre- Corruption -100
Leo- All is Well
Bob- Raid +220
Chris- Corruption -100
Joe- Infamy
Ken- Corruption -100
Nate-Raid +140


Revenue

John- 250 (cash point)
Bill- 200
Joe-210
Bob- Buys Point (250) +215
Billy- 0 (125 to Insurgents)
Chris- 125
Ken-0
Leo-175
Andre- 225
Nate- 190

Games
Daemons of Chaos vs Ogres
Scenario- Siege @ the Lair of the Damned
Result: Daemons- Hold (3) +2, Ogres - 1

Wood Elves vs Warriors of Chaos
Scenario- Pitched Battle
Result: Warriors- Massacre 5, Wood Elves- 1

High Elves vs Tomb Kings
Scenario- Eschelon Attack
Result: TBA

Bretonnians vs Daemons of Chaos
Scenario: Siege @ the Tower Fortress
Result. Daemons Capture (3) +2, Bretonnians- 1

Skaven vs Lizardmen
Scenario: Seige @ the Iron Stronghold
Result: Lizardmen Capture (3) +2, Skaven 1

Bonus Points remaining
Nate- 2 Luck , Bob- 2 Luck


A hallow victory for me tonight, although I won the scenario by having my rank and file units capture all three objectives...the majority of my army was wiped off the map by Bretonnian Charges...The Great Unclean One may be nigh invincible but eating a charge from a whole lance of Grail Knights led by a Lord with Killing Blow...is a sure way to get him killed, granted he lasted 4 turns losing- 9 wounds to Daemonic Instabilty and finally sucumbing to a killing blow for his last wound. the rest of my troops got smashed I couldn't roll a hit or make a save tonight. The entire game basically game down a die roll if the fleeing Trebuchet crew and Damsel holding on of the objectives had rallied (they failed) all Chris would had to do was kill one blood letter in the magic phase ro force the game to Victory Points...in which case I got massacred...like I said Hallow victory. Great game Chris.

Last Stand!

Here's a combination of a bunch of pieces finally seeing play..This piece I call "Last Stand" Ruin which I put together for our campaign and its part of my Osgiliath table. Its about 90% complete.. I just need trim out the edges with some paint, flock and some accent bricks...its all Hirst bricks..with some of the old plastic 40K ruins on the corners...I filled a bunch of the bulletholes..but plenty still remain, well just call em "crossbow bolt" damage on this fantasy piece.




I also experimented with some Woodland Scenic pigment here...I used "Raw Umber" which is much thicker than your normal wash but dries opaque. It created the nice dirty look to piece which is a nice contrast to all the drybrushing. Of course it sitting on my Realm of Battle table, which I've put into one of the hill configurations and I finished the full frame out of the table. It all comes together pretty well and since I don't have an actual game to to talk about you can just imagine what it would have been like from the photo's it's the Last Stand of "Square Basers versus the Round Basers." as 9 Empire Swordsmen, take on Shagrat, 3 Uruk-hai, a Troll, a Nazgul and and handful of Orcs..if you play both games...you're laughing at the slaughter that would ensue.

Mighty Empires V- Round 5

2/17 @ Games Workshop, Oak Park



Standings after round 4


Good Team- 29

Bill- Wood Elves - 10
Bob- Ogres - 5
Chris- Bretonnians- 6
Leo- High Elves -3
Nate- Lizardmen- 5

Evil Team- 27

John- Daemons of Chaos- 6
Joe- Warriors of Chaos- 2
Kenny- Daemons of Chaos - 5
Billy- Skaven- 7
Andre- Tomb Kings- 7

Round 4, Good team Wins


Strategic Events

John- No Guts, No Glory
Ken- Praise be to the Oracle
Bob- Sabotage
Bill- Survey the battlefield
Billy- Building Boom
Nate- Scouts
Leo- Land Grab
Andre- Praise be to the Oracle
Joe- All or Nothing
Chris- Diplomacy

Campaign Events

John- Raid- Ogres +120
Bill- Hidden Cache
Billy- Famine -100
Andre- Disaster- Needs to Roll
Leo-Corruption -100
Bob- Treasure Trove
Chris- Fame
Joe- Hidden Cache
Ken- Harvest Moon
Nate-All is Well


Revenue

John- 270
Bill- 275
Joe-50
Bob- 105
Billy- 0
Chris- 125
Ken-125
Leo-75
Andre- 475
Nate- 125

Games

Daemons of Chaos vs Lizardmen
Scenario- Battle for Skull Pass
Result: Daemons- Massacre 5, Lizards- 1

Wood Elves vs Daemons of Chaos
Scenario- Siege @ the Lair of the Damned
Result: Daemons- Massacre 5, Wood Elves- 1

High Elves vs Skaven
Scenario- Siege @ the Iron Stronghold
Result: Skaven Hold + 2pts, High Elves -1 pt


Warriors of Chaos Vs Ogres
Scenario: Loot/ Raid
Result.Warriors 3, Ogres 2
Warriors- "All or Nothing" + 5pts

Tomb Kings VS Bretonnians
Scenario: Siege @ the Tower Fortress
Result: Bretonnians -Solid Victory 4, Tomb kings- 1

Bonus Points remaining
Nate- 2 Luck , Bob- 2 Luck


My Daemons drew the Battle for Skull Pass tonight against Nate's Lizards...with maximum reinforcements at my disposal..I decided to field the Great Unclean One as my General...Level 2 Wizard, Slime Trail, Noxious Vapors, and the Trappings of Nurgle which basically makes him indestructible.

My job was to get thru the pass or get control of both hilltops...It was the Slaan and his guard, a pair of Ancient Stegadons and some Skink priests, Terradons and Skink filler against the GUO, a Slaaneshi Herald BSB, (No Banner of Sundering thou)...Bloodletters, Daemonettes, Plaguebearerss, 2 units of Hounds and a pair of Bloodcrushers.
The GUO took everything Nate could throw at it and laughed...shruging off an easy dozen+ wounds only ever taking two, He took out both Ancient Steggies Single handedly..Nate had at least 3 miscasts and I had one...The Slaan didn't have the magic impact he should have this game. I gave up both units of hounds and my some Daemonettes to get my GUO and one Unit of Letters in control on one side while everyone else went the other way...In the end the Daemons stood on both Hilltops controlling the pass...while the Slann and three temple guard stoon alone out numbered after 6 turns. I lost both units of Hounds, both units of bloodletters, and 1 units of Daemonettes, while the core point difference was +562 for me, I had 400 bonus points (2 Scoring full command units, 1 Captured Banner, and +100 team bonus) and scored double Victory Points for both Ancient Stegadons, via "No Guts, No Glory" pushing the game easily into massacre territory...Great game to nate, one my favorites of the campaign..The Fatman (GUO)
was sick!.

New plastic Greatswords!- Photo!

Here is a look at the upcoming new plastic greatswords!, courtesy of Plastic Legions reader David Gardiner at UK studio day, while I have 15, I can't wait for another 10 plus the new command squad woot!-




Another new Empire Captain or General..Great model!..that Orc Raider was also in the recent
newsletter!

New plastic "Stank"!!!- Photo

Welp as a devout Empire Player, I can't resist posting this. The photo just showed up in my mailbox courtesy of a Games Workshop newsletter. Here is the new plastic Steam Tank. I've never run a "Stank" before, but won''t be able to resist now! really looking for forward to this in May/ June. Please no comments on how its really the metal one and GW is bullshitting us with the photo!.
LOL!


Found this as well from todays..UK studio day

(photo courtesy of Syph @ Heresy Online)

Wish I could see those new models below it too!

White Dwarf and Cognitive Dissonance

As a pre cursor to my next rant entitled, "Poisoning the well"- which talks why public internet forums are a brain rotting waste of the precious moments of your life- I thought a discussion about White Dwarf would be a good lead in. If you follow any number of public forums that concentrate on the Games Workshop Hobby, you'd think White Dwarf was nothing more than a advertising pamplet for the months new releases. With nothing more than advertisements and some features that are nothing more than "masked" advertisements. I read extremely negative things about White Dwarf, everything from its a malicious hoodwink, a complete ripoff to people who claim to use the magazine to pad their cats litterbox. The problem is these people are not actually reading White Dwarf or at least not the same one I am reading.

Cognitive Dissonance, for those who don't know or have forgotten in laymans terms basically means steadfastly believing in an idea when evidence to the contrary is right in front of your face, it's cyncism over truth in the rawest form. While it may apply slightly differently to the various social structures of modern society, its a term that rightly applies in the current perceptions of White Dwarf.

While clearly not the worlds greatest hobby magazine and clearly a shell of itself from its 2004 incarnation (where it was 20+ pages longer with literally 3 times the non-ad content). Its also very clearly NOT what's purported to be by former fans and cynics of the mag found on the various popular internet forums.

When I think about what I like about a hobby magazine outside of the normal model showcasing and hobby and painting tips. (which WD always has in every issue) I like to look for what we gamers call "crunch". "Crunch" is either new rules, tactics,tips, expanded game options, or new
scenarios..things that we can use to elevate our own gaming and hobby experience outside of what the core books we collected say is ok..in short I look for a hobby magazine to be a gateway between the designers and its customers a place where supplemental information for products can be had.

While I have sporadic issues of White Dwarf back as far as 2004, I recently went back to 2006 (when I went "hardcore" on the hobby)I started with the Dec 2006 issue my first "subscription" issue and went looking for what ever useful crunch I could find in order to see if how my own
"Cognitive Dissonance" was doing because, while I was never as negative as some...I knew I was like many people who just flip the mag look at the awesome models..put the thing down..and never bothering to read half the stuff in there..especially if If I wasnt currently immersed in a
particular game.

So here we go here are all the crunchy bits I can find for 27 issues covering the three core gaming systems, I was suprised how much currently useful stuff I found for my own pursuits. I skipped alot of the 40K stuff pre 5th edition because, tactics have changed and I don't know enough about the current rules to vett what is useful and what is irrelevant but I made note of all other crunchy info I could find. Feel free to copy and paste this somewhere for your own reference. Page number are in parenthese.

DEC 2006 # 323
Warhammer Fantasy Battles - Tactica- Deployment (80)
Lord of the Rings- Tactica- Legions of Middle Earth (114)

2007

JAN # 324
Warhammer Fantasy Battles - The Cannon Roars- scenario (104)
Lord of the Rings- Warhost of the 1st Born- Scenario/ Tactics (54)
All systems- Darker grows the Valley- Ladder Campaign (116)

FEB # 325
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Defend the heroes of our past- Scenario (114)
Lord of the Rings- Ambush in Rhudaur- Scenario (34)

MAR # 326
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Tactica- Movement (84)
- Campaign Scenarios, (68)
Lord of the Rings- Arnor and Angmar- Tactics and Tips (58)

APR # 327
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Tactica-Shooting (84)
Lord of the Rings- Lords of Evil- Tactics (78)

MAY # 328
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Defend the Headless badger- Scenario (118)
Lord of the Rings- Prowler in the Darkness- Scenario (104)

JUN # 329
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Terrian Feature - Tactics (29)
Dwarf miners- Tactics (44)
Capture the tower of moonrise- Scenario (112)
Warhammer 40K- Blood Angels Codex, Part 1 (74)

JUL #330
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Woods, Obstacles, Buildings- Tactics (108)
- Under the hanging tree - Scenario (112)
Lord of the Rings- Dragons of Middle Earth- Rules/ Stats (68)
Warhammer 40K- Blood Angels Codex, Part 2 (78)

AUG #331
Lord of the Rings- Glory of Gondor- Feature- Stats (30)
Battle Fleet Gothic- Brace for Impact - Stats/ Rules (68)

SEPT # 332
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Famous Campaigns- Rules (64)
- Tactica- Magic (81)
Lord of the Rings- Servants of the Dark Lord- Tactics/ Stats (52)

OCT# 333
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Tactica- Fast Cavarly (110)
Warhammer 40K- Apocalypse - Rules/ Stats (40)

NOV # 334
Warhammer 40K- Apocalypse Campaign, Rules, Scenarios (74)
Lord of the Rings- Monsters Tactica (80)

DEC # 335
Warhammer 40K- Apocalypse Campaign Scenarios (54)
Lord of the Rings- Middle Earth in Flames Campaign - Full Ruleset (40)

2008

JAN #336
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Tactica - Flyers (84)

FEB #337
Warhammer Fantasy Battles - Empire Tactica (80)
Mighty Empires Campaign Rules (60)

MAR #338
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- House of the Dead -Scenario (37)
Warhammer 40K- Rynns World Campaign- Scenario / Rules (82)

APR #339
Warhammer Fantasy Battles - Legendary Battles Rules (14)
Warhammer 40K- Apocalypse Data Sheets (60)
Lord of the Rings- Enemy of my Enemy - Allied Tactics (78)

MAY #340
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Glory of Chaos- Campaign- Rules (32)
Lord of the Rings- Enemy of my Enemy part 2- Allied Tactics (66)

JUNE #341
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Warriors of Chaos - "get you by"- Army Lists (68)
Warhammer 40K- Chaos Tactica (56)


JULY #342
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Daemonic Incursions- Scenarios / Rules (72)
Warhammer 40k- 5th edition feature, Rules, quick reference sheet (22)

AUG #343
Warhammer 40K - Apocalypse Data Sheets 946)
Lord of the Rings- Mordor Tactics (42)

SEPT #344
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Raid Scenarios (36)
Lord of the Rings- Council of Elrond -rules/ stats/ scenarios (24)
Warhammer 40K- Black Reach Campaign rules (52)

OCT # 345
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Raid Campaign rules/ Scenarios (36)
Lord of the Rings- Magic tactica, part 1 (52)

NOV #346
Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Bound in Chaos- Warriors Tactics (16)
Lord of the Rings- Magic Tactica, part 2 (52)


DEC # 347

Warhammer Fantasy Battles- War in the North Campaign- Rules (14)
Lord of the Rings- Black Riders of Mordor Tactica (22)
Warhammer 40K- Liber Apocalyptica- Data Sheets (36)

2009

JAN #348

Warhammer Fantasy Battles- War in the North Campaign II, scenarios/ rules (36)
Lord of the Rings- Sons of Gondor tactica (44)
Warhammer 40k- WAAGH Bork- Scenarios (54)

FEB #349

Warhammer Fantasy Battles- Echoes in the Fall- Scenario (58)
Lord of the Rings- Prepare for Battle- Tourney Tactics (42)
Warhammer 40K- Boot Kamp- Ork Tactics (36)

MAR #350

Warhammer Fantasy Battles - Mighty Champions. Campaign Rules (34)
Warhammer 40K- Liber Apocalyptica- Data Sheets (44)
Assault on Fort Wrath - Scenarios/ Rules (58)



Of course I am leaving out the bulk of features, Battle reports, Modeling and Painting advice..as while certainly useful they don't fall into that "crunch" catagory that seems to make or break a magazine. I have to say I surprised at how much I found that's useful( particulary for Lord of the
Rings as it's a game I don't know that well yet) Admittedly there are some very poor issues that arent worth your time particularly in late 2007, early 2008..unless you are just excited for that issues featured army. However, overall there is alot of good stuff that certainly adds up over time and you definitely can see a major content spike in the last 6 months...if you are into 40K Apocalypse..# 350 is absolutely packed. I am definitely going to scan and combine all those Warhammer Tacticas into one PDF for our local group as its one thing I wish I had access to when I started playing or even started a new army. I think I also need to go back thru these and pick out all the modeling / terrain articles as there is alot of great stuff there that's been overlooked. I also found the Lord the Rings info indispensable as a relatively new player to game.

In conclusion I must say I think White Dwarf gets a bad wrap, but per my lead in this piece is about peoples "Cognitive Dissonance" and not about justifying White Dwarf's existence, so let me say this. The magazine its still obviously lacking in content from its former glory years and I only go back as far as 04' with the magazine. I know the business and hobby have changed overtime and I can only assume the magazine follows suit given financial constraints. I'm somewhat immune to pricing debate on the mag because subscriptions were lacking about a year ago and they put out a ridiculously low 2 year deal with free promo models that alot of people like myself took advantage of. Hopefully they will continue to justify the cost with more content, because I really think a saturation point of where it will sell is about $5 (the current re-up, price) At $5 I think its worth your time if you play any of the core GW games, because the "crunch" is there and it adds up nicely over a years subscription.

I am sure certain people will read the above and scoff, that all those articles are useless crap and they're just "too good a player" for any of that to be worth their money, but again these would be the same people "poisoning the well" on various Internet forums and more on that later.

Citadel Realm of Battle- Finished!

Here's some shots of my finished Citadel Realm of Battle, modular table. If you recall the announcement of this late last summer created quite a bit of controversy as it's news went from excitement to disdain to outrage over the inept marketing and pricing of this item by GW.
All of various forum monkeys out there throwing crap at the walls over this thing is what inspired my first blog rant , you'll also might note along the way I claimed I could finish this thing in 6 hours...well I was smoking something on that one. (which I will explain in a moment)

Now that I have done one, I could probably do another in 6 hours IF I stuck to the GW example and just flocked the whole thing. That's not my style, So I felt compelled to stay up into the wee hours of the night painting and then painstakingly drybrushing the thing. Start to finish time on this all the way thru is about 20 hours...that doesn't include the carpentry to build the table base its sitting on..I will add some nice side rails to keep the pieces tight and keep dice from rolling off but I've had some warping issues with my lumber delaying that, but it will get done soon.

Hobbywise- I washed it down with soap and water, primed it black, sprayed with an airbrush the brown paint that comes with the scenery kit, then went to work on two layers of drybrushing (ochre, then graveyard earth)...then painted all the little details (skulls and skull pits drybrushed the rocks (codex grey, fortress grey) , Finally I flocked it using GW scorched grass mixed with two different woodland scenics flocks (burnt grass and havest gold). the married flocks created two nice different tones of Scorched Grass that compliment the badlands theme I was going for. As you can imagine it took some time...I only worked on it 2 hours or so at time so about 10 days in January start to finish. (oh I also sprayed it down with a full can of matte, this is necessary to protect it during play) I still probably put even more detail time into to come, but that's a luxury..its playable now.


I assume the big question is after owning it couple months and spending alot of time on it -what do I think about it? Initially I was a big supporter of the product but was of course put off by the price like everyone else (which didn't keep me from buying it). In the end- my enthusiasum has dimmed a bit while I surely will enjoy this table. It wont be my main table, (that'd be my plain 4x8 that I can set up my horde of individual terrain on.) but the RoB is certainly great for a change of scenery or numerous unique scenarios..it will also be great for the variety of different games I play, covering up the skull pits with other pieces of terrain is easy to and with its modularity a huge combination of looks can be had easily. For me it's great..I even got a huge price break because I got $125.00 worth of free product the day I bought it at my local shop so my net cost on the thing with the scenery kit and tax was "only" (cough cough)
$265.00

I do have several issues with this thou and while the pros are pretty obvious...well made, rock solid, modular..(I'm told they are releasing at least 1 expansion tile for it ( a River). Its definitely got some cons. One...the clip together system for this, is a joke. it doesn't stay clipped, you need two people to clip it together, and even clipped together its nowhere near as tight as its needs to be to minimize the unholy freaking ugly SEAMS. The seams really irk me and while I am going to do some more painting myself to try to minimize them myself and they are less noticeable if you model it the "GW Way". If you want to use it painted or partially flocked you are looking at some serious seemage distracting you from the overall look. While the seams are definitely visible in some of the ads. If you notice in many of GW shots released in White Dwarf they either photoshopped the seams out or glued the table together as a set piece and covered up the seams. You can minimize them by fitting them tight with an outside frame, (like I plan to do.) but unfortunately as a "stock" product its never going to look as good as it could the way the current clip system works.

The next problem I have is once you get it all built and looking pretty its really not that Portable. If I was packing this thing up and taking somewhere in the carry-bag they provide..it would be scratched to hell and destroyed in no time. not to mention you be surpised how much weight the paint and flock add to it...the thing is heavy. While I have no problem with it, (I'm 6'5" 280lbs) what about the normal sized person or worse the kids dragging it along behind them in the bag as the flock they put on it the day before grinds itself off as its stuffed in the bag.?

I guess that's my biggest problem with it, Its that the RoB is not what really what its claims to be Its not "really" the portable game solution for the average gamer with out alot of space..can it be that? sure, but its a royal pain in ass...you're not going to want to take it apart and set it up on your kitchen table trying to clip it together to play your game then pack it all up and stick it back in the closet. I'm sure some uber motivated folks will, but I just don't see it happening for the average person. - its way easier to just go down to the store and wait for a table, or just play on the kitchen table using the GW grass matt (now that was a smart product)

Marketing pushed this as "now every gamer has the option to get their own table", "no more waiting for table space..just buy this set it at home and go!" well the reality is it more complicated than it. It's unwieldly, expensive and takes considerable hobby experience to get to look good enough to justify the price. It's really geared toward people like me, who are hardcore hobbyists who want it as a set piece and have multiple tables, and there aren't enough people like me to keep an expensive product like this around for that long.

I also have to mention that at the Chicago GT last year they previewed the RoB in a new product slide show at the of the day, claiming that eventually everytable at the GT's would be one of these!..In retrospect that claim is so warped I have to mention it, one, while it's cross configurable the huge hills are way too limiting terrain wise for anything resembling a tournament with all its uber anal meta-game terrain parsing. secondly, what GT's???. while there are now two this year..Baltimore and Vegas...when they announced the 2009 circuit there where ZERO. big change from just a few months earlier.

In conclusion, I love my Realm of Battle and will get lots of use out of it but its product for diehards only, you know the kind of people that buy two Baneblades, even thou they rarely if ever play Apocalypse and yet go into the store and a red shirt asks them if they want to "smell" the next one they're still thinking of buying. Or if you've got 13 unfinished armies that your working up to 3K and are still wandering around the shop pondering what army to start up next? If that's you and you got the dough,want to put the time into making it look good and have a place to put it where you can leave it set up..then this is the product for you.!!
I still think you'll want another table as committing to this as your only table will leave you lacking if you are a serious 40K or WFB player. If you're looking for a portable easy gaming solution, buy the GW grass mat, throw it on the kitchen table with a couple modular hills and a bag of the wire trees and you'll be good to go for a fraction of the price.


(14 more photo's in the Realm of Battle Gallery)