Warchief’s Sheffield Slaughter Round Up

I’ve been a bit slack on updating the blog so it’s about time I wrote something!

I suppose I better start with a round-up of how I got on at Sheffield Slaughter…

Building Bretonnians on a Budget

Building Bretonnians on a Budget
Hi! For those of you who don’t know me or remember me, my name is Mike Clee. I’ve been in the wargaming hobby for the past 17 years although I kind of disappeared over the last two as I needed a break as real life was getting in the way. Well I’m now slowly getting back into the hobby.
After following the tactics used by Aston Villa of selling off expensive purchases at discounted prices and replacing them with cheaper French ones, I decided to sell off my old armies and replace them with discount Bretonnians.
So after selling most of my stuff on eBay, including my Dwarfs, Orcs and Goblins and various 40k models, I managed to come up with some funds to purchase my new Bretonnians. I felt this would be best to give me a fresh start with the hobby and also allow me to build the one army which got me into the hobby in the first place.
When I was 11 going on 12 and first entered the mysterious shop with toy soldiers on 3 walls and a couple of gaming tables in the middle I felt in awe and completely lost. I felt at home in the surroundings but also completely out of place at the same time as I realised I had absolutely no idea what I was doing there. I remember being sat down and had a chat with long haired bearded man with an evil laugh and he tried to explain what the hobby was about. I was given a couple of guides to look through and told to have a long think about what it was I wanted to do as its an expensive hobby. I went away and looked through the booklets, examining each picture carefully to see which army appealed to me. Did I want to play sci-fi or fantasy was the big question I asked myself. After chatting to me friends I was outnumbered and decided to play Warhammer 40,000 along with my friends as there isn’t much point playing a game lie this without any opponents and at such a young age it wasn’t going to be easy find new ones.
I remember almost regretting my decision back then. For months after I’d flick through those same booklets and look at the ranks of high elves and various other armies facing off against each other in the pictures. I’d always been fascinated by knights in shining armour charging into battle. I told myself that one day I would have my own Bretonnian army. Finally, 17 years later, I got a knock at the door and there was a postman with my very first unit of Knights of the Realm. I was finally fulfilling the promise id made to myself all those years ago…
Anyway, I went out to buy myself some new paints as part of having a fresh start with the hobby. I found myself looking at the new range of Citadel paints which along with having new names, no contains a little of 2000 different colours including inks, shades, bases, layers and dry paints. Dry paints? What’s the deal with them? I thought I’d just chucked a load of them away before going to buy new ones. Luckily Lian was on hand to help me out and I came away £50 poorer but at least I was the proud owner of a bag full of new paint pots so I was happy. Unfortunately Amy wasn’t as impressed with my new purchase as I was.
I’d spent a couple of weeks buried in my army book and rule book trying to write a somewhat competitive 2400pt army list while trying to refresh myself with the rules as I had only played a couple of game of 8th edition Warhammer before going into hiding. My task now is to buy the last few bits and build and paint the little fellas so I will once again have an army which I can then play with. I’ve heard a lot of people say that Bretonnians aren’t very competitive in the new edition of the rules but as long as I can have a good games with some good friends then it won’t really matter. And there’s always the slim chance that a new army book will be released with Grail Knights riding atop dragons which they’ve tamed rather than slain.
In my next post I’ll add photos of the models I’ve painted so far. I’m going to put a lot more effort into keeping this updated so I can use this as a way of encouraging me to get my army done to a decent standard in a reasonable amount of time.

Partee the thirde

Due to an oversight my final opponent was to be my first opponent, after a quick discussion we swapped with the table next to us abd my opponent turned out to be…. Khemrians!!! glad I spent those 25pts on the challenge rune…

Anyway my opponent, Justin Waine, then proceeded to show me around his army list:

Khalida

Rhamotep

BSB

Lvl 2 priest

50 archers

10 archers

10 archers

5 archer horsemen (X4)

2 Skull catapults

Casket

4 Necropolis Knights (X2)

Really!? I’ve got to march into that?

Deployment:

TK: Archers went in the centre with khalida in the 50 strong unit. flanks were held by the Knights with the horsemen all scouting and the catapults behind the main line.

D: Same setup as the previous 2 games

Turn 1:

D: The long slog started with all 3 block units marching straight forward, the Thunderers turned to face the horsemen who had deployed on my left flank. The Cannon opened up and promptly popped itself! The 2 GT’s dropped rocks on the large archer unit, killing 8 between them.

TK: Both units of Knights swung forward, the horsemen moved forward to target the warmachines with shooting. In the magic phase Smiting was cast on the large archer unit. In the Shooting phase the two catapults missed then the archers shredded the longbeards with 96 shots (he’d got some back from the lore attribute) leaving 4 from 25. The horsemen killed 2 crew and 4 Thunderers with their shooting.

Turn 2:

D: The march continued, I needed to get there fast or I wouldnt have an army left. The Thunderers killed 1 unit of horsemen, reducing another to 1 man. 1 GT missed and the other misfired and couldn’t fire for 2 turns.

TK: The 1 unit of Knights charged the remaining Longbeards, the other moved to interpose itself between the Ironbreakers and Archer unit, the horse units moved back out of range of the Thunderers. Smite was cast on the archer unit again. In the shooting phase he turned his attention to the hammerer unit, killing 15 of them. The knights killed the Longbeards but were facing the wrong way to overrun towards the Ironbreakers and Hammerers.

Turn 3:

D: The Ironbreakers charged the Knights in front of them, they were out of the Hammerers arc so they carried forward towards the archers. In combat the Ironbreakers lost 4 but inflicted 8 wounds, with combat resolution the Knights crumbled but due to a recent FAQ update I couldn’t overrun.

TK: The second unit of Knights swung sideways to threaten the flank of the Ironbreakers, the horses moved forward again to target the Thunderers. Again Smite was cast on the archers who proceeded to kill all the hammerers, but left the lord intact. The 2 Skull catapults both hit each of the GT’s killing them outright!! Another 3 Thunderers were killed by the Horsemen.

Turn 4:

D: both the Iron breakers and the Lord declared a charge against the archers, the Ironbreakers rolled 10 and made it easily and the Lord rolled double 1, failing miserably. The Thunderers killed another unit of Horsemen and reduced another one to a single model (there now being 2 units of 1 model). In combat I declared a challenge with my thane, this was accepted by Rhamotep who got smacked down easily, the Ironbreakers lost 2 but killed 8, he had plenty of models to soak up the crumbling though.

TK: The Knights charged into the flank of the Ironbreakers who dropped thir Oathstone to deny them their disruption bonus. The two remaining fled as far as they could to deny me the points for the units. The skull catapults targeted the lord and Thunderers, the 1 targeting the Thunderers misfired and popped, the other one was bang on, but saved easily (“Is it flaming ammo? 2+ ward cheers”) The Knights killed 3 and archers 2 Ironbreakers but suffered 6 in return, crumbling a little more.

Turn 5:

D: The lord charged the Knights, making it easily. The lord got hit by 3 poisons (immune) and 2 killing blows (immune) and suffered no wounds, Ironbreakers lost 5 but killed 4, losing but passing there test easily.

TK: The combat ground on with the Ironbreakers winning again causing 2 more crumbles.

Turn 6

D & TK: The end of the game saw the combat still unresolved.

Conclusion: Totalling up the points saw me losing 15-5, honestly I’m suprised anything managed to reach Khalida and her bunker of death.

Tornament results showed that I’d scored 28pts and finished 31st, within my target of a middle third finish, I really enjoyed myself and played 3 great opponents, hopefully next time Ican hit just above the middle of the pack….

The War report part 2

Game 2 was against Russ Ward’s Daemons on table 6, I’ve never done particularly well against them as every unit seems OP.

His army consisted of;

Bloodthirster

2 Tzeentch lvl 2 Loremasters (life and Heavens)

BSB

Khorne herald

large block of bloodletters

large block of horrors

2 fiends of slaanesh

5 Furies

soulgrinder with mark of nurgle

3 nurgling bases

Deployment

My deployment was pretty much the same as game 1 apart from there was no hill so I interspersed my machines between the units.

From left to right for Russ it went Fiend, Bloodletters with herald, wizard (heavens) behind and Furies in front, horrors (lvl3) with life wizard, changling and BSB, ‘thirster, soulgrinder and fiend, the nurglings scouted to my right.

Turn 1

Daemons: His ‘thirster moved first, hiding behind the large tower that dominated just to the centre right of the table, his furies and left fiend swung round to the flank of my army, the right fiend followed suit. the bloodletters marched straight forward towards my longbeards, the horrors edging forward. In the magic phase he cast throne of vines then proceeded to boost the toughness of the ‘thirster by 4 (such a delicate creature as it is). He then cast icy clast on one of the throwers.

Dwarfs: My hammerers and Ironbreakers pushed forward on the right whilst the rest of my line held steady.I dispelled hi throne of vines with my many power dice. In the shooting phase my cannon rotated to face the nurglings for a grapeshot attempt and promptly popped himself, the thunderers and both throwers targeted the horrors, reducing them from lvl 3 to lvl1 wizards in a single shooting phase.

Turn 2

Daemons: The nurglings and fiend charged the flank of the longbeards who were also promptly charged by the bloodletters rolling 3 dice for distance!, the Horrors moved backwards out of range of the thunderers. In magic he cast vines irresistably and made a ward save against his miscast, he lost the remainder of his dice aswell. The longbeards broke in the combat, leaving 12 out of 25 dead, and were chased down by the fiend.

Dwarfs: The Hammerers moved towards the bloodletters who had reformed to look across the front of my army, the 2 thunderer units moved out of their charge arc. the Ironbreakers moved to cover the expossed flank of the Hammerers in case the horrors decided to flank them. I dispelled vines then dropped some rocks on the ‘letters, killing 5.

Turn 3

Daemons: The fiend on the left charged the nearest Grudgethrower, the furies charged the other one and the fiend on the right charged the thunderer unit on the right, finally the ‘letters smashed into the front of the Hammerers. The ‘thirster appeared form behind the building into the flank arc of the Ironbreakers with the soulgrinder moving up in support. In the magic phase he once again cast vines irresistably but then lost his remaining power dice (Yes he had rolled two 1’s to avoid miscasts). The furies killed two crew, who killed one in return and held due to stubborn, the fiend killed 1 crew who also held. The other fiend killed 2 thunderers who held due to Generals LD. The lord challenged the herald who rolled 2 killing blows, which I saved as I’m immune to it, he struck back causing 3 wounds, both the ‘letters and hammerers caused 7 wounds, they took their instability check at ld 2 and rolled 11, losing 9 more.

Dwarfs: The Ironbreakers turned to face the ‘thirster, everything else was locked in combat. I dispelled vines then it was straight onto combat, the fiend killed the last crewman on the one grudgethrower, the fiends fluffed their rolls and lost another member, the final fiend killed 1 thunderer leading to a drawn combat. The hammerers and lord reduced the ‘letters to 5 after instability checks.

Turn 4

Daemons: My opponent charged the ‘thirster and soulgrinder into the Ironbreakers, the unengaged fiend into the other thunderer unit. He didn’t cast any magic as he didn’t want to risk another miscast. In the combat phase the last of the ‘letters popped allowing the hammerers to face towards the now engaged Ironbreakers, the furies killed the last crewman and the two units of thunders held. The thane in the Ironbreaker unit issued a challenge which the ‘thirster had to accept, he inflicted 3 wounds on him (as he had 2d6+2 attacks I was happy with this trade off) the unit suffered 5 wounds, including thunderstomps,  and was taking a test at -3, I used my rune and rolled 1 dice for my test so they held.

Dwarfs: The hammerers charged the ‘thirster allowing the lord to issue a challenge, after all the dust settled he suffered 1 wound, the Ironbreakers lost 4 more and caused no wounds which meant I won!!, neither of the monstrosities suffered any wounds due to the proximity of the BSB. Both Thunderer units lost a single model but held still.

Turn 5

Daemons: He moved his unengaged units away to avoid throwing away points. Still he cast no magic. The Thunderers and fiends flailed at each other ineffectually, more ironbreakers were lost but due to the layers of protection on my lord he suffered not a single wound, again my opponent rolled well for his instability and suffered no ill effects.

Dwarf: The thunderers took down one of the fiends, the other unit once again doing nothing, the lord suffered 1 wound in the challenge and lost the combat by one, both units passed their break tests with ease.

Turn 6

Daemons: The fiend killed another thunderer, leaving 4 in the one unit and 6 in the unengaged unit, again the ‘thister battered uselessly against the lord and they lost because I can play dead cool music, the hammerers were well above half strength and the ironbreakers still had 16.

Dwarf: The fiend and thunderers remained locked together for the final turn. In the large combat the ‘thirster rolled 10 attacks, hitting 8 times and wounding 7. three 4+ saves were made first time, another 3 saved on the reroll, it came down to a 4+ ward save for my lord, the dice bounced and came up a……2! my Lord was dead on virtually the last dice roll of the game, I had won the combat but again his instability checks were fine.

Conclusion

I had lost, but only on a 13-7 result, against Daemons I’ll take that any day, the look on my opponents face when my lord kept shrugging off the ‘thirster’s attentions was priceless, he survived 5 rounds of combat with one of the nastiest beasts in the Warhammer World before he finally fell.

My final game was originally going to be against my first opponent but following a discussion with the organisers we swapped with the next table along, so I ended up with….. Tomb Kings(?!) and my first opponent faced Chaos Dwarfs with 2 Iron Daemons, 2 Magma cannons and a K’dai destroyer(!!!!!).

Watch out for the final instalment….coming soon….

Return from the War

So last saturday saw myself and Kris head down to Reading for the Spiky Club Winter War 1 day tournament (yes I was off the reserves at this point), for my first game I had drawn Tomb Kings and Kris had drawn Lizards. My target was a middle third finish, let the games begin…

Unit   Type	Equipment	Unit Upgrades	Runes	Points
Lords
Dwarf   Lord (King Gunnar Ingfaerson)	Great Weapon	Shield Bearers	Rune of Stone,   Rune of Resistance, Rune of Preservation, Master Rune of Spite & Rune of   Furnace	271
Heroes
Thane   (Thorek Ingfaerson)		Battle Standard   Bearer	Rune of   Cleaving & 2 Runes of Fury, Rune of Stone	165
Thane   (Marek Ingfaerson)	Great Weapon	Oathstone	Rune of   Resistance, Rune of Iron, Rune of Stone & Master Rune of Challenge	159
Core   Units
25 Dwarf Warriors	Great Weapons   & Shields	Veteran,   Standard Bearer, Musician & Longbeards		375
10   Thunderers	Shields			150
10   Thunderers	Shields			150
Special   Units
27 Hammerers	Shields	Gate   Keeper, Standard Bearer & Musician	Rune   of Battle	406
Cannon			Rune   of Burning & Rune of Reloading	105
29 Ironbreakers		Full Command	Rune of   Determination	427
Grudge Thrower			Rune of Burning	85
Grudge   Thrower			Rune of   Penetrating	105
Total				2398

GAME 1 VS Michael Browning (Tomb Kings)

Michael’s army consisted of;

3 units of 5 horsearchers

7 chariots in 1 unit

5 necropolis knights

2 units of 10 archers

large unit of tomb guard

warsphinx

Necrotect

tomb prince

2 tomb priests (light and death)

Casket of Souls

lvl 4 Nekhara on steed

DEPLOYMENT

I set up my Longbeards on the left, with the thunderers in the middle, the artillery were on the hill behind with the Hammerers to their right and the Ironbreakers anchoring the right, the lord and BSB went into the Hammerers and the oathstone thane in the Ironbreakers. From left to right for Michael were Warspinx, 2 archer units, tombguard with 2 horse units behind chariots then the knights with the casket between, 1 unit of horse deployed to my right as scouts, the tomb prince, Necrotect and light priest went into the tomb guard, hierophant into tne horse unit behind and the death priest into one of the archer units.

Turn 1

Dwarfs: The Hammerers and Ironbreakers edged forward and the Long beards started the long march towards the archers. The opening salvo of shooting saw the Warsphinx obliterated by the cannons first shot, 1 Grudgethrower misfired and suffered a wound, the other dropped a rock on the tomb guard killing 6.

Tomb Kings: Tomb guard, knights and chariots moved straight forward, with the archers and horsemen advancing behind, the scouting horse moved behind the ironbreakers to snipe at the warmachine crew. In the magic phase Desert Wind moved the Tomb Guard forward. In the shooting phase 1 crew member and 2 Thunderers were killed by the combined fire of the Tomb Kings bows.

Turn 2

Dwarfs: The only movement was the Longbeards continuing their advance. The shooting phase saw the cannon destroy 1 chariot and the 1 Grudgethrower destroy another, the Thunderers shot another 6 Tomb Guard.

Tomb Kings: The chariots charged the Hammerers and the Knights charged the Ironbreakers, the scouting horsemen charged the nearest Grudgethrower. In the Shooting phase 2 more Thunderers were killed then it was onto the combats, the chariots hit the Hammerers, killing 4 with impact hits, a further 5 were killed by the crew and horses, when the Hammerers hit back the BSB caused 2 wounds, the lord 2 and the unit caused 5, this left the unit with 2 chariots left, 1 on only 1 wound. The knights killed 6 Inbreakers but sufferd 7 wounds in return leaving 3. The horsemen only killed 2 crew meaning that the unit survived.

Turn 3

Dwarfs: Longbeards carried on forward, the thunderers killed 4 more Tomb Guard (who kept getting replenished by the lore of Nehekhara), the cannon misfired. In the combat phase the hammerers finished off the chariots and the Ironbreakers reduced the knights to a single model. The final crewman was killed by the horsemen.

Tomb Kings: The Tomb Guard charged the Hammerers in the flank and the horse moved towards the next warmachine, the archers shuffled backwards away from the longbeards. In the magic phase the Tomb Guard were boosted by time warp and cursed blades, the casket got cast at the cannon, who died horribly, followed by the thunderers who suffered 4 wounds on the second unit. The Knights finally died leaving the Ironbreakers free to move next turn. The Hammerers got mangled, losing 11 but held due to Stubborn, reforming to face the Tomb Guard (the Lord killed the unit champion in a challenge).

Turn 4

Dwarfs: My opponent had made a big mistake, he’d pushed his Hierophant’s unit behind the knights to ensure that his spells were in range for bubble augments, he now stood 9 inches in front of my ironbreakers who promptly charged and reached him. The Longbeards attempted, and failed to reach the archers, the thunderers turned to face the scout horsemen. The second Grudgethrower destoyed itself with a misfire. The Tomb Guard reduced the hammerers to a single model , the lord killed the necrotect in the challenge, again staying due to stubborn. The Iron breakers wiped out the horsemen and the Hierophant causing his units to start to crumble.

Tomb Kings: He lost 1 unit of archers and the 2 remaining horse units to crumble tests. In the magic phase he cast time warp again on the tomb guard. In Combat he killed the BSB and last Hammerer, the lord killed his Light wizard in a challenge then proceeded to pass a ld 7 break test (my opponent was annoyed at him at the moment as he’d rolled 3 killing blows and 2 wounds across the challenges but he’d passed his saves and is immune to killing blow).

Turn 5 & 6

More crumble test reduced him to just the Tomb Guard, who were being slaughtered by the lord who was all but untouchable, only a couple were left at the end, and the archers with the death priest.

Final Result 16-4 victory to the Dwarfs!

Games 2 and 3 I will write later on (Table 6 vs Russ Ward’s Daemons)

Warchief – The Skink Commander

I’m thinking of changing my name. Maybe Skink Chief is now more appropriate…?

Anyway, its Game Report time! Read on Macduff…

New Year, New Army…

New Year, New Army…

The Christmas break has come and gone, all the turkey has been used up, there are but a few chocolates remaining and all the tinsel has been packed away. However, this year, along with the tinsel, something else got packed up and put in the loft – my Dark Elves – and that is because I treated myself to an early Christmas present – I bought a new army….

Arrows? Check. Sun blocked out? Double check.

I think that is Orlando’s only impression throughout the entire trilogy…

Warchief and the Stunties

I managed to squeeze in an extra game this week at Wyvern Wargames in Bishampton.

My opponent for the night was Buzz who has signed up to attend the Winter War – a one day event held by the Spiky Club in Reading – and he wanted a bit of practice and was also looking to try out an alternative Dwarf build.

We agreed to use the Winter War comp pack, which is fairly standard, and I decided to use the opportunity to test a different build I have been thinking about for Sheffield Slaughter.

I’ve also had the opportunity to write a more in depth battle report for this one, so sink your teeth into this and enjoy…

Warchief does WFB500

There has been a lot of discussion and interest at the club recently around playing Warhammer at 500 points. Prompted by an episode of Bad Dice Daily (episode 85) the CWC have decided to have a go at running an in house 500 point series of mini tournaments at some point in the near future.

Darren (our resident Lizardmen player) and I had arranged a game for this week and decided to have a crack at 500 points instead of 2400.

But at low points level what should I take?