Monday 29 December 2014

The Gang's All Here

Much to my own surprise I've actually finished a painting project this year. In record time in fact. This is definitely not what I'd expected to happen as normally my productivity drops off as it gets colder and darker (than usual). But with a Necromunda campaign starting early in the New Year I've had to crack on.

A Cawdor gang definitely was not what I expected to be working on this Christmas as it is a recent addition to the collection, but the rather simple and charming sculpts means that it got bumped up the queue quite considerably. I've got most of an Escher gang that needs some TLC and a fair sized bundle of Ratskins that really ought to have some colour splashed on them, but the Cawdor models were just so delightfully easy to paint that I couldn't resist!

The Emperor's Reeves are now ready to take the fight to heretics, mutants and wyches everywhere.

The Emperor's Reeves in all their glory

Wednesday 17 December 2014

The Emperor's Reeves

"And there we were, just me and the big armoured bastard in the middle of 'ese ruins. The rest of the gang had scarpered off or been killed and it was me and 'im left."

The sump bar was silent, the patrons gathered close around Constantine as he spun his tale. The Reeves had gone outside to smoke some hivegrass, they'd heard it all a thousand times before anyway.

The grizzled gang leader took another long swig of wildsnake. "So I looked him right in the eyes, stared him down I did. I wasn't scared lads 'cos this was what He put me 'ere for. Killing the heretics in 'is name. Praise be to the Emperor." 

Another swig. He climbed up onto the table and unholstered his autopistol. "And I drew my gun on him and he raised his Boltgun at me. We both fired. BLAM!" He emptied a few rounds from his pistol into the ceiling for emphasis and the crowd jumped back. "My bullets caught 'im dead between the eyes and his bolt smashed up my face something proper."

"That's why I wear this mask now, 'cos the scars are too terrible to see. None of you'd ever sleep again if you saw. You'd be too busy pissing yer'selves and crying for your mamas." He pulled back his cowl, revealing a thick leather mask that covered most of his face. "I took 'is bolter as my rightful reward and it does the Emperor's work now. Good thing none of you is heretics is all I can say."

He took his seat again, revelling in the rapt attention of the assembled drinkers. "Now, someone buy us another round and I'll tell you about the time with the Wyrd Spiders in the ruins of Scraptown."

Constantine - Reeves' Gang Leader

Friday 12 December 2014

Infinity Autumn Challenge 2014

A couple of weekends ago I attended the Autumn Challenge event run by Ian 'The Wargaming Trader' Wood. The weekend was designed as a casual event where we'd be trying out all of the N3 rules spoiled so far with changes to Camouflage, Impetuous, Infiltration, weapon ranges, silhouettes and so on.

Unfortunately, as the weekend was a fairly unusual format - casual gaming on Saturday and 150 point non-ITS doubles tournament on Sunday - the event was not particularly well attended compared to others in the Challenge series, but I still had a really good time and appreciated the chance to get a bit of a preview of N3 and test out some new toys.

Speaking of new toys, there is always an excellent array of Infinity boxes, blisters and scenery for sale at these events and I picked up a copy of the new Dactyl for my army as well as a bunch of 55mm MAS Urban Fight bases for my TAGs, Remotes and Bikes.

Spoiled for choice!

Monday 8 December 2014

List of the Week - Combined Army 'i0003 Style'

With Infinity 2nd edition getting the boot in the next week or so I thought I'd take the opportunity to write about one of the defining lists of the UK tournament scene.

Robin, i0003 to some, has blazed a trail across England this year and has posted excellent tournament results consistently. His force of choice? The Combined Army (...and Haqqislam ...and Yu Jing).

So now that ITS 2014 is all but over I thought I'd ask him to share with me a typical CA list from a recent event so I could try and break down the choices made and why the list works. Do note that this isn't a 'cookie cutter' force. I don't think the exact same list was ever played twice and tuning for the missions in a given tournament is important.

Ewww - weird hand-feet! - Image from Corvus Belli

Thursday 27 November 2014

List of the Week - Stuck in a (Ma)Rut

A while back on the Infinity forums I chimed in on a thread about getting the most out of the Marut in ITS at the 300 points level.

The Marut has always been tricky to fit into a list. It's expensive (122 points), is an obvious Lt (due to Strategos) and is part of an elite and expensive faction where you don't have cheap rifle-toting troops to provide orders. This can make supporting it properly, whilst still having sufficient specialists for ITS, a challenge. Needless to say it doesn't get much table time.

I was initially going to write up a 300pt Marut list for ITS, but my heart wasn't in it. You can read most of my thoughts about it in that thread anyway. Long story short, just use an Asura instead and save 50 points.

Then fate intervened and I received a PM from Urian on the forums asking for help building a 400 point Marut-lead Aleph army for an upcoming Spanish Spec-Ops tournament. The catch was that he really needed to submit it that day. After a lot of discussion, here is the list he used.

Look behind you! - Image from Corvus Belli

Friday 7 November 2014

List of the Week - Two-TAG-Haqq

What's that I hear you cry? "But Haqqislam can only take one TAG!" Not if you are playing Qapu Khalqi!

Some sectorials armies offer substantially different options compared with their vanilla peers and when deciding to take a sectorial you always have to consider what you are gaining by giving up a lot of versatility. With this list I intend to gain a great deal indeed.

Few sectorials differ more from their counterparts than Qapu Khalqi. You gain access to a variety of mercenaries (Druze, Yuan-Yuan, Scarface) and a host of Nomad troops (Alguaciles, Mobile Brigada, Iguana) in exchange for a rather limited selection of basic Haqqislamite troops. You also have access to the Haris rule allowing you to field a 3-man secondary link ands the ability to bulk out your links cheaply using Hafza.

This is going to be a 300 point Spec Ops list that is designed to be able to take all-comers in all scenarios, i.e. the kind of list I'd happily take to a tournament.

Image property of Corvus Belli

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Spoils of War 2014

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of putting on a small Infinity tournament as part of Vanguard's annual Spoils of War event. Traditionally this has been purely a 40k weekend but due to slightly lacklustre ticket sales they had some tables and scenery going spare and were offering space to other gaming systems that wanted to run things along side it. I couldn't turn down an offer like that now could I?

So, with less than a month of prep and organising I sorted out scenery, prizes and a dozen players for the first annual Spoils of War Infinity tournament. 

I'm happy to say that it all went rather well.

The aforementioned spoils of war - including the limited edition Tabitha Bolt

Sunday 26 October 2014

Birthday presents!

It was my birthday not too long ago, and after almost six years I've finally convinced my girlfriend that small toy soldiers make for ideal presents.

I'm really quite impressed by the amount of research she did into getting hold of some nice old lead for my burgeoning Chaos forces, including excursions onto the CCM Wiki and Stuff of Legends!. So without further ado, meet the new recruits.

Freshly stripped and smelling faintly like wet dog

Friday 24 October 2014

Infinity - Loss of Lieutenant and Retreat changes.

Over at Bell of Lost Souls there is an article about some of the recent N3 announcements that I feel it's worth talking about a bit more.

Two of the harshest parts of Infinity currently are the Loss of Lieutenant rules and the Retreat rules. Both of them are effectively crippling for an army, but that's all changing now. Just take a look at the chart below.

A game changer

Thursday 23 October 2014

List of the Week - Every Day I'm Fidayin'

Welcome back to another Infinity List of the Week which right on schedule is a mere two weeks since my last one....

This time I'll be looking at Haqqislam's suite of Impersonators and how to make them as unpleasant for your opponent as possible. I'm sure that many of you have heard of the Saladin, Fiday and Al-Djabel list before, it is fairly notorious after all, and I'll be using those models as the core of this list.

The idea is that with Saladins WP of 17 you are more likely to take the first turn and using Strategos you will also be able to deploy more favourably. Strategos allows you to keep two models in reserve (your Impersonators, ideally) and your opponent may not keep a reserve model at all. As an added bonus you may spend your Lieutenants order on whoever you like which makes your army just that little bit more efficient.

So, with this in mind, let's see what we can do.

Engaging in a bit of light-hearted stabbing. - Image from Corvus Belli

Thursday 16 October 2014

Blast-Tastic!

I recently had the pleasure of attending Blast-Tastic! (yes, the exclamation mark is compulsory), a small sci-fi specific wargaming show in Bristol, for it's very first event. Considering it was an entirely new venture I have to say it was very smoothly run by Michael of Angel Barracks.

I signed up to run demonstration games of Infinity throughout the day using scenery kindly provided by Ian from The Wargaming Trader.

The show itself was a success, although I did bemoan the lack of a bring-and-buy which is normally a great draw for me, and I even picked up some new bits of scenery to take back to my local club.

The main hall with traders and participation games

Friday 10 October 2014

List of the Week - Hunting Bounties

" A lot of people won't change a plan, that's how they end up not winning." - Dog the Bounty Hunter

I'm trying out something new for the blog, a bit of an experiment I guess as I have no idea if this is something that people would be interested in. Each week (or two, or three...) I'll cook up an interesting looking list and talk about it in the context of the current ITS system.

Sometimes it'll be pure theory-crafting, sometimes it'll come with a battle report, either way I hope that these lists will cause some discussion.

This first list spawned in a car journey on the way back from a tournament in Exeter when Robin (i0003), Matt (Drastic), Stuart (Fathi Amirmoez) and I were plotting lists for an upcoming tournament. Frankly it's just too much fun not to share.

How could you say no? - Image from Corvus Belli

Monday 6 October 2014

Wayland Tournament Report

I'm still trying to hit my stride with writing tournament reports, so please do let me know if this is the sort of thing you'd like to read more of. :)

In addition to all the seminars happening last weekend there was also an 8-man ITS tournament on the Sunday run by Paul Quinn. Never one to pass up the opportunity to play against some new faces I signed up.

It was an unusual format - 200pts with a Spec Ops - and the missions were Supplies, Frontline and Annihilation. 200pts is normally a very restrictive format as it can be difficult to get a good mix of specialists and decent attacking units whilst retaining a full order pool, but using a Spec Ops frees up your points significantly as it provides cheap Chain of Command, heavy weaponry or hacker/doctor/engineer support as necessary.

As a complete aside, we ended up watching Celebrity Juice and Release the Hounds on the Saturday night. When did TV get weird?

Apparently this is a thing. Would be better with Antipodes though.

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Infinity - All the News that's Fit to Print

Last weekend (27th-28th September) was the Infinity event at Tabletop Nation hosted by Wayland Games and attended by Carlos (Bostria to some of you) from Corvus Belli.

They were two fun filled days and included a couple of Seminars where lots of juicy information was revealed, an ITS tournament (report coming soon to a blog near you) and lots of demo games. Of these I'm sure you are all most interested in the gossip. Some of this might commonly be known by now, especially by those following the news closely, but hopefully there will be a few gems in here.

Tabitha Lyons in a Bolt cosplay

Monday 22 September 2014

Infinity - How to win games and influence outcomes

There was an interesting article written by Kris Sherriff over at Bell of Lost Souls about not doing stuff "just because you can". The gist of it, as far as Infinity is concerned, was that "opposed rolls are bad" and that spending orders to give your opponent a chance to kill your own models seems like something you should avoid.

Kris stated that "One of the keys to Infinity is maximizing your Normal Rolls whilst forcing your opponent in to as many Opposed Rolls as possible."

I left an initial comment on the article and then spent a lot of time really pondering his statements. Why are Normal rolls good and can we extrapolate that to other areas of Infinity? Can there be such a thing as a 'key' to playing Infinity well? After a lot of thought (and several re-writes of this article) I've come to believe that you can boil down good Infinity play to three factors (or keys) - order efficiency/effectiveness, reducing variance and mitigating failure.

Whilst the old adage of "it's not your list, it's you" is still banded about, the current tournament missions mean that it's simply not true any more - suitable army composition is an important factor. As such, some of the things discussed below are about list building and unit selection as well as in-game tactics.

Note: This article has now been subtly amended to take the changes from N3 into account. Please do let me know if I've missed anything.

I don't have anything in the way of relevant pics, so enjoy some pretty concept art - all rights belong to Corvus Belli

Monday 15 September 2014

South Coast Infinity Tournament

This month is a busy time for me with lots of work, gaming and a small holiday thrown in for good measure, I'm booked up throughout the entire month in fact and this has meant that I've had precious little time get stuff actually get stuff painted. I did however manage to attend the latest South Coast Infinity tournament held on the 13th at LVL UP Gaming.

I travelled down on the Friday night with Stuart, another local Bristol player, and we stayed the night in Bournemouth to avoid having to set off super early on the Saturday - it would have been a 3+ hour journey on the day otherwise!

I'm happy to report that everything went better than expected.

A beach holiday with our mascot, Snowdrop, who is hard at work building a sandcastle.

Sunday 7 September 2014

Pigfinity 2014

It was a super busy bank holiday weekend for me. First I had a (not quite) 24 hour gaming session at the Bristol Vanguard club raising money as part of Wargamers All Against Cancer. Thankfully I cut my night short and headed off at about 2am (after six hours of losing at Twilight Imperium) because I was going to be TO'ing my first ever tournament!

This is going to be very picture heavy!

The first of many, I hope.

Sunday 31 August 2014

Infinity: Covert Action

I really love playing Infinity and reckon that the core rules make for excellent cinematic game play. But I also think there is so much more that could be done with the system beyond just straight up fights.

So I introduce to you Infinity: Covert Action.

I:CA is a new way of playing Infinity, pitting an elite squad of specialists against the might of military or corporate security in randomised, asymmetric scenarios.

The game can be played by two to six players, with one player in charge of the defensive forces (and nominally acting as the Games Master) and each other player controlling one or more attacking models, up to a maximum of five.

Be aware that this is a super early version of the rules and is designed with what we currently know of N3 in mind so is liable to change once the new edition is fully released. It's probably (definitely) full of bugs, typos, loopholes, inconsistencies and imbalances. It's currently undergoing play testing but it's proving promising so far so I hope you'll enjoy it.

Also, yes, there are a fair amount of rules, however the vast majority of special rules, equipment and profiles in Infinity aren't being used, which keeps the complexity fairly low.

Download everything you need to play here: Infinity: Covert Action on Google Drive

It all started on what seemed like a quiet night.

There are a few more pictures after the jump.

Monday 25 August 2014

Operation: Icestorm - PanOceania finished!

I've been feeling burnt out on painting for the last couple of weels. I'm sure you are all familiar with what this is like. It's a sudden switch between boundless enthusiasm - painting in the morning, evening and night, to not even wanting to pick up a brush. Every basecoat, wash, highlight and layer seems somehow more difficult than it ought to be.

I'm not sure what causes it, maybe it's just a case of losing your flow. Something interrupts your painting schedule and suddenly the rhythm you had gotten yourself into is gone. Perhaps it's the realisation that you don't seem to be making any meaningful progress into your pile of lead? The worst part is the projects that get stuck in limbo. Half pained models that sit on a shelf because you lost the motivation half way through.

Well, I'm happy to announce that I've managed to break my streak of painting apathy and I've (finally) finished the PanOceania starter forces from Operation Icestorm.

Ready to smash some Nomad scum!

Sunday 17 August 2014

Infinity N3 Latest News

Gencon is in full swing, and the latest batch of Infinity news has been made public in a seminar from CB. You can watch the seminar below, or if you are more the reading type, then I've summarised the changes that are being made.


Monday 11 August 2014

Oldhammer Aftermath

I had a fantastic weekend at Bring Out Your Lead 2014 and took the opportunity to put faces to (forum) names, view some absolutely beautiful armies and get some old-fashioned gaming done. This was my first time going as I didn't even know about the Oldhammer community this time last year and I couldn't have been more impressed with the venue, the organisation and the friendliness of the attendees.

But first and foremost, a big thank-you to Harry and Paul for getting me to and from the event, I couldn't have been there without their help.

For those who don't know, this year Bring Out Your Lead was hosted by Foundry at their new premises in Stoke Hall. They very kindly provided a marquee for us to play under, lots of tables both inside and outside, hot food, cold drinks and access to their shop for all three days. 

One of four rooms they had full of blister packs. Just imagine the battles you could have with all of them...

Wednesday 6 August 2014

The Clash at the Crags - Part Three

The Wolves skulked back onto the battlefield with heads down and tails between their legs. They made their way, many of them limping with blood staining their matted fur, back to where they were routed and their pack leader lay dead, his head caved in by a mighty blow from Fergus’ human champion. They howled mournfully over the lifeless body.

As the howling began to reach a climax the old, dead wolf started to twitch and writhe. There were loud cracks as its bones began to snap and reform themselves. Its muscles and sinews began unwinding and reshaping, mass being added by some diabolic power. Its caved skull mended, spines and bony plates sprouted from its back and sickle-like growths sprouted from newly formed tails. The wolf-thing rose shakily up on all fours, now much bigger than its companions, and released a gut-wrenching bellow loud enough to panic the Skaven who were busy looting the dead nearby. Gorehowl had risen.

The Big Red Monster

Friday 1 August 2014

Operation: Icestorm - Rules Roundup

Welcome to part two of things I've been dying to discuss. I've been scouring through Icestorm in order to get a glimpse of what is to come from Infinity N3 and have some pretty juicy things to share.

Please take everything here with a pinch of salt however; a lot of the rules in N3 appear to be slightly simplified for the purposes of a new player experience and only reference abilities and interactions that the models in the box can have with each other. As such, there may be further tweaks, clarifications and expansions on these rules with the release of N3 later this year.

Note that all images are taken from material published by Corvus Belli, they are not my own work.

With the disclaimer out of the way, let's dig in and see what we can learn!

Icestorm rulebook cover art

Unboxing Operation: Icestorm

I've been absolutely dying to tell people about this, but Corvus Belli requested that we don't disclose any pictures or contents of Operation: Icestorm until 1st August (fair enough, really). But that day has finally come!

This package arrived for me at work (and was freaking huge) so it raised a lot of questions that went somewhat like this:

Colleagues: Whatcha got there?
Me: Toy soldiers.
Colleagues: There's got to be a lot in there?!
Me: Mistakes may have been made...

Turns out, it was a copy of Operation: Icestorm that Corvus Belli generously let me buy early for the purpose of running demo events.

What's this? A Package? For me?

Wednesday 30 July 2014

A Painting Riddle

So, I've been busy getting stuff ready for Bring Out Your Lead '14 and as part of that I committed to bringing a bunch of models to the siege of Avalone game. With that in mind, here's a question for you!

Question:
What has 12 mouths, 24 ribcages and 72 limbs?

Saturday 26 July 2014

The Clash at the Crags - Part Two


The Armies


The forces of Khorne (commanded by myself)

  • Dorrin Blissbane - Dwarf 10 Hero with Chaos Weapon 'Lustdrinker'
  • Melondil Nightnoon - Dark Elf 5 Hero 
  • Marta Hartmann - Human 10 Hero
  • Hermann Foerster - Beastman Champion
  • 7 Beastmen - Light armour and shields
  • 7 Skaven - Light armour, shields and spears
  • 8 Humans - Bows and light armour
  • 8 Levy Humans - Spears
  • 6 Giant Wolves


Dorrin with retinue and Marta leading the village militia


The retinue of Fergus (commanded by Fimm)

  • Fergus - Fimir 5 Hero with Chaos Weapon
  • 5 Fianna Fimm - Light armour
  • 6 Shearl
  • 10 Humans - Shields
  • 5 Witch Elves - Additional hand weapons and poison


Fergus & Co.

Wednesday 23 July 2014

The Clash at the Crags - Part One

Well, Fimm and I didn't manage to continue our campaign at the Expo as expected so instead the much-delayed next chapter was played out this week.

Prologue


Slowly the village folk unbarred their doors and started emerging from their homes and hovels, their sense of curiosity outweighing their fear now that the fighting appeared to be over. The Beastmen had started dragging the dead Fimm to the centre of the village and began to create a pyre whilst the Skaven busied themselves tending the wounded.

Proof that my photography skill needs work.

Friday 18 July 2014

The Long Road to Avalone

Every now and then I have a wave of realisation, one I'm sure many gamers are familiar with, that I actually have a lot of little toy soldiers to paint. The fact that Bring Out Your Lead 2014 is fast approaching - August 8th to 10th - has caused one of these realisations and this has forced me to confront my growing pile of unpainted lead.

A part of the 'pile' - I don't have a problem, honest!

Thursday 26 June 2014

Useful Wargaming Resources

No update last week as I've just come back from a (much needed) holiday in Berlin. You've got to say one thing for the Germans, they've got memorials down a tee. Learning about so much WWII and Cold War history was certainly an eye opening experience and certainly one that I'd recommend, especially if you are interested in wargaming that period of history.

This weekend I'm off to an Infinity tournament in Exeter, so there has not been much time for painting lately either, but lots of frantic gluing instead. So this is just going to be a quick post inspired by some of the most helpful things I've found recently whilst wargaming. Hopefully you'll find them useful too!

Fairy Power Spray


All hail our saviour of models!

Do you have paint on your models? Do you wish that paint wasn't on your models? Fairy Power Spray is the answer you've been looking for. It's becoming harder to find now, but larger Sainsbury's in the UK still have it and I recommend stocking up just in case it gets discontinued. I know that since I've been introduced to the Oldhammer movement I've been buying up miniatures that have arrived in a rather rough state and it has been invaluable.

Saturday 14 June 2014

Infinity Starter Packs - PanO & Nomads

Update: This post has now been bought into line with the 3rd edition of Infinity.

So, you've had a demo game, seen the pretty models and want to get playing, but which starter pack should you buy? My aim is to rate each of the currently available starter packs on a scale of 1 to 5 based on the following criteria and provide some sample army lists to get you going.

  • Immediate Usability: How well can you use the starter box to build a 120 and 150 point list for the first two rounds of an Escalation League. Top marks are for being able to use all six figures effectively and being able to play the first two rounds with minimal extra purchases.
  • Long Term Value: Are the models that come in the Starter Pack going to be useful in the long run, will you end up using them all consistently as your army grows and are they likely to replaced by newer sculpts in the foreseeable future.
       Two ratings are given, the first when playing the 'vanilla' army with no limitations, and the second when playing the Sectorial that the box specifically belongs to (if available).
  • Model Quality: Are the models good quality, recent sculpts. Some starter packs show more age than others or have outdated models in them.

I'm making the assumption that it is the player's intention to play the 'vanilla' faction, which means that they are interested in the full range of models for that faction. If a player is interested in just a particular Sectorial (a sub-section of a faction) then they should always just get the relevant starter box for that Sectorial as it invariably provides the best value.

All images in this article are the property of Corvus Belli.

Sunday 8 June 2014

It's a liebe-fest

Phreedh has kindly nominated me for a Liebster (darling? beloved?) award. I'm embarrassed to say that this was now over two (three? four? five?) weeks ago and that I've taken my sweet time writing it up. My excuse is that I have had too many games to play and models to paint. Also, writing is hard.

So after doing a little research it turns out that the format is 11 truths, 11 answers and then 11 questions for 11 other bloggers. That's a lot to get through so I won't prattle any more and will just dive straight in instead.

That's a lie actually - just a little prattle. You may have noticed that I've finally worked out how to add a follower button to my blog. If you find anything I write interesting, please click it and let me know. It should be about here.

Thank you for this prestigious award.

Monday 2 June 2014

UK Games Expo 2014

Well, that was exhausting! The weekend of 30th May to 1st June was the annual UK Games Expo in Birmingham which was once again held in the Hilton Birmingham Metropole hotel. The attendance over the weekend was incredible with almost 6,000 attendees and, at least as far as I could tell, the event was fantastically smoothly run. Given how much was going on that was no small feat. I had initially planned to play a follow up game to Otten Village on the Saturday but unfortunately couldn't arrange for it to happen.

Over the weekend there were one-shot role-play games, open board gaming rooms with a board games library, tournaments, signings, seminars, playtesting areas for new games, a bring-and-buy and three trade rooms. There was such a huge amount happening that it really felt impossible to do everything that I wanted to do in just those few days.

One of the open gaming rooms

Wednesday 28 May 2014

The Battle of Otten Village - Part 3

Suddenly everything had fallen quiet, the last frantic blows of the battle had been struck and all that was left to do was count the dead.

In total I had four Skaven, three Beastman and one of the Trolls knocked out, but luckily every one of my models recovered with only minor injuries. Fred, the bull-headed Beastman, had an eye injury which reduces his Ballistic Skill (oh no!) and the yellow Troll, who has been named Nars, suffered a broken nose. Given the description of a nose injury in the book, I am less than worried:

"The character's nose is smashed in and looks really awful. This doesn't affect the game, but the Champion's youthful looks are ruined forever."

Lars and Nars. Due to this injury, Lars is now considered the 'pretty' one.

Tuesday 27 May 2014

The Battle of Otten Village - Part 2

The Battle


No fluff today, just battle report goodness. You can find the introduction and army lists in part one.

Turns 1 to 3
The fimir won the dice roll to move first and we were off. My opponent did not hold back in the slightest as the fimm warriors moved into the centre, no doubt hoping to hold up the beastmen and skaven whilst Fergus and his retinue of fianna fimm (their elite troops) start swinging around the flank. The door to the house is on the far side from them and they wanted to get some captives whilst the chaos forces were distracted.

Dorrin's band moved in towards the middle of the battlefield also hoping to flank the fimm regiment with one of the units and wipe them out quickly. There wasn't much excitement in the first few turns as the trolls repeatedly fail to show up, they were too busy contemplating the meaning of the universe whilst picking their noses probably. Melondil shot with his crossbow, hit despite the swirling mists, but failed to cause a wound. This would be a recurring theme of the game for him.

Turn 3 - Jostling for position - also in shot is some fine tape measuring action.

Thursday 22 May 2014

The Battle of Otten Village - Part 1

This week I played my first game of Warhammer Fantasy in over three years, and my first of 3rd edition in much longer than that, with Fimm McCool. No doubt we both made a lot of mistakes and we played a little fast and loose with the rules but a great time was had. Read on for an introduction to the battle.

Prologue


A woman came screaming and stumbling through the woods, almost blundering straight into Dorrin "Help us, help us! The deamon-fiends - we can't hold them off!" She took a look at who she had run into and she fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably. An angry, winged dwarf with a retinue of beast-things were not who she was hoping to come across.

Dorrin was about to tell the woman to be gone as he had more important things to do, there were still Slaaneshi worshippers to run down after all, but the whisper told him to stop and consider her. "Were her people not like him," the whisper said "unable to return to their homes, their families murdered? Would they not also desire vengeance and relish spilling the blood of their tormentors?" Dorrin thought on this for a moment then walked over to the woman and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Aye lass, we'll help you - take us to your home."

She looked up at him and the surrounding company, considered her options and decided the they were favourable to the marauding deamonfolk. After all, aren't dwarves meant to be good, and there was an elf too, aren't elves meant to be kind? She'd never met either an Elf or a Dwarf before and she wondered if all dwarves have wings, or maybe only those that live above ground like this one. Certainly all the folk tales she knew suggested that both dwarf and elf were benevolent, so she stood up, dusted herself down and - being unsure how to address a dwarf - did a curtsey. "My Lord my name is Marta, Otten lies this way, please hurry." 


Classic Warhammer - lining up to fight at a jaunty angle.


Monday 19 May 2014

A Tour of Infinity


What's it all about then?


In my very first post I mentioned that I play Infinity because, frankly, it's the most fun I've had with a wargame so far. Not only that, but I'm sure that many other people would enjoy playing it too, so I've written this article as an overview of the system and I hope it will be interesting for those who have not previously heard about it, or are considering starting to play.

Infinity is set about 120 years in the future and is a sci-fi skirmish game with each player controlling somewhere between 8 to 20 models on average. Individual battles represent covert Special Forces actions between major superpowers or skirmishes against the vanguard of an alien incursion.


A standard (300 points) Aleph army.


Wednesday 7 May 2014

TBoaC - Part 3 - Beastman Unit Complete!

I have to say, I'm quite enjoying Realms of Chaos and this whole 'small units' thing, it makes me feel like I'm actually making progress. That is a novelty for sure!

Here's a shot of the whole Scab Moon Clan as it stands - apologies for it still being a bit blurry in places, I'm still working on my photo skills:

The Scab Moon Clan

Tuesday 29 April 2014

The Birth of a Champion - Part 2

I'm sorry that there were no pictures last time, I promise that it won't happen (very often) again!

Dorrin wandered the Old World for many a night, when awake he would slay all the abominations he came across and when he managed to snatch some sleep he would hear whispers in his nightmares. He was promised redemption, honour and even a glorious death if only he would follow the voice. There were promises of worthy foes, more of those that slew his brothers in arms. What more could one who has taken the Oath wish for than this chance to settle such a grudge?

His nightmares started to bleed across into the real world, he would dream of his skin turning to stone, of wings erupting from his back and the world drowning in blood. When he woke he'd find some of these things to be true. The voice told him that these changes would help him overcome his foes. 

One evening, still drunk with rage after all these days, he stumbled into a clearing in a great forest and instinctively knew that this was the place the voice in the night had guided him to. In the middle of this clearing was a great standing stone covered in fetishes and grisly trophies. Surrounding it was a braying herd of beastmen worshippers of Slaanesh. Dorrin gripped his axe tight, roared aloud and charged in, hacking left and right. To his surprise his battle cry was echoed from the far side of the clearing as another group of beasts answered his call and committed to battle also.

The fight was brief and violent. After but a few minutes all that remained were Dorrin and a small herd of Beastmen all in red, gold and dirty metal lead by an Elf wielding a glaive. As one they knelt down and pledged their allegiance to him, their new champion. Dorrin understood and accepted. With an army behind him he would seek revenge on the forces of the Pleasure God. 

Blood will pay for blood.

Melondil Nightnoon

Thursday 24 April 2014

The Birth of a Champion

Dorrin opened his eyes and looked around, blood ran down his face and his ears rang. There had been an explosion, as if a keg of gunpowder had detonated beside him. He tried to remember what had happened to him. 

His caravan had been set upon by Beastmen, his kin had been cut down as they fought back to back. The Beasts were led by a horror, a walking nightmare, a deamonette. Tall and sleek, the arms and tail of a sea monster, a featureless face and a single breast exposed. Disgusting and alluring at the same time, a perverted being.

Dorrin and the daemon had fought, axe to claw, as the other dwarves were butchered, until he stood alone. The combat seemed to last forever, the beastmen turned and watched, baying for blood. Dorrin knew he couldn't win as the deamonette tireless wore him down before finally imapling him through the shoulder with a slender, razor sharp claw, her face close to his, she hissed in delight. 

Dorrin closed his eyes and swung his axe wildly one last time with all his remaining strength and struck home. He split the deamonette clean in two, it's magical life essence spraying out. There was a flash of light, what sounded like a thunderclap and the air reeked of sulfur. He blacked out.

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Humble Beginnings


I've decided to start this blog in order to collect my thoughts towards the wonderful hobby of wargaming. My plan is that by presenting my work online it will encourage me to paint, play  and write better, to record my experiences and possibly even provide some interesting insights. I have a number of ongoing projects, as do many other gamers I'm sure, and I tend to flit between them somewhat sporadically. In no particular order these projects are:


Infinity the Game
An Aleph Chandra special operative
Infinity the Game is a near future sci-fi skirmish game developed my Corvus Belli and heavily inspired by manga and anime such as Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell and Akira. Combat takes place between high-tech combat groups of around 8-15 models and my faction of choice is Aleph. Aleph is a supremely powerful Artificial Intelligence who has been designed in order to keep humanity safe and well looked after by managing vast quantities of data. It has cyborg operatives who work for it and who it can operate though in order to maintain the status quo. No siree, definitely not going to turn evil at all, nope, no way.