Even more 7th edition rule changes

Here we go with even more.

1. It does appear there is a controversy swirling around the Frenzy debate on whether the mount would really get the extra attack. I have brought up Arbaal the Undefeated. He is a khorne special character that rides a hound of khorne. Both get +1 attack.
More to follow on this debate I'm sure.

2. Chariots: It appears several new rules follow chariots. Besides the character staying in the chariot in a challenge, the +2 armor save seems to now only apply to shooting attacks that are randomly allocated to the character. (still a 6 on a d6 as before.) But the character may also use the chariots armor save if it is better.
In hand to hand it says nothing about an improved armor save.
Characters are no longer hurt when the chariot is destroyed.
Chariots may now voluntarily move into difficult terrain and take the d6 str 6 hits every time they move through it.

3. New building rules. The rules for buildings on the battlefield are completely revamped. they are actually easy to understand, easy to use and I recommend people use them. I've been playing buildings as impassible since 3rd edition, it will be nice to include them again.
Only infantry units may occupy a building. And only 1 unit at a time. 1 enemy infantry unit may "assault" the building. When fighting, up to Unit strength 10 can fight on each side. Count only wounds done when calculating who wins. musicians still break ties.
Up to unit strength 5 may use missile weapons out of each floor of a building.
No marching into or out of a building. No charging out of a building.

4. If a unit is on a hill. Then all ranks of a unit on the ground may shoot at the enemy unit on the hill. Similar to shooting at a large creature.

5. Multiple chargers in the same combat. If both sides have a unit that is considered to have charged (ie from a pursuit the previous turn) then you no longer go in the order the charges occured. Instead you now go by initiative order, then roll it off.

6. If you are at the front of a chariot that is considered charging, then you take impact hits as well. Example: Chariot hits a unit, breaks it and pursues into a new unit. But the front is overhanging some. Then on your turn you have another unit charge the front of the chariot. Your original hit unit and your charging unit, will both take full impact hits. Chariots charging 2 units is going to get nasty quick.
Can you say 2d6+2 impact hits from 1 chariot splitting 2 units.

7. If a chariot flees through a friendly unit, the unit takes impact hits. If it flees through an ememy unit of less than US 5, the unit takes impact hits. And if if flees through a unit of enemy greater than US 5, they take impact hits and the chariot is destroyed.

Thats enough for now. More to come soon, keep checking back.

More New 7th ed rule changes!!

Ok, I sat down and really combed through the new rulebook last night.
WOW!!! OMG!!! I had no idea they were going to change so much. There is so many new rules, I can't remember them all, but I will give it a shot.

1. Skirmishers only get -1 to be hit if they are a) US 1 and b) roughly man sized.

So Pegasus knights, teradons, weapon teams (ratling guns, warpfire throwers, jezzails), swarms, etc... All lose the -1 to be hit penalty.

2. This one is huge!! If a unit breaks an opponent and pursues into a new fresh enemy, that enemy may stand and take it or FLEE!! Thats right, they now get a response.
This is a huge change in the rules and will have a huge impact on the game.

3. If a unit is fleeing and its flee would land it on a unit, it will move past that unit to directly on the other side. If it would be touching another friendly unit, it will move past that unit, etc.. So it is possible for you to hop-scotch a unit completely off the board 20 or 30" away, if your opponent sets it up right.
And if the unit they hit was not fleeing and the fleeing unit was US 5 or more, then panic tests for every unit they hit.

4. Another huge one, if a rider is subject to hatred, frenzy, stupidity, etc.. His mount is also!!! Can you say Khorne Chosen knights. 5 with a champ will now be getting 16 str 5 attacks and 10 str 4 attacks. 26 ATTACKS!!! Are they nuts?!?

5. If a character is stubborn and joins a non-stubborn unit, he is still stubborn and may roll on his leadership unmodified for any break test. Esentially making the unit he is in, stubborn as well.

6. If a character causes fear or terror and joins a unit, that unit is now immune to fear or terror, while the character is in it. And if a character is riding a mount that causes fear or terror, that would esentially be the same thing.
The only good part is if a character is on a flying mount, they may never join units.

7. If a unit comes back on the table from pursuing, it may NOT march.

There are many more to come, so check back later.

Movie Quote of the Day Contest: 8/31

Onto the next one. This one is in a whole different category. Don't be afraid to guess, it doesn't hurt. So good luck. In this one, just identify the movie.

Score to date:
Ben Miller: 1
Jim Zaphiriou: 1
Dave Smith: 1

Quote of the day (value = 2 pts):
Character 1: "So Supreme Commander, why should you get my vote?"
Character 2: "Because I'm bigger than you, that's why."

Good luck on this one. Think outside the box a bit. Its 2 points for a reason.

New 7th Edition Rules.

Here is another new one that I have yet to see mentioned.

A unit may no longer decide if it wants to use a characters leadership or not.

A unit must use the highest leadership value available to it when making any leadership tests.

So this hurts my tactic of using my general's leadership when I wanted a slave unit to stay and then letting them use their own Ld 2 when I wanted them to run and get out of the way.

Ben

New 7th Edition Rules.

Ok for the next 10 days until the new rule set is widely available, I will be posting new rules as I find them. These are not the new rules widely rumored about, but new rules that I have not heard about. And I've been pretty much on top of the rumors.

Check back often for more updates. Remember to refresh your pages.

First up is characters in chariots fighting in a challenge.

"If a character is riding in a chariot, the creatures pulling the chariot will fight in the challenge, but the other members of the chariot's crew (if any) cannot attack at all until the challenge is over."

So no more stepping down from the chariot to fight a challenge.

More to come.

7th edition Rule set

Just wanted to say, I just picked up the 7th edition rule set. I'm loving it, and not getting any work done.

7th Ed Rule Change of the Week

Today I want to go over the rule changes for magic and how they will affect the game.
There are really 4 different rule changes that will work together.

1. Change in magic lores.
2. Power dice distribution.
3. Nastier miscast table.
4. Character targeting elimination.

All of these rule changes will have a huge impact on the game for some armies, and very little on others.

In 7th edition we see Heavens (previously neutered) stay about the same with the huge shuffle of moving 2nd sign to the #2 spell and Portent of Far becoming the default. Life takes a nasty cut in power levels, while many of the other lores, metal and light in particular getting a nice boost to their previously never used status.

I think the biggest change this will have is that now everyone will have to actually learn all the lores and not just heavens and life. So you will see a lot more of the "now what does that spell do?" during tournament games. And I was really pleased to see Howling wind lose its half movement rule. That spell was, IMO, the nastiest spell in the game. And was a potential game changer.

The distribution of power dice will only really hurt those armies that take a tooled up mage lord and then a bunch of 2nd levels to actually pump power dice into the lord. Tzeentch armies shouldn't really be affected as their shared pool will be pretty large. Most other armies won't either. I guess the 2nd Gen Slaan with 2 scroll caddy skinks will be the most affected. I just don't see this rule as being that big a hinderance.

The 3rd rule is the biggie. With every miscast there is a slim chance your wizard will just die. Tie that into the 4th rule and he will probably be in a unit and will take a lot of guys out with him. Imagine a Brett Prophetess in the middle of a wedge. Can you say entire unit gone. ;)
Add in that with every miscast there is a good chance to take a wound and most 2nd level wizards won't stay around too long if they are casting.
Armies with miscast prevention items get a big leg up, ecspecially 4th+ Gen Slaan, Staff of Change armies and the O&G with their re-roll staff (though I've heard that is going.) Some armies have some one shot items, like the Skaven Warpstone Charm, but many armies have nothing to prevent a nasty miscast. So I think you will see fewer Lord level mages running around the game. The risk to lose all those points in one roll is going to be just too high.

The 4th rule allows characters and such, (ie, ratling guns and doom seekers) to be picked out with shooting and magic missles. This makes the good old favorite MM a much stronger spell. Instead of having to pour 1d6 strength 4 hits into a unit of 30 models. You can now pick out the mage running around in the back by himself. Or the heirophant with the cloak of flying.
So this rule hurts Skaven, Slayers (yea!!), Tomb Kings and VC.

I think overall, I like the magic changes. I always felt the miscast table was way to soft on the player compared to the affect an Irresistable force spell could have. Now I like the balance. Not sure I care for the pick out rule, but many spells didn't require targeting or LOS anyway, so I don't see that as a huge change other than to force characters into units. I think TK's will be hurt here the most as the Heirophant cannot hide near as easily as before.
Vamps are taking it hard on the chin with this one though. A vamp lord with no way to stop a miscast has the chance to lose the game every time he casts a spell. That is just horrid. And so I think you will see a lot fewer vamp lords, more counts and you will see them leaving the necromancers to do the casting. Add in the crumble rule and its just too big a risk until turn 5 or 6.

Armies helped the most:
4th+ Gen Slaan Lizardmen
Ogre Kingdoms (no change).
Orcs and Goblins (no change to miscast table for them.)
Tomb Kings (while now the Heirophant is harder to hide, their bound spells and no miscast, make up for it.)
Tzeentch Chaos (The staff of change can prevent miscasts easily and their marks add to their shared pool. )
Dwarfs: I think these rules will see a decrease in overall magic levels, which will help the dwarfs a lot.

Armies these rules hurt the most:
Vampire Counts: The chance to lose the game on one roll (well 2 really) is a huge detrement and I think you will see fewer Vamp armies running around.

Skaven: Their most feared weapon, the ratling gun takes a hit here. But with the charm and their main spell being a MM getting a boost. The normal twin setup is unaffected by the dice sharing, makes up for it a lot.

All the armies with no way to avoid miscasts.

Comments welcome. And don't forget to click on the Google Ad links to support this site and keep it running.

Ben

Movie Quote of the Day Contest: 8/30

I have decided on the prize. I will be doing this as a monthly contest. This first one will run through the end of September.
Winner will receive any 1 item out of my ebay store up to a $10 value and I'll cover the shipping. I have a link to my store at the top. If you want something over $10 I'll give you a $10 credit and cover half the shipping.

To help stop simple google searches, I'm changing a few words up to help stop that.

Ok, onto the next movie quote of the week. This one is from a very small movie that you possibly have not seen. But for some reason, I loved it. If you've seen the movie, this one will be a piece of cake.

Score to date:
Ben Miller: 1
Jim Zaphiriou: 1

Quote of the day (value = 1 pts):
Character 1: "There are thousands of snakes around here?"
Character 2: "There has to be if you look hard enough!"

Good luck.

Movie Quote of the Day: 8/29

I hope you enjoy this new topic. The way it works is I come up with some obscure movie quote and you be the first one to guess where it came from. I am thinking of making this a contest. So the person who gets the most correct over a certain period of time, wins a prize.

I haven't worked out all the details but I will. So start playing.

I may not do it every day, but I will try. And no guarantees on when I'll be posting each day, so keep checking back.

Rules of the game. I will post a movie quote, (at least as best I can remember it, no guarantees it is 100% accurate.) You then simply leave a comment telling me which movie it is from and what character or actor said it. I will accept either the characters name, the actors name, or a very close description of the character.
Example in the first one I did already, Ben Miller described him as the 6-fingered Count. This was perfectly acceptable.

If after 1 day no one has guessed correctly I might leave a hint, so check the comments section, don't just assume someone guessed it correctly.

The first person to leave the correct answer as a comment, wins for the day and receives 1 point. I might make extremely old/obscure movies worth more than 1 point.

Score to date:
Ben Miller: 1

Quote of the day (value = 1 pt):
"He died by falling down an elevator shaft and onto some bullets."

Good luck.

Wheel of Fortune Time

I'm not a huge fan of the show, but I do enjoy watching it and trying to guess the puzzles before anyone else. But last night my family and I took a break from moving and attended the live taping of two Wheel of Fortune shows that will air on Nov 17 & 18.

I have to say I was really impressed with the way the show was run and presented. The tickets were free, but parking was $12. So overall pretty inexpensive. We got to watch 2 shows and things really went smooth. And it was very interesting getting to watch the behind the show things.

One really interesting point was when a rubberband broke on one of the flippers for the wheel in the 2nd show. They had a stop down, had the contestants turn around so they couldn't see the board. And had to bring out the techs to fix it.

I didn't realize they actually take breaks during commercial times. But they do. So to tape a 30 minute show took 30 minutes.

Pat is a geniunly funny guy. He was doing a lot of adlib during the tech repair and was pretty darn funny.

Vanna is as hot as she looks on TV even though she is pushing up there in years now.

They gave away some digital cameras at the end of the show and everyone got a little Wheel of Fortune pin.

The only thing I would have liked to seen more of was if Pat and Vanna talked to the audience more during the commercial breaks. Instead it was just kind of dead time while they played music. In the very first break they came and talked for about a 30 seconds to a minute and that was it except during the down time for the broken flipper.

But overall it was tons of fun, if you ever have a chance to attend the live taping of a show, I highly recommend it.

Tactic of the Week

For those interested, I did get moved into my new home and am back on line with you guys. It was stressful and painful, but we are now finished moving. Now starts the unpacking. Thank God for work so I can relax. ;-)

Anyway, this weeks tactic I call the Divert and stick.

This tactic works great when faced with frenzied units. But can work with other troops, just not as well.
Picture one shows our starting scenario. You have a nasty frenzied unit, you would rather divert out of the way and the game.


You then take your throwaway unit, such as a unit of chaos hounds and run them up and angle them as shown in diagram 2:


The frenzied unit has no option but to charge the throwaway unit and then whether he breaks it or destroys it, he must overrun/pursue.


Finally, after his overrun the unit is now deep in the woods and stuck. With no marching and half movement through difficult terrain, he will find himself having a very difficult time trying to move out of the terrain.


So even a cavalry unit 1 rank deep will waste at least 2 turns getting out of the woods and another turn getting turned around to do anything. Add in the turn he was forced to charge and you are giving yourself 4 turns or two-thirds of the game to play against the rest of his army and use magic and shooting to deal with his uber unit.

Ben

Moving Day

Just a quick note to let everyone know my wife and I closed on our new home yesterday. Today and tomorrow are major moving days. I moved a ton of all our small stuff today and emptied out our storage shed. I never realized how much crap you can accumulate.

But all my miniatures are now safely moved to the new house.
Tomorrow is the big moving day when all the desks, couches, TV's and computers get moved. Should be a big day and I'll probably be out of contact from about noon tomorrow until Monday morning.

Who wants to be a Superhero? Watched my favorite Superhero reality show tonight, recorded from last night. I thought it was good but not great. Much better than last week at least.
But again I thought Stan eliminated the wrong person. Major Victory had started to try and make things funny when early on he was trying to be serious, but he did win the scavanger hunt race. While Fat Mama took her sweet time, eating other peoples food and not even trying. I thought for sure she was going to get the boot.
But Feedback is really irritating me now. I think he might really be losing it. Maybe Fat Mama is the better Superhero. But all this lovey dovey crap needs to stop. Geez!!! that gets irritating quick.

Lets finish it off with a quote from one of my favorite movies.
"Are you still trying to win? I think you have an overdeveloped sense of vengence. That will get you into trouble one day."
A free internet cookie to the first one to guess the movie.

Have a great weekend guys and talk to you on Monday.

Featured Miniatures: Jim Bailey

This guy knocks me down with every miniature he puts on the table. I wish I had half his painting talent he has in his little pinky. Add this to his awesome playing ability and his great sportsmanship and it is amazing he doesn't walk away with every best overall at every GT he has ever attended or will ever attend.

Anyway enough gushing. Lets start of with his Nurgle Daemon army he brought to the Lone Wolf:

First up his the full army:


The Army Banner:


Now check out his Nurglings:


Now his Plague Bearers:


Then his Plague Riders:


Add in a couple of Nurgle Daemonic Chariots:


Then top it of with the Great Unclean One:



Now that is one awesome looking army and got 2nd place for Players choice and IIRC, Best Army at the Lone Wolf.

And as a special treat, we all remember Jim's Wood Elf Army, "Hit in Face". If you have not seen it before, you are missing something. Here is just a small treat.


I hope you enjoyed them. I know I did.

7th Ed Rule Change of the Week

This week I want to talk about the new rule for no wrapping around. I have to say OUCH on this one. Wrapping around was my bread and butter for Skaven. Any unit that relied a lot more on static combat res than actual kills will be hurt.

Though it will also hurt those infantry units that relied on actual kills and liked to wrap to get more and more kills. Slaanesh and Khorne daemons come to mind as do Dwarf Hammerers, Dark Elf witches, Saurus blocks, etc..

Units that it will help the most, 40 mm based units, cavalry, chariots, monsters and lone characters. Any unit that is not relying on static combat res to win. Where one bad round of dice rolling can cost you, because then your opponent wraps and now you can't win because of the flank and rear bonuses. And those units that have no models to wrap around anyway.

Due to the days of '4 wide to get a rank bonus' are gone. Units of Ogres, Minotaurs, and other 40 mm units will rarely have more than 4 models in them. So they will not be missing out of the lapping fun because they will have no models to wrap with.

You might still see a few units of 10 cavalry that get a rank bonus and wouldn't mind wrapping. But gone are the days of the small units of 8. So most cavalry players will use units of 5 or 6. 6 works now because since it takes 5 wide to get a rank, the smallest any ranked unit will be is 100 mm wide. Which means 6 cavalry wide, will always get everyone into combat.

Bretonians are the exception. The Lance remains unchanged, and I have seen many a Brett player wrap in the past, if they did not break their enemy on the charge. So this will hurt them some but not a lot.

I think it does help unbreakable units and stubborn units that you often have to kill to the man. It makes it much more difficult to get the wounds necessary without being able to get more models into combat.

Armies this hurts the most:
Skaven (at least they can't wrap to get more models into base with my swarms)
Dwarfs (though stubborn warmachine crews are probably helped here.)
Orc & Goblin infantry
Daemonic Legion infantry. (mainly slaanesh and Khorne)
Infantry based Empire army.
Are you seeing a patern here??

Armies it helps the most:
Ogre Kingdoms!! I see this rule helping them more than any other army.
All Cavalry & chariot High Elf armies
All Cav Dark Elf Armies
Heavy Cav Empire Army.
Heavy Cav & chariot Chaos Mortal armies.
Undead armies.

Overall, I don't think I care for this rule change. For me it was the idea that you are piling more and more people/rats into combat as it drug on. Even though both sides must maximize, I still can see a lot of combats really bogging down after a round and no one breaks. And in the extra BSBs around and things could slow to a crawl. The wrapping kind of sped things up and allowed players that option to expand if it would help or not. I didn't see it as confusing or a problem.

We will just have to wait and see how it plays out.

NOTE: I am closing on my new house and beginning the move tomorrow. So Posting will be spotty this weekend at best. Don't think I've forgotten you, I'll be back strong on Monday at the latest.

Evaluating my GT perfomance

Overall I have to say I am proud and very happy with my performance. One of my goals is to always try to get into the top 10 (or 10% if over 100) in any event I attend.

I barely managed it, but did squeek into the top 10 with a 10th place finish.

And I was way off on my estimation that 213 would give me a shot at overall. That would have barely given me a 6th place finish but would have given me one of those fine awards they were handing out.

To break down my scores:
Overall: 207, goal: 213. So overall I fell short by 6 points. And that was the difference between walking home with some hardware and walking home with just door prizes and a hell of a good time.

Battle: 76, goal: 84. This is where I really fell down. I had set a lofty goal of 4 wins and 1 draw. But the loss in round 1 against David Long who ended up best general, was a tough one. I didn't know David going in and I took him too lightly. That won't happen again. This was my toughest first round opponent since I faced Jim Bailey in round 1 of the Hombre last year. I also wanted to capture 3 objectives but only got 2. I missed 1 by a couple wounds in the first game. And in the 3rd game, both of us achieved the objective, so neither of us got it. Uggghhh!!

JR points: 10, goal: 9. I was happy to see I finished every game on time. The top 14 players all got 10, so if you failed to get 10, you were just giving points away.

Painting: 60, goal: 55. I have to be happy here. I think the highest score here was 74, so I only gave up 14 points here. That gave me a shot, but battle and sports killed me.

Sportsmanship: 61, goal 65: 2 goals here really. First was to get at least 1 favorite opponent votes. I did, but didn't feel I deserved it. It was game 3, my dice were crap, I was tired, I ended up getting upset at my dice, and then won the game. Ugghhh!! the worst combo possible. So when my opponent came up and said he voted for me, I was surprised. But I thank him. It was an awesome game, that I thought he was winning, then I looked up and all his stuff was gone. I enjoyed the hell out of the game, even if I didn't show it the whole time.

2nd goal was no bad games. And I got 1 bad game. This disapoints me more than anything else from the tournament. As it turned out it cost me nothing as the 4 more points would have left me still 2 points behind for the 3rd best general award and 2 points behind for 3rd best overall award. It would have put me into 7th place overall in the standings but that would have been the only difference.

What disapoints me the most is someone didn't enjoy playing me. I've thought about it and I am almost certain I know who it was, and well I just can't blame him. His dice were crap, mine were super hot and things just didn't go his way. There were many right on the borderline charges. If I win the roll I hit the flank and win, if he wins the roll I hit the front and he wins. I won, killed his general and won the game.
If you read this, I promise to try and keep the game more enjoyable next time.

So really only the combination of failing in not getting my no bad games and one more objective, cost me the 3rd best overall award.
But I'm very happy with my results and the way things went. Now onto painting my next army. Pics will be posted soon.

And I still have more army pics, Battle reports and that interview with David Bowman coming soon.

Tactic of the Week: 8/22/2006

This weeks tactic I call the Blitz and flank. It is a follow-up to the Blitz tactic I posted on 8/8/06.

This variation will work very well in the new 7th edition rule of overrunning and fighting in the same round of combat.

The set up is the same as in the Blitz move, but can only be performed on a skirmishing unit, or a small unit that is angled properly beforehand.


You then declare the charge from C1 into the enemy unit E1. Then declare the charge C2 into the enemy skirmishing unit.
He will probably hold with the first E1 unit and is forced to hold with the skirmishing unit as described in the previous blitz move tactic.


Move the charger C1 first and maximize models.
Then when moving the C2 charger, perform what is commonly referred to as a "tactical" wheel. Where you move up, and then wheel into the skirmishing unit. This allows you to control the direction of overrun and not the enemy.

After the charge, your units should look like this.


After defeating the enemy you will get to pursue or overrun . If you fail to destroy them all, you get the added benefit of causing panic when they flee through their own unit. Of course it is riskier as there is always that slim chance they will hold.


And finally, you overrun into the flank of the enemy unit E1. Breaking their ranks, getting to fight a 2nd round of combat and gaining the flank bonus as well.


There is also the chance, that he will anticipate this tactic and flee with his big block unit. If this is the case, then this tactic has a plan for that possibility.
He will flee a certain number of inches. If you can catch him with your first unit great. If not, then with the 2nd unit, set the tactical wheel to end up pointing at the fleeing block. When you overrun you should hopefully hit the fleeing block and cause it to flee again and probably off the table.

I hope this is helpful to you and thank you for reading.

Featured Army

Today I want to post some pics of an army I have always loved. It is one of the most powerfully painted armies I have ever seen on the board. It is too magic heavy for my taste, but my gosh I wouldn't mind being beaten by it because it just looks too awesome.

It is a Tzeentch Daemonic Legion army owned by Alexander Coxe. He is son of Paul Coxe a regular on the INDY GT circuit and a friend of mine.
The army was painted by Brett Amundson, who does some of the best damn painting I have ever seen in my life. He rates right there with Cody Johnson and Jim Bailey.

Anway without further ado. Here is the army:

And now some zoom in pics. Horrors 1:

Horrors 2:

His Flamers:


His Screamers and Exalted Daemon:


And finally his Lord of Change:



I hope you enjoy them.

Lone Wolf GT aftermath

Wow, what a fantastic weekend. This site is going to be hoppen' over the next few weeks as I try to share my full experience with you.

First and foremost, I got a chance to sit and visit with old friends, and really relax and have a great time.

Played 6 games over the weekend. Friday night I played an awesome looking Roman Empire army that will make you drool.

Then Saturday, played against 3 great opponents had 3 great games and was 2-1 after the first day.

Saturday night I joined my son, his girlfriend, nephew and another friend's son in a fantastic game of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. You don't want to miss the play by play of this.

Sunday I met up with 2 more great opponents both with very tough armies. Brettonians and Sylvania. I ended up going 2-0 Sunday to finish with a 4-1 record. Not quite as good as I wanted. I was hoping for the draw, not the loss. And my lack of ability to secure 2 objectives just killed my chances.

I ended up with 76 Battle points falling 8 points short from my goal of 84. The draw, instead of the loss and 1 more objective. Or 2 more objectives.

Best overall and 2nd best overall both ended with 80 battle points. But both I'm sure had better paint scores than I did.

I did get at least 1 favorite opponent vote, or so I was told. I will have to wait for the final results to be posted to see my final standing, as even with the 4-1 record, I walked away empty handed come awards time. There seemed to be so many people ahead of me. Going into the final round I was 3-1 and was playing on table 7 or 8. Even with a loss or a draw, people were getting the objectives and staying in the hunt.

I did get some great reaper paints and a reaper keychain I swapped for a Warlord miniature as a door prize.

What does all this mean to you? It means:

6 Fantastic battle reports heading your way.
Some unbeleavable pictures I took during the weekend.
A play by play story of my Warhammer roleplaying adventure.
A sit down talk with the man, the myth, the legend, David Bowman. You don't want to miss this. It was a great interview.

So until tomorrow. Just to wet your appetite, here is Jim Bailey's fantastic looking Nurgle Daemon army that pulled 2nd place Players choice.

Lone wolf this weekend

Setup for the Lone Wolf starts in only 4 hours or so. I'm really getting pumped about it. My first GT of the year, having had to take most of the year off.

I haven't played the skaven in a GT in almost 2 years, but all my practice games have led to major victories. Hope the luck of Moki holds out.

I'm also planning on trying to get a few interviews from some of the top players during the tournament that I will be passing onto you readers. I hope you enjoy them.

Other than that, the army is ready, the army lists are printed up, the dice and tape measures are ready. Now its just a matter of me going out and winning 5 games.

Hope to see some of you guys there.

Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

I have to admit, I was disappointed in last nights show. If that was the first one you watched, you are probably wondering what I saw in it. The previous 3 were much better. But to recap last nights show...

I did not care for either elimination.

First, they got their friends to say something bad about them. I thought there were 3 "bad" past histories.
1. Creature had once thrown some towels out of the window.
2. Fat Mamma often went on diets and wasn't happy with her weight.
3. Lemuria, had a very wild party side to her. (let me hear more.)

Creature screwed up though. Instead of stating the obvious, "it was at that moment, I dedicated myself to cleaning up the environment." She went with the "everyone messes up now and then." Add in that early in the day, she jay walked, or ran across when a no crossing light was up, and she was out.

I really felt Lemuria should have gotten the boot with this one. We are testing character, and being a wild party dancer, who likes to get up on tables, was a bit worse to me.

But out Creature and her hot little bod went.

They then had to go spend some time with a convicted felon. Very nasty people. And they had 4 "special" missions to accomplish.
1. Someone had to rub the shoulder of the inmate 3 times.
2. Someone had to brush the hair out of the inmates face 3 times.
3. Someone had to hug the inmate 3 times.
4. Someone had to sit in the lap of the inmate for 10 seconds.

Lemuria, said she would do the lap sitting. Guess all the lap dances she gave in her party days would pay off, boy was she surprised when they brought out a woman inmate that looked like a bus had run over her. I'm sure Lemuria was thinking she would get some guy and could sweet talk him. Lemuria failed horribly, but in her defense, I felt this was the most impossible task to accomplish.

Fat Mamma jumped on the hair, which I felt was the easiest to do. She got the same woman Lemuria had and was already freaked out by the lap sitting incident. The producers were very lenient here, as she was supposed to move the hair out of her face, and instead barely moved a wisp of hair off her shoulders. But they counted it, and she accomplished her goal.
Very weak in my opinion. Made no connection with the inmate at all, which I felt it was all about.

Major Victory had chosen the shoulder rub and out comes this guy that looks like he could kill you in 10 seconds if he tried. He was hand cuffed and wanted nothing to do with the chairs. Major Victory took off his cape and gloves, which earlier Stan had specifically told him never to do. I felt this would get MV the boot. He did keep his composure in the face of the very angry felon and managed to rub the guys shoulders 3 times. My hats off to Major Victory, it was a difficult task and while he made a minor connection with the felon, it was much better than Fat Mamma's attempt.

Finally, Feedback comes up and WOW!! He showed the rest how to do it. Off came the cuffs, they talked about what happened to the inmate, how they both lost their fathers. And then with the 2nd toughest challenge behind the lap sitting, Feedback gets the inmate to hug him 3 times. I was stunned. The trailers had hinted at it, but I never thought he would get him to hug 3 times. This one blew me away. Way to go Feedback.

So down to elimination. I really felt it was between Lemuria, Major Victory and Fat Mamma. But Stan called up Lemuria and Major Victory. Only 2 on the chopping block again, and he didn't even give them a chance to talk. Just scolded Major Victory for taking off his cape for the 2nd time in the show, and Lemuria for failing.

And then Lemuria had to turn in her costume.

I hated seeing the best 2 good looking girls go in 1 show. That hurt. I really felt Major Victory should have been put out since he was told specifically, Don't take off your cape, and he did it anyway. Compare that to Lemuria not being able to sit on the lap of another woman, give me a break. Big difference. But I have seen a tendancy for previous "problems" to be the bigger determining factor.

Even after a super hero makes it through an elimination, its not like that problem is forgotten and went away. Its still there and your next slip up, usually costs them. In this case I think Lemuria's table dancing caught up with her.

So we are down to Major Victory (who if my theory holds could be very well on the chopping block next.) Fat Mamma, who seems to just be slipping by, but I cannot see her winning it all. She just doesn't have that Super Hero quality. I think Stan has just not wanted to eliminate her because of the fat black woman stigma that he would get labled with if he threw her out earlier. So I think she could very well go next.

And then there is Feedback. Wow, this guy has tackled everything very well. Pulled off the most difficult challenge last night, while the others all tricked their subject or failed. The last time I remember him failing a challenge was very first week.
I think he has the desire, the drive and the willingness to do anything to win.
And I think the character, Feedback, has enough flexibility and weaknesses to actually make a very cool comic book and movie. Fat Mamma has a real limited range and reminds me too much of "Fat Albert" and the Saturday morning cartoons.

I'm changing my pick for the winner from Major Victory to Feedback.

Misplayed Rules

This is a new topic I have wanted to start. Doubt if I do one every week, but when I think of them I will post them.

This topic covers a rule that while easy to understand when you look it up in the rulebook, is very often misplayed. They are usually not in FAQs because it is spelled out clearly.

Today's misplayed rule of the day is splitting missile fire.
Many players misplay this rule all the time.

This often misplayed rule, is that if only a portion of your unit can shoot at one unit, then the other half are free to shoot at whomever they wish.

This is NOT the case.

The rule really says that if you can NOT fire at one unit, then the unit may shoot at 2 different targets.

Let me give a couple of examples:
This is your normal example of when people try to use the rule wrong.

In this example, E1 is the much juicier target and about half the archers can see him to target it. The other half are blocked by the woods but can see E2 to target him.

This is ILLEGAL.
The archers can shoot at E1, but only those that can see them.
Or they can all shoot at E2.

They canNOT split their fire between the 2, because they could all shoot at E2, if they want to.

Here is an example of when you can shoot at 2 targets.

In this example, E2 has moved up so close that the Archers on the right half can see no one exept E2.
And the Archers on the left can no longer target E2 because he is out of their 45 degree LOS arc for that archer. But they can see E1 to shoot at him.

So in this case, the archers have NO single target they can target, and so are allowed to split their fire.

I've found a lot of players do not understand this rule clearly, but if you look it up in the BRB under splitting fire, it is spelled out pretty clearly.

I hope that helps,

Ben

Your chance to ask a question

We have been promised a couple of 7th edition rulebooks to look through this weekend. I am definetely going to take a bit of time and answer some of my own nagging questions about the rumors I've heard.

If you have something you would like clarified, I'll be happy to look up a few questions for you as well.

Just leave your questions in the comments section, and I'll do my best to verify or clarify whatever questions about 7th edition Warhammer you would like.

Q1: After you win combat, may you just turn to face, or are you allowed to reform the unit?

Ben

7th Ed Rule Change of the Week

Today I am going to cover a new rule that will help a lot of armies that were hurt from last weeks rule change. The new rule is "No panic while in combat." To cover this new rule I'll also hit lightly on 2 other new rules that I think will play an important part of this new rule.
1. Never break on a 2.
2. BSB adds +1 to combat res and can be combined with another standard.

Lets look at the impact of the rule.
Any unit that is engaged in combat can no longer suffer from panic and run away. This helps avoid those weird situations where 2 combats are going on next to each other, each player wins 1, and the other units panic and all 4 run in different directions. Very funny but not very realistic. (haha, realistic in a fantasy game?)
So once a unit is in combat, the only way for him to leave that combat is to break and run, break the enemy or kill the enemy to the last man.

Now add in the 2nd rule of a unit always holds on a 2. So, no matter how bad you are beaten, outflanked, crushed, pounded on, you will always have a 1 in 36 chance (much higher for lizardmen) of sticking around. And if the rumors I'm hearing are true, this applies even if outnumbered by fear causers. (though that has not been confirmed, I'll look that up this weekend.)

Then add in the 3rd rule of a BSB adds +1 to any combat, even with other banners. I'll cover more on the impact of this rule later but for now lets suffice it to say, I think the result of this rule is that you will see a lot more BSB's running around.
So if the BSB is within 12 inches, you get to re-roll all break tests. Since that is the only way you can now leave a combat, you will always get to re-roll a failed attempt to stay.

Combine all 3 together and you have a situation where the only way to get people to flee from combat is to break them, they will always get a minimum chance of 1/36 to do that and they will almost always be able to re-roll any failed attempts at this.

Combined this gives them an approximate 5.5% chance of always staying in a combat no matter what. And if their break number is closer to 7, then you start with a 58.3% chance and with the re-roll it gets closer to 82.6%.

So the odds of breaking people on that lucky roll, just went way down.
Here are my estimations on chance to break an opponent with a BSB nearby with their modified leadership:
10: 1%
9: 3%
8: 7.7%
7: 17.4%
6: 34.0%
5: 52.2%
4: 69.4%
3: 84.0%
2: 94.5%

As you can see, to even have a greater than 50% chance of breaking an opponent you have to get their break test number to 5. And even then its about 50/50. You have to get it all the way down to a 2 or 3 to feel really good about it.
And it never, ever gets better than that 94.5% chance to break them.

Who will this help the most?
That is an interesting question, it obviously helps armies who have a great tendency to lose combats. My first reaction would be to say it helps Skaven the most. If charged in the flank, taking the panic test with no ranks, was an almost certain death penalty for the unit. Even if only engaged with a single model to the front and charged in the flank by 5 zombies.

But Skaven also rely on winning combats by only 1 or 2. So the reverse works against them as well. But I think they benefit the most from it.

Basically any low leadership armies that suffer badly from panic tests. Empire, Orcs & Goblins, Ogre Kingdoms, chaos mortals, chaos beasts & Bretonians.
Lizardmen also have got to love the "2 always stays" as their odds of staying are actually very, very good at 14.3% chance of hanging around no matter what with their cold blood rule.

The armies who benefit the least have got to be the undead. Vampire counts, being able to raise zombies to charge in the flank, and panic your enemies, those days are gone. Tomb kings with their magic movement, causing panic tests with flank charges was their bread and butter.
Add in the fact that they do not benefit at all from the rule and are also hurt by the "a 2 always holds" rule, and this is one they probably wish was left on the drawing boards.

Of course other armies immune to psycology will not be helped by this rule, slayers, daemon armies, full frenzied armies like Khorne Mortals, Skaven Pestilence, Wood Elf treemen armies, etc..

Then there are those middle of the road armies. I think very high leadership armies like Dwarfs, high elves & dark elves, will be helped some, but not as much as the lower leadership armies.

Ben

Winning this weekend's GT

With the Lone Wolf Grand Tournament this Saturday I wanted to take a quick look at what it will take for me to win this weekend.

Every GT is different, mainly the scoring portion, or how they distribute the points. Here is how the LoneWolf is breaking down the scoring:

Battle: Probably the most important score in the GT, and the one a player has the most control over. It is a game that is to be won, you earn battle points in 2 ways. 1. By winning your games, and 2, getting the battle objectives. At the upcoming Lone Wolf, while a win is worth 16, the objectives are worth 4. So if I draw a game but get every objective, I'll have more battle points than a guy who wins all 5 but doesn't get the objectives.
To win overall, a player would have to get at least a record of 3-1-1. But only then if they were really helped out on the sportsmanship and painting aspects. For us average to below average painters/sportsmen, a record of 4-0-1 (1 draw) is probably the absolute minimum we can get to win. Maybe 4-1 if you pulled 3 of 5 of the objectives.
So out of max 100 this weekend, 4 wins, 1 draw and 3 objectives = 84 points.
This is my goal.

Sportsmanship: Almost as controversial as comp scoring, and many times you can see the 2 tied together. At the Lone Wolf they are actually tied together. You either get a good mark or a bad mark. To win, you must get 5 good marks. Which will be the default, so as long as you aren't stepping on his balls or hitting on his girlfriend, or both, you should be able to get that.
Getting a couple of favorite opponent votes are helpful, but not required.
Max Sports/Comp score this weekend is 80. 64 is base and that can go down with bad marks, even a single one can cost you 4 points, same as an objective. A player shooting for overall, cannot get a single bad mark. For a player to draw more than 2 favorite opponents has got to be really lucky. Pulling 1 is not unheard of and actually probable.
Goal for this weekend, 65 pionts. (1 fav opponent, 0 bad marks)

Painting: Your army has got to score at least a decent amount in painting. You cannot give up 40 points and hope to win. There are too many good players who paint too well to give up a ton of points here. I don't know what the checklist will be, so here I'm just guessing. I know at least a couple of guys will score the full 80 points for appearance. My Skaven army does not stand out, but parts of it are painted very nice and clean and with some good detail. Very few conversions, and no center piece.
Goal for this weekend is 55 out of 80. (I hope)
That is a lot points (25) to give up, but there isn't a lot I can do about it. The army is, what it is. If I score higher, its just icing on the cake. Less than that, I hope not but possible.
I don't care for GT's that give the Overall to the best painter by giving them 30-40 more points over an avg painter, but have seen it in the past.

JR Ewing points. Max of 10 points. If you were late getting your list in, you lost 1 point per day it was late. -1 point for every game your late showing up for, and -1 point if you don't finish your game on time.
Goal: 9 of 10. There will be one opponent who just plays really, really slow.

This would give me a total of 213 out of a possible 270 points. If I can do that, I think I have a shot of winning.

Other things that need to happen:
Army matchups. Out of the 64 paid players there are only a few armies I really have a tough time with. VC, Tomb Kings, Brettonians and Slayers. There are 14 of those armies total. And only 1 slayer army. The others I can beat or draw at least. The Slayers I think are a loss for my army. Just a horrible matchup.
If I can face only 1 of the other 13 and avoid the 1 slayer army, I should be ok.

Luck of the Roll: If the dice play just average with me, and give me a couple of breaks on those critical rolls, I should be ok.

Stamina: It takes a certain level of physical endurance to play 5 games in 2 days. I tend to stand a lot and talk. So by game 5 I am usually exhausted and have a hard time concentrating. The key for me is to pace myself on Saturday and get a good nights rest Saturday night.

So hopefully next week, I'll be posting battle reports about my Best Overall. If painting plays a huge roll in it, I'll hopefully posting about my Best General award.

If I get bad matchups, or my dice decide to take the weekend off, then I'll hopefully be telling you about what a great time I had.

No matter what, I feel the Indy GT circuit is a must attend for any serious Warhammer player out there. It is just too cool, too much fun, and too great an event to pass up.

Hope to see everyone there Friday night or Saturday.

Ben

Tactic of the Week: 8/14/06

This Tactic of the Week I call the Stick and Flank.

In this manuever you need a flanking unit and a small unbreakable unit. A stubborn unit can work if they are high Ld 8+ and within range of the BSB. But swarms, spawn and other such creatures work best for this tactic.

This is really pretty easy to pull off. I use a 2 base Rat swarm for my unbreakable unit and a unit of Clanrats or Giant rats for my flankers. As can be seen in the diagram. The Rat swarms charge ahead and into the enemy unit. As long as the enemy does less than 10 wounds the first round of combat, everything is fine. Only once have a seen a unit do 10 wounds in 1 round of combat. For 7th edition, you will either need a 3rd swarm or the enemy has to do less than about 5 wounds.

*** You may click on any of the images to enlarge them. ***

In the same round that the Rat swarms charge, the flanking unit does a full march, wheeling to get into the flank of the enemy.


During the Enemies turn, all they can do is finish killing off the swarms, but are stuck and cannot overrun.

Then on your turn, you charge the flank of the hammer unit and crush it.

This tactic has worked for me, time and time again. I hope you can try it in one of your games soon.

Ben

Lone Wolf Grand Tournament Army

For those in the Warhammer world with your head in the sand, the Lone Wolf GT will be held next weekend, August 19th-20th in Dallas, Texas. It is the annual GT put on by the good guys of the DAWGS, or Dallas Area Warhammer Gaming Society. Of which I am a member and where the name DAWG Bone Yard comes from.

I will be playing in the GT with hopes of doing well. I will be running my Skaven semi-horde army of 288 models. It is the same army I was playing in the battle report last week.

Here is a breakdown of my army:
Skaven Army 2248 points

Characters: I like 4 characters. I almost always play 4, but I like to go minimalist on magic items.
Warlord with Heavy Armor, Great weapon. This is about as minimalist as you can get. He is there for one reason, Ld 10 within 12" of him. He can show up with 4 str 6 hits in desperate situations, but never till the last turn of the game.

Plague Priest with flail. Again, no magic items. He is there for his 4 str 6 attacks and Toughness 5 makes him a bit tough to kill. He does ok, till he runs into the lord or tricked out character. He gives the Plague Monks a bit of a punch.

Warlocks full gear. So they are 2 2nd levels with 1 spell and pistols. I like this setup. You never know when that 1 pistol shot when you turn the unit, or stand and shoot can knock down a unit just a bit. And in hand to hand they get a str 4 attack and str 5 (-3 armor save) the first round of combat, giving them a bit of a punch.

For magic items I give one the storm daemon, which I have found is needed to give the skaven magic phase that little boost to make it really, really good. And the warpstone charm. What a great item. I always take this, if not on a warlock, then on my Warlord. But stopping a mistcast at a crucial stage, keep the storm daemon from running out, or stopping a 1 for the number of hits from warp lightning, can be outstanding.
The 2nd warlock gets 2 dispel scrolls. These are to stop the game winning spells. I have a tendency to use them too quickly, at this GT, my goal is to have 1 left going into turn 6.

Core: Oh yea, I love the core troops. The more the merrier and I bring a ton to the table.
4 units of 25/24 Clanrats. 25 if no character and 24 if I plan on putting a character in them. Standard and musician only. 10 points for a WS3, str 3 attack is a waste, so no champions. But 5 points for a troop that gets a 4+ armor save in combat is great.

4 units of 20 slaves with musicians. At 2 points a pop, how can you go wrong. The musican has allowed them to win a lot of combats and raises their chance to rally a lot for only 4 points. It is well worth it.

2 units of 18 giant rats and 3 handlers. 90 points for 21 models is barely over 4 points a model. And running them 4 wide I get 7 attacks on the charge. They move 12", have 3 ranks and 7 attacks and Ld 8 all on their own on the far flank.

So I've only spent 900 points and have 220 miniatures on the board. The above 10 units make up the bulk of my army and now allows me to spend my other points on some specialty units to give the army some punch.

We will start with 2 Ratling Gun teams. Yep everyones favorite weapon to hate. And while I think its unsportsman to bring 3+ of these, every Skaven army should bring 2. To not bring any is just being silly and caving into those crying cheese. Every army has their own set of cheese, ours is just easy to spot.

2 Rat swarms, a bit pricey, and will not be worth it after 7th edition, but right now, they are the best unit a skaven general could ask for. Favorite tactic with them is the stick and flank. See next weeks, Tactic of the week. They also work great for shielding the warlocks from those assassination attempts.

2 units of 6 Night runners with extra hand weapons. Not usually that great but for 42 points, how can you go wrong with them. When they are really needed, they can come up big for you.

7 poison wind globadiers. I still strugle to get these guys in the critical situation, usually they run around all game to get off one throw and do 1 wound. But for heavy knight armies, they are great.

Special:
19 Plague Monks with standard and musician. I usually give these guys the banner of hatred, but I had to trim some points so left it off this tournament. I hope I don't regret this, but it did cost me a game and a tournament before, so I'm dropping it. I run the plague priest in here, and these guys along with the plague censor bearers can give it some real punch.

5 Jezzails. Enough to shoot a few knights as needed, but not enough to make my knight opponents cry.

6 tunnel runners with poison hand weapons. These guys are just great. super for taking out warmachines, but fast enough to go after other soft targets like lone characters, fast cav and others.

6 gutter runners with poison hand weapons. Same as above, but scouting insted of tunnel.

Rare:
6 Plague Censor bearers, Frenzy, hatred, flails and fog of death. Enough said.
But these guys have won whole games for me, and have also failed horribly. Hopefully, they will work great this coming weekend.

Well, that is my army. 288 models of Skaven furred goodness.
Comments about the army are encouraged.

Last time I ran a skaven army in a GT was the Battle for the LoneStar Dallas GT almost 2 years ago when I went 4 wins and 1 draw and took Best Overall.

I'm not counting on doing that well again, but I am hoping to do well overall or in best general.

Ben

Greatest Sci-Fi Movie of all time

Hey all my readers, just got through watching what I consider the greatest Science Fiction movie of all time.

ALIENS

Yep, that would be the 2nd one, where the group of marines go back to the planet and fight the alien horde. What an awesome movie? Of course everyone loves such great lines as:
"Game over man, game over"
"Why don't we put her in charge"
"Maybe we got 'em demorilized" (actually edited out of the original movie.)
"Come on marines, we are leaving"
"I say we nuke the site from orbit. Its the only way to be sure."
"He's just a grunt. He can't make that kind of decision."
"Not sure if your keeping up with current events, but we just got our a$$es kicked back there."

And many, many more I just can't go over them all. If you've never seen the expanded version, you have to. They cut out so many cool scenes added back in for the additional 17 minutes not shown at the movies.

So if you have another Sci-Fi movie you think comes close, let me know.

Ben

7th Ed Rule Change of the Week

This new segment is my attempt to rip apart a new rule, try to find the best uses for it and what armies it helps or hinders the most.

The rule I'm going to look at today, is probably the most controversial and powerful of all the new rules. The Crossfire rule.

Not sure what it is really called in 7th ed, but it is quickly becoming known by this name.

The result of the rule is that if any unit is fleeing and must move through an enemy unit of Unit Strength 5+, the fleeing unit is destroyed.

There are a couple of exceptions:
1. Flyers may fly over units, must use their flying move when fleeing (ie, 3d6") and are only destroyed if they land in the enemy unit.
2. If a unit is fleeing and hits a unit of less than US 5, they will be moved just beyond them, if they were to stop on top of the smaller unit.

Units that will be able to pull this off the best.
#1: Skaven Tunnel runners. Even a small 102 point unit of 6 can pop up and spread out covering a good 10-11" swath of fleeing corridor behind the enemy lines. This makes an already powerful unit a must have in every Skaven army. Take 2 and your table edge just moved up 12-18" on you.

#2: Dwarf Miners: Where as before these guys were pretty useless not being able to come on and charge. Now these guys can pop up behind the enemy lines and be a real hinderance to enemy troops.

#3: Vampire Counts summoned units: Being able to summon up a long line of zombies behind the main battle lines has always been a powerful tool, now it is even worse. You have got to stop the "summon a new unit", or you will be running head long into a bunch of zombies.

#4: Beastmen Ambushing herds: These guys coming on your back table edge has always been a pain, but now it is even worse when you combine in a bunch of terror tests to get you fleeing right into the herds.

#5: Any fast cav: With many of these guys having between 16-18" move range, with free reforms, they can easily slip around or behind an armies battle line. Luckily they will have a small frontage and should only be able to crossfire, up to 2 units max. Those that move through woods unimpeded have a leg up even more since most units avoid the woods, Glade Riders, Cult of Ulric hunting hounds and a few others can use the woods to form gaps between units to run through and behind.

#6: Furies & Harpies: These cheap flyers are great for the roll. The ability to fly directly over the enemy and set up crossfires, gives them a great roll if there are no soft targets out running around. So expect a lot of people to take aim at these smaller nimble units to try and take them below US 5.

#7 Bretonian Pegasus Knights: With a US of 2 each, a small unit of only 3 can prove to be a great nuisance behind the enemy lines.

Things that won't work as well as people might think:
Skirmishers: With the march blocking rule for skirmishers now, they will have a very difficult time getting behind units. Only being able to move 6" max and some as low as 4 or 5", they will have a tough time getting behind the enemy lines to crossfire.

Other flyers and flying units. Great Eagles, warhawk units, terradons, will be able to get into position, but with usually less than US 5, they will not be able to crossfire.


Armies it helps the most:
Vampire Counts: This is a wet dream for Vamps. Being able to raise cheap zombies in the backfield right before your fear causers auto-break units right into them. Add on to the fact that they are not hurt by this rule at all and they are the clear winners for this new rule. It almost makes up for new miscast chart.

Tomb Kings: While tomb swarms are good for the crossfiring, even if a bit small, Tomb kings also have the ability to auto-break the enemy into waiting units. With their ability to get flank charges with their magic, they may be better off using fast cav to set up crossfire on the flanks instead of to the rear.

Beastmen: Their ability to take furies and ambushing herds, as well as terror causing creatures allows them to set up some very nasty crossfire situations. Though with their own low leadership, they could very well be on the wrong end of a crossfire.

Skaven: I put skaven here because a couple reasons. 1. Tunnel teams allow them to set up some good crossfires. 2. Usually once skaven start to run, they are the least likely army to stop anyway. Crossfiring a fleeing skaven unit, just speeds up the inevitable anyway.

Wood Elves with a lot of fast cav: With their ability to run through woods, the woods teleport ability, and their usual envelope type offense allows them to pull this off in the hands of a skilled player.

Dark Elves with a lot of dark riders: Same as wood elves and also have the ability to take harpies as well. Now add on multiple terror causers and you have a nice recipe for crossfire.

Those that it hurts the most:
1. Brettonians: Usually they fight on your side of the board. If they flee they usually get away and rally to come charging back. If you can pop down a cheap crossfire unit and break them into it, this hurts them a lot. And their only real unit to crossfire is the pegasus knights, which are a bit pricey for this role.

2. Dwarfs: With their slow flee anyway, it takes them longer to get to the board edge and with rallying on a 9 or 10, they have a great chance to rally. If you cut this off short, it will hurt a lot more than other units.

3. Lizardmen: The reason, is they like to flee with their skinks, and with cold blood are great at rallying. Their low leadership causes them to break from combat a lot with the exception of the SMP w/Tomb guard combo. So would be easy to set up those crossfires on them. Add on that they have no really good units to use as crossfire troops. Most people won't buy 5 terradons, just too pricey. So they will be the most likely to have crossfire done to them without them being able to pull it off.

4. Empire: They also have almost no units to easily get into crossfire position, and with their low leadership, could be running into a lot of crossfires against them.

*************
At first glance, I like this new rule. It will add in a lot more tactics into play about trying to keep small units out of your backfield. And you trying to get units into the opponents backfield. Sort of like cutting off supply lines.
Before you didn't care about small units behind your lines, now they could mean your death. And it gives those of us with a lot of small skirmish units something to try and do with them, in those games where they are useless.

Please post comments. And if you like the blog, click on the google ad above to help support the blog. Thanks.

Ben

Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

I'm going to take a quick break from Warhammer to talk about my latest diversion. The new TV Reality show, "Who wants to be a Superhero?"

This show airs on Thursday nights at 8 pm on the Sci-Fi channel. Stan Lee is the host and does an outstanding job.

When I first heard of this, I thought it would be the dumbest show on the air. But being a huge Stan Lee fan from Spiderman and the X-men, I had to tune in at least once.

About 5 mins into the show and I was hooked. I was really, really surprised. If you have not at least tried it out, do so. There are only going to be 6 episodes and we are through 3 already. They are eliminating 2 super-heros every show.

They started with 12 (but really 11, and IMO really only 10) superheroes. They were:
Cell Phone Girl, Creature, Iron Enforcer, Fat Momma, Feedback, Lemuria, Levity, Major Victory (my wifes favorite), Monkey Woman, Nitro G, Ty'Veculus and Rotiart.

Show one (I missed the first 15 mins) showed the opening casting call. The 12 selected hung out for a bit back stage and then took a Limo to the "Lair". Before getting to go into the lair the first super-hero was eliminated.

If you didn't see the promo or figure it out yet, Rotiart spelled backwards is Traitor. He had been trying to get some dirt on the superheroes and had succeeded. Levity was in it for the money. He was planning on making a superhero doll on his character and hoping to make millions. Hmmm, greed is not a great attribute for a super-hero.
So those 2 are already down. And the other 10 enter the Lair. It looks like a condemed building and elevator. When they get to the top, it is a very plush and awesome looking hideout. Wow, I love it.

Then onto the first challenge. They are taken to a busy city area. Here when called, they must go "change" into their costume without being seen and run to an archway. The real test is that along the way they pass a crying girl. Who will stop to help? Only 4 super-heroes stopped to help: Major Victory, Lemuria, Fat Momma and Cell phone girl.
The worst of the group was Nitro G, because not only did he miss the girl, he changed right in the open where anyone could see. Nitro G was eliminated.

Episode 2: Here the 9 remaining heroes are thrown to the dogs, literally. They must jump a fence and fight through 2 attack dogs to touch the back door and help a little old lady into her house. A superhero could quit at any time by calling uncle.
Ty'Veculus & Major Victory made it through with no problem. Iron Enforcer however made it to within a foot of the door and quit (huh?). This is when I started questioning him as a real superhero. All the superheroes either made it to the door quickly or quit within the first 30 seconds except for one, Monkey Girl. After having failing in the last show, she put on a show of willpower I haven't seen in some time. It took her almost 10 minutes, but eventually she made it to the door. Way to go girl.

The most pathetic was Cell Phone Girl who quit after 4 seconds. She jumped the fence, the dogs hit her, she hit the ground and yelled uncle. She was out.

Later they did a costume overhaul, which went well except for Ty'Veculus, who said he liked his, but didn't (it really did suck). After switching back, Stan called for another elimination. Iron Enforcer went. Huh?? Said he couldn't put his finger on it, but it had to do with Iron Enforcer's big gun.
But after he was out, he gets stopped and told, he makes a lousy super-hero but a great super-villian. So I think he was a plant all along. But he does make a great bad guy.

Episode 3:
This came on last night, and when the "Dark Enforcer" came in, it was a great confrontation between the "fallen" hero now super-villain and his ex-teammates.

Later, Stan asks each hero to go to the local cafe and pick up lunch, he wants to see how they think a hero should eat. It is of course a trap. A cute girl or guy is there to wait on the super-heroes as they come in and tries to get them to reveal their secret identity. Here we see Major Victory stumble for the first time as he caved into the cute girls smile. In fact every one of the 8 except Fat Momma and Feedback fell into the trap.
But of course their is always one that screws up worse than the rest. Monkey Woman not only gave her real name, but she did it without even being asked. But she also revealed websites she knew of for aspiring actors. Since she said on her application she was an investor, this threw up a red flag. She admited she was an actress and Stan gave her the boot. Got to be honest.
I really hated to see her go after her effort with the dogs in show 2.

Part 2 took them to the roof where on the next building was the typical hot damsel in distress. They were taken downstairs and brought up one at a time. They job, cross between the buildings on a 8-12" wide beam, get the girl and bring her back, BLINDFOLDED!! Ouch. They were also given a guide rope to hold onto while making the trip.
As it turned out, they laid the beam on the flat ground with mats on both sides, so if they fell off, no one was hurt. Everyone nailed it with no problem. So courage isn't really an issue with these folks. They are willing to overcome their fears to win the game. Not sure if these guys really believed they were 50' up with no safety lines attached, or if they figured it out. Either way, no one seemed to be slowed down by this challenge, which surprised me a lot.

So with no one failing in that trial, Stan pulls out a trick and asks each hero to pick who they think should be eliminated and why. Creature jumped on this one fast and picked herself in the selflessness test. Most of the others quickly jumped on the bandwagon except for Ty'Veculus who picked Lemuria and Fat Momma who picked Feedback.
But Fat Mommas was more out of concern for Feedback, while Ty'Veculus just didn't like Lemuria. Not sure why, I think it had to do with an argument she had with Fat Momma eariler. Either way this was a huge strike for Ty'Veculus and out goes the other Alpha Male.

This leaves only 5 super heroes left with Creature, Fat Momma, Feedback, Lemuria & Major Victory.
If I had to pick my favorites at this time, it would be Creature, just too hot not to like her, and Feedback. Love the outfit.

But my prediction to win will be Major Victory, my wifes favorite. He is just way into this and is nailing all the challenges except that one.

Hope you enjoyed it. Check out their website here:
http://www.whowantstobeasuperhero.tv/index.html

And tune in next week.

Don't worry, more Warhammer stuff later.

Ben

Battle Report: Dwarfs vs Skaven Part III

And the battle rages on...


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Dwarf Turn 4:
The Dwarven lord looked around and realized his missile fire had not done nearly enough to thin the ranks of this vermin horde. He ordered the charge and he along with his Army Standard Thane and Hammerers charged into the slave unit in front of them.
He was half expecting them to flee, but they held and were slaughtered under the onslaught of the Lords mighty rune blade and the numerous hammer blows that came down one after another. When the fur stopped flying the skaven slaves were beating a hasty retreat. The Lord and hammerers followed but were unable to catch the quick rodents. But more fresh meat was right in front of him as he slammed into their flank.

The thunder unit was in much worse shape as they were no match for the speed and quickness of the night runners. The rats hacked and slashed and dwarf after dwarf fell until only two were left standing and they ran for it. The night runners were too quick and the last of the thunderers were covered over with a swarm of rats.

The crossbowmen held strong and actually beat off the overrunning tunnel runners. But the tunnel runners held strong. And the other crossbowmen continued to fire quill after quill into the oncoming slaves.
The warriors could see themselves being outflanked and were trying to force the issue on one of the giant rat units.


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Skaven Turn 4:
Velsquee smiled, yes, the stunty things were falling into his traps. He called for an all out charge. Plague Monks and Censor bearers slammed into the rear of the hammerers while the clanrats #4 charged into their flank.
Slave units 1 and 2 along with the gutter runners all charged into the first crossbow unit.
And the clanrats #1 and giant rats surrounded the hapless dwarf warriors.

Every Dwarf unit except the warriors were now tied into combat. The day would soon be won.

The 2 crossbowmen had held on as long as they could and were hacked down with the poison blades of the tunnelers. The other crossbow unit #1 faired no better losing five to the poison blades and were broken and run down.

Finally, the Lord and Hammerers started pounding on the slaves to the front and killed more than a half dozen. But the fog of death from the Censor dropped 3 hammerers as well as a censor bearer. And then the combined attacks of the Plague Priest, Censor bearers, plague monks, warlock and clanrats claimed another 7 hammerers.
Even though the hammerers are a stubborn bunch, the thought of running crept into their minds. Velsquee could taste it. He could smell the fear in the air around them.

But the Dwarven Lord called to his troops to stand fast. The Hammerers took a look upon the army banner and realized if they ran, any survivors would surely be taken as slaves or have to buy some oarnge hair dye. They stood strong. Velsquee squeeked out a curse realizing he would have to engage in battle himself.


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Dwarf Turn 5:
With only 2 units left on the field of battle, the Lord was too preoccupied to worry about it. Amid the swirling blades, flails, blood and death, the Lord found his way to the Plague Priest Juhel. The fanatic priest was using his flail like a club now. The rest of the troops continued to fight but left a circle of dead bodies that the two fought in. The Dwarf lords speed was insanly fast as blow after blow rained down on the priest who seemed unable to turn a single strike aside. The priest poked with his club but to no avail. Luckily the rune blade was also turned aside by the tough hide of the priest, and his dozens of sores and scabs. Finally one blow struck true and the priest was knocked to the ground. Wounded but not out, the priest regained his feet and stared the dwarf lord down.

The rest of the skaven attacks were pretty useless except for the fog of death still being created by the censor bearers, but then the hammerers struck with a mighty force, driving the skaven back. But with Warlord Velsquee nearby along with their huge numbers most of the skaven units held firm. Only the censor bearers fled the combat.

The wariors on the other side of the field, made an ill advised charge and the giant rats skittered off to safety leaving the warriors in a very bad predicament.


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Skaven Turn 5:
The 2nd giant rat unit and clanrats #1 combined charge on the warriors, and while the armor on both side prevented any strikes from being true, the sheer weight, size and flanking attacks was more than the rune smiths had signed up for. But their fear was turned to horror as the rats quickly overtook their fleeing prey.

The Dwarf lord knew now that they were all that stood between the rats and victory. But he was still locked into combat with this priest who kept chanting over and over driving him nuts. He could hear on the other side of his combat a skreech that was followed by more rats charging into the combat. How many of these rodents would he have to kill? The Lord hacked again at the priest and ended his insane muterings. Then tried to fight his way across the melee that had broken down with rats, blood, fur and dwarfs strewn everywhere.
He got there in time to see the Warlord wound his standard bearer. This was an outrage but more hammerers fell and again the skaven pressed their advantage. Again the Hammerers gained strength from their Lord and banner and held steadfast as Dwarfs should.


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Dwarf Turn 6:
The Dwarf Lord yelled out that no matter the outcome, his troops had fought bravely this day, and this inspired them. The Dwarf Lord stepped in front of his fallen color bearer who was bleeding but still alive. And as quick as the skaven warlord was, the dwarf lord was quicker, striking blow after blow after blow. Velsquee shrank back as a slash across his chest and another on his thigh oozed with his black blood. He swung back with his mighty axe, but the dwarven armor was too tough until the final blow cracked the Dwarven Lord's chest plate.
The Dwarf Lord let out a curse to the gods, never in his hundred battles had he tasted the steel of his enemy. This rat was no match for him, but he was a cagey and slippery foe none the less.
The Hammerers went to town killing rat after rat goaded on by the words of their lord. The rats began to run. The clanrats, the plague monks and slaves, all ran. Only the Warlord and his body guard of clanrats held firm.


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Skaven turn 6:
All the fleeing skaven stopped to see how their warlord would fare with this Dwarf Lord.
Velsquee spat out a mouthful of blood. He knew the day belonged to him, but this stubborn stunty wasn't going to let him enjoy his hard fought victory. He knew it was time for a bit of trickery. With the Dwarf lords next strike, Velsquee dropped to the ground. Seeing their warlord fall, the clanrats turned and fled. Another clanrat unit nearby also turned and ran only being outran by the warlock in their midst.

The Dwarfs, bleeding, wounded and now outnumbered 15 to 1, grabbed what wounded they could and retired from the field of battle. It had not been a glorious day for the Dwarfs. The Lords only conselation was that he had put an end to the skaven warlord.

Velsquee stood up among the pile of dead rats around him. An empty jar of skalm rolled away from his feet.
The black hunger overtook him the rest of the skaven.
Dwarven meat is best served warm and raw!!


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This is what the battlefield looked like after the game ended.

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The battle was really fun, but my Dwarven opponent spent way too much on ruins and did not have near enough troops on the board. Ecspecially anti-magic runes, ouch, he had enough to shut down a 2nd gen slaan and 2 skink priests. He also didn't protect his flanks at all. This cost him badly. His missile fire was also very ineffective. Finally, only his Hammer unit being stubborn Ld 9 with the BSB saved the battle from being a total massacre.

All he had left on the board at the end was his Lord and BSB (both wounded, neither below half) and 7 hammerers. He captured one standard.

I had lost my Warlord, plague priest, 1 warlock who fled on turn 6, 2 clanrat units and 2 slave units. I had captured his warrior standard and held 3 table quarters.
Final tally of vp was:
Dwarfs: 1019 Skaven: 1925

I hope you enjoyed it and please leave comments.

Ben

Battle Report: Dwarfs vs Skaven part II

The mighty battle begins.

Dwarf Turn 1:
The Dwarven Lord looked out over the battlefield. His scouts had warned him of the rat horde, and of course he had heard stories over a good ale back in the Hearth of Karak Eight Peaks. But never could he have imagined the sight before him. His small force was outnumbered well over 3 to 1. This would be no easy battle, but he had faith in his runic hammer and armor. He would carry the day, he must.

First he ordered his faithful Hammer unit to turn and start making the march into the middle of the battlefield. He then ordered the Gyrocoptors to circle around and thin the ranks of the furred horde. The Thunderers felt they were out of range and moved up anxious to get into a fight. The Crossbowmen held their ground and thined out the slave unit (S2). The Cannon took a shot long and barely picked off a couple of clanrats from (CR4).


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Skaven Turn 1:
Warlord Velsquee looked out at the very small Dwarven force in front of him. He snickered to himself, this will be easy pickings. He Ordered his horde forward and everything jumped at his command. Velsquee liked it that way. The Gutter runner scouts in the woods were the only ones not moving, waiting for the right moment. The warlocks both joined up with the slave shields in front and cast their powerful warplightning.

Squelch let loose with a powerful bolt into a crossbow unit(x-2) on the hill. With irresistable force, the Horned Rat smiled down on the skaven forces and he hit and killed no less than 8 stunties in the unit.
Squeek seeing this, let loose with a powerful bolt of his own, only to see the rune smiths working their evil counter-magic sorcery to stop it.

The Jezzails opened up on the gyrocopter in the middle of the battlefield and hit it twice. It spun wildly for a minute but the pilot was able to retain control. Damn him, spat Velsquee. But he couldn't help but let loose with a wicked grin.


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Dwarf Turn 2:
The Dwarf Lord spat on the ground. By the Royal Blood that flowed through his veins, this was not a battle he would lose because of this vermin scums sorcery and shooting. He ordered his Warrior and Hammer units forward. He would take the battle to them if he had to kill a hundered of the rats himself. The Dwarf Lord, a veteran of a hundred battles, looked to his Ancestors for the strength to perservere. He ordered his missile units to thin the ranks some more. The Cannon overshot badly again and killed none. The crossbowmen continued to thin the ranks of the same slave unit.
The gyrocopter in the middle flew to the rear of the skaven units and blasted his steam, but it seemed weak and pathetic. Killing no more than a single clanrat and a couple slaves from s1. And to top it off, failed to catch the ratling gun in its crosshairs.
The 2nd gyrocopter decided it was too risky and flew back behind the safety of the woods. The thunder unit let loose with a volley on the rat swarms, but with the protection of the stone wall, they did nothing.


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Skaven Turn 2:
Warlord Velsquee smoothed his fur a bit after the cannon ball flew over his head. This pitiful shooting would not slow him down. The brown furred rats continued to surge forward into the hail of fire. Even the gutter runners ran out of the safety of the trees and into the dwarven flank.
The rat swarms on the right flank scurried over the walls and into the thunderer unit. swarming over them and dragging one of the brave dwarfs down. The dwarves swung their axes at the rats but there were many and only a couple of good blows fell.
The Ratling gun unloaded into the gyrocoptor behind the rat lines. A few warpstone pellets into the engine saw it crashing into the side of the hill.
The jezzails were a bit upset they were cheated of this chance to take down the coptor, shot some long range shots at the dwarf warriors and killed one from even this distance.
The warlocks were completely shut down and Squeek even had his spell destroyed, leaving him pretty ineffective for the rest of the game.


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Dwarf Turn 3:
"Damn them vermin scum" the Dwarf Lord raged as he watched helplessly as the mighty dwarven gyrocopter crashed to the ground. "Aim lower" he yelled to the cannon crew who again shot long but managed to kill a couple more clanrats. The Lord ordered the 2nd gyrocopter into the fray, get out there before its too late.
So the coptor flew over the woods and into the very midsts of the skaven horde. Firing its steam trying to catch the warlock and warlord in the blast. But both had clanrats jump in the way to save them. and the steam did minimal damage.

The crossbowmen concentrated fire on slave unit 4 and killed a few, but both them and the clanrats 4, stayed with the warlords leadership nearby.
The thunderers continued to battle the rats swarming over them, but their attacks were not affective against the small rodents, with only 1 blow striking true. Meanwhile, 2 of their own were drug down.

The warriors turned to face the gutterrunners and spotted the 2 large giant rat units coming around the woods as well. The rats were just too many and too fast.


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Skaven Turn 3:
Velsquee smiled, it was all coming together. Time to unleash his traps. The night runners charge into the dwarven handgunners, chopping down 2 more of the stunties, but the dwarfs refused to give up, killing 4 of the rats in the swarm allowing the battle to rage on.
The Plague Censor bearers charged the gyrocopter and it fled, running just out of reach of the fanatics.
The tunnel team popped up and charged into the unsuspecting cannon crew and slew them to a man and overran into the 2 dwarfs left in the x-2 crossbow unit.
The gutterrunners, wanting no part of the dwarf warriors ran around their flank and were in the rear arc of the 1st crossbow unit x-1.
The rest of the horde moved up. And the warlocks magic completely shut down.
The ratling gun on the ground shot into the Hammer unit. 4 hits, another hit, 2 more hits, then 6 more hits. 13 warp-pellets fly in and around the hammer unit, but most bounce off to their tough hide and only 1 falls to the ground.
The 2nd ratling gun on the hill aims down at the fleeing gyrocoptor. 6 hits!! What a great shot, but the warlord wanted to make sure he took down the nuisance. "MORE" he yelled. The skaven operator, shut his eyes and pulled again gently. Another hit, but only 1 more. But this was enough, as the 7 hits, jolted the gyrocopter around and it crashed on top of the wreckage of its brother.


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Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion.