Time for a Grand Tournament!!

It is that time again. The Lone Wolf GT finally cranks up today. I'm taking off work at 11:30 and heading home.

From there, I'll do some stuff around the house and head up to the GT around 2-2:30 to help setup.

I am bringing the same Doombull led Chaos Beast Undivided army I did last year. It always gets high praise for its painting and modifications I've done to it. Even did a minor amount of sculpting on it.

My goals this year:
Battle: Go 4-0-1 and capture 4 of the objectives. So 88 out of a possible 100 battle points. I've never done that well with this army but I figure I am due.

Sportsmanship: Get all good games and 1 favorite opponent vote. for 65 points. Lofty but doable.

Painting: I got a 65 out of 80 last year, and with basically the same army, but with hopefully a slight upgrade to my presentation I am hoping for a 70 this year. Not sure if this is doable, but we will see.

JR Points, I always get the 10, you are silly not to get that.

This would give me a grand total of 233 points. Which would have won Overall last year, edging out Rick Thompson's 232 point finish.

So my goal this year is no less than having a great time, score a trophy in something, either painting, general or overall and to finish higher than my 7th place finish from last year.

I have pretty lofty goals. Last year was my best chance to win, and I blew that. Now with the new High Elf book out, I could be looking at trouble there. No other armies bother me that much. There will be a ton of great GT winners there as usual, so it will be a tough row to how.

Well I'll let you know how I did Monday. Wish me luck.

Until next time...

Centaur Archer, up close and personal

As always, you can click on the pictures to make them larger. But I doubt my painting can stand up to that kind of scrutiny. This is the model I'm going to enter into the painting competition.

Comments are certainly welcome.

Pic 1:


Pic 2:


Pic 3:


Pic 4:



Well let me know what you think. Good or Bad.

Until next time...

Painting Diary

Late last night I finished painting my first centaur. It was one of the Archer models, and I have to say, I think he came out better than I have ever had a model come out before.

I used several new techniques in painting this model including, lining, blending and glazing. All of which I have never attempted on this level before.

I also finally decided on what colors to make the base. I found an online discussion about basing and there was one really interesting comment one guy made. So I used his suggestion and so far it looks pretty good.

Started with the primed white base. I then painted the sides black, and black washed the rocks and sand. I then used a dark green heavy dry brush over the black rocks and sand. Then a medium green, then a light green, then a yellow green. With light and lighter dry brushing. Compared the stark contrast of the black, it definetely looks different.

I then did some last second touch ups, one last layer of glaze on the skin, a bit of wash on the arrows and bow, then down to the garage for the dull cote. I definetely recommend Testor's for this. They have the best dull coat spray there is.
This morning I took a good look at the model and I'm very happy with the outcome.

Tonight I'll put some static grass on it, and get some pics to post tomorrow.

I've decided to enter this model in the Lone Wolfs small model painting competition.
Lone Wolf is only 4 days away and counting. Wish me luck.

Until next time...

BR: Twins of Khorne Vs Righteous Fury Part Deaux

Things were looking good at this point. My general holding after only getting 2 wounds on the champion was huge. 5 attacks, 3+ to hit and 2+ to wound with no save should have been 3 wounds at least. So now I had lost my frenzy.

Turn 4a: The Glorious Twins of Khorne
So we start off by rolling to see if the Monastery runs out and it does. So I had 1 roll on it and it failed.
I then roll to see if my flankers come on and they DO!!! Finally.

The Centigors after going frenzy drunk last turn, roll a '6' again and go frenzy again. They slam into the flank of the knights of the realm fighting my general.

My knights in the middle have to charge something, and the only clear charge is the Grail regalia. Stubborn 8 is nasty, but I figure I can wrack up a bunch of kills.
The marauders charge the trebuchet as well.

My hero rallies. My marauders move to block the BSB unit from charging my knights. The only way it works will be to take the charge which will redirect them behind my unit.

In combat, the trebuchet crew is wiped out. The Centigors and general + knights wipe out the rest of the knights of the realm. This leaves only the regalia combat.

I do all my attacks and with a 6+ armor and 5+ ward vs knights and 5+ armor and 6+ ward vs the chaos steeds, I end up with 6 wounds. He gets his champs attacks back, but only does 1 wound and I save. He has a stubborn 8. If he fails this, the game is over. He passes.

Then in what turns out to be the biggest combat of the game, my Dogs of war cannot kill that last peasent horseman and he makes his break test again!!

Here is the board after my turn 4.



Down to just 3 lances and the regalia, and he can't get to my knights for a couple turns, I'm feeling pretty good. At this point he has only killed about 390 points of troops + the 240 the phoenix killed. I've killed easily more than that and have 2 banners.

Turn 4b: The wicked Brets:
Without a lot left to do the generals unit charges the flank of my Dogs of war. His BSB lance charges the marauder fast cav in front of them. The last lance turns around and moves up several inches.

With no magic or shooting we go straight to hand to hand. His general wipes out both Dogs of war and the unit promptly overruns 4". The BSB knights wipe out the marauders and I needed them to overrun about 10" and they go 7". so they can see the back side of my knights.

In the Regalia combat, I only manage to kill 2!! How the hell does that happen. Hitting on 3+ and wounding on 2+ or 3+, how do I do only 2 kills. I lose combat, but hold. If I break, I'm dead. I lose my frenzy.

Turn 5a: Twins of Khorne: Things are still looking ok. I run my newly arrived knights up did get into charge range. But here I screw up. I should have pushed them the full 14" instead only moving them 7-8", I left Blake an opening.

The smarter move would have been to turn around and run for a corner.
I turn around the rest of my units.

In combat, again I kill 2 monks. He has not done a wound, but I lose by 3. I fail my break test and flee right into the BSB's unit and am wiped out. Here Blake screws up as it would have cost him nothing to pursue and capture the standard, but he doesn't do it.

Turn 5b: With no more threats on this side, he turns both knights to face the lone knight unit and runs that stupid fast cav guy in front of my knights. DOH!!

Turn 6a: The only charge I can make and I'm forced to is at that lone fast cav guy that had made 2 6+ armor saves and failed to break in 4 rounds of combat. As I charge he flees and I'm forced to catch him and move my full 14" coming up 2" short of his general's unit.

I run my marauders in front of the BSB unit, ready to sacrifice them to keep the knights from being flanked. I should have written off the knights and saved the marauders.

I did count up the monks and found out I was 2 away from getting half points for them. So 5 axes into them yields 2 wounds and 140 points.

I move my Centigors down to capture the table quarter with the graveyard.

Turn 6b: Brets last charge.

Generals unit into knights. BSB into marauders. He totally wipes out both units. The last knight with banner by a horse and I roll a '1' for his armor save. UGGHHH!! But he would have still needed insane courage to get stand. And he has the tapestry banner so each banner captured is double points.

We count up the points and its 560 points in his favor. 640 of it in that last turn.
240 for the knights
100 for the marauders
200 for the banner
100 for the table quarter

If I simply turn that unit around and go hide, I have a draw.
If those flankers come on one turn earlier I think I win.
If I kill that dogs of war fast cav, I think its a draw.
If I run my marauders to the flank of the monks and kill 2, I save their 100 points and contest the qtr for 100.

If I had pushed my knights up 14", then there is no way they get out of the charge range of the knights when they are forced to charge. Not sure it helps, but it couldn't have hurt.

Over all, this game could have really gone either way. Blake played a fantastic tactical game and handcuffing myself with a unit and hero going after the phoenix and then flanking the knights was a big mistake. One or the other was probably ok, but not both.

The phoenix should have died, but it wasn't ridiculous. That fast cav guy should have died, and while a bit lucky, was not ridiculous. I had a few lucky rolls as well. Overall, I thought it balanced out.

Well, the 2nd loss pretty much drops me out of the playoffs, barring some total meltdown of a couple players. So now to grab that dragon egg and still be chosen of Khorne!!

Hope you enjoyed it.

Until next time...

BR: Twins of Khorne Vs Righteous Fury

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of playing Blake and his Bretonians again. I met Blake in the Lone Wolf last year where his one vote gave 3rd players choice to Aaron's Vampire Counts army and his defeat of me in round 5 gave him Best General and me 3rd best general.

Blake is an excellent player who knows his tactics very well. I knew it would be a tough match-up. Since he was the home player he would have 2300 points. Since I failed the scenario 4 objective I was -100 points, so only had 2150 points.

This scenario involved a Phoenix. The object was to grab a phoenix egg. Not an easy task. In the 8 or so games already reported, only 1 egg had been grabbed. I knew it would be tough, but I wrote the scenario, and the eggs were vital for becoming a "chosen" in round 8. So I decided for better or worse, I'd grab an egg.
I devoted 1 knight unit and one hero to the task.

Then I for some reason decided to try my resource flankers, and sent another knight unit around to be my flankers. This had the cumulative affect of fighting his 2300 points with less than 1500 points.

My army looked like:
Exalted hero of Khorne on chaos steed, shield, Great Fang, Troll hide
Exalted hero of khorne on chaos steed, enchanted shield, rending sword, dragon wand

4 units of 5 chaos knights, standard, mus
4 units of 5 marauder horsemen, flails, mus
2 units of 6 centigors, LA, sh, spears, mus
1 unit of 5 DoW fast cav, bows, shields

His army:
General with lance of always hit.
BSB
Pegasus hero w/virtue to never be outnumbered

9 knights of the realm, full command
9 knights of the realm, fc
8 KotR, fc
8 KotR, fc
5 Grail knights, fc
Trubechet
5 Fast cav w/bows,spears, mus
3 pegasus knights, champion
22 Grail Retinue with full command

Turn 1a: Twins of Khorne: He prayed and so I decided to go first. My Centigors didn't drink so everyone moves up.
I throw 10 axes at the phoenix, do a couple wounds but he makes everyone of his ward saves.

Turn 1b: Evil Bretonians: He charges his Grail knights into my Centigors. I figure he will destroy them, but if he holds, I have a nice flank from my general and knights and if he does overrun I have a flank from my 2nd centigors. So I hold.

The rest of his army moves up. In shooting, his trebuchet deviates just enough to glance a knight and kill him. A knight I would sorely need later.

In combat, his grail knights only manage to kill 3 centigors. With my attacks I kill a grail knight. The centigors break. This causes the marauders in front of my general to panic and run. The centigors get away from the 4" pursuing grail knights but run into the knights of the realm and cause my 2nd centigors to panic and flee almost to the table edge.

Here is the setup after turn 1:


and the other half of the board:



From the first picture, my right to left you have:
pegasus knights by the graveyard and wall. Then a unit of 9 Knights.
Grail knights in the woods, then 9 more knights. Next to them are 8 knights with the general and the BSB with knights.
On my side you can see the fleeing centigors. The other centigors have already been wiped out.
Then my general with knights of khorne. They have the monastery on them, so gain a 5+ ward save. Then you can see a unit of marauders in front of his fast cav and the fleeing marauders behind them.

From the 2nd picture you can see his Pegasus hero behind the BSB unit. Trebuchet on the hill and then Grail retinue. On the hill is the phoenix in his nest.
On my side, you can see knights on the hill. They have stable so move 8". In front of them are my Dogs of war fast cav. Then 2 marauder units by the phoenix. And finally a unit of knights with hero in front of the phoenix.

Turn 2a: The glorious and good Twins of Khorne: I had a choice to take on the Knights of the realm or go for the grail knights. Grail knights it is. I feared the KotR would flee, leaving me setup for his general's unit to charge me.
And while I wanted to put a wound on the phoenix first, I decided not to wait any longer and charged in.

I rolled for my monastery and it stays on for this turn. Sweet. I roll for my flankers to come on, nope.

The fleeing marauders failed to rally but only go about 5 inches and stay on the table. But the centigors, who are right on the table edge rally. Whew!!

Shooting doesn't do anything, so onto combat.
My general's unit totally wipes out the grail knights. The Great fang counting for 3 of them. So my general's unit overruns and rolls 17". This will hit his knight unit in the flank. But then we remember his panic checks, and the knights I'm about to hit panic and flee. But the ones I want to flee closer to the middle hold strong.

Since he fled from the panic and not the charge I don't get to wheel that way, and instead run 17" into no where land.

Since the phoenix nest counts as an obstacle, I lost all my charge bonuses. Since my hero and phoenix had the same initiative, he let my hero go first. 5 swings gave me 4 hits and 3 wounds. He saves 2 of them. But the rending blade goes off. 2 wounds, damn, was hoping for 3.
The phoenix then gets pissed and kills off 2 knights. My last 2 knights attack and get in 2 wounds. He makes one of the ward saves. So he is down to only 1 wound left. Uggh, if I'd rolled 3 wounds on the rending sword, the egg would already be mine.

Turn 2b: The misguided Brets: His far right KotR charge some marauders who flee and are run down. His fast cav charge my dogs of war fast cav. His pegasus knights charge my centigors. I stand and shoot and he is just out of range so he stops just in front of my centigors. I do a wound on the stand and shoot.

his hero on pegasus charges a unit of marauders who flee and he is just short of hitting the next marauders.

His fleeing knights rally and turn to face my generals' knights flank.

Shooting does nothing and onto combat.
His fast cav takes down 2 of my DoW fast cav. But with their 6 attacks back kill 3 of the fast cav. I win by 2 and he rolls insane courage to stay.

The phoenix combat is another matter. I do a wound with my hero and he makes his ward save. His phoenix does 2 wounds but I make both saves. I then do a wound with my knights and he makes the ward. Uggghhh!!

Turn 3a: The Glorious Twins of Khorne: I roll for the Monastery and again it stays with me. Good, I will need it. But again my flankers fail to come on.

My centigors are drunk, and the mad mean kind. They go frenzy and swear to avenge their brothers. They charge into the pegasus knights who take it.

My khorne knights on the hill can charge either the hero on pegasus or the BSB unit. I opt for the lone pegasus hero along with a unit of marauders. He opts to flee. Since we have the same unit strength he rolls and flees from the marauders. This is really bad for him and my marauders catch him and get between his BSB and Grail retinue unit. More importantly my knights continue to face the front of his knights.

Both my fleeing marauders rally. One can't move, but the other can and runs back in front of his BSB unit. Throwing their axes they kill a knight and take out a rank.
My generals unit has no option but to turn around and face the full unit of knights of the realm.

Here is a pic before we get into combat:


In combat, the Centigors kill all but 1 pegasus knight and he kills 1 centigor back. He breaks and I run him down. With a decent overrun, they are in a great position to counter charge his Knights of the realm, if my general can hold.

The fast cav combat, we each kill one, and again the lone fast cav holds with insane courage.

Finally the phoenix combat. I do another wound to him, and again he makes his ward save. The phoenix then adds another knight to his pile of copses. And my last knight fails to wound. Its a drawn combat. But I cannot lose my last knight. The hero cannot pick up an egg by himself.

Turn 3b: The easily duped Brets: The knights on the far right charge into my generals unit. The knights on my side of the board charge my marauders who flee of the board. He moves his knights around to get more angled towards the phoenix.
He moves up his grail regalia.

In combat I fail to kill the last fast cav as he makes his 6+ armor save, and he does a wound, but I save it. He then rolls a 3 to hold. Geez!!

In the phoenix combat, my hero again wounds the big evil bird twice, and he makes both ward saves!!! NOO!!!!! he then promptly eats my last knight leaving the hero alone. I lose combat, and fail my insane courage and flee the nasty bird. That one hurt.

In the big combat, the knights charge in and the champion challenges. My hero gladly accepts and after brushing aside the one lance that hit his chaos armor, he killed the lowly champ twice over. His knights do manage to kill a knight with me failing the only monastery roll I had. I lose combat by 1, so lose my frenzy, but roll a 7 and hold. Whew!! That was huge.

This ends part 1 of this climatic battle. Coming soon part II.
Will those stupid flankers ever decide to show up?
Will anyone be able to get a phoenix egg?
Will that lone fast cav bring about my doom?

All thes questions and more will be answered soon.

Until next time...

Obama your mama

My Niece unfortunately did not surprise me when she said she liked Obama. Many of the youth in America do like him. He talks nice, he looks good. Hell, he probably even smells sweet.

But I see nothing of substance underneath. Not that I like any of the candidates. But Obama??

Have we really come to this in America?

He says he offers Hope and Change. But the only change I hear him talking about is Universal Health Care and surrender to the terrorists. Thats it. He says more jobs, he says better opportunity, but everyone says that. Where is the plan? Well I guess there will be plenty to rebuild our cities after they are destroyed.

Lets talk about Health Care first. Is there a place for our government to help? Yes. On the very low poor end and on the very high expensive end of health care. But for me and 90% of Americans, we want our health care to stay exactly as it is.

If I get sick, I can pick up the phone, make an appointment, have the doctor call me when they are ready for me in about 30 mins to an hour. I drive 10 mins to the doctor and see them within 10 more mins. So in 2 hours, I've seen my doctor and gotten whatever care I need for $15.

For major cases like Cancer, right now, you can see an Oncologist and start treatments within weeks. In "so called" great places with government health care, like Canada, you can end up waiting 6 months or more.

Medium cases, like say a kidney stone. There are 4-5 machines to treat kidney stones in the Dallas area alone. If you get a stone, see your doctor, he can have you treated within the week. And if its really bad, the same day. In Canada where they have 3, yes 3, machines for the entire country. One in Vancouver, one in Toronto and one in Halifax. There is a 6 month waiting list.

And lets not even get started on how good the care is, or lack thereof, or the fact there is no malpractice suits at all. I've had doctors tell me straight out. By September I've made all I can make in Canada, so I move to Florida to treat patients from October to December, or take a 3 month vacation. Oh yea, and taxes are 40-50% of your pay check to pay for this wonderful care.

And then there is the military. Being ex-military myself and my son being in the Air Force and in Iraq, what do you think this man, and I use that term loosely, is going to do if elected.
1. We will immediately pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Ok, not that bad, we have made a lot of progress in the last 6 months and in 12 months time it may be stable enough that when we leave things will stay stable. Then again, the terrorists may be counting on Obama to win and may just be laying low until we pull out.

2. He will begin to downsize the military to save money. Projects for military contracts will get cut, jobs will be lost. Ships won't be built. New tanks, planes, weapons, etc... will all be downsized, along with the jobs that build them. Reenlistment incentives will be dropped, so people in the military will get out when their time is up. Quotas will be lowered, a backlog to get into the military will fill up. All of these people will flood the job market that is already saturated. Many of them high school kids who are having to wait to get into the military, or can't get in now because they will raise the standards.
But all the low income jobs are filled with illegal aliens. Even though they won't be able to get the Amnesty bill through, he just won't enforce the laws like Bush and they will continue to stay and suck up all the jobs working below minimum wage and in bad conditions. Unemployment will sky rocket and the economy, already tittering on the age of a recession will plummet into one.

3. Without us in Afghanistan and Iraq anymore, Al-queda and the other Islamo terrorists will plan their next big attack on America. Knowing they have 4 years where we will not retaliate. They will kick back and realize they survived the hard 8 years with someone willing to fight them. But now back to the good times they had with Clinton. They will attack, and attack and attack. Cities will be destroyed, our military will be hit hard. And Obama will claim he is retaliating, but sending a missile into some desert tent like Clinton did. They will laugh at us once again. And we will be helpless to stop them.

So besides destroying our military, our health care, our economy, my paycheck with higher taxes, our pride and doing nothing to get rid of the illegal aliens in our country. What has he promised? What plans does he have? Because I've heard lots of talk of healing our soul (from a politician, yea right) and hope and change.

But in the end its a politician with no experience (beyond doing drugs), no military experience (oh yea, Clinton was great there) and no future for America.

While I don't like McCain either, at least he won't turn our military salute into what the French use in every war.

Until next time...

Long Weekend

Due to presidents day, my son was home from school, while the spousal unit had to work. So I stayed home giving me a 3 day weekend.

I played warhammer, watched movies, and played some more warhammer. 3 Games of Warhammer in one weekend. With the exception of tournaments, I rarely do this.

For movies, a wide range of Underdog, a fun little kids movie that stayed pretty true to the original cartoon. Was neat as the original cartoon was on the DVD as well. Talk about damage one superdog can cause, wow!!
It also included 2 viewings of Hairspray. This movie was my wife's selection and I was wary. Especially when it starts out with a musical number called 'Hello Balitmore'. But when it includes lines like:
"There is the flasher that lives next door,
And the drunk passed out on the barroom floor."

Its hard to not like it. It had a decent plot, good acting, Michele Phifer just gets better and better. Add in a good lesson on discrimination that crosses racial lines and more than what you are use to seeing, some funny gag lines, Christopher Walken and John Travolta as a woman and you have yourself a pretty good movie.

For a fun evening the whole family will enjoy, its worth renting.

The Warhammer went well also. A win a loss and my league game. I'll do a BR on the league game another day.

But for now back to work.

until next time...

TMoblile you SUCK!!

Rachel Lucas is always great about posting the obvious. This one touched my heart on many levels.

1. A 2 year old died.
2. A Navy man died.
3. T-Mobile were total pricks.
4. Others went out of their way to help when it wasn't necessary.

So go read the article here.

And then cancel your subscription to T-Mobile. What a bunch of A-holes.

Until next time...

To Paint or Not To Paint

I face a horrible dilemma. I recently found out the new Hordes of Chaos army book will be out at the end of this year.

I was planning on finishing up my Centaur army, which uses that book, for my army list. My plan was, finish the army by the end of the year, so in 2009 I can run the Twins of Khorne Centaurs in the 2009 GT circuit, while I paint my Wood Elves to be used in 2010.

But with the book being released right at the end of the year, my concern is that my army will no long be valid. That changes to the army could make it obsolete and illegal. I may have to change out arms and weapons, move things around, rebuild the entire army from scratch, if that is even possible.

So my option is, go ahead and buy my wood elf/Native American Indian, Comanche tribe, army, build and paint it for 2009. Then after the book comes out, take a good hard look at my Centaurs for 2010 and what needs to be done.

But the 2nd problem is, the models I have identified for my Comanche army are redoing the horses for the army, as they felt they were too small. And the manufacturer thought they might be ready in March.

So do I push through with the Centaurs and hope for minimal changes in the book when it comes out at the end of the year?? If it isn't usable, I can alway run my Skaven, or even update my Vampire army and run it.

Or do I buy the Comanche's and paint them up for next year. And look at the book when it comes, and then decide how to proceed?

Choices, choices, choices. What shall I do?

Until next time...

Next Fall

The writers strike is finally over. So what about our favorite shows. Just read an article on Yahoo here.

That says for many shows it will be another 6-8 weeks and for my favorite shows Heroes and Chuck it will probably be next Fall before we see another episode.

No word on my other favorite Pushing Daisies, so we will just have to wait and see.

So this spring it looks like Battle Star Galactica and the Sarah Conner Chronicles may be the best things on.

Chronicles was on again last night and it did not disappoint. Lots of good action. Lots of good scenes with Summer in them. 2 Terminators running around. An old ex-boyfriend of Sarah's come into the picture. And John's Uncle from the future falls into line. And where or where did the chess computer go??

Until next time...

Busy, busy, busy

I have been just swamped at work and unable to get on here and add much.

I did want to talk about the movie we rented this weekend Stardust.

Guys, go out and rent this movie. Sit down and watch it with your girl. If you don't get lucky, then she really isn't in to you.

It is a great date movie. It has all the love story crap that girls love, while being still a great fantasy movie, with plenty of action. Robert DeNiro is fantastic in his role. As is Michelle Phifer. The main characters also do a very passable job. The best part of the movie is the story itself. The transformation of the characters. The realization how shallow, narrow minded and petty we are.

I went to the movies to see this and as soon as it was available we rented it. I am pretty sure it will end up in our permanent collection.

Again, put this on your Netflix list and set it up for Valentines day.

I also wanted to mention my golf game last Sunday before the Super bowl.
I have recently picked up some new/used clubs and tried them out for the first time. The irons are a set of Ben Hogans and the woods are a set of King Cobras.
Hole 1 I use the 5 wood/iron on the 170 yard hole and land on the green!! Now if that isn't good karma I don't know what is. I had hit it right some, but it hooked slightly left and right on. I 2 putt to get the par.
Hole 2 is about the same length, use the same club and damn if I don't land about 2 feet off the green.

I go on to be only 3 over after 6 holes!! I was on a serious roll getting 4 pars in that stretch. I got a bit tired and came down to Earth for the last 3 to finish at 9 over for the 9 holes. But I am very happy with the new clubs. They worked great. I can't wait to get out and try them again.

Finally politics. I just cannot believe that we haven't even had our primary yet and my top 2 choices have already dropped out of the field. Now it looks like McCain will walk away with the Republican nomination while Hillary and Obama will have to fight all the way to the Democratic convention to get a clear choice there.

McCain really needs to pick a conservative running mate. We will just have to wait and see. But unlike others on the blogosphere, I just cannot vote for Obama or Hillary. Obama is so liberal he makes Ted Kennedy look conservative. Never saw a war he wasn't afraid to run away from. Never saw a tax hike he didn't like and never saw a handout he wasn't willing to give.

And Hillary, just gives me the creeps. You guys think Bush hides things and abuses the Presidential power. OMG!! just wait till Shrillary gets in there. This lady is beyond contempt. If she doesn't have blood on her hands, she is one step from it. Have you ever really read what happened with the Whitewater stuff? She was so much more involved than Billy boy. Half of those people are in prison for a reason. And there are plenty of skeletons, really, not figuratively, to go around.

Vote how you like, but remember we do have young men and women overseas, in foreign countries, fighting for the freedoms and liberties we now so casually observe. Think about what you are doing to them when you vote.

Until next time...

Battle Report: Twins of Khorne vs Chaos Beasts Part II

When I left off, the Beasts of chaos were well ahead and there magic was enough to get through about 1 spell a turn. He had miscast in turn 2, but the result was only that I could cast a spell. Its the only one any of my opponents get anymore. ;)

But his general now realized there was a threat to himself and still not a single Chaos knight had been killed yet. And as long as I had those, I still had all my dispel dice and a chance.

Turn 3a: Beasts of Chaos
His only charge is to send the chariot at my marauders that had just wounded his general.
He then on cue rallies both the Dragon Ogres and Beast herd. He could have charged my fleeing centigors but felt that would leave himself open for a flank charge from my chaos knights. So he pulled back slightly.
He flies his Exalted Daemon behind my knights.

Magic kills off a couple of centigors. That was it. No hand to hand so onto my turn 3 with this setup:


I measure for my frenzied charges and the only one in range is the knights into the flank of the chariot. The other chariot and minotaurs are just out of reach, as are the dragon ogres. :(

So of course the chariot flees the charge and runs 14" and barely hits my generals unit killing 2 knights while being destroyed himself. Not good.

But on the bright side, all 3 of my fleeing units rallied, which I desperately needed. I move my knights through the ruins, barely making it out. I figured I have to stop screwing around with my general and run him right up on the chosen knights. This is a huge risk, but I have to do something.
I get to move the one marauder unit who runs behind the Exalted daemon again and throws, but does nothing.

I back up my knights some to keep them out of range of the minotaurs and dragon ogres.

At the end of turn 3 this was the setup:


Note that the chariot with the yellow X on it, was destroyed when it hit the knights while it was fleeing.

Turn 4a: Now it was time for the beasts to get bold. Chariot into the flank of the knights. Chosen knights into the general's unit. He was looking at putting the minotaurs into their flank, but they had no LOS.
He does not charge the minotaurs into the Centigors. Might have been tough with the wall there, but I felt he should have.
The herd #3 also fails its unruly and is forced to charge the chaos knights on the left side.
His plans are starting to unravel now.
He maneuvers the minotaurs and Dragon Ogres around, again trying to stay out of my charge range. Here I think is a huge mistake. With 2 to 1 advantage, you take it.

Move the minotaurs in front and angle the Dragon ogres but stay out of range. My knights are forced to charge. Minotaurs flee. Dragon Ogres hit knights in the flank. Break them, overrun close to my general's unit.

He also runs his great bray shaman up by himself close to the wall to get off the Hunters spear on my centigors. In magic he does kill a few centigors dropping their number to 3 (mistake showing 4 later).

In combat, the chariot gets 7 impact hits but only manages to kill 1 knight. And with numbers and standard I win, but he holds. I make a mistake here, and turn my knights to face the chariot. My thinking his chariot will hold the next round as well.
His herd #3 totally whiffs on my knights getting 0 wounds and my knights rip them apart. After he fails his insane courage, I overrun into the big herd #1 and his wargor. His great bray shaman panics and runs.

In the big knights combat, with his 15 attacks, he only manages to kill 1. As he only got 3 hits and 2 wounds. I saved 1. My general then kills 1 and my knights kill 1. So I win combat by 1!! That is a huge turn around.

So things are really starting to take a turn in my favor.


Turn 4b: Twins of Khorne
Things are looking up here. The Centigors go frenzy. Needing to charge something I can hit the big minotaur unit or go for the fleeing bray shaman. I decide taking out the level 4 shaman is paramount. He only flees 6" and the centigors are able to run him down and get out of the charge arc of the minotaurs.
I decide the right flank needs to be fixed. I pull the hero out of the unit so we are 2 on 2 instead of 2 on 1.
I run my other marauder unit up to the Exalted daemon who didn't move last time. I had made my terror test from the other, so together I'm able to put 10 axe shots on him. With 4 wounds, he saves 2 with his ward. Then with the troll hide, he saves 1 more. So still alive but barely.

In combat my knights decide to avoid the wargor and just go for gors. I kill off 7 of the 8 including the champ. Leaving only the banner. His ungors and lone gor whiff. But the wargor stands strong and hits all 3 times and then wounds all 3 times. So needing a 5+ armor save, I make 2 of the 3. (forgot to delete one in the pic.) But even with 2 ranks, US, and banner, I win 8 to 5. Needing a 4 not to flee, he fails and is run down.

I wound the chariot, but he saves. He then whiffs his attacks on my knights and needing a 6 to stay, he fails and flees. I pursue but am now in a single file. He runs 9" and I run 10". So he doesn't hit the minotaurs, causes no panics and I fail to hit the minotaurs by 1". Ugghhh!! The worst possible outcome.

In the big knight combat, my general goes on fire hitting 4 times and wounding 3. He fails 2 of the saves. My knights then hit all 4 times and wound 3. He fails 1 and his chosen knights of tzeentch are now history.

And just like that, the game has completely changed. I look up and there is nothing but despair on my opponents face. The game that seemed so much in the bag after turn 3 all of the sudden has completely fallen apart.


Turn 5a: Beasts of Chaos
The beast general was now in full salvage mode. what can he get quick? He charges the minotaurs in. One on the knights one on the hero. He backs his Dragon Ogres up. And in a bid to save his general he flies the scared daemon over to the idol.

His magic is completely shut down. In combat the minotaurs kill the only knight in combat with them, but that was all. With US they win and I am no longer frenzied, the knights fail their insane courage and flee. They easily get away from even the blood greed filled minotaurs.

On my heroes combat, they swing away and get 3 hits. Then wound all 3 times. With his 0+ armor save now at 3+, he saves 2. But he is also wearing the same troll hide as the daemon and makes his 5+ regeneration roll. The hero really does poorly back only getting 1 wound, but with the rending sword it turned into 3 and a minotaur dropped. So the lone hero wins combat but the minotaurs hold.


Turn 5b: The Twins of Khorne
With no charges to delcare, the knights on the right back up for a possible turn 6 charge on the minotaurs if they are still around.
The knights rally.

I run the marauders around the minotaurs and throw axes at them. Killing 1 but he makes his panic check.
The centaurs, not needing a terror test as they failed one earlier, just move up around the corner and lob their str 5 axes at the Exalted daemon. With 3 hits and 2 wounds, it was too much and the horrid beast was sent back into the warp.

In combat, my hero gets 2 wounds that turns into 4. His minotaur gets 2 wounds back, but when my hero makes both armor saves, the minotaurs flee with the hero quickly overtaking them and claiming their skulls for khorne.


Turn 6a: Beasts of Chaos
The minotaurs charge the chaos knights who flee. And the dragon ogres back up.

No magic, no shooting no combat.


Turn 6b: Twins of Khorne
With the game in hand, there were no charges to be made. The knights fail to rally and I forget to use the idol to re-roll it.

The marauders run up behind the minotaurs for one last volley. The knights on the right move down to claim the table quarter.

I search the idol for the elusive key and it in fact eludes me and I am unable to accomplish the mission of finding the key. This will cost me severely in the next round of the league.

Before I throw my axes, my opponent graciously concedes.



Final thoughts: David was a great sport throughout the entire game. I on the other hand was a prick as usual when things went bad. Took me a turn or two to get over it. No rules arguments, but 2 iffy calls that we disagreed on.

One was the chariot. I wanted to measure a lot closer, as I thought it had a chance to miss my knights when it fled, but he had already picked it up, so we couldn't check for sure.
The 2nd was the minotaurs into the flank. It was close, but he conceded. Not sure if it was because of the chariot issue just 5 minutes before, or because he felt bad for me because I was getting stomped.

Either way, after those 2 I think I settled down, and started playing without any more issues. Except for my dice going insane hot in the combat phases. It was not uncommon for me to roll 5 dice and get 4 6's to hit.

The herd going unruly was a huge blow as it allowed the 1 unit of knights to roll those up. And then the great shaman fleeing right in front of frenzied centigors was just unlucky. And not sure if he moved the Exalted daemon up to try and search for the key in turn 6, but putting it right in range of my centigors with axes turned out to be his doom.

Overall, it turned out to be a really fun game and of course I felt like dog crap afterwards for getting mad at my dice after his turn 1.

I think it turned out to be a very intense game where both of us really wanted the win. And at the end of the game I just looked over at David and said, "What the hell happened?"

His lack of getting the Beast cowers spell really hurt as well as any real powerful spell for the fire lore. But 10 Power Dice and 1 bound item had a rough time against 8 Dispel Dice.

In the end, the armor and strength of the knights came through. And I need to remember as long as I have them, I stand a chance.
SKULLS FOR THE SKULL GOD!!

Hope you enjoyed it.

Until next time...

Battle Report: Twins of Khorne vs Chaos Beasts Part I

I played my 4th League game Saturday morning. David and I are both Stoners (and not as in drugs, but for those who know what I'm talking about, hey.)
Like all my posts, click on the pictures to enlarge them.

We met at the Lonestar comics in Arlington and got right into it.
We rolled up 6 pieces of terrain. We ended up with 3 hills and dropped one for the Ancient Idol which is in the scenario.

The scenario involved trying to find a key carved into the idol. You had to have a unit stand close to the idol and do nothing for a whole turn. Then you could find it on a 4+. In addition, when you found the key you could find a magic ring on a 5+.
You got 50 vp for the key, and 50 for the ring. And any unit that found the key did not give up any vp for being under half.

My army was my typical Twins of Khorne with only a couple of exceptions.
I swapped out my no armor save sword for the d3 wounds and echanted shield.
And with my extra 50 points for being the home team I took the banner of rage.

Twins of Khorne
Exalted hero of khorne on chaos steed, shield, gaze of the gods, sword of might, wand of dragon slaying, general.
Exalted hero of khorne, on chaos steed, rending sword, enchanted shield, troll hide
4 units of 5 chaos knights of khorne with standard, mus. 1 with banner of rage.
4 units of 5 chaos marauder horsemen w/flails, throw axes, mus
2 units of 6 Centigors w/light armor, shield, spears, throw axes, mus
2 units of 5 Dogs of War fast cav w/bows, shields, mus

Davids Arkenrok's Ambushers
Exalted Daemon, undivided, unliving idol, soul hunger, troll hide, lvl 2 fire, general
Greater Bray shaman, power familiar, crown of horns. lvl 4, beast
Wargor, great weapon, armor of damnation
Beast herd #1, 8 gors, 10 ungors, full command
Beast herd #2, 6 gors, 6 ungors, foe render, mus
Beast herd #3, 6 gors, 6 ungors, mus
5 Warhounds
2 Tuskigor chariots
5 Chosen Chaos knights of Tzeentch, Banner of Wrath
5 Chaos furies
2 units of 4 Minotaurs
3 Dragon Ogres

here is the setup:


For terrain, on the left we had some ruins, and then 2 walls that made a V shape. A small hill next to the walls. In the center we had a small building with the statue on top. It is designated in the drawing with the giant. On the right we have a woods and then a hill up on the top right.

His deployment left to right was:
furies, herd #3, herd #1 with wargor and great shaman (green), minotaurs, 2 chariots, hounds, knights, with Exalted daemon behind them. Minotaurs, herd #2 and finally Dragon Ogres.

Mine left to right was: knights and marauders, centigors, knights and marauders, knights with general and marauders, centigors, DoW, marauders, knights with banner of rage and hero, Dogs of war.

I had the option to go first, but with no shooting on his part, I let him take the first turn. Probably a mistake.

Turn 1a: Beasts.
He moves his units up a bit but not much. Then in magic, he is casting and I am dispelling. Finally his exalted daemon casts Fireball on the chaos marauders in front of my generals unit. I'm not to worried about it as much as the burning head spell coming next. So I let it go. Big Mistake.

He rolls 6 hits on 1d6. Then needing 3+ to wound, he gets 5 wounds. Ok, wipes out the whole unit. No biggie, only 1 panic test needed on the Centigors. Needing an 8, they roll a 9.
They promptly rotate their unit directly right and flee 12". Well thats not so bad, except there is no place for them to stop and they flee right off the board. This causes panic checks in the marauders and both Dogs of war fast cav units. All but the last Dogs of war fast cav flee and right off the board.

There goes 440 points worth of troops lost on turn 1, and my entire right flank.


The red star is where the fireball hit. The yellow 'X's show which units were destroyed.

Turn 1b: Twins of Khorne
So this is what I had at the beginning of turn 1:


You can imagine how I felt. This was going to be a long game. And at the time I was thinking not very fun either. Boy was I wrong.

I decide at least go for the key before I lose everything. My army moves up. I shoot my Dogs of war at the Dragon Ogres and do a wound. I throw axes at the hounds killing 2. They flee through a chariot, but he makes his panic test.

Here is the setup at the end of turn 1. Somehow I didn't feel things had evened out.


Turn 2a: Beasts of Chaos
The furies charge my marauders who flee and go through my knights. The furies can hit the knights or stop right in front. 20" lands them right on the knights. So he charges the knights with the furies.
He charges herd #2 into my Dogs of War fast cav. After looking at it closely, I flee off the table.
His hounds fail to rally and run off the table.
He flies his Exalted Daemon behind my left flank.
moves everything around a bit, moves his chariots up.
He then gets off wolfs hunt and his chariot charges my marauders by the idol. I flee and run past the daemon.
In hand to hand the furies do nothing and are hacked down and destroyed.

Here is the setup at the end of turn 2a:


Turn 2b: Twins of Khorne
I start off with the centigors failing their terror test and fleeing. Knights on the left can just hit the herd #3 through the ruins. They charge, he flees and gets away.
On the right flank knights charge herd #2. He flees, but only runs 3". I catch him and was about to end up right in front of the Dragon Ogres. But his Dragon Ogres panic and run 10" away. Whew!!
I move my knights in the center up, and move my general to the flank in case the Exalted decides to charge in.
1 unit of marauders rallies and runs up to the daemon. The other fails but only flees 9" and stays just barely on the battlefied.
In shooting I get 3 hits and 3 wounds on the Exalted. He fails all his ward saves, but the league item troll hide gives him a 5+ regeneration roll. He makes 2 of them and saves the Exalted.

Here was the end of turn 2.


Things are still not looking good for the Twins of Khorne. But better than before. A couple of failed rallies and things could turn around. But still way behind.

Coming Soon Part II

Until next time...

The Super Bowl was Super Again

I wasn't planning on tuning in to watch the super bowl, but I am always a sucker for the SB ads every year and as it turned out there was a hell of a game being played.

I hate the Giants as much as the next guy. Only teams I hate worse than them are the Redskins, Eagles, 49ers and now the Patriots. I routed for the Pats when they won their first superbowl 6-7 years ago. But now going for 4, with Belacheat as their coach, I can't stand it.

After the Cowboys QB coach gets a 5 game suspension for taking HGH to help his disease, and Belacheat gets a wrist slap for filming other teams. Now its coming out, he filmed the Rams walk through years ago before their first SB they won. Damn, how long has this guy been cheating.

I just had to laugh at him as he cried his way off the field before the game was even over. 18-1 but ohhhh, what a 1. They went from the best team ever in the history of the universe and in the last minute of the game, went to a laughing stock.

This game had nothing to do with the Giants winning, it was all about the Pats losing.

The game itself was also very exciting, as there was never more than a 4 point lead throughout any part of the game. And 3 4th qtr drives to take the lead.

After the giants score to take the final lead. The Pats get the ball back. 30 seconds left, 3 time outs and need to go 40 yards. So what do these idiots do. Try to throw the ball deep 4 straight times. He gets sacked once. They burned a timeout when the clock was stopped. They were in total panic mode as their perfect season slipped away.

All I have to say is: HAHA!! What a bunch of losers. And Belacheat leaving the field with still a second on the clock, even with the ref yelling at him, that there was time left and he needed to get back. What the hell kind of bad sport, does that on the worlds biggest stage in the world? A loser and a cheater.

I also enjoyed many of the commercials and thought many were really good. I loved the Cavemen, carrying the bud light on the wheel. "Wheel Sucks"
The Fed Ex with the giant pigeons was awesome.
As was the fire breather for bud light.

I have a lot of other stuff from the weekend to talk about. Movie Saturday night, Golf on Sunday, Warhammer with Battle report coming Saturday morning. Overall a great weekend. The super bowl was just the icing on the cake.

Until next time...

Death Frenzy, the perfect target

The Death Frenzy spell in the Skaven spell list is kind of a 2 edged sword. The last thing you want is for all your skaven slaves or clanrats to go chasing after units just so they can get flanked.

I almost never want slaves to charge. EVER!! Unless it is a flank. I charge, you win, you pursue when I break. You are now lined up to charge my clanrats. Bad move.

So what are good targets for Death Frenzy in the Skaven army.

1. Rat Ogres. Rat Ogres are a good bet because they panic so easily. With no rank bonuses, and only Ld 5. Their handlers are usually killed pretty quick. Extra str 5 hits, are a real bonus and not having to worry about panic is a huge benefit.

2. Weapon Teams. While this may seem like a very strange place to put a frenzy spell, it is actually very good. Since the weapon team has the special ability that they never have to charge even if frenzy, they get to ignore that drawback. They become immune to panic and terror as well. The only drawback is they may not flee a charge.

3. Warp Lightning Cannons. Now these guys may be the perfect target for the Frenzy. Frenzy has 2 main drawbacks. A. You must charge if in range. Since the warp cannon cannot charge ever, then it gets to ignore this drawback. And B. You may not flee a charge. But again the Warp Cannon has a special rule that allows it to flee no matter what, even if it cannot. So in the Warp Lightning Cannon's case, the spell simply becomes an immune to panic and terror tests.

Until next time...

Zip Kicker, its the stuff

Oh MY God!! This stuff is the bomb. How have I gone this long without ever finding out about this stuff.

Just about any super glue you use works. Just give it a small squirt of this and its instantly bonded.

This morning I was in a rush but wanted to glue some broken parts on 2 models.
I put a little glue on an arm and held it in place.

I laid him down so the arm could glue and went to work on a wing that broke off a model. The model and wing were both metal. Decided I better use the Zip Kicker. Put a drop of glue on the wing, held it in place and a small squirt and it was done. I could pick up the model by the wing and shake it. It was permanently sealed. Damn!!

I went back to the guy with the arm, arm still moving. Not dried. So a quick squirt and done. So I put a drop of glue on the gun arm, put it in place. A small squirt and done. Its like it had dried overnight in less than a second.

I just love this stuff. The only problem is it stinks to high heaven and is probably totally toxic and will give me cancer. But I'm willing to take that risk.

So if you get frustrated with super glue and putting models together. This is the stuff to get. Small silver can, black cap. Get it.

Until next time...