The Return to Naggaroth

Since my return to blogging and hobbying, so far this month I've focused almost entirely on new projects, and in most cases these have been for new games as well. I did post once or twice almost a year ago about assembling some Skorne models but otherwise this has been all new ground for diceRolla. It was therefore a surprisingly pleasant return to the familiar for me when I unpacked my Dark Elves earlier this evening. They've been stuffed away basically since finishing the tournament at Adepticon so it was nice to take them out of their foam and let them breath the fresh air.

After working so intently on the Dark Elves for much of the start of the year, post-convention I was initially relieved to set them aside and tinker with other interesting miniatures while I prepared to move to North Carolina. Having gone through my hobby hiatus and then having right away started a bunch of new army projects, now that I'm at last getting back to my Dark Elves it seems like I've bridged the gap between my hobby activities from before and then after the move. I feel refreshed and am excited to return to painting my treacherous Druchii friends.

When I left off working on these Dark Elves I had been scrambling to provide everything in my 1000 point army with at least a first coating of paints. It was a close call but with DrGabe's help I made it just under the wire, even receiving a higher painting score than I had expected. A few of the units are somewhat further along but the majority of them have received only that initial round of color. As the general of the army I spent some extra time working on the Sorceress so I suspect finishing her could be done rather quickly. That's likely where I'll start up again, although painting the War Hydra is very tempting to me.

The Cold One Knights pictured above were DrGabe's contribution to my late night paint-a-thon leading up to the tournament. It's impressive what he was able to achieve with just four hours to paint and a little Jack Daniels to keep him motivated. :)

While I finish painting the first 1000 points of my army, I will also plan how I want to expand the army beyond what I already have. Although it was only four games, the tournament I participated in nonetheless was still helpful in giving me a better sense of how my army functions and where it needs to be strengthened. First off I plan on increasing the size of the Black Ark Corsairs unit by the remaining five models that I own, though I can easily envision taking it up to a size of 25 or 30 Corsairs. I also want to add a second unit of Repeater Crossbowmen as the first unit performed well when tested in battle. They were admirably reliable killers.

Another core choice of troops that would be very helpful I think would be just a basic unit of Dark Elf Warriors. They would act as a dedicated bodyguard unit for the Sorceress and likely not be meant for use as one of the primary combat units of the army. In my tournament games I kept the Sorceress deployed with the Corsairs thinking this would help keep her safe from sniping. Instead as the Corsairs were my main combat unit this put her far too much into harm's way and, thanks to a couple of brutal miscasts, proved on occasion disastrous for the Corsairs as well. Therefore having the Sorceress safely tucked into a unit of cheap Warriors, from whence she can cast her spells with reckless abandon, seems like a good way to go. Hmm... a Master to carry the army's Battle Standard should also be another early addition.

So while I consider all these options and decide what to add to the army next, in the meantime it just feels really good to be talking Dark Elves again. I think it was helpful for me to take a little break from the Druchii after Adepticon to avoid burning out, but I am now definitely happy to be returning to them. Having reviewed the army and where I left the project, I am ready to get back to it right away.

Happy painting and gaming!

A Rising Waaagh Lifts All Orcs

Earlier this year I asked fellow blogger DrGabe if he would be interested in doing some commissioned painting for me. He had been working on what was to be a 3000 point Blood Angels army when, halfway through the job, his client ended up having to quit the hobby entirely. Thus the completed portion of the army went off to eBay and DrGabe, as it seemed only natural to me, was presumably left befuddled with how to use his newly liberated painting time. Sensing an opportunity to exploit a longtime friend, I delicately broached the subject with him.

"If you can paint an army for a stranger, you can paint one for me!"

Or maybe at the time I was more diplomatic about it, there are conflicting accounts about how it all went down. In exchange for a bunch of Eldar minis I'd stashed away for the better part of a decade, DrGabe agreed to paint an Orcs and Goblins army for me. Turns out he was in fact eager to paint a Fantasy army as a change of pace and for the opportunity to develop different approaches to painting. DrG had told me he was particularly keen to practice his speed painting techniques and thus an Orc Waaagh would be quite suitable to that.

Perfecto!

The O&G models that I shipped to Gabe mostly date back to the early days of the Battle for Skull Pass era and had been untouched since then. Although I know I would have enjoyed painting this army, after choosing to go with the Dark Elves for my main Warhammer faction I realized it was unlikely I would ever get around to working on these greenskins. I'm therefore very happy to have entrusted them to DrGabe as I knew he would do a great job with them. We discussed what type of army I wanted to have and kicked around ideas about the potential composition, background, and color scheme options. Ultimately I gave him instructions along the lines of a more or less traditional O&G force, though perhaps a tad livelier with some extra orange and purple added to the selection of colors.

There was one detail however about which I was more specific, and that was the treatment of the bases that I wanted. I had been inspired by a passage of background from the current Orcs and Goblins army book about the greenskin tribes who live in Naggaroth. It tells of their history of originally being enslaved in huge numbers by the upstart Dark Elves and then being forced to wage war on behalf of the Druchii. Eventually the Orcs fought their way out of captivity, established themselves in the wild lands, and hence forth have been a sometimes-enemy, sometimes-ally of their former Dark Elf masters. It was this little nugget of fluff that provided the inspiration for this army in addition to being the reason why we elected to use snowy, icy bases befitting Orcs living in the Land of Chill.

I plan on trying to emulate DrGabe's technique creating snowy bases for my Dark Elf army. I think it will therefore look really nice when I use the armies to fight against each other when providing an army for an opponent to use, but would also appear complementary should I want to ally the two armies together for really big games. I'm sure when we get together it will be a blast to play a game against each other using these two armies. Just the thought of that has really motivated me to get back to work on my Dark Elves. Groovy!

The Night Goblins seen in the above picture are the first unit finished for this Waaagh-in-Progress. I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. If you want to check out any of his previous posts concerning the army project, I encourage you to utilize the following link:

http://drgabe.gabeusry.com/search/label/Orcs

Summer is always a busy time for the good Doctor so it looks like things have become understandably quiet lately at his blog, DrGabe's Miniatures. He's off to Gen Con in a day or two so hopefully he might be able to get some interesting photos of all the neat new things there on display. I've duly complained about his recent lack of posting (haha!) and have encouraged him to share anything really cool that he sees with his lucky Followers.

After his trip to Gen Con however I have threatened to banish him to the salt mines if he doesn't get back to painting my Orcs, so I expect the Waaagh will be growing again very soon...

[Evil hand wringing ensues.]

Goodnight, everyone!

It's How You Use It - Round 1

For my first game in the 1000 point Warhammer Fantasy tournament, my Dark Elf army was matched up against a Dwarf force commanded by Bill, one of the co-hosts of the Gamers Lounge podcast and author of The Dead Tau Project. Cool! There were some problems with the registration and check-in process for the tournament and so Bill and I had an extra long time to talk before the start of our game. It was a lot of fun and was good for my pre-game jitters too. Bill assured me that he was very new to WFB as well and that we'd be making mistakes and looking up rules together. Unfortunately we missed the announcement to begin playing as we chatted on about Malifaux and the upcoming NOVA Open, until we at last noticed all the players around us were already deep into their first turns. Oops! So in a rush we flipped open our mission packets and got underway.

The tournament used a closed-list format and required opponents to exchange army lists at the conclusion of the game. I therefore didn't know any of the following specifics about Bill's choice of runic items until learning about them during the course of our game. Otherwise we went over the units in our respective armies before deploying to make sure everything was clear. Details about my Dark Elf army can be found here, while Bill's army consisted of the following units:

Dwarf Lord: Shieldbearers, Rune of Might, Rune of Stone, Master Rune of Spite

Thane Battle Standard Bearer: Rune of Cleaving, Master Rune of Gromil

18 Longbeards: great weapons, shields, heavy armour, full command

14 Hammerers: great weapons, shields, heavy armour, full command

Cannon: Rune of Burning, Rune of Forging

Scenario 1: Line 'Em Up!

Every campaign begins with marching out to take what is yours, either rightfully or just because you want it. Sometimes we go to defend what is ours from others, either by right or by power.

Special Rules

Sudden Vanguard: One unit of your choice in your army that does not have a character in it or does not already have the Vanguard Special Rule gains the Vanguard Special Rule for this game.

Victory Conditions and Battle Points

Standard victory points per the main rulebook, requiring a margin of at least 100 points or more to count as a Victory. If the difference in victory points is 99 or less, the game is considered a Draw. 15 Battle Points are awarded for a Victory, 10 Battle Points for a Draw, and 5 Battle Points for a Loss.

Bonus Battle and Objective Points

+3 points for destroying your opponent's chosen unit completely.

+2 points for keeping your chosen unit alive or not fleeing at the end of the game.

+3 points for having a unit garrisoning the building feature (Pyramid) at the end of the game.

+2 points for having a non-fleeing unit in your opponent's deployment zone.

Terrain

All of the terrain was pre-set throughout the tournament and every table used a standardized layout of terrain pieces, though the actual style of pieces did vary somewhat. For the first game we played on a desert themed board that had on my left between the deployment zones a Pyramid which used the standard rules for buildings. Also on the left hand side but within my deployment zone there was a Mysterious Forest with scrub and a couple of cactus plants, though the exact nature of the terrain would be randomly determined once entered by a unit. On the right there was a hill located in my deployment zone and beyond it closer to Bill's side of the table there was a more conventional style building. In the middle of Bill's deployment zone there was a hill and then another Mysterious Forest on Bill's far left flank.

Deployment

We were starting our game so late that I really didn't put much thought into how I deployed my units, I just wanted to begin playing as soon as we could. In hopes of securing those 3 extra objective points, I expected my Shades to be able to Scout forward and outrun the Hammerers to arrive first at the Pyramid. To the right of where the Shades would go I deployed the Cold One Knights. Then the Corsairs and the Repeater Crossbowmen formed the center of the line, and finally the War Hydra and the Harpies took up position on the right flank. I chose the Harpies as my special Vanguard unit for the scenario and fianlly, having rolled for her spells and taken Fireball and Cascading Fire-Cloak, I placed my Sorceress within the unit of Corsairs for safe keeping.

Bill nominated his Hammerers to gain the Vanguard special rule for this game and deployed them in position to rush the Pyramid. He then deployed his Cannon on the hill in the middle of his deployment zone with the unit of Longbeards placed near the hill between the Cannon and Hammerers. Both his Dwarf Lord and Thane joined the Longbeards and he used his Vanguard move to get the Hammerers just inches from the Pyramid. I moved my Harpies from the hill on my right and began angling them toward the Cannon as they advanced forward. And with that we were ready to play!!

TURN 1

Bill won the roll to go first and quickly claimed the Pyramid with his Hammerers as the unit of Longbeards loaded up with his army's potent characters marched straight ahead at my battle line. With his movement phase complete Bill opened fire with the Cannon and targeted my Hydra. Fortunately for me it misfired and despite the Rune of Forging saving the artillery piece from a potentially disastrous first shot, the cannonball then failed to bounce and stopped a few inches in front of its intended target. Phew! There was nothing else for Bill to do at that point and so he concluded his half of the turn.

Right away I was faced with a dilemma. I had wanted to race my Shades into the Pyramid first but instead the building was now crammed full of elite Dwarf infantry, heavily armed and armored. It seemed like it would be very long odds to dislodge them from the building with my small unit of Dark Elf skirmishers. In hindsight I believe I should have opted to ignore them, concede the measly 3 bonus points awarded for occupying the Pyramid, and then concentrate my efforts on fighting the rest of Bill's army. That probably would have been the wiser thing to do, but come on... I didn't travel all this way to play it safe and NOT charge headlong into combat the first chance I could. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Therefore...

CHARGE!!!

The rest of my army moved forward in anticipation of potentially charging into combat on the next turn. Thanks to their Vanguard move I thought it might be possible to get a first turn charge against the Cannon with my Harpies but decided they would be too far to try. [A very helpful reader emailed me and pointed out that a unit which has made a Vanguard move cannot also declare a charge in the first turn, so the Harpies would not have been able to do so anyways. Thanks for the assistance!] With the Shades having disappeared into the Pyramid and the Harpies closing in on the Dwarf artillery crew, everything else in my army began to head toward the Longbeards. Although the Hydra had the farthest to go, I was happy that any further cannonballs fired at it would at least be bouncing away from the rest of my army rather than at them.

In my first magic phase I was able to roast a single Longbeard with a Fireball and then put Cascading Fire-Cloak onto the Sorceress and her bodyguard of Black Ark Corsairs. The Repeater Crossbowmen fired a long-range volley on the move and managed a couple of hits, none of which made it past the Dwarfs' hefty armour save. That was it for the Shooting phase and it was now time for my first taste of combat. Ooh, so exciting!

Although outnumbered and outmatched in terms of equipment, I nonetheless reasoned that my Shades might still be able to pull off something spectacular with a heavy dose of luck in their favor. They would be striking first after all with two attacks each, while the Dwarfs would be without the benefit of their ranks or standard. So maybe, just maybe, the Shades could inflict a bunch of casualties, somehow survive the retaliatory attacks, and thus pull off an amazingly unlikely victory. Regardless it seemed like a dramatic way to start things off so I didn't care how badly the odds were stacked against my Dark Elf ninja squad.

It should therefore come as no surprise that in the ensuing combat my Shades were butchered mercilessly. I was able to inflict a single casualty on the Pyramid's defenders before having all five of the Shades killed in return by the Hammerers' great weapons. Not what I was hoping for but still nothing too upsetting... well, until I remembered Panic. With the Shades having been wiped out, the nearby Cold One Knights promptly failed their leadership test and broke off in a trot for my table edge. [Again another mistake on my part with the rules. The same reader explained to me that as the Cold One Knights are subject to Stupidity, they are also Immune to Psychology and hence would not have needed to test for Panic. D'oh!] Disorder spread down my line as the Corsairs next failed their leadership test and succumbed to Panic as well. I then had to test for the Repeater Crossbowmen who showed a little more courage and stood their ground. With half my army now either killed or running away, the first turn came to an end.

TURN 2

Spurred on by the success of the previous turn, Bill declared a charge with the Longbeards against my fleeing Cold One Knights. Showing off a surprising amount of speed, the Dwarf unit forced the Cold One Knights to move even closer to the board edge, the Dark Elf unit having stopped just a couple of inches away from leaving the battlefield entirely. With the Hammerers still occupying the Pyramid, the only other thing for the Dwarf army to do was fire their runic Cannon once again at my Hydra. This time the shot was on target and successfully bounced through the Hydra, inflicting three wounds and denying the monster its Regeneration save due to the Rune of Burning. There were no combats to fight and so ended the top of Turn 2.

Eager to protect my Hydra from anymore flaming cannonballs, first I declared a charge against the Cannon with the unit of Harpies. Next I was able to rally my fleeing units before moving the Hydra as fast as I could across the table. The Repeater Crossbowmen stood their ground and took aim at the menacing Longbeards. After losing another of their number to a Fireball cast by the Sorceress, the Longbeards took a few more casualties from the increasing volume of crossbow bolts directed at them. Meanwhile the Harpies launched their assault against the crew of the Cannon, killing two of the Dwarfs and taking one casualty in return. The last crewman stubbornly clung by his artillery piece, thus ending both the combat and the turn.

TURN 3

Bill declared a charge with his Longbeards against my Corsairs who in response held their ground. The Sorceress succeeded in burning a Dwarf with her Cascading Fire-Cloak and the Corsairs did a fair job cutting into the Longbeards' ranks, their attacks upgraded to Armour Piercing thanks to the unit's Banner of Murder. At the end of the Dark Elf attack however there were still too many Longbeards left alive, as well as the uninjured Dwarf Lord and Thane Battle Standard Bearer. The remaining Dwarfs attacked and inflicted a huge amount of pain on the Corsairs and also knocked a wound off the Sorceress, who only survived the carnage thanks to her Talisman of Endurance. Still the Dwarfs caused enough wounds to win the combat resolution by a difference of four. I failed the subsequent break test and watched helplessly as the speedy little Dwarfs caught up with my fleeing Dark Elves and cut them down from behind, running down and killing the Sorceress as well. Not done with the onslaught, the Dwarfs continued their pursuit into the recently rallied Cold One Knights. That fight however would have to wait until my half of the turn.

For my part there wasn't a lot left that I could do. The Cold One Knights and the Harpies were already engaged and the Hydra was at last set to charge into the Longbeards' left flank. There was nothing for the Repeater Crossbowmen to fire at and nowhere helpful for them to go, so instead they nervously shuffled their feet and looked around for a convenient route away from the battlefield. The Hydra crashed into the Longbeards and combat began again. The Cold One Knights did nothing at all and were wiped out by the Dwarf General and Battle Standard Bearer. The Hydra succeeded in killing some of the remaining Longbeards and thundstomped another, but it wasn't enough and the Dwarfs won the combat. The Hydra broke and ran away although the Dwarfs this time were not able to move fast enough to catch him.

Finally the Harpies were able to kill the last of the Dwarf crewman from the Cannon but it was too late for the victory to matter any to the overall outcome of the battle. There would not have been enough time to complete another turn and so our game had to come to an end at the close of Turn 3. All that was left was to tally up our dead and to turn in our score cards for the round. Even before doing any of the math however it was clear though that Bill and his Dwarfs had won the battle.

Come get some!

Results and Aftermath

After an hour or so of intense maneuvering and furious combat, my first game at Adepticon was complete. My Dark Elves were bloodied and had taken a sound thrashing, but on the other hand I had a great time and enjoyed the game immensely. Bill was a fantastic opponent to play against and made my reintroduction to Warhammer Fantasy tremendous fun. I couldn't have hoped for a better first game and felt much more comfortable and relaxed going into the next round thanks to Bill's outstanding character and sportsmanship.

Having destroyed most of my army in exchange for losing only his Cannon, Bill did indeed get the Victory from our game. He received bonus points for keeping his chosen unit of Hammerers alive and for occupying the Pyramid at the end of the game. I took the Loss but picked up bonus points for keeping my chosen unit of Harpies alive and also for having them in the Dwarf army's deployment zone at the end of the game. Therefore the final score on Battle Points for this game was 20-9 in favor of the Dwarfs.

The tournament organizers were hustling to make up for the late start so there wasn't much time to reflect on the game or my army's performance between rounds. I was just very happy to have had a fun time and to have gotten through without making any big mistakes concerning actual gameplay. [Well, except for where noted above, and the many other likely errors I made that were simply never noted or remembered. Ha! I am very grateful for the help provided and welcome all such feedback as I am eager to learn and improve. Thanks!] For my first game of Warhammer Fantasy in six or sever years at least, I was more than satisfied with how things went. Sure it might have been helpful if I had remembered to use the re-rolls on misses in combat granted by my army's Eternal Hatred but oh well... too bad for those Shades!

With the table assignments posted I rushed off to find my opponent for Round 2. Next up... the Skaven!

It's How You Use It - My Army

Even though I would occasionally mention the other events, the last few weeks leading up to Adepticon my primary focus here was on preparations for the 1000 point Fantasy tournament, 'It's How You Use It.' I therefore thought it would be appropriate to first look over the army I used in those games since so many of my recent posts covered the initial assembly and painting stages. Despite having more than six months to get ready for this one, I was of course painting bases (and even still reading the rulebook for the first time!) the morning of the tournament. Maybe not how I envisioned things back in October but it was nonetheless tremendous fun and I was thoroughly happy with my introduction to 8th edition WHFB.

Although the final few days were indeed hectic, I am satisfied that everything in my army was painted well enough to just make the deadline and thus I was able to play in all the games. So... yippee! For the tournament there was a three color minimum painting standard with 1000 point armies, but otherwise there were no composition restrictions of which I was aware beyond the normal ones found in the rulebook. Listed beneath the following picture are the essential features of my army list, although I have also included photos of the actual lists at the end of this post should you enjoy looking at all those mundane little details.

Sorceress (General) - level 2 wizard, Lore of Fire, Talisman of Endurance

12 Dark Elf Repeater Crossbowmen - full command

15 Bark Ark Corsairs - additional hand weapons, full command, Banner of Murder

5 Harpies

5 Shades

5 Cold One Knights - full command, Banner of Eternal Flame

War Hydra

Total: 1000 points

At first I was intent on using a Sorceress mounted on a Cold One to lead my army, but I was eventually persuaded by Nikephoros of the Bringer of Victory blog that I would be better off leaving her on foot. This made sense to me as I considered the prospects of having a T3 W2 general riding atop a big lizard who suffers from Stupidity. I hence thought she would be safer located within either the unit of Repeater Crossbowmen or the unit of Black Ark Corsairs. I elected to give her spells from the Lore of Fire because of their generally simple and direct method of application, something which appealed to me as a I expected to have a hard enough time keeping up with everything else during my games. As a newcomer to this, the principle of throwing fireballs around seemed thankfully easy for me to understand.

I planned my main line of battle to be comprised of the Repeater Crossbowmen, the Black Ark Corsairs, and the War Hydra, with the Harpies and Cold One Knights protecting the army's flanks. The Sorceress would deploy with the Corsairs or Crossbowmen depending largely on the terms of the scenario and the opposing army, perhaps moving from one unit to the other if necessary as the battle raged. And finally the Shades would deploy if possible forward in cover and in a position to threaten or weaken enemy units with crossbow fire in the opening turns of the game.

Thanks to its reputation I expected the War Hydra to be a formidable combatant but nonetheless still in need of support in order to reliably win combats. I therefore envisioned supporting it with the ranks and standard bonuses of the Black Ark Corsairs, or if those guys should be otherwise occupied, then I would support the beast with a timely charge from the Cold One Knights. The Repeater Crossbowmen would advance only as far as necessary to engage their targets, hopefully inflicting enough casualties as to knock an enemy regiment's rank bonus down a notch or two. With the Shades firing opportunistically as well, the last part of my battle plan was to fly the Harpies forward and charge enemy war machines as early as possible. If there were no war machines, the Harpies would then go after either other skirmishers or else ranged units, or as a last resort just act as a general nuisance to the opposing formations.

Having selected the units I would use, the last issue to sort out for my army were its magic items. Rarely are magic items a critical element of my armies and this time was no different as I had only 65 points left to spend on enchanted goodies. First off I gave the Sorceress a Talisman of Endurance so that my general would have at least a small chance of avoiding damage. With so many of my meager 1000 points already invested in this single model, I thought even that 5+ ward save would be worthwhile. Next I picked out the Banner of Murder for the Black Ark Corsairs to give their potential flurry of S3 attacks a little more bite against armored foes. Finally with just 10 points left I gave the Cold One Knights the Banner of Eternal Flame. I wasn't sure what else to do with the points and thought the magical banner would be cheap insurance in case I happened to run into another Hydra during the tournament.

So that was the army list and the basic strategy I had devised for my first foray into Warhammer Fantasy. There were a few areas that I was unsure of concerning my list, such as the relative value of command groups, but in general I felt pretty good about my army. I also felt however that it didn't really matter too much as I was likely going to lose and lose badly. I knew realistically I stood little chance as the first game of the tournament was also going to be my first time ever playing this game. Therefore all I wanted to do was have fun, learn some basic things about my army, and hopefully not irritate my opponent by having to ask too many questions or look up too many forgotten rules. On that account, then, I thought my chances at AdeptiCon were fair....

Next time I will discuss the tournament itself and describe what happened in the my first four games of Warhammer 8th edition. I had meant to cover more of the painting aspect tonight with this post but it is getting late and my pictures from earlier today did not turn out very well. I'll therefore save the painting chatter and a few words about my 5-minute display board for another time, too. Goodnight!

Paint-A-Thon... GO!

Hello, friends! Today I am writing to you from my hotel room in beautiful Lombard, Illinois, now with just under a day to go until my first event at Adepticon. Woo-hoo! After unloading my gear last night and settling in to my new home for the next four days, I tried to put in some time with the brushes but was too worn out from the drive to make much progress. No worries, though, as I am set to spend the day painting away on my Dark Elves. Also DrGabe should be here in a few hours and he says he is looking forward to helping me out as my painting assistant. Hehehe... sucker! :)

I'm sure I'll be busy not only today while painting but also during the Con itself. I therefore don't know how often I'll be able to post updates while here but I will check-in when I can. If you're interested however I believe DrGabe will be posting twitter updates during AdeptiCon so you can follow along with his own adventures in gaming by that means. Our schedules wil overlap somewhat although he is playing in only 40k events during the weekend. He does already have pictures of his army posted which can be seen here and here. I'll be commanding part of his Imperial Guard army, the Cadian Blackjacks, during the 40k team tournament on Saturday. I don't know yet which portion of the army will be fighting and dying for my glory, but I do have my eye on a certain HQ model that looks suitably distinguished...

Okay gang, I've got painting to do... I hope it's a great one for you and that anyone traveling today has a safe and pleasant experience. Take care!!

Yesterday's WIP

Last night I began work on the Dark Elf Crossbowmen after having finished the Shades earlier in the day. Of course finished at this point is a very relative state of being, meaning only that I now think they're good enough to hit the tabletop but will still need more time later on for highlighting, washing, and picking out additional details. Likewise for the Harpies which I tidied somewhat and added a few more touches since my previous update. The Sorceress received more attention than the others however as she is currently my army's only Character model, and therefore I felt the extra time spent on her was warranted. She's not fully done either but is very close and will hopefully be the miniature that gets looked at most carefully at the tournament.

It has been quite tempting to spend more time painting the Shades so I have to keep reminding myself to resist the lure of Citadel Washes and simply move on to the step. Nonetheless I repeatedly found myself thinking, "Oh, how easy it would be to just go over things with some Devlan Mud," or, "A quick highlight would do wonders right there, that wouldn't take long...." But with plently left to paint I must press on. These are some of my favorites of the Dark Elf models that I've worked on so far and I definitely look forward to seeing them complete.

I only just started in on the following unit of Crossbowmen before pausing for pictures so there's not much to look at yet. I did however continue painting last night and was able to get the base coat of blue onto the rest of their armor and clothing. Out of consideration for my post-AdeptiCon plans for the army I'm working on 16 of them even though I will only be using 12 in the tournament. My normal comfort zone for painting is usually not more than five miniatures at a time so this unit presents another interesting change to my usual habits.

Eventually all of the armor plates on these guys will be the same greenish-tourquoise color as seen with the Harpies' hair and the column of magic upon which the Sorceress is perched, but with a glossy coat to hopefully make them appear like lacquered metal. Since I skipped painting any test models when choosing a color scheme, I am not sure how the end result will look although I do have a good sense of what I'm aiming for at least. Presently I am content for them to remain blue to allow me to hustle along to other areas in need of paint, bearing in mind the modest requirements I face in order to play in the tournament.

Three color minimum... three color minimum... three color minimum. :)

Speaking of which, it's almost time I resumed my painting. Goodbye for now!

Painting Underway on Dark Elves

One more week until the 1000 point Fantasy tournament at AdeptiCon and there's still quite a lot left to paint. After my last update it ended up taking a few evenings to prepare all of the bases, something I had forgotten about when writing my previous post. (D'oh!) Unfavorable weather then prevented me from priming anything until Tuesday, and lastly I chose to spend that night cleaning my painting desk of the detritus from the past four months of hobby projects. So it was not until yesterday's nap time before I belatedly commenced painting my Dark Elves. With brush in hand however whatever stress I had started to feel over this project went away and I'm really quite happy to see just what I can get done in the time remaining.

I don't expect to have my army painted to what would normally be my finished standard. I plan on sticking with this army for a long time past AdeptiCon and so I don't feel any pressure to significantly change up my approach due to worry over how much time is left before the tournament. That's why I have decided against the dip method as was kindly suggested to me by James Brewerton among other commenters. I'm really impressed with the results from that technique, it's just not what I would choose were time not a concern for me for this army. I'm content to finish painting whatever is left after the event as I already am making plans for the next 1000 points of Dark Elves.

So after my first day and a half of painting I have my Sorceress general almost fully painted and a unit of five Harpies not complete but good enough to use next Friday. Tonight I'll start on my unit of Shades and hope to have them and the War Hydra painted by Saturday morning. That would leave me one day each to work on the Crossbowmen, Corsairs, and Cold One Knights before hitting the road next week. But will they all be done by that point? Almost assuredly the answer to that is no. DrGabe anticipates helping me finish painting my Dark Elves the night before the tournament, and truly I would hate to disappoint the good doctor. :) Oh and I want to make a display board too so add that to the list as well. Hmmm, I might just have to get that one done during stops along the road.

Okay, I've got minis to paint... happy gaming, everyone!

AdeptiCheck - 2 Weeks Out

At long last I have finished assembling my Dark Elves. Well, almost... I have about a dozen more Cold One Knight bits left to clean and attach tonight but after that I will have more than 1250 points of Dark Elves built. Phew! Tomorrow if the weather cooperates with me I'll prime the minis and can then finally begin painting. That leaves two weeks to paint as many of the 50 or so models as I can before the tournament begins on the morning of April 1st. Oh and I'll need to travel to the event in Illinois as well so it's really twelve painting days left to go. Noooooo problem.

Considering last year I painted approximately 30 miniatures total, the prospects of showing up the morning of the 1st with a fully painted army seems to me rather unlikely. I am however very keen on finding out just what I can do in the time remaining. The tournament has a three-color minimum painting standard which I suppose must be my first concern. I'm not used to this sort of approach to painting but I think it could be helpful to shake things up a bit and deviate from my usual routine. Regardless it's worth a shot at the very least as I am still quite eager to play in the tournament and this should make for an interesting experiment.

My schedule at AdeptiCon has changed however in the last several days as I will no longer be playing in the 40k Combat Patrol event on Saturday morning. Instead I have been recruited by a desperate group of gamers in need of a fourth for the WH40k Team Tournament, billed by AdeptiCon as their "flagship" event, whatever that means. What it means to me is getting to spend the entire day rolling dice with DrGabe and a couple other pals from the Midwest. They're taking care of the armies that we'll be using, the display board, and the team beverages so all I have to do really is show up prepared to make a long series of what will surely be poor command decisions. Neat! I was scheduled to attend several seminars that afternoon but I'm more excited about playing in the team tournament after watching some of the action last year.

With little time to prepare the guys have been scrambling to sort out what type of army lists we can play in the tournament and what projects or details would remain depending on these choices. I have been fortunately spared from any such responsibilities and will continue to put whatever time I have toward working on my Dark Elves. Now that the opportunity for actual painting has arrived, I do hope to post more frequent updates as we get closer to the start of AdeptiCon. That's it for now though as I need to finish building those Cold One Knights. Happy gaming, everyone!

28 Days to AdeptiGlory

With AdeptiCon now just four weeks away, the big push is on to have everything ready in time. There's still much to be done for the events in which I'm registered, but I do have a relatively open weekend on my hands so hopefully I can get a lot accomplished over the next couple of days. The 1000 point Dark Elf army will be my primary focus as the other projects are much further along and should only take a couple more nights of painting to be finished. With the Dark Elves however the project has been mired in the assembly phase so my current goal is to have them built and prepped for painting by the end of the weekend.

Here then is a run down of where I'm at with these Dark Elves, what's been built and what still needs to be glued together:

Assembled:

- Dark Elf Sorceress on Cold One

- Dark Elf Assassin

- 5 Dark Elf Shades

- 5 Harpies

- Dark Elf War Hydra and Beastmasters

- 8 Dark Elf Crossbowmen

Unassembled:

- 4 additional Dark Elf Crossbowmen

-15 Dark Elf Corsairs

- 5 Dark Elf Cold One Knights

There are some more Dark Elf models that I'll eventually work on but those listed above are the minimum needed for the upcoming tournament. I don't want to get my hopes up too much but I might even be able to start painting before the weekend is over. I haven't decided yet on a color scheme and likely won't have time for any test minis to paint so that could be problematic. I'll worry about that later however as I've got enough to keep me busy for now. In fact it's time for me to get back to it and return to the knives and glue. I hope everyone has a great weekend of gaming, painting, and modeling fun... take care, friends!

Asheville Plans on Hold, etc.

Okay, things are settling down again so I'd like to briefly update a few things tonight. The mother-in-law has departed once again for frozen New York, the monstrous Hydra is done for now, and in the past week all I managed to assemble for my Dark Elves was one little crossbowman. (Uh-oh!) How's that for an update? I suppose that's the most pertinent info anyways, the rest will just be details.

All that extra hobby time I thought was just around the corner for me turned out to be entirely imaginary... shocking, right? My daughter turned two years old yesterday so we've kept busy with friends and family stopping by in addition to having a very exciting and noisy birthday party on Sunday at the beach. We were staying one island over while my mother-in-law visited because preparations for the expected move to Asheville, NC have lead to a lot of upheaval at home and no space for guests. In vain I brought my Dark Elves to assemble but there were no good opportunities to work on them, although the stay at the beach was otherwise a great time. Getting to sleep in a bit as my mother-in-law took the early shift with my daughter was bliss. :) (Thanks again, Cheryl!)

As I said, the only progress I made on the Dark Elf front was putting together a single pitiful crossbowman. Oh and the Hydra is mostly done, still some minor greenstuff work to do on all those gaps but that's almost finished too. What this means however is that my timetable for this project is already thrown off track but worrying about it won't help, the only thing to do is press on. I'll focus my efforts on the miniatures I most expect to use for the 1000 point tournament at Adepticon, and if I can pick up the pace I might then look at some of the other models I've purchased. Hmmm, I think I should save details about this for a future post.

While I've made little tangible hobby progress recently, on the other hand I did find plenty of time last week to really dig into the first volume of the Malus Darkblade collection. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would even with its moments of face-peeling grotesqueries. (As an aside, I sometimes forget what a sicko Dan Abnett can be.) So despite his cruelty and all around horribleness, I've quickly grown rather fond of Malus and find him to be surprisingly funny and even kind of endearing in a weird way. I actually find myself thinking of him as almost a Warhammer version of one of my all time favorite characters, Ash from the Evil Dead/Army of Darkness movies, in that he is constantly being pummeled, beaten, stabbed, knocked out, captured, poisoned, suffocated, drugged, and otherwise generally abused at almost every turn. Yet to his credit he never stays down or out of the fight for very long and always seems to come out ahead in the end. As a hero, or antihero as you please, his greatest virtue so far appears to be his ability to take a beating. Also as I had hoped it would, the reading is helping me tremendously in my understanding of the Druchii as a people and their culture which previously had felt somewhat bland and one dimensional. Good stuff!

Another positive, albeit still somewhat disappointing, development from last week is the new plan my wife and I devised concerning the aforementioned move to Asheville. Musings of a Smurf kindly enquired not long ago how things had been going with this and I realized it had been awhile since I last updated the situation. As the title of this post suggests, unfortunately we've had to put everything on hold after getting burned recently by the anemic housing market. Less than two weeks from closing on my wife's old house, now on the market for more than 39 months, the current renters had to back out of their contract which they had signed almost a year ago to purchase the home. Instead they are moving out at the end of February so not only did we lose the sale but also the rental income as well. Their financing fell apart at the last minute and so now there's much to do to get the house back on the market again by spring.

The result of this is that we're going to have to wait on moving to Asheville for the time being as we deal with these new circumstances. Our goal now is to have everything resolved by summertime and will hopefully then resume our ambitions for moving to the mountains. So while I'm still eager as can be to translocate the family, for now we're staying here and will likely only unpack things as needed but otherwise restore order as best we can. Candidly I don't know what's going to happen but I'm optimistic everything will turn out for the best. I'm very grateful for everyone who has been so encouraging of me and who so graciously invited me to come game with you once I have moved to North Carolina. I appreciate it very much and I'm sure that such a welcoming spirit will provide ample motivation to see me through the coming months. Demolition work on the house begins March 1st, hooray!

Well I've rambled on long enough tonight. I apologize for the amount of RealLife whining contained in this update, it was something I had wanted to avoid for that reason alone but I didn't know how else to explain the situation. I remain very hopeful however about our chances of still being able to move to Asheville in the near future. Besides it was a perfect 75 degrees today with beautiful blue skies so I think I should manage alright in the meantime. For now though I've got some Dark Elves to attend to... goodnight, everyone!

Drilling for Hydra

After lots and lots of drilling, the Hydra is at last coming together. I started off well but became distracted over the weekend trying to fix the wings on my Harpies which needed some realignment and had quite a few gaps to fill as well. I returned to the Hydra and have proceeded to drill several more holes into it than are found on a golf course. The count is currently at eleven pins and I expect by the time I'm finished I will have used around seventeen pins on the beast. This is for me is a nice accomplishment since I normally avoid pinning as much as possible. The War Hydra model is simply too heavy and off balance to allow for any of my usual corner cutting, thus the pin frenzy.

I have three more necks and three more heads to go before the Hydra is complete. There are already a number of large gaps between the pieces that will need to be dealt with but so far I'm happy with how things are going. I had hoped to be working on the plastic guys by now but I think the extra time and care I'm putting into assembling the Hydra will be worth it in the long run. Those heads might still pop off but I feel confident they at least won't break apart merely by putting the model down on the table.

Oops! A little too much enthusiasm for pinning...

Alright, that's it for tonight. I just wanted to give reassurance that the Hydra had not defeated me and that in fact the battle rages on even now. Armed with heavy-duty brass rod, I will be victorious. I think I should be able to finish all the pinning and gluing tonight, leaving whatever necessary greenstuff business for tomorrow. Also my mother-in-law will be visiting for a few days so I'm looking forward to some potential extra hobby time the rest of this week. Okay, I gotta get back to that monster. I hope everyone is doing well this evening, take care!

Hydra Night

This is going to be a relatively quick post tonight as I am about to begin the assembly of my Dark Elf War Hydra. Based on its reputation I am expecting this to be a frustrating and potentially unpleasant experience. I've heard numerous horror stories about this miniature and am understandably nervous about the modeling challenges it will present. Already in the short life of this project both a Harpy and a Dark Elf Shade have gotten the better of me and drawn blood from my careless fingertips. I therefore fear what might befall me while working on the War Hydra.

I'm sorry I haven't posted any updates in the last week about my Dark Elves, hobby time has been scarce and I spent what I had assembling the first batch of models. I decided to begin by working on all the metal Dark Elves I have in order to get the most annoying stuff out of the way early. I'll then move on to the plastic guys and hopefully be ready to begin painting by February, giving me about two months to get at least 1000 points painted before Adepticon. It's been sort of a slow start but I'm optimistic things will pick up soon.

So far I've assembled five Shades, the first five out of ten total Harpies, a Sorceress riding a Cold One, and an Assassin as seen in the picture below. All of those except the Shades were among the miniatures I had purchased before ever wanting to collect Dark Elves for WHFB, having planned on using them either for other projects or else purely for the fun of painting them. The Hydra and the remaining five Harpies are the last of the metal minis to be assembled so I'd like to start on the plastic ones by next week.

Okay, that's it for tonight's update. If I have some extra time this weekend I'll explain more thoroughly what I have in mind for this army and what I'll be working on over the next few months and beyond. Now though I'm off to fight a Hydra... goodnight!

With Malice Aforethought - Choosing Dark Elves

I checked in on the website for AdeptiCon earlier tonight and saw that it kicks off only 77 days from now. Allowing for travel time that leaves me with right around ten weeks to prepare for the events in which I'm registered to participate. The first morning of the con I'm playing in the 1000 point, four round Warhammer Fantasy: It's How You Use It tournament for which I plan on assembling and painting a new Dark Elf army. This is one of the events I'm most looking forward to and has sparked a renewed enthusiasm for the game that I haven't felt in quite a long time. Therefore tonight I want to begin the chronicle of my experiences with this army by discussing how I came to choose the Dark Elves and what it is about collecting them that appeals to me.

Some of you may remember when 8th edition was released last summer that I was very excited about returning to the fantasy game after an absence from it of several years. I'd drifted away from the game and, despite several attempt at getting involved again with various armies, ended up sitting on the sidelines through the entire duration of the previous edition of WHFB. With the game set to undergo what promised to be a thorough overhaul, the launch of 8th edition seemed like an ideal time to start playing again. At that point I wanted to collect a Bretonnian army but struggled with the army book and decided it was just not a good fit for me. Thus ended my brief allegiance to Bretonnia and with it my hopes for a triumphant return to Warhammer Fantasy, at least for the time being.

Feeling somewhat stung by this I didn't think much more about WHFB until preregistration for AdeptiCon 2011 began last October. Described as being particularly suitable for new players, the 1000 point Warhammer tournament seemed perfect for me and as a half-day event would still leave plenty of time for hobby seminars. Wunderbar! As I had hoped it would, signing up to play in this little tournament has given me the motivation I needed to revisit my choice in army and have another go at adding WHFB back to my hobby rotation.

Before finally choosing to play Dark Elves, I had narrowed the finalists down to either them, Orcs and Goblins, a skink-themed Lizardmen army, or my old standby, the Dwarfs. I read through the background sections for each army book and dutifully ogled all the pretty miniatures, but unlike when I selected the Bretonnians, this time to help decide which army to collect I set about making list after list for each of the contenders. I wanted to be sure that whichever army I chose would be one that offers a wide variety of styles of play, a quality that I felt was lacking from my experience working with the Bretonnian army book. Although my short term goal is to have 1000 points ready in time for AdeptiCon, ideally what I'm looking for is an army to which I can commit for the long haul.

Orcs & Goblins were eliminated because I expect to be pressed as it is getting the initial 1000 point army painted in time and thus picking a horde type of army seemed like an obvious bad call for me. Plus it's possible there will be a new O&G book coming out soon and this introduces more uncertainty than I'm presently willing to accept given the circumstances. Next I considered Dwarfs because building an updated army to replace my old collection of beards wearing armor has been on my hobby to-do list for a scandalously long time. Also my familiarity with Dwarfs seemed like it could simplify some of the learning process I will face with 8th edition and would allow me to start off already within a comfort zone of sorts. I decided against them however largely due to this familiarity. I feel like I'm starting WHFB fresh all over again and want to try out new approaches to the game than what I've done before. Therefore going right back to one of my primary armies from the past ceased to interest me once I thought about this and I moved on.

That means it came down to Dark Elves vs. the Lizardmen. The latter of the two offers so much of what I'm looking for in an army that it was a very close decision choosing between them. The strongest lure I felt for the Lizardmen came from what I consider to be one of the greatest Games Workshop kits of all time, the mighty Stegadon! This beautiful chunk of plastic is by itself ample reason to start a Lizardmen army and was likely the main cause of my prolonged indecision. Eventually I decided the skink-based army that I wanted to play, focused on skirmishing light troops backed by Salamanders, Terradon Riders and a Stegadon, would not be a good choice for me as an army with which to learn the game. It seems like it would be too tricksy for me to handle while still coming to grips with the basic mechanics and fundamental strategies of the game. Also I do not know if I would want to expand the army beyond its core emphasis on skinks so I thought it best to save this one for a later, more frivolous project.

And so that left the Dark Elves as the victors of my army search. Although it may seem as if this was just through surviving the process of elimination, there was in fact a lot going in their favor from the beginning and only increased their lead the more I thought about it. For starters I think their range of miniatures is, with just a few exceptions, one of the nicest available. Over the past few years I've purchased a modest selection of Dark Elf models just because they looked neat and seemed like they'd be fun to paint, chief among them the much ballyhooed and likewise bemoaned War Hydra. That's not to say the other army choices I considered do not also have their own awesome models. But unlike the others, I have essentially no prior experience painting Dark Elf miniatures which adds to the whole newness vibe that I'm grooving on. I've painted my share of Dwarfs, Orcs, Goblins, and even Lizardmen in the past, but I have previously painted at most perhaps only a half dozen or so Dark Elf models.

A fire breathing, regenerating, terror causing monster with Thunderstomp... YES PLEASE!

Cool miniatures alone are not enough to sway me however because Games Workshop has us spoiled for choice on that account. Therefore I believe the time I spent working on army lists at a range of point levels was particularly helpful. I quickly came to appreciate the variety of units available to Dark Elf armies and am confident I could add to my collection for a long time to come before exhausting my interest in them. I think it's an impressive mix of heroes and units, including: both cheap and elite infantry, skirmishers, missile troops, fast cavalry, heavy cavalry and chariots, competent magic users, a quality warmachine, and perhaps best of all, a big ugly monster worthy of being the centerpiece for my army. That's pretty much everything I could want and more.

Lastly, I noticed something unusual about the Dark Elves. Although I've at least dabbled in close to every army available at some point or other, it appears as though I've managed to avoid almost entirely the Dark Elves. Not only have I painted just a meager few of their miniatures, but I also have read and absorbed precious little of their fluff and background material prior to this undertaking. Other than the fluff contained in previous versions of their army book I cannot recall having read anything else concerning Dark Elves and their place in the world of Warhammer. As much as I liked the miniatures and their style, the concept for mean elves obsessed with revenge had virtually no appeal for me.

Something clicked though as I was reading through their current army book a couple of months ago when I started this army evaluation process. This time around I was totally hooked by the story of the Druchii and found their history and social dynamics fascinating. It was therefore something of a special bonus when I realized that I have the Malus Darkblade and Malekith novels available to read as I work on my Dark Elf raiders. I don't know if I've ever had the pleasure of reading a Black Library book while at the same time working on the main army featured in the novel. That makes this sort of a unique treat for me and sealed my choice in favor of the Dark Elves once I realized how well this had worked out.

Having gone through all of this and really having taken my time with my decision, I feel confident that the Dark Elves are indeed the right choice for me. I like the painting and collecting opportunities, there seems to be a strong variety of units and army styles with which I can experiment, and the fluff offers for me a new and previously unexplored perspective on the Warhammer world with more than 1800 pages of fiction to read related to my choice of army. Like I suggested before, it's all I had hoped for and more.

So that's the story of how I came to be a Dark Elf player, I do apologize for letting this turn into such a lengthy saga. In my defense however this did cover the past three months of Warhammer Fantasy contemplation in which I've indulged. Now that I'm caught up to the present with my account, I doubt there will be further reason to write at such length anytime soon. I ended up not having much time to begin work on the army this past week so I'm looking forward to diving in this weekend. In the coming days I will discuss things like potential themes for my collection, developing army lists, assembly and painting notes, and so on. For now though I feel exhausted and am quite ready to stop writing.

Therefore goodnight and happy gaming!

Tie-thulu

Something for you fashionable antiquarians...

A sharp-eyed tipster sent me this link to the original (I suppose) version by jeremywc. Thanks for the laughs, buddy. :)

I'm working on Dark Elves tonight though nothing much to show for it yet. No more time for blogging, it's back to the glue and hobby knives for me. I hope everyone is having a good week so far, bye!