Lets Start a Weekly Quiz?

As i have been working on top secret thingummy whatsits for the past week (and uni has left me with little time for that) i thought why not add a little weekly quiz to see what my friends general knowledge is like. This first weeks question is going to be a real dozzy and i will be so impressed with the first person to get it without looking it up on the internet that i will give them a precursor to the golden goblins i will be bringing to the next tournament (ohhhh exciting). So with out further adieu here it is.

the calculation (5×4×3)×(26³)×(26!/6!10!2¹⁰)= was first used in the 1930's to describe what possibility?

what in the worl... WHAT IS THAT!

And a bonus point if you can answer the equation

Happy hunting, I will post the correct answer and winner in the next few days

Just another reason i do not play 40K

What is it with GW and their arms races at the moment. in warhammer they are able to easily justify most of the stuff that they bring out (except possibly the Luminark, why did they think a sun laser was a good bit of fluff) but in 40K the arms race is frankly getting ridiculous.

Im not talking about marineception

lets put a marine within a marine

Im not talking about flying shoe-box's

this will DEFINITELY fly

Im here to talk about the final nail in the ridiculous space marine's coffin. that is...

THE SPACE MARINE CENTURION

OMG ITS A SPACE MARINE IN A DREADNOUGHT IN A TERMINATOR!

Honestly how ridiculous does that look! What was their thought process for this! 

"We want the impression of an unbreachable suit of armour. So put armour plates on ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. Oh but leave a small head, small heads are cool."

does this suit make my head look big?

I honestly don't know what they were doing, unless their meant to be the precursors to obliterators i can see no point for these travesties. 

Giants, no better than babys?

I love the smack talk that all war gamers seem to focus on when talking about monsters in their lists. "It will die straight away", "its got no saves/ too few wounds/ too random" or "its not worth its points compared to other monsters" are all things i have heard in regard to the oldest monster in warhammer, the giant.

"world, why do you no longer love me!"

I have not seen a giant on the other side of the field for over two years. I have run them once or twice, as i think they are a really hilarious addition that can cause utter bedlam in units it hits, if it doesn't roll a 1 (damn that yell and bawl).

Essentially the often pointed out faults of these behemoths are really racking up, those being...

• Not tough enough to survive long into the battle
• No form of saves (unless he's a painted orc giant)
• Too easy to spot under true line of sight rules
• Other monsters of roughly the same points are better
• Takes too long to break an infantry block
• Too random, and can hurt itself

However being the oldest monster i feel that they are the benchmark for other monsters. I often feel that the brainstorms for monsters in the GW studios go thus...

"We need a new monster for Dark Elves/ Wood Elves/ Brettonians/ Dwarves"

"How big?"

"Oh, ya know, giant sized"

"Why not make them the 4th army to be able to use them"

"NO, THEIR TERRIBLE NOW, give it giant stats but with wings and regen and armour and..."

Poor poor giants, losing the monster arms race. Being relagated to a fluffy little (well, not really) niche unit to be tromped out only when whole armies are being fielded.

What needs to happen to bring them back into a useful unit in the eyes of the general public. I have a solution which i doubt will make it broken, but will make it a feared opponent once more on the battlefield. and that is...

Titan: the thunder stomp of a monster with the titan special rule affects cavalry, chariots, monstrous infantry, monstrous beasts and monstrous cavalry, rather than just infantry, war beasts and swarms.

Ouch, i know, maybe a 20 point increase and slap that on him. Now you have to think twice before slagging him off. I dunno, what do you, the warhammer smack talkers, think?

Yaargh, here comes me' first mate...

all uz deck 'andz listen up. Dis is da Admiral here. 

We'ez been waiting too long ta land and come kick some of dem 'Ummie bastards in da clangerz. but me new first mate's joined our rankz and is ready to walk over all dem who thinkz that Orks are an easy pickingz.

Might=right, and boy iz dis boy mighty. without further adiu.. adew.. small chat, meet Hullk

wez met Hullk Smashit off Dat jungle land, hes was smashing shipz at Skegi and was right keen to go smashing bigger boyz dan dem dragon boatz. not many az big az him though...

Hur Hur, Dis is gonna be good. WAAAAAAGH!

A field of slaughter

Call to arms has come to a close, and the podium positions were so tight going into the final round that any of the top 8 could have taken out the tournament. However, as predicted, the scion of Nurgle Sam Campbell took out the top prize, closely followed by Sam Whitt in second and Peter Dunn in third. Sam also took out the best painted prize with his beautiful looking Warriors of Slannesh list and (due to an 8 way tie for best sport) the prize went to... ME. 

the Vampires went much better than i ever thought i could do, though their were no real major victories. The Vampire Lord also managed to discover his new name, Sceadugengan, the shadow walker.

without further adieu, here were the games....

Game One: Dawn Attack

Opponent: Fern Campbell

for orcs and goblins ferns list was interesting, chariot mash, pump mash, artillery mash and mangler mash backed up by a small unit of savages and a HUGE unit of poisoned Night Goblins.huge units of goblins should not instill as much fear in the dead as they caused in this game, but since her deployment allocations were terrible (her bus on the right flank, most of the artillery on the left flank with only one mangler to protect it) i went for blood and pushed over the left flank, while the Hexwraiths ran in and held up her goblin bus for three turns. a nod to fern that she should have been able to take off the zombie dragon, but her artillery, though it could hit quite reliably, did a total of 2 wounds to the dragon the entire game. bad plays from me gave her my units of Hexwraiths and the Black Coach. as well as my chaff.

Final Score: 12-8 victory (better luck next time Fern)

Game Two: Blood And Glory

Opponent: Joel Van De Ven-Long

Empire with dual chickens, dual cannons, engineered hellblaster and a steam tank backed up by Knights and a heavens wizard. i never do well in blood and glory at tournaments (best outcome so far has been 1-19) so when i heard Joel's name i groaned inside, expecting the cannons and a light council to take me off. however this game could not have gone much better. the Zombie dragon was cannoned off first turn but Joel failed to get Sceadugengan, who bunkered with the skeletons for the rest of the game. with only two magic missiles on hand the celestial wizard could not contain the Hexwraiths, and when a Necromancer left his unit to sacrifice an inbattled unit of zombies to get a 30" Boosted vortex of doom through both units of chickens, his steam tank and his Halbardiers (who had 8 ranks) Joel was forced to fall back to Damage control. the game ended with neither side broken and both of us severely mauled. however this did mark my first ever victory over Joel, so i am certain a rematch will be saught.

Final Score: 12-8 victory

Game Three: Battle For The Pass

Opponent: Ryan Lister

Slannesh Daemon Prince, Unkillable Disk BSB, two Hell Cannons, and almost as much chaff as me. Ryan's Daemon prince completely dominated this game. Ryan could not fail an armour save on his daemon prince in Sceadugengan's titanic battle with him. over 6 rounds of combat he did a total of 1 wound to me to no wounds back. he must of got sick of the fight for he very underhandedly (hiss) he sent his BSB into the flank to crumble me. with a fire wizzard and his cannons mercilessly cutting down my Hexwraiths and my Skeletons engaged in the flank and front i had no choice but to concede. he had taken off everything but the zombies and i had a measly unit of Marauder Horsemen.

final score 0-20 Loss

Game Four: Meeting Engagement

Opponent: Neil Williamson

nothing went right for Neil in this game. he was rocking an almost exclusively close combat wood elves list that made use of a big block of Eternal Guard, a Treeman, two units of Wild Riders, a noble on an Eagle and a general on Dragon. his lack of wizards and and only one set of strangle root attacks meant that he could not harm the hex wraiths without being attacked in return. turn two saw Neils worst bit of luck came right off the bat when his general failed a 5" roll to charge the skeletons, allowing them to murder the eagle noble. compounding this in the very next round was the hex wraiths he had reduced to 4 men with strangle roots running over the Treeman and doing 3 flaming, no armour save, magical wounds that instantly felled him. since that point nothing seemed to go right, culminating in him losing his last unit of Wild Riders to a unit of zombies in the last turn. the game was also memorable for a pigeon shitting on my jacket half way through the day.

final score: 15-5 victory

Game Five: Battle Line

Opponent: Tane Woodley

when i first heard those words come out of James's mouth i groaned. Tane was rocking Dwarves and i have never come out well against Dwarven artillery. he had a Bugmen list of two Ranger units, two large miner blocks, a minor miner block backed up by a rune lord on anvil and two artillery pieces. on turn one, even though he had only one cannon in sight Tane managed to take off my zombie Dragon and put Sceadugengan on one wound (>.<) but misfired his anvil. in order to save him i opted to three dice invocation to put him back on full health... and miscast. Tanes quip "miscast never really do anything" then saw me dimensional cascade myself off the board. thankfully damage to my army was light as i passed a raft of Ld 5 tests. at this point i turned around and tried to outrun his dwarven advance (i know, its very rare dwarves find an opponent that is forced to go slower than them.) then in his turn three Tane once more misfired his anvil on basic power (2+). my quip "stop choosing to roll ones" saw him role a one and blow himself up... a cat and mouse chase ensued and in the last round of the last turn he finally got my wizards, and once more every unit passed their checks. a really fun game (i know, Dwarves give a fun game, who would have thunk it) and my vote for best opponent of the weekend.

Final Score: 4-16 Loss

final placing saw me tied with Fern, but because of a lack of flock on my bases she nobbled me at the post for 2 points on painting, leaving me sitting on 20th position and her on 18th. a great weekend all up. 

the undead are pre-emptivly dancing

yippi-di-do-dah

with the release of the lists for Call To Arms my skeletons are dancing with joy.

the break down was quite interesting, here is the link to the Lists

here is the basic breakdown anyway

4 Skaven (-.-)

4 Warriors of chaos

4 Vampire Counts (o.0)

3 WOOD ELVES (0.0)

2 Daemons

2 Dwarves

2 Lizard men

1 Beastmen

1 Bretonian

1 Empire

1 High Elves

1 Tomb King

so apart from the lizards and skaven i am quite excited about this tournament.Apart from Fern, Tane, and Joel their is very little artillery on the field, and most lists don't have much magical offense if any at all. i will have to be very selective in my combat choices but my vampire lord should reach the other side of the field four times out of five, and proceed to clear out their busses.

another very (very) interesting look was the fact that none of the vampires decided to run the Black Knight fun bus. since that recent lore has stated this to be the strongest possible build for a VC list means we are going to see some slightly abnormal lists next weekend. should be good

CALL TO ARMS INCOMING

with Call To Arms coming up in two weeks time (and because i have been forced to drop from the last two tournaments because of other events/ roster stuff ups) i thought it was once more time to put the goblins to the side and bring the vampires back to the fore. for this i am going completely mad and running a Vampires list WITHOUT A BLACK KNIGHT BUS!!!!!

since lists where handed in yesterday i feel no problems with reveling the unconventional list that will be making its debut. here it is....

VAMPIRE LORD ON ZOMBIE DRAGON

with a lance, heavy armour, shield, the night shroud and the talisman of preservation, he has the quick-blood trait and is a level 1 wizard with the lore of vampires  

as Hamish found out, he is a tank. with the zombie dragon imposing a -1 to hit him and/or the vampire lord in combat, and with the night shroud forcing all those touching his (sizable) base to strike last and lose all their great weapon/ lance/ ensorceled weapon strength bonuses, he is suddenly really hard to kill. at a wopping 599 points he is a massive point sink who will make or break my force.

WIGHT KING BATTLE STANDARD BEARER

with a great weapon, the armour of fortune, and the iron-curse icon

designed to hide in the massive skeleton block, hes only their to hold the banner and keep as few troops crumbling as possible

NECROMANCERS A & B 

one with a dispel scroll and one with a channeling staff, both are level 2 wizards with the lore of vampires

both of these guys are here for mainly defensive magic, keeping the wagon going when the wheel falls off (which might happen more than i would like with my usual tournament luck)

50 SKELETON WARRIORS

with spears, light armour, shields, and a full command group

designed to at least be the major damage dealer of the core, these guys are hopefully going to hold troops up for a long time

30 ZOMBIES &  29 ZOMBIES

with hand weapons, musicians and standard bearers

lets face it, zombies are balls of the highest caliber. these guys are only here to try and hold up the enemies troops for (at least) a round, and at 100 points each their not that big a deal to throw away. yay zombies!

2 UNITS OF 8 DIRE WOLVES

hand weapons and vanguard

welcome to chaff hammer. these guys are just here to hunt small (small) units, as they are going to die in droves. pretty much artillery and scouts are the only thing these guys are good for (apart from making up the minimum 600 points of core)

2 UNITS OF 2 FELL BATS

hand weapon

continuing on the chaff list is these two 32 point units of flapping awesomeness. being skirmishers and unpanicable (trade mark Jebson 2013) these 4 wound units are going to cause some real headaches (hopefully)

2 UNITS OF 9 HEXWRAITH'S

with great weapons and skeletal steeds

i know i said their was no black knight bus, but these guys are pretty much the exact same thing. in tandem with the vampire lord these guys are the bread and butter of this list. allowing no armour save i am hoping they will cause a nasty surprise to all those people who rely more and more on their heavy cavalry/ monstrous cavalry to carry the day. being ethereal means i only really have to worry about warriors of chaos being able to harm them in combat.

BLACK COACH

with two skeletal steeds and a wraith rider

we don't see enough of the old black coach. it used to invoke terror in opponents wherever it went as it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. recently however it has been relegated to the shelf by most of the vampiric opponents i face. well NO LONGER! as it does not actually drain your magic pool to power itself anymore their is no reason why this beast of a chariot should not be supporting the hordes of the night.

i feel the list can fight most fights, but will lose out in four situations.

1. Level 4 lore of light/ lore of fire wizard.

lets face it, lore of light means death for my list if i can't get into combat fast enough. with no possible save on my ethereal units against S4/5 magic missiles they will die in droves. also since lore of fire has both an over abundance in magical missiles and a spell to make a unit have magical shots/strikes, i do not fell confident in those line ups

2. Dwarves

need i say more. magical artillery will make a mockery of my wraiths and zombie dragon lord.

3. High Elves

with their powerful magical lore and new fangled magical archers i will struggle to get my ethereal's to the other side of the table. also the banner of the world dragon will instantly shut down the wraiths magical attacks. and lets not mention the phoenix.

4. Wood Elves

having versed Rex Foote last week i have realized his list at least is not going to be a walk over. sure he lacks magical shooting, but with all those magical close combat attacks from his treemen and dryads i cannot allow myself to get bogged down. also never send the vampire against the treeman ancient (handy hint to all of you planning on versing him, don't get a character locked in combat against it)