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)

THE COMING OF TAMURKHAN: CHARECTERS

a rather cool part of the coming of Tamurkhan campaign is the three armies that each player uses to control and conquer the map. each army is led by a designated general, a charecter designed by the players to add a extra level of storytelling to their games, as these charecters are ment to influence the force they are leading. to give you an example i have already put together my three (fourish, more on that in a bit) Generals for the vampire counts.

Valter Harkon

Valter Harkon is the Kastelean of the Black Fang, the undead stronghold in this area of the old world. an ancient Blood Dragon Vampire, Valter was one of the many vampires that escaped Vann Hels sack of blood keep in the imperial year of 1946. a strong tactician and awesome combatant, astride his nightmare Cauchemar,  Valter Harkon intends to lead a spearhead through the mortal races, extending the realm of the dead far far to the south.

Valter is simply a Lvl 1 Vampire Lord, with the sword of might, the dragonbane gem and a 2+ Armour save/ 4+ ward save. what really makes him deadly though is the Red fury and Quick blood bloodline traits, allowing him to hit hard, hit first, and keep hitting until nothing is left before him but mangled bodies. his armies will contain plenty of vampires and vampiric creatures.

Andemaneri

where Valter is headstrong, patient and ruthless, his ally is just plain mad. Andemaneri is a Vampire from the Necerach bloodline. content to sit in the Black Fangs dungeons as long as he has plenty of fresh bodies to experiment with, Andemaneri's mind was shattered centuries ago when he was caught by witch hunters in the city of Tillea and pegged out in the town center to be burned by the sun. escaping by creating a cloud of bats to block the harmful rays and shred his captors, the damage to his body reflected what the unimaginable pain had done to his shaky sanity.

Andemaneri is designed to be the ultimate caster of the campaign, he is a Lvl 4  Vampire Lord sat upon an Abyssal Terror to get to where he needs to be. he has a 5+ ward save and the cursed book of Naggash. its in his bloodline though that he shines, being a master of the black arts and being able to summon creatures of the night. hes going to be using lots of zombies, spirits and creatures. expect lots and lots of bats.

Cosmar and Kochma, the Black Twins of Sleeps End

Twin sorcerers of unknown origin, the black twins are a duo of powerful necromancers that have allied themselves to Valter for promises of power, and access to the books of Andemaneri. the twins are not identical yet they are almost always aware of the other one no matter how far away they are, as if they were being governed by the same, invisible puppeteer. this has led to speculation that they are in fact one in the same, and that the true power behind the two is hiding deep underground at Sleeps End, manipulating his surface puppets to create a world in which he can finally become lord of the endless hoard.

Cosmar is the actual official general out of the pair for the army. though he is only Lvl 3 (where Kochma is a Lvl 4) he manipulates the blackest magic that is the lore Undeath, where Kochma draws on the wind of Ghyran to fuel his Death magic. being on foot and easy to hide in units, Cosmar only has an opal amulet and an earthing rod. Kochma on the other hand flies around on his Hellsteed Kos`maro, so protects himself with a talisman of preservation and bears one of Andemaneri's tomes, the dreaded book of Arkahn. leading an army of skeletons and wights, the Black twins bring their cabal of necromancers to outlast their foe.

by being able to make back stories (for those who really like investing in back-story and character) should improve the flavor of the campaign, as it hopefully makes people think not about just winning, but the plight of their lords on the meat grinder that is a Warhammer battlefield

THE BOARD, THE COMING OF TAMURKHAN

alrighty took me this long to realise that my laptop had a orifice for the cameras memory card, here is the actual board in all its epic goodness. it took me about a month of painting (albeit doing about 40mins max on it each day) i decided to keep the colours simple but bright for maximum effect, they were:

Plains: base was Russian uniform (Vallejo) with a dry brush of green ochre (Vallejo)

Forests: base was Luftwaffe camo green (Vallejo) with a dry brush of warpstone glow (GW)

Fields: base was tan yellow (Vallejo) with a dry brush of Yriel yellow (GW)

Rivers/ Lakes: base was Caledor sky (GW) with light strokes of Teclis blue (GW)

Mountains: medium sea grey (Vallejo) with a dry brush of sky grey (Vallejo) with a light dry brush of the tops with skull white (GW)

roads/ villages/ embankments: base was flat earth (Vallejo) followed by Ushabiti bone (GW) on the roofs

Streams: base of temple guard blue (GW)

Piers/ wooden bridges: base of Bugmans glow (GW)

stone bridges: medium sea grey (Vallejo)

 better pictures will be posted as my camerawork improves/ the weeks go on

AND SO IT BEGINS

with the exception of Sam, who had much much heavier things on his mind tonight than the setup of the campaign, everyone turned up to prepare for the Tamurkhan campaign (only realizing i had spelt it wrong in previous posts after looking for some cover art). after a very brief intro (i was half way through a game with Hamish, and it proved why i was on the other side of the field from him. he spanked my Vampires something serious) we got around to randomizing the board. the basic rules of setup were quick and easy to follow and very soon we had a full sized, immaculate looking board to fight over. Rex rolled up to place his capital first, much to Toms annoyance, and snapped up the most heavily wooded section on the map (bloody wood elves and their tree hugging). the rest of us found nice sections to set up in, though Sam and Liam had to deploy centerish so both had to deploy hard up against another empire.

currently unable to find the cable to connect my camera to the computer we will have to go without the actual photos of the field for a day or so while i find them (the study's a mess, they could be anywhere) but, with the magic of computer gaming i can mock up a battle map that can be changed around during the weeks to show the fluctuating game board. thank you CIVILIZATION 5 for the map editor that allowed this to be possible

so with the board ready and the empires drawn, its time to draw up the battle lines. hide in your basement and pray to your false gods. for the maggot lord comes, and you shall know no mercy!

THE COMING OF TUMARKHAN

the next seven weeks are going to be tense, as the warhammer Tumarkhan campaign kicks off in Ernest. the six generals  vying for the bragging rights over the whooole club (at least those warhammer based ones).  they are...

Nicholas "unlucky" Jebson : Vampire Counts

Hamish "sly bastard" Gordon : Skaven

Rex "gangly style" Foote : Wood Elves

Sam "rigged dice" Campbell : Daemons Of Chaos

Tom "WAAAAAGH!" Keirle : Orcs & Goblins

Liam "needs more armour" : Empire

with six rounds over six weeks the infighting will be intense, the shit talking will be apocalyptic in scale and empires will rise and fall.

pictures will be posted on Friday of the campaign board and the placements of the various empires, and i will keep a running report on what has been happening on the field (and off it)

the Uncharted Seas are on the horizon

YAY MY PACKAGE ARRIVED!!!

with the closing down of Mini War Gaming's online store i managed to procure the rule book and 4 starter sets of the Uncharted Seas for dirt dirt cheap. i am  so psyched for them that the current painting table projects might get pushed aside for the next two weeks (but not the mighty empires stuff, that's so easy to paint on the side) as i set about getting them ready for a test game. the rules for them seem so so easy i feel its going to be a really good game to just pick up and play with, as you get 90% of what you really need in the starter kits. so in two weeks time i will bring the painted armadas in for a maiden voyage. anyone keen on  joining in the game. i have the BONE GRIFFONS, otherwise known as the undead lords of the plague, the THANIRAS ELVES, with their swift craft and masteries of the magical arts , the DRAGON LORDS, oldest of the great empires and true rulers of the new world, or the IRON DWARFS, master engineers and tenacious warriors in their ships of iron.