A Tale of Four Gamers Episode 3: Distractions

Hello and welcome back! This month sees Charles and I actually secure an event to go to for Age of Sigmar but he has had an event to go to of his own so I continue work on my Nighthaunt (and a Dragon now apparently), Chris get stuck into Archaon, David into his Knights and some Stormcast SURPRISE OGORS?!.

Aytan

It's exciting news for this month. A couple of weeks ago Games Workshop released tickets for their events coming up in the Autumn. The options were either a full 2000 point AoS tournament or a Path to Glory narrative event; given that I don't have the opportunity to play a whole lot of Age of Sigmar, I opted for the Path to Glory route considering that the games ramp up from a manageable 600 points up to 2000 over the weekend.

I was originally planning on bringing the list from last month's article but someone made the very good point that as the event is narrative, I don't really need to worry about it being seriously competitive and instead I can focus on building up a cool hero over the weekend. What I really wanted was some big centerpiece model for the army so with that in mind I went delving into my bits box to see what models I could cannibalise into a big-ol monster (Incidentally I'm doing all of this without actually seeing the Path to Glory rules; they are on their way so hopefully I haven't totally wasted my time).

Much clipping and greenstuff later and here it is; a Zombie dragon but in a pose I very much prefer over the stock model. The body itself is from the Forgeworld Warpfire Dragon (I went through a phase of collecting alot of the forgeworld monsters from their Monstrus Arcanum book; still one of my favourite pieces of work that they have put out over the years) with wings and head from the stock Zombie Dragon miniature and a Vyrkos Bloodborn hanger on to ride it. I know that technically a Vyrkos isn't Nighthaunt but I'll paint up another on foot and have him progress through the event (we can say that he is the one who summoned up the army of ghosts). I've started the painting process already with the basecoat of all the bone areas and now that this is in place I'll be airbrushing all the skin/fleshy parts the same green/blue as the rest of my Nighthaunt and then highlighting the bone up from there.

As for the army itself, I got around to painting the Lady Olynder conversion from last week. 

Overall I am very happy with how she came out; the blending on the white on her shawl was very easy to achieve with a 1:5 mix of Apothecary White and Contrast Medium which keeps the shading but with a far subtler effect then the contrast paint alone. I'm going to have to find out exactly which shade of green to re-buy for the bulk of the ghost effect though; It originally came as an unmarked sampler with some other miniatures that I bought so I don't really know what colour I've been painting with (A big problem considering that I'm out of paint and still have both the skin of the dragon and 30 Bladeghiest Revenants to go through). I am also out of basing material so that's something I need to sort out before next month's outing.

Finally, I re-did one of my old Necromancers, now with 100% more keys and the big lock from the Spirit Torment kit to make an alternative miniature for it. It's a simple conversion but one I quite like. 

I would have got more hobby done, and I did say last month that I would have got some Necrons done also but as I said, there were some distractions going on; Of course we were at Warhammer World last month for their Killteam Event (you can find my review of the event HERE and my thoughts on Warhammer World events over the past 20 years of attending HERE) and despite not actually playing the game I picked up both of the new Necromunda Ash Wastes Nomads boxes to build and paint. Due to not actually having played this edition of Necromunda it's basically been a case of building one model every couple of days when I finally figure out what I want to arm them with so hopefully at some point that will be out of the way and I'll get back to actually working on my main armies.

People will also know that as of the time of writing, Warcry's second edition is close to being released. I didn't have the opportunity to play Warcry 1 as it was released at the end of August 2019 when I was preparing to go to the Legend of the Five Rings world championships in Minneapolis MI and then in early 2020 the world went into lockdown. As I've written elsewhere, smaller skirmish games really appeal to me and I have always heard good things about Warcry's ruleset being especially tight so I wanted to do something for this time around (and maybe get to an event later in the year);

Enter a conversion for the Lady of Thorns. to be the leader of my warband. After using one of the Mymourn banshee heads for Lady Olynder above, I found myself with her head spare and decided to use it on the stock model to make it more interesting. It's actually quite bizarre; I don't like Lady Olynder's head at all on the actual model so I replaced it with a banshee, and I replaced the lady of thorns (who is basically a banshee) head with Lady O's and I think that it fits quite nicely. It just goes to show that sometimes context makes a big difference in miniatures and now I've got a 'Baby Olynder' to lead my forces into (hopefully) glorius victory. I'll post more about my Warcry exploits as they happen.

Chris

Hello all again! As everyone knows who has seen the last 2 months, I have been working in my Archaon and I Hope everyone is ready for a bit more Archaon progress with the key word here being a “bit”. I made the choice to go back and redo the Rakarth Flesh on Dorghar as I was not quite happy with it. I think I had an old Rakarth Flesh that had maybe some old paint mixed in it and it was giving me a more reddish flesh tone then I was looking for. So, I re-did the same steps all over again but after I got that base of 'proper' Rakarth Flesh on Dorghar I started with dry brushing Mephiston Red at the bottem of the tail.

After I gave all the areas of Rakarth Flesh a wash of Agrax Earthshade and the red areas a wash of Nuln Oil and all of the washes where dry, I went back over the red and flesh colours with a dry brush of each Rakarth Flesh & Mephiston Red. This was to bring both of the colours brightness back up by just trying to catch the higher parts and leaving the wash in shadows. I'm right now working on doing some glazing & highlighting on the flesh and on the tail on Dorghar, again trying to keep the razed parts brighter and also trying to get nice blend between the reds tail and flesh tone on the bulk of the skin. Let's hope that I will not have to go back again like I did in the next update but for sure I am learning a lot in painting something of this scale and trying my best to do the model justice and I hope I will have more to show for you all next month.

Charles

Finally some Paint and a Tournament.

This month I finally manged to play my first games of Flames of War at Tabeltop Republic's (https://www.tabletoprepublic.com) 'Rolling Through Wycombe' Mid War event. It had a few minor adjustments to a standard event as the TO wanted people to use more Tanks in their lists as apparently players tend to not favour them greatly in Mid War so the event used a community driven points amendment known as Bun-in-Grad or just BIG. These changes mostly reduce the cost for Tanks and some under played/performing units to allow you to take them without having to make massive sacrifices in list building.

My list for the event was built using the Mid War 'Ghost Panzers' book, this focuses on the German Forces on the Eastern Front in 1942-43, which are mainly Veterans and well equipped troops and the latest tanks of the period. With the points changes from BIG I was able to get an elite force of Panzer IV tanks with a couple of PZ III's and two mighty Panther tanks along with support elements of some Tank Hunters, Artillery, a small unit of Panzergrenadiers along with some Heavy Scout cars and a tiny Panzer II observer.

Ghost Panzers - Mixed Panzer Company

Mixed Panzer Company HQ - 18

 - 2x Panzer IV (late 7.5)

Panzer III & IV Mixed Tank Platoon - 33 (29 +2 +2)

 - 2x Panzer III (late 5cm)

 - 2x Panzer IV (late 7.5cm)

 

Panther Tank Platoon - 26

 - 2x Panther (7.5cm)

 

Support Units

Armoured Panzergrenadier Platoon - 9

 - 5x MG34 Teams

 - 1x Sd Kfz 521 Half-track (3.7cm)

 - 2x Sd Kfz 521 Half-track (MG)

 

Sd Kfz 231 Heavy Scout Troop - 2

 - 2x Sd Kfz 231 (2cm)

Hornisse Tank-Hunter Platoon - 14

 - 2x Hornisse (8.8cm)

 

Hummel Artillery Battery - 16

 - 3x Hummel (15cm)

 

Panzer II OP Observation Post - 2

 - 1x Panzer II OP

The event had 8 players with a 50/50 split of Axis and Allies; 4 German, 3 American and one British force which allowed us to have a nice split on the first round. What is interesting is that a lot of FoW events allow you to bring both Axis and Allied lists and allow you to select one as a primary but have a backup list to prevent Blue on Blue (Same Nation) matches. Along with the theme of Tank lists we needed to keep a count of the number of Tank Teams (Models) and Enemy Units killed as they were additional Awards for these achievements.

My reports of my rounds will be a bit brief as I was so caught up in the games I forgot to grab pictures.

Round 1 Vs Tom (USA)

My first round was versus Tom who is one of the Staff at TTR who was playing an American list of Rangers and Sherman Tanks with Artillery backup. We were playing on the City board which features some nice open sight lines across the board along with a number of good ruined buildings for infantry to use. The mission we found ourselves playing found myself having to put 40% of my list into reserves which would not arrive until turn 3 which saw my deployed forces facing off against the full might of Tom's force.

Toms's force of massed Rangers and Shermans surged out of his deployment zone toward the Objective marker in my deployment which he would need to control after turn 6 to win the game. My defending force of the Mixed Panzer unit, Infantry, Artillary and Tank Hunter put up a solid defence with their more Elite status meaning that the base to hit number started at 4+ compared to the more Aggressive American units being hit on a base value of 3+. This allowed my units deployed in cover to survive against the onslaught of the numerically superior force slightly better and return fire. Unfortunately my reserves did not want to turn up quickly and being outnumbered, Tom could focus on taking out my deployed units one at a time through weight of fire and a massed wave of infantry assault on my defenders in the buildings after being softened up by artillery fire, wiping them out to take control of the Objective (which they only needed to hold for another turn or two). Once my Reserves did turn up they were too far away from the Objective to be able to make a difference so settled for getting as many kills as they could to make a up for it.

The Game ended with a win for Tom with 7VP and 2VP for Me as I had managed to destroy two units and prevented the getting the worse score for a loss. I had also managed to destroy 10 Tank Teams giving me a good start on that tally.

Round 2 Vs Moose (British)

After a quick spot of lunch we moved on to round two and my next opponent was Moose running British Desert Rats. Again it was a tank force consisting of M4 Sherman, M3 Grant and Valentine tanks with a small Infantry and Artillery unit. The mission was a more straight forward fight where we each had to place two Objective markers on the opposite side of the board. I opted to place them in the open areas more toward the middle of Moose's deployment zone, and he split his on either edge of mine.

Again being outnumbered by the enemy would be tricky in this game but generally the guns on my German forces have superior range to the guns on the British tanks allowing me to use some clever movement and positioning to force Moose to move towards me to be able to return fire. Moose opted to send the bulk of his forces down one flank through the cover of a town limiting the number of shots I could make against him but due to his large units they were not all able to hide and were slowly taken out. On my other flank with the two Panther tanks, it was pointed out to me that none of the Tanks on that side of the board could be damaged from the front so they pushed up the board slowly to make sure they couldn't be attacked in their weaker side armour before making a push for the Objective. The final turns of the game saw me pushing all my forces towards my left most objective to counter Moose's remaining units while the Panthers cleaned up the objective they were holding. The game ended when I managed to eliminate enough of the units from Moose's Formation to force it to become Broken (you immediately lose the game if all of your formations become broken; this is to prevent taking minimum sized formations to load up on Support units).

So a Win to me in Round two only getting 6VP as I had lost too many of my own units but I had killed an impressive 15 Tank Teams and 7 Units which felt good after such a hard battle.

Round 3 Vs Dave (Germans)

So Round three rolls around and unfortunately my final game is a Blue on Blue game vs Dave running a German Iron Cross force. Dave had focused on the theme of the event and was running a nearly pure Tank force apart from an Artillary unit. The units of the Iron Cross focus on some of the Earlier models of Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks of the earlier 1942 period which allowed my slightly newer units a bit of an advantage over his whilst still being outnumbered.

The mission for Round Three was similar to Round Two but with both players having reserve forces which would arrive at random points on the table and placing two objective on the opposite side of the board. I opted to place my objectives split apart on the two sides and Dave clustered them in one corner of my deployment zone. During the opening turns Dave started to push up and across the board toward the objectives on my side which were only lightly defended due to my reserve forces. He managed to quickly take out my Anti tank unit with one of his Panzer III units that had moved up the board while his other flank engaged in a slugging match with my Mixed Panzer units that would continue for the next 13 turns. After failing my first couple of reserve attempts and Dave managing to pass all of his it was not looking so good until my Panthers appeared on one flank and my Panzergreandiers on the other. The Panthers surged onto the board putting their big guns into action to halt Daves advances and mean while the Panzergernadiers advanced on to the artillery. After some machine gun fire and an assault they were destroyed and once that was dealt with the proceed to advance toward the objective and sit there contesting while the tanks continued their duel.

The Panthers on the left flank looked to be unstoppable until a reserve unit of Stug assault guns speared and fired into their flank destroying one tank and leaving the other alive who proceeded to pass his Last Stand rolls to stay in the fight and continued to keep pushing the objective until he was finally destroyed by the Stug's. My Mixed Panzers and the HQ unit held the right flank while neither side could manage more than making a single tank Bail Out at a time forcing the crew to remount. My unit was having to continuously reposition to reply to the threats the were coming from the left flank, but with my infantry sat in a forest next to Daves objective his tanks could not go anywhere without conceding the game.

After 13 turns, the longest shooting match concluded when I finally managed to kill enough units to break Daves formation and Win; again only scoring 6VP due to my losses but managing an impressive 13 Tank Team Kills and 4 Units destroyed.

Conclusion

Whilst I was sure I had not Won the event going 2 Wins and 1 Loss I was quite happy with my results. A total of 38 Tank Teams destroyed and 13 Units Killed meant I had won both of the Awards for Tank Teams and Units Destroyed which surprised me as I didn't think I had done that well but was a great result for my first FoW event.

David

Well that escalated quickly

So this has been an a pretty rapidly changing month, it started out with the intention of going to The Path of Glory event to be held at Warhammer World towards the end of October. This had gotten me truly pumped and planning began in earnest, however the first curve ball that was thrown at me was a brand new Generals Handbook and with it a fundamental shift in how games would be played. “Never mind” I thought and proceeded ignorant to the impact it would have on games. So the big day arrives tickets go on sale at 19:00, I’ve logged on and my finger poised over the add to basket. Doom! the clock strikes the hour I refresh the website and add a  ticket to my cart all within a cool 20 seconds I smugly move to PayPal to complete my transaction “OOPS something went wrong” at this point I thought no matter I’ll just go back and repeat the transaction I have time “OOPS something went wrong” blind panic go back to the website Order sold out along with Chaos err I add a destruction ticket to basket one I& the benefit of have a vast collection “OOPS something went wrong” back to ticket website event sold out, Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

 

You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry

I was not a happy bunny I had missed out on an event earlier in the year due to a similar problem and I’d been waiting three years to go to an event again. I saw that the Matched play Event in September for AoS was still available and hastily add a ticket to my basket, proceed to PayPal with gritted teeth and SUCCESS. So an hour or two later it dawns on me that instead of going to a relaxed weekend of narrative games I’d now be attending a matched play event that had also added a bunch of new rules and missions so I had a look at the changes and looked at my Stormcast list. It didn’t take me long to figure out that what I wanted to take was really going to struggle and that annoying nagging thought crept it’s way in. I decided to take a step back and look at what I enjoy about events, and it’s pretty simple really it’s the satisfaction of fielding a full painted and personalised army and as much as I liked the idea of my Stormcast list I was finding it hard to stamp my personality on it. I looked at the other armies I own. I’ve used my  Blades of Khorne a couple of times before with varying degrees of success so don’t want to take them again (but they are a handy back up). The Maggotkin army I was working on would need a few tweaks but again I think it would be hard to tell my army apart from any other Maggotkin army. My Nighthaunt and Sylvaneth would cost too much to get up and running in time so I went around in circles like this for a while churning out list after list until finally one stuck.

 

Dad bod

So you my be surprised to find out that I settled on Ogor Mawtribes (I know I was) as the army I’ll be taking to the Warhammer World matched play event at the end of September. So why the dad bods? Well a few reasons really, the first being that I have almost all the models for my army list already just sitting in my pile of shame. Aytan wrote a recent article about the cost of these events (and it's right HERE ~ Aytan) and long story short it’s a pretty hefty chunk of money just to go to the event so the less I have to spend getting my army up to scratch the better. Secondly I can stamp my personality on the army I have already started converting up my Ogor Gluttons. These guys are meant to be my Galletian Veterans battle scarred from countless battles, surviving in the heartlands of Ghur and I have loved making each of these brutes unique adding character to each one. This is the big difference the je ne sais quoi if you will that’s been missing from building and painting other recent armies. I love converting as much as painting and am buzzing with ideas about what my Slaughter Master and Butcher will look like will the army be an all conquering meta defining list? Absolutely not but I’ve been able to get in the units that I want and think that they will work well together on the table top as well as looking good. So without further pomp and ceremony here is the list I’m taking

It's worth saying that I've got no idea whats going to be in my inbox every month when I put this article together so I was here expecting more WH40k Knights and I get SURPRISE! OGORS!

 

- Army Faction: Ogor Mawtribes

             - Subfaction: Bloodgullet

             

LEADERS

Slaughtermaster (140)

             - Spells: Greasy Deluge, Ribcracker

Huskard on Thundertusk (335)

             - General

             - Command Traits: ‘Nice Drop of the Red Stuff!’

             - Blood Vulture

             - Artefacts of Power: Skullshards of Dragaar

             - Prayers: Pulverising Hailstorm

Frostlord on Stonehorn (430)*

             - Artefacts of Power: Splatter-cleaver

             - Mount Traits: Metalcruncher

Hrothgorn (170)*

Butcher (135)*

             - Tenderiser

             - Spells: Molten Entrails, Ribcracker

BATTLELINE

Mournfang Pack (320)**

             - Horn Blower

             - Banner Bearer

             - Culling Club or Prey Hacker and Ironfist

             - Ironlock Pistol

Mournfang Pack (160)**

             - Ironlock Pistol

             - Culling Club or Prey Hacker and Ironfist

Ogor Gluttons (250)**

             - Bellower

             - Beast Skull Bearer

             - Tribal Banner Bearer

             - Lookout Gnoblar

             - Club or Blade and Ironfist

OTHER

Hrothgorn's Mantrappers (170)

CORE BATTALIONS

*Command Entourage

             - Magnificent

 

**Bounty Hunters

TOTAL POINTS: 1940/2000