Monday, April 30, 2012

Midwest Rampage prep

Midwest Rampage is my next upcoming major event, and I have quite a bit of work to do between now and the 19th of May. I decided to heavily alter my usual list and drop the Plague Furnace after Adepticon, opting for the "mobile gunline" 30 Gutter Runner list the UK loves. I have to get some practice in with it between now and the Rampage, but it'll be hard with the amount of hobby work I need to do between now and then to get my list in playable form!

The Rampage is a 3000 point (No Grand Army) tournament that has no comp restrictions. This means by taking away my Plague Furnace and Priest I had a lot of points to fill and lots of new units to paint. I have 20 Gutter Runners to paint, 3 new Skirmish movement trays to make from scratch, my new display board to update (planning to add an above ground display on the top), a Plagueclaw Catapult to paint, and if there is time 2 new Hellpit Abominations to paint!


The new skirmish movement trays are built from plasticard, measured to ensure the 
.5" gap between Gutter Runners.



New Plagueclaw Catapult basecoated and washed. A bit more work to do.

New Forgeworld resin goodness that will be used as Abominations in the list if painted in time.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Adepticon Results!

 2012 Crystal Brush winner

After being home for a couple days I have time to sit back and reflect upon the best 4 days in gaming of the year. This year's Adepticon may have not been as "successful" as last year in terms of rankings, but I had more fun than ever hanging out with friends from across the country I usually only get to see once or twice a year. So lets dive into the games and see what happened!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Last minute preparation for Adepticon

We all know the drill. Touching up models, adding static grass, maybe making you last minute display board. I didn't think I had much to do but it turns out I needed quite a few touch ups before I hit Adepticon.I spent the last few nights preparing my Skaven while @Luckysixes finished up her Daemons (that I would also be using in the Team Tournament) for her first Adepticon. She will be playing in the It's How You Use It second tournament, and I will be playing the Skaven in the Big Brawl, Chamionships, and Team Tournament (as Daemons with Dark Elves).

Here is some of what I've been working on, along with a shot of how far the Daemons have come.


I actually had about 80 models that needed static grass, ugh! My Big Brawl list is up to 280 models this year.


The Daemons looked great at the GLWL.


I've also been working on Man-Eaters for the Ogres! I really, really like these models with the pistols. The pistols are all from the many Mournfang kits I have.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Win a Battle Force or a Troop Box!


Alright folks, those of you who were around last year may remember that folks who attended Adepticon had the opportunity to win a Battleforce box of their choosing by buying anybody wearing one of the DFG  shirts a drink during the convention ... well, we are doing it again and expanding the idea!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Preparing for the GLWL Finals



The goal I set out with this season was to win the GLWL. Lofty goal, for sure, but I am one step closer after news this weekend. I had originally gone undefeated this season with a 5-0 record but lost a spot in the finals because Mike also went 5-0 in our division and scored more VP's to earn the spot in the finals. After a week of cancellations and spot filling I am in the GLWL 2012 "Elite 8" tournament for the League Championship and get a chance to complete my goal of winning the 2012 GLWL.

The tournament is an 8 man bracket within the 30 player tournament coming up next weekend. Our group of 8 plays and the winners move on, while the losers of each round are deposited back into the rest of the field. There will be a League Champion at the end of the day, as well as a Tournament Champion. Last year I didn't make it to the finals and ended up the Tournament Champion... this year I hope to win the League!

For those that don't follow regularly, the GLWL is a series of 5 games where you know your opponent and are required to publish online a 1500 point Fixed List. You then have another 1000 points to tailor for each opponent. In the finals tournament, we are required to make our lists using the previous fixed list, so we know what to partially expect going into the finals. I REALLY like this because I get to have even more fun preparing for the tournament with strategizing and theory-hammer.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Ogres in their first Tournament

I hit up Gamers Sanctuary in Flint, MI yesterday to take the Ogres for their first spin on the tournament tabletop. I pushed around a few lists in my head, but with so little experience with the Maw worshipers I decided to just go for the throat and help my chances. Just FYI the tournament scoring was very different that some events. A 20-0 win required you to beat your opponent by over 2400+ points! My list looked like this:

Slaughtermaster, L4 Maw, Fencer's Blades, Glittering Scales, Dispel Scroll, Dragonbane Gem, Rock Eye
Bruiser, BSB, ironfist, heavy armor, Rune Maw
Firebelly, L2 Fire, Hellheart
15 Ironguts, champion, standard, musician, look out gnoblar, Standard of Discipline
4 Mournfang, heavy armor, ironfists, standard, musician, Dragonhide Banner
4 Mournfang, heavy armor, ironfists, musician
1 Sabertusk
1 Sabertusk
Ironblaster
Ironblaster

Very simple, yet powerful list meant to do one thing, just hammer the enemy lines.

Game 1 vs Nik's Dark Elves

Shadow L4 with the dagger, double hydra, spearmen bunker, corsairs, etc. Fairly standard DE tournament list. The scenario was Dawn Attack and luckily I was directly across the table from the bunker with my Gut-star and got the first turn.






Turn 1 I was able to snipe 1 Hydra and get off regen to protect my advance across the table. I charged forward and crushed the Corsairs, but the escaped with their flee movement. The Dark Elf spearmen bunker charged into my flank but the Hellheart hit both wizards on the DE side, exploding within their unit and killing 20 or more Spearmen in their own magic phase while draining the pool of their entire magic resources.


Charges on my next turn popped the Blackguard, and the spearmen panicked and were run down. The army falling apart around them, the Ogres cruised to a solid victory.

Game 2 vs Neil's Dark Elves

Dark Elves again, with more shadow magic but the Cauldron with only 1 Hydra in the list. The Dark Elves deployed mostly in the opposite corner and forced me to chase after them this game, which was a good tactic against the Gut-star. Early in turn 2 I was surprised when I charged into the Executioners whose Hag BSB gave them always strike first. They ate through my Dragonhide banner Ogres before they even had a chance to blink.


Early on I was already on the back foot as I had to bull rush the Gut-star forward and try to regain points. I picked off the hydra and magic'd the far left Spearmen off the board, while charging everything in range of the Guts. By the end of the game units were just fleeing from the giant unit but I would get lucky every time and catch them. Late in the game a Pit of Shades got off vs the Gutstar, but I then revealed the Rune Maw and avoided disaster handily. The last turn I charged the Cauldron and finished it in a challenge (for a bonus battle point) to sneak by Neil with an 11-9 game.

Game 3 vs Al's Warriors of Chaos


A quick and messy game vs the Warriors. As you would expect we were in combat early and often. My turn 1 the Ironblasters sniped the Hellcannon right away as the Ogres maneuvered forward. Al charged the Marauder horde into my left most Mournfang after I failed to charge the round previously, and they crushed them! I was surprised the Marauders did so much damage, leaving me with a fleeing Mournfang but escaping being wiped out.

On the opposite flank the Chaos Knights charge my other mournfang in front, while the fast Marauder Horsemen charged from the rear. To me, the second charge was the fatal mistake that lost him the game. I passed an amazing amount of saves with the Mournfang armor and the bubbled 4+ regen my Slaughtermaster got off previosuly before losing 3 magic levels due to the infernal puppet and Pandemonium. I derected ALL of my attacks to the rear unit and totally wiped out the Marauders, giving me enough combat resolution to defeat and then run down the Knights into prim position to flank the Chaos Warriors on my turn.

I then charged into the Warriors with the Fangs, and also the Gutstar, while both Ironblasters charged the Marauder horde. The Marauders actually lost, and then failed their steadfast test and got run down by the remaining Ironblaster! The Mournfang and Gutstar crushed the Warriors and ended the game quickly, on the top of turn 3 and score a 20-0 win with bonus battle points adding to that total, and giving me the overall win.

The tournament was over and the Ogres walked away with their first tournament win in their first appearance. I was still disappointed because I made A LOT of mistakes during my games. Constantly forgetting my Rock Eye, constantly forgetting my Maw attribute and getting the +1 to the next spells I cast, and even forgetting to charge with the Mournfang against the Warriors (which didn't really sway the game's outcome). I played sloppy at time but it didn't hurt me, luckily.

Next weekend I will be defending my GLWL Tournament Championship with the Skaven!

Friday, April 6, 2012

More Ogre conversions

I had 4 more Ogre bodies left from my Battalion box and don't plan on using Leadbelchers any time soon. So what is a good Ogre Tyrant to do? Make more Ironguts! I decided I wanted to have some variety in my Irongut horde, so I used as many of the Mournfang greatweapon and armor bits as I could. I even grabbed a head from the Ironblaster crew.

I like the marching Ironguts as the rear ranks of the horde. The third rank would be more likely marching with their great weapons at their side than swinging away like the front two ranks. I used leftover banner poles from the regular Ogres and the great weapon tops. The left Ogre uses the last Mournfang arms I had left in the dynamic pose of swinging from the side, rather than over head. I really wish I had one or two more sets of arms in the same pose.



These guys will be part of my Gutstar list for this weekend's GS tournament.

Slaughtermaster, L4 Maw, Fencer's Blades, Glittering Scales, Dispel Scroll, Rock Eye
Firebelly, L2, Hellheart (or Greedy Fist)
Bruiser, BSB, Runemaw

15 Ironguts, musician, standard, look out gnoblar, Standard of Discipline

4 Mournfang, heavy armor, ironfists, standard, musician, Dragonhide Banner
4 Mournfang, heavy armor, ironfists, musician
1 Sabertusk
1 Sabertusk

Ironblaster
Ironblaster