3 color minimum

I was able to get the Warriors army painted 3 colors and based, but then forgot to take a picture of it on the tray I brought. Here is a shot of the army in one of my games vs another Nurgle-heavy list.

Lots of work to do before Adepticon. A couple more primers to practice as well.

Warriors of Chaos Progress

If you've been following me on Twitter, you'll know I am furiously working on some Warriors of Chaos for Adepticon. I keep my progress and comments there almost exclusively now, but here is some progress posted on the blog for future reference.

The big dogs in the list. Nurgle Daemon Prince, Throgg, and a DP in case I roll 6's on the EotG chart.

This is the final paint scheme of the Warriors themselves.

Throgg's Trolls, and their paint scheme (base coat).

2 Characters on Discs. BSB and a Sorcerer.

Progress being made on the Gorebeast Chariots. Finished these up last night and need to add crew.

The army on the table for it's frst game this week. More to come soon with 3 Adepticon Primers in 3 weekends.

Adding some character.

Another model I have been working on for my Vampires is the Lord model. I am using Archaon as my Vampire Lord, and he is awesomely huge. I also wanted him on top of a taller base to put him even higher 'above' the unit (to look cool, yes, but mostly so he would fit on a cav base). I still have to grab a Terrorgheist and steal one of the rider heads for this guy, but he is almost finished.

I switched out the thick Chaos sword, and wanted a thinner sword for a more 'finesse' look. A lot of the other Vamps I have looked at have thinner swords.

I also added Isabella Von Carstein to the mix, but chopped her off at the waist and mounted her to be a Hero in the army. She looked good on a less masculine horse, so I put her on a Dragon Prince mount. Here she is and with another shot with the beginnings of the front rank ranked up.

More in the works very soon. I was at the hobby store yesterday and picked up loads of basing supplies. I need to grab some Simple Green and primer tomorrow at the hardware store and I will be set to get serious with this plastic.

Expand your Warhammer knowledge. With Podcasts.

An excellent way to get better at Warhammer is to expand your rules knowledge. Another way is to increase your experience with different metas and different styles of players. One of the best ways to do this without traveling across the country (or world) is with Podcasts. There are many excellent podcasts and a few "just ok" ones out there for Warhammer, but I really recommend giving them a try if you want to get a very broad look at the Warhammer "World" out there.

While I have a few links on my blog roll, here is a more complete list of some great, and some at least somewhat good, podcasts:

Bad Dice. The best Warhammer podcast. Period. Ben also has a daily show, which is insane. The regular show co-hosts Mark and Gareth are awesome. Some great tactics and rules discussions.

Garagehammer. Best overall American cast, imo. Good mix of casual and tournament. I like the long episodes. Spans tournaments, hobby progression, as well as campaigns and large scale battle reports.

Pointhammered. Better than Garagehammer as far as tournament performance experience and specific hobby chat, if that is what you're looking for. Can be very crude, but it's alright with me.

Skull Bros Awesome. My favorite new podcast. Rising Star. Also very crude, haha.

Ohiohammer. Andrew is another work horse for podcasting. Lots of different episode types.

The Black Sun. Another very tournament focused cast from the UK, but also very crude.

Wisco Dice. Another Midwest podcast. Solid hobby balance with frequent tournament reports.

Painting Tabled. Hobby focused cast, with some tournament reporting when they go.

Canhammer. Another international cast. Chris is a good tournament player and the cast reflects that.

6 Dice Monkeys. Newer cast, haven't listened much other than their good VC review.

Bull City Wargaming. South East US cast. Need to listen more.

Chumphammer. Literally just downloaded for the first time. Will listen more.

And more I have been turned on to via Twitter:

Dwellers Below. Australian Warhammer. They probably play Warhammer upside down (I haven't listened yet).

Tale of 4 Geeks. Another new podcast in my list.

Westcoast Hammertime. Was told to check them out. So I will.

Noobhammer. Another new cast. Will check it out.

Bats, bats, and Fel Bats

My Vampire Count army is going to have 3 units of minimum size Fel Bats. The only problem is that I think the Fel Bat models are terrible. After some musing and questioning on Twitter, I decided to convert some using Gargoyles and Ghouls. The result was better than expected. With some additional advice I really made sure to make the bases interesting. This is the result.

Vampires... GO

I was burned out on blogging for a while. I figure I may as well try again. I'll do my best to keep it casual so that I actually keep up on it long term. In the time I was gone I went to Screw City GT and got top 10. It was a fun event. I also went to Freshcoast 40k's Foodhammer charity event last weekend and won the Fantasy event. It is a pretty cool trophy.

I've also started a Vampire project. More coming soon as I delve into another new army. The plan is to play them on the tournament scene next year, starting with the 2013 Great Lakes Warhammer League.

I wanted to build a cavalry combat army, which was the exact opposite of what I am used to with my Skaven. The 4 main characters of the army are a Vampire Lord, 2 Vampires, and a Wight King. All the characters are conversion, but most of the infantry will be as-is. I have a couple more conversion ideas, and will add and update as models are assembled.

First, I picked up a new Wight King on foot, and wanted to mount him on a Black Knight horse. I had to chop him up and position his cape to go over the horse.

After some greenstuff on the torso he was good to go.

Bus!

Universal Battle game.

This weekend I also played a big 3k game on Universal Battle with Grant Fetter. It was another Screw City practice game, as I try to get as many games in as possible with the Bell before lists are due (and make lots of little changes here and there to test things). Grant's list was a very cool, non traditional Ogre list with 2 Giants and 2 big gribblies with a Thundertusk and a Hunter riding a Stonehorn. Also lots and lots of Ogres.

After a first turn of solid shooting and magic, Grant could see how things were going and need to get stuck in fast. He charged into my Hellpit and I did 12 or so wounds in return to crush the Ogres on the left but they held Steadfast. In the middle my magic and shooting chopped down the Ironguts to a non-threat fast, but they still marched forward. A Skitterleaping brass orb scatted back and only killed 1 Mournfang, but also killed the lobbing Warlock.

The Beast Butcher got away and never did get finished, as Grant used his Thundertusk with great success to give my HPA always strikes last and charged it with a Giant, who killed the HPA. In the end though the Doomwheel was able to steal some points and kill the Giant in return with lightning bolts. In the middle the Ironguts waffled a bit before getting into the bell, but eventually stuck in. The Mournfang started charging all of my outlying units and wiping them all off the board.

In the end the Bell still stood and I finished off the BSB, General, and Gut Star with the Bell unit. They have been performing so well, but I still have not played them against a serious artillery threat which will spell the end of their great run, I expect. The game ended with me only winning by 160 or so points, which will probably be a draw depending on the Screw City GT rules, but Alex has been known to only require a win by 100 points.

Exalted Vermin Lord

I have had the Exalted Vermin Lord on my bench for a while now, on a 60x100 base for the official Storm of Magic monster. But I've been thinking of playing a game or two with a regular Vermin Lord in my regular games lately, especially with Midlands coverage in the UK, where they have a Best Vermin Lord award! Ben Johnson, formerly of the Bad Dice Podcast, altered his Exalted Vermin Lord to fit a 50x50 regular monster base and to be used as a regular VL in tournaments... so I thought I would do the same with mine!

Hordes of Beastmen vs Bell

Spending some quality gaming time this Saturday, I got a game against Beastmen for the first time in a while, and finally got around to playing Michael O. from Fresh Coast 40K. I was playing around with my Bell list again, and he brought hordes and hordes of Gor, along with a load of magic support and a few gribblies.

Against Vampires

Another game with the Bell, another victory that I don't really take stock in. I played against a special character heavy Vampire list with Heinrich Khemler and Krell, leading hordes of Skeletons and some flying support. This battle report will be short and sweet...

I won the first turn and advanced and got the Bell swinging, hoping for a solid second ring. My opponent maneuvered his units, blocking up and trying to get around terrain in the board, but left Khemler's unit with JUST enough room for the full Screaming Bell horde to charge in to the master necromancer. Second turn, the bell unit charged in and popped the 30 or so Skeletons through deaths and then combat resolution, and took the General with them. No buffs, and no Bell ringing to help, the Storm Vermin (half of them, really) did the work themselves.

I 13th'd the Grave Guard on the first turn, which was more or less why Heinrich's unit moved forward. They were hiding in the back with a rank or so left over to try and raise up later. This was the key reason the unit moved up and was able to be charged.

Still, I would have liked a more prolonged game with the Bell, and to test it out vs other match ups (especially war machines) before I ultimately decide to take it to Screw City GT.

Bell practice

Today's game was one I played with Andrea as we both tried out a few ideas for Screw City GT. I had wanted to get a few games in with the Screaming Bell in a Storm Vermin horde for a while, and have been thinking about bringing it to the tournament. My rare choices have also been up in the air for the list, so I tried out 2 WLC's with 1 Abom and 1 Doomwheel. We set up and played a battle line, as we do for most practice games...

Billy the Bloodthirster

I had a game at GW this week, playing as Daemons against High Elves. I had been playing a lot of Skaven so wanted a break from them, and knew Drew had High Elves so wouldn't want to double up the same army, so Billy and the Daemons came out to play.

Buckeye Battles Game 3

The final game of day 1 and the strict Buckeye Battles banding system had me faced off against another Ogre player, this time from New York. Tim brought an interesting list that seemed to have many of the standard Ogre toys, but also had some Gnoblars, a Scraplauncher, and was using Heavens. He also took advantage of the comp rules and put Magic Resistance on his Slaughtermaster, so I knew I wouldn't be trying to Crack's Call that unit too much. Lets look at the list:

Buckeye Battles Game 2

After the draw vs the Dark Elves, I was matched up against Sean and his solid Ogre list. The list I am running has me pretty confident against Ogres and much less afraid against the Ironblasters than I would be if I was running a Bell and/or Furnace. The ability to take out chaff and put lots of wounds on Ogres and Chariots with Gutter Runners is a big advantage. Lets look at what he had:

Buckeye Battles Game 1

Last weekend I attended another Midwest Grand Tournament, my first Buckeye Battles in Delaware, Ohio. I brought the Skaven and a nearly identical list as Blood in the Sun to make preparation and practice easier, and to stay completely familiar with the list between events. The event had special comp where Magic Resistance could be used against any spell, even spells that normally do not allow saves (Dwellers, Pit, 13th). Also, hills blocked line of sight to all but large targets.

Also importantly was the "comp" which was not truly comp, but a banding system. This meant the hard armies would only play the hard armies while the soft drew the soft for the first full day. My first opponent of the event was Jason Matley, who beat me for the GLWL League Championship with his Dark Elves. He brought them again, and this time they were fully painted, and I was looking for some revenge.

Playing Online Warhammer

Not Warhammer Online, but Online Warhammer. Universal Battles is a website with build in models, dice rollers, chat system, and everything you need to play an actual game of Warhammer over the computer other than the rules and army list in front of you. I set up to play a small 500 point game with Ogres vs Lizardmen to show Matt (@Mansell84) how to use the site and get used to play Warhammer with the computer.

Facing off against Kairos

Recently, I hit up the local GW with Andrea's new High Elves to try and get a pick up game. I really wanted to use the Dragon model that came in her army, so I built up a choppy Lord on a Star Dragon list at 2500. My opponent was none other than Kairos Fateweaver himself, it seemed as the Chaos Gods though it fitting after the previous weekend's tournament!

Game 2 at GS

Today's game was the second game at Gamers Sanctuary's July 2500 point tournament. I was running the Daemon list I posted in yesterday's game and I was lined up against Tom's Dwarfs with loads of warmachines and we were playing Battle for the Pass!

1 / 365 !

Here we go, the kick off game of the 365. I decided to start at my local regular tournament, which is held at the Gamers Sanctuary in Flint, MI. The format is 2500 with no comp, so basically anything goes. I've been successful at this event with all kinds of different lists, and today since Andrea was playing her new High Elves I decided to really filth it up with a special character heavy Daemon list. I'm not going to lie and say this is anything other than 'Ard Boyz -ish in quality, but I plan on helping Andrea learn Kairos and also seeing him at the Screw City GT coming up in September.

Here is the list. Be careful, as you may need a shower afterwards:

Rhellion 365!

Now is time for the big format change announcement. I have decided to undergo a tough hobby challenge over the next year to try and play a game or do some hobby work EVERY DAY. This is going to be called the #Rhellion365 and I plan on playing pick up games at GW, hobby games with the club, small local tournament games, and large regional GT's to try and fill out all 365. Not every game or project will be Warhammer Fantasy, but the vast majority will be.

I will be playing mainly with Skaven, which are my main tournament army and the only fully painted force I own. But, as you will see in the first few games, I will also be playing with Daemons and High Elves on the table, any army I can create on Universal Battle, and also throwing in some Malifaux, Warmachine, maybe some Warhammer 40K, and maybe even some Dungeons and Dragons.

So buckle up and enjoy the ride, and if you are interested in a game in person or online, send me an email at rhellion.wh@gmail.com. I will probably need some motivation to complete this massive task, so your page views and comments are truly appreciated. Thanks, and as always you can follow me every day on Twitter @Rhellion.