Limited Edition 2002 Dark Angels Sergeant NIB

Yesterday I had returned to me a NIB 2002 Limited Edition Dark Angels Sergeant that I had given to a local many years ago.

If anybody plays Dark Angels and wants the limited edition model then lmk. I'm sure we can work something out.

Battle Report - Ogres vs. Ogres in "Who's Got The Biggest Belly"

This morning I had a game again Wil Hoverd and his Ogres. We rolled up "Watchtower".

In the "Belly Off", Wil had Beast magic on his Level 4, while I continued with Heavens. I got the tower but chose to deploy nothing in it.

Our armies were remarkably similar - Level 4, Butcher, BSB, Gutstar, Manstar, Ironblaster, 3 Sabretusks. Where we varied - Wil's Butcher was Level 2, he had two units of Gnoblars, an extra Maneater, more magic items vs. my three Mournfang and three Ogres. 

We set up with me concentrating my force to the right of the tower. Wil removed a Mournfang with his Ironblaster and put curse on my Monstrous Cav. Below is after my Turn 1.

Another angle of the battlefield at the start of Wil's Turn 2. No-one is in the tower yet.

On my left, Wil won the fight of the Sabrecats - killing one when it broke and the other breaking then fleeing off the board.

Just Because It Amused Me

I love you Strayla

Skitterleap - Earlybird Reminder

Just a reminder that Earlybird Registration for Skitterleap ends on Saturday September 14th - so just over a week away.

Response to date has been muted....there have been 7 sign-ups so far (with a similar number of indications of interest).

If you are keen on attending - and saving yourself $10 in the process - then sign up before next Saturday. All registrations after 14 September will be at the ticket price of $50.

Warhammer Fantasy 9th Edition

The drums are beating over at the Bell of Lost Souls that the next few days will see the announcement of WHFB 9th Ed.

The key details are:

a) Pre-Order for 9th Edition will be Sept 13th (with special editions - standard new edition merchandising)

b) October will receive the new box edition (if standard releases from past is an indicator) which may contain Bretonnians and Undead.

c) Bretonnians will have a new Army book, model release following that, possibly into November before the Christmas packs roll in.

d) intermingled among these releases will be probably some filler models (repackaged Crom/Valten/etc.), army bundles, etc.

Now how much of this is true and how much keyboard speculation is up for debate.

I'll guess we'll know in a week.

Army Ranking- September Update

Back in June I published a composite Army Ranking based on the current army performance in the three countries - United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand - that are using the Fields of Blood ranking model.

This is based the best results for each race - excluding Army Icon holder - in each of the countries.

Here are the current results for each country as at start of September:

As can be seen there still remains a good deal of correlation across the three countries. This despite a variety in the degree of comp that each country imposes. Australia is known for its harder comp while NZ pursues a lighter system. The UK spans the spectrum but generally is more in line with systems here in NZ. Interestingly though the last three months has probably seen more commonality as all countries had tournaments preparing for ETC.

So updating the Overall Army Rating that combines the individual country rankings:

Here the highest ranked army in each country is assigned 10 points, while the 10th ranked gets 1 point. This gives each army a potential score out of 30 when the three scores are added together. In the above table "Previous" gives the score (and in brackets, the rank) in June.

As I said in June there is no pretence of scientific rigour however I do think that it picks up macro meta trends.

The most obvious is the arrival of the Dark Elves. Now ranked #1 it joins DoC, WoC and High Elves as a definite Top 4. There is a significant gap to the next two - Empire/Lizards - and then a gap to the lower ranked armies.

I would suggest that few would argue with the Top 5 armies as being the strongest all round books....and all being armies that do well in 0-20 scoring systems - the most common scoring system in all three countries.

Personally I think we'll see Wood Elves challenge Lizards for the #6 spot at some point in the remainder of 2014.

Throwback Thursday - Motivating Yourself To Paint

A few years ago I wrote a post on motivating yourself to paint. I came across it last night as I was going back over the site to grab some Mighty Empires info.

I'm currently stuck in a hobby funk where I have done little or no hobby in the past few months - partly because of ETC focus, but also a general malaise.

So how do you get yourself out of that.

1. Something Different

If you've been focusing on one army and you are now in a rut, then try painting something different. Painting 120 slaves, take a break and paint a piece of terrain.

2. Revisit An Old Army

 An old army is never finished. Go back and add a new unit to that earlier force. It may help you get your mojo back or rekindle your desire to get the older army back on the table.

3. Ignore the Meat & Potatoes, Focus on the Dessert

Don't battle through the rank and file if it's not working for you. Instead pick up a character model and devote your energies to it. Characters or centrepiece models are always more exciting to do and time invested on them seems more fulfilling.

4. Carrot No Good? Try The Stick

If the above don't work then you might just need to bite the bullet. Sign up for a tournament. That gives a deadline. You then either need to put on you big boy pants and battle through or wallow in the abject failure that you are if you don't achieve your goal.

5. Ear Candy

Listen to audiobooks or podcasts while you're painting - it makes it less a chore. Hobby podcasts are the best bet as you'd hope that the podcaster is enthusiastic about the hobby and that rubs off on you.

Hopefully some of these will work for you. If not you can always admit defeat and ship your figures off to a commission painter. The people of Sri Lanka (and Otaki) will thank you for it.

Nagash - What a Great Story

Absolutely loving the Nagash End Times book.

I'm currently 126 pages into the fluff and the progression of the lore is great. This truly is war on a large scale.

At the start of the book they give a run through of the fifteen races (apparently Chaos Dwarfs aren't a real army) and their involvement and motivations in the upcoming conflict.

Already the battle by Arkhan against the Brets to recover Nagash's staff and Mannfred versus Clan Mordkin to secure the Fellblade have been covered (does this mean Skaven Warlords can't take the Fellblade anymore?).

Now they have joined forces against the Knights of Sigmars Blood to regain Nagash's Black Armour.

All this in the first 20% of the book.

I'll eventually get to the rules but at the moment I'm enjoying the fluff journey too much.

Mighty Empires Redux

In 2011 I took a break from tournaments and got my fix through a number of Mighty Empires campaign weekends.

Last weekend while cleaning up my games room I found the Mighty Empires board and a number of spare tiles. I'm keen to add the extra tiles to my board and then go back and detail the existing tiles.

It is probably a mix of burnout after ETC and excitement over the Nagash release, but I'm keen to resurrect a Mighty Empires type campaign. My thoughts are a 5-6 person event which meets once a month to play through a couple of turns over a day.

If any locals are keen to play in such a venture then they should drop me an email. It means a commitment to one day a month but gives a break from the normal tournament focus. Also let's us try out some new rules and potentially scenarios.

Internet Tuesday - World's End Radio Podcast

One of the podcasts that tends to fly under the wire is Australia's "World's End Radio".

The name comes from the geographical location of its hosts - Perth, Western Australia - and their physical isolation from civilisation (Perth is the world's most isolated city).

The podcast has been going since 2008 and is now up to 80 episodes. In recent years episodes have become far more spasmodic but I'd say the quality of content has steadily increased (particularly after the change of co-host around episode 50).

What sets it apart is that it is a general miniature Wargaming podcast. As such the topics they cover are generally broader rather than game-specific. The main host Luke Retelleck is ex-GW but now plays mainly Warmachine. However though down particularly on WHFB since the Great Ozzie Rage Quit of 2010, he doesn't let if detract from his product.

One thing I particularly enjoy is their discussions on tournament organisation. Generally you get an insight into the trials and tribulations they've encountered.

The most recent episode focused on game room setup - and prodded me to start cleaning up my room.

As always you can find them on iTunes or search World's End Radio in the Goggle.