Slann Mage-Priest Painting Part II

Day 2 of working on the Slann. I finished coating the palanquin in the Space Wolves Grey and after experimenting with several washes, settled on Devlan Mud.

From Slann Mage-Priest I

From Slann Mage-Priest I

For the Slann himself, I wanted to go with some tropical coloring. To this end, I decided on a pattern of Warlock Purple and Chaos Black. Afterwards, to bring him back towards toad-like (the tropical colors had started making him look more like a frog, I washed him with Devlan Mud.

From Slann Mage-Priest I

From Slann Mage-Priest I

Here the two pieces are together.

From Slann Mage-Priest I

Slann Mage-Priest Painting

After a very long hiatus from painting, I finally got some time yesterday to devote a few hours to it. Rather than continue where I left off on all of my previous painting projects, I once again decided to start focusing on something entirely new, my Slann Mage-Priest.

Here is what I got done:

From Impact Hits

From Impact Hits

Not too much progress. I painted the spikes with Skull White which I'll have to darken up a little with a wash and some shading. I coated most of the base of the palanquin with Space Wolves Grey. I am hoping I can figure out a way to make the palanquin look like it is made from marble. I picked up a stippling brush that I'm going to use to try to stipple on some Shadow Grey. If that doesn't work, I will try my normal brush with some Shadow Grey swirls or may even just leave the color as is. Once it's entirely marbled I'll wash it with something (still to be determined) and dry brush it with something that will hopefully make it look a little more aged.

For the Slann himself, I'm leaning towards a Chaos Black and Warlock Purple color scheme. My only concern is that it will leave him looking too much like a frog instead of a toad.

More progress as I make it!

Lizardmen and Empire Vs. Skaven and Daemons Of Chaos

Steve over at Boisterous Exuberance recently posted a battle report from a 2v2 game we played. Rather than try to best his excellent reporting, I will instead just supplement his post with my thoughts on the game.

1. I liked my new scar veteran setups. Giving the Horned One to a scar veteran with a great weapon proved extremely useful (held the right flank in check for quite a while). I suspect the other scar veteran would have proved equally useful if Howling Gale had not gone off and kept him from his flight move. I was going to attempt to fly him into the blue scribes so that my terradons could focus elsewhere.

2. My terradons once again proved useful but I chose poorly. Howling Gale on the first turn really shut them down and slowed down their ability to do anything. Then I flew them over the Blue Scribes when the Empire pistoliers probably could have handled him on their own. The next turn they were caught in the open again and got shot up by the jezzails. Gotta keep these guys protected better and make sure I use them more efficiently! Maybe I need to take a second unit (I should order some more)

3. Saurus cannot beat bloodcrushers. I need to quit trying to find a way to make it work. Those things are far too nasty and have far too many attacks.

4. I'm not sure I like Lore of Fire very much. My temple guard are really incapable of killing anything in close combat. They are too slow to ever attack first so against any killy unit, the only thing they do for me is not break. I need spells that can hit units in combat with me if I'm ever going to wittle them down.

5. Plague Monks are really good against anything they attack first against.

6. Miscasting a spell, rolling the result that gives your opponent a free cast, and watching him get the 13th spell off is really dumb. I'm glad that miscast option isn't on the table in 8th edition (at least I don't think it is).

7. My temple guard being wiped out and my slann losing combat with 3 wounds on him but rolling double 1s to stay in combat and continue to tie up a giant bloodletters and plague monk unit = win.

8. I think the Empire did all of the work this game. I didn't do much of anything to the enemy and really only served to slow them down. There was just too much hard hitting stuff for me to contain with my 3 blocks.

9. I should have been more aggressive with my engine. It should have charged forward and started dropping burning alignments on everything. It would have been far more useful to me on the right flank and instead it was stuck behind my temple guard unit all game because I was being too conservative with it.

Warhammer 8th Edition Information

Warhammer 8th edition rulebooks are out and there's a lot of great information available online. Overall, it sounds pretty exciting and I'm really looking forward to it.

I had the chance to stop by my local Games Workshop earlier today and took the opportunity to gather some information that I had been unable to locate online but was extremely interested in. This is what I'v learned.

Charging:
When you declare a charge, you declare one charge at a time. Before you declare any subsequent charges, your opponent will declare his reactions. This is done before any rolling of charge distance is done. If your opponent chooses to flee, you may decide whether or not you want to try to catch the fleeing unit or redirect the charge to another eligible unit. You may only redirect once.

Bound Spells:
They use power dice like every other spell. The required casting value is the spell level of the item.

Spells:
If you fail to cast a spell, that wizard can't cast any more spells in that phase.
Each spell can only be known by one wizard unless that wizard has an ability that lets him know specific spell or all spells in a lore.

Magic Phase:
Power dice are generated and channeled every magic phase.
At no point can you have more than 12 power dice or dispel dice. Any extra dice are lost.

Magic Items:
Dispel Scrolls and Power Stones are limited to one per army.
All magic items are limited to one per army unless the item's description specifically says you can take multiples.

Lizardmen Vs. Daemons Of Chaos Lessons Learned

Some lessons learned from my game against Daemons:

1.  Terradons can be really useful if properly protected.  They are however quite vulnerable when left exposed.

2.  The Shield Of The Mirrored Pool, while a cool item, isn't very great.  It serves as a guarantee that your opponent will only ever cast one magic missile against the unit but that's all.  It doesn't even guarantee that the one cast won't go off.  If you only have one block worth protecting, it is quite good.  If you have several, you need to have other protection on the rest of them or he'll just pick a new target.

3.  Killing Blow is really good against my saurus of all varieties.  I need to be a lot more wary of it in the future.

4.  Bloodcrushers with a Herald are an incredibly scary unit.  I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with it in the future.  They have a huge move range which makes it really hard to divert them for long and I don't really have anything that can kill them effectively.  They are well protected from my magic and they can killing blow any lord or hero I send into combat against it.  Even getting the charge on them is no guarantee.  A carnosaur and oldblood with blade of realities is really the only thing I think has a shot and that is only if it gets the charge.  Even then it might not wipe them out and a single killing blow landed will finish off my general.  I think my best bet is my Engine of the Gods and LOTS of poisoned shots.  If the engine could set up a flank charge, it might be worth it.  A flank charge from a Skink Warchief with Stegadon War-spear is also good but it would probably only ever work in one game.

5.  Blue Scribes can really help an opponent's magic phase and should be sniped/assassinated as soon as possible.

6.  Pink Horrors and Heralds of Tzeentch with the D6 + 1 hits, D6 + 1 S magic missile are not that great.  Odds are one of the dice will be low and completely ruin the spell.  The AE spell is a lot nastier but can be equally inconsistent.

7.  That banner that does D6 S6 hits in an area is really scary.  I need to make sure I alwasy have some dispel dice for that.

8.  My temple guard really are useless in close combat.  Striking last due to poor initiative really hurts them and killing blow effectively bypasses their armor save.  Having them in combat without a good and safe way to negate my enemies ranks is not good.

9.  I need to do a better job of getting the Plaque of Dominion out into the center of the table where it can be seen more easily.  I also need to remember to use it and the Becalming Cogitation when I can.

Overall, I learned quite a bit and hopefully these lessons will help me improve my play.

Lizardmen Vs. Daemons of Chaos

As promised, here is my first battle report in a long time!

My army:

Slann Mage-Priest
 - Focus Of Mystery
 - The Focused Rumination
 - The Becalming Cogitation
 - Cupped Hands Of The Old Ones
 - BSB
 - Plaque Of Dominion

Skink Priest
 - Level 2
 - Engine Of The Gods
 - Dispel Scroll
 - Diadem Of Power

Saurus Scar-Veteran
 - Burning Blade Of Chotec
 - Light Armor
 - Shield Of The Mirrored Pool

Saurus Scar-Veteran
 - Light Armor
 - Great Weapon

3 Terradons

16 Temple Guard
 - Musician
 - Standard Bearer

12 Skink Skirmishers

12 Skink Skirmishers

12 Skink Skirmishers

18 Saurus Warriors
 - Spears
 - Musician
 - Standard Bearer

18 Saurus Warriors
 - Spears
 - Musician
 - Standard Bearer

Daemons of Chaos List (Something like this):
Herald of Tzeentch
Herald of Khorne on Juggernaut
Herald Of Khorne BSB
Blue Scribes (General)
5 Chaos Furies
6 Screamers
2 Bloodcrushers
20ish Pink Horrors
20ish Pink Horrors
5 Khorne Hounds with Karanak
20 Bloodletters

Initial setup from my side:

From Lizardmen Vs. Demons

Initial setup (closer look at daemons):

From Lizardmen Vs. Demons

Turn 1 (Lizardmen):  I get the first turn and move everything up.  I fly my terradons into the jungle.  Not a whole lot gets accomplished this turn.

From Lizardmen Vs. Demons

Turn 1 (Daemons):  Everything moves up.  Harpies fly in front of me to try and force an awkward charge.  A lot of magic gets cast including a magic missile at my shield of the mirrored pool.  With typical luck, I roll the 1, have to eat the spell, and no more spells get cast at the unit the rest of the game.

From Lizardmen Vs. Demons

Turn 2 (Lizardmen):  My terradons fly over the blue scribes dropping only 4 rocks and throwing their javelins.  They manage to do 2 of the 3 wounds to him.  My skink skirmishers along the hound flank get in the way of the hounds to draw them out into an awkward charge.  I kill some of the harbies with shooting and spells but not many.  I set up my skinks on the left to try and force the bloodcrushers into an awkward charge and I move my skinks in the middle up to try and pull the bloodletters into a bad charge.

Turn 2 (Demons):  The screamers retaliate against my terradons killing all but 1.  The Blue Scribes books it to the other side of the jungle.  The hounds charge my skinks, catch and destroy them, but are succesfully pulled out of position.  The chaos furies fly to behind my temple guard unit.  The bloodletters charge my middle skinks which stand and shoot (I should have had them flee) and pursue into my temple guard.  And the bloodcrushers charge my left skinks which flee, are caught, and also manage to hit my saurus block on the left.

From Lizardmen Vs. Demons

After combat my saurus block has been mowed down.  My middle skinks have broken and fled.  It's not looking too good for me.  It is also revealed that the Herald Of Khorne has a really nasty area effect banner and I am out of dispel dice when it is used.

From Lizardmen Vs. Demons

Turn 3 (Lizardmen):  I turn my engine to prepare to engage the bloodcrushers when they come around.  Luckily they are so out of position I won't have to worry about them for a while.  I bring my remaining saurus block around to flank charge the bloodletters on the next turn.

From Lizardmen Vs. Demons

Turn 3 (Daemons):  The bloodcrushers and Khorne hounds regroup.  Blue Scribes pulls in closer near the hounds, bloodletters move more models into base contact, screamers come around, and the horrors move towards my last remaining block.

From Lizardmen Vs. Demons

Turn 4 (Lizardmen):  My saurus block charges the bloodletter flank.  My engine turns around and moves swiftly towards the hounds and scribes.  My last remaining skinks move down to stall the bloodcrushers.  My saurus warriors successfully beat the bloodletters in combat but the leadership roll is good and there are minimal casualties to the unit.  My engine of the gods triggers Burning Alignment and rolls an 11!  The Blue Scribes blow up as do some of the hounds!

From Lizardmen Vs. Demons

Turn 4 (Daemons):  The screamers move up.  The pink horrors charge the flank of my saurus warriors.  The hounds charge the rear of my saurus warriors.  The bloodcrushers charge my skinks, who flee and are caught, but successfully pull the bloodcrushers off at another bad angle.  My saurus warrior unit is demolished in combat, the pink horrors give chase (the hounds do not) and pursue into the back of the bloodletters.  The hounds are stuck in position facing the flank of the pink horrors and my lone scar-veteran escapes.

From Lizardmen Vs. Demons

Turn 5 (Lizardmen):  My Scar-Veteran moves to engage the bloodcrushers.  My engine moves away from them and blows up a bunch of the screamers.  My temple guard end up in combat with the pink horrors after the last of the bloodletters blows up.

Turn 5 (Daemons):  The hounds regroup.  The bloodcrushers regroup.  The screamers fly over my engine and scar veteran which survive.

From Lizardmen Vs. Demons

Turn 6 (Lizardmen):  More combat, more aeing things with the engine.

Turn 6 (Daemons):  The bloodcrushers charge my scar veteran overrunning into the back of the Slann.  They do a wound to him but not enough for half points.  My engine survives. as well.

Final result:  Draw just short of a minor victory in favor of the Lizardmen.  If the game had continued much longer, it might have gone a different way but I'm not sure.  The bloodcrushers were nearly defeated and my engine was still in tact so I would say a draw is a fair call.

Wow, an update.

It's been a long time since I've updated.  I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things.  I have a couple of battle reports to put up including a game of Lizardmen vs. Demons and a 2 vs. 2 game of Lizardmen and Empire vs. Skaven and Demons.  Those will hopefully happen some time in the near future.

I've also been looking through the Skaven and Beastmen books.  I don't have any Beastmen models but I'm considering turning them into a side project like my Skaven currently are.  Build them slowly over time because I feel like buying some models for them.  My first order of business for both is to create a list to build towards.

I think I want my first Skaven list to be a Pestilens themed list.  It might change when 8th edition comes out so I probably won't begin work on it until after I see how that affects things but the list is below.

Lord Skrolk

Level 2 Plague Priest on Furnace with Flail and Power Stone

Level 2 Plague Priest with Flail and Warp Scroll

Level 2 Plague Priest with Flail and Power Stone

20 Plague Monks with Musician, Standard Bearer, and Plague Banner
20 Plague Monks with Musician, Standard Bearer, and Storm Banner
30 Plague Monks with Musician, Standard Bearer, and Banner Of The Under-Empire

6 Plague Censer Bearers
6 Plague Censer Bearers

12 Giant Rats with 2 Packmasters
12 Giant Rats with 2 Packmasters

Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult

Total:  2248

This list is based around trying to make the Plagueclaw Catapults effective.  While negating armor saves is really good, the fact that they only deal Strength 2 hits is unfortunate.  To counter this I wanted to field a list cramming as much wither as I possibly can in.  Hence, the all caster characters.  Lord Skrolk gives me a way to field my plague monks as core allowing me to take more censer bearers.  The giant rats are in because they are extremely cheap and expendable while able to dish out a decent number of attacks on the charge.  The hope is that they will be able to do quite a bit of damage to lightly armored withered units for little to no cost.  The plague monks and plague censer bearers are there to finish the job.  The censer bearers providing me a good way to do some damage to heavily armored targets that I can't hit with the catapults.

I could probably make a list that works better for what I want using a grey seer and dropping all but one plague monk unit for a bunch of cheap throwaway units but I figured if I was going with the plagueclaw catapults then I might as well go all Pestilens.

Expect upcoming posts to cover the just mentioned Grey Seer version of this list, some thoughts on a Beastmen army, and the battle reports mentioned earlier.