Salamander Painting Part I

I spent some time painting my salamanders and watching Bones on Netflix Instant Queue yesterday. Fantastic show.

Anyways, I made quite a bit of progress. I coated the models with Macharius Solar Orange then washed them over with Baal Red. I then picked out all of the scales with Chaos Black and rewashed the scales with Baal Red.

From Salamanders

From Salamanders

I'm planning to go through and highlight the scales with some sort of grey. I haven't decided what kind yet but I'll probably do some experimentation. I'm also planning to highlight the skin with Blazing Orange and possibly some form of yellow.

Hordes Battle Report 8/26/10

Asmo and I played our third game of Hordes during lunch and I finally beat him. Pretty soundly too I might add. Suck it Asmo! =P

He'll probably slaughter me several times this week to make up for that last comment.

He's been writing a series of articles analyzing the troops he's been taking from the perspective of a long time Warmachine player. It's good stuff, I highly recommend checking it out. You can also check out his version of our game on 8/24/10.

So anyways, we played 15 points again. He took the same list as last time but swapped Morghoul out for Makeda. So he ended up with 2 Cyclops Savages, a Titan Gladiator, Makeda, and 4 Paingivers. I took pMadrak, 5 Trollkin Champions, an axer, and an impaler.

I've started to get a hang of how to play pMadrak a little more. We tossed down random stuff on the table again and after my previous games, I've realized that I need to wait for him to come to me. There's no real need for me to rush him. So I turtled up behind an impassable obstruction. I sent an impaler around the far side to take shots at the approaching Skorne foe. I stuck my Champions on the other side with the axer nearby for support and I hid pMadrak in between it all.

In the middle of the Skorne approach path was some rough terrain. Asmo sent each cyclops around a different side of it and Makeda and the Titan straight through. He tried to approach slowly to draw me out but I refused to bite. My impaler started taking potshots at one of his cyclops' and he finally caved and launched his attack. His titan charged into my champions and easily killed one but then got bogged down by the sheer amount of defensive power. His cyclops charged the impaler but failed to kill it.

On my turn, my champions and axer did some major damage to his titan. Those guys are nasty! and Madrak and the impaler took out the cyclops. He sent in his other cyclops to back up the titan but it was too late. Madrak and the impaler started taking shots at Makeda who tried to help the dying cyclops in combat. With most of his beasts dead, I moved in for the kill and finished him off.

I'm really eager to get my Krielstone Bearers assembled and try them out with Madrak. Even more defensive power will make his turtle shell even more difficult to break through.

More Minis

I have wisdom teeth surgery coming up next weekend so I placed another order for stuff to work on building over the weekend. I'm going to be on painkillers so I decided that spending my time painting was not going to be the best decision I could make.

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

From Trollblood Orders 2

I hope to have them all assembled and ready to join my games within a week!

Hordes Battle Report 8/24/10

So, real life has been hitting me hard this week and my blogging has lagged behind. Been extremely busy at work and home and also had to deal with a cold that took me out of commission several nights this week.

I'm feeling better now and have a lot of exciting hobby stuff coming up. I'll be getting a game of 8th edition in against The Vermin Lord this weekend as well as some games of WarmaHordes with Rob and Nathan and BK. I also should get some time to do some painting.

Anyways, Asmo and I have continued to play games of Hordes during our lunch breaks. I've been running with pMadrak and my warpack as the base and Morghoul's warpack as his. For our second game, we decided to up the points a little and I dropped an Impaler in favor of my Dire Troll Bomber. This brought me up to 15 points. Asmo added a unit of Paingivers to his warpack to bring it up to 14 points.

I played terribly. I had a shooting list with a caster not really designed for it against his close combat list. On my first turn, I moved my guys up to take shots but my impaler was short and I forgot to fire twice with my bomber. Instead of using cover to force him to come to me and take a beating from my guys, I left all of my guys exposed and watched as his Titan slammed my bomber, followed up, and killed him in a single round.

Luckily, he moved his cyclops and his titan out of Morghoul's control area which bought me a turn. He also forgot to pop his feat when he needed to. I did end up in combat with Morghoul but his high defense and my poor rolling resulted in very little damage taken. I conceded after it became clear that his titan was going to charge in and demolish madrak on the next turn.

You can check out Asmo's take on our previous game here.

New Poll

I tossed up a new poll on the right. This is your opportunity to let me know what type of content you're most interested in. If you get the chance, please cast your vote. It should be noted that you can vote for multiple items.

New Skaven Models Announced

Games Workshop has just put up some new Skaven models for advanced order. They will be released on September 18th.

They have announced a Skavenslaves Sling Upgrade Pack.

As well as a re-release of classic rat ogre models.

Maulerblades, Ironclaws, and Stitch Spikegouger.

I usually don't like the look of a lot of Games Workshop's classic models but I'm sort of digging the new rat ogres. It's a shame they aren't part of a plastic kit and I already have more rat ogres than I will ever need, especially after I purchase Island of Blood.

This post is a bit of an experiment. Are people interested in seeing more breaking news on here? Or should I stick to theoryhammer, modeling, painting, and battle report posts?

Lizardmen in 8th Edition: Lore of Death

This is another lore that seems to be receiving a lot of Internet praise. Unfortunately, it is not so great with Lizardmen.

Life Leeching (Lore Attribute):
Extra power dice is always fantastic. Your slann should already be generating an extra dice per spell so with this attribute and some judicious spellcasting, you should be able to have an amazing magic phase.

Spirit Leech (Signature Spell):
Assassination spells. Your slann's leadership actually makes this a decent choice. The extra range option on the spell also makes it quite functional.

Aspect of the Dreadknight (1):
Very nice spell to pair with Doom and Darkness. Use the assassination spells in this list to kill the enemy BSB, give your big saurus blocks fear or terror, then reduce your enemies leadership. Very nice combination that will really cause some damage if you can get it all off.

The Caress of Laniph (2):
Great character killing spell. The range severely limits its usability when taking an immobile slann unless you're willing to up the casting value for extra inches.

Soulblight (3):
This is a very nice spell. The ability to hit all enemy models with it is fantastic. Increases the survivability and killiness of your troops in close combat.

Doom and Darkness (4):
This might be the best spell in this lore. With the FAQ changes to Steadfast, this can be used to defeat Stubborn. Steadfast isn't so great when your leadership is only 5. Use this to break that critical unit in close combat or make sure that panic test fails. Also nice to pair this with Fear and Terror.

The Fate of Bjuna (5):
Another great spell with a fantastic chance to kill whatever you target. However, the short range severely limits its use. Your slann is going to be easy for your opponent to avoid. It's great if your opponent charges something big and nasty into your temple guard as you will get several turns to try this spell out. It's bad if you get tied up with cheap troops while the nasties destroy your flanks.

The Purple Sun of Xereus (6):
Fantastic spell. Not so great for Lizardmen. Your saurus are going to be obliterated by this spell and the only thing that can get it is a slann. If he's in a temple guard block and you misfire with this bad boy, you just lost the game. If he's by himself, he doesn't have the mobility to get to the enemy line and unleash this on them and is worth far too many points to risk on a suicide run.

Lizardmen Thoughts:
I covered a lot of these inline today. The major issue here is that slann's don't have the mobility that would be really nice with this spell. However, putting them in a temple guard unit means you don't necessarily need the mobility if you can get yourself into position. The other major downside is that the really nasty spell in this list has too much potential to destroy yourself. You'll probably never want to cast Purple Sun unless all else seems lost.

In the early turns of the game, I'd cast boosted Spirit Leech and Caress of Laniph in an attempt to wipe out the BSB and then the general (in that order). Once that's handled you can direct your focus towards nasty monsters. With the BSB and general gone, start getting fear/terror on your critical units and Doom and Darkness and Soulblight on your opponent's critical units. At this point, you get to watch his line start to crumble.

This isn't a terrible lore for Lizardmen and it isn't a fantastic lore either. I think there's a lot of potential here for some interesting list builds (particularly ones that go fear/terror heavy) but I'm not convinced a savvy opponent wouldn't be able to counter and limit your plans. Either way, I certainly think its a fun sounding list and will probably run it at some point to see how it plays out.

Dire Troll Bomber Assembly

This model is really really cool. It might be my favorite model in the entire Trollbloods line. Giant nasty troll running around with explosive powderkegs? Yes please. I don't know how effective he'll be in game but I absolutely had to pick one up. The detail on this model, like the other Trollbloods I have put together is absolutely topnotch. To top it off, it is the most easily assembled metal model of its size I have ever put together. The edges are clearly defined and all of the pieces just fit without any extra filing and work. It was a little more difficult to pin than the other models due to the way the joints go together and I was only able to pin the head, and all of the arm pieces together. However, I think pinning on this model may have been overkill because of the way everything fits together so nicely. On a model this big, I would have thought it a necessity and I really don't think it is.

Here's the finished work. I might green stuff a little bit later but I'm not actually sure it's even needed.

From Dire Troll Bomber 1

Lizardmen in 8th Edition: Lore of Light

I like this lore a lot.

Exorcism (Lore Attribute):
Great if your enemy is undead or daemonic, not so fantastic otherwise.

Shem's Burning Gaze (Signature Spell):
Great range and it gives you flaming attacks. It can be increased to S6 for taking out nasty monsters too. Nice little magic missile and a great tool for an army with very little long ranged threats.

Pha's Protection (1):
Fantastic gunline protection. Combine this with Iceshard Blizzard and you can really hose an enemy shooting unit. Can be aed to protect all of your valuable units.

The Speed of Light (2):
Gives you high initiative to make sure you strike first and high weapon skill to make sure you hit. It also makes it harder for your opponent to hit you. Can be aed and given to all of your units. Great synergy with both Iceshard Blizzard and Pha's Protection to virtually guarantee your opponent can't hit you.

Light of Battle (3):
Great for low leadership armies. Not so great for others.

Net of Amyntok (4):
This is a cool little utility spell. Gives you a chance to hold a unit in place and do some damage while you're at it. Use this to prevent that critical charge or make your opponent think twice about committing his other resources to battle.

Banishment (5):
Great damage spell against things with ward saves. This makes it the best spell in the game for busting through magic resistance. It's not very high strength though which is unfortunate.

Birona's Timewarp (6):
This is a really great spell. Terrific synergy with the rest of the lore and turns your guys into close combat beasts. More attacks, more movement, and always strikes first? Fantastic. Pair this with Speed of Light to give your guys hatred. Even better, it can also be cast in an area effect.

Lizardmen Thoughts:
This is the creme de la creme of Lizardmen lores in my book. It counters all of their weaknesses and really makes it hard for an opponent to beat them. Net of Amyntok gives you extra utility to prevent your saurus from being outmaneuvered. Shem's Burning Gaze and Banishment provide you with very nice ranged threats to assist your Lore of Heavens ranged threats. Worried about Purple Sun and initiative tests? Cast Speed of Light and worry no more!

The real nice thing here though are the ways the augments synergize. Take a ranked up unit of saurus with spears and cast Pha's Protection, Speed of Light, and Birona's Timewarp on them. You now have 25 S4 WS10 attacks that can reroll to hit and will always go first. Not to mention, anything wanting to attack back is going to need 6s just to hit you. Combine that with Curse of the Midnight Wind from Lore of Heavens and they have to reroll their successful to hit rolls too!

On a unit of temple guard, you're looking at 20 S5 WS10 attacks. That's going to dish out some serious damage and really put a hurting on your opponent. This combination even makes your saurus cavalry suddenly awesome!

The only spell that isn't fantastic for Lizardmen is Light of Battle but only because their leadership is already godly.

I REALLY like this lore for the slann. It helps you from turn 1 all the way through to the end of the game. Start off with magic missiles, Net of Amyntok, and Pha's Protection to keep your guy's safe and transition to the augments as your combat units collide.

One thing of note. You have no miscast protection so you'll either need to run your slann solo or take Cupped Hands of the Old ones. Soul of Stone is also worth considering.

1st Foray Into Hordes Mk II

I played my first game of Hordes during my lunch break on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun but its definitely clear I need to secure a better understanding of the rules. Unfortunately no pictures as it slows things down too much and my lunch break has a time limit.

I took my Trollbloods warpack against Steve's Skorne warpack. It was a pretty close game but Steve's familiarity with Warmachine and what is in my opinion, a better set of models for pitting against another warpack, Steve managed to win.

We set up some terrain (carrots from my lunch as a forest, salt & pepper shakers, etc.) and started our first game. He advanced his Titan and Morghoul through the carrot forest and sent his two cyclops guys around. On my turn I moved my impalers up into range with their animus and shot both of them at the titan doing quite a bit of damage. I had the axer move to intercept the two cyclops. Madrak cast Stranglehold on the Titan as well to hold him in place on the next turn.

On the second turn, one cyclops charged madrak, the other charged the axer. The axer took quite a bit of damage (after Madrak transfered the damage he took) and had his body crippled. On my turn, Madrak and the axer managed to kill off one of the cyclops. My rolls were terrible though and he should have died much sooner. I did force my axer to regenerate and heal his body so it was no longer crippled.

On the third turn, the Titan slammed one of my impalers and knocked him really far back. He then spent fury on additional attacks into Madrak. Morghoul popped his feat to keep me from forcing my warbeasts and transferring damage. On my turn Madrak leached all of the fury he could and almost finished off the titan (4 health left, damn my rolling sucks). The axer couldn't be forced so he only managed a little damage against the other cyclops.

On Skorne fourth turn, Morghoul charged Madrak and using his fury on additional attacks knocked him down to about 3 health left. The cyclops went next doing just enough damage to Madrak to finish him off and I failed my Tough roll. End of the game.

Things I learned:
My turns were too long. I need to go into these games having a much better grasp of what I can do.
I need to remember that Madrak also has a ranged weapon. It's really good and I had completely forgotten about it.
I hadn't realized that Madrak had a really fantastic upkeep spell and I should have cast it on the first turn.
Madrak's feat is not very good for facing other warpack armies. It relies on being able to kill guys in one attack and keep moving through them to mow down large groups. That doesn't work really well against only warbeasts.
Definitely a fun game. I'm looking forward to playing more.

Lizardmen in 8th Edition: Lore of Life

By request, here are my thoughts on Lore of Life.

Lifebloom (Lore Attribute):
This is a pretty cool attribute. Free healing is very nice and you can use this to keep a choppy saurus character or a stegadon going long after it should have succumbed. Very nice.

Earth Blood (Signature Spell):
Nice spell. Regeneration is always nice and with Throne of Vines it's working half the time. This is somewhat negated by the sheer amount of flaming attacks available to most armies now but it's still pretty good to have. You're going to want to use this in conjunction with Throne of Vines and the other spells in this lore to create a really nasty anvil unit your opponent will never get through.

Awakening of the Wood (1):
Decent spell for its cost. Unfortunately, I don't really foresee many people getting any use out of this. With the random terrain generation chart, I at least don't foresee myself putting anything in a Mysterious Forest that has such a potential to start munching on my guys. Luckily its a good spell even when not in the woods.

Flesh to Stone (2):
+2 Toughness is fantastic. +4 Toughness is even more fantastic. This will make your opponent need 5s to wound you at best, 6s to wound you with Throne of Vines. This is a must have spell for this lore.

Throne of Vines (3):
This is the spell that makes this lore. It allows you to throw tons of dice at each spell with no fear of miscast and makes all of your spell but Dwellers Below even more fantastic. You will start every magic phase with casting this spell if you don't already have it up.

Shield of Thorns (4):
Great spell for your impossible to kill anvil unit. Get this up and it forces your opponent to seriously think about whether they'd rather dispel Throne of Vines or this in their turn. Every turn they don't dispel this (if cast with Throne of Vines), they'll have to take 4D6 S4 hits. That is just awesome.

Regrowth (5):
Bring your units back to life? Very cool. D3+1 is so-so for the point cost but D6+1 with Throne of Vines is truly very nice.

The Dwellers Below (6):
A fantastic spell against some armies. The last spell you will cast against others. Strength test or die is very nice against things like elves but against things likely to pass their tests, you are probably better off keeping all of your buffs going.

Overall Lizardmen Thoughts:
This seems to be the lore that everyone on the internet absolutely loves for their slann. It's easy to see why. Take a big old unit of temple guard, stick your slann in it, march it up the field, and give it 4+ regen, +4 toughness, bring back D6+1 casualties, and give it an extra 4D6 S4 hits in close combat every turn? That's just AWESOME!

I haven't tried it myself but when I really think about it, I don't see it as actually being that great on the table. If your opponent brings a badly unbalanced list, sure, you're going to dominate the magic phase and their is nothing he can do about it. But what it really comes down to is Throne of Vines. This is the spell your opponent has to stop. Without this, your battle plan falls apart.

You have two choices every magic phase, cast this spell with a lot of dice to keep it from being dispelled or go for the minimum. If you go for the minimum, your opponent can throw all of his dice at it because this is what he needs to stop. All of your other spells lose a lot of their effectiveness without it and will expire by the next turn anyways so you'll just have to recast them all over again and who knows how good your next magic phase will be.

What if you throw enough dice at it to make it difficult to dispel? Well, if you irresistable force it, that's fantastic and you get it. If you don't, this is where he whips out his dispel scroll or feedback scroll and we get to watch your slann implode. What if you do get it off and he knows he can't stop it with his dice? Well, then all he has to do is stop your follow up spells. If you've thrown a ton of dice at this spell, you're not going to have much left for your other spells. And he can just dispel throne of vines in his magic phase. On average, it only takes 2 dice on a level 1 wizard to dispel it. 2 dice on a level 4 wizard is virtually a guarantee.

I think a savvy opponent that brings any decent amount of dispel is going to tear apart a Lore of Life list. Sure, if your opponent isn't so savvy or just plain has shitty lucky, you're going to tear him apart with this list, but with magic so random in this edition, I think this list relies too heavily on being able to be consistent in your magic phase.

There are of course some ways to mitigate this and try to make sure you have enough dice to do what you need to do. My personal recommendations are to always take The Focused Rumination on your slann and seriously consider taking the Forbidden Rod on a skink priest and a Power Stone on the slann himself. These will help you generate your necessary power dice on a bad winds of magic roll and enable you to recover and get things back on track. A Power Scroll to irresistible force Throne of Vines or another spell on command is also useful and should be considered.

As far as partnering this with Lore of Heavens on your skinks, look for synergy with Iceshard Blizzard to help get your anvil unit into combat and Curse of the Midnight Wind to make it even harder to kill them.

Trollkin Champions Assembly

I managed to get my Trollkin Champions assembled as well. These guys were a lot faster since they didn't require pinning but I am stumped about one thing. The models come with these 5 little barrel pieces and I cannot for the life of me figure out where they are supposed to attach to the models. If anyone knows, please fill me in as I have been unable to find any pictures online that show the location.

Here are the barrels I'm talking about:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Now for the models themselves, these guys are really cool looking. Lots of detail. So far I've been EXTREMELY impressed with the quality and level of detail on Privateer Press models. The only thing I'd ask for is a little more variety would be nice. There seems to be only two grunt bodies and one leader body and it would be nice if there was a way to make all five guys in the unit look unique.

Leader:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Grunt 1:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Grunt 2:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Grunt 3:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Grunt 4:

From Trollkin Champions 1

Lizardmen in 8th Edition: Lore of Heavens

Let's start here since it's the lore that skink priests have to take. I'm going to go through the lores one by one since this is my first time covering them and I'll give my general thoughts as well as Lizardmen specific thoughts.

Roiling Skies (Lore Attribute):
Interesting lore attribute. Unfortunately, interesting doesn't mean good. It's not going to do too much and is really just a nice extra rather than a reason to specifically take this lore. There is some debate on whether or not the hits are inflicted for merely targeting the enemy or if the spell has to be successfully cast. I'm in the camp that says it needs to actually go off but a FAQ will be needed to clear this up. It's nice for lizardmen because it gives them a little extra oomph against things like dragons that are going to be difficult to take down from a distance. I don't think it's enough oomph though to really make much of a difference.

Iceshard Blizzard (Signature Spell):
Pretty nice spell. Lets you shut down a shooty unit or a warmachine. This is particularly useful for lizards worried about their saurus blocks being demolished. It also combos nicely with some of the Lore of Light spells. Combo it with The Speed of Light (Light) and Curse of the Midnight Wind (Heavens) and you can make your enemies elite block need 6s to hit and all 6s get rerolled.

Harmonic Convergence (1):
This and Curse of the Midnight Wind are opposite sides of the same coin. This is best used on things that need 3s to hit and/or 2s to wound as it will virtually ensure every to hit roll succeeds and every to wound roll succeeds. Give this to your elite troops or a unit that is going to be causing a lot of rolls. I can see it being useful on blowpipes and salamanders in addition to the more elite saurus type units. In the end though, unless you really need that critical extra hit/wound, I think you're going to be better off trying one of the other spells in this lore.

Wind Blast (2):
Very cool spell. I like it a lot though I'm not convinced of its usefulness. Clever placing of this spell can force your opponent's units to trip over each other and really hose his battleline. You can also force your opponent out of charge position and might even cause some damage to some of his lighter troops. It's pretty cheap to cast too and I think it's certainly worth taking just for the chance to mess with your opponent. The major benefit of this spell is restricting your opponent's movement when you have less mobile (saurus) troops and beating him to position is critical. Fun combos are possible with Fulminating Flame Cage (Fire) and Net of Amyntok (Light) as well.

Curse of the Midnight Wind (3):
This is a pretty interesting spell. Combo it with things that give your units extreme toughness and/or weapon skill and they become virtually impossible to kill. Double the casting value and you can hit multiple enemy units at once which is a very nice extra bonus. Use this on units targeting saurus warriors, temple guard, cold one knights, stegadons, etc. It's not really worth casting to save skinks because those little buggers will be dead anyways unless you've managed to dramatically up their toughness. Better than Harmonic Convergence because it's easier to make your guys harder to kill than it is to make them killy.

Urannon's Thunderbolt (4):
It's a pretty basic magic missile. Nothing particularly great about it besides S6. The best use for this spell is high toughness/armored small units. With only D6 hits, it's not going to do many wounds which is why you need to make the wounds it does do count. This is for elite units. Don't bother casting it at cheap throwaway units unless you absolutely have to stop that unit of skirmishers/fast cav. It's a nice little ranged threat that lizards don't get much of.

Comet of Cassandora (5):
Much better than the older version of the spell. No longer remains in play means you don't have to worry about your opponent dispelling it before it goes off but you also have to be more careful about placement and your own troops. Drop this on top of your opponent's warmachines/shooting units and watch him scramble. It also makes for a terrific way to control your opponent's advance. Noone is going to want to take their elite troops through the middle of this thing's target area. Lizardmen don't have much in the way of anti-shooting so this is a great spell for them.

Chain Lightning (6):
This bad boy is Urannon on steroids. It's the same spell for an extra 5 casting value. It has the bonus of not requiring line of sight and hopping to more units 2/3 of the time. With a lucky roll of this and bad planning on your opponent's part, you can wipe out mass units of heavy cav, light cav, skirmishers, independent characters, monsters, and warmachines. It's a fantastic spell. Gives lizardmen another great way to deal with targets at a range.

Lizardmen Thoughts:
I think most Lizardmen lists are going to have this lore in it. Magic is such a powerful phase in 8th edition that you have to bring something for it. This will probably be a slann but even a slann needs backup. The last thing you want is to roll 12 for winds of magic then have your slann's first spell break his concentration and you can't cast anything else. As a result, I foresee a skink priest of some sort in every list.

This lore provides a variety of spells that help negate Lizardmen weaknesses. There are several terrific ranged threats in its arsenal as well as anti-shooting and anti-maneuverability spells. You can't go wrong with most of these spells. I would try to give each priest you take at least one damage and one utility spell. Harmonic Convergence is probably the least useful spell for Lizardmen (unless comboed effectively) so i would trade it for Iceshard Blizzard most of the time.

Warpack Assembly

I spent some time meticulously cleaning and assembling the Warpack box that came with my order. In the past, I've never been particularly careful at the assembly step so I wanted to make sure I did an extra good job with the start of something new. I took the advice of my friend Asmo and cleaned/filed all the mold lines. I then soaked the models in a bowl of warm water and dishwashing liquid before scrubbing them down with a cheap toothbrush. I've never done any pinning before but I wanted to go the extra mile with these so I asked Nathan who I know had pinned his Cygnar army together for some advice on what to pick up. I ended up pinning everything but the heads and Madrak using the Gale Force Nine pinning kit.

Here are the results!

Madrak:

From Trollbloods Warpack

Axer:

From Trollbloods Warpack

Impaler 1:

From Trollbloods Warpack

Impaler 2:

From Trollbloods Warpack

Group Photo:

From Trollbloods Warpack

I think they turned out really well. The joints are all pretty solid and I'm very pleased with how easy it ended up being. Once I got the hang of it, it didn't take much time at all. I want to green stuff the gaps and crevices with green stuff still which is another new thing for me so hopefully that will go as smoothly.

It Begins.....

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

From Trollbloods Order

Let the building commence!

1st Foray Into 8th Edition (part 2)

In part 1 I talked about my game against Daemons of Chaos. After we finished up our game, I played again against my friend Nathan.

I let him borrow my Lizardmen from the game, it was his first time playing with Lizardmen.

I took an Ogre list I had brought with the hope of being balanced against the Lizardmen list.

Tyrant
- Wyrdstone Necklace
- Sword of Bloodshed
- Enchanted Shield
- Heavy Armour
- Luck Gnoblar
Slaughtermaster
- Siegebreaker
- Halfling Cookbook
- 3 Gnoblar Thiefstone
Bruiser
- BSB
- Obsidian Lodestone
- Heavy Armour
- Cathayan Longsword
Butcher
- Dispel Scroll
10 Gnoblar Trappers
30 Gnoblar Fighters
6 Bulls
- Standard Bearer
6 Ironguts
- Standard Bearer
6 Ironguts
- Standard Bearer
1 Scraplauncher
1 Scraplauncher
2 Leadbelchers
- Bellower
2 Leadbelchers
- Bellower

Tyrant and Slaughtermaster went in one Ironguts unit. BSB and Butcher in the other.

We rolled up a lot of obstacles for our terrain and we rolled dawn attack. This really made our deployment difficult. It basically killed any strategy regarding deployment because there was no guarantee your critical units would be where you wanted them.

Nathan deployed the lizards first but I managed to seize the initiative.

It was unfortunately a slightly dull game. Not much happened as we had to cut it short because it was getting late. I also didn't get a chance to take any pictures.

Basically, he was unable to do much in his magic phase. Dispel scroll kept it in check and the slann was taken out early due to loss of concentration. In one of my shooting phases, a scraplauncher misfired but the other dropped a template almost spot on and dealt pretty good damage to a unit of saurus. Scraplaunchers are pretty fantastic but I didn't get to do much against them.

On our last turn of play, I got a series of charges and redirects off that resulted in several of the small skirmishing units fleeing and one unit of Ironguts colliding with a block of saurus spears. The Ironguts handily won combat but unfortunately needed one more wound to negate steadfast and failed to get it with their Stomps. The saurus held.

That was when the game ended. It was looking like a win for the ogres as they were about to enter combat in full force but who knows what would have happened in Nathan's next turn!

Slann Mage-Priest Painting Part V

Not a whole lot to report here though I am pretty happy with one of the pieces that I completed.

I spent most of my time during this painting session touching up the random leaves around the back of the palanquin. I got the initial Knarloc Green on a lot of them and also did some touching up of the branches in spots I had missed my first time through. Still have washing and highlighting of the leaves to do as well as figuring out the next step to really make my branches pop.

From Slann Mage-Priest I

The other day when I was working on this, I also decided how I wanted to do up one of the many little critters that is chilling out on the palanquin. I used Chaos Black and Blazing Orange to paint the stripes and then filled in the eye slits with two tiny strokes of Chaos Black. This will probably receive a Devlan Mud wash. I'm not sure if there is any point in highlighting him.

From Slann Mage-Priest I

Lizardmen in 8th edition: Rare

Not much in the way of options in this category.

Ancient Stegadon:
These are a better option than the normal stegadon. Extra strength to make the Thunderstomps and impact hits even better. Extra armor save for a little extra shooting and magic protection. I also like the double blowpipes more than the bolt thrower. Unfortunately, it still gets destroyed by cannons and other warmachines. The real problem with this selection is it uses up your rare points that I personally would prefer to spend on Salamanders. I think these might make it into my list occasionally.

Salamander Hunting Pack:
Love them. 8th edition has made them absolutely fantastic. A unit of skirmishing multi-use breath weapons that can march and fire, hit on partials, and give a -3 to armor saves? Take them. Take more of them. Then take even more of them. These guys are going to wipe out blocks of infantry like nobody's business. They are also useful for getting guys out of buildings. Each template that touches the building is going to inflict D6 hits on the unit and since the attacks are flaming, you'll get to reroll the to wound roll. Not to mention the panic attacks for any wounds caused. They are also slightly more survivable now with the monsters and handlers rule giving them an effective 5+ ward save.

I like unit sizes of 2 as they don't get too expensive for a unit at that point so you can use them as a bait/redirect if you have to. They are also going to be charged because your opponent is not going to leave these guys in his flank to flame him all game. So the smaller units of 2 helps to minimize the points loss when these guys do inevitable end up in combat. I plan to always field at least a unit of two.

Razordon Hunting Pack:
Like them. I don't think they're as good as salamanders but on a good roll, they do have a lot more damage potential. On a bad roll though, they are going to do nothing, and they have the potential to get really hosed on the charge. It's a real trade off with these guys, you'll either get complete crap, average, face meltingly good.

Like the salamanders, at 75 points a pop, I'd run them in units of two. Though three is really tempting for that once in a million turn when your opponent charges them and they unload 60 shots. The main advantage these guys have over salamanders, is they won't necessarily keel over and die when they get charged in combat. With their stand and shoot reaction, you're probably going to take some of the enemy with you. They are also better than salamanders at dealing damage to smaller blocks. Salamanders really only excel if you can get the template on a lot of enemies. The main disadvantage is they aren't nearly as good as salamanders at forcing panic tests or dealing with high armor targets. These guys will probably see themselves show up in my lists as an occasional complement to my salamanders.

This concludes my breakdown of the units. What are people interested in seeing next? A run through of magic items or the magic lores?

Return of the Stegadon!

It's been a long time since I last worked on this guy but I finally took the time to focus on him for a little while and made quite a bit of progress.

From Engine Of The Gods 1

From Engine Of The Gods 1

From Engine Of The Gods 1

From Engine Of The Gods 1

I coated the entire body with Hawk Turquoise then washed it all with Thraka Green. I then applied a light drybrush of Space Wolves Grey focusing on the body but also hitting the scales a little too. I washed the scales with Devlan Mud and then gave them an extremely heavy drybrushing of Regal Blue. I rewashed the scales with Thraka Green again and then gave the whole body another light drybrushing of Space Wolves Grey.

I think the effect turned out really nicely. I'm not sure there's enough shading in the non-scales portion though. I'm going to leave it for now but I'm thinking I might give the skin a wash of Devlan Mud too and make sure I get it down into the crevices.

Lizardmen in 8th edition: Special

I'm not sure how much I like Lizardmen special choices in 8th. They all have a use but only in a support role. I'm not sure you can really build an army around any of them.

Chameleon Skinks:
I think these guys got a pretty good boost with 8th edition. They can deploy anywhere at least 12" from the enemy now, line of sight doesn't matter. In 7th, I used to have a hard time finding a place I could actually put these guys that wasn't my own deployment zone. Now it's easy to place them and in some scenarios, it's incredibly easy to drop them in the opponent's backfield. They can march and shoot now making them an immediate threat from turn 1 that your opponent has no choice but to deal with. As scouts they can also be used to prevent placement of your opponent's scouts and hinder your opponent's vanguard moves.

These are the only skinks that can move and double shot without losing their poison. They are twice as effective as the regular skirmishers (with regards to damage output) and only 5 points more. They're also at an additional -1 to hit making them difficult to kill once they get around behind your enemy's blocks. That's a steal and I'd recommend taking at least one unit of 10-12.

Terradon Riders:
These guys got a mixed bag of changes with 8th edition. Since man sized no longer matters for the skirmisher shooting penalty, these guys are now harder to shoot at. The line of sight changes however mean it's a lot harder to hide them from enemy shooting though so you're going to need it. One thing to keep in mind is that wings don't count for line of sight purposes. Your opponent needs to be able to draw line of sight to the body of the model. The vanguard move they get also helps negate the line of sight issue by helping them reach the opponent's backfield much quicker than they could have in 7th edition. With proper planning and if your opponent isn't careful, you could be dropping rocks on turn 1. I think these guys are still useful but I don't know that I'd take more than one unit

Temple Guard:
I like these guys in 8th quite a bit. In 7th edition I always had trouble with the front rank dying and not getting enough attacks back. That isn't a problem any more. They are better than saurus warriors with higher weapon skill and also higher strength. Since they can't use their shields in close combat and with their light armor, they have the same armor save as saurus warriors in close combat, even though they can't use their shields.

Like the Saurus Warriors, these guys are a great target for a lot of the new spells your Slann can field. Taking them with a Slann makes them virtually Unbreakable though non-combat resolution leadership modifiers are something you will need to be aware of with the changes to Stubborn. Immune to Psychology makes this less of a problem but it is still a concern. The other thing to keep in mind is that this unit will be demolished if your Slann miscasts. Be VERY wary of this as the miscast not only wipes out the expensive temple guard, but it will leave your slann undefended.

Cold One Cavalry:
Heavy cavalry is a bit of a mystery to me in 8th edition. I'm not really sure they're any good. I personally will not be taking these guys very often. There are a few things that are clear though. These guys will not break infantry blocks by themselves. They just don't have the damage output on their own and they are too expensive to ever negate Steadfast. I can see pairing them up with infantry blocks of your own. Run these guys into the flank, an infantry block into the front, and hope your block is able to negate steadfast. These guys do have quite a bit of killing potential (especially with spell support) so I won't rule them out yet.

I think they should be run in units of at least 5. Possibly go to 7 wide as they will be striking last and are bound to take missile fire on the way as well. I think they might also be a great melee character delivery system for some extra oomph in combat.

Kroxigor:
Everything I said about Cold One Cavalry also applies to these guys with the exception of character delivery. They have extra strength from their great weapons so are better against heavily armored infantry and heavy cavalry. They will always strike last but have extra wounds to help them weather your opponents attacks. However, they have the same toughness and a worse armor save than cold one cavalry.

The key advantage these guys have over Cold One Cavalry is Skinks. Stick these guys in a unit of skinks and suddenly most of their downsides disappear. Your opponent is going to get extra combat resolution from killing the skinks, but now you have a flanking unit that can negate ranks and possibly help negate steadfast. Your kroxigors that you took for damage output are fully protected in combat and have excellent protection from shooting. While I'm not sure it will work, this is the only way I see these guys being useful.

Stegadon:
I don't like Stegadons at all. It's a big giant target that your opponent is going to fire everything at. If he has warmachines, the crew is as good as dead, and so is the stegadon. It comes with a bolt thrower, which can be incredibly useful, but I really don't think you'll get a chance at more than 2 shots with it.

It does have Thunderstomp now which is very nice. It means that once it's in combat, it's actually going to do some damage. It's also never going to flee from combat due to Cold Blooded and Stubborn so once you hit something with it, that unit will be there for a while. I personally won't take them.

Whoops

It would appear that when I was playing around with my Picasa privacy settings and organizing some of my albums, I inadvertently hosed the picture's in yesterday's post. I apologize for the mixup, the problem has been corrected and the pictures should now display.

Slann Mage-Priest Painting Part IV

I've been working on my slann piecemeal for a while but haven't made much progress until this weekend. Mostly I've been tracing all of the branches that wind around the palanquin's base.

The two big things I've accomplished is I picked up some gloss varnish for the slann and applied it to him in his entirety. I was having problems with the paint chipping and was told that sealing them with varnish is a good way to prevent that from happening. I'm trying to decide now if I should get some matte varnish to apply and reduce the shininess a little.

From Slann Mage-Priest I

I also figured out my color scheme for the leaves and did those up. Credit goes to Alex for his tips on the matter. I coated the leaves with Knarloc Green, washed them with Devlan Mud, applied a drybrush of Goblin Green, washed them with Thraka Green, drybrushed with Snot Green, and then applied a final wash of Thraka Green.

From Slann Mage-Priest I

Anyone have suggestions? They are welcome!