First WM/H Demo Day in Zürich

The two guys at the front table were playing Warhammer fantasy, everybody else in the room was hooked up on WM/H. :-)

The first WM/H Demo Day in Zürich, Switzerland is over and it's save to say that it was a blast. :-) I am tempted to say that it was more fun than any WM/H tournament I have ever been to and it definitely has strengthened my goal to become a Press Ganger.

WM/H is still rather small (40K dominating pretty much everything), so +Sven Emmert made arrangements with the FLGS to run a WM/H Demo Day. It was announced in all major Swiss wargaming forums and people said the'll come, but we didn't know that that many will com! :-)

From my point of view, the best part was that people spontaneously showed up in a distribution throughout the day that there were always demo games running on three tables. In other words, no table was empty ever, but nobody had to stand in line for his demo game either. Even if we had planned everything to the smallest detail, we couldn't have done it better. :-)

Anyway, cudos to +Sven Emmert, wargaming bastard par excellence. :-) And now, let the pictures speak:

+Sven Emmert explaining basic rules.

+Stephan Balmer chatting with the friendly Tactica staff.

+Andre Suwanda explaining the "subtleties" of Retribution and Gatormen.

The first Battle Box game of the day: +Andreas Balmer coaching Julian's Cygnar forces to their first victory against my Trollbloods.

This new player to the right soon started to appreciate the benefits of MUUUUULG. :-) He ended up playing three demo games in total as he enjoyed them so much. :-)

+Benjamin Tharin and +Robi Deola bringing WM/H closer to a 40K veteran.

The demand for demo games was so strong that we decided to split the table with the Battle Box games. +Stephan Balmer was wonderful with letting Julian play his 2nd game using Stephan's Khador (so Stephan could help him out with tipps and hints) whereas Stephan played Skorne, an army totally unknown to him to that point. They sure had a blast as the terrain was literally leveled out. :-) To the right, +Andreas Balmer is explaining Cygnar to another new player - this player was the other one of two players who did a total of three demo games because they liked them so much!

+Andre Suwanda is demonstrating his child caring skills. ^^

+Tudor Stanescu loosing graciously in the new player to the right's third demo game. You can't really do anything against an Earthborn Dire Troll and Mulg smashing everything to pulp, even if your warcaster is Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince of Umbrey.

After two battle box games, he wanted to get to know infantry. We gave him infantry. ^^ (maxed out Terminus list at 15pts)

+Andreas Balmer "volunteered" to play against the Terminus list with his Cygnar - he understood it was for a good cause! ^^

+Andre Suwanda in his longest demo game that day (I assume) teaching some 40K veterans the advanced tactics of WM/H.

+Andre Suwanda also won "best looking demo table" - next time I will pretend to know nothing about WM/H just to play with his Gatormen!

Trollbloods Battle Box painted

Well, I finished painting the Trolls in the Battle Box last night for this saturday's newbie event, so here are the pictures of my finished creatures. :-)

pMadrak

Impaler 1 (red quiver)

Impaler 2 (brown quiver)

Viel Spass mit der Skorne und Trollbloods Battle Box

(for a change, this article is in German as we are going to Demo WM/H to newbies at the FLGS)

Herzlich Willkommen zu diesen beiden Spielberichten, welche zwei Battle Boxes aus dem Spiel Hordes der Firma Privateer Press Euch näher bringen sollen.

Jedes Volk/Fraktion hat eine Battle Box (mit Ausnahme der Mercenaries und Minions) und jede Battle Box ist eine komplett spielbare "Mini-Armee". Mit anderen Worten, man muss nicht viel Geld ausgeben, um ein Minimum an Infanterie und HQ für das erste Spiel zu sammeln, es geht gleich "richtig" los.

Jede Battle Box enthält einen General und eine Reihe von Monstern, die ihm gehorchen. Ziel ist es im Spiel, den gegnerischen General zu töten. (das ist auch später in fortgeschrittenen Spielen ein beliebter Weg zu gewinnen)

Ihr dürft diese Battle Boxes selber spielen am kommenden Warmachine/Hordes Demo Spieltag im Tactica in Oerlikon am Samstag, 16.02.2013.

Die Battle Boxes

Skorne

Die Skorne werden angeführt von Master Tormentor Morghoul (das ist der ganz Kleine im Bild), welcher extrem schnell ist und mit seinen Ripper Klauen anständig Schaden machen kann. Ganz im Skorne Stil scheut er sich auch nicht davor, seine eigenen Beasts zu schädigen, wenn es ihm einen Vorteil bringt, d.h. wenn sein Gegner nachher tot im Staub liegt.

Der Titan Gladiator (der ganz grosse Kerl im Bild) ist in etwa so, wie wenn man mit einem Kampfpanzer durch Tante Emmas Blumenbeet fährt. Subtil? Nö.

Die Cyclops Savages sind mittelgute Warbeasts, die mit ihren Falchions trotzdem ordentlich reinhauen können. Das Beste ist aber ihr Animus, der es ihnen (oder anderen Modellen ihrer Armee) erlaubt, bei Bedarf noch einen zusätzlichen Würfel zu werfen, nachdem die "richtigen" Würfel bereits geworfen sind und das Resultat eigentlich klar wäre.

Trollbloods

Ihr Anführer Madrak Ironhide hat keinen einfacheren Job, als sein Volk zu retten. Madrak ist sehr zäh und kann einiges einstecken. Seine Axt kann er sowohl werfen als auch im Nahkampf gezielt einsetzen.

Der Axer ist ein mittelgutes Warbeast und er kann mit seiner grossen Axt eine Attacke gegen jedes Modell machen, welches in seiner Nahkampfzone ist. Sehr nützlich, um mit einem Rundumschlag gleich mal alle zu treffen.

Die beiden Impalers mit den langen Speeren stecken ihre ganze Kraft in jeden Wurf und können bei einem kritischen Treffer ein getroffenes Opfer wieder von sich weg schieben. In einer perfekten Welt kommt das Opfer so gar nie an sie heran.

Alle Trolle können übrigens heilen - schliesslich sind Trolle zäh!

Alle Battle Boxes sind bei Annina im Tactica an Lager oder können bestellt werden - guckt Ihr hier im Online Shop.

Bei beiden folgenden Spielen war +Benjamin Tharin so freundlich, mir als Sparring Partner (sprich: Grandmaster) zur Verfügung zu stehen. :-) Jedes Spiel hat ca. 70min. gedauert.

Spiel 1

Die Skorne (weiss) rennen nach vorne. Die Trollbloods rücken weniger schnell vor und die Impaler werfen ihre Speere, machen aber keinen nennenswerten Schaden.

Madrak weicht nach links aus, um der zu erwartenden Hitze im Zentrum zu entgehen. Rückblickend war dies ein grosser Fehler. Die Impaler verbessern ihre Schussposition und werfen wieder ihre Speere, aber machen kaum Schaden.

Der Cyclop hinter dem Häuschen rennt zum freistehenden Madrak und bindet diesen. Der Titan Gladiator sorgt mal schnell für Ruhe und Ordnung in der Mitte, indem er einen Impaler zermatscht. Morghoul macht es sich derweilen hinter dem Felsen rechts bequem (man sieht noch seine Hand mit dem Ripper Handschuh) und holt schon mal sein Kaffeeservice hervor.

In dieser Runde laufen die Trollbloods heiss und schlagen auf die Skorne ein, aber diese bleiben ungerührt stehen.

Der Titan Gladiator zermatscht den zweiten Impaler, worauf sich der verbliebene Axer zu Madrak zurückzieht, um diesen aus seiner Bedrängnis zu helfen. Der Cyclops steckt aber alle Attacken problemlos weg.

Spielende. Madrak und dem Axer gelingt es zwar noch, den einen Cyclops zu töten, aber da kommen schon der zweite Cyclops und Morghoul, der sein Kaffeeservice wieder weggesteckt hat und jetzt umso giftiger angreift. Madrak fällt, Ende, Aus.

Spiel 2

Gleiche Ausgangslage wie bei Spiel 1.

Die beiden Impalers schaffen es, den Cyclop hinter dem Häuschen links mit ihren Speeren zu treffen und gleichzeitig seine Seele auszuschalten.Das bedeutet, dass der Cyclop durch Morghul nicht mehr kontrolliert und unterstützt werden und somit nicht seine ganze Kampfkraft entfalten kann.

Die Skorne rennen nach vorne, machen aber kaum Schaden. Im Gegenzug hauen alle drei Trolle auf den bereits angeschlagenen Cyclop und putzen in ganz weg.

Der grosse Titan Gladiator ist jetzt richtig wütend und nennt sich den Impaler rechts vor. dieser überlebt aber und wird in der nächsten Runde von Madrak wieder geheilt.

Morghoul versucht einen riskanten Move und versucht, sich zu Madrak durchzutanken, um ihn zu töten. Die Trolle bleiben aber auch hier standfest und Morghoul muss wieder abziehen.

Nach dem Motto "steter Tropfen höhlt den Stein" ist es endlich soweit, sowohl der Titan Gladiator als auch der zweite Cyclop segnen das Zeitliche, während Morghoul beim Haus rumlungert, was ihm aber nicht mehr lange helfen wird.

Morghoul geht verzweifelt nochmals in eine letzte Offensive und versucht, Madrak dieses Mal direkt zu töten, aber Madrak transferiert seinen Schaden auf seine Trolle und heilt sie dann in seinem nächsten Zug wieder.

Das wars. Morghouls Skorne Armee ist tot, während die Trollbloods zwar angeschlagen, aber immer noch vollzählig auf dem Tisch stehen. Die Äxte und Speere werden ein letztes Mal geschwungen und so ist dieses Mal Morghoul das unglückliche Opfer.

Fazit

Es war das erste Mal, dass ich überhaupt "nur" mit den Battle Boxes gespielt habe, wir haben bisher immer mit grösseren und komplexeren Armeen gespielt. Dieses Spiel hat uns aber gezeigt, dass grössere Armeen nicht automatisch mehr Spass bedeuten. Die Battle Boxes sind sehr ausgewogen und mit bereits wenig Regeln kann man sehr viel Spass haben.

Für neue Spieler sind die Battle Boxes sehr spannend, weil sie dank ihnen schnell ein Gefühl für ihre Armee entwickeln und alle Taktiken, die sie hier lernen, auch später in grösseren Spielen sehr gut gebrauchen können.

Für erfahrene Spieler ist es gut, ab und zu wieder ein Battle Box Spiel zu machen, um genau alle diese basics wieder einmal ein bisschen aufzufrischen.

Ich freue mich auf nächsten Samstag! :-)

Bier her!

Just a small update, but I got Borka's Pyg keg carrier done. It's the first time I freehanded a kilt and I think it's ok for a first attempt.

I am especially happy that I dared to use the full bright orange on the "skin bumps" as it really makes the miniature pop. (on the Trolls those bumps had much more brown mixed into the orange) I guess I'll have it for fluff reasons that Trolls are much older and longer living than a Trollkin so that's why they have darker bumps as they lose color with age.

I also like how the keg and the stein turned out, you could really think that the Pyg is on his way to a party. ^^

Crosscheck: Colossal damage with the EBDT

After my latest blog post, +Gergely Gati pointed out that the EBDT may not be the best Troll to do damage to Colossals (and Gargantuans) as he may be too pillow fisted despite (or because) of his morphing fists.

Well, time for a crosscheck.

The EBDT has a STR 12 and POW 3 for a P+S of 15. However, the Adaption rule on his claw lets him use the POW of a melee weapon in the EBDT's melee range. So if the EBDT hits a Colossal with (let's say) POW 6 on its melee weapon, the EBDT has a new P+S of 18. Also, the Pyre Troll's Flaming Fists animus adds +2 to melee damage rolls, so the EBDT would hit with a base damage before dice of 20.

So, let's go through al the Colossals and Gargantuans the EBDT may have to fight.

Hmm, I don't like what I see, obviously +Gergely Gati was more right than I expected. The EBDT only gets a mild malus against Hyperion, the Mountain King, and Archangel, whereas trying to hurt a Woldwrath you can basically discard an entire dice.

Also one has to consider that the Colossal's ARM may be buffed as well, e.g. Stormwalls with Arcane Shield (ARM 22) are pretty standard these days. On the other hand, the P+S of the EBDT could be further buffed, too (e.g. by the Stone Scribe Elder), but it's never good to start with a malus on the dice anyhow.

Let's go back to the list:


Borka Kegslayer - WB:  5
-    Pyg Keg Carrier
-    Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 10
-    Pyre Troll - PC: 5
-    Rok - PC: 11

Gatorman Witch Doctor - PC: 3
Janissa Stonetide - PC: 3

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
-    Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters - Cylena & 9 Grunts: 10
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
-    Kriel Warrior Standard & Piper - Standard & Piper 2


Rök hits with an 18 on his Battle Axe, 20 with the Pyre Troll's animus. Also he has a higher Fury threshold because he is bonded to Borka. In other words, Rök could be the Colossal killer while the EBDT is being used defensively instead. Or to throw models around, for example at warcasters. Or the EBDT could simply charge the Heavy Warjacks because most heavies have a POW of 5 to 7 points.

Leaving my existing list aside, which Troll has the highest base P+S to hit a Gargantuan? It's Mulg with a 19 on his Mace, also the Dire Troll Mauler with 19 on his two fists if you count in his animus. However, Mulg is 2pts more expensive than the EBDT (and I couldn't play him twice with character restrictions), so he's out of the question. However, the Mauler could be a replacement for the EBDT as he's even one point cheaper. I guess I'll just have to try and see if Borka needs more the EBDT's or the Mauler's animus against colossals.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone, may you always have enough pressure in your steam kettle or fury in your monster's brain, whatever you fancy more in 2013. :-)

This post is about what the GW glazes can do for you as a PP fan and about my final army lists for 2013 - I gotta get painting!

It's been over a month since my last post as life got in between things - I moved my household so there literally was not time to do anything hobby related. Good thing is now my office is also my painting room, so it's much nicer than my previous spot in the cellar - and the path to the kitchen is shorter. ^^

GW Glazes

First thing I did at the new place was touching up my three already painted Trolls - obviously not very breathtaking. However, I had to do this as I put coats of varnish onto them earlier but was not happy with the result. So these are the steps that I did since I "finished painting":

1. Added a coat of glossy varnish. It's important to have a least one coat of glossy varnish because it protects your models properly, matt varnish doesn't. (I once read on BoLS (IIIRC) it's because matt varnish has lots of tiny little cracks in order to be matt and not reflect the light which in return reduces its ability to protect the paint.)
2. Added a coat of matt varnish.
3. Added a layer of the new GW glazes (Guilliman Blue & Waywatcher Green).

Now the GW glazes don't add a drastic effect that would even be visible on the pictures - just compare yourself:

Old

New

However, the glazes did

• reduce the effect of the varnish where I applied it too thickly;
• it makes the blue/green pop more due to higher color saturation;
• it brings together the various layers of color (e.g. different parts of the blue skin) and makes transitions even smooter.

All in all I think the glazes are definitely worth it and from now on I will apply them to all my models as they are extremely useful.

Trollblood Army Lists For SR2013

The second topic today is army lists - I gotta get started painting for the upcoming tournaments. The first milestone will be the Swinnish Tournament as it has hardcore painting requirements.

Now for my army lists, I changed them after all these rumors about a 14" killbox and warcasters/locks being able to dominate mission objectives. In other words, one should bring two very resilient Trollblood warlocks. My original picks were Borak and Madrak (either pMadrak or eMadrak, though I favor pMadrak as his spells are more useful to support units IMO), but I felt afraid to drop Grim as he fills a gap that every Trollbloods army has otherwise. Therefore, after much consideration, I decided to go for Borka and Grim.

Here are my two lists plus explanations:

Borka Kegslayer - WB:  5
-    Pyg Keg Carrier
-    Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 10
-    Pyre Troll - PC: 5
-    Rok - PC: 11

Gatorman Witch Doctor - PC: 3
Janissa Stonetide - PC: 3

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
-    Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters - Cylena & 9 Grunts: 10
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
-    Kriel Warrior Standard & Piper - Standard & Piper 2

Borka is a beast as he can easily have DEF 21 (Iron Flesh +3, Cover behind Janissa's wall +4) and ARM 21 (Kriel Stone Aura +2, EBDT Animus +2), so try to move that off a mission objective. Furthermore, the Pyg makes Borka stumble away if being hit.

The EBDT and Pyre Troll are working together to counter any colossal I may be facing - the EBDT's morphing fists with the Pyre Troll's animus on them puts out serious damage. If playing against the Protectorate, the Pyre Troll's animus comes in handy for protection as well.

The Gatorman Witch Doctor now makes things truly nasty together with the Nyss Hunters - Borka can put Iron Flesh on them so they are DEF 18(and they don't care about the -1 SPD as they are excellent marksmen) and the Gatorman Witch Doctor makes them Tough and Undead - woohoo! The Nyss Hunters will simply walk behind the Kriel Warriors, take shots at whatever they like, and charge in as a second wave to kill anything left standing with their weapon master.

Janissa can provide her wall to either protect key elements of the army as explained above or to prevent colossals from charging (this current list evolved out of my anti-colossals list), which will be quite handy for all the colossals we're going to see in 2013.

Grim Angus - WB:  6
-    Troll Impaler - PC: 5
-    Dire Troll Bomber - PC: 10
-    Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 10
-    Pyre Troll - PC: 5

Fell Caller Hero - PC: 3

Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
-    Kriel Warrior Standard & Piper - Standard & Piper 2
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
-    Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
Trollkin Fennblades - Leader & 9 grunts: 8
-    Fennblade Officer and Drummer - Officer & Drummer 2

My Grim list starts traditionally with an Impaler, Bomber, and Pyre Troll, plus I couldn't help but add the always reliable EBDT for the heavy lifting and some extra protection. The Kriel Stone is a must have, too. After that I leave traditions as one would normally expect nyss Hunters, but they are a No GO here because of character restrictions that every SR tournament has these days. Well, I simply filled up the ranks with infantry because 25pts games with Grim made me realize that his battle groups firepower can dish out a lot of hurt, but they are really fragile to counter attacks even with Grim's feat. So put simply, the infantry has one job to do: hold the line to keep the battle group firing as long as possible.

I really wonder what the new eGrim model will bring to the table - expect this list to be tweaked again once it hits the shelves.