Dungeons and Dragsters

Despite it being mid/late November, I present my October Challenge submission, D&D. You race through the dungeon and smash into the dragon at the end. Go fast enough and defeat him, or ... not. How did this particular mash-up come about? I started with a concept I had been noodling over for a while, but as the deadline crept closer and closer I jokingly said, "I should just abandon the whole thing and remake Activision Dragster for the 2600." Somewhere in between what I had already done and the game I played as a youngster, Dungeons and Dragsters was born.

It took my coworkers approximately 60 seconds to figure out how to break the driving to get max velocity. Time to rework some of that gearing code.

Glory to the Protectorate! Also, doodles.

The beautifully painted Protectorate of Menoth was victorious today against the merely primed aggressors from Cygar. Without realizing it, Brian and I had both chosen armies completely from Warmachine: Prime.

Sit, children, as the tale unfolds.

Fearless, the two adversaries charged across the battlefield. "Weren't there only two buildings and a nondescript lake/woods placeholder in prior weeks?" one choir member asked. His unit commander glared harshly. The terrain quality was not to be discussed.

I want whatever is growing on those hills for my lawn

First blood! As the forces neared, Eiryss ran to get in a good position to disrupt some 'jacks. Fearing the havoc she could cause and unable to hit her directly, Severius cast Ashes to Ashes on the Charger positioned near her. Eiryss was consumed in the boosted secondary fire damage. Haley responded by arcing chain lightning through the Repenter into Herne, Jonne and a choir member. Herne succumbed to the jolt entirely, while Jonne easily weathered the abuse. The choir member vanished in a puff of black dust. The Charger popped another choir member, bringing their number to two. The remaining choir, panicked by their high mortality rate, looked to Severius for courage. (I rolled a 9 for the command check, one more than the choir leader's CMD but matching Sevvy's CMD. Good thing all warcasters have the commander advantage!)

apparently, mercs die first

 The Cygnaran battle group had placed themselves in poor position, opening charge lanes for the Protectorate 'jacks. The choir sang their battle hymn, and the Eye of Menoth shown on the Repenter and Crusader as they charged the Lancer, scrapping it. The Revenger, ignoring the Charger on the hill, charged the Ironclad hiding behind the oil drums. The Ironclad was seriously damaged, but still intact. Severius stepped forward and invoked his Divine Might feat, so that Haley would receive no focus the next turn.

After dealing with Khador armor, damaging
Cygnar 'jacks is like stepping on puppies.

In an attempt to recover from this serious disadvantage, Haley stepped up, popped her feat and took two shots at Severius. The lack of focus hindered her greatly and both shots missed. The Charger shot twice and managed to knock Severius down to 5 of his 16 health. Slightly better rolls and Cygnar would have won the day.

Severius almost lost in the classic fashion... putting
himself too close to the action. Hang back, old man.

The Crusader stepped over to finish off the Ironclad, freeing the Revenger to advance and attack Haley. Two halberd attacks ended the Cygnar warcaster. Victory!

Final WM/H Parking Structure Battle!

Since our exile from Pray-Harrold is ending and we are moving back into luxurious (hur hur) new cubicles, we fought the final battle in our luxurious (hur hur) temporary offices in the parking structure.

I played:
The Testament of Menoth
Crusader
5 Exemplar Bastions
5 Knights Exemplar
Anastasia di Bray
(note: for the first time ever, no choir!)

Brian took:
The Old Witch
Behemoth (aka "Big B")
The Three Bears

I have never played Anastasia before, but right away she helped out by allowing me to win the deployment roll. We tied (shown in the picture) but Anastasia gives +1 on that roll.  I threw her card into the picture just to emphasize the win of that.

Take +1 on my deployment roll and win?
Why yes, and thank you Anastasia!

 The Menites surged forward, but Anastasia stayed hidden... waiting for the right moment.

"Field of Staplers" is a very obscure portion
of the Iron Kingdoms

Big B kept on a blasting, but everything he killed got immediately brought back by The Testament.  Ha! Take that, stupid sub-cortex bombards!

Check out that custom "Murder of Crows" template.

 I was stymied by the Murder of Crows template, scared to death by the thought of taking the hit from them. In actuality, I had confused the strength of the Witch's feat with the hit from MoC. It's not as scary as that. Rats. The Old Witch parked herself on the second story of a building and made it basically impossible for me to get to her with infantry. Stupid Old Witch.

When my dudes got close enough, I brought Anastasia out close enough to the Old Witch to use her little ability. All my units were able to move forward and attack. The Three Bears took a serious beating but every last Bastion missed Scrapjack.

I got your porridge right here, stupid bears.

I did what I could to prevent it, but Scrapjack ended up walking through every last Bastion using that crazy upkeep spell the Old Witch has that lets him keep attacking as long as he's killing. Each Bastion had wounds from the scuffle, so it didn't take much to do them in. Meanwhile, Big B pounded yet another Crusader into scrap. Seriously, how can the Protectorate not be out of these things?

The battle was looking quite promising
until the enemy killed all of us.

The one thing I didn't get to do was use the Testament's feat. Between Anastasia's ability and The Testament, I figured I could cover a ton of ground in one turn. The Old Witch being on the second floor of a building with no egress on my side made her impossible to reach. With only a few Exemplars left against the inaccessible Old Witch and Big B and only one turn left to go, I conceded the game.

Protectorate is now 0/10. Go Menoth.

SpecOps Killzone BatReps: Everyone's a Winner!

Last night Mark and I played two SpecOps Killzone games, my Space Marines against his Orks.  Mark has the dubious honor of getting me into this crazy hobby a few years ago, so he has no excuse for ever losing to me for any reason, ever.

That said, I wiped his Orks out in game one without taking a casualty.  Orks <= lol

He reciprocated by changing his army and wiping me out and only losing 4/18 Orks.  /shame

The mission was Extraction, in which one model for the defender is the "High Value Target" or HVT.  In game one it was a Nob w/ a power klaw.  The Ork list was 4 Lootas, a few boyz with shootas and said Nob.  My list was the six model force from my last post here.  The battle field was this attractive group of white boxes to represent.... something boxy I guess.

The battle started well for the Orks, with one of the Lootas making a very unlikely armor save against the Terminator's storm bolter.  Things didn't go so well after that, with every Space Marine making his armor save against the few Ork shots that hit.

Finally, the Orks got tired of doing all the dying and the Nob charged the Terminator.  Noooo!  He's the High Value Target!  If I even touch him with that power first it'll turn him into pesto.  So I was actually rooting for the Klaw to kill the Termie so that I could rapid-fire the Nob to death with the nearby tactical Marines.  No, instead the Termie made his invulnerable save and proceeded to flatten the Nob.  As a side note, I know you can't "turn off" the power fist anymore, but can one choose not to fight in melee?

Anyway after total Marine domination, Mark retooled his Ork list to maximize shootas, big shootas and throw in a couple burnas.  The result.  Ouch.  Ouch.  Ouch.  Ouch.  So many shots... so many wounds... so many armor saves, most of which I saved but every miss was a dear loss.

The end result... everyone won!  Well, not all at once, but both Marines and Orks got their moment to shine.  Mark is writing up the scenarios for these, and I'll link to his much neglected blog once he posts them.  It was a fun game and I'm looking forward to playing the next scenario.  Apparently the goal is to ramp up from SO:K 175 pts last night to an Apocalypse game!  Yikes!

Mark's blog, for scenario fluffiness: 40kbadmoonz.blogspot.com

SpecOps Killzone Space Marines tonight!

A friend and I are playing some SpecOps Killzone as part of an 40k escalation series.  He will be playing Orks (including, I fear, Lootas) and I will be playing Space Marines.  My list is as follows:


Vanguard Veteran Fraunhofer (power weapon, bolt pistol, medipack, team leader)
Tactical Marine Leitus (bolter, bolt pistol)
Tactical Marine Banhof (bolter, bolt pistol)
Tactical Marine Leipner (missile launcher, bolt pistol)
Tactical Marine Justov (heavy bolter, suspensors, bolt pistol)
Terminator Hestophar (storm bolter, power fist)
---
Total: 174 points

More after the battle!

SpecOps Killzone BatRep: 'Nids vs. Orks

Outta da way, bugz!  We's got some know-wotz fer da Boss!

175 pt game, reconnaissance.
Orks were attackers.

Ork list:  Lugruk's RuffBoyz (174 pts)

Lugruk, Nob w/ 'eavy armor, power klaw, slugga (50 pts)
Skabgut, Nob w/ 'eavy armor, choppa, slugga (25 pts)
Gobstik, Nob Painboy w/ 'eavy armor (55 pts)
Skumbad, 'ard Boy w/ shoota, close combat accesssories (11 pts)
Durthug, 'ard Boy w/ Big Shoota (15 pts)
Skarslag, 'ard Boy w/ Big Shoota, targeter (18 pts)

Steve's Tyranid List:

3 x Warrior w/ Venom Cannon, scything talons

5 x Hormagaunts, adrenal glands

This was a lunch-hour battle, so our terrain was made up of boxes I had around my office.  Very urban, I suppose.  Turn 1 saw the Orks surge forward and kill a 'gaunt with the big shootas.  Nids fired venom cannons and put a wound on both Lugruk and Skabgut.  Turn 2 we rolled for priority and Nids won (and they won every turn thereafter.)  Hormagaunts practically flew across the table and each big shoota got charged by two of them, doing no wounds at all.  The warrior on the far side of the table sniped Skumbad, taking his shoota out of the game.  The boyz returned hits on the gaunts for no wounds, then really did some hurt when the Nobs charged in for the bottom of turn 2.  Skabgut fell to a venom cannon, and poor Durthug was left struggling with a gaunt as the rest of the mob pressed toward the goal.  Watching the painboy stomp off must have been irritating.

Once the gaunts had been dealt with, it was onto the warriors.  Turn 3, Orks called the Waaaagh and charged all the way into assault with the two warriors in the back.  it was the beginning of the end for the nids.  Lugruk showed why his name goes on top of the list as he single-handedly (hur hur) power klawed each warrior into bite-sized morsels.  

Things may have gone differently if Steve had done things in a slightly different order.  Lugruk missed an armor save near the end of the game, but still made his FNP roll.  In the same turn, at the same initiative, Painboy Gobstik was killed by the Warrior he was engaged with.  If the Painboy had gone down first, Lugruk would have gone down as well.  It would have been pretty dicey for the Orks after that, with only the two big shoota boyz, Durthug and Skarslag, left to take out two Warriors.  Instead, the last bug got significantly ganged up on and finally fell to Lugruk's Klaw.  Victory for da Orks!

The Renaissance Has Begun

Listen up, you lot.

When the web comic Ctrl-Alt-Delete does comics on war-gaming, it's funny stuff.
When Penny Arcade does a comic on war-gaming, it's something big.
When Penny Arcade does two comics on war-gaming in less than two weeks, something huge is happening.
When the largest prize ever offered for a miniature painting competition is at an American convention....

...we are seeing the beginning of a renaissance of miniature gaming in America.

I can hope, can't I?

Attention All Gamers: Cavalry != Calvary

It's a small thing, but it drives me to distraction.  Behold:

Cavalry: Troops trained to fight mounted on horses (or perhaps bears.  Or sharks!)


Calvary: A hill outside ancient Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified, also called Golgotha.


Notice the small, but all-important spelling difference in letters 3-6.  Gamers seem to have no problem referring to cavalry as "cav" but only seem to be able to say "cavalry" about 50% of the time instead of saying "calvary."  Cav-al-ry.  Cal-va-ry.  Not the same.

Also, when you say "supposably" you probably mean "supposedly."  Supposably is a real word, but it means conceivably.  So, GW is supposedly releasing a new Daemonhunters codex soon, but they are supposably releasing a new army made up of power-armored chihuahuas in 2011.  Supposably.

Spoiler Alert: The Chicken Gets It

Please, please tell me who this cinematic is supposed to appeal to?!?  After rooting for this oppressed chicken as she makes her daring escape attempt I was appalled to see her get snuffed by the stupid cook guy. Really depressing.

Doesn't the little guy (or gal) win anymore? Shame on you, chicken haters. I don't care about your dark mood-setting back story. All I hear is blah, blah, blah now anyway.

Goblins Need Love

When it comes to WHFB Orcs and Goblins, regular old Goblins are the middle child.  The one who always claimed "Mom liked you best!" of the other units in the army.

They have no Night Goblin trickery, like netters or fanatics. They have no squig herds or squig mounts.  They don't hate Dwarfs.
They have no poisoned mounts or wall-walking, like forest goblins.
They have no T4, tusker charge boar mounts and chariots, no choppas, no warpaint ward saves and no super-armed shock troops like Orcs do.

They are just.... goblins.  The basic troop model doesn't even have the option for a hand weapon on the sprue, so you have to convert them to get the 6+ ward save in cc.  Sure they have wolves and wolf chariots, but they are completely mundane.  They have war machines, but these are the basic ones from the rulebook (except for the Doom Diver of course.)  What role do goblins actually fill in an O&G army?  What are they good at that there aren't already multiple options for?

Let's take Skaven as our comparison, another horde army.  Skaven basic troops are clanrats, skavenslaves, stormvermin.  I'll leave off giant rats and night runners, since they are quite a bit different.  The three troops I mentioned each have their specific rules and strengths.  Slaves are amazingly cheap, pop when they break from combat, and you can shoot at an enemy in combat with them.  Clanrats are basic and fairly cheap but you can attach a weapon team to them, or hide an assassin in them.  Stormvermin are very similar to clanrats except they have better gear, a better initiative and weapon skill, can take a magic banner, and a unit of them can be boosted with a special character.  Each unit has something special about them, something that can make them more useful.  Goblins do not.  They have hand weapons, spears or short bows.  They might have shields.  They might have command.  That's it.

I have to admit, I have a thing for armies that don't include their best basic units.  My Witch-Hunters army includes no Sororitas at all, and I'm building an army of all mounted goblins and discovering that there are exactly zero surprises in the army except for the die-rolls.  Even the wolf riders and chariots don't have very much killing power, and now you need minimum 10 riders alive at the end of combat just to disrupt, so forget MSU gangs.  Maybe the next army book will make their place in the O&G army more defined.

So here's my petition to GW: please give goblins something night goblins do not have, other than just light armor.  Maybe a unit upgrade of a goblin big boss (as opposed to the current "boss" unit champion) that doesn't count against the hero points (perhaps with a lowered magic item point limit too.)  Something.  Anything.  Please.

SpecOps Killzone Orks WIP 1

I'm digging through the Orks to find models to fit my Special Operations Group (SOG) for SpecOps Killzone.  The two big shoota boyz I had painted a few years ago for a "Paint Assault On Black Reach in a Month" painting competition (which I lost... other examples of the losing models here, here and here.)  The Nobs are all converted from WHFB Black Orcs, combined with some old metal Nob parts and things I made sure to bitz order before GW shut down the bitz orders, like the Dok Bosspole thingy.  The 'urty syringes are scratch built from miscellaneous bits and brass rod.

I did some browbeating tonight to the gang to get them to play, and even sent one of them home with a printed copy of the rules.  Hopefully.......

SpecOps Killzone Orks

I am very interested in playing SpecOps Killzone, and will be trying to convince my local group to try it out.  The low model count might actually get some people into the game who otherwise are reluctant because of the steep entry cost of a normal 40k army.  I may even donate some AoBR Marines or Orks and miscellaneous bits to help someone start.  There is also a forum dedicated to the rules.

So here is the first 175 pt list I'm planning on trying out.

Lugruk's RuffBoyz (174 pts)

Lugruk, Nob w/ 'eavy armor, power klaw, slugga (50 pts)
Skabgut, Nob w/ 'eavy armor, choppa, slugga (25 pts)
Gobstik, Nob Painboy w/ 'eavy armor (55 pts)
Skumbad, 'ard Boy w/ shoota, close combat accesssories (11 pts)
Durthug, 'ard Boy w/ Big Shoota  (15 pts)
Skarslag, 'ard Boy w/ Big Shoota, targeter (18 pts)

The goal is to have a hard close combat core, boosted by the FNP conferred by the painboy, and a shooting group laying down S5 firepower (albeit at a less than impressive BS2.)  Skumbad will stick with the combat group, looking for opportunity shots.  The force has a consistent 4+ save and a total of 9 wounds, 7 of which will have FNP conferred.  The combat core can assault with 9 S5, 4 S4 and 4 S9 attacks if everyone gets in base contact, so I'm hoping that will wipe out anything they get near.  I haven't really looked at the scenarios much, so this may change if I see the need to adapt to a list that makes more sense for them.

The Gaming Table's Innaugural Match

Thursday saw the first game played on my home-made gaming table.  For about $50 in supplies and a little experimentation it turned out pretty nice.

The first battle was 1000 points Skaven vs. Seth's Warriors of Chaos.  Having never played more than 500 points vs. Chaos (and it was Hordes of  Chaos back then) I certainly had an idea how dangerous they can be.  What surprised me wat the one squad of 12 warriors with the Mark of Tzeentch ended up nearly unstoppable, taking only one wound the entire game from, of all things, a slave unit popping.  Winning entire combats on "static combat res" doesn't quite cut it against these guys.

Deployment certainly reminded me that I hadn't played in a while, as I made the rookie error of deploying my general on the opposite side of the board from my main blocks of clanrats and slaves.  Even when steadfast, slaves hold up a lot better at Ld7+ranks than they do at Ld2+ranks.  The Warlord general (on bonebreaker) ended up on the opposite side in a unit of rat ogres with a single block of slaves.

My only caster was a Warlock Engineer, lvl 2, who had the misfortune of rolling skitterleap for his 2nd spell.  I was really hoping for something more ... destructive.  Anyway, with the number of dispel dice my opponent had to throw most turns it was nearly impossible to get a spell off, and I only got warp lightning off once, after skitterleaping over next to the chaos knights.  This was the single 40k vs. fantasy moment, as Seth was perplexed by the fact that he couldn't attack the engineer with the knights that were 3" from him.  He had his revenge by reforming a unit of warhounds and making an epically long charge to hit the engineer.

So on that far side of the tables where the two generals (mounted chaos sorcerer and bonebreaker mounted warlord) faced off, the slaves made the shortest charge in Skaven history.... 7 inches.  They were charged in turn by the warhounds, who popped them and restrained pursuit.  They then fled when charged by the warlord's unit, leaving the warlord flapping in the breeze to be charged by the chaos knights, the sorcerer and the other unit of warhounds (fresh off wiping out my engineer.)

In the middle of the table, things weren't going much better for me.  A unit of warriors with 2 hand weapons is a force to be reckoned with when you are WS3 T3.  Choppity choppity chop.  A few attacks back, a wound or two, saved by the 5+/5+ combo and he wins by an awful lot.  The marauders were a fairly even match, but those warriors!  It really made me wish I had brought a warpfire thrower or a few globadiers or something. 

So I left 70 rats hanging in the breeze while the warlord rode his Moulder toy to his own demise.

Next time, I think I'll remember what makes Skaven a force to be respected.

Strength.
In.
Numbers.

A Subtle Reminder of My Own Cowardice

A coworker just wandered by.....

"I just talked to Bill," he said.  "He ascended that wizard he'd had for ages."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah.  Don't you have a Tourist right on the verge of ascending?"

(ashamed) "Yes..... I'm just too scared to continue."

And so, I present this post: My Unassailable Cowardice  If you've ever played a Tourist in Nethack, perhaps you understand.

1000 points of Skaven for Intro Game

I'm rethinking my choices for the intro game.  The prior list had a lot of destructive power to it in the form of magic and Skryre craziness.  I think I'm going to reshape the list into something a little more ... mundane.

Warlord on Rat Ogre Bonebreaker, shield @ 151
Warlock Engineer, lvl 2, Warp Energy Condenser, Foul Pendant @ 150
25 Clanrats w/ full command, shield @ 133
25 Clanrats w/ full command, shield @ 133
25 Clanrats w/ full command, shield, spears @ 145
20 Skavenslaves w/ musician @ 42
20 Skavenslaves w/ musician @ 42
20 Skavenslaves w/ musician @ 42
3 Rat Ogres, inc. Master-bred and 2 packmasters @ 158
995 points, 142 bases

Again, the goal is a fun intro game.  I have no interest in utterly destroying in someone's first game.  With this list it will be much more a test of numbers vs. super-chaos-choppity.  The Foul Pendant is more to protect the engineer from himself than anything else.  I lose more engineers to my own Warp Lightning than to the enemy.

Another fellow may be bringing 1k of ... something.  Not sure yet.  Lizardmen?  Vampire Counts?  He has an army of Lizardmen that he has converted to look undead that he plans on playing as either, so we'll see what (if anything) he brings along.

Tonight, light! Tomorrow, game!

I went to Lowe's on my lunch hour today to purchase a 4' fluorescent strip for my basement gaming area.  I picked up a couple daylight quality bulbs for it, so I should have some awe-inspiring light in that room.  The entire purchase was <$30.  The table has a short edge pushed against the wall, so I'll be mounting this light on a ceiling joist directly above the table, centering the 4' light on the 6' table as much as possible.  I also plan to hook up the light to my existing wiring so that one switch controls this new fixture and the existing fluorescent bulb on the other side of the room together.

Gaming at my house has begun.

Now I need to buy some free standing shelves to hold terrain pieces.  Not that I actually have many terrain pieces, but it will be nice to have someplace to put them once I have them.  Until that time I will be playing with proxy terrain.  Cereal box hills.  Pringles can towers.  Paper cut out forests.  Epic stuff.

Expect pictures from tomorrow's big inaugural game.  Skaven vs. Warriors of Chaos.

Intro Game vs. Warriors of Chaos

We are going to do an intro game of Warhammer Fantasy during the Thursday night hobby session, a first for the group.  Seth will be pitting his Warriors of Chaos against my Skaven in a 1000 point game.  Seth basically has a WoC battalion + a mounted lord that he's running as an exalted hero, and I am lending him a chaos sorcerer.  The battalion is basically 12 chaos warriors, 10 warhounds, 20 marauders and 5 chaos knights.  I am considering the following list:


1000 Pts - Skaven Roster

Grey Seer (1#, 240 pts)
   1 Grey Seer @ 240 pts (General; Hand Weapon)

Warlock Engineer (1#, 93 pts)
   1 Warlock Engineer @ 93 pts (Level 1 Wizard; Hand Weapon)
      1 Warplock Pistol
      1 Warp-Energy Condenser

Clanrats (77#, 475 pts)
   24 Clanrats @ 210 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Spear; Light Armour; Shield)
      1 Clawleader (Hand Weapon; Spear; Light Armour; Shield)
      1 Poisoned Wind Mortar Weapon Team (Poisoned Wind Mortar; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour)
   24 Clanrats @ 133 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Shield)
      1 Clawleader (Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Shield)
   24 Clanrats @ 133 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Shield)
      1 Clawleader (Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Shield)

Warp-Lightning Cannon (1#, 90 pts)
   1 Warp-Lightning Cannon @ 90 pts
      1 Engineer & Crew

Warplock Jezzails (5#, 100 pts)
   5 Warplock Jezzails @ 100 pts (Hand Weapon; Warplock Jezzail)

Total Roster Cost: 998

I don't have a lot of experience with WoC.  Is this list going to roll him badly?  With so few models I am afraid the war machines will decimate him, something I don't want to do in a starter game.  I also know that those warrior and knight blocks will eat clanrats like The King of Town at a chinese buffet.  Any thoughts, readers?  Is there balance, or would you play something different?  Drop the cannon or the engineer and play some slaves perhaps?

The Unlikely Truth: Our Hobby Isn't That Expensive

As much fun as complaining about the price of this hobby might be, I'd like to present a counterpoint.

Yesterday was great fun.  I went to a Michigan State football game (vs. Northern Colorado) with my dad while my wife and kids spent the day with my mom.  Looking at the ticket stub, my eyes kept gravitating to the price on the ticket: $49.  And that's just college football... NFL tickets are more.  Potentially a lot more.  Even the act of taking my three kids to an IMAX 3-D movie, after concessions and admission, can get pretty near the $100 mark.  For the price of a weekend activity with the family, one could get a good start on a new army.

Part of why I am suddenly of the opinion that this hobby isn't the money-pit that many people portray it as is the fact that fleeting, temporary entertainment is incredibly expensive, while the same money spent on miniatures is a one-time investment which results in something you can use to your heart's content.   Even in the hobby realm it's comparatively cheap.  Have you ever priced serious RC cars, or model trains?  How about telescopes?  Even plastic military models give war-gaming a serious run for its money.

So the next time you feel obligated to declare that you are never buying from manufacturer X again because of a price hike, or if you get irritated that minis seem to be priced by in-game usefulness rather than the quantity of raw materials used to manufacturer them, take a look around and see what everything else costs.  Good grief, look at your own cell phone bill or cable bill.  Are you really getting your money's worth for those?

Like my dad once said:  I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no socks.

WHFB: Long Range Throwing Weapons?

So, throwing weapons.... a staple of my Gutter Runners.  I recall stipulations in prior editions that thrown weapons did not receive the -1 penalty for long range.  I can find no such exclusion in 8th ed.  Does this mean that my poor rats are shooting at -2 if they move and throw more than 3"?

At least they get to march and throw.  That's a good 18" threat range.

EDIT: Slicer sets me straight.  I thought Quick To Fire was only a stand and shoot thing, but it also removes the -1 for move and fire.  The long range modifier still appears to apply though, so only -1 instead of -2.

The Gnawing Urge for New Armies

So I'm reading Rhellion's blog post in which he chronicles his Ogre Kingdoms opponent walking away from a game in the bottom of turn two because he didn't like how charge reactions work in 8th ed.  And then I started thinking about Ogres.  And thinking more about Ogres.  And starting Army Builder to see what an Ogre list could include in 2k.  And looking at GW's web site to see what an Ogre battalion includes....

You know what?  With a little conversion, you can have a 2k Ogre army for about $150 and a little conversion work.  I can't say I'm not tempted.... a unit of 6 Bulls in two ranks of 3 would get 22 S4 attacks with ironfist = 11 hits = about 7 wounds + 3 S5 impact hits + 3 S4 stomps = about 12 wounds on a typical T3 troop if you can get all 6 Bulls into combat (yeah, I know... good luck with that.)

The list:
Tyrant w/ Skullplucker, Armor of Destiny, Obsidian trinket, potion of speed, luck Gnoblar
Butcher w/ Talisman of Protection, 2 tooth Gnoblars
6 Bulls w/ Crusher, Bellower, Stardard Bearer, ironfist, light armor
6 Bulls w/ Crusher, Bellower, Stardard Bearer, ironfist, light armor
6 Ironguts w/ Gutlord, Bellower, Standard Bearer
20 Gnoblars w/ Groinbiter
24 Gnoblars w/ Groinbiter
4 Leadbelchers w/ Thunderfist, Bellower
4 Leadbelchers w/ Thunderfist, Bellower

It's basically two battalion boxes, with two of the Ironguts converted to be a Tyrant and a Butcher, and a couple Gnoblars nabbed to act in the luck/tooth capacity.  Is it optimal?  No.  Is it playable?  I'm sure it is.  Does it look like fun?  Yeah, actually it does.  The only thing I wonder about is how useful Gnoblars would be with their M4 stat.  Seriously, getting the big guys into combat (and away from shooting) seems like the best way to use their strengths, and Gnoblars as a screen would slow them down.

So now I have to wonder... why!!?!?  I already have my beloved Skaven (including a bunch of on-sprue ones from Island of Blood!) and my wolf riding goblin army, which consists of exactly ONE assembled and painted model (and about a dozen unassembled.)  So why am I toying with the idea of another army?  The rules?  The minis?  I really don't know.  I'm already jonesing for a Hordes Minions army, and I have a ton of Eldar to build and paint.  Why do I want Ogres now?!!?

What drives you?  How do you turn it off?!