Hobby Update - Back from Break

I actually did some work last night, adding the second wheel. 

I was exhausted though so I went to bed instead of working more. 

Tonight I added the wheel caps along with a little greenstuff where I cut to short. 

Not wanting to touch the body, I moved on to the ribcage. 

This is what my example looks like. It looks like solid pieces, but what i found were joins for plastic tubes. Here is some of the progression. 

Ill go back and clean up the connections and add "scrap metal" on top once itd all dry. 

Thats it for tonight. Cant attach it while wet and want to put it on before I build it up too much. Going to have to attach one part at a time to make sure I dont build it to big for the base. 

Adepticon – It’s How You Use It PM – Round 1 – Cory Burns - Dwarfs

Terrain:  All forests are mysterious.

Deployment: Meeting Engagement

Bonus Points

                  +1 point for every unit in your enemy’s deployment zone up to a maximum of +5 points.

(Plus 1-3-5 Points for 1-2-3 Terrain pieces under control.)

The List

Runepriest, rune of stone, shield, rune of spellbreaking

Thane, BSB, Rune of stone, shield

28 Longbeards, musician, standard, rune of stoicism, shields

gyrocopter

gyrocopter

gyrocopter

Cannon, rune of forging, rune of burning

Gotta say, love the list.  Something along the lines of what I was thinking should I ever play dwarves (I won’t).  Cory rolled hatred for his entire army.

Deployment

Thanks to the Mission I got to deploy my entire army first.  I deployed to the center, along the front line with the building to the left of my line.

Cory, being a tactical genius (no sarcasm) actually didn’t deploy in the back corner, but instead on the left side near the front line, using the building as a shield and getting a flank shot on units with his cannon should he steal the first turn.  Quite unexpected and quickly put me in my place, reminding me that for the last year and a half I’ve been playing a very mobile army and that I might be rusty in other aspects of the game.

Cory would then roll that 6 and snatch the first turn.

Turn 1 – Dwarves

The first thing Cory does is jump his dwarves into the building.  Going to be tough to root out.  The gyros move around me.  The cannon takes a shot at my knights, but due to poor misfire and taking the iron curse icon I get away free.

Turn 1 – Empire

I turn to face my knights at the cannon and gyros.  I have no intention to going after the gyros, but this at least makes him move them.  I do know that if I don’t kill the cannon it will kill me, so I might as well take it out.  The tank turns towards the gyros and building.  The chickens start to move up to the building, taking their flank away from the cannon and starting the run around.

My shooting goes into the building as I can’t shoot easily past my knights.  I kill 1 dwarf.  Go first blood!

Turn 2 – Dwarves

The gyros move to start spraying.  I lose 4 knights to horrible rolls and the chicks take 2 wounds.

Turn 2 – Empire

Ignoring the flyers I know I can’t catch, the knights speed off towards the cannon.  I don’t move full distance as going into the forest insures 2 sets of tests (going in and charging out), but I’m close enough to make the charge with the Steel standard if I stay out and then only need to make 1 set of tests.

My cannon, going after 2 lined up gyros rolls a misfire and does nothing.

Turn 3 – Dwarves

The warriors come out into the face of the chicken knights.

The knights get bombed and lose another of their fellows.  The cannon misfires and I make the rest of my armor saves.

Turn 3 – Empire

Knights charge the cannon.  Chickens charge the warriors.

I kill the cannon and go off the table.  The chickens kill 4 dwarves and take 3 wounds.  I lose combat but escape.

Turn 4 – Dwarves

The warriors charge the chickens, which flee and redirect into the steam tank.

In combat the steam tank takes 2 wounds and the engineer kills a dwarf.

Turn 4 – Empire

I grind and kill 1 dwarf.  The chickens rally.

The steam tank kills 3 dwarves with the steam gun.

Turn 5 – Dwarves

I lose a chicken to more bombs.  I lose another knight and take a wound on the arch lector with the last bomb.

Turn 5 – Empire

Knowing that turning to go after the gyros chasing the knights is pointless, I move forward to claim the objective points.  To defend myself I use my 5/3 magic phase to put reroll wounds on the knights.  He dispels the wardsave.

In combat, the steam tank kills 1 dwarf.

  

Turn 6 – Dwarves

He charges his gyro into the last chicken.  I do 1 wound but still flee.  I escape.

Turn 6 – Empire

My unit breaks up, giving me 3 units in his deployment zone.  The chicken rallies, giving me a fourth.

This game was super-fast and super uneventful.  In the end I win because the cannon had runes that put it over 100 points and otherwise nothing died.  I think my opponent was very disappointed in the end, which was unfortunate.

Contest of Champions – April 2012 – The Missions

I know so far I have failed to do any look back of the missions from February, and I need to, especially before I design any new missions.  But I have a few months for that as this session will be SAWS themed and June with by QCR themed to allow players to get a feel of how their lists might do in the missions.  I say themed because I took inspiration from them only.  Both of these events use modified win/loss/draw while the CoCs use a 20-0 system.  Instead of bonus points I use bonus victory points, though there has been a request to do an 18-0 system with 2 bonus battle, or some other modification.

For this event, the 20-0 scale will be:

Victory Point Difference	High Score Battle Points	Low Score Battle Points
2201+	20	0
1901-2200	19	1
1651-1900	18	2
1401-1650	17	3
1151-1400	16	4
901-1150	15	5
701-900	14	6
501-700	13	7
301-500	12	8
101-300	11	9
0-100	10	10

Like last time, this makes the high steps require more and more points, going from 100 to 300 and requiring a near perfect game to get a 20-0.  I may play with it in later events, and there is no reason it needs to be the same for every game.  We’ll see how it goes.  My goal is to have a good spread of battle points and to encourage people who may be losing to fight for every last point.

The other core rules, like conceding, terrain set up and tabling are the same as last time.

Round 1: Magic Flux

Deployment: Dawn Attack Scenario

A building is a Wizard’s Tower.  AFTER deployment, randomly determine which building is the wizard’s tower.

Special Rules: Power Flux:

During each magic phase, after rolling for the Winds of Magic and after all Channeling rolls are made, each player rolls all the dice in his Power/Dispel Pool.  Each D6 that comes up a ‘1’ in this roll is handed over to the opponent and added to his Pool.  Remember that the Power Pool may never exceed 12 dice, so if this dice exchange results in a higher number than this, the extra dice are discarded as normal

Bonus Victory Points

200 points:  Have more units in your enemy’s deployment zone than they have in yours.

50 points:  For each model that channels killed during the game.

This mission is closely taken from the SAWS version of the mission, or at least the Power Flux part is.  SAWS uses battle line 4 times, and I didn’t want to use it more than once in my mission set so I switched it to Dawn Attack.  I also added the 200 point bonus for units in deployment zones, taking it from one of the bonus objectives.  With the magic theme, and wanting to give them game a point of contest, I added in the wizards tower.  I made it random after deployment to make it harder to plan for on tables with more than one building.  I don’t find the wizards tower often changes the game too much by adding more spells as it doesn’t provide any more dice or casting level to cast.

Round 2: Battle of Attrition

Deployment: Battle for the Pass Scenario

All forests are Wildwood.  In addition, all forests block line of sight for units beyond the forest (but not units partially or wholly in the forest).

Special Rules: Attrition:

Any unit that is reduced to 50% or fewer of its starting wounds, or is fleeing, at the end of the game counts for half Victory Points.  Characters are determined separately.  For characters on a mount with its own wounds, the model is scored based upon half of the total wounds (of mount and character).

Bonus Victory Points

200 points:  You have captured more standards that your opponent.

This mission is really just a combination of 3 of the SAWS mission.  Mission 5 is just book rules Battle for the Pass, with mission 2(?) having the half points special rule.  Another of the missions is titled wildwood, though the SAWS version requires a roll.  I decided it was better to just fix it.  The bonus points again comes from one of the secret missions.  Finally, I added the line of sight rule to the forests.  It had been request at the beginning of the year, and I wanted to put it in and see how people react to it.

Round 3: King of the Hill

Deployment: Battleline

The center hill is a Temple of Skulls

Special Rules: Watchtower Game Length

Bonus Victory Points

300 points:  You have the most models in contact with the hill at the end of the game.

200 points:  Kill the most expensive enemy character.

The final mission at SAWS I hadn’t touched was their pseudo watchtower mission, which I took.  I added to that the temple of skulls rule to give the hill some importance earlier in the game.  I also dropped the summoning restriction and I don’t feel it creates that much of an advantage.  I then added the kill character, again taken from one of the secret objectives.

I feel that my missions maintain the essence of the SAWS missions, but provide a twist here and there that elevates them.  I feel that together they are still missing some of the key points of 8^th edition, as there is no reflection of blood and glory, but I ran one last time and want to keep the players on their toes.  I’m sure QCR will give me something to riff off of involving banners.

Adepticon – It’s How You Use It AM– Round 3 – Ryan Nicol – High Elves

And for my last match up I get another Twisted Troop member (club mate with Jake Murphy).  Ryan and and I had played before, back in 2013 WaaaghPACA when he was ranked 1 in the country according to RankingsHQ.  The pairings were done by overall RankingsHQ ranking.  At the time I was ranked 2^nd in the counter (which was a joke).  Last time I came away successful, but I didn’t have any monsters this time and Ryan had a lot of shooting.

I didn’t know for sure, but I also strongly suspected there was a Banner of the World Dragon in the sword masters, which would make taking them out hard with my characters both holding magic weapons.

Terrain:  All forests are mysterious.

Ryan rolled blood forest and I rolled fungus.  The center forest would be revealed to be a venom thicket.

Deployment: Blood & Glory

Bonus Points

+1 For each fortitude in the box, up to a maximum of +5.

(Plus 1-3-5 Points for 1-2-3 Terrain pieces under control.)

The List

Loremaster, dragonhelm, golden crown of atrazar

12 archers, musician, banner

11 archers, musician, banner

20 swordmasters, full command, banner of the world dragon

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

Deployment

Ryan spread out along the center, archers on each side flanking the sword masters.  The bolt throwers were likewise spread out.  I knew he wanted to keep his three units in striking distance of the center box and so couldn’t afford to bunker in a corner.  This left his flanks open to vanguarding.

I deployed my army spread out.  I put the bunker in the center in the hopes it would draw his attention while my dark riders moved around the sides and cleaned up his shooting.  I did put the bolt throwers on the line as I expected them to remain untouched and wanted them to get into short range as soon as possible, knowing that Ryan would have to move up to claim the box.

Again, I didn’t get the first turn.  Again, I didn’t like that as I felt with the match up; going first was a big advantage.  At least this time I had the advantage of speed.

Turn 1 – High Elves

Ryan began his crawl forward.

Rolling a 9/5 magic phase, he opens with a 6D large fireball at the warlocks.  He irresistibles, only killing 1 and only losing 1 die (8/5).  A 2D miasma is dispelled.

His shooting kills 2 DRs on the right and 2 more warlocks.

Turn 1 – Dark Elves

My dark riders, in position from vanguarding charge.  On the left I charge the bolt tower and on the right I charge the archers (losing 1 to the trees).  My warlocks charge the left archers, but fails.

An 8/6 magic phase has me starting with a 3D soul blight on the sword masters, which is dispelled.  I then 4D doom bolt on the left archers, killing 4.

Shooting kills 3 sword masters.

Combat kills the left bolt thrower and 4 archers, which hold.  The bolt thrower dying panics the archers.

Turn 2 – High Elves

Embattled on both sides and with my bunker in the center, the sword masters make the hard call and charge the warlocks.  I flee, and lose a warlock to the forest.

The archers rally.

A 4/3 magic phase has a 4D fireball does 1 wound to the BSB and kills 1 warlock.

Shooting, now down to just a bolt thrower is ineffective.

In combat I kill 3 more archers and run the unit down.

Turn 2 – Dark Elves

I charge the last bolt thrower.  My warlocks rally.

I roll a stupid 12/6 magic phase.  I roll a 6D soulblight which is dispelled.  Out of range for the doom bolt.

My dark riders kill 2 archers and the bolt throwers kill 3 sword masters.

In combat the last bolt thrower falls.

Turn 3 – High Elves

Keeping his cool nicely, Ryan repositions and moves onto magic.  A 3D fireball from a 3/2 magic phase kills my BSB and another warlock.

The last archer unit doesn’t do anything.

Turn 3 – Dark Elves

My turn I put dark riders into the front of the archers, losing another to the forest.  Can’t charge again or else he will flee through my unit and escape.

I roll a 10/7 magic phase and irresistible a bubbled soulblight, killing off the last warlock and leaving my general stranded.

The soulblight does net me 7 sword masters in the shooting phase and 3 archers in combat (plus running them down).

The mission being fortitude, this leaves us both with a general, me with 2 banners and him with 1.  So Ryan needs to kill one unit and my general and I need to kill his general.  Points wise I’m way ahead, but that’s not the mission here.

Turn 4 – High Elves

Down to just a unit in the center, Ryan finds the best angle and moves onto magic.  A 6/4 magic phase has me allowing a medium fireball on a dark rider unit.  For my trouble I get to take the unit off.  I then fail to dispel the 3D searing doom on my general (did I mention he has a wound already… not sure I did).  For the game, Ryan rolls a 2 for hits… and a 1 on one of the wounds.

The game is now tied with 1 unit each and down to just caring about the generals.  Please note, I should have lost the game by now.

Turn 4 – Dark Elves

With only 1 goal left, kill that dang general I move and open fire.  I discover and remove the crown on the general.  I whittle the unit down to just 1 guy and a full wound general.

Not good… going to have to stop the searing doom.

 

Turn 5 – High Elves

With only one thing that matters, Ryan rolls a 5/4 magic phase and gets off searing doom.  I pick up my 4 dice, needing a high number without a wizard and roll the beautiful double 6, stopping the spell and me losing the game.

Again, should have lost right here.

Turn 5 – Dark Elves

I go to shooting, and roll the first bolt thrower at the unit, earning 6 hits.  Dividing the hits, I roll to wound the general first, killing him and ending the game.  Didn’t get the table, but that’s find as all it would have done was deny Ryan a bonus point to no benefit to myself.

Please note, I should have lost that game twice over and only through a very lucky series of dice did I win.  But I’ll take it.  Ryan is a great player and has now given me 2 close, good games where I’ve luckily come out ahead.