A Land of Blood and Fungi

Mysterious Terrain in the Old World

One of the whinge factors of 8^th Edition WFB that I have heard is the change to the terrain rules; that terrain is now “meaningless”, or has “no effect on the game”. I have to wonder if these people have read the random terrain rules in the rulebook.

For some that have, the random terrain rules represent merely another GW conspiracy for selling more of their terrain product. For the many other players that do use them, and for me in particular, this section is a wonderful addition to the game.

Equinox 2011

As a fairly new club to arrive on the NZ Warhammer Fantasy scene, one of our goals is to make a bit of an impact and a name for ourselves individually, as well as a club. Following on from Over the Top, our results at Equinox were fantastic given that we were going up against many of the best players in the country.

Well done to Dan Butler and his Daemon army! Dan placed second overall, though he sat at the top of the leader board for most of the tournament. He lost to Mal Patel in the last game 18/2. Dan is understandably disappointed, but the rest of us are very proud of his skill and effort. As he also came second at OTT, his WFB Tournament career is off to a spectacular start!

Jimmy Page took his finely tuned Tomb Kings army, and started causing ripples immediately with an 18/2 win. He competed fiercely with some very hard lists run by very experienced players and held his own very well. His crowning moment was during the Team Championship games on Saturday night where his beat the tournament champion and ETC player Mal Patel 15/5. Jimmy's army's painting was incomplete, and so he suffered in his final score, which is no indication of just how well he played with an army list that is seen by most to be very sub-par.

My own games showed me that I have some definate room for improvement! Many of the games were my first against certain armies, and I was happy to have been able to stand toe-to-toe with high-calibre players and finish in the top half. In future I am going to have to work out how to keep the game going at a faster pace, as I was only able to complete two of my games. Despite this, I learned a great deal, had a great time, and had a couple of positive comments about my army (which is always very nice). I even took home a spot prize.

Griffon Blood and Sigmar DNA

His codpiece is roughly twice the size of a normal man's head.

He melts faces with his fire-breathing fists.

He has rocket fuel on the tip of his lance.

No-one will work with him because he is kind of a dick.

Sound familiar? That's right. The Countess's Headman is out for... well, heads. Theodore Bruckner is one of the three most recent Empire releases from Warhammer Forge, and quite frankly I couldn't be more excited.

Bruckner is a Special Character Lord choice from the City State of Nuln, whose colours I paint my Empire army. The fact that two of the three Warhammer Forge first releases are expansions to my chosen army 'fluff' is very exciting, and while I may not be able to use the new rules accompanying these releases often, the quality miniatures add so much to the satisfaction factor and hobby side of my Empire army.

Of course, I may even be able to use their rules once the rumoured campaign book comes out.

The Dark Alliance Marches on Nuln

The stable-hand had been strapped upright to his master's horse, though he was very much dead. When Lindmann's spies intercepted the creature, it was wild and rabid. The boy's head had been twisted around to face backwards, and a rotten fruit had been stuffed into his mouth, wrapped in decrepit parchment. Knowing full well what the message meant, and knowing equally well that the bureaucracy in Nuln would not take action, the scouts sent word directly to the Lord Protector himself.

 * * *

Lord Teclis was visiting Nuln to hold counsel with the Chancellor of the Nuln University regarding ancient items held there. A messenger burst in bringing word of an undead invasion, the first for many years. Teclis waved his hand dismissively. These affairs were not of Ulthuan's concern. The second messenger to arrive that day belonged to the vanguard of Lord Protector Lindmann. The undead were joined by the Dark Elves of Naggaroth. This DID concern Ulthuan. Teclis left hurridly and ordered the deployment of his retinue alongside the Nuln Expeditionary Force.

Deployment


Terrain
River = River of Blood
Forest = Wildwood
Banestone
All buildings = normal
Fences = Blessed Bulwarks and Ghost Fences

The Empire troops deployed the bulk of thier force on thier left flank, but the Hydras were of concern. The Empire General also deployed on the left to try to limit the impact of the Hydras.

Teclis and some archers garrissoned the large ruined tower. Other ranged units defended Blessed Bulwarks. Empire artillery set up on right flank in response to Grave Guard and Vampire Lord deployment, as did the Steam Tank. Sword Masters and Pistoliers also deployed on right flank to counter the Shades in the trees and the Varghulf. The Wraiths and Banshee set up to counter the Steam Tank.

Comp-Horridibilous

Leveling the field of play?

I stole Chaoswolf's phrase!

Talk of the week (and year really) is regarding comp(ensation) regulations for tournaments under 8th edition. On Pete Dunn's blog recently, Fields of Blood, he talked about how the presenters of Heelanhammer, and Dan Heelan in particular, are running the South Coast GT in England, and how Battleline will be the only scenario played.

Pete and Dan are among the top ranked players in NZ and the UK, so they know their stuff. Dan was sick of stories of unbalanced games due to scenarios, like the Grave Guard in the watchtower, and about how many games were becoming non-events. On the other hand Pete believes that scenarios aid in 'comping' armies and add the strategic interest. Dan replied on Pete's blog, and the debate is very positive and constructive, well worth the read.

I can certainly see both sides here. It is nigh on impossible to win some scenarios against certain match-ups. Watchtower is the stand out scenario for this. (Listening to his podcast, it is apparent that Dan has a dislike for massive units of troops dominating the game, and he believes it is to WFB's detriment.)

But I think I am more on Pete's page here. In a way this debate has been going on since 8th came in, and the more I play and experience the game the more balanced I believe the game to be. You know that you are going up against nasty death stars and hard magic at some point. So you take bigger units to compensate, and gamble on the points investment, or spread your points out on more smaller units. You know you are going up against big units and death stars so you take some nuke spells or an extra piece of artillery and gamble that nothing explodes.