Tomb Kings Test - and the Return of the Old World?

Much of the gaming world been rocked this week with the announcement from Games Workshop that the Old World would be making a return...
...and with square bases?

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/11/15/old-world-new-warhammer/ 

Be still my desiccated (Tomb Kings) heart.  
That would mean that I could dust off those square-based armies I have like High Elves and Skaven, and use them in all their ranked-up glory. 

That isn't to say that I wasn't prepared to use what I could from their ranks in Age of Sigmar (a game that I didn't get into because I really DIDN'T want to rebase all the hundreds of models I have) because I have just started renovating Tomb Kings with AOS in mind. However, IF GW really does bring the Old World back AND with square bases, then life would be a LOT easier for me. That is especially the case if old armies like Tomb Kings and High Elves are viable again.

Despite my excitement (and that of others out there) there could be a fair bit to worry about (or reasons not to get too excited.)

1. This is a couple of years off at least - so maybe 2021-22?
2. Who is to say that GW will keep the rules in a way that makes simply using your old models...easy? (After all, simply using all those old armies you have with a new rules set wouldn't bring any major profits. Would it?)

Still, this is interesting news that has already prompted miles of ink and countless YouTube videos.

In other big news, a Sisters of Battle limited edition box set sold out within minutes. I definitely want some of the Sisters to join my Black Templars crusade, but now it looks as though that will have to wait for another day (or year) or at least until some of new individual packs come out.

As for my current gaming, today I finished off a test model for Tomb Kings that could count as Grave Guard/ Tomb guard in games of Warhammer or Age of Sigmar. Here he is - a musician.

This old fellow was painted mainly using GW contrast paints to save a bit of time. Tomb Kings are pretty good for this as they are a lot of bone, cloth and textured surfaces (wood, leather, etc.) Although this is a very "classic" Egyptian-style scheme I think it works well for a this kind of army. 

One secret to working with this amount of gold is to keep things simple. In this case I drybrushed gold over brown (Gore Grunta Fur) to give a feeling of gold leaf or gold that was fading away. The shield works well because of this (IMHO). 

I'm going to sit on this test for a couple of days and see how I feel about it. As weird as this may be, I really like to take a quick look at models I paint the morning after they are done. That gives me a chance to see them under natural light (I usually paint at night after work) and to see how the colours that looked SO WONDERFUL the night before actually look.

If on reflection I still like the look I'll then move on to the other 9 in the unit. 

Best wishes for happy hobbying!

+Squeek Vermintide+

Black Templars and Warhammer 40K 8th Edition first games

I got in my first two games of Warhammer 40K 8th edition over the last two weeks.

My first game with the new system was at a Games Workshop store in Tokyo (yes, I still never call them "Warhammer Stores", no matter what the sign on the shop says!). I thought it would be good to have a game with the staff to get used to some of the new mechanics, and to help refresh my knowledge of the game as I haven't played in months.

Before I went I spent some time putting together a Black Templars list using the new "Power level" system. This is designed to be a quick and easy way to put together an army without worrying about calculating the exact points value of everything. Each unit has a clearly marked power level, which is adjusted based on the number of models in the unit, but not on their wargear or accessories.

Overall, this system works quite well in specific circumstances, and I was able to pull together a bunch of my old Templars models with relative ease. It makes calculation pretty easy, and various list building apps have already included it. (I used Battlescribe and this seemed to work fine). In a few minutes of playing around I put together a 75 point army of Black Templars (50 points is about 1,000 points according to some sources). More on that later.

Black Templars bike squad zooms in.

++ Game 1: Black Templars v. Ultramarines ++

Here is the 75 Power Level list I used:

• Captain on Bike
• Chaplain Grimaldus
• Crusader Squad A (9 Initiates with Chainsword, 5 neophytes with combat knives, 1 Sword Brethren).
• Crusader Squad B (4 initiates with Bolters, x1 with Flamer, x1 with Plasma)
• Crusader Squad C (5 initiates with Chainswords, x1 Flamer)
• Dreadnought with Autocannon
• Land Raider Crusader for Squad A
• Razorback for Squad C

My opponent had about 70 points of Ultramarines. From what I remember:

• Captain on foot in Terminator armour.
• Venerable Dreadnought with Las cannon, Dreadnought power fist/ flamer.
• x1 smaller Unit of Primaris Ultramarines (x5?) on foot.
• x1 large unit of Ultramarines (x10, with Missile Launcher)
• x1 large unit of Ultramarines (x10, with Missile Launcher)
• Close combat Terminator squad. (x10 or so, brought in from reserve. Half with lightning claws, half with thunder hammer and shield.)

If I can, I'll put together a separate report in more detail, but the highlight of the game had to be my excitement at using Chaplain Grimaldus, only for him to kill himself in his first shot of the game when his pistol overheated and exploded in his face. 
Classic WH40K Bittersweet moment™!

My opponent was the underdog in terms of points, but his large Terminator squad pretty much made mincemeat of my troops. That, coupled with some bad placing of charging bikes on my part opened them up to a lot of attacks that overwhelmed them.

10 Enemy Terminators arrive (top right). The end is near (for me).

++ Game 2: Black Templars v. Tyranids ++

The Thin Black Line v. The Red Tide of Death...

In my second game (this time with a friend at home) my list was a little different:

50 Power Level Black Templars

• Emperor's Champion
• Crusader Squad (7 initiates with Chainswords, x1 flamer, x1 Sword Brother.
• Sternguard x5 (x4 vets, x1 Sergeant All with flamer combi weapons)
• Terminator Assault Squad (x Sergeant, x1 Storm Shield and Thunder Hammer, x2 with paired lightning claws)
• Landspeeder x1 (Typhoon missile launcher, Heavy bolter)
• Devastator Squad (x1 Sergeant with Plasma pistol,  x4 with Missile launchers
• Rhino

49 Power Level Tyranid army

• Hive Tyrant (Shooty) PL10
• Carnifex (kinda shooty) PL6
• Tervigon (kinda poopy - "releases" 10 Termagants every turn.) PL13
• Genestealers (x5) PL4
• Genestealers (x5) PL4
• Zoanthrope (x3 in a single unit) PL6
• Termagants (x10 on the table at first I think?) PL3
• Hormagaunts (x10) PL3

We played an "Open Play" game to get a hang of the basic rules, using just the Indexes. 

There were four objectives, and points for control of each objective were collected at the end of each player turn. There is no 8th Tyranid Codex available at the time we played, and I don't have the SM Codex. Even if I know the rules, I didn't feel it would have been right to have access to my Chapter Tactics if my opponent didn't have any info from a codex of his own, so we didn't use those.

The Devastators...um...devastated (bottom left)

I ended up losing this game as well!

• The Hive Tyrant and Carnifex pretty easily shot my Devastators off the table in the first round of shooting, meaning I was out of massed heavy weapons that could have seriously dented his Tyrant, 'Fex and Tervigon. This was even with an improved saving throw due to being in cover.(I still had the Land Speeder with heavy weapon and Typhoon Missile launcher, but felt that wouldn't do the trick)

• The ability of the Tervigon in 8th edition to just add an extra 10 Termagants on the table without a chance of the ability stopping (as in 7th if I recall?) meant that the table quickly became full of little critters!

• This small Tyranid force still has 3 psychic units, who in the psychic phase managed to get off Smite a fair few times, as well as some tasty buffs and debuffs (The Horror, Catalyst and Onslaught). As it only takes a 5 or more to get off Smite, it isn't difficult to get off, but even 1-3 mortal wounds on a small unit in a game of this size is going to hurt over time. (Bear in mind that as I don't own the SM Codex yet, I wasn't using Abhor the Witch, which would have given me a 4+ Deny the Witch roll, even without any psychers of my own.)

This loss was my fault too though for sure, with plenty of bad choices on my part:

• I wasn't confident about driving my Rhino straight up to the Tyranids to disembark my Crusade Squad. It took me too long to do that, by which point there were lots of additional 'gants to deal with. They disembark now only at the beginning of your movement phase. If I had moved up within charge range, would the Tyranids have swarmed the raider and managed to simply take off enough wounds for it to explode? Once surrounded, the models inside have no exit point so simply die in that case? (My concern)! 

Because vehicles are more durable in 8th, being more confident about this is probably a key takeaway.

• I became too distracted by worrying about the units I had and should have paid more attention to the game objectives, and could have contested those in his back field earlier (using different vehicles such as the Land Speeder) to take pressure off my front line.
• I could have placed my devastators further back so they could have got one round of shooting off before being in range of the Hive Tyrant and Carnifex.
• It was a mistake not to try and whittle down the large number of Termagants that the Tervigon was throwing out. By the time I got into close combat there were too many of them.

It wasn't all bad news though! :-)

Having been slaughtered by some Terminators in my first game, I had put a small squad into this game and they worked quite well. Those 2+ saves make a huge difference, even under quite a weight of attacks. After his compatriots were struck down, the Terminator Sergeant duked it out with the Hive Tyrant and brought him down with a thunder hammer (only then to face the wrath of the Carnifex...)

Classic WH40K Heroic-Moment to Enjoy before Death™!

Terminator Sergeant alone, but not unbeaten!
In the next turn, he takes out the Hive Tyrant (at right.)

Another positive was to see how the Sternguard did with their combi-flamers. After moving up, they quickly crisped a unit of Genestealers with no problems (but then fell to all that dakka from the HT and Carnifex.) Flamers = Fun (although somehow, I miss templates...)

Two Sternguard fall to incoming fire, but the other three advance
and fire their combi flamers into a unit of Genestealers.

To finish, here are a few takeaways of main mechanics (mainly confirming what I have read elsewhere.)

Power Levels:

It won't satisfy players who like to carefully calculate everything, or gamers interested in "Match play" style games where opponents want very evenly balanced points, but for putting together a quick "pick-up list" it does the job...
...as long as you accept there will be imbalances.

Depending on the army, some decent war gear or other options will slip in, and according to some reports, these could make make for an actual points difference of a couple of hundred "match play" points.

Simplified Gaming:

Yes, the game is more enjoyable with simplified shooting, wounding and saving. It will make things faster and easier for most gamers, and especially casual gamers (like me.)

Flamers Sans Templates:

With my dice rolls, I feel like I need to take flamers en masse. The D6 automatic hits sounds good, but with just one in a unit, that could just be one hit (for me at least!) 

Dataslates:

Mixed bag! Great to have all the rules for a unit in one place. Not so great if you don't keep a close eye on where the dataslates are (or if you have an army with a load of units.)

Thanks to both my opponents for the games. I'm looking forward to using 8th edition more than 7th because I think the overall simplification of the game suits me as a gamer.

Scratch-built Treasure Markers

"My precious..."

I've recently been focused on trying to put together very low cost terrain for Frostgrave (or other skirmish games). Naturally, the focus has been on buildings because having lots of terrain seems essential to the experience, but you also need treasure markers. If you aren't familiar with Frostgrave, the premise is that each player has a small warband of up to 10 models, and you are fighting in an abandoned city to discover treasure, potions or other magical items.

Of course, a coin, or dice or anything else can be used to indicate where the treasure is on the gameboard, but wouldn't it be better to have something that looks like treasure (at least a little bit?)

With that in mind I headed over to one of my local dollar stores, and returned armed with a variety of supplies.

Supplies, supplies!

• shiny hologram paper (comes in various colours, but this pack comes with gold!)
• 6 pill boxes for keeping your meds in.
• Nail art ornaments. They look like pearls or gems.
• Pack of white beads.
• Diamond earrings (These didn't work in the end as I couldn't pry the diamonds out.)

This cost around US $9.00 (of which I ended up using about $6.00)

Making the Sarcophagi

The first thing I needed to do was make the containers, and in the end, I thought that these would be made of stone, rather than wood. The shape of the pill boxes lent themselves to looking like a tomb or sarcophagus.

1. Adding foam core.

1. Add foam core. 

I cut up some old red packing foam to match the shape of the pill boxes. This foam comes in model blister packs - always keep it! The gold paper will lie on top of this, so part of the trick is to cut the foam to the right depth. I wanted my sarcophagi to be almost full, so I made the foam about 5/6 the depth of the box.

2. Accessorize your sarcophagus

2. Accessorize your Sarcophagus.

Time to raid my Warhammer Fantasy and 40K bitz box! I managed to find some items that would spice up the pill box. Scrolls, a giant rat, taken from a Skaven Plague monk sprue, a helmet from an Empire knight, assorted skulls, chains, and swords etc. These were attached with super glue.

3. Undercoat.

I used grey, but I also then inserted the foam and used Chaos Black around the edges. This is to hide the red foam if I can't get the gold paper to fit exactly.

Marble with gloss varnish

Marble without varnish

4. Painting.

I had never tried to paint marble before, but I watched a few YouTube videos and had a go! You'll find plenty of advice about painting marble in different colours, and I thought it would be fun to try green marble as well as white/ grey. After painting, I applied GW gloss varnish to some of the models but realized that I actually preferred the matt look.

5. Fill with Treasure!

After painting was complete, I added the "treasure". This was done by cutting out the gold "hologram" paper to shape, then gluing it on top of the foam. Finally, I added various gems, necklaces and pearls from the nail art kits. These were glued in place using PVA glue, which then dried clear.

Voila!

2015 - the year of the Rat? (and a look back...)

...officially of course, it is the year of the Sheep (at least here in Asia!), but there are good signs that it could be quite a year for the Skaven too! 

First, take a look at this forthcoming new Skaven Model (courtesy of SpikeyBIts) from a forthcoming White Dwarf:

The full line-up can be found on the GW website and it certainly is a major one for the Skaven. The return of Thanquol, "End Times" stuff, and lots of new models. I like the look of these Verminlord models (although this close to Christmas, the bells on his horns remind me of tree ornaments...) and would think about picking one up IF the rules make the Verminlord competitive this time around. The previous rules meant that most people never took one (overpriced and under-powered). 

I might still take my "Counts as" Verminlord, Skar-Scath, to see how the rules perform.

My Skaven and other animals:

2014 was a slow year for painting, as I lost my painting mojo every so often but I still got a variety of units done. Here are some highlights from last year.

The Skaven horde of Squeek Vermintide as it is now is shown below (as of Jan 1st 2015). I didn't paint all of these last year, but I thought it would be interesting to see the horde laid out.

2014 Painting list:

December:

Stormvermin Reinforcements (20) 

Magnet Madness! 

I decided to magnetize more units, so went for Goblin Skaven Slaves, Stormvermin, and Clanrats Bunker Unit (110 models). I used "dime store" sticky magnetic sheet for a total cost of around 4 US dollars. 

I also marked all my movement trays so I know which units go on them securely (I aligned the magnets on the troops before sticking them to the unit bases so they would give a good magnetic grip):

"G.S" is for "Goblin Slaves"

Yes, I cut out a couple of hundred of these 20mm x20mm magnetic bases.

November:

Scratch-built Warlitter: Great fun to build!

October

Tealight explosions and Vehicle Markers for 40K.

See "How to Make Tealight Explosions and Smoke" for more details.

September:

Warhammer Fantasy Empire Watchtower:

Warhammer 40K Black Templars Stormtalon:

Black Templars Armoured column (reinforcements):

x2 Whirlwinds and x1 Landraider

July

Although I still haven't got an actual game in, I keep coming back to Dust Tactics models, slowly putting them in order.

Dust Tactics Allied Reinforcements:

"The Boss" and his command unit...

June

 The Axis infantry made it off the shelf and onto the painting table.
Dust Tactics Axis Units - The Axis are coming!:

April

Black Templars Sternguard.

I loved painting these guys. Not only did I really like the models, but assembling them was fun (as well as challenging, as I was using scavenged parts) and I think they came out as my best Black Templars to date. Photo extravaganza here.

February

Excited by a haul of Black Templars, I slowly went to work on individual models, rather than whole units. I find this much more interesting than working on whole units of Space Marines, which can feel like a bit of a slog. Individual models tend to have more flavor and detail (both real and imagined)

Black Templars Dreadnought - Brother Luthor, a Drop-pod and a Chaplain.

The outlook for 2015?

-Painting High Elves (I have some models that could be painted to expand my current High Elf army)

- Expanding Squeek's Skaven Horde (Plague Censer Bearers, Globadiers and more core just to name a few that still need to be painted.)

- Playing more Warhammer (Skaven and High Elves)

- Playing some 40K. Will I ever get to use the Black Templars on the battlefield.

- Getting in some games of Dust Warfare.

- Expanding on my X-Wing starter set and getting some games in.

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2015!

Cheers,

Squeek.

Modular Movement Trays...decisions, decisions!

*Squeek*

Images from www.games-workshop.com 

I finally picked up a set of some of the most important Wargear any self-respecting Skaven warlord should have...
...movement trays!

Yes, I know that by buying some movement trays I have probably gone down in your estimation...
Yes, I could have made them myself from cardboard or any other material at almost no cost...
but the GW sets weren't too expensive. A couple of sets cost 12 pounds and provides enough trays for almost all my currently painted models.

So my nice new trays are sitting in front of me, unmade,  but now I have them the burning question becomes:
What size should I make them up as? (Remember, I haven't yet played a game of 8th edition yet!) Everywhere I look there seems to be different information about the "right" number of troops to have in a unit and the different frontage etc...

5x5? (25 is far too few for any self-respecting horde I suspect...)
6x5? (Hmmm, 30 Clanrats is more like it.)
5x8? (40? Sounds about right)
10x5? (50? 10 troops wide to take advantage of the horde rules?)

...and of course, I'm sure this depends on the troop type. Clanrats will be a totally different proposition from Skaven slaves I'm sure.

It would be great to hear from some experienced Skaven Warlords about what sizes of unit you have found most effective (or at the least, the minimum size for a unit of Clanrats) AND how you have arranged your unit trays.

Any ideas?

*Squeek*

Island of Blood: New Warhammer Boxed game coming soon...

*Rubs paws with glee!*
"They come, brethren, they come! Brothers from other places to fight-fight!"

"The gutter runner cames with listenings and hearings..."

"Incoming! The Island of Blood The Warhammer world; it is a place riven by battle, where mighty armies clash for glory, honour or the entertainment of Dark Gods. Darkened skies, tortured by cataclysmic magics tear open and rain blood upon the ceaseless combatants and the landscape is wracked by the carnage around it. Trees writhe in mutated agony, lashing out with limb and branch and rivers flow thick with the corpses of the slain. All upon the land are consumed by the unending battle, an age of war in which victory and defeat hang in the balance. Cast against this macabre tableau fight mighty armies -warriors by their million raise banners of defiance or icons of dismay, taking up arms in the clash for survival. Beleaguered and surrounded, the forces of Order fight desperately to stem the tide of the armies of Destruction. Delighting in the carnage and ruination, the Dark Gods look on. The Island of Blood is but one battleground upon the face of the Warhammer world, a mystical and dangerous place that has been twisted and mutated by the warping power of Chaos. In ages past the Island of Blood was a battleground upon which armies have bled and died in the ageless battle for supremacy... and they will do so again. Soon. The Island of Blood is the new boxed game for Warhammer and is released this September. Packed full of stunning plastic Citadel miniatures and containing all the rules, dice and templates you'll need to play, it's the essential purchase for fans of the Warhammer hobby. Meanwhile, if you like the Battle for Skull Pass boxed game (and who wouldn't with all those Goblins and Dwarfs) then it only seems fair to point out that once the last few remaining copies are gone they're gone, and they're never coming back! Pick one up while stocks last. In August we'll feature more information about The Island of Blood on games-workshop.com and the full details will be released in September's White Dwarf. If you can't wait until September to get your hands on the new rules then don't forget that the new Warhammer Rulebook and complete range of accessories are available to advance order by clicking on the image below." *Squeek*

Warhammer 8th Edition Rulebook Advance Orders now open!

I just received an email from Games Workshop with Advance Order information for the new WHFB rulebook and associated items. Some of these look really cool and very attractive (if expensive) so I thought I would share them with you here.
(Please note that I am not an employee of GW nor affiliated with them in any way. The information and images below are available on the internet from GW themselves. Links take you to GW UK site and their full description of each item.)

Warhammer Rulebook: (£45)

Collector's Edition Rulebook: (£75) - eek! (Limited to 3,500 copies.)

There are also a range of other tools for playing the game, so of which are limited to "While Stocks Last" and others that appear not to have that limitation...

Warhammer Skull Dice (£7)

Warhammer Counter Set (£8)

Warhammer Template Set (£5)

Warhammer Battle Magic (£6)

Engineer's Ranging Set: (£18)

Warhammer Gamer's Edition: (£75)

First impressions?
There are a couple of items I would like to own from the list above
No. 1: The Collector's Edition...
...for the simple reason that working for a publishing company, I have learned to appreciate the time and effort that goes into printed books of this size and at first glance, this looks very nice. I am sure that there will be people who buy both the Collector's Edition (to admire) and a regular rulebook to use at games. There will also be an equal number of people who feel these rulebooks are hugely expensive and will wait until a Starter Set for this edition appears with a mini rule book...

No. 2: Engineer's Ranging Set...
...because I'm a geek, and somehow using this should be much cooler than using a tape measure. (I'm a bit worried about the durability though.)

No. 3: Warhammer Template Set...
...I like the brass effect. And let's be honest, holding this over the heads of an opposing unit that you are targeting just looks cooler than a plain plastic circle...

Not so interested?
- Warhammer Skull Dice...
...I have dice. I have LOTS of dice already.

- Warhammer Counter Set...
...looks really fiddly. (Although the fact that it functions as an "ingenious combat resolution calculator" is interesting.)

- Battle Magic Cards...
...hmmm, the cards "contain all the spells for every magical lore printed in the Warhammer rulebook"? Then I'll just look them up in the rulebook, thank you very much!

I've no idea if I have the budget to stretch to some of these items, but I'm looking forward to trying to get my paws on them anyway...(isn't Father's Day right around the corner?)

*Squeek*