Wargames & Stuff: 2009 Wargames & Stuff Sunday, 4 October 2009 Chariots of Fire (and Brimstone) When I started this blog it was certainly not my intention to see it dominated by one army or game quite as much as it has been, but since I have started painting my Chaos Army I have found it quite hard to stop. I have Anima Tactics models piling up and my Red Devils still have no opponents. Sadly real life has been getting in the way of my painting lately and so I don't have as much to show off as I would like. Still here's a couple of new models that have been sitting around unpainted for years. I wanted a chariot for my army since 4 th edition Warhammer , but the only model dated back to 3rd edition had to be mail ordered and looked pretty terrible. So when a new model appeared during fifth edition I snapped it up. This model was assembled and painted pretty much as is, but I added a large monster base for the Chariot, it being released long before the advent of Games Workshop Chariot bases. The base really helps the model to feel like a coherent unit somehow. The same Chariot from the other side. This Chariot has had a few modifications, it's steeds and crew being swapped for different models The steeds are actually from the long dead Games Workshop game of desert-based mobile Ork combat, Gorkamorka . The Gorkamorka expansion introduced a race of mutants who rode around on lizard like beasts. These steeds are two of the beasts. Games Workshop's old sales pattern was to release a game, flog it for all it was worth and then get rid of it in a big sale before releasing a new game. If you were wise to this pattern you could get yourself a huge amount of material for a very low price. I did brilliantly out of the Blood Bowl mega sale and acquired about five teams. These two beasts were bought for a pound each on the basis that they looked interesting and I might use them some day. I finally decided to add them to my second chariot to make it stand out a bit from the other. The driver was a product of a much earlier GW sale. He is actually an old Marauder miniatures Chaos Hound handler. Marauder miniatures was an odd semi-autonomous spin off from Citadel back in the early to mid 1990s. At the time it was the only part of the company producing new Warhammer models and they were a great deal better than Citadels offerings of the same period. The Handler came in a pack with two chaos hounds and I bought three packs for a pound each in the first great Games Workshop sale (around 1994 or 1995, I'm not sure). The hounds served me faithfully as part of my Chaos Army for years, before being superseded by the new plastics. The handler now lives on as a chariot driver as he fulfilled the crucial criteria of having his own whip. The Champion is an old metal Chaos Warrior I bought during fifth edition to lead my Marauder unit, Marauder Champions were Chaos Warriors back then. He has been kitted out with a new plastic Chaos Warrior shield and now usually plays the role of an Exalted Hero in a Chariot. More pictures soon I promise. No comments: Labels: Chaos , Warhammer Saturday, 5 September 2009 Charge of the (very) Heavy brigade At the end of my last post I promised new pictures by the end of the week and spectacularly failed to deliver. It has been, not quite two weeks since then, so apologies. On the more positive side, I now have two new Chaos regiments painted instead of one, so that means a few more pictures. My ten strong unit of Chaos Knights in all it's glory. The units were clearly not intended to get this big, as is apparent from the fact that the bulky tails make it impossible to get them to rank up. It is fairly unlikely I will every need to use all ten in battle. So why buy them? Bit of an indulgence really. I am something of an obsessive fan of Chaos Knights. Ever since my first Chaos army in 1994, when I bought two box sets of the newly released knights plus a command group, netting me 8 models. Given that they were 80 points each with Chaos Armour, and the Standard twice that, it was an over the top unit back then. But I have always loved the idea of large unit of the most powerful heavy cavalry in the Warhammer game pounding across the table. The psychological impact alone is huge. I got my first five of the new knights in the Chaos battalion box. But when I ended up at the annual wargame show at the Bovington tank museum a few weeks back and discovered a box for only ten quid I couldn't resist the opportunity to double the numbers. In retrospect I should probably have assembled them as two units. Still, the big unit has tremendous visual and psychological impact. A close up of the rear rank to show a little more detail. My first Chaos Knight Unit were armed with lances. It always irritated me that the Knights were effectively neutered in the Hordes of Chaos army book by having their lances taken away from them. It always felt, to me, like an attempt to reduce the Knights status compared to other heavy cavalry like Empire or Bretonnian knights. Ironic then, that I ended up giving my new unit hand weapons. I ummed and ahhed over this for a while, but I went with hand weapons, or rather ensorcelled weapons because they give the Knights +1 strength and count as magic. For 5 points more, lances give +2 strength which is lost after the first round and no magic weapons. Not much of a bonus as far as I can see given that you are required to lose the ensorcelled weapons and not take both. As far as painting is concerned I followed the same basic Colour scheme as my Chaos Warriors. Tamiya Nato black highlighted German grey for the plate armour with old citadel brazen brass for the detailed bits, of which there were rather more on the knights than the Chaos Warriors. For the steeds I had some trouble. I wanted them black, but this did not contrast well with the armour. I considered red, but thought that might be a little too colourful for an army I wanted to look dark and grim. In the end I went with black, but painted them flat black and highlighted nato black to make them even darker. I added some colour by painting the steeds hair red. I liked the idea that the hooves actually caught fire as they ran. These are chaos steeds after all, partly daemonic and not just conventional horses. This ended up taking ages because I couldn't bring myself to dry brush and highlighted each individual hair. This is my 'bonus unit' the Dragon Ogres. Like the Chaos Knights, they have been a big part of my army since fourth edition. Unlike the Knights I am still using the same models. They have beaten the Marauders record and now hold the record for 'longest time between buying and painting a model.' 14 years in this case. The Knights and these guys more or less sold me on Chaos back in 1994. Of course, as a 15 year old with very little income I had to buy them up a bit at a time. I started with three and added the other two over a year later (I honestly don't remember when). These guys had been sitting around in bits since I gave up on Chaos in sixth edition, but have been brought, deservedly , out of retirement. They are showing their age, but for sheer bulk and character they are still some of my favourite models. With summer activities getting in the way I have only managed to get two units down in the last two months. Hopefully I will get back into routine soon. I have my first Chaos character all but done, I still need to finish his base, so more pictures soon. I also have, potentially, something big to write about. Not a new model, but something rather different. I won't be any more concrete or set a definite date for posting more, because I am conscious of failing to meet it. I will post more when I have the chance. No comments: Labels: Chaos , miniatures , Painting , Warhammer Monday, 24 August 2009 Something of a different style of entry today. So far this blog has essentially been a record of my modelling and painting projects, but I always intended to make it somewhat broader than that so this entry takes a more philosophical approach. I promise more Chaos pictures by the end of the week. Assuming anyone is actually reading this and I am not just writing to myself. Back when Games Workshop released its fifth edition Warhammer 40,000 rules, designer Jervis Johnson wrote the following in his column for White Dwarf: “When we started on the new rules we decided that we shouldn't compromise the new rules out of fear of over-competitive players (or “rules lawyers” as they are known in the trade), but instead we should develop the rules we'd personally like to use ourselves. As long as the rules worked well in our games, then all we needed to do was explain to other players how to use them in their games.” This was widely taken as an attack on the more competitive tournament players and seen as a signal that the Games Workshop studio was going to shift its focus to cocentrate on 'fun' at the expense of rules balance. I think there is some truth in that statement, but looking back on it now, over a year later, it seems more like a defensive statement justifying the change in presentation of the rules that was to come, not just in Warhammer 40,000, but in all Games Workshop games. Allow me to present a specific example from the Warriors of Chaos army book (forgive me, but I have Chaos on the brain at the moment). The rulebook contains a rule called 'Eye of the Gods.' This requires Chaos characters and champions to issue challenges to personal combat whenever they are able and accept them when offered. This strikes me as a pretty characterful rule. Chaos characters are the worshippers of vengeful Gods whose motivation is based entirely around attracting there attention and there is more glory to be gained in defeating enemy heroes than in slaughtering the nameless rabble. This is how the rule is presented in the army book exactly as written: “Chaos models that may issue challenges must do so whenever they are able. Furthermore, such is their thirst for glory that Chaos characters may not refuse challenges.” That isn't the whole rule, but it is the most important part for the example I wish to discuss. On the face of it this is all pretty simple. A Chaos character or champion must issue a challenge whenever he can and accept a challenge when offered. Actually this second part is less clear. If you read quickly you can easily gloss over the crucial word in the second sentence “Chaos characters may not refuse challenges.” Champions are not actually characters, they are actually an odd kind of hybrid regular trooper that uses the Character rules for challenges and being hit by missile fire, but they are not, strictly speaking, characters. I have to admit that I didn't even notice this second point until I read it in the FAQ published on the Games Workshop website. So, strictly speaking, the rule states that all Chaos Characters and unit Champions must, when they are able, issue a challenge. When a challenge is offered, characters must accept, but Champions may (but don't have to) refuse. So far so good. Now, to cite an entirely un-hypothetical example. In a recent Game I played my Warriors of Chaos against my brother's Ogres. In this game I used a unit of Chaos Warriors including a Champion and accompanied by a Chaos Sorcerer. The unit was charged by a unit of Ogre bulls. As per the Warhammer rules only one challenge may be issued per combat round. The procedure is that the charging player may issue a challenge on behalf of one character or champion in the charging unit, which may be accepted or refused. If they do not issue a challenge one character or champion from the unit receiving that charge may issue a challenge. The Ogres did not issue a challenge requiring my Champion and Sorcerer to issue a challenge as per the 'Eye of the Gods' rule. Of course they can't both issue challenges, only one challenge can be issued per combat phase and in any case there weren't enough enemy characters of champions to go around. So I issued a challenge on behalf of my Champion, not wishing to see my Sorcerer ground into a soft meaty paste by the club of an Ogre Crusher. I assume that this is acceptable as both characters are obliged to issue challenges, but only one legally can. If the Champion issues a challenge the Sorcerer is no longer 'able' and, as written, there is no pecking order. This wasn't really a problem, a loop hole or an error, just an ambiguity that I would have liked to have seen clarified. However, the plot thickens had the Crusher issued a challenge. If a challenge is issued the player on the receiving end has two choices, accept and nominate a character or champion to fight the challenge, or refuse and allow the challenging player to nominate on of his champions or characters to sit out the fight. My Champion is not obligated to accept challenges, but my Sorcerer, as a character is. Does this mean that I cannot refuse the challenge as the Ogre player could nominate the Sorcerer, who may no