The base itself is made from 4 x 25mm ruined temple stone resin bases that I’m using throughout the army. Foundations of War have just made a chariot and 50mm ruined temple base but I don’t think they are as good as the smaller ones.  To make the base I used GW’s modular base kit to make a 50mm base and then superglued the 4 smaller resin bases to it.

I then filled the gaps with some filler. After a grey drybrush and slightly inked the stone green and brown with GW’s washes to give an older weathered look to the stones.

Moving on to the actual scenery. The large jungle plant in the background is from some jungle scenery I bought at Salute this year. I also poured some water effect into the gaps between the stones to give the impression of standing water. Some static grass and moss was then glued on.

After having a quick think, I’ve started to paint up a snake to go on the base too to add a bit of colour and tie in with the slann model (lots of snakes and frogs on his palanquin).

Bit of a closer up.

You can see a bit of the water in the next picture, as well as the jungle plant.

A ‘from behind’ shot.

Carl the book leper (don’t lend him your army book)

Magpie Stu (because he likes the shiney things)

Gollum Gav (he’ll do anything to have that one ring in his dark elf army)

Whilst we’re on the subject of nicknames (and we’ve shamelessly stolen these), pendant of kaeleth is now the pendant of cheating and the ring of hotek is the ring of filth.

Anyone else have any little nuggets of information we don’t really need to know but need to know (if you know what I mean)?

I could rant on for days about it, but thats unproductive, boring to listen too (Carls already had to endure an entire hour on the phone about it) and unproductive (did I say that already?).

At least we are moving in a direction.

We plan to do a few more tournaments this year. We’ve been looking at the Portsmouth pillage, GW doubles, Bristol Brawl part deux and the GT heats.

So here we are, the hogs………….oink oink 

russell-blakemore-warriors-of-chaos

I always knew that to have a chariot, 2 units of knights and a tooled up warrior unit I’d have to keep the points of the characters quite low. In the end they came out at around 700pts, more points than I would have liked.

My general was the first to be selected. Survivability for cheap was the key so I gave him the mark of Tzeentch along with the 6+ ward and MR2. I also gave him the enchanted shield but forgot to add this into his armour save everytime. For a bit punch I gave him a halberd for that crucial strength 6 when needed.

The BSB was next and I gave him the banner of rage. My figuring behind this was that I could pick and choose the unit that would be frenzied from game to game. Again, I gave him a halberd so if required he could dish out some punishment.

I knew magic offense was out of the question and played a few practise games without a sorcerer but experiance and a lack of dispel made me take a level 1 with a scroll. I wanted to take two scrolls but opted for the bloodcurdling roar instead (after the tournament I realised either bloodcurdling roar or second dispel scroll wouldn’t have made much difference).

Troops wise, I took 15 nurgle warriors with the raptuous standard for a holding unit. Great unit especially in combat with a 2+ save, but nurgle was a waste of 30pts. Not once did I ever feel the points cost was justified. Nurgle has well and truly been nurfed.

The two blocks of knights I knew would smash the pieces out of everything but knew I’d need to get them over to the opponent. One unit had the mark of nurgle for -1 shooting and the other mark of tzeentch and blasted standard for 4+ ward against attacks in the shooting phase.

Several of the club mumbled about the blasted standard but it done me very well. I could put my knights against a dwarf gun line with confidence and banshee screams just bounced off.

The nugle chariot and warshrine were the final bit along with some trolls to dribble at the enemy.

The army itself performed how I imagined, hit them fast and smash their faces in but there are a few things I’d change. The chariot done well but didn’t need the mark of nurgle (I have three nurgle chariots so the time saved in painting another one was worth the 30 points), the mark of nurgle could theoretically be dropped throughout the army, not once did I notice the benefits. The horsemen were great in their various roles but another unit wouldn’t go a miss, the amount of times I just needed another cheap unit behind the unit I was about to break was unbelievable. Hounds were ok but not really needed. If I was needing contention of table quarters I had smashed their army and could easily win them, and if I hadn’t smashed their army, table quarters were the least of my worries. Again the horsemen with fast cav rule can capture them.

Next time I go warriors, I think I’ll take khorne and beat them to more of a bloody pulp.

We all had a great time and it was nice to hear Carl and Rhinehards thoughts on how much better an independant tournament is over the GW ones (come on GW, pick up the pace).

I managed to win two and lose three overall and all though this was exactly the same as last year, I managed to finish higher (mainly thanks to a better painting score and no point hit on changing my list).

I managed to finish 25th, Carl and Rich got to 14th and 15th respectively and Gav bought up the rear with a 34th place finish, 1 place above the bottom 4 we were trying desperately hard to not finish in. I think we all did pretty well, considering our relatively noob status to this scene.

Shockingly hard for us to believe though is Carl sportsmanship award. Well done Carl, I’ll add it to the virtual trophy cabinet later on.

Below are the results, first number is tournament points, second is painting, third is sporting points, fourth is total points and finally VP difference.
 

The last two months have been pretty hectic for me. A small deal has been struck with a mate, I get part of his Orc and Goblin army in exchange for painting up his 2000pt chaos army. Work hasn’t progressed as fast as I wanted as he needs it ready for two weeks time when 4 of us (Me, Carlos, Rhinehard and one of the Gavs) goes down to the Bristol Brawl.

Regular readers will remember I went to the Brawl last year and didn’t place as high as I could have due to my army not being painted very well (a loss of about 15 tournament points from where it should have been) and a late minute army list change due to none of my slaves being finished (another 15 point loss). This meant I effectively lost most of the points for my two wins.

This year though, I’m gunning for best sportsman award. I’m pretty happy I was one point under what was need to win (three others rolled off for the price) considering I didn’t pick up any of the ‘mates’ sportsmanship points that most people can at least hope for.

This year I’ve ditched the skaven (who have retired to a large black carry case under my painting table until the new book comes along) and decided to take warriors. Daemons were an option but didn’t want to end up in a high banding and just face other daemons and as the lizard book hadn’t been released when the lists were submitted it was the older book that was to be used. I don’t mind the old book, but the armies that can be created from the new book are more exciting. Anyway, warriors it was.

Meanwhile, we’ve had a new lizardmen book which I’m liking the look of. The changes seem to be pointing towards being able to build some quite different lists, along the lines of both dark elves and warriors (to a lesser extent). Lists aside, the person that proof read the book should be put in a sausage maker and fed to wild boar. What the hell is a Magwe priest? Can he take the same items as a Mage priest? Maybe a FAQ will clarify what a Magwe priest is?

We’ve also had a new FAQ for both the core rules and the warrior’s book. In my opinion the warriors FAQ was probably the better one we’ve had over the past year but lacking substantially. I understand Games Workshops view of the hobby that it should be for fun, played with a few mates over some beers/pizza/Doritos/whatever and agree with it, but they also need to remember that there are instances where you want to have a more competitive game, or play a pickup game with someone you’ve never met before.

Writing a FAQ that contradicts another FAQ or the main rules just isn’t going to help. Sure the witty comments can be funny when reading the document and I don’t have a problem with these at all, but just make sure the rules are consistent. Even a friendly game can be spoilt when your FAQ states Magic Resistance works very much differently to your opponents (Tomb Kings casket of souls MR question is well and truly trumped by later MR Q&A’s). Don’t even get me started on GW’s house rules for tournaments.

Anyone wanting to rant and offload their FAQ feelings, feel free to comment below.

Next time…..My Bristol Brawl list goes under the spotlight.

Lots been going on that’ll need a bit more time and some pictures.

To summerise, four of us have decided to go to the Bristol Brawl this year and I’m finishing off my mortals army and have somehow roped myself into painting carls mortals too.

Armyrooster has been shut down!

Lizardmen book has been released, new FAQ for the main rules has been released, twice….., and many other exciting things. I hope to get onto each one of these things soon.

For now though, how horrible is a tzeentch mortal army led by a daemon prince of tzeentch?!?!

Here is the PDF I printed out.

For all those fluff bunnies, the sorceror is suppossed to be a tribal shaman, hence the lack of spell casting abilities and a more shooty/dispel role.

I’ll let you know how I get on with it.

*very funny if you find this kind of stuff entertaining like me