Battle Report! 2v2, Woc & OK vs TK & DE, 3000 pts per side!

Battle Report: WoC & OK vs DE & TK
Sunchasers vs. No-Name

After the battle between Ogre Kingdoms and Warriors of Chaos, the combined forces of Tomb Kings and Dark Elves descend upon the battered forces. Having made an unholy deal with the Dark Elves, the Tomb Kings once more seek to reclaim what's rightly theirs. Hate, the great Chaos Lord, and Sköll, the awesome Ogre Tyrant, have no choice but to combine forces to defend themselves from the oncoming forces. Oh, and the Hydra is in the garden again.

Here's our next, most likely awesome Battle report!
Actually this report was written the day after the previous one, but I've been procrastinating a little! Also, this Battle Report took quite a while to do, so it will substitute my Almost Weekly this time.
Today, the matchup is a 2v2, consisiting of Hate and Sköll pitted against EtTK (Erik the Tomb King) and Dark Elf Queen Philippa. Commentor and reporter is, as mostly always me, The Cornerfag! With on the sideline sits Dhaik, our ever-treacherous skaven player.
The point values are 1500 pts per player. Philippa is currently pushing her units to reach that, while Sköll is singing a song to crush the moral of his foes.
So Dhaik, what do you think of today's game?
Dhaik: Well, it seems that Hate & Sköll have devised quite the plan to crush the TK & DE-combination. We'll go into the details when EtTK isn't around...
That you say... Well, let's go on to the interviews!

TK List:
Lords:
High Liche Priest lvl 4 - Dispel Scroll

Heroes:
Tomb Prince - Chariot, Armour of Silvered Steel, Ironcurse Icon, Great Weapon

Core:
16 Skeleton Archers
6 Skeleton Chariots - FC, Banner of Eternal Flames

Special:
Warsphinx - Fiery Roar

Rare:
Casket of Souls
Necrosphinx

DE List:
Lords:
Dreadlord - Dawnstone, Whip of Agony, Armour of Destiny, Cold One, Shield, Sea Dragon Cloak

Heroes:
Sorceress lvl 2 - Opal Amulet, Sacrificial Dagger

Core:
20 Corsairs - FC, Sea Serpent Standard
14 Crossbowmen
12 Warriors

Special:
5 Cold One Knights - FC, Deat Piercer (Champion), Standard of Hag Graif

Rare:
Hydra
Hydra

Pre-game interview DE & TK:
So, what is your team name?
P: Uh, we have no team name... We-have-no-team-name... Wé-avve-nô-teãm-näm'e.
EtTK: Yes, exactly.
Dhaik: They don't seem to have any team spirit, compared to the other team...

What is your game plan?
P: Hydr... Yeah.
EtTK: We're actually running a lot of monsters. One Warsphinx, one Necrosphinx and 2 Hydras (P: Though one Hydra still is unassembled, so I'll have a Chimaera-stand in). Oh, and we'll have to take out their cannons. Fast. Philippas Dreadlord is our combat Lord, and I've got a Tomb Prince in my chariot unit, but very little infantry, only archers. Philippa just plays all that she has.


What are your hopes?
P: Ueeaahhh...
EtTK: Well, it would be nice to win, though I'm mostly looking to see what the Sphinxes are capable of.

What are your fears?
P: The Hydras to die.
EtTK: That Hate will throw dice at me.
TC: I see a pattern here...
Dhaik: No worries, EtTK. I will protect you.

So, do you have any plan to counter his units?
EtTK: Sphinxes. They will only get a few attacks, and even if Sköll runs a Gutstar, they'll only wound on sixes. And Hydras will kill shit. Flaming attacks on Warsphinx and Chariots will prevent any random regeneration.

For a last question, what unit of yours is your favourite, and what do you hope it will achieve?
TC and Dhaik in unison: DURR, HYDRAS.
P: Am I that predictable? Yeah, Hydras.
EtTK: I'm kind of interested to see what the Tomb Prince on Chariots can do.
(and now, P and EtTK start to wrestle out of nowhere while Dhaik cheer them on...)
So... I'll think I'll move to the other team now...

WoC List:
Lord:
Sorcerer Lord lvl 4 - Power Familiar, Enchanted Shield, Amulet of Preservation

Heroes:
Chaos Sorcerer lvl 2
Dispel Scroll, Conjoined Homonculus

Core:
24 Chaos Warriors - MoT, HWS, Standard Bearer
18 Chaos Warriors - AHW, Banner of Rage (I will refer to these as MoKs during the battle, because that's essentially what they are).

Special:
5 Chaos Knights - Standard Bearer, MoK


OK List:
Lords:
Tyrant - Heavy Armour, Brawlerguts

Heroes:
Bruiser - BSB, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour

Core:
18 Ironguts - Musician, Standard Bearer
10 Gnoblars - Trappers

Rare:
Ironblaster

Pre-game interview WoC & OK:
So, what is your team name?
In unison: TEAM SUNCHASERS! YEAH! *brofists*
What is your game plan?
Hate: To win.
Sköll: Yeah, it looks like this: The expensive unit shall not die..
Hate: Sköll, let's just win, ok?
Sköll: Yeah well, now that I have a little more units, I might be able to place them a little strategically.
Hate: I think we're gonna take them and win. Not much to say.

What are your hopes?
TC: Hate, shut up. I know your answer already.
Sköll: That the big unit will survive.

What are your fears?
Sköll: That the big unit will die.
Hate: I fear nothing, I've got the Gutstar on my side.
Dhaik: What about their monsters?
Hate: So? We've got a cannon.

So, do you have any plan to counter his units?
Hate: Like mentioned, cannon. And I believe we have the upper hand regarding units, it's their job to counter it. Sadly enough, no Exalted Hero this time though.

For a last question, what unit of yours is your favourite, and what do you hope it will achieve?
Hate: May I take a unit not in the game? No? Well... Let's say my... Chaos Sorcerer Hero, because he has a tumour that talks to him. That's fun.
Sköll: The Gnoblars, I hope they'll flip some Chariots over. And I like the Ironblaster really much to, it will KICK HIS ASS. *pumps fist and high-5s Hate*


Pre-game info:
Mission:
Slaughterfest (AKA Just play the game with no special mission rules)
Magic:
Dark Elves:
Pit of Shades (AHH!), The Withering.

Tomb Kings:
The Protections Spell, The Killing Blow Spell, The Desiccation Spell, The Movement Hex.

Ogre Kingdoms:
No spells. LUL!

Warriors of Chaos
Lvl 4: Mystifying Miasma, Enfeebling Foe, The Withering, Pit of Shades (AGAIN!?).
Lvl 2: Flaming sword of Rhuin, Fireball.

Roll-off:
The no-names win the roll-off. Team Sunchaser begin deployment.

Terrain set-up:



Deployment:
Team Sunchaser finishes first, with a crowded south battlefield in the end. But the No-names win the roll-off, and choose to go first.



1st turn TK & DE:
Alliance roll:
Failed, and the Tomb Kings and Dark Elves get more mad at each other, going into a desperate alliance. Never trust a Dark Elf!
Movement:
Everything walks or marches forward, with the exception of: The Necrosphinx, whom chooses to fly up in the tower, the Cold Ones whom bravely place themselves straight in front of the Chaos Knights (I commend their bravery/stupidity). Also, the Skeleton Archers and Casket of Souls stay put.
Magic:
Winds of Magic: 4 - 2, casket grants another 2. Final score: 8 PD, 4 DD.
Philippa casts The Withering on the Gutstar (4 PD + 1 Sacrificial PD). Sunchasers choose not to dispel it, and the Ironguts shrink into T2.
Next up: Pit of Shades, extended. 4 PD + Sacrificial Dice, result 21. Team Sunchaser ponders on how to stop it... Risk it with 4 dice, or the Dispel Scroll?
...
They go for the dice. And fail, but rely on the scatter to save them. But it hits! This could be quite the event... 14 Ogres are hit. I2 means a 3+ kills one, no saves, all wounds taken. Sköll rolls... and 9 die. That's 27 wounds. And a panic test, which is passed. But have we finally defeated the Gutstar?
Shooting:
Chariots pew-pew at the Ogres. 3 Wounds caused, one Ogre die.



1st turn WoC & OK:
All Khorne-frenzy passed.
Movement:
Team Sunchasers start out with a new technique: Moving backwards! Well, at least the Ironblaster anyways, and Chaos Knights. Gutstar reform a little and skip forward together with the Gnoblars, while Warriors of Chaos stay put.
Magic:
Winds of Magic: 4 - 2, +1 from Familiar. Final Score: 7 PD, 4 DD.
First: Melker's (or something) Mystifying Miasma. Target: Chariots. Opponents let's it through. They lower the Movement Characteristic with 1.
Then, they Withering the Hydra. Philippa goes sadface and forces Erik to try and dispel it, but he fails. They lower it's toughness to 4.
Lastly, fireball, but it's easily dispelled.
Shooting:
CANNONBAAAAAALLL!!!
Target locked: Chariots.
Firing mode: Bouncing ball.
Firing angle: Flank.
They be in for a hurtin'.
Though only 2 are hit, both wounded.
TOMB PRINCE FAILS HIS "LOOK OUT-SIR!".
Tomb Prince fails his save!
Multiple wounds kill the Tomb King!
And the chariot beside him only take a wound.



2nd turn TK & DE:
All stoopids passed.
Movement:
Necrosphinx tries the charge against the Ironblaster. Hate calls out "One, one, two!". A few seconds later, the dice come up: One, one, and a two. It also fails the Dangerous Terrain-test for walking down the tower. (In other words, he just fell flat on his face).
For the rest: All move up, except for Casket. Sorceress-bunker and Liche Priest-bunker are walking behind their front lines.
Magic:
Winds of Magic: 6 - 3. Liche Priest and Sorceress both Channel, Casket grants 3. Hate channels one. Final score: 12 PD, 7 DD.
First up: The Desiccation spell, 4 dice cast, against the Gutstar. It now has S3, T1. Pretty cool guys.
Then, Casket bound spell on 6 dice against the Ironblaster. Hate easily dispels it on 5 Dispel Dice.
Final two dice go to the protection spell on the Casket, but it too was dispelled.
Shooting:
Chariots unleash 12 shots of fury against the low-toughness-guts. 4 wounds caused, 2 unsaved.
Archers mimic their cavalry brethren, causing 6 wounds, 3 unsaved.
Crossbowmen don't want to miss out on the fun! But needing sixes to hit, only 2 hits and one wound is caused, taking the last wound from one Ogre.



2nd turn WoC & OK:
Frenzies passed.
Movement:
Ironguts fail their charge. They seem to fail a lot these days, actually.
MoKs get their charge on the Hydra.
Chaos Knights back up all the way to the board edge.
Gnoblars cannot decide which way to go, what units to block. In the end, they decide to stop the oncoming Dark Elves.
Magic:
Sköll gets to roll for once. 6 - 4, one channel. Final result: 11 PD, 6 DD. Approved.
Flaming sword of Rhuin on the MoKs in combat with the Hydra. 6 dice + tumour speech = Score 22. 6 dice to the dispel, score: 24. Dispelled.
The Enfeebling Foe is cast upon the Hydra. Dispel Scroll'd.
Shooting:
Ironblaster grapeshots the Necroswinx. Misfire, hah. It turns around almost completely due to the misfire chart.
Close Combat:
Hydra vs MoKs.
Handlers hit 2, wound 1 unsaved.
MoKs roll a shitload dice as per usual, causing 8 wounds (ouch!). But 7 are saved, hah!
Hydra hits 6, wound 4, kill 3.
Then it breathes, 10 S3 hits. 2 wounds, 1 die.
5 Thunderstomps, 4 wounds. 4 die.
Hate lose combat, calls out "I will roll a nine on my leadership", and rolls nine on his leadership. The MoKs flee, and get run down.



3rd turn TK and DE:
I sense game depends on this turn...
Movement:
Chariots and Warsphinx charge Ironguts.
Hydra charge cannon, Cold One Knights charge Chaos Knights, Corsairs and Warriors charge Gnoblars.
Hydra gets there.
Cold One knights get there.
Skeleton Chariots get there.
Warsphinx gets there.
Warriors and Corsairs get there, losing 3 warriors and 4 Corsairs in the process due to Trappers.
Necrosphinx move to hunt down the lvl4 Sorcerer, Sorceress bunker keep following the frontlines and the Liche-priest bunker have problems keeping up with their incapability to march.
Magic:
Winds of Magic: 3 - 2, +1 from Casket. Final score: 6 PD, 3 DD.
The withering cast on-- Nevermind, Scroll'd.
Then, protection spell upon the-- Nevermind, dispelled.
Badum-tish.
Shooting:
Archers shoot upon the Chaos Warriors (MoT), killing one.
Close Combat:
Let's begin with the Hydra in the Ironblaster rear.
Place your bets... Though that T6 could prove slightly useful. We shall see...
Handlers are a bunch of fail.
Hydra, although all it's HATE, only cause one wound, which is unsaved.
Ironblaster cause two wound, both failed to saved.
Sköll take the ld-test with a -2 modifier, and passes it.

Next in line: Cold One Knights... with ASF, and +2 S from charging.
Dreadlord cause 3 wounds, 2 which are saved.
3 hits from Cold Ones, 2 wounds, both of which are saved.
Unit champion tries to be awesome, not doing anything.
Cold Ones bite well and hard, causing three wounds... Two unsaved.
There's something weird with these saves.
Hate strike back, causing one unsaved wound.
The frenzy Chaos Knights remaining simply decide that there is something more interesting outside of the battlefield and run away, whilst the Cold Ones turn to face the Ironblaster.

Chariots and Warsphinx vs Ironguts:
Impact hits cause 4 unsaved wounds, chariot-guys cause one unsaved wound. Sphinx cause one more wound, unsaved, and then breathes upon the Ironguts. 5 wounds caused, one saved.
Will Sköll survive this?
Bruisers punch the Sphinx in the face, causing one wound.
Tyrant kills a whole Chariot, while the Ironguts kill one and puts two wounds on another.
But the Ironguts hold their ground!

Lastly, Gnoblars vs Corsairs and Warriors! DUN DUN DUUUUN! I cheer for the gobbos!
Corsairs strike first with their 2 guys in b2b, killing 3 of the poor gobbos!
Warriors kill another 4 poor gobbos, wah!
GOBBOS MAD, GOBBOS KILL! KILL... NO ONE!
Leadership test-- SNAKE EYES! WOOOO!
GOBBOS HOLD THEIR GROUND!



3rd turn WoC & OK:
Movement:
MoTs charge the Corsair, to aid the Gobbos in their valiant stand!
Lonely Lvl4 wizard fail his marching test, and just stroll around the garden.
Magic:
Winds of Magic: 2 - 3, Familiar and one channel for each side. Result: 7 PD, 4 DD.
First off: Pit of Shades upon the Necrosphinx, just scratches it after scatter! But it passes it's test.
But, as it was miscasted, Hate lose his remaining dice.
Close Combat:
MoTs and Gnoblars vs Corsairs and Warriors.
MoTs begin, hit 9, wound 3, 2 die.. (You're beginning to understand the bad luck Hate has?)
Next in line, Corsairs: The bucketload of dice cause 4 wounds, but Hate commands his dice into saving them all!
Warriors next! They kill 4 Gnoblars, which is all the remaining ones, sadly...
Leadership-test for Philippa... But she passes it, argh!
At least the Warriors run away.

Let's move on to the Ironguts vs Chariots and Warpshinx.
Things move pretty fast on the TK side, but he did a few wounds here and there.
Tyrant cause 2 wounds on the Chariots, Ironguts cause 4 wounds. Bruiser cause 2 more.
Both the Chariot remaining and the Warpsphinx crumble to dust.

And finally, the Hydra vs Ironblaster.
Handlers fail around.
Ironblaster cause ONE WOUND! Which is what is needed to kill the Hydra
Philippa fails the armour... But passes the Reg!
However, the Rhinox cause another!
The armour is failed!... And the Reg is failed! It is dead!
However, the Hydra gets it's attacks, since it has the same I. One wound caused, but it lives! It turns to face the Cold Ones and Dreadlord. They have to test for panic. And roll a perfect 10!



And by now, it's getting late. People are getting hungry, and Team Sunchaser, the WoC and the OK, concede.

Redux:
Hate: Bad luck sucks. And while we could continue this one more turn, it's getting late and so.
Unit of the game: Exalted Hero (on Juggernaut). It's because he wasn't in that I lost. Really.

Philippa:
Idk.
Unit of the game? Hydras. (I did not see this one coming.)

Erik, the Tomb King:
Never multicharge with a Sphinx.
Unit of the game: None. I am not pleased. THEY DID NOTHING: PHILIPPA DID EVERYTHING!

Sköll:
Effing Pit of Shades.
What did you think of the Gnoblars? They did what they were supposed to. They lived, and were in the way.
Unit of the Game: Ironblaster.


Oh, and as always, a serving of awesome picture:

The CF's almost weekly 2!

Woot, already been two weeks?! I've been so busy. I still am, and I'll tell you why in today's almost weekly (which is, I admit, a little rushed).
I've been trying to expand my Black Knight units from 5 to 15. I'm almost there, having assembled 9 more horses (the tenth is going to be a Wight King, AWW YEAAHH).
Anyways, it's looking pretty good on that front, so I'm satisfied.


The other thing that's been keeping my busy and working is that my Mantic Games Skeletons and Zombies arrived! 120 Skeletons and 60 Zombies to assemble, and they're sadly not going to assemble themselves!

There's about 60 - 70 of the Skeletons in that picture. That means there's at least 50 left, as well as 60 zombies! -sigh-

But anyways, for today's topic, let's have a short review of the Mantic Skeletons, shall we?
The first thing that... stroke? Striked? Whatever, the first thing that straught me was the level of detail and armour compared to GWs own skeletons. Where GWs skeletons range from nude to loincloth+shield, Mantic's range from Loincloth+shield to chainmail, ex-clothing, pretty helmets, birds eating their flesh and shield. That's a plus for me. I've always wanted my skeletons to look like they're actual dead warriors, and now they do!
The second thing that came to me where the pretty little bits. It's not so much, but now I have 6 tombstones, 6 skeleton Wolfrats and 5 skeletons bursting out of the ground (a champion took the sixth skeleton for his hand weapon). It's just a little something that made me a bit happy anyway. Everyone loves bits!
Third difference I notices was their faces, and I'm not sure if this is positive or negative. It's the fact that the Mantic Skeletons have their faces slightly twisted into expressions (mostly anger from what I can see, or just seriousness), unlike GWs in this case slightly more realistic skeletons whom have little to no expression at all. But I have yet to decided if it's good or bad. It's slightly silly and unrealistic, but it adds character and make them seem slightly more frightening.
Another bad thing was that the MG skeletons weren't as well done when it came to the bones. To many ribs and such, not like a real skeleton. But that is countered by the extra armour, so I'm fine with that.
Next thing in the list of differences is the poses. GW skeletons has the pose of marching forward. Mantic has the pose of standing still.... More or less. Although you would believe it to look bad on the battlefield, it actually does not. If you want an example you're familiar with, look to the ranged infantry units in your army. In almost every case these will be standing on their place, not marching forward.
And the last thing (and the thing I loved the most) was the simple effectivity of assembling them.
Every lower part (from feet to stomach) is in one piece, for every skeleton. Then there are six complete upper parts, six upper part where you get to choose weapons (Spears, Swords, Axes, or a flail), and eight where you may customize a little bit (Choose head, gear for both hands, sometimes even pose the arms...).
So there's like the generic guys, the slightly generic guys, and the characterful guys. Yay!

I'm not even gonna bother telling you the price comparison. Let's just say Mantic aren't GW.

And for a final, a little size comparison between them and some VC models!


As you can see, they scale pretty well. The Grave Guard may look shorter, but he's hunched forward, and even so still more bulky than the little warrior, so he appears larger in any case.

All in all, it's a win for Mantic Games. I know where I'm getting my future Skeletons from, should I ever need more.


Now, as a final note is the thing that spurs me so currently.



The convent Gothcon is coming up! It's during April, 6ht to 8th I believe. And I decided to join their WHFB tournament. I need to have everything bought, painted and assembled by then!
I've made a rough list of what to bring, so that's planned. It includes be buying two Necromancers and my kitbashed Vamplord. That'll be a good 400 crowns. Some Direwolves are also needed, basing materials, new Movement trays and foam trays for my GW bag. Also spraypaint and more paint. I'm not even sure I'll have enough money. This will be rough.
But I'm gonna make it!

The Cornerfag's almost weekly! New Vampire Counts and first game of Legend.

Hello! Time for my first what I hope will be almost weekly tradition, a slight update on everything I've been doing lately!
This time I'll talk about two things: Legend (the role-playing game), and the new Vampire Counts armybook!

I'll start with a review of the new armybook.
I'm using a scale of 1 - 10, where 5 would be average, 10 would be strictly better than every other book, and 1 being unacceptable. 7.5 is... above expectations/very well done/me gusta.
For simplicity, let's go from front to end.

It starts out... Bad. The front artwork, I hate it (more or less). The Vampire's hair, his weird arm-pose, the bone-spikes on his armour and the stupid amount of blood running down his hand, looking like a glove... Sigh. 3/10 here.
But then I opened it.
The page layout is pretty good-looking actually, and the first pages are the fluff pages. I have to admit I haven't had the time to read them through, but it seems to be just like the last edition, which was good (although they still focus a bit too much on the von Carsteins...) 7.5/10.

Army special rules:
Undead - Okay, so no difference here, that's good, except for marching is only allowed within 12" of the General. I'm fine with that.
The General - Forcing me to take Lore of the Vampires on my General.. I don't prefer it, but it's okay since it's rather fluffy. But what's good at this part is that you're now able to have backup-generals. That is, your general is now not an auto-lose button. Sure, if he dies it'll hurt you, on the first crumbling. But, if you have another Lore of Vamps-wizard, he'll take over before the next crumbling. Sweet.
Battle Standard Bearer - No difference. I wanted him to be of little more use to the Vampire army that he was before, but I guess not...
Vampiric - Here be Vampires.
It's hard to grade the army special rules... So I'll just say I like them.

Unit entries: Okay, so for this section, I wont rate the rules, just the... entries.
And that's some entries, I tell you! The artwork here is amazing! All-colour and fantastic, it makes the cover even worse (for good and bad). Solid 9.5/10, and these pages actually made the price tag acceptable for me.

Lore of the Vampires:
For me, this is a slight step back... Being able to spam spells was unique for the Vampires, giving them more personality. They kept the power level roughly the same, but pushing the book into being more.. generic, if I may say so. As for the spells themselves...
Invocation of Nehek: Now targets an area around the caster, and that's fine. I'm good. Also raises D6 + Caster level on infantry, 1 + Caster level on everything else that's not Vampiric, Etheral or Large Target (whom only regain 1 wound). Also the Signature.
Vanhel's Danse... Nerfed. Argh! They removed the possibility of chargin with it, and you ONLY get re-rolls to hit in CC. But you're capable of extending it to target every unit within 12"... But that doesn't make up for charging in the magic phase being gone.
Hellish Vigour: Re-roll to wound in CC. That's nice in combo with Danse. Approved.
Gaze of Nagash: As worthless as usual.
Raise Dead: Raising 2d6+3 Zombies, cool. Also able to extend and make those zombies skeletons, cooler. Do not award Victory points, awesome!
Curse of Years: The same as before. Still kind of cool.
Wind of Death: This spell is... odd. A vortex causing D6 S3 hits per rank (no armour saves allowed) on any unit it touches? So... For maximum efficiency, you'd want it to just barely touch as many units as possible? Weird. Also extendable into S4, large template.
Lore attribute restores a wound to a character within 12" for every successfully cast spell.
Spell rating: 7.5/10

Vampiric Powers and Magical Items:
We still have roughly the same amount of powers, while our magic items section has been cut down... As for the powers, I like them. Very well priced, fluffy and useful.
The Magic Items... I know some people mourn the Drakenhoff banner, but not me. In fact, every item here is cool. I like The Cursed Book (casts one out of six spells randomly by sacrificing D3 power dice)... The only item I don't like is Skabscrath, because it's slightly overpriced... I think. 6.3/10 (lesser rating due to less items... But that goes for every 8th ed. book).

Miniature showcase: Same painting on every mini as always. The only thing that struck out to me was how badly painted the standard showcase-Hexwraiths actually are. The two other examples of them look way better. 5/10

The army list: I'll write a little about every entry, trying to keep it as short as possible. But I'll skip Special Characters... Because my eyes don't register those.

Lords:
Vampire Lord: Ah, the ever-present DIY Vampire. Love him, still do. One magic level lower (but still access all the way to lvl4), one more attack and a slight price increase but access to mundane items and two more spell lores... At first I was kind of disappointed with him, but after running some numbers and trying some builds, I'm proud to say that he's at least as good as ever.

Master Necromancer: A pretty cool guy for the Necromancer-lovers out there, also a easy access to a level 4 wizard.

Strigoi Ghoul King: Now this was unexpected for me. Slightly more expensive than your DIY Vamp, but with a 5+ reg, poison and Infinite Hatred, but no access to armor... He's cool, and good to see some non-Carstein love around in these parts.

Heroes:
Necromancer: Slight point increase, access to two lores and no longer picks spells... He's good.

Vampire: Same points, access to two more lores and mundane items. Solid.

Wight Kings (my forever beloved Wight King): Point increase, and.. that's it. But he's still the Wight King I know and love!

Cairn Wraith and Tomb Banshees: Cool guys. Cairn Wraith add a good punch to any unit, and Tomb Banshees seem solid to fly around solo, screaming at stuff.

Coven Throne: For some reason, my eyes always just graze past this entry. Probably because it seems so... Un-special to me. Chariot, can move through terrain, 4+ Ward save, cool leadership-tes stuffs... Cool, I guess. I believe I'll mainly use it as a Hero-vamp-mount, if I'm going to use it at all.

Core:
Zombies: Point decrease, stat increase. Cool. Finally, worthy tarpits and character-bunkers!

Skeletons: Point decrease... And that's it. They're still the Skeletons I know and love!

Ghouls: Point INCREASE (Yes, you heard me). But they're still cool, though I don't use them.

Dire Wolves: Now this is the shiny part of the Core for me. I love the Dire wolves sculpt. I love outmanouvering, redirecting and blocking charges with small, fast units. And now the count towards minimum core, have +1S on the Charge and a Vanguard move! I approve, approve a lot!

Special:
Corpse Cart: Whenever affected by a Lore of the Vampires spell, it grants ASF to every unit within 6"? Cool. But it is now a Chariot, and has ha point increase.

Grave Guard and Black Knights: Point decrease on both? I approve with joy.

Fell Bats, Bat Swarms and Spirit Hosts:
Fell Bats, if I don't recall incorrectly, have gotten a hefty point decrease, making them viable. Spirit host is still the same. Bat Swarms give ASL to any unit they combat, a special rule I've been very tempted to try and make good use of... But I don't know how.

Crypt Horrors: Like Ghouls, but BIG!

Vargheists: Like a Varghulf, but SMALL!

Hexwraiths: The unit I cannot bring my mind around. I want to use them, but not sure if they're worth it. They inflict auto-hits on any unit they pass through, and are fast cavalry... So they're the perfect flank/rear harrasser... But they're pretty worhtless against rank-and-file... And can't march by themselves... So, they're risky. I'm going to try them out when I can, because the concept of them is cool.

Rare:
Varghulf: The same as always, the perfect choice for a Strigoi army.. But I belive we'll be seeing a little less of these, since it no longer grants a marching bubble.

Blood Knights:
Same as before, but with a small point decrease. Personally I'm a little afraid to use them...

Cairn Wraiths: Same as before.

Black Coach: Same as before, and that means cool.

Terrorgheist: The cool, flying, giant, screaming bat? Cool, but overpriced if you ask me. Or, a little too unsurvivable. He needs more protection.

Mortis Engine: The to-go for any spellcaster! Increase all your spells, and mess with the miscasting table! Also grants AND improves regeneration saves! GET YOURS TODAY!

Units with rules get a solid 8/10 for being very well balanced and allowing for fluff in many directions.

Overall, the new Vampire Book is a good Armybook, with the glaring exception of the cover.




Now that's that taken care of, I'd like to include a little note on the roleplaying system of Legend. Not knowing it, I was the GM for this weekend's session, and I decided to use that opportunity to introduce, and try to learn, Legend.
Legend, for those of you who don't know, is a new, free, roleplaying system. I love it, personally. It's based upon the OGL of DnD, and is an improved version of it according to me. It enables for more individuality in characters, whilst still simplifying it (not that in this case, simplify does not mean dumbify, as it usually tend to do).
My players seemed to like this new system, and it's pretty much straight up usable together with DnD and PF. I even used monsters from the DnD wiki, as I was unprepared. Feats and skills are too easy to implement.
The main problem is that, as the game is in it's first iteration, it has some balancing issues here and where... But nothing a little houserule can't fix. Really, saying "Your spell is too powerful. I limit it." isn't as hard as I would have expected it to. I also decided to use the Weaponry from DnD, as I found the Legend Weaponry lacking.
Overall I found the session, although unprepared, to be quite good. The players quickly came up with cool character concepts. I believe it will take a little while before we've figured out and balanced Legend to suit our tastes, but I'm certain the journey will be a delightful one!

And that's what I have been doing and thinking lately.
Until next time!

~Pro maior risor~

Batrep! Warriors of Chaos vs Ogre Kingdoms, 2000 points!

Battle Report: Ogre Kingdoms vs Warriors of Chaos 2000 pts
The inevitable has happened. In their greedy quest, the Ogres have turned upon the Warriors of Chaos. It's Ogre against mutated man, Sköll against Hate.

Hello, here's another (un)friendly battle report from Svartblod Gaming, starring Hate, our Warriors of Chaos-player, and Sköll, our Ogre Kingdoms-player. Battle reporter is once again me, The Cornerfag.
Our gamers are currently devising their armylists of total destruction and utter annihilation, whilst I am writing this.
That said, I'll have to once again utter a slight warning for the haters of unpainted models. Although we strive to complete our forces by our best capabilities, Sköll, a very new Warhammer-player, has still some unpainted minis from christmas. For those of you whom have read previous reports including our OK-player, however, will probably be satisfied to see that his amount of painted minis have gone up... a little.
Anyways, here's our first contestant:

Ogre Kingdoms List:
Lords:
Slaughtermaster lvl 4:
-Ironfist, Greedyfist, Grut's Sickle.

Core:
18 Ironguts
-Full Command, Dragonhide Banner.

Special:
3 Mournfang Cavalry
- Full Command, Heavy Armour, Ironfists

8 Leadbelchers
-Thunderer, Bellower

Rare:
Thundertusk

Pre-game interview: Sköll:
What is your game plan?
Sköll: Yeah, uh... Game plan... Yeah, no... Well, unlike when I faced Vampire Counts last week, I hope to be able to place my units in a way that seems legit.
...
Well, I don't really know what units he uses, not so aquainted with WoC so... I know something about Wizards, a guy on a Juggernaut, but...
TC: So you don't really know what he's capable of doing?
Sköll: Correct.
(Hate: Close the door!)

What are your hopes?
Sköll: That the Gutstar does what it's supposed to do, and the mammoth doesn't die like it usually does. You know, get a charge or something.
TC: And that's pretty much all your important units?
Sköll: Yep.

What are your fears?
Sköll: That he's gonna win. Or, well, that he win bigs and makes me look bad. I want to at least show him what I can do.
TC: That's the spirit.
Sköll: I'm also a bit afraid he'll get mad and throw dices at me. I've gotten damaged before, you know.

So, do you have any plan to counter his units?
Sköll: The Gutstar will counter everything.
TC: Good.

For a last question, what unit of yours is your favourite, and what do you hope it will achieve?
Sköll: The Leadbelchers, I hope they'll... Bah, kidding, Ironguts ofcourse. I hope they'll execute some of his little men.
TC: Sounds good. You're free to return to the battlefield.

Warriors of Chaos List:

Lords:
Sorcerer Lord, lvl 4
-Mark of Tzeentch, Talisman of Preservation, Powered Familiar, Enchanted Shield, Biting Blade, Conjoined Homonculus

Heroes:
Exalted Hero
- Battle Standard Bearer, Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Sword of Battle, Helm of Many Eyes

Chaos Sorcerer, lvl 2
-Dispel Scroll, Book of Secrets, Third Eye of Tzeentch

Core:
24 Chaos Warriors
- Additional Hand Weapon, Mark of Khorne, Standard Bearer

24 Chaos Warriors
-Shield, Mark of Tzeentch, Standard Bearer

5 Chaos Warhoundss
5 Chaos Warhounds

Special:
5 Chaos Knights
-Mark of Khorne, Standard Bearer

Pre-game interview: Hate:
What is your game plan?
Hate: To win.
TC: I'm not even surprised. I'm just gonna skip to the interesting questions.
Do you have any fears? Except losing?
Hate: Actually, no.
So, do you have any plan to counter his units?
Hate: Well, not really, but I'm running my classical list and hope it holds. From what I understand he only has a few units, so I'll just... I don't know... Uhm... Focus force upon his biggest unit, the... Gutstar? Hit him hard where it hurts. I've got some magic and such for the other, lesser units.
For a last question, what unit of yours is your favourite, and what do you hope it will achieve?
Hate: The classical Exalted Hero on a Juggernaut. He's such a good guy, always gets the job done.
TC: Sounds great. Off to the battle with you!d

Pre-game info:
Mission: Our usual let's-just-have-a-killfest.
Magic:
Warriors of Chaos:
Lvl 4: Uses Lore of Tzeentch. (2) Baleful Transmogrification, (3) Pandemonium, (4) Treason of Tzeentch, (5) Call to glory
Lvl 2: Uses Lore of Death. (S) Spirit Leech, (5) The Fate of Bjuna. Book of Secrets grants Pit of Shades. (TC: Wow. Well, what do you know.)

Ogre Kingdoms:
Lvl 4: Uses Lore of the Great Maw. (S) Spinemarrow, (2) Bullgorger, (3) Toothcracker(5) Trollguts



Roll-off:
Hate wins the roll, forces Sköll to deploy first.

Terrain set-up:


Deployment:
Since Sköll only has 4 units, and has to deploy first, Hate places his two Warhound units first (much to Sköll's chagrin), gaining a weightly advantage during the deployment.


1st turn WoC:
Both Frenzies fail, but BSB fixes that problem.
Movement:
Hate measures closely, careful not to get to close to the Thundertusk with his important units.
Warhounds rush up block / redirect the Thundertusk, and the other Warhounds block / redirect the Gutstar. Warriors walk up, Knights prepare to flank the Thundertusk.
Magic:
Winds of Magic: 6 and 1, +2 from Familiar and Book, counting in at 9 PD, 6 DD.
First off: Treason of Tzeentch with 3 dice. Gains 15. 3 Dispel Dice also gets 15. Phew!
Next up, Pandemonium! 2 Dice, exactly 9. 2 Dispel Dice, exactly 9.
Hate: Time to reign with my magic.
4 Dice on pit of Shades... Result: 12. A fail. Sadly.
Close Combat: Nope.



1st turn OK:
Movement:
Gutstar charges Warhounds successfully.
Leadbelchers move to peek around the corner of the house. Mournfang place themselves in front of the ruins
Magic:
Dices come up 4 - 3. A good roll. 7 PD, 4 DD.
First up, Trollguts. (I hate that spell...). Extended, on 6 dices. Didn't get his Irresistable, but got a score of 22. Dispel Scroll'd, lul!
Spinemarrow on one measly dice. It got dispelled. Hah!
Shooting:
The Thundertusk spews his ball of ice upon the Warriors, but scatters 10" upon the Hounds in combat, killing two. Harpoon misses the wizard, bear-trap.
Leadbelchers belch the lead upon the MoT WoC, 8 hits. 4 Wounds, 3 die.
Close Combat:
18 Ironguts vs 3 Warhounds. PLACE YOUR BETS!
The hounds died. A free reform almost gives Carl a free flank charge, but, after asking me (as an unaligned judge), luckily not


2nd turn WoC:
Movement:
Knights, with the Hero on a 'naut into the flank of the Thundertusk (after a long charge through the woods).
Warhounds flank charge the Gutstar, MoT-warriors frontcharge the Gutstar, MoK-warriors charge the Gutstar. Danger, danger. This is the combat that will determine the outcome of the game, I believe.
Magic:
The winds come up 4 - 2, a channel and +2 Dice later and the final score is 9 PD, 4 DD.
First up, Treason of Tzeentch on the Leadbelchers. Sköll let's it through. 5 Wounds are caused. The Leadbelchers are rolling hot!, against themselves.
Next: Pandemonium. Sköll fails to dispel it with 2 dice.
Call to Glory! on 3 dice. Sköll let's it through.
Final spell, a failed Transmogrification.
Close Combat:
The Exalted Hero has to challenge, and indeed does. Sköll does not accept, and Hate pushes the Slaughtermaster to the back row.
Thundertusk vs Knights: ASL vs ASF lets the 'NautHero strike at his own initiative, which is before the Tusk. 2 Wounds made.
The it strikes back, 4 attacks, 1 wound, 1 dead Knights. The riders of the Thundertusk wack some flies instead.
The Knights... megafail. All 7 hits roll 3 or less. Juggernaut bites for one more wound.
The Thundertusk flees in horror a whole 4", and the Knights chase it down by running 6". Swiftly.
Now, for the important stuff. MoK-warriors dish out 25 attacks, 14 hits, 6 wounds. Sköll passes three 6+ saves. It's the battle of luck vs bad luck.
The newcomer Exalted Hero causes 2 wounds.
MoT-warriors dish out 13 attacks, ending in 4 wounds, one which was saved.
Now... for the WARHOUNDS! 5 attacks, 4 hits, 1 wound! Not saved, and it was the final wound on one Irongut. Good doggies.

Now, the retaliation!
24 attacks against the MoT-warriors, 13 hits, all of them wounding. Hate, hoping for a
shred of luck, rolls his 6+ / 5++ saves... 7 Warriors die.
Then 21 attacks on the MoK-Warriors, 9 hits, 7 wounds, 7 dead.

Hate loses combat by two, and even with the aid of a BSB does his MoT-warriors flee. But his MoK-warriors hold their ground. So does the ever faithful Warhounds.


2nd turn OK:
Movement:
Mournfang move slowly up on the Arcane Ruins. Leadbelchers move around the house.
Magic:
Winds of Magic: 4 - 4, and no channels.
Trollguts cast on 6 dice (forcing Irresistable?). Though no IF, he got a score of 20. Carl does not manage to dispel, even with all 4 dice.
Spinemarrow with 2 dice gets through.
Shooting:
20 shots of Lead on the MoTs, 9 hit and 4 wounds. One is save, three die.
Close Combat:
Things are looking grim for Hate... I hope he manages to survive this round in able to get the Knights charge in the rear.
20 attacks from the Frenzy-less MoK-warriors. 17 hits, 12 wounds. The tide of luck seems to have turned. But 12 saves later, 5 wounds remain.
Ironguts make 25 attacks, 14 hits, all wounds.
Skip forward a bit. The lonely surviving MoK-warrior flee, and warhounds flee. The Ogres pursue, killing the lone MoK and getting into combat with the MoTs.


Hate accepts his defeat here. The MoTs are going to die, and the Knights can't carry this by themselves.


Redux:
Hate: First and foremost, I need Halberds against that Gutstar. So I'll make sure to get some of those.
Other than that, I can't say there's anything I could've done differently. I think I did the right thing charging the Thundertusk, and going all in against the Ironguts. It was a gamble, and I lost.
It's a pity the Pit of Shades didn't through. I'm probably going to run a Lore of Shadow-wizard against Ogres in the future.
Other than that, there's not much to say. Didn't happen much besides the epic battle in the middle. But I'm happy it turned out to be a game not based as much on luck.
Model of the game: Exalted Hero on Juggernaut. As always. He's pretty cool, and no one else managed to do anything.

Sköll: It was an even match, a pity the Thundertusk died as usually (though it's really just a decoy!). The Leadbelchers got their shots, and the Gutstar won the game at me. It's a good thing it was a fair game though. No dice where thrown, and I got to show what I am capable of.
I should have more units, so that I can place them more strategically. And I shouldn't be so careful with the Mournfang. Other than that, I'm all good.
Unit of the game: Mournfang, they rode so beautiful, and the one-legged hornblower remained a one-legged hornblower, and nor did any one of them die.

Meanwhile, in the Mournfang corner...


Overall, a great game, together with the obligatory handshake:

Hail!

Today I bring you a picture of the writers on Svartblod. Here it is:




From left to right: Sköll, Hate, The Cornerfag
Kneeling: Dhaik

And there will also be a batrep soon.
Ave Victoria!
/Hate

New started martial arts dojo!

Hi, we just started a new martial arts dojo teaching a new form of Krav Maga!
It will be located in Sweden in Skane, you can check out our site for more information.

http://svartblod.zendock.com/#Home

Kind regards from
Sköll

New year, new logo!

Hi!

After being away for a while, due to intense days between christmas and new year, I feel that I'm back to gaming.
The first things I've done is worked on the logo (you've already seen it. If not, scroll up), and design said logo to look good on our soon to be t-shirt, as well as a little banner sized thing...
And I've been picking up a little on my vampire counts too. Almost finished basing 20 Grave Guards and 5 Dire wolves (out of snow, argh!), and bought 10 more Grave Guard. I'm excited for the new army book, but that's for another time.
And I've decided to start getting a routine of sorts on this blog. Although a weekly update would be too much imo, I will do a "Every other weekly update". That fits my tastes better.
I just hope I'll make it.
So, with the new year, I bring you: The Cornerfag's Almost Weekly Update! Every other week I will bring you updates about my gaming, what I've painted, if I've played any games, as well as thougts and other little tidbits from my life!
With that, I bid you farewell for now.
~Pro maior risor!