Market Garden (Allies) My take on the book

 WARNING - This will be rather long, enjoy!

Well, having a look at the new Market Garden set (Market Garden: Allies and Bridge by Bridge: Germans), their new rules, army lists etc. My one and only wish was that the Canadians got put up to veteran from trained (Turning Tide) and that was about it. Anything else was just gravy onto the already, tasty bacon!

Now when I got a chance to finally look at the Army lists, I just headed straight in and jumped to the Canadian Armoured/Rifle Companies (No need to piss around and fuss about, on to the real MENS army!). And had a look at things they got/changed:

 Not changed:

1.Assault Troops special rule (Re-roll skill checks to UN-bail and pinned down results) (Good :D)

2.Woodsmen special rule (there are other things in Canada besides tree's guys!) Giving them the German Mission Tactics special rule (Good rule)

 Obtained:

1. Veteran Status (Hooray!)

2. The Ability to take 2 Firefly tanks instead of 1 (Nice :D)

3. Duckbills (Is that a Canadian Goose REFERENCE HUH!?!!?!?) Giving them the ability to re-roll bogging checks but giving them slow movement

4. Land Mattress's (The equivalent to the German Nebelwerfer Rocket Launchers) (Very nice!)

5. Our Firefly tanks being equipped with APC rounds instead of the old ones, giving them AT-15 from the old AT-13 from Turning Tide (Holy crap... awesome)

6. Canadian Armoured Recce Platoons (Typically, 2 Sherman, 2 Firefly tanks) have now been given the Cautious Movement (Always considered Concealed and Gone to Ground if not fired or assaulted that turn) and Eyes and Ears special rule effectively making them recon units and NI UNSTOPPABLE (I mean at long rang they cant be hit Vet (4) + 2 (Concealed & Gone to Ground) + 1 (Long Range) = 7's!) Which is just friggen amazing and at half range still needing sixes!)

 Changed:

1.Points values... well duh, Vets, better FF's, Cautious Movement on tanks (no wonder their 455pts a unit) - If the 2 Sherman, 2 Firefly unit is taken that is.

I mean number 6 is just awesome. It's nice for a change for a British army to be quite effective and deadly and people should really take caution when playing against and MG lists now. It's good to finally not be the spare tire of the FoW world.

I see a very quick end for German Panthers in LW now because of the ability for British Firefly's being able to stand back, Semi-Indirect Fire and put holes in these damn things, and if they get close, then its just more of a chance for them to die. forcing German players to take King Tigers instead (I really don't mind if they do, less tanks on the ground while making them spend more points!)

So my new list is defiantly going to incorporate at least, and at the most two squads of Armoured Recce in my 1750pt lists. But instead of taking an armoured company, I will take a Canadian Rifle, because even in an armoured recce I wont take any more then 2 units of those things so why not just take a Rifle instead, reducing points from the HQ section, and having a better chance to defend in defensive missions!

Here's the list I was thinking about

Canadian Rifle Company (1st Canadian Army, 1st Canadian Rifle Division)
HQ-30pts
CV Full Rifle Platoon-190
CV Full Rifle Platoon-190
CT Carrier, 1 .50 Cal-110
CV Mortar Platoon, 2 3" Mortars-75pts
CV Armoured Recce, 2 Sherman, 2 Firefly-455
CV Armoured Recce, 2 Sherman, 2 Firefly-455
CV Rocket Battery, 4 Land Mattress's-245

Mortars to supply smoke, Rockets to pin troops and waste any that poke their heads out of cover, carriers for a dedicated Recce unit and 2 of those ever so sexy Armoured Recce platoons to push the main objective and/or hold theirs. The infantry will either push If I have a obvious (big) advantage or they just hold the objective or the hard flank.

`

Down to the wire!

The NZ Fantasy team champs is coming up in a little under a month and I am no part of Peter Williamson's team (along with Dave Appleby and James Millington) and I'm really looking forward to it.

I've got my list sorted... but I'm not going to say what it is until we submit them so you'll have to wait and see.  Anyways, I'm a few models short so I ordered 40 hammerers (I need 36) off waylandgames from the Mantic games selection and it came around to 40NZD which is a damn good price (a dollar a figure, can't argue with those prices), however. With three weeks and a bit (I think) until the tournament, I really need this package to show up fast, the shipping was free but I paid an extra 3 pound, 50p to make it top priority (as they call it, I don't really believe it will be one of their top priorities but it should get it here quicker). So I estimate that it should arrive 5-7 days before the tournament starts to I'll have that much time to get those things built and painted.

I trust that I can do that with out to much trouble so fingers crossed!

On a slightly better note. I finally got a job interview scheduled at a Turkish resteraunt in my town so I'm really really really please with that, because after this order of Hammerers, I'm pretty much broke! More money, more figures!

Warmachine models are here!

So my Warmachine models have come in, and everything is here which is great! What I got was:

1. Winterguard Infantry Squad (5 Grunts + Sargent)
2. x2 Winterguard Infantry sets (4 Grunts)
3. x3 Winterguard Rocketeers
4. Platoon Commander and Banner Bearer
5. Konick Joezef Grigovich
6. Epic Warcaster - Foward Commander Sorcha
7. Some extra bases (for use as proxies while I get the other figs in need for the rest of the army

So what I started with is the "Winterguard Deathstar". I've done my research and this setup is one powerful unit, really tough to kill with all the DEF bonus's they get and very killy when it comes to combined ranged attack.

At the moment I've assembled all the models except the 3 rocketeers. I'll start with undercoating them white and Ill start painting them in a few days.

I have an idea with what type of red I want to see on them. I'm going to use the "Global Colours" "Deep Red" and paint on several layers. After the 2-4 layers have been painted on. It comes out with a very smooth and deep looking red!

Natcon 2013

From Mike King

Natcon - WarhammerThe cut-off for early registration is approaching, $50 up until 25^th January.Go to http://huttclub.co.nz/events/nationals to register.The Warhammer Players Pack can be found at http://huttclub.co.nz/events/nationals/warhammer-fantasyI’ve been asked one question via email which wasQ: Do you allow all Bound monsters since there are ones in White Dwarf Mags, Storm of Magic and Monstrous Arcanum?A: Just those in Monstrous Arcanum.

I was also quizzed a little a Homecon over weekend as what sort of list I might veto, I have no preconceived builds in mind, as the pack says, lists that would be absolutely horrible and not enjoyable to play against will be my main consideration
 
I'll defiantly be going. Ordered my last group of 36 Hammerers which will be 100% ready for Natcon . Really looking forward to it. The dinner thing sounds nice and hopefully my step-dad will be able to make it for the DMM Ancient wargaming. But he's got to get it through the wife/mum lol 

HomeCon III results

So HomeCon III has been and gone. Had a great time, good to see all the guys again.

My Predictions were semi on target. Pete came first with Joel getting second (great job Joel by the way) and Tom Dunn getting third. All three are very good players and did a really good job getting their places. With Pete a full 20pts from the second position.

My performance... to be honest I'm not to disappointed with it. I mean I knew going into that I needed my artillery to be on the ball and for 4 of the games it just wasn't (8 miss-fires in 2 turns against David Appleby for example!). The game against Mike however, everythinge managed to hit, even without the re-rolls, but then he managed to hold the watchertower, turning the almost 20-0 - 19-1 win for me into a 14-6 (or was it 16-4) win for me. Still a win I guess. I guess another positive thing to come out of my games was that I did managed not to get 20-0 in any of the games, even managing not to get 19-1 or 18-2ed which is good.

However, this event wasn't ranked so it won't come to bite me in the ass in the future which is good (my main goal was to ruin people's weekends by forcing them to play Dwarfs and talk a bunch of shit about how Dwarfs are the ultimute faction and everyone else is wrong and their armies are misablery boring and mine is the only interesting one, lol) That's not to say I did not try to do well, I was hoping to get around the 6-10th positions as a goal but just didn't manage to. But oh well. I still had loads of fun.

I also spent a lot of time talking about my new list (the one with two hammerer blocks) which I still will be using defiantly. I've ordered the last 36 hammerers I needed and hopefully I'll get them all built, painted and based around the middle of February which seems very manageable.

Another good note is a finally got to play Neil Williamson at a tournament for the first time. We always play at home but never away which was a nice change. But he manage to beat 11-9! but a tie is actually a victory for the Dwarfs as we all know! (And yes I consider 11-9 a tie dammit!)

Until next time!

HomeCon III tomorrow

So HomeCon is tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it. lots of awesome wargamers to chat to and lots of armies that are as subtle as a brick... MINES NOT! Nonetheless, it shall be be fun. The lists have were released yesterday, you can find them on http://www.thefieldsofblood.com/2013/01/homecon-iii-lists.html

Looking at the lists and players my guess's for top 3 will

1st - Simon Switzer (Dwarfs).... HA!

The real 1st position - One of the Dunn's (Pete/Ogres, Tom/Daemons) or Sam (Orcs and Goblins.
2nd - Again... One of the Dunn's
3rd -  Joel (Empire)

Tom's list just... well... dumb! and It would be a laugh if I got put up again him first. He's got three units that all he has to with is close his eyes and start screaming Daemons in a mentally challenged kind of way! However, he's a very good player to, and combining those things together just makes for... BLAH!

Sam's list is (in my opinion) is very balance list that can almost or if not CAN deal with everything. He's got a big ass killy (that quells animosity) unit that I think gets 4 attacks a models... or 3. He's got 6 WARMACHINES! God knows why everyone is not moaning about that. A big fat troll unit that vomits on everyone and dishes out the hurt. Yup very killy indeed. Again like Tom, he's equally as good as player and I can see him doing well in this one... like always!

Joel's list very well balanced as well. Big tar pit unit that can also hurt (somethings) the dedicated Inner Circle hammer unit, some chaff, two great cannons (which I must stress as a bigger ranged then my "OP cannon".. thought I'd throw that in there) I can see him doing well.


I'm using the same army that I took to Call to Arms and I expect it will preform the same or a tad better depending on the lists I put against. I find a really fun list and I enjoy it heaps, five warmachines is a hell of thing to turn down when you have the option! And as an added bonus, I've already got heaps of people moaning about it!

First game of 40k in a while

So had my first game of Warhammer 40,000 in quite some time, I stopped playing 40k when I got into Fantasy around September 2011. I've had few games here and there but not a lot, and I haven't played one in around 4-5 months unit last night (or should I say morning?) around 1 am. The new 6th edition rules sorta pissed my off in the beginning, that was why I quit and went cold turkey initially. The ally system was just silly... you play with ONE army of your choice, not a mixture of guardsmen and... Ghazskull Thraka! Another thing that got to me was that everything in the front row must die first when being shot at, that is just a really dumb rule. I don't really see the point? Most people would argue that "Its more realistic and adds a bit more depth." Sure it adds depth, but it's not needed, its just adding rules for the sake of adding rules. And for the realism part... its a game, when realistic values start playing bigger parts in wargames, things start to get dull, and I mean really dull. (All of this is my opinion so take it with a grain of salt)

But anyways, enough with the pissing and moaning.

I really did enjoy last nights game. I played my orks (Which I will always consider my babies... more then my Dwarfs! I've had then for about 5 and half years) And they are always a really fun army to play and to read about.

I ran my usual horde style list - 4 groups of 30 Boys, 2 Big Meks with Kustom Force Fields plus some flamers attached to them from spare points. I also ran 2 looted wagons with boomguns (some say they are uncompetitive and unreliable... at Str-8 AP-3... A lot of SM's would argue that.) It was 1280pts game because my opponent only had that much built and ready to go. He was running a Dark Eldar list with Eldar ally (Eldrad Ulthren, 10 Dire Avengers and a Wave Serpent) Ravenwing Jet fighter, 2 Dark Eldar Transports which I forget the name with Witches + some heroes which I forget the name of as well that were attached to the transports.

The game was really fun. I had plenty of bodies to soak up those Large Blast Templates from the Ravening and the shots from the Dire Avengers but Gavin still managed to take out like 90 boys (however they were split around all four squads and he didn't fully kill one) he got both my Wagons with the Ravenwing because I forget to keep them in range of the Kustom Force Field. I Witches were a pain when they chose to roll good dice (Gavin throughout the game just had REALLY bad dice roles so I got quite lucky throughout the game). Overall, plenty of fun and its nice to know my Orks can still dish out damage in 6th Edition.

I am quite keen to play some other games, and when I finally find a job, I might invest in some more boys, my goal for my army is to 6 squads of 30 boys, and three squads of 15 loota boys. Will have total of like 227 bodies on the ground in a 2000pts game (ignoring the double force chart because that thing is just dumb.)

P.S Snap Shot with Shoota Boys is EPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIC!

New Year

So first post of the the new year and not a lot to say just now. The family is heading north to the Coramandel (spelled wrong me thinks!) While I stay here and hold down the fort (reason I'm not going is that HomeCon is next Saturday and I wouldn't be until that Saturday morning and I'm a keen wargamer and took the wargaming option :D.

Still waiting on those warmachine models that I ordered for my 'big' Christmas present. Usually the Royal mail is quite fast but its was a week before Christmas when I ordered them so I'm not surprised I'm still waiting :D.

For HomeCon I thought I would just bring my 5 Warmachine + Master Engineer list. I always enjoy that and have heaps of fun with it. I had the option of trying out my new list that included my two Hammerer blocks but that would mean having to borrow figures from someone else (Tane) and I was keen do it, but then I gave it some thought, and borrowing other peoples figures is a bit lame on my part, I need to make the effort shouldn't I. And for safety reasons... I don't want to be damaging anyone's models. It's not that I'm a clumsy person, but why take the chance?

Looking forward to next weekend!