Age of Sigmar: first impression...

Shocked, surprised, angry and frustrated, these are all emotions that Age of Sigmar has awakened.

After years of war gaming I have never seen  a change of this magnitude. The entire gaming system has been revamped to a much more simpler and streamlined system in fact the entire rule book as been condensed to 14 pages, 4 pages of actual rules, 10 for scenery. All the factions now have "warscrolls" available, this is essentially a larger version of the Hordes/Warmachine unit cards that have all the unit details on it. All of this for FREE! I mean getting something for free from GW you know the apocalypse is approaching.

All the rumors of round bases have been half true, all the rumors of races being dropped from the system false, and the rumors of "bubble wars"? Unknown. In fact not much fluff is really available, though I doubt that could be a saving factor.

Now let's look at some of the new rules.

From the start there is some confusion with these simple rules. Since you can have your army "as big as you like". The warscrolls are for most part actually quite nice, since you have everything you need on one page. all the special rules are on it, the lack of artwork does make it seem somewhat pale in comparison to the previous books.

That aside, there are no more "regiments" it has now moved to more of a "squad" base as in 40k, charges no longer go 2D6 + the movement characteristic, now it is 2D6 for everything, infantry, cavalry, monsters anything you can think of  now can only charge 2D6, some nice communist equality.

Once you charged into combat the actual fighting is also somewhat different, there are no TO-HIT table or TO-WOUND table, your unit will hit another unit on the amount written on the Warscroll. So if your regiment attacks a mighty regiment of Greatswords or Dark Elf executioners, it will be equally difficult to hit a regiment of goblins... This is one major change that I do not agree with in the slightest. Once you finally hit your opponent, there is the matter of wounding, that has also now been cursed with the same logic that TO-HIT is now cursed with. Wounding a monster, a hero equally broken in the sense that you now only roll to wound on your warscroll. The only bit that relies on your opponent is the actual save, which is now easy to find on the warscroll, though you also now have a rend ability which deducts his save.

My one major gripe is how they have "modified" magic, in 8th edition magic played a big role, you had 4 levels of mages, this have now been negated, all wizards are now "equal" without level, the only difference is their actual abilities. Core spells that use to be 56 and 64 in end times for core selections have now been reduced to a mere 2 spells. Casting no longer gets any benefit from your awesome mage, dispelling is now as easy for a imperial acolyte as it is for a god like wizard (Slann).

The one major change to combat resolution is that a regiment no longer flees as one, individual warriors flee for their lives.

At the moment I am going through various warscroll compendiums to see how this will actually play out.

PS - Missing from previous editions:

1. Regiments
2. Rank Bonuses
3. Troop Types
4. Magic Items / Weapons
5. Special Rules
6. Regiment Upgrades
7. Point costs associated with models
8. Army composition rules
9. Movement penalties
10. Proper rule book

"Age of Sigmar" is coming!

Well the silence has been broken!

For the last couple of months there was a steep decline in Warhammer Fantasy games, at our local club, at other clubs and even my place has seen fewer battles. The main reason behind this is most likely due to all the rumors doing the rounds.

1. Round bases...
2. Factions fading away...
3. Less of a model range....

Now all of these are quite horrifying, especially if you look at the impact it will have on our hobby. The majority of players even just at our club have 100+ models each on square bases, quite a few of us have factions that are in danger of being discontinue.

1. Round Bases

There is one reason I believe it will be impossible to move over to round bases, imagine the following, a regiment of Skaven clanrats, 10 wide and 10 deep, that is a big horde, but not unseen. 100 Models on one massive movement tray, but now how long will it take to move those models with round bases 8 inches forward? How will you get your ranks and files to fill up correctly, it is hard enough with square bases and black orcs, but on round bases it will just be an unorganized mess. That is the only reason I not only believe it is unlikely but also impossible.

2. Factions dropped

This is one that I am slightly more concerned about, I get there are certain armies that sell and certain that don't. There have been factions that have been dropped before, Chaos Dwarfs spring to mind.

The chances of merging the human factions, well that can be possible, there are really hardly any guys out there who play Bretonnia, and they have not seen a new army book in more than 10 years. Beastmen disappearing... unlikely. Merged with the forces of Chaos like in the 6th Edition well that is a possibility.

Ogres merging with other factions might be a possibility or maybe used as mercenaries, I have seen a few beautiful Ogre armies, though I do not see them as very popular, but removing them I would really be disappointing, the idea in fantasy has always been the diversity for me.

Lizards disappearing... I do not know why they would consider it, it is not an unpopular army and it is a race/faction very unique to the Warhammer universe. The fact that I spent a small fortune to get the forces of Lustria going aside, if they were dropped I would have to move over to another universe that accommodates them ( here is looking at you Mantic).

3. Less models

This is something I do not see happening easily, having only core troops and maybe special at most stores while the rest are direct order only would make sense. It would make me less of a happy camper, but I would still continue. Dumbing down Warhammer will not save it, making it more accessible/cheaper might. Though I do believe the next edition of Warhammer might be quite a change.

Age of Sigmar

Now the beginning of this week I did see something quite interesting on GW's youtube feed. The Age of Sigmar is coming, 4th of July! So let's hope they do not break the rules but rather balance it out better. This will have to be quite a turning point for them, the competition are stiffer, 3D printers are on the rise, and their business model is in trouble, so if they do want to continue into the future they will have to tread very carefully.

Well until more news is available, until then good luck with those rolls.

ICON 2014 Warhammer Fantasy Part 2

Well time for the follow up on ICON.

It's time for the last few matches, experience and results. 

My final battle for the Saturday I got a BYE, for each match someone was randomly selected to get a pass for the match since we had an uneven amount of contenders. This was actually good since it gave me some time to take a look around the convention. Saw some interesting stuff and cool cosplay costumes. It was great to see such a variety of people and board games at one convention. After a stroll around and collecting a few souvenirs I headed home to prepare for the next day. 

Match #4: Lizards vs Orcs & Goblins

The next morning was chilly,  my voice was nearly gone, but my dice were ready and lizards eager.

First battle I ended up against orcs and goblins,  his 3000 point list was well balanced and had a few nasty surprises besides the fanatics which i expected. In a large regiment of not so subtle black orcs hid the infamous Grimgor Ironhide, which I fortunately knew, though i usually fielded him. Being a tournament I did not expect named characters, so that was quite a surprise.

The scenario had a massive chasm right through the center,  8 inches wide with 3 bridges each 7 inches wide.  So they were just wide enough for my regiments hopefully. Our special effect was a -1 to our WS and BS. So we started and things started quite well. I blocked the bridges each with a Saurus regiment to the sides and a proper regiment with temple guard. My skinks had the range to harass the trolls and orcs coming too close. My flanks were supported by a few cold one regiments.  The Stegadons were deployed the sides of my Temple guard with a Bastiladon armed with a solar engine to boost the initiative. So the plan was sound and my harassment worked.  I whittled down his forces while he struggled to get on a bridge.  Eventually his Black orcs moved over and i had to defend with my Temple guard. The battle was bloody, that was until Grimgor got into combat.  He slaughtered them by the droves without breaking a sweat.

 Luckily I was what you would call saved by the bell. Before the last few temple guards fell the tourney organiser informed us we were out of time.  The only problem was the scenario,  where you got victory points for destroyed enemies and for every unit who crossed a bridge you also got the victory points that unit is worth. The battle was difficult but with Grimgor and his boys over the river it was a massacre.

Match #5: The Mirror Match

After the carnage we had a break and for my last match I would go up against a fellow lizardmen army.  The special effect could really change this match.  We had to do an initiative test for each unit before he moved.  If he failed,  he had to subtract one from his movement characteristic. The one place I had an edge, keeping my bastiladon close to my Temple guard will make them strike first. So i had an idea,  except that my mage was plagued by a devastating miscast. So yes having magic kill you more then your opponent it's severely demoralizing. His unit of temple guard eventually caught up with mine,  even though I hit first, lord Kroak did enhance his regiment just the bit he needed to gain the upper hand.  Even though I hit first when his unit hit back the halberds sliced through my Temple guard like they were skinks.

Battle lost, but so much leaned.

ICON 2014 Warhammer Fantasy

G'day tabletop war gamers, nerds, geeks and other pale skinned ones.

This was the first time I could actually attend the South Africa ICON, with cosplay, boardgames, war-games and role playing. I entered the tournament and had 5 matches scheduled, a 2000, two 2500 and two 3000 point games. Being in South Africa does mean
we do not have a massive community, but there was a total of 15 entries for WH fantasy and 24 for 40k.

My first match was the most beautiful i personally ever played on. Both armies were fully painted, all the scenery was perfect and the board was done with the most intricate detail. It was the 2k match,  Lizards vs Warriors of Chaos. I thought I had a solid 2k list, though I did not expect his army to have that many cannons. He fielded 2 Hellcannons and a demon prince. To put it mildly all went okay,  until my regiment of temple guard and his demon prince got into combat. His demon prince slaughtered my Temple guard and eventually worked his way through to my Slann. The cannons tore my infantry and stegadons to shreds. Eventually when my Slann fell it was game over. 500 Victory  points in that casualty. 

The match was lost. The experience was amazing even though I lost seeing everything painted to such an level was unforgettable.

 Now here are a few extra eye candy pictures that will make you understand as to why I say it was really an awesome experience.

Seeing terrain like that is not something that happens every day, seeing two fully painted armies like that is even rarer! Having it happen in Africa, well that give me hope :)

MATCH 2: The Dark Elves

After my first crushing defeat I got drawn for a match against the elves. Now they have a low toughness and strength.  I knew they would end up hitting first,  but I also knew i would hit that much harder. 

The scenario we played made it possible to have more than 12 power dice and each wizard generated an additional power dice. So I knew this is where my Slann would shine! On a side note of much less importance when you miscast, you would have to miscast again. 

Deployment was in a diagonal line in a pre-set order of march for this custom scenario. He had a few interesting units and quite a few war machines. The one reason I had a few Ripperdactyls in my list.

The first turn started great,  kinda. Cast Tempest that you need a mere 8# for with my 13 dice I decide not to be too stingy with and roll 2, get double sixes when I really do not need it. The first miscast kills 11 of temple guard, the second miscast drops him 3 levels of magic and makes him pretty useless. Though he survives. The Ripperdactyls get in touch with his 1st repeater bolt throws and destroys it over ruins into the other and destroys that. Stegadon manages to charge his 30 odd elves and stars taking them out effortlessly. The entire match just goes quite well.  Eventually when we finish I miss a victory against him with about 30ish points! 

Fortunately I am doing better!

So in my next post I will discuss my next 3 matches,  until then,  keep rollin.

The arrival...

Hi all,

It is with a heavy heart that I type this post, I finally went to get my Orc Shaman and Chakax of the Lizards. Eagerly arrived, got it! When I got home, it was finecast... So ja, unfortunately not much I can do about it especially since the 2 particular models I was looking for is very scarce in South Africa.

When I play a large Lizardmen game, I love putting down a big block of Temple guard, for the fluff and the look. They are beautiful models, and when they are in combat and the opponents just get grounded into nothing it is even better. So for a few years I was looking for Chakax, he has one of the most interesting back stories and the images I saw of the model really tickled my fancy. So the moment I got him I just decided finecast or not he will be assembled and basic painting done. The sprue was at an awkward angle and thankfully all was still in tact. Assembly went quite quick, painting not so much.
Now as you can see this is what gets to me, the sprue is twisted, some of the parts are loose, and the crowning achievement is the amount of mold lines.

After everything has been cut from the sprue things at least look better, a few parts that just need to be properly cleaned up.

Partially assembled, partially painted, but heading in the right direction. I love all the details on him, especially all the equipment he is carrying.

This is what he looks like after some paint got slapped on. Really enjoyed him, despite being finecast. The blues and the gold just really gives him the look I like.

Until next time, keep on rollin...

Finecast Fiasco

Hi All,

The reason for this post is mainly good news. Today I phoned our local supplier of my crack addict, and heard that our order is delayed. GW is officially scrapping finecast, and I am over the moon about that. I got a few finecast models, Grimgor Ironhide and an Orc Warboss on his wyvern, now the problem I had with Grimgor was that his axe was slightly bent to one side, and to this day I cannot get it the way I want it. After his paint job, now he looks good enough, the only complaint I have left about him is the fact that when you pick him up he weighs practically nothing. Previously all the other models were mostly pewter models, and what I loved about them, you pick them up and you know there is something special about them. Complaints aside, I do get compliments about his paint job.

My other model I have quite a few problems with. Firstly once the model was assembled you could easily see that the parts did not nearly fit together nearly as well as my river trolls, which are plain old simple plastic may I remind you. Now look at the images below to take a look at my wyvern and black orc.

* As you can see when you enlarge this image, the joint between the front and rear of the torso is highly visible. Finecast showing us again why it is to be hated.

 Now over here you can see some of my work in progress with my River trolls, and I have to say, I love the detail on these models, and when it comes to painting them, putting in extra time and effort really shows.

 So now we just hope that finecast gets chucked into the 7th dimension of chaos for nurgle to play with.

A quick hello world!

In the words of all amateur programmers, "Hello world".

As you can probably guess, I am into IT, war gaming, archery, music, computers, painting and a variety of arts.

Now about 2009 I started with Warhammer Fantasy 7th edition. I got the starter set, containing about 100 models, 30 odd dwarfs and about 70 goblins. Now the models weren't the most detailed, nor did they have options for assembly, it was a starter set with dumbed down models. The assembly was very quick, the painting on the other hand was very time consuming but enjoyable.

After I finished that, read the rulebooks and fluff around all the races and general back story I started with a Lizardmen army, got a battalion from the US, and that is where my true love started for it. The tactics and strategy I enjoyed equally. Having played the Total War series and enjoying specifically Rome, it was a very easy to make the move to it. Having read and enjoyed the Tolkein, Lord of the Rings novels and a few other fantasy novels it was just laying the roots for the fantasy battles I enjoy today.

Recently I moved to Johannesburg, Gauteng, ZA and now with some free time I am spending my time painting, building models and every now and then a glorious tabletop battle. This blog will cover mostly table top war gaming, painting and maybe some tech if it tickles my fancy enough.