It’s a been a little quiet here lately. Over the last few months there’s been far less hobbying whilst I gather my things together ready for a long relocation from the UK to the US. There were many thoughtful moments of what will I try to carry on the flight and what I will commit to the waves and just hope it survives the journey; and trying not to think just how many pieces it may arrive in…
On the waves. Half way here!
I did decide to carry my entire Tomb King collection with me. Not only does this allow me to jump straight in to games, it’s also my most completely painted collection.
I had signed up for a local discord to the area a month or so before to scope out the gaming scene ahead of my arrival, and was pleased to find it was pretty active. On my first week here, I managed to get a game scheduled, and played a most enjoyable 2v1 game; The orcs and Goblins teaming up with the Tomb kings against a High elf force.
But what that does mean is I have nothing to paint. Or… I didn’t. I caved quite quickly and picked up some Solar Auxilia models to have something to work on while I await the arrival of my collection. As of right now, it’s a battle force with an extra command squad. Enough models to take some time, but in game terms we’re only looking at about 600 points at a stretch.
Solar auxiliary command squad built
Since my paints are in the box on the waves too, I bought a small army painter starter set to get some time painting in too. This does limit the colours I can use, but it’s been nice working within those restrictions, and I’m already thinking how I’ll use my other paints when they arrives to work on top of these base colours… Only a few more weeks to wait…
Welcome back to another Way Back When’sday. Today we’re going to have a look at some Carnevale!
I backed Carnevale many years ago when TTcombat picked up the game. I had played the older edition once when trying out new games with a friend and one thing that immediately grasped us was how cinematic it played. You want to jump from roof to roof and stab someone? Go for it! Want to run up a wall? Excellent!
The black spectre…totally not covered in dust!
I decided to opt in for the Patricians faction first. The Black spectre miniature alone caught my eye a ssuch a great design. And along side this, the noble look of the general faction sold it to me.
Painted patricians
As this was also in the timeframe I was purchasing two factions, just in case, I also picked up the Gifted. Now these worked in double as they also are kind of the “mercenary” style of faction. It means I can run them either with the Patricians I had already picked up, but could also run them seperately. Win-win.
Painted gifted
Unfortunately though, I haven’t yet found the time (amongst other games being played and there not being enough time in a day) to get them to the table. I really do want to play this game though! If I had enough terrain, as I truly believe this is one of those games that will benefit so heavily from a well terrained board, I would in a heartbeat have some games of this on my own even.
Maybe this is the next project? Who am I kidding… I have too many projects!
Or well…it was. It’s been a moment since I have played consistent Bloodbowl. Honestly, with the announcement of a new edition, there’s been less enthusiasm from me to get a game of bloodbowl going, I may as well wait for the new edition.
But one things for sure, I am excited for those Tomb Kings!
But what of current games? Theres a new league started recently. I have signed up for it, bringing back the Pocket monster team for another outing (will Black Shuck finally meet his end this season!?) And brought out another rookie team; Papa Nurgle’s Pathogents!
The Pathogents in all their….gory…BloatersLine RottersNurgling tokensPestigor
Firstly, I don’t like Nurgle. I don’t really like the aesthetic of Nurgle in any iteration it has been brought out in, but they have staying power. I was suggested to at least try them out because they’re much hardier than the other teams I tend to field and I have an amazing ability to just be absolutely crushed in bloodbowl. The dice tend to not stay on my side for longer than a half.
While I don’t think I’ll follow every game this season with the Nurgle, I certainly may give some updates time to time of how they’re fairing for me. So far I’ve had them on the table once, being completely overrun by Elves losing 3-0. Nothing too bad in terms of damage, though one Rotter died in the process. I just need to grind down some teams and gain some SPP and maybe the team could get more fun… Maybe in my game tonight against the orcs…?
With the release of the War of Settra’s fury (and the Heralds and Priests on barded steeds in addition), my eagerness to get Tomb kings on the table spiked. I had been playing mostly the Beastmen as I worked on getting them built up and painted too, but everyone knows the new shiny things are more important!
So I picked up one of each of the new models, arranged a game and scrambled to get a 1000 point list put together. Tomb king cavalry, aside from the archers, have proven to be pretty weak in most of the games I have played with them. However, since there’s now the opportunity to put new heroes with them, I thought I would theme an army around being all mounted just for no reason other than rule of cool. And this is what I ended up with;
I called this army “Oops, all horses”. Using the Nehekharan Royal Host Army of infamy I started with my core troops. A unit of 3 Chariots to be led by a Tomb Prince in a chariot with the Death Mask of Kharnutt. Two units of Cavalry Cohort (6 spearmen and 6 bows in each, with full command) and in the special slot a unit of 7 horse archers to act as chariot runners.
And finally, the two new heroes. The herald, holding aloft the battle standard (with the Icon of the Sacred eye) and a mortuary priest, level 2 wizard, both on their barded steeds.
1000pt tomb kings Vs empire The gunline awaits!
And so it was time to try it out. My opponent brought his Empire. Beautifully painted and with plenty of firepower to counted the skeleton horde charging over the board towards them. We set up and rolled for turn. Fortunately I won first turn as I wanted to try get up the table as quick as I possibly could (which, due to not being able to march, is admittedly not as fast as I would have liked)
My archers unleashed their paltry volley of bows. The great thing about the cavalry cohort is being able to volley fire on the move and with 1 higher BS than the regular Horse archer unit. The terrible thing is you get half the shots. Through both unit shooting, and the horse archer unit, only 2 musketeers were shot down.
Empire Turn 1 saw them cautiosly move their knights up, wanting to maintain distance but still progress up the board. He was cautious of the chariots, less so the cavalry. His guns let loose, ripping into my Cavalry cohort on the left flank. Fortunately due to some lacklustre rolls, not many of them died and the unit was still on the table. It wasn’t until my next turn however, I realised Ihad completely forgotten about their regeneration rolls!
Tomb king turn two, Arise! from both my Tomb Prince (due to the AoI upgrade) and the Mortuary priest, saw some wounds returning to the cavalry units. The Cavalry Cohort on the right flank charged, the Empire Knights counter charged in return. A wise choice we decided as it guaranteed they were striking before the charging Skeletons.
I saw an opening in the middle, my chariots declared the charge through the chariot runners (Horse archers) into the Empire veterans directly infront of them. Unfortunately, they fell 1″ short of the charge, so failed and stopped short behind the horse archers. The veterans, having to take a terror test due to the Tomb Prince’s Death mask, failed….but then didn’t. Lucky re-rolls!
Not much happened for deaths in the shooting phase so we wnt on to the combat phase. The knights tore apart the Cavalry cohort whilst taking no damage in response. After unstable crumbled some models, only the command group was left standing. The undead gave ground, and due to it being Empire turn 2 next, they restrained from following up, and turned to face a juicy opportunity to meet my chariots head on.
The Empire moved their Cavalry to face my Chariots Purposefully holding the line close enough to negate the impact hits of the chariots. Shooting took out the remaining horse archers and focused on my remaining chorot on the left flank. The engineer sniped the champion out of the command group on the right flank, leaving a standard and a musician on their own.
The knights continued to hold the ground against the chariots. Passing all terror checks, and saves, and only breaking after two rounds of combat. The general, being the only survivor of the unit fled, stopping short of his veteran infantry, meaning the overrunning Chariots ran him down…but also didn’t overrun into the infantry. Again denied their impact hits!
The combat versus the Veterans was long drawn. Each victory for the veterans due to their static combat res would be met with restraint, and volleys of guns. The chariots were eventually shot to ribbons, and the Tomb Prince met his demise from Combat resolution after a challenge with the heroes of Empire.
The Standard and Musician managed to charge down the Engineer on the right flank, and then overrun into the Hellblaster volley gun, winning the first round of combat and killing one of the crew, only to fall in the final round of the game. Being the last model on the board.
A very fun game! The hellblaster volley gun started off the game slow, with the hit dice not being cooperative. Until it began firing at lone heroes, then it seemed to ramp up to overkill mode.
I feel I would try this list again, but perhaps when I build upon it at higher point levels. It’s definitely missing something to give it extra staying power. Maybe just more chariots would help a lot.
First off, it’s been a while. Between work being busy and holidays creeping up, I hadn’t had time to get to work on more articles. And with the bloodbowl league ending and the games coming to a pause, it felt like a good time to just focus on some painting. And so i did, ready for the new league!
So today starts the new league, and the grand reveal of my new team; Kalevalhalla
Norse were the first ever team I played in Bloodbowl, back in my teenage years so I knew I would need to get back to them some day. And with the new league I thought, why not now.
And today’s game, my first outing of the new team will be vs Chaos Renegades!
My first thought when considering how to handle the renegades was genuinely that I was unsure how I’d go toe to toe with 3 big guys. Luckily he only had two of them; the rat ogre and the ogre. My first goal was to try neutralise one of these. He won the kick off and took first drive. At the end of the first turn he had pummeled my team and took a lineman off the pitch. Great. Luckily only badly hurt (which would be the theme of the match, as only one injury was more than that).
After the opening turns luck really swung in my favour. The Yhetee broke the rat ogres armour and sent him off with a badly hurt. The ogre kept failing his bonehead.
I managed to keep control of the ball as the renegades began to dwindle in numbers on the pitch. He did managed to sneak a 2 dice block on the beer boar, getting a dead result. The only true casualty in the game.
All in all, a fairly successful opening for the season for the Norse. 2-0 win, with a good spread of spp, and enough to buy an apothecary and replace the boar.
So once again we saw the Pocket monsters Necromantic team out for a league match. This time playing against Khorne.
Khorne are always an interesting one, going in to this match, I saw his team was pretty skilled up. Mightblow on many of the STR 4 guys made me think this would be a tough one. Especially with my Ghoul sitting this match out.
Boy was I wrong.
First turn went pretty smoothly not a huge amount of damage falling to either side. A knockout on a bloodseeker was a godsend, not having all 4 STR to face. I managed to sneak in a touchdown in the first half giving me a lovely lead to work off of.
And then the madness happened. My dice were on fire, and his were being unkind. Leading to…well…this
spot the Khorne players…7 knockouts and 2 injuries – ouch!
Most of the second half saw fewer and fewer Khorne players on the pitch. The final few turns it was 2 Bloodseekers vs the entire Pocket monster team.
A 2-0 victory for Pocket monsters, and a very great opponent who laughed off what was a devastating mass of unfortunate dice for him.
So today I managed to get in a game of Age of Sigmar Spearhead. Having only ever had a single game of it before, I was eager to snatch up the chance to give it another go, this time with my Gitmob Spearhead!
And it was fun! Albeit rather one sided.
So game one was very much feeling out the game and figuring out the rules. We were both new to it after all. But after a few rounds we certainly began to get the feel of it…. and the lizards swiftly deleted my goblins from the table
And then in to game two, perhaps more luck this time?
No. But it was still fun! I do feel the gitmob seemed to lack hitting power. Perhaps I was missing some trick? Time to dive right in to the youtube battle reports to see how others have played them to get a better idea for my next game. And there will be a next time! the fact I could get through two games in under two hours was incredible. Would recommend!
Riding the high from yesterday’s game, I went in to a friendly tonight. It was my Imperial Nobility vs Necromantic Horrors.
Lineman test for colours
It was certainly fun playing against the Necromantic as I’m starting to see ways to play them I often hadn’t seen. Like not taking two werewolves. The idea stunned me honestly, especially as they have always been my main scoring threat, but in this game, it was all about Ghouls and their scoring.
It was quite refreshing to play Imperial nobility as I had only really played with them the once before. They’re a solid team, fend and stand firm can really put a dampener on some of the opposition’s plans. Dice continued being relatively hot for the first half, getting a KO on a wraith and a werewolf who sat out a few turns. We went into second half with a 1-1 tie.
Second half is where the Necromantic really shone. Taking full dominance of the ball and scoring a second in a very slow methodical manner securing a 2-1 win. I’m now considering running the Imperial Nobility next season though…. If only I get around to painting them…
{“capture_mode”:”AutoModule”,”faces”:[]}
Only a short update today, the next league games are looming, and they’re getting tougher…
As often comes to happen, life gets in the way. So I missed some posts I had wanted to make (generally keeping to my previous formula of my Monday bloodbowl and my Wednesday showcase of old paintings) due to generally being tired out from the heat (alright, it’s nto THAT hot, but I don’t do well in the heat) and work in general. So here’s this weeks updates in brief;
Monday night is bloodbowl night.
Monday saw my usual outing for a game in the league. This time it was my Necromantic team Vs High elves. I wasn’t too confident going in to this one. I know my opponent is a very good bloodbowl player and, well, it’s elves. I tend to struggle against the high agility teams. Not to mention the pile of inducements I was giving him!
First half started well, I maintained some control of the ball, and dice seemed to be in my favour. At first at least. What started off well soon turned in to some full on elf action and whule the game was very enjoyable, it ended in a 4-0 loss for me. Pesky elves.
As the league is slowly starting to wrap up and I still have many more games I need to somehow squeeze in, today I had a second Bloodbowl game. This time it was my Khorne Vs Wood elves. More elves! I again expected another loss. I’ve not really played wood elves before and I know them to be very tricky to pin down. And since I’ve not necessarily done well with the Khorne so far, I figured this might be a quick game. And it was a rather quick game in that it was oiver a lot quicker than my usual games.
A win! In a stark contrast to how my games usually go, the dice gods had decided to very confidentally sway the game in my favour. I rolled so many knock outs this game it was absurd. And an unfortunate take root roll meant the treeman stayed out of the action for a very severly outnumbered wood elf team. 2-0 to me, and a huge boost to my morale this league! This monday’s game is booked still too, but another friendly coming up 🙂
Speaking of bloodbowl, since this league is wrapping up, I’m slowly starting to decide which teams I might consider running next season. Considering Chaos dwarves…
Other painting projects this week. I had the urge to paint some of my epic Pike and shotte, so made a start on a unit of the Scots Covenanters pike and musket unit.
And then, when I was too tired for details, I’ve been priming a whole lot of Epic Napoleonic. Hoping to have this bunch fully painted for when I start a campaign with a friend. This is all the stuff needed for “The action at Thuin” start to the Hundred days campaign supplement
So much French line infantry!
That’s been my week of wargaming. I still have stuff in the pipeline. 5 parsecs I’m working on my crew and the terrain for the first mission. Once it’s done the weekly updates will roll out!
I never do ask, but what’s been on your work in progress table? What games have you been playing?
This week on way back When’sday we’re going to look at Epic Waterloo!
Practising the rules
I really got into tiny models this year. There’s just something about a table full of ranks and ranks of tiny models that really does amaze me. So since I found someone locally willing to play through the game I set myself to painting some up for a game….
French Line Infantry
…And didn’t finish. I underestimate just how long it would take to paint hundreds (and i mean hundreds) of tiny French and Prussian troops.
French Cavalry
The ones I did finish though I honestly think came out looking so nice.
Prussian Landswehr UnitLa Haye Sainte Terrain
So how did it play? It was a long game, especially for a small number of units. Mostly becasue we were both new to the game. There were a lot of moments where we were just looking up rules, or confused as to what we should be doing. But all in all, it was a very enjoyable game system! Easy to learn, but difficult to master. That’s for sure. I look forward to playing more in the upcoming weeks, and since I now have the Hundred days supplement, it might just become a campaign….
Sad Teacup Games 