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Monday, January 23, 2012

All hail the Horned Rat, who heralds the tide of inevitable doom.

So winter has finally bared its teeth, and what better time to sit inside and work on your army all day?
With my Beastmen in a surprisingly advanced stage of completeness, I've decided to switch gears a bit and bring my chittering Skaven horde out for blood and conquest. I've only played the army twice and both times with only a tentative grasp on the rules. Now that I have a good number of games under my belt I'm looking forward to giving them another try.
This is a picture of what I'm working with (or without, respectively.)

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I'm planting my stake firmly at the 2,000 point level. Any more than that and the sheer weight of unpainted rat-shaped plastic threatens to crush my soul into jelly. The core section of my Beastmen army took years to paint, I'd like these guys to get fancied up much quicker.

My list is Ektrik/Skryre themed. I can't resist all of that slipshod, volatile, arcane machinery that melts friend and foe alike. I want something dramatically different from my Beasts; Lots of shooting/ranged attacks, an army that lends itself to playing a bit more defensively, with a hearty smattering of variety within the ranks. I'm looking forward to seeing whether this fits the bill. Some of these units aren't the most optimal, at least if you put any stock in widespread internet opinion, which I don't. Fun is the whole of the law. I play Beastmen, what do I care about effectiveness? :D

My self-imposed standards for this army are pretty simple:
- No slave spam. While I know that even smaller clans would undoubtedly have thousands of thralls hanging around I just can't do it. They are awesome, I understand this, but I don't want to buy them, paint them, or be disowned by my friends.
- Lots of weapon teams
- Only rely on small support units of rival Clan origin (ie Rat Ogres, Plague dooders, etc.)
- Three dedicated Warlock Engineers...eventually. I'd love to take Ikit Claw as a stand-in for a generic greater engineer but my group (including myself) generally frowns upon any special character inclusion.

Here's my rough rough draft list:

Skizzurk Beardburner, Warlord
- Talisman of Preservation, Crown of Command, Dragonhelm, Shield and Halberd.
Admittedly a bit on the boring side...but he's got the survivability and the supportyness* I'll need.
Skizzurk's Swarmkin, 24 Stormvermin
- Full Command, Grand Banner of Clan Superiority
- Ratling Gun
Smaller than I'd like, but with the Crown and the banner they should fare pretty well. Hopefully the gun will whittle away at the opposition a bit, too.
Grutscuttle the Pious, Warlock Engineer
- Level 2 Wizard
- Foul Pendant
- Warp-Energy Condenser
- Warplock Pistol
Fries anything that moves, hopefully. Should probably have a Dispel Scroll, but I'm 100% smitten with this build.
30 Clanrats
- FC, Shields
- Warpfire Thrower
Euronymouse, Chieftain
- BSB, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem.
Just need those rerolls.
29 Clanrats
- FC, Shields
- Warpfire Thrower
Standard fare. They're a bit small on their own, but I figure I can combine them for a more serious tarpit if need be. The Warpfire Throwers are both fluffy and necessary to keep me on somewhat even footing.
The Target Practice, 41 Slaves
- Musician, Shields
Outfitting my cannon fodder with shields may be a bad idea, but A) they need to hang around as long as possible and B) the models are obviously equipped with them already.
2 Rat Ogres, 1 Packmaster
- Master-bred Rat Ogre
Little flanking unit to give a pack of Clanrats/Slaves more oomph.
Thrizzik Splatt, Warlock Engineer
- Level 1 Wizard
- Warlock Optics
- Warpmusket
- Doomrocket
Hangs out with the skirmishers and blasts away.
9 Poisoned Wind Globadiers
- Bombardier w/ Death Globe
- Poisoned Wind Mortar
4 Warplock Jezzails
- Sharpshooter
Warp Lightning Cannon
Doomwheel

Right now I'm painting a few pieces of the army at a time to a basic level. The weather hasn't been primer-friendly (yesterday being the exception! Curse you daytime work shift...) of late so my infantry has to wait. My Doomwheel, Rat Ogres, and Warp Lightning Cannon are all in various stages of paintedness, and I'm pretty happy with the results thus far. I'm experimenting a bit more with wet blending, though I don't think these pictures are particularly representative of that process.

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Not the most exciting picture, but such a cool model. I was a total, utter moron for not painting it BEFORE I assembled it, though. Ugh. Those interior bits are going to be brutal.

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It looks a bit clumsy but having the dual-purpose magnetization will be great in the long run.

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Bad picture of the army sigil and banner.

With Da Roosta painting up all of that awesome terrain at light speed and Joe's new Vampire Counts (Holy poops those Vargheists look amazing ranked up!) I've got a lot of inspiration to keep plugging away at this. Hopefully I can keep up!

I'll post up the finished character models and some riveting WIP pics in a day or two.

* definitely a real word.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Campaign- Start of round 2

The staff of our local wargaming store decided to initiate a 8th ed campaing 4 weeks ago. Each round takes 3 weeks. I think the campaign will last 6 rounds.



Each round starts with Epic games (team-up bigga points game) and the following two weeks we can move on a map that look like Albion (or is it?). The goal is to catch the a storm (isn't it like pissing against the wind.... well a very bad idea all in all). I ll post the fluff of my army later.

I will give more details in the future but for today here are some picts of teh Big game that kicked in the second round. The price for the winning side was allowance to use the dark emissary for any game, mild advantage for small game but interesting for bigger points game... give access to shadow to my Tomb Kings (TK) ... who said skeleton S10???

We lined up High elf, Lezards and TK vs. Skaven, Orcs and Warriors of Chaos












Again thx to Duncan teh campaign organizer!