Thursday, June 30, 2011

Enter Warmachine and Hordes

Now that OFCC has come and gone, my gaming group has decided to pursue 3 initiatives for gaming.
1. Paint/build/play our Warhammer Fantasy armies at 2500.
2. Play and build up our Warhammer Fantasy armies for Storm of Magic.
3. Build a 35 point Warmachine or Hordes army by the end of October.

I have decided that I will build two armies for Warmachine/Hordes.  I will build/paint/play a 35 point Retribution of Scyrah and a Circle of Orboros army.


You can expect to see several updates in the next few months showing Warmachine/Hordes/Warhammer and also I'm running a Warhammer 40k workshop starting on July 11th as well.

Current Project List for this Summer.
1. Paint/Assemble my Wood Elves to 2500 points.
2. Paint/Assemble my Beastmen to 2500 points.
3. Paint/Assemble 35 points of Retribution of Scryah by October
4. Paint/Assemble 35 points of Circle of Orboros by October.
5. Conduct a 40k workshop at my FLGS to get new players into the game and provide existing players some help.

It'll be fun!

Monday, June 27, 2011

OFCC 2011 Tournament Report

!  This year's OFCC (Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge) has come and gone.  I have to say, it was an utter and complete blast!  This was my first time attending the event and not knowing what to really expect you can probably guess I was filled with a bit of trepidation.  Were people going to consider my playstyle douchey?  Were my dice going to completely fail me? (They did twice)  And most importantly - was I going to have fun?
Fortunately my playstyle wasn't douchey and most importantly - I had a complete blast.

I will post some battle chronicler images next post when I have time this weekend but for now I'll do a brief synopsis of my 5 games this weekend.  I like how I bring a camera with me and take pictures pre-game and then  completely forget about my camera the entire game until it's over.  Next year I'm going to just video tape the entire game and edit out 5 min synopsis of each fight.

Anyway here we go:
First off here is my army pre-game in presentation mode (next year I'm bringing a display board)

I really appreciated the remarks people made on my army.  It was very flattering to receive all the compliments and remarks of "that's awesome" or "oh man I want to play Wood Elves now!".  Thank you Ordo!

Game 1 Battle Line:  Carl's "Stupid and Frenzied Orcs & Goblins" vs. The Great Hunt
The first scenario was your classic Battle Line mission where you deploy within 12" of the table edge.  All the scenarios in this year's OFCC used that type of mission which I was not really a fan of but the games were still fun regardless.

Carl's list:
1 Savage Orc Warboss - Boar, Armor of Silvered Steel, Dawnstone, Two hand weapons
1 Savage Orc Big Boss - BSB, Boar, Dragonhelm, Fencer's Blades
1 Savage Orc Shaman - Level 2, Boar, Lucky Shrunken Head
18 Savage Orcs, Full Command, Extra hand weapon
18 Savage Orcs, Full Command, Extra hand weapon
18 Savage Orcs, Full Command, Extra hand weapon
12 Savage Orc Boar Boys - Big Uns, Extra hand weapon, full Command, Spears, Shields
6 Trolls
6 Trolls
1 Pump Wagon


I liked this list because it was similar to the Orcs & Goblins list I had made up.  Carl had first turn and moved his units into position while I did the same on mine.  I managed to kill 5 Boar Boys and had positioned myself too close hoping to score a panic test from shooting.  Sadly, John forgot that Frenzied means Immune to Psychology *sigh*.  He ended up rolling my Dryads, Glade Guard and Waywatchers in 2 turns due to my horrid 1st turn positioning.  We also laughed at how badly I was rolling.  Consistently rolling over 6 1's when I  roll more than 10 dice was just horrid.  That however didn't make up for the just over all bad decisions I made.  At the end of the game on turn 6 I had a Level 0 Spellweaver left vs. his 1 unit of Savage Orcs (under 7 models), his BSB left, and 2 units of Trolls (one with his General in it).  A solid defeat for the Wood Elves.
Mistakes made that game?
1. Forgetting about Frenzy and Immune to Psychology
2. Moving and positioning myself way too close - my opponent Carl did a wonderful job of seeing this and taking advantage of it.
3. Attacking characters instead of the unit to get combat resolution.
4. Not pursuing units that lost in combat which ended up rallying and biting me in the ass later.
5. F that textured game board - I'd roll horrible on it and awesome off it.  You would think I would remember that every turn ....but no. =D

end result: Orcs and Goblins - victory!
I'm really pleased Carl was a nice guy which made the game actually fun regardless of the circumstances.  Solid playing Carl, good win!
Game 1 Pictures!










Game 2 King of the Hill: Shane's Orcs and Goblins vs. The Great Hunt.

This was my second game of the day and my second game against O&G.  This scenario had a Scree Slope in the center of the board and the victory conditions were - the game ended on a variable roll after Turn 5 and the army with the most units in the center got 500 victory points at the end.  I decided to pull my head out of my ass this game and not make mistakes.  Shane had a really fun O&G list.  There were definitely some "oh hell" factors to it and I had to seriously move my units around to capitalize on my army's strengths.

Shane's List:

Black Orc Warboss, Sword of Strife, Talisman of Preservation
Orc Great Shaman, Dispel Scroll, Potion of Speed, Level 4
Black Orc Big Boss - BSB, Armor of Destiny

Orc Boyz x25, shields, full command
Orc Big Uns x24, full command, extra hand weapons
Goblin Wolf Riders x5, Spear, Shield, Musician
Goblin Wolf Riders x5, Spear, Shield, Musician
Black Orcs x22, Standard Bearer, Musician, Shield, Banner of Eternal Flame (dammit!!!)
Orc Boar Chariot
Orc Boar Chariot
Orc Boar Boyz x5, Full Command, Shield, Spear, banner of swiftness
Mangler Squig
Mangler Squig

This game was looking to be pretty damn rough.  I deployed almost everything on my right side and decided to flank his army.  He counter-deployed by placing his Wolf Riders, Boar Boyz, Chariot and 2 Mangler Squigs across from my army and put his big units near the center to get close to the hill.  I got lucky in my turn and killed both his squigs while he moved everything forward and got his Black Orcs to the edge of the hill.  The next few turns were spent coming up on his flank and shooting/killing a unit a turn until he had his Black Orcs left and I had 6 units in the center.  The game ended at the bottom of Turn 6 with most of his army removed and most of my units being full strength and in control of the hill.  I got really lucky this game because he suffered animosity at  critical times and I was able to kill key units right off the bat.  Shane was also a great opponent cause we are both Wood Elf army owners and he could appreciate how the army should have worked.  Thank you for the awesome game Shane!

End Result: Wood Elves - Victory!

Game 2 Pictures!











Game 3 Battle Line: Deke's Warriors of Chaos vs. The Great Hunt.

This mission was your standard Battle Mission game.  This was seriously the best game of the day.  My opponent Deke was utterly amazing.  We were laughing the entire game and he made for an extremely memorable experience at OFCC.  I'm totally rematching against him next year.  Deke had a really fun Warriors of Chaos army.  His mission - to have a friggin blast.  Alcohol also helped!  He and I both had had a drink or two before our game which made it even better!!!

Deke's Army!

Sorcerer of Tzeentch - Disc of Tzeentch, Golden Eye of Tzeentch, Book of Secrets, Level 2
Sorcerer, Lore of Death, Level 2 Upgrade
Exalted Hero, BSB, Luckstone, Chaos Steed

Chaos Marauders x50, Full Command, Mark of Tzeentch, Light armor, Shield
Chaos Hounds x5
Chaos Hounds x5
Chaos Warriors x12, Mark of Nurgle, Full Command, Halberds
Chaos Knights x5, full command, Mark of Nurgle, Banner of Rage
Chaos Trolls x3
Chaos Chariot
Chaos Giant, Mark of Slaanesh (yikes)

This game was a crazy experience.  Beginning of the game my general and waywatchers are fleeing due to a panic test and Deke comes barreling across the board towards me.  I kill a unit of chaos hounds and inflict a wound on his Sorceress on disc as well as kill a troll.  Next turn he charges into my Wild Riders with his Marauders and slams his trolls into my Glade Guard.  I'm thinking "oh hell I'm about to get rolled".  Glade Guard beat the trolls in combat and chase them down and the Wild Riders flee but he runs into my Treekin on his pursuit roll.  Next turn I charge his Marauder block with my Dryads and a Great Eagle and manage to just rampage through his WS1 (thank you twin fails on fear test!) Marauders.  The unit breaks and I pursue and then the rest of the game was spend killing the other units while we laughed the entire time.  The most epic part of the entire game was my Spellweaver turning into a Great Fire Dragon and fighting his lone Chaos Knight Champion of Nurgle in single combat.  That made for an EPIC ending to an awesome game!

Thank you so much for the truly fantastic game Deke!

Pics of Deke's awesomely painted army:




Game 4 Five Coins - Dave's Ogre Kingdoms vs. The Great Hunt.

This game had us set up 5 treasure coins that you had to collect by charging them and they were 100 vps each.  You could obviously lose a coin if you broke from combat or failed a panic test (but not from fleeing a charge).  This Ogre Kingdoms army was pretty standard - it was fast, mean and was filled with army fat men that wanted Wood Elf Kabobs!  David was an excellent opponent who made the entire game very enjoyable and I have to say this is the biggest come from behind victory I think I've ever managed to score.

Dave's Ogre Kingdoms:
Tyrant, Trickster's Helm, Mawseeker, Potion of Speed, Sword of Striking
Bruiser - BSB, Golden Sigil Sword, Great Skull
Butcher - Halfling Cookbook, Sword of Swift Slaying

5 Ogre Bulls, full command, Look out Gnoblar, Iron Fists
10 Gnoblar Trappers
Scraplauncha
4 Leadbelchers
Slave Giant
7 Iron Guts - full command, Look out Gnoblar

The first turn he comes barreling across the table and I'm like "oh hell there goes 1 round of shooting" and his Scraplauncher kills one of my eagles.  This causes a panic test in one of my units of Glade Guard and they go booking for the edge.  My turn ends up with me causing his Lead Belchers to flee after losing 50% of their number.  I also do 4 Wounds to his Slave Giant.  His turn he charges my Dryads with his BSB unit (kills them) and beats my treekin and causes them to flee after a round of combat. He rolls a 3 to pursue and my Treekin rally next turn.  His Slave giants takes 1 more wound before smashing all my Glade Guard to death.  My waywatchers eat Scraplauncher debris and lose half their number while Wild Riders sit there going "hey bro sup?".  So at this point I have my big unit of Treekin fleeing (before I made their rally check), my Wild Riders at 75%, my Spellweaver, 2 waywatchers and my general and 1 eagle.  He hasn't lost a unit yet.  I charge my Wild Riders into his big block of Iron Guts and then my Spellweaver by herself into his flank.  I cast Transformation of Kadon and turn into a Great Fire Dragon and score 2 S10 hits on his unit from the miscast!  My general kills his Slave Giant with shooting.  The eagle rallies along with the Treekin and my Spellweaver scores 12 hits with her breathweapon dealing 10 wounds.  She then proceeds to visit 8 more wounds on the unit of Ironguts and my Wild Riders chase them down and remove them from play.  His turn he misfires with his Scraplauncher and his Lead Belchers lose to my Wild Riders.  At this point we call the game and shake hands.  It was one hell of a comeback - up til that turn I was pretty sure I was about to get rolled badly.  Fantastic game!

Victor: Wood Elves!
Pictures of the Battle!:











Game 5 Battle Line - Josh's Clan Iraf vs. The Great Hunt

This was my best and hardest game of the entire tournament.  I played my buddy Josh and his accursed Skaven.  This game originally started out pretty bad.  Dice were saying "hey bro we are tired so ..have some 1's".  Josh in the spirit of true sportsmanship relaxed his oncoming assault and let me get my bearings back.  The first turn resulted in my losing an Eagle, half my Dryads, and a unit of Glade Guard fleeing.  I then return the favor with 2 power dice and just pretty much sucking on my turn.  Next turn he scores the DOOMROCKET and I lose 2 Wild Riders and 3 Waywatchers.  His Warplighting cannon scores nothing - thank god.  I manage to Amber Spear the hell out of his Doomwheel and inflict some strong casualties on his clanrats.  I foolishly allowed my Dryads to get charged and wiped out via spells by his plague priest.  I have new respect for Skaven after this game.  The rest of the game was just hilarious as we mashed our units in the center and just killed off 95% of our armies.  Josh got all sneaky and challenged my Spellweaver turned Great Fire Dragon to a challenge with his 2+ ward save vs. fire =) - Skaven players are SNEAKY.
At the end of six turns I had 14 Glade Guard,  and 2 Wild Riders.  Josh had his general and a Warp Lightning Cannon.  We ended on a Draw and a perfect end to an awesome tournament.

I gave Josh my best general pin as he did me.  Thanks for the absolutely awesome game Josh!
Josh's army was showcased in my previous post but his list is here (and pictures of our set up)

Clan Iraf
Warlord - Bonebreaker, Sword of Anti-heroes, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem (sneaky git), Ironcurse Icon.
Warlord - Bonebreaker, Biting Blade, Warpstone Armor, Dawnstone
Chieftain - BSB
Plague Priest - Level 2, Dispel Scroll
Warlock Engineer - Level 2, Doomrocket, Warp-energy Condenser
Clanrats x34, full command, shields
Poisoned Mortar Weapon Team
Clanrats x34, full command, shields
Warpfire Thrower
Clanrats x34, full command, shields
Ratling Gatling Gun
Rat Ogres x6, 4 Packmasters
Warp lighting cannon
Doomwheel.




 For the life of me I can not stack pictures this post. Oh well.


Anyway - in closing I had an absolute wonderful time and our team did very, very well.

We came in 2nd overall for Best Generals and Best Painted.  I am looking very forward to next year's event and hope that there is an even bigger turn out than this year.  I fully plan on making next year a full out Nerd Safari!

You can find more information about Ordo Fanaticus here.

I'll be posting some more pictures of everyone's armies in the next few posts - I just have to wait for Josh to copy over his pictures for me.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

OFCC Army Showcase - Iraf's Skaven

In the next few weeks before and after OFCC, I will be showcasing my teammates and my opponents' armies in order to show off their hard work.  The first of this series will be my game 5 opponent and buddy Iraf.  He has chosen to bring a "soft" Skaven list for this year's OFCC.  (Soft list = no plague furnace, no grey seer, no screaming bell, no double doomwheel)

I really like Iraf's list.  While it may not look hard, he will be playing it extremely well and so I'll have to ensure the sneaky bastard doesn't catch me with my pants down in game 5.  He's running a double warlord on a bonebreaker list with no Jezzails or Abominations.  Now don't underestimate this list, it'll be very brutal based on how he plays.  I'll be posting the army lists for everyone after OFCC so that everyone can see my team's choices as well as my opponents.

Anyway - here is the part that everyone actually cares about.  The pictures!  Enjoy!






Next up will be Larry's Nurgle themed Warriors of Chaos.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Wood Elves ready for OFCC!

Every year the gaming club here in Portland, OR known as the Ordo (Ordo Fanaticus) holds the OFCC.  The OFCC which stands for the Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge, it's a team based two day tournament for Warhammer Fantasy.  Unlike most tournaments, this club challenge is designed to be an event where the casual gamer and hobbyist can bring their army and enjoy two days of entertaining gaming without the worry of serious tournament players and their over the top lists.  The main goal of OFCC is to have each player have a fun and enjoyable game and build a memorable experience at the same time.  Now this is not to say there will not be competition and serious playing.  Most of the players that participate are pretty tough opponents so you can expect some really good and close games the entire weekend.

My gaming group has been scrambling the last few months to get their armies assembled, painted and based for the upcoming tournament on June 24th-25th.  This will be my first appearance at an OFCC event so I'm rather looking forward to the experience. After much debate our team captain decided on a name that would best describe our group, we are - "Team Tourettes - Epic Fail".  By some unfortunate twist of fate (and the inability for the tournament runner Raindog to properly read a damn email properly) my game handle "Sylvos" also has the nickname "Epic fail" instead of our team added to it in every entry.  The fact that I'm bringing Wood Elves just adds more irony to that situation.

One prevailing theme for OFCC is that the lists are to be balanced and fun.  While you can bring a devastatingly powerful list (within the list building guidelines of course), it's not really recommended.  It's supposed to be a fun event and not 'Ard Boyz.  After all this is a private and invite only event, why would you be a douche?  You do want to be invited back no? =D  Especially when there is prize support for just about everyone who attends and plays.

I've decided to bring my standard 2000 point list which has been referenced numerous times in various posts but you can view it here.

As soon as my buddies finish their armies I'll be posting their lists and doing an army showcase.  We have a lot of great players and I would really like to show off all the hard work they've put into their armies.

And now for the part that everyone really cares about - the pictures!