This and that

It's been all quite on the gaming front for the past month or more, with our regular gaming sessions having dropped off due to Mark moving to the other side of the moon and life getting in the way. But the usual once a month South Auckland Gaming club meetings have been about it.

Speaking of which, the last club meeting earlier this month was a mass 6000 point Kings of War bash. With Glen, Brian and myself taking the evil Abyssal's and Kin up against Caven, Arthur and Kevin with Ogre's and Dwarfs.

My main opponent during the game was Kevin with Ogres, who dealt out alot of damage and had me on the back foot from the start. Then as my units started falling one by one my hero's ran around fire balling and flaming everything in site.

It was a massive blood bath of six or seven turns (cant remember), with the game swinging back and forth. The end result was the Evil Abyssals and Kin came out some 75 points more left on the table. So a epic draw...although the Evil team claim victory of course :-)

Just goes to show just how well the rule set works. It's probably my favorite game of all time. It just works and it doesn't hurt the brain to play.

Next month at the club brings about the Saga campaign, a game I haven't actually played myself. Although I've had the rules for quite some time and seen a couple of games played.

I've started on the war band / army of Vikings. I'm actually making it up so I can use them as my second Hail Caesar army and even put together a human army for Kings of War. With my paint skills having slumped with lack of use, I'm slowly building them up keeping it simple and basic.

I also picked up the new Konflict '47 rule book, with the intention of using my Dust walkers along with all the Russian models I have from both Dust and Bolt action. Should mean I don't need to buy any models for the game. A quick flick through the book last nigh reveled the number of walkers on first release is quite low, so hopefully they will release more with the faction books in the near future.

On the board game side of things,been getting is a few games here and there, with Pandemic at the top of the play list at the moment.

Most of all I'm hanging out for my holiday ... heading overseas to Hawaii ... bring on the warmth.

Sometimes... The dice just hurt

Jeepers, the last month has blinked by so quick. So today the usual crew of dodgy looking gamers that turned out for the South Auckland club meeting, on a hell freezing day ...well a bloody cold day at least. The hall was a couple of degrees colder than outside.

Some of the lads got stuck into there ACW game (which I'll get round to playing at some stage) While the rest of us played kings of War. So we ended up with four guys playing ECW and 6 playing Kings of War.

First game up I played Glen with his Abyssal army verses my Abyssal's  in a 3000 point brawl. We rolled up the pillage scenario and ended up with 6 objectives on the table. My winter blue themed demons looked great up against Glen's Red Devils on the winter white table.

 The first few rounds were pretty even, and then things slowly tuned against me as my deployment wasn't that great and my inability to hold up my right flank cost me in the late game. The addition of two regiments of Kin Crossbow men was a good choice and they added that extra range that was lacking in my last army list. In end I lost 2-4 and conceded in turn six with Glen holding 4 objectives

I think at 3000 points game, a few less units and having another horde sized unit would help, but overall not a bad result.

Second game Jason and I tried out he Last Stand scenario from the Destiny of Kings. Jason with his Kingdom of men ended up being the defenders as we played out 2500 points.

Jason's Defensive deployment

With Jasons deployment done and his horde of Knights on the table in open ground I was a bit stumped on how to tackle them. So I gambled on my Arch Fiend a horde of Morlochs along with an Efreet. I attached all three sides with my main push up the center on my table edge.

Sometimes... The dice just hurt

The lost Gamble

My gamble with my Arch fiend didnt pay off as Jason rolled magnificently and utterly destroyed my fiend in the first turn with his horde of Knights. My following tun the Morloch's dealt out 10 points of damage, which wasn't enough and subsequently got trotted over by the knights along with my Efreet.

The Gargoyles snack attack

On my other flank however my hell hounds and Gargoyles did lots of mauling and ripped through Jason's archers and a few other units. We ground each other down over the seven turns and ended up with precision played chess maneuvers, each of us trying to eek out a win. In the end it was a draw.

the last stand

It was a really challenging game, the different scenario made both of us really think,which made the game alot of fun. It also really showed how well balanced the army's are.Each with there strengths and weakness.  I can see myself playing KOW for quite along time to come.

The Frozen Horde

Today was the first frost of winter, which is the going theme of my gaming at the moment. Pretty much frozen in place, with little gaming happening.

 But my surge of modelling continues as the mission of putting together the 160 models for my Abyssal horde crawls forward, along with finally putting all my Union troops together for my ACW army. I’m about half way through the Abyssal army assembly line now and have even managed to get paint to some models. I’m also finally getting the hang of racking up the models in rows as I assemble them, so they will actually fit together in formation on the larger movement trays. That’s the one pain when dealing with lots of models on small bases that have lots of overhanging spiky bits. I’m really liking the models ,but man they are painful to put into formation. I’ve had to number the bases of each model so I know how to put them all into their formations.( god damn nightmare if you mix them up )

I found an unopened Hell Dorado model on the shelf that makes for the perfect Archfiend, and a couple of demons from Warhammer that make for some nice Hero models to round off options for my army lists. Add to that my good old hell hounds (also from Warhammer) and I’ve got a damn good selection to choose from. Really looking forward to trying out the army on the table next week at the club.

My counter attack wound markers turned up and I’ve done them all up in the winter theme. The outcome was surprising good. Although the numbers on them are a bit small for my liking, would have liked them to be a bit larger…. I think old age and bad eyesight is more of an issue. They are a great little product and good value I though, should make gaming much nicer with less issues knocking the D10 dice over I have been using.

I also picked up a turn counter, yep...how many years have I been gaming and have never had one,..too many

I also got some winter theme tree’s to add to my terrain collection and have found a winter based gaming map that I’m eye up for purchase. The plan is to be able to do a full winter / ice theme table.

Frozen Abyssal's

After an office rearrange and upgrade, my man cave is looking sweet and working really well. I purchased a new desk, monitor stand and a new chair. The new computer desk raises up and down and after 12 hard long years my creaky old office chair needed replacing. Man have I noticed the difference what a nice chair does for ones mood. And being able to stand from time to time at the desk is awesome, my back is much happier, and painting for longer is way nicer.

 Having acquired the Mega army box of Abyssal’s for my birthday earlier this month I found myself moving though the assembly of the horde of plastic mini’s. Even busted out the air brush for base colours. I'm going for a Frozen Ice theme.

I worked out a basic list based off what’s in the box, and I can make 2000 point list. Add in a few other models from my Chaos army like my hounds and I could easily reach 3000 points. So the value for money is definitely there.

After my initial grumbling about the stances of some of the models, I’ve gone and got some new plastic cement that seems to be working better. The main issue is that 3 out of the 5 stances of the Succubus are running poses and only have one…small foot on the ground. So they are a pain in the butt to base  (Yeah … I’ve taken my concreate pill now, 5 done and 35 more to go.)

So this is what I’ve done so far. ( a few snaps from the mobile phone)

A small alteration to one of the Morloch's

Also going to use the GW Dark Elves Kharibdrass (Hydra) as the Abyssal Chroneas

I also found some nice wound/nerve markers which I’m eagely waiting for. Got them from http://www.counterattackbases.co.uk/

They should work nicly for a few different games. I got the ones that go from 1 to 15.

(Photo from there web site)

Club Day

Club Day: Unfortunately it's not the day you get to go around with a large spiky club and wallop the retard's driving at night with no head lights on...( that's after you point it out to them)

Club Day, a very relaxing day spent with mates rolling dice, talking crap and pushing models around a table. A.K.A The South Auckland Gaming Club, which was on Saturday.

I got stuck into a couple of games of Kings of War while a bunch of the others played some ACW using the Black Powder rules.

First up I got stuck into Phillip's Kingdom of Men with my Twilight Kin (Dark Elves) and Abyssal allies in my first 2000 point game. Which was a really good size, and think it will be a standard for us in the future.

The battle set, the objective markers down for the Pillage Scenario,  lava pools of bubbling death a.k.a impassable terrain, a few obstacles and a couple of forests.

I rush out my horde of Spear men and some other units to take and hold some objectives down teh right flank and center.

My first running of Hell hounds and some squishy Gargoyles, took on some Spearmen on the left flank...ouch...to spiking for them. 

The Dragon Lord and Dark Lord on a Pegasus eat there way across the table.

  

The Dragon manages to survive the first assault from a large horde of spearmen by the skin of his teeth, and then returns the pain tenfold...Nom Nom Nom ...

 A unit of Crossbowmen hold there nerve and an object only just after a few assaults from a hero.

A pretty good win for my list. I've got the hang of the Kin, but my Abyssal command defiantly needs some work. A fun game which went my way with a few critical rolls at the right time. 

My second game I played Jason, also with his Kingdom of Men. It was Jason's second game of KOW so he only had 1000 points and was still learning the rules, so I put together a 1000 point list of my Abyssal I had with me to try them out. (with a unit of Dark elves to make up the points) Which did't do me any favours with the scenario we rolled up. "Dominate"  Didn't take any photos of the game as I got caught up playing and having fun. The game was a rock and roll affair, as I felt like a pincushion as my units got picked of by his bowmen.

My saving grace was the Efreet and a Chroneas .. both 20 attacks. with those two surviving the hale of arrow to wipe out a few units of Jason's, it came down to the last turn with the Chroneas center stage in the open and Jason's Scout riders taking down the huge Chroneas with the last dice roll of the game.  A hard fought battle for both sides and a good win for Jason.

Looking forward to getting the rest of my Abyssal's put together and on the table for some games.

Here's some of the other pictures of the lad's playing the ACW games.They looked awesome on the table, the photos don't do them justice.

Soooo many models.

So my birthday rolled around again on the weekend and one or two toys turned up in the subsequent loot. Thought I best do a post since its been awhile. With winter closing in, gaming and modeling is replacing my photography buzz that I've been on. Several games of Kings of War at the club and at Mark's has got my fingers twitching again for rolling dice and painting.

 First up was the Kings of War Mega Force for the Abyssal's. Had my eye on this for quite awhile, and they had only just arrived into stock. The clincher for getting it was when I dropped into a games store to pickup some more glue and having a browse around the shop as you do, pulled out a nice big Demon box from GW off the shelf ... $200 for one big Demon ... it's a really nice model ...hmmm or..160 plus models for the same price, which is an entire army for Kings of War. No Brainer.


Then on Sunday while gaming around at Marks, the boys had got me a present. An awesome one at that, they gave me the Dark Elves Kharibdrass (Hydra)

So of course I just had to put the big boy together,,,(yes its a boy, cos its butt ugly ... no way you can call it a girl...LOL)  Decided that I'm going to do me Abyssal army with an Ice Winter theme and also paint the Hyrda up in the same theme.

Putting it together was pretty simple, one of the things GW still does really well is the instructions with the larger models, (shame about the price of there stuff) also decided not to cram the two beast masters onto the same base. That way the Hydra would sit nicely in the middle of the base with less overhang , which makes for nice gaming when units get base to base in combat. I've put on some cut up cork for ice crystals, green stuff a few cracks and he's ready for under coating.

Also finished putting together the 10 gargoyles from the Abyssal force. These are the "Res-Tastic" stuff, kinda plastic and resin. Haven't had many models made of this stuff. Not that nice to clean up, but it's probably just a skill I need to pickup.

My lovely wife also order me a nice headphone holder, but since it's coming in from overseas, it hadn't arrived, so she got a bottle of Tequila as a stand in ... oh bugger, I'll just have to wait.

Warlord Games ... Bless them (or curse them) ..haven't decided that one .. :-) sent me a £10.00 discount coupon, which of course I couldn't resist, so I ordered  the "Beyond the Gates of Antares Rulebook". Since I have all their other games, and love them all, why not add one more.

Now back to the task of cutting, cleaning and gluing all those models...and my Union troops for ACW.

 

KOW - 3500 points

After winning an auction on Trademe for some Dark Elves  (NZ’s version of EBay) I got more than I had expected when the box arrived this week. Some 70+ models, including an old school Chariot, dark nights and some dark horse riders (forget what they were called in the old Warhammer universe)  Most of it was painted to a basic level of the standard colours, and all the infantry was double based which was a bit strange. That is each model was on the standard 20mm base, then two models were glued on top of a cavalry base. Weird, but I’m not complaining since I got more that I was expecting, 80c per model is good in my books.  So the Dremal and a heavy duty craft knife took no time in debasing them. Had to use the dermal to cut the metal witches of the bases. Shields removed and then a quick highlight and a touch of detail. Repaint the shield and glue them on.. bingo ..  couple of hours a couple of units complete. The 12 witches were poorly painted so they will take some work at a future point. The main thing is I now have a good base of models for my Kings of War army and I get to use all my old models.

Already started on the repaint of the cold ones.

I then added to all that after buying Mark’s old army as he wasn’t using them and wanted to downsize his massive collection before he moves house. So I now have enough for some really flexible lists and I can make a 3500 point list and field everything. 

The only thing I'm missing now is a couple of other chariots, which I'm just going to use some hell hounds as proxy's for the moment.

Looking forward to getting the movement trays from Sarissa Precision in the mail soon and getting some more games in.

Kings of War

Jeepers Creepers, its been awhile since I've done a blog post. With such an awesome summer, outdoor activities and my photography have taken up all my time. Been teaching myself video editing, which then lead to sound editing, which is an entirely mind blowingly and complicated subject. (still alot of fun trying to learn about it) Anyways, as autumn is apon us the gaming will come back to the forefront.

So yesterday was the usual South Auckland Gaming club day. And with a few guys getting into Kings of War version two, I dusted off the old Dark Elves from under piles of other boxes and managed to put together 1000 points of mostly painted models.

Philip has been playing alot at the north shore club so we tee'd up some games to teach me and get back into the rules, while the other lads at the club bashed out some games of Lord of the Rings before the tournament next weekend.

I was expecting to get total schooled by Philip as I got up to speed with the rules, and after losing my Dark Nights in turn two without having done anything other than move, I was expecting to get whipped. But as it turned out I did a few things right and turned the game around and won.

The first game was just a straight up annihilate each other (the Kill scenario) , the second game we played was the Pillage scenario.  After a well matched battle where both sides took alot of damage and casualties. The extremely tactical perversion and placement of one of Philip's Hordes meant he held two objectives over my one. In my very last attack of the game I had a chance to destroy the horde unit holding two objectives. So with a fireball from hell and some exceptional dice rolling I fired the horde and won the second game.

Game three we played the Invade scenario which ended up being a very much tit of tat game and we battled it out. In the end I had destroyed most of Philip's  units and he was left with Hero's  and one unit, while he had destroyed most of my expensive units, leaving us with a draw.

  After that Mark turned up with some Goblins that he had rolled up, and proceeded to roll over Phillips Kingdom of Men with some obscene dice rolling....( using my dice damn it :-).

So a very good day for me, and not so much for Phillip's Kingdom of Men. I must say the rule set has been cleaned up nicely from what I remember of version one. I love the fact you cant really get side swiped by obscure rules that you don't know about because of some codex or random rule that neuters you troops abilities. And of course it also helped that Phillip is a like minded gentleman's gamer.

So looking forward to some more Kings of War while I paint my Union ACW army and finish off my Greek Hail Cesar models.

Could really do with a proper list for the KOW Twilight Kin (still waiting for the version 2 list come out), in the mean time think I'll have to recruit some allied Legion of Everblight Ogres into the ranks so I can make up a 1500 point list. Below was my very successful  1000 point list that I used.