... in which I inventory my workload.

I am resolved now to hit that 50%, and to do it quickly. The first step in this challenge is to take inventory of what I have, and come up with a plan.

I'm just waiting for the glue to dry on the frame for the army board, then it will be 100%. I'll post on that probably later tonight or tomorrow.

Here's where I stand, all models included, even those partially done:

1 Witchfate Tor - top floor
1 Bretonnian Damsel on Horse
1 Hook Mountain Ogre
1 LotR Ent
52 Greatcoat Troopers
10 Vampire Counts Skeletons
1 Necron Destroyer
1 Araknarok Spider
3 Leman Russ Tanks
4 Discworld minis (nobby, Death w/guitar, Carrot, and Moist)
4 "Fighter" Knights
1 Pegasus Knight
31 Knights of the Realm
11 Archers
6 Battle Pilgrims
6 Grail Knights
2 Questing Knights
14 Men at Arms
21 Mouselings
1 Chaos Death Knight
4 Bretonnian Lords
1 Battle Standard Bearer
1 Succubus
3 Orcs
1 Warlord Crom
1 Storm Lord
1 Prince Altharin
1 Warlord Spinetail
1 Chupacabra
1 Zomie Hitler
1 Xanthos Mech
5 "Old" Knights of the Realm
1 Wolflord Marraig
3 Horsemen of the Apocalypse (War, Pestilence, and Famine)
2 Phoenix Hawks
1 Construction Mech
8 Scout Cars
2 Tanks
9 DnD Heroes
1 Wyvern
1 Rotpatch
1 Space Captain
1 Action Jackson
4 Trebuchet Crew
1 Mantis Assassin
1 High Elf Prince on Griffin
1 Elf Mage
10 Sea Guard
10 sword masters of Hoeth
5 Reavers
1 Skaven Warlord
1 Warlock Engineer
40 Clanrats
1 Master Moulder
2 Rat Ogres
1 Warfire Thrower
1 Poison Wind Mortar
12 Dwarf Warriors
10 THunderers
8 Miners
1 Thane
1 Dragonslayer
1 Cannon
3 Crew
40 Night Goblins
20 Archers Goblins
10 SPider riders
1 Big Boss
1 Shaman
1 Troll

*AND* 1 Custom Bretonnian Lord Mod

For a sickening total of:













wait for it.........













412!!!!

Sheesh. I see her point. That's a bit more than I expected. Let's see.... 1/2 of that would be 206.... and if I do that over 30 days, that's an average of 6.86666~ a day... Just to get to my mods.

Let the challenge begin! Painting will start at 5 pm, April 30th. I'll post regularly my progress.

... in which I discuss Bretonnian Tactica - Overcoming the Hordes of Skaven

The swarming Hordes of Skaven I find to be a rather challenging army to face. The strength of the Bretonnian Army is their speed and power. A few elite troops that can close the distnce and cause some real damage to an oppenent. Skaven, on the other hand, operate at the exact polar opposite of that tactic. They too, have exceptional speed, but their strength lies more in their numbers. Trust me, no matter how good your company of Knights my be, and even if they kill a clan rat every turn, overcoming the mass amounts of their numbers is extremely daunting.

I have had the most experience in WFB playing against Skaven armies, and typically, the battle goes to whoever can pull off the first sucessful charge. Their are more ways than charging to assure your success in overcoming a Skaven swarm.

First of all, Skaven's leadership is decptive. Yes, it is low, BUT they get a bonus for every rank they have in their unit. This makes it very hard to cause the unit to break, until mass casualties are inflicted on it. Your best choice here is to hold your knights back. Yep, you heard me. Hold them back. Don't get too eager like a young Knigh Errant to charge into battle. Use your knights wisely, and circle them around to the flanks of the rats, and make sure to stay out of their charge range. A pack of battle frenzied clan rats will give you a really bad day.

Skaven armies typically also come with artillery of some sort, whether it is warp fire throwers, warp lighting cannons, poison wind globadiers, doom wheels... you get the picture. They are gonna toss a lot of ranged weapons at you, so don't feel too bad about doing it back. I find it very usefull to have my peasant bowman target one weapon, and keep firing on it until it is destroyed. Especially warp fire throwers. Template weapons are not very friendly to knights.

On your key charging units, make sure to take the Banner of Chalons, so that opposing units may not use the "stand and shoot" reaction. This will help stave off some of the casualties from charging these type of units.
The Trebuchet is also your best friend here. Against skaven, I definately recommend taking one, but take two if you can afford it! Lobbing very large rocks into the scores of clan rats is extremely effective. If you can cause enough casualties from your trebuchet, the knights will have no problem mopping up the remainder.

Packs of Rat Ogres may look intimidating, but handled right, they go out way more quickly than the skaven player would like. Bretonnian Lords on a successful charge can wipe out an entire unit. Hit them in the flank, and land a lot of hits. I suggest taking a Hippogryph as a mount for this,  the extra attacks from the mount can really make a difference. If you can swing it, Grail Knights are also really effective against Rat Ogres.

Speaking of Grail Knights, the living saints rule is your best friend. Challenge any and all characters you can. Get them locked in combat and out of their unit. Keep challenging. Make them refuse and break, then ride them down with extreme predjudice.

The Grail Reliquae is the best "sandbox" in the game in my opinion. Sure, it's WS is low, and Battle Pilgrims are just about useless, but their fervor for battle (and the fact that because of the Reliquae they are nigh on impossible to kill), they are the absolute best at tying up an oppsing unit, and keeping it out of battle. I will charge my reliquae right up to the biggest thing on the board, like the Hellpit Abomination, and just let it weather the attacks. It keeps that monstrosity off my main force, nd it usually take 3-4 turns to get rid of the reliquae. My goal, however, is not to sacrifice the reliquae, but to tie up that unit until my knights can circle around and charge it in the rear. No matter how big and nasty something is, if you isolate it, and pinch it between the Reliquae and a rear charging unit of Grail Knights, it is going down.

Magic can also aid here. The lore of Life is usually what I opt for, and the Shield of thorns spell is really effective when cast on either the reliquae or a unit that is locked in close combat.

To sum it all up: Skaven are fast, perhaps faster than the Bretonnians. Charging them is still the best way of dealing with them, however, you can not get charged by them. Kiss the battle goodbye if that happens. Challenge their characters, and isolate them from their packs. Use Archers, and lots of them. Trebuchets as well. Men at Arms are just about useless, they will be horribly outnumbered.

The Skaven will outnumber you. You will have to break their ledership, and inflict mass casualties. Your ranged weapons are your first line for this, and try to hit them in the flanks, or the rear if possible.

Let's hear how you deal with those pesky rats! Leave a comment and describe your experience.

FOR BRETONNIA!!!

Two Battle Reports for the price of one!

Despite it being a busy post-holiday week, I did manage to find time to squeak out to the hobby store to get in a game. Surprisingly, I was able to get in two, as I brought both my Armies with me, and people were out playing WFB as well.

We will start with 40K, as that was the first game I got in of the night.
My Necron Force at 1850:
2 Units of 12 Warriors
Monolith
Tomb Stalker
Tomb Spider
The Nightbringer
6 Pariahs
Lord (Destroyer Body, Res Orb, Phylactery, Gaze of Flame) with a unit of 5 Immortals

 My opponents force (as well as I know it...)
Chaos Marines
1 Unit of Bikes with a Chaos Sorcerer
4 Terminators
2 Rhinos
1 Vindicator

 Turn 1 did NOT go well for me at all. I had lost first turn, so the Chaos Marines sped in on their bikes and started laying into the Warriors and the Las Cannoning the Nightbringer. The Nightbringer took a wound and the warriors suffered a few casualties. Thankfully, my Lord w/Res Orb was right there, so I did get my WBB. My Pariahs took some heat from the Terminators and Rhino, but no wounds. The Vindicator fired on the Monolith, with no effect. On my turn 1, My warriors, Lord, and Immortals opened fire on the bike squad, peeling off only one. My Monolith fired on the Vindicator, glancing it. The Nightbringer fired on the rhino, destroying a twin linked bolter. The Tomb Stalker and Tomb Spider fired on the bike squad, then assaulted.
Here's where it got painful. The Chaos Sorcerer had the best initiative, and got to strike first. He landed only 1 wound on the tomb stalker, but that was all he needed, as he was equipped with a Force weapon. He used his psychic power and inflicted the rest of the wound on the Tomb Stalker, taking it down. The Tomb Spider wasn't able to do anything, and was forced to take 5 fearless tests after I failed the leadership roll... So much for those two units....

 The bike squad continued its sweep into my warriors, annihilating one whole squad. The las cannons kept pounding the Nightbringer, and the Pariahs had their hands full on the other side of the Monolith.

 When the bike squad got closer to the bulk of my force, his champion summoned a greater Daemon... At least THIS time I had the Nightbringer. As you can see from the pic, the Daemon and the Sorcerer broke off to attack the Nightbringer, while the rest of the squad slams into the second unit of Warriors.

 The Nightbringer was able to cut right thru the Daemon and the Sorcerer. (Yay C'Tan!) And the bike squad started taking casualties from all the fire it took. I pulled the Warriors thru the Monolith to get them out of hand to hand with the bikes.

 More Daemons were summoned, and the bikes swooped around to assault the Lord and Immortals. By this time I am really nervous, as my Phase out number is looming. On my turn, I pulled the Lord & Immortals thru the Monolith to get them out of Hand to Hand. At least this way they could open fire the bikes. 2 out of my 3 warriors fell, and if I lost one one more, I would phase out. 5 of my Pariahs fell to a good artillery hit, and the lone one began to move in with the rest of my force.

 My Warriors were able to get back up, staving off the phase out for another turn. Unfortunately, I forgot to move the Nightbringer, and he was just outside of assault range on the bikes. So, he stood there, chesse in the wind, and fell beneath the repeated Las Cannon fire........

The group of Lesser Daemons kept on the Warriors, and dropped the last 3, which was enough to make me phase out.


Sorry if this one read kinda funny, lots was going on all at the same time, and I really felt on the ropes after my Tomb Stalker got gutted back on turn 1. The bike unit with the Mark of Nurgle was a total pain. Looking at my own army, I felt that if I would have deployed slightly different, I would have fared way better. I should have swapped the unit of Pariahs and the Tomb Stalker. The Tomb Stalker would have fared better against the Terminators and Rhino, as it would have been able to shrug off most of the hits, and its multiple wounds most likely would have let it get in close enough to do some damage. The Pariahs would have been the Ace in the hole against the Sorcerer, being a Psychic abomination, soulless, and all equipped with Warscythes. Those bikes would have fell faster underneath the warscythes... Oh well, you learn from your mistakes. All in all, a fantastic game against Tony's Chaos Marines.


FOR BRETTONIA!!!!

My next game pitted my Brettonians against a swarm of Skaven. Now, this was not Mr. O's skaven, so it wasn't grudge match round 2, but I feel I fought a bit harder this time. This was a 1500 point game.

My Force:

Lord-Mounted on Hippogriff, w/Armor of Agilulf (Grants WS 10), Lance of Artois (+2 S & Killing Blow) and a Luck Stone (Re-Roll one failed Armor save).

16 Archers

Damsel of the Lany, Lvl 2, Lore of Life

6 Grail Knights w/ Wailing Banner (Unit Causes Terror)

9 Knights of the Realm wBanner of Chalons (Units may NOT use Stand and Fire when this unit charges it.)

9 Knights Errant w/ Banner of War (+1 Combat Resolution)

Paladin Battle Standard Bearer w/Sword of Strife (+2 Attacks) and Seed of Regrowth. (6+ Regeneration).

My Opponent:
3 Units of 20 Clan rats
5 Rat Ogres & Packmaster
3 Warlocks
3Warpfire Cannons

 As normal with my Bretonnians, they spent the first turn in Prayer, to get the blessing of the Lady. The Skaven advanced. Warp Lightning and Warp Fire started to rain in on the Knights, dropping a few of the Knights Errant.
Turn 2, saw the Lord advance, the Grail Knights fail a long-shot charge against the Rat Ogres, and the Knights of the Realm and Knights Errant advance.

 Unfortunately for my Knights, the Skaven then charged. Nothing takes the wind out of a Bretonnian Army's sails like denying them their charge. The Knights of the Realm held their own, however, the inexperienced Knights Errant took enough losses to break. They fled off of the board after failing to reform.
The Lord was uncontested on the Flank of the Skaven, and he launched a devestating charge on the Rat Ogre unit. After the unit suffering 5 wounds to my 0, they broke, and were cut down by the Lord.

 The Grail Knights hit the flank of the Unit of Clan Rats that was engaged with the Knights of the Realm. Being caught between the two units of Knights, the frenzied rats were cut down.
The Archers lobbed volley after volley at the warp fire cannons, as they were damaging the knights severely. One cannon went down.
The left most unit of clan rats then charged the rear of the Grail Knights, with the Lord following shortly behind, charging their rear. The Lord challenged the Skaven Warlord, and they went toe-to-toe.

The Knights of the Realm broke free and charged the second warp fire thrower, crushing it with their charge. The Lord fell in his challenge, but the Hippogriff kept fighting in his place.

When the smoke cleared on the battle field (No turn 6...) Only the unit of clan rats that run off the Knights Errant were unhurt, and the bulk of the clan rat unit was destroyed by the Knights.

We figured out the Kill points, he had 4 of his 10 units left. So, 6 Kill points for me.
I had only lost 2 units, but my lord as well, so a total of 3 Kill points for him.

 Overall, a fantastic game against Matt's Skaven. Though a decisive Bretonnian victory, I have to give Matt mad props for this battle. It was only his 3rd game of WFB, and he did exactly what he needed to do to nerf a Bretonnian Army, take away their charge. Leaving his flank open to the Lord was his undoing... I think he thought his unit of Rat Ogres would have fared better against him, but the Lord is a beast.

I look forward to seeing how this Skaven army progresses, as he builds up his army to higher point value games, it will get a lot nastier with the swarm increasing in size.

Well, that wraps it up. My last blog post of the year. Probably my last battle report for a while too, as the new semester starts up and life will be thrown into chaos. Don't fret tho, the blog will continue, as I plan on focusing more on painting and modeling for a while. I have quite the backlog of mini's to paint, terrain to build, and armies to ponder.

See you all next year!

Rats, it had to be rats...

Mr. O and I have long talked about having our armies face off against each other in Fantasy battle. He plays Skaven, and has been rather partial to the rats for a long time.

We finally got time in to throw down today. 1000 points for a quick game. My Bretonnian army was up for the challenge.

It started off as a three way pitched battle, my wife wanted to try out the High Elves. She withdrew after turn one, so it was down to Mr. O and I.

My Bretonnians had the initiative, and spent the first turn in prayer. His rats advanced on my army and began to chuck their poison wind globes and open up fire with the ratling gun.

Since we had set our armies up for a three way battle, parts of our forces were left way out in the boonies, and were out of combat for most of the game.

Also, having set up long the short edge of the table, my archer's range was not as effective s it normally would have been.

After another turn of positioning our armies, we were finally ready to charge in and get to the hand to hand combat.

The Plague Wind Globadiers took to the trees for cover, meanwhile the Rat Ogres and their packmasters advanced towards my Knights.

My unit of Grail Knights led the charge, slamming into the Rat Ogres in a frenzy. The overrode the Ogres and their Packmasters, and on the next turn met the charge of the Clan Rats that were behind the Rat Ogres.

My unit of Knights Errant kept failing their charges, but kept creeping closer to the Ratling Gun.

My Men-At-Arms made a very impressive long range charge into the squad of Tunnelers that appeared infront of my Bowmen. Despite making such an impressive effort, my Men-At-Arms stayed locked in combat with them for 2 rounds, at which time they broke. The Rats made their saves left and right, and faired much better than I thought they could. It took a charge from the Knights of the Realm to their rear to damage them enough so that they broke. Right here is where I believe I lost the game. My Men-At-Arms were able to reform, but when the Skaven broke, my Knights were unable to ride them down and wipe out the unit.

My Grail Knights were in the thick of it, being charged by the Clan Rats, and taking another charge to the flank by a pack of Giant Rats, AND taking a Ratling Gun in the other side. Oh, and the Clan Rats had an Assassin hidden in their ranks.

Needless to say, my Grail Knights fell to the swarm, and the Knights Errant fell right behind them. That put Mr. O up 2 Kill points to my 1, and their, unfortunately was no turn 6.

Overall, I always enjoy my games against Mr. O, no matter what game we are playing. This was just another example of that. We threw down, put the hurt on each other, and it was a SUPER close game, so neither of us walked away disappointed.

So, yes, Doctor Jones. It had to be rats. They stopped Bretonnia's undefeated record, but I have a feeling if we threw down at 1850 instead of 1000, things would have been different.

Until next time!
When..............

I discuss the Necron List idea I have, Contemplate the Imperial Guard, and do another store Review!

New Gaming Updates

So, looks like the Skaven are getting the first bit of love from GW. The Skaven Army book will be the first 8th edition one published. This weekend, GW shops were running a massive Islands of Blood game, and offering two new sculpts in limited quantities. (Don't worry, you can order them directly from GW's online site.

Prince Althran

Warlord Spinetail

Necron Tomb Stalker

Nothing too new over in 40k land, except for the NECRON TOMB STALKER!!!! Forge World finally made it available for order off their sight for 36 BPS, roughtly $56! Check out the rules sheet at here.

Nothing new over at Reaper or Iron Wind Metals, however, Classic Battletech got a MAJOR upgrade in my eyes. Technical Readout 3085 saw the revamps of almost all of the classic mech designs, bringing the Locust, Warhammer, Archer, Rifleman, etc, into the new era in a competative style. These classic Mech designs can now go toe-to-toe with the newer 3075 and jihad Mechs. What has me absolutely geeked is that they have brought back LAMS! (Land/Air Mechs). Think Battletech + Robotech, seeing as the original designs for the LAMS (and many other classic mechs) were licensed by FASA from Harmony Gold (Robotech). So, originally the Phoenix Hawk really WAS a VS-1F. And, in Battletech, the Phoenix Hawk LAM has stats for the Fighter, Mech, and Gerwalk. The 3085 Phoenix Hawk is obviously different, because of the loss of the license, but the Mechanic and the Idea of LAM's is back! I keep trolling looking for new Mech mini's from Iron Wind, because I am gonna snap any/all LAM's up!!! No word yet, as Iron Wind's site is an abomanation unto Nuggan, but I'm sure it will be only a matter of time.


Well, that's it for now, my next goal is to get some army pictures up, and perhaps remember to take my camera with me for next game.