Convic and those crazy Swedes

Hey gang, hows it hanging?

So in three weeks, I have my first foray into the world of Swedish comp. A lovely system where you calculate the points of your army twice and every time you fiddle with a unit size you get to recalculate them both again! HOORAY!!!!

I like to dream that the Swedish Warhammer scene has players like this...

It is actually a pretty interesting comp system, which forces some really interesting and tough choices on you as a player, except if you're playing an army which the Swedes don't perceive as great, in which case, go to town, baby!!! (seriously if noone rides the Brettonian Bus to Convic and goes to town with those bad boys, I'll be disappointed...)

Anyway, according to the High Elf draft comp, Phoenixes are stupidly OP, so is the Book of Hoeth, and the Banner of the World Dragon (Oh well, 1/3 right isn't too bad...) but the rest is A-Ok.

With this in mind, and my current obsession with pushing Dragons at people and going "RAAAWWWRR", I have come up with the following:

Prince on Star Dragon

Heavy Armour, Charmed Shield, Golden Crown, Star Lance, OTS

BSB, Shield of Merwyrm, Sword of Might, 

Level 2 - Fire Magic, Ring of Fury, Scroll

Noble on ASF Eagle, Shield, Dragonhelm, Sword of Antiheroes

14 Archers, Standard, Muso

14 Archers, Standard, Muso

5 Reavers, Bows/Spears

5 Reavers, Bows/Spears

5 Reavers, Bows/Spears

15 White Lions w/ Banner of World Dragon

3 Bolt Throwers

Flame Phoenix

This currently gives me a 12.5, mainly due to the self control on the Banner unit (more than 15 models drops me 3 comp pts...)

My main issues are:

• Not sure if I should just give the BSB a Reaver Bow, but does mean they'll definitely have to sit back.
• Level 2 with Fire: This ones tricky; After 5 games with High Magic, I just found it lacked range and options. With Fireball I can sit way back and do the exact same thing. Thoughts? Any other lores to consider?
• White Lions: Again tricky and I found I had three options:

1. as above? small and only a support unit at best, but with 3 BTs to shoot stuff at range they                     might be big enough once combat starts.
2. Bigger unit of 21 and take the comp hit, but lose a BT? Drops me to a 10 ish.
3. Just drop the Banner of the World Dragon entirely and get another 4 Lions and a 14 or so for comp, and ride that comp wave?

Any thoughts are much appreciated.


Oh and before anyone feels like telling me Frosties are better Phoenixes, Flamespyre matches my army scheme better so I'm keeping him. Deal with it!

For the Night is Dark and Full of Terrors

Hey all, 

So following several discussions lately on twitter and from reading forums (I don't actually converse on forums as I gave up trying to fight the masses long ago) I thought I'd post a couple of thoughts on Wargamers and trying new things.

First up, Comp. Yes that terrifying creature of the dark that Wargamers both hate and (apparently) cant live without.

As I find myself in a pretty unique position having played Warhammer for a substantial period in three countries plus the ETC over the last few years, I was going to write up a post comparing different comp systems, but I realised something part way through....

Warhammer is fun!!! Whatever the system and whatever the tournament style, you will have fun if you want to, or you will hate it if you don't. I think honestly alot of wargamers prejudge a certain comp system if it differs from what they usually play under and either won't play it or go in wanting it to fail without ever really giving it a chance. I've seen it in every country and its always the same. I've had this issue with NZers vs Aussie judge style comp (yes, this included me), Aussies vs Hard-comp, and everyone vs no-comp. Yet I can count on one hand the number of players who've actually tried it the other way. (I'm ignoring ETC hammer as that's just an abortion of Warhammer, and not really the point of the ETC imo). 

I personally think they all have their own positives and negatives, and for the record certainly none are perfect. All I can say is that rather than sitting there saying you'd never play no comp or whatever system, give it a shot and then make a judgement. Odds are you'll have fun. Shocking, I know!

The second thing I wanted to talk about is my own attempts to change things up and try something new.

When in doubt, always go with a flying offensive

With the release of the new High Elf book I've decided to go full Attack with my army lists. Under the old book I found that I was very much stuck in defence mode. Pewpewpew for two to three turns killing off chaff and then take down one-two main units if possible while avoiding the worst units like Deathstars etc. While effective, I found that I was getting rather bored with it, so I've decided to change things up.

Over the weekend I ran a Dragon, Eagle BSB, double Phoenix list supported by White Lion block. It was fast and aggressive and frankly a joy to play with, however, my results were average at best. I think alot of it was the list and me trying to force Phoenixes into a combat role they aren't meant to fill, but I also found that the push it forward style I was embracing can be prone to error (and beer...), as I kept miss-reading countering units and leaving myself in bad positions while trying to engage. 

The Highlight of this was missing a Terror check from a Stonehorn which my blocking Reavers promptly failed and let the Gutstar rip into the White Lions I'd pushed up to force the game. At the end of the day, the Banner of the World Dragon does not make White Lions a Gutstar equivalent, I still need to be careful with my units, and just because I'm trying to be aggressive doesn't mean I don't need to put as much thought into things.

Also of note, Beasts of Nurgle are fucking horrible, Banner of the World Dragon or no. Seriously its not hard to block up one unit with Furies and Nurglings while the Beasts seriously wreck the rest of the High Elf army (including Star Dragons when you can keep up +3T on them for two straight game turns...)

So thats it from me for now. Get out there, try something new and and do it with a positive attitude. Life will be good!

A Mild Case of Hobby Schizophrenia...

Hey gang!

Why nothing ever gets done....

So its been a somewhat productive weekend for myself in between bouts of lovely Thai food and Pub visits. On Friday, I received a somewhat delayed order (owing to GW's ridiculous war on resellers) containing a couple of giant flaming birdies, one giant Robot and some fishmen. A beautiful thing indeed. Then on Saturday was the long awaited release of the new Eldar codex, so that was my Saturday morning sorted!

Firstly, I thought I'd show you the current state of my desk. I like to call it organised Chaos. Somehow it works in this state, and I'd clean it but every time I clean a workspace, I end up losing track of everything and struggling to find anything again.

Those with OCD should probably look away

If you look closely, you can see:

Forge World Keeper of Secrets
Partly constructed Riptide
12? Crisis Suits
45 Fire Warriors
20 Kroot
2 Phoenix
Mounted Archmage
One slowly being painted Dragon Lord
1 2nd Ed Metal Landspeeder
and a 2nd ed Lictor

Yes, that is a special case of Schizophrenia!!!! :-D no wonder I never get anything done...

So my main project at the moment is to finish my High Elves to a tournament level, with my Horus Heresy stuff being a slight distraction. The Tau are awaiting an upcoming airbrush purchase and will be my practice army so should be fun!

Onto the progress:

I should have been a hand model....

I started by cleaning up my 2 Phoenix as they are the priority to top up my High Elf army. Lovely kits but having to fill out the wing joints by green stuff sculpting feathers is a bit of a ball ache. The problem I'm having  at the moment is weather to build them both as Flamespyres as they will look best with my army scheme or go one of each the Frostheart are so much better in game. Think it may have to be the former, and Game results be damned! Thoughts?

Headless chicken.

I also built my Riptide over the weekend. Such a cool model!!! Hes in pieces until I magnetise and paint him, if you're wondering.

Tactical Tip: Riptides provide amazing support for Reaver hordes. 

I also put this guy together as I will be needing a mounted Mage to keep up with all the Cavalry.

Kitbashing is easy!

Hes just the Mage off the Dragon, on a Tiranoc Chariot horse that Mike King kindly sold me, but I'm pretty happy with him. His robes will be a nightmare for ranking up in units but looking good is better than being practical, right?

Now just to paint it all. One day...