Summer Rampage: Western Khador Contested Ground

I got to play my first Summer Rampage 2008 game in via ninja lunchbreak! From last night's results (which is officially Day 1 of this year's SR), it seems Khador has taken Global Priority. And since Arvin will be playing his Magnus Agenda this time around, I got to pick where we'll be fighting. The choice was more of whimsy since I just asked what territory was still being contested (plus I wanted my first game to be in Khador as much as possible, good thing we had Global Priority, hehe). We rolled off and got Map 20 (the one with the wheat field and hedge rows) and Contested Ground for the scenario, but Arvin ended up getting first turn.

Arvin claimed he made a mistake by not putting focus on one of his three Nomads as his forces advanced forward. He had his Trenchers dug in on my left flank and his Steelhead Halberdiers hugging a hedge row on my right flank. Magnus and his three Nomads made a cautious but direct advance on the inner left territory.

With Vlad's Signs and Portents, I got to down a good deal of his Steelheads (which included their unit leader) with one of my Winterguard Mortar but Arvin made his Command check, and the Halberdiers stood their ground. The other Mortar Crew snagged some dug-in Trenchers, too. My Demolishers ran forward, providing some semblance of a screen for my Greylords. Both my Kodiak and Juggernaut took positions with running forward.

On his second turn, Arvin took to running his Nomads forward, jockeying for a good feat turn later. His Trenchers pulled back, continuing to pepper my Juggernaut with combined ranged attacks. The Halberdiers took to the inner right territory, maybe to lend support to Magnus or just a free bait. By doing so, he opened an opportunity for me to score a Control Point if I placed Eiryss there, but she'd be far from hitting Magnus if I did.

Before he ended his turn, Magnus popped Hit and Run - his three Nomads, laughing off the supposed free strikes from my Demolitions Corps, ran straight and positioned behind my Demolishers! Now all three can't be charged by the Men-O-War and my Juggernaut. Magnus finished off my bounding towards the outer left territory, taking concealment behind some hedges.

On my second turn, I had Vlad put a focus point on his Juggernaut, cast Signs and Portents and Blood of Kings. Vlad then advanced towards the Frenzied Nomad behind his line (Magnus has a spell called Frenzy), copied the knockdown ability of Magnus' Mechanikal Arm and brought the mercenary warjack down, doing some damage to it.

The Juggernaut on my left flank ignored Magnus in front of him and advanced towards one of the Nomads, snagging it with Critical Freeze and chopping off some metal from it as well.

The remaining Nomad had a Demolisher engaged, which gave it some defense bonus against the Greylords trying to Ice Cage it. But with Signs and Portents, the three spellcasters managed to freeze it, too. With Magnus' two Nomads frozen and another knocked down, MOW Demolition Corps with Back-swing under Signs and Portents destroyed two that were in the inner left territory.

Eiryss took the outer right territory, taking one of the Halberdiers with her death bolt. The remaining two were finished off by the Signs and Portents Mortar Crew. By then, three of the territories were all mine.

On the third turn, Magnus trotted over to the Juggernaut and broke it easily. But seeing the numerical advantage my Vlad already had on him, Arvin promptly tapped out.

WIP Long-overdue Behemoth

I've bought this Khador Behemoth since Mang's shipment came in way back a few years ago. I had included it in several attempts to repose and convert it to how the artwork for it is in the Apotheosis rulebook. In the end, I decided to scrap the ideas and go for default. I'm no Golden Daemon painter. I'm no tactical expert. I just aspire to be somewhat capable in both areas though.

It's almost done, even with the experimental step back into forced highlights. Hopefully I can finish it within the week. I'm working on the skills required to make it better before I work on Karchev.

OMFG GW

My brother got me the latest army book for Daemons of Chaos from Australia. Straight up, I'm disappointed with it. Sure, we got new stuff and yeah, all we have to do is adjust. But if adjusting means that I have to buy several more boxes of models that cost 3K Php (each for 10 models inside) in order to make the army work, then that's just stupid.

The same can be said for the Vampire Counts army book. A big chunk of my troops were Zombies with which I used the old Zombie Bunker tactic. Now with the new army book, Zombies have not only dumbed down to S2 T2 and STILL strike last, if they win combat this time around they DO NOT pursue the enemy! Now, you will need Skeletons and Ghouls to be able to do that. And again, that means BUYING more boxes of said models. Sure, using Zombies can still be worked around on. How? By BUYING several new Corpse Carts!

But since I wanted to make a Daemon army more than a Vampire Count army, this rant will be about those wretched denizens of the WFB Warp. And since I'm all for looking at both sides of the coin, let's start with THE GOOD:

- Daemons have new models that can be used both in WFB and 40K (except for the 40K Soul Grinder). Their abilities come across both systems pretty good.
- Khorne Daemons have lost their Frenzy (except for Skarbrand)
- Bloodthirsters (as well as the other Greater Daemons) can now be customized with Daemonic Gifts
- They still retained their 5+ Ward save
- Bloodletters now have Killing Blow
- Basic Core Troops (Bloodletters, Plaguebearers, Daemonettes and Pink Horrors) have a basic cost of 12 per model, which makes for easier math

And now for THE BAD:

- No more Unholy Icons
- No more Exalted Daemons (what about that conversion you did for Scylla? That is now an expensive paperweight)
- Bloodletters may have Killing Blow and high WS, but still at T3 and no armor - I doubt they'll survive crossing the table
- Bloodcrushers are now pathetic T4 with W2 and 4+ armor save. I don't care if they can hit hard. If they can't survive crossing the table, taking a Rare unit of 70 points per model will just lead to frustration.
- Chaos Furies do NOT count towards your Core Troops. So you really NEED to buy more Core box sets.
- Flesh Hounds may be W2 but are NOT Fast Cavalry anymore. Again with no Armor Save, meh.
- Your survivability would generally depend on your 5+ Ward Saves. And more models. Again, leading to force you to buy MORE new boxes.

I'm pissed because it rendered my current build utterly USELESS. Buying is alright, but with their current price, it would mean I won't be seeing any WFB action for the next few months or so. And we all know during that time, GW may come out with FAQs and errata that screw up your current build by then.

I'm so pissed, I might go ahead and do my Angelic Legion project. And if anyone complains about it, they can just kiss my big, fat ass.

Looking at it, spending 3K Php would either get me a box of 10 Plaguebearers (which by itself can't be used effectively) or Warmachine's Fenris (which will totally give me something new and exciting to play with). Looks like a no brainer to me. Debate about it? My fat ass.