Playing Dice with the Universe

Overview: 6 week Warhammer Fantasy campaign set in an alternate universe from the Old World. Players start with a 750 point army and each week get 150-250 points of extra units depending on the results of the battle. Players also roll on the exploration chart each week to see if they find any magic items or other relics. Background: There was a terrible time of turmoil and war that apocalyptically shattered their magnificent crystal cities, which were split into thousands of shards that scattered across the lands. Without the wisdom and the abilities of the Hiasars these shards corrupted the surrounding landscape and blighted most of the idyllic lands. On the fringe of this blighted and broken landscape small settlements grew into fledgling nations. The different races adapted to their peripheral settlements and only ventured into the Broken Lands in the desperate attempt to find the much sought after crystal shards. These shards can still harness the elemental powers of the H...

Well it has been a busy month for me. I failed my Uni course and spent a lot of time getting a job sorted. The good news is I have got one sorted and it starts next month. So I have few loose ends to tidy up before I start; one of which was doing the metrics for Kirby's Tyranid army... Kirby's 2k Tyranids 2x Prime w/LW, Bonesword, Toxin, Regen 2x3 Hive Guard 1x3 Zoanthrope 2x Tervgion w/Catalyst, Toxin, Adrenal, Cluster, Scything Talons 2x10 Termagant 2x4 Ravener w/Rending 2x T-Fex w/Rupture, Cluster, Dess Now Purgatus pointed out that working out dead Land Raiders with a 4+ to hit in melee was a bit misleading since they will always go fast to avoid melee damage. As such I have redone all the numbers for AV 14. APC's on the other hand will often stick at 6" movement since they still want to fire guns so I have left those numbers unchanged. So lets look at all the previous five lists again and add Kirby's too. List . DMS . . DMCC . . DR pG . . D...

Salutations everyone, Today was Mantic's second open day. We got into Mantic Towers just after ten o'clock and were greeted by Chris, Ronnie and the rest of the gang. There were a variety of events happening including a tour of the warehouse ( where Ronnie showed us the content of the secret room ); a massive eight player King of War game; painting competition; demo games and of course the shop! We were not allowed to take photos of the new stuff but here are the shots I did get during the day... I love the Dark Elf, if only I could paint this good... Ronnie said during the tour that they are shipping out 60,000 figures a week at the moment. The next edition of Kings of War rules will have three new races - Human, Goblins and Twilight Kin (Dark Elves). They are also looking into the cost of remaking the byssal Dwarf in plastic to see if it is feasible. Orky was guarding the secret room. Inside were the first moulds of the Forgefarther Space Dwarfs which...

Carrying on with looking at the 40k Metrics of different Tyranid lists this time we will analyses a couple of Fex-star builds. Lists and full numbers are below. For those adding up at home remember that the Genestealers melee damage against APC's is capped at 15. Carnifex scores have not been capped as some of it is from shooting. Two Fexstar's and Purgatus' T-fex/Prime Nidzilla comparison List . DMS . . DMCC . . DR pG . . DLR pG . Hulksmash 15.53 52.97 125.42 23.61 Ghostin 26.53 42.28 100.84 29.72 Purgatus 17.79 48.19 94.61 18.52 The Addition of the Zoantrhopes really helps to boost MEQ Shooting and Raider killing power but the list loses significant close combat potential. That said at over 40 it is still an amazing high figure contending with the Orks. Carnifex give us a much better Land Raider killing score than T-fex but are limited to only doing do in melee which means they will most likely have delivered their cargo. Working from just these numbers I would...

Nikephoros over on Bringer of Victory has posted up about 40k Metrics. His idea was to work out sum statistics for the whole army and see how that compared to other competitive armies. There were four scores he has been working out - DMS - Dead Marines in one shooting phase. DMCC - Dead Marines in one assault phase (assuming you charge) DRpG - Penetrating hits on Rhinos in five turns of shooting. DLRpG - Penetrating hits on Land Raiders in five turns of shooting. Those armies he looked at got scores in the following ranges. DMS = 19-22, DMCC 15-45, DRpG 60-82, DLRpG 17-34. As Kirby suggested I have added in the average Spawn of the Tervigon which does help to bolster the MEQ killing of the lists. Since we are generating numbers assuming best possible conditions all Gaunts are assumed to have Poison and Furious Charge from mummy. So lets see how the Tyranids compare... Nidzilla Unit . DMS . . DMCC . . DR pG . . DLR pG . Tyrant 2.5 3.7 17.92 3.47 Guard x3 0 3.56 5 0 Hi...

I have spent the last week painting up the tanks I got off ebay over the last year. They are now all a uniform Ultramarine blue. Next I need to add some detail. Doing so made me want to play my marines again since they had not been out of the box for almost two years. Here is My helper setting up terrain before she goes off to bed and a couple of quick battle reports to keep you entertained. Game 1: 1500 points Ultramarines vs Space Wolves Dawn of War, Seize Ground objectives: Eldar Graveyard (NW)), Webway Dialer (SW), 2 Power relays (NE & SE) In am attempt to get his enemy to turn on each other Vect has leaked the location of an Elder Webway portal to two Space Marine companies. He had also told them a band of renegade marines were looting the area. This resulted in both armies sending an armoured company to secure the location. With the rain lashing down around them in the darkness both forces opened fire, in typical marine fashion, as soon as they saw the lights of ...

Game 21: 2000 Points vs Horde Orks Scenario - Seize Ground (Five objectives), Spearhead deployment So I am busy wrapping up pass the parcels and making party bags for my daughters third birthday so just a quick battle report about my monday night game against Horde Orks. I played a full drop pod army again so nothing arrive until the bottom of turn two. Tyranid Air Assault Hive Tyrant ( Old Adversary, Hive Commander, Wings, TL Devs x2 ) Zoanthropes x2 in Spore Pod w/ TL Deathspitter Zoanthropes x2 in Spore Pod w/ TL Deathspitter Deathleaper Termagants w/ Devourers x20 in Spore Pod w/ TL Deathspitter Mummy Tervigon (Toxic,Adreanl,Catalysis) [Outflanking] Broodlord (Toxic) & 6 Genestealers w/ Toxic Gargoyle Brood x15 w /AG,TS Carnifex with TL Devs x2, in Spore Pod with TL Deathspitter Carnifex with TL Devs x2, in Spore Pod with TL Deathspitter Horde Orks Ghazghkull Thraka Big Mek with Kustom Force Field Da Shoota Boys 3x30 Da Slugga Boys 2x20 Da Grots Da Sto...

Discussing Tyranids elsewhere I wanted to post a link to Jay Woodcock Adepticon list to show that you could do well with something other than Nidzilla. I then spent ten minutes trying to find it! Given that there were also a few other recent army ideas I wanted to be able to come back too I thought I would put them all in one place for reference. Tyranid armies fall into three flavours so I shall look at each in turn. Nidzilla - It is all about taking as many Monsters and Toughness 6 as you can fit in. Lists are build around 6-9 Hive Guard; 2 Tervigons and required Gaunts to make them score; Either a pair of Tyrannofex or 3 Trygons and some Venomthropes. It does not leave a lot of points for anything else. Swarm - The goal here is to have one hundred little bugs swarm the opponent and overwhelm them with more models than they can destroy. A couple of monsters are often included to give some support. Usually based around Genestealers but Gargoyles, Raveners and Hormagaunt...

Game 1: 1500 Points vs Ultramarines Scenario - Capture & Control (4 objectives), Spearhead deployment With the new codex I can no longer add my two squads of Knights into my Ultramarine force. They have to be played as a faction in their own right. Only having 25 Knights I do not have enough Psycannons for a full army so I proxied them with missile launchers and power-gauntlets for the Hammers. I at least had some time this week to to start work on my Riflemen arms so the Dreads were correctly armed. Grey Knights @1500 Castellan Crowe in the Henchmen's Razorback w/ Psi ammo Cardinal Ximinez, Inquisitor; Power Armor, Psychotroke, Rad grenades, 3 Survo-Skulls Mega-City Judges (Warriors) x3 with a Meltagun Alpha Purifiers x8; 2 Psycannons, Hammer, 5 Halberds, Rhino Gamma Purifiers x8; 2 Psycannons, Hammer, 5 Halberds, Rhino Omega Purifiers x8; 2 Psycannons, Hammer, 5 Halberds, Rhino Rifleman Dreadnought x2; Quad Autocannons w/ Psi Ammo Rifleman Dreadnought; Assault...

With a little bit of help from a Space Marine Dreadnought (Colossus) my Mantic Undead graduated from Tomb King school for their first game last night. Since I am not a fan of random spells I went for Khatap the special character with loremaster so I could try all the spells in the new lore. We rolled the Watch tower scenario but as my smallest unit was 21 Archers I could not start anyone in the tower. Barrow Kings @2000 points High Liche Khatap Prince w/ Armour of Destiny, Great Weapon Necrotech w/ Silver Steel Armour, Dragonbane Gem Archers x21 w/ Banner, Musician Warriors x30 w/ Light Armour, Full Command Warriors x30 w/ Light Armour, Full Command Tomb Guard x30 w/ Full Command, Undying Banner Skull Catapult x2 Casket of Souls Colossus w/ extra hand weapon Skaven Army @2000 points Warlock Engineer leading 40 slaves Battle Standard Bearer leading 40 Clan Rats with Warpfire thrower Plague Priest leading 40 Plague monks Grey Seer leading 40 Clan Rats with Warpfire thr...

I am working on a Casket of Souls using Mantic Game's Undead models. Concept A Liche King Keeper is casting spells from the spell book held by the elf slave.  The casket is behind him with the body of a scarified victim whose life blood is powering the spell.  At the front the two casket guard are directing the newly raised skeletons into the battle. I have mocked up my design on a movement tray and it seems to fit well on a 75-80mm square base.  So what do people think?  Do you think when painted up this will be a nice looking Casket of Souls?  You can see the official casket picture above. I have tried aa few different layouts; I think having the slave on the Keepers left (picture 3) is the best. Liche King, dead elf & Wraiths from Mantic Games . Elf Slave from Shadowforge miniatures . Casket, something I purchased so many years ago I have no idea who made it!