Playing Dice with the Universe

D&D Quest: Session One A new game of Dads and Daughters playing Dungeons and Dragons.  We have three families introducing the next generation (age 8 -12) to this great game. The Party Arden De Vere, Bard of Apollo: Half Elven Noble who disguises himself as human. Magrig:  A hulking half Orc Barbarian with a fetish for Axes. Fyonar: An Elven Mage who has spent the last 90 years cloistered away learning arcane arts.  Owner of a magical sword. Medrash: Dragonborn Paladin who wants to learn about Druidism. Kara: Human Scout and sharpshooter.  She makes a living selling hides from animals she has hunted in the wilds with her long bow. Icehaven The day started in the northern port of Icehaven.  The mayor announced that the Happy Wanderer had been wrecked off Grey Point and this could be a trading disaster for the city as it was the second vessel to go down.  He called upon the town folk to see if anyone would go and investigate.  Five brav...

Dungeons and Dragons Character: Arden De Vere Unusually I came up with a character concept based on a race and background rather than picking a class to play.  From that I build up the character. Concept A half-elf noble. His father is an Elven Prince his mother Human nobility but he is not truly part of either society. His mother’s affair with an Elven Prince was the family scandal sixty years ago but is now all but forgot. Mother is now in her seventies and Arden's Nephew is the Duke and does not like him hanging around the house. Growing up he learns to rely on his glib tongue to talk his way out of situations and to disguise himself to look Human. He was cloistered away for much of his youth and was taught by priests where he became an excellent story teller and student of Lore. Motivation Arden's MacGuffin is be finding magic to aid his mother and restore her youth. Mechanically that would be getting Wish spell at Lvl 18 and using it to cast Clone. Story w...

FLEE CITIZENS OF THE IMPERIUM BEFORE THE TERRIFYING mediocrity of the hive mind… Between 6th Edition rules and the new Codex Tyranids have not fared well 7th Edition may have cleared up some of the issues but I am not sure it does not just create others problems for Tyranids.  I agree with the designers that synapse should be important for the army however there is no way I am going to play a unit that will kill 40% of itself just because it does not have a big bug telling it what to do! Where does that leave us?  It seems like there is almost only one pick in each section worth taking; it might be possible to make the Prime-carifex blob or the triple Trygon list work but for the most part it is just the same as 4th edition take as many monstrous creatures as you can and add a few support units. 1500 points - Tyranids (6th Edition Nidzilla remix) 250 Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, 2x Brainleech Devs, Hive Commander 230 Hive Tyrant w/ Wings, 2x Brainleech Devs 120 Termag...

The new sixth edition rules allow all armies to take Allies.  The five Space Marine Armies are almost all Battle Brothers with each other (as per the fluff Dark Angels and Wolves are not).  Since this means they treat each other as friendly units there is little reason to not take allies (points permitting).  There is a slight cost since you have to take a HQ and one more troop unit from the second codex in order to unlock an extra Heavy, Elite, Troops and Fast Attack slot. The only restriction is you can not use each others Transport vehicles; thinking back about all my 5th edition games though I can hardly ever remember a game where a unit got back into a transport, let alone one that was not theirs originally. Black Templers Still having an old 4th Edtion Codex Templers have some good options with 6 man laz-plas units and Terminators with Tank Hunter.  On the flip side they still have 50 point Rhino's so they are the only army that would kind of l...

A little late to the party but I finally got to read the new Vampire Counts army book. I thought it was about time I got back to writing something so I thought I would start with my thoughts on the book. Overall it has some nice additional optionals including a Master Necromancer who can lead your army so you no longer need to try and balance points for a warrior-wizard Lord. Vampires got a small boost with the ability to occasionally, 1 in 6, heal if they kill something in melee. Skeletons & Zombies got cheaper, wolfs now count as core although Ghouls got more expensive. Unlike Tomb Kings Undead still get to march (if within 12” of the general). Which given there lack of shooting is something they really needed. Magic I find it quite amusing that the new lore attribute for Vampire magic is the same as the lore of Life; you get to heal a wound for each spell cast. Vampires already have seven spells so they did not gain any more. Although this does mean that Vampires th...

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...