Musings on Blog War 7

Well, it's all done and dusted, the smoke has cleared and the cannons have been stowed. So what happened at Blog Wars?

Well, the field was a little tougher than I had expected if I'm honest - yes, I know it's a tournament, but Blog Wars started as a hobbyists tournament. It still is for the most part, but there are a few competitive spirits about it has to be said. Then again, it had been 2 years sine my last Blog Wars, so perhaps for everyone else it has been a more gradual adjustment and was more surprising for me. I would still recommend it as a fun day and a friendly atmosphere... however I'm thinking my crazy project armies may not be taken again.

Yes, those crazy project armies like the Star Wars guard and more recently Pirates Vs Ninjas. Taking an army and deliberately working from a self restricted codex to fit a theme, picking units that may serve no particular tactical purpose other than giving you a chance to do a cool conversion (I'm looking at you Beastmaster and Razorwing flocks) and then entering it into a competitive environment, not the best. The Star Wars guard, with my years of Guard experience, I managed to overcome a lot of their inherent flaws and still finish a respectable mid-table. The Dark Eldar army, being only my second game with that army outside of four games of combat patrol, I didn't have that experience to fall back on. I didn't come last... a victory in the final game, the fight for the wooden spoon, avoided that fate. But 36 out of 38 is still rather poor. The Star Wars guard went in for the wooden spoon fight in the final game of the last Blog Wars, but I stonked my opponent so convincingly I ended up mid table. Not so this time. I kept away from the spoon and managed to put one more person in my wake, but that is it.

This taking of bad armies can best be summed up by the reaction of one of the other gamers, who I overheard admiring my army at the army judging table. Sure there were comments about the cool conversions, but what pricked my ears up was the comment "Wow he brought Mandrakes, he should get a bonus point just for that!" Now given Mandrakes are gorgeous models, I didn't think his "pity point" had anything to do with the look of the army. It's chances on the field of battle on the other hand...

So let's look at those Mandrakes. They're a cool idea, they've got a nice little shooting attack before running in to finish off the survivors. One problem... they need a pain token to use the shooting attack. Something they need to kill something to get. And chances are, by the time you've run these guys through a round of combat, there won't be many left to enjoy the shooting attack anyway. I sent one squad after an easy target in the first game, a squad of scouts. I outnumbered him 2:1, I was an assault unit, all he had in his favour was cover, meaning I'd be Initiative 1 for the first round of combat. I thought I could handle that. Several turns later my 5 surviving Mandrakes fled from the combat having killed 1 scout, and were promptly gunned down by the rest of his army, which by that point had tabled me and were waiting for me with itchy trigger fingers. Once they have a pain token they become immeasurably better, so starting them with a haemonculus would be a good idea. Except if you do that, they now can't infiltrate. Gah! About the best I could do with them was have the Cronos hurt something, toss the resultant pain token to the Mandrakes, then they could fire. That little trick was handy, and if I was going to expand the army I may repeat it... but the Cronos can't infiltrate, so is playing catch up with the mandrakes it is supposed to be supporting from the get go.

How about Khaerendahahahakkahak or whatever his name is? He starts with a pain token, is beefy in assault, and he gets to arrive Marbo esque wherever you like, preferably (according to the codex) with an evil chuckle. I can imagine him appearing, leering at his target, and whispering "I'm going to cut your head off... Next turn." At which point the target simply turns and shoots Kharendekekeheke in the head. Having a unit that is primarily designed for assault turn up and not charge is pretty useless. I mean, at least Marbo (lord rest his redacted soul) would turn up and throw a demo charge... this guy turns up and throws two str 4 ap 4 shots. Woo. If they gave this guy IC status it would make him AND Mandrakes miles better. Have a couple squads of Mandrakes advance on the enemy, when this guy becomes available he deploys and JOINS a squad. They then have a pain token. Sure they can't assault this turn because he just arrived from reserve, but they can then all bloody shoot. Two str 4 ap 4 shots isn't that impressive, but twenty two might make a dent... It would also give Kherwhatsisface some ablative wounds so that, god forbid, he may make it into combat. The only time I got him into combat this tournament was when a unit of Mandrakes tied up some marines for several turns (with pain token from Cronos to keep them in the fight) and I hid him behind a unit of Wyches that Mephiston duly slaughtered... freeing the way up for K-K to go bail the mandrakes out of the shit they were in.

So what about the actual games? Well first up I was against a Space Wolf/Space Marine list that included 7 drop pods... the marine contingent being a Stormraven and Stormtalon. This was over as a contest by turn 2. His drop assault on me took out my ravager (and 3 of only 7 strength based weapons in my entire army) and I remember looking at the situation and thinking "I could maybe just about deal with all of this... IF this was it. But no, there's more..." My overzealous scourges picked off a drop pod for some easy points, the resultant explosion killing four out of the five. Just felt like it wasn't going to be my morning. It was over as a contest by turn 2. My opponent seemed willing to accept my concession, but we had plenty of time and for tournament integrity I played on. I had a quad gun, Kharededeekeke and 5 mandrakes locked in combat with some scouts. I basically hoped I may pick off some scouts for some bonus VP. Couldn't even manage that. Tabled by turn 4.

Game 2 was against Tau/Space Marines, a squad of White Scars bikers providing some fast moving aggression that complemented the Tau gunline nicely. I hoped to get First Blood after putting 10 wounds on a 5 man pathfinder squad, but seeing him pass 8 of the 10 5+ cover saves was somewhat galling. Especially when those pathfinders, that hadn't even had the decency to go to ground, markerlighted my mandrakes and stripped cover from them, allowing them to be annihilated by the Tau firepower. I also hoped my wyches may tie up his riptide in combat (shardnets reducing it to a single attack per turn, the 4+ dodge keeping me alive as long as possible, the agoniser wounding on a 4+ hopefully picking at it... I didn't expect to win, just to stop him from shooting a few turns) but after enduring the firepower from several Tau units I then failed a 6" charge, with fleet. FFS. This was over as a contest by turn 5, but I kept playing again for tournament integrity, hoping that my solitary suriving model may kill the marines in his turn so I could charge his firewarriors and contest one objective in my turn. My opponent was hoping I'd kill the marines in my turn so that his entire army, sat on objectives and pointing their guns at my back, could finish the tabling. It was not to be... I couldn't kill the sodding marine. Was going for the instant kill on the bike commander, the sole survivor. Missed with Smash. Failed to wound with Smash. Missed with Smash. Failed to wound with Smash. Then hit... wounded... passed his bloody Iron Halo save. Which was largely irrelevant as this was turn 7 and game done anyway. So this game was an improvement... I had yet again given away maximum VP, but at least this time I was one wound from being tabled, instead of tabled.

Game 3 was the fight for the wooden spoon. Ken asked after, if I was tempted to throw the game so that I got something, and I said no. I didn't really want to finish last, and I felt it would ruin tournament integrity to deliberately throw a game... particularly just for a spoon and a £5 gift certificate. If the Imperial Knight that was the top raffle prize had been for coming last, then perhaps I may have wavered... which would have made for an interesting game as two armies tried to avoid landing near objectives whilst trying to accidentally give away FB/StW with failed dangerous terrain rolls!

Anyway, this was a good matchup for me, as I had been worried in this mission that someone could blast away my scoring units easily, then sit at their leisure and rack up Tournament points while I had bugger all I could do about it. My best hope was that my opponent would let me get into a nice protracted fight near the objectives with my scoring units. Which my assault marine blood angel opponent duly did. This was an interesting mission with objectives scoring every turn, which meant that by turn 3 I had built up enough of a lead (and reduced my opponents scoring units such) that he didn't think he could catch me. I agree he'd have struggled, though he could have done far better earlier on, when consolidating from a combat he won, he moved for his next turns charge... he should have moved to score a point off the objective, then deal with next turns charge NEXT turn. You're jump infantry, I'm not gonna outrun you! A few times I saw he could have claimed/contested objectives from consolidate moves but didn't. He also left his scouts awaiting their fate at the hands of the mandrakes for far too long... he should have run them out towards the objective. The extra distance alone would have delayed my assault, possibly even long enough for his Sternguard to chew up my Mandrakes before I reached him (they certainly chewed them up AFTER I'd killed them)

Anyway, a few mistakes from my opponent, and some careful play on my part, meant that my bedraggled force of idiots managed to claim one win before they are confined to my display shelf. Good for them. Though it has to be said, I'm glad it was a 5 turn game... he had a unit of Sternguard and half a squad of Sanguinary guard left, in control of MY quad gun. Oh, and a drop pod. I had two immobilised scratched raiders (pointing in useless directions I might add) and one ravage left alive. I think if it had been standard random game length, I might well have been tabled if it had gone to 7 turns. Maybe, maybe not. But I certainly could not have tabled my opponent... 2 turns to kill three targets (totalling 10 marines and a vehicle) with 3 shots per turn. You do the math.

As for the Pirates vs Ninjas, I was a little disappointed that I didn't get ANY votes in the best army contest... but to be fair, I have a cool theme, and am proud of my conversions, but the full title is Best PAINTED Army, and there were other works of a far higher standard than my own, so I cannot really complain. Though it was a little irksome when my opponent for game two was surprised to see my army and asked why I hadn't entered it into the contest... I told him I did and said where I'd put it... and he hadn't realised there was a second table, he'd have voted for me otherwise. Gee, thanks! I don't think this would have made much difference in the longrun, even if several people made the same mistake. It perhaps would have cost the beautiful tyranid army on the same table a critical vote or two (came second by one vote) but to me it would have made little difference. Ah well, I shall have to simply enjoy the many compliments my army got throughout the day.

As for another crazy project? Well despite this one going very long and me having to force myself to finish, the first thing I thought when I did finish was "What next?" Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment. However, I need to study 7th a bit more, there's an Ork codex round the corner, much to decide. And after the pirates dismal showing, perhaps I should design an army first and jerry rig a theme round it after this time? Or at the very least, stick to a codex I know well. Hell, I could even pick an army and just try to do a nice, high quality paintjob on it, rather than going for wacky outlandish pop culture references. All sound ideas in theory, but I know me, I'll probably do something silly at some point. I may try to postpone the crazy urges by painting some UCM Dropzone Commander forces to look like Aliens Colonial Marines, apart from the scout buggies, which will be in the desert colours of Dark Knight Rises (except one which of course comes in black...)

In the meantime, watch this space, and if you can make it to a future Blog Wars, do so. I won't be at 8, too much going on at that time of year, but I can perhaps make 9...

Yarr, weigh anchor!

We be sailin the seas at Blog Wars 7, normal service will resume when the parley be over and the rum be all gone...

Blog Wars Appears on the Horizon...

Ken and I shall be attending Blog Wars in a few short weeks, and he came down to visit for a couple of days for some practice games. We figured we'd get used to our armies and the missions and such.

Well.

I played one mission with my Blog Wars list. It was such a MASSIVELY crushing defeat that I thought it best to break out the guard so that Ken had something to actually TEST his army against, rather than just club baby seals. It's not that ken has done a power list - it's effective, don't get me wrong, but there's nothing hideous about it. It's just that my army... well... kinda sucks. Ken tried to polish a turd by saying Tau were a bad matchup for it, but I think I will really struggle in the upcoming tournament. Mission 3 I think just REALLY is not going to suit my army at all unless my opponent does something drastically stupid, and on the other two missions I am VERY reliant on going first to close the distance so that only half my units die before reaching combat, instead of all of them.

The problem? I can't change my list. I haven't designed this list with Blog Wars in mind, nor any tournament. Hell I barely put any thought into playing games with this army. I have designed it purely to theme... and it does as well as you might expect given that is the case. Now my Star Wars Guard army was also to theme, though 14 years of Guard experience carried me on that one to a mediocre record of wins/losses. Playing an army I played for the first time yesterday... I doubt this will end well.

On the bright side, there is a £5 gift voucher for coming last, and a certificate nd a spoon. So I may not leave the venue empty handed after all...

 

So, onto the list. Obviously I'm not particularly after advice or feedback here, I haven't the time or the models to change anything even if I was inclined to. I'm just putting it all out there. I'll start with the list from the codex, so you can all see what I have. I'll include details where necessary to clarify. Then I'll follow it up with the background info on the army, so that the eclectic collection of units may start to make a little more sense...

The List

HQ - Warlord. Special Character. Duke Sliscus - 150

T - 20 Kabalite Warriors, inc Sybarite and 2 Splinter Cannons - 210

T - 10 Wyches inc Hekatrix w Agoniser, and 2 wyches with Shardnets and Impalers. Squad Haywire Grenades. - 170
ded tran Raider, enhanced aethersails, grisly trophies, flickerfields - 80

T - 10 Wyches inc Hekatrix w Agoniser, and 2 wyches with Shardnets and Impalers. Squad Haywire Grenades. - 170
ded tran Raider, enhanced aethersails, grisly trophies, flickerfields, torment grenade launchers - 85

FA - Beastmaster w power weapon, 2 flocks razorwings - 52

HS - Ravager, enhanced aethersails, grisly trophies, flickerfields - 125

F - Aegis Line with Quad Gun - 100

HS - Cronos Parasite Engine, spirit vortex - 100

HQ - Kharadruakh - 140

E - 10 Mandrakes inc Nightfiend - 160

E - 10 Mandrakes inc Nightfiend - 160

FA - 5 Scourges inc Solarite and 2 heat lances - 144

Total - 1846

For clarification;

Agoniser - Power Weapon that always wounds on a 4+
Shardnet and Impaler - reduces attacks of any enemy in base contact
Enhanced Aethersails - Vehcile can move an additional 2D6" but no shooting or disembarking allowed
Grisly Trophies - A friendly unit within 6" of the vehicle can reroll LD tests
Flickerfields - 5+ inv save
Torment Grenade Launcher - Any enemy unit within 6" is at -1 morale. They must also pass an LD test to assault the vehicle.

Dark Eldar units have Power through Pain - each time they kill a unit they gain a pain token, giving them increasing bonuses (Feel No Pain, then Furious Charge, then Fearless)

So, on to the reasoning behind all this...

Several years ago, Ken and I regularly attended a doubles combat patrol tournament. We did some cool theme armies (such as xbox inspired Halo Marines) and we struck on the bright idea of doing Pirates vs Ninjas. Well I set to it with wild abandon, only for them to change the campaign pack from the previous year... my army was not legal. So we took something else, but I always had it sat on my shelf looking at me. Eventually I expanded the two combat patrol forces into the Pirates working with Ninjas list that I shall be taking to Blog Wars.

Funnily enough, these aren't really accurate Pirates... they are somewhat inspired by popular culture of Pirates/Ninjas, and therefore are rather heavily influenced by Pirates of a Caribbean nature it has to be said...

So, to flesh out the bare bones of the above list...

HQ - Warlord. Special Character. Duke Barbosa - 150
He may have taken the Kings shilling for now, but he has his own designs. He is an expert in poisons and knows how to get to the edge of the world... and back...

T - 20 Men of the Crown, including Staff Sergeant and 2 Weapon specialists - 210
 Provided to Barbosa for his quest

T - 10 Scurvy Dogs mad enough to sail into the abyss! - 170
ded tran The Pearl, full sail and full rum stores! For now... Keep a weather eye out for Elizabeth - 80
The fastest ship around, with a crew half mad according to Mr Cottons Parrot...

T - 10 Souls doomed to stalk the seas in service to Davy Jones - 170
ded tran The Dutchman, full sail, plenty of rum, and a terrifying sight to behold! - 85
Striking fear into seamen everywhere, the Dutchman will ask a question... do you fear death?

FA - Cap'n Jack. Riding a couple of roped sea turtles and surrounded by a whole menagerie of creatures. - 52
With human hair, I might add... from his back...

HS - The Dauntless - 125
Its said she's the power in these waters...

F - The old Sea Wall and Harpoon - 100
I doubt we shall see the likes of the White Whale again, but we may be able to nap something...

HS - The Grox and Maiden - 100
If this place scares you, then NEVER go to Singapore...

HQ - Ronin - 140
He lacks a master, and stalks the shadows in pursuit of his own ends...

E - The League of Shadows - 160
They seek justice... in the most violent way...

E - The Division of Darkness - 160
In much the same business as The League of Shadows and the Conference of Shady Places...

FA - BATMAN. And some friends. - 144
Don't worry, he's given them something better than hockey pads...

Total - 1846

For clarification;

Agoniser - It looks like a big whip!
Shardnet and Impaler - It's a net, looks very nautical
Full sails - They're sails, I HAD to include the upgrade...
Rum supplies - The sight of spare rum will keep the spirits of any pirate up...
Flickerfields - 5+ inv save
Torment Grenade Launcher - The Dutchman is terrifying to behold, therefore... Any enemy unit within 6" is at -1 morale. They must also pass an LD test to assault the vehicle.

Pirates(and begrudgingly Ninjas) have Power through Rum - each time they kill a unit they have a drink, making them increasingly inebriated (Deadened Pain Senses, Increased Aggression, Invincibility... hell, we've all been there)

 The Cronos/Grox and Maiden will be able to hand out Pain/Rum tokens to units if it kills anything with it's "spirit" weapons...

The Cronos/Grox is the biggest issue in the army. It is the centrepiece, and is FAR larger than a Cronos should be, in order to make it look as I wanted it to look. To represent the template weapon I have an ogre firebelly, who has clearly had too many flaming Sambucas. To represent the Spirit Vortex, we have a bartender who can choose to start lobbing Molotov Cocktails if he feels like it. The Firebelly is stood on a table, that is th size of the base the Cronos should be on. I will measure any of my weapons/area of effect powers from THAT table, so as to gain no advantage from my modelling. I will allow my enemies to target any part of the model if they wish, so as to give no possible disadvantage to them. if they wish to play to how the model "should" be, then the firebelly on the table should be a fairly accurate height/size to represent the Cronos.

The ninja contingent was the toughest part of this task. I decided early on the Mandrakes were a good choice, but how to paint something that was half skin so that it looked mostly black was a real tricky proposition for me. And if I did do them in mostly black, would I give them different bases to the Pirates? Would I then make a display board with different areas for my forces to sit on? In the end, with time running out, I won't be doing a display board, so will assume the ninjas have broken from the shadows and are running across the sand with the pirates. Besides, the contrast between the bright base and the dark model looks good...

Anyway, with only 40 infantry an aegis and a Grox and Maiden to paint in the next three and a bit weeks, I'm not sure how many posts I'll have time for between now and Blog Wars... I shall endeavour to keep you all updated, but if I have time to post I should probably be painting!

Pirates Dead in the Water...

I am sad to report that my begging letter to the tournament organisers fell on deaf ears, and the Pirate project is simply dead in the water.

They suggested using one of the Raiders as counts as venoms, but a) I don't want to confuse opponents that one of my raiders is a raider but the other ones a venom b) venom wouldn't fit the whole squad on, making it a pointless transport and c) the upgrades had been modelled onto the model, such as grisly trophies, enhanced aethersails, dark lance... and these would not be available on the venom. It just wouldn't look the part.

Limiting my force to one raider wouldn't work either. The crew of the Dutchman just look like weird mutants without their ship, so I'd have to include the Dutchman... but the Dutchman is easily recognizable because of The Pearl, and without that it's like "What is this some sort of ghost ship?"

I am continuing to work on the models as best I can but it is somewhat gutting. My hope is to complete the project and perhaps find a combat patrol doubles tournament that HASN'T incorporated this random ruling. Alternatively, I go to Bracknell this year and make my case for the problematic rule to be taken out so that we can take Pirates vs Ninjas NEXT year...

To that end, I have gone completely against character and come up with an efficient spammy beardy list. It is completely in line with the rules they have set. The restriction of vehicles was apparently to defeat Necron Quantum Shielding spam. Now given most people complain about Cron Air, QS spam is a new one on me. There are 4 vehicles that come with Quantum Shielding. The Annihalation Barge, Command Barge, Doomsday Ark and Ghost Ark.

Annihalation Barge - it's a HS slot, so self limiting. Only max of 2 in the combined 1000 point force if BOTH players take Crons.
Command Barge - needs an HQ choice to ride it, can't have HQ choices with more than 2 wounds, therefore ineligible.
Doomsday Ark - Ordnance weapon, so ineligible
Ghost Ark - sure you could spam these... but would you want to? They support warriors, and of all the things in the Necron codex, if someone wanted to spam warriors and ghost arks I'd say LET THEM.

Anyway, in their desperation to prevent anything more than one necron vehicle in an entire 1000point combined force, they have put the same limits on everybody else. The only vehicles you can take more than one of are sentinals, venoms, vipers, killa kans, grot tanks, war walkers, land speeders and storm talons. Now from the various tournaments I've heard, there's nothing there that can be spammed to death right? Right?

So, with about 6 weeks to go to the tournament, I now begin 500 points for Winds batch number 2. Ken and I have usually finished respectably mid table even though we've been playing with sub par fun whacky crazy lists. It'll be interesting to see what we can do if we realy put our minds to it...

Yarr harr fiddle de... oh f*$k...

So, there I was, storming along in my preparations for Winds of War 13 when the tournament pack finally came out, and my plan has completely come off the rails.

So yeah, I designed my army with last years restrictions on heavy vehicles in mind, meaning my two raiders plus two squads of wyches and a beastmaster with razorwing flocks was fine. Then the tournament pack has come out, and restricted the field to 2HP vehicles... So pretty much none of the transports, just light walkers and buggies.

You are allowed ONE 2+HP vehicle, provided it doesn't break the 33 armour value rule. That is, one for your combined force. So I'm still screwed.

I've emailed for clarification, because it seems a drastic change from last year. Chimera spam was annoying but you could still deal with it, and vehicles being easier to glance to death now I wouldn't have had a problem with facing them again. One of the more hated armies for small scale games would be venom spam, and that is STILL legal under this tournament pack. It doesn't make much sense.

The tournament pack was pretty clear and it didn't seem like a mistake, though it is a very drastic change from last year, which is why I've queried it. But it didn't look or feel like a misprint... it felt like a deliberate change of the way they want their combat patrol games to work. Which means that the nice little 500 point force I've been working through, am more than half finished, will be illegal. I can try to keep the stuff I've done and adapt the rest but I'm not sure how it's gonna work out...

Watch this space...

We shall need a crossbow, an hourglass, three goats, one of us must learn to play the trumpet, whilst the other one goes like this.

An update to the Pirates project...

The Pearl is ready! I never thought that a sewing kit would ever form part of my warhammer 40k painting tools, but hey ho life throws unexpected items at you sometimes. Here are a few snaps of The Pearl, ready to sail...

Hoist the Colours!

Power Through P... RUM!

This is the day you will always remember as the day you almost...

So, I have finally made a start on my Pirates project.

First up I've been working on one of the raiders, in the case The Pearl. I wanted to make a couple of conversions to this so that it was still easily recognisable as a raider, but also clearly fitting into my new theme.

The first idea I had was to change the main armament. I wanted to put a cannon on board. I had planned to represent this by using the gun option of disintegrator CANNON, but when I realised this would leave me with NO anti-tank in my force I re-thought this. I instead am sticking with a dark lance, but the lance will be a physical lance, fired from a cannon! Presumably it explodes once it's penetrated the target for those who are wondering what effect firing a sharp stick will have against a tank, but still.

Next up I wanted to change the aethersails. I wanted something more western and like a traditional pirate. I have made the mastwork I wish to use, and after I've painted the model I shall make some sails and rigging to go with it. The pictures are to the right and below.

Since these pictures were taken I've added a couple of extras - namely a skeleton as the figurehead and a barrel of rum on deck - my power through pain will be power through rum, therefore instead of grisly trophies (reroll Ld tests in range) it'll be extra rum rations for the same effect!

I also made my first squad of wyches, the crew for the pearl. I used mostly the wyches kit, but also some pieces from the Empire Militia box and the Dark Elf Corsair box.

 As for the sea turtles I mentioned the other day... when confused as to what I could do that would be piratey yet would represent a skyboard... I came up with the idea of lashing a couple of sea turtles and making them into a raft. And while so far I've only secured them with green stuff and superglue, I do intend to make the bond secure, with human hair. From my back...

Anyway, I have modelled the Beastmaster in place too...

So, as my project get's under way, I can merely hope to motivate my compatriot and team mate into starting by insulting his cause...

Ninjas are mean, as proved by the following. Pirates are too cool to do such petty things as the following...

Razorwings...

So, it was my birthday the other day...

Which meant Cake!

Oh, and also some nice people sent me birthday money, including my fellow blogger Firewasp. Muchly appreciated, as it has allowed me to order the stuff I need to make a start on this pirate project I've been itching to get going on. I've ordered two boxes of wyches and two raiders. I already had my sea turtles, which I've started working on (I need to lash them together with human hair... from my back...) and have also got my razorwing flocks. I wasn't too keen on the GW model (the price was rather off putting, and peoples suggestion of breaking it down into several bases to get your monies worth... well, as the ducks in Open Season state, you can't flock with only two. So anyway, for the razorwing flocks I've picked up the models below from Reaper miniatures.

Sadly no more to say just yet, just gotta wait on the bloody postman now... c'mon, c'mon! :oP

Sea Turtles, matey...

The answer to any pirates riddle.

With these arrived, my bitz also, I'm just waiting on my razorwing flocks... and the cash to buy the two boxes of wyches and two raiders I need, then I can start this project. Itching to make a start on it...

Setting Sail for Winds of War 13...

Those of you who have come to read Insane Heroism having read either Ignatum or Need More Tanks will have seen in the past that Firewasp and I have attended events run by Bracknell Forest Gamers. This event was something our friends went to and reported back favourably on, and so we went along. We too enjoyed our experience, and the pleasant atmosphere combined with it being roughly halfway between where we live has made it into our most regular tournament spot for the past few years.

Now personally I like to do theme armies for Winds of War - it's combat patrol, so 500 points let's me play with things outside my usual comfort zone without committing to an entirely new army. It also lends itself well to small, themed forces. Now in one instance, my Star Wars Guard, I ended up having more theme ideas than 500 points could contain... that army currently sitting pretty at a 2k list, but for the most part 500 points is a fun thing to work with, and if you want a reminder of the crazy stuff I've done check back over this fifth edition review...

Of course, one of our best was the team effort one we did for Halohammer, in 2011. That year we picked up the much coveted Fergus Award, and had a cracking time with a fantastically themed force. Well, we want our trophy back...

Now various ideas had been passed back and forth between us, and some of these may get done in the future... from formula one race teams to classic cartoons to other popular films. But it was something someone said in passing down the local GW that finally clicked into place. They said they'd love to see Dark Eldar, being piratical raiders, converted into something more nautically themed. I was itching to get working on this, being a well known pirate fan. But could we do this for Winds? We'd need something to compliment it, and I didn't think Firewasp was particularly interested in pirates... and then the flash of inspiration occurred...

Ninjas

Ninjas and Pirates, natural enemies, thrust together on the field of battle and forced to work together! Needless to say, Firewasp saw the potential in the idea so we set to planning lists. At first we thought that Death Cult assassins would make great ninjas, but sadly there was no way to get them into the list as scoring in a combat patrol, and we couldn't think of a good way to get the Troops of Grey Knights into the list. We toyed with the idea of samurai but felt that we'd have a very small scoring unit, and no transportation for the army at all. As much as we like a theme, we'd still like it to be playable. Which is a shame as the distrsutful allies of Dark Eldar and Grey Knights would have perfectly suited the relationship between Ninjas and Pirates.

In the end we found that the best bet was a dual Dark Eldar force. We'd just use modelling and painting to define the differences, though using different transports in each list would also help. So, the army lists.

Ninjas

5 wyches (1 hydra gauntlet) inc hekatrix with Blaster Pistol and Power Weapon
ded tran Dual splinter cannon venom with night shields (sneaky ninjas)

5 wyches (1 hydra gauntlet) inc hekatrix with Blaster Pistol and Power Weapon
ded tran Dual splinter cannon venom with night shields (more sneaky ninjas)

10 mandrakes lead by nightfiend - because these guys look very manga and kinda fit the feel of the army

Pirates

10 wyches (2 with shardnets and impalers - they look so nautical!) hekatrix with agoniser
ded tran Raider Shock Prow, Enhanced Aethersails (we're pirates, we NEED sails) Grisly Trophies


10 wyches (2 with shardnets and impalers - they look so nautical!) hekatrix with agoniser
ded tran Raider Shock Prow, Enhanced Aethersails, Grisly Trophies and Torment Grenade Launcher

Beastmaster with two flocks of razorwings


I had ideas for how my army works the moment someone raised the idea of pirate dark eldar back in the workshop... my guys wouldn't use power from pain, they'd get power from RUM! Win a fight, have a drink! As they get more sozzled they feel pain less, gain drunken strength and eventually get so bladdered they feel immortal and become fearless. In my army, Grisly Trophies will be renamed Spare Rum Supplies! THere'll be rum everywhere!

The flocks of razorwings are because someone suggested painting them up as parrots. I did at first struggle with the idea of getting a Beastmaster on a skyboard into the theme, but eventually I struck upon some inspiration. Hell, if the pirate ships are represented by raiders, there's no reason other modes of transport can't move with the times too.

The torment grenade launcher is to represent the terror one of the vessels will inspire in the enemy. For I will of course be going with popular culture for inspiration for my pirates, and one of my raiders will be black, the other more ghostly and rotten.

Yes, I plan to go into battle with both the Black Pearl AND the Flying Dutchman!

Anyway, I've started getting supplies from ebay and checking my bitzboxes... just waiting on some money to come through from one of several overdue directions and I'll pick up the necessary Dark Eldar boxsets and make a start.

I'll leave it to Firewasp to explain what he wants to do with his force. I imagine some ninja/pirate banter will develop over the coming months. Hey, we're working together, no one ever said these two would be friends.

But for now, just for a short while, they may not be the absolute worst of enemies. Ninjas are merely rivals to Pirates... much like Acrington Stanley are rivals to Manchester United... ;oP