Empire Tactica Part 10: Outriders

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You sit down to relax and enjoy the Empire army book and it's difficult not to notice these guys. With 3 Handgun shots per turn EACH its difficult for your eyes not to light up. And the models a beautiful!

You also have the option of giving the champion the sniper rifle upgrade allowing him to pinpoint enemy characters (very useful versus Tomb Kings particularly).

Like the Greatswords, tactics articles in White Dwarf will tell you that these guys are great. But like the Greatswords, I haven't had much luck with them.

Why?

• Multiple Shots gives them a penalty to hit that makes them quite unaccurate
• There's only five of them (in my unit) so they die fast
• They tend to only get a couple of turns shooting before they get charged
• Despite looking like a fast attack unit, they can't move and shoot so there's often a dilemma about wasting a turn's shooting to redelpoy

My call on these guys is to deploy them amongst the shooty contingent of my army and get shooting.  

Sticking them on the flank allows them to tackle small flanking units single-handedly (in theory).

Basically I have no idea. I know what NOT to do better than anyone. That's kind of my speciality.

Watch this space. If I suddenly get some inspiration then I'll post more.



Empire Tactica Part 9: Mortar

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The mortar is the horde-army killing workhorse of the Empire army. Its large template is great for hitting large numbers of enemy models and excels against such dastardly foes as Skaven (boo hiss). If it doesn't misfire. Or get charged.

Tactics here are based on two things:

1. Fire it at the largest units and if possible, in the centre of the enemy battleline. Large units mean more hits and centre of the battleline means scattering is more likely to go in your favour.
2. Place the mortar to maximise the number of shots you can get off during the game. Don't limit your success with this beauty to one or two turns. Keep it firing and keep it killing.

By the way, I base all my war machines on these round bases now, aiming for a mini-diorama feel and I think they look amazing!

Second by the way... If you don't glue the mortar itself on it's possible to switch it over to being a cannon for games whern you'll be facing giants, knights, monsters and other tough multi-wound nasties.

PART TEN

Empire Tactica Part 8: Greatswords

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You may notice that these sweet babies are made up of official Greatsword models alternating with some Sisters of Sigmar I had kicking around - a pleasant combination to add interest and use some otherwise rarely used models.

Now every Empire Tactics article I've ever read says these guys are AMAZING. But they're lying.

Seriously, I have never EVER had any luck with these chaps.

EVER!

They have Great Weapons and Stubborn so these are the guys you send against heavy infantry. Their Great Weapons have the crucial bonus to hit and armour penetration to deal with tough enemies in a way lesser units will struggle with.

Fine in principle. But why does it never work?

Part of the problem nowadays is that in the current rules, charging doesn't mean attacking first and everyone gets to strike. In previous iterations, these guys had a much better chance of doing damage, preventing the enemy attacking back.

Stubborn is used to hold losing units in the battle, preventing their Leadership dropping on Break Tests. Placing them near your General and/or Battle Standard Bearer will make that even more likely but the other way of looking at it is that because they're stubborn, they can afford not to be placed centrally if you don't have enough space.

I'm going to keep trying with them and one day maybe they'll turn around.

But I'm not holding my breath.

PART NINE

Massacre on the Old Silk Road

Tim (Daemons of Chaos) vs Gill (Tempestrians)

Rachel d’Astatic brought her horse to a stop and sniffed the air, raising her slender hand to halt the column of Tempestrian knights behind her. There was something very wrong here, even if she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was. Bearing the army battle standard, Ford galloped out of position and came up alongside her. “What is it your majesty?”

“I’m not sure,” replied Rachel, the Merchant Queen of Tempest Falls, “but I feel a sliver of ice chill in my bosom as though part of me is responding to something up ahead, lying in wait. Send word back along the line to deploy the archers from their carts and unhitch the catapult. Move it into position on that rise.” She pointed. “I saw a watchtower in the trees a hundred yards over to the right. It looked deserted. Order a battalion of archers to garrison it and to watch ahead for enemies.”

“Yes m’lady.”

“Where is Methuselah?”

“Ranging wide on his hippogriff, scouting the forest.”

“Sound the horn,” said Rachel. “Summon him back.”

“Yes m’lady.”

Ford cantered back toward the column but Rachel did not watch him go. She was thinking about Methuselah and of the doubts she had felt lately; the questions in her heart about this man she was married to, who she was meant to love, that had no answers. More and more lately, she couldn’t quite recall the moment when they fell in love; the reason that had drawn them together. And another face loomed darkly in her dreams that she could not identify – a tall pale skinned man with strange flickering eyes.

She shook her head to clear the ruminations. This was no time for such luxuries; not when danger loomed; especially when their mission was so critical.

The road ahead led to Malko, capital of New Sylvania, the capital of the Empire’s presence in the Border Princes and the only ally they had within reach in the war against the encroaching darkness in the south. This trip was to be the first meeting between Rachel and her New Sylvanian counterpart, Marcus von Drak. If talks went well, and she anticipated they would, then their realms could join in a great chain of resistance against the encroaching tide of evil. Together they might be unstoppable.

But what was this sliver of ice in her chest that boded ill? What grave forces lay in wait ahead?

Rachel had no idea.

And then they came. All along the edge of the road up ahead and to the right, the foliage crashed apart as a huge throng of Daemons came surging through: Bloodletters, Horrors, Flamers, and flitting through the dense cloud cover, the unmistakably terrifying sight that could only be a mighty Bloodthirster.

The Bloodletters led the charge, sprinting down the slope onto the road ahead of them, at the forefront of each fork of their throng, a huge Juggernaut, each of them a mount for a devastatingly powerful Herald of Khorne.

At Rachel’s command, the archers let fly but a flitting shadow at the edge of her field of vision made the merchant queen pause. Crossing the road ahead of them and ghosting between the trees on the other side, zooming round to her force’s flank, came a cluster of revolting, but also somehow beguiling Seekers of Slaanesh: Daemonettes mounted on sleek steeds every bit as fast as a flock of birds. They were in danger of ripping the flank out of her advance party and Rachel cried for her men to take them down as a priority.

Arrows flew, taking down one of the Seekers as they vaulted the undergrowth but they were simply too fast. They charged into one of the archers units, hacking them down and sending them fleeing with their vicious claws, then crashed through into the Greatswords that Marcus von Drak had sent to guide the Tempestrians into Malko.

Rachel directed her knights into position to take down the Seekers of Slaanesh and overwhelmed, the Seekers succumbed to the weapons of humanity. But too late, Rachel realised the true purpose of the attack. The strike of the Seekers had been as much distraction as gambit. The Bloodletters were on the battle line! The Tempestrians had missed their chance to bring them down at range before they closed!

The Bloodletters hit the knights as they galloped forward to meet them, screaming their hatred into the darkening air, with the Heralds at the fore, pulverising the front line of the knights and driving them back. Cries of fear broke out in the otherwise stalwart men. This assault was like nothing they’d faced before. The swords of the Bloodletters cleaved their armour like it was immaterial. Roaring, the Bloodcrushers reared and dropped, stampeding their enemies. In the centre of the battle, the diabolically infamous daemonic creature, Skulltaker, whirled, swinging his sword in a vile whirlwind of decapitation.

Rachel tried to steady her horse, calling for the men to remain calm; tried to steady her own nerves sufficiently to draw upon her sorcery. Twirling incandescent Flamers, their forms constantly shifting, sent torrents of fire into her bowmen. She could see them faltering, preparing to flee, but to their credit, they held firm.

Where was Methuselah?!

Then the cry came from his mighty Hippogriff, and plunging from the dense cloud cover, Methuselah plummeted down on the battlefield, hit the ground for the briefest of seconds, then charged at the cascading Horrors cavorting towards him. Before he could reach them he was engulfed in flame from all sides and Rachel screamed his name, all doubt in her feelings for him gone. The daemons were on him, scratching at his steed; almost ignoring the king himself in their haste to rob him of his mobility. The Hippogriff went down and suddenly Methuselah was lost from Rachel’s sight.

She was terror stricken. For the first time since this war had begun; with all their victories; this was the first time that she’d felt real panic. She had long sensed a deeper power within her, begging to be tapped, scratching at her subconscious; needing her to give in to its seduction. And never before had her power been this sorely needed. She started to summon it, not realising she was connecting to the Chaos Vein deep beneath the Border Princes and her hair began to lift as the power shot through her body.

But that gave her pause. Was this really the worst it had ever been? She had a memory... She had a memory of fighting alongside a tall man she could no longer picture; fighting for her life and the very existence of her beloved kingdom. But why did those memories falter? Why couldn’t she remember such a pivotal battle? Who was this dark figure she fought with and why did she appear to be battling against Methuselah in this vision?

She shook the memory as the last of the Empire Greatswords was hacked down, drawing on this forbidden and lethal wellspring. The dark magic of the Chaos Vein surrounded her and she drew it into her hands to be sent forth as flame. The kiss of Chaos weedled in, trying to taint her, but her purity and determination protected her without her even realising. Before she could get an inkling of the rot that was trying to seep into her soul the gargantuan Bloodthirster, Greater Daemon of Khorne took to the air and sailed toward her.

All around her the Tempestrian battle line was in tatters. Almost everyone was dead! The Bloodletters sprinted up the slope toward the watchtower, engaging the guards the archers had posted at the door and they tore through them as easily as they’d torn through the rest.

Methuselah was nowhere to be seen, still buried beneath the writhing mass of the horrors as more Bloodletters and a huge Daemonic Beast closed in to finish him off.

The Bloodthirster glided across the road, there where it was widest, roaring in exultation at its victory, circling its great brass axe.

Rachel unleashed the dark magic at her command, blasting it at the oncoming Greater Daemon, screaming as she did so. There was no one left. There was only her. But the fire did not stop it. If anything, the Bloodthirster thrived on it.

It’s great hooves came down on her horse’s neck, crushing the bones and knocking her to the ground. She struggled on hands and knees to get up as it punched its axe into the steed’s flank and ripped it casually in half down its length. Then snorting, steam issuing from its burning nostrils, smoke pouring from its back, the leviathan strode after her, even as she crawled away, her head ringing, desperately trying to focus her mind; to cast some kind of incantation of defence if not attack.

The jolt to her head had sent her mind reeling but despite the imminent danger, she wasn’t seeing the here and now. She was seeing some other place; some other time. The tall stranger was lifting her into his arms. She was on the verge of death; her life slipping away; and he was weeping – this man whom she could not place. He was weeping as he kissed her gently on the forehead then carefully exposed his neck.

The Bloodthirster was on her and suddenly the world was only a series of terrible sensations.

Its massive clawed hand was round her lower leg.

She was swinging up into the air.

Cries of misery and death and bellows of inhuman victory were all around her.

The sky was turning red. The clouds were boiling.

Something inside her cracked.

There was heat everywhere.

Then the grip on her leg released and she was thrown through the air.

Higher and higher.

Trees passing below her madly spinning body.

The road.

More trees.

Rachel tried to reach out but her body was flailing out of control.

Falling.

Faster and faster.

Until the trees came up around her too fast.

Far far too fast.

Nothing she could do to save herself.

All of them were dead.

And she couldn’t even—

Empire Tactica Part 7: Knights

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Knights are great - especially with a character in tow. They can really kick ass. I've seen them go through unit after unit, their only weakness being the time it takes to get back into position for the next charge.

But beware. I've also seen them perform poorly, not doing anywhere near as much damage as I hoped and ending up in a drawn out wasteful combat.

Choosing when and where to strike is the trick. My personal view here is to place them on the flank and hold position until a charge is possible. Charge forward, smash the enemy then maneouvre ready to support the infantry charge you've also been holding back, hopefully getting in from the flank.

Should you pursue fleeing foes? If you don't then they might bite you back a turn or two later. I would not pursue if their Leadership was less than seven as long as reforming set me up for something really good next turn.

PART EIGHT

Empire Tactica Part 6: Swordsmen

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Ah the great Empire moral dilemma: which troop type to go for.

Halberdiers give the strength and armour penetration bonus; Spearmen fight with an extra rank; and Swordsmen get extra Weapon Skill and Initiative.

You may guess from the picture above which one I went for.

But why?

Well it was almost a random choice, I tell you. I might have gone for spearmen if not for the fact I have a lot of these in my Tomb Kings army. In the end I was liking the hand weapon and shield defensive bonus as well as striking earlier and more easily. Time will tell if I made the right choice (they've seen very little combat as I've tended to hang them back).

At the end of the day, we have to trust that the points cost is calculated farly across the units. After that it comes down to: 

• Which weapons we think look best
• Whether we're going for a defensive stance (spears)
• Or against armoured foes (halberds)

I'm thinking Swordsmen are the middle ground versatile unit. At least that what I'm telling myself. 

But what to do with them?

With half the army forming a gunline, my view here is to position them with other combat elements as far forward as possible. Hold them in place until a charge is viable. By this time the shooting elements will have weakened the opposition. Charge in with as much support as possible and do your darndest to roll well!

PART SEVEN

Empire Tactica Part 5: Handgunners

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Though not as good as Dwarf Thunderers, these guys are one of my favourite Empire units. But why are they always a little disappointing in the game?

Deployment with misile weapons is pretty crucial and the challenge here is to maximise shooting while not letting your combat troops get in the way - deploying to one side helps here. Causing panic tests and stripping ranks off incoming enemy units is the goal here. Combat is going to happen eventually - the Handgunners job is to get it more in the Empire's favour. Bear in mind though that with only a couple of rounds of shooting there isn't much chance to achieve that.

One challenge is whether to deploy forward to get the enemy in range sooner or back to slow them down in reaching you. Another is that if you send your combat troops forward too early, the enemy can gang up on them and once in combat are immune to your shooting.

What to do... what to do?

My current stance is to deploy them forward alongside the combat troops. Focus fire on knocking ranks off incoming units and forcing panic tests. Keep firing on one unit until the panic test point is reached then move on to another. You're unlikely to wipe them out but doing this will weaken their combat resolution even if they pass the panic test.

One thing I am a great fan of is the Hochland Long Rifle. This allows your champion to shoot at individual models rather than joining in the unit's shooting. Shooting at enemy combat characters is often disappointing here but good results can certainly be gained when targetting wizards - particularly undead characters whose death means the army crumbles.

PART SIX 

On the Painting Table: Spider Goblin Great Shaman!

My Spider Goblin army is finished at last!!!!!!

And just in time for my first proper game with the assembled army! Man this is going to be good!

But what was the last unit I needed to complete? Here he is! My Spider Goblin Great Shaman!

Now this, of course, is the Shaman off the Arachnarok Spider. I decided not to use the Spider as a mount (more on why in a future article) but I still wanted him on foot, and wanted to maintain the possibility of using him on the Spider if I felt like it in the future.

If you look closely at the picture above you'll see how I got away with it.

I drilled a hole in his butt and another one in the piece of shale I used on his base. I glued a section of paper clip in the base and painted it black - job done!

Now he can either be used on foot or balanced on the front of the Arachnarok Spider:

No glue required!

Now, just wait, the Chittering Horde is coming! Soon... Very soon... My Spider Goblin army will take to the tabletop in all its beautiful glory!!!!!

Empire Tactica Part 4: Warrior Priests

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For anyone who has seen one of the Warhammer Mark of Chaos intro movies from the computer game, Warrior Priests are lovely for their imagery and background.

Now as yet I haven't had a lot of success with them, but here's why:

I always forget to use their Prayer abilities. Or the Hatred. I ALWAYS forget that. In fact, the biggest challenge with Warhammer is remembering all the little detail like that when the heat of battle takes over.

With the new magic rules meaning Bound Spells are no longer "free," having Warrior Priests and Wizards in the same army can eat into one another's Power Dice pool so don't go too heavy with both or you'll end up with nothing.

Because the Bound Spell prayer abilities of Warrior Priests are so easy to cast and they don't have a magic level to add to the attempt, they tend to be easy to dispel too so don't rely on getting a lot of these off. Several of them Remain in Play. The key here is to lead up your Priests with these effects as they advace so that they're in position to use them when their moment comes.

The prayer that benefits the unit they join, making it Unbreakable, is cool. Consider here building large units around the priest. More men mean more benefit considering it affects the whole unit, regardless of size. That's more men to benefit from the Hate granted by Righteous Fury as well.

PART FIVE

Empire Tactica Part 3: Battle Standard Bearer

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Here's my best piece of advice for this or any army.

Take a Battle Standard Bearer and stick him in the middle.

With the current ruleset, Battle Standard Bearers are amazingly useful, allowing you to reroll any Leadership test. I tell you, the number of times this has saved my bacon... And (annoyingly) my opponent's bacon. And the plastic GW model is also really nice! I often think of the Battle Standard Bearer as an inferior character in combat but there's no reason he needs to be and can be tooled up and utilised like any other character. Putting him right next to the general maximises the joint Leadership benefit they provide (though can lead to a dense army that's less intersting to play with).

As I mentioned under the Empire General tactics entry, another option is to have each character protect a different half of the army: Leadership boost for one half, a reroll in the other.

PART FOUR

On the Painting Table: Seekers of Slaanesh!

Well taking a quick break from the Empire Tactica (and from building my garden decking), here's a look at the latest unit to roll off my painting table. Seekers of Slaanesh!

Like all cavalry, these took a terribly long time to paint but they are beautiful. I took the controversial path of painting the Steeds of Slaanesh to match the flesh colour of my Daemonettes. I wasn't sure during the process but now they're done I love them! They're my best looking Daemon unit.

I used Bronzed Flesh, Ogryn Flesh wash and then Bronzed Flesh and Elf Flesh highlights for them. Notice I've gone for the 40k rounded bases but slapped them on a movement tray so I can use them in both games.

Not only are they nice models but the rules in-game are cool as well (10" movement is so nice to have on cavalry models!). You can hear more about how useful they are in my next battle report. I'm still in mid-game with my wife though so it'll be a few days yet.

Empire Tactica Part 2: Empire Wizards

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Empire Wizards are maybe some of the best wizards in the game. Why? Because they can chose from any of the standard lores! They can do anything!

But don't go crazy. The magic rules in the latest edition of Warhammer are pretty restrictive on the number of wizards you can get away with. There are only so many power dice to go around and I think a fourth level and a second level is about where you want to be aiming. Any more and the third wizard tends to hang around, wondering why he was invited considering nobody's passing any dice his way.

I love my wizard on his flying carpet. But at 50 points for the carpet (from the Warhammer rulebook), is he really worth it? I don't think so. For me he's more of a cool factor thing. I've cut him from my recent army lists.

Choosing the magical lore can be tricky. I recommend having a good thorough read of all the lists and settling on the one that has the most spells that match your playing style. It's a shame spells are chosen randomely. I'm a huge fan of the Transformation of Kadon spell; but I don't really like the other Lore of Beasts spells. The number of games I've chosen Lore of Beasts hoping to get it and ended up with some other crap...

Maybe I think I could run my wizard forward and cast enhancement spells on him to make him good in combat. But then, what if I fail the roll or it gets dispelled? That's the problem. I keep choosing that lore in the vague hiope of accomplishing something but I never do.

The Lore I've had most experience with (and has never let me down) is the Lore of Fire. It's simple, straight forward and easy to use. There may be some sneaky stuff in the other lists but give me good old-fashioned blasting power every time! And the Fulminating Flame Cage is ace for annoying my opponent by freezing one of his units in place at the risk of them being damaged.

PART THREE

Empire Tactica Part 1: Empire General

Well first of all, this is going to be a series of Empire Tactics articles with a difference: the major difference being that I have never won a game with them.

Who am I to dare suggest tactics, you may ask? Well who indeed. But while blundering my way across the war board to failure after failure I have at least managed to gain a firm understanding of what DOESN'T work. Hopefully at least these articles will provide food for thought rather than prescribed answers.

But the articles will also be a showcase of my Empire army. It isn't huge but I do like it. Empire is one of the few armies I don't let anyone else use. For some reason I just really like using them.

We'll be looking at the units one by one but today, let's start the characters off with the:

Empire General

The Empire General provides a good bit of Leadership bonus for troops within twelve inches, but beware... Putting him on a horse is a major bit of double-edged swordage. Because for the Leadership bonus you want him to be in the centre of the army but on a horse, in a unit of knights, that isn't going to be where he ends up.

I'm inclined to think here that there are two options: firstly to use a general on foot in the centre of the army, sharing a unit perhaps with the Battle Standard Bearer. You can then have a captain on horseback leading your knights if you like and he's no longer restricted by where he goes. Or second, have your general providing a 12" radius for his Leadership on one side of your army and the Battle Standard Bearer providing his rerolls on the other. That way, the army needn't be too compact and you still get the protection you need.

When buying equipment for heroes there's always an interesting set of choices. Certainly there's some pretty good stuff you can get without dipping into the magic item section at all, in the way of great weapons, shield and armour. Think carefully about how many extra men you could get instead of paying for that ultra-expensive magic item. What is your tooled-up character going to achieve and will he make his points back?

Plan his mission ahead of time (especially if you know what opponent you'll be facing) and tool or don't tool him up as necessary.

PART TWO

On the Painting Table: Chaos Daemon Flamers of Tzeentch!

Well, to celebrate losing my job today I thought I'd post some pictures of my latest Daemon unit - Flamers of Tzeentch!

I have to say I love these models. And they kick ass BIG TIME in the game! I'd love to have 50% of my points on these dudes. They're amazing!

You'll notice I didn't stick the arms on most of them (and filled the gaps with multi-purpose powdered filler). This was because they look pants with the arms and good without. Although I kept the arms on to represent the unit champions.

I painted them Liche Purple, Warlock Purple, Pink and White with two shades of yellow, orange and Blood Red for the fire. They were very quick to paint mostly using my characteristic damp-brushing technique.

The beauty of these babies is that you get two units for the price of one - for 40k and Fantasy. I've modelled them on round bases as they're Skirmishers and so they look better in 40k. And cause they look better that way anyway.

I'm really looking forward to using these in my next game (and I have a couple of games lined up). First though, I'd LIKE to finish off the two kinkiest units in Warhammer: my Daemonettes and Seekers of Slaanesh!

Tactical Review: Massacre in the West Woods

MIKE:

You’ve got to love those dirty rat bastards.  Three times I have been installed as Skaven Commander and three times I have hammered the Empire into submission.

Luckily my tactics were spot on, the plague furnace flanked by two good units and the Gutter Runners employed no more that 12” from the Empire’s backline.  As soon as I had placed my scouts Tim was instantly worried, even though I couldn’t charge on the first turn I was able to move them within 6” to unleash the deadly throwing stars, meanwhile the deadly Plague Furnace creaked forward with the support of the Clan Rats and Storm Vermin. 

I had to risk the catastrophic effects of the deadly 13^th spell at the end of turn two as things were getting away from me.  BANG 17 Greatswords dead, Tim’s tactics were left in ruins and I was left with picking of the remainder of his army.  Easy pickings for my mighty rats…..

TIM:

Well!

I do try with my Empire and this time I tried my hardest ever. And I feel that I did very well. I got the balance right on the combat troops and the shooting ones. Coupled with my wizards I got the whole army working together exceptionally well. Slowing down and cutting his Clanrats down to size while I routed his Stormvermin set me up for a lovely three unit charge on his main Plague Furnace unit.

Nothing here was bad. All of it was good and I don’t think anything was wrong with any of that.

As I said in the battle report, it was the Gutter Runners and the 13^th spell that ruined it all.

These Gutter Runners have done me down several times in a row now and I need to come up with a viable counter-strategy just for them obviously. I guess a unit in place to strike back at them or slow them up.

There wasn’t much I could have done about the Thirteenth Spell. It was very luckily cast and basically ruined my carefully orchestrated three-unit charge.

So what would I have done differently?

I’d have moved my Wizards out of the overrun path of the Gutter Runners. I saw that coming but one round too late. They could then have engaged them with magic and seen them off (perhaps). This however still would have left the Clanrat unit out front unopposed.

I think there were too many characters needing power dice (which I’ve said before) and I would say too many characters. I need to paint up a lot more infantry. And I’d also like to experiment with detachments. Apparently these are the only way to go with Empire.

We’ll see.

Meanwhile I’m going to pat myself on the back. I’m not there yet but my tactics here were a hundred times better than in previous game.

One day soon I’ll start winning… You’ll see.

Massacre in the West Woods

Mike (Skaven) vs Tim (Empire)

The war with the Skaven had gone on for weeks in the West Woods, deep in the heart of the land of New Sylvania. Unable to push through to their own lands, the Skaven and Empire forces had fought one another time and again, but though the Skaven general’s wily tactics and enfilading troop movements had driven back the State Troops more on almost every occasion, the proximity of reinforcements had prevented the Skaven from making any headway, trapping them in hostile territory.

Now things were going to change however.

Marcus von Drak had drawn up a carefully conceived strategic plan and more men than ever before were in place for the assault on the travelling Skaven army. Still relatively untrained, the Empire army had long been ill-prepared for full scale battle beyond the city walls. He had been optimistic in the past but now had a more realistic view of their abilities. Still, he was confident the time was right. His commander had gained the necessary tactical acumen to win.

This time it was going to be a massacre.

With the Skaven horde coming on, a huge Plague Furnace at its centre, the Empire army split itself into two parts: a gunline comprising Handgunners and Outriders along with a pair of powerful wizards, and an assault contingent: Knights, Greatswords and Swordsmen, bolstered by powerful heroes.

As soon as the ratmen came within range, the gunline opened fire, whittling away at a huge regiment of Clanrats and the screeching Plague Monks. A flurry of deadly fireballs set the monk robes alight and the pestilential vermin were incinerated in swathes. Generating a Fulminating Flame Cage, the arch wizard surrounded the advancing Clanrats in fiery bands that made them freeze in panic.

The Kinghts charged forward, crashing into the opposing Stormvermin and sending them fleeing then manoeuvred into position to charge the Plague Furnace in its flank. Meanwhile, the Empire infantry held ground, ready to strike forward simultaneously with the Knights, cracking the almost impenetrable nut of the Plague Monks.

The plan was perfectly executed and was working perfectly.

Only two problems had remained unforeseen.

For once again, the Skaven Gutter Runners had slunk into an enfilading position to the flank of the Empire gunline. And as they closed in, the Outriders horses paced fitfully, their unit leader unsure whether to turn and face them or stick to his orders.

He stuck to his orders, and that proved their downfall.

The Gutter Runners charged into the flank of the Outriders, pulling the brave men down from their horses. They cut them all down in a matter of seconds and their momentum carried them through into the flank of the Handgunners, trapping the Wizards before they could flee.

Suddenly the perfectly conceived plan showed a perfectly executed flaw.

And that wasn’t all. The second problem was yet to be revealed.

Generating vast magical power and ricking everything, the Plague Priest carried on the open berth of the Plague Furnace let fly his insidious sorcery and suddenly, all but five of the Greatswords were instantly mutilated, their bodies ruined by the Skaven’s Dreaded Thirteenth Spell.

The infantry still charged but what might have been a certain triumph was suddenly teetering close to an epic disaster.

If this wasn’t bad enough; with the Empire Wizards being cut down, there was insufficient magical protection in place to prevent the other Plague Priest from magically imbuing every single Plague Monk with filthy poison oozing from their fangs. As the fumes of the gigantic Plague Censer spewed out over the men of the Empire, all started to go horribly wrong. The Swordsmen, Knights and remaining Greatswords fell to the ground, raked with festering claws or gagging on the fumes. The horses of the knights spooked and turned, despite the cries of the Captain leading them and as they galloped away they were run down by the Stormvermin who had slunk back to the battlefield.

The remaining men were insufficient to mount any kind of credible attack. They continued to strike back at the vicious ratmen but they took more casualties than they gave out. They were suddenly losing and losing quite horribly.

The heroes of the Empire fought on but even they couldn’t withstand the unrelenting assault of the filthy vermin and one-by-one they were cut down until finally only a single warrior priest remained.

He fought on as all the surviving Skaven started to surround him, even then refusing to surrender hope, determined to battle on until all were dead around him.

But there were too many. He could not win. And soon he was as dead as the rest of his men.

Marcus von Drak’s plan had appeared perfect and without the dastardly ingenuity of the Skaven it just might have been. As it was he had been sure there would be a massacre.

Only now, at the end, it became clear just how right he had been.

How to Base Models: The Arachnarok Spider

My good friend Neil has been nagging me for a while now to produce a tutorial on how I base my models. So here we are.

I think basing models makes such a big difference to how they look on the battlefield and aspiring toward having realistic good-looking models is one of my top priorities.

I've gone through many different trials for getting the perfect base colour over the years but it's only this one I'm really happy with. Even so, it does fail in one crucial way: It isn't transferrable to a snow-covered board. That is a bit of a shame.

Still, here's how I go about it, using the nice big base of the Arachnarok Spider as an example. Obviously the same principles apply to smaller bases and I follow these exact same steps then.

Here are the materials I use. In the big tub is Bird Grit. This is a product available in pet shops and Wilkinsons that is amazingly cheap compared to GW gravel (about 80p for a bag bigger than the palm of your hand).

In the smaller tub is fine beach sand.

Using black paint I paint the base then place it in the tub and push the gravel onto it. Sometimes it doesn't stick that well. In those cases, adding another layer of paint can help or using the beach sand to fill the gaps.

With models that rank up I don't do the edges of the bases but with monsters, 40k miniatures and anything not going on a movement tray I do. I find it profoundly weird that the established convention is that people don't do edges. I blame the random decision of somebody working at Games Workshop in the early eighties. To my mind a model looks more realistic and blends into the table better if the edges are done. It's a no brainer.

It's important to leave every stage long enough to dry or it messes things up badly. What I often do is use a drying lamp - basically a desk lamp pointing down at the miniatures. This speeds things along. A nice summer sun in the garden also works, as we can see from these pictures.

When the gravel is dry, paint over the whole thing with black paint.

Now you can get through a heck of a lot of black paint doing this. Did you know black paint is GW's top-selling item? But I have a solution! Go to your local DIY shop and buy a tin of Blackboard Paint. This stuff is identical to the stuff GW sells and you get a lot more for your buck. Trust me. You'll never look back!  

Next up, give a thick wet-brush of Scorched Brown across the whole base.

From this point on things speed up as we're not applying too much paint at once so drying times are cut.

The next thing you need to do is dry brush patches of Bestial Brown across the base. Leave some of the Scorched Brown showing through.

When that's dried, do the same thing with Bubonic Brown - a rough overlapping series of patches that allows all the colours already on to show through in small areas.

To finish it off, simply apply another layer of overlapping patches, this time using Bleached Bone.

At this point your base should be a mottled mix of patchy colours ranging from black through darker and lighter browns up to yellow and cream. It think it looks quite interesting and certainly blends very well into the warboard if that is painted following the same steps.

 

Project: Chaos Dwarfs - The First Complete Unit!

So now at last I have a (small but) playable army for my Chaos Dwarfs because I have finished painting 26 Chaos Dwarf Warriors using Mantic's Abyssal Dwarf models. 

 

After painting the characters gold I went back and upgraded the warriors I'd already done to the same colour scheme and I'm really liking it.

You'll notice I used some Chaos Warrior, Dwarf and Marauder parts (coutesy of my good buddy Mike) to spruce up the command models. The Mantic parts aren't that great for that but combined with these they look excellent.

Now, to be rules compliant I would need to split this unit in two to play a game which I might do. On the other hand, if I delay playing with them for a while, I might have time to paint up a second unit before I do.

I'm VERY excited about reaching that objective, because points-wise, I'll then be able to get my Lord on Great Taurus. Just wait until you see that model! It's amazing!

Tactical Review: Massacre at Dipswallow

MIKE:

I’d never played Wood Elves, even when I first collected Warhammer way back when, and to be honest I wasn’t sure what to do.  Should I stay back and ping my arrows at those stout little fellows or should I dive in for some good old fashioned hand to hand combat……? Well I did neither with my Glade Guard or Glade Riders.

In the first round of Dwarf shooting they decimated my Glade Guard and took out a few Glade Riders for good measure so that should have given me an idea of what to do.  This warning went unpunished and neither the Guard nor the Riders managed to get into combat all game.

My Treeman and Dryads were excellent.  I used them as a battering ram through the Dwarven ranks.  My Treeman killed (or for the sake of the campaign seriously wounded) Morgrim. The Treeman with the Ariels’ Blessing spell granting regeneration was an excellent combination. The lord on the mighty drake was awesome, hacking his way through the Dwarven crossbowmen and Thunderers.

Although my Wood Elf battle plan was very poor, luckily for me, Tims’ rolling was pretty poor after the first round of shooting.  His cannon misfired and blew up which was a relief and he had no luck in combat.

The pros for me with a new army were that Glade Riders and Guard aside, I thought my tactics were pretty much spot on.

The cons were that the magic was very weak and the initial set up of the army could have been better. 

Still victory was mine and the massacre of the dwarfs will live long in the memory…

TIM:

Well yet another massacre under my belt! When I lose I do tend to lose big.

Mike had been rather worried for some time about the rules for Morgrim, suspecting he was too powerful, but he need worry no more. Morgrim got his ass handed to him by that Treeman! I have to say, Treemen are amazingly tough – they really are! It was a big mistake to go up against it alone. Maybe avoidance should be my top strategy there.

My warriors, Thane and Battle Standard Bearer did okay for a while but that Treeman did them in too!

One thing I did do right and that was to bring the miners on behind the lines. This was a tactic I’d seen work well with Mike’s Skaven Gutter Runners in the past. Against a gun-line army it is fantastic but with an army that moves forward it isn’t so good. I tend not to take them against assaulting armies.

That dragon!

I must admit I have a problem with big monsters. They always seem to be my nemesis. And once again I’m left feeling a little bewildered. I was down on points in this game again so I just didn’t have enough men to fight my battles for me. It would be interesting to analyse how many uneven battles like this lead to disaster. It’s nice to have them to make the map movement worthwhile but in-game it can be a bit of a challenge.

Two things that did do well were my Gyrocopter and Quarellers: mowing down Elves by the dozen. My Thunderers didn’t do so well though. Mike was wise to them and didn’t come close enough for me to blast him!

As for the cannon! Once again – it could have really done a lot of damage… but didn’t. Boom.

And something for Wood Elf players to chew on… The Athel Loren spell that gives Regeneration (Ariel’s Blessing) did a massive amount to keep that Treeman alive. If it hadn’t been for that, maybe Morgrim would have at least weakened it enough to allow the warriors to chop it down!