'Ard Boyz Semi Finals Results

I went down to GMI games in Riverside for the 'Ard Boyz Semifinals.  Here's my list and how the games went.

Grey Seer on Bell
Grey Seer on foot

BSB
Plague Priest with Furnace
Engineer with Doomrocket

45 Clanrats with PWM
30 Stormvermin with WFT
10 Stormvermin with WFT
50 Slaves

5 Gutter Runners with poisoned slings
5 Gutter Runners with poisoned slings

HPA
HPA

My first game was against Daemons.  He had Fateweaver, a big block of horrors and a big block of bloodletters, plus two units of flamers.  I have never played against Daemons before and my opponent was really cool and helped explain what everything was and even offered me useful advice on what to do.  With the wonky Kill Points in the scenario I was massacred, but if it had been victory points the game would have been a tie.

All win/losses in that round were Massacre/Massacred.  The kill points saw to that as giving up 8 for a rare choice is ridiculous.

I was against Warriors of Chaos for the second round.  My opponent only had two level 2 wizards, plus Archaeon.  We advanced and I had him tabled by turn three thanks to my magic and shooting running amok.  I grabbed the Fanatic on the first turn with my Slaves and passed my strength test.  They spent the rest of the game getting away from the action.  He was a pretty cool guy as well and I learned that Warshrines are nice if you roll well.  I got a Massacre with full battle points.

For round three I was on table three.  Have a look at what my opponent brought:

I've got me a tower, it seats about infinity so hurry up and bring your Slann Shack money! *

 Yes, that is a cardboard tube representing the Folding Fortress.  It doesn't even have a roof.  My opponent told me that it has 10 stories.  He said he was going to make it 12 stories but he didn't want to be cheesy.  I wish I was making that up.  This is sketchy rules wise, as the Fortress says it has to be the same size as a Watchtower building, or a similar scratch-built structure.  This is scratch built but it's twice as high as a Watchtower.

His army had 148 Skinks plus a dozen heroes in the tower with two Slann, both with Becalming Cogitation.  They had poisoned Javelins and the flaming banner.  He also had the dagger that causes Fear in Skaven.  Then he had four Stegadons outside the tower.  His whole plan was, "Come at me bro."

I considered holding back and simply playing for the draw.  However, I had to get a massacre if I wanted to place so I decided to try and destroy the building either via Crack's Call or the Bell.  If I could destroy the building I would probably win by a landslide.  If I couldn't destroy the building I was in for a world of hurt.

I advanced everything and after turn 1 I seriously considered turning back and simply playing to a draw. I decided to persevere, weathering the dwellers and the fiery darts of the adversary.  Turn two I rolled a 14 on the Bell and my hopes went up but I failed to destroy the building as I rolled a 3.  On turn three I rolled a 14 again and this time rolled a 6!  The fortress went crumbling down and killed both Slann and 1/3 of the skinks.  That still left a sizable amount, even after getting doomrocketed.

At this point it took us about an hour to determine how to place the unit.  The Skaven FAQ clears it up but he insisted on being within 1" of my models.  The confusing thing was that I had charged them with my Furnace but we decided that they were not in combat because they have to abandon the building which would remove them from combat.  It was a really sticky rules situation.

At that point the game took a major turn for the sour.  After disagreeing strongly on issues for about an hour everything was tense after that.  Because we had taken so long to decide what happened we only got to turn 4.  I didn't break his big unit so I wasn't able to get a massacre.  I got a major victory and got 6th place.

If I had charged the HPA into the Skinks I may have broken his unit, come to think about it now as I look at the picture below.  That's how they came out of the building.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  Furthermore if he had a proper watchtower I would have had A LOT more models alive.

I got me a Slann Shack, it's full of fail and it just set sail!*

*To be sung (spoken) in the voice of Fred Schneider from the B-52s if that wasn't clear.

Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Report!

On Saturday I played in the Fantasy 'Ard Boyz tournament.  Here's my list:

Grey Seer on Bell, Potion of Toughness

Grey Seer, Power Scroll, Foul Pendant

Chieftain BSB, Enchanted Shield, 4+ ward save

Engineer w/ Doomrocket

Plague Priest on Furnace, Plague Censer, Shadow Magnet Trinket, Dragonbane Gem

50 Clanrats

50 Slaves

50 Slaves

30 Stormvermin (Storm Banner)

40 Plague Monks (Plague Banner)

5 Gutter Runners (slings and poison)

HPA

HPA

Doomwheel


I wanted to take a third HPA but I don't have the model.  The Doomwheel has always performed well for me despite what the Internet says, even though in the second game it nearly killed my HPA (he passed all his Regen saves).  I took some advice from Rhellion and improved my original list.  I disregarded some advice to mixed results.  I took the plague censer and though it did put a wound on an big goblin spider thing, I don't think it's worth it.  I didn't take warpstone spikes on the HPAs and it would have come in a lot of use in the first game.  This list was unusual for me in that it has very little shooting.  I did that because of the wonky scenarios.

During the course of the games, my plague furnace got charged by a lone pegasus Paladin with Heroic Killing Blow.  He only hit once, and of course rolled a 6 to wound, taking it out in one shot.  The Monks then pounded him into the ground in revenge, following through to a unit of bowmen, wiping them out, then charging into more knights, but the game ended before we could see the results.  My Monks also took out an Arachnarok spider in one round.  I never managed to get the 13th spell off, my power dice were always really low.  The one time I tried, I used the Power Scroll and rolled a perfect straight which still meets the casting value, but it was dispelled.

Now it's on to the semis, I am going to re-evaluate my list and work in a frenzy this next month to get ready.

Magnetic Screaming Bell Painted

At long last it's complete!  I have not painted the Plague Furnace options yet, but that's coming down the pipeline.  Here's the link to the tutorial on how to magnetize the Screaming Bell/Plague Furnace.

Truth be told, I'm least satisfied with the Seer.  His mantle color is too similar to his fur.  I tried making one a cool gray while the other is a warm gray, but that didn't work.  I may go back over it, but probably not.  Sometimes I just want to be done, especially when I have 100+ Slaves/Clanrats/Stormvermin still in the painting queue.  His handlebars don't quite fit around the yoke, so i have to file them down a bit to make him fit better.

I'm the most proud of the Bell itself.  It's a great bronze color and I'm proud of my ectoplasmic fade on the clapper.

The base is also pretty boring but the model is so big you can't really see it.  It's also usually surrounded by Clanrats so it doesn't matter to me.

Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Skaven Rough Draft List- Need Input

Here's what I've come up with so far.  This is a rough draft for Saturday and I'd like some input based on the missions and what I've got.

Lords:

Grey Seer on Bell
Potion of Toughness (I find he gets chopped up on the first round of combat, this should help with that)

Heroes:

Engineer with Doomrocket

Plague Priest on Furnace
Level 2
Plague Censer
Ironcurse Icon
Shadow Magnet Trinket

Chieftain- BSB
Great Weapon
Talisman of Protection (the 4++ one)

Core:

50 Clanrats
Shields
Full Command
Poison Wind Mortar

30 Stormvermin
Full Command
Shields
Storm Banner
Warpfire Thrower

51 Skavenslaves
Musician

6 Giant Rats, 1 Packmaster

Special:

40 Plague Monks
Full Command

3x Jezzails, Sharpshooter

5 Gutter Runners
Slings and Poison

Rare:

Hellpit Abomination with Warpstone Spikes

Hellpit Abomination with Warpstone Spikes

Doomwheel

Plagueclaw Catapult


Total:  3000 Points

This list isn't ideal, but it's based on what I have.  I am flexible on some of the things I can bring.  Here's what I have in addition to what's listed that I can use to tailor my force.

Engineer/Grey Seer (on foot)
Warlord/Chieftain
Plague Priest
Extra clanrats/slaves (can adjust any unit's numbers, possibly create a new one)
10 Stormvermin
Warp Lightning Cannon
At least 8 Rat Ogres
Bunch more Giant Rats
Warpfire Thrower/Poisoned Wind Mortar

I'm worried that my clanrat and plague priest units may be too large.  I may shrink the Clanrats down to 40 and the Plague Monks down to 35.

Hopefully I'll be able to focus this list and have a solid one by Saturday.

Getting Two Models From One Kit

We all like to get the most model for our money.  A recent trend with GW kits is a multi-kit, a kit which can make several models.  Examples include the Fire Prism/Nightspinner, Screaming Bell/Plague Furnace, and more recently the Plagueclaw Catapult/Warp Lightning Cannon.

In some cases it's easy to magnetize the two kits like the Prism/Nightspinner, or difficult to magnetize in the case of the Bell/Furnace.  But in this case with the PCC/WLC I figured I could go beyond magnetizing it and actually split the kit into two models.  There are several pieces that the kit shares to make this difficult, but with some creativity it's easy to overcome.

As you can see, I removed the Warpstone counterweight.  This is the most obvious shared part of the kit, as well as the two metallic collars for the Warpstone.  I replaced it with the head of a standard from a Plague Monk kit, some jewelry chain and an old plastic gear I found laying around.  I wrapped the chain around a brass rod, stuck the gear on then fit it in between the struts.  I don't think it would actually function in real life, but that's the beauty of Skaven creations, the more slapadash they look the better they are.  If you're wondering how it fires, and other science facts, just repeat to yourself, "It's just a game, I should really just relax."

This has nothing to do with the conversion, but I head swapped two of the crew members with Plague Monk heads.  It's run by Plague Monks, they wouldn't wear gas masks.  They embrace the plague!  I had to shave the neck a bit to make it fit, and it's slightly larger than it should be but I don't care.  It's a walking rat-man, realism is kind of a moot point.  I left the armored crew member with a gas mask, I figured he's the Skryre representative who does all the complicated runnings of the machine.

Here's a close up of the gear/chain assembly.

Now I have left over the entire cannon assembly.  I'm technically missing the support bar which is the firing arm of the catapult, but I don't think the cannon needs it aesthetically.  I just have to mount the cannon on something, convert some crew and I'm set.  I'm considering mounting it on the back of a Rat Ogre, or building a frame out of sprues.  With Fantasy 'Ard Boyz coming up I may end up taking both models which means I'd better get to work on it.  Stay tuned!

Stormvermin with Converted Standard Bearer

I finished this unit up the other day.  I converted the standard bearer to hold the standard from the Island of Blood guy's back.  I just cut out the handle on the old one and replaced it with a matching cut on the new.  It's not perfect but it was quick and I think it looks pretty good.

Look, the drum is a ginger!

I decided not to rust their weapons because I figured Stormvermin would be more likely to take care of them.

Getting these guys to rank up is a challenge.  They've got shields, tails and halberds.  My solution is to use my ersatz Stormvermin to help not take up so much space.  I took the Island of Blood clanrats that have helmets and armor and am painting them up like Stormvermin.  They're considerably smaller and far less detailed but the idea is to intersperse them in a normal Stormvermin unit so they help it rank up.  Plus a Stormvermin box is like $50 and IoB clanrats are cheap.  I'm going to use some plasticard to beef up their spears so they look more like halberds (though in WHFB the aesthetic difference between spears and halberds is not entirely clear).  If anyone raises an issue I'll just say that they're juvenile Stormvermin that are replacing previous casualties.

Poisoned Wind Mortar

This was another exercise in speed painting.  Due to having two children, one of them a fussy baby, my painting time is drastically short.  The aforementioned Sanctum Imperialis represents a few weeks of working in bits and pieces.  This one I got done in three days, once again working a few minutes here, a few there.  Skaven are really nice for speed painting because it's easy to get good results quickly.

I'm sort of pleased with the glassy globes, I could have done better if I had put more time into it.  I think I need to make the clouds a bit more irregular, but as is I think it's good for a speed paint job.

The Mighty Warpfire Thrower

This was something I did to try and paint faster than normal.  All in all I think it took me about two hours.  I could have got it done quicker but I took extra time with the flames as well as weathering the metal.  You can see I attempted some glow effects near the burning rat.

I think I should have mixed some gray with the green for the smoke.  I'll do that on the next one.

Tutorial: Magnetizing the Screaming Bell/Plague Furnace

Being a man of poor means, I have to stretch every gaming dollar I possibly can.  Furthermore, when new editions change some units drastically change in power level.  Just ask anyone who played Tyranids from 4th to 5th.  Ask them where their Carnifex arms are.  Mine are magnetic so I survived just fine.

When I got the Screaming Bell I was determined to magnetize it, no matter how hard it seemed.  It's an expensive kit and both options seem attractive.  I'm not experienced enough in 8th yet to know which is better and there is rarely a better teacher than experience, so I'm going to have to run both to find out.  I tried finding a tutorial online for magnetizing this beast but there were very few, and I knew I could figure out a better way to do it than the ones I found.

This may seem like a lengthy preface for a tutorial, but this is a seriously difficult project.  This is the hardest thing I've ever magnetized, even harder than the Trygon I did earlier.  First off, the kit is among the most complex I've ever put together.  The Doomwheel is difficult as well, but this one takes the cake.  It has supurb detail but also a ridiculous amount of surfaces and delicate parts.  I almost snapped several of the flame/vapor tendrils on the model while cutting them off.  This is not a kit for beginners (and there's a lot of beginners getting into Skaven because of the IoB, but that's a topic for another day).

What makes this kit so difficult is that the kit shares several pieces in either the Bell or Furnace assembly.  Compounding this is that most of these are key weight-bearing joins.  The yoke and arches are the prime examples.  The back platform being reverseable depending on what you're running is a simple fix but the arches and yoke will be the hardest part.  Steel yourself, double check your polarizations and let's dive in.

Above you can see all the different components of this magnetization.

Let's get the hard stuff out of the way first.  Above you see the interior assembly of the arches.  The magnet is held in place with a greenstuff setting.  You want to use a small but powerful magnet.  This one is 1/8" wide, 1/16" thick and N52 grade.  In order to get the magnets in the right place, look below!

Glue a pair of magnets to either end of the struts.  Be sure that the glue has set, I usually reinforce it with a bit of epoxy.  When it sets, put some greenstuff in the arches and place another magnet on either end of the struts.  Widen the opening of the arches a tiny bit so that you can get the magnets in and out easily without breaking them.  Shove both ends in the arches so that the unglued magnet wedges into the greenstuff.  This way you know it's in the right place.  Double, triple check that your bell/censer is facing the correct direction because the arches must go in the correct side.  I messed up on this part twice and had to redo it.

Above you see the yoke.  Take two tiny magnets, the 1/16" ones are perfect.  Chop off a tiny, tiny bit of the ends and replace them with magnets.  They should still be the same distance apart as they were before.  This can be tricky, you should measure twice and cut once.

Before gluing the bell together, you'll need to get the Grey Seer in position.  Put him together except for the hand grabbing the bell.  Notice in the picture above he has the handle, do as I say not as I do.  I had fitted him, glued the hand and then taken the picture.  You'll need to properly fit him before you glue his hand.  Drill two holes in his feet next to the nubs that go into the corresponding parts on the bell.  Don't drill in the nubs themselves.  Put two small magnets in.

Place the Seer on top of the bell, put a drop of glue where you think his feet are, then drop a magnet in.  It will fall into the spot where the feet are.  The second one is trickier because the second magnet will want to go where the first one is.  Once you get both in and the seer stays up just fine, you can glue the bell together, and magnetize the Horned Rat symbol on top of both the bell and censer.

Now let's finish the Seer.  Very, very carefully drill into the handle on each side and place a magnet in each one.

You can't really see it in this picture, but I drilled a small hole and stuck a bit of paperclip in each side where the handle for the Seer meets the bell.  You don't need a full magnet, just enough force to help hold him in place as the feet provide most of the lift.  I then filed it flat and filled in the gaps so hopefully when it's painted you won't be able to see anything.

Now let's test it out.  Here's the censer assembly sans monks...

And here's the bell assembly sans Seer.  To attach this to the frame of the bell/furnace simply slide the pegs of the arches into the corresponding hole.  You can magnetize this part but it's firm enough that there's really no need.  I didn't bother.

Now the easy part.  Glue a powerful magnet on the underside of the front platform.

Put a magnet on the bottom of the brazier and the Plague Priest, be sure to check the fits and all that stuff.

The back platform is reversable.  It is not a weight-bearing part so I used a weird method to get it in.  Most of the weight is supported by the frame itself, I just wanted an extra bit of holding power without any visible point of contact.  I put two magnets in the sides and then added a magnet on the underside of the frame as seen below.

The magnets don't have contact but they still attract each other.

 To magnetize the Rat Ogre and Plague Monks to the platform simply widen the holes on the platform by a tiny bit so that you can fit a 1/16" magnet in.  To magnetize the Monks/Ogre, simply cut off the pegs on the feet about halfway so you have a flat surface.  Drill in a ways, then cut off the rest of the peg.  The hole will be in the right place and you can widen it for a 1/8" magnet.

Here it is as a Plague Furnace, missing the extra censer thing that goes on the arch.  I left if off because it's not necessary and I'd rather save it for other conversions.

Finally, here it is as the Screaming Bell.

Good luck!  I'll do it for you but I charge $100 for just the magnetization, and you have to clean the mould lines.  Yes, it is cheaper to just buy another kit.  That's the point.  I'm not doing this again.

Island of Blood Command Groups

Here's the command groups for the Island of Blood.  There's a lot of pictures and the weather outside was partially overcast with winds so the light was constantly changing.  I was too impatient to wait so the photographic quality is not my usual standard but since it's Skaven we'll just blame someone else for casting Howling Warpgale outside.

I don't know how this guy can hold his standard up.

I particularly like this musician model.  I painted the rat a light gray because it reminded me of the Grey Seer on the Screaming Bell, so this is kind of a parody of that model.

I need to figure out a way to make the markings more visible with the black and white.  I may need to designate a circular space or something.

The hardest part wasn't the quartered scheme but making sure the runes were in the same place on opposite sides.

I used a touch of a verdigris wash that I mixed myself on the bronze bells (and champion helmets).

I've only painted a few of the rank and file troops.