Ogres Part Four of ?: Special Choices...

Greetings,

This post is going to be about the two Special choices that I use for the Ogre Kingdoms and why I didn't choose the third.

Scraplauncher

This was the latter of the pair of specials that I use in my Ogre army. It has had issues with misfires, but that is a theme that all Ogre weaponry has.

The main thing I like about this model is the sheer absurdity of the model. It's a stone thrower on a chariot that does a large template, strength 3 with killing blow. This is bizarre... With accurate guesses you can really disrupt the opponents plan. They can potentially kill things like large units of low toughness troops or even heavily armoured knights. The potential to kill knights by rolling a 6 to wound.

The main issue is the misfire chart for it. In the first game on the first turn it misfired, had an axe/cleaver/spiky thing to the crotch of the rhinox/ stegadon and then he charged into my general's unit and took two wounds off of my Bruiser with impact hits. Ho-hum...

As far as the GW model goes, I really don't like it and it is horrible to put together. The ones that I've seen over here aren't impressive from a model standpoint.

So when I was starting my Lizardmen army I picked up a brace of stegadons and didn't attach the howdah on one of them. After messing about with my bits box and sprue for several hours, I made the construct below. While I was making this I was going on a bit of a Lustria theme bender. My Ogre Hunters have the crossbows from the different weapon upgrades for the stegadon, and I also made a Lustria theme Maneater. This was a throwaway thing as I though that it would be pretty useless all things considered. I have been pleasantly suprised.

Provided I don't roll a misfire it has been doing really well recently. Killing 7 High Elf spearelves with a single shot, after hitting a unit of 20 that had the Shield of Saphery on it. It may not make it's points back, but it scares people.

What I really don't like about it is that you can only have one of these per unit of Gnoblars. Trappers or Fighters, but it is a very annoying restriction.

Leadbelchers

Leadbelchers are loads of fun.To be honest I'd take them anyway just for the throwaway line in the army book of;

"Boom, hur, hur..."

That single line has done more to enamour me to these Ogres. They are one of the most fickle units in the game. With a poor roll on the artillery dice you can explode the entire unit, but with an average roll your opponent will never under-estimate them again. I have managed to evaporate entire units with these guys. Managing to get the best out of these units at the moment is a bit of an issue.

When you fire the unit, you MUST do nothing with them AT ALL for an ENTIRE turn. No moving, combat, shooting as you reload the cannons. This is the main drawback with the unit. They are still equipped the same as naked Bulls (Ogre Club), but they do have light armour, for all the good it does...

At the moment the only thing that I have been really doing is having 3 Leadbelchers and one upgraded to a bellower. This gives them the chance to always attempt to rally at Ld8, since they can never be reduced to 25% and the bellower will be the last model removed. This also gives me a maximum damage output of 30 S4 armour piercing shots, hitting on 4+. Unfortunately the worst roll can kill the unit twice over... But for 175pts for that unit of 3 they are a nice unit to put on the flanks. If something charges you they are going to be damaged at least, turned into mist at best, maybe laughing at worst when your Leadbelchers explode.

They aren't as reliable as most players would like, but they are really nice in my experience. They have done more damage than not.

Yhetees

I don't like the model. Simple enough to start with. I really don't like the fact that if you take them, they are expensive, can't be buffed by Gut Magic and they are faster than the rest of the Ogres in the army so they are normally a very fragile glass hammer that will get killed due to them ignoring terrain.

I also don't like the fact that if you take the Greyback Pelt for your characters then you can't have the Yhetees in the army. So the only way to have a character supporting the Yhetees means you can't have them... Yeah... That's smart.

Aftermath

I think that there are maybe going to be two or three more posts on the Ogres. Rare, Items and Big Names then talking about the army in general. Maybe...

Regards,

English Pillock

Miniatures Zone, Dolgoji, Seoul, South Korea

Greetings,

This is going to be about one of the gaming clubs that I occasionally frequent while I'm over here in Korea.

Miniature Zone

Location: Follow these crude directions...

1) Hop onto line 6 of the Seoul Subway heading towards Bonghwasan ( 봉화산 ) and you want to get off at Dolgoji ( 돌곶이 ).

2) Once at Dolgoji you want to head towards Exit 7 and/or Imunno ( 이문로 ). Go up the steps, no escalator I'm afraid, until you see the sign in picture 3.

3) From here you want to walk for about 200 to 300m (220 to 330 yds) down this side of the street. You don't need to cross the road or turn any corners. You should walk past a Lotteria fast food eatery, a KB Bank and a HiMart electronics store, in that order. If you don't you are lost and I can't help you there...

Sorry...

Once you have walked past these three easily recognisable buildings then you will be close to the side street that Miniature Zone is down.

Once you see the Standard Charter Bank on the corner of a t-junction/ intersection across the road from where you are standing, you are near the side street that you need to turn down. When you reach the following store (note this was its appearance as of 28.05.2010/ 05.28.2010/ 2010.05.28), turn right down the street.

4) It should look like the picture below.

5) You want to walk about 30m (33yds) and Miniature Zone is in a building that looks like the below photo. There is no outward sign that there is a gaming club down there, but....

There is a mark of the noble geek fraternity that we all belong to...

6) You need to walk down two flights of stairs, surrender your soul, pay the ferryman, open the door on your left, and you are there.

Upon my entering the gaming club for the first time I nearly wept from seeing the sheer number of boardgames that were unopened and lying upon the shelf above the television, but it is the rest of the place that takes your breath away.

It is a nice and open club. It doesn't feel like a dark, dank place like some I've been to. There are three 6 x 4 tables there with huge amounts of terrain, lockers if you are a member, an airbrush and an extractor fan, a modelling area with masses of paints, tools and other shinies for the hobby. There is also a computer with army builder and a printer, if you need a list sorted out. There are masses of chairs dotted around the club, but beware; some of the seats aren't secured! I have become a victim of two of the chairs that are like this.

They do have a selection of Games Workshop and Privateer Press rulebooks, if people want to peruse or borrow them. There is also a large selection of Warmachine and Hordes models to borrow, if you wish to.

The guys who frequent this club are mostly Korean, but due to the nature of the hobby they do speak and understand English well. So I wouldn't be afraid of not being able to communicate when you are gaming there.

They mostly play Warmachine and Hordes there at the moment, but I have played Warhammer there fighting the Korean gamer who invited me to game there.

The fee is 5000won, which goes towards heating, light, air-con, electricity, rent, etc... For what you get and the atmosphere of the club it is a pittance to pay.

I am unaware as to the entire opening and closing hours of the club, but I shall endeavour to find out for a future post.

Regards,

English Pillock

Khador

Greetings,

Here are some photos of my Khador forces at the moment. I've played some games, but at the moment I haven't got the width and depth to really deal with what people throw at me. I need more Winter Guard, which I'll be getting when I'm back in the UK. I'm also looking at getting Karchev, because he's a nutter!

I'm not getting totally pantsed as of yet, but I'm not able to get good dice karma for Sorscha to do what she is supposed to do best. That being for her to re-arrange someone's face with her pickaxe-halberd-thingy... Ummm... Yeah...

I still have two more Widowmakers to finish off, but they shouldn't take me too long to do. The main issue I have is making the camo look subtle and effective. Varying shades of greens and browns with inks help in that regard.

I am still naming all of them individually in the Khador script using Slavic names and some rather stereotypical ones as well...

Hope you like the piccies. I'll try and put up some other bits up over the next few weeks afore I go back to the UK. I'm not going to be on hiatus when I'm back in the UK, but I'll be going hither and thither seeing friends and dealing with paperwork for a new job in Korea. If I do put any posts up it will be mainly Nid related.

Regards,

English Pillock.

Miffed with 40K 5th and bits of WFB 7th.... Not chuffed at all...

Greetings,

This is something that I had wished not to have happened, and I do hope that it is only a temporary thing...

I apologise for it being another rant too. I didn't mean for another rant to occur between this and the WAAC rant. Stuff happens. Sorry for the NERD RAGE!

I also have been listening to a number of podcasts recently, Podhammer for one, and I really do see their point of view about 40K being more a game for WAAC players and those who have issues with most of the movement things in WFB 7th. Personally, I've always looked down upon 40K compared to WFB as being less tactically involving. It is only now that it has been this actively pushed to the front of my gaming experience.

I've been having issues with 5th edition. I find it turning into a horribly skewed game of 'rock, paper, tactical nuclear warhead' recently. I do have a few main complaints, of which one of them were partially seen to with the new Tyranid codex, but it is an under-lying game mechanic that is present in two of GW's main systems.

Cookie-Cutter lists

This is possibly my BIGGEST issue with the current game. I'm unsure if this is just the current meta-game or if this is somewhere that GW has come to by accident or design. Either way, I AM NOT A HAPPY BUNNY! Certain builds are just too damned effective that the more bizarre and fluff-worthy lists are untenable and pointless.

Case in point my 12 Crisis suit 1500pts list for my Tau. A huge amount of cash wasted in 5th for something that could work in 4th. Not often, but they were usable. In 5th I can't do anything. The increase of plasma and melta to deal with Mech has left me with 12 single shot kills unless I give them all shields which makes the rest of my army absolutely tiny. I've used it many a time in 4th, but after playing a few games in 5th it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I'm looking at getting rid of it.

Second case in point a Marine gunline is no longer effective. Marines themselves, unless Mech-ed up or in Drop Pods are pointless. What is the point of having more choices than nearly any damn codex out there if there are only 8 or 9 unit builds that will be taken. What the hell happened to the Marines' being the thin adamantium line against the gribbly things? Now they run up and fight like a bunch of Orks, but not as well...

I even thought that going the Blood Angel way would have been better, but it isn't. Their big shiny units are waaaay to expensive and they can still be nuked by the anti-Mech weapons too easily.

I was intending on having armies with no vehicles for my Marines and my Tau. This is partially achievable with Tau, but then I run into the XV8-melta-death situation. But with Marines it is something that you can't get away from. I don't like vehicles. I want armies of infantry fighting over a ruined city-scape or in a jungle. Somewhere that tanks, no matter how sophisticated can't negotiate. Again, the current meta-game doesn't allow for these lists to work.

Really just not impressed that my army composition and tactics therein has been dictated to me before I've even played a game.

Re-Rolls

I LOATHE the re-roll mechanic that GW has going at the moment. You get to re-roll all failed dice rolls. With some of the other games that use GW systems you are limited to what re-rolls you can do.

For example in Warhammer Ancients you only get a re-roll if you are Veterans. This means you can re-roll a single batch of to hit dice per game. ONCE, that's it. You re-roll ALL of them, not just the ones that missed. Now do you think that missing with 50% of your dice is worth the re-roll?

Then you have the system in Blood Bowl where you can only re-roll certain things once. If you want to re-roll a test for dodging you either use your Dodge skill or a Team Re-Roll. but you can only make ONE of these re-rolls a turn. You can't make 2 or more of them. No matter if you have used Dodge over a Team Re-Roll.

Now the Tyranid Codex went a step in the right direction in my mind. Only being able to re-roll ones if you only have a single pair of scything talons, and falling back on the full mechanic if you have two pairs. This is better in my mind for a number of reasons.

• For one it is damned expensive on troops.
• It limits other weaponry options.
• It's not always the best tool for the job.
• Sometimes you just don't need it. Most Tyranids spank people on a 3+ anyway!

Now with some armies this is part of their personality, Dark Elves for example. Fair enough, I understand that, but it gets annoying when they have a unit of 5 guys that rip through most of your army and you can't do anything about it. Especially when they re-roll to hit AND re-roll to wound. It just gets ridiculous.

There seems to be no drawback to this either. Well, yes, people say that you have to spend more points and it only works in close combat. How many games of Warhammer or 40K do you know of where close combat never happens? I can count them on the fingers on my elbow! (I am not, nor ever have been a mutant. This was a sarcastic comment.)

If you HAD to re-roll ALL of your dice for getting the re-roll benefit I'd be happy. Or if it was limited to re-rolling just ones. Hopefully WFB 8th will have sorted it out better to remove the issues that are prevalent in the current run of games.

Reserves

Right, now this will annoy a lot of people. I really don't like all of the reserve options that can be used at the moment in 40K.

Reserves should be a small part of your force, not ALL of the damned thing!

Now winning the roll to go first is actually a dis-advantage. There are also no battlelines that are formed as both sides on occasions can hold all units off the board and then come in much later on. Sorry if this is a bit of my naivete showing through, but I thought that this was meant to be a GAME? Some thing that was meant to be fun. Even playing 40K against supposedly like-minded players has soured my opinion of the game. What happened to trying to hide your force and using terrain to weather the opening salvoes?

People are to afraid of standing up and allowing the game to happen in a spirit of fun. WAAC strikes again, I know. Really #$%%@% me off though. Now that it is tactically beneficial and there isn't a damned thing I can do to stop it from being used! I liked the fact that in 4th that it could only happen on a 3+ I think... Same with infiltrate. They weren't overly-used tactics and they were good in that regard. If they happened you weren't too fussed as they could only come on from one direction. NOW you have Outflank (something that I like in principle, but it's execution leaves a lot to be desired) that can throw a spanner in the works as well as deep-striking which means some armies need not even bother setting up. What is the point of actually deploying armies until turn 5 then?

I apologise for the NERD RAGE!

Mech

I apologise for again bringing up things from the WAAC rant. This also goes hand-in-hand with the Cookie-Cutter lists, so I'll not say anything about it. But RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!

*ahem*

Ripple Fire

This is one of the things that really bugs me about 40K. All shooting should be simultaneous. The units can't coordinate their fire patterns to deal with everything at the same time. I declare what is shooting where at the start of my shooting phase. I've mentioned this in the WAAC post so again, I'll leave it be this time.

It just frustrates me that people can use the precise amount of force to every situation no matter what the army is. Even Orks and Tyranids can do this, which for the more bestial and undisciplined armies is somewhat bizarre. It doesn't feel right when the Eldar, Marines or the Tau do it either. I think it may just be the fact that I'm still applying real-world mechanics to a game that has nearly all eras of warfare into a sci-fi setting. Kinda stupid on my part, but I really don't like it.

Conclusion

Well that was a lot off of my chest. I will still play the game. I'm not giving it up permanently. I'm taking a breather. No idea for how long either. I'll play a few games of WFB 7th afore WFB 8th comes out, but I'm not using my Lizzies. Brets and Ogres will be used as I enjoy them more. Warmachine, Blood Bowl will be my current gaming fix.

Regards,

English Pillock

p.s.

Again, I apologise for the NERD RAGE! I've vented to some of my friends, but I needed something a bit more permanent. It is amazing how cathartic typing something out is.

Random 2010 WFB League photos and More Khador...

Greetings,

Just to break up from the massive wall of text that was the last post here are pictures from last weekend. The top 7 are from the Orctown WFB League 2010. The games were Daemons vs Vampire Counts, Daemons vs Lizardmen and Lizardmen vs Lizardmen.

Here are some pictures of my Winter Guard that I bought on the weekend. I still see the Khador symbol as a Skaven glyph though...

Sorry that the photos are dark. The camera flash was too severe and the sun was being highly uncooperative....

I used a similar scheme to my Warjacks and my Bretonnians. They look pretty good in my opinion. Not as bright and shiny as PP's stuff, and I think it looks better. I always prefer the gritty and slightly shabby instead of the new paint job that a lot of other modellers like.

Regards,

English Pillock

WAAC: Win At All Costs - Why loathe it... Part 1 of ?

Greetings,

This is going to be one of my rambling notions that end up on here. My first reason for doing this is the fact that the gaming group that I have always experienced have been what people may call 'soft'. By this I mean that we try to have fun for all of us who are playing, we offer advice or allow people to re-do something if they are having a bad game and have made a poor decision. I had never really met many gamers who really did this until I went to Uni (University of Wales, Lampeter if anyone is interested). I found the war gaming society after poking and prodding at the 'Freshers Fayre,' and meandered to it a bit after. I met a number of like-minded people there, but until I started to join in with 40K I never met any of the WAAC fraternity. My first army was Mercenary Kroot as well, so I was kinda letting myself in for a lot of hurt all things considered.

For all of you wondering why I chose Kroot as my first army there were a number of reasons. I do play with a very homicidal and sociopathic play style. Gun lines were for wusses and playing an army that was full of hyper-evolving cannibalistic space chickens was too cool for words in my eyes! After making 500pts of them and I set to learn how to play the game. 3rd Ed 40Kwas a really different animal to 5th Ed 40K. Lots of crazy stuff could happen compared to what goes on now.
So after a few weeks we did a day of 500pts 40K. 500pts, with few restrictions. Against some of the beginners I did well, but then I was hit by a WAAC player. He had a Wraithlord and a unit of Wraithguard in 500pts. I wasn't too bothered, but then he asked what weapons the Kroot had. I had Kroot rifles and a unit with sniper rifles. As soon as I had said that his Wraithlord went from standing proudly in the front lines of his army to cowering at the rear.

I played smilar people in my first year, but they slowly dropped out or left. In my second through fifth years at Lampeter the scene changed. We lost nearly all of the WAAC gamers. Those who were WAAC didn't get any games so they went elsewhere. After we got a rather large following we had a president who started a 4th Ed 40K and 6th Ed Fantasy tournament with the club at Aberystwyth University. We thought there would be a group of like-minded gamers there and that it would be a good weekend to chat and have lots of fun games. Talking online with some of the members I quickly found out that they were out for blood. Preferably ours! Even after telling the members of our club that we were gong to have to play differently we still went in as if we were playing someone at our club. Things didn't go well...
Most of the Lampeter guys went out in the first day or early in the second. We weren't bitter or anything, but it wasn't fun being curb-stomped by any means. Especially not by people who were using every rules lawyer trick that was available to pummel us.
We started playing what we had been doing before the tourney was announced. Paired 500pts games. We made 500pts lists with some restrictions and we used a simultaneous shooting declaration that was alien to the Aberystwyth gamers. What we did at the start of our shooting phase was declare which unit was going to fire at which unit. If more than one unit shoots at a single target and that target is destroyed a unit that has yet to fire can't do so that turn as it's weight of fire helped in destroying the unit even though no dice were rolled. Using this system we ended up having two basic tactics: 1) massed firepower to nuke a unit or 2) sporadic fire over the entire army.
We were getting more and more of the Aberystwyth gamers watching what we were doing as four separate armies were fighting in a combined arms style that they had no idea would even work. They looked at our lists and said that our combination of units wouldn't work in a tournament. We replied that if you look at what armies would have in the real world they would never have all of the biggest and shiniest toys in large enough quantities to do a WAAC army. Hopefully it made them think.

After they had gone and we had had time to think we mentioned about a similar tournament the following year. When they came their lists were softer and most of them were playing for fun rather than trying to pummel us into jelly.

I did ask them why they played such hard lists against us the prior tourney and they said that they did because they took part in the UK Nationals. If they didn't play like that they'd get nowhere. They made it sound more like work than something that you'd do for fun. If that was the case then tournaments weren't for me. I don't like that attitude and it's not a game mentality that I want to enjoy. It should be fun and not trying to beat the hell out of people with something that is obscene.

I still have more to vent, but I'm going to let this one stretch out a bit. I'd prefer not to have too much vitriol in a single post!

Regards,

English Pillock