Saturday 9 July 2016

TGG2 Kickstarter Finally ships: The plastic mountain to grow significantly

Raging Heroes' Toughest Girls of the Galaxy 2 kickstarter ships: My pledge choices

Aah, decisions, decisions. Having just taken possession of a Panzergranadier Bolt Action Army, Raging heroes inform me that TGG2 is ready to ship. A hill, nay, a mountain, an avalanche, of plastic heading my way! Luvvit!

So heeere we have it, time to choose those models that you backed on the kickstarted 14 months ago:

Not bad, just 2 months off ETA. Kudos to RH. They kept us informed all of the way!
Great blog, and regular email updates. They shared the whole process with us, step by step.

Just got confirmation that my order in now " awaiting fulfillment" 

So am I too. Indeed, awaiting Fulfillment... 




 More than 3 years in coming, from when I first saw the Dark Elf concept art.

Well done, Raging Heroes!

So first off the stretch goal freebies:


16 stretch goal hero minis. Nice. 
Personally I could do without the 3 "familiars" but what the heck. 
The rest look great.

My motivation for backing this kickstarter was initially to supplement my Warhammer Dark Elf, Slaanesh Daemon and Empire forces. That was before the Warhammer world went up in a puff of smoke to be replaced by you-know what, and Slaanesh was deemed un-PC for soccer moms. 

Well, these girls will have every soccer mom choking on her Earl grey! Well, maybe not completely, but some of the models could come close to being R18 rated. 

My initial idea was to look to filling some of what I deemed lacking/boring/weaknesses in my armies at the time. Well, 9th Ed (Sorry 9th AGE) has nerfed my DE's somewhat, and I had to have a quick rethink of what I intended to order:

I was planning on building a Cult of Ulrich/Hammer-themed Empire army, with Great Hammers, rather than Greatswords. (The post on this, in fact is still sitting, awaiting completion)

So I thought I'd run with the Sisters. I already have a unit that I built for Mordheim, so this is what I went for in my choices:

Erzatz Empire/Empire of Sonstahl: 

 Daughters of the Orphanage, with command




Love this quirky standard bearer



And the musician(s)

Regular Sisters, with command
(Nothing regular about these girls, I'd say)




Sol-Sarya, Priestess of the Sun of Thorns:


Dark Elves. Could really use these nasty girls for anything. Executioners, Witches... many possibilities

Flesh Eaters, with command





Shiveriah, Sorceress


Varaseesh, the venomous:
Alternate medusa ? Again many possibilities



Yscarloth, the harvester of flesh:

Xehzirhya on demon steed

Worm riders and command



Ones I may still spend some money on:



Only didn't get these as there is no option for cross-bows on these alternative dark riders. (and had reached the limit of my pre-paid pledge of a year ago) 

I suppose adding cross-bows would not be not insurmountable. Lovely dynamic sculpts.




Nice sculpts, but no clear use for me (yet)

The ones that didn't quite crack it for me (though I liked the art concepts, but the final renditions of the models don't do it for me):





Copyright of pictures Raging Heroes. Can't wait for my models tpo arrive.

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Giving 9th Age a crack

9th Ed Fantasy Battles, giving it a go: Game 1

Comfortable shoes ok, but then also not. So MacCrae comes over for some 9th Ed at the weekend.

 Great guns! I have read the rules but once, and skimmed through the rules for my fave army, Dark  ahem, sorry Dread Elves. Quick look on the website, find a ready-made list.

MacCrae brings his tried and trusted Dwarf list, with the addition of some works in progress, his two mole-dwarf-digger grudge buster chariot thingies. I do like the concept of what he's building there: Monstrous tunnelling chariot-machines. And two vengance seeker whirligig guys.

Vengeance Seeker ​60 pts single model

M WS BS S T W I A Ld 3 5 3 4 4 3 2 * 10
 Whirling Chains of Doom: Close Combat Weapon. +1 Strength, strikes at Initiative 10, and the wielder gain Random Attacks (3D3). A model with this weapon cannot be joined by Characters.

Dwarf Special Rules: Relentless Seeker Special Rules: Unbreakable, Ward Save (6+), “The bigger they are...”, ”Yer comin’ with me!” Special Rules: Hard Target, Distracting

To be honest I struggled a bit with the plethora of new and subtly changed rules, like no more ASF for dark (ah, sorry) dread elves, but lightning reflexes. Also the bullet-proof dreadlord builds no longer apply, and mounted characters are seen as one unit, and lose some of the benefit of their kit-outs.

My head was spinning before I even started. Never the less, into the fray we went.

So first up DEs against Dwarfs.
Not quite sure what to make of the venga boys and the tunnelly screw chariots.

Deployment rules are different. What the ? Hey? Not necessarily a good start.

For a comparison summary check this post out: (Later. Finish reading my blog first):

8th Ed vs Ninth Age.


Large block of Tower guard - anvil unit
Tower Guard ​110 pts 10 ​models, may add up to 20 ​models 15 pts/model 
M 5 WS 5 BS 5 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 6 A2 Ld 9

Weapons: Halberd Armour: Heavy Armour Elven Special Rules: Killer Instinct, Lightning Reflexes Special Rules: Immune to Psychology, Bodyguard, Armour Piercing (1) 

Would usually have preferred executioners in this role, but what the heck, we'll try this list.


Lots of chaff, units w vanguard, not too sure if this will be useful against dwarfs, but we'll try and flank em, possibly take out the warmachines



Trusty ol' repeater Giant Xbows


No 2 Reaper XB and substitute light cav. 
The warlocks have (rightfully) been nerfed.


More fast cav with ersatz stand-ins on the sides.
Dark Raiders ​85 pts 5 ​models, may add up to 10​ models 15 pts/model 
M WS BS S T W I A Ld 
Rider 5 4 4 3 3 1 5 1 8 Elven Horse 9 3 ­ 3 3 1 4 1 3 

Light Lance Armour: Mount’s Protection (6+), Light Armour Elven Special Rules: Killer Instinct (Rider only), Lightning Reflexes (Rider only) Special Rules: Fast Cavalry Options: pts May take a Repeater Crossbow 3 / model May take a Shield 3 / model
The list I borrowed off the interwebz did not choose shields



So MacRae deploys his chopper, grungy-bungy, seekers and hammerer (or was it longbeard) equivalents, either way, tough, hard and strong dwarfs. They all look the same to me, now even more confusing than ever. Can only recognise my own dwarfs. Sometimes.


Venga Boy no.1 and Thunderers 
(ahem... Marksmen) Dang this is difficult!



Another Vega Master dancer and more Slay...Seekers, and Forge Wardens. Had to look that one up.
Flame shooters them.


Anyhow, we play, fast Cav deploy in vanguard phase


Dread knights, pretty much the same as 8th Ed, mounts still suffer from stupidity. 
No special characters so just a standard unit. Characters including caster go in tower guard bunker. No more look-out sir. Unit of spearmen. Don't like 'em. Not worthy of a photo.


MacRae goes first, charges Chopper One into the Dark Ri(a)ders
Takes out one rider


Sheesh. Dwarfs now move fast on the charge. Pre-emptive strike of slayers get in, Whirligig guy doesn't. The Tunnel-machine grunge-grinder almost does too.


New relative size rule makes my glass cannon on dragonet (read pegasus here) less of a target with the new rules: no actual direct line of sight 


Chopper two prepares to shoot at the Shades, or whatever they are called now, or does he?


Whirlygig guy is in direct line of sight of the reaper XBows


Chopper ? Chopper, what chopper ? Do you hear a chopper?
Oh yes: pew,pew- no effect.


My shooting phase. Multiple shot reaper XBs take out Vengaboy no 1.
Flamer guys look on impassionately


Phalanx of spearmen march up, followed by buff-machine


War of attrition on the Dark Riders continues


Elves get to strike first. 
Note that the seekers have been buffed up in Dwarf magic phase


They manage to take out 2 riders



Tower guard move out of sight of the cannon and arc of flame shooter guys.


Pegasus rider hops over skull-mountain but only manages to kill one crewman.


Thunders fail a panic test triggered by the death of Whirlyigig, and run off for a while

...fast forward a bit here, I think: 
Knights get flank-charged by tunneler during ML's turn, they kill all the seekers in the combat, and reform to take out the mole machine in my next turn. 
Knight takes rook, or tunnelmolemachine.




Meanwhile, back at the temple ML has charged Chopper Two into the Reaper XB, in turn to be charged by my shades and riders. This turns into a total slugfest, with neither being able to destroy the other for several turns.


Unlike Chopper One, who chews through the riders (with the assistance of the slayers) in short shrift, and then takes bead on the Tower Guard. 

The spearmen had taken heavy casualties and broke, were caught and destroyed. 
Would have taken Xbowmen, Shards (Never liked that name) or whatever they're now if it was my list, but well, ok. Deal with the issue at hand


Miners arrive to harass the knights


While the elves finally get rid of the chopper


Glass cannon chews through the dwarven cannon, and attempts to frighten the shooters


In ML's next turn MoleMachine no 2 and Vengaboy no 1  attack the Altar. 
Bitchygirls give Vengaboy his marching orders, followed by Molemachine
 

Taking one wound



Only to be charged by the Seekers, 
and attacked in the rear in dastardly fashion by the miners
This can only end in one way.

 

 Meanwhile, in the centre of the table the two anvil blocks meet. The dwarfs have numbers and strength and toughness. The nasty elves speed and agility.
 


Only the front rank remains




Next turn Chopper One charges in


As do the Old Flames


Chopper One down. Harshly dealt with


BSB and Tower guard commands pay the ultimate price
While the caster and highborn escapes with their lives


Ever the gentleman, if such a thing can ever be said of a dread elf, the dreadlord prepares to meet his flaming doom. 
I cant remember if the witch caster died before or after him, or whether she actually escaped after bewitching him to take the fall.

Either way an enjoyable introduction (albeit a bit of a tour deforce) to the Ninth Age.
Thanks Macrae. I enjoyed that!