Mailbag

I've gotten a few emails recently and I thought why not share some of them with you.  (Besides it beats writing something original or heaven forbid I actually paint something)

Letter #1

Dear Sigmar,

Are you dead?  You've not posted anything in a while.

Nope.

Letter #2

Dear Sigmar,

  I found you on Google and really like your Maneater unit.  I am new to Warhammer and want to do an Ogre army, what should I buy to get started?

*Sigmar's note*  I reworded this email as the writer indicated his first language wasn't English.

Let me start by saying that if you really want to learn a ton about playing Ogres, you should check out http://www.ogrestronghold.com.  It's a really good group of guys who are always willing to help.

As for my personal recommendations on what to buy to get started.  BATTALION BOXES. 

You're going to HAVE to buy at least 1 to get started.  While you are at it, get a pack of sabretusks, a bag of square warhammer bases, and a firebelly.  

On the ogre sprues in the battalion boxes you'll find a ton of little decoration gnoblars.  Glue them to the 20mm square bases you bought and you can get 1 or 2 gnoblar units out of the deal.  

Sabretusks are amazing for their points cost.  You can send them at enemy warmachines, go character hunting, use them to marchblock, or use them as redirectors.  The only drawback is LD 4, so don't expect them to rally if they flee, and keep them away from your other units as they can cause them to panic as well.

Firebelly's are the best character to have in sub 2k point games.  They can cast spells, have a breath attack, and can hold their own in close combat.  

Now you have a really good core army to build from. 3-4 Core units (bulls, ironguts, and either 1 big unit of gnoblars or 2 smaller ones)  and 3 special (Leadbelchers and 2 units of 1 sabretusk.)  After that what you buy is really all up to your playstyle.  I would recommend something from the Rare section of the army. (Either an Ironblaster or one of the big beasties)  

Once you are ready to get into 2000+ point games, you're going to want a BSB, and you're going to have to make one as they do not sell one.  Wait till last to make him.  By the time you've bought and built a few ogre units, you'll find that you have tons of bitz left to make your masterpiece custom BSB.  

Hope that helps.

Guess it's time to close up the ole mailbag folks... because it's empty.  If you want to email me(ha! year right), drop me a line at sigmarsworkbench@gmail.com.  I might end up posting your question if it's a good one, but don't worry you will remain anonymous.  You don't have to admit to having read this.  

I think my colorblindness has gotten worse.

Sorry for the lack of updates.  I've been either busy doing stuff, or getting sucked into playing Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition again.  

Finally I beat the Dark Elves!!!!!! sorta..........

  I've finally put up my first win vs Dark Elves in the current edition... the only downside is that I didn't do it with my Ogres.  Had a friendly game against my friend's Dark Elves on Wednesday and to change it up, I decided to bring my Wood Elves out of retirement.

  As I've said in the past my WE's are a bit out of date(all the models around 5th edition) and it contains no Dryads or Treekin.  So I designed the army to basically shoot and run circles around my opponent and hope to avoid combats except where I wanted them.  

  My army was an Ancient Treeman, Hero on Great Eagle, Lvl 2 caster, 20 Glade Guard, 10 Glade Guard Scouts, 6 or 7 Glade Riders, 2 units of 6 Wardancers,  Warhawk riders, and a full unit of Waywatchers.

  Not to sound too smug, but that's basically how the game played out.  In the middle of the board I had a large unit of Glade Guard, and my Warhawks and Great Eagles.  Everything else was deployed on the flanks.  My idea was to either have him split his forces in 2 or if he decided to keep them together, I'd just run around to the back of him.  I put 2 units of scouts (one glade guard scout and one full unit of Waywatchers) behind his army on the flanks. 

  His army was a pretty standard Dark Elf list.  In his defense, he just recently finished it and hasn't had a ton of experience with it.  Cauldron of blood, 2 unit of repeater crossbowmen, 5 Cold One Knights,  big unit of Black Guard, big unit of Corsairs, Hydra, and a Level 4 sorceress.  I knew that anything the Cold One Knights, Black Guard or Corsairs touched would be blown to bits.  I figured my Ancient Treeman stood a pretty good chance against the Hydra if he could go against him alone.

Turn 1

  Shooting.. lots of shooting.  Waywatchers took down a couple Cold one Knights with their Lethal Shot ability (aka killing blow for shooting)  My unit of Glade Guard scouts shot some repeater crossbowmen.  With some lucky shooting, I put a couple wounds on the Hydra with the Glade Riders.

  My opponent was so gracious as to have his level 4 wizard forget most of this deadly spells due to a miscast.   Taking some of the Black Guard out with him in the explosion. 

Turn 2

  More shooting for me.  I think it was this turn that I took out the Cold One Knights with the Waywatchers.  I charged the Cauldron of Blood with my Warhawk riders and Hero on Great Eagle.  I moved my Wardances up into a position where the Hydra would charge them and I had hoped either take him out that combat, or at least draw him into a position that my Treeman would get a round or two of combat against the Hydra without a unit being around to support him.  My Flying Cav performed like a champ.  Taking out the Cauldron of Blood and avoiding not dying from some character thing with them.

  My opponent decided that instead of charging my Wardancers, he'd breath weapon them to death.  Which to no one's surprise was "Super Effective."  This turned out better than I had planned.  By using his breath weapon there, instead of in the combat with my Treeman, I avoided taking double wounds from his flame attacks.

Turn 3.

  My Treeman took advantage of the flank that the Hydra exposed to me to get into breath weapon position.  At this point everything in my army, except for the stationary unit of Glade Guard was behind him and I had whittled down his black guard to only 6 or 7 models so I positioned my flying cav in the rear of them, then in the Magic phase charged them in using Call of the Wild.

  Since all there was left to shoot at was the Corsairs, my shots were mostly ineffective because of their anti-shooting cloaks.  The Treeman was able to beat and break the Hydra who ran away and panic the unit of crossbowmen behind him.  The Black Guard combat didn't go so well for me. Infact, I was wiped off the board before getting to make a single attack in return.

  During his turn my opponent rallied both the crossbowmen and the hydra.  Nothing really eventful after that in this round.  The corsairs tried charging the Glade Riders but I made them flee.

Turn 4

  My Treeman went back for more against the hydra and took him out, overrunning into the crossbowmen.  More shooting.  More running in circles around the Black Guard and Corsairs.

  During his turn, my Treeman took out the crossbowmen unit.  We called it after that because I wasn't going to let any combat happen.  Had we played it out, the only difference might have been me finishing off the Black Guard with all my shooting.

  We didn't figure up VP but I lost 1 hero on Great Eagle, 3 Warhawk riders, and 6 Wardancers, and I took out 2 unit of crossbowmen, the hydra, cauldron, and cold one knights.
 
  MVP of the game has to go to the Waywatchers for neutralizing those Cold One Knights.  Those guys were mobile enough and killy enough to pick my army apart.  If I were to add to my Wood Elves under the current book, I would get a 2nd unit of those guys.  A bit pricey, but well worth it.

  LVP was my spell caster.  The wood elf lore sucks.  The spells are situational at best except for Call of the Wild, so I built her up to be a dispeller and didn't even do that properly.


  I was very surprised to pull out a win there because A.  My opponent is a very good player, B. I never can beat the Dark Elves, and C.  I was freakin Wood Elves.  I gained a bit of respect for the hippies, although I get the feeling that against most other armies this setup wouldn't be as effective.  The low toughness of Dark Elves and their average armor save was designed for the wood elves to have someone to pick on.  Against anyone who's got some survivability(dwarfs, ogres, chaos) or one of the horde armies (one of the undeads, O&G's, skaven)  I don't think my strategy would be that effective.  You're basically playing to not lose, instead of playing to win.

  Also want to thank my opponent for not being too pissed at me for arriving late.  A wreck on the highway caused me to be 30-40 mins late and aside from a few screamed curse words(which apparently is frowned upon in GW stores.. who knew), he didn't mind.  

WIP Marine Biker Sergeant

  Assembly is done on my powerfist biker sergeant.  I've been saving cloaks and capes for a while now.  I'm going to try to give every biker a cape. I still need to get proper rounded bases for them.

3/3/12 Tournament Results

Exhausted...

  That was probably the most games of Warhammer I've ever played in a single day.  Good people, nice location... once I finally got there.  The GPS on my phone said 6 miles till my next turn so I just keep cruising along.  Eventually I notice that hey... I think I should have turned by now.. look at the screen it still say 6 miles to go.  So after flipping a U turn.  I eventually got there

My list:

Butcher, Ironfist, Warrior Bane, Lore of The Great Maw - 108 Pts.

5 Ogres, Handweapon & Ironfist, M, S, C - 190 Pts.
10 Gnoblars, Gnoblar Trappers - 50 Pts.

3 Leadbelchers - 129 Pts.
1 Sabretusks - 21 Pts.

Total: 498


All games (except the final one) were pitched battles.  The final game was a pitched battle, but you got an additional 25 vps for being the first to a hill placed in the center of the board, and 50 more for holding it at the end.

Game 1:  Skaven

  Fucking rats.  I hate rats.  Basic skaven list.  2 unit of rats, 1 Mortar, 1 Warpfire, 1 warped lightning gun, 1 Hero.  I lost first turn and knew that warped lightning gun was gonna destroy me.  Well the skaven god(s) thought otherwise and as they always seem to do the WLG blew itself up turn 1.

  I ran forward with everything, my leadbelchers were mostly uneffective. Just due to the large volume of rats.  My level 1 Slaughtermaster managed to blank his mind on turn by rolling poorly on the miscast chart.

 I saw my opening when he left his mortar open to charge from my gnoblars... that's right I said it.. CHARGE FROM MY GNOBLARS.  They ran in and destroyed it, overrunning into the Warpfire thrower.  Next turn they destroy that too.  At this point the rats just kept running from me.  They wouldn't stand a chance in combat against an ogre unit.  

  The game was a Victory for me.  MVP goes to the gnoblars as they were the only unit that got into combat but killed the 2 things that could have hurt me in this army.  

Game 2:  Vampire Counts

  My first game against the VC's since they got their new book.  2 units of skellies, 1 necro, 1 unit of Hexwraiths.  Again on turn 2, I manage to make my Slaughter Master forget he's a wizard.  I charge my lone sabretusk into the unit of skellies and get in base to base with the necromancer.  I manage to only do 1 wound, and the kitty stays locked in combat with the large skelly unit for another turn.  Leadbelchers blow the 2nd skeleton unit to bits over 3 turns.  My Ogre charge the skeleton unit and wipe it off the board.  All he has left is his ethereal hexwraiths who were doing their crazy ability where they can run through my unit and do auto hits at Str 5.  I set my leadbelchers up so that if he wanted to do that to me again but this time from behind, and that's where I finally was able to do something back.  He left his rear facing me and I charged in. I knew the leadbelchers would eventually die, but not before winning a could rounds on combat resolution alone (+2 for rear, +1 charge)

Another Victory for me!  MVP goes to the Ogre unit.  They took out a rather large skelleton unit and the general in a single turn.  

Game 3:  High Elves

  Have I mentioned I don't like elves.  Cause I fucking hate elves, and this list featured the reason I hate elves.  Swordmasters.  1 Fire Wizard, 1 the minimum amount of archers needed for core, and 1 big ass swordmasters unit.  He left his fire Wizard alone standing in a forest.  I sent in the cat after him and chewed him up.  The swordmasters charged the gnoblars that I marched up within 1 inch of them.  I don't think he knew the trappers rule, but I would bet he remember now.  3 or 4 went down due to dangerous terrain tests.  The gnoblars paid for themself this round for sure!  

  The leadbelcher took out the Archer unit by firing at them for 3 turns and then ultimately charging them.  My main unit charged the swordmasters and we beat the shit out of them, and they did the same to me.  Even though my bulls did a ton of casualties, we lost combat by 1 of course.. I roll an 11 for LD, then a 4 on our flee.  The day was not lost though. I had weakened the unit down to 4 swordmasters and over 2 turns of shooting I put so much lead into them that they can probably sign their names with dicks.  (I forget line that's from, but I love it!)  I tabled him.

3-0 for me.  MVP was the Leadbelchers.  Props to little Schrodinger (the sabretusk) on earning 200 vp for killing the general.  He more than paid for himself.  

Game 4:  Dark Elves

  Please reread the first line of my game 3.  I HATE ELVES! and this one was no exception.  If you asked me to write up an army list that would ALWAYS win against my army.. this would be it.(Forshadowing anyone)

  2 units of scouting shades, 2 unit of repeater crossbows, hero with some fancy repeater crossbow.  Nothing to really say about this one.  He kept shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting, and I kept dying.  Sabretusk and gnoblars died in turn 1.  The leadbelchers got into a shooting match with the 2 units of shades and they lost miserably.  Caused a couple panic checks on them, but they didn't run.  What was left of my bull unit once it finally made it into combat with the repeater crossbowmen ate them up and overran them, only to fail a charge on the other unit and get blown in a hail of bolts.  The game might have turned out differently had A. I not failed that charge, and B. I hadn't failed to cast toothcracker(by 1) on his general who was standing alone.  My opponent said, hey just roll to see what that would have done to him had it went off. It would have caused 9 hits and did 5 wounds.  After watching that, he ran the character into the unit of crossbows.  

  3-1.  :-(  I have yet to beat a Dark Elf army with my Ogres they just have my number.  MVP is the bulls because they did something.  

Game 5:  Dark Elves

  MOTHERFUCKER!  After seeing his army, I start to think, hey this is a DE army I can beat.  2 unit of dark rider, 1 unit of Cold One Knights, mounted hero with a shooting weapon.  

The bigger of the Dark Riders unit took a couple volleys of fire from the leadbelchers and we're left only with the character.  The character charged the leadbelchers and they brought him down, only to be rear charged by the other unit of Dark Riders in the flank and die.  This game ultimately came down to the final battle of Cold Ones vs my Ogres on a hilltop. After wiffing BAD against the knights,  I lost combat by 1 and rolled boxcars and was overran. 

  3-2.  MVP was the Leadbelchers again.  

  Not a bad day, especially since I went in thinking I was going to get destroyed so bad at this point amount.   Didn't do well enough to get into the prizes, but I blame the Dark Elves for that.  One of these days, I need to figure out how to beat them.

Now it's time for a cold beer and a piece of apple cobbler.  I think I've earned it.  

Heads are going to roll... literally.

Through a little horse trading and back alley dealing, I have "acquired" some new goodies...(Ok so this deal is actually on the up and up but it's more fun this way)

A friend had started a white scars army back in the day and never really got that far with it and the other day he decided he to part with it. Me, being the bloodthirsty vulture that I am, pounced on the opportunity to pick up some stuff on the cheap.

Some of this was already assembled by him so it'll take a little modification.. but that's ok.

Here's what I got

Backpacks, shoulderpads, backpack w/ Banner... 

White Scars Commander upgrade kit

  While I'm not running a traditional White Scars army, I still think he might end up in army as something.

Shields

  Unsure where these came from as my 40k bits knowledge is weak at best, however, these look pretty awesome.  I think these might save me from having to order those Aztec Shields.

  Tons of White Scar shoulder pads.  Guess it's about time for me to decide if I'm going to be a White Scars army or if I'm my own chapter.  

  4 Unassembled bikes

3 Bike Squad Leaders and 2 White Scars bikers

3 Plasma Guns

5 Melta Guns

5 bikers(1 w/ plasma gun) 2 attack bikes 

  Time for me to get decapitating.  I have to remove all the heads and replace them with my own.  Good thing I got a new file the other day, and worst comes to worse, I'll break out the good ole Dremel.  Plastic ones should be an easy pop and go.  

Enough stuff to keep even the most ADD of nerds with his head down in the paint for a while.

Tournament in the morning.  Not feeling as confident going into this one as I usually do.  Don't know how effective my Ogres will be at 500 points and without some of their dirtiest tricks.

Army Lists at Lunch - Episode III

  There is a tournament coming up this weekend... a tournament with a twist. This is an escalation tournament series. Basically we're going to be playing 500 point armies this time. Next month, we're going to bump the army up to 1000 points. Then another 500 points etc till finally we're playing big 3k point armies.

  Once something has been in your army, you're not allowed to take it out. So if I put 2 units of gnoblars in my 500 point army, I am going to have to field those units till the end. We're allowed to change magic items and add to units but other than that we're stuck with it once it's been played. For the 500 point game, we are allowed to use a unit champion as our general.

  So here are some options for 500 points.

  Option 1 - They've mentioned that we're going to have at least 1 scenario involving objectives and this list is perfect for that. The last tournament I played in with objectives, I found that sabretusks are AMAZING. They can hide near an objective and then on turn 6 run and stand next to the objective to contest it. Also I get the feeling someone is going to be bringing warmachines. My biggest fear is that my general is the champion of the Ogre unit. You can count on me failing every Ld test I have to take.

6 Ogres, Handweapon & Ironfist, M, S, C - 222 Pts.
10 Gnoblars, Gnoblar Trappers - 50 Pts.

1 Sabretusks - 21 Pts.
1 Sabretusks - 21 Pts.
3 Maneaters, 3 x Brace of Ogre Pistols, Scouts, Sniper - 186 Pts.

Total: 500

  Option 2

  Same list only instead of 3x Maneater sniper scouts... it's 4 leadbelchers w a musician.

  Option 3

  I think this is my personal front runner. It stinks only running a level 1 wizard, but at 500 points you can't get a level 2. I know there are going to be 3 VC armies and I get the feeling someone is going to bring ethereal units. This is my only list that has anything that can deal with those other than trying to out combat resolution them. The ironfist is there to give the butcher the some kind of save.

0 Lord
1 Hero: 108 Pts. 21.6%
2 Core Units: 240 Pts. 48.0%
2 Elite Units: 150 Pts. 30.0%
0 Rare Unit

Butcher, Ironfist, Warrior Bane, Lore of The Great Maw - 108 Pts.

5 Ogres, Handweapon & Ironfist, M, S, C - 190 Pts.
10 Gnoblars, Gnoblar Trappers - 50 Pts.

3 Leadbelchers - 129 Pts.
1 Sabretusks - 21 Pts.

Total: 498