Options, options...the kid in a candy store

Decisions, decisions, all those options...

The Kid in the Candy Store

As with  most wargamers, I too am a sucker for the new and shiny, or different. Add to that the historical aspect, and you've got me hooked! So always looking at directions my wargaming can take, I thought I had been seduced by SAGA.

X-Wing did pique my interest too, being very playable, but I have to confess that the building and painting is as important to me as the playing. So pre-painted, Meh!

Remember Rackham's Confrontation? Well, they lost me when they started marketing pre-painted figures. They had some amazing sculpts, but why would you want to try and sell pre-painted minis?
Mass appeal and sales, I suppose. Killed Rackham, that did ! So despite the huge popularity of X-Wing I have decided not to indulge.

But then came SAGA. My, oh, my...looking very tempting. Paul over at Dog of War has got me interested.
Playing my first game in July. No, in fact I have been interested since I first saw the Gripping Beast Minis in a Wargames Illustrated a couple of years ago. Now who DOESN'T like Vikings?
So off I go onto SAGA websites, and find the closest Griping Beast retailer - over in Australia it seems.

Then comes Nick on Thursday:  "Hey, it's the anniversary of Waterloo next year! How about we but on a large scale Waterloo game. You're fond of the Germans! Why don't you take the Prussians or the Austrians?"

My knee jerk was "No, I have too many models, armies and scales as things stand"
Remembering then that I happen have some old 20 mm Airfix Black Guard.
 I did toss in the question: "Which scale?"
Says Young Nick: "28 mm !"  Hmmm... So on Friday I get the weekly epistle of deals from Hannants in the UK, and my fingers somehow find their own way over to the Napoleonics.

Victrix seem to have a nice plastics selection, quite cheapish too at around a dollar a figure, as does Perry. Interesting discourse on TMP (The Miniatures Page) about quality and finishing. Boxes of 50, as with SAGA. (Eat your heart out, GW)

Not much painting or building went on the weekend, as I had to attend an advanced cardiac life support training course in Wellington. Grabbed the chance to stay overnight and have an evening out with my lovely wife, without the kids. Saturday was spent in the National Clinical Simulation Unit training and then an exam at the end. Passed without event. Box ticked.

Got a little bit of painting done on my unpainted horde of warriors of chaos. Hoping some of these may double as Vikings one day...Who knows

Poor quality phone photo of my horde

Leaked Lizardmen Photo

Warhammer: Leaked Lizardmen Photo or Bullsh*t?

Rumoured to release in August, the Lizardman Army book is causing all type of rumours:

Trolling the net with my own observations:

I would expect monstrous cavalry ? Carnosaur riders?
A "giant dinosaur kit" (bigger than the Carnosaur)
New plastic "Terradon" kit - about the same size as the High Elves Phoenix (Terrordon? )
Couatl (may be the alternative build for the "Terradon" kit) - see I told told you, a giant flyer!Finecast Slann


New plastic carnosaur (singular); as well, but nothing concrete. 
It may also be the first time in 8th Edition (to date) that a character will be able to ride the same monstrous beast as a unit in its army 

Slann now becomes a multi-part plastic set - availability for a Relic Priest (Kroak, including Deathmask), a normal Priest, and a special limited edition plastic combination pack (similar to the Exalted Daemon Chariot) that combines a Stegadon and a Slann Priest to recreate Mazdamundi. In addition, they get access to Disciplines, but these may not be taken more than once. Reading into rumours suggests that Slann have Loremaster (see below for reasoning).

All Saurus armies become "viable" thanks to the return of Sacred Spawnings - units can purchase Sacred Spawnings like a Mark of Chaos, while characters get access to them off the bat. 
One will allow them to join Temple Guard units, others will give benefits to specific units, like Magic Resistance or Devastating Charge (Sotek?), while others (like Itzl, or whatever the Cold One Riders are), are already included within their stats.

Razordons and Salamanders become a Dual part plastic Monstrous beasts + handler kits, 2 Monsters and 6 Handlers to a set.

Couatl model - working like a Terrorgheist in that it can be both a mount (rumours are to be available at sub-200 points to allow 2 to be taken for heroes in 2400 games) and a monster, presuming rare.

The Stegadons become special choices as well, with a unit "upgrade" to Ancient stats, and a weapon "upgrade" to didgeridoo blowdarts. Skink Mounts still available IIRC.

Skink Priests gain access to Beasts as well as Heavens. In addition, Skink Priests may become "attendants" to a Slann - basically I read it as a Skink Priest option allowing it access to the same Lore the Slann itself knows. Reading into that suggests that Slann have Loremaster as standard.

The return of the Arcanadon - one thing that every non-lizard player is going to hate, a pokemon venusaur/stegadon crossover which takes in solar power to create a blast of magical light, in the form of a cannonball/stone thrower/flame cannon/breath weapon monster. Although nothing concrete about the presumed dual nature of the kit, it could possibly be a much "wanted" Thunder Lizard capable of making thunderstorms. 
(I think this bit unlikely)


Apparently Nakai will return - an apparently unbreakable "autohealing" monster non-general hero choice.(This is more likely)

Trolled across this on the net:



source:
http://kaughnorscave.blogspot.ca/2013/06/leaked-lizardmen-photo.html

Kapiti Wargames Club Open Day, Call for help from FoWers

Kapiti Wargaming Club Open Day:

  Call for Help from FoWers

Hi everyone. The Kapiti Wargames Club will be having an Open Day on Saturday 30 June 2013.

We hope to promote Wargaming regionally as a hobby and pastime as a whole, not just our club.

The event will be our second, with our first visit attracting well over a 100 visitors last year. 

(Infant steps yet) We plan to feature Warhammer Fantasy and 40K games, Flames of War in 20mm, Napoleonics/7-year war, and Starwars X-Wing games, and more

BUT we have run into a bit of difficulty finding members who are able to do a FoW Demo game in 15mm.

The date seems to clash with the FoW tournament schedule. :(

This is an appeal to regional FoW players not involved in the tournament. Would any of you be interested in doing a demo game on the day ? Any other period or scale is  of course also welcome. Just drop me a comment and we can discuss details.

WHFB New Chaos Daemon Releases and Army Book

WHFB New Chaos Daemon Releases and Army Book

GW has just (3 h ago) opened pre-orders on the new Chaos Daemon Army Book and Models

Check my fantasy Site for more info and pictures:

Link:

Trouble in the border provinces

NZTC (New Zealand Team Championships) Tournament Warhammer Fantasy Battles

Kapiti Krushers at the NZTC (New Zealand Team Championships) Tournament
Warhammer Fantasy Battles

The Kapiti Wargames Club fielded a team called the Kapiti Krushers at Saturday and Sunday's New Zealand Warhammer Fantasy Battles Team Championships, held and Ngaio Town Hall, in Wellington

This was my first tournament, which I approached with just a bit of trepidation, but I found all the opponents I came up against accepting of my lack of tournament experience and ignorance of some of the finer niceties of the 8th edition rules.

We came in 7th overall, which was a little disappointing for some, but I am generally quite satisfied with our performance (being the newbie)

Still some bragging rights in that: I suppose KWC's Kapiti Krushers are now Ranked no 7 team in NZ until next year.

Not bad for a start, I think... And…we beat the Aussies (yay!)

Check my WHFB blog for more detail and photos: Trouble in the Border Provinces