Vampire Counts test models - now with crappy yellow pics!

What do you think of these test models for my new Vampire Counts army? The first is my Black Knight conversion from a kitbash of Grave Guard and Skeleton Warrior bits with Tomb King Skeleton horses.

This second conversion is Grave Guard bits on Lord of the Rings Army of the Dead models and will be used for my Cairn Wraiths - this one is a Banshee.

Thoughts? Comments? Loves? Hates?

Homebrew review.

Here it is. This is our first baby beer. Homebrew!

Looks pretty tasty doesn't it?

Frandall's Brewbucket - AHS Newahtarillo Pale Ale

Beer Type: American Pale Ale

Appearance: 12 oz. brown bottle without a label - recycled and washed out from a batch of New Belgium something or other.

Smell: Fruity hops and malty biscuit aromas.

First Drink: A three pronged attack of hops. First a sweet bitter, followed by a floral flavor, and finished with an earthy note.

Mouthfeel: Smooth and well carbonated but a bit acidic feeling.

Last Drink: The high ABV of this homebrew comes out more as it warms. There are distinctly alcoholic flavors in the aftertaste.

Drinkability: I couldn't ask for a more drinkable first attempt at homebrewing. If all our beers come out near this we'll be doing good!

Notes: This beer started out a bit rough but has really mellowed with age. It seems to be a "fan favorite" as well - a majority of this batch went to friends and family and nobody spit it back out!

Verdict: 3.5 out of 5.

Links: Austin Homebrew Supply.

Yum!

Progress Report - 5/25/09.

Holy crap! Time flies when you are working your butt off on things that are not model or painting related. In my last post (a month ago!?) I promised a list overview for the Beer Gut Tribe I took to Cap City.

LORDS:
Tyrant – Cathayan Longsword, Heavy Armor, Luck Gnoblar, Beastkiller, Wyrdstone Necklace, Greedy Fist, Greyback Pelt

Tyrant Karnov is good for one thing and one thing only - standing up to nasty combat lords. To do this he needs to have Trollguts on himself or his unit, and preferably in a challenge with the character he is setting out to kill. His overall record at the tourney (and since) is admirable but still not at the "I kill whatever gets into close combat with me" level I am looking for. Beastkiller has yet to come up in any of my games, but I see a need for it so I am hesitant to lose it for something else.

HEROES:
Bruiser – BSB, Lookout Gnoblar, Cathayan Longsword, Heavy Armor, Giantbreaker, Gnoblar Thiefstone
Butcher – Siegebreaker, Skullmantle
Butcher – Bangstick, Dispel Scroll

These three are all about utility. The BSB rarely does a lot in close combat but he can hold his own and really he is only there to carry the banner for the army. The two Butchers give this list a respectable amount of casting dice but still lack a bit in the dispel phase against enemy armies. The tourney was fairly magic light with the exception of one list which had 12+ power dice so this was not a big problem. With two Butchers I have to pick and choose what spells I want, typically throwing 2 dice at them if I can't draw dice out of my opponent with one off castings. The Bangstick almost never gets used as most people save one to two dice to get rid of it at the end of the phase. I'm starting to think I should scrap the Bangstick, but drawing out those dice is always good too.

CORE:
Bulls x 7 - Bellower
Ironguts x 3 - Bellower
Ironguts x 3
Ironguts x 3
Gnoblar Fighters x 10
Gnoblar Trappers x 10

The Bull deathstar scares people. Sadly it is a glass cannon, usually losing models to tons of shooting and magic fire before it makes it into close combat. When it does make it into combat it hits hard, but if anything misses it usually falls apart and gets run down. There is no "trick play" with this thing, it is straight up the gut and to hell with everything else! When it works it is a beautiful thing. When it doesn't ... well you can imagine what it looks like.

SPECIAL:
Scraplauncher
Leadbelchers x 2
Leadbelchers x 2

I love the Scraplauncher! For 165 points you get a lot of versatility in shooting, impact hits, S5, T5, and 5 wounds with 9 attacks! Killing blow blast template is great against Elves, Empire, Khorne Daemons, and Marauders. Just like any chariot you have to watch out for the other war machines and S7 hits. Just like other Gnoblars you gotta be ready for the worst to happen. This one unit racked up more kills during the tourney than my Bull and character deathstar! I'm planning on building a hybrid Slavegiant/Scraplauncher model sometime down the road so I can field it as either a second Slavegiant or a second Scrappie. Leadbelchers however still underwhelm me. They are probably my least favorite unit in the game; they look cool and the premise is awesome but the reality is they are expensive pieces of crap. I plan on taking them out of all my lists going forward unless I can find a really good reason to put them in.

RARE:
Slavegiant

This guy didn't kill anything in any of my tourney games. In fact, I can't remember the last game he managed to kill anything. It bums me out. I want to keep playing him but as of right now he is sitting on the bench.

So there you have it. My quick and dirty run-down of the list and my thoughts after the fact. While I think this list can work it still isn't competitive enough against most armies. I am working on a Skrag list and toying with a Mawseeker list in an effort to hit harder and do more damage to every army I face.

As part of my upcoming Skrag list I have gained two new "Gorgers". Say hello to the friendly Gorspawns from the Maw pit itself!

I intend on building 6 of these "Gorspawns" for my Skrag list and also using them as Chaos Trolls in my (slowly building) Throgg Troll/Malal WoC list. I really like the Chaos Spawn kit. It has so many gribbly bits!

Expect more updates and pictures this week! Working diligently on test models for my Vampire Counts list, an Army of the Dead!

Capital City Carnage recap.

Well it was a long and exhausting weekend of Warhammer but I made it out alive. I don't have the energy for a long play by play battle report and most of the battles were not interesting enough for that anyway. I do remember a few high and low points though.

Before I get into the bullet point lists here is a picture of the partly painted Beer Gut Tribe on the table at the event.

I am pretty happy with how most of my painting turned out. I still don't think I will ever be able to paint things to the standard I am looking for, but with only a few months of practice I have come a long way. I will get better individual model pictures up here as I complete each model. For this event I was only able to get the base coats and a wash on so I still need to do some touch ups and finish the bases.

Enough about my cruddy painting skills ... on to the games!

Saturday - Game 1 vs. High Elves

• Objective was to capture and hold a bridge
• The High Elf list was fairly easy going with minimal magic and no Star Dragon
• Siegebreaker Butcher miscast on Turn 2 - rolling a 1 and blowing up in the big Bull unit
• He took 2 Bulls with him and the other Butcher as well (removing the buffs I had cast with irresistible force on all my Ogre units)
• Scraplauncher guesses were spot on but bad scatters of 8" kept me from landing the killing blow
• Game ended before time but I had managed to kill half of his forces without any magic defense (including his Lord)
• Game was a Draw (mostly due to the miscast and the loss of the Slavegiant to repeating bolt throwers)
  

Saturday - Game 2 vs. Empire

• Objective was to capture and hold 4 secret table segments (out of 6 possible)
  
• Empire list was hard but not impossible with 2 Great Cannons, a Hellblaster, 2 large units of State Troops, a large unit of Flagellants, and 2 large units of Knights (one being Inner Circle with a Lord)
  
• Great Cannons deployed on both flanks covering the entire board with the Hellblaster in the middle
  
• One cannon was deployed in a forest edge giving my Trappers the ability to place behind them outside of the woods
  
• That same cannon got off one shot which was a direct hit on my Slavegiant's head, dealing 6 wounds and killing him outright
  
• The Trappers charged the cannon and kept it from shooting any more while the other two warmachines misfired and sat useless for a turn
  
• Scraplauncher dropped sharp and point death on the State Troops killing 15 out of 30 in one shot
• Inner Circle Knight unit charged the Bull deathstar and was promptly destroyed and cut down
• Game ended in a massacre for the Beer Gut Tribe with only 5 flagellant models still on the board
  

Saturday - Game 3 vs. Warriors of Chaos

• Objective was to kill an enemy musician nominated at the start of the game (a battle of the bands)
  
• WoC list with one unit of Knights, two units of Warriors, Marauders, Hounds, Juggernaut Lord, Exalted Hero on disc, and Dragon Ogres
  
• Scraplauncher rained pointy death on the Warrior blocks
  
• Trappers deployed near a hill and threw sharp stuff at the Dragon Ogres dealing two wounds
  
• Knight unit moved up a flank to kill the Scraplauncher
  
• Scraplauncher charged the Knights, killing three with impact hits, two more falling to the Rhinox, and the last Knight dying to a SCRAPPER - MOMENT OF THE TOURNEY
  
• Bull deathstar charged into one unit of Warriors and killed all but two of them on the charge
• Game ended as a Draw due to time but I probably could have won given another turn

Sunday - Game 4 vs. Beasts of Chaos

• Objective was to take all of the taverns on the street (BEER)
  
• BoC list was hard! 8 chariots with rerollable panic checks, maxed out magic with 13 power dice, 8 dispel dice, two large beast herds, unit of minotaurs, 4 units of Hounds, 2 units of cav.
  
• Scraplauncher misfired and ran to the edge of the board (narrowly missing a block of trees and two units of Ironguts)
  
• Flanks were rolled up by Ironguts while the Bull deathstar was stuck on the street facing down three chariots
  
• Beastlord charged a unit of Leadbelchers off the board with Steed of Shadows
  
• Scraplauncher was forced to charge the Lord doing two wounds with impact hits, another one from the Rhinox, and another one from a SCRAPPER
  
• Beastlord saved the last wound and smashed the Scraplauncher with one Strength 8 or 9 attack
  
• With nothing left to live for (the game was a loss) Tyrant Karnov charged the chariots down the street
• The first chariot fled leaving Karnov alone in the middle of the road
• Tyrant was charged from two directions by 4 chariots at the same time before he exploded
• Gamed ended as a Loss but the Beer Gut Tribe managed to hold on to 1 Tavern

Sunday - Game 5 vs. Daemons of Chaos

• Objectives were random for each player
  
• All Nurgle DoC list with two huge units of Plaguebearers, two Nurgle Beasts, Heralds, Nurglings, and a GUO
• My list had nothing that could hurt it
• I lost the game by the end of Turn 3 (about 20 mins)
• Hands down the least fun game of WHFB I have ever played
• Terrible way to end the tournament (how did I even get matched up with this a-hole!?)

So there you have it. 1 Win 2 Draws 2 Losses. The two draws were close and the losses were to lists I had no chance of beating so overall I feel pretty good about my first GT showing. Now it is time to start working on my VC list so maybe I can win a few more games! In my next post I will catalog my thoughts on the list overall, what worked and what didn't.

Cap City Update - Saturday.

Just got back from the first day of Capital City Carnage.

Drew my first game, won my second, and drew my third game.

Played High Elves, Empire, and Warrior of Chaos (in that order).

I think I am ranked about 20th out of the 60+ players at the tournament. Not bad for my first one ever! Not bad for Ogres!

Cap City Madness!

I've been running around for the past few hours trying to get everything done for Cap City tomorrow. I didn't manage to complete all of my painting but I got at least a base coat on everything. Hopefully that counts for something!

Went to the early registration this evening and got my player packet. Going to be playing some really fun scenarios that should be a fun challenge for me and the Beer Gut Tribe. One of them is about taking over all the taverns on one street. If I can't manage that I will be very sad! Wish me luck ...

Speaking of beers:

I completely forgot to mention that my first batch of homebrew was bottled and aged! About half of the batch is gone now and the verdict so far is ... its good! Second batch is bottled and aging now but I have a feeling it won't be quite as good. Picked up the ingredients for a cheap Black Ale but I haven't brewed it yet. Maybe after all of the GT madness is over.

Speaking of madness, it has been way too long since I posted a beer review!

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Left Hand Brewing Company - Polestar Pilsner

Beer Type: German Pilsener

Appearance: 12 oz. brown bottle a fairly classic example of Left Hand images (sawtooth, the logo, etc). Beer poured a light yellow. Just a slight head that quickly faded.

Smell: Grains (wheat, hay, grass), a little bit of lemon or citrus, and a bit of floral hops.

First Drink: A kind of grassy flavor with some of the hops followed by a sweeter lemon finish.

Mouthfeel: Light with what seems to be the right amount of carbonation for a pils.

Last Drink: Picking up a little more of a spice now? Makes me think of ginger or lemongrass.

Drinkability: Not quite what I imagine when I reach for a pilsner and overall I wasn't terribly impressed with this beer.

Notes: I haven't had too many beers from Left Hand but they have a large cult following. So far I have to say they are pretty low on my "breweries I like" list. I will give their other brews a chance before I stick to that verdict though.

Verdict: 3 out of 5. Far from the worst I have had but not what I would go for if I was looking to buy an expensive six pack.

Links: Beer Advocate and Left Hand Brewing Company.