Lizardmen Retirement Party – March 20, 2013.

Used without permission.

The time has come… After many long, long years of the Lizardmen strapping on their gold plated armor and brandishing their primitive, stone-made weapons, they are finally heading towards the lighter side of life, and have submitted their paperwork for retirement. That’s right, the army that I’ve played with since I first began playing this game over 13 years ago is finally getting a long awaited retirement party: The Display Case. Before I go any further, I want to give many thanks to Oldblood Qett’l-Korn, who has single-handedly piked the heads of Chaos Lords, Dark Elf Masters, Orc Warbosses, and many, many others. And Bro’qin Bot’l, the ancient Scar-Veteran who has – time and time again – carried the sacred Battle Standard to the fields of war, all while never letting it touch the ground…  And also Ho’qus Po’qus, who has been carried to battle on his Ancient Stegadon for several years and delivered divine Heavens magic upon many of the Lizardmen’s foes… To each of these revered Lizardmen leaders, as well as a slew of the rest of the Lizardmen army, I give thanks…

The Lizardmen’s new retirement home…

I have well over 6,500 points of PAINTED Lizardmen, and, after many years of playing with these guys – all the way back from 5th edition – I think the time has come to officially retire them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to pack them up and play some games with them, but for now, they are being put on display in the glass case. They will never be truly retired, but now I’m going to focus on some of the other armies I have on the waiting list, namely my Daemons of Chaos, Beastmen, and Deathwing. I’ve devoted a lot of time and energy to this army and it’s truly my pride and joy… but now it’s time to change the scenery a bit and go for something completely different. (Not rolling 3 dice for Leadership tests is going to be a huge change!!!) I’ve enjoyed playing Lizardmen and they will always hold a special place in my heart… Although I’ve never kept true track of overall win/loss record… I’d like to think that I’m somewhere around the .500 mark with them. I’ve suffered massive slaughters with them, and have also dished them out. I’ve truly had some very memorable games with this army and I’m actually looking forward to the break and getting to know another army inside and out. So the West Coast GT was the Lizardmen’s last trip to a GT (at least for a while) and a new army will rise in their place.

Time to say goodbye… and start something new. Be on the lookout for my Daemons of Chaos and Beastmen armies… both coming soon! (I started gluing them together and making movement trays, simultaneously!)

West Coast GT 2013 Report Out! To the Victor goes the spoils!

Made it back to the Pacific Northwest yesterday afternoon after a long weekend of Fantasy Gaming in the West Coast GT. It was my first time out there, and I have a lot to report on. Here’s the breakdown:

To start things off, I want to start by thanking the guys from West Coast Hammertime that helped to make the West Coast GT one of the more memorable GT’s I’ve ever been apart of (Bill and Fred are a few of the names I remember). The venue was nice and could’ve held about 3-4 more tables if needed. It was the Elks Lodge, and they even had a bar on-site with the concession stand in the same room as the tournaments… so getting a quick snack was very easy to do. In all, there were 44 participants, which is the second largest GT I’ve ever attended, and I don’t have one bad thing to say about anybody that was there. I met up with zebrazach and a couple other guys and pretty much hung with them the entire weekend. The camaraderie that was there, as well as the hospitality shown by these guys as well as others (Stephen Johnstone, Lenny Ortega, Zack Lopez, Leif Davidsen and Ryan Frayer, just to name a few) was outstanding and I never once felt out of place. The weather was amazing, and there was food places as well as a grocery store in the same parking lot. All in all, very nice location and well run tournament. I’ll take the next few paragraphs to break down the pro’s and con’s of the tournament:

Here’s my Lizards!

Pro’s:

Venue: Big enough, plenty of space. And a bar right where we needed it. We were able to leave our things there overnight, which is a huge advantage because I hate packing my stuff up once it’s out, only to have to do the same thing again the next day. As stated earlier, walking distance to lots of food joints and a grocery store. The bar portion was right next to us and they had a waitress that was on top of things throughout the entire weekend, always checking to see if you needed anything else. The tables were well spaced, each had 2 chairs, and they were clearly marked.

Booze!: That’s right! The West Coast GT’ers had a keg on tap that was free for anybody that wanted it as long as the keg was still flowing! I think it lasted about a game and a half…

The Staff: These guys (it’s worth mentioning once again, West Coast Hammertime – they have podcasts as well) were on top of everything and made sure to constantly walk around and check in on everybody’s game in case of any rules questions or anything of the sort. They also stuck very closely to the schedule which is awesome… a dragging tournament is never fun. Also, upon signing up, they hand you a file folder with 6 printouts of your army list in Army Builder as well as all you’ll need for the weekend for getting through the scenarios. At the start of each game, if there was something that was specific to the scenario, they already had it there by the time we set up. There was very little downtime throughout because these guys were running like an efficient, well-oiled machine.

The Prize Support: Here’s a pic of the prize support. In the end, they had a raffle for a lot of random stuff (that I happened to win!) even before they got to the awards. Any time I pay upwards of $70 for a tournament, it’s always nice to see the TOs giving a lot of it back. I was very pleased with the prize support. I also found out in the end that the guys from Cardboard Arcade (Lenny Ortega, Leif Davidsen) donated some of the prize support, which goes to show even more how well those guys work with each other in SoCal.

All the prize support.

Scenarios: Even though I’m not a huge fan of switching up the scenarios I really liked the ones these guys came up with because they stuck to the SoCal theme with them. There was one that used Mad Mickey from Disneyland and then another where you’re trying to make it to the main stage in order to “make it” in Hollywood. They were pretty fair for both sides and didn’t make a huge difference either way. I liked the changed of pace and scenery for the altered scenarios so these get my vote.

Cons:

Table height: This one is more personal preference than anything, but I think my Agents of C.O.M.I.C.S. days spoiled me because of the 4 foot high tables. Makes it much easier on the knees and lower back, but even then, I understand this is hard to accommodate. So this is more of a personal gripe than anything.

That’s about it for pro’s and con’s. I think the tournament was well-ran, stayed on time, and the prize support was pretty amazing. A very friendly staff as well as friendly gamers made it a very enjoyable experience.

Tournament Performance:

As for how I fared in the tournament… Well, I ended up going 1-2-2 and placed 16th out of 44 players. My total points were 133.5 and got the prize for 2nd place Best Sportsman. I got 3 out of 5 votes for “Most Favorite Opponent”, which was good enough to take 2nd place. For my efforts, I got the Empire Reinforcement Battalion! (I got the Warhounds in the raffle!)

I played Stephen Johnstone (very cool guy) in Round 1 against his Tomb Kings and it ended up a draw. In the last turn, he was able to kill off my General, and that proved to be the deciding factor in making it a draw as opposed to a win for me. Very fun game. Round 2 I played Jeff Seuss’s High Elves and got yet another draw. I believe in Turn 3 we started taking shots of Patron Tequila… made for a very enjoyable game. He got my vote for Most Favorite Opponent and was part of the Leadership 2 group. The third game of the first day was against Wade Durant and his Dark Elves and they handed me my first loss of the tournament. So at the end of Day 1 I was 0-1-2. The next day I started off with Brian Karol’s Skaven and got a pretty decisive victory. He was a new gamer and was still learning the ways of how you play a Skaven army. Finally, my last game was against Justin Rusk who played Wood Elves. This game went pretty poorly for me (and awesome for him!) as he charged my Carnosaur – and broke it in combat – and then I failed to rally the next turn. Obviously, he ran him off and then widdled down my Saurus unit with a Treeman and Dryads. He was a good general and could really tell that he knew how to play his army. So, overall, 1-2-2 with a 16th place finish. Sorry for the lack of great detail in these but I really could do entire posts on each of the games – and I just might. But the intent of this post is to give thoughts on the West Coast GT and how I did, so short and sweet is what I’m shooting for.

Extracurricular Activities:

On Saturday night, a handful of us stuck around and got some food nearby and then decided to do a mega battle. The idea was to set up each of our armies and then we had to play with somebody else’s army. We had 3 vs. 3 and I ended up using Ryan Frayer’s Wood Elves. As is customary with mega battles, we never finished and got to Round 2 before we decided drinking was the better idea. We had a blast, though and it really kinda tied the whole tournament together with the camaraderie that these guys showed one another. There was laughs, cries, more laughs, and even some shots thrown in there somewhere. It was an awesome night… although the time change didn’t help much the next morning!

Look at all the beer cups on the table…

Overall, I was very pleased with the West Coast GT and, depending on where I’m at around this time next year, I will definitely make it back. The guys that ran the tournament did a hell of a job and the venue they chose was top notch. All of the players were very cool and I seen some of the best painted armies I’ve ever seen at this tournament. Those guys from SoCal really know how to put on a tournament and show off their armies. I’d recommend this tournament to anybody on the west coast or anybody that’s willing to do a little bit of travel, just like I did. Thanks again to everybody that was there and the TO’s, it was one hell of a party! Enjoy the pics! Also, my apologies to the painters of each of these armies, my camera work does the detail in which these armies are painted no justice!

Mike Scaletti’s WoC. He won Best Painted.

From the Mad Mickey Scenario.

Zebrazach’s Chaos Dwarfs.

Tony Pacheco’s VCs, from Leadership 2.

West Coast GT Final Preparations!

Used without permission.

Well, I just checked the West Coast GT webpage and it looks like there’s a total of 48 players signed up for this weekend. I’ve been talking with zebrazach over at A Nerd Also Rises and it looks as though we’re gonna get into some BIG THINGS this weekend! The bags are packed, the army is ready to go, and I got my lucky dice! I fly out tonight about 6:45 and then I’ll be ready to go first thing in the morning at 9:00 AM Pacific Time. I’m really looking forward to meeting a lot of new people and getting to see lots of new armies. I plan on taking lots of pics as well and will post on Saturday night how the first round of the tournament went. As always, if I can get away with 2-3 wins this weekend then I’d be satisfied. I have always played this game just for the camaraderie so getting a weekend away – especially in SoCal – will be a nice change of pace. I hear the weather supposed to be mid 70s and sunny… Much different than here in gloomy Seattle.

I believe I have all that I need now. Army lists, army, dice, bags… The one concern that I have is my display board. I’ve never traveled with it and as I was packing it this morning I just know it’s gonna get banged up. If I was handling it then I’m pretty sure it’d be fine but I know how those airline bag handlers work so I’m preparing for the worst. I wrapped it in towels for extra padding and then put clothing both on top and bottom of it. Hopefully it’s reinforced enough that it makes the trip and I don’t have to have a surprise post about how damaged my display board got…

So anyways, I’m just a handful of hours away until we take off. I’m excited about playing again and getting back into the gaming scene. Stay tuned and check back as I’ll hopefully have an updated after the first round of games. Holla!

West Coast Fantasy GT Readiness: Final WHFB Army List, v8.0.

Used without permission.

It’s been awhile, and I’ll admit I’ve been slacking… but on February 25th our army lists for The West Coast GT are due, and I think I’ve gotten mine figured out. This list has been my bread and butter for a while now, and I seem to do pretty well with it. Although now, the only problem is that I’m debating about whether I should swap out the Terradons for another unit of Skink Skirmishers and bulk out the Saurus unit or just keep the Terradons in… Help me out with that!!! In addition to tweaking my list, I’ve also updated my display board (post coming soon) to better group my army and show a constant theme throughout. One other requirement for the West Coast GT is that we need to have a model to represent the “Housewife of the OC” in the second scenario. So I have something in mind for that so stay tuned for an update about that paint job coming soon. The hotel is booked… the flight is booked… now I just need to hone my army skills and I plan on hitting up the local GW Battle Bunker over the next few weekends to get back in the swing of things. I’ll take all the practice I can get between now and then. This West Coast GT looks like a ton of fun, and the scenarios are awesome (as well as pretty funny) so I’m hoping they really pull through and deliver a high quality Grand Tournament. It’d be a nice breath of fresh air… So, here’s to hoping! And without further ado, here’s my GT army list:

Lord:

Oldblood Qett’l-Korn with the Armour of Destiny, Carnosaur Pendant, and Halberd. Mounted on the Carnosaur Chim-i’ Chan’qa.

Swapped out the Dawnstone that I originally had on him in order to give it to the Skink Priest (mentioned later). So, he’s still packin’ 6 Strength 6 attacks and the Carnosaur is bringin’ 5 Strength 7 of his own. The Frenzy is always kinda scary… kinda like a double-edged sword but I’m usually always willing to take a chance, which is why I stick to it. The Thunderstomp is always a bonus, and is one of the main reasons I keep going back to the Carnosaur. His survivability tends to fluctuate depending on the opponent (Stone throwers… gulp!) but I usually fair pretty well. Plus, this model is the one I consider the “centerpiece” to my army, as it’s my best converted and painted model (in my opinion).

OB Qett’l-Korn, atop his loyal Carnosaur Chim-I’ Chan’qa…

Heroes:

Scar-Veteran Bro’qin Bot’l as the BSB. Has a shield, Armour of Fortune, and Sword of Striking.

Bro’qin Bot’l serves as the BSB for the army and has a 2+ AS and a 5+ WS thanks to the Armour of Fortune. I decided to go with the Sword of Striking in order to give him the +1 to hit. So he has 4 Strength 5 Attacks… and if I’m able to get into combat against normal troops I’ll usually be needing 2′s to hit, which is never a bad thing. Keeping him alive has always been a struggle for me, so I’m hoping the low AS and the good WS is enough to see me through. He will go in the unit of 29 Saurus Warriors.

Bro’qin Bot’l, gripping the Standard tight!

Skink Witch Doctor Ho’qus Po’qus upgraded to Level 2 and Dawnstone and Dispel Scroll. Mounted on an Engine of the Gods.

The Engine of the Gods is an awesome model… one of my favorite of all time to be exact. With the Skink Doctor Ho’qus Po’qus mounted up top, he can do The Burning Alignment spell, and is even carrying a Dispel Scroll and Dawnstone. I love the Stegadon model too much to not include him in my army. Being able to get a couple of Heavens spells will help me out in the CC phase. I went with the Dawnstone because, being a Skink, the priest will surely get targeted in hand to hand combat, so re-rolls on failed AS’s (of 2+ thanks to the howdah!) was the way to go for me.

Core:

29 Saurus Warriors with Hand Weapon & Shield and Full Command.

Main unit. HW/Shield combos. This is where the Bro’qin Bot’l (BSB) will go.

Saurus Warriors complete with unit filler.

28 Saurus Warriors with Spears & Shield and Full Command.

Supporting unit. I’ve had good luck with the Spears and I like the way I painted the unit.

10 Skink Skirmishers w/javelins.

Helping to round out the core units, this unit has been upgraded to have javelins to give them the Always Stand & Shoot ability.

Special:

5 Chameleon Skinks.

Too valuable not to have. Bookend threats (see below) that will help me to take out the stuff behind enemy lines. Double tapping gives me 10 shots that will need 6′s at worst, which is what I’m looking for anyways (poison FTW!).

1 Unit of Chameleons.

5 Chameleon Skinks.

The 2nd unit of Chameleons.

4 Terradons.

Another behind-enemy-lines unit. I swapped these guys out (and the 10 Skink Skirmishers) for the Skrox unit. The Vanguard rule comes in handy at the beginning of the game. The Drop Rocks special rule is good for taking out the small units also. (This is the unit I’m having trouble with… I am aware of these guys use(s)… but I can’t help but go back and forth with just taking another unit of 10 Skink Skirmishers and using the remaining points to bulk out the Saurus Warriors (I can get 4 more added to the unit)). What do you guys think? Terradons? Or more Skinks and Saurus?

Rare:

Used without permission.

Ancient Stegadon.

Bigger, better, meaner version of the regular Stegadon. Strength 6, Giant Blowpipes that do 2D6 shots with poison and the Thunderstomp. Having the extra Thunderstomp in HtH helps out a lot. Just need to get him into CC.

Salamander.

Salamander.

Salamanders have grown to be a must have for me. Especially considering the new rules for flames in this edition. It’s just not a good idea to not include these guys. They can deal out a ton of damage and, because they’re skirmishers, they can march and still spout flames.

That comes to 2,496 points. If I decide to swap out the Terradons then that frees up 40 points, which totals 44 in all. That is enough for 4 more Saurus Warriors to spread out to either unit. The Terradons do their job well, but they are also pretty easily killed. Somebody help me make a decision! I’ve always enjoyed the “Big Dinosaur” list and have always opted to not play the Slann. I usually pull in somewhere around the middle of the pack with this list and have even won a tournament with it, and got 2nd in another. Once I make the decision on the Terradons then I’ll go forward and send it to the TO’s at the West Coast GT. My plan is to give updates throughout the weekend of the tournament and hopefully give “game-by-game” updates. I’ll have my laptop with me so all I need to do is get an internet connection and I’ll be able to show everybody the progress of the tourney. Please let me know your thoughts and I’ll be posting my display board soon! As always, thanks for reading!

The Grand Host of Revered Slann-Mage Priest Xalana’qay – (re)Finished!

Used without permission.

You ever have the urge to get up in the middle of the night about 3:45 AM and decide to start working on your unfinished army…? Well that’s exactly what happened to me this morning. After not feeling so well the last few days as well as re-adjusting to West Coast time, my body just wasn’t feeling it… but this morning, I woke up in the wee hours of the night wide awake, and since I decided there was no way I was gonna fall back asleep, off to work I headed. If you read my last post about the TSHFT Open being cancelled, then you remember me saying I was going to have to re-assemble my army in a day or two in order to play in the tournament this weekend. Well it turns out it was cancelled, but I still had plans to work on my Lizardmen anyways… If you recall, my army got simply trashed on the move back from Maryland over the summer… I hadn’t actually taken it out to assess the damage because 1.) I really haven’t had the proper time and, 2.) I was scared to see what kind of condition it was going to be in. The moving company simply obliterated it… Things were bent, some were broken, and some things trashed entirely… Below is just a sampling of what I pulled out when I finally opened the case (notice the Terradons in complete pieces…)

So, I upgraded the carrying case this morning and got everything it’s own cutout in 2 separate Army Transports… So now all 5,000ish points of Lizardmen fits nicely into 2 carrying cases. I set about gluing, cutting, re-cutting, gluing some more, and throwing some things away… It took a few hours but I’m happy to report that the entire army has been fixed and is now ready to go, at least for the most part. What some of these pictures don’t show is how beat up some of the details are on some of the models. Some have big chips that I need to go back over but will set to doing that shortly. Today’s goal was to just get it all put back together. Here’s a couple more pics:

I found that I need to finish up one last movement tray (you’ll notice it on the Temple Guard) and I have an unopened Scar-Veteran model that needs to be painted as well. So I’m about 98% complete with this army, minus the touch-ups. Here’s the last of the finished army:

After getting everything back in order I started working on my Beastmen and took stock of what kind of condition it’s in as well. There appears to be about 2,200 points of models available and nothing yet painted. So, with this in mind,  this army will be next to paint once I finish up the other 2% of my Lizardmen. There is one other thing I’d like to do, though, specifically for the West Coast Hammertime GT, and that’s re-do my display board to have some real water effects. This will be the first thing and likely take place this weekend so check back for that. It’ll be my first time trying out water effects but I’m confident I can pull it off. Stay tuned, check back, and as always, thanks for reading.

Weekend update: TSHFT Open Warhammer Fantasy Battle cancelled here in Seattle…

Used without permission.

Well it appears that the Warhammer Fantasy portion of The TSHFT Open, which was scheduled to take place this upcoming weekend, January 19th and 20th, here in Seattle, WA has been cancelled on account of not enough interest. Pretty disappointing for me because it was supposed to be my first time back in action in about a year or so. I was ready to re-field the grand host of the Lizardmen and hopefully walk away with a win or two and some great war stories that can be told time and time again… But alas, it was not to be. Apparently the Fantasy portion of Warhammer is not that huge here in the Pacific Northwest… Of course it falls 2nd place to Warhammer 40k, which seems to be the norm nationwide… Their 40k portion of the event is still a go and they’re expected to have a pretty big turnout… They offered the few that signed up for WFB to upgrade to the 40k tournament but since my army is not yet ready I opted for the refund. I’m hoping somebody here in the Seattle area shows some interest and gets Warhammer Fantasy going around here… I know there’s lots of players here, just none that are that big into the tournament scene. Any viewers of my blog from here in Seattle? Let’s work together and try to get it up and going here in the Pacific Northwest!

So now I can focus my efforts solely on The West Coast GT, which will be held March 9-10 in Santa Ana, CA. I already have tickets for the flight, hotel, and tournament booked so that’s one I’m really looking forward to. I’m trying to get my bro HornedRatRob to join me there for that one so we can have more than one representative from the B.A.W.G.S. gaming group there, but he’s on the fence. So head on over to his blog and let him know that he needs to suck it up and just make the flight out there. There’s currently 33 players signed up for the West Coast GT so it should be an excellent turnout and I’m sure some great battles will be fought.

One of the good things (for me) about the TSHFT Open being cancelled this upcoming weekend is that it now gives me a chance to really get my army back together, fix the display board, and finish up the loose ends that I have with painting a model here and there. It also allows me to get a few games under my belt so I can get a refresher on how to actually play the game. By the time the GT gets here, I should be primed and ready to go. I’m hoping to get everything in work when I’m off tomorrow so there will be some progress pics of where I’m at on everything so you can see where I’m at. It might even turn out to be a weekend to get back into the local GW store and squeeze in a game, or, at the very least, pick up the new codex for the Dark Angels…

Anyways, just wanted to let everybody know what’s going on. Be looking for another post tomorrow about the status of the (broken and in-pieces) Lizardmen and follow their return to glory (or at least their return to being 100% put together). Thanks for reading, as always.

Jungles of Lustria 2012 Resolutions Recap & 2013 New Years Gaming Resolutions!

Used without permission.

So if you read yesterday’s first post and have followed me over the past year then you’ll know I came up way short in my 2012 Gaming Resolutions. I went through a lot of personal stuff and my job had me traveling all over the country so it left little time to get some actual painting and playing in. To recap what my 2012 goals looked like, see the following (with results in parenthesis):

- Paint 50 points of Trollbloods (Completed about 20% then sold ‘em off…)

- Paint 2,500 points of Orcs & Goblins (0% Complete then sold ‘em off…)

- Paint 2,000 points of Deathwing (Complete about 40%)

- Attend Games Day 2012 (0% Complete, just bad timing…)

- Attend at least 2 major Warhammer Tournaments (0% Complete)

- Attend at least 3 local WarmaHordes Tournaments (Attended 1, and that was it…)

- Attend Adepticon (Paid for it, but didn’t go…)

- Paint 35 points of Khador (0% Complete, then sold ‘em off…)

- Start a new Warhammer Fantasy army (200% Complete! Beastmen and Daemons of Chaos!)

So as you can plainly see I didn’t get much done in 2012. That’s why I’m so anxious to start brand new in 2013. Some of the resolutions that I’m making in 2013 will be carryovers from 2012 and there will also be some new ones. Here’s what I have planned in 2013:

- Paint 2,500 points of Beastmen

- Paint 1,500 points of Salamanders

- Finish 2,000 points of Deathwing

- Attend 2 Major Warhammer Fantasy Tournaments

- Attend at least 1 Major Warhammer 40k Tournament

- Attend Games Day 2013

- Finish 2,500 points of Daemons of Chaos

As you can see I dropped off the WarmaHordes stuff. I don’t plan on playing much of that anymore but who knows what can happen. I hear that Privateer Press is headquartered here in Seattle so maybe something will happen. I’m definitely not opposed to it, I just know that I’m more focused on Warhammer and 40k right now. I truly hope I get to make it back to Games Day this year. When I went last time it was amazing and you get to see all kinds of cool stuff. I would recommend it to anybody that calls themselves a tabletop gamer. And as you know I’m planning on participating in The TSHFT Open here in Seattle, so that’ll knock out 1/2 of the quota for attending a major Warhammer fantasy Tournament. I’m sure more will be added and some will be taken off… But this is a starting point. Like last year, I’ll try to give monthly updates on the progress to these goals. Let me know what you all think and thanks again for reading!