Warmaster Chaos Army update

 've contnue to make progress on my Chaos army for Warmaster and now have wel over 2,000 points of troops painted and ready for battle. 

4x Units of Chaos Warrors and Chaos Marauders

The Cavalry wing: 3 Units of Chaos Chariots, 1 unit of Dragon Ogres, 2 units of Chaos Knights, and 3 units of Marauder horsemen

Miscellaneous units: 2x units of Ogres, 2x units of Harpies, 2x units of Chaos Hounds. 

Craig

Scatter Terrain

 I've been playing a few solo games of Warmaster on my arid themed table over the past few days as I try to get more familiar with the rules. I felt that I needed a bit more scatter terrain- scrub and rough going- to give a bit more variety to the table. I've not made any terrain in quite along time but I'm on holdiay this week so today between other tasks around the house managed to build some suitable terrain to add more interest to the table. 

Over the years I've tried many types of terrain, from dedicated terrain boards to various types of scatter terrain but feel that scatter terrain makes the most versatile table top terrain. 

Rock outcroppings

These are simple to make and look good on table. I make a base out of 5mm MDF using a jigsaw to cut the basic outline. I then file the edges of the MDF base with a wood rasp to make it slightly more rounded. 

I then find some suitable bits of barkchip from the winter wood pile and then glue it on to the MDF base with PVA. 

Once the PA is dry I use some permafilla to texture the base.

Once the permafilla is dry I then paint the barkchip with slightly watered down PVA. PVA shrinks when it dries and this creates a firm skin on the barkchip which prevents it from chipping. 

I then paint the base using a base clour plus plus 1-2 highlight colours.

Finally, I put some dabs of PVA glue and sprinkle on catlitter to represent rock falls .

Once the cat litter is dry I again paint a layer of watered down PVA over it to make it more solid- again the PVA shrinks when it dries creating a solid protective layer. 

And that it is, done. 

Well, almost. I need to add some bits of Woodlands Scenics clump foliage to add a bit more interest/contrast which is a wee job for tomorrow. 

And a few bases for the scatter terrain using the same techniques.  

Craig

Warmaster Chaos + Battle report

 A busyt week getting the Chaos army ready for battle. I've still a few more units to paint but can field at least 1500 points now

So, wiht that in mind, yeterday I decided to ahve a solo game of High Elves vs Chaos. The way the commnad rules work in Warmaster lends itself nicely for solo gaming so dug out some of my 15mm terrain for a practice game to get better at the rules. 

The game played well and worked as expected and will defintitely do some more solo games in future. 

Craig

Warmaster Chaos Army- WIP

 I popped down to Dunedin for my first game of Warmaster last weekend, vs Jonathan and his Tomb Kings.  A battle report can be found here: Warmaster High Elves vs Tomb kings. 

I enjoyed the command and control aspect of the rules and the uncertainty that that created and although the game took a while as we were both relearning the rules it was a lot of fun and I look forward to a few more games in the near future with the Dunedin gamers. 

I wanted a second (well and a third eventually) army to do some solo-gaming and as a pair should anyone want a game in future, so had a 2000+ point Chaos Army printed up for me by one of the Dunedin gamers and picked it up while in town. 

So this week I've got started on my Warriors from the Steppe, Chaos Warrior army.  Once again the sculpts are the awesome Forest Dragon 3d prints, the quality of which continues to blow me away. I can not recommend them highly enough. 

4 units of Chaos Marauders- Solid infantry which will form the core of the army either brigaded by themselves or combined with Chaos Warriors units for a bit more staying power.

Chaos Chariots. I've just painted these this morning and again the sculpts are incredible. They will become the backbone of the army and intend to paint up another 5 units worth! I've just done the basecoat on the base so yet to add the other bits and pieces to tie them in with the other units.

2 units of Ogres. Again great sculpts. I forgot to get some Chaos Warrriors printed so until I rectify that they will be used as Chaos Warriors.

The army so far assembles. 

I've another unit of chariots and  2 units of marauder horsemen and I should amost be ready for a game with them. I am aiming to get 1200 points table ready and then built the army towards 2000 points from there. 

Craig

More high elves

 A few more pictures of the 10mm high elves for Warmaster.

I completed another two regiments of Silver Helms today. 

Craig

Warmaster high elves

This week some of the lovely 10mm scale 3d printed Forest Dragon High elf figures turned up, and what can I say they are even betler in the flesh, so to speak. Amazing the quality of sculpts these days! I can't recommend them highly enough. 

So I've been beavering away gettting my Silverhelm Cavary regiments done and enough Spear-elves painted to be able to field a 2000 point army. 

I've gone for a traditional blue and white colour scheme and am happy with the way they have turned out.

I've quite enjoyed painting these figures, the details pop making them easy to paint and I have had a bit of a production line going. The funny thing with 10mm is that an individual base looks okay, a regiment not bad but once you put 3-4 regiments down together on the table top, wow do they pop and the look of serried ranks really shines. 

I'm still not 100% sold on the rules for Warmaster- I like the command and control mechanism just wonderoing if the fighting by stands mechanic may be a bit fiddly, we will see when I get round to having a game. 

Anyway, I am very satisfied with the results of my work this week and hope to get these guys onto the tabe one day soon. 

5 of the infantry regiments are Forest Dragon 3d printed resins, the centre one os the only regient of GW spear elves I have. 

Craig

Warmaster 10mm High elves

 Time for something a bit different. I was down in Dunedin the other week and caught up with an old gaming mate Richard who is running a gaming/hobby store which is pretty cool. While in there met one of the local gamers, Andrew, who was working on a Warmaster Tomb Kings army. They've got a group of 3-4 players down there getting some armies together and so that was all the inspiration I needed to get a new project under way.  

I played a few games of Warmaster 20 odd years ago with Dale and Nigel but didn't like the crazy never ending combat issue which was fixed with Warmaster Ancients. I bought Warmaster Ancients when it came out but never got inspired to paint up an army. Anyway, back in the day I got a few blisters of GW High Elves and some Kallistra ones with the intention of getting a 2000pt High Elf army together, but it has been languishing, forgotten and unloved in the bottom of my gaming drawers for a long, long time. 

Meeting up with Andrew and Richard inspired me to pull the old mini's out and try to get an army together. A google seach for inspiration turned up Warmaster Revolution which is a fan based update based on the Warmaster Acients system. I'm not 100% sold on the Warmaster system, I always liked the command system which were also used in Hail Ceasar and Black Powder but I'm not sold on the combat rules, I think that they may be a little clunky but we will see, as I said I've oot actually had a game in a long, long time. so maybe I cut it some slack. Long story short I decided ot hunt out my old mini's and try to get an army togehter.

So, for the past couple of weeks I've been painting up and rebasing units and hope to get down to Dunedin for a game in the next few weeks. I've also bought some 3D printed mini's from Forest Dragon which does a very nice range of 10mm figures which are very Warhammeresque in thier aesthetic.   

Progress so far. 

Craig

Onsaught III- Death or Glory

 Post Onslaught III- unit reflection

21-22 July 2023

We held our annual KoW weekend/event down here in Oamaru the weekend of Juy 22-23. This year was Gordon’s turn to run the event so I got to play. In my practice games I lost 6 out of 8 games (losing 6 out of 7 vs Gordon) so didn't have the best of records heading into the weekend. However, my reguar oppoent, Gordon, is a very, very good player, the top around here by a long way. He is very methodical and understands how the game works to a level that I quite simply don’t  and I really have to work hard to get a win or even often get an open flank! So though I ahdn't had the most successfu build up going into the event I was happy with the army I’d come up with and keen ot see how it would perform in 5 games vs 5 very differnt armies. 

My aim for the weekend was to try to win 3 out of 5 games but more importantly simply to enjoy the games and see what happens. I was looking forward to playing a mix of different opponents and seeing how well my Varangur could do. One of my weaknesses with KoW is I simply have no ability to run the same sit twice. Each week I want to tweak this, or try that so a having to play the same sit 5 games in a row is kind of liberating.

I’ve done a video review of my games but I managed to sneak out first place thanks to a large win in the last round and Jeff, my opponent from game 3 who beat me, losing badly to a Ratkin army.

 

I’ve done a video report on the games here , here and here.

 Game 1: Invade vs Wayne’s Free Dwarves

First game up was Invade. We usually start gaming weekends/comps with this one as it isn’t too complicated for new payers but more interesting than a straight up Kill. My Varangur had the mobility advantage over the dwarves so I was able to dictate the tempo of the game and which units were charged when. Some multicharges at the dwarf horde holding the centre smashed a rather arge hole in the dwarven lines and I was then able to roll them up.

Victory to the Varangur.

 

Game 2: Dominate vs Nigel’s Kingdom’s of Men.

Nigel is one of my old gaming buddies and we’ve been to many Flames of War comps together. He has an amazingly well painted Samauri inspired army that he was fielding, the centrepiece being two fantastic Oni (giants). My aim in this one was to avoided the Oni and chip away at his infantry if I could.

Again, I had the mobility advantage but the game was close throughout and was a good, fun game. In the end though the Varangur’s shooting swung things towards the Varangur and they proved victorious.

 

Game 3: Control vs Jeff’s Ogres

popped down to Dunedin and had a game recently vs Jeff’s ogres. He’d changed things up since we last played, more chariots, less shooters. The mission is invade which is the mission I probably east want to face Ogre’s on. With every unit scoring at the end of the game the ogre heroes tend to disappear to claim random sectors of the board so you need to kil them all.

Turn 2 was the decisive turn in this one. I mistakenly allowed my tundra wolves to be charged by an angry horde of Berserker braves. I’d thrown my huscar’;s put as chaff vs Manny the mammoth but as they refused to hold and became road kill squished under Manny’s feet. Then my heavy hitting Son’s of Korgun got themselves chaffed up on the same turn by boomer chariots that I’d failed to recognise as a potential threat- and suddenly I was on the back foot. Jeff didn’t et the pressure off from there and though I cawed things back a bit in the end couldn’t deal with all those scoring characters left on table. A well deserved win to Jeff.

 Day 2:

 Game 4: Smoke and Mirrors vs Dave’s Varangur.

Dave had a very different army to mine having taken 2 hordes of Fallen, 2 regiment of  huscarls, a cavern dweller and lord on frostfang. Another elite army with only 10 drops but almost all hard hitting. I had more drops and also more mobility with my three mounted sons regiments.

This one was another fun game that swung one way then the other thanks to some l time double 1s by both of us but in the end the mobility advantage one out and I managed to destroy al the Falen units and huscarls- the magus with Arcane Curse being instrumental in getting rid of the 2^nd horde of those. In the end my army proved triumphant.

 

Game 5: Raze vs Eric’s Salamanders

I’d not played Salamanders before and so was not sure what to expect. Eric had rather large army but deployed quite linear and with no depth to take the charge of the mounted sons. As a result when his horde of Salamander primes a combo charge of Huscarls and Mounted Sons destroyed them opening a huge hole in the lines that I was able to exploit. The hard hitting Mounted Sons and  Huscarls then rolled up the Salamanders in what proved to be a very one sided fight. I lost a thegn on frostfang and Eric conceded at the end of turn 4.

 

Final results

Going into that last round I was in second place about 12 points behind Jeff. Jeff played Eugene with his Ratkin and had his first loss, my large win meant that I was able to sneak past Jeff and win by about 3 points (105 vs 102) so a great overall result to the Varangur though Jeff could fee righty disappointed to have the rug puled out from under him in the last game as he had played really well all weekend.

Overa, it was a fantastic weekend with 5 good fun game spayed in a friendly spirit which a the end of the day is the main reason I wargame, to roll dice and have  fun.

My aim going into the weekend was to try to win three games and I managed to win 4 so was more than happy with that. The army performed really well for me, was solid and hard hitting. I still made quite a few mistakes in the games but overall think it performed well and ook forward to our next Kings of War weekend which will be held in Christchurch in September. 

 So how did the individual units perform?

 Night Raiders

A great unit. I only lost them vs the ogres- apparently they didn’t appreciate charges by chariots and then hunters. Their main role is to hide in cover and plink away with their bows whenever possible and did well in this role.

Def 3 means they can’t stand up to much in the way of shooting but with stealthy and being  able to hang out in difficult terrain thanks to pathfinder and then charge out with thunderous +1 was at times was very handy. They are basically budget Gladestalkers. Very dependable and I’d not leave home without 2 regiments.

Rating: A

Huscarls

Ah, huscarls. The whole reason I built the army was due to buying some second hand Chaos Marauder figures and needed to build an army round them. I’ve now used them for 13 games. The word I’d use to describe them is dependable; they hit like a truck (20 attacks, hitting on 3s with crushing 2). Their relatively slow move is their main drawback and I think they do need either the mead of madness or brew of haste to mitigate that. It takes a bit of skill to get the most out of them but they make a great second line/ follow through unit. They were great at anchoring the centre where they were either flanked by night raiders or were deployed beside the night raiders to support them. I also often had the lord with the devoted icon (stealth) to further protect them vs shooting.

 I usually used them in a battlegroup with the nightstalkers and Snow Troll Prime. It was very satisfying getting a combination charge into a unit with Mounted Sons. However, they didn’t appreciate being used as bait/thick chaff vs Manny the Mammoth who turned them into road kill very quickly but they were pretty handy in all other games.

Even so, I think I’ll be dropping them down to the new Tribesmen regiment- 150pts, Crush 1, 12 attacks and lower nerve as I mainly use them in a support role so think a regiment or two of bog standard tribesmen will suffice.

Rating: B+

 

Mounted Sons of Korgun

Spd 8, 18 attacks hitting on 3s with crush 1, thunderous 1 means that even after the initial charge then can grind their way through units. But just because they have 18 attacks hitting on 3s doesn’t mean that they can be thrown out at an enemy unsupported. It has taken me a while but finally getting used to ensuring they are supported with either a second regiment, a snow troll prime, thegn on FF, a lord, some tundra wolves or even the night raiders- see my point! Never charge them unsupported if you can avoid it. A lesson it has taken me a long time to learn.

I replaced the frost giant or cavern dweller with a third mounted son Regiment and am glad I did, the extra charge range was invaluable and if I was really sneaky I’d find a way to include  the Brew of Haste for extra charge range goodness.  Like many things in Kings, units in threes are often more effective than taking them in twos.

Rating: A+

 

Tundra Wolves regiment

Tundra wolves oh how I love thee, but oh how badly I use them on the tabletop! 18 attacks, hitting on 3s with an 18” charge range and nimble, these wolves are awesome. Oh, and as of this week (we couldn’t use the new upgraded army lists at the weekend) they come with pathfinder built in! Woop! Woop! They are one of my favourite units but damn I use them poorly at times. By not measuring properly I got them into charge range and killed by:

Game 1: Dwarven Berserkers

Game 3: Ogre Berserker braves

Game 4: Huscarls- okay this one was planned to take out a Varangur conclave. 

With the way I used them on the flanks maybe I should be sticking to running them as troops for a while to get the hang of them rather than using them (poorly) as medium cav/shock troops

Rating: A, but my using them to the best their abilities: B

 

Magus

Alchemist curse and lightning bolt

Very useful. Would be more useful with the boots of levitation (+30pts) meaning he can move 10” and still cast. Or also mounting him and adding the boots- as useful as the elven version IMO. I didn’t use alchemist curse as much as I’d like but took out a unit of huscarls with him in game 4 and whenever he did cast it certainly woke my opponents up and he suddenly became a major threat.  The lightning bolt was handy supporting the night raider bowmen to get another wound or two.

Rating: A

 

Lord on foot: 130pts

6 attacks, +3 hit, Crush str +2,  Def 5, Spd 5. Devoted icon (Stealth)

Mobility an issue (5” move/11” charge) but the devoted icon gave him a 6” stealth bubble to protect the barbarian units so quite good value and was extremely good at protecting my units as a result.

Useful to delay attacks but need to be at least 4 ½” from units for this to work.  He took a couple of charges that I was expecting him to die. Low nerve can also be an issue. 

I can see the value in the Wings of Honeymaze (21” charge range/ Def 4) but also the mounted lord (no Icon) could be useful at +35pts.

Losses:

·       Game 2: Killed as chaff by knights

·       Game 3: Killed as chaff vs berserker braves

·       Game 4: Killed by lord of frostfang

Rating: B+

 

Thegns on Frostfangs

5 attacks (6 with snow fox), crushing 2, strider and nimble. Good mini versions of the Lords. Useful as chaff or supporting Mounted Sons, especially if from a flank. Thegns aren’t quite as tough as the Lords but are a lot cheaper and very, very handy.

·       Game 2: both killed

·       Game 3: both killed

·       Game 4: Lost one to the Fallen

Rating: A

 

Snow Troll Prime

Another inspiring source and solid performer. He got good use as chaff when required and was always going to be expendable. He often got used to support the Night Raiders but was handy in all the games.

Rating: B+

·       Game 1: Killed by dwarves

·       Game 2: Survived

·       Game 3: Killed by hunter

·       Game 4: Killed by frostlord

·       Game 5: Survived

Overall Thoughts

I was happy with the balance of the army and the way it performed. The Mounted Sons are very solid but do need support when charging and the thegns and snow troll were able to provide that support. Likewise the nigh raiders made a good platform

My one loss vs Jeff was when I allowed him to dictate the pressure of the game, a couple of poor positioning of units and he seized the initiative and didn’t let go of it, so well played by Jeff.

It was a sold army, hits hard but needed some coordination, and was also reasonably resilient to boot.

 

Possible changes

Reduce huscarls to the new tribesmen (150pts)

Look at adding a 2^nd Magus rather than the ord on foot- or else ad wings of honeymaze to the lord.

The way I used tundra wolves two troops may have been a better option.

I would also consider brining back the Cavern dweller.

Cheers

Craig 

Oamaru Onslaught III- Varangur

 Next weekend is our third Kings of War competition being held down here at Kakanui. I’ve been working on a Varangur army after having purchased some GW Chaos Warriors online and deciding I “needed” an army to be built around them.

I’ve had a few games and been slowly tweaking things but each game find something ese that I must have in the army or want to include so there are always a few tough decisions to be made. 

I am hoping I’ve got a reasonable balance and a bit of a tool kit vs  wide range of opponents. The army I I’m at taking is this: 

So let's have a look at the units.

Night raiders

I quite like these guys. their shooting isn't bad, stealthy and pathfinder helps keep them alive (by hanging around in terrain. I didn’t have the points to add the Wolf handlers upgrade to add scouting and vicious. I find these units often last the entire game and with 12 attacks hitting on 4s doubled from the flank to give 24 attacks with thunder1 can be very handy in the later game.

The figures I use for these are the GW LoTR Rangers range.

Huscarls

The whole reason I built the army! These guys have a solid stat line: 20 attacks hitting on 3s, defence 5, wild charge 1, crushing 2 and fury (so can countercharge if wavered). What’s what not to like? Spd 5, that’s what. To mitigate this sightly I’ve added the mead of madness so they can charge 12” but even so they can be outranged and easily out manoeuvred so need to be used carefully. If you can screen them properly and they get the charge then they do a world of hurt to most units. They dislike terrain (my last game they wiffed badly by being hindered and hitting on 4s and ony doing 2 wounds) so again need to be used carefully and when possible need to avoid terrain if I can. As a central unit to act as an anvil they are solid too.

The figures I use are GW Chaos Marauders and as I’ve said they are the reason I built the army.  

Mounted Sons of Korgaan

18 attacks on 3+, thunderous 1, Crush 1, 8” movement, nerve 15/17. These are a very useful cavalry unit. So much in so I went form 2 regiments to three at the last minute (dropping my monster- I was contemplating between a Cavern Dweller or a Frost Giant. These guys are my fast(ish) hammers. They need to be protected form shooting and take the charge but with crushing they can grind better than some cavalry. I’ve not sued 3 regiments yet so will se how they go but the key is going to be concentration of force, hitting hard and making sure they are supported by other units whenever possible.

Previously I've added the guise of the deciever to the units to give them stealthy vs shooting but needed to save points so dropped the guide in the end. I have an answer though, the foot lord (see below) has an aura of stealthy they can benefit from so he will need to be nearby for them. 

Originally I had Gripping Beast Goths as my Mounted Sons but wanted the GW Marauder horsemen as the modes. There were none available in NZ so picked up a couple of boxes from the UK but the postage to NZ via NZ post was ridiculous so won’t be getting any more via that route. Spent a few nights painting last week and have just finished al three regiments and am very happy with how they have turned out. 

Tundra wolves

These are one of my favourite units in the army. I was vacillating between a regiment vs two troops but in the end when for the regiment. 18 attacks, hitting on 3s, Def 4, 18” move with nimble and thunderous charge with a 13/15 nerve. The tundra wolves again need to be used carefully but if they can get into a flank they can be deadly. The regiment recently they took out Manny the Mammoth in a game vs ogres with flank charge.

I am sure I’ll miss the flexibility of the two troops but a regiment is 50pts cheaper. It wil be interesting at the weekend to see if I miss the troops.

As for models, I used GW Wargs as my tundra wolves. 

Magus 

The Magus doesn’t appear a popular choice from what I see of Varangur lists and maybe isn’t the smartest use of pts but I’m hoping he will be a bit of a Swiss army knife choice. His lighting bolt hopefully will add a bit of extra fire to the night raiders shooting and Alchemist Curse is a great spell vs heavily armed troops, monsters and heroes. Ideally he’d also have the boots of levitation to add extra movement but in the end I stripped him back to the basic Magus + Alchemist Curse.

The model I use for him is an Artizan Designs Viking shaman. 

Lord

The second of my heroes is a bog stand lord. He has devoted icon (stealth) which gives a 6” stealth bubble for most of my units. He has 6 attacks so is a nice support unit. I’ve used him quite a bit with the wings of honeymaze giving him a 21” charge range but in the end stripped out most of the magic items to afford an extra unit. He performs well for me in most games. He is very insprng (9" range) which is important to my army. 

I use an Artizan Designs Viking as my lord. 

Thegns on Frostfangs

I’ve taken two thegns on Frostfangs as two of my leaders. Spd 7, melee 3+, Def 5 with 5 or 6 attacks and 13/15 nerve, they have Crush 2, inspiring, nimble, strider and wild charge 1. Not as tough as the very popular Lord on a frostfang but they are pretty flexible. I’ve taken one of them with the tricksters wand to try to shut down some shooting and the other has a snow fox to give an extra attack.

They are handy in difficult terrain and are a good support unit, especially if thy can attack from a flank. They will also be used as chaff if necessary. The two of them perform well in most games but again I need to make sure I use them to concentrate with other units whenever possible.

These are the only Mantic models in the army- not much to say except that they are nice resin sculpts. 

Snow Troll prime 

The last addition to the army- dropping a variety of magic items and taking the tundra wolves as a regiment rather than two troops meant I could squeeze in one more hero/monster. I haven't actually used him in a game yet! 

His stats are handy: Spd 6, 5 attacks hitting on a 3 with Crush 2. Nimble, regeneration and vicious melee are handy, along with wild charge 1. His nerve is a bit of an issue at times but hopefully he works out as yet another inspiring source, support piece in combats or if necessary an extra  medium chaff option.

 The model I use is a Reaper Bones Ettin.

 Final comments

So, there we have it my army for Onsight next weekend. 12 units, and 22 unit strength. Hopefully I’ve enough variety to deal with a 5 different missions and 5 different opponents. Is it a winning list? I doubt it but I’d be happy to win 3 out of the 5 games with them which is my goals. We will see if I can a manage that. 

Craig