Mordheim: Revisiting two weapon fighting

Want to start an incredibly long and heated debate? Go to any group of Mordheim players and bring up using two close combat weapons. Back in the day on the Specialist Games Forums this generated a ton of debate and pages upon pages of posts with varied solutions. Looks like this hasn't changed as there is a stickied thread on Tom's Boring Mordheim Forum that has 7 pages and 161 replies. The only topic I recall generating more conversation was Elves, and as the original designer on the Dark Elf Warband, that is definitely something I'll be revisiting in the future.

So what's the problem?
It's a few problems actually and one of the main issues with the game. Armor in Mordheim is too expensive and doesn't offer enough protection. This causes two weapons to become the de facto standard in Mordheim and choices which were better from a historical perspective, like sword and shield, are invalidated.

In order to fix this, we need to do a few different things and this is where this gets really tricky. First, we need to make armour better so its a more enticing choice. Second, we need to make using the classic sword and shield combination better. Third, we need to lessen the effectiveness of using two weapons. There are a lot of options out there and one thing that came up during the rules review was having both attacks at -1. Not a bad idea, but this swings the pendulum in the other direction and penalizes warriors when they get more attacks.

So how do we fix it?

Before we get into that, I just want to mention that my philosophy with doing Newheim isn't to rewrite the ruleset and spin this off into another game. I'd like to keep the changes as simple as possible and use fixes that are either recognizable or keep the game flowing smoothly. So while some of these rule changes won't be statistically perfect, they'll make for a better and more familiar game.

First, let's fix the sword and shield combination. A shield grants a +1 to a warrior's armour save vs. ranged attacks. When used in conjunction with a hand weapon (sword, hammer, mace, club, spear, or axe) the save improves to +2 against attacks in close combat. A buckler used in conjunction with a hand weapon grants a +1 save vs attacks in close combat. These saves stack with armour. Nothing new here.

Second, let's fix armour. In addition to the armour save bonus, a warrior with heavy armour can make a 5+ save against any injury suffered in the post battle sequence. Warriors with light armour can save against injury on a 6+. In addition, there are no longer any movement penalties for using armour with a shield (this will make more sense in a future post on jumping and climbing). Aside from the bit on no penalties to movement, nothing new here either.

Finally, to the task at hand. When fighting with two weapons, a warrior suffers a -1 penalty to hit with the off hand weapon. In addition, the off hand weapon will always strike last. A new skill will be created were a warrior can ignore these penalties.

Why did I go with this?

A -1 penalty to hit with both weapons is too harsh. You shouldn't be penalized for using both weapons as it's the additional attack that causes problems. Rolling at the end of the phase speeds up dice rolling as you are looking for the same number to hit and don't need to use different colored dice to differentiate a sword from an axe. Plus, it makes it less effective and more balanced with sword and shield.

I have been toying around with creating a new weapon property called Off Hand and letting those weapons strike in regular initiative order. This would primarily be for the dagger, but I'm not sure if that would make sword and dagger the preferred combo. Thoughts?

This definitely requires additional playtesting, but I am happy with the results so far. Speaking of playtesting, below are a few pics I took from the Mordheim set up we were using this past weekend to try out some of the new rules I've been working on. Click for a larger image. This scenery is probably over 10 years old and something I plan on replacing in the future, but it serves its purpose.

For the next Mordheim post, I'll talk about the problems associated with climbing and parry and describe how I intend to tackle those.

Till then,

–The Harrower

Blood Angels and all things... Mordheim?

In the coming weeks, you are going to see a bit of a shift to what I'm covering with the blog. Previously, I've been exclusively doing Warhammer 40K, but I'll be expanding to start covering Mordheim. Don't worry, if you read the blog because of the Blood Angels and like the tutorials and 40K material, none of that is going away. I'm just going to be sprinkling in some Mordheim now and then. 

Why are you covering Mordheim? That game is like 100 years old.
Very true, but of all the Games Workshop games I've played, Mordheim is one of my favorites. It's easy to get into as you need a small model count and the integrated campaign system makes for some really memorable games.

I have a bit of history with Mordheim as well as I was one of the original designers on Lustria, Cities of Gold and I wrote the Dark Elves and a lot of other Warbands. I hear the collective groan, Dark Elves were so overpowered. Well, that is the type of stuff I aim to fix and really not that overpowered (unless you power game). Truth is I worked on Lustria with a great group of enthusiastic people, but they weren't game designers and most of the decisions that were made were done by consensus which is the wrong way to approach such things and resulted in decisions that I wasn't proud of. Here's a picture from Town Cryer of the first event for Lustria we ran back at Gamesday.

Harry Golden, Derek Whitman, Jeff Visgaitis, Steve Cornette and John Herrington

That's me in the middle. I was much skinnier back then with long hair and full of hopes and dreams. I met and talked to a lot of great guys in the Games Workshop Studio including Space McQuirk, Tuomas Pirinen, Jervis Johnson, and Steve Hambrook (RIP). I got a tour of the hallowed design studio, saw the amazing work of Jes Goodwin first hand, drank at Bugman's Bar, and was the first person outside of Games Workshop to see anything for The Lord of the Rings line and the Tau.

Thanks for the history lesson, but where is this going?
Right! Mordheim is a great game, but it is definitely showing it's age. Several editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle have come and gone and a lot of the rules are outdated and the Warbands based on fiction that has been updated. My first goal is to be rebalance the ruleset and attempt to address some of the issues such as:

• Armor is too expensive and not worth purchasing for the benefits you receive
• Using two close combat weapons is better than using a sword and shield
• The weapons themselves aren't balanced with each other (i.e. slings are better than short bows, blow pipes are useless)
• Etc.

You do realize that's what Coreheim does, right?

I do and I have taken a look at Coreheim which I think is a well done rewrite of the rules. My problem with Coreheim though is that it is a rewrite and doesn't feel like Mordheim anymore. A lot of things were changed unnecessarily in my opinion and while well balanced, it invalidates a lot of existing fan material that is already out there. My goal with Newheim (catchy, huh?) is to address issues with the current ruleset without invalidating all of the existing material out there.

At the end of this journey, I'll be leaving the community with an updated ruleset for Mordheim that presents options instead of pigeon holing your choice to taking sword and hammer and scorning armor. Of course I'll update some of my favorite Warbands along the way including Lizardmen, Dark Elves, High Elves (NOT the Shadow Warriors, mine were never printed), Norse Raiders, and maybe I'll add some new surprises. I plan to set up a website at http://www.newheim.com where you will be able to download PDFs of all the rules and step back into the dangerous streets of Mordheim once again and experience something that is both familiar and new.

Till next time,

–The Harrower

Doubles Tournament Results

Long time no post. I won't go into a long winded apology about why I haven't updated in almost two months as Ron Saikowski had a good post on what not to post about and I don't want to break the Lord of the Warp's 3rd rule.

Anyway, the doubles tournament is long since over. For my first tournament experience, it went well. I paired with a friend of mine from the DED 'ARD Club that plays Imperial Guard. He brought all the big guns and I brought forth the might of Sanguinius with my Blood Angels and a deadly assault force. 

We ended up winning our first two games and playing in the third and final game for the championship which we lost to a really tough Grey Knights and Orks list. They used a Big Mek with a Kustom Force Field and a Grey Knights Librarian with The Shrouding to blanket most of their army with a 3+ cover save. It was like Episode I all over again. Unfortunately (fortunately?) our opponents were the Gungans and while I kept thinking it would get better, in the end it just sucked.

Late in the game, I made a last ditch charge with my entire army and beheld my Death Company felling an impressive 23 Ork Boyz on the charge and running down the remaining few. We had them on the ropes and nervous, but in the end, the nut was too hard to crack and some Grey Knight reinforcements arrived via deep strike and sealed their victory. One highpoint was my Reclusiarch standing toe to toe with an Ork Dreadnaught for 2 rounds and refusing to go down. I actually made four 4+ invulnerable saves in one round to stay alive at the end of the game and made the Primarch proud. I also got a good chuckle out of their Vindicare Assassin who couldn't hit the side of the barn even with an 8 Ballistic Skill.

As for my models, I never got them finished. I got the required 3 colors done for the bonus points, but I don't think they even scored painting (not that it would have mattered anyway). I'm still working on my Assault Squads, but honestly I haven't painted much since. I did pick up a Paasche Talon Dual Action Airbrush that I have been messing with, but I really haven't had a lot of time to do hobby stuff. I worked on some scenery here and there, but that's about it. I did finish up a lot of the details on my Death Company Rhino/Razorback and I'm pretty happy with how that turned out.

There's going to be a bit of a shift in what I'm covering in the blog in the coming weeks as I start doing some game design work again and focusing a little more on... Mordheim!

I'll talk a bit more about my history with Mordheim and describe the changes to the blog in my next post.

Until then,

–The Harrower

Change of Plans (1,000 points • 4 Days Left)

Everyone from DED 'ARD got together at my house 2 Sundays ago for some 40K madness. I ended up playing 2 games. First one was against club member Necromonger and his homebrew Vanilla Space Marines chapter. He's new to the Space Marines and was trying out a list with a Land Raider, Thunder Hammer Terminators, 2 Predators, a Vindicator, Land Speeder Storm, and Vulkan. We ended up playing Capture and Control.

In the first turn, I immobilized his Land Raider and took out the Demolisher Cannon on his Vindicator. From there, it was pretty easy to control the board and stay away from the Thunder Hammer Terminators. I pretty much dictated the flow of the battle and my opponent couldn't do enough to get into position and capture the objectives. Victory for the Blood Angels!

Second game ended up being a 3 vs. 3. with Chaos, Blood Angels, and Eldar vs. Grey Knights, Vanilla Marines, and Imperial Guard. We played 3,000 points per side with 1,000 points each and our own force orgs. I ended up trying the list I intended to take to the Two Headed Giant Tournament at Adventure Games this weekend and I absolutely hated it. We played Kill Points with Dawn of War deployment and won the day, but I sunk way too many points in the Stormraven's unit with Death Company a Reclusiarch and a Death Company Dreadnought. We won a narrow victory with my army giving up most of the kill points.

I decided to scrap that list and start over from square one. I have a much more balanced list which I'm confident will play much better. I'll share my list after the tournament. I haven't had time to post since I've been feverishly painting this past week, but I have taken a lot of in progress pics so expect some painting tutorials in the near future. Been messing around a lot trying to get a nice black and this is what I came up with. There is a lot of clean up and little details needed to be done, but I'm pretty happy with the final look.

I learned a valuable lesson with using Badab Black Wash to try and "tint" down my highlight lines. It left a ton of brush strokes all over the tank and I had to redo all of the black. I've done a lot of black previously with my old Death Company and the Rhino I entered in Golden Demon many years ago and I never ran into this problem. Maybe that was because I used Games Workshop's old Inks or my pot of wash is just bad. Anyone else run into this issue?

Lastly, Ron Saikowski had an interesting post on From The Warp on the top 3 things not to say in a post and I'm sorry to say that I'm guilty of all of them. I'm going to do what I can to make sure what I post shows a model or something I am working on and isn't just filler because I've been a lazy git and I feel bad because I haven't done more with the hobby and updated my blog.

Tomorrow, I should finish up my test marine and get going on my infantry models. I'll post it here in the next few days.

Till next time,

–The Harrower

Stormraven Painting (1,000 points • 17 Days Left)

Got a bit of work done on my Death Company Stormraven. I'm starting to think that I bit off a bit more than I could chew. I could spend the next two weeks working on my Stormraven and never touch anything else and still not be completely satisfied. Such is the problem with being an artist... Thankfully my wife will be lending a hand with my troops.

I'm really not a huge fan of painting black, but I think I found a method I'm pretty happy with. I've been doing the panel lines in Codex Gray. Once I'm done, I'll go back over them and do some additional highlights in Fortress Gray. Lastly, I'll do a final wash of Badab Black to even everything out. In these pics the lines are a real mess, but I am getting there.

I did get the side doors magnetized and I'll have a tutorial on that in the future. I also got a new tail piece and added the additional stabilizer wings in the front. I really think this makes the Stormraven look totally bad ass, but I can't take the credit for this. I saw this on another blog, The Brush and Bolter. Ultraraider is an amazing painter, just take a look at this awesome Stormraven. I'd recommend following his blog as he is definitely a painter to watch.

If you have been following my blog, you'll remember that I wasn't too happy with the way I magnetized the Dreadnought to the back of the Stormraven. With the new tail piece I ordered, I got a new grapple so I'll be revisiting that and updating my previous tutorial. I have a ton of work to do, but I'm on a hobby high right now. I just hope I can pull all of this off. Time will tell.

I did find a tutorial on tinting clear plastic canopies with Future Floor Finish and food coloring. So my question to everyone is should I tint my canopies red or green?

Till next time,
–The Harrower

Dreadnought Conversion (1,000 Points • 19 Days Left)

So I got a bit done over the holiday weekend. I'm just about done with my twin-lnked heavy flamer turret. I just need to get hold of a LEGO® hose and I can call it done.

I finished up the conversion of the Dreadnought close combat arm. I didn't do anything crazy here, I just wanted to have the talons more open so both of the close combat arms didn't look exactly the same. This was really easy conversion and here's a quick tutorial.

Materials:

• Furioso Dreadnought close combat arm
• 3/32" Drill Bit
• Drill

Step 1: Take your drill and drill out each of the notches where the blood talons go (see the circled areas below). This will allow the fingers/talons to open up more. You could just cut the back of the blood talons off, but I wanted to keep the extra detail on there. To do this, I used a cheap Black and Decker cordless drill that I have and just cut these these out with the side of the drill bit.  

Step 2: When you are done, you should be left with something like the below image. You can cut the notches in deeper or more shallow depending on how open you want the blood talons to be.

Step 3: Once you are done glue the blood talons in place and your close combat arm should look similar to mine below depending on how deep you cut the notches.

Here are a couple finished pictures. Like I said, this isn't as extensive as some of my other conversions, but I was going for something simple here and I am happy with the way this turned out.

I also picked up an 18" x 24" picture frame at Walmart that I'm planning on turning into my army display board and I've been painting my Death Company Stormraven. Here is my current progress before the tournament:

• Convert: Twin-linked heavy flamer turret, Dreadnought close combat arm
• Magnetize: all infantry backpacks, Stormraven
• Prime: Assault Marine, Twin-linked heavy flamer turret, Dreadnought close combat arm, Magna-grapple
• Paint: 2 Assault Squads, 2 Sanguinary Priests, Librarian, Death Company, Stormraven, Dreadnought, 2 Razorbacks
• Base: all infantry, Stormraven, Dreadnought
• Build: Army Display Board
• Figure out how to: Tint the Stormraven canopies red
• Detail Pass: Transfers on the infantry and vehicles, freehand symbols on the tanks, weathering and blood stains on the troops and vehicles, etc.

I'll have more updates in a day or two.

Until then,
–The Harrower

Two-Headed Giant Tournament (1,000 Points • 22 Days Left)

So I'll be playing in my first tournament at Adventure Games in Dickson City, PA on July 24th. This tournament is a Warhammer 40K Two-Headed Giant Tournament. Here's the rundown on the rules.

WHEN: Saturday, July 23rd (Army Lists are due Tuesday, July 19th)
WHERE: Adventure Games in Dickson City, PA
ENTRY FEE: $25 Per Team
PRIZE: CASH! CASH! CASH! $$$
CHECK IN: 11:00 AM
START: 11:30 AM Sharp!

RULES
1. Each team will build a 2,000 Point Army.

2. Each individual member of the team is permitted to spend 1,000 Points on his or her half of the team.

3. During gameplay each player will control (move, fire, make saves) for their own individual half of the giant.

4. Excess Points are lost and can not be for any reason gifted or shifted to your opponents total allowed points.

Example: Big Jimmy C assembles a force that comes to 986 points and cannot find anything to spend those last 14 points on. Jabroni #115 his partner has a total of 990 and can't find anything to spend his last 10 points on. The 24 remaining points are lost unless individually spent.

5. Each player does NOT need to be a fully functional independent force. This means that between BOTH HALVES of the FORCE you must adhere to the legal Warhammer 40,000 Army Composition (BOTH HALVES!)

Example: Player A can focus on spending his points on Strictly Elites/Heavy Support and Player B can purchase the required troops/headquarters to make the entire force as a whole LEGAL. Just remember, each player is only permitted 1,000 Points individually. Your probably thinking wow, I can whip up some really obnoxious setups. Correct: That's the idea.

6. THERE IS NO RESTRICTIONS ON ALLIANCES (Tyranids can Ally with Imperial Guard, Space Marines w/ Chaos etc)

7. Allies can in every circumstance use each other transports.

Example: Tyranids/Space Marines make up the Giant. You CAN put Tyranid Warriors into a Land Raider. Just remember, individual codex restrict units beginning the game inside of a transport without it being dedicated. The dedicated transport rule is a CORE RULE and must be adhered too.

8. Prior to the match beginning (AFTER SETUP) the two teams will be permitted (5 Minutes) that will not take away from game play time to quickly discuss their strategy. After the 5 minutes concludes any/all discussion must be done (AT THE TABLE). This is to ensure that the games are not being bogged down my nonsense/stepping away from the table.

9. To reiterate RULE #3. Each player will ALWAYS control the fate of their own half of the force. No making saves for one another, setting up, shooting and especially moving your partners models. If you are caught doing this for any reason what so ever you will be immediately penalized battle points and if it continues disqualified from the tournament. I cannot stress how serious I am about this rule.

I'll be teaming up with fellow DED 'ARD member SolidSnizzle and his Imperial Guard. Here's a pic of my half of the Two-Headed Giant and the list of what I need to get done in the next 3 weeks.

• Convert: Twin-linked heavy flamer turret, Dreadnought close combat arm
• Magnetize: all infantry backpacks, Stormraven
• Prime: Assault Marine, Twin-linked heavy flamer turret, Dreadnought close combat arm, Magna-grapple
• Paint: 2 Assault Squads, 2 Sanguinary Priests, Librarian, Death Company, Stormraven, Dreadnought, 2 Razorbacks
• Base: all infantry, Stormraven, Dreadnought
• Build: Army Display Board
• Figure out how to: Tint the Stormraven canopies red
• Detail Pass: Transfers on the infantry and vehicles, freehand symbols on the tanks, weathering and blood stains on the troops and vehicles, etc.

Seems pretty daunting, but I do have most of the models primed and ready to go. I've really been slacking off on the hobby side of things, and I hope this tournament kicks my butt in gear and gets me going. I'll update periodically over the next few weeks on my progress.

Enim Sanguinius!

–The Harrower

Warhammer 40K 6th Edition: Part 2

Last time, I talked about some changes I'd like to see in the next edition of 40K. These aren't rumors or anything like that, this is me flexing my Game Designer muscles and just talking about the current state of 40K and what I'd like to see change in the next edition. In part 2 of this series, I'm going to focus on vehicles and how they factor into gameplay. Here are the changes I would like to see made in no particular order.

1. Mech is too good. In 4th Edition, transports were too weak. In the current edition the pendulum has swung to the other side and mech is king. We got some good stuff with 5th Edition like troops that assault a vehicle use the rear armor value. Also the unified damage chart is much better. I'm not entirely sure what the answer is to this. Is it as simple as a glance is only a -1 on the chart? Eh, that's too crazy.

Maybe we just need additional modifiers on the chart. If a vehicle is Stunned or Immobilized you gain a +1 bonus on the damage chart because the vehicle is basically a sitting duck. I like that a lot better. Of course if you happen to be sitting in an immobilized Rhino and someone hits you with a meltagun at close range you're in for a world of hurt. Vehicles do need to be weaker and there is nothing more annoying than rolling 4 or 5 Shaken results against the same vehicle.

Another issue I have is blowing up transports doesn't usually have much of an affect on the passengers unless they are rocking a poor armor save. I'd like to see Destroyed – Explodes results cause Strength 4 wounds on embarked troops and cause a pinning test like they do today, but they should also be upgraded to rending. This represents the poor SoBs who couldn't get out in time and gives Terminators something to be afraid of if someone pops a Land Raider.

The other thing I would like to see are vehicles scattering when they are blown up. We had this in 4th Edition and I'd like to see it make a comeback. Nothing is weirder than when my Stormraven comes crashing down and it dies on the same spot. I like how Ork Trukks can go flying out of the way, let's do the same thing with all vehicles that asplode.

2. Fix tank shock. The concept of tank shock is really cool. I take my cool bad ass tank and I run over the enemy and crush them beneath my treads. In the game, it's kinda dumb because you can never really kill anyone. There must be a lot of really annoyed tank drivers in the 40K universe.

  "We have Tyranids closing in on us sir," the corporeal reported. "What should we do?"
  "Run them down!" The Chimera kicked up the earth as it sped toward the incoming throng of hormagaunts.
  "By the Golden Throne! Corporeal, how could you possibly miss all of them? They're everywhere!"

The designers probably didn't want people trying to run over infantry the entire game and I understand that, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. With this one, I'm not so sure what the fix is. Maybe everything works like it does today, but tanks also inflict d3 Strength 5 hits against the unit. If the vehicle is fast, it inflicts d6 Strength 4 hits to represent the difficulty of getting out of the way. To avoid abuse, maybe you have to move a set distance that turn or you could only fire defensive weapons at the unit you tank shocked. That makes it a desperation move like it should be.

3. Make embark/disembark a separate action. This is a great point from dzer0 who commented on my first 6th Edition post. I'm really surprised I didn't think of this, because I always struggle with this. How many times do you disembark and you are stuck trying to figure out how to either move your vehicle or your troops because you have to do all of the movement at once?

He had a great idea. Make disembark/embark it's own action. Now I can disembark my troops, move my Razorback out of the way and then move my Assault Squad. Better yet, I can move my troops forward, drive another transport across the battlefield and have my troops hop in during the same phase. I wouldn't have to worry about positioning everything perfectly beforehand. This would also allow for better screening tactics with your transports and give players more flexibility when moving across the battlefield.

4. Rules for flyers. I of course would like to see rules for flyers since they seem to be the rage ever since the Valkyrie was released. Now we have the Stormraven, Razorwing Jetfighter, and the Venom. I think this is a sure bet just like the new edition of the game will still involve the rolling of dice. I wouldn't be surprised if Supersonic wasn't Games Workshop playtesting rules for flyers from the new edition.

That's it for today. I promise, my next post will be about the hobby and I'll either show some new scenery or miniatures I'm working on.

Till then,
–The Harrower

Spring Cleaning

I have a lot of models laying around the house and my wife has been bugging me to get rid of some stuff so I started a bunch of auctions up on eBay. A lot of these are models I meant to put together, but I never did. You can see all of my current auctions here. If you're leery about purchasing on eBay at all, rest assured I have a 100% feedback rating and I'll do combined shipping if you win multiple auctions. Here are some highlighted items:

1. Warhammer 40K Forge World Dreadnought Chaplain– This bad boy is brand new. Never got around to putting him together and with the new plastic Furioso kit, I figure I never will. Comes with 2 close combat arms and a twin-linked multi-melta.
2. Space Marine Land Speeder Tornado– This is the old box with the metal bitz. This is something I found when I was cleaning (I have so much crap, I always find hidden stuff). Right now it has no bids and is starting at $0.99. Can't beat that...
3. 25th Anniversary Emperor's Champion– I always liked the Black Templars, but the Blood Angels were always my favorite. This is another miniature I'll never get around to painting. I like this one better than the current Emperor's Champion. This one is long out of print. Get him before he's gone!
4. Blood Angels Sculpted Shoulder Pads– This auction is for over 50 (I think I counted 60), Blood Angels shoulder pads. I really do like these, but unlike Tenacious D, I don't think the metal will live on. I'd rather plastic so I'm letting these go. On Games Workshop's site, these would cost you over $45. Right now, they are $0.99.
5. Blood Angels Sergeants– I think these were the first Blood Angels marines I purchased. Sad that I never put them together. These are the pewter miniatures that are long out of print. Also includes 4 pewter Death Company. Right now, the auction is at $0.99.
6. 40K Limited Edition White Dwarf in Space– Not sure why I got this. I hate dwarves and I hate squats even more. There was something about it that I thought was cool. Anyway, this came as the limited miniature with a White Dwarf subscription and you can't get him anymore. Would make a cool character for a squat army. This miniature is still in the shrink wrap.
7. Legion of the Damned Squad– I got this boxed set as a present for my birthday. I really love the look of these guys, but I'll never use them. The auction comes with everything except the Sergeant (he's my Reclusiarch). It also includes the Sergeant's back banner if you want to make your own.
8. Thaindon Elf-Lord of Caledor riding Kargos the Despoiler– Man is this miniature old. It was sculpted by Aly and Trish Morrison almost 20 years ago. If you are a collector, this miniature is for you. It has all the pieces and harkens back to the early days of the miniature craft. That and it's EXTREMELY rare. $0.99 to bring Thaindon and Kargos home with you.

I have a lot of other auctions up on eBay like regiment bases, movement trays, combi-weapons, plastic jungle trees, and some other metal miniatures. If you have any questions, drop a comment below or send an email to theharrower[at]dedard[dot]com.

Till next time,

–The Harrower

Tournament Aftermath

Solidsnizzle invoking
the Gods of Chaos.

Last Saturday was the 40K Tournament at Adventure Games in Dixon City, PA. Turns out that Jawaballs and Fritz didn't show, but there was a good turn out nonetheless. I didn't want to do my Blood Angels a disservice and play my first tournament with only a primed army, so I decided not to play.

Solidsnizzle (another member of DED 'ARD) ended up playing as the ringer in the Tournament and was loaned the use of Farseer Frank's Chaos Army. Solidsnizzle ended up ahead of the entire field at the end of round 2 and just needed a victory to win the whole Tournament. In a surprising turn of events, he ended up playing Farseer Frank and was thwarted by his Eldar in the 3rd and final round.

I wanted to scream at times watching Solidsnizzle's games because he missed a lot of key assaults, but for someone that has been playing 40K for less than a year and was using an army he never played before (he's only played Imperial Guard), he did really well and I was very impressed.

Farseer Frank preparing to
command his smug Eldar

The Tournament victory didn't stay in the DED 'ARD family unfortunately, but was won by Jim Benson who had a really well painted Sisters of Battle Army. He seemed like a really nice guy and played some solid games from what I saw, so kudos to him on winning an extremely close tournament. Next time, maybe DED 'ARD we'll be able to bring the trophy home. All in all, it was a great first tournament at Adventure Games with a good turn out and hopefully they'll be a lot more tournaments in the future.

The next tournament at Adventure Games will be on July 24th and will be a Two Headed Giant Tournament featuring 2 vs. 2 games at 2,000 points. I'm really mad I didn't play in this tournament, so there is no way I'm missing the next one. Expect to see a lot of painting posts in the coming weeks as my Blood Angels get ready for the coming battle.

Here's some more pictures I took throughout the day. Once I have the proper DED'ARD website completed at http://www.dedard.com, we'll be able to have real photo galleries and I'll be able to post a lot more pics.

 

Next time I'll talk a bit about my new commission service and I'll be doing some spring cleaning and posting a bunch of eBay auctions. Watch this space for some sweet deals.

Till then,

–The Harrower