Abominations!

Here are my Emaciated Troopers for AE WWII, though I still haven't played a game proper from the play tests these guys can take a beating with two wounds a piece! I tried something different with the basing scheme and it turned out more or less how I envisioned it.

Next on the agenda will the 'Mad Doktor' ever since I saw this miniature I have been wanting to get some paint onto it. Not sure whats on the list after that, but the army isn't all that large one of the reasons I love skirmish games! You can collect and paint an army in a short span of time.

The Ambassador Chronicles: a Book Review

"A city in the wilderness...
Chaos at the Gates...
A killer on the loose...
A retired warrior takes up the sword once more..."

Despite the semi-cheesy description in the back of the book I decided to take up this book. Well how can I refuse when it was given to everyone in their swag bag for attending Adepticon, I can't very well refuse a gift when I see one. I should admit that I have never read anything that GW put out when it comes to fantasy novels, I usually content myself by reading Gaunt's Ghosts novels written by Dan Abnett.

Moving on though plot of the book is that a retired general was chosen an ambassador to the frozen steppes of Kislev (think Russia and you are more or less there) in the days before a large barbarian force threatens to wage war on the empire and all it's allies. All the while the main character named Kaspar Van Velten finds allies, enemies and lovers in this new land trying desperately to gain the respect of the people.

While all this is happening a coalition of evil forces are plotting to throw the city into disarray by a string of horrendous murders. Biding their time to unleash an ancient evil that will ravage the cities of Kislev and help the invading barbarian armies to conquer the empire.

Onto the book it was actually quite well written and easy to understand even if you are not acquainted with the way GW portrays fantasy. Though some parts may seem painfully obvious I think the reason why the author did this was to show how emotion can blind someone to the truth. Whether or not that was his real intention I have no idea, but that is what I gained from reading the book and I thought it was a nice touch.

Seeing as I did not pay for the book I couldn't tell you that I would pick it off the shelf (i'm more of a sci-fi/historical fiction junkie myself) but now that I am familiar with his work I think that I will try and read some more fantasy novels by this author. I particularly found the way he described the warping touch of Chaos to be fascinating in this book and I am sure to pick up another to see if his work is consistent!

The Twlight Wind - Eldar Army Profile

HQ



Autarch (70) w/ bike (30) laser lance (20) fusion gun (10)
130pts

Good for a quick punch or taking out some vehicles well at least thats what the Autarch is supposed to do. It seemed like the Autarch was scared to do anything in the battles I used him in. In retrospect I should have chosen to use an Avatar for the team tourney but ah well you learn your lessons the hard way I suppose.


TROOPS









Dire Avengers x 9 (108)
W/ Exarch (12) blade storm (15) Twin Catapults (5)
140pts

Three squads of Dire Avengers make up the troop selections of this army, mobile enough due to fleet of foot to get close the enemy and unleash blade storm! This works even against power armored foes as a unit of blade storming avengers can dish out 29 shots! Sure they might be out of ammo next turn but thats why you charge headlong into survivors. With a 4+ save and a mass of attacks they sure will put up a fight against most things! Tanks on the other hand they can barely make a scratch unless they are really lucky...


FAST ATTACK






Warpspiders x5 (110)
W/ Exarch (12) twin death spinners (5) surprise assault (10)
122pts

Surprisingly effective despite only being able to glance vehicles the amount of damage rolls they can force eventually destroys their target. All else fails just warp back behind some terrain out of LOS to try again!




Swooping Hawks x6 (126)
W/ Exarch (12) sky leap (15) Sun Rifle (15) Intercept (5)
173pts

I had high hopes for these models being one of my favorites but I can't quite seem to make them work properly. During the tournament they seemed to repeatedly fail leadership/morale tests and would be gunned down with relative ease. Despite this I will continue to game with them till I find the proper application of their force.

HEAVY SUPPORT






D Cannons x3 (150)
150pts

These weapons are quite nasty given they can hurt both infantry and vehicles with relative ease. Many an opponent has learned to fear these weapon batteries as they bombard their units while hiding behind a nice hill.



First of all excuse the paint jobs as they were rushed to get everything done for the Adepticon Team Tourney. I will be going back and adding small details to the army (updating the pictures of course), like actually having an army insignia. Despite that i'm pretty happy the way the color scheme turned out.

If I had to make any changes it would be replacing the Autarch with an Avatar, mainly because it would have been harder to kill (along with making most of the army fearless). Other than that everything but the swooping hawks did a good job at one point or another.

To further expand the army I would like to include some Striking Scorpions to the list I have always liked the models...

German Geneticists!

He shuffled nervously looking over his rifle to make sure that everything was up to standard. But he couldn’t shake the feeling he had over this place, he was recently moved into this camp site. The land was not like the rest of Germany the land was polluted and dirty and in the few hours he had waited for orders he developed a hacking cough. The few soldiers that he saw passing by paid him no mind and went about their business, it was hard to tell if they were human or not they wore gasmasks and covered their hands with gloves.

Looking at the other Volkstrum in his group they looked equally distraught about their new location. All that the trooper knew was that this camp site was not located on any of the maps and that it was controlled by an officer named Albrecht Eckhardt. A man who was said to have no emotions and cared only about the results using any means necessary.

After much waiting Eckhardt had appeared flanked by two Wermacht, most of his body was covered in a large over coat. A gasmask dominated his face with a metal plate cover the back of his head. What skin did show was a sickly color but the officer was anything but frail. He had an air of authority that scared the trooper, even though Eckhardt’s eyes were obscured the trooper felt as if his piercing gaze was upon them at all times.

One of the Volkstrum was unfortunate enough to cough and without hesitation Eckhardt drew his pistol and shot at the man’s throat. His eyes shot a wild look as the fell to the ground clutching his throat as Eckhardt and his guards looked on impassively. In the matter of seconds these abominations surrounded the surviving Volkstrum, before any could reach for their rifles they were cut down by the wicked arm blades of the monsters.

Eckhardt watched as the abominations dismembered the last of the pitiful Volkstrum. He looked over the scene of carnage before turning his back “these will make excellent materials…”.








Here is the start of my German Geneticists starter force for AE WWII by Darkson Designs. Being an ork player at heart I couldn't just leave the models as they were, I used some alternate heads from Pig Iron miniatures which I had picked up at Adepticon last weekend. I also changed some of the arms around to give the force a varied look. Hopefully in the next couple of days I will be able to work on the miniatures themselves. No promises though as the weather is quite nice out and there is drinking to be had!

Adepticon: Team Tournament

Adepticon: Team Tournament

We reported for registration at 7am with 30mins of sleep in me I was working at less than optimal to say the least. Though we weren’t one of the most glamorous teams at the tournament we were still proud to represent our group… Team Megan’s Law. Yes the name was a bit unconventional but our opponents got a good laugh out of it… well those with a good/loose sense of humor.




Game 1: Ray K (orks) VS Howling Griffons

In this game drop pods full of Howling Griffons came down on my flank and virtually annihilated my army through ‘Fear of Darkness’ and mass fire. Unfortunately eldar are not very resilient when attacked with about 1500pts of the enemy. Luck was on our side as despite me having less than a handful of miniatures on the board Ray’s orks started carving a bloody swathe through the enemy! At the end of the game we managed to tie for the main objective though the enemy had gained extra points via other objectives.

MVP: None
LVP: just about all of my units.




Game 2: Jon Woe (orks) VS Orks

It was during this game that I really started to notice the predominance of ork players in the tournament scene. Luckily for us at least the army was a real ork army (lots of conversions and people who used orks before they became popular), despite this our team was outclassed at every turn. It was only during the later turns when our team was being mopped up that we even caused any lasting casualties but by that point there was no salvaging the game.

MVP: D Cannons
LVP: Swooping Hawks

Game 3: Mikey H (eldar) VS Marines (Lysander included)

Coming into this game I believed it would be hard fought but would ultimately end in our favor. I guess sleep depravation really does make you think up of crack pot schemes.. We set up in a corner that we had believed would give nice firing routes (Mike had lots of rangers and dark reapers). But only after we started the game did we notice that the terrain essentially blocked all line of sight to the enemy.

This in turn let the marines sneak around terrain and launch their assault which we were virtually helpless against. Despite this we put up quite a fight between d cannons and ranger fire we effectively pinned Lysander for two full turns when he was a mere move away from rangers. In the end we predictably lost but had loads of fun on this game as it was a constant struggle to take out Lysander (who was down to 1 wound) and make a last stand against a tide of marines.

MVP: D Cannons
LVP: Dire Avengers



Game 4: Ray K vs. Grey Knights/Marines

At this point it was about 8pm or so and both me and my team mate were exhausted but barely hanging on. Looking at the array of heavy weapons of marines we thought it would be a very hard and long trudge towards the marine lines. Unfortunately for our opponents it seemed like all the luck was on our side of the table.

Ray would not fail to make an obscured roll thanks to the kustom force field on his mighty 6 kans. Despite two devastator squads, a predator AND a dreadnought pouring fire into them, to make matters worse they couldn’t seem to roll that 6 to destroy them. Everything seemed to go right this game and our opponents were sporting about it. It was a good game and a morale booster for both me and ray which stayed up painting all night just for the tournament.

At the end of the game (we called it on turn 5 I believe) there was a grey knight and 4 storm troopers left against the majority of both me and ray’s army.

MVP: Tie between D cannons and Warp Spiders
LVP: Because I need to put something here Swooping Hawks, they didn’t even do that bad but the rest of the army went above and beyond.

By the end of the day despite being exhausted we enjoyed ourselves and vowed to come back next year with a more cohesive theme and better painted armies. Though some tournaments tend to sour people to the experience I have always found my opponents quite pleasant and easy going. I enjoy seeing new armies, paint schemes and concepts. It also gives me a great excuse to travel to new places and meet new people. After all the hobby does include a social aspect to it. At the end of the long day I sat down and enjoyed myself a triple vodka tonic and reflected on a day well spent.

Introductions

I generally do not have time enough to dedicate a full blown website for my favorite hobby. So I came up with the compromise of starting off as a blog and see where it goes from here. It may stay as a blog with all sorts of options that are available to the reader, or might one day spring up as a full blown website.

I named this site "The Wasted Warrior" mainly because one of my other non miniature hobbies is drinking. Nothing says fun like a night out on the town with close friends bar hopping. I also enjoy mixing drinks when i get the chance, though i am far from a bartender i do know quite a few drinks to keep a party going.

About myself:

I have been in the hobby since 1998 on the fateful day that I walked into a games workshop in NYC while skipping a school event. A week later i introduced this addiction to my close ring of friends and we have been playing ever since. Though it should be noted that I was "watching" the hobby since 1996 but I was in grammar school and did not have anyone local that would remotely be interested in the hobby...

Orks are my army of choice I have been playing them almost exclusively when it comes to 40k. Along with a Genestealer Cult army using the Lost and Damned rules. For Fantasy I have a Dark Elf army and the makings of a small Skaven force, we don't play much Fantasy in my group but I do enjoy the way units rank up so it doesn't bother me much.

Which brings me to my next subject I am more of a painter than a gamer, I enjoy sitting down converting things and painting them way more than I enjoy the game. Not to say that I dislike gaming that would be untrue as a value the social aspect of gaming greatly. I just find painting/converting to be very relaxing and I use my spare leisure time doing so.

Along with Games Workshop games I play a variety of skirmish games such as Dark Age, Infinity, Spinespur, Rezolution, AE-WWII and so on. I enjoy skirmish games because they allow for greater detail of what a miniature can do. That and most of the time the miniatures themselves are heaps better in design than some of the stuff GW puts out. Yet like battered wife syndrome you always go back to GW in one way or another.