March Games

I played a LOT of games in February! Mind you, it was pretty much exclusively Warhammer Underworlds and Warhammer 40,000... I went into this month knowing I'd probably be playing more of the former and less (if any) of the latter... 

Sunday, 3 March 2024

Sunday has kind of become "Warhammer Underworlds Sunday" as, at this point, we'd played Warhammer Underworlds on the last six Sundays in a row (and 6/9 Sundays so far this year)... And almost all of those involved playing with Nic and Orion... and this was to be no different... except then it snowed... like, A LOT. Most of the city was shut down Sunday AND Monday, and Nic and Orion just couldn't make it over... 

So Amanda and I played on our own... which was fun as i got to try out Wurmspat with Breakneck Slaughter against SINGLE opponents!

In our first game Amanda took Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven with Paths of Prophecy... and won... 

In the second game Amanda decided to switch it up and try Magore's Blood Fiends and I won that one somehow!? 

There is a brief report and a few more pictures here:

Warhammer Underworlds - SNOW DAY! 

Monday, 4 March 2024

On Monday, school was cancelled and the rest of the university staff were advised to work from home and avoid all nonessential travel... so we had another day at home together! So Amanda did a day and a half worth of work and when she was done said "Hey, want to play another game of Warhammer Underworlds...?"

We quickly put together a Nemesis deck for Magore's Fiends and had a rematch... 

Amanda did MUCH BETTER... The stunned look is because I was only two points behind...!

You can read the full report here:

Warhammer Underworlds - Snow Day: The Second!

Sunday, 10 March 2024

With snow somewhat cleared away - and already MELTING!? Orion and Nic returned this Sunday for another 4-Player game! 

Orion had the Crimson Court, Nic had Grashrack's Despoilers, Amanda played Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven (with a Paths of Prophecy Nemesis deck), and I dug out Grinkrack's Looncourt - to try something else and take a break from Wurmspat. The Crimson Court just DOMINATED the game - scoring 17 glory!! Despite a slow start, Morgwaeth gave them a run for their money trailing only two points behind at the end with 15 Glory... Nic and I both tied for LAST at 10 Glory... 

You can see a brief report and a few pics here:

Warhammer Underworlds - Vampires, Gobins, Beastmens, and Murder Aelves

Saturday, 16 March 2024

Saturday Amanda and I had some free time on our hands and decided to play some more Warhammer Underworlds. I wanted to try out the recently painted Blackpowder's Buccaneers, and Amanda wanted to try... something different. We ended up playing THREE games!

You can read all about them here: 

Warhammer Underworlds - Blackpowder's Buccaneers versus the Dread Pageant

Sunday, 17 March 2024

The Previous evening I'd finished up painting two more warbands for Warhammer Underworlds: Cyreni's Razors and Elathain's Soulraid. Sunday evening we were expecting to play Orion and Nic again, and Amanda suggested we try out these freshly painted warbands before they come over... 

So we played a quick game of Warhammer Underworlds pitting the two Idoneth Deepkin warbands against each other. 

You can read about that game here:

Warhammer Underworlds - Cyreni's Razors versus Elathain's Soulraid

In the end Orion and Nic were tired from their weekend's activities and passed on coming to play this week.... 

Tuesday, 19 March 2024

Orion came by in the evening while everyone was out and we played THREE games of Warhammer underworlds.

In the first game I tried out Blackpowder's Buccaneers

In the second game, I switched things up and tried Ephilim's Pandemonium

In the final game I broke out Magore's Fiends with the Rivals deck Amanda had built with Tooth and Claw... 

You can read the full report of all the games here:

Warhammer Underworlds - Crimson Court (B)eats EVERYTHING!?

Tuesday, 26 March 2024

Amanda was done teaching Yoga on Tuesdays and both of the kids were out, so we played a quick game of Warhammer Underworlds with both of the Idoneth Deepkin warbands I'd finished up that week. 

Amanda took Elathain's Soulraid and I took Cyreni's Razors

You can read the full report here:

Warhammer Underworlds - Skabbik's versus Elathain's

Sunday, 31 March 2024

Nic and Orion were back on the last Sunday of March for two more rounds of Warhammer Underworlds! 

In the first game I brought out Skabbik's Plaguepack, Orion played the Crimson Court, Amanda played Elathain's Soulraid againa, and Nic played Cyreni's Razors. 

We played a second game and I switched up and tried out the new cards for Mollog's Mob, Amanda tried the new cards for The Thorns of the Briar Queen, Nic played Graskrak's Despoilers, and orion played the Crimson Court again - with a Nemesis deck made up with Breakneck Slaughter

You'll probably have to wait until tomorrow for the game report for that one!

That was FOURTEEN games of Warhammer Underworlds we played this month! And... not much else!? (Maybe I need to work towards a bit more diversity in our games!!)

Warhammer Underworlds: Rivals of the Mirrored City and Zondra's Gravebreakers

Destroying any chance of being "in the black" with the painted versus purchased, I picked up Zondra's Gravebreakers and the Rivals of the Mirrored City this morning... 

All the new toys

Between Zondara's Greavbreakers and the Rivals of the Mirrored City, this adds another THIRTY miniatures to the Purchased pile - bringing the total to 73, so far, this year - versus the 38 that I have painted! Mind you, last year I only painted 66 miniatures in the ENTIRE YEAR, so I feel like I'm doing a bit better this year... Unfortunately, Warhammer Underworlds: Wintermaw will be out in just two weeks, and that's going to add another TEN to the total!? (Why so soon, GW!? WHY!?). After that there shouldn't be any new stuff for a month or so, giving me a chance to catch up a bit. 

I'm going to try REALLY HARD to finish up the Sons of Velmorn... because they are so very close now! But I REALLY want to get painting Zarbag's Gitz and Zondra's Gravebreakers! All the Z ones... Ha! 

I was organizing the Rivals decks into these boxes and took this shot as a visual representation of the warbands, sort of... From left to right are Order, Destruction, Chaos and Death. the closer sets within those groupings are the ones that are done, the further sets are still to do. 

So... done more than I have to do, at least... I seem to like getting Orruks and Ogors and Troggoths and Grotty Gitz done... the only ones not completed in that category are the one's I just picked up!? 

There are another dozen boxes with the generic rivals decks as well....

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 27 March 2024

Last Work-in-Progress Wednesday for March 2024... and the last one for 2024-Q1! 

No new miniatures purchased in the last week - because I failed to realize that GW now does two week Pre-Orders!? 

In the past week, I managed to finish off Skabbik's Plaguepack and the Neurogaunt (Free Miniature of the Month for March 2024) - so keeping up with the plan of painting ONE Warhammer Underworlds warband each week! This brings my total painted 28mm miniatures so far this year to 38 (versus 43 purchased). Regardless of how much I paint in the next week, I will not be in the black at the end of the Quarter as this weekend I'll be picking up THIRTY MORE 28mm miniatures (Zondara's Gravebreakers and the Rivals of the Mirrored City), which will push my purchased total up to 73!

Having finished up Skabbik's that polished off most of the warbands I was REALLY EXCITED about getting done... So now I'm not sure what to do... Part of me would like to finish up at least ONE more warband before the new stuff arrives on the weekend, but I'm not sure which one...

Here's what's on the workbench at the moment:

Sons of Velmorn seem the most likely to be finished next... just have to do cloaks and tunics and shield and belts and I think they're done... and that's not a lot of their surface area... 

While I was working on Skabbik's Plaguepack, I did do a little bit on Skittershank's Clawpack... might be nice to push through and finish THESE up before there are MORE Skaven on the workbench!?

I... it... it seemed like a good idea at the time

Trust me, I have a plan... it's going to be BRILLIANT... or suck... it's a fine line! 

My stand-in Chaos Gargant... did the easy bits, stuck on making decisions about clothes elements.... 

I've done little work on Thundrik's Profiteers (and the two other Kharadron Overlord heroes from Warhammer Quest that have joined this group)... I REALLY WANT to get them done... but just keep getting hung up on where to start and what metal colours to use!? 

Usually in this situation, I default to HOW ARE THEY PAINTED ON THE GW WEBSITE... 

Anothe warbands that feels SO CLOSE to being done, I should just finish it up and get it OFF the workbench... and yet it lingers for another week... 

Gnarlspirit Pack. Not sure if I've done any work on these...? 

And there are SO MANY OTHERS that are still just there... on the workbemch... because I fear if I put them back in storage they'll be forgotten forever and I HAVE PLANS for all of them: The Squigherd, Crimson Court, Myari's Purifiers, Hexbane's Hunters, Gorechosen of Drom, Garrek's Reavers, assorted Warhammer Quest heroes and villains, and so much more... 

Warhammer Underworlds - Skabbik's versus Elathain's

On Tuesday evening Amanda and I played some more Warhammer Underworlds. I was anxious to try out the freshly painted Skabbik's Plaguepack and she was keen to have another go with Elathain's Soulraid. 

Amanda took The Mistmarsh Tangle board from Gnarlwook, and I took A Root-Hall Bleed from Wyrdhollow. 

All set up and ready to go... 

Amanda went first and charged Rikkit with Fuirann... seizing that objective in Non One's Territory... and missed. 

Which was cool because I scored the first of my surges for that! Yay!

Unfortunately, it was pretty much all downhill from there for me! 

Elathain charged in next and killed Rikit... 

Skritter when skrittering off deep into Enemy Territory to jump on an objective - as a Beast, it cannot HOLD objectives, but it can be ON objectives, and there are a few cards which only state a friendly fighter be ON an objective to score a card - and score I did! 

Spine fish showed up next to Rabidius... 

and then Tammael charged in and killed him... which kind of fucked my whole plan for the turn - which was going to see me score two more objectives AND Corrupt two Territories... All because I thought Tammael could only deal two damage (Amanda had said, they all deal two damage...).. but then informed me Tammael actually does THREE on a charge... so.. 

I spent the next two activations running Itchit way off into enemy territory (because I did not realize that Skritter was a BEFOULER... (Otherwise I could have still scored the other objectives AND Corrupt two areas... I went with corrupt two areas and inspired the surviving members of the warband... 

Amanda had moved up Duinclaw. I'd played a ploy that made Skabbik vomit on Duinclae - dealing TWO DAMAGE!? and had also upgraded them with Noxious Vapours - which dealt one damage to each adjacent enemy fighter at the end of the round - which was enough to take out Duinclaw and Spinefish (not that I scored any bounty for Spinefish.) 

A the beginning of Round Two, Tammael murdered poor Itchit. 

Skabbik Made a run for it... 

Elathain slaughtered Poxlix

To end the round, Skabbik ran between Fuirann and Tammael to deal each of them a damage again with Noxious Vapours... 

Just my leader and the little rat.... versus 3/4 of their nasty fighters... 

Also,  being between Fuirann and Tammael at the beginning of the round, staggered them... IF I could have just gone first, I MIGHT have taken one of them out... Alas, Amanda won that roll off and Elathain charged in and finished off Skabbik. 

Bursting Sores dealt a wound to Fuirann, making them vulnerable... 

There was no way for Skritter to get anywhere in one move that they could not be charged... and I did have an Objective Card that scored one Glory if a Befouler took an enemy out of action - and I had only JUST NOTICED that Skritter WAS a Befouler... so I took a long shot - I would have a reroll.. 

Of course the ONE TIME I roll a crit in an attack, Amanda rolls a crit AND a success.. couldn't even roll a success with a reroll... 

So Tammael charged in and gutted Skritter... which seemed a bit like overkill... 

Amanda ended up winning the game 16-5... ouch. 

I'd had high hopes for these rats... I guess I'll have to try a few more games and maybe build a nemesis deck for them, there are some clearly garbage cards in the deck - but there is a lot of FUN stuff - that can work, so... Not totally giving up on them just yet! 

40K - Neurogaunt

 

Neurogaunt - this was March's Free Miniature of the Month that I picked up at the new Warhammer store in Saskatoon. 

Each month they have a bit of a contest with a theme for the new model - this month's theme was NEON! I'm not sure I'll get around to taking it into the store for them to take a picture and post on their facebook group to enter the contest (for which there is no prize other than bragging rights and the chance to pick the next month's theme) but I tried to do the theme anyway... 

Not sure what I'll do with ONE of these... maybe it will show up in Necromunda or some Sci-fi RPG/Skirmish adventure as an annoying little bug that just keeps turning up... like the Space Herpe in Ice Pirates...? 

This brings my total of painted 28mm figures this year to 38!? 

(versus 43 purchased! ALMOST caught up!) 

Warhammer Underworlds - Skabbik's Plaguepack

 It turns out I was mistaken, all the new warbands aren't being released until NEXT Saturday... Apparently at some point last year Games Workshop moved to a two-week pre-order period, which I guess means it's been some time since I cared about picking something up when it was released!? Yay...? 

So, here I am still plugging away at warbands I've already bought.. If I managed to finish up one more 6 fighter warband this week, I'd be (briefly) in the black!? Will I do that!? Maybe... Maybe not... We shall see! 

For now... Here is Skabbik's Plaguepack!

Skabbik's Plaguepack

Skabbik Plagueseeker

Rabidius Skench

Itchitt

Poxlix

Ended up having to do a bit of a conversion with Poxlix. When I went to assemble them I realized the blade on their right had had broken off. Initially I through I'd just carve a knife blade out of some plastic and glue that on... but then decided that might be a bit flimsy and just break off and it might be better to just cut off the hand and glue on a hand holding a blade... the only remotely close to looking appropriate hand holding a blade I could find was from a Nurgle Putrid Blightking (I think...?)... and so I had to do a bit of carving down and Poxlix still ended up with an overly large gauntleted hand holding a much bigger blade... Ah, well... 

Rikkit

Skritter

These look really fun... in addition to satisfying my need for fart jokes, they might not actually suck!? I guess I'll have to wait and see for sure... 

Which will be next...? Hard to say... While I'm on a roll with Skaven, maybe I could finish up Skittershank’s Clawpack? Sons of Velmorn are so close... Part of me really wants to get Thundrik's Profiteers done... but there are so many bits and bobs and I just don't even know where to start with them!? 

At this point I have painted 37x28mm miniatures so far this year (which makes me giggle because CLERKS REFERENCE) and have purchase 43... Almost caught up! Will I catch up before all the new minis arrive this weekend!? 

Warhammer Underworlds - Crimson Court (B)eats EVERYTHING!?

 Tuesday evening Orion came over for a few one-on-one games of Warhammer Underworlds! We ended up getting in THREE games! 

GAME ONE 

Crimson Court vs Blackpowder's Buccaneers

Because I am a masochist, apparently, and feel like I need to play all the warbands a few times to get a sense of whether they're ever going to be good (because the THREE PREVIOUS BEATDOWNS were apparently not enough!?) I rolled out with Blackpowder's Buccaneers...

(Okay, technically I didn't lose all three of those previous games... I only lost one... but I do also have to acknowledge that the ONLY reason I won the first two was a clever combination of extreme luck with cards draws and insane luck with dice rolls AND Amanda not really knowing how to play the Dread Pageant for the first few matches...)

All set up for Game One... I think Orion won all three rolls for board placement and had me go first each time. This time I chose The Stricken Swamp board and then Orion took The Iceswirl Maw and set them up with long edges adjoining. 

Straight off, Gorath swooped into my territory and smashed poor little Peggz... 

Kagey ran off into enemy territory, along with Mange the monkey, and, I think successfully pinged Prince Duvall for one damage and scored a swag token (which later allowed Blackpowder to fire his Gunderbuss TWICE in the first round, scoring me one Glory... and also inspiring him) 

Prince Duvall killed the little monkey and before getting to inspire, Blackpowder was attacked by Vellas and then Ennias... 

At the beginning of Round Two Blackpowder was inspired, for what it was worth...

But was quickly mobbed by the vampires and taken down. He went down swinging... but, like, swinging and missing... Maybe it's NOT just Amanda... maybe it's ANYONE that plays me... I'd roll three successes, Orion rolled a single crit... I'd roll a Crit, Orion rolled a Crit and a success, I rolled a crit and a success, Orion rolled two Crits... I just COULD! NOT! HIT! ANYTHING!?

And that left poor little Kagey, who tried to hide in the corner... 

But those vampires move fast! 

Kagey did manage to dodge Gorath's initial attack... 

But could not dodge Vellas von Faine... 

So... what now...? we spent the last two activations cycling through objective cards... I drew nothing useful... 

But Orion scored a few more... Ha! Look at that! I made her run out of her fancy acrylic token and made her start using CARDBOARD ONES.... yay...!?

I lost this one 21-4... wow... 

Am I DONE with Blackpowder yet? Hell no!! I'll probably try to figure out SOMETHING with a Nemesis deck and maybe just get rid of all the cards having to do with Swag and the Gunderbuss and just focus on the maneuverability they have with the monkey and birbs reactions and Blackpowders GREAT BIG CUTLASS!? 

Honestly, sometimes I feel a little like Bruce McCulloch in that Kids in the Hall sketch where he picks a fight and just won't stop... 

GAME TWO

Crimson Court vs Ephilim's Pandaemonium

I thought I'd try something different in Game Two and pulled out Ephilim's Pandaemonium, which I'd just finished painting the day before... They can't be that bad... the tabled the Thricefold Discord in teh second round when I played against them! Mind you, my opponent had not only read their cards beforehand, had played with them before and had a Nemesis deck built around them... I had done none of these things, so.... 

Again I lost the board set up roll and took Frost-wracked Ruins from the Deathgorge Core Box. Orion took The Seamsplit Folly from Wyrdhollow... 

Prince Duvall killed Apo'Trax on the first activation. I had a spell that could bring back one of my Changers (the little daemon friends are all called "Changers")... which I actually successfully cast and brought right back... only for Ennais to swoop in and kill again in the very next activation... Those Glory were enought to equip Gorath with... enough upgrades to swoop in a kill Ephilim... which kind of destroyed any chance of this not being at total disaster... 

Flame spooler hit Ennais with his magic flame attack, which spilled over onto Price Duvall - which was enough to take him out at the beginning of Round Two (as he had been bitten by Apo'Trax!) 

Ennais was also taken out, largely with Damage from Flamespooler. Spawnmaw managed to CHOMP Gorath... but, again, less than half of my attacks succeeded because ALL THE CRITS?!

And they were totally wiped out by the beginning of the Third Round.

Aye-yi-yi.... I lost this one 22-6... not sure if that better...? 

GAME THREE

Crimson Court vs Magore's Fiends

I decided maybe I needed something... EASIER to play... It doesn't get much easier than the CHARGE! KILL! tactics of Magore's Fiends!? And Amanda had put together a Nemesis deck for them with Tooth and Claw, so.... 

It played fast and furious - I didn't even remember to take a picture until part way through the first round, by which time ALL of the fighters were engaged in a bit brawl in the middle of the battlefield! 

The Blood Warriors took down Vellas, but lost Ghartok. They took down Gorath, but then lost Magore... Riptooth shredded Ennias.. 

And that left Prince Duvall facing Zharkus the Bloodsighted and Riptooth... But Zharkus couldn't hit anything... 

And Prince Duvall finished him off and successfully dodged teh last of Riptooth's attacks... 

Ah well... I didn't lose this one quite as badly. Orion only doubled my Glory total at 14-7. So, there's that... 

Yeah... I don't know what to DO about these vampires... they are NASTY!? I thought Hexbane's Hunters were bad!? But these guys just start scoring objectives on the first turn and just keep scoring them all throughout the game... and then equip with so many crazy upgrades which make them simultaneously way deadlier and also way harder to kill!? 

I don't hear about them dominating the competitive scene... (one player did make it to the finals at the Las Vegas Open this year with them, I think... but didn't win!?)  So there must be some way to beat them. Roll better dice, I guess!?