Hello, welcome back to my journey at the UK Masters 2021. This is Game 6 and this is the last game of the event! It’s been an epic tournie so far with giddying highs and soul crushing lows. I’ve had 2 wins, a draw and 2 losses, I’m currently sat on 40 points after 5 games so less than half points sadly. My losses have just been too big and my wins too small.

So for Game 6 I was drawn against Alistair Parren @Gingersmali and his Orcs & Goblins. After playing against Orcs already in this tournament and losing quite badly I am not looking forward to this game. Lets look at his list:

580 - Goblin King, Forest Goblin King, Gargantula, Great Weapon, Light Armour
470 - Orc Shaman, General, Feral Orc Shaman, Wizard Master, Thaumaturgy, Crown of
Autocracy
355 - Goblin King, Forest Goblin King, Huntsmen Spider, Shield (Dusk Forged), Heavy
Armour (Basalt Infusion), Hand Weapon (Hero's Heart)
220 - Orc Shaman, Common Orc Shaman, Boar Chariot, Wizard Apprentice, Shamanism,
Paired Weapons, Dragonfire Gem
305 - 30 Goblins, Cave Goblins, Shield, 2x Mad Gits, Musician
280 - 20 Orcs, Feral Orcs, Spear
270 - 20 Orcs, Feral Orcs, Paired Weapons, Champion
270 - 20 Orcs, Feral Orcs, Paired Weapons, Champion
569 - 8 Trolls, Cave Troll
145 - Orc Boar Chariot
125 - 5 Goblin Raiders, Common Goblin
90 - 3 Grotlings
450 - Great Green Idol, Battle Standard Bearer
370 - Great Green Idol
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Here is my list, if you haven’t already seen it enough with all these write ups:
705 - Minotaur Warlord, General, Light Armour (Destiny's Call), Paired Weapons (Blessed
Inscriptions), Obsidian Rock, Crown of Horns
570 - Soothsayer, Wizard Master, Shamanism, Light Armour (Trickster's Cunning), Hand
Weapon (Ancestral Carvings), Seed of the Dark Forest
475 - Minotaur Chieftain, Greater Totem Bearer, Battle Standard Bearer, Light Armour
(Aaghor's Affliction), Great Weapon
325 - 3 Raiding Chariots
303 - 29 Wildhorn Herd, Shield, Standard Bearer (Legion Standard), Musician, Champion
(Totem Bearer (Gnarled Hide))
273 - 18 Wildhorn Herd, Paired Weapons and Throwing Weapons , Ambush, Musician
642 - 6 Minotaurs, Shield, Standard Bearer (Banner of Speed), Musician, Champion (Totem
Bearer (Black Wing))
240 - Razortusk Chariot
170 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd, Musician
160 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd
150 - 5 Gargoyles, Scout
140 - 5 Gargoyles
115 - Raiding Chariots
115 - Raiding Chariots
115 - Raiding Chariots
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So there’s 3 big monsters and a unit of trolls to contend with, I worry that that is too much for the Minotaurs and the characters to fight through. It should be an interesting fight between the Trolls and the Minotaurs, the Minos should win that fight but you never know when it comes to special saves. The Goblin King on the Gargantula could prove problematic, the Minotaur unit on its own should be able to kill it pretty quickly but if the Mino Lord is in the unit I would most likely have to decline a duel to allow them all to attack, it outs the Mino Lord at risk but I think he can take one round of attacks from the Gargantula, providing the Venomous Fangs attack doesn’t go through. In my Game 2 against Ed I had to fight a Great Green Idol and that proved a tough nut to crack, having to fight two might be a little too much for the Mino Lord on his own. I’m thinking I need to keep the Minotaur characters in the unit for this game, there’s too much nasty stuff out there that they can’t risk getting into a fight with.

The real thing that concerns me in the list is that Goblin King on Huntsman Spider, he’s packing a 1+ Rerollable Armour Save! He has the Heroes Heart so he has 5 attacks at S5 AP3 with Poison attacks too! That King is super quick and mobile and if he gets around the back of my army then I’m in trouble as he could easily kill my chariots one by one. I don’t think he can stand up to any of my characters though, the Minos will make short work of him and the Soothsayer should be able to handle him so I’ll win from static combat res and break him.

The Feral Orcs units are too small to really concern me, they are the only real target for my chariots as the I can’t see the chariots doing any real damage to the monsters or trolls. The Minotaurs will go right through small units of 20 and the Wildhorn should be able to beat them in a one on one combat. The Shaman general is a real weakness in the Orc list I think, he is very susceptible to the being frenzy baited and he has no real defence besides his 5++ Aegis, I think a cheeky Totemic Summon could do a number on him if I’m lucky. With the Crown of Autocracy he’s a big point sink and is also the main caster, so killing him quickly would be a real plus.

The Scenario for this game is King of the Hill and the deployment is Encircle. With 4 scoring units in the Orc army it may prove difficult to stop all them from getting on their objective. I plan on just launching the Minotaurs straight at my objective as well as an ambusher or two.

Deployment

We roll for sides and Ali wins… [Read More]

Hello

Welcome back to my journey at UK Masters 2021. After a super embarrassing round 4 it’s time to pick myself up and crack on with round 5. This time I was drawn against the Infernal Dwarves being pushed about by Jake Corteen from Team England. This will be my third game against Jake’s ID in the last 6 months, we always seem to end up drawn against each other and in our two previous games he has beaten me both times (16-4 and 17-3). I’m out for revenge this time though, I have actually learnt a lot from our previous games and even though I think ID is a real bad match up for me I don’t think I will lose this one by as big a margin as last time.

So this is Jake’s list:
835 - Prophet, General, Prophet of Shamut, Great Bull of Shamut, Wizard Master,
Occultism, Infernal Weapon, Obsidian Rock
385 - Prophet, Prophet of Ashuruk, Wizard Adept, Alchemy, Pyromancy, Binding Scroll,
Essence of a Free Mind
330 - Vizier, Shield (Willow's Ward), Battle Standard Bearer (Aether Icon), Alchemist's Alloy,
Spear, Breath of the Brass Bull, Unflame
501 - 24 Infernal Warriors, Ziggurat Regulars, Blunderbuss , Musician, Champion
190 - 20 Vassal Levies, Paired Weapons, Standard Bearer (Banner of the Relentless
Company)
190 - 20 Vassal Levies, Paired Weapons, Standard Bearer (Banner of the Relentless
Company)
125 - 20 Shackled Slaves, Paired Weapons
125 - 20 Shackled Slaves, Paired Weapons
574 - 23 Immortals, Spear, Standard Bearer (Blessed Icon of Zalaman Tekash), Musician,
Champion
442 - 5 Kadim Incarnates, Champion
315 - 3 Taurukh Anointed, Great Weapon, Musician, Champion
485 - Infernal Engine, Naphtha Thrower (Steel Juggernaut, Kadim Blessed)
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Here’s my list for those that haven’t seen it:
705 - Minotaur Warlord, General, Light Armour (Destiny's Call), Paired Weapons (Blessed
Inscriptions), Obsidian Rock, Crown of Horns
570 - Soothsayer, Wizard Master, Shamanism, Light Armour (Trickster's Cunning), Hand
Weapon (Ancestral Carvings), Seed of the Dark Forest
475 - Minotaur Chieftain, Greater Totem Bearer, Battle Standard Bearer, Light Armour
(Aaghor's Affliction), Great Weapon
325 - 3 Raiding Chariots
303 - 29 Wildhorn Herd, Shield, Standard Bearer (Legion Standard), Musician, Champion
(Totem Bearer (Gnarled Hide))
273 - 18 Wildhorn Herd, Paired Weapons and Throwing Weapons , Ambush, Musician
642 - 6 Minotaurs, Shield, Standard Bearer (Banner of Speed), Musician, Champion (Totem
Bearer (Black Wing))
240 - Razortusk Chariot
170 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd, Musician
160 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd
150 - 5 Gargoyles, Scout
140 - 5 Gargoyles
115 - Raiding Chariots
115 - Raiding Chariots
115 - Raiding Chariots
4498

So this Infernal Dwarf list is quite different from what Jake has been using all year and I think this is the weakest list he has taken so far. I am not overly scared of the Prophet on the Great Bull as he is on Occultism and as the spell range is so short he will have to get close with him to do any real damage. So I need to make sure that the Great Bull can’t get around me by zoning it with Chariots and the Minotaurs.

The Infernal Engine is always a headache for the Beast Herds I find, the only answer I have to it is the Minotaurs. The Minotaur Warlord can solo it and should kill it in two rounds of combat but only if he’s given a chance to charge it. In the last game we fought Jake had two Infernal Engines, one with the Naptha Thrower and the other with the Titan Mortar, the Mino Warlord managed to kill the Titan Mortar but the Naptha Thrower was still going at the end of the game, so this is a continuation from our last game in my eyes with the Mino Warlord out for revenge against the horrid defeat I suffered last time.

Also in our last battle Jake had a unit of Immortals with the Vizier BSB in but with an Overlord. I a moment of madness I forgot about the Unflame on the BSB and ended up charging them with the Minotaurs and I got absolutely slaughtered as I was striking last due to the agility penalty from Unflame. I probably don’t want to repeat that this game but now that the unit doesn’t have the Overlord in with the Onyx Core the Minotaurs might stand a good chance of murdering the unit.

The Taurukh Anointed will be a tough nut to crack with their Res 5, I think that my Raiding Chariots will just bounce off them and as they have Great Weapons they’ll just murder a chariot in return. The Kadim Incarnates are also very dangerous for my army, none of my infantry can go anywhere near them, they will eat their way through the Wildhorn or any of my ambushers, even chariots will struggle against them. The Minotaurs can easily take down both the Kadim Incarnates and the Taurukh Anointed but, they can’t fight everything in the ID army.

The Slaves are there mostly to give flaming attacks to the Infernal Warriors and the Immortals, plus soak up some Dangerous Terrain checks. Although Jake doesn’t have the usual methods of giving out flammable markers like Vassal Levies with bows or the Vassal… [Read More]

Hello!

Welcome back to another thrilling battle report from my adventures at the UK Masters 2021. We are now over halfway there, Games 1,2 and 3 are done with and it’s time for Game 4. Round 4 is the army swap round, a round I was very much looking forward too as there were some cool armies out there I would happily use, Warriors, KoE, Infernal Dwarves, I would even been happy using some poncy elves. However, fate has a wicked sense of humour and decided to give me the one army out of the 15 that I really didn’t want to use, the bloody Vampire Covenant! I was drawn against Mikey Newman of England ETC fame, so he’ll be using my BH and I’ll be pushing nudging zombies about.
I have very little experience using the VCs, I once borrowed a friends army and took them to an 8th edition tournament, just so I could use Heinrich Kemmler and Krell because they are so cool but it turned out they were not actually that good on the table top and I lost every game and came bottom. So maybe VC aren’t the army for me. Who knows though, maybe I’ll be given a decent list with some Shrieking Horrors and some killy Vampire characters and a big bus of Knights, let’s have a look shall we?

490 - Necromancer, General (The Dead Arise), Wizard Master, Alchemy, 2x Binding Scroll
405 - Necromancer, Wizard Master, Evocation, Magical Heirloom
170 - Fell Wraith, Hand Weapon (Hero's Heart)
155 - Banshee
155 - Banshee
567 - 37 Ghouls, Champion
253 - 22 Skeletons, Spear, Standard Bearer (Flaming Standard), Musician, Champion
135 - 20 Zombies, Musician
645 - 8 Ghasts, Champion
310 - 4 Phantom Hosts
680 - 4 Winged Reapers, Halberd
535 - 6 Vampire Knights, Standard Bearer, Musician, Champion
4500

WTF is that!?

When I did the army list reviews I initially didn’t think much of this list but there is some nice synergies in it with the Alchemy Master. The Winged Reapers are not to be sniffed at, they can pack a punch when they hit, as do Vampire Knights. I’ve watched a few games with Mikey using it and he’s uses it very well, each unit supports each other on it’s incredibly slow, inexorable push towards the enemy/objective. In the right hands this army is lethal and can easily draw or even get a small win! In my hands however I will be lucky to get a point out of this game. I just can’t play the game the way Mikey does, I need to get into combat as that's the best part of the entire game and I just think the combat potential of this list is minimal. If I can get some flank charges won the Minotaur block with one of the big units then I stand a chance, but how do you get a flank charge when everything has to be the 12” General Bubble? How do I keep the Necromancers alive when there’s going to be Totemic Beasts and Ambushers coming on behind my lines?
Where’s the bloody chaff in the list? The Banshees and Fell Wraith can be used as chaff but I’m most likely going to need them to cover my rear from Longhorns trying to kill my General. I don’t understand why you would take a Fell Wraith for chaff when you have Great Bats available to you?

Oh yeah, I should probably talk about the list that Mikey has been blessed with.

705 - Minotaur Warlord, General, Light Armour (Destiny's Call), Paired Weapons (Blessed
Inscriptions), Obsidian Rock, Crown of Horns
570 - Soothsayer, Wizard Master, Shamanism, Light Armour (Trickster's Cunning), Hand
Weapon (Ancestral Carvings), Seed of the Dark Forest
475 - Minotaur Chieftain, Greater Totem Bearer, Battle Standard Bearer, Light Armour
(Aaghor's Affliction), Great Weapon
325 - 3 Raiding Chariots
303 - 29 Wildhorn Herd, Shield, Standard Bearer (Legion Standard), Musician, Champion
(Totem Bearer (Gnarled Hide))
273 - 18 Wildhorn Herd, Paired Weapons and Throwing Weapons , Ambush, Musician
642 - 6 Minotaurs, Shield, Standard Bearer (Banner of Speed), Musician, Champion (Totem
Bearer (Black Wing))
240 - Razortusk Chariot
170 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd, Musician
160 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd
150 - 5 Gargoyles, Scout
140 - 5 Gargoyles
115 - Raiding Chariots
115 - Raiding Chariots
115 - Raiding Chariots
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Now that’s a proper list! One mighty combat block, two of the greatest character builds of all time that just want to smash face, ambushing shenanigans for some hot sandwich action, plus some chaff for taste.

I am so dead in this match up. If I was decent player or had a couple of months to play with VC then maybe I would stand a chance but as it is I am essentially going into this cold. The more I look at the list the more synergies and plays I see in it but I think that even experienced VC players would struggle to get the most out of a VC List with no Vampire characters in.

As the VC list I have to use doesn’t have an awful lot of chaff I don’t see how I can stop the Mino block. I can use the banshees and the Fell Wraith to hold them up for a while but whilst they are being used for chaffing duty how do I stop the ambushers? It is real a tough call and a choice that I know that Mikey has the… [Read More]

Hello and welcome back to Game 3 of my journey at the UK Masters.

For this round I was drawn against Marcus and his Daemon Legions, an army I am usually comfortable fighting against with the Beast Herds as the Minotaur Lord is pretty much an unstoppable killing machine when it comes to murdering the denizens of the veil.

Here is my list, you can read my thoughts behind the list in my Game 1 bat rep form the Masters:
705 - Minotaur Warlord, General, Light Armour (Destiny's Call), Paired Weapons (Blessed
Inscriptions), Obsidian Rock, Crown of Horns
570 - Soothsayer, Wizard Master, Shamanism, Light Armour (Trickster's Cunning), Hand
Weapon (Ancestral Carvings), Seed of the Dark Forest
475 - Minotaur Chieftain, Greater Totem Bearer, Battle Standard Bearer, Light Armour
(Aaghor's Affliction), Great Weapon
325 - 3 Raiding Chariots
303 - 29 Wildhorn Herd, Shield, Standard Bearer (Legion Standard), Musician, Champion
(Totem Bearer (Gnarled Hide))
273 - 18 Wildhorn Herd, Paired Weapons and Throwing Weapons , Ambush, Musician
642 - 6 Minotaurs, Shield, Standard Bearer (Banner of Speed), Musician, Champion (Totem
Bearer (Black Wing))
240 - Razortusk Chariot
170 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd, Musician
160 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd
150 - 5 Gargoyles, Scout
140 - 5 Gargoyles
115 - Raiding Chariots
115 - Raiding Chariots
115 - Raiding Chariots
4498

Here is the Daemon Legions list that Marcus was using:
765 - Omen of Savar, Wizard Master, Thaumaturgy, Bronze Backbone
425 - Harbinger of Father Chaos, General, Dark Pulpit, Wizard (Wizard Adept, Evocation),
Hammer Hand
605 - 22 Succubi, Smothering Coils, Standard Bearer, Musician
285 - 10 Lemures, Unnatural Roots, Standard Bearer, Musician, Champion
255 - 10 Succubi, Chilling Yawn
323 - 3 Hoarders, Chitinous Scales, Unnatural Roots, Standard Bearer, Champion
313 - 3 Hoarders, Chitinous Scales, Unnatural Roots, Standard Bearer
313 - 3 Hoarders, Chitinous Scales, Unnatural Roots, Standard Bearer
285 - Hope Harvester
310 - 3 Bloat Flies, Champion
310 - 3 Bloat Flies, Champion
310 - 3 Bloat Flies, Champion
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[Read More]

Hello and welcome back.

After an incredibly swingy battle in Game 1, that ended up in a draw, it was onto Game 2. This time I was drawn against a stalwart of the Ninth Age, Ed, the Scottish Knight @Scottish Knight himself! It’s a Team Scotland off, Captain versus the lowly grunt. Ed has decided to abandon his faithful Knights of Equitaine and had instead jumped onto the filthy Greenskins. He had a very close battle in Game 1 in an Orc & Goblin civil war that ended up with plenty dead but Ed came out on top thanks to the objective.

Here’s my list (you can read about my reasons for taking the list in my Game 1 write up if you haven’t read it already)

For round 2 the Deployment is going to be refused flank and the objective is Secure Target. Not one of my favourite objectives but certainly not one of the worst for me.

705 - Minotaur Warlord, General, Light Armour (Destiny's Call), Paired Weapons (Blessed Inscriptions), Obsidian Rock, Crown of Horns

570 - Soothsayer, Wizard Master, Shamanism, Light Armour (Trickster's Cunning), Hand Weapon (Ancestral Carvings), Seed of the Dark Forest

475 - Minotaur Chieftain, Greater Totem Bearer, Battle Standard Bearer, Light Armour (Aaghor's Affliction), Great Weapon

325 - 3 Raiding Chariots

303 - 29 Wildhorn Herd, Shield, Standard Bearer (Legion Standard), Musician, Champion

(Totem Bearer (Gnarled Hide))

273 - 18 Wildhorn Herd, Paired Weapons and Throwing Weapons , Ambush, Musician

642 - 6 Minotaurs, Shield, Standard Bearer (Banner of Speed), Musician, Champion (Totem

Bearer (Black Wing))

240 - Razortusk Chariot

170 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd, Musician

160 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd

150 - 5 Gargoyles, Scout

140 - 5 Gargoyles

115 - Raiding Chariots

115 - Raiding Chariots

115 - Raiding Chariots

4498


Here’s the list that Ed is using:

610 - Goblin King, Forest Goblin King, Gargantula, Paired Weapons (Shield Breaker), Light

Armour

500 - Orc Shaman, Feral Orc Shaman, Wizard Master, Shamanism, Skull Fetish , Obsidian

Rock

405 - Orc Shaman, General, Feral Orc Shaman, Wizard Master, Pyromancy

120 - Goblin Chief, Forest Goblin Chief, Scuttler Spider, Lance

120 - Goblin Chief, Forest Goblin Chief, Scuttler Spider, Lance

820 - 31 Orc 'Eadbashers, Feral Orcs, Spear, Standard Bearer (Green Tide), Musician,

Champion

315 - 21 Orcs, Feral Orcs, Spear, Musician, Champion

370 - 10 Mounted 'Eadbashers, Feral Orcs, Paired Weapons, Standard Bearer (Stalker's

Standard), Musician, Champion

330 - 3 Goblin Wolf Chariot

210 - 5 Mounted 'Eadbashers, Common Orcs, Shield, Lance, Musician

130 - 5 Goblin Raiders, Common Goblin, Shield

120 - 5 Goblin Raiders, Forest Goblin, Shield

450 - Great Green Idol, Battle Standard Bearer

4500

So Ed has a particularly nasty list I think. The big block of Feral Ord Eadbashers could prove to be difficult for me to shift, especially with the Spear meaning that if I charge him we are going to be striking at the same time, that could just end up in a bloodbath. I need to whittle that block down a bit before I tackle it. Maybe I will have to try the old frenzy baiting and Break the Spirit trick, but I’m fairly sure Ed will see that one coming a mile off.

Double Shaman Master is an interesting choice and gives him lots of choice for spells, Pyro always proves frustrating for me, Scorching Salvo has the potential to wipe out big chunks of my army. Also the new version of Cascading Fire will have a time to shine in this game against the Minos, it will take them down to Agility 1 and make the Orcs either strike first or at the same time, very annoying. That Pyro Shaman master is his general and is also very vulnerable so he will be the target for my ambushers. The Skull Fetish with double Master means that he's going to be generating a load of Veil Tokens each turn so i best be prepared for some horrific magic phases.

The Mounted Feral Orc Eadbashers are not be sniffed at. Ed and I had a practice game before the Masters and that unit was the difference in a key combat, so I can’t ignore them. They are a bit of a glass cannon though with just a 5+ Armour Save and 6++ aegis. If I can get the charge on these guys with anything I should wreck them.

The 2 big monsters in the list are a little scary. The Spider King has what it takes to kill my Soothsayer in one go with all those poison attacks and there isn’t much out there that can do that. I have to make sure my Soothsayer is safe from that charge. The Great Green Idol can be a real pain at time, in our previous game I charged it with my BSB, did 3 wounds, then it killed me in one with a Crush attack. I won’t make that mistake again (although I probably will do it again because it was a solid plan, he just got lucky with the crush attack!).

The Goblin Chariots could be an issue if I allow them to get the charge off. With an advance of 9 they outrange me so I need to be careful of them.

The Feral Orc bunker and the 5 Mounted Eadbashers will most likely be hanging out… [Read More]

Hello and welcome to my Battle Report for Game 1 of the UK Masters (I know, I don’t know how I made it either).
So the tournament is the standard 4500 points format and all 6 deployments and all 6 secondary objectives will be used for each round. Interestingly round 4 will be an army swap round where you swap armies with your opponent, I’m dreading that one, fingers crossed for some ID filth that round!
So for this event there was only one army I was going to take, the Beast Herds! I was tempted to take my Warriors as I think they’re a better army but I’ve only made it to the Masters because of my Beast Herds so I owe them this one. The Minotaur Warlord would never forgive me if I didn’t take him.

So here’s my List:
705 - Minotaur Warlord, General, Light Armour (Destiny's Call), Paired Weapons (Blessed
Inscriptions), Obsidian Rock, Crown of Horns
570 - Soothsayer, Wizard Master, Shamanism, Light Armour (Trickster's Cunning), Hand
Weapon (Ancestral Carvings), Seed of the Dark Forest
475 - Minotaur Chieftain, Greater Totem Bearer, Battle Standard Bearer, Light Armour
(Aaghor's Affliction), Great Weapon
325 - 3 Raiding Chariots
303 - 29 Wildhorn Herd, Shield, Standard Bearer (Legion Standard), Musician, Champion
(Totem Bearer (Gnarled Hide))
273 - 18 Wildhorn Herd, Paired Weapons and Throwing Weapons , Ambush, Musician
642 - 6 Minotaurs, Shield, Standard Bearer (Banner of Speed), Musician, Champion (Totem
Bearer (Black Wing))
240 - Razortusk Chariot
170 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd, Musician
160 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd
150 - 5 Gargoyles, Scout
140 - 5 Gargoyles
115 - Raiding Chariots
115 - Raiding Chariots
115 - Raiding Chariots
4498

Fairly standard to what I’ve been using most of the year except the Minotaur Warlord bought himself some new armour for the occasion and is strutting around in his shiny new Destiny’s Call which means I’ve saved points and can take the Obsidian Rock too for that extra magic protection. The Minotaur Chieftain is now rocking the Aaghor’s Affliction, because who doesn’t love being Res 6 with a 4++ Fortitude save?

The Soothsayer with the Trickster’s Cunning and on Shamanism should make him pretty hard to kill, especially in combat. He’s also carrying around the Ancestral Carvings so he can dish out some damage too. He will mostly be sitting in the unit of 29 Wildhorn with Shields, Legion Standard and the Gnarled Hide Totem. They can be a pretty hard unit to shift and with so much static combat res they can hold their own against most things. I’d like more Wildhorn in the unit but I ran out of points.
I’ve got 3 ambushing units, 2 Longhorn with Halberds and 18 Wildhorn with Paired Weapons and Throwing Weapons. I do think the Paired Weapons on the Wildhorn are a little expensive but if you can get them in the right match up (ambush helps with this) they can really surprise people.

There is a lot of Chariots because they are just so good for their points, 115 points each and they have huge spike potential and zoning threat. I think they’re incredibly gamey and I don’t like taking them but if you can’t bring bent filth to the Masters when can you? I also have a unit of 3 Raiding Chariots because 3 are even better than 1 and a Razor Tusk Chariot to give me even more threat range.

Then its 6 Minotaurs with Shields to baby sit the characters when they need to, and they also hit like a ton of bricks. Thanks to the change to command group they got even cheaper for me, yippee!

Lastly it’s Gargoyles chaff because there ain’t no chaff like flying chaff. Only one with Scout though because I always have one unit hiding behind the Minotaurs to protect them from counter charges and failed charges so there’s little point taking scout on them.

So, enough talk about my list, round 1 was Marching Columns and Hold The Ground, not a bad objective for me but there are better ones. My opponent was randomly drawn and I was drawn against a colossal of the UK Ninth Age scene, Adam “Tanka” Jones, @Tanka. I’ve played Tanka a couple of times before and he’s 20’d me both times but I like to think I learnt from them (I learnt nothing!), so I was ready. This tournie though Tanka decided to randomly determine what army he was going to be bringing by rolling a D16 and going through the armies alphabetically, he rolled an 8 and it was KoE. An army I know very well and have little success with but an army that Tanka hasn’t used in the best part of a decade. After I’m sure much scouring of the KoE book Tanka settled on this list:
560 - Duke, General, Barded Warhorse, Shield, Bastard Sword (Blessed Inscriptions),
Crusader's Salvation, Dragon Staff, Renown, Questing Oath and Bastard Sword
540 - Duke, Barded Warhorse, Shield (Fortress of Faith), Lance (Supernatural Dexterity),
Bastard Sword, Basalt Infusion, Might, Questing Oath and Bastard Sword
385 - Damsel, Barded Warhorse, Wizard Master, Druidism
305 - Paladin, Barded Warhorse, Shield, Battle Standard Bearer (Aether Icon, Aether Icon),
Lance (… [Read More]

Welcome back to Part 2 of my 2020 review and I shall crack straight on with the next event I attended, House War. This event was very different to previous ones in that everyone was split into 4 groups of 12, the top 2 from each group would progress into the next round which was then a knockout event. I decided to mix my list up a bit and took the following:

710 - Minotaur Warlord, General, Light Armour (Aaghor's Affliction), Paired Weapons (Blessed Inscriptions), Crown of Horns
575 - Soothsayer, Wizard Master, Druidism, Light Armour ( Essence of Mithril), Paired Weapons, Dark Rain, Talisman of the Void
485 - Minotaur Chieftain, Greater Totem Bearer, Battle Standard Bearer, Heavy Armour (Death Cheater), Great Weapon
342 - 24 Wildhorn Herd, Shield, Standard Bearer (Banner of the Wild Herd), Musician, Champion
320 - 3 Raiding Chariots
104 - 8 Feral Hounds
104 - 8 Feral Hounds
95 - 10 Mongrel Raiders
660 - 6 Minotaurs, Shield, Standard Bearer (Banner of Speed), Musician, Champion (Totem Bearer (Black Wing))
405 - 6 Razortusk Herd
230 - Razortusk Chariot
160 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd
160 - 10 Longhorn Herd, Ambush, Halberd
150 - 5 Gargoyles, Scout
4500

Now, I really hate Druidism as Lore, I find it too static and defensive and it just makes for a dull Magic Phase for everyone involved. I took it because I really wanted to take the big unit of Razortusk Herd and I loved the thought of making them Resistance 8!

Game 1 I was drawn against Warriors, so I was off to a bad start. The advantage I had was that my opponent had nothing that could tackle the Minotaur Warlord except for Silver Spike. So I ran the Warlord off solo turn 1, I then reformed my Minotaur unit so that they could contest the centre which was the objective. I did it badly though and didn’t realise I had left my opponent a charge on my Minos with his unit of 3 Barbarian Chiefs on Chariots. He only needed a 9 on the dice and was rerolling from a hill. The Chariots went crashing in and broke them, running them down, because I also forgot that a unit of chariot characters counts as a rank. My Mino Lord was then promptly hit with a 5 diced Silver Spike which did 3 wounds and it was down hill after that. 1 – 19

Game 2 and I was against ID, another bad match up but this time it went extremely well. My opponents dice were horrible and my army just went to town. The Minotaur unit killed an Infernal Engine, a Giant and 22 Disciples. The real stars of the show were my unit of Wildhorn which were charged by a Giant who fluffed his attacks, lost combat and broke. In my previous turn my ambushers had come on behind the gun line, my opponent had turned his Citadel Guard around to face them and shoot it off. This meant that after my Wildhorn and beat the Giant they were now facing the back of the Citadel Guard and they smashed through the enemy lines. Big 19 -1 to me.

Game 3 was against the loathsome VS with the obligatory 3 x 14 of Plague Disciples, Plague Pendulum and 20 Plague Brotherhood, Vermin Daemon and Plague Catapults. I started off very aggressively, too aggressively it seemed as I had left a flank charge on my Minos with a unit of Disciples. Luckily they failed it but I had to flee with my Razortusk Herd and they never rallied again. The Pendulum went into my Minotaur unit and I wasn’t that bothered, I’ve done this fight many a time and the Minotaurs always do the job. Alas, it wasn’t to be this time and I lost combat by 3, I failed my Discipline 6 rerollable break check and got run down. It was all over after that, 0 -20. I played this one really badly and was needlessly aggressive.

Game 4 and I was bottom of the pile with no way of progressing so it was a formality of a game. I was drawn against Ogre Khans, a list that contained a nasty block of 6 Merc Vets, 3 Kin Eaters, Frost Mammoth, Pyro Master, Big block of Bruisers, Bombardiers and some trappers for chaff. I made a long bomb charge with the Minos into the Merc Vets and I thought I was going to smash them off easily, however what I forgot was the aura of the Frost Mammoth, I thought it was 6”, turns out it is 9” and I was within that aura. SO he was striking first and the Merc Vets destroyed the Minotaurs, broke the Lord and BSB and ran them down. Meanwhile the Wildhorn were busy fighting one Kin Eater for about 6 rounds of combat before they broke and got run down, so disappointing. The Razortusk Herd panicked off when they were charged by the Frost Mammoth and it was all over after that. I somehow managed to scrape 3 points from this game at least so 3 -17.

Awful tournament for me, played really badly, I was unprepared and took a list I didn’t particularly like and just reaffirmed my opinion of Druidism. I did like the format of the event, it certainly puts a lot more pressure on those early games. Anyway, onto the next Tournament.



Autumn Assault

So for this tournament it was bespoke maps made by the tournie organiser and they were really good with lots of terrain on the… [Read More]

Well, well, well. It’s been far too long since I’ve written in my blog and I apologise for that but I’ve been no slouch in the world of the Ninth Age. Our Podcast (The Paired Weapons Podcast) is going strong and we are close to our 40^th episode already, so get listening to that if love hearing people slag off VS (that only happens in about 50% of our episodes).



I have also been busy playing lots of games in various Universal Battle tournaments and I always started them with the intention of writing them up but it just doesn’t feel the same on UB for me as it does on the tabletop. The best part of tabletop bat reps for me is pictures of the models having a good scrap and you just miss that with UB, so I’ve lost a lot of enthusiasm for doing them. Even though I’ve not been writing up my battles it doesn’t mean that they haven’t been happening! So I’ve attended a few tournaments so far this year:

• Art of War 3 where I took KoE (I did write this one up!), LWLWW - 45/60
  
• Scottish Championships, I took my Warriors out for a ride and came DWLWW 12/30.
  
• -----------------------Corona Virus Hits-----------------------------------
  
• Social Distancing (4 man Team Event), I took a brand new army, the mighty Beast Herds, as they are my next army project. I got WLWLDW 21/136, Team finished LLLLWW 31/34
  
• Lockdown Brawl, BH LWDWL 17/44
  
• House of War, BH (I mixed my list up a bit too much, I took Druidism and it was a mistake) LWLL 37/48
  
• Autumn Assault, BH, WWWLW, finished 2/44!
  
• Winter War, BH, LWDWL, 23/34
  

So, quite a mixed bag of results their and one event that just went amazingly well and gave me my highest ever finish, I’ve never made it to the podium before, I think 5^th had been my previous highest ever result. I’ll do some quick highlights from what I remember for each event.


Scottish Championships

I took a warrior list with a Evo master sorcerer on a Battle Shrine, Chosen Lord on a horse with the Burning Portent. Unit of Warriors, unit of Barbs, Chosen Cav and Warrior Knights.

Tough first match up against Ogres with a gut star and a big block of Merc Vets. Was super cagey and I was going down until I managed to break a unit of scraplings in turn 5 who had the objective (Spoils) and I was able to transfer that to my unit and win the objective. 10 - 10

Second match up against Saurians where in turn 1 I took off a Saurian Warlord on an Alpha Carno and that panicked off a unit of Raptor Riders. Thought I was in for a big win but the second Alpha Carno proved too much and managed to pull it back a bit but I still won. 12 - 8

Third was against Daemons and the dice betrayed me. Charged into a Maw with my Burning Portent Lord, killed it over three rounds. Meanwhile I was bombarding the Scourge with Hellfires and Grave Calls and when I did get it off I was rolling 2 or 3 for the number of hits. The Scourge then went crazy and killed most of my army. 2 - 18

Game 4 was against Empire, got a big win thanks to some expert sniping from my Sorcerer and Wrath Knights absolutely beating the crap out of Flagellants in a single round of combat. 16 - 4

Game 5 against Dwarves and the Wrath of God from Hell came down and wiped out the artillery and took out big chunks of units. Killy King was still a problem for a long time until I was able to snipe him out by Turn 5 but was too late by that point to push for a big win. 14 - 6

Good tournie for me really and some solid results. I really like the Sorcerer on the Battle Shrine, big fan (My WIP of my Battle Shrine, heavly inspired by Mad Max and Dethklok)







Social Distancing

So as this was the first UB tournament I took part in I decided it was the perfect time to try out the Beast Herds. I had been acquiring models for my Beast Herds for a long time and had a few practice battles on the tabletop with a small force of Beast Herds before. I already had a list in mind based on the models I had so this is what I ran with:

710 - Minotaur Warlord, General, Light Armour (Aaghor's Affliction), Paired Weapons (Blessed Inscriptions), Crown of Horns

530 - Soothsayer, Wizard Master, Shamanism, Dark Rain, Seed of the Dark Forest

485 - Minotaur Chieftain, Greater Totem Bearer, Battle Standard Bearer, Heavy Armour (Death Cheater), Great Weapon

320 - 3 Raiding Chariots

190 - 15 Wildhorn Herd, Shield, Ambush, Champion

190 - 15 Wildhorn Herd, Shield, Ambush, Champion

115 - 10 Mongrel Raiders, Ambush and Scout

95 - 10 Mongrel Raiders

660 - 6 Minotaurs, Shield, Standard Bearer (Banner of Speed), Musician, Champion (Totem Bearer (Black Wing))

260 - 3 Minotaurs, Shield

260 - 3 Minotaurs, Shield

230 - Razortusk Chariot

140 - 5 Gargoyles

105 - Razortusk Herd

105 - Razortusk Herd

105 - Razortusk Herd

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What can I say, I own a lot of Minotaurs! I was basically going for a lot of chaff and one big old unit of Minotaurs to go out and do the damage. Shamanism Master because it’s the best lore, extremely versatile and synergises well with a lot of chaff and ambushers I find.

There was some… [Read More]

Hello!

I'm just writing a quick blog post about painting rust. Rust has become an obsession of mine over the last few years since i began painting it for my 40K Ork army. I've spent many an hour looking at Rust effects in the wild and just how different the colour of rust can be and the texture of rust can be. It's incredibly variable and there is certainly no definitive look to rust. Trying to paint convincing looking rust can be difficult but it can definitely be down easily with some simple tricks. The basic elements of painting rust for me are that it must:

• Be orange/brown, preferably a mixture of different oranges and browns.
  
• It must have a matt finish (super matt, so matt that there is no reflection what so ever)
  
• It must not be uniform! Rust is very rarely ever the same over a surface, whether that is texture or colour.
  

I've begun playing Beast Herds recently and i'm slowly getting round to painting the army. If you check out the Tale of Slow Painters thread you can see what i've been up to. At the moment i've painted about 80 points worth so there's still a long way to go, lucky it is a Tale of Slow Painters so i'm living up to the title. There are two main colours for my Beasts, Blue and Yellow, two classic colours that are almost the bedrock for all modern cinema (just look at posters for most new big budget film releases and it will be in Blue and Yellow). Anyway, apart from the Blue and Yellow theme i have decided to give all my Beasts rusty weapons, they are far too busy planning their revenge upon the humans that enslaved them to bother with maintaining their weaponry. So the orange of the rust is like my third colour for the army and always contrasts well against blue.

Anyway, recently i've been painting up Minotaurs and due to their much larger size compared to their Wildhorn cousin i've been able to add a lot more detail to the painting of these models. In particular i've gone to town with the rust effects for these models and have got two main types of rust on the models; super corroded rusty metal and rust under painted metal. I'd thought i'd write a quick guide about how these effects are achieved, they are much easier than you would think.

First of all paint your silvers, ideally over a black undercoat. I use Vallejo Gun Metal for my silver basecoat as it goes on very smoothly and doesn't come out patchy at all. Once dry hit it with a nice thick coat of brown wash, i use GWs Agrax Earthshade.





Once that is dry it should have already begun to Matt the previously shiny metallic paint, making it look like it has lost it's sheen already. Now we need to build up some orangey colours. I start off with GWs Mournfang Brown. Get an old brush and a some Mournfang Brown on it, then wipe of a lot of the paint onto some newspaper or whatever (Like if you were drybrushing). You're basically aiming to have enough paint on the brush so that you can splodge it onto the model with out being uniform, so it doesn't want to be laden with paint, splodge it on the newspaper until it gives you a an irregular pattern on the paper (I hope that makes sense, it's hard to describe). Once you've got your paintbrush right begin to splodge it on your metals.



Even when it looks like you haven't applied any paint you still begin to matt the metal. Repeat the process again with a lighter, more orange brown, i use Scrag Brown by Games Workshop.



Do this one final time with Ryza Rust by Games Workshop. This is a super bright orange colour so don;t go overboard or it will all look orange!





After that i would recommend sponging on some metal onto the edges of the armour and weapon. For people who haven't even used a sponge for painting before you are missing out, it is so much fun and gives great results. basically tear off a bit of sponge from some packing material (I have a lot of old GW metal packs that used to come with little sponge sheets so i use that). Get your torn off nit of sponge, doesn't have to be big, and dip it into your metal (Gunmetal for me), then splodge the sponge onto the newspaper until most of the paint has come off, then with the sponge go over the edges of the armour and the weapons to make the edges still look sharp and used. You can splodge some on top of the rust you've previously painted on because rust isn't uniform so it helps to break it up. I didn;t take pictures sadly but tyou'll see in some more coming.

Now, you can leave it there if you want to, and i that is as far as i have gone with my Wildhorn because they're too small for the rest. However if you want to make it look even rustier still then you cannot go far wrong than using actual rusting metal. I have an item called Scenic Rust (by Deluxe Materials), It's on eBay. This stuff is basically Iron Filings and glue. You mix up the Iron Fillings into some glue on a palette and with a old brush apply the iron filings onto the metals that you want to look rusty. Use it sparingly, less is more when it comes to this stuff.… [Read More]

Hello all, sorry I’ve not touched the blog in a while but tournament games have been a bit thin on the ground since Coronavirus hit so I’ve not had any face to face games since March. I do have a tournament I need to write up so I’ll be doing that soon, honest. Anyway, it’s not like I’ve been quite on the ninth age, started a podcast and have played in 2 on line tournaments with the Beast Herds now, you can hear all about them on the Podcast. If I posted bat reps for them here I’d just be repeating myself. You can see a Battle Report of mine in the latest Ninth Scroll as well, so go check that out.
All I will say about the Beast Herds is that I love the Minotaur Warlord, he’s what all combat lords should aspire to be. Minotaurs are great, ambushing is really fun and Chariots are the most hit and miss units in the game. I really dislike Centaurs, I think it’s me rather than the Centaurs themselves, I just don’t use them right and they die, a lot. It’s probably because I refuse to use Druidism so I can’t protect them.
I have also been busy painting for the Tale of Slow Painters we are doing, which is basically a project with the goal of painting 400 points worth of models every two months for 10 months. Afterwards we will all get together and have a mini tournament with our 2000 point forces of excellently painted armies. Here’s some of what I’ve been doing and you can check out the forum here.





I’m not here to talk about Beast Herds though, that’s what the podcast is for. Today I wanted to do a bat rep with a difference, the difference isn’t just that the game took place entirely on UB (I like UB but for Bat Reps I like to have pictures of models), I used a new army. In fact it’s an unofficial army from the Homebrew section and is the fruits of one man’s labour. I’m using the Grand Companies of the Mercenary States.
The army is essentially the old Dogs of War army from the world that was but there is so much more variety to it than there has ever been before. I would say that there is perhaps too much variety as the book clocks in at 41 pages, which I think is the biggest slim Army Book out there. There’s a lot of different unit choices in the book and there’s so much variation within each unit choice too that this is really the Swiss army knife of armies. Versatility is listed as their army strength and the book definitely has that. The weakness is that they are relatively low discipline and the whole army relies upon the paymaster who is the BSB for the army but if he dies then all units within his Commanding Presence range must take a Discipline check at -1 Discipline, fail that and your army could be running for the hills. I’m not going to go into the rules too much, I’d suggest checking out the army book here and having a read for yourself.
By far the hardest part of using this army is trying to come up with a legal list, the book is split into 5 sections; Characters, Core, Special, Best Money Can Buy and Legendary Curiosities and Armoury. Each has its own percentage cap that your army must adhere to which all seems fairly sensible. However, as I mentioned before, almost every unit can be customisable and by giving certain units certain upgrades can make their points count towards a different section or mean they suddenly come out of that section and not the section they are available in.
Example – Crossbows are a Core unit, with the Veteran upgrade (3+ shooting upgrade) they no longer count towards Core but now come out of the Best Money Can Buy Category, give them Light Armour too then they would come out of the Legendary Curiosities and Armoury section instead. If you upgrade the Crossbows to Dreadnoughts (1+ armour and a 6++ Aegis against Range) then they count towards both Core and Legendary Curiosities and Armoury. It gets confusing fast and is difficult to keep track of so having an app work it all out for you is definitely the easiest way to do it and I think the army is on Army Builder which would make the job easier.
Anyway, after several rewrites I came up with a list:
Commander, City State Falerii, Paired Weapons (Heroes Heart), Destiny’s Call = 340
Captain, City State Regillum, Crossbow (Domingo’s Arbalest), Shield = 240
Quartermaster, Plate Armour (Alchemists Alloy), Shield (Dusk Forged), Paychest and Bodyguard, Obsidian Rock = 310
Guild Wizard, Pyromancy, Wizard Master, Talisman of the Void = 420

16 Crossbowmen, Veteran, Dreadnoughts, Champion, Musician = 434
15 Crossbowmen, Musician = 240
35 Pikemen, Full Command, Pistol Champion, Legion Standard = 444
10 Freelancers, Shield, Lance, Full Command = 440
16 Paymasters Bodyguard, Plate Armour, Shield, Champion and Standard = 264
6 Veteran Mercenary Ogres, Iron Fist, Plate Armour, Devastating Charge, Musician, Champion = 676
15 Mercenary Dwarfs, Veteran, Pirates, Musician, Champion = 445
Black Powder Artillery, Cannon = 245

4498
It turned out to be illegal as I had calculated the cost of the Ogre Mercenaries wrong but for the… [Read More]