Wednesday 30 April 2014

Teams for the Kislev cup 2014 (2d edition)

Last year, some friends and I played a blood bowl league called the "kislev cup": I was the winner of that edition, but this year the league comes again, and nothing is assured, so let the ball fly and the best team take the Kislev cup!
Necrofilia: undead team
Coach; Oriol 

This team fought hard for the cup during all the league, after a pair of draws and a victory, it was becouse of it's superior team value that managed to pass to the final, where after managing to arrive at a draw at the end of the second part finally lost the cup by a last touchdown scored by my own team.

After consulting the rulebook wich told us the team value thing I wasn't entirely happy with the outcome so if this situation repeats in this new edition we will decide it by "golden touchdown", the one to score first after the endtime is the one to pass to the final, we will decide who recives the ball by throwing the coin of course.

The team is composed of  seven zombies (green skin+tombstone), four gouls (tan and red skin) and two wights

zombies (who knows to what teams they belonged before being killed and reanimated by the evil lich Oriol!)

 wights: le chevalier (coming from the coursed mousillon) and espectrus (coming from the also cursed sylvania)

 and flesh-eating ghouls
Pinxapinyes: lizardmen team
Coach: Albert

Reckless? intrepid? mad? hundreds of adjectives have been labelled to this team. Last season it was composed exclusively of skinks, althought their strenght 2 didn't prevent their coach from playing one of the more agressive hand to hand tactics of the league. He also refined his "long bomb" tactic, consisting in throwing the ball in the middle of the contrary field and hoping that the supperior speed and dodging abilities of his skinks allowed him to cath the ball and make quick touchdowns. Due to this intense play, when I confronted him the result was a 2-3, the most scored match in all the league.

This team started  well enough the league, with a resounding victory over the human team, after a defeat and a draw, ended up matched in points with the undeads to reach the final, but thanks to having less experience points (and hence less team value) was putted out of the final. Slann Mage-priest Xiclotacl the owner of the team, was severely dissapointed by such bad results and decided to send a cadre of his elite temple guard saurians this season to increase the smashing power of his team and open a way to the final by means of brute force.



Calçots boys: human team
Coach: Joan 

This team was coached by my father, but  he had really bad luck during all the season: in the two first  matches, which he lost,  his two recievers were killed (yes one of those was killed by a skink!) and after that, he wasn't able to win either the match against the undead. So he ended at the bottom of the classification, without doubt the most ill fated team of the entire league. Let's hope that after a good read of the rules he will perform better this season.

This team was one of the two original ones that came in the Blood bowl game box, it consists of six linemen, two recievers, two throwers and two blitzers.





 And finally my own team, the "xicots de Skarsnik", an orc team
Coach: myself, Francesc 

My team performed superbly well suring the season, classificating for the final without any problems and at a good distance from the other teams. I managed to win against the lizardmen and the humans, but I drawed against the undedad, in a match that was a prophecy of the final. Thruth is, that I had an indecent good luck in the advance tables for the experiece points, and my captain the blitzer "puny" Alparkt ended with strength 4 (after rolling a double 6) and a wide range of skills that allowed him to score the winning touchdown of the cup.

The only mistake that I think I made was contracting a troll big guy, that in adittion of doing nothing in the last classificatory match, ended expulsed from the field in the final, if I manage to collect some gold during the season I'll spend it in another blitzer rather than in a useless troll.

This team was the other one coming in the box: two blitzers, two black ork defenders, two throwers and six lineorcs. I followed most of the predesigned composition given in the starter game, but I changed five points of fan factor for an apothecary, a very popular improvement amongst the players in last season, which can heal even your dead players in a sort of messianic fashion.

So now it's time for my team to defend their hard earned cup and crush as many skulls as possible in the process!

Let the games begin!

"puny" Alparkt in the left painted his face red after killing a human reciever



After winning the cup my team has the privilege of being stored in the "honour box" of the league.

Saturday 19 April 2014

Man'o War project

I've been thinking of making navies for all my warhammer fantasy armies, those armies will sum up around 500pts and the idea is to combine them in 1000pts battles to make the game more interesting with two different races and fighting styles for player.

The fantasy armies that I have or are in the porcess of making are: Dark elves, Empire, Dwarves, Chaos Dwarves, Orcs and Goblins and skaven.

Down you can see all the fleet lists for each race.

Empire: Done
A squadron of three wolfships
A greatship
A wargalley

Dark Elves: Done
A black ark
A deathfortess
A squadron of doomreavers

Dwarf fleet:
A dwarf ironclad
A squadron of two dwarf monitors
A squadron of two dwarf monitors
A dwarf nautilus
A dwarf nautilus

Skaven fleet:
A doombringer
A squadron of warp raiders
A squadron of warp raiders
A squadron of warp raiders
A squadron of warp raiders

Orc fleet:
An orc hulk
A squadron of drillakillas
A squadron of drillakillas
A squadron of two bugchukkas

Chaos dwarves fleet:
A great leveller battlebarge
A squadron of hull destroyers
A squadron of two hull destroyers
A squadron of two hull destroyers

And finally the "sartosan pirtes" fleet (Bretonnia)
A bretonnian galleon
A squadron of  bretonnian corsairs
A squadron of two buccaneers

Saturday 12 April 2014

Two Warlords

There's a Legio Metalica battlegroup of two Adeptus Titanicus era warlords. They coste4d me around 14 euros in e bay, althought i had to add the legs and three weapons were missing.

My first interest in Epic originated afeter readin a short story by Dan Abnett in which nine warlords of the Legio Metalica alongside with Yarrick, imperial guard and the Salamanders lead an attack against an ork rock landed on Armageddon in front of an Hades hive destroyed by asteroid bombardment. The Titans had the decisive role in the destruction of the ork fortress, but only three titan names appear in the tale: Imperius Quintus, Imperius Galgamech and  Imperius Tenebrus. So in this post I present you Quintus and Tenebrus, Galgamech still to come.

Imperius Quintus was the engine of Princeps Danferus the commander of the Legio Metallica that day, Danferus attacked the ork gargant lines, after destroying one of the machines he was the first to ascend the ramp that lead him directly into the rock, there he blew up the ammunition silos causing severe damage to the fighting asteroid, but was prevented from causing further damage by a gargant wich fought Quintus at close range until their mutual destruction. 

In the story, Abnett tolds us that the titan is equipped with shoulder missiles, I obtained recently a cyclone missile launcher from a friend and i thought that it would look great in top of the titan so I separeted and mounted it upon its shoulders.
The iron skull, the emblem of the legio can be clearly seen in one of the dorsal banners, alongside with the titan's name.


 The second engine is Imperius Tenebrus, of which we do not know the princep's name. 
In the story this titan is the first to die after destroying a gargant and severely damaging two more, it breaks by it's hip, remaining it's legs sanding during all the war as a remainder of the legio's power and sacrifices.
 As with Quintus the titan's name is depicted in the left side dorsal banner


 Top view of both titans
 Note that Quintus is standing upon the charred remains of a bad moon mega gargant, one of the engines destroyed during it's charge against the rock.







Friday 11 April 2014

Steel Hammer

I present you steel hammer, the engine of grand master of the Legio MetalicaKurtiz Mannheim who died heroicaly leading a sucidide charge against ork gargants during the second war for Armageddon,
  following orders from. the mad and presumably heretic planetary overlord Herman von Strab.

Probably the overlord just was furious upon hearing that Mannheim thought that he was "the greatest waste of flesh and bone born in the last five hundred years".

The history of princeps Mannheim also provides us with valuable fluff regarding that he had a son and a wife, so we can infer that legio metalica's princeps weren't subject to celibate or a single minded devotion to war like the space marines or the princeps that appear in the novels.

 To the sides of the imperator you can see the first scenery that i've created for epic 40k: two bunkers that may count as objectives.


 Princeps honour banner and kill banners, to the left the remains of a goff  mega gargant.
 Highway 707, the road along wich Mannheim lead his titan battlegroup to sacrifice and glory.


Tuesday 8 April 2014

The Macharian Crusade: Kallastin

Fifteen months into the campaign, the Lord Solar had his
first real test in the Kallastin Stratocracy. Administratum
records indicated a polluted hive-world at this location
had rebelled and thrown its lot in with Apostate Cardinal
Bucharis during the Plague of Unbelief. It’s military rulers
had no intention of voluntarily surrendering.
The first task was the destruction of the Kallastin fleet
and orbital defenses over the course of a two-month
naval campaign. Once safely in low orbit, Stratego Kemal
led a high-speed war of position which isolated and
routed the rebel’s tide of mutant throngs in the world’s
rural areas. This isolated its advanced central hive cities.
Generals Hollweg and Martel threw up mighty rings of
iron around the three besieged hives and shelled them
incessantly for four months before the Merican Fusiliers
under General Bradley stormed the citadels.
The battles for the “Three Sisters” was a bloody houseto-
house affair. At the climax of the fighting, Lord Solar
himself led the final assault on the palace of Governor
Van Buren, besting him in single combat.
Kallastin was secured in a total of six months and three
weeks from the time the First Army arrived in system.
Macharius ordered the dissolution of Van Buren’s rebel
government, and sent away all ranking stratocrats in
chains to Methalor.

From:History of the Macharian Crusade, Adeptus administratum curator Bigred, Bell of Lost Souls


 With a friend we played one of the battles of the "macharian crusade" supplement published by Bell of Lost souls. Me, impersonating the first army of the Lord Solar had to hold the planetary senate of the Kallastin Stratocracy, my friend as the kallastinians (imperial guard also) had to kill Macharius in order to claim victory.

I deployed my armoured company of 6 leman russes with battlecanon and flamethrower, and a Banehammer acting as a command leviathan carrying Macharius and two squads of veterans.
My friend had lots of infantry, two 10 men assault squads, sly marbo, two squads of sentinels and a demolisher.
 The battlefield, with the stratocracian senate in the center and surrounded by entrenchments
 Leman russes and the leviathan

 Macharius and a squad of necromundan vets in the fighting platform of the command vehicle

 Some of my friend's forces


we resurected the 2d edition strategy cards, he got forced march being able to deploy au to 45 cm from fis board edge, and I sabotage being able to cancel the shots of one of his units once rolling 4+ for miniature 
 view of his forces inside the senate


  

 Thanks to the "master strategyst" trait of Macharius, i got the first turn and all my tanks started to move forward weapons blazing. A hit from the leviathan's main hammer destroyed all the servitors of a machinepriest
while a battlecanon shell killed his company commander 

 a sniper runs from the death of his commander
 a unit too close to my lines is decimated by flames and battlecanons
 But in his turn he concentrated all his firepower on the Leviathan, disabling the main cannon and inflicting two hull points of damage
 Sly Marbo appeared and hided behind the senate's walls
 While the kallastinian assault troops deployed via gravchute behind my tank line
 And to the leviathan's right, both units fired their meltaguns inflicting heavy damage to the command vehicle
He regrouped a fleeing unit in his right and the sniper
but was unable to repair the demolisher cannon 
 the lascannons in his left fired against the leviathan

which finally was destroyed under the concentrated fire 
 The survivors of both units crawled out of the weckrage only to be recieved by a storm of mortar, missile and lasgun fire
 When the dust settled only Macharius remained while all the necromundans had perished around him
 In my turn it was vengeance time, with my russes burning to a crisp both squads of stormtroopers with their flamethrowers
 My rightmost Leman Russ fired a shell that landed amongst the platoons command squad killing the lot of them and a Lord Comissar with the sole exception of a heavy bolter hidden behind the machinery, the lone survivor passed his morale test and prepared to fire unconcerned
 Finally, in the assault phase Macharius managed to reach the senate, he massacred a mortar crew defending a window, consolidated inside...
 and came face to face with Marbo
 In the Kallastin turn the demolisher rammed the rear of one of my tanks, without much effect
 And the remaining garrison of the senate charged valiantly against the Lord Solar
 General view of the battlefield in my turn, all my oponent's right flank is gone, but his left still helds some of it's initial force, shielded from the explosions as it is by the manufactorum's machinery
 The hand to hand continued, with Marbo dying at the hands of Macharius (who has suffered just one wound)
 In my next turn the remaining veterans helped Macharius to end with the machine priest and the sinper, hence claiming the building. Now they just had to hold it for two turns until the end of the battle.
 But surprise of surprises! the remaining sentinels charge against Macharius and kill the vets!
The walkares manage to survive untill the end of the 6th turn, even injurying Macharius at the cost of one of their number.

So the outcome? Macharius is alive, but he has been unable to claim the senate which is contested by the sentinels, a draw then.