The army of Spires; assembly time

[Shannar, Sealord]

Yeah. I never said I agreed with her More models is always good. Though I have reigned in my inner collector and managed to buy very little in the past couple of years

I'd been doing very well at that myself. The last month or two has not been as good though. I have found a couple very good deals that I just couldn't pass on.

It's been a long time since I've played 8th ed. but that shooting list you mention is fairly effective. Really only fun to play once or twice though.

[SpellArcher]

I think one of the nice things about Alith Anar is that he truly is a budget lord choice. He's cheap enough to easily fit an archmage next to him.

If they sit in that PG block you could easily crank the whole lot up to a 3+ Ward Rod. Alith also gives Swiftstride which is very interesting.

[Prince of Spires]

And a -1 to hit for shooting at the unit. That would be one tough nut to crack from a distance.

The list then probably needs some offensive magic in it as well. Something like a lvl 2 with fire, metal or light magic. Perhaps metal has the most utility in this case. Give him the scroll and the ring of fury and he's a good backup caster.

Should be fun enough I think. But indeed a "use it once or twice" kind of list. That goes for most of my lists though. I like switching things up. Which is also fine since I don't train for competitive tournaments or anything like that. So no need to be overly familiar with my list.

Rod

[SpellArcher]

The list then probably needs some offensive magic in it as well. Something like a lvl 2 with fire, metal or light magic. Perhaps metal has the most utility in this case. Give him the scroll and the ring of fury and he's a good backup caster.

Convocation and boosted Soul Quench can be pretty tasty but I agree the Metal guy is interesting.

[Prince of Spires]

With the lvl 4 on high, chances are great to get those spells already. And the level 2 could easily end up with little to cast when also going high for this list. Yes, he would be great with Soul Quench and convocation. But I would rather have convocation on the lvl 4. And the lvl two could just as easily get Walk between worlds and unforging.

I think metal on the level 2 brings a lot of extra utility to this list. Searing doom is a great spell on a lower level caster and gives a tool to deal with certain types of units that some HE lists might struggle with. And it's a must dispel spell in some cases (you don't want the D6 hits that wound on 2+ when you have a smaller cavalry unit for instance). Which is always nice.

And the rest of the lore I think golden hounds is probably the most situational spell and final transmutation is can be a bit meh (though it's actually cheap and could be great vs hordes). But enchanted blades and transmutation are great for this list. Just imagine +1 to hit with armour piercing shooting for the handmaiden unit with sister and alith anar.

Rod

[SpellArcher]

List please!

[Prince of Spires]

Very small, slightly hobby related, update from me. I recently moved to a new house. Which, besides a lot of other nice features, has a spare room to be used for WH related stuff. Yay!

The downside is, as is to be expected I guess, that the room currently looks like this:


Since it's a non-core room it is currently used to store all boxes that still either need to move to their definitive location or need to be unpacked. There's also furniture stuff in there, including a book case which will house the different WH models. But that still needs to be put together. And of course, this actually requires having some floor space to work, which requires the stuff in the boxes to actually be in the book case still to be put together. So that will be interesting

Still, progress

Rod

[Luna Guardian]

This is me being jelly. I want a mancave for my hobbies too!

Congrats on the new move, looking forwards to your progress hitting turbo

[Mireadur]

Thats indeed the biggest acomplishment in life a man can aspire to. Getting his own geek cave in his house

[Olthannon]

As my current painting station is a couple of old leather suitcases stacked on the floor, I'm very jealous of an entire room dedicated to models.
Congrats on the move, I know how hectic the first few weeks are!

[Prince of Spires]

Thanks guys. My previous hobby spot was also just a couple of shelves for storing models and a tray to fit my paints and in progress models. But it was one of the items high on the wishlist for the new house, having some hobby space. I'm interested to see how it will turn out. It might be a bit cramped, but at least it's my own

I'll keep you guys updated on the progress as I get the room sorted.

Rod

[elendor_f]

Good luck with the Hobby Room Prince of Spires!

[Prince of Spires]

Good luck with the Hobby Room Prince of Spires!

Cheers. I have since create a bit of order in the chaos and have started moving boxes around and unpacking them in their final location. Slowly but surely it's starting to look like a room again (very slowly...).

Rod

[Lynve]

The room certainly has potential to become a comfy workshop. Do keep us updated on the progress and the final result of the adaptation!

This is me being jelly. I want a mancave for my hobbies too!

Rednecks have caves. We, men of culture, deserve a study or an atelier

[Luna Guardian]

Rednecks have caves. We, men of culture, deserve a study or an atelier

Like I said, I want a mancave too

[Nusphigor]

really cool minis mate. That phoenix is superb!

[Prince of Spires]

thanks! It was lots of fun to make.

[Prince of Spires]

Time for a (long overdue) update. The room did get cleaned up a lot in the last year and there is now some hobby space in there, though no gaming table or anything like that just yet. I'll see about getting a picture someday soon...

I got a Mordheim game in last weekend (yay for relaxing quarantine measures...), so picture time!

Since elves is all I got, I went with a shadow warrior warband. And because I had little time to come up with one and little clue about what would or would not work, I went for easy and straightforward. Too many rules to remember already

1 Shadow master, Sword, dagger, elf bow, shield.
3 Shadow walker, Sword, dagger, long bow
1 shadow weaver
3 Shadow warrior, Sword, dagger, bow

500 points on the dot. It all shoots, except for the shadow weaver (my mage). I had no points left and I was interested in bringing some magic, just to see what it would do.

We put all buildings (and other miscellaneous stuff) we had on the table and ended up with the following:

We got scenario 8, which meant we were fighting for 3 buildings. In our case, the top right one, the middle one and the bottom left one. I deployed on the bottom board edge. My opponent, taking undead, got the top board edge.

My plan was fairly simple. I would ignore the building on my side in the beginning. My mage would do his thing and move back late in the battle to secure the building. And if that was not possible, everyone would be dead anyway and there would be other things to worry about. The rest of my troops would focus on reducing the opponents forces at the start and going for the central building later on. From the few games I've played earlier I learnt that it's usually a good idea to keep units together and that the volume of attacks you put out is a lot more important than most other things (since you tend to miss a lot).

The plan worked decently. One of my shadow walkers got shot off the board T2 by a BS2 guy at long range (who rolled 3 sixes in a row). Other then that, I focused on taking out a model at a time with overwhelming force.

Though it took these 3 guys 3 rounds of combat to take out this one T3 dude with no armour.

My Shadow master managed to not hit anything with shooting half the game and then failed misserably in combat. In the end, he was bailed out by a lowly grunt who took out the vampire leading the opponents forces while he was beaten to the ground.


It must be said though that the plan in the end failed miserably. I did manage to secure "my own" building, I took out the whole opposing force, apart from two henchmen and got a model in the central one to contest it in the final turn. However, because the 3 round of combat I needed to get through a single model I only got one model i the central building in time. And the lone enemy henchmen in the central building managed to kill him in the very last action of the game

Which gave the win to my opponent. Though it was a Phyric victory. I had 4 hero's alive to search for wyrdstone and managed a whole bunch of kills with said hero's for experience points, while my opponent had no one left alive to search for anything.

As an added bonus, I managed to roll a tripple when searching for wyrdstone, which gives me a free henchman for the next round of combat, as well as lots of gold



Now all that's left to do is think of what to spend all my gold on and plan the next battle (which should be in a few weeks).

O, and think of a name for the warband and the guys in it. Something better than Missalot...

Thanks for reading.
Rod

[SpellArcher]

I got a Mordheim game in last weekend

Bravo Rod! Good you had plenty of useful terrain.

vampire leading the opponents forces

This sounds ominous.

It must be said though that the plan in the end failed miserably.

Oh dear.

a Phyric victory

Another win like that and he's finished! (with apologies to ancient scholars).

[Olthannon]

Do love some Mordheim, just gotta hope you can murder a few more of them!

[Prince of Spires]

First part of my order for the Arcane Journal arrived:

Lots of fun stuff to play around with

I also ordered the dice (because they look nice), dragon (because you always need more dragons...), and a unit of WL (since I only have 15 at the moment and can use a few more). However, they're coming later, since they were originally sold out. So more pictures to follow.

I'll also see about getting a group shot once everything has arrived.

[Turion Rilyaloce]

First part of my order for the Arcane Journal arrived:

Lots of fun stuff to play around with

I also ordered the dice (because they look nice), dragon (because you always need more dragons...), and a unit of WL (since I only have 15 at the moment and can use a few more). However, they're coming later, since they were originally sold out. So more pictures to follow.

I'll also see about getting a group shot once everything has arrived.

Exciting times! Can’t wait to see you work with the new toys

[Prince of Spires]

Same. I haven't worked with resin models yet, so that will be a new experience. And though the Merwyrm is pretty crappy in game (I think) and an ugly model, it should be nice to put together and paint. Should be fun.

One complaint I do have is about the reference cards. They only contain the items listed in the Forces of Fantasy list, not those in the AJ. Not a huge deal of course, but a bit a missed opportunity. And since they released at the same time, I had expected them to include all.

[TyrrenAzureblade]

Nice haul, I also bought into all the accessories, and it’s kinda frustrating about the cards, but oh well I guess. I wish I had picked up the Magic Lore cards when they were available. I’m saving up for the Merwyrm, such an awesome model, if you get the chance, let me know how the quality is. I’ve heard good things about Forgeworld resin but it still seems to have its detractors.

[Prince of Spires]

Nice haul, I also bought into all the accessories, and it’s kinda frustrating about the cards, but oh well I guess. I wish I had picked up the Magic Lore cards when they were available. I’m saving up for the Merwyrm, such an awesome model, if you get the chance, let me know how the quality is. I’ve heard good things about Forgeworld resin but it still seems to have its detractors.

I also missed the generic magic lore cards. They would have been nice to have.

The dice I'm curious about. They have a nice weight to them, but they do seem to roll a bit less than my other dice. I doubt it matters much in game, just an observation. If I have any feelings about them after the next game I'll let you know. Though they might just end up being wounds markers for stuff.

I'll see if I can get some close-up photos of the Merwyrm up for you (some time next week). I looked through the bits, and it looks pretty good, though I didn't hunt for any air bubbles or anything yet. So I'm reserving my judgement. But in general, the Forge World stuff has a pretty decent reputation. It's not finecast...

[TyrrenAzureblade]

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the pricing on the metal Korhil and Handmaiden, so glad I didn't buy either for the absurd prices on eBay or Trolltrader, or any other third party marketplace.

[Prince of Spires]

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the pricing on the metal Korhil and Handmaiden, so glad I didn't buy either for the absurd prices on eBay or Trolltrader, or any other third party marketplace.

I agree. The old models are very affordable. It feels like they might even be cheaper than they used to be. So well done GW...

[Prince of Spires]

With all the new stuff, it's time to update my list of models again. I've gone through all my models (and got an army shot, see below). This is currently the status:

index:
- finished
- asembled/in progress
- just owned

Characters
- 1 Everqueen (metal)
- 1 Imrik on dragon (half metal)
- 1 Eltharion on Stormwing
- 1 Alith Anar (metal)
- 1 Caradryan (metal)
- 1 Korhil (metal)
- 1 Dragon (plastic)
- 1 Dragon mage
- 1 Griffon (IOB)
- 1 Griffon (IOB)
- 1 Eagle mounted prince / battle standard bearer(secret santa)
- 1 Mounted Battle standard bearer(plastic prince / bsb kit)
- 1 Prince on foot (secret santa metal)
- 1 Great weapon noble on foot(plastic prince / bsb kit)
- 1 Anointed on foot
- 1 Loremaster
- 1 Seahelm battle standard bearer
- 1 Mage elemental (metal)
- 1 Mage with staff and sword (metal)
- 1 Mage (IOB)
- 1 Mage (IOB)

Core
- 16 spearmen, (plastic) full command
- 8 spearmen (plastic monopose)
- 13 spearmen (plastic)
- 4 spearmen (plastic monopose)
- 16 archers, full command
- 8 archers (plastic monopose)
- 9 archers, champion, musician (metal)
- 8 archers (plastic monopose)
- 20 Lothern sea guard(metal), full command
- 10 Lothern sea guard(IOB), full command
- 10 Lothern sea guard(IOB)
- 8 Elyrian Reavers, full command (metal)
- 5 Elyrian Reavers (IOB)
- 5 Elyrian Reavers (IOB)
- 16 Silver helms(plastic), full command

Special
- 10 White Lions, full command (latest metal)
- 5 White Lions (latest metal)
- 20 White Lions (plastic)
- 10 Swordmasters, full command (latest metal)
- 5 Swordmasters (metal)
- 10 Swordmasters(IOB), full command
- 10 Swordmasters(IOB)
- 26 Phoenix guard, full command (metal)
- 5 Shadow warriors, champ (latest metal)
- 2 Shadow warriors, (previous metal)
- 10 Dragon princes, full command(latest metal)
- 1 Tyranoc chariot
- 1 White lion chariot
- 1 Skycutter

Rare
- 1 Repeater bolt thrower
- 1 Repeater bolt thrower
- 1 Repeater bolt thrower(skycutter kitbash)
- 1 Repeater bolt thrower(last metal version)
- 25 Maiden guard, 2 champions, 2 musicians, 1 standard bearer (metal)
- 1 Frosthear phoenix
- 1 Flamespire phoenix (kitbashed)
- 1 Merwyrm (Forge World resin)
- 2 Great eagle (metal)

By my count, it's 330 models. Of those, 168 are done, 81 are in progress (meaning, they're assembled and can be used in a game), and 81 are still in their box. So more than halfway there, and only a third is in such a state that they can't be used in a game. Pretty decent.

All in all (assuming everything is assembled), if I go wild on magic items, Old world builder tells me it's 12.425 pts of elves. With all the core I have (which really is the limiting factor here), I could field a legal 11.500 pts army. If I "cheat" and use all the spearmen and archers as LSG (which are more expensive), I can increase that to a legal 12.324 pts legal army. So a 10k list is easily feasible. And what a sight it would be, with 3 dragons, 3 griffons, 3 unridden monsters, a whole bunch of chariots and so on...

And as it stands, with everything I've got assembled, I can field a fully legal 9.000 pts army. Sounds like I should find a weekend with nothing to do. As for what that actually looks like:



For those wondering, the broken models you can see in the pictures have since been repaired....

[TyrrenAzureblade]

Hot damn, that’s a grand collection! Great to see your progress so far. I’ve yet to attempt a battle bigger than 3,000 points, I can start to imagine something closer to 9-10,000. Would definitely need an extra table or two!

[Prince of Spires]

I don't think I've ever gone over 2.500pts in a single battle. So a 10k battle would be an experience for sure. Though I'm thinking that with a battle that large, a bit of streamlining is needed. So maybe don't take different items on all characters, just to make it easy to track everything. Or keep units as uniform as possible. All in all, it would be fun and epic, but not really very tactical. More a case of smashing units together and rolling lots of dice.

And yes, I would definitely need a bigger table. The current one is already a bit on the small side... Going off the guidelines in the BBB, I would need something like a 6m table covered with 30 terrain pieces.

I'm thinking that HE would have a few advantages in larger battles. The larger a battle becomes, the less a general matters. After all, on a 6m table, you only cover a fraction, even if they're mounted on a large target. However, I could have something like 10 pure of heart princes and nobles spread throughout the army, spreading LD9 - LD10. Also, we have a relatively high cost per model, and they have a fairly high damage output per inch of frontage. Which means that at 10k points, HE can pack a lot of punch in a relatively small space. Horde armies would have a tougher time, since they would only be able to get a fraction of their army in combat with my whole army at a single moment. It would be not so much a refused flank as a refused half battlefield...