July 2020

Well, It’s July. Last month I managed to post some BatReps for the first time in years. This month I plan on posting some more. I will also be posting some hobby stuff. I’ve been building and painting on 2 armies since the Covid 19 shut down. I’ve also been redoing the inside of my house since my divorce last year. I have fishing this summer, outdoor chores, indoor chores, pets, and my loving woman all competing for my time, but I’m trying to balance all of it, and work, since I’m back at the office now. We’ll see how it goes.

A Call to Arms IV is over. I finished 3-3-0 and had the highest score for Night Stalkers. Not terrible, but I really would have liked to do better. I lost my final game to Exequiel Ferreyra from Argentina. He was playing Kingdoms of Men, and has a list that is literally more expendable than my Night Stalkers are. Just lots of units that you have to chew through.  Plus it was salt the earth, and he was able to destroy the objectives I was playing for, and defend the ones he wanted very effectively. That said, I was also having a bad day, and I’ll be honest, I played very poorly. I was distracted by something that happened between my girlfriend and her daughter, and I just wasn’t concentrating on the game. I also got to turn 2 before it even dawned on me that I should be keeping photos and notes. So, sorry, no BatRep on that game. Below is links to the BatReps and hobby stuff for the month of July.

BatReps:

Night Stalkers Vs Goblins – Raze

Sylvan Kin Vs Trident Realm – Push

 

HOBBY:

Night Stalkers Units

Herd Units

 

I’m Back!!!

Okay, I haven’t added any new content in a long damned time. I know this. I went through a very nasty divorce, severed the bicep tendon in my right arm, had major surgery to repair said tendon, found a new woman to have in my life, and quit smoking after almost 30 years all at the same time. That was a tough 6 months. Getting settled in to an entirely new life, I managed to get a grand total of 7 Kings of War games during that time; 6 during the DragonCon tournament in Seattle in 2018. I finally finished over 3000 points of Abyssals, but stopped painting for a time after that. That winter, Vanguard dropped, so I painted up some Basileans for Vanguard, and I started rebasing my rather derelict undead for KoW. I don’t like to say it, but I’m just not inspired by necromancy. I’ve tried to get enthused, but it’s just dead to me.

I wanted to go to some tournaments in Washington, Oregon, and California in 2019, but sadly, I was committing nearly $1000 a month to my legal bills as the divorce fight continued until September of that year. I got in a few games on UB, but that still wasn’t enough to really get me going again. Adam Padley came up with the idead of a running long tournament called “A Call to Arms” on UB, so I jumped in.

When 3rd edition of Kings of War rolled in, I was excited! Really. Until I got the book in my hands. Th forces of the Abyss, as I had known them were trashed. I would have to start over again, with some things, I would have to rebase Sophie to continue to use her as the bss. The Lord of lies was deleted from the list. Succubi had lost their power, and everyone seemed to agree that mollochs became a must have unit. I tried getting a horde painted up, but they’re still not finished. Just sitting in a drawer right now.

3 weeks later , Uncharted Empires came out. I thought I’d return to my herd army. I’m not thrilled with what they did to the herd either. It seems like they neutered its playstyle to make it Forces of Nature Lite. Well, I have a bunch of Dark Elves from GW, maybe I could do a Twilight Kin, but no, the only unit of real interest there is the impalers, and they’re just too expensive, points wise, to want to use. So, my interest started to wane again.

That said, I decided I was going to go to 3 Grand Tournaments this year (2020) and then the virus struck. The first one is set for later this month, but has been cancelled. The next is scheduled for August, and I’m really hoping that one will be a go. But in the Meantime, I have Call to Arms III going on. The largest ever Kings of War Tournament, played completely online. Prior to that was a 3-game warm-up. In the warm up I started playing my herd list, but it was getting blistered. I switched over to my MSU (Multiple Small Unit) Night Stalker concept. I am now working hard on this army to have it ready for the August Tourney, should it happen, in Seattle, and possibly the September Tourney in the San Francisco Bay area. It’s amazing that now that I’m no longer married to a woman who was making $21 per hour and getting 12 hours or so of over time per pay period, I have more money available. (For the record, if you’re a youngster reading this: DON’T EVER MARRY AN ALCOHOLIC, DRUG-USING GAMBLING ADDICT!) Okay, that rant is over. On to the new content. We’ll start with 2 new BATREPs using the MSU Stalker concept.

Goblins Vs Night Stalkers 2300 – Plunder

Abyssal Dwarfs Vs Night Stalkers 2300 – Invade

A Call to Arms IV Empire of Dust Vs Night Stalkers 2300 – Invade

Free Dwarfs Vs Night Stalkers – Raze

Got to Play a Real Game

Well, I am way behind on the League reports. I have 3 that I haven’t managed to get written up, but today isn’t gonna be it either. Today, I am too stoked. I got to play a tabletop game for the first time in a long while. Having the opportunity, I packed all of the abyssals into a travel case, and headed on down to the Fairbanks Comic Shop. The report is below. I am hoping for more opportunities in the new future, and playing in a public area, hopefully we’ll finally be able to generate some more local interest.

Abyss Vs the Orcs – Push

The UB League

Eliot Morrish has taken it upon himself to manage a new league for Universal Battle Players. We have 15 players enrolled in this league, and it is scheduled to go on for some time. That said, I jumped on the opportunity. The first week of the league, Eliot assigned opponents. We’re not sure at this point if that will continue, but the league is scheduled to continue until each player plays all 14 other players. That said my first game was assigned against Lord Avondale, and the report is below. Each battle I play will be recorded here, win or lose, for posterity, and other players in the league are invited to submit their reports for publishing if they like. Submissions need to include a write up and screen caps, sent to rgallen3@yahoo.com.

A word on the photos being used. My regular computer just recently died, so I am using an older, less powerful one in the interim until I can get a new one. The computer I used for the first game did not have a screen cap tool, so the pics for the game were taken of the screen with my phone. Sorry for the lower quality.

 

Abyss Vs Brotherhood – Round 1 – Push

Game 2 – Abyss Vs Herd – Dominate

Game 3 – Abyss Vs Night Stalkers – Ransack

Game 4 – Abyss Vs Kingdoms of Men – Control

New Army for a New Fiscal Year

OK, I’m done with the Abyssal army as far as table top. 3000 points of finished army makes me happy, but now I’m gonna start on something different. I’ve decided to dedicate some time to my poor and abused herd. I say this, since when I finally dug them all out of storage, I discovered chipped paint and scratches galore on my metal beast men. (Metal is a lot of this army. In fact, only the spirit walkers/warriors/spearmen are plastic. The centaurs are as well, since I built them from other parts and pieces. I’ve recently completed my first chimera, and ordered some appropriate lycans.

Herd Vs Salamanders – Pillage – 8 Oct 17

The Edge of the Abyss is Upon us.

For those who follow Kings of War, (No reason to be reading this blog if you don’t) the global campaign is upon us. Obviously, being an Abyss player, I’m happy about this. Today, 25 August 2017, also marks another great event: today, I put the last brush strokes on my Abyssal Army. It is now fully painted, and 3000 points strong. Everything in the army is Mantic with the exception of my 3 big monsters: Sophie the Arch Fiend, the Lord of Lies, and Chroneas. To be fair, 2 of the 3 don’t even have official models, so I don’t feel bad about using them at all. So please read on below. I’ll open up with 2 campaign Batreps, and photos of the whole army.

 

Abyss Vs the Brotherhood – Kill – 24 August 17

Abyss Vs Salamanders – Invade – 25 August 17

The Grand Army of the Abyss

 

 

Wizards and Demons!

I’ve actually been doing a significant (for me) amount of painting lately. One of the things that really get me going are deadlines. The monthly Painting Oath challenge found on the Mantic Madness Facebook group gives me a deadline each month to get things going. My ultimate goal is to finish up 2500 points of Abyss, then paint up my Walking Dead, All Out War set. My Dungeon Saga set is almost completely finished now, and I do have a completely painted Mars Attacks game and 5 strike forces for Deadzone. My next purchases are going to be Abyssal Horsemen (so I can replace my Juan Diaz Mounted Daemonettes,) and the Larger Operation Heracles Warpath starter set.

If you look at the Abyssals I have done so far, you’ll notice I have done the regular forces dark, and with glowing yellow eyes. I will leave Sophie, the Lord of Lies and Chroneas brighter in color (for now) but I want the masses to look like true demons crawling out of the Abyss. If any of you have ever watched the old Ralph Bakshi movie “Wizards” you can start to see where my inspiration comes from. The animation for the demons summoned to fight for Blackwolf was darkened paint applied directly to live action film footage (he used the same technique for the original Lord of the Rings movie) and then he gave them large, glowing eyes. The leaders of Blackwolf’s army were cleaner and brighter in color.

Hobby Stuff:

My June Painting Results

Some army pics

Newest Batreps:

Abyss Vs Brotherhood

Abyss Vs Goblins

Abyss Vs Night Stalkers

The Art of War According to Briohmar:

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Been Busy With Life

Ever have one of those times when life just kicks you in the ass so much that you have to stay down and recover a bit? Yeah, that’s how most of February and March has been for me. I haven’t had a chance to write many batreps, and have only managed one or two games each weekend. But there has been an outcry on both Facebook and now the forums for thoughts on deployment, so I figured I better go ahead and post up chapter Vi- The Art of Deployment. I’m not completely happy with it, so I think I’m going to need at least a 7th chapter, maybe something to bring it all together. Here it is though:

Batrep: Abyss Vs Goblins 26 May 17

Finally Some Model Pics

Batreps for May ’17

Tactics for Kings of War – Chapter VI

Happy New Year

So, I haven’t done anything in a while, but here we have some new content. Also, three years ago, I started writing a series of tactics articles that were published in the IronWatch Magazine editions 20, 23, and 24. (actually it was re-writing something I had done much earlier for WHFB 7th ed. but that was mostly lost because of where it was published, and my failure to archive a copy.) I have decided to add those original articles here as well. Plus, I have finally started work on some follow on chapters to those original 3. Chapters IV and V are now up, plus some new reports.

January 2017 Batreps

Tactics for Kings of War Chapter I

Tactics for Kings of War Chapter II

Tactics for Kings of War Chapter III

Tactics for Kings of War Chapter IV

Tactics for Kings of War Chapter V

 

New content finally.

So, this week brought forth the release of Kings of War Historical. We are beginning a tournament with all new armies, which none of us are overly familiar with. But we’ll start off this celebration with some new batreps. You’ll also find some Fantasy BATREPS as well.

Historical Batreps – October 2016

Historical Tournament

October and November BATREPS

Skirmish Tournament Reports

Night Stalker Fiction