Daemons of Chaos vs Skaven, 21.08.2014

Another old battle report. This was the first game I played with my own models, so it occupies a special place in my wargaming heart :D
So on to the setup. A 1000 point game. I heard that Skaven are a horde-based army (much like daemons in 40k) so I made a slaaneshi list to deal with it.
Setup:
Daemons:

• 2 Heralds + 38 Daemonettes, full command. This allowed me to have a General, Battle Standard Bearer, and Greater Locus of Swiftness (i.e. Always Strike First) in a Horde
• 3 Fiends of Slaanesh
• 5 Seekers of Slaanesh, both for flanking

Skaven:

• 2x40 clanrats, each hiding a weapon team (one mortar, one flamer)
• Warlord
• Giant rats
• Plaguemonks
• 3 Rat Ogres

Setup:
This is my home table, so it wasn't large enough as we've later found out. The Skaven artillery only got 2 turns to fire. We also didn't have any terrain, so the book on the left is a hill, while the one on the right is a mysterious forest.
I had the first move, so I quickly advanced with everything at my disposal. The Fiends occupied the hill.

* Neither of us had painted models. At least mine were primed (mostly).
* Fiends are proxied by some Chaos spawn.

The Skaven fired everything they had (killing... 1 Daemonette). The Giant rats were sent in to occupy the Fiends, which they did admirably well, giving time for the Plaguemonks to set up a flank charge for later.

*Note the weapons teams, already out of hiding.
*The giants rats in combat with the fiends, holding fast.
*The skaven warlord kept falling on his face, so he was placed behind his unit (for show only).

At this point I had to do something - so I declared a charge. And I have to say, it went well. The Daemonettes absolutely butchered the Skaven unit (2 attacks, alwas strikes first, superior weapon skill, 2 rows of supporting attacks) and it (and the general with it) ran off the table. (again, small table).

* You can see the middle horde of clanrats missing and the Daemonettes reformed after combat, facing the other clanrat horde.
I also charged in with the Seekers, catching the other clanrat horde in the flank, and they ran. (I'm sorry to say that we forgot the rule were more ranks makes a unit discount leadership penalties)

*The Seekers chased the rats off the map. They're placed where they are as a reminder/marker.
*The plaguemonks are busy eliminating the fiends.


With only 3 units remaining and the Daemonette horde having taken minimal loses, the battle was mostly won. The dice were also in my favor, as some charges failed, and the Rat Ogres found themselves fighting the horde alone. Taking casualties, they failed their test and ran.
At this point, the Skaven surrendered.

Things learnt:

• Daemonettes work well against hordes of weaker units.
• Skaven, keep your general in a back unit.
• Hordes don't work for Skaven. A 5-man (5-rat?) wide unit in 8 ranks would have been Stubborn, and would have resisted a couple of turns while everything else prepared for flanking.
• Remember the rules!

Chaos Daemons vs Imperial Fists 2014.11.29

I'm digging up my old pictures of games played, and try to recreate the flow based on memories and Facebook comments.
This one is the first Warhammer 40k game I've ever played. It lasted several hours, despite having 500 points armies, and featured lots of arguments and looking-up rules. However, it made quite an impression on all of us (two players and a spectator - indeed, he started assembling his models right away!) and made us want to play all the more. Here goes.

Mission: Purge the Alien (or, rather, we just played to kill units)
Map: Dawn of War (as we later found out it's called)
Lists:
* Although we established 500 points, the Space Marine player wished to use all of his shiny, newly-assembled units. I went ahead and we played at 666 points, an auspicious omen for the daemons!
Daemons (I can't remember exact numbers): 

• 16-18 Bloodletters, fully upgraded
• 12-14 Daemonettes, fully upgraded, in Deep Strike Reserve
• 5 Seekers of Slaanesh, in Deep Strike Reserve
• 3 Screamers of Tzeentch
• 10 Plaguebearers
• 1 Herald of Khorne, lesser gift (template weapon)

Imperial Fists:

• 4 assault terminators + Lysander  * This wasn't an exactly legal unit, but we went ahead with it anyway due to lack of models.
• Dreadnought, twin linked lascannon
• 2x 5-man tactical squads, one flamer, one plasma gun

Deployment:
For a 500 point game, we thought to halve the table sizes (half width, half length), and it resulted in a tiny playing field. We learned to do better next time.
Also, no terrain whatsoever. We had enough rules to learn without that.

Turn 1. I made the first move.
The field was in fact so small, that I got the screamers across the table (12" + 24" jetbike movement) and made some kills with slashing attacks.
The Bloodletters, Herald and Plaguebearers advanced slowly.

 The marines shot at whatever they could, killing some bloodletters and a screamer.
*We didn't have a big enough table, so yes, we played on the carpet. You can see the delimiters: bottle caps, a PS2-to-USB adapter, and the carpet's natural "borders".

Turn 2. Due to the terribly small field and a very badly placed icon bearer, the Daemonettes landed on top of the Bloodletters. Mishap roll: 6. Everything dies. Well, there goes a chunk of 150 points... and the Seekers did not come in. I did not see any other choice but to charge. The Bloodletters and Plaguebearers started hacking into the Terminators... failing miserably. The Screamers charged the Dreadnought. More failure.

The Tacticals, having nothing to shoot at, also charged into battle. From then on it was a grind that slowly eroded the Bloodletters (I think I killed one Terminator at most. But I did kill the tactical squad thanks to AP3). The Dreadnought also absolutely murdered the Screamers.

The Seekers came in next turn...

...but got shot to pieces. Only 1 reached melee. This one's the final state of the field on turn 4, before I surrendered.
Things we learned.

• Learn the rules before playing the game :D
• The best way to learn the rules is to play (notice the paradox?)
• Keep in mind the rules you learn (don't forget overwatch, template weapons bestowed by Daemonic rewards, grenades etc)
• Don't charge Terminators with anything non-AP2 (or at least something very tough)
• Walkers are excellent in close-combat (and Screamers don't stand a chance)
• Daemonic instability killed more of my units then the enemy
• ... and so on. Better luck next time!

Daemons of Chaos vs Dark Elves, 27.01.2015

It took some time, but I've finally found someone else I can play Warhammer Fantasy with. Here comes a battle report!
*We were both rusty on the rules (not to mention that my opponent only played 7th edition up till now), so we took a simplistic approach for a small game of 1000 points.

Deployment: Battleline (a.k.a. straight-on slaughter)
Lists:
Daemons:

• 40 Bloodletters, full command
• Skulltaker
• 6 Flesh Hounds (ambushers)

Dark Elves (I don't remember exact names, don't judge):

• 30 spearmen
• generic hero attached to spearmen, using the gem of ward-save-rerolling
• 2x10-man crossbowman troop
• 5-man light cavalry troop
• 5-man cavalry wizard troop (the newest dark elf unit, I was told)
• chariot pulled by giant lizards (I really need to get my names straight :D)

*Having deployed first, at this point I knew I was in trouble. The Bloodletter horde, which served so well against the Saurus warriors of the Lizardmen, would get thinned by all the archers and wizards. Worst of all, the hounds were in ambusher reserve, so there was nothing to hold up the cavalry circling on both sides. Turns out, I was right.

Deployment:

* Light cavalry vanguard move on the right side.

* I forgot some of my Bloodletters in my priming box, so the back rows are made up of Daemonettes.

The Dark Elves moved first.

Turn 1.

Everything advances, the cavalry encircles the Bloodletters. Then the shooting commences. Even hitting on 6+ (mostly), the amount of shooting eliminated almost an entire row of Bloodletters.

I then proceeded to go up the hill and wait.
*For added hilarity, I rolled for reserves. So much movement and so many deaths - I thought it was turn 2 already!

Turn 2. More shooting and more dead Bloodletters. A failed charge on my part. At least the hounds come in.
*Apologies for not taking any more pictures.
Turn 3.
More shooting. I was left with about 2 rows of Bloodletters. The cavalry and chariot encircle my horde and prepare for next turn's charge.
The hounds charge a squad of crossbowmen, win the combat (without suffering a wound!), then run them down.
The Bloodletters fail another charge and move down between the hills.
Turn 4. Everything mass charges the Bloodletters. With Initiative 5/ Always Strikes First, I never landed a hit - everything just died. Well, except Skulltaker, who dismembered the spearmen unit champion, then died from daemonic instability. Rest in pieces. I surrendered.

Chaos Daemons vs Blood Angels/Imperial Fists 20.01.2015

Things keep getting better and better! After Saturdays forfeit, the Space Marine team is back for another round. Wanting to finish the game before the store closed, we went for a 1500 points game. Furthermore, the two opposing players used the same FOC.

Mission: Purge the Alien (again, we're just going for this one until we learn the rules)
Map: Vanguard assault (again, damn D3)
Lists:
Chaos Daemons:
*I went for Khorne/Slaanesh this time. I have more painted models like that, and I couldn't accept that they can't win a game.

• 20 Bloodletters fully upgraded with banner
• 20 Daemonettes fully upgraded with banner, in Deep Strike reserve
• 5 Seekers of Slaanesh (mounted Daemonettes), fully upgraded with banner, Outflanking
• 9 Flesh Hounds + Karanak
• Soul Grinder of Khorne with Phlegm
• Skarbrand (:D) in Deep Strike Reserve, warlord
• Daemon Prince of Khorne (as heavy support), wings, armor, blade of blood, warp tether

Space Marines:

• Terminator Captain (IF)
• Sternguard (IF)
• Vanguard (IF) in Deep Strike Reserve
• Venerable Dreadnought (IF), twin-linked lascannon
• Mephiston (BA) - warlord
• Scouts with Sniper Rifles (BA)
• Death Company in Rhino (BA)
• Predator Annihilator (BA)

 Deployment:
I humbly ask for forgiveness here. We were so worked up that we forgot to take pictures. There are a few, and you'll have to work the rest of it out.
*Sternguard space up to receive bombardment.
*Scouts on top of tower.
*Hounds scout move forward.
Turn 1, Daemons.
Everything advances. Hounds move into 4+ cover. Daemon Prince swoops off the map (still there as a marker).
Warp storm: Slaaneshi result (just because all my Daemonettes are in reserve). One hound dies. Mephiston takes a wound.
Phlegm bombardment scatters off the map.
Space marines: shooty phase is active, some hounds and bloodletters die.
Rhino advances with DC to take out the Soul Grinder.
Scouts don't hit anything.

Turn 2.
NOTHING comes from reserve (not even the vanguards).
The hounds move forward, but then I realize they can't really hurt the Dreadnought. They get shot to pieces.
Daemon Prince swoops forward, Vector strike the dreadnought. 1 HP down.
Soul Grinder charges the Rhino.
DC disembark to destroy it, but realize just how awesome AV13 is on a walker and turn to flee.
The back field takes snapshots at the swooping DP, don't hit anything.

Sadly this is where the pictures end. The game still had some funny moments though.

• Soul Grinder destroys the Rhino, then proceeds to destroy the DC which where tarpitted by the hounds. 2 wound models are awesome! Finally the Dreadnought walked up to it and punched it to death.
• Daemon Prince charges Terminator captain but gets bogged down. Mephiston insta-kills it with the S10 sword. Daemon Prince goes to Deep Strike Reserve due to warp tether.
• Daemonettes and Skarbrand arrive from Deep Strike. The sternguard and tacticals are obliterated.
• Vanguard veterans arrive and are placed next to the Bloodletters. Rage and hatred from Skarbrand... 40 dice on the charge for the Daemons. That did not end well.
• Seekers and Daemon Prince arrive automatically on turn 4.
• Mephiston is possessed by the warp storm result... AGAIN. This time by a Herald of Khorne.
• At this point, the guys had enough and surrendered. Their infantry was murdered (the scouts were still in the tower, having done NOTHING in the entire game), and I still had the two monstrous creatures on the field to take care of the Dreadnought/Predator.

Epic handshakes and even more theoryhammering on the way home. And the promises of more pictures for next time.

Chaos Daemons vs Blood Angels/Imperial Fists 17.01.2015

Time for another Warhammer 40k battle report!
All worked up after the match on Thursday, we got together for another game. This time, we decided to go big. 1v2, 2000 points. Chaos Daemons vs Imperial Fists / Blood Angels. To balance things out, I made two separate 1000 points lists, and my opponents made a 1000 points list each.

Mission: Purge the Alien (we're just going for this one until we learn the rules)
Map: Vanguard assault
Lists:
Chaos Daemons:

• 2x20 Plaguebearers, fully upgraded with Plague banner, one squad in Deep Strike Reserve
• 20 Pink Horrors, fully upgraded with Blasted standard
• Herald of Tzeentch, lvl 3 Psyker, Prescience, Flickering Fire and something unused
• 3x Nurglings
• Kugath, the Plaguefather (:D)
• Daemon Prince of Nurgle, wings, armor, lvl 3 Psyker, full Biomancy (got Iron arm)
• Epidemius, the Tallyman of Nurgle (:D)
• 3 Beasts of Nurgle in Deep Strike Reserve
• Soul Grinder of Nurgle, Phlegm upgrade, Warpsword
• 3 Screamers of Tzeentch in Deep Strike Reserve
• 8 Furies

Imperial Fists:

• Assault Terminators + Lysander
• Venerable Dreadnought, twin-linked lascannon
• Sternguard
• 2x5 man tactical, one with plasma gun, one with flamer

Blood Angels:

• Mephiston, Lord of Death 
• 9 Death Company with jump packs
• tactical squad in Rhino
• Predator Annihilator

Deployment:

* Nurglings infiltrate behind cover. Sternguard in ruins. Horrors in ruins with Herald. Soul grinder behind ruins for 2+ cover save
Turn 1 for Daemons was great.
Furies and Daemon Prince hop ahead and hide behind the ruins on the right. Plaguebearers with Epidemius attached and Kugath advance to hide behind some ruins.

Soul Grinder launches Phlegm bombardment (think battle cannon) and eliminates 7 Death Company in the open. NICE!
*I forgot to roll Warp Storm.

Then comes turn 1 for the marines.
Predator fires everything into Soul Grinder. All miss/2+ cover save.
Dreadnought fires into Soul Grinder. Cover save: 1. Vehicle damage table: 6. Explodes! And kills some Horrors too. Oh the hurt.

* Herald of Tzeentch proxied by Herald of Khorne model.
Rhino provides cover for Terminators. Tactical squad empty everything into Nurglings. 2+ cover save. 1 wound taken.
Turn 2 for the Daemons!
Furies and Daemon Prince advance and prepare to charge.
Screamers come in and hide behind ruins.
Beasts of Nurgle come in and hide behind ruins.
Plaguebearers do not come in.

* Beasts of Nurgle proxied in the lower part of the table.
Warp Storm: 11 ! Hilarious. Mephiston gets posessed without ever doing anything, and gets replaced by a Herald of Tzeentch.
Plaguebearers charge the Rhino. (Touch of Rust for the win)
Marines up next.
Nothing really happens. Nurglings get eliminated by Flamer. Terminators charge the Plaguebearers. Not only do they cross difficult terrain (the crater there), but they also meet defensive grenades. And a plague banner. They take 4 wounds. 3 are allocated to Lysander, 1 Terminator dies.

Turn 3, Daemons.
Plaguebearers come in and get placed very poorly (by me) in front of Sternguard veterans.
Furies destroy the two remaining Death Company. Screamers destroy the Rhino. Daemon Prince destroys the tactical that disembarked.
Kugath and the remaining Nurgling charge the Terminators. The Terminators however enter God-mode, and make all their saves. Lots of Plaguebearers die, Kugath takes 3 wounds from Instability. (Which I forgot to reroll.)
The grind goes on.

The Furies are shot to death. The Predator tries to take on the Daemon Prince, but fails to destroy it. Sternguard heavy flamers thins the Plaguebearers. The Terminators continue their killing spree.

At the end of turn 3, the game ended due to the shop closing (it was nearing 22:00). The Space Marine team surrendered after surveying the board. Epic handshakes and much theoryhammering followed :D

Chaos Daemons vs Space Marines/Blood Angels 13.01.2015

Time for a Warhammer 40k battle report!
We had an excellent game night at our friendly gaming store yesterday. We played two 40k matches simultaneously, both 2v1 (2x500 vs 1x1000 points).
I'm going for a detailed report on my own game (obviously).
Scenario: 
I was 1000 points Chaos Daemons:

• 20 Bloodletters, special icon, instrument, Bloodreaper
• 20 Daemonetters, special icon, instrument, Alluress
• Herald of Khorne, greater locus (Rage), etherblade (AP2, master crafted)
• Herald of Slaanesh, minor locus (move through cover), etherblade, Psyker 1
• Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, armor, etherblade, FnP 4+, Lash of Despair, Psyker 3 (all biomancy: iron arm, warp speed, smite)

The Blood Angels player went for a simple list:

• 5-man tactical squad
• 4-man death company, one Thunderhammer
• Astorath the Grim

While the Iron Hands player crammed everything possible into 500 points:

• 5-man scout squad with sniper rifles
• 5-man tactical squad with plasma gun
• 5-man tactical squad with plasma cannon
• Librarian with digital weapons, full telepathy (hallucinations and invisibility)
• Razorback with assault cannon
• Land speeder with missile launcher

Deployment:

I deployed first and set up everybody mostly in cover. I've also spread out my guys to be able to cover the whole table. My opponents deployed everything in a corner.
Fortunately I was supposed to start, so I wasn't really worried - I thought I'd be able to move up everything against them in time.
... but they rolled 6 on steal the initiative. And they obliterated the screamers on the first turn. There goes First Blood and my chance to rush the tank.
My turn! Time to move up all my guys. Warp storm... 3. The Herald of Slaanesh dies.
(At this point I realized that it says "Character" and not "Independent Character", so I rolled again, including the two unit champions too. Result: the Daemon Prince dies. My opponents allowed me to keep my previous result, as 300 points of Daemon Prince dieing on the first turn would mean the end of the game for me. Thanks guys!)
You can see below the Bloodletters hunkering down behind some boxes, and everything else running across the table.

On the next two turns, I kept everybody moving in the general direction of the space marines, while they kept shooting everything they had at the Bloodletters and the Daemon Prince. The Bloodletters were decimated and eventually wiped out without ever seeing close combat. The Daemon Prince proved untouchable with T7-8 3+/5++ FnP 4+

On turn 5 I finally got the DP into close combat. Time to wipe out the scouts! Or not. The scout sergeant challenged the DP. Obviously he got hammered into the ground, but the squad remained in close combat. The game continues.

The Daemonettes finally got into close combat and wipe out a tactical squad. Librarian casted invisibility on scouts to tarpit the Daemon Prince, but they died.
At this point I needed to kill as many as possible to win, while they needed to stall and end the game to win by victory points.
Invisible Death Company and Astorath charge the Daemon Prince. I challenged Astorath and battled for two turns before murdering him. Meanwhile Daemonettes fight the rest of the enemy.

Final turn: 3 Death Company die. The remaining one with the Thunderhammer kills the Daemon Prince.
The tacticals and the Librarian kill the Daemonettes.
Victory for the Space Marines!

What went well for me?

• Daemon Prince setup. Iron arm did wonders with the extra toughness. Warp speed worked well for the extra attacks. The strength and initiative bonuses were  useless. FnP from greater reward was also a miracle.

What went well for the opponent?

• Steal the initiative and killing the screamers on the first turn. 
• Psychic powers for the librarian. Hallucination destroyed half the Bloodletters (they hit themselves 2-3 times). Invisibility greatly delayed and hampered the Daemon Prince in close combat.

What could have I done better?

• Better deployment. The Daemonettes were too far to the left and took a lot of time to get into the action. I should have stacked everything in the middle. The Bloodletters would still have been wiped out I think, but at least the Daemonettes would have got there faster.
• Winged Daemon Prince. It would have gotten into CC faster. Don't know how it would have fared all alone though...

Chinese recasts of miniatures

Important announcement. 

I've received a lot of comments asking for the site that I used to buy this model. While I have happily supplied that information (and will do so in the future) to anybody who asks, please note that as of now, THERE ARE NO MORE WARHAMMER RELATED ITEMS ON THE SITE.

Now on to the article:

Today we're taking a look at a Chinese resin recast of a Warhammer miniature: Be'lakor, the First Daemon Prince of Chaos.

The first notifiable difference compared to an original miniature is the boxing. While GW (and other, high-budget companies) offer a nice packaging (a cardboard box with artwork on it), the recast arrived in a rough cardboard box, wrapped in bubble wrap. Simple, pragmatic, nothing fancy.

Assembly instructions included: none, whereas official miniatures include them in the box. Thankfully, this is a relatively simple model (there are no customization options, you can only assemble it in one way), so there's no way to get lost. Still, I wouldn't start assembling a, let's say, Flaming Chariot without some instructions.
Casting quality: depends on what we compare it to. GW plastic is much better, however, that's an unfair comparison, as this is a finecast model. I've never unboxed one, but here's a post about it from a fellow blogger: A painting chaos: Warriors of Chaos Be'lakor Daemon Prince (Finecast) unboxing

So unlike plastic, there are a lot of miscast remnants - a lot more than on the finecast model as seen above.

That being said, it was easy to cut the pieces off the sprue - they mostly broke off by themselves when touched, and only a wingtip got damaged.
I should also mention that the wings have holes in them, where the resin is really thin. This is the only thing that shows bad casting quality. Everything else, including fine details such as the chain mail, is perfect.

Spares: I got 2 sets of spare wings and 2 extra tails. No idea why - not like I'm complaining. So the broken wing tip does not count. I'm thinking of doing a conversion later on. Stick the wings on a unit champion or something.
Cleaning: went easily. It's a much lighter material than plastic, I was able to cut away bits and pieces easily with a hobby knife. Almost damaged it in some places though.
Assembly: the pieces fit perfectly and super glue worked on the material.

Painting: I only applied an acrylic white spray paint so far, but it looks OK, with adherence level comparable to GW resin/plastic.

... and finally, the price: 36% of the original! I have to admit that I caught some holiday deal and it isn't always this cheap. Also, shipping was around 7 weeks, and there was the hassle of going to the post office since I chose free shipping. But that's still around 1/3 of the original price!

Conclusion: if you're a purist, or have the means, or your local gaming community/shop forbids unofficial miniatures, etc then by all means, buy original miniatures. An original shop/manufacturer offers the best quality, not to mention complete security.
However, recasts seem like a viable option if you're willing to take a risk.

Buying miniatures on eBay

On my quest for cheaper miniatures, I've turned to the grandfather of used item trading: eBay.

The biggest incentive here is price. You can find miniatures at 10% of their original price, if you're lucky. You can also save effort by buying assembled or even painted miniatures, but this usually means a higher price. Pro-painted miniatures may get very expensive very quickly.

There are some downsides too, which I'll show you using these case studies:

1. daemon scrap lot (this is eBay slang for lots of pieces which do not necessarily match)

This was an actual treasure trove! For around 5 pounds, I got:

- Karanak + 2 flesh hounds. Though there aren't enough legs to go around for everybody, but I can salvage Karanak + 1 flesh hound, which would cost around 20 pounds

- some very badly assembled Daemonettes. I broke them apart along the glue lines and they mostly came free without damage. They just need to be reassembled. 10 Daemonettes = 18 pounds.

- 3 Flamers, but only 1 arm for all 3 of them. I'm thinking of running them without arms. These 3 models would cost 10 pounds.

2. assorted Daemonettes

- some primed, some assembled, some painted (badly)
- there was some effort in repainting them, but the 30% savings were worth it

3. Bloodthirster

- very badly painted (no, seriously, look at it!)
- This is an old metal model. The current model is much, much bigger, and also needs a bigger base, as per the rule book.
- A lot of effort needed for unpainting, assembling (some pieces came apart during transport) and repainting, but
- At 30% of the current model's price (including shipping), I'm not complaining.

4. Bloodletters, unassembled in original and unopened box.

40% savings. Is there anything to say?

5. Chariot of Tzeentch, unassembled in box.

This came out to be a bad purchase. The box has actually been opened, the herald model assembled on foot, and everything else put back in. The Flaming Chariot can still be completely assembled, I was just disappointed that the herald was missing. My plans were to build a magnetized kit that could be put together to form either chariot. Oh well, I haven't given up on this yet!
... And I still saved around 20%.

6. Daemon Prince

- In good condition. The model wasn't very well cleaned though and I had to do some after-scraping. Look carefully at the photos to discover the mold lines and sprue remains. This is much harder to do after assembly.

- This also made me realize what NOT to buy from eBay. The original model is fully customizable, with lots of body/head/arms/armor options. When buying an assembled model, you get what there is. Not sure how a power armored daemon will fit in a fantasy setting, I'll think of some back-story for it.
- Oh well, at half the price...

7. Masque of Slaanesh

- One of my best purchases, this was a metal model still on sprues, at half the price (including shipping!)

8. Chaos Furies

- These aren't actual Chaos Furies! I know now, but I didn't know then, and I assumed that they're older models (look at the bloodthirster...).
- These are actually models made by Grenadier Miniatures.
- All in all, it wasn't a bad purchase. These winged demons run well as Chaos Furies, they are well painted and involved a minimal effort in applying magnetized bases. Not to mention they came at half the price of the same number of furies.

9. Headless bloodletters

Nothing special, eh? Take a closer look.

The back of their heads and the spines on their backs are missing. This was the reason I saved around 60% on them.


Looking back at my eBay shopping spree, I would have done some things differently, but experience comes through trial and error (or by reading blogs, so be smarter than me if you start eBaying!).
Some practical advice:
- eBay is best if you play as Space Marines. There is a huge supply of used miniatures, in all imaginable states (unassembled, unpainted, badly painted, pro-painted, bits collection etc).
- assembled but unpainted miniatures offer the best price-effort ratio
- buying scrap lots is very cheap, and you can great deals, but a lot of effort needs to go into market research
- buying squads of basic troops / models that don't have many customization options is a good choice
- don't buy greatly customizable models if you want a personalized army
- establish a threshold (e.g. "I will only buy at max. 60% of the original price") and stick to it! Otherwise, it's easy to go wild.

Overall, I am satisfied with the things I bought - I saved a lot of money, at the cost of additional effort.
I am also happy with the way everything went down. I got to know my way around eBay, and the gathered experience will help me when I decide to sell stuff of my own. (So if I ever get tired of wargaming, my future collection of well-painted, magnetized daemon army is sure to bring a buck!)
Lastly, the defective/incomplete models which I've bought (bloodletters, flamers) made me research green stuff. One day, I hope to be able to sculpt the missing pieces!

Where to start your Warhammer hobby?

As soon as the Dark Gods of Chaos planted the seeds of wargaming in my mind, I started looking for a (rather) cheap way of starting up my hobby.

Let's face it: wargaming is an expensive hobby. Miniatures are of high quality, and you pay a lot of hard-earned cash for them. However, there are some ways of reducing costs.
My first step was to check out the official Games Workshop web store. The amount and quality of miniatures is dazzling! And the prices are, simply put, appalling.
As there are no official GW gaming stores around, I knew that I don't have to worry about using only official miniatures, so I started looking at forums in search of an alternative solution.
The first step was to look for another retailer of GW miniatures, which led me to Wayland Games. They offer a 20-25% discount on most miniatures and free shipping over 40 pounds.While that's still a lot, it's a much better starting point.
The second step was to look for alternative miniatures. In theory, you could look around until you find another supplier/game line with compatible but cheaper miniatures. I think that Empire players could find a lot of replacement figures (historical miniature lines), as well as Space Marines I guess. It's harder to find appropriate models for more specific armies however. Also, after some research, surprisingly enough, GW's prices don't even seem that high anymore. Another factor is that a lot of companies are US-based, and whatever you win on the miniature itself gets lost on shipping. In the end, I ended up with only one such purchase: Bugharoth (from Hasslefree Miniatures), which I'll run as a daemon prince.
The third step (as suggested on some forums) was to combine my 40k and Fantasy armies. As you may know, one is a fantasy setting, while the other is sci-fi. Not a chance? Ha! Ideas include: running fantasy Orcs as 40k (space) Orks (bows count as shootas) and running Empire gunners as Imperial Guard (just say they're a regiment raised on a backwater feudal world). Then there's the entire army called Chaos Daemons/Daemons of Chaos, which are 100% compatible. The only thing in the way are the bases (round vs square), but that can be solved by magnetizing. (I'll post about that later.) This got me sold completely, and soon enough I got my daemons army up and running.

This was it basically! Here's what I got in my starter order:

Now off to assemble and paint some of that...


P.S. For a crazy site with lots of ideas, visit 1d4chan. While it contains a large amount of coarse language and the occasional NSFW material, it is also a repository of factual advice and ideas about all aspects of the hobby, from assembling an army to tabletop tactics.

The origin story of a wargamer

It feels like ages ago (though it's around a year and a half) that I got a boardgame called Shadows over Camelot.

Boardgames were becoming trendy back then, and we just got over the wave of Settlers of Catan/Carcassonne/Saboteur. Looking for something more complex for my circle of friends, I bought this game after reading some favorable reviews. Turns out everybody was right, and it's a really fun game to play that we still take out sometimes. The point here, however, is that it contained a set of unpainted miniatures: 7 knights, 4 Saxon and 4 Pict warriors, 3 artifacts and 12 tiny catapults. Of course they were perfectly usable that way, however, by luck (or fate?) I later heard of a gaming shop having opened in town, where you could go and paint your miniatures. So I gave it a try.
Sadly, the shop eventually closed (they're still open elsewhere, I'm talking about Red Goblin), but not before I painted my miniatures, got to know people who were into wargaming and generally had a jolly good time.
So first things first, here's what I got painted:

A round table's worth of knights...

 Saxon warriors...

... and some tattooed Picts!

Obviously I could do a better job now, but I just got started with these. And I want to get around some time in the future to do some corrections.
Things got interesting when an attempt was made to spice up the miniature painting group with a couple of contests. I signed up for one of them. We had to make a diorama. Here's what I've achieved:

King Arthur and his remaining loyal knights defend the ruins of the castle to the death, as the murderous Picts close in for the kill and the traitor knight watches over it all...

Finally, the turning point was an initiative called "Tale of X Wargamers" (where X stands for any number as we couldn't decide how many we actually were). The target was to start up a group of wargamers who would gradually buy and paint miniatures, and in the end they would each have a sizable force to play with. The initiative eventually faltered due to lack of interest/participation, but it sure got me going. I didn't buy miniatures right away - it was time for research! I was already familiar with Warhammer 40k lore due to the PC games and some books that I've read, but right then the interest seemed higher for Warhammer Fantasy. I wanted to play both, but I didn't want to spend a fortune on miniatures. After reading through some forums, I decided to play Chaos Daemons - an army 100% compatible with both gaming systems - and I made my first purchase. But more on that later.
Another effect of this initiative was that we were itching to play - although we didn't have any minis. So we put the store's supply of painted Warhammer Elves to good use as proxies for our future armies. Here's a picture of a game of Warhammer Fantasy. Lizardmen on the left, Chaos Daemons on the right. Couldn't tell right away, now could you?

P.S. Red Goblin and its friendly shopkeeper also got me into my other two gaming hobbies - Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. I'll post about those, too - in due time.