DIY DnD maps and props

The recent string of DnD sessions that I'm DM'ing rekindled my interest in home-made RPG props, so I've dug up some old material that I've just been too lazy to publish.

DIY maps

The adventure we're playing has a nice set of printable colored maps for the outside encounters. However, the name of the game is Dungeons and Dragons, and there was nothing included for that part. So I decided to roll my own.
Steps:

1. Print a 1x1inch square grid on white paper. Use a generator.
2. Use water color to paint it grey. No reason to be careful. Just slap the paint on.
1. Optional. Add small doodads to your maps, e.g. staircases, storage containers. This will make them better looking, but less reusable. 
3. Plan the maps that you have to make. Then cut out appropriate pieces.
4. Use paper glue to stick the pieces of paper on large sheets of cheap paper. Wrapping paper is ideal.
5. Use heavy things to apply pressure on the maps, so they won't curl up and the glue sticks.

 Pictures below:

I dilute the black paint with lots of water, so the paper takes a long time to dry. Solution: leave it out for the night.

With a bit of planning, you can pre-establish all the needed pieces.

You'll need a large surface to work with. Use wrapping paper or a flipchart.

Work in progress...

OK, put some heavy books on it for the night and you're done! Some examples below:


 A simple dungeon room.




Natural caves work even better on brown wrapping paper, to give that earthy feeling.

A larger map of interconnected rooms, with storage containers and a staircase.

DIY props

The process is similar to the one above.

1. Print a 1x1inch square grid on white paper. Use a generator.
2. Use water color to paint your props. Again, there's no need for artistic complexity; although the better looking, the greater.
3. Use a black pen to strengthen the borders, or draw additional elements.
4. Cut out the props following the square borders.
5. Use paper glue to stick the props to cardboard. I used pizza boxes, as they are thick and heavy enough to be moved easily along with the miniatures.
6. Cut out the pieces (again) from the cardboard.

Done! Here are some of the props that I created:

Left to right, top to bottom: strange runes drawn on the floor; crates; tables (some with dirty dishes on them), broken statues, a fire pit, a bloody drawing on the floor, alcoves, wells, beds, pits, an iron maiden, debris with animal bones, a large pit, a fire, altars.

Forces of the Abyss vs Twilight Kin, 20.10.2015

Same as the other game, just straight up killpoints. I managed to take a couple more photos this time.

Forces of the Abyss (same list, same master plan)

• Regiments
• Flamebearers, Jar of the Four Winds
• Succubi, Mace of Crushing
• Fleshlings, War-bow of Kaba
• Troops
• 2x Hellhounds
• Gargoyles
• Ba'su'su's Vile Spawn
• Heroes
• Ba'su'su the Vile
• Archfiend of the Abyss, Lightning Bolt (5)
• Temptress, Bane Chant

Twilight Kin

• Hordes
• Spearmen
• Regiments
•  Reaper Guard
• Troops
• 2x Crossbowmen
• Blade Dancers
• Heralds of Woe
• Dark Knights
• Heroes
• Standard Bearer
• Dark Lord on Black Pegasus, TODO +1 def
• Monsters
• Hydra

A couple more magic artifacts sprinkled around.

Deployment

I deployed almost the same as before.
My opponents beautiful Dark Elf Twilight Kin army had taken up strong positions, with cavalry on the left flank, the Spearmen horde and the Hydra making for a strong center, and the rest on the right flank.

Turn 1

Once again, I had first turn. Once again, I took it slow. The Flamebearers let loose into the center Crossbowmen and inflicted enough damage for a lucky Rout (the Standard Bearer was too far away).
The Archfiend only inflicted 1 wound with his Lightning bolt.

The Twilight Kin advanced. Shots were fired at the Hounds, taking 2 wounds.

Turn 2.

I charged with everything that could.
The Archfiend charged the Reaper Guard, inflicting 4 wounds.
The Hounds charged the Crossbowmen, routing them.
The other Hounds and the Succubi charged the Hydra, routing it.
The Flamebearers shot the Spearmen horde. Those dudes have an incredibly high Nerve and they held their ground for a very long time.
The Gargoyle formation flew over the Knights and into the backfield of the opponent.
Ba'su'su charged the Pegasus lord, but 6+ defense and high Nerve meant no results there.

The Reaper Guard then charged back, inflicting 3.
The Blade Dancers charged and routed one unit of Hounds. They have an incredible number of attacks, much like my own Succubi.
The Heralds of Woe shot the other Hounds, inflicting a good chunk of wounds.The Knights turned around to look at the Gargoyles.

The Archfiend's second charge finally annihilated the Reaper Guard.
The Succubi were dueling it out with the Blade Dancers.
The Hounds charged the Spearmen, but failed to do much due to Phalanx.
The Gargoyles tried to position for a rear charge, but the Vile Spawn were caught by the Knights and destroyed.

My final gamble on the right flank was the Gargoyle's charge to the back of the Spearmen horde, but I rolled 1 lower than needed to waver them. On the next turn, the Knights took out the Gargoyles and the Spearmen took out the Hounds. At least Ba'su'su escaped by flying at the double.

In the mean time, the Archfiend and Succubi mopped up the Blade Dancers and prepared to face the remnants of the Twilight Kin.

A couple successful shooting attacks later...

... the Spearmen and Knights routed and I only had to deal with the two Heroes. My opponent conceeded.

Lessons learned

• Peppering your opponent with Piercing (2) attacks from 30" range does a good job.
• Fast moving units, especially fliers, are great at out-maneuvering the enemy, especially unwieldy infantry blobs. They are great to surround and flank/rear charge them. This is as opposed to Warhammer Fantasy where ranked up infantry easily beats a cavalry charge due to static combat resolution.
• A high-Nerve horde really does hold the middle.
• Mounted archers with Nimble are a lot more better than standing Crossbowmen.
• 3+ Gargoyles are really fragile.

Forces of the Abyss vs Orcs, 20.10.2015

Time to begin covering Kings of War with a regular batrep. Actually, make that two! We fit in 2 games at 1500 points in roughly 3 hours. As we are still learning the rules, we just went for killpoints. Also excuse the small number of pictures; this was caused by a heavy case of excitement.

Forces of the Abyss

• Regiments
• Flamebearers, Jar of the Four Winds
• Succubi, Mace of Crushing
• Fleshlings, War-bow of Kaba
• Troops
• 2x Hellhounds
• Gargoyles
• Ba'su'su's Vile Spawn
• Heroes
• Ba'su'su the Vile
• Archfiend of the Abyss, Lightning Bolt (5)
• Temptress, Bane Chant

The master plan here is to sit tight and keep shooting with the Flamebearers at the safe distance of 30", keeping Bane Chant on them for Piercing (2). Ba'su'su and his Gargoyles harass one flank, the Hounds run up the other flank. Archfiend and Succubi guard the Flamebearers. Fleshlings are cannon fodder, getting the 5-point bow attack so they aren't totally useless on the first turns.

Orcs

• Hordes
• Ax 
• Gore chariots
• Regiments
• Gore riders 
• Trolls
• Ax
• Morax
• Heroes
• Krudger on mount
• Krudge on slasher
• Wardrum

Deployment

I won the roll-off, but I wanted the Orcs to start deploying. This was I could counter-deploy to my liking.
The Orcs concentrated their hardest (but slowest) units on the center, with the Ax horde and regiment and the trolls lining up between the forest and the house. I put my Fleshlings in front of them as a distraction (and it worked out perfectly). The Morax guard the far-flank, facing the Gargoyle "formation". I was sure to outmaneuver them there. The real fighting was to go down on the right flank. What you see to the right of the forest is the Gore chariot horde, the Gore riders and the Krudger on slasher. I countered with my Archfiend and Hellhounds, with the other Hounds and the Succubi ready to lend support. Let the battle commence!

Turn 1

I went first, so I took it slow. The Flamebearers shot the Ax horde and put a good number of wounds on it. The Archfiend advanced to the wall and shot the chariot horde. The Hounds protected his flank. The Gargoyles moved up to just outside the Morax charge range.
Naturally, the Orcs jumped the occasion to charge in everything they could. The Gore Riders charged the Hounds, but failed to Rout. The Chariots charged the Archfiend. The wall denied their Thunderous Charge, so only 3 wounds were inflicted.
All units in the center and left flank advanced as much as possible.

Turn 2.

Time for the counter strike.
The Hounds near the edge of the table countercharged, and destroyed the Gore riders with a lucky Nerve roll. The Archfiend countercharged, and the other Hound unit took the chariots in the rear for an incredible number of attacks and wounds. The chariots also routed. The left flank was mine.
Both Gargoyles and Ba'su'su charged the Morax in the front. Aided by their Vicious rule, enough wounds were inflicted for a Rout. The right flank was also in trouble.
The Fleshlings charged into the Ax horde. Now that wouldn't have accomplished much, but factor in the wounds inflicted by shooting and I got them Wavering.
The Succubi and the Flamebearers charged the Trolls. The huge number of Succubi attacks proved enough for a Rout.

The Orcs were mostly annihilated. The Krudger on the far right still put up a fight, and so did the Ax regiment on the left. But the center Horde was Wavering and unable to charge.

 Turn 3

By his turn 3, only the two Krudgers were left on the table, so my opponent conceeded.

M.A.G.U.S. kalandok - hogyan jutottunk 3. szintre

Why is this post not in English?

A varázslótorony

Előzmény

Karaktereink - szokás szerint - egy kocsmában dorbézoltak, amikor következő kalandjuk kezdetét vette. Itt talált rájuk új megbízójuk, egy titokzatos varázsló. Elmondása szerint a közeli toronyban valami baj keletkezett, amit ő most hamarjában nem tud megoldani, ezért - megfelelő jutalomért - hőseinket akarta felfogadni. Persze minden normális ember elküldte volna a pokolba, de mi nem azert lettünk kalandozók, hogy egy ilyen pompás alkalmat visszautasítsunk! Nagyon rövid leírása alapján a bejutáshoz teljesíteni kell egy feladatsort - ez kezdő varázslóknak volt kitalálva, nem kéne tul nagy gondot okozzon - majd kideríteni, mi is történt és milyen galibát kell megoldjunk.
Szépen el is jutottunk a toronyhoz, majd átmentünk egy falon, es máris egy kör alakú szobában találtuk magunkat. Innen több ajtó is nyílott, különböző szimbólumokkal és feliratokkal megjelölve. Mire nem jó egy magasmágiában képzett lovag? Szerencsésen kisilabizálni, hogy az ajtók a magasmágia különböző területeit jelölik. Ezek lesznek tehát a próbák.
Ja, és csapatunk újabb taggal gazdagodott. Egy kalandvágyó pincérfiú csatlakozott hozzánk a kocsmában. Mint jó ivócimborák, azonnal befogadtuk - lesz majd, akit előre küldjünk, ha veszély leselkedik ránk.

Első próba - őselemi mágia

Beléptünk egy tetszőlegesen kiválasztott ajtón. A terem a "Galéria" feliratot viselte, és négy sarkában négy elemi lény lézengett - tűz, víz, lég és vízelementálok. Hosszas vizsgálódás és kísérletezés során rájöttünk, hogy melyik mire van hatással, és mit nem szeret. A tűzelementál például azonnal bemozdult az élő szövetre, a földelementál szétszaggatta a köpenyem, amikor meglegyeztem vele, a légelementál pedig teljesen elrozsdáztatta a pincérfiúnk összes fémfelszerelését - beleértve fegyvereit is.
Ezzel a tudással felruházva különösebb gondok nélkül haladtunk át a próbákon. A tűzvarázsló kioltott egy hatalmas tűzfalat. Pszivel megemeltük a testhőmérsékletünket, hogy átgázoljunk egy jeges vízzel feltöltött folyosón (kivéve a pincérfiút, aki kötéllel mászott át a víz fölött). Felsőfokú matematikával kiszámoltuk, hogy a következő folyosó földtüskéi milyen időközökben csapnak ki. Fáklyával világítottunk magunknak egy teljesen sötét teremben, miközben egy ismeretlen lény - talán egy démon - kerülgetett a fény-arnyék határán.
Mindezek után, nagyon megelégedve magunkkal a próba sikeres megoldása után, beléptünk az utolsó ajtón - és a kör alakú teremben találtuk magunkat, ahol a próbánk ajtaja fölötti szimbólum enyhén világítani kezdett. Remek. Mindet meg kell oldjuk.

Szünet

Itt következett egy szinte 1 éves szünet (vagy volt az több is?) a játékban, majd néhány hete innen folytattuk.  A pincérfiú azonban megelégelte a mókát. A játékos már nem tartózkodott a városban, úgyhogy hárman folytattuk a rejtély kivizsgálását.

Második próba - nekromancia

Még éltek emlékeinkben az első próba fejtörői, úgyhogy olyan helyre mentünk, ahol harc is ígérkezett. Meg is kaptuk, csak nem úgy, ahogy azt reméltük.
A nekromancia galériájában néhány élőhalott áldogállt, ki-ki saját rúnakörében. Aegon és Phempheusz leültek társasozni egy múmiával (teljesen jó ötletnek tűnik, nemdebár), míg én kicsit körbenéztem. Már az fura volt, hogy egy élőhalott varázsló felajánlotta, hogy megmenti az életem cserébe szabadságáért, és az egyre erősödő rosszullétem sem segített a dolgon. Pár perc múlva szerencsésen össze is rogytam, majd meg is mutatkozott az oka. A vérfarkas szellem ugyanis kiszabadult a sérült rúnaköréből, és belém szállt!
Társaim megpróbáltak lekötni és altatóméreggel elintézni, de az átalakulás hamar ment, és máris nyakunkon volt a harc. Vérfarkasként nagyon jól dobtam, a tűzvarázsló alig bírt feltartani. Ez alatt a boszorkánymester előbb az élőhalott segítségét kérte. Az kiszabadult, majd nekifogott mindannyiunkat sebző sötét varázslatainak. Még jobb. Ezután Aegon az ezüstkarddal próbálkozott, amely a vérfarkas rúnaköre mellett állt. Hátulról támadva, elég nagy sebet ejtett, hogy kiüssön. Teljesen eredményes volt tehát a kaland. Nekem szétment a páncélom, alig bírtam kötéllel valahogy összetoldozni. A vérfarkas szellem kiszabadult, bár a leírás szerint kell neki egy hónap, hogy megint valakit megszálljon. Az élőhalott varázsló pedig egyszerűen utat rombolt magának a toronyból.
No, de továbbmentünk a galériából, és szerencsésen megoldottunk pár feladatot. Lekaszaboltunk néhány zombit, egy másikat feldaraboltunk és a tagjait elhajigálva aktiváltunk egy súlyra érzékeny szerkezetet. Szóval csupa móka, és visszaértünk a kiinduló terembe.

Harmadik próba - szimpatikus mágia

Kalandunk valószínűleg legrosszabb döntése volt ez a terem. A galériából rájöttünk, hogy különböző tárgyakat össze lehet varázslattal kötni. Ha a gyertyát eloltod, a bot megrázza és kiüti a boszorkánymestert. Lássuk hát a próbákat.
Első próba: egy félig bevert szeg, egy nyél és egy halom kalapácsfej. Próbáljuk hát a nyelet bedugni egy kalapácsfejbe. Az első megráz. A második megsüt. A harmadik megéget. No nem baj, ha csak ennyi, egy lovag ezt kibírja. A negyedik egy tüskével átlyukasztja a tenyerem. Az ötödik összeroncsolja az ujjaim. Ennyit a jobbkezemről. A következőt aztán sikerült eltalálni, és Phempheusz megoldotta a dolgot. Tovább.
Hosszú folyosó, benőve egy tüskés rengeteggel. A tűzvarázsló tűnődik, hogy mivel gyújtsa fel. Aegon kiütve. Hátha a páncél megvéd. Bemegyek. A növények megmozdulnak. Egy tüskés ág átcsap a karomon, bele az arcomba. Miliméterre a szememtől belém áll. A fájdalomtól elájulok. Phempheusz sikeresen kirángat, és kiveszi a tüskét. 1el nagyobb dobás, és oda a szemem. No de a maradék próba egyszerűbb volt, és sikeresen túljutottunk.

Ezek után már nagyon elegünk volt a próbákból, és megnéztük, hogy továbbmehetünk-e. Továbbmehetünk. Hajrá!

A varázslótorony rejtélye

Azt már előzőleg kisilabizáltuk, hogy a tornyot földrengés érte. E miatt szabadult ki például a vérfarkas, mert a rengés kárt tett a rúnakörében. Ahogy felfele haladtunk a toronyban, egyre nyilvánvalóbb volt, hogy a rengés egy szándékos támadás része lehetett (ezt a szétégett hullákból következtettük ki, erősen fejlett detektívérzékkel). Hamarosan újabb meglepetés ért, amikor mi magunk is célpontok lettünk, az egyik emeleten ugyanis hatalmas tűzrobbanás fogadott. Ez volt az utolsó csepp, amit a kötéllel összetákolt páncélom megbírt. Minden felszerelésünk elégett, mi is megsérültünk. No, de nem baj, leülünk egy kicsit meditálni. Második tűzrobbanás. OK, nem üldögélünk többet.
Végül, a varázslók egyik hálószobájában találtunk két alakot, akik egy adag rúnát néztek, kifejezéstelen arccal. Szerencsére Phempheuszt akaratereje megvédte a rúnák hatásától, és sikerült bemennie a szobába, majd letakarni az írást. Erre a két alak felugrott, és ránk támadott.
Kétségbeesett küzdelmet vívtunk. Én bal kézzel forgattam lovagkardom, kevés sikerrel. Természetesen rám is hatottak a rúnák, így áthatott az elemi félelem és a késztetés a gyilkolásra. Valószínűleg ezért harcoltak a másikok is. Legyengült állapotunkban már-már úgy nézett ki, odaveszünk. Szerencsére a hatás gyengült, és egy idő után mindannyian helyrejöttünk, véget vetve az értelmetlen harcnak.
Ezek után kivettük a két alakból, hogy a torony védelmi rendszerét módosította a támadó, ennek köszönhettük a robbanásokat, amely megölte a többi lakót, és kevés híján minket is. Együtt sikeresen behatoltunk a legfelső terembe, ahol hatástalanítottuk a rendszert. Küldetés teljesítve!

A jutalom

Mint kiderült, eredeti megbízónk a toronyból sikerült élve megszökjön a támadás ideje alatt. Amint azt sejtettük, nagy hatalmú varázsló volt. Jutalom fejében varázstárgyakat készített számunkra: Phempheusz új kesztyűje több mannát nyer ki a tűzből, míg az én új páncélom leveti és felölti magát, sőt regenerálódik, ha sérülés éri. Aegon, boszorkánymesterhez híven, inkább tudást sajtolt ki az öregből, így társaságunk erőforrásai drágakőmágiával gazdagodtak. Mindezen felül, a jutalmi pénzt arra költöttük, hogy kihasználjuk ezt az egyedi alkalmat, és megbízónk terjedelmes kapcsolathálózatát felhasználva, bármit tanulhassunk, amit Erion kínál (mégpedig 4. fokú Oktatás bónusszal). Ez azért volt különösen hasznos, mert elértünk 3. szintre. Igy tettem szert 95%os veszélyérzékre!

Trying out Kings of War

Foreword

Although my main wargame is Warhammer 40k, I do like and have played Warhammer Fantasy. I followed the rumors after 8th edition, and, like most gamers, I was appalled by Age of Sigmar. I was very sorry to see all my magnetized bases done for nothing, and resolved to continue playing 8th edition Fantasy as long as I had anybody to play with.
Given the above, I was excited to hear about a new-ish game that was to be "the spiritual successor" to Warhammer Fantasy. Enter Kings of War.

Kings of War - overview

With my vast experience of reading through the rules twice and playing 2 games at 700 points, here goes.
First of all, the game is very easy to jump into rule-wise. The starter rules are available for free. Yes, you can download the core rules (about 25 pages) and some army books to just try out the game. The full rulebook adds a couple more pages: tournament rules, magic artefacts to upgrade units and other things that you can actually live without. Compare that to the hundreds of pages of Warhammer rulebooks (and also to the 4 pages Age of Sigmar "rulebook") and you've got a simple and consistent ruleset that still has enough dept to enjoy.
Second of all, the game is also easy to jump into model-wise. This is unlike Warhammer Fantasy, where you need a vast collection of models for the simplest of games (looking at you, 4x10 hordes or 100-man Skaven armies). Each model you need to field (meaning: purchase, assemble, paint) is slowly removed from the table. In Kings of War, models are not removed unless the entire unit is removed. This means that you can model your bases as small dioramas, with only 50-60% of the needed models actually on it (this is endorsed by the company). Damage takes the form of counters.
As far as gameplay, I found Kings of War to be - again - simple and enjoyable. Movement is greatly simplified as opposed to Fantasy, much like all the other phases. The pacing tends to be quick and brutal. Both our 700-point games were over in around 30 minutes. Again, compare to the couple-hours slow grind of Fantasy battles, where two hordes could munch each other for endless turns.

On to the pictures!

Fantasy terrain is perfect for this game. Note the absence of templates and other tools. Dice and a ruler is all you need.
Also note that, since we didn't have the miniatures needed (in my case, no movement trays), we just used proxies for the bases. My opponent had a finished unit of orcs and used wooden boards for the rest. I had two units of appropriate size (the Flesh Hound equivalents and the monster on the far left); for the other 3, I cut out appropriate pieces of paper and placed a miniature on it to denote its type.

My Chroneas (the monster) moves in on the orc Gore Riders hiding behind the trees. Note the damage counter. In the middle, the Morax regiment (orcs wielding two hand axes) contemplate charging my Flamebearers (Pink Horror equivalents).

Having annihilated the unit of orc archers and regular regiment, the Lower Abyssals (Bloodletter equivalents) and Hellhounds move to encircle the Morax.

 For the second game, I placed my units in a bull's horns formation, waiting for the enemy to be drawn forward and be encircled. The orcs fell into the trap and were quickly annihilated.

My opponent's beautifully painted and arranged orcs, next to an orc hero on mount (the empty base) and my partially painted hounds.

Painting Worgen, part 2: finishing touches and unsuitable plastic

I honestly thought this was going to get longer... but, here it is. After I've concluded my experiments with fur, I decided to quickly finish the group of Worgen. Unfortunately, the plastic they're made of isn't the same kind as the one wargaming miniatures are made from. That's not to say it's worse; it's just a lot more malleable. It would never break due to a fall; it would bounce like rubber. Staffs and swords likewise won't break when handled, just bend. This, however, makes the plastic worse for painting. The layer of paint is a lot more rigid than the plastic under it, and doesn't bend; so it breaks. I've had paint falling off in large bits after a fall that wouldn't even scratch a regular miniature:

I'll try to compensate with a layer of varnish after I finish everything; then again, it might not help.
In any case, I decided to simplify further painting to reduce wasted time and effort in case the paint will just fall off of everything.
As to why are the Worgen color-coded by their "clothes"? That's because in the boardgame they're used in, the color of the plastic miniature signals the strength of the monster, with green being the weakest, and blue and red being stronger versions. I didn't want to leave the base unpainted, or any other method that would "break" the look-and-feel; so I went by the method below:

They all wear bands of linen on their arms and legs, as well as a torn loincloth. So I painted these bits of cloth after the original color of the plastic. I painted the leather belt and pouches appropriately; and I painted the armored elbow piece in chainmail silver or bronze, depending on what would contrast better with the fur color.
Of course, these parts look unrealistically plain, so I added a generous layer of wash:

This was the first time that I applied wash only to specific parts of a miniature, instead of an overall coat. The reason, obviously, was to add shades and highlights to the clothing bits, but not to ruin the fur. A bit of wash on the mouth and teeth, and gleaming red eyes complete the look of these guys.
You may also notice that I fixed the one with the black drybrush over the white basecoat. I really didn't like the look of it, so I applied black wash to the miniature, hoping to improve it. And it worked! It's the 4th from the left. The wash darkened the white layer nicely, so the contrast isn't as huge anymore. I later used the same method to improve the Worgen with brown fur. It suffered from the opposite problem: too little contrast. From a distance, the drybrushing wasn't visible at all. Again, the wash darkened the basecoat - check out the picture below. As a sidenote, I've seen black wash referred to as "liquid talent" on a forum. Sure, that's snarky - but hey! it's true. It almost looks like it can improve anything.

I then bathed these guys in a coat of matte varnish, hoping to ward off deterioration. A valiant effort, though ultimately unsuccessful. While carrying them to their final destination, I dropped one - and half a hand already shows the original color of the plastic. Take a look at their final form:

Chaos Daemons/Marines vs Eldar/Dark Eldar 06.10.2015

I lost the last time I stood against this famously OP army, so about time to strike back! And if you thought regular Eldar was cheesy, check out the list below.

Scenario: we used the ETC tournament scenarios. We got a mix of Spoils of War and The Relic.

Lists:

Chaos Daemons: Combined Arms Detachment (primary detachment)

• 3-base Nurglings
• 3-base Nurglings 
• Kairos Fateweaver, warlord
• Daemon Prince of Nurgle, wings, armor, Balesword, Etherblade, Grimoire, Psyker level 2

I rolled Doubly Blessed on the table, that's why.

 Chaos Space Marines: Combined Arms Detachment

•  2x 10-man Cultists
• Be'lakor
• Daemon Prince of Nurgle, wings, armor, Psyker level 3, the Black Mace 

If the list looks familiar, that's because I used last week's list; I just needed to remove some upgrades to compensate for the lack of +10% campaign points. So it's just a 'regular' Flying Circus with 13 warp charges on the table.

I'm going to butcher the names of the units/upgrades, but here goes:

Craftworld Eldar: Combined Arms Detachment (primary detachment)

• Wraithlord, 2 Brightlances, 2 Flamers, warlord
• Spiritseer
• 2x 5-man Dire Avengers
• Wave Serpent
• 5-man Wraithblades 
• 5-man Wraithguard, D-scythes
• 5-man Wraithguard, D-cannons

Dark Eldar: Combined Arms Detachment

• 2x 5-man Cabalite Warriors
• Archon, Webway Portal, 2++ force field
• Haemonculus, Webway Portal, template weapon, -2 Ld aura, all the good stuff
• Raider 

What we have here is D-cannons in deep strike reserve with the Archon (no scatter) and D-scythes with the Haemonculus in the Wave Serpent in deep strike reserve (no scatter, disembark for perfect template coverage). Let the show begin...

Deployment

Dawn of War deployment. On the lower left corner, we got the Raider with the Wraithblades; the Wraithlord and a squad of Cabalites. A squad of Dire Avengers already ran up to the rock in the middle (we were already into turn 1 when I remembered to take a photo), the other is hiding behind the tower. Another squad of Cabalites in the forest.
I got cultists in the ruin in the lower right corner, and Kairos hiding behind a wall. Daemon Prince next to him. Be'lakor with other cultists in the middle. Black Mace Guy on the other end. Nurglings infiltrated the church and the ruined tower.
Relic in the middle.

Eldar, turn 1.

One squad of Dire Avengers moves forward. Raider moves forward, then Flat Out into my deployment zone. That's it.

Daemons, turn 1.

Be'lakor swoops forward and Shrieks the Dire Avengers. They run. Nurglings move forward to take the objective.
Black Mace Guy swoops forward.
Nurgle Prince moves in. The plan was for Kairos to pop the Raider with a psychic barrage, then the Nurgle Prince could charge the contents. The plan failed, with the Raider jinking one power and only getting immobilized by the other.
Cultists move towards the Relic.
Warp Storm, 3. Reroll with Kairos. 2. Tests across the board. 1 wound on the Nurglings, 1 on Kairos, 2 on the Nurgle Prince. Epic.
The Prince then charged the Raider and exploded it on Hammer of Wrath. Stand fast for incoming D.

Eldar, turn 2.

Those are the reserve rolls. Yay.

 The state of the board at the beginning of turn 2.

Shooting all across the board, with 2+ Jink working as expected. The Wraithblades charge the Nurgle Prince, and bring it down to 1 wound. I get one more turn of Grimoire on Kairos!

Daemons, turn 2.

 

I did not dare land with anything due to the still incoming D-weapons. Everybody's swooping.
Warp storm, 2. Reroll that. 3. 2 Characters: Nurgle Prince and Kairos. On 4+, it's Kairos. Roll...

... but I manage to roll exactly 9. Disaster averted.

The Nurgle Prince then butchers the Wraithblades.

Eldar, turn 3.

 Perfect Deep Striking close to each other for Haemonculus shenanigans (he's still in the Wave Serpent).

D-scythes working as expected, no more Nurgle Prince. The D-cannons fired on Kairos, but snapshots/2++ rerollable saved my hide.

Daemons, turn 3.

I charged the Dire Avengers with the Nurglings to take the objective for Supremacy. Failed.
Psychic shenanigans. Nothing spectactular.
Kairos flies off the table.
Be'lakor and Black Mace Guy land at safe distances.
A hero Cultist reaches the Relic.

Eldar, turn 4.

The D-scythes begin to footslog. Good thing I took out the Raider.
The D-cannons embark on the Wave Serpent.
The Haemonculus and Spiritseer team up to kill the cultists.

Daemons, turn 4.

Kairos flies back from Reserves. A combination of Vector Strike and psychics destroy 2 D-scythes.
Be'lakor takes a look at the Wraithlord.

A good run takes Kairos further away. Be'lakor takes a wound due to going last in difficult terrain, then annihilates the Wraithlord. Slay the Warlord!

In the mean time, Black Mace Guy took 2 wounds from 4+ poisoned Kabalite rifles. I wanted to lessen Overwatch with a spell, and they ran off the table. Nurgle units can't run, I don't have anything to assault, so I can't get that objective...

Eldar, turn 5.

 The Eldar dead pile is growing. I'm still not sure I can win this without the Nurgle Prince.

 The Wave Serpent turns towards Kairos and the D-guys disembark. I get away due to snapshots/4++/Staff of Tomorrow.
The D-scythes embark instead.

Daemons, turn 5.

In a do-or-die move, Be'lakor moves in to assault the D-cannons.
Black Mace Guy moves in on the remaining Dire Avengers.

Excellent moments.
Black Mace guy destroys the Dire Avengers and takes the objective.
Kairos kills the remaining Kabalites, summons a Herald using Sacrifice, then passes the Grounding Test. Thus I take the objective in the ruins.
Be'lakor survives the Overwatch. I fully expected to kill them all, but the Archon had the 2++, and resisted all my attacks. I was Invisible, so we're stuck in combat.

Turn 6.

No pictures, so I'm not sure of everything that happened. My other cultist squad finally died to D-scythes (way to go overkill). I used Kairos for a tactical summoning onto the Relic. Black Mace Guy and the other Nurgling squad held objectives.
Be'lakor and the Archon are still in combat.

Eldar, turn 7.

 

 The state of the board. The D-scythes assaulted the Nurgling for Blood and Guts. The Haemonculus assaulted the Daemonettes.

 

 

Daemons, turn 7.

Being the last turn, I landed Kairos behind the D-scythes. A psychic barrage killed enough of them so I got the center objective.
The hero Daemonettes resisted the Haemonculus; I was left alive to contest the Relic.
Be'lakor was still locked in combat, at 1 wound.

All that was left here was to tally up the points. I was worried, but in the end I came through at a whopping 18-10 (which got down to 14-6 according to the tournament rules). Epic handshake for an epic matchup!

Conclusions

• Eldar are cheesy. Period.
• I used the same list which got steamrolled last week. I'll have to rethink this.
• Cultists are awesome.
• Nurglings are awesome.
• Cabalites are awesome.
• Kairos is awesome, with proper support.
• Black Mace Guy did far less than expected for his cost. To be honest, he was far from the serious fighting; but he did rule the other side of the table, and scored lots of points for the objectives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magnetized weapon arms, plus green stuff (part 2)

Magnetized Chaos Terminators - part 1, bodies

You've met them before in this article about removing paint, although I didn't show much of them back then. I have big plans for these guys as far as magnetizing goes, so let's dig in.

First of all, here's a picture of the miniatures without their arms:

Unfortunately, I did break a couple of the arms and weapons, either during stripping off the paint or when I broke off the arms. I had to "saw" off some of them, while other came off easily. This will be addressed later.

Further damage happened when I drilled in the holes. This was also before my larger variety of magnets arrived, so I first tried to fit in a 5mm magnet. Take a look at the guy on the left. I drilled in a hole, then made it larger with my hobby knife. It's now as large as the arm socket, but still not enough to fit the large magnet in. Other holes caved in - such as the second one from the right.

Unlike the metal Plague Marines, the Terminators are hollow inside. So I pushed a bit of green stuff even in regular holes, so that I will have something to stick the magnets to. Larger and broken holes just needed larger pieces of putty.

Due to the malleable nature of the stuff, I filled broken holes to the brim:

Then I just pushed the magnet in, and smoothed out the surface using the knife blade (wet, of course).

This is the end result:

... and on the other side:

I then immediately put the green stuff back into the freezer.
Another thing to note: due to the stuff being more malleable (as I said previously, due to the larger amount of yellow part), I could not start testing the magnets right away. They just came out when subjected to the pull of an other magnet. I left these guys out for the night (and a couple more days, due to lack of time to work on them), and the green stuff hardened nicely. It's now as hard as plastic.
 

Magnetized Chaos Terminators - part 2, arms

I took a break from magnetizing while the stuff dried out and solidified. I couldn't even test my magnets while the green stuff wasn't solid. Even a knife blade could easily pull the magnet out of the putty.
When I got back to work, it was the usual drill.

 Drill some holes into the original arms...

 ... then place in some magnets.

The same goes for these loyalist Assault Terminator arms.

That Thunder Hammer will count as a power maul or force staff.

The original parts were pretty ugly at the shoulder joint. I think the miniatures were assembled using plastic glue (not super glue), as the pieces were practically melted together and I couldn't break them apart efficiently. So some shoulders and arms needed extra green stuffing to make sure they don't look wonky.

Finished

Here's the finished squad:

This is their original loadout.
The arms without shoulder pads are from the Assault Terminator kit: