So the scene is set. Each player is registered on the mighty empires map with a starting settlement and a roaming army. Every week each player is given 2 build points to allocate to their new settlement. This could purchase an armoury, or a stables etc. or upgrade such an existing facility for better in game benefits. Once a certain amount of points have been spent it is possible to upgrade to a town, unlocking new buildings and bonuses, eventually going beyond a giant city! Additional build points are “won” through winning your alloted game that night. Immediatly I spent my build points on creating an archery range for my town, and upgrading it again to level 2, providing a one use only ability to re roll all 1′s that failed to hit or wound in 1 shooting phase. By upgrading to level 2, this also allowed the re roll of any 2′s as well. (Higher levels become really nasty, with a level 4 range I believe not only can I one off re roll 1′s, 2′s and 3′s but also get my attacks doubled).

Of course there are several different buildings with many benefits to different areas and aspects of your army.

Additionally to the main building and pitched blood baths there are side quests which you are required to undertake in the best possible manner.  A cryptic clue is given around hinting towards the location of a powerful artefact which if found will no doubt be a great boon to your army! However moving around the mighty empires map was never going to be easy. Not only is a dice roll required to see how many spaces you move along the world, there are many interesting peices of terrain and local people as well as not so friendly farmsteads dotted around the empire. (More on these next post!) Thankfully enough, more than one player in the same location doesn’t instigate a fight!

After the simple rules were explained about the buildings, and a very leniant army list control, (1000pts that can be changed each week), the first battle lines were drawn up! I was ‘lucky’ enough to be pitched against a very mean looking Lizardman army.

(Early Pictures! Check for Updates)

While I cannot recall so much of my opponents forces, my list at the time was as follows:

• Noble (Eagle, Lance, Armour of Heroes, Shield)
• Mage (Silver Wand, Talisman of Protection)
• 20 Lothern Seaguard
• 10 Swordmasters
• 5 Ellyrian Reavers
• 5 Silver Helms

Magic: High Lore with Flames of the Phoenix and Courage of Aenarion.

It was a reasonable paced first game back into the fantasy genre for me, as very much enjoyed on both sides. The highlights for both sides both happen to be deeply tied in with the magic phase. My opponent had 3 large based lizardmen troll types (my lack of memory) surrounded by a good 30 skinks in a very large nasty block. Being large models the troll types were able to attack and then use the skinks as a meatshield, very nasty!

Unfortunatly for my opponent I managed to cast Flames of the Phoenix with an Irresistable Miscast (Double 6′s now miscast as well as irresistable!) and while my mage took a nasty wound, the remains in play spell caused a single strength 3 hit on every model. (Each turn this spell remains in play the strength inceases by 1). While the troll types just felt a warm breeze, the poor skinks however were roasted. Nearly 15 kills in one phase! With over half of the ‘meatshield’ in a nice melted pool, that was probably my most potent cast of that spell in memory.

On the other hand my opponent with the lore of the heavens managed to pull of a comet right in the middle of my backline. Fortunatly for the next 2 turns it did not land (on a roll of 4+ it lands I believe), although as a result its size and amount of hits it does is increased for every non landing turn. At first I was able to easily march away from the landing zone smiling, until a failed fear test sent my deadliest warriors fleeing in the general direction of where the comet was going to land. Sods law ensued and I fled directly under the marker the very same turn it landed. Needless to say a very large crater is all that remains of my swordmasters!

Overall whilst a very enjoyable first game, victory did go to my opponent. I took what I had learn’t and began plotting for the next week!

After a good 3 years of no wargaming or hobby related tasks it was a very strange experience to be actually spending money, and thinking about my collection, as well as immediatly jumping into assembly and painting!

Upon entering the store I was greated with that old warm friendliness of the Games Workshop staff, more notably the manager of the store. A good 10mins chat later I soon found myself playing the introduction game from the Island of Blood box set (High Elves and Skaven) and began to notice some very major changes in the rules since my last time. Most noteably for myself was the changes in the magic phase. To summarise in a single word, I guess you could say it was more ‘Volatile’.

Even though I was a complete novice to the new ruleset I was invited to take part in the Thursday nights vets Warhammer Fantasy Campaign, with the promise that I’d soon turn around and master the rules.

Very soon I took the bus home (after recently moving into city for uni all my collection was at home in storage still) and picked up a few old pieces of my High Elf collection, and on the way back popped into GW and grabbed the Island of Blood Set (any skaven players? ).

By this point thursday was only a day or two away so even after saying I’d have 1000pts assembled and undercoated, I still found myself sticking bits together just an hour before going out!

Roll on Thursday!

Well this is the first battle report to be posted on the blog, so please feel free to pick apart and suggest any improvement, feedback is more than welcome!

With my opponents list for our next game tonight being written adjacent to his list for this game, I am unable to get my hands upon it, and thus will have to update this post with the list later on.

As for my corner, I decided the first list to be both reckless and experimental, with little focus on victory and more focus on testing a few units of the force.

The list is as follows:

(All units are shown with upgraded extras, not all attached items/weapons etc..)

Hero – Exalted Hero

• Barded Chaos Steed
• Shield
• Mark of Nurgle
• Rending Sword
• Favour of the Gods

Core

20 Marauders

• Full Command
• Shields + Light Armour
• Mark of Nurgle

2 Units of 5 Chaos Warhounds

12 Chaos Warriors

• Shields
• Full Command
• Mark of Nurgle

5 Marauder Horsemen

• Light Armour
• Throwing Spears

Special

5 Knights of Chaos

• Standard Bearer
• Mark of Nurgle

It Begins

The choices were made crudely with unknown expectation, hounds for harassment joined with the marauders, main block of warriors, marauders and knights,  all blessed with Mark of Nurgle to provide a -1 to hit from shooting and a -1 WS to those pesky Wood Elves.

Deployment was simple, and fairly quick with a lack of troops on my part, and the first turn went to the Wood Elves. The traditional Wood Elf approach followed throughout, with myself marching through hails of arrows to reach combat range, with 2-5 tough warriors being slain each turn for the beginning few.  Magic for the start of the game was fairly ineffective with myself having none and my opponent miscasting (but luckily surviving!).

It wasnt long however until my hounds, and fast cavalry reached either flanks and began to charge, and the true colours of these units began to shine through. The hounds went from barking to yelping and even fleeing after seeing most of their pack being slaughtered, however the marauder horseman fared better, managing to break a unit of Glade riders, and trampling them in the aftermath.  They were unfortunately overwhelmed, and it became clear that additional support would be needed for them in the future.

(Please excuse the empty bases and colourful units, but due to limited packing space I needed to beg/borrow what was not brought!)

Just as soon as my bulk was approaching the front line, the fury of the Wood Elves hit, and boy they hit hard. A unit of 12 Wardancers charged into my 20 strong marauder block, slaying 12 in the first turn, and with only my champion able to fight back,the result was clear and my crazed warriors broke and fled, luckily without the Wardancers being able to overrun.

My Chaos warriors now in range charged a stunned block of 10 Archers, slaying 4 and holding fast. In response a unit of Glade riders charge the rear of the unit killing another 2 warriors, leaving just the unit champion.

Elsewhere my Chaos Knights, along with the joined Hero charged the nearest unit of Glade riders, destroying them all in the first turn! In response to the massacre a nearby Wood Elf Noble failed a panic test and fled 1″ away from the table edge before rallying, blocking myself of valuable victory points.

After drenching themselves in the blood of the Glade Riders, the Knights turned to the deadly Wardancers as they hunted down the few surviving marauders, charging and once again slaying all in just two turns, in return 2 of the Knights fell to the swirling blades.  As another counter movement, the Knights and Hero are swiftly flank charged by a unit of Eternal Guard, slaying yet another knight.

Back on the other side of the field, the lone surrounded champion fended off attacks of the archers and riders, and in return laid waste to another 3.

The previously fleeing marauders had now managed to rally, subsequently turning around in a rage and counter charging the eternal guard. Unfortunately this is where the dice rolls by the Wood Elves had grown very unlucky. The eternal guard failing their leadership test broke from combat, rolling then a double 1 for distance, the only roll that would have prevented them from breaking! Needless to say they were overrun and slaughtered.

As the mist of blood started to dissipate, we began to count up the all important Victory Points, to which we were both surprised.

DRAW

• 570VP to Chaos
• 506VP to Wood Elves

Conclusions

Overall it is clear to see that Chaos, if I can continue to play in the future, will be a very slow, deadly yet fun force to use. Against the Wood Elves in particular I have learnt that Warhounds seem to be a complete waste of time, however the harassment from the Horsemen was very effective, and will be something I will try to improve. As far as bulk troops I have to agree that Chaos Knights are some of the most deadly units in the game, however I was greatly caught out by the skill of the Wardancers.

Bring on the next game!

Back in its day, a few years ago this was a relatively hard raid instance to accomplish, and took 40 coordinated players to complete. This instance itself is a latter part of a storyline in Azeroth at that time of the growing threat of the silithid (think Starship troopers here).  To cut a rather long story short, you are here simply to finally put an end to the evil within Ahn’Qiraj, both leading and corrupting the silithid, including one Old God, C’Thun.

(Click for Larger Image)

The raid group I managed to complete it with, in just under an hour contained roughly 12 level 80 players, and a few lower levels for the drops. As you can already imagine, the difficulty level was absent, however the experience was fun nonetheless.

The final boss of the instance itself, C’Thun was a somewhat fun encounter, with a large eye firing laser beams, tentacles poking through the ground, and a random stomach phase, of which I was one of the randomly chosen players to be sucked into.

(Click for Larger Image)

However short this raid was to complete, it did give a great insight into the lore and ‘action’ of the time, and I would recommend trying these out to everyone who already hasn’t, maybe even to collect old school gear or increase reputation with old factions such as the Brood of Nozdormu.  With the upcoming cataclysm expansion, it is unclear how this raid will be affected, or brought back to life in future patches with the speculation of C’Thun’s resurrection, and the fact that an Old God cannot simply be killed in such a manner.

And please check back soon to see more old Vanilla raids revisited and enjoyed before Cataclysm!

So what lies in store for the future?..

All throughout the Wrath of the Lich King expansion players were exposed to the Lich King at every available opportunity, slowly introducing the villain, building ‘suspense’ or even hatred for him the closer players got to level 80. This was something that previously hadn’t been done before by the developers, and with some villains such as Illidan Stormrage in the Burning Crusade, many players did not really know who he was and why they were bashing down his front door.

This feeling did not stop at 80 either; new areas such as the Argent Tournament and raids such as Trial of the Crusader brought players into contact again with the Lord of the Scourge, fuelling that ever burning hatred.  He even featured in a phase of the last boss of Ulduar, Yogg-Saron, who famously quotes that “No King Rules Forever”.

With the long-awaited release of patch 3.3, and the introduction of the Icecrown Citadel raids players finally reached the ultimate showdown, something they have been waiting for since the very release of the expansion.  But what is coming next?

The start of Cataclysm Alpha testing has begun; (you can see more up to date previews here) meaning a possibility of at least 4-5 months until release. I could be wrong however, but Blizzard needs to come up with some content pretty quickly, else Arthas will end up being ‘farmed’ the same way as The Sunwell was. Blizzard has already stated they did not want this to happen.

There was a slight rumour/release of a possible patch 3.3.5 being The Ruby Sanctum, rounding off the story of the dragonflights in Northrend, however this seems to have faded away. Really all we can do is sit tight, safe in the knowledge that Blizzard will not disappoint.

I was drawn into the hobby of table-top Wargaming nearly 10 years ago through the many cousins of mine, most of which already had developed an interest. While some may hate on it, my first introductions to the game was the ‘square base’ Warhammer Fantasy Battles, my first choice of which being the noble High Elves. After a very long period, covering both 2 game and army editions, the cold whisperings of Tzeentch started to flood to my head, and change was indeed needed, and by pure chance it was granted to me. On the release of the new Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles a few years ago, I was lucky enough to win one of the many Games-Workshop release competitions, namely the dwarf and dice competition. Simply put, guess how many dwarf and dice are in the jar! The prize was a free box set of your choice, and I immediately went with the idea of Tomb Kings.

This second collection was vastly smaller than the first, being over a shorter time period and a loss of interest in the hobby as a whole. However one thing was to save me, Warhammer 40,000. After many colleagues at the time also playing this, it wasnt long before I was drawn in. The release, Assault on Black Reach was a fantastic opportunity for myself to begin my journey, and Space Marine collection, and for a friend of mine to expand his Ork horde.

And that’s really it! I still find myself working on the never-ending backlog of painting, and hope to once again enjoy the odd game, as well as also prepare for the day I face Nick over at Rane Projects!

In the near future I also hope to go into more detail with my collections, with plenty of images (which this post seems to be lacking in!). Hopefully this will be open to help others, as well as be criticised for improvement.

After being a long time on and off, and both hardcore and casual endgame player, I have explored and accomplished most of what was on offer. However one thing that I had yet to try was the Arena system in-game, mainly due to the lack of PvP gear, and the time to acquire it. After seeing an advert for the arena pass tournament I immediately signed up, and eagerly began research into the Arena system. I suppose you could say I was throwing myself into the deep end…

Well after said shaky start, thousands of European players poured into the server, leaving locations such as Orgrimmar packed full of eager players waiting to buy gear.

The competition allows players to create up to 3 instant and well geared level 80′s of their choice, making it a great opportunity to create new classes to test out and explore. My first was an old favourite, a Discipline Priest, which is nothing new. My second choice was new, which was a Rogue. The tournament runs in such a way as to allow players time to grow accustomed to these new classes, and to test out different specs by staging a 4 week ‘practice’ window. Simply put the ranking ladder wont open until after this time period.

With nearly all other content other than arena switched off on these servers, players must find their own entertainment outside the ring. One past time, which has grown over the years is the all on all PvP enabled Gurubashi Arena in Stranglethorn Vale. Just half an hour in from the opening of the event people had begun to gather down there, and what no better way to begin testing my Rogue.

The event itself is ranked on teams of 3 in ranked 3vs3 matches, however both 2vs2 and 5vs5 can be played for fun. I have yet to still find a team, or make a 3rd character, but have however plenty of time to make the tricky decision.

There are a few rewards at the end of the event, such as in-game pets and titles, however due to European laws on online gambling and age limits, the US has an additional prize that we don’t. The Winning team receives a prize of $200,000.

Still watch this space for more updates, and later on I will also post an in-depth view of my 3 characters during this event and their respective teams, specs, enchants, gems and rotations and things I have learnt along the way.