Warcry Battle Report 2: Gloomspite Gitz vs. Jack's Pack

After yesterday's game, I was excited to try out my Goblins!

The scenario

We again rolled on the Tome of Champions mission table, and rolled up something that on the face of it looked very similar to last time. However, rather than trying to take each other's objectives, this time there was a fun mechanic where the objectives change their score each battle round.

This looks like lots of fun

We again skipped using the Twist cards, and randomly drew this battlefield:

I insisted we play one with the belltower, because it's cool

I had split my warband up as follows:

Dagger, Shield, and Hammer

My Shield with Boss Arfa ready to go, staring down Jack and Jadwiga

My Dagger, on the other side of my deployment

The terrifying opposition :¬o

The game

The first round was a mixed bag for me. Jack just deleted Ser Stabzalot the Squig Hopper, who is one of my two key models. But then in better news I got a Quad (I can't remember if it was native or by using a wild dice) and I used it on Boss Arfa. Even with our house rule reducing the power of the GG Quad it's still a better Rampage, and he promptly removed Ratatouille and Jadwiga in one activation! This gave me control of one of the primary (3-point) objectives this round.

That's how you take an objective

On the other side of the board there was nothing I could do about the other primary, other than take a cool photo of a Shoota lining up a shot

Round 1: 4:4

The primary and secondary objectives swapped over, so now there was a scramble for the new 3-pointers. I left the Netta cowering where he was and so Boss Arfa and the Hammer squad rushed forwards, but failed to take the contested objective.

Boss Arfa and Nasha managed to pin Jack against the wall

On the other side my Goblins didn't do much, other than keep the other primary objective safe.

Round 2: 8:8

This was an important round. Boss Arfa engaged Jack in an honourable duel, and managed to fell him in not-so-single combat. There was then a lot of jostling for position and some hits (including Szczepan using his AoE Quad to hurt my guys for 5 damage each!), but in the end I still wasn't able to steal this objective.

I love you Arfa!

On the other side Stikkit the Shoota "strategically withdrew", as he didn't fancy getting shot at any more given he only had two wounds left. Prog da Netta then ran over (I reckoned that objective was safe) and threw a net over Bjork da Orc, pinning him in place.

I imagine it's like catching a wasp under a glass: You don't want to be there when it gets out

Round 3: 12:12

In the final round Boss Arfa and Nasha finally managed to secure the objective they'd been fighting over, with Nasha blocking Maggie's path to be able to get to it...

Szczepan was glad there was no 5th round

...whilst on the other side another well-placed net kept the objective safe from a marauding orc.

R4: 19:13 to me!

Aftermath

It turns out Boss Arfa hadn't actually hurt Ratatouille, he'd just run off and gone on an adventure, gaining a destiny level in the process! My wife didn't get any artefacts, and had some bad luck with injuries: Willard Strawbelly the Guardsman got a temporary cracked rib, halving his wounds, and Terry got a temporary broken leg, reducing his movement.

Meanwhile, I got some Blight Serpent Venom, giving Ser Stabzalot +1 Strength, and Skwire the Stabba is now permanently blind in one eye (-1 Attacks)... which makes sense as his model has an eyepatch!

Thoughts

I. Love. Goblins. The two fast models (although Ser Stabzalot did nothing this game) and some helpful chaff make these guys lots of fun. Plus SQUIGS! Boss Arfa is also amazing. I took seven of her models out in this game, and Arfa accounted for five of those :¬o

My wife got even better at the game, as she was using wait actions like a boss :¬(

Warcry: Our warbands

Before posting any battle reports, I thought it would be a good idea to quickly list what is in our warbands.

Me: Sacrosanct Chamber

995 points of slow, hard-to-play, surprisingly fragile models with awful abilities ;¬)

The male Evocator will be added once I get... [does maths] ...a lot more glory :¬/

1. Evocator Prime (male) - Agastian
2. Castigator (male) - Bibatsu
3. Castigator (female) - Chanda
4. Greatmace Sequitor - Daitian
5. Evocator (female) - Ella

More images are here.

Me: Gloomspite Gitz

985 points this time, and I'm wishing I had a Sneaky Snuffler as that would be a great 15 point upgrade to take me to 1000, but oh well!

Arrayed for their first battle

1. Boingrot Boss - Boss Arfa
2. Squig Hopper - Ser Stabzalot
3. Squig - Nasha
4. Stabba - Skwire
5. Stikka - Pokezit
6. Netta - Prog da Netta
7. Shoota - Redkap
8. Shoota - Stikkit
9. Shoota - Dibbz

More images are here.

My wife: Jack's Pack

Playing with your own toy mans is definitely the most fun, especially in a campaign setting like Necromunda, Blood Bowl or Warcry. So to let my wife do just that, I decided to create a custom warband for her, based on her somewhat eclectic mix of painted models. It was surprisingly easy and came to 995 points.

Jack, her first model and the warband's leader

Szczepan the Fanatic, and her best model to date (it is amazing for a third model!)

1. Space Marine (Raptor-Prime with Hurricane Crossbow) - Jack
2. Fanatic (Savage Orruk with Bone Totem) - Szczepan
3. Sister of Battle with Meltagun (Grundstok Thunderer with Aetheric Fumigator but with +1 Move, +3 Wounds, and +20 points) - Jadwiga
4. Guardsman (Goblin Shoota) - Willard Strawbelly
5. Termagant (Namarti Reaver) - Terry 
6. Termagant (Namarti Reaver) - Maggie
7. Linerat (Skaven Clanrat with Shield) - Ratatouille
8. Lineork (Savage Orruk Morboy) - Bjork da Orc
9. Snotling (Gnoblar) - Fee
10. Snotling (Gnoblar) - Dollop

Their abilities are:

• The Termagants keep the Reavers' double ability, but renamed to "Living Ammunition"
• The Skaven, Jadwiga, and a future pet get the Skaven universal double, renamed to "Hasty Retreat"
• The Lineork gets his double, renamed to "Duff 'Em Up!"
• Jack keeps the Rapid Fire triple
• The Snotlings keep the Sneaky Traps triple
• Szczepan loses the toughness buff, and gains the AoE damage quad that Idoneth and some other warbands have

With 10 models and decent shooting, I think this is a powerful warband. It lacks a terrifying melee bruiser, but Szczepan and Jadwiga can play that role well and there is a lot of damage overall.

Warcry Goblins: Da gitz are ready!

My Grots are finally ready to take to the Eightpoints! The final batch were these three 'knights', which were as much fun to paint as the original one I did last year as my test model. This really is a lovely kit with so much character, and it's just fun to build your own customised models.

And here are all da lads assembled, after only ~4 months:

The above is obviously too much for a starting warband, but it gives me options both for starting and for expanding.

The list

Gloomspite Gitz are apparently the most powerful warband in Warcry if you build them accordingly. As I'm looking to keep it fun and narrative, I've therefore chosen a starting list which has some of the good models, but isn't crazy-good:

1. Boingrot Bounder Boss
2. Squig Hopper
3. Squig
4. Netta
5. Stikka
6. Stabba
7. Shoota
8. Shoota
9. Shoota

Nine models, 985 points, and one of everything but a Herda (who will come later). Nice!

Warcry Goblins: The other lads

Due to paint supply issues I've worked on two batches of three models, finishing both of them within a few days of one another, shown here with and without flash.

Six models in a month is close to a record for me!

Warcry Goblins: Shootas

After a break over Xmas, New Year, and my birthday (where I got the Warcry starter!), I've got back into painting and have painted up the next three members of my Gloomspite Gitz warband: da shootas!

Warcry Goblins: Squiggly beasts!

So after last time, I've decided to keep on using Mechanicus Standard Grey as my undercoat, which leads me to my next two models, who are adorable...

Their names are Basha and Nasha.

Adventures in Contrast: Squig Hopper

Just a quick one to post the latest model I've painted, this time going back to experimenting with Contrast paints but combined with some traditional base+wash+highlight.

These are gorgeous models, with this squig's pose and face being the most vanilla of them all and still full of energy. The customisation and dynamic poses of these are really something special, and show that GW can do some amazing work these days.

My painting started from a base of Mechanicus Standard Grey rather than the off-whites that are usual for Contrast paints, inspired initially by this guide and further reinforced by this video guide. However, it's clear that the video's zenithal highlighting with Grey Seer made his colours a lot lighter, as the red on mine in particular is very dark (in the flesh it looks even darker than in this photo).

For the other Contrast areas - the gums, robes, shoes, and the wood - this was fine, as I could highlight back up and get the look I wanted. But the darkness of the red means they don't have the visual pop of the classic squig hoppers.

'Eavy Metal-painted squig hoppers

So now I'm not sure whether to carry on as-is, or try another one using Wraithbone as the primer.

Blood Bowl Orcs painting: Goblin #2

My initial intention had been to only paint one Goblin for my Orc team, but the model I chose is the least interesting of those in the kit, and for a 'full' roster I might eventually need two. So I decided to suck it up and paint a second one, who will probably become the one I will field because he looks awesome!

One Orc Lineman to go, then it's just a case of sticking on numbers and varnishing them and this team is done!

Blood Bowl match report: Da Fragile Rokkaz vs. My Little Warband half 2

So, over two months after this happened, we finally got to play the second half. In that time summer happened, democracies descended into anarchy, empires rose and fell, and I got married.

Previously, on the Imperial Cabal Network...

Things weren't looking good for our plucky Goblin 'heroes':

• They were down 1:0 at halftime
• Due to referees who followed the rules there would only be 10 players starting the half, none of those being non-Troll positionals
• The Chaos Chosen team were receiving

And now for the conclusion...

I deployed pretty conservatively, with my two Sidestep Gobbos on either flank and the meat in the centre. His deployment was asymmetric, although I'm not sure why.

The ball scattered back onto the dead centre of his half, after he got brilliant coaching (so we were now both on 4 re-rolls), and the half began...

His turn 9 saw him push some of my players around, but no one went down. In my turn I came up with some plans, but then this happened very early on in my turn:

Stunned Troll, fine goat :¬(

He then capitalised on this and pushed forward some more, bringing his ball carrier up as well. However he didn't spot that I could get a 1-die blitz on his ball carrier with my #14, Tokey Mokey. But unfortunately I rolled a push, and I was too scared to re-roll so left it at that.

It's starting to look like a mess

But Tokey Mokey got to blitz again next turn, again getting a push, and again I chickened out. Meanwhile my opponent was starting to get very annoyed with my #9, Gobo da Gobbo, who was using Sidestep to keep a tackle zone on the ball carrier.

At this point my opponent gloated that he'd surrounded my Trolls. But I pointed out that it was actually his team who were surrounded by my Goblins!

By the end of his turn 12, this is where we had gotten to.

What happened next completely made the game for me.

Tokey Mokey made his third blitz on the carrier, and "third time's the charm" proved to be true as he knocked the Beastman down and got a KO!

Sprokkit, the green Troll, then CASed the Beastman in front of him, smashing his collar bone (-1 strength). The silver lining for my opponent's team is that at least there'd be steak on the menu after the match!

How things looked, post The Smashening

After this the match descended into an exercise in how many tackle zones could be put on the ball at once.

Gobo da Gobbo, he of the infuriating Sidestep fame, carefully explaining to the Blocker what his Troll mate will do to him

The next couple of turns maintained the violence: on turn 13 a Goblin was badly hurt and Fish Stikz (the blue Troll) blitzed and KO'd a Blocker, and then in my turn 14 Sprokkit managed to get his second CAS of the match (this time only a badly hurt).

I regret nothing!

After that nothing much happened other than a bit of jostling, leaving us like this at the end of the match:

Post-match interview

Given how badly the first half went, that was pretty good! OK, yes, I lost, shut up. But after getting no removals in the first half I managed four this half (to my opponent's one), didn't concede another touchdown, and nobody died. And I got my first two casualties!

My opponent played well, but was hurt by the lack of Block and facing a Dodgy opponent. He also spent too much time focusing on my Trolls (which he noticed independently), rather than going after my soft, green, gooey centre. In other news: he learnt to hate Sidestep :¬D

Admin

My MVP went to the Fanatic, as for the third time (out of three games) my MVP didn't go to either of the two Trolls, even though I always nominate both of them :¬( That's a 1/27 chance...

My opponent got 60k from the gate and gained one Fan Factor, whilst I got 70k and lost one Fan Factor. That leaves me with 150k to either spend or hoard in my private vault. Decisions, decisions...

Blood Bowl match report: Da Fragile Rokkaz vs. My Little Warband half 1

With my fiancée off on the first of her two hen dos, my best man's 6-year-old son invited me to a second stag do of my own. So on Saturday I made the trek to Guildford to see what he had in store for me: it was playing on the Wii, two games of chess, about 10 minutes of painting before he got bored, and "the fighting game" (a.k.a. "Uncle Ross getting jumped on"). I brought a couple of beers with me to numb the pain.

Pre-match

Once the two kiddiwinks were in bed we started the game of Blood Bowl we'd planned. My opponent had nearly finished painting up his Chaos Chosen team (one Beastman was still grey plastic), dubbed My Little Warband (motto: "Violence is magic!"). For my Goblins I'd hired a new Looney to replace Kutta Monsta and a Fanatic named Waaagh!-nimal. This left me 30TV higher than him, so he induced a Specialist Assistant Coach.

Was me starting the game with no inducements (such as BRIBES) a good idea? Maybe not. But compared to playing Goblins at all it was relatively sane.

He had 10,000 fans in attendance, and even though it was an away game for me I had 12,001 (the extra due to his eldest thinking my models had the better colours, a.k.a. a moral victory).

Given I was playing Goblins I expected to lose, but I saw two things in my favour:

1. His models were all freshly painted, and so destined to fail horribly.
2. One of his models was unpainted, and so would only be able to roll 1s.

Evidence for both of these universal laws can be found in point #5 in this link.

Drive 1

I won the toss and so elected to receive, but then we rolled a riot so I was down a turn already :¬(

I set up ready to cause as much damage as possible

The opposition were staring down some scary (mostly) greenskins!

The Fanatic went first, blowing a re-roll on his first block, but managed to cause a mess and knock down his first target and base another one. One troll blocked, another blitzed, and the Looney fouled, and so I had one prone and two stunned Beastmen. But then a bad thing happened: my Goblin who went to pick up the ball failed, giving my opponent a turnover, and I realised I'd left a one-square opening in the centre of my line. Oh bugger!

Can you spot the hole on the left of centre?

My opponent duly exploited this, and before he knew it ol' butterfingaz had two Beastmen and a Chosen running at him. I worked out this probably wasn't good, so decided to make my first dice roll of my third (although really second) turn the pick-up, so I could use a team re-roll if needs be and amscray out of there. Fail. Re-roll. Fail. Turnover. 1/27 chance of failing all three pick-ups. One sad Goblin.

At the end of my opponent's third turn things weren't looking great for me

Things hadn't changed much by the end of my fifth turn

It was my opponent's fifth turn when he eventually scored, and I won't provide a blow-by-blow account of the journey there, but here are the key points:

• By this stage I had broken armour a lot, but hadn't getten one single KO or CAS, which was crippling given I needed these to stay in the game after this drive.
• My opponent had trouble finding the Pows! on his dice, even when rolling 3 or 2 with a re-roll. The Goblin who failed the pick-ups must have been positively smeared in butter as he never went down.
• The Beastman who eventually scored was Beefy Blond, the unpainted one!

Convinced I'd done something to upset Nuffle, we went into the second drive on my turn 6 with no Goblins in reserve and a full Chosen team in front of me.

Drive 2

Even though I was disappointed in my heavy-hitters, the fans must have enjoyed the violence as their cheering brought my re-rolls back up to 3. And then I had some good luck: the ball landed in the paws of the Goblin on the far right of the LoS!

My set-up for the second drive

Hmm, how could I use this to my advantage...

My play was executed as follows:

1. Goblin in the left of the picture above dodged in to provide an assist against the Beastman in the centre of the LoS.
2. Green Troll passed Really Stupid.
3. Green Troll 3-dice blocked the Beastman to push him back.
4. Blue Troll declared a pass.
5. My opponent looked at me as if I was crazy.
6. Blue Troll passed Really Stupid.
7. Blue Troll moved next to the ball-carrying Goblin.
8. Blue Troll was not hungry.
9. Blue Troll fumbled the throw on a 2.
10. I looked at my re-rolls, and had three to use in three turns: "Re-roll!".
11. Blue Troll failed Loner on a 3.
12. I was sad.

How the pitch looked after my failed TTM

My opponent moved in to threaten me and made the TTM landing harder, but avoided basing my trolls

I tried to TTM again on my seventh turn, again failing with a fumble and rolling a 3 on the Loner roll

And on my turn eight? I yet again failed the TTM with a fumble and rolling a 3 on the Loner roll

My opponent ended the half with a traditional gang foul

Half-time punditry
That did not go well. I messed up at the end of my first real turn by leaving an opening, but other than that I don't think I did anything really wrong. Things just didn't go my way, Nuffle-wise:

• Failing three 3+ pick-ups in a row.
• I must have broken armour through blocks and fouls at least 6 or 7 times, and didn't get a single KO or CAS.
• I failed three TTMs on a fumble and rolling a 3 for Loner.

We called it there as we needed to sleep, so we'll play the second half another day. But being 1:0 down with only 8 Goblins (stupid not-blind ref!) and 2 Trolls versus a full Chosen team does not bode well...

My Little Warband: 1
Da Fragile Rokkaz: 0
Nuffle: 1 broken heart