A tidy workplace is a happy workplace

Finally got one of these great cabinets. I've wanted one for ages and the last one I had was already getting cramped so was lucky to pick this up off a local trading page. I also took the opportunity to tidy my workspace!

Kristoff mounts Big K!

Ever since I got Big K (my giant bone dragon) I've been desperately trying to find a rider for him (or her, there's no way to tell). Most of the mounted GW Vampires are a bit rubbish, the one that comes with the Terrorgheist box set is lovely but I'd already used him for foot slogging Kristoff so I have been searching the internet for months. Then a couple of days ago I was rummaging around in my LGS' bitz box and what did I find? A full Mannfred Mortarch of the Night sprue! I couldn't believe my luck. I don't even want to change him because the model is so lovely however he is dwarfed by Big K. I may need to add some kind of throne or saddle just to make it look reasonable.

As you can see he looks a bit awkward on Big K at the moment so I'll be modifying a saddle with chains for him soon.

Troop transports

I've not had great experiences with plastic cases and foam inserts when transporting armies. There's always a spear snapped off or a large model where the paint has rubbed off a spiky bit. I've found that the best way to transport figures is in their units stood upright. I've been looking for cases that I could do this in and as you saw in earlier posts my current way of moving armies around is fraught with danger and public scrutiny

(Like a tray of well painted misunderstandings)

Today I found two of these for £3 each, great price for them. I'm going to put rubberised steel sheets on the bottom of them. I magnetise each of my models' bases in order to make them easy to move around so fitting metal sheets to the bottom of these boxes will turn them into the perfect way to safely get these guys to battle.

The only issue is that Mr T (my terrorgheist) is slightly too tall for them. This will be fine though as I can just leave the top off. What it does do is provide an area filled with tiny toys for a cat to jump in.

(Pictured - Mr T pre cat fear based destruction)

The Tiny Tournament Trio

Today was the big day! After two weeks of getting lists together and speed painting zombies it was finally time to take my tournament army into the fray! I'm not a naturally competitive person so tend to pick units I like the look of or like the background of instead of what's best to win battles however with this list I'd sought help on forums, written a few lists and finally got a list that I liked and was competitive (see earlier post).

I have to say I've been excited about the tournament for weeks so this morning was a blur as I got the army all together and filled my bag with army books, dice and pork scratchings. You can see the assembled force in a shambles below:

As I don't currently own a carry case big enough this is how I transport my force. It's not great and I got some odd looks as I meandered through Lichfield city centre desperately trying to stop gale force winds from throwing my terrorgheist off the tray and smashing it into pieces on the concrete below. 

7 people had bought tickets for the event at Titan Games but in the end only 3 showed up. Tom with his Thanquol led clanrat heavy Skaven army, Matt with his character unit wall of destruction Ogre Kingdoms force and me with my zombie conga lines. As there were three of us it made sense to just play a game against each opponent, 3 games, then tally up victory points. As there were prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place it was really just a case of who was getting which place!

We rolled dice to see who'd be getting the first game. Matt and Tom rolled highest so I sat this one out. As you can see from the pic below Tom's army is two massive hordes of clanrats, two warp lightning cannons and Thanquol. Matt on the other hand has a fairly even spread of Ogre units with a focus on his character heavy ironguts to hold up the middle. Matt has a sneaky tactic of using 3 sabretusks ahead of his army to block charging units however Tom won this first game after completely dominating with Thanquol. In a 2000pts army Thanquol is stupidly overpowered, him and Boneripper just tore through any units they got near and dominated every phase of the game. 

The second game was Tom and myself. You can see my block units of Skeletons and Zombies, a tactic that I hadn't used before but I'd been assured was how I should build Vampire Counts armies. In the end I won. It was a tough battle again dominated by Thanquol however he got bogged down trying to beat down 80 zombies and wasted three turns while my Vampire Lord, Kristoff, tore through everything else on the table. 

I forgot to take a picture of the third battle as it had been a long day. Matt really knows his Ogres and he regularly plays against Vamps so he was a seasoned vet in this situation. It started well with my Terrorgheist actually killing a unit of 3 Mournfangs but after Kristoff charged the character heavy Ironguts unit, got himself killed and left a lone necromancer to take an ogre unit in the face it was all over. My army crumbled to nothing and Matt got himself a complete and absolute victory. As we'd all won one and lost one Gareth, from Titan, gave us each a box set for our armies. Overall a fun day with some great players. Looking forward to the next one!

(My spoils)

Kristoff Von Purchenstein's Tourney List

This Saturday I will be playing my first Tournament with Kristoff. It's a small 2000pts tournament and it looks like there's only 6 players so it should be a short one however I'm really excited about it (hence the painting marathon on the zombies). Here's the list I'll be taking which comes in at 1996pts:

• Lords (514pts)

  • Kristoff Von Purchenstein - Vampire Lord (514pts)

    Heavy Armour, Lore of the Vampires, Quickblood, Red Fury, Shield, The General of Undeath, Wizard Level 4
    Quickblood, Red Fury, The General of Undeath, The Hunger, Undead, Vampiric
    

    • Magic Items (100pts)

      BRB - Ogre Blade, BRB - Talisman of Preservation, BRB - The Other Trickster's Shard

• Heroes (185pts)

  • Herberton the Reanimator - Necromancer (90pts)

    Lore of the Vampires, Wizard Level 1
    Undead
    

    • Magic Items 

      AB - Book of Arkhan 

  • Lucille De La Verde - Tomb Banshee (95pts)

• Core (500pts)

  • Cantelegro's lost - Zombies (180pts)

    60x Zombie (180pts)

  • Skeleton Warriors (260pts)

    Champion (10pts), Musician (10pts), 46x Skeleton Warrior (230pts), Standard Bearer (10pts)

  • The Reanimated - Zombies (60pts)

    20x Zombie (60pts)
    

• Special (572pts)

  • Grave Guard (239pts)

    19 Grave Guard, Champion (10pts), Musician (10pts), Standard Bearer (10pts)
    Killing Blow, Undead

  • Hexwraiths (150pts)

    5x Hexwraith (150pts)

  • Spirit Host (45pts)

    Spirt Host (45pts)

  • Vargheists (138pts)

    3x Vargheist (138pts)
    

• Rare (225pts)

  • Terrorgheist (225pts)

Land of the Dead (Zombies part 4)

Phew! They're finished! Oh god that was a gruelling couple of days but I think you'll agree well worth it. I'm pleased with the snow bases, they take models to the next level of quality I think.

Day of the Dead (Zombies part 3)

It's day 3 and we're in the final stages of basing! Just some snow and we're done!

I'll be so pleased when these are done