This year has been all about the rats so far and it’s been fun. Although the number of games I’ve won seems to have steadily dropped over time. That’s not the worst thing in the world, I play rats because I enjoy the fluff and the aesthetic, not for their hard hitting, punchy and incredibly reliable elite units (wink). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying ratkin are a bad army, on the contrary, there are some great players who play very effectively with them, it’s just that I’m not one of them.
It’s fair to say my army has seen better days since I completed it in 2021. So, this year I decided to try and give my vermin a bit of a glow up. This has involved removing models from bases, giving both models and bases some fresh paint and then repopulating the bases. It’s not necessarily a time-consuming process, but it can be a bit fiddly. Because of this the relatively good start I made at the start of the year slowed to a virtual halt, as did a kit bash I had started to replace one of my tunnel runner regiments.
However, with Steve Hildrew’s Bullrun on the horizon I’ve found myself suddenly reaching for the paint brushes again. This is the third Bullrun event Steve’s run and I’m really looking forward to it because it is very different in terms of scoring and scenarios to most events I attend. Importantly it has a hobby component to the overall score, so for this reason I decided that whilst I will be unlikely to make it past the bottom table (and I certainly wouldn’t sniff at coming away with another of Steve’s lovely wooden spoons) I can do something about the general appearance of my army.
As is the way with so many things, I haven’t had the time to do as much as I would like, but I’m really happy that I have had time to sort out three of my core units. My warriors (who will be acting as Shock Troops) and Shock Troops have been given some highlights and a bit more colour. With the Shock Troops I’m really happy that their skull helmets look more noticeably skull like – this is a bit of fluff I really like and I’m quite keen to build another horde of these.
With the warriors I’m excited to have spent some time on their shields. I love the mix of designs and really wanted to bring these out.
The tunnel runners (the new Goblin chariots and mincers) are simply fab, and whilst I don’t mind the Deadzone models, I’ve wanted to do something a bit more interesting with this unit for a while. It’s also got me thinking about how great it would be if Mantic could produce a few more characters/more dynamic individuals for the factions. Don’t get me wrong, the rank and file plastics are great, but it would be nice to have a range of models that could be added to mutli-bases to create some extra energy.
So that’s it for now. Time is not completely up, and I have a couple of little extra things I’m hoping to add before Sunday, but the main elements are done and I’m thoroughly looking forward to getting on the motorway on Sunday.
I started running tournaments last year and I’m really enjoying it. One thing I haven’t quite yet decided on yet is whether I prefer sitting on the side lines and totting up the scores or running around manically totting up the scores and playing games.
This time around I hadn’t expected to be playing and had been planning on painting some of my Brothermark. However, due to a very last minute drop out I found myself packing up my rats for a day of gaming.
I’m back to playing Ratkin this year. I find them a massively fun army to play, but with lots of synergies and an abundance of melee 4/5 they are not the most consistent armies to play. My list consisted of:
Horde of Warriors with plague pots
Horde of Shock Troops with Jessie’s Boots and plague pots
Regiment of Scurriers with plague pots
Regiment of Hackpaws
Regiment of Tunnel Runners with Brew of Sharpness
Regiments of Vermintide (2)
Mutant Rat Fiends (2)
Mounted War Chief with Blade of Slashing
Twitch Keenear
Mother Cryza
Scud
Game 1 against Forces of the Abyss
Scenario: Loot
The Forces of the Abyss brought a lot of Molochs (three hordes), two chroneas, two succubi regiments, their larvae and a couple of warlocks. The demons represent a pretty terrifying prospect for my rats as most their units are capable of one shotting pretty much everything in my army. It dawned on me though that my army was quite a bit faster. So I decided my best option was to try and get around one of his flanks with Scud and the hackpaws and break up his formidable fighting line.
It started pretty well. Scud, the hackpaws and the war chief made their way down the right flank, distracting one of the chroneas and shutting down one of the warlocks. Soon the flank was starting to fall apart. Things were going well for the rats until a double one materialised. The unfortunate dice role kept a regiment of succubi on the table and allowed a horde of mollochs to get stuck into the units keeping the demons busy on the left flank. Although I was expecting that flank to collapse at some point it was happening too quickly. The demons were quickly able to chew up my centre and escape with two of the tokens leaving my scurriers holding one, meaning the demons took the win.
Game 2 against Nightstalkers
Scenario: Salt the Earth
I was very excited about this match up as the Nightstalkers in question are one of my favourite armies, beautifully painted and amazingly themed. The army was a nice mix of units, a void lurker, a shadow hulk, a couple of planar apparitions, phantoms, butchers, blood worms, scarecrows and Essenyshra.
This time I threw the hackpaws and war chief way out on the left flank with Scud, a fiend and the tunnel runners on the right and everything else in the middle. On the right the hackpaws did their best to avoid lightening bolts and phantoms. The war chief broke away and charged the void lurker, managing to tie it up for about three turns. On the right flank the tables were turned, ratkin lightening bolts removed a phantom troop and Twitch repeatedly hexed one of the planar apparitions. Then the rat war machine swung into action pulling apart reapers, smashing scarecrows and grabbing objectives. Although the nightstalkers managed to take out Scud after a double one kept him in combat with the butchers and allowed the shadow hulk to get flank on the demonspawn.
In the centre the void lurker finished off a fiend but the fight back floundered as a planar apparition and phantoms took far too long to see off the warrior horde.
At the start of turn six rats held three tokens, nightstalkers held two. With few options remaining it looked as though the rats would take the day, but the nightstalkers still had a shenanigan up their sleeves. Essenyshra made her way into the centre of the table and enthralled the tunnel runners, drawing them away from their objective leaving the game a draw.
Game 3 against Nightstalkers
Scenario: Invade
In the first round there had been a nightstalker vs nightstalker game that had ended in a draw. In my previous game I had played one of those armies, now I got to play the second, so I knew this was not going to be an easy ride. Although there were some differences between the lists core elements of planar apparitions, two void lurkers (rather than one and a shadow hulk), phantom troops, scarecrows, blood worms and Esenyshra were all in attendance.
I spread my forces evenly along the left flank and put my hackpaws and the war chief on the far right again. Once again, the riders played a patient game, keeping out of the charge range of phantoms, shadow hounds and a void lurker. A round of shooting from the scurriers took down a phantom troop, but the stand off continued until I made a mistake and gave the void lurker an opportunity to charge my tunnel runners that wouldn’t allow me the opportunity to fight back with anything else. I wasn’t too worried, even when Essenyshra joined in, as the runners were fully rallied to 16/18 and were inspired. Silly me! A high nerve roll wavered the chariots. Fortunately, the war chief was able to get in and stop the creature from flying, although this meant its only option was to finish what it had started with the wheels in the next turn. After that though the mutant rat fiend and war chief extracted their revenge. All this allowed the hackpaws to move around the flank and provide support in removing one of the scarecrow hordes, before moving into the nightstalker’s half to score my only points.
On the left flank things did not go well! I had problems dealing with the second void lurker which cost me Scud, then the blood worm legion (with Brew of Strength) went to town on munching everything that went near it consuming a mutant rat fiend, a horde of shock troop, Mother Cryza and a regiment of vermintide. With the legion and a surviving horde of scarecrows firmly in my half the game was a loss however a near comical showing by my dice in the final turn really didn’t help.
My war chief and scurriers had spent the last three turns of the game trying to kill a troop of shadow hounds, and continued to fail to do so in the final round. The hackpaws needed to roll a 4 for the nerve test to kill Essenyshra, they rolled a 3 and the surviving mutant rat fiend flank charged the last void lurker, pummelled it into oblivion and then… you guessed it… rolled a double one!
Thoughts on my list
The results of my last two events haven’t been great, but the games have been really fun, and most have been close. With both my 1995 and 2300 lists I feel a couple of relatively minor changes will improve how they play.
I thought the hackpaws did a marvellous job on the flanks, and the war chief did a great job of distracting troublesome monsters and characters, just what I had bought him for. These units were definitely my MVPs.
I’ve always seen Twitch and the Tangle as being either/or choices within a list. Originally I favoured Twitch because I like faster armies, which means my experience of the Tangle is that it gets left behind. The more games I’ve played with Twitch the more of a fan I have become, I find that when I take the Tangle now, I regularly find myself disappointed I don’t have Hex and getting frustrated that 2 dice Banechants often become a thing in the closing turns of the game. Hex definitely played a big role in the second game, effectively shutting down one planar apparition, and I can’t help but think it would have also impacted the third game if Twitch hadn’t failed to cast for three turns!
In terms of those tiny changes I was talking about… as much as I love my mutant rats fiends I’m not sure this army is the right build to run two. Fiends are durable, but you have to carefully manage what you allow to charge them due to their defence 4, I don’t think this list has the spare units to do that. The other issue I had was around their speed, I generally found I needed one of them to be faster. Consequently I’m going to swap one out and bring in a death engine impaler, which I’ve had a great experience with in my 1995 list.
And finally
I know I’ve moaned more about dice than I usually would, but there were some comically badly timed results. I don’t want that to distract from the fact that I had three brilliant opponents and three fun and challenging game. I want to give a massive thanks to everyone I played. It was especially great to play Pete and Matt for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed all my games and will hopefully get to play you all in the future. I also wanted to thank everyone who attended, the venue – Bristol Independent Gaming, and Mantic for some fab prize support.
I hope everyone who attended enjoyed their day as much as I did.
Now I need to work out what I’m taking to the Bullrun.
I hate January, so I’m more than happy it’s finally over. Despite a load of colds and general work-related irritations this month’s hobby time has kept me just about the correct side of sane. This year I want to focus a bit more on quality (viewed here as a purely relative term) rather than quantity. As I’ve booked my ticket for Steve Hildrew’s Bull Run event in March I really want to take an army that I feel has a chance of get some soft score love. To that end I’m currently in deliberations as to whether that means Rats or Halflings.
I have goop on all the bases… that’s something!
For some reason I’m feeling quite buoyant about completing the little fellas, although that particular mood tends to change with the wind. It turns out I’m not that far off a 1995 list, minimum model count, so maybe. Being realistic though I think I’m more likely to be taking the Rats. I’m more than happy with that following their admirable showing at Stanes of Blood. So, to that end I’ve been messing around with a few different projects this month.
The first is to finally revisit the Shook Troops I rushed to get done for Clash of Kings back in 2021. This is the first time I’ve ever revisited a unit’s paint job and it’s made a massive difference. One regiment is done… now I just need to get the motivation to do the other one.
One of these things is slightly better than the other.
I’ve also been working on a replacement for one of my Tunnel Runner regiments. I like the Deadzone wheels, but I’ve been really impressed with the new Goblin Chariots and Mincers, so I’ve decided to have a little play. The 3 vehicles are almost done, now they just need some crew.
Working through these models made me revisit my mawbeast paint schemes and now I want to redo all my Hackpaws, so the question is… can I get two regiments done by the end of March?
Finally – excitement is building for Tree Thugging, my third tournament, at the end of the month. I fell into running events by accident but am rapidly growing to really enjoy them, even if I don’t get to play. We’re fully booked with 20 players, there’s a growing reserves list, trophies have arrived and Mantic have very kindly donated some prize support. These are great times.
I’m not a big fan of the first couple of weeks of the new year. Stuff always goes wrong (like sickness or unexpected influxes of work) and any resolutions get very rapidly discarded. This year, was of course, no exception. So, I felt quite excited to get to the end of the first fortnight, pack up my rats and head off down the M4 with the Lazy Pirate in tow.
I decided to take my rats again after a good run out before Christmas. I took an evolution of that list. In a weird twist of fate at the previous event there had been a chariot special character. I generally avoid single chariots because their base can be a massive pain, however the character performed so well I decided to give the Ratkin equivalent, the Death Engine Impaler, a try. Controversially I ditched the Tangle in favour of Twitch and the Brew of Sharpness on one of my Shock Troop regiments, some chaff was also ditched to get the Impaler in.
My 1995 list
Warrior horde with Plague Pots
3 Shock Troop regiments with Plague Pots, one with Brew of Sharpness
Hackpaw regiment with Jesse’s Boots
Vermintide regiment
Death Engine Impaler
Mutant Rat Fiend
War Chief with Aura of Vicious and Blade of Slashing
Twitch Keenear
Mother Cryza
Scudku-z’luk, Demonspawn of Diew
I had mixed feelings about this list in a competitive setting. I love everything in it which makes it a great casual list, but at 12 drops it feels a little light and I would love to have an extra Vermintide regiment on board.
Game 1 – Abyssal Dwarfs, Push
My opponents list consisted of a decent mix of shooting and fast punchy stuff. A couple of mortars, a horde of Decimators with Blessings of the Gods, a Helfane and a couple of regiments Abyssal Halfbreeds were amongst the list. It was a solid list, and I have form for making a complete mess of this scenario, so expectations were not high.
I was worried that the mortar shooting would dominate the game, however, not only were the mortar crew easing into the morning they were also targeting my fiend. The damage was few and far between, and the beast’s regeneration easily dealt with what got through.
The dwarf lines were solid, but a wavered regiment of gargoyles gave me an opportunity to get my fast stuff into his right flank early on, allowing Scud to jump over the lines in turn three to remove the mortars. My central core of shook troops forced their way to the other side of the table, although a double 1 on the decimator horde put my token carrying regiment in danger. Fortunately, the presence of the nearby Fiend kept them on the table.
On my right my chaff performed admirably, holding off the Helfane and some Immortal Guard just long enough for Scud to flank the Helfane, smash it of the table and steal its loot counter in the final turn of the game. This gave the rats their first win and induced a momentary glow of confidence…
Game 2 – Varangur, Salt the Earth
My next game saw me face off against Chris Lynch’s barbarian nastiness. His list brought a couple of Chimera Lords, a Frost Giant, Theign on Frostfang, 2 regiments of Huscarls, Magnilda, 2 regiments of snow foxes and 4 regiments of Draugr. My last couple of games against Chris have seen me get progressively worse results, I’m not going to dwell on this, suffice to say my goal for this game was to make it to round 4 and still have stuff on the table.
I played my usual tactic of castling up in one corner and hoping for the best. As his army had no healing I decided to use my lightening bolt to start chipping away at his titans. His titans and huscarls were serious threats to just about everything in my army so I needed to start wearing them down. The first couple of turns were spent trying to prevent Chimera’s going where they wanted, and I felt this was half achieved, only one manged a flank on a shock troop regiment.
About turn three the chip damage started to kick in, a combination lightening bolt and Cryza’s cloak of death saw the Hackpaws waver the Frost Giant and Cryza waver one of the Chimeras. Helpfully the sharpness Shock Troops managed to remove Magnilda. I’m not going to say the tide turned at this point, but there was a sufficient let up for my battered troops to stage something approaching a fight back.
Chris’s Draugr had managed to claim a couple of objectives early in the game whilst his hammers had “distracted” me, however the chip damage, combined with the annoying resilience of Cryza meant I managed to take a number of his hammers off the table. No turn 7 and a very poor roll by his Giant for random attacks meant Scud managed to hold an objective as well as a regiment of shock troops. It was a loss for the rats but a far better performance against Chris than my Basileans have ever put in.
Game 3 – Abyssal Dwarfs, Control
More angry dwarfs! I really liked this list as well. A couple of hordes of Golems were supported by a Decimator horde with Blessing of the Gods, Black Soul regiments, Berserker troops, an Abyssal Halfbreed Regiment, a Wingy Kingy and some Gargoyles.
Against this list I really wanted to avoid the golems for as long as possible, kill off the squishier dwarfs and hopefully get Scud into their flanks later in the game. One of the biggest challenges with rats is choosing the correct moment to deploy plague pots. Early on I moved up one of my shock troop regiments and forgot to drop my pots to give them stealthy. This would have likely stopped them getting shot off the table by a combination of the Decimators and the Golems (both hordes had the shooting upgrade).
I admonished myself and refocused. By turn 4, pot problem aside, my plan looked like it was working. To my right warriors, vermintide and shock troops were holding up the Golems and Halfbreeds. On my left Scud, the Impaler and Cryza had removed the smaller units and cleared a path to the Decimator horde. They charged, knocking hell out of it, and needed to roll a single 5 to remove it, before turning their attentions to the rest of the battlefield. They rolled a 4. In turn 5 Scud turned about to finish of the Wingy Kingy that was gnawing at his ankles then reformed to face into the centre of the field putting his flank to the Decimator horde. Cryza withdrew from the fray to zap at some Gargolyes and secure a table section. The Impaler went into the Decimators again only to double one them!
Although the Decimators were devasted they had a flank charge on Scud, which they took, and managed to waver him effectively taking him out of the game for the entirety of the second half. Fortunately, the Impaler did manage to finish them off in the final turn. All this meant the plan fell flat on its face. Fortunately, I managed to secure 2 of the table sections to my opponents 4, and to kill more of his army than he did of mine. Despite the frustration caused by the Decimators it was a very enjoyable game.
Thoughts on the list
Having had some time to reflect I couldn’t be happier with the list and its performance, 16th out of 24 works for me. I have had to get into the headspace that everything, including Shock Troops are chaff, but getting there makes the list kind of make sense. Scud is undoubtedly the engine that makes the list work with his rallying and lightening bolt being as important as his combat presence. The Impaler massively impressed, and its long threat range meant it worked well with Scud and the hackpaws.
Cryza is an absolute menace because of her Cloak of Death and I still can’t quite get over how durable the Shock Troop regiments actually are. Although there isn’t loads of rallying, I think the amount of inspiring helps to keep units on the table, even if they’re wavered, which doesn’t seem to be a sufficiently big enough deal for me to miss the Tangle.
All that being said there are a couple of thoughts I’ve had which I want to play around with before the next time I take them out, which will be for the Birmingham Bullrun in March.
And finally
As always, a massive thanks to the organisers for putting on a great event and my opponents who were all fab. It was a great way to start the year and I’m looking forward to the next event.
2022 was a very busy year. A book got written (and published), tournaments were played and run, Basileans were painted, Halflings were continuously pushed to the back of the painting table, and the rats finally managed an outing in the final days of the year.
I have to admit, it not only felt busy, but when I start looking back it becomes abundantly clear it was busy. Settling down with a bottle of whiskey and a tray of mince pies at the end of December was certainly deserved. I think one of the best things about last year was starting to get some perspective on what I want to do with the time I have for whatever this sort of stuff is.
It’s fair to say that the last few years have been far from pedestrian, and certainly not predictable. Somehow, I’ve got to the end of it all doing far more than I really have the time for, but I’ve massively enjoyed it all. So, my thoughts for the last week, or so, have mainly been about what I think I’m going to be able to achieve in 2023 and they go something like this:
Books
In my excitement to get something out into the world I decided to write The Rose of Amzharr as the first part of a series. The plus side to that was that I didn’t have to write a couple of hundred thousand words in one go, allowing myself to ease into the world of writing. Of course, a story consists of a beginning, middle, and end, so I am far from done with it all and the next seventy thousand words are slowly being pieced together. I’ve had a bit of hiatus over Christmas, but I’ll be back on it in the coming days with the plan being to have the next instalment ready for the end of 2023.
Short stories
I’m quite excited about having my very own fantasy world to nurture and explore. I’m finding short stories are a great way of dipping in to it whilst the next instalment of The Rose of Amzharr grows. The best thing is that it allows me to explore a different aspect of Amzharr. Whereas the books are an adventure series the short stories let me play with mythology and folklore. It’s the best fun in the world for a fantasy author being able to endlessly ask why something happens, before inventing the most ludicrous explanation by way of response. I’ve made the short stories I’ve written so far available free through the blog. When I get around to it, I’ll give them their own dedicated page on TheWizardsBookshelf.com. I’m hoping to release at least one a quarter throughout 2023 and if they are well received I’ll consider popping them into an ebook, maybe even with some bonus material. They’re free and they’re here…
Running Kings of War tournaments this year has been a real eye opener. I have to admit to more than the slightest sense of satisfaction at manging to serve up two events in 2022. It’s also given me a fresh interest in how others run their events. I’ve certainly changed my view on a few things over the past few months (like soft scores). What I haven’t changed my view on is just how great the tournament scene is in the UK. So many lovely people contributing in so many ways to making events fun and friendly. In 2023 I’m determined to take my rats out a lot more and put a little more effort into the hobby side of things.
With regard to Bristol tournaments (the ones I run) there is so much I want to try, but am not comfortable I have the time to give over to it. Consequently, my aim this year is to put on three events to ensure we continue to have things going on and establish a bit of a foundation for the following years. Bristol has some great players and painters so I feel strongly that there should be something around here. The first of the events will be Tree Thugging in February, in July we’ll have the Southwest Clash, and towards the end of the year The Mean Squeeks of Bristol will return. Watch this space for details.
Hobby
I have a suspicion that this will be the area of my life that will be hit with the biggest cut in hours, but in many ways that’s fine. I know this is a rarely heard thing, but I actually think I have all the armies I want for Kings of War, and some great models painted up for skirmish games. Consequently, I’m going to continue in my quest to reduce my backlog and revisit some of those models I gave a rough paint job to on the basis that I would one day revisit them. It looks like that day has arrived.
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll wish you all a very happy New Year and leave you with a bunch of my favourite pictures from last year’s hobby doings.
When the multi coloured curtains fall on Autumn’s final act the Winter King takes the stage, so say the short-lived peoples, the youngest races that inhabit the world of Amzharr. Thick carpets of diamond encrusted snow cover the world, intricate freeze forged artifacts are to be found where water once flowed, and a silent stillness fills the skies under which he is said to rule.
The Winter King has always been seen by the younger races of Amzharr as a cruel and uncaring creature, happy to see the world stop turning and life destroyed. Winter is a time of sombre sorrowing. Great grey clouds hang menacingly over the fields and forests. Stacked high, their fluffed faces leer earthwards threatening to send sleet and snow to bury the slightest hint of a green shoot, or blossoming bud, that might dare to deliver even the slightest hope that spring may find its way back into the world.
It is a time of great sadness and desperation across the world. The masses huddle around log fires and eat sparce meals, conserving their energy until the world returns to life. Throughout those dark days they tell stories, often of the Winter King and the evil deeds attributed him, little knowing that the Winter King of whom they speak is nothing but a myth. Their Winter King is a King of Winter, his court constructed from the lifeless lustre of frost bound fields and snow suffocated saplings. Their King of Winter is an aspect of nature, far greater than any angel or demon. It is the futile endeavour of a mortal mind to explain an element of existence beyond their comprehension.
That is not to say there is no Winter King, there is, but his story has been lost to the years. He is a lonely creature found at the heart of the fiercest snowstorms flailing around in a maddened dance. Those few lost souls who have seen him, and survived the storm, all too often mistake his capering and wind stolen cries as an attempt to command the weather, ordering it to do his bidding and lay waste to the world. Maybe it is because in the heart of the storm the flurries of snowflakes make it hard to see, or because the wind is so fierce it rips his words from his lips before they can be heard, but almost always those who happen up the frantic creature fail to realise that the Winter King is no ruler.
In reality the Winter King is a mocking name, given to him by the immortals who knew him long before the mortal races found their way into the world. However, he did not know then, just as he does not know now of his name. For the Winter King has an obsession which has driven him from the moment the Creators breathed life into him.
When the world was young the Winter King took his first steps. He raised his eyes to the sky and instantly became fixated by the great golden sun. So in awe was he of the flaming star that he began to follow it as it made its way around the world. Day after day he walked the round of the world, his existence becoming an aubade to the auric entity.
One day, whilst he wandered, his eyes to the sky, he tripped over a rock and landed on the ground with a heavy thud. He felt a surge of pain in his foot. He glared angrily around from his awkward seat ready to admonish whatever it was that had interrupted his infatuation. To his surprise the rock responsible for his downfall gleamed just like the sunlight. He was immediately entranced by its warm yellow colour. He forgot the pain in his foot and reached for it. It was heavy, yet smooth to his touch. In that moment he stopped lusting after the sun, and a new obsession was born, one made all the more compelling because he could reach for it, touch it and own it.
He cast a licentious look about the ground and his search began. It was not long before he had gathered a small collection of the yellow rocks. He started to fill a small sack which he would throw over his shoulder as he searched for more. Such was his obsession he did not rest enough to allow his foot to heal, and happily carried the sack over his shoulder as it grew heavier and heavier. If he noticed the pain of his injury, compounded by his increasing burden, he did not let it show.
When the bag became too heavy to lift any more, he emptied the gold onto the ground and covered it with rocks and soil before returning to his search. Time and time again he filled his sack and brought his finds back to the where he had hidden the first bagful. With each bagful the pile grew, and the little creature would pack more soil around it, and over it, to hide it.
Over the next ten years the creature travelled Amzharr in search of gold until he had found it all. He brought the last bag back to his hiding place, which had now become a great range of mountains reaching far into the sky, peaks lost in the clouds. Once the bag had been emptied, and its contents hidden, he set out into the world again.
Desperation gripped him as it became apparent there was no more gold to be found. Then, one day as he frantically grubbed around, he happened upon a diamond, and then an emerald. A new obsession was born with the sparkling gemstones that seemed to capture his first love, the sun, when it shone on them.
Once more he began to fill his bag and hide the precious stones away under piles of soil and rock. It was not long before another mountain range rose from the world.
Another decade passed and all the world’s gemstones were hidden. The Winter King’s bag was empty once more and his searches bore no fruit. He scoured the world once, twice, three times more, but there was nothing to be found.
One day, as the days shortened, and the sun’s warmth began to be whisked away by giddy young winds returning to the world after their summer sojourn, the creature fell to his knees and let out a cry of anguish. He sobbed loudly and looked around him, desperate to find something, anything that would make him feel fulfilled once more. Then, out of the corner of his eye he saw a hint of that warm, precious, yellow he had lusted after since he had buried the last golden nugget.
He stood and walked over to where it hung in plain sight from a tree. It was different from what he had found on the ground. Not a rock, but a leaf. He breathed a long sigh of relief and smiled as a new sense of purpose flooded through his veins, bringing with it a renewed vigour. He began to dance and caper around the trees, filling his sack. Around the world he danced again, stuffing leaf after leaf into the bag not once having to stop to empty it, so small and light were the precious leaves. Once all the trees had been stripped bare, he looked excitedly into his bag, and found to his horror that there was no gold, only tiny brown flakes, and spider web skeletons. In his frustration he tipped the crinkly fragments out and let the wind take them before collapsing into a sullen heap.
The days were shorter now, the giddy winds had become howling gales and rain had turned to snow. The creature watched as the tiny crystals fell from the sky. He reached out a cold hand and let a few settle. He saw the delicate structure Nature had gifted them. He looked around and for the first time saw the frozen beauty of winter. Though his beloved sun left him for far more hours each day, when it rose its light seemed softer, its rays refracted through icicles creating little rainbows, and for the few hours it stayed the world seemed to glow. Despite the biting chill the creature ran and danced and capered around in the snow. He became fascinated by the tiny ice crystals that turn spider’s webs into delicate strings of diamonds and marvelled at the shiny sheets of ice that encased the rivers and lakes. The creature was happier than he had ever been.
When the time came for winter to move on, and the snows started to melt, the creature surveyed the dark mud and grey brooding clouds the season left behind it. Rather than stay he decided he would chase after winter. He ran as quickly as he could until he caught up with the snowstorms and freezing winds. Once again in their midst he danced and capered, grasping at the tiny diamonds that fell from the sky, laughing at the crystal flakes as they were caught by the wind and whisked up around him. And there he has stayed to this day, oblivious to the world around him, save for the snow and the ice. Oblivious to the immortals who mocked him for bringing the dawn, mocked him as he made the mountains and continue to mock him to this day with the epithet the Winter King.
The days seem to be flying by and the end of the year is looming. As you would expect at this time of year a whole range of things that aren’t about 30mm high are jostling for my attention, so hobby output has slowed quite considerably. Instead of painting I’m spending the odd moments between various deadlines thinking about potential hobby goals for the new year.
This had led to me being temporarily diverted from the halflings (a change is a good as rest and all that) to return to my wargaming spirit faction – the ratkin. Over the last year, I’ve been messing around with hackpaw heavy lists – will they be very competitive? Don’t care – hackpaws are awesome. The only downside is that I need about five or six regiments of the verminous beast riders. Rather excitingly, at the back of the cupboard I found some Oathmark goblin wolf riders. I really like Oathmark plastics because they are very simple to put together and the wolves in the kit can be quickly painted. This has resulted in is a couple of proxy units I can put towards the army, which I can always replaced in the future if I really enjoy playing it.
Proxy hackpaws reminding me I need to buy black paint…So much toothy cuteness:)
I’ve also done a little bit of rebasing of what I already have, and the units are starting to come together, although I still have at least three models to complete before I’m ready to put them on the table. The reduced amount of time has focused my mind a bit on what other quick jobs I can get done. One of those jobs has been to finally get some decimators rebased to make a full regiment.
It’s one thing painting a regiment, it’s another finding the time to base it.
I have to admit I love my Abyssal Dwarfs, but for some reason always find myself shying away from them for games. Maybe there’s a new year’s resolution in there somewhere? Who knows.
So that’s it from me for the year on the hobby front, although I’m hoping to publish a new short story on The Wizard’s Bookshelf in the coming days.
So, with that I’ll wish you a merry Christmas, happy holidays and all the best.
It’s been a whilst since I’ve written one of these. Loads of reasons why not, so I’m not going to dwell, but I really wanted to put pen to paper for this event because it’s the first event this year that I took my beloved rats too, and I had an absolute ball of a time.
Going to tournaments this year has been, as aways, a great experience. I want to give a massive thanks to everyone who’s run an event I’ve attended. Having started running tournaments I now know the work that goes into it. The odd thing about this year though is that it’s the first year I haven’t played Ratkin (at an event).
The reason has something to do with the army changes that were made in 3rd, but definitely not the ones you might be thinking if you’re familiar with the changes. I think it’s important to say this because this is not a moan about losing Blight or Slave regiments. Truth be told I really like the new (well not so much anymore) ratkin list. It’s made them super interesting to play, and whilst I haven’t brought them to tournaments this year, I’ve played a casual game with them every month or so to see if I could find a list I’d enjoy taking to a tournament.
To be clear, I’m not a top player. I lack the cold consideration and in game cool to be one of those. Units tend to make it into my army because I like the look of them, or their fluff, or they don’t require much painting. Never because of how efficient they are, or even because I have a particular role in mind for them outside of taking up points. That being said, I do want to try and hold my own at tournaments and a little progression is not unwelcome. It’s for this reason I stopped playing rats at events at the end of 2021, because I didn’t feel I understood the army well enough to build a list I could enjoy playing and make progress with.
Whilst I wasn’t feeling so good about rats, the verminous villains were doing brilliantly in the hands of others. What was awesome to see was the range of different winning lists that were out there, shooting ones, MSU ones and horde ones; this made me realise it was me… not the rats. So, after a lot of faffing around I settled on a list I was excited about, and just about made it through a couple of test games.
The event
Slay Bells was at the impressive Poole hobby store Entoyment. We played 1995 points and there was a choice of chariot special characters. I went for a killy one that had Clock of Death amongst its abilities. My list was:
Skud
Mother Cryza
The Tangle
Warchief with Vicious Aura and Axe of the Giant Slayer
3 regiments of Shock Troops with Plague Pots
Horde of Warriors with Plague Pot
Regiment of Hackpaws with J Boots
Troop of Hackpaws
2 regiments of Vermintide
Mutant Rat Fiend
The games
Game 1 vs Northern Alliance
Scenario – Push
The Northern Alliance army was a bit of a two of everything affair. Two regiments of huscarls, two hordes of ice elementals, two regiments of ice gladestalkers, two troops of tundra wolves and two lords on frostfangs. The Northern Alliance spread out in a solid line with the Frost Fang Lords together on my left opposite my fast-moving units.
I won the first turn and moved everything forward as fast as I could. Although there was a reasonable amount of shooting, the strategic use of a hill and a plague pot meant it was fairly limited and my army made contact fully intact. Scud and the hackpaws shut down the left flank temporarily whilst my infantry made short work of the right flank. The shock troop regiments really came into their own here setting up multi charges to smash a whole in the line, which then allowed them to steal flanks.
By turn 5 I had all the tokens. Two were on a shock troop regiment in my opponent’s half and three were on a shock troop regiment in my half. Unfortunately, a troop of tundra wolves had snuck to the back of my half and the regiment carry three tokens found itself between the wolves and a frostfang lord. The wolves had three wounds on them, and the Tangle was nearby. The shock troops turned to face the lord and dropped their plague pot. The Tangle took aim at the wolves and completely missed with eleven fireballs. Even with the shock troops ready to take a double charge I still wasn’t worried because the three tokens in my half were only worth three points… way to completely miss read the scenario! Naturally enough the shock troops disappeared, and the lord took the tokens – now worth six points because he was in his opponent’s half!
Despite my stupidity I was really happy with this game because I really did throw it away. There were a number of things I could have done from turn 4 to protect my token carriers and simply failed to do. It was a weirdly promising start to the day.
Game 2 vs Orcs
Scenario – Invade
I was a little unsettled going into this game because Orcs are a faction I find a bit of a challenge to play against because there always seems to be so many of them. This list had Gak, my least favourite hero, a horde of great ax and a legion of ax amongst it’s ranks and I was worried it would turn into a very one sided grind. Fortunately, the dice were with me. My lightning bolts managed to waver Gak in the first turn which helped my fast units get a good position. Scud managed to one shot the two regiments of gore riders, both with front charges, one after the other. The hackpaw regiment got an early flank on a troll horde and took them out, whilst the shock troops managed their usual shenanigans with a bloody flank and front charge on the great ax horde. Finally, the rats mobbed the legion leaving a godspeaker feeling quite alone.
The dice were very much with me this game gifting the rats a win.
Game 3 vs Ogres
Scenario – Control
I found myself facing a shooty MSU ogre list, which is a great army for this scenario. The list featured some allied ice gladestalkers and a theign on frostfang, alongside Nom, two warlocks, three ogre regiments, two shooter sergeants, a shooter horde and two shield breaker hordes.
I really didn’t know what to do against this army and I fluffed my deployment, putting Scud behind a regiment of shock troops because I ran out of space. I did manage to win first turn and pushed everything forward as far as I could. The ogres shot pretty much everything at the mutant rat fiend which managed to survive, however my deployment error with Scud quickly became apparent. He was meant to be chasing down the ice gladestalkers. When the gladestalkers wound something, they reduce its speed by one. Because of this and because Scud had started a bit back from the front of the deployment zone he didn’t get into the archers until turn 3, slowing down his potential for carnage.
The ogres pretty much dominated the table with steady shooting and a load of units I found it hard to put damage on, and slowly my rats dissolved.
I think its fair to say this game was always going to be challenging, but my error with Scud, combined with an early double one (of three in this game) which meant an ogre regiment with 17 damage on it didn’t leave the table, really didn’t help my cause. Despite getting tabled I really enjoyed the game and took some valuable learnings from it about shooting.
I take no small amount of cheer from the fact that the Northern Alliance army went on to win the event, whilst the Ogres came in second!
All in all, it was a really fun day, very well run, in a great location, made all the better for taking the rats.
Thoughts on the list
I’m genuinely happy with how my list performed. Although it’s taken a while, and a lot of experimentation, to find an army that I find enjoyable and feels like a good foundation to build on for next year. The shock troop regiments are the real engine of the army, they are surprisingly resilient, seem to easily pick up flanks, and work really well with the Mutant Rat Fiend. Cryza is an absolute legend and Scud is just Scud.
One of the questions I did want to answer was how hackpaws would work without the Caterpillar Potion as we head into next year. I think I’ll be using them primarily to support Scud on multi-charges with the newly polished J boots.
The really interesting one for me was the Warchief with the fury aura. Having the aura and inspiring in one package is really useful. I had envisaged using him to ground flyers, hence the slayer axe, but not a single flyer was fought against. More than that I think his primary role commits him to hanging around the infantry rather than chasing angry flapping beasties around the table. Consequently, the one change I’m going to make is to use the fifteen points for his axe on a plague pot for the hackpaw regiment. With so much shooting around pots are now even more useful than ever, and if the regiment is going to be hanging around with Scud their nerve will generally be 14/16 which will make them a lot more survivable – that’s the theory leastways! It won’t be long until I find out with Staines of Blood just around the corner in January.
After another couple of weeks of labouring away with the little people I’m at that stage where my army is starting to look like it might just one day be an army. My first flying dog is fully based and ready for action. I’m excited about this because he’s one of my favourite models from Northumbrian Tin Soldier and he’s set to play a starring role in the army.
As well as the flying doggo I’m also making inroads into the infantry with something that could be mistaken for a horde ready for the table. I have to admit I’m finding the halfling sprue a bit of a pain because whilst the models are lovely, the weapon ratio is a bit of a pain. The sprue has 10 infantry and 5 cavalry models; however the weapons options are a bit restrictive as you have the bits to do 10 melee weapon options and 10 shooting options. It means that everyone can get a weapon, but if you’re not interested in the shooting options well you have a bit of a shortfall. All that means I have a bit of a concern how far towards my final army my current sprues will be able to stretch – obviously it’s not the end of the world but it would have been fab if there could have been enough arm options to allow all models to have melee weapons.
With progress being made the army’s narrative is starting to take shape as well. The Mushroom Muster will be a valiant band of heroes who risk everything to gather rare Yellow Cap fungi. The Yellow Caps only appear as the winter snows begin to melt and they must team up with gnomic guides and their sniffer toads to ensure they bring back the real deal. I’m excited.
And finally rat news. After a year of mainly heading off to tournaments with Basileans the rats are off to Poole to play the Slay Bells event. I’m really looking forward to getting them on the table and I might even manage a bit of a review. There is a special character which is a chariot. I certainly haven’t put the effort in that some people have but I have given my Impaler an extra crewrat to fulfil the special character role, and it’s the perfect excuse to give this lovely looking model a run out.
Things have been progressing nicely in the cupboard of dreams where the backlog is stashed. It’s hard to believe I’m now 20 weeks into trying to clear my wardrobe of unpainted minis, but it’s happening! A few things have made their way onto Ebay, but not so much that I believe I’m actually making serious headway.
Am I on track to have no backlog by the middle of next year? Who knows, but I’m finding a new appreciation for what I’m uncovering and wanting to include more of my favourite models in my Kings of War armies, since they are the most likely to make it to the table at the moment.
One collection in particular look on course to find some openings in my halfling army, which is leading it down a particularly fun route. I mentioned in a past post that the little fellas would be supported by a number of giant toads, but plans are now in motion to expand recruitment, a theme has been decided, and a backstory is being considered. To that end this week’s hobby output sees the basing of my Sauceror on Aralez and the completion of my first regiment of Braves. I’m looking forward to rolling this basing out across the whole army and seriously considering whether it will become my entry for the next Birmingham bull-themed event.
In other news, the rats are being hailed once more as the champions of the wardrobe. After almost a year of messing around with Basileans I’ve decided I want to have a few months giving my vermin some TLC, and much needed exercise. Last week I added another Shock Troop regiment and on Sunday I took a new list out against an Undead army with the Shambling Blight formation at its core (together with Barkskin and tonnes of healing). The scenario was dominate, which was great for the Undead player, not so much for me! However, the rats scraped a victory in the sixth turn by destroying one of the zombie legions. A fun game, but wow, that formation is strong.
That’s it for this week. The new hobby total is 68 models completed, so still a little way to go.
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