Newsletter March 2004

Next meeting:

Saturday March 13^th 2004, at St. Johns Church Hall, Norrie St., Drury, starting at 9a.m.

Games arranged:  

Morning session:

Afternoon session:

Copy for the Newsletter

Copy for the news letter needs to be to me by week before we meet .- Kevin

The Newsroom.

 Well having a look back at the year I noticed a small snippet in a previous newsletter……” We MIGHT be getting a new News and Rumours section! Kindly provided by Barry, this should be a good spot to read……” wow that’s really neat good on ya Barry………ahhh monkey’s nuts! That’s me! Well I suppose I have a lot to catch up on then don’t I??

 Well where to start really? Have you all seen the new Brettonian book? Well I suppose you have if you haven’t well check it out. The thunder of hooves, echoes through my mind as the passages slip past my mind. The sun gleaming off burnished armour as the glorious charge of the brettonians bears down on my hapless dwarfs………well anyway the Brettonian book has a few great units and items to back them up and the whole storyline of them seems to have reverted back to pre 5^th edition and the brettonian realm doesn’t seem so peachy clean anymore. Well anyway go and have a read of the book. Be shocked, amazed and be humbled for the brettonians are here. No really feel humble…..go on.

 Well anyway onto actual stuff you want to read about. Unless you have been hiding under a rock, (which seems to be the favourite place for most gamers) you would have undoubtable heard that the Summer of Chaos is coming and Archaon is driving towards the heart of the empire. Well I have a few choice rumours. A lot of these you can find on the internet if you know where to go coughcoughportentcoughcough, and they have a stream of confirmed and unconfirmed rumours around. Well let’s get it started.

 Firstly, there are 10 lists in the army book, 4 main ones and 6 appendix lists. The 4 main lists consist of;

• Archaon’s Horde. Mortal only with the hell cannon tacked on. (the new chaos warriors models will be realeased for them as well
• Grimgor’s ‘ard boyz. Black orcs and Big ‘uns as core and no longer a 0-1 choice. It is possible there may be black orcs on boars. A new Big Boss character, ‘Boargut Facebeater’ and also release of Black orc models with great weapons.
• Middenheim Defenders. Basically the Cult of Ulric…….ahh ask Colson he’ll know.
• Garagrim’s Slayers. Dwarf Slayer army with berserkers and the Goblin hewer and 3….yes 3 new characters.

The Appendix lists are to include:

• Dark Elf cult of Slaanesh
• Clan Eshin Skaven list
• Be’lakor’s (guy from Mordheim) Daemon list
• Brettonian Errant list
• Ulthuan sea coast list
• Von Carstein Horde (no Necromancers in this one.)

 Archaons horde will be all mortals. The Hell cannon is like a mortar. Is Strength 10, able to reroll the misfire dice, is living, has 3 CHAOS DWARF crewmen, and has a 5+ ward save. There is more but come on, you don’t want to know everything do ya?

 Middenheim list will get an Ar-ulric model. Like I said before ask Colson. He is the resident Empire player and I don’t want to write too much, although Valten is to get a third model and his new stats are supposed to be able to take on Archaon himself…….muwhahaha.

 The Slayers. Well where to start. The beserkers are sort of like fanatics but they are attached to core units. For every enemy model in contact they get automatically hit. Every model touching them is then hit on a 4+! From what I have heard they are strength 5. The Goblin Hewer is to cause d3 strength 5 hits per rank of the unit hit. Hmmmm nice. And there are to be new slayer models as well as 3 character models. Ungrim and his son Garagrim. (the King and son of Karak Kadrin, the Slayer hold.) and Malakai Makaisson, The crazy engineer from the Slayer books. Shame Gotrek is dead.

 Dark Elves will be able to take Slaanesh daemons and will be able to take the Lore os Slaanesh.

Supposedly Manfred is back and doesn’t like chaos as they will take all the souls and then he will have nothing to feed on so is on the side of good??? Grimgor is hacked that Crom beat him so hates chaos at the moment so he too is on the side of good???

 The High elves will have a new mage with specific magic for them and they will also have a sea dragon? No stats on that as yet.

 The Daemons will be led by Be’lakor, the Shadowlord and Herald. All the daemons will have +1 leadership and there will be a BSB character for them to take. The ward save will be 5+ against all attacks….magical included, and all units can have full command. All marks will get Cavalry but no new models are coming, shame really.

 Well lets be honest. A lot is happening, and this is just the icing on the cake, but I need to go as I have ranted enough. There will be more instalments, but for now I bid you all goodbye. A sneak peek for next month though I’m going to spill some beans on 7^th Edition Warhammer………woah, stop not as bad as you think. Just bringing all the rule changes together…….oh yeah and completely redoing the magic system and part of the combat system…….nothing much.

 Well all from me and enjoy the games…….I might actually turn up in April so by then I will have ranted a bit more.

 Blak

PS: has anyone else seen the new models and the re-release of one the best 40K games around. Yes ladies the great Necromunda has been re-released with all new models for the orlocks and goliaths......boy did they need it and the books all being complied into one. As far as I can see there don't seem to be many changes to the rules themselves so maybe you might see brief skirmishes in the underhive in the coming days. Okay that is really all from me.

Battle Reports

Elendil, Isildur   and their bodyguards were travelling past a ruined village, hunting the orcs who had done the damage to their fiefdom.  Across the field they see the band of marauding Orcs, led by one of Saurons most feared servants, a ringwraith. (OK the historical accuracy is a bit off, but what the heck, who needs a reason for a battle to the death!)

 Forces of Good

Elendil, Isildur

25 WoMT (8 bows, 8 spears, 8 swords 1 banner)

5 KoMT (1 with a banner)     32 models in total

 Forces of Evil

Wraith on foot (ROTK rule book stats)

2 Orc captains

2 orcs with banners

6 Warg riders with bows

8 Mordor Uruks with shields

10 Orcs with shield and spear

17 assorted Orcs, (4 with 2 handed weapons, 6 more with just spears but no bows)     46 models in total

 Deployment

The battleground had an area of ruins to one side (good forces left flank) and one ruined building towards the middle/good forces right flank.

 Isuldur on the right, with a banner, 8 bowmen and 4 swordsmen

Elendil on the left with 8 spearmen, 4 swordsmen, The KoMT were on Elendils left, among the ruins.  The evil forces were in 4 rough groups, all the Wargs were on the left, facing Isildur, the wraith with 4 Uruks and 6 Orcs were in the centre, the rest of the evil forces were split into 2 similar sized groups, the group on the right flank were among the ruins.

 First few turns were uneventful, the forces of evil advanced while the men stood their ground.  The WoMT bowmen killed a few orcs and a Warg, though his rider got up from his fall and continued to the battle on foot.  The Warg riders with bows were unsuccessful, totally!  The KoMT moved out from the ruins to positions behind the footsoldiers. 

 As the Wargs got closer Isildur led his troops to the right, to counter the threat.  Then battle was joined, the Wargs charged and most of the Orcs reached a target too.  The WoMT that weren’t in combat also joined the fray.  The group of Orcs in the ruins were finding it hard going, and weren’t in combat.  There was fierce fighting, and warriors from both sides fell.   Elendil took advantage of his heroic combat, beat his first set of foes and went on to fell another Orc behind them.  This left a gap in the forces of evil, just big enough to get through to the wraith behind.  At the next turn evil had priority, but Elendil used a Might point to declare heroic movement, so he could engage the wraith before being transfixed, or something nastier, but he made some of his troops move first, in order to engage Orcs close to the wraith, to neutralize their zones of control so he could get to the wraith.  On re-reading the rules this is a bit cheesy, as the rule book says the hero should really move first, which would have meant he would not have been able to get through the gap.   He passed his courage test, and even though several Orcs leapt to help their leader it was all over, the wraith suffered too many wounds at Elendils hands and was banished.  The forces of evil had lost their best chance of defeating Elendil and Isildur in only the second turn of combat, bit of a shame really, it might have been fun to transfix those powerful heroes and watch them bite the dust at the hands of lowly Orcs.

 Zagwush the Testy and Morhosh the Maimer decided to carry on the battle, as they still lived and their banners were flying high.  Fierce fighting continued.  Isildur and his men defeated the Wargs, and the few Orcs on their right flank, but Elendils flank had been turned, the Orcs in the ruins reached the fight and the combination of Uruk, backed up by an Orc spearman, was proving hard to beat, even for the mounted Knights, who joined in the battle.  More of Elendils warriors fell, Elendil himself was reduced to no Might and no Fate, and he hadn’t had a successful heroic combat since the first one, such was the ferocity of the Orcs attack.  Isildurs mounted banner bearer was killed in the fighting, and the banner trampled, in return one of the Orc banners was assaulted twice, one bearer was killed, but another Orc close by soon raised the filthy flag again.

 Both sides were reduced to less than 50% of their forces in the same turn so courage tests were needed.   All captains, except Elendil, passed their tests, so all troops remained in the fight, except Elendil, who ran away.  One more round of combat ensued, and Zagwush was brought down by an angry Isildur, aided by a Knight on horseback, vengeance for the trampling of his banner!

 In the next turn it was all over, Morhosh had no stomach for the fight, failed his courage test and ran away, along with more than 50% of his forces, leaving just 7 orcs to face the remaining 12 good warriors, including Elendil and Isildur.  The bad guys conceded, the forces of good had prevailed once again.

 Conclusion

Mordor Uruks with shields, backed up by Orcs with spears, are more than a match for WoMT, the Uruk Fight value and strength are tough to beat.

Warg riders with bows are pretty useless, not only useless archery capabilities, but the low defence makes them pretty hopeless in close combat too

Putting your mounted troops at the back, where they can rush to either flank easily is a very good idea, very good for helping out when the battle gets tough.

Elendil and his free heroic combat need to be considered, I hadn’t fought against him before, I won’t get caught again.

Banners are brilliant, even if both sides have them, they really can help, just make sure they don’t get into combat, or if they do there is a friendly warrior in base contact who can pick it up.

The battle was quite close, even after the evil side lost their main hero very early on.  If he had not been dispatched to the other world so quickly things might have been more difficult for the forces of good.

Club Information

This newsletter is edited by Kevin Carberry so anything you would like included in the newsletter should be sent to me at 48 Beaumonts way, Manurewa, South Auckland. Phone 2670319, kevin@profax.co.nz

Peter "Evil Gnome" Colson is the Club President so any queries, problems, issues or suggestions about the club should go to him at colson@xtra.co.nz or deathloveswar2@hotmail.com (for e-mails with attachments only), monday-thursday, and all day friday and saturday (09) 298-7293