Darkland Decimators

Introducing my new Chaos Dwarf team, the Darkland Decimators, who are currently playing in the Rookies Division of my local league.

I have a great affection for this team made by Greebo (despite not knowing how to play them correctly yet) as I won them as the Sunday Champion prize at the 2012 Eucalyptus Bowl (see here: http://tasmancave.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/eucalyptus-bowl-2012.html).  But enough of such sentimental drivel - on with the eye candy!

The Stars of the Team: the Bull Centaurs Baron Burzuth and Khathan the Mighty

Heavy Hitters: Chaos Dwarves Sharthak the Smelly, Rahlad the Spiky and Gahnhak the Festive

More Chaos Dwarves: Bharluhn the Untidy, Gorkh the Unpleasant and Jelibad the Jubbly

Hobgoblins: Slaves 46137B, 99994A, L92, P9.75 and 2 spares

The Dreaded Minotaur! (with dismembered Elf!) - converted Warhammer figure

Markers (Turn, Down Bull, Stunned Bull)

Round 3 Matches

Over the weekend the Man Cave hosted another double header set of matches for the ACT Rookies Division Round Three, with my Darkland Decimators facing off against the Khorne team Surf n' Turf (coached by Richard) and Right Stuff's Sherthor Scorchers playing the Orcs of the Butomax Broots (coached by Leigh).

Sherthor Scorchers VS Butomax Broots 
Amusingly, when I told Right Stuff who he was playing he said "No, not Leigh - he is my Nemesis!".  Right Stuff has played him 4 times and lost every time, including a fantastic match at his first CanCon competition (see Match 5 here).  Anyhow, against this background Right Stuff put his Pro Elves (with 4 Journeymen) against Leigh's Orcs...

Scorchers line out against the Broots

By Right Stuff: 
The game kicked off with myself winning the toss electing to receive. He kicks the ball and it heads towards mid pitch. The kick off result is a Blitz. Great. He charges around my flanks to try and get the ball.  He gets under it but luckily fails the catch. Then I execute what elves do best, score! Then the Elves lose about 4 players in 2 turns (1 being a dead Line elf) but the elves still manage a good defense with the green scum only scoring on turn 8. Half Time: 1-1.

We start the second half with me expecting him to turn the game into a 2-1 grind, but he does the opposite when he drops the ball and I turn him over to score. 2-1 to me. 6 turns left in the game and I am back to defense. He doesn't drop it this time, :( , drives through my defense over time and scores on turn eight. I throw a quick completion to maximise SPPs in my only turn left and the game ends in a 2-2 draw.

Darkland Decimators VS Surf n' Turf
I must admit that the Khorne team were unknown to me and Richard to playing as per the PC game.  A lot of Frenzy on the team, with the odd horns and Juggernaut thrown in.  Not much Block to back it up though, or for ball handling skills either.  The game would also played in Blizzard conditions - not good for my slower team. This would no doubt be a slugfest, to be enjoyed on Richard's newly made custom pitch.

The Khorne boys won the toss and elected to receive.  From the outset Andrew was all over me and is clearly very experienced with Frenzy - he had side pushes and all sorts of moves I just never saw coming.  Very impressive, as opposed to my doubles skulls on my first block!  Somehow within two turns I had multiple players fighting to stay on the pitch, and my Block Bull Centaur went to help Blitz them out of danger - he slipped on the ice and KOed himself, followed by a claw Chaos Dwarf going to the Crowd and being injured (Miss Next Game).  Not going so well here, but the fight went on as Andrew ground out the half to score, with me killing one of his players but no other casualties.  1 nil down at half time.

Chaos Dwarves face off against Khorne!

The second half started with me still 2 players down but a high kick for a ball near the scrimage line let me get my only Bull under it and though he failed to catch it, it set me up nicely for a run up the left flank.  Screened by an array of Hobbos and CDs (its kind of weird screening a 4ST 9AV bull with 3ST 7AV hobbos!) the Bull got to within striking range before he was pulled down by a Bloodletter.  A fortunate bounce put the ball next to a Hobbo though so after the Bull had blitzed the Bloodletter in return, Slave#93497 grabbed it up to equalise the score.

With 4 turns to go the game would be down to the wire, but at last my second Bull came back to the pitch. A Riot on kickoff gave the Khorne team an extra turn to score in, but here the dice started to turn against them.  Previously unfailing dice gave a few early turnovers and I sprinted a Bull and a Hobbo deep into his half to threaten the ball.  Then Nuffle's favour returned to the Khorne and they stunned 4 players in a row, throwing my counter-drive off and making me feel lucky I hadn't got a stack of injuries instead.

4 stuns in one turn? Ouch!

Andrew drove down the centre and with one turn to go I had to pull off something special to prevent him scoring to win.  My unskilled Hobbo made a dodge, 2 go for its (on ice) and a 1 die block to sack the ball carrier with a 'both down' result!  Andrew couldn't get over the line and the game ended on a 1 all draw.

Last turn desperation moves pay off

Result: 1 all draw, with 3:1 Casualties to the CDs (1 kill)
A fantastic game in which I was totally outplayed throughout and I felt like a stole a well earned win from Andrew with some last minute some Nuffle magic.  And of course he was a total gentleman and good sport about it too!

Post Game Management
Sherthor Scorchers: A Lineman skilled up taking Wrestle, and Right Stuff added another catcher to his roster.
Darkland Decimators: Hobgoblin Slave#93497 skilled up with double, taking Dodge (I plan to make him a blodging ball carrier in due course) With my earnings I had enough to my 6th and final Chaos Dwarf.  I'll still only have 5 on the field for the next game with the crowd surfed Claw CD sitting it out with his injury.

So I've held onto second place with my fingertips and Right Stuff moves up to fourth place:

Team	Race & Coach	team value	won tied lost	points	TD score	Cas score (kills)
	Unforgiven	Undead Big Pete	1,120k	3 0 0	60	5 - 1	9 - 5 (3-1)
	Darkland Decimators	Chaos Dwarf Paul O´G	1,140k	1 2 0	40	5 - 4	8 - 3 (1-0)
	Surf n Turf	Khorne Virral	1,050k	1 2 0	40	4 - 3	3 - 5 (0-1)
	Sherthor Scorchers	Elf Right Stuff	1,070k	1 1 1	34	6 - 6	1 - 13 (0-2)
	Brutomax Broots	Orc Lelruthus	1,120k	1 1 1	34	4 - 4	10 - 1 (2-0)
	Team of the Century	Dark Elf Matthew R	1,080k	1 1 0	30	3 - 2	2 - 7 (0-1)
	Lords of Damnation	Chaos Simon M	1,100k	1 0 1	24	2 - 1	0 - 5 (0-1)
	NecroManga	Necromantic Peter M	980k	0 1 1	14	2 - 3	2 - 5 (1-2)
	Fatal Femmes	Chaos James H	1,120k	0 0 3	12	2 - 7	10 - 3 (1-0)
	Gargoth Gargoyles	Chaos Dwarf Andrew O	960k	0 0 2	8	0 - 2	5 - 3 (1-1)

Team photos to follow shortly - promise!

Some thoughts on the Poll

First up, thanks to everyone who has voted and I appreciate your input.

Interesting results so far, which I thought warranted a little expansion:

FPW 6mm - a conflict which has long fascinated me and I have 3 sets of rules for.  Bacchus has some lovely 6mm options for figs. 

Prussian Infantry battalion from the Baccus website here

But despite having long been interested, the concerns I have with going this way is that every action seems have only 3 outcomes:

- Excellent Prussian Krupp guns soften up the French sufficiently for the Prussians and/or Allies to break them up in assaults; or

- Prussian Krupp guns dont soften up the French sufficiently and the Prussians and/or Allies get massacred by the excellent French small arms; or

- a bit of both ends up in a stalemate

Potentially, this sounds like it will not be highly endearing after the first few games.  Bit hard to get excited about being French too, given that they didn't win any Victories during the war.

SciFi 6mm - I have a large stash of 6mm figs from a wide variety of manufacturers, including a stack of old GW Epic figs.  I recently heard Ken Whitehurst talk about his Polyversal project on a recent Meeples and Miniatures episode, and it sounds excellent. 

You may remember Ken from a few years back when he ran the podcast "This Week in Wargaming".  Anyway, it sounds great (see his blog here: http://www.polyversal-game.com/) so I'll be waiting for that to appear before I go back to the future, so to speak

19th Century Naval (1/1200) -  I had intended for this to be a pre-dreadnought era ironclad style and hadn't considered Napoleonic era ships.  I dabbled in that a bit about 20 years ago when I was mad keen on Wooden Ships and Iron Men (which I still have plus masses of articles and other goodies for).  In fact, I even have a fleet or two of tiny little 1/2400 scale ships which fit in the hexes for that game and which allow fleet actions.  Not nearly as nice as those Langton models though of course.

Massed Ancients - this was clearly a popular poll choice, emphasised by one email suggestion that I even go with 28mm sized bases for 6mm figs - that would look awesome indeed.  The problem I have is is that having made a delightful looking Legion, probably in something near 2:1 ration of figs, the problem of painting masses of celts, Britons, Gauls or seems rather appalling.

This is the reason this genre gets so many votes: wonderful massed 6mm Romans by Geektactica (see his blog here)

6mm Napoleonic - a wonderfully expansive genre to enjoy, of course, but more than a little daunting also for the array of information and frankly the OCD grognard button counters too.  Massed ranks of 15mm figs looks lovely, but I think you'll agree that there is something special about the wonderful diorama bases one can use in 6mm.  Have a little at these from Ian's Blog with No Name as examples of mouth watering possibilities.

Some of Ian's wonderful French infantry from his blog here

   And more such awesomeness form my mate Bish's blog here

RCW - I think this could be a lot of fun also as an ongoing campaign, but on reflection I think the sort of characterisation I want to achieve would be best at the skirmish level.  I might put together a Bolshevik and White Russian companies for In Her Majesty's Name instead.

Boer War - the early war period (such as these sounds pretty interesting and one certainly doesn't see it often.  Some of the mobile actions in the early days could be good fun, but like the FPW it might likely be a little too niche for the effort involved.

ECW 6mm - At level pegging with other options this doesn't seem a stand out leader. Until one considers the possbibilities again with the lovely Baccus range of figs;

See more of Lee's Fantastic ECW bases here

And now that cad Dux Hormunculorum (now to be known as Dux Insidious!) has not only procured a starter set with two armies but offered to paint me an army of stout Royalist gentlemen.  In the meantime, he has finished his first test base and its looking splendid as you can see here.

The Dux does it again!

In the meantime, the classic movie Ben Hur was on the telly over Easter, reawakening long held dreams of Galley warfare.  One always needs a distraction here and there... The Analysis Paralysis continues!

ANZAC Day

Lest We Forget

Easter double-header match

On Easter Saturday, the Man Cave hosted a double header set matches for round 2 of our Rookie League Season.  Right Stuff's Sherthor Scorchers faced off against the Chaos team Fatal Femmes, while my own Chaos Dwarf team, the Darkland Decimators, played the Dark Elf Team of the Century.  On a lovely Autumn afternoon we played side by side on the balcony, and good fun it was!

Sherthor Scorchers VS Fatal Femmes

Right Stuff reports: The first half started with me kicking to the chaos scum and a quick two turn turn over with me scoring. 1-0. I kick to him again, 3 turn turnover and I score.Half ends with me up 2 nil but I have 3 players in the Cas box.

Second half starts with quick sideline fence off play, as I set the score at 3-0 with 6 turns to go. I kick to him and I am losing numbers at this point; I only have 6 players on pitch about now and my defensive setup was pretty pathetic with me running out of lineman. The first thing he does this drive is kill my thrower but the apothecary with his medicinal magic managed to just bring him back but he will still be injured until after the next game. Then the casualties start rolling and he scores. 3-1.   The then turned me over as I only have 4 players left and leaves me with one player, my newly strength boosted catcher at the end of the drive and scores again with 1 turn to go. 3-2. As I cannot bring any of my KO's back before the games it ends at 3-2. A win to the elves but with 8 casualties for the chaos worshiping filth - next game I'll have 4 journeymen!

On the bright side, the only lasting Elf injuries were two AV busted linemen

Result: 3-2 Win to the Scorchers despite an 8-0 casualty count for the Femmes: ouch!

Darkland Decimators VS Team of the Century

Kicking off to the Dark Elves, the game started well for the Chaos Dwarves after a few early casualties (including my first ever foul action, using a hobgoblin) to get a player advantage.  I then managed to turn over the Dark Elves and score on them then hold out to be 1 nil up at half time.  The second half started equally well and I was 2 nil up with just 4 turns to play.  A place any coach should be confident, right?

The Dark Elves scored on me in two turns with some impressive moves and all I had to do was hold out 2 turns for a win.  Then I got a touchback, put the ball into a Bull Centaur's hands and galloped him up to go for the extra SPPs and see him skill up after the game.  Nuffle did not not approve of my greediness and tripped up the bull - despite me having sacked the only player in range to score.  The Dark Elves then pulled off an impressive array of ball pickup, multiple dodges (some into tackle zones), sprints, a handoff in a tackle zone, and a long bomb to get a turn 8 equalizer and grab the draw.  Frustratingly impressive - you have to hand it to any coach who can pull that off all without any re-rolls in the hand!  Still, I walked away with a draw and you cant complain about that :-)

Bull Centaur Baron Burzak only narrowly avoided being sacrificed in the Locker Room after the match...

Result: 2 all draw, Casualties 3-1 to the Decimators

It was a lot of fun playing with another match going on next to you - thanks to James and Matthew for enjoyable afternoon!

Post Game Management

The Scorchers had a Catcher skill up after making 2 TDs, taking the safe but reliable Dodge skill.

The Decimators had a Bull centaur skill up with Block, and Chaos Dwarf skill up with a double to take a second Claw skill on the team.  I think that Claw is one of those skills you can overdo, but having a second one on the team means its harder for the opposition to isolate or remove.  I dont' think I'll take any more though and want getting Prehensile Tail for future mutations to go with the Tackle the Chaos Dwarves come with: I think that could have great synergy.

As a result of this Second round, the league ladder looks thus and I was most surprised to see I'm in in second place by number of TDs, and with the league's violent player with 3 casualties in 2 games.

	Team	Race & Coach	team value	won tied lost	points	TD score	Cas score (kills)
	Unforgiven	Undead Big Pete	990k	2 0 0	40	3 - 1	6 - 3 (3-1)
	Darkland Decimators	Chaos Dwarf Paul O´G	1,040k	1 1 0	30	4 - 3	5 - 2 (0-0)
	Surf n Turf	Khorne Virral	1,080k	1 1 0	30	3 - 2	2 - 2 (0-0)
	Team of the Century	Dark Elf Matthew R	940k	1 1 0	30	3 - 2	2 - 7 (0-1)
	Sherthor Scorchers	Elf Right Stuff	760k	1 0 1	24	4 - 4	1 - 9 (0-1)
	Brutomax Broots	Orc Lelruthus	1,110k	1 0 1	24	2 - 2	6 - 1 (1-0)
	Lords of Damnation	Chaos Simon M	1,100k	1 0 1	24	2 - 1	0 - 5 (0-1)
	NecroManga	Necromantic Peter M	980k	0 1 1	14	2 - 3	2 - 5 (1-2)
	Fatal Femmes	Chaos James H	1,130k	0 0 2	8	2 - 5	8 - 0 (1-0)
	Gargoth Gargoyles	Chaos Dwarf Andrew O	960k	0 0 2	8	0 - 2	5 - 3 (1-1)