Once upon a time there was an Elven princess. She liked shooting but her boyfriend wasn’t allowed a bow because he had to carry a flag. Because of this she liked to take 30 boys with bows with her everywhere she went. She was also frightened of everything in the forest so she needed 5 brave fellows to stand around her at all times.

While the motley crew of 30 boys with bows, 5 brave fellows and guys with a flag and the frightened Princess were on there travels they encountered a Big Tree that told them he was going to war. He had with him a might host of Forest Folk.

The Princess marvelled at how nice this was. She was surprised despite the fact that she had heard of such things in the past, she never thought it would be true. Why would anyone go to war with such a ‘Themed’ force, with total disregard for trying to win the battle. She suggested that they go together because while a Treeman can lead an army everyone knows that a Mighty(timid) Spellweaver such as herself is actually the better general. The Treeman agreed and off the went to battle.

After the fight it seed to the Princess that they had won the day, her dryads had done all the fighting and her boys with bows had hung out at the back to ensure they controlled the battlefield. It was at this point that the enemy informed her that she had lost because her Boys with bows didn’t have any flags, so even though it looked like they had control of the field, they really didn’t.

From that day forwards the boys with bows took flags with them everywhere they went and left the Princess’ Boyfriend wondering why he wasn’t allowed a bow to go with his flag.

There was also an Eagle. Bwaak!

The End.

Lv4 some toys
BSB no toys
10 GG – Banner
10 GG – Banner
10 GG – Banner
8 Dryads
8 Dryads
8 Dryads
8 Dryads
8 Dryads
8 Dryads
8 Dryads
8 Dryads
5 War Dancers
Treeman
Eagle (BWAAWK)

I played Dark Elves all year and it really showed.  After bad results at the first 1 day event in Jan, The Sheffield Slaughter, 6th at the Masters then an unimpressive 38th at the GT final i really got into the swing of things by the time The Merseyside Meltdown hit.  I took 2nd place in a strong field and another 2nd place a month later at the South Coast GT.

The summer was fairly quiet with other than the ETC  and a few practice events but i was soon back into it with the Warlords GT in september, i went into this event in 1st place of the UK rankings and lost my first game to Tom Mawdsley who was in 2nd.  After 4 back to back wins i found myself in 3rd overall, i also took best Dark Elf, and helped The Bad Dice All Stars take best team!.

Going into the GW GT Heats i was defending a big points score which dropped off when i didn’t attend heat 1.  At heat 2 i knew if i wanted to take back 1ts place in the rankings i would have to play well and get at least top 10.  I ended up going 6-0-0 and winning my first Thron of Skulls trophy!

Since the GT in october i have bee playing a few practice weekends and run the Destruction Derby, the Next event is the UK Masters in Jan.

All in all its been a very good year, the Warhammer tournament scene is better than ever and i am looking forwards to next year

I will be making an effort to keep the up to date from now onwards.

If for some reason you want to see more right now you can check out the Bad Dice facebook page www.facebook.com/baddice

I’ll give a quick rundown of what i’ve been upto –

The Masters –

The weekend went really well. The Gaming table donated by GW looked fab even though i never quite managed to gte to table 1 and play on it! I came 6th in the end after a poor start of 2 losses. Congrats to Martin Bunting who is the Master!

GT Final –

I took my Dark Elves to the GT final. I had 2 wins and a loss on saturday followed by a win, loss and draw on sunday. That saw me come 38th which while not being bad, it isn’t that good either.

Merseyside Meltdown –

So the following weekend it was the Merseyside Meltdown. I finished 5th here last year so wanted to do well. I took my dark elves again but swapped out all the magic for some fighty troops, main difference was a Dreadlord on a Manticore and 2 chariots. I managed to finish in 2nd Place so i’m very happy with that result.

Thats us upto date with tournaments, the next one is Call to arms on 21st March.

The other thing i have been up to is setting up a podcast. Check it out at www.baddice.co.uk

My wood elves are-

Highborn on Eagle
BSB on Eagle
Spellsinger
Spellsinger
3×10 Glade Guard
3×8 Dryads
2×5 Glade Riders
6 Wildriders
5 Wildriders
5 Wardancers
5 Way Watchers
Eagle

Its been a while since i used my wood elves but i’m confident that they can still stand up for themselves in the comp system.

This week has also seen the 2009 ETC team announced

Ben Curry
Ben Johnson
Ant Spiers
Adam Hall
Michael Biggs
Phil Manwaring
Adi MacWalter
Will Goodwin

7 of those players will be taking part in the masters next weekend so it promises to be a hard event.

My first game is a grudge match against Phil Manwaring.  We have been mates for a few years now but have never actually played!  Be sure to check here for a tournament report and photos.

V2 is the army i am currently using

2300 points. 

Supreme Sorceress, Pegasus, Focus Familiar, Immune to Psyc, 2 Scrolls, lv4
Sorceress, tome of furion, lifetaker, dark steed, lv2
Sorceress, Sacraficial Dagger, Scroll, lv2
Master, BSB, Heavy Armour, Lance, Sea Dragon Cloak, Enchanted Shield, Pendant of Khaleth, Dark Steed
Asassin, Rending Stars, Manbane, xhw
10 Rxbmen, shields
10 Rxbmen, shields
5 Harpies
5 Harpies
5 Dark Riders, rxbs, musician
20 Warriors, Shields, Standard, Musician
5 Shades, xhw
5 Shades, xhw
Hydra
2 Bolt Throwers

I will be using this at a few more events while i playtest my V3 list with a view to take it to The Merseyside Meltdown at the end of February, or failing that the Bristol Brawl in march.

So whats in the list?

At the moment it’s all theory-hammer. The initial idea i had was to build a large horde of 150 spearmen backed up by 4 combat characters including a BSB with the Banner of Nagarythe.  This essenatlly means that every ranked unit within 12″ starts on+6CR.  I played a game last night against  the Deamons of Chaos used by Micheal Biggs.  The result was a massacre to the deamons but i learned alot.  I started writing a revised list but changed my mind on the horde and have decided to base the list around the Cauldron of Blood and Banner of Nagarythe.

The Banner of Nagarythe gives +1 combat res to all friendly units within12″.  This can be brutal when combining charges from multiple units and the Cauldron also giving then an extra punch to get a few more wounds or a ward save to soak up some damage.  Because they are so many points it is important that i keep them safe, with this in mind the BSB is riding a Coldone and the Death Hag is going to lead the army.  If they are both alive a the end of the game its a 5th of my army. 

Using these 2 elements of the list i should be able to build an army that is infantry based but can be very hard in CC.  Backing it up with a good amount of shooting should force my opponents to engage me. 

The rest of my characters are 2 mounted Masters, 1 with the Pendant and the other with regen.  These 2 guys can sit in wait and launch themselves out of my immune to psyc units to charge anything coming to threaten my firebase.  When they are combined with the Banner of Nag. they can even hold a charge from a fear causing enemy that out numbers them.  +1 combat res will cancel out the outnumbering in the same way as my BSB in my V2 list did.  2+ armour and either Regen of the pendant should mean they don’t take a wound.  They are also very useful for rushing a gunline and taking out the opponents shooting.

My shooting phase is deceptively effective.  2x 10 Repeater crossbowmen, 5 Dark riders, 2 x 5 Shades and 2 bolt throwers.  Its not an incredible amount of firepower but when concentrated on a single target it will leave big holes in it.

I have gone with 3 CC units,  14 Black Guard, 14 witch elves and 23 Warriors.  All have full Command.  The Black Guard have the Standard of Hag Greif and Ring of Hotek.  The warriors have the warbanner.  The General thinking is that all 3 units are pretty much unmovable.  Witches are stubborn if near the Cauldron,  Black Guard are always stubborn and the warriors with BSB are unbreakable. 

Add in 2 units of Harpies and it comes in nicely at 2250 on the nose.

The only reservations i have is the armies ability to chase the game if my opponent decides to try and hide.  Every army i build is alwaydesigned with that in mind,  IMO warhammer is all about being incharge of the game and dictating what is happening instead of reacting to what your opponent is forcing on you.  I’m not entirely sure this army can do that.  The lack of magic doesn’t really bother me, the ring of hotek is as good as a scroll caddy, although i have thought about making the regen Master a Dreadlord and giving him the Seal of Ghrond.  I’m not sure where i’d find the points though.

Thats enough ramblings from me for now.  I have 2 games with this army lined up next week i’ll be reporting on them here so subscribe to the feed for the updates

Ben.

It was a 46 player event with a strong field of players.  I had a nightmare and limped home in 20th.  A new comp system was in use and my low scoring Dark Elf army ended up giving away 1200 points head start to my 3 opponents.  I won my first game Vs Garm Moore, lost my 2nd Vs Jack Armstrong and Won my 3rd vs Andrew Parker.  My wins were reduced in size due to the comp score and my loss increased.

I liked the system in theory but i think it needs some fine tuning to make it run better in future.

I am now working on a new Dark Elf army, its something i’ve not seen done before so will keep it underwraps until i have had a few practice games with it and figured out if it actually works or not.  I hope that not only will it be quite competitive it will also score very well in any comp system.

On Tuesday I went to the Dragon Slayers annual christmas gaming day and got in a few games.  I used my dark elves and played against Dave Grants Skaven, Tim Fishers Vampire Counts and Adi Macwalters Brettonians.  I managed 3 wins from 3 so well happy at that, It was good to play against Dave as even though he used to be a Slayer i never had the pleasure before he moved to live in New Zeland.

Any christmas gaming day wouldn’t be complete without a suitable photo to show what we got up to and i think this one of Tim sums it up perfectly.

Smell it, Smell it, Take it!!

Last night was Ben Johnson New Years Eve party.  Much fun was had by all and i little bit of alchol was consumed.  Ben, Adam Hall, Alex West, Lewis Johnson and myself were there so of course there was some warhammer talk,  and topic of conversation was the Comp system for the event we are going to on Saturday,  the full system can be found HERE

I am starting on 100 points so it will be interesting to see how it effects me and if i can turn it round.

Thats all for now, thanks for reading and see you next time

1 last random photo before i go,