Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Warhammer Norse Miniatures Resource

I have been compiling a list over time of places to get miniatures that can be used for the Norse Warhammer army list.  Here is what I have so far.  Please comment if you find something I have not.  I'm especially interested in finding a Sleipnir.

Find pictures and other info about Norse in my other articles.

Lords & Heroes 

King, Jarl, Skald, Vitki, Seer:  
Ulfjarls: 
Character Mount ­ Warhorse: 
Character Mount ­ Fenrir Wolf: 
Character Mount ­ Sleipnir: 
  • Not found 

Core 

Bondsmen: 
Marauders: 
Reavers: 
Whalers: 
  • Not found 
Thralls: 
Norse Horsemen: 
Giant Wolves: 

Special 

Huskarls: 
Ulfwerenar:
Einherjar: 
  • Not found 
Berserkers: 
Shield Maidens:
Norse Hunters:
Sons of Thor:
  • Not found 
Half Giants: 
  • Citadel Miniatures Ogres? 

Rare 

Valkyries:
Snow Trolls: 
  • Games Workshop, Ogre Kingdoms, Yhetees 
War Mammoth: 
Frost Giant:
Ice Drake: 

Friday, August 1, 2014

So Much Sparkle!


Fucking Peter.  

Oh wait, I am getting ahead of myself.  Let’s go back to the beginning.
On July 27, a group of five Black Sheep made the journey to Seattle to partake in the Sparkle Party Deathmatch, a 2999 point Warhammer Fantasy Battle tourney hosted by the Dimensional Cascade podcast.  I have been burned out on Warhammer for the past couple of months, but as I had purchased the ticket prior to my doldrums, I found myself travelling with the rest of the Black Sheep that morning.

For the event, I threw a quick list together, the centerpiece being an Exalted Great Unclean One, which was represented by Taylor’s Forgeworld Great Unclean One model, which he was kind enough to trust me with.     I also ran a regular Big Poppa with a full kit, as my goal was to take double poppas.   The rest of my army consisted of a stone throwing Soul Grinder, a BSB on palanquin, three beasts of Nurgle, two units of plaguebearers, and unit of nurglings.    As the paintjob on my army was merely adequate, I knew that I needed to overachieve with Generalship in order to score well in the overall rankings.  

I started out strong, winning my first game against an Empire army.  My opponent was a really nice guy and took his bad luck and my totally bent poppa super squad in stride.   I wish I remember his name, but I forgot to write it down.  I believe his name was Jonathan or Michael, unfortunately I don't remember, and he was a Seattle local.   The game saw a steam tank get carved up by Exalted Poppa and his Balesword.  Then his Hurricanum was smashed to bits by a Soul Grinder hit, and his forces slowly started dwindling.   He had some bad luck with his demigryffs not being able to handle the unit of beasts and his knights getting eaten by the Little Big Poppa.   Through it all, he was cheerful and was a really awesome opponent.  My score after this onslaught was 25-0.

My next opponent was Anthony, another Seattle local, and his great looking Daemons of Khorne army.   Anthony started out apprehensive about his chances, but I figured his two cannons could help even the odds.  It quickly looked like his prediction was the more valid, as I was able to steal the initiative from him and gain the first turn.   I was able to move into some strong positions and then passed turn.   He whiffed with his two cannons, which became a theme of the game as he constantly rolled 1’s when rolling to wound with those bad boys.   The Exalted Great Unclean One handled a unit of Bloodcrushers and Bloodletters together and Little Poppa brought down billy the bloodthirster and then helped finish the job on the Bloodletters.   When we finally called the game, I was only missing 5 models from my army, and Anthony had a cannon left and a few units of Hounds which forgot to ambush my forces.       I felt bad for him as he didn’t have a very enjoyable game.  His army couldn’t focus enough damage to weaken my forces and he couldn’t get really any rolls to go his way.   I could tell he was frustrated, but he was a great opponent and took the loss well.    By end of the second round, I was sitting at 50 general points and ready to play for Best General.


Originally in the third round I was set up to play the eventual Overall Champion and his dwarf army.   Then the event organizers threw us a curveball and redid the match ups and I found my self playing Peter Davis, a member of the Canadian team Chop!, and his skink cloud Lizardmen.     A little background on Peter’s and my history;  two years ago, we matched up at the Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge, him with his lizards, and me with the Nurgle boys.   During that game he feathered my great unclean one with 20+ poison shots and took poppa down.   It was an awesome game and he was just as awesome an opponent.  

Back to the present.   I was looking for some vengeance and this time I brought not one, but two Great Unclean Ones, and they wanted some skink blood.    We began the game with some posturing, mother insults, and the usual trash talk.   Both of us were looking forward to a fun game and it didn’t disappoint.   He was ahead of me on points leading into the end of the final turn, but not enough to make a difference in the best general race as the difference was almost at a draw level.   Pete then went all in shoving two units into my Exalted Great Unclean one, praying for his destruction as it would send it over the top.   At that point in the game, Super Big Poppa only had six wounds left and it looked like I would be able to survive the combat, but then Pete managed to drop 8 wounds on him, and I made 2 saves.   Game over.   With a yell of “CHOOOPP!!!” Peter won the game, and Best General.   He also earned my Favorite Opponent vote.   

I was knocked down to 5th in the Best General Rankings and took 16th overall.   I had a great time at the Sparkle Party Deathmatch and will definitely make the trip again in the future.   Why would I not with all the great opponents that were there?
But until then,

Fucking Peter. 

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Good Times at Sparkle Party Death Match 4

In the still dark early hours of Sunday July 27th, a group of five black sheep assembled for a drive up to Seattle Center Armory for the Sparkle Party Death Match 4 tournament.  This one day, three round tournament is hosted by the Dimensional Cascade podcast crew.  We piled into the two cars and headed out for a four hour drive hoping to make it by 10 am for the check-in time.

This tournament was held in a second floor room of the Seattle Center Armory which lies in the large public area grouped together with the Space Needle, and some museums and theaters.  The main floor of the armory is full of different places to get food and drinks, which was super convenient.  Definitely a bonus for having the tournament here.  We arrived a little before 10 am and made our way through the Seattle Center grounds to the armory with time to spare.

We got checked in and were given some cool dice holders for turn and wound counters, and started to bust out the armies to prepare for battle.  Attending we had Chris with his Nurgle Demons, Josh with his no-infantry Warriors of Chaos, Taylor with his Ogres, Wiley and his Tomb Kings, and I had my Lizardmen.  As players assembled, we saw some familiar faces in a couple "Smooth Criminals" from SE Washington, as well as the Chumphammer crew from Vancouver B.C., Canada.  The rest of the attendee's I assume were mostly locals from Seattle and surrounding area.

The time schedule for this tournament was a little later and spread out than I'm used to which ended up being perfect considering the long drive for us to get there.  The first game kicked off at 11 and the chaos and dimensional cascades ensued.  The timing and rounds went really smoothly, so my regards to the tournament organizer and other staff for doing a great job.  Each time someone rolled a dimensional cascade result for a spell miscast, they were brought up for an award, which seems like a nice consolation and did not really feel like an interruption.

As far as the games go, I ended up getting to play all three games against local Seattle area players, and really enjoyed all three games.  I first played a fellow Lizardmen general named Nick, followed by two ogre players, Noah who had a really impressive looking icy themed army followed by Eric who gave me the toughest fight of my games ultimately crushing me.  There was also a painting competition as part of the event which got several top quality entries, I felt really lucky to get third place for it with my Forge World Basilisk as I thought several other entries were more impressive.



The first three places in all categories were awarded at the end, resulting in some people like Patrick from Chumphammer to end the night with a huge set of medals hanging around their necks.  It was good fun, and I really like that the medals are useful in themselves being the same size as Warhammer templates.  We wrapped up the night with some much needed nourishment and beers at nearby Mcmenamins Queen Anne.  I'll definitely be looking forward to attending future Sparkle Party Death Match events.

Some pictures of the event have been shared by the organizers here.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Black Sheep Brawl 2014 Results

Black Sheep Brawl 2014 Results


The third Brawl finished up on Sunday, and it was quite the contest.  There were five games spanning the weekend and we still had to use a tiebreaker in the end to crown our champion.  Here are our winners:

Left to Right: Josh, Dustin, Eric, Scott, Ryan and Chris with their Black Sheep Steins

Eric Weber: Black Sheep Brawl Champion
Scott Goldstein: Brush Master
Ryan Odam: Honored Opponent
Josh Baughman: Master Tactician
Chris Bailey: Storyteller
Dustin Boyd: Littlest Lamb

Full results:


NameArmyTotalPaintSportsBattleNarrativeFav PaintFav Opp
Eric WeberWood Elves7125 (28*)1520114*Overall Tiebreaker
Frazier EdmondsVampire Counts712217171511
Dan JonesDemons of Chaos70221518151
Josh BaughmanSkaven6924152192
Michael CaseWarriors of Chaos68251916872
Dustin KaneWarriors of Chaos66171718141
Taylor FleschOgre Kingdoms65232116513
Andrew ClaflinDark Elves642117161011
Christopher BaileyDemons of Chaos60141613171
Karl GatkeEmpire5816171691
John EvansWarriors of Chaos57211913422
BIll CurryWarriors of Chaos571121151023
Aaron MuskSkaven5619151210
Scott GoldsteinDark Elves5525 (32^)141248^Paint Tiebreaker
Steele HullHigh Elves5418161641
Brent BucklandDwarfs5491915112
John KerseyBeastmen531815146
Arturo GonzalezDark Elves531315178
Chad EgbertDwarfs5312171591
Paul WillworthLizardmen5371718111
Thaddius CrevierWarriors of Chaos526151912
James PetersonOrcs and Goblins5117151631
Ryan OdamDwarfs501123884
Corry GladwillWood Elves4814171261
Christopher BornTomb Kings421012137
Dustin BoydBeastmen411219732
Wiley KinyonTomb Kings37015157
Ryan FrayerWood Elves330161251

Interesting Tidbits:

  • Ryan Odam earned his second straight Honored Opponent Award, gathering four out of five favorite opponent votes
  • Scott Goldstein returned to the Warhammer fold after more than four years away and he cleaned up in painting
  • Dustin Kane racked up 9437.5 victory points, almost 1000 more than the next closest player
  • We had a distant traveller from southern California, Bill Curry from the West Coast Hammertime podcast, and three Eastern Washington players, Dustin Kane, James Peterson and Chad Egbert
  • Our top five players qualified for the West Coast qualifier for the USA Masters

Some Pictures:

Andy's Dark Elves approach the Black Sheep Bridge
Chris explains the finer points of auto-erotic asphyxiation to Mike and John
John, Scott and Taylor admiring the Brush Master's lady Dark Elves
Aaron's Skaven
Karl's Empire
John's Warriors of Order
Dustin's Beastmen take on Josh's Skaven
Dustin's Beastmen fight Mike's Hordes of Warriors
The final round's top match between Eric and Josh
Another Brawl come and gone!

Monday, February 10, 2014

Black Sheep Brawl Special Characters

Lists have been turned in for the Black Sheep Brawl, and we are providing a list of the Special Characters that have been taken.  Prepare yourself with knowledge in case you end up facing them!

Tomb Kings - Grand Hierophant Khatep
Tomb Kings - Arkhan the Black
Warriors of Chaos - Throgg!
Warriors of Chaos - Festus
Warriors of Chaos - Sigvald the Magnificent

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The 2014 Black Sheep Brawl

Red Lion Inn - place of battles
Next month it will be time again for the Black Sheep Brawl.  The largest individual Warhammer Fantasy Battles tournament in Oregon.  This will be the third year for this two day event.  Players will engage in 5 games over the weekend consisting of custom scenarios that follow a narrative around the theme for the tournament.  This years theme centers around a time of fluctuation in the winds of magic. We've crafted scenarios that will challenge your generalship skills and bring new twists to a great game.

Our goal with the Black Sheep Brawl is to create a tournament where you are free to bring a tough competitive list, but don't have to worry about getting pitted against ridiculous army lists that take all the fun out of the game like giant death stars or 100% avoidance lists.  Combined with the unique scenarios, we hope this gives players the opportunity to shoot for glory in a fun environment.

We've chosen to hold the Brawl at the same venue as last year.  The Red Lion Inn in Salem is conveniently located right of of I-5 and more importantly, the drink prices are decent!  If you're coming to the tournament from out of town, you can even book a room to stagger up to after having too many of those well priced beers.

To those that have already signed up, we look forward to seeing you.  To those procrastinating signing up till the last minute.... register already!  February 22nd will creep up on us quick, and the army list due date of February 8th even quicker.  Perhaps you will be the Master Tactician, Brush Master, Honored Opponent, Storyteller, or Overall Champion and take home a Black Sheep Stein trophy.  Or take home one the many prizes to be raffled away from our awesome sponsors.

An epic clash of monsters at the second Black Sheep Brawl