Day 3 - Chaos Dwarfs

I had debated on whether or not to include Chaos Dwarfs or not.  No one that I know of here in our gaming group actively plays Chaos Dwarfs and the Tamurkhan book itself is a little hard to come by.  But on the other hand just about every tournament that I know of allows the army to be played so it makes sense to familiarize myself with it on the off chance I see it across the table.  I do have to admit that there's a little soft spot in my heart for Chaos Dwarfs since they are the favorite of all my Blood Bowl teams.  I was pretty excited when Forge World decided to release the new models and they certainly didn't disappoint.  Maybe one day I'll pick up a few models but I don't see myself starting them as an army.  They don't seem particularly fun to play but who knows.  After I delve into the book, I might find that there's an army build that would be enjoyable to play.

So let's just start with special rules for Chaos Dwarfs since they are completely new to me.  There are three special rules that relate to the Dwarfs themselves and one special rule for their Hailshot Blunderbuss.  

Resolute - If I'm not mistaken, I think this is the same rule that applies to regular Dwarfs where they flee and pursue 2D6 - 1".  They say it's because the don't want to give up their position in the battlefield but we all know it's because their little stunty legs won't let them move fast enough. 

Relentless - CD's don't have to take a leadership test to march whenever they are within 8" of an enemy.  An okay rule but with leadership 9 for most units I think they would have been fine in most cases anyway.

Contempt - Basically they won't take panic tests when friendly units are destroyed or break within 6" unless it's another Chaos Dwarf or Bull Centaur unit.  They ain't skeered.

Hailshot Blunderbuss - 12" range, St 3, Armor Piercing, Multiple Shots (D3), Hailshot

Hailshot - Doesn't suffer from Multiple shot penalties; as long as 10 are shooting from the same unit, they ignore long range or as a stand and shoot; if 20 or more are firing, they get the same bonuses plus they get to reroll failed To Wound rolls.  

I guess the question is which is better the Helglaive (18", St4, AP, and +1St in close combat) or the Hailshot.  Perhaps we'll do some number crunching on that later on.  

Day 2 - Bretonnian Lances

Welcome back!  Well I made it to day two at least. :)  Today's topic is Bretonnians.  This one is a little different for me because unofficially Bretonnians were my first Warhammer army.  I still have quite a few of the models laying around from back in the 4th or 5th edition days but never got around to playing them.   And apparently I didn't get around to learning the rules too much either.

Rather than just going over the army special rules like I did yesterday, I thought I would cover one of them and then see how it relates to the army.  In this case I'm referring to the Bretonnian Lance formation and how it works with the Knight's of the Realm specifically.  There are other mounted units in the Bretonnian book that can also use the Lance but those will be discussed another day.

So first let's go over the Lance formation special rule.  Each rank in a "Lance" unit is composed of three models.  In our case today, we're talking Knights of the Realm.   When I unit in Lance formation charges, all of the models in the flank of the Lance are allowed to fight.  What I didn't know about the Lance is that casualties are pulled from the center of the back rank first unless that model is a character.  Any incomplete ranks are organized with the models along the flanks so they can be in a fighting position within the Lance. Speaking of characters, all characters with the exception of a Prophetess or a Damsel must be placed in the front rank.  This will in some cases force the champion or other command units to the second rank.  If there is a Prophetess or Damsel in the unit, they can be moved to the second rank or third if there is more than one.  The only time that they would have to move up is if the front rank falls below three models.

So if you're like me you were probably wondering, "Why don't I just rank them up 4 or 5 wide and get more attacks from the second rank?"  So I consulted our local Bretonnian player David, and he told me what I should have already known.  The reason is the same as what we mentioned above in that Damsels would likely have to move up to the front rank and lose their protection from the Knights.  Duh, I just wrote that.   Other benefits include increased number of ranks and the increased possibility of breaking steadfast, less frontage so you have fewer attacks coming back at you, and one you don't think about much, wheeling.  Having a unit 3 wide and 4 deep swings around like a baseball bat.  This can also be a hinderance though if you're tucked in the middle of a bunch of units and the backend of you Lance keeps bumping into things.

Well, that's all for now.  Check back tomorrow where I take a look at the Chaos Dwarfs from the Tamurkhan book.  Later!

Day 1 - Beastmen special rules

So we'll start off with an easy one.  I think in all the time that I've been back playing Warhammer Fantasy, I've only played the Beastmen once. So suffice to say I don't have their special rules committed to memory yet.   I knew they had some form of Hatred but that's about it.  Which brings us to the first special rule

Primal Fury
I'm not going to quote the exact rules here but it basically boils down to this.  If a unit is in combat and has the Primal Fury special rule, they have to take a leadership test.  If they pass it, they gain Hatred.  If they pass it with double ones, they gain Hatred and Frenzy.  What's different about Primal Fury and other units that have Hatred is that the Primal Fury test is taken at the beginning of each close combat phase.  So assuming they pass their leadership test, they could have Hatred in every round of combat.  That's nifty!

Beastmen Ambush
At first glance, this rule looks pretty spiffy.  Basically if the unit has the Ambush rule, you can hold a unit off the board at the beginning of the game provided that you have a unit of equal or greater size of the same unit that you deploy on the table at the beginning.   So if you have a unit of 20 Gor deployed on the table at the start of the game, you can hold a unit of 20 or fewer in "Ambush".  They have the potential of coming on in every turn of the game starting Turn 1.  However there's a bit of randomness involved.  During the Beastmans Remaining Moves phase they roll on a chart to find out if and where the unit can be deployed.  On a 1 the opponent gets to choose the table edge, on a 2 or 3 they don't come in, on a 4 they arrive on the left and on a 5 they come in on the right.  If it's a 6 the Beastmen player gets to choose any table edge.

Obviously the Primal Fury is the most significant of the two rules in my opinion.  The Ambush rule seems like it might be a little risky to try on large units.   You could take a few units Ungor Raiders and perhaps have a decent chance at hunting warmachines or at the very least getting into the mind of your opponents.  

Hopefully in future articles we'll discuss some ways that Beastmen can get the most out of these rules.

Oh Look! Another Warhammer Blog!

Greeting gamers!  Welcome to the Warhammer Daily!  Before we go any further, let me explain the purpose of the Warhammer Daily.  Recently a friend of mine shared a challenge that he's been doing called a "365 challenge".   Basically it's a challenge that you undertake where you attempt to do something for 365 days in a row.  In the case of my friend, he wanted to do something Warhammer hobby related for the duration of the challenge.  A lofty goal indeed.  I thought to myself, "There's no way I'd be able to do that.  There's just too many times where it wouldn't be possible.  What do I do if I'm on vacation?  Or sick?  Or just feel tired and hungover?" Yep, it's tough to do.  That's why they call it a "challenge" right?  So I got to thinking about what I might be able to manage doing for 365 days besides eating, sleeping, breathing, or some other cop out idea.  So, I thought I would do something that I do more often than I would care to admit.  Try to learn about Warhammer.

Compared to the guys I play with, I'm relatively "fresh" when it comes to Warhammer Fantasy.  Most of my knowledge comes from pouring over the rules for my own armies.  (Tomb Kings and Ogres)  When it comes to "knowing my enemy", I'm a bit lacking in that department.  So here's what I hope to accomplish with this blog.  Everyday for 365 days, I'm going to aspire to post at least one nugget of information that I've learned during the course of the day.  Some days it will be short and sweet, and some days I might ramble on if I'm feeling particularly spunky.  Who knows, maybe one day it will evolve into doing a few videos if I need to use some visual aids.  One word of warning though.  I'm not a writer.  My wife is the english major, not me.  Some days it'll be crude and painful to read because I won't take the time to proof read it before I post.  :)  I know it sounds lazy, but this is a challenge so I have to cut a few corners here and there.   Hopefully the act of writing something everyday will help me improve on that too. 

So here we go!  My initial plan is going to be cover a different army book everyday starting in alphabetical order.  Here's the list:

Beastmen

Bretonnians

Chaos Dwarf (Tamurkhan)

Daemons of Chaos

Dark Elves

Dwarfs

Empire

High Elves

Lizardmen

Ogre Kingdoms

Orcs and Goblins

Skaven

Tomb Kings

Vampire Counts

Warriors of Chaos

Wood Elves

Occasionally I might break the routine to cover something different like "Things that I didn't know about the main rulebook" or other stuff like army specific magic lores.  But in the end I'm also hoping that you, the reader, can also benefit from what I'm learning.  I would like this to grow into a community where you guys can teach me as much if not more than what is being posted here.  You can do that by offering suggestions and posting in the comments for each article.  

So let's get started.  It'll be little while though.  I have to go learn something about Beastmen.