Warlord Celts vs. Wargames Factory Celts

I thought it was about time someone did a review and comparison between the Warlord plastic Celts and the Wargames Factory Celts. I figured since I've ordered both, I would go ahead and perform this service for those still undecided between the two.

Below are two pictures. The Warlord figure is on the left, the Wargames Factory figure is on the right.






As you can see, the sculpting, proportions and detail are all fairly well done on the Warlord figure. The Wargames Factory figure, on the other hand, suffers from not being delivered yet.

The Warlord figure is animated and dynamic, while the Wargames Factory figure is still not here yet. As nice as Warlord's dynamic poses are, it could present a problem when ranking up a unit. Wargames Factory figures are at the moment easier to rank up, but will still look somewhat odd on the battlefield, since they've still not been delivered.

I'm still in the assembly stages, so I can't say how well each one paints up compared to the other, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the Warlord figures will be easier to work with because they are actually in my possession.

A couple gripes that I have with Warlords figures are -- and this has been mentioned by many others -- the fact that they only came with enough shields for 50% of the figures, and I'm also disappointed there wasn't a little more variety in the number of different heads. Still, this is nothing compared to the lack of Wargames Factory shields or heads or any other pieces, really.

So overall, I'd have to admit a preference for Warlord Games at this point.

(I must also admit that I'm considering abandoning the Celts altogether at this point and grabbing Foundry's Ancient Germans holiday deal...)

Marauders 08 - Day 1 Game 1

(click the images to enlarge them)

Marauders Mayhem 2008

Day 1 - Game 1

vs. High Elves


First game was against high elves. Scenario cards used were capture the flag and mutinous dogs (the latter was against me.)




From left to right, the HE had a lion chariot (barely in the photo) archers and a giant eagle, swordmasters and a RBT, 2 units of spearelves, a RBT and another eagle, more spearelves, more archers, more swordmasters, and another lion chariot (again, barely visible.)

From left to right, I had, knights, swordsmen with archer and sword detachment, handgunners in front of a cannon and rocket, greatswords and detachments of archers and swords, rockets, more swordsmen with the same detachments, a cannon, and on the far side of the woods were more knights and a unit of pistoliers.






Opening moves, nothing too unexpected. I moved my archer screens to the back so I could both protect them from giving up extra points and try to cover the war machines from the eagles. The eagle on the right was to be a nuisance all game. In this instance, if I charge it, it flees, and I'm stuck getting charged by the spearelves with some swordmasters crawling up my flank. So I just let it sit there...






I wasn't going to let the chariot on the left hit my knights, so I held them back to keep an eye on my infantry's flank. The left eagle chases off a rocket crew after a single round of combat. On the right, things go a little better, outside of the photo, my pistoliers have blasted a lion chariot and are moving in on the swordmasters.








My knights chase the chariot on the left awayas my infantry spreads out a little to draw off the swordmasters away from the spearelves. That damned eagle on the left took two wounds from assorted missile fire, but is still in the way. I'd have to throw away a unit to get rid of it. My pistoliers are shot to pieces by RBTs and archers. The few remaining take off, as per their usual M.O.





I charge and destroy the eagle, but my knights are then at the edge of the woods (not yet moved in the pic). I get the most beautiful grapeshot ever and kill 7 of 10 swordmasters. Spearelves continue to sit on the objective in the center. I continue to be a wimp and wait to resolve my right flank before commiting in the center.






And then it all falls apart. The knights on the right destroy the remaining swordmasters and pursue through the woods due to hatred. That's the good news. On the left, swordmasters shred through my swordsmen and the eagle eats a cannon crew and follows up into some archers (arrow drawn wrong.) My knights get pinned by a reform (or wheel?) by the archers on the hill, so the knights can't move on the chariot, but can't get away from the chariot either. I figure if it's going to catch me anyway, I may as well take the archers down with me. In the center my greatswords and general move up, get pelted by arrows & RBTS, panic and take a detachment with them in the last turn. Game over.

In the end it was a horrible game for the empire. I was wishy-washy about too much, and got into a little move-countermove on too many things (knights and chariot on the left, and that irritating eagle on the right.) It was a good game, though, against a good list and a good opponent. I thought this was one of the best HE lists I've seen. It had a bit of something for every phase of the game and seemed very flexible. My opponent was very good and simply outmanuvered me just about everywhere.

Post-Marauders Mayhem (part1)

I survuved Marauders Mayhem 08, and did better than I expected!

It seemed pretty laid back, and there was a good mix of armies. The newer armies were not as over-represented as I've seen in other event reports. I ran into a lot of the regional regulars and met (and got crushed by) some new faces.

I'm hopefully going to put some battlereports up over the course of the week, but in the meantime, I will give a quick run-down.

1. vs. High Elves - Loss
2. vs. Empire/Kislev - Win
3. vs. Vampire Counts - Win
4. vs. Bretonnians - Loss
   
5. vs. Daemons of Chaos - Draw

So I ended 2-2-1. Both losses were against what I consider balanced armies for their books. The Empire/Kislev was about a 50/50 alliance and was composed of cavalry and steam tank. The VC was a zombie horde. Really a zombie horde - one of the units was 100 zombies in a 10x10 formation. The DoC was all Nurgle.

I did manage to get the Generals Choice, Best Painted, and was on the Best Team (B.R.E.W.S!)

B.R.E.W.S. also had the doubles winners and the overall 3rd place, and overall did pretty well.

More later when I get some time. Til then, you can browse
The Results are posted at the Marauders Inc. forum and check out photos of some of the armies in attendance!

Deadline Approaching

WFB

It's Thursday. I'm leaving for Marauders Mayhem Friday afternoon, and will spend the morning packing & loading up the car. So that leaves tonight to finish. I still have to:

Paint & seal the display base.
Base and seal about a dozen figures.
Finish painting about 6 more (less than 1/2 completed), then base and seal them.


WAB

On the WAB front, I've got someone else interested, so it looks like it will be ancients. (See previous entry on the "Next Project" topic.) I've got a couple boxes of the Warlord Games Celts, and have a couple boxes of Wargames Factory Celts pre-ordered through http://www.thewarstore.com/. When those come in (if ever... *sigh*) I'll decide how to split up the remaining 4-5 boxes I'll probably like to pick up, and what else to pick up, metal figures, etc.

I'll give a review of the Warlord figures when I finish assembling some more and paint them up. So far, though, they look good. My initial thoughts, though, are that they're going to be a pain to rank-up, and I really really wish they would have included enough shields. The latter seems like a really bad move, IMHO. I think they would have done well to include some arms with slings as well. Extra heads, too -- with fewer duplicates. More to come on this topic, plus pictures.


Look for Celts and a report from Marauders Mayhem next week sometime.

Marching to Kettering

Captain General of Marienburg. Or something like that.



Also a standard bearer for the unit of swordsmen I'm trying to finish in time for Marauders.

I made the standard with plasticard & plastic tube, like on Imperial Forge's page (Is it down? I was going to post a link!)



Ideally I'd like to add something else, either a lion or some nautical blazon, or possibly just s simple cross of St. Andrew (like on landsknecht banners) But since I'm on a tight schedule to finish in time for the GT, I'm OK with this for now.


I've got less than 10 days left an still have 8 swordsmen half finished, and 10 more swordsmen about 20% finished. Doesn't seem like alot, but I've been moving slow lately, so I'm worried. And I also have a display board to build!

http://marauders-inc.com/

Progress!

I've got a little bit of painting done. Not much, but I feel accomplished.

I've added two more pistoliers to the five I already had in my Marienburg army. The five get shot up so quickly, I thought I'd try more. Not sure if it's worth it, but I'll give it a few games.




More importantly, I finished those pikemen I've been working on for ages. Well, almost finished. I still want to hand-paint a standard. In the mean time, I can continue sliding on a temporary (and fairly nice!) printed banner.






I have decided to paint up some more archers for the next Burgundian project. I've only used a single unit of handgun skirmishers so far and I've got a mixed opinion. I think some longbow skirmishers might be a good idea.

More to come... (of course)

Two-Day WFB Tournament

I'll get some more detailed information on this ASAP: There will be a WFB tournament at Recess Games in the Cleveland area (North Olmstead) the weekend of Nov. 7, 8, 9.

Friday Nov. 7 will be open gaming & registration.
Saturday Nov. 8 will be registration and games 1-3.
Sunday Nov. 9 will be games 4-5 and awards.




Also, just thought I'd mention that there's some pretty cool photos of Warhammer Historical stuff at UK Games Day at their blog: http://warhammerhistoricalwargames.blogspot.com/

Random Thoughts

This week I picked up two of the new GW washes, Black and Delvan Mud. I've heard a lot about them and thought I'd see for myself. I actually quite like them, though they're very thin. I will still use some stronger black washes of regular paint in some cases. I will most likely pick up a few more colors next week. I'm hoping to find a replacement for the now discontinued Flesh Wash. I may go back to using Coat d'Arms' Flesh Wash, which I preferred anyway. (The reason I quit using it was just lack of a local source.)


I'm currently reading Richard Vaughan's "John the Fearless," the second book in his series on the dukes of Burgundy. John's one of the reasons I'm considering the previously mentioned HYW era Burgundian WAB army. I like John. He's a ruthless S.O.B.


The Marauders tournament is fast approaching and I've barely started the figures I want to have done for it. Two half painted horses. That's it. I still need the riders and 25 swordsmen to assemble and paint. I'm just not motivated. But the weather seems like it will be crappy all weekend, so perhaps I will get something done.

Follow-ups

Next Project

On second thought, as nice as the new plastic multi-piece Celts are, I'm not so sure I want to assemble hundreds of them. I'm exhausted from assembling just two GW Empire pistoleers. ;)


Historicon


New pics posted at the NEWS web site, including a bunch of the AoC division.

In this one, you can see the calm before the storm in my second game. I'm the one relaxing on the left, thinking this will be a pleasant game. About ten minutes after the photo, the entire center of my army (that large bit directly in front of me) ran off the table.

Next Project?

I've been taking it easy and not painting much in the past month. I've worked on a little terrain and a few odds and ends, but that's about it. I am contemplating my next moves.

First, I would like to finish 25 more WFB Empire swordsmen in time for the Marauders Mayhem tournament in early October. They'll need to match the swordsmen I've already done. I also need to add two more pistoliers to match the existing five I've been using. I'm also working on painting a few things for a friend to pay off my Historicon room & board debt, and should be done shortly. (That's actually a bit of an unintended joke - they're WFB dwarves.)

After that, I have several options for projects...

1. Burgundians. I've got some more archers and cavalry, as well as a unit halberdiers. This would wrap up the army at 2250 points +/- and start pushing towards 2500 and beyond. I've also go some pike... see item 2...
2. Low Countries. I've picked up some Low Countries pikemen to use in the Burgundian army. This has led me to consider a complete Low Countries army as well. So I could begin working on this, which would both compliment and oppose the Burgundians. I could also use them for a slightly earlier period, which could also lead to the dark horse, item 3...
3. More Burgundians. I've been contemplating some earlier Burdungian - early 15th century, Hundred Years War era. Not certain on this, it may sit on the back burner for a while, since I already have figures for most of the other possible projects in this list.
4. Ancients. I'm considering a classical army, probably some sort of barbaric horde. I'd really like early Germans, but the new plastic Celts have made Gauls look a whole lore more affordable. This might also give me a wider historical range in order to hopefully find opponents for WAB or other ancient/medieval games.
   
5. WFB. I've got Empire & Skaven to respectable (though by no means "complete") levels. But lately I've been itching to screw around with something that doesn't involve hundreds of figures on the table. Partly it's just me looking for a little variety, partly it's cynicism about the direction the rules have recently taken. Most likely candidate is Wood Elves, largely because I've already got 95% of the figures I'd need. I also have a theme concept in mind. WFB also has the bonus of being the only game for which I have regular opponents.
6. Warmachine. I really like some of the figures and the concept behind the game. I've also enjoyed the games I've played. So I could always finish up the Cryx force I've started and/or the starter Khador force I recently aquired. I could probably even dig up an opponent or two, with a little effort. My fear is that once I get into some more hardcore games, I won't dig the rock-paper-scissors nature of the game so much. But at least the figures are still great.

Honestly, WFB is easiest (practically only) game I can find opponents for, but the historicals (especially medievals) are the ones I'm most interested in.

But I haven't decided what I'd like to do.