New Vampire Counts Rules: My Opinions

 

So earlier in the week I gave my opinions on the first half of the New Sisters of Battle Codex. Well today I am going to do the same for the new Vampire Counts Official Rules additions found in the same White Dwarf. 

First up we have the new Terrorgheist. This is a beautiful model but it is also the kit for the Zombie dragon so I will have to buy two of them :-(. THe rules are very cool for this model. It is a mount for a Ghoul King which is any Vampire that has taken the Ghoulkin Vampiric Power. It is a Monstrous mount so in addition to all of its normal attacks it get a Thunder Stomp at the end. It has an ability called Death Shriek a nice amount of attacks as well as wounds. I have been planning a Ghoul army for awhile now and this baby is giving me the incentive I need to get started on it ASAP. It also has upgrades in the form of Infested, which causes damage to enemy units if the Terrorgheist is destroyed. It also can buy Rancid Maw wihich upgrades its attacks to poison.

In my opinion I really like the Terrorgheist, and I definitely see one in my future, the Zombie Dragon must come first though.

Next up comes a new hero choice for the Vampire Counts, the Tomb Banshee. I am really excited about the option of taking heroes other than Vampires in my army and the Tomb Banshee is a great option. Stat wise she is not that great but the fact she causes terror, is ethereal and has the Ghostly Howl which can be used in combat, makes her well worth it as a substitute hero for any Vampire Count force. I love the new model and I will surely have one of these running with one of my Skeletal units, maybe even my Skeleton horde.

Last up we have yet another Hero choice. The Cairn Wraith. I plan to run possibly two of these guys depending on the points I am playing. Again their stats are not great but they too make up for it with Ethereal, Terror and the Chill Grasp ability, although I am not sure giving up 2 attacks with a great weapon is worth one attack that auto wounds if it hits, but we shall see. I will be using this model with either my ghouls or skeletons or possibly both if I run two. Either way I think these are an excellent option if you don't wish to run numerous expensive Vampires.

Well there you have it. I think that the new rules are going to be very useful especially to players like myself who only want to run one or two Vampires. We now have some very useful option as hero choices and a very nice new mount for a Ghoul King. I think GW did an excellent job with these new units and I hope they continue on into the new Vampire Counts rulebook when ever it comes out.

So what are your opinions on the new Official Vampire Count rules?

-Meatball

Heroes of Armageddon: Last Day to Enter!

Today is the last day to enter the Heroes of Armageddon charity drawing benefiting Doctors without Borders.

There are 4 beautiful armies up for grabs along with tons of extra swag for each one. So if you haven't entered yet you need to head on over to the Heroes of Armageddon blog and put in your donation for the chance to win. While you are there you can check out pictures of the awesome armies and all the cool extras.

So what are you doing still reading this post? Get out of here and go donate!

- Meatball

Warmachine: New Menoth Models

Saw two new releases announced for Menoth and I am liking them both. First up is a new Warcaster, Thyra, Flame of Sorrow.

Click Here for More Info

 Next up is her personal Warjack, Blood of Martyrs

Click Here for More Info

I will be picking up both of these models as soon as they are released. I have been wanting to use my Daughters of the Flame and it sounds like these will be perfect to run them with.

Feel free to leave me a comment discussing these new models.

-Meatball

Heroes of Armageddon: First Weekly Prize Announced

The Heroes of Armageddon Charity Drive is having their first weekly prize drawing. All proceeds from this charity drive go to support Doctors Without Borders. So head on over to the site if you haven't already and check it out!

-Meatball

Heroes of Armageddon Charity Project has Launched!

The below information is copied directly from Santa Cruz Warhammer.

Friends,

In the last 4 months our world has seen some extraordinary disasters, both natural and manmade. The people in the Middle East and Africa have been battling their governments and each other for a different and hopefully better future. many, many people died and got hurt and this is still going on today: in Lybia, in Ivory Coast, in Syria and in many other places as well.
And then the tsunami that hit Japan...seeing the footage of that wave gave me the chills and I have not been able to revisit it, realizing how much carnage and hardship this wave caused...

Storm Wardens
We cannot change any of these things by ourselves. But we can help support organizations that go to Africa and Japan, people that risk their own lives to better the life of a stranger. One of these groups is Doctor without Borders. An amazing organization and I am asking you all to check out their news feed here.
DWB go to places where most organizations have left and try against odds to fulfill their oath: to help people in need, really really in need.

And they need money. And thats where we come in...last year you all raised over 16,000 dollars for this amazing charity with the Storm Wardens Project. Here's the link, the page is still up.

And yes, it was all YOUR success. We just opened up a PayPal account and built 2500 points of models. But you all showed that our community can come together and do something amazing.

2011
Well, this year the world seems way worse off and we have decided to do another Charity Project:
Heroes of Armageddon

John and I thought it better to raise the stakes and create a much larger project: we're giving away FOUR 3000 point armies. We hope that you will all pitch in and let your heart speak. This is the change we all can make, instead of ignoring the news.

How does it work?

Every dollar that you support the project with gives you a chance to be one of the lucky four at the end of this drive. So 10 dollars of donations buys you 10 chances. 100 dollars means....right, you got it.
At the end of the drive, in July, we will randomly choose the winners.
Then, the armies will travel to Games Day in Chicago, where they will be displayed. After that the winners can take their army home or we send it off.
In short: the more you donate, the better your chances. More importantly, the more you donate, the more you  help all of us to make the world a better place.

Heroes of Armageddon
Our Games Day Diorama will depict the 3rd battle of Armageddon with 4 armies: Steel Legion, Blood Angels, Ork Hordes and Speed Freaks.
We have expanded the all star build team from last year with a handful of Golden Demon winners and we also hope to go bigger and better by reaching out to more of you and the industry and collecting even more than we did last year for Doctors Without Borders.

Here are the team leaders for the 4 army projects

Dave Taylor: Steel Legion
Jawaballs: Blood Angels
Man Boy Genius (Spikey Bits): Ork Hordes
Goatboy (BOLS): Speed Freaks

These four wonderful modelers were so kind to say yes to us and have commited to finishing up these armies in an amazing way: creative, fresh and with a great paintjob. Through these guys, we have been able to lock down 3 Golden Demon winners to paint the centerpieces of the armies and have created a total build team of close to 20 to 25 people, all of which are wonderful artists and gracious with time and effort for this cause. More on all of the participants next week.

Our main site for the finished units and more info is http://heroesofarmageddon.blogspot.com

There is more

Just like last year, as our way of saying thanks for your help, we will enter you in a weekly prize drawing once for every dollar you pitch in so not only will you be helping a good cause, but you might just win something amazing for your trouble. Everyone who has supported the project up to that point will be eligible to win. The prizes will be really, really nice.

What can you do?

Put this button on your page with the link above. 

You can help spread the word and link to the heroes site and the site of the bloggers involved. Why not create a special blogroll for this? That would help immensely.

You can hold a local event to raise money or just post some flyers at your favorite gaming spots.

You can send in prize or model donations and be part of the many sponsors that help us out.
You can talk to family and friends and tell them about the help that they can give

AND
you can send us models that we then distribute to the teams that need them. A list will go up soon with requests.

Last Years winner

Last year's Army winner Jacob, watch a video of him at Games Day receiving the Storm Wardens Army Grand Prize.

Are you ready to make a difference?

Are you ready for 4 awesome armies?

Are you ready for Armageddon?

John & Mike

New Tomb Kings Images

I was browsing the blogs this morning when I found Images of the new Tomb Kings over at Drinkin' and Modelin'. Go Check them out here!

I just stumbled across more Images!

-Meatball

Sorry for Lack of Updates

I had a medical procedure done this week and I fell behind on some posts I was scheduling before I got admitted. Feb will continue to be a light month on posts while I recover, but rest assured I am still doing hobby stuff, for instance I have almost read the entire Warhammer Fantasy rulebook from cover to cover!

I will be posting again soon so please check back soon.

- Meatball

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

DEEPSTRIKE Radio Flood Appeal

I just saw this tonight over at Dave Taylor Miniatures and felt it was worth mentioning. DEEPSTRIKE Radio is doing a charity drive to help the victims  of the 2011 Queensland Floods. I have posted the banner to show my support and I am hoping others may do the same.

They are looking for support in the form of donations of money or Space Marine box sets. These sets will be used to build a Space Marine army that will be auctioned off on ebay with proceeds being donated to the Queensland Flood Appeal

Please read the post at Dave Taylor Miniatures and at DEEPSTRIKE Radio for more information!

- Meatball

Mik's Minis: Go Check it out!

When I first started my blog, Mik's Minis was one of the first blogs I added to my blog roll. Mik (aka Gyro) always has interesting posts and I thoroughly enjoy reading his blog.

Today Mik reached 750 posts on his blog and he added a nice little post about it. Through his post Mik mentioned the only way things could be better would be if he hit the 200 followers mark, well as of this post he sits at 197, just 3 shy of this goal.

So basically I am asking you all to go check out his blog and if you are not a follower please become one. Lets see if we can get Mik his last 3 followers.

Congratulations on 750 posts Mik and lets hope we can get you to 200 followers.

- Meatball

Female Imperial Guard Conversion Kits

I saw this on The Beasts of War website. These are female conversion bits for Sci-fi miniatures. They are from a company called Laughing Monk Miniatures.

I may just have to reconsider doing guard again. I think they look pretty good and should do well to enhance the look of an Imperial Guard army.

Anyway, check them out and let me know what you think!

- Meatball

New Blog Banner and Callsign for me :)

When I decided to merge my other gaming blogs into one, the first thing I wanted to do was get a professional looking banner that really spoke to what the blog is about, a not to serious look at my gaming adventures. I could attempt to make one in Photo Shop, but my artistic skills are limited to slapping paint on miniatures and not computer graphics. I knew what I wanted the banner to look like I just had no clue how to do it.My daughter offered several times to help me out as she is the artist in the family, but with her AP Art class and applying to colleges sehe was already pretty swamped for time but I appreciated the offer.

The Halloween came around and I was following the 31 Days of Walking Dead on Minions of the Monster Master. I was reading the day 24 post and I knew the answer to a trivia question that was asked,; for my reward I got a cartoon of me as a zombie posted on the Minions site. I had always been an admirer of Biscuits artwork on the site but I wasn't sure how he felt about doing art for other people so I approached Mik (Gyro) from Mik's minis to see if Biscuit does commission work and the answer was yes he does. So I commissioned Biscuit to do a banner for me.

First and foremost I may say that he is absolutely a professional and it was a pleasure doing business with him. The first thing I got was an email describing how he likes the process to work. I then shot him back the idea that was floating in my head and I received the image below.

 

I was blown away, it surpassed even what I had pictured in my mind, so I wrote him back and asked him to proceed with the direction he was going. A few days later I got the next image.

 

Again I wrote Biscuit to let him know I was happy with the progress and a few days later I received the final image you now see at the top of the blog. Now I am just in the process of getting the colors of the blog to work well with the image, I am not quite there yet but I will keep working at it as time permits.

So I have a new blog, a new banner and thanks to Gyro, I have a new name. I'm not going to go into how it came about, if you are interested you can read it in the comments here. As of today I am changing my online name for the blog to reflect my Gyro (Mik) generated minion name of Meatball!

Well that's all I got, thanks for putting up with me bragging about my new banner, If you get the chance stop by the Minions website and become a follower, they have some excellent articles and the podcast is pretty funny. If you are looking for some commissioned artwork for your blog, I highly recommend Biscuit, he is very professional and kept the lines of communication open so I always knew what was going on with the banner.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog adn please feel free to leave some comments.

- Meatball

The Barter Bucket: It Really Works!

 

 Today I just wanted to make a quick post to talk about something that I have found useful ever since it was created and that would be the Barter Bucket. The Barter Bucket was originally started by Ron over at From the Warp but has since moved to Santa Cruz Warhammer where is is managed by Mik from Mik's Minis.

I have been using the Bucket ever since its original inception and to my great surprise I have had nothing but successful trades there. I was so very impressed with the community of hobbyist/bloggers that use the bucket and how friendly and fair everyone is. It is such a simple system and it still amazes me how well it has worked out, at least for me.

Usually the idea behind the bucket  is that each person sends in a list of items they are looking for and a list of items they have for trade; but several times I have received something I have asked for and the sender wanted nothing in return. The most recent example for me would be my Knight that I received just a bout two weeks ago. I posted on the Barter Bucket asking for a Knight so I could participate in the Knights of Bal Timorea project. A day or two later I got an email asking for my address and then the next thing I know this little guy showed up at my door and even had ome ready made flocking material with it.

Another recent trade of mine is helping me to finish off some custom bases I wanted to make for my Fell Bats. I had the fell bats already but I picked up the extra branches from the Citadel woods and all of the bases from recent trades on The Barter Bucket. (I still need some of the branches if anyone is listening Hint Hint). I got the parts i needed for the price of some postage and extra models I had lying around cluttering up my hobby area.

So I encourage any of you who have not heard of The Barter Bucket, to stop by and check it out and then maybe even give it a try. It is a good community driven project that I think more people should have access to.

-BJ (aka. Meatball)

Welcome to My Dice Hate Me!

Welcome followers of  Extremis Diabolus and Winds of Magic as well as anyone else who may have stumbled in. Welcome to my new home on the web. My Dice Hate Me! is going to be my focal point for everything I do or enjoy about the Wargaming Miniature hobby.

The blog is still in its early phases, there are many changes to come down the road. I am already looking into getting a banner created for the blog and once that is accomplished I will be adjusting the color scheme as well as the format.

I have already included all of the previous posts from both of my former blogs. I will also be continuing the "Motivational Monday" posts, but now I will be including motivation from any gaming system I am playing. There will still be plenty of my project updates to show off as well as discussion on various wargaming topics.

One of the new aspects I plan on adding is to become the Defender of all the Fluff Bunnies out there. While I have nothing against competitive gamers, I am not one. My first miniature gaming experience came from playing RPGs, especially D&D. The best part about this hobby for me are the epic tales that are created through game play with friends. I hope to cover much more of this as well as address some of the Fluff Bunny myths that float around the web.

Finally, I am hoping to bring on another writer or two for the blog. I have a couple of good friends who I am recruiting to begin posting their thoughts as well.

I am glad that you found the blog and I hope you will continue to stop by. Please feel free to leave comments, give advice or even criticism. I have a pretty thick hide (+5 Armor) and am not easily offended so feel free to let me know how you feel. OK now stop reading this and get back to gaming!

-BJ

Community News: The Knights of Bal Timorea

 

In case you have missed it, the guys over at Santa Cruz WarHammer are doing another community project called The Knights of Bal Timorea. This is a cool little project where we the community paint up a fantasy knight and then send it into Santa Cruz Warhammer. Once the project is complete, everyone who participated will have a chance at winning the entire painted collection.

I think this is a very cool idea and just lends itself to ones creativity. I plan on doing a little research on my family and painting up my Knight using any family crest/heraldry I may find. So head on over to Santa Cruz Warhammer and check out the project, then get onto painting your own Knight for submission!

-BJ

GW Newsletter: Incoming! The Island of Blood

I just got my GW Newsletter announcing the Island of Blood box game incoming for Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition. Below is a quick quote from the Newsletter.

"The Island of Blood is the new boxed game for Warhammer and is released this September. Packed full of stunning plastic Citadel miniatures and containing all the rules, dice and templates you'll need to play, it's the essential purchase for fans of the Warhammer hobby."

Unfortunately it doesn't mention what armies or models will be included but it did contain the below image which leads me to believe the High Elf/Skaven rumors are true.

So let me know what you think. I know I will be getting this set if it has High Elves as I am planning to build a High Elf army in the near future.

-BJ

Is 2500 points going to be the new North American Tournament Standard for Fantasy Battles?

A friend of mine wanted to know if I would be willing to play in the North American Warhammer Tournament Round 1. So I Went to read up on the rules for playing and to my surprise the points limit is 2500 points. Then another friend called me today and told me he was playing in a fantasy battles tournament in January and the points limit for it is also 2500.

So I was just wondering if you anyone knows is this going to be the new Tournament standard for Fantasy Battles. I have been looking on the web but have not found any info as to if this will be the new standard.

What do you think of a 2500 point standard for tournaments?
If this is going to be the new standard what changes if any do you plan on doing for any of your lists?
Is this really going to effect your army that much?

For my Dwarfs I just added a th hero and a unit of Thunderers to meet the points. I haven't really looked at what to do for my Tomb Kings yet.

Anyway I just wanted to know if any one out there knows if this is the new standard and if it is get your thoughts on it.

-BJ

The Beastmen are coming!

Well I know I am late on posting this so I am sure you already know that Beastmen have been confirmed for a February release. Well let me just say I am very excited about this news. I have a "Beasts of Chaos" army that I purchased many years ago when the army first released. I shelved it after playing a few games and then my interest fading to 40K for some time. Needless to say I have a full army already and will just need to look at what new monsters will be in this new book.

One of the things I am most curious about is what their new magic lore is going to be like. It is going to be full of damaging spells or will it fill more of a support role for the army. One of the biggest things I will have to change may be my list as I was running a Tzeentch heavy list and I am not sure if that will be an option in this new version.

Well as we anxiously await more information on this new release I am just curious of what changes you would like to see? What do you think the new Magic Lore will be like? What should Beastmen keep from the old book?