Tag Archives: Battle for the Cure

Rats for the Cure 2013

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Rats for the Cure Banner

Somehow, I missed that this year’s Battle for the Cure was scheduled for April 6 until just a few days ago.

It’s something that I look forward to every year, so I signed up and immediately got a bug up my ass about painting something new for it.

I’m a long way away from having a pink unit, much less a pink army, but a new model’s certainly progress, right?

Anyway, I’ve had the BaneLords Blunt-Claw model in my bits tub for a while, so I pulled him out, put him together, stuck a Bloodletter banner on him. Nothing fancy at all.

Rats for the Cure Warlord 1

Rats for the Cure Warlord 2

Rats for the Cure Warlord 4

Rats for the Cure Warlord 3

Hadn’t really thought through that it’d be basically a fat, gross naked mole-rat, but it is what it is.

I’m quite pleased with how the freehand on the banner came out. That’s probably the best freehand I’ve managed yet.

2013-03-31 16.51.53

Clash for the Cure – Results

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Clash for the Cure went down this weekend, and it was fairly successful.  (Yes, that’s a pink ribbon mat.)

As I predicted, I didn’t do too well in the actual matchups (0-3) but, as I’d hoped, I did well with the painting.

Game 1 was against Phil‘s Chaos Dwarves.  (Weirdness: no Tomb King players, but we had two Chaos Dwarf players.)  He’s working through converting them; not using the Mantic models.  They’re looking sharp.

The game was kind of a disaster.  My dice weren’t there for me and, frankly, Withering + Blunderbusses is… pretty rough.

Yes, that’s four Plague Monks left out of thirty, after one round of shooting.  Not sure what my options there are besides, “Hope he doesn’t do it,”

Regardless, it was still a pleasant game.  Phil’s a good guy, which kept it fun.

Game 2 was against Bill’s pink High Elves.

This was a rough, back-and-forth game.

I had an insane Doomrocket shot (37″!) that, thanks to unusually considered positioning still managed to connect with a unit and be quite devastating.

Also, the Stormbanner lasted the entire game.  From the start of Turn 1 until the bottom of Turn 4 (the last turn).  That never happens.

Ultimately, the game came down to Bill’s Phoenix Guard throwing down with my Plague Monks.  Things looked grim until I ran out of Plague Monks and it was just my Priest + the Furnace’s crew vs. the few Phoenix Guard that could swing on them.  In the end, Bill pulled out a Minor Victory.

Game 3 was against Harry’s Lizardmen

We ended up running out of time on the game, but it was another tough game.

My Seer managed to make a billion Ward Saves, lasting an unreasonable number of combat rounds against his Saurus BSB.  The Slaves stuck around a good long while, too.

In the end, I charged his General with some Stormvermin, the Warlord and the BSB… which didn’t work out for me.  I caught a flank charge from his Saurus after they cleared out the slaves.  Unsurprisingly, the unit broke; costing me something like 640 VP alone.

All three games, despite being losses, were great.  I had an awesome time.

Another thing I wanted to point out was Joey’s display board:

That’s a drawer, there.  He can fit all of his non-model stuff in there.  Brilliant!  (And really good looking, too.)

So far, the even raised over $500; we’ve still got a few items that didn’t see bids that are on their way to eBay.  That means that, across the three tournaments we’ve run, we’ve raised over $7,000!

(The photo of Bill’s High Elves and Joey’s Dark Elves come by way of Harry.)

Clash for the Cure!

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Today’s another breast cancer charity tournament: this time Warhammer Fantasy instead of 40K.  Should be a good time, though likely smaller than the Battle for the Cure tournaments we’ve done at Game Vault.

I won’t be fully painted, and I don’t have a unit painted pink to compete in that particular category, but I think the Rats for the Cure mini I knocked out a bit ago will do well in the single-mini category.

Games are at 2,000 instead of 2,500… which is a size I’m not really used to, but makes sense given the schedule we’ve got.  I’m trying something new to make the list I know how to play work with 500 fewer points:

Clash for the Cure

Lords
Warlord (General) – War-Litter, Enchanted Shield, Sword of Swift-Slaying
Grey Seer – Talisman of Protection

Heroes
Chieftain (BSB) – Shield, Armor of Destiny
Plague Priest – Plague Furnace, Flail
Warlock Engineer – Doomrocket

Core
Skavenslaves x42 – Musician, Shield
Stormvermin x14 – Musician, Standard Bearer, Stormbanner
– Poisoned Wind Mortar
Stormvermin x14 – Musician, Standard Bearer
– Poisoned Wind Mortar

Special
Plague Monks x30 – Full Command, Plague Banner
Gutter Runners x6 – Poison, Slings
Gutter Runners x6 – Poison, Slings

Rare
Doomwheel

I tend to keep my Core expenditures as close to minimum as possible: so, no more Clanrats.  Instead, I’m running a pair of small (tiny, really) Stormvermin units with Mortars.  I expect this will not work at all, but I’m giving it a stab.

Similarly, there’s no Hellpit.  No Warp-Lightning Cannon.  As poorly as the latter’s done for me (the last few games I’ve played, I’ve misfired something like 90% of the time), I should be more comfortable with that decision.  We’ll see.

No Power Scroll, but that’s ’cause it’s explicitly verboten.  Suppose I won’t necessarily swap out for The Dreaded Thirteenth, then.

I’m beefing the Gutter Runners up from 5 to 6 because I’m incapable of arguing with Harry’s logic about how many casualties it takes to force a Leadership test.  They don’t take them often, though, so I might go back to 5 ninja rats after a few games.

I’m planning to have a time and I hope we raise some money!  I’ll probably be taking pictures and commenting on the Twitter throughout the day… at least I hope to.

Rats for the Cure

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After painting the Clash for the Cure High Elf, I kinda felt like I was on a roll painting pink.  It’s so striking.  It’s bright and pops out at you: the vast majority of models out there tend to be dark, drab and (frankly) boring to look at at table-distance.  Even my Skaven are starting to run that way, you know?

So, that obviously let me into painting up a counter piece to the elf: the Skaven Warlord from Island of Blood.

There’s not nearly as much pink on him as there is on the Elf, but I think it’s a little more interesting.  Each pink feature’s a little different in the way I pulled it together.

I still need to paint something on the banner: I need to figure out what.  It’ll either be a glyph-like ribbon symbol, some sort of runic “FUCK CANCER” or “RATS FOR THE CURE” (which I think is brilliant).  Probably some combination of that.  I wanted to get the model varnished first, though: so I could paint whatever without worrying about wiping off work and so I could go ahead and photograph the mini.

He’ll probably go in as my BSB at the Clash for the Cure.

Clash for the Cure – High Elf

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As successful as the 40K Battle for the Cure has been, the Fantasy guys ’round Chantilly will be running a Fantasy event with similar goals: Clash for the Cure.  
I imagine I’ll participate, since it’s an important cause… though I don’t expect it to be as successful as the BftC. For one, the 40K community in the greater area is significantly larger than the Fantasy one.  And, while Game Vault’s been extremely generous and supportive the past two years, Game Parlor’s not really known for offering much in the way of support for events.  (It’s possible they contributed to past years’ WNPG’s Toys for Tots events; I’d be happy to be proven wrong.)
On further reflection, I think it’d be better if it were “Battle for the Cure – Fantasy” (or something along those lines), and not “Clash for the Cure.”  Seems like better branding to me… though interclub friction (and the avoidance thereof) might have been the motivation for that.
Anyway: riding the high from BftC, I was inspired to take the very epic looking High Elf Mage from the Island of Blood box (who’s been sitting around, looking epic and awaiting inspiration), and paint him pink.  Bill D.’s working on a whole pink High Elf army specifically to use at CftC; this guy, I think, will look great with them.  So, I’m going to give this to Bill (I don’t think he follows this, so it should be a surprise).  I’ll probably stand it as my single pink figure competition, though.

There’s a lot of stuff I’m not happy about with it.  This is the first elf I’ve painted, and pink is an immense pain in the ass to paint… but it’ll do.  I’m pleased that I got three different kinds of pink (the pink of the energy, the pink of the cloth and the pink of the gems) to look different… though the gems could have come out better.
Also, it’s been an eternity since I’ve used static grass… so that came out as kind of a disaster.
I really, really need to write up a post about how just using washes straight from the pot is a rookie movie, and how washes should always be mixed with other washes, matte medium and water.  I did a lot of that here, and successfully.

Paintification Progress – 20101214

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Managed to block out all of Sunday to do catch up on some much-needed hobby work.  Things, as I’ve said, have been unbelievably hectic lately so it was a really great feeling to slap some paint around.  Particularly on these, since I hope they’ll go over well at the Battle for the Cure.

I took some pictures while doing the ribbons; I hope to throw together a quick walk-through on how to do them and post it tomorrow.

Before I do just a dump of pictures, I wanted to call out a specific one that kind of breaks my heart:

This was accidental.  I used all of the bald heads ’cause I’m not crazy about the wacky Daemonette hairstyles.    All of the Daemonettes, being Slaaneshi are supposed to be androgynous; given this is GW… that’s expressed by making them extremely feminine but only giving them one breast.

In the context of a model painted for a breast cancer awareness event, however, I see: the determined, resolute face of a survivor.  The bald head of a chemotherapy recipient.  The results of a mastectomy.  The rest of the model is pretty ridiculous, sure, but it hits a lot of buttons.

Also, the larger batch of Daemonettes came out a bit lighter than my test model:

I’m okay with that.  I think the tone one the larger batch looks much better.

Anyway, here’s the rest of the models.

Other than that: I’m working on a mini for my D&D game (for what qualifies as a “recurring villain”, I suppose) and I’ve finally assembled Skulltaker’s Chariot so I’ll probably start painting him soon.

I had big plans for hitting the Dogfish Head Alehouse a mile from my FLGS that I just learned about (their 60 Minute IPA’s been my default beer for something like six years, now) before heading into game (I’ve got a couple of hours between when I boogie out of work and when people start showing up for games)… but forgot my wallet at home.  Maybe next week.

I’ve also made some breakthroughs on automating my Hobby Status spreadsheet, so I hope to have that available for consumption in the next week or so.

Battle for the Cure!

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Saturday was Battle for the Cure… the first of what is bound to be many.

To say that it was successful would be to understate.  Game Vault was, as always, an excellent host.  Turnout was great. (With 24/25? people?)  The scenarios were solid.  We raised an $1,405 for the Race for the Cure.

That’s right.  $1,405.

The silent auction did well; there were a lot of things (backpacks, Flames of War sets) donated by Game Vault and Games Workshop, several painted minis (one of which, an Azrael painted by double-Golden Daemon and Forgeworld Best in Show winner Andrew Wylie, went for ~$110!) as well as several folks offering painting services.  My offer to paint a squad of ~10 models ended up going for $130!  (A sum that is as ridiculous as it is flattering.)  Frank did a magnificent job putting it all together.

All three of my games were extremely close.

My list:

MAXIMUM KHORNAGE
Chaos Daemons – 2,000 points
HQ
Bloodthirster – Death Strike, Unholy Might
Bloodthirster – Death Strike, Unholy Might
Elites
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury of Khorne, Icon of Khorne, Instrument of Khorne
Troops
Bloodletters x16 – Fury of Khorne, Icon of Khorne
Bloodletters x8 – Fury of Khorne, Icon of Khorne
Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Karanak, Fury of Khorne
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne
Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Mark of Khorne, Death Strike, Instrument of Chaos, Iron Hide
Daemon Prince – Mark of Khorne, Death Strike, Instrument of Chaos, Iron Hide
Daemon Prince – Mark of Khorne, Death Strike, Instrument of Chaos, Iron Hide

Game 1

My first game was against fellow IFLer Mike Gatewood’s Eldar.  Scenario was built around getting to an objective in the middle of the board and hanging onto it.  Secondary victory condition was modified Kill Points, tertiary was table quarters.

The first half of the game was him charging me, me counter-charging him, him counter-charging me, and so on.  It looked like the bulk of the game was going to be spent in a big furball that sucks up every unit on the board until… :pop: all of his models in the throwdown evaporated.  A lot of back-and-forth.

Other highlights included five Bloodletters pwned the Avatar in one round of combat, as well as an unending battle between a Daemon Prince and a Wraithlord.  (Toughness 8 is tough!).

I ended up losing, but it was close. His third Wraithlord’s Move Through Cover roll was responsible for a 17 point swing: had he rolled nothing higher than a 4, I’d have pulled it off.  He rolled a 5, though, and killed the crap out of the scraps of Bloodletters that were holding onto the objective.

A really great, close game.

Game 2

My second game was against another fellow IFLer, Mark Callan, and his Salamanders.  Scenario was built around a “three day battle:” odd numbered turns had Dawn of War.  Five objectives.  Secondary was normal Kill Points, tertiary was table quarters.

This game was hard to judge.  I was unable to get a single wound through a Stormshield.  If you had a Stormshield, you were invincible.  I have to admit that this got a little frustrating.

Again, a lot of back and forth.  I killed the living crap out of anything that didn’t have a Stormshield, though.

What was shocking was that we tied in every way: we tied on objectives, we tied on Kill Points, we tied on table quarters.  I won the game with one point: I had a unit in his deployment zone, which good for a single bonus point.

It was a good game.  The Storm Shield thing drove me up a wall, but it was exciting and close despite that.

Game 3

I have to admit that I forgot the name of my third opponent.  He was running Space Wolves.  Scenario was built around a extra “runner” character and having them camp an objective in the center of the table.  Again, Kill Points, quarters.

This game started out a bit frustrating.  It was hard to tell where one squad started and the other ended (because they were a mishmash of marines, space wolves and chaos marines).  His Thunderwolves were on cavalry bases, of all things.  (“Canis Wolfborn being on a big base doesn’t mean all Thunderwolves are supposed to be on a big base.  Besides, they don’t even sell big bases.”  I expressed 1) why that that’s pure ridiculosity and 2) that they do sell them.  He spaced them out as a result, though, so I really can’t complain.)

It chugged along.  Not a whole lot of back and forth initially: just starting at one end and chewing it up.  Had extremely good luck chasing the Thunderwolves and a full squad of Grey Hunters off the table.

The last three rounds saw everything I had trying to kill his runner and him trying to kill mine.  Ultimately, I was able to wear his runner down and, in the very last round of the game, free my runner from combat.

I’m curious to see the final scores, but I can’t complain about three close games (or two wins).

The event was extremely successful, so we’re definitely going to see a repeat next year.  Hopefully, with more lead-in, we’ll be able to get the extra support we almost got this year (but couldn’t, because we didn’t have enough lead-in).

Battle for the Cure

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Frank is running a tournament mid-March (3/20) called “Battle for the Cure.”  At the same time, we’ll be running a silent auction, auctioning off various donations.

Tournament fees and the proceeds will go to sponsor fellow IFL’er Bill Donovan’s participation in the Susan G. Komen’s Race for the Cure.  He’s been doing it for years, but this will be our first year doing something organized to support him.

Breast cancer’s very recently touched my family: my mother’s spent the better part of last year fighting it (and beating it)… so it’s something that I’ve been pretty cognizant of, lately.

I’ll be donating to the auction: I’ll paint a squad of ~10 models for the winning bidder.  I’m not the best painter in the world, but I am a Golden Daemon finalist, so I think that should be worth something.  (I’m a little tempted to make a high bid for my own services: I don’t particularly enjoy painting for other people :) )

Of course, this is further motivation for me to have my army nicely and completely painted in time for the tournament, so I can point to it.  “See, I’m a good painter.  You should spend money on boobs and, in doing so, get a nicely painted squad.”  Given that the tournament is one week after my previous target date, that should be doable, but it’s a 2,000 point tournament.  So, one more week… but 150 more points.

Anyway, if you’re in the area (within driving distance of Fredericksburg, VA), you should check it out.  It should be a lot of fun, and it’s for a very good cause.  More information about the event can be found on the IFL Forum or on the Game Vault Forum.