2012

If you have been reading this blog you already know that I like numbers. So here we go:

This year I played 26 tabletop games, 9 games of 40K, 9 games of Warhammer Fantasy and 8 games of HOTT. Three of these games were team games.

I played 25 times with Krüger, twice with my cousin Sven and twice with Patrick.

I won 11 games, lost 11 games and 4 games were tied.

Apart from the little accident we had two weeks ago, it was a good gaming year. Let's see what happens in 2013!

Wargaming Disaster

Yesterday night Krüger and I met to play HOTT.

After I had prepared the battlefield and gaming materials, I went away for a minute, leaving my 4-year old daughter and Krüger in the room with all the miniatures. I suddenly heard a loud noise. Somehow Lina who was taking pictures of our armies with her Fisher Price camera managed to tear down the gaming board with Krüger standing right next to her. She was crying. My HOTT army was on the floor, the miniatures mostly damaged. The board had landed on Lina's foot. Fortunately she was ok after a while. But it will probably take me a couple of weeks to repair my miniatures. Not cool.

I was luckier playing the game. Krüger was the defender and had to deploy his troops first. I divided my army, placing one part on the left side, the other on the right to avoid getting in contact with Krüger's general and his knights which he had placed in the centre. The plan worked. I destroyed 6 of his elements, not loosing one myself, and won the game.

Weihnachtsmarkt

Marjorie, Lina, Herr Zinnling und Hendrik auf dem Weihnachtsmarkt in Dortmund.

Generic Green Creatures

Warband General (2 points)

6 Warbands (12 points)

I play Hordes of the Things on a 120 mm x 120 mm board with single based 28 mm miniatures put on regiment bases that have a base width of 80 mm. (I basically double all the measurements recommended for playing with 15 mm miniatures.) To fix the miniatures to the regiment bases, I use magnets and flexible steel sheets.

The core of my army consists of a warband general and 6 warbands. I tried all kinds of elements to supplement my core army, a hero, a magician, behemoths and beasts, and finally decided to play the following list: a warband general, 6 warbands, a behemoth and 3 flyers.

Warbands are difficult to play, so I posted a question in the Fanaticus Forum: what would be a good match against this army? People kindly responded and Alan Saunders suggested a list: 6 blades, 3 knights, a magician and a shooter.

Krüger, the friend whom I regulary play HOTT with, accepted to try the list against me. The miniatures he uses are old school GW High Elves. We have played 6 very challenging games using the two lists so far. I won 4 times and lost twice. It's too early to tell if the lists are balanced, I guess, but they are lots of fun to play.

Thanks, Alan Saunders!

Krüger's Orks & Goblins

Yesterday night, Krüger and I had a game of Warhammer Fantasy. I played my Wood Elf army, he brought 1500 points of Orks & Goblins. This is his army list:

Orc Warboss (lord / 171 points)
great weapon, armour of destiny

Orc Big Boss (hero / 73 points)
boar, light armour

Night Goblin Big Boss (hero / 36 points)
great weapon, light armour

Night Goblin Shaman (hero / 85 points)
level 2 wizard
magic mushrooms

20 Orc Big 'Uns (core unit / 215 points)
champion, standard bearer, musician
shields

20 Orc Boys (core unit / 175 points)
champion, standard bearer, musician
additional hand weapon, shields

30 Night Goblins (core unit / 215 points)
champion, standard bearer, musician
nets, shields
2 fanatics

5 Goblin Wolf Riders (core unit / 50 points)

5 Goblin Wolf Riders (core unit / 50 points)

Goblin Wolf Chariot (special unit / 50 points)

8 Orc Boar Boys (special unit / 179 points)
champion, standard bearer, musician

Giant (rare unit / 200 points)

The game was quite entertaining as it was tied until the last turn, when the dice turned against me and I finally lost. My two main mistakes: to accept a challenge with my general and not to use the treeman's Strangle-roots attack as a stand and shoot charge reaction against Krüger's giant.

You can find a complete battle report with pictures on Krüger's blog Spielosophie.

Army List Wood Elves

My 1500 point Wood Elf army:

Wood Elf Highborn (lord / 226 points)

great weapon, armour of silvered steel, hail of doom arrow

Spellsinger (hero / 150 points)

level 2 wizard

dispel scroll

23 Eternal Guards (core unit / 331 points)

champion, standard bearer, musician

war banner

20 Glade Guards (core unit / 264 points)

champion, standard bearer, musician

9 Dryads (core unit / 120 points)

champion

9 Dryads (core unit / 120 points)

champion

Treeman (rare unit / 285 points)

The picture shows the general, a Wood Elf Highborn that was painted by Simon Bradley as a commission. I'm going to play against Krüger's High Elves or Orks on Tuesday night. I hope it will be fun.

3 to 2

Yesterday night, Krüger and I had a very relaxed game of Warhammer 40K. Before we started, we drank a glass of cidre with my cousin Sven, who dropped in for an hour before leaving for the airport to catch his flight to Munich. He was on a 2-day business trip in Berlin, properly dressed up in a suit. It was good to see him.

Krüger and I played with 1000 points. Plague Marines versus Space Marines. We still use the 5th edition because at the moment I don't have the time to read the new rules. (I also don't have the money to buy more rule books. And it would be cleverer to save money for a new digital camera, I think.) The scenario turned out to be annihilation and spearhead.

I got my first point in turn 2 when my obliterators dropped into the game using their deep strike special rule and destroyed a whole unit of space marines, firing 3 plasma cannons at them. Krüger's captain survived and was able to kill my obliterators in an act of angry vengeance, giving Krüger his first point. In turn 3, one of my two units of plague marines wrecked Krüger's razorback. In turn 4, my other unit destroyed his dreadnought. The score was 3 to 1 by then, so I decided to play safe. I put my chaos lord and his unit back into their rhino and moved it away from enemy fire. The other unit of plague marines was more daring and attacked Krüger's remaining space marines, terminators and the angry captain. My unit was wiped out, but nevertheless I won the game. 3 to 2 for me.

I hope my cousin can bring his chaos space marines and stay a bit longer next time he comes to Berlin.

Reiseführer

Ich habe gerade zwei Wochen mit meinen Kindern Lina (4) und Hendrik (2) im Haus meiner Eltern in Dortmund verbracht. Dort habe ich begonnen, meiner Mutter beim Aufräumen zu helfen. Mein Vater war obsessiver Sammler. Er ist nun seit mehr als 10 Jahren tot.

Jeder normale Vater hinterläßt seinen Kindern, wenn er kann, ein Haus, Aktien, Gold. Mein Vater hat mir etwa 2000 Reiseführer hinterlassen, darunter 20 über Zypern. Mein Vater war nie auf Zypern, so weit ich weiß. Die Schränke meiner Mutter sind vollgestopft mit Büchern, größtenteils ungelesen, aber so schlecht gelagert, daß viele wertlos sind.

Es ist für mich nicht einfach zu verstehen, welches System der Sammlung meines Vaters zugrunde liegt, was die Sammlung erzählt. Ich habe gemerkt, daß einige Themen, die meinen Vater interessiert haben, auf mich übergegangen sind.

Marjorie, die aus Honduras kommt und mit der ich verheiratet bin, habe ich auf einer Reise kennen gelernt, auf Kuba. Ich habe unter den Büchern meines Vaters auch einige Reiseführer über Kuba gefunden. Auch dort war er nie.

Unter anderem hat mein Vater zu folgenden Themen Bücher gesammelt: griechische Kunst, ägyptische, etruskische, römische Kunst, Museen und Ausstellungen, englische Gärten, Karten. Das Buch, das mich am meisten überrascht hat: "Romantik und Wirklichkeit der alten Mühlen".

Zu jedem Thema, das ihn interessiert hat, hat er eine Sammlung angefangen. Seine Bücher haben sich in der Wohnung wie ein Pilz verbreitet. Ich habe nun die Aufgabe, diese Sammlung aufzulösen. Einige Bücher werde ich behalten, das Meiste verkaufen.

Ich glaube, mein Vater war ein sehr einsamer Mann.

Wood Golem

This treeman currently causes a lot of distress in our games of Warhammer Fantasy. It's actually a Wood Golem by Ral Partha which Patrick gave to me a couple of years ago. It was painted by Andrew Taylor as a commission.

Krüger is really scared of it. He says my Treeman dominates the game and that he has to field strong units against it as an antidote. Thus the poor thing hardly ever survives the first turn.

Like yesterday night, when it was blasted away by some wicked high elf mage using the spell "searing doom" on it. We played 1500 points, High Elves against Wood Elves. It was a hard fight that lasted 3 hours. On my side only two elements survived: a unit of dryads and my general, a Wood Elf Highborn on foot. The survivors on Krüger's side were a chariot, a great eagle and his general, a Prince on an elven steed loaded with all kinds of twinkling magic objects, which High Elves seem to enjoy. The game ended in a tie.

The Last 3 Years

Three years ago I started to collect data about the tabletop games I play - with whom I played, when, which game, with how many points, who won, who lost, etc. I did this mainly because my cousin Sven often complained about balance problems he experienced while playing games like Warhammer and Warmachine. I think in a good game both sides should have a fair chance. Why should you start playing when it's clear from the beginning that one side will most probably end up winning?

All in all, I have played 57 times since October 13th 2009. Thirty-two of these games were team games involving 3 or more people. I have played Warhammer 40K 39 times, Warhammer Fantasy 11 times and Hordes of the Things 7 times. There are 3 people I mostly play with: Krüger (53 times), Patrick (31 times) and Sven (12 times). Since Sven doesn't live in Berlin anymore, so 4 games a year aren't too bad.

I won 24 times, lost 22 times, the other 11 games were tied. In our gaming group, the games are relatively balanced. That said, at the moment we have some difficulties with Warhammer Fantasy. I only recently started collecting Wood Elves, whereas Krüger, against whom I usally play the game, already has a well organized, strong 2000 point High Elf army. (Why on earth do they "always strike first"?)

Here is the ranking for all 3 games I play. The number in brackets shows how often a player won. I only counted games I was involved in.

40K: Krüger (58%) / Herr Zinnling (55%) / Sven (50%) / Patrick (41%)

Warhammer Fantasy: Patrick (100%) / Krüger (65%) / Herr Zinnling (41%) / Sven (33%)

HOTT: Herr Zinnling (57%) / Krüger (43%)

All of the above games: Krüger (58%) / Herr Zinnling (52%) / Sven (46%) / Patrick (45%) 

Krüger is the best player in our group. And Patrick should finally accept the challenge to fight my Wood Elves!

FU-UK Sculpting Contest

This is a miniature I sculpted for the 2006 FU-UK sculpting contest. It's actually my first attempt at sculpting with green stuff.

The same miniature painted yellow.

A year later my cousin Sven sculpted this dog and 

received an honorable mention from Kev Adams and Brian and Wendy Froud, the jury of the FU-UK Pro-Am Sculpting Competition 2007.

This Blog

This blog will be about collecting miniatures, sculpting, painting and gaming. Some posts will be in German, most in English.

I meet about once a week with a friend to play 40K, Warhammer Fantasy or Hordes of the Things. I also used to play a lot of Pirates! by Flagship Games and DBA and would like to get into ancient wargaming again.

What I like about tabletop games is a good mix between simulation and strategy. Power gaming is not my thing.

I can spend hours looking at old miniature catalogues or surfing miniature company sites.

I also like to sculpt and paint, but I'm rather slow at that.

Being a struggling filmmaker with three little kids, maybe I shouldn't spend so much time on this hobby at all, but then it's so addictive ...