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Thomas Lyons

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Blog Entries posted by Thomas Lyons

  1. Thomas Lyons
    Join us this week with our guests Brad and Andrea Schwandt, better known as Rhellion and LuckySixes, as these two titans of the twitterers talk with us about starting a new force for Age of Sigmar. As Christmas is just around the corner - many of you might be asking for little plastic dollies under the tree and we are going to give our thoughts for the best deals and best armies for Santa to bring. 
     
     
  2. Thomas Lyons
    Holy Havok is over and what an event it was!  Vince and I were in competition for three of the five top awards (Best Overall, Best Appearance, and Best Warlord).  Ironically enough, we ended up placing second in all three categories.  We were technically tied for Best Overall and they had to go down three tiers of comparisons (Match points, Sportsmanship, and then to play schedule) to decide on who took home the hardware.  Considering Vince and I have never played these forces together (and my second time playing my Nurgle force was the night before the tourney...go go math hammer!) or even as partners before, and this is the first Warhammer tourney I've been to, I feel pretty good about tying for Best Overall on our first time out.  Official results are here.
    The competition was fantastic, the tables were amazing, and the armies were inspiring.  I'll try to post some pictures of the tables and event winners in the coming days, but for now, here are the armies that came out to play.  Enjoy!   
     
     













  4. Thomas Lyons
    Mc1Gamer had me on his YouTube channel today to talk about Holy Havok.  Check it out below!
     
     
    I'll be on Warhammer Weekly with my cohost @Vincent Venturella and Kenny Lull talking about Holy Havok this evening at 9 PM EST for those interested in hearing more about the event.  You can check it out on Vince's Youtube Channel or I'll also post a blog update with the video once we're live. 
  5. Thomas Lyons
    I've been working on my Nurgle Rotbringers for the last couple months and I'm finally ready to go public with the start of the force!  This first batch of troops is basically finished, although I need to do some basing work and a couple touch ups.    
      The current force is: 
    The Glottkin Bloab Rotspawn Chaos Warshrine (Kitbashed) Harbinger of Decay (Kitbashed) 15 Putrid Blight Kings 30 Chaos Warriors Hell cannon Regarding some general comments, the lore of this force is that it is a legion of Nurgle Rotbringer forces manning a lone Chaos Dreadhold named Mireguard, which is deep in one of the swampy corners of Ghur.  I wanted this force to feel a little bit more primitive and beastly with horns being a unifying visual element across the army.  This is the reason for the conversions of both the Harbinger and Warshrine.  I tried to tie other thematic secondary visual elements across the board as well, including the white fur of the Warshrine beast of burden with the fur of the Chaos warriors and Bloab.  If anyone is curious about the specific techniques used to paint various elements, like the pools, horns, or whatever, I'm planning on doing a couple tutorials for these techniques in future blog posts.  Let me know if there are specific things you are interested in and I'll make sure to cover those as well.  
    For sure additions to this force, I have another Hellcannon on the table that just needs its highlighting and glow effects that should be done by the end of the week.  I have a number of other units I'll be adding here in the future as I finish them.
    Thanks for your interest and I look forward to hearing your feedback and critiques! 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     










  6. Thomas Lyons

    Holy Havok is here!

    By Thomas Lyons,

    Holy Havok is here! 
    Gaming is in full swing here at the Holy Havok teams event and things are crazy!  Despite finishing our game early, it seems most games aren't getting past turn two in their allotted 3 hours.  Even though there are only a couple turns in most cases, the games are both engaging, complex and quite enjoyable.  Each scenario has 4 objectives so setup and strategy are the most important things for achieving victory (more than just killing power for sure).  Our team, The End Times, landed a 2-2 tie in the first game and a quick 4-0 victory in the second.  I'll update this evening after the third game with some pictures, although you can look for some more complete battle reports on YouTube in the coming weeks.  

    In the mean time, you can follow the events of the event at #holyhavok and Beasts of War are also live blogging the event, with interviews of the various teams.  The image below is a shot of our forces from the Beasts of War blog.  Their coverage is both photo and video rich so I'd encourage you to check it out here.
     
    Wish us luck! 

  7. Thomas Lyons
    Join Vince and I for another week of news, rumors and all things warhammer-y. This week after covering current news and rumors, we talk about the forgotten and (mostly) long dead Special Characters of the old world hidden away in the compendium section of the General's handbook. These characters are often wild cards, but are they worth resurrecting or should they be left to the ash bin of history?   Check out our picks for the best and worst of the remnants and make sure to sound off your picks in the comments below the video.
    Check the video out here.
  8. Thomas Lyons
    “In the dark fetid corners of Ghur you will find the Wyssan Wood. Dwelling amongst its primeval depths reside the Venomtongue Spiderfang grot tribes.  These feather-bedecked grots have mastered all manner of webbed horrors: the stealthy, bone-armored Spinebacks, the lightning-fast striped Wolfhunters, and the bulbous Purple Skullbacks.  Swarms of mottled spiderlings are prodded ahead of the creeping horde and mountainous Arachnaroks bring up the rear.  But the horrors do not end there, for supporting their hordes are rickety weapons of war crafted from moss-covered stones, rotten boughs, and sticky webbing of the children of the Feaster from Beyond.  Our scouts suggest that even greater horrors have yet to pour forth from the tangled depths of the Wyssan Wood!    Woe be to the realms if the Venomtongue tribes of the Wyssan Wood ever unite with Spittlegit or even, blessed Azyr, the Ironjawz hordes of Gordrakk!  May Sigmar never let it be!“
     
    -Lord Castellant Rhemus of the Astral Templars
    This is an introduction to my Spiderfang Grot forces.  I started these a couple years ago during 8th edition (hence the bases) and plan to take them back up again once the Spiderfang release drops (we know it is coming GW; just make it happen next week...please).  I have tons of unpainted models but I'm only posting what I currently have done.

    A bit of background: Ever since coming upon the Arachnarok kit a couple years ago, I’ve fallen in love with the forest grot aesthetic.  While initally saddened to find only 3 Spiderfang kits available, I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to build this force, using conversions, from the ground up.  Back in 8th, it was a generic O&G force, and I used a bunch of models as counts-as to be able to field an effective army of all forest goblins.
    Currently, my completed models from this force are as follows: 
    Arachnarok with a Shaman and a Catchweb Spidershrine Grot Chukka 10 Spineback Spider Riders (were my Deff Creepers in 8th) Doom Diver Lobba Rogue Idol of Gork (or Mork) 40+ Savage Grot Berserkers with Big Stabba (Counted as Savage Orks) 40+ Spider Swarm with Spider Herders (Counted as a Squig Herd with Handlers) Savage Grot Shaman A lot of this is harder to use with new synergies in AoS but I look forward to GW expanding their forces so I can return to this army.  Enjoy the photos and I look forward to your feedback!
     













  9. Thomas Lyons
    In this post, we finish our survey of the stunning tables of Holy Wars 2017, including the floating earth motes of Azyr and the scorched crust of Aqshy.  


    Table 11 –The Upside Down

    Battling in the warped reality of Tzeentch is ever changing and swirling in tremendous power. The Great Eye of Tzeentch is ever watching over the upside down.


    The main objective in this scenario is a series of take and holds of pillars strewn throughout the table, some pink, some standard.  The pink points netted you 2 points per turn instead of the standard’s 1 point, but also did unpreventable wounds to your unit.  The player at the end of the game with  the most points won this objective.  The grail objective was an escort style mission where players carried Grail tokens from the Black Pit of Tzeentch to the Eye of Tzeentch.  The player to deliver the most tokens (there were three total) to the Eye wins. 


     
    Table 12 –Death, The Next Step

    The devoted to Vlad still seek his power and leadership in the Age of Sigmar. His sacrifice during End Times has not been forgotten by his followers.


    This scenario was a take and hold of a central objective.  Those garrisoning this objective, the tower of Vlad, could invoke the power of Vlad to do unpreventable damage to their enemies.  The player who caused the most wounds wins this objective.  The Grail Token objective was a trio of grail tokens spread throughout the table and controlling them accumulated points each round.  This was a new board for Holy Wars 2017 and the zombie chapel was inspired!


    Table 13—Skaven-Hunger Games

    The Skaven unquenchable hunger continues in the new age.


    This scenario involved the raiding of the Windmill Grain Mill for resources but in order to do so, one had to first take a and hold the Clock tower and then their auxiliary (imaginary) troops would gather resources from the Grain Mill.  The problem for the take-and-holding player is that this Windmill was sinking into the mire each turn doing unpreventable wounds to the garrisoning unit.  To make matters worse, all of the pools across the table were an augmented version of deadly terrain that required a d6 roll if you moved or ended movement on them at all, with a 1 causing the automatic death of that model.  The grail tokens, unsurprisingly, were strewn throughout this board in these toxic pools of death.  Fun times for all.


     
    Table 14—Aqshy, Realm of Fire & Ice

    Chaos seeks to dominate the Realm of Aqshy and the powers of the Shifting Monolith ravages all.


    This scenario involved the manipulation of a Shifting Monolith.  Players could control the direction of the monolith although the distance traveled was variable.  As this shifting monolith traveled over units, it did unpreventable wounds to units it traveled over (including your own!).  The player who accumulated the most wounds done in this way won this objective.  Those near this objective did indeed gain a +1 to saves, which could certainly be significant in some cases.  The Grail Token objective for this board were again a trio of tokens spread throughout the table and controlling them accumulated points each round.  This was a new board for Holy Wars 2017 and what a beauty it was!


     
    Table 15—Azyr, the Realm of Heavens

    Those who seek the knowledge of Sigmar must brave the perils of a quest that will test their resolve as never before.

    Despite the wonderful detail of the Aqshy board by Herner, the real new gem in this event was the new Azyr board.  This board was composed of a number of floating earth motes with Sigmar’s Occulus on the central floating island.  Those near this objective could call Sigmar’s lightning down on nearby units.  The player who did the most wounds in this way won the objective.  The Grail Token objective for this board were again a trio of tokens spread across the table, underneath the earthmotes! The player controlling them accumulated points each round.  This was the real gem of Holy Wars 2017 and people were clamoring to play on it. 


     
    In the next set of posts, I’ll go over my individual matchups with a brief battle report on each. 


  10. Thomas Lyons
    Heya friends!  As many know, this past weekend was the Holy Wars 2018 narrative event in the Chicago-area.  Holy Wars is the premier narrative hobby event in North America that miraculously balances the highest levels of hobby with the highest levels of competitive play.  This year was certainly no different.  I've posted some photos at the end of the page with stand out armies at this year's event.  Photos of @Holy Hammer Hern's beautiful tables can be found in my Holy Wars 2017 posts from last here (found here, here, and here). 
    Vince and I have done a lot of coverage thus far so I don't see a reason to repeat those details here.  On the drive home from the event, Vince and I covered each of our games in a blow by blow coverage over the course of two videos.  On Wednesday, we had Steve Herner (@Holy Hammer Hern), who is the creator and driver behind this event along with his club the Holy Hammers,  on to Warhammer Weekly where we talked all things Holy Wars and his experiences as a ringer for the event.  Finally, last night we @Rob Symes's Honest Wargamer show where we talked about the event and our experiences (Apologies to David Griffin for getting our score wrong on Rob's show; it was 14-6, not 20-0).  The links to all of this coverage can be found below:
     
     
     
    https://www.twitch.tv/videos/234249072
    While I didn't perform as well in the games as I would have liked, I was honored with the Hobby Hammerist Award for a second year in a row.   I was super honored by it as there was such stiff competition at the event in the hobby categories.  

     
    Thanks for such a great weekend everyone who attended and participated!  Now enjoy a handful of the awesome looking armies that were present at the event!
     

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