Worlds cheapest, easiest 2000pt FOW army pt1

I have recently started playing FOW again (v3) and have also discovered Plastic Soldier Company. This provided the inspiration to build, paint and hopefully win a game with a 2000pt army while spending the least amount of money.

The list was the key, and after about a week of playing around with the Eastern Front book I settled on the following:

MW German Panther Company
Company HQ - 2 Panther d
Combat Platoon - 4 x Panthers d
Combat Platoon - 4 x Panthers d
Divisional Support - Sporadic Messerschmidt
Exactly 2000pts

I managed to order the stuff via Cymbeline Games for 15% off RRP and so the whole lot cost me £33.02.

2 boxes of Panthers

and a Messerschmidt

Here is the stuff in the flesh

Part two of this blog will be to build and paint them and in part three I will finally to play a game with them (and hopefully win).

CHESSEX block dice fairness test

 The dice of Zeus always fall luckily. Sophocles

In this, the second test of Blood Bowl dice, I used CHESSEX block dice and again rolled them 1000 times.

I again decided to set the measure of statistical significance
again at 5% (p-value >= 0.05). That would mean that the actual dice outcomes would have to deviate by 5% or more from the expected outcomes for the test to indicate a potential problem. I figured 5% over 1000 rolls should be safe enough. 



Test results:

Outcomes	Total	Expected	% diff
Pow	179	166.67	7.40
Pow!	155	166.67	-7.00
Skull	174	166.67	4.40
Pow/Skull	165	166.67	-1.00
Push	327	333.33	-1.90
Check	1000	1000	0.00

Conclusions

The dice finished outside the 5% threshold for both Pow and Pow! and so from this test, I have to highlight a potential issues as to the fairness of the CHESSEX block dice. More specifically, teams heavy in the DODGE skill could have problems due to the higher than normal occurrence of Pow and lower than normal occurrence of Pow!

As for the test itself, rolling more dice would, as always, provide a greater degree of certainty, so the results would be safer after 10,000 or even 100,000 rolls. Also, any study could provide a set of fluke results and so these outcomes would need repeating in a second test for significance to be assured.

Peter Cushing and Little Wars

On one of my recent Internet forages, I came across so information regarding Peter Cushing (one of my top 5 all time actors) and wargaming.

Rather than rehash it, I will embed the video and link to the HG Wells book as a pdf.

HG Wells book "Little Wars" pdf

Hope you enjoy the video as I did.

Chelmsford Bunker Journeyman League 15pt evening

Rhyas and her friends are coming to play

I am running a Journeyman league at the Chelmsford Bunker (nice place, full of nice people) and so my Legion army is finally getting a coat of paint. It's been a long time coming.

I am much more of a gamer than a painter and so went for a simple pallet and a healthy amount of strong tone dip. I don't actually dip models due to the inconsistent finish it can cause and now instead brush the dip on. Even so, the Seraph came out pretty poorly due to my forgetting to mop up the pools of dip before it dried. You live and learn (or maybe not in my case).

Last night was the 15pt event. The scoring was 3pts for a fully painted army, 3pts for each game won, 1pt for each game lost. In addition I issued a special challenge to model and paint an objective marker to use in the scenario we ran (a variant of Destruction), that was worth an additional 3pts. You can see my objective marker centre rear.

I was using a NQ themed list for Rhyas (list below). I love Rhyas but she always seems to under perform for me.

System: Hordes

Faction: Rhyas - Rearguard (NQ36)

Casters: 1/1

Points: 15/15

Tiers: 2

Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight (*6pts)

* Nephilim Soldier (5pts)

* Seraph (8pts)

Blighted Nyss Swordsmen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)

* Blighted Nyss Swordsmen Abbot & Champion (0pts)

My tier bonuses provide Stealth first turn and the free Abbot and Champion.

First game was vs Paul Winter and his Ossyan themed Gun line Ret army. I played particularly badly and was left with only Rhyas, the Abbot and my two, out of position beasts by turn 3. Rhyas managed to charge Ossyan and fluffed it, luckily dash allowed the Abbot to charge him as well and end the game. Paul played much better than I did and deserved the win. I guess that is Warmachine for you.

Second games was vs Tom Simms and an eIrusk list, luckily for me without Mortars. This game was much more controlled and when Tom failed to use his feat defensively in Turn 2, Rhyas and the Swordsmen went to town. Again Rhyas had a shot at the Warcaster and fluffed it. Tom making 4 straight tough rolls with eIrusk helped considerable though. By turn 4 Tom was left with only a jack and eIrusk, but nearly pulled out the win be scenario (needed 1 more damage to destroy the second objective) before a frenzied Nephilim Soldier ended things. My game highlight was when Rhyas did 28 damage to an Iron Fang Pikeman. The only time all evening she got off her Critical Decap. Tom is a relatively new player but is learning quick and played a good game. He almost won without use of eIrusk's feat and that is pretty impressive

The result sheet for round 1 is below:

						Game results
Name	Faction	Legal list	Painted	Objective	1	2	3	Total points
Barry Pittman	Legion	Yes	Yes	Yes	W	W	X	12
Harvey Barrington	Khador	Yes	Yes	Yes	W	L	L	11
Erik Cooper	Mercs	Yes	Yes	No	W	W	L	10
Paul Winters	Retribution	Yes	No	Yes	L	W	W	10
Alex Shakespere	Cryx	Yes	No	No	L	L	W	5
Anthony Sanday	Khador	Yes	No	No	L	W	X	4
Ian Sharp	Trolls	Yes	No	No	W	L	X	4
Rob Jones	Cryx	Yes	No	No	L	W	X	4
Tom Simms	Khador	Yes	No	No	L	L	X	2

So I am leading after round 1, but that is more to do with people not completing the painting and modelling tasks rather than my stunning play with Rhyas.

NAF block dice fairness test

The dice of Zeus always fall luckily. Sophocles

Dice are funny things. If you play games a lot, especially wargames, you get use to how fickle they can be. In Blood Bowl, "Nuffle" the god of luck, has cost me more game than I care to remember by punishing me for daring to roll dice. Some people have mad rituals around dice and how they roll them, change them after they roll low, blow on them for luck etc. For me a dice is a random implement and so superstition has no place at my table. I do though, often wonder, if any dice are truly random, especially custom dice.


So I decided to test a set of NAF Blood Bowl dice by rolling them a thousand times and seeing how far they deviated from what would be expected by randomness.


A simple test but one that should highlight any potential problems with the fairness of the dice.


I decided to set the measure of statistical significance
at 5% (p-value >= 0.05). That would mean that the actual dice outcomes would have to deviate by 5% or more from the expected outcomes for the test to indicate a potential problem. I figured 5% over 1000 rolls should be safe enough. 


Test results

Outcomes	Total	Expected	% diff
Pow	171	166.67	2.60
Pow!	160	166.67	-4.00
Skull	162	166.67	-2.80
Pow/Skull	163	166.67	-2.20
Push	344	333.33	3.20
Check	1000	1000	0.00

Conclusions

The dice all stayed within the 5% threshhold and so from this test, I am pretty sure, the NAF Blood Bowl block dice are safe to use.

Rolling more dice would provide a greater degree of certanty, so the results would be safer after 10,000 or even 100,000 rolls but even at 1,000 the results seem pretty sound to me.

Blood Bowl Zombie vs Skeleton resilience comparison

....it ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Rocky Balboa (2006)
 

I was talking to Lycos at the Chelmsford Bunker Bowl in October 2011 and we got to discussing the undead team, in particular my loathing of the over-costed Skeletons. They used to cost 30K but recently (in Blood Bowl terms) moved to 40K for the addition of "Thick-Skull".


So Lycos, NAF president and all round good guy (he got my vote again this year), said that he always takes at-least one Skeleton in his Undead team. He explained that he took them mainly for the increased movement but also because they are just as resilient as a Zombie due to the "Thick-Skull" skill.


I, on the other hand am a Zombie guy, sure he is only movement 4, but he is a top drawer meat shield and foul bot. I personally never go near Skeletons unless I am playing Khemri.


So I thought I would have a quick scan over the numbers and see what comes out.


The challengers

1. Skeleton AV7 with Thick-Skull
2. Zombie AV8 

Percentage chance of breaking armour for each

1. Skeleton 41.67%
2. Zombie 27.78%

 Percentage chance of getting a KO of better for each

1. Skeleton 11.58%
2. Zombie 11.58%

 Percentage chance of getting a injury for each

1. Skeleton 6.95%
2. Zombie 4.63%

So the conclusion is, that if you are looking at the narrow band of getting a KO or better then the Zombie and Skeleton come out identical. However, in regards to both Stunned and Casualty results, the Skeleton is 50% more likely to be on the receiving end than the Zombie. Is that increased Stunned and Casuality rate worth the trade for the increased movement value? Not in my books, but then I have won exactly zero NAF tournaments and Lycos has a houses full of trophies.

GF9 Menoth Battlefield in a Box for £17.50 (off topic)

I just came across this deal on Amazon for the GF9 Menoth Battlefield in a Box.

They originally retailed for £50 but now you can get the Menoth (and unfortunately only the Menoth one) for £17.50.

Link below...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Battlefield-Box-Protectorate-Menoth-Warmachine/dp/B003NTQWX4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1325766458&sr=8-4

They are pretty good quality and come pre-painted. We had all 4 of the GF9 set (Cygnar, Menoth, Cryx and Khador) at Tanelorn and I have just today picked one up for the Chelmsford Bunker. I can highly recommend them.

Get yourself a nice late Christmas present, it will liven up your battlefield and make Menoth players go weak at the knees.