Wood Elf Tree Walkers, Skaven Flea Jumpers & Goblin Dung Beetle Riders...

Can you come up with an original and completely new and balanced Warhammer Fantasy Battle unit ?

We're hosting a competition on the Battle Reporter Forum here.

Here's one of mine from my Nautican Sea based army...

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Giant Crabs !

These crabs have grown huge over 300 years in the deep. They come as a mating pair and fight for the Nauticans and for one another. They are extremely difficult to kill but pity the fool who does send one to a watery grave !

Points/model: 160 pts (for the pair)

	M	Ws	Bs	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Giant Crab	4	3	0	3	5	3	2	3	7

Unit Size: 2* (50x50mm base size per crab), Unit Strength 6 (3 per crab).
*only one pair can be taken for each 1000pts in the army

Equipment: none

Special Rules: Mating Pair (see below), Stubborn, Causes Fear

Armour Save 3+

Crab Mating Pair rules:-

In the event that one crab should die the other will (on a roll of 3-6) gain eternal hatred (every round of combat) and eternal frenzy (every round of combat). Or on a roll of 1 or 2, the surviving crab will bury itself in the ground to die and will take no further part in the battle.

Crushing Pincers:-

The pincers of a crab take little heed for shields or even plate mail armour. Once grabbed by a pincer armour is of little help as the pincer squeezes and crushes the opponent within it's own armoured coffin.

For enemies with an armour save of:-

6, the crab gains +1 str
5, the crab gains +2 str
4, the crab gains +3 str
3 or better the crab gains +4 str

Granite Crush:-

The crabs grip is second to none in the Oceans, once the crab has seized it's quarry death is almost a certainty.

In the combat phase the crab can sacrifice it's normal attacks for a single granite crush attack in an attempt to try to squash it's enemy into a pulp. Roll to hit as normal, a granite crush attack causes a single str10 hit resulting in D3 wounds. The crush is so traumatic that the enemy cannot use a Regenerate save. The crush is only effective against single models up to Ogre Size (ie. unit strength 3 or less)

image used with the permission of Reapermini.com

Design a Warhammer Fantasy Battle Scenario Competition

A new Fantasy Battle Master Tactician contest has started in the Battle Reporter forum - all entries are welcome.

Here's the lowdown...

Design an original and exciting Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenario for 2 players. 

Pretend you are hosting a Warhammer Fantasy Battle and 2 friends have asked you to come up with something a bit different to the usual pitched battle, a battle as original and enjoyable as you can come up with. Assume the gamers have up to, but no more than, 2,500 pts worth of miniatures to play with; the points values per army don't have to be the same but the overall battle should be balanced with an equal opportunity of success for each gamer.

The scenario should be compelling, exciting and result in a fair, competitive contest and a memorable game. The battle should also be playable by any Warhammer Army.

Feel free to include any manner of battle background fluff, victory conditions, limitations, points bonuses, battlefield set up maps etc. but keep in mind that it should be easy to play and not overly complex - members of this forum will get to vote on their favourite scenario.

That's it guys, good luck. Please include all of the details in a single post - one battle scenario per forum member. The winner's battle scenario will be posted on the Battle Reporter Blog.

Image used with the permission of BatPadre, a valued Battle Reporter forum member.

Hobgoblins - WFB army book PDF

"The Great Horde cometh, they ride from the East sweeping away all that stand in their path!" the last words of the Empire's Eastern most outpost.

Some of the more silver-haired amongst you might, like me, recall that hobgoblins were one of the first races produced by citadel all those years ago when Warhammer was in it's infancy. For some reason GW discontinued the race, maybe they were just too similar to their goblin brethren and there was just too much green on the tabletop. Whatever the cause of their demise, Mathias of Battle Reporter forum fame has kindly ressurrected the horde in all their 8th edition glory.

Before I continue I'd like to say, once again, that I'm very, very thankful for all the hard work that Mathias has put into these amazing unofficial Warhammer armies. If you enjoy them as much as I do then please join us in the forum and let Mathias know how much you appreciate his creations, his member name is M4cR1II3n.

This army is completely unofficial and is not endorsed by Games Workshop!

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Here's a brief summary of what you can expect:-

The Hobgoblins Army book can be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF (it's about 12meg and is totally FREE !) It's a 55 page book covering all the usual army background, history, religion (Hashut, the same as the tainted Chaos Dwarfs), their devious, mercenary spirit and the Hobgoblin expansionist ambitions (think Genghis Khan !)

The army is weak in magic but strong in cheap horde-like troops and fast cavalry. Core foot warriors have a slightly better Weapon Skill than your average goblin and the Backstabbers special rule which gives them additional attacks against fleeing enemies. On the flip-side many units suffer from Hobgoblin Animosity which could result in a cowardly panic test or a few man-stikka blades finding purchase in the backs of their fellow troopers.

The army book is, as always from a Mathias creation, crammed full of character. Hobgoblins are devious, sneaky, hit-and-run pillagers and absolutely not to be trusted - ever ! The various special rules make this abundantly clear with rules such as "Backstabbers", "Cowardly Despoilers" (a Wolf Raider characteristic giving an extra bonus for flank or rear charges); "Burn it Down" (a Tarkan unit speciality which enables the unit to set fire to building and war machines); "Fire and Flee" (a Mangudai Wolf cavalry skill that allows a unit to sacrifice some of it's flee move to make a shoot charge reaction before running off !)

I think the Hobgoblins would make an excellent choice for the likes of a noble High Elf General, chivalrous Bretonnian Knight or honourable Dwarf Lord player who would relish the opportunity to be a bit of a sneaky git for a change

In summary, there are 7 Lord and Hero choices, 5 core units, 6 special units (including some very handy cavalry and a War Wagon), 4 rare units (including the superb and extremely deadly Death Worm that can be used like an ambusher and a frenzied (!) Rhinox Battle Fortress), a few cool mounts (like the terrifying Waki'ya flying monster for an extra 4 strength 5 attacks) and about 35 magic items - named "Da Loot" :D

Unlike most other armies Hobgoblin shamans do not practice their own specialist magic but they can use the Lores of Fire, Shadow or Beasts.

All-in-all (following a rather quick review of the rules and units) I would say the army's main strength is it's fast movement, cheap core units and ability to deploy hit and run type tactics. The principal weakness is definitely magic and also the below average profile stats (although this is offset by the points costs).

It's another excellent production and well worth a read. You can probably also find plenty of hobgoblin models out there, if not the old Citadel ones then I'm fairly confident that another miniature company will still be producing some.

Be part of the creative community and get more from your hobby.