Please be advised that the site will be shutdown at 2000 GMT Saturday 17/03/2012 for approximately 2-3 hours.

This is whilst the site is being transferred to a more reliable and faster platform.

During this time you may not be able to access the site at all.

Any updates will be provided by CN's facebook group.

Cheers

Disciple of Nagash

The Golden Bat Competition 2012

Wait…..what?!

No doubt a few of you are wondering why this announcement is going out when it is far to early to start the next Golden Bat. Well don’t worry, I haven’t gone insane (well by my standards anyway). The reason is that the Golden Bat is going to be revamped (pun intended ), to make solve a few problems and more importantly make it much more fun!

I am going to explain everything indepth, to give you all an idea what has happened and why, therefore I will apologise in advance. You can either skim, or read indepth, the choice is yours! However if you stick around and read all this, there will be boobs at the end.


So what’s going on….why are things changing?

Basically the current Golden Bat, whilst fun, has gotten to the point where it is really only accessible to a minority of people. Many members have expressed the point that there is no point entering against others that are painting at a professional standard, and there ends up being a small core of people who stand a chance, and the rest of the majority don’t. This is not to say they begrudge the skills of the winners, it is just the feel the competition doesn’t give them a chance in anyway.

I will admit at this point I am guilty of not picking up on this, and I sincerely apologise to our members for this. I did want to make the GB the best it could be, and have at some point not realised the side effects. I want to say thank you Redarmy27 and Santawraith for bringing this to my attention, they have been noting the comments your plogs and PMs, and have taken action to have it resolved.

There was also the additional point, that the Golden Bat is a competition mainly for Carpe Noctem, therefore is it fair for someone just to sign up only for the competition and sweep away with the prizes never to post again? No it isn’t, and I have been made aware of some unscrupulous people who actually go from forum to forum doing just that.

Finally some people could not enter because of the time limits, there just wasn’t enough time to make that awe inspiring model!


Ok I get that, what next?

As far as I am concerned, the current members come first. They are the ones who hang around, continue to post and make CN the great site it is. I do of course want new members and for us to grow, but that is not something that should be done at the detriment of existing members. With that in mind the GB was designed with the following in mind:

* Make the GB viable for people of varying skills, not just those with super saiyan painting skills.
* Give people more time, so they can fit it around real life and don’t have to rush.
* Recognise other skills. Painting is of course important, but what about the concept behind the model? What about the time taken in the basing of the model?
* Do all the above whilst recognising we do have some very skilled painters and still give them the chance to compete.

Finally and most importantly:

MAKE IT FUN!!

The GB has gotten to the point where it is a little too serious. It should be relaxed so people have fun, have a laugh and whether they win or lose, enjoy themselves.

Sounds impossible? Well by the power of Greyskull it is not! The following are some revised rules, which I would like all of you to check and think over. I would like to stress they are NOT set in stone. If there are enough concerns, or good ideas etc they can be reviewed. The current format comes from a discussion in the True Blood forum, so hopefully should be ok.



Down to business – The Changes

I am going to list the changes using a number as a reference – if you would like to comment and reply, please reference this number rather than quoting otherwise this thread will be massive!

1. Valid Period: You can now enter models that you have painted between September 2011 – July 2012. This gives members plenty of time to plan and implement or use models they have already done during this period.

2. Cost to enter: Members will need to have a minimum of 30 posts to enter (at time of submission).

3. Entering: All entries will be made to the Staff, there will not be a sign up thread anymore. Entries will need to be emailed or a link provided to myself via PM. You will be able to submit your entry in July 2012 - details provided closer to the time (so if you do your model before then, hold onto it, take pics etc). This means that no pictures will be seen by other members until we are ready to vote.

4. Tiers. This will probably be the biggest change. Rather than putting everyone in together, when submitting entries members need to specify which category they would like to enter, which will consist of the following:

General: This covers most members from beginners to those who have turned out a full army. Basically your skills are around tabletop standard.

Master: You are a painting god. You have progressed to such skills as NMM, seamless blending etc. You want to really pit your skills against your peers.

Now you have to be honest with yourself when submitting. We are trying to create the competition as far as possible, and so someone like Redarmy27 submitting in the General tier is not going to work. For example with my monkey like yet reasonable painting skills, I would enter in General.

“But” I hear you say, “what about those who do try to be cheeky? What happens if I am not sure?”

Well we are not just leaving upto chance. Once all entries are received members of the mod team (most like Santawraith / Redarmy27) will review each model and confirm it is suitable for the category that is being entered. Now following this, what will happen next is the one area that we have concerns about, but we feel it is the best way to go about things.

a. You will get confirmation you entry and tier choice is fine.
b. You will be advised via PM the model is not suitable to the tier due to the skill level, it will be moved to the higher tier to be fair to others. If this is not agreed to, the model cannot be entered.
c. You will be advised via PM, that we recommend that the model is moved to the lower tier. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but we do want to give you a fair chance. If we think your model will not be fairly judged against the others in the same tier, it is only right we let you know, and we will do so as tactfully as possible. You then have the choice to accept our recommendation, or remain in the tier you applied for understanding your chances of winning will be impaired.

You can see our concerns, as we don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. However I looked at this, and thought if it was me, I would want to be told. I would then choose to move my model to a lower tier if it gave me a fair chance, plus I have something to work towards next year.

5. Anonymous and secreting voting. I think that is self explanatory, when the pictures are put up to vote, usernames will not be posted with them, and members will not be allowed to state it is thier model. This keeps voting impartial, ensuring people don't vote for people they like rather than the model. Once the voting has finished, of course the members will be revealed. Secondly all votes will be secret, you will not be able to see the score until the end. The rules will be amended (to be posted shortly) to reflect this.

6. More awards! By this I don't necessarily mean money or vouchers, as we have a set fund to work with from Mantic. But we will have more awards that are not just based on painting skill for example. Some of them may not even be judged by the forum, but by specially selected judges. The ones we have decided on are below, though come the competition we may and some more if we get more good ideas!

All awards below consists of a medal for your profile, and 50 Zombie Points

The Spanktastic Award
Judged across all entrants regardless of category or tier. Decided by Disciple of Nagash
The winners for this will be chosen by Disciple of Nagash, who will be looking for the most perverted entry! It is based on the model itself, not the painting.

Terraformer
Judged across all entrants regardless of category or tier. Voted for by forum members.
This prize will be voted for by the forum members. The criteria is looking for the best based model, how ingenuitive the member is with the terrain on thier model. The model itself is not to be considered when voting.

The Mods Choice
Judged across all entrants regardless of category or tier. Chosen by CN's Dark Art Mods.
Throughout the year the Dark Art mods get to know many members, and this is where they recognise someone they feel deserves the notice. Perhaps they have vastly improved, or gone that extra step. Whatever the reason, the mods will grant this award to one they feel deserve it, and state the reason why.

The WTF?! Award
Judged across all entrants regardless of category or tier. Voted for by forum members.
If you dont know what WTF stands for, we're not telling you! There are some members out there that like to not only think outside the box, they like to step outside the realm of sanity, and design or paint in a way that makes you go....well WTF?! This prize is for those people. It is not based on skill but on the idea behind the entry.

The Nightmare Award
Judged across all entrants regardless of category or tier. Voted for by forum members.
There are some models out there that just give us the heebie jeebies. They are the ones that make us look away from our monitors and keeps us awake a night, and this award is for them. This is based on a combination of both the model choice and the possibly the painting. That is not to say a conversion can't win this, as I have seen some unpainted models that gave me the creeps!

Living Doll Award
Judged across all entrants regardless of category or tier. Voted for by forum members.
I know many of you like to go for realism over fantasy, and this award is specially for you. This is for the model that looks like it is about to stand up and start walking and talking!

The Joker Award
Judged across all entrants regardless of category or tier. Voted for by forum members.
We like a good laugh, me especially. We all remember a funny model, the older ones of us will always remember the Zombie Bat-Pope. So for those that take the time to have some fun and make us laugh, this is a chance to be recognised. Again it is not based on painting skill.

Wow, that's a lot of awards! But more importantly it makes things more interesting, more fun, and gives pretty much every entrant a fair chance to walk away with a prize.

7. Limit consecutive wins. If the same person comes back and kicks everyones butt it can get tiresome, but on the flipside we don't want to stop pushing people to strive harder. Therefore the following rules are now in place for winners:

If you win the NAME 1 or the NAME 2 category, then next year you must go up the next tier. Winning that class means you should spend the next year honing your skils, and challenge yourself for the next level. It also means that those in the class you have won have fair chance next year. The exception to this is the NAME 3 category. If you are in this category, you will be up against some immense competition. If you have the skill to win this year after year, then fair enough!

8. New sections. I know many members want to be able to show and paint non-VC models. After all many members collect other armies, or have even strayed off the dark path and collected something else altogether! There will therefore be additional categories for non-VC fantasy and 40K, however only the VC categories will have actual prizes.


I will be following this post shortly with what models are allowed, clearly layout on categories etc.

Please bear in mind as this is the first time we are trying this, it may need some tweaking. So we ask all members to understand this.

Please feel free to post any feedback or questions.

Now....boobies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPNaJLhmj...re=related

This is just an announcement that the site is now back online.

Unfortunately it has not gone as smoothly as I hoped, and several bugs have popped up (as per the wisdom of the master forum).

I am working on these, so please bear with me

Cheers

DoN

The Aristocracy of the Night Rises Again……….

For those who have been living under a rock, you may not know that the new Vampire Counts book is out in 14th January 2012.

It’s only days away, but I for one can’t wait! So here is a wrap of all the rumours and juicy pictures so far…..
These are posted from various sources on the internet (mainly warseer, credit goes to the respective original authors, as well as our thanks

Army Book written by Phil Kelly

Release in January. On sale from the 14th January (advanced orders for the 7th January)

Release includes:
New army book (96 pages)
Magic cards

New minis will be:
Plastic Kits:
Coven Throne/Mortis engine (Dual kit)
Black Knights/Hex Wraiths (Dual kit)
Vargheists/Crypt Horrors (Dual kit)
Plastic characters
Wight King
Finecast Characters:
Krell
Isabella von Carstein

Prices will be:

£36 for the Coven Throne/Mortis Engine,
£18.50 for five Black Knights/Hex Wraiths
£3.25 for the magic cards
£25 for the army book
£25-27? (37 Euros) for the big ghouls/ flying things.
£8 for Wight King
£10.50 (15 Euros) for Krell in Finecast
£9? (12.5 Euros) for Isabella von Carstein

lbecks did the maths for US prices it looks like it will be:

Engine/Throne $57.75
Cavalry $29.00
Big Ghouls/Mini Vargs ~$45?
Wight King $13.25
Krell $18.25
Isabella $15


LORDS
Vlad Von Carstein: A5, The Hunger, heavy armour, Beloved in Death (ASF if Isabella is in the same unit)
Mannfred Von Carstein: A5, The Hunger, Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead is now gone, Loremaster(Death)is now gone
Heinrich Kemmler - 175 slaves

Vampire Lord - 110 slaves: 5 attacks, Level 1, The Hunger
Ghoul King - 115 slaves: Strigoi Vampire: built-in Infinite Hatred and Regeneration (5+)
Master Necromancer - 82.5 slaves: Level 3

HEROES
Isabella Von Carstein: The Hunger, can heal Vlad with her Blood Chalice of Bathori
Konrad Von Carstein: A4, The Hunger, Hatred, Infinite Hatred is now gone
Mannfred the Acolyte: The Hunger
Krell – 102.5 slaves

Vampire - 47.5 slaves: The Hunger
Necromancer - 32.5 slaves: Level1 / 50 slaves: Level2 / 60 slaves: Level2 + Master of the Dead
Wight King - 42.5 slaves / 55 slaves: with BSB upgrade
Cairn Wraith - 30 slaves: No known rules changes
Tomb Banshee – 47.5 slaves: No known rules changes

MOUNTS
Zombie Dragon (Vampire Lords only) - 125 slaves: WS4, T6, W6
Terrorgheist (Ghoul Kings only) : No known rules changes
Abyssal Terror: No known rules changes
Nightmare: No known rules changes
Skeletal Steed: No known rules changes
Hellsteed
Corpse cart (Necromancers only) - 40 slaves: W4, Chariot-style characteristics – S4 impact hits, Vigour Mortis (ASF in 6" if CC is LoV spell target)
Coven Throne (Vampire Lords only) - 100 slaves: SCAN OF THRONE RULES
- Basically a chariot mount for your Lord.
- Is a Large target with S5 T5 5W and 5+ save.
- has Spectral Steed rules (can move 8"), Undead, Vampiric, ASF (only for Handmaiden who has 2 S5 Attacks)
- has Random Attacks (2D6) at S3 from the spirit horde.
- Has Ward Save of 4+
- Battle of Wills (before the first enemy rolls to hit against the character or the Throne, both player roll a D6 and add their LD value. Has effects based on the difference of the score)
* no effect (0 or less)
* suffer -1WS/BS
* the enemy must re-roll successful To Hits
* each model in the enemy unit strike each other (only 1 attack per model)
- Has Bound Spell (lvl3) allowing the Throne (and all of its crew) to re-roll either To Hit or To Wound rolls.
Mortis Engine (Necromancers only): SCAN OF ENGINE RULES
- Is a Rare Choice
- Same stats as for the Throne (S5 T5 W5 Sv5+)
- has 2D6 attacks at S3 from the spirit horde
- Undead, Terror, Spectral Steed, and Regeneration
- can make Ghostly Howl attack.
- can take upgrade, allowing any wizards casting spell from the Lore of the Vampires to get +2 to their casting attempt. (ANY) miscast wizards rolls twice on the table and have the opponent choose the result)
- The Reliquary (at the start of your turn, roll 2D6 and add the current turn number - until the start of its next turn, all friendly Undead units within this number of range gains +1 bonus to their Regeneration, 6+ if they don't have any, to a maximum of 4+. Also, all enemy units within this range suffers D6 hits at the strength equal to the turn number.
- Also has some penalties if removed from play - by damaging every units within a random range at the strength equal to the current turn number)

CORE UNITS
Skeletons – 2.5 slaves (hand weapon/shield, light armour) / 3 slaves (spear/shield, light armour): No changes to rules known
Zombies - 1.5 slaves (Musician +2,5 slaves, Standard bearer +2,5 slaves): S3, T3, ASL, can now be joined by characters
Ghouls - 5 slaves: No known rules changes
Dire Wolves - 4 slaves: Slavering charge (+1S in charge), Vanguard
Bat Swarms – 17.5 slaves: No known rules changes

SPECIAL UNITS
Corpse Cart - 52.5 slaves: with Balefire W4, Chariot-style characteristics – S4 impact hits, Vigour Mortis (ASF in 6" if CC is LoV spell target)
Grave Guard - 5.5 slaves: hand weapon/shield, loose Wight Blade rule, gain KB rule
Black Knights - 13 slaves: lance/barding, no know rules changes but likely to be subject to same changes to GG
Hex Wraiths - 15 slaves: - Fast Cavalry with Ethereal (yes!) that can inflict automatic S5 hits on unit that it moved through.Attacks are magical and flaming, allowing no armour saves
Fell Bats - 8 slaves: No known rules changes
Vargheists - 23 slaves: Flying Monstrous Infantry that has Fly, Frenzy, and 3A.
Crypt Horrors - 19 slaves: Monstrous Infantry unit with M6 S4 T5 I2 W3 A3, has Poisoned Attacks, Regeneration 5+, and Undead
Spirit Hosts – 22.5 slaves: No known rules changes

RARE UNITS
Terrorgheist - 112.5 slaves: No known rules changes
Mortis Engine - 120 slaves: with Blasphemous Tome upgrade, see previous entry under mounts for rules
Varghulf – 87.5 slaves: Has lost Vampire and Undead rule, now I4
Black Coach: No known rules changes
Blood Knights - 25 slaves: I5
Wraiths: No known rules changes

MAGIC ITEMS

Character Specific
- Blood Drinker (Vlad only): Hunger works on 4+
- The Carstein Ring (Vlad only): 4+ ward save
- Cloak of Mists and Shadows (Kemmler only): Each turn choose if wearer is Ethereal or has Fly
- Black Axe of Krell

Banners
- Flag of the Blood Keep - 37.5 slaves: 4+ ward vs ranged attacks(Blood Knights only)
- Banner of the Barrows - 25 slaves: All wights (including Krell) in unit get +1 to hit
- Screaming Banner – 12.5 slaves: enemies test fear on 3D6, discarding lowest

Weapons
- Scabscrath – 37.5 slaves: Frenzy, Flaming attacks, Devastating charge, Deathly Shriek (Terrorgheist-like attack), If you don't cause a wound in combat, wearer is killed instantly)

Armour
- Nightshroud - 20 slaves: +1 AS, all models in base contact get ASL & no weapon bonuses to their strength

Enchanted / Arcane Items
- Black Periapt - 25 slaves: stores 2 dice
- Staff of Flaming Death - 20 slaves: Bound Spell 3+, Target enemy unit in 18" range. Suffers D6 S4 flaming hits. If you lose 1 wound it causes a panic test. If the unit is moved during its next turn each model suffers 1S4 hit. Spell ends if the unit moves or at the beginning of VC's next magic phase
- Book of Arkhan - 12,5 slaves: Bound Spell 3+, casts Vanhel's Dance Macabre, doesn't burn out
- Cursed Book – 17.5 slaves: sacrifice D3 power dice to get off a random Hex spell of six (Miasma, Withering, Soulblight, Doom and Darkness, some Heavens spell and something else) as a bound with the minimal complexity)
- Staff of Damnation - 17.5 slaves: Bound Spell 4+, all models in 6 inches (inc. mounts) get +1 attack untill next magic phase

VAMPIRIC POWERS
Dark Acolyte – 12.5 slaves: +D3 wounds healed in Invocation of Nehek
Quickblood - 15 slaves: ASF
Curse of the Revenant – 22.5 slaves: +1 W
Red Fury - 25 slaves: same as before, but can be used with 2HW
Mortal Strike - 15pkt: trade in all attacks for 1 with HKB
Dreadknight - 5 slaves: +2 WS, must issue and accept challenges unless Krell or a Vampire with a higher LD are part of the unit
Summon Creatures of the Night - 5 slaves: increase bats, batswarms & wolves beyond starting size
Forbidden Knowledge - 12.5 slaves: access to rulebook lores (doesn't get to know all spells))
Master of the Black Arts: get to re-roll one D6 for the Winds of Magic
Flying Horror: Fly
Beguile: same as now
Aura of Dark Majesty: -1LD to all enemies in base contact

LORE OF VAMPIRES
The Curse of Undeath (Lore attribute): When a spell form the Lore of the Vampires is successfully cast, the Wizard (or another friendly model within 12") instantly regains a single Wound lost earlier in the battle.

Spell0: Invocation of Nehek (6+): Augment, range 6". Each friendly Undead unit within range recovers D6+wizard's level wounds. Can be boosted to range 12" or 18".
Spell1: Vanhel's Dance Macabre (6+): Augment, grants extra movement up to 8" (no charging probably but not confirmed)
Spell2: Hellish Vigour (8+): Augment, some combat buff, most likely re-rolls to hit in combat.
Spell3: Gaze of Nagash (9+): Magic Missile, range 24"
Spell4: Raise Dead (9+): Creates new unit of up to 15 zombies or skeletons (2D6+3 probably)
Spell5: Curse of Years (12+): Hex, Remains in Play
Spell6: Wind of Death (15+): Vortex, small round template. Moves Artilleryx3 inches. Any unit beneath or passed by the template takes D6 S3 hits for each rank of the unit, with no armour save allowed. Big S4 template can be used instead on a roll of 25+.

Disclaimer on the Magic Spells: I did my best, connecting various bits of information from WD to guess spell numbers and effects, but (apart from IoN and WoD, which are pretty obvious) this is just speculation on my side!

Also, WD confirms every Vampire, Vampire Lord and Ghoul King is a Level 1 caster by default. Also, Ghoul King for sure can use Magic Items and Vampiric Powers just like "normal" Vampire Lord. Hero-level Necromancers can be Level 1 or Level 2, Master Necromancers (Lord-level) can be Level 3, if they can be Level 4 remains unknown.

Pictures








There is no doubt more, but that is the main stuff I picked up – if there is anymore then please say so.
In regards to the Bloodlines, there is nothing definite yet. The rumours more suggest that the Bloodlines may be there in fluff rather than stat changes like previous editions, but who knows?

I for for, are looking very forward to this

Well I am very excited to announce that there have been rumours that VC may be getting a new book in January 2012. Whilst no rumours have been substantiated, they have come from a usually reliable source.

So, to keep track I have created an official rumour thread, which will be updated as more information is received:

LINKY

Plus of course, I will be creating announcements etc to keep you all updated. So...watch this crypt....ah...space

Disciple of Nagash
Carpe Noctem Administrator