The Year and the Giggles.

It's been a long Hobby year of organising events and helping to run our local Wargaming club. Dealing with a lot of larger than life personalities, it leaves you very little time for your own hobby pursuits. I've managed to get everything done but at the expense of very little table top wargaming time. So brilliant plan, only organise one event next year 'Equinox' in March. Which will be pretty much co-hosted by Nikola of the East Auckland Elites and myself. This should free up some well deserved hobby time so I can get more games rather than having it all go into organising events.

So it's that time for some memorable moments of the year and the giggles.

That High Elf army - Love it when you win some beers backing your type of  army. It's a very similar design of High Elves as I usually play and some will say it's a rather soft army. Ruffled some feathers of a majority of pundits and the army did run over a very good warhammer buddies challenge at the masters (not so good). You should never underestimate a build especially if the general knows what that build can do. The army was there to win 5 games out of the 6. It only won 4 but on it's way it 20-zipped a couple so it proved itself as a good build to take to the Masters setup. It came second so you can't knock that.

Batreps are here and here.

Equinox Convention - I started Equinox a few years back as my way of giving back to the hobby what good times it has given me over the years. The Convention has really taken off and consistently over the last couple of years become one of the largest Warhammer and Wargames tournaments in New Zealand, which is co-hosted by good fella Nikola of the East Ackland Elites. This years tournament had the largest Warhammer Fantasy field and largest tournament attendances in the North Island for some time. The next Equinox convention is in early March 2013  and has already got the making of reaching some large tournament bench marks in numbers for Warhammer 40k & Warhammer Fantasy, three months out from the tournament. I'm very proud to be a part of the Convention and a big thanks to all of the guys who support and attend wargaming events every year. It couldn't of happened without you the Hobbyist.

Equinox 2013 is here and this years Equinox is here.

A New Wargamers Forum - We launched a new forum for the community a couple of months ago. It's mainly aimed at New Zealand wide hobbyists where you can check out Tournaments, goings on around the region and also catch up with a broad range of Wargamers. There's no special system we cater for and all systems are welcome from Warhammer, Warmachine and everything in between. Much like the old City Guard forum but the only slight difference is that it will be part of our club 'Auckland City Guard'. Easy to join up we'd welcome your positive hobby stories. It already is well established and supported by most of our club members and Wagamers New Zealand wide.

Auckland City Guard can be found here

Hobby Giggles - Have been catching some sharp but hilarious reading, hobby related and not at NZ's premium blog. It's run by one of the god fathers of Wargaming and I remember going to one of his events in the very first serious year of tournaments for me. There isn't much he hasn't done or been involved in hobby wise over here. Here's some hilarious excerpts that's kept me entertained this Holiday season on his said blog.

Avert eyes if you're of a sensitive nature.

Phil's Playhammer picture, "I couldn't find a Shaver on holiday". Link here.

Nikola's Playhammer spread, "40k TO's are so sexxxy". Link here.

Charlie - Playhammer profile "It's the pressure of Winning and Authoring". Link here.

Big Merry Xmas and hope you stay tuned in the New year.

Don't forget to Elf yourself for the merry season here.

Hero Quest to a good home

I've gone home for xmas and have discovered that I still have two sets of Hero Quest and all the expansions in excellent condition. Real collectors edition of core set Fantasy wargaming. I've decided to let one of the Hero Quests go to someone out there who also appreciates a game released in the golden age of wargaming the 1990's. Give me a yell here or via email and grab a bargain. The other set with the expansions I'll be using to rock out some campaigns early 2013, who ever is keen come out and have a classic reminder of how it all started.

Spent a couple of hours sorting and making sure everything is there. It's still in mint condition which means I treasured this as a kid as every other game I own is not in such good nick.

The box is the only thing showing a bit of wear n tear the game actually still comes with a pad of adventurer stat sheets that's how well kept it is.

Come with all Mint:-

Rules Book
Quest Book
Game board
DM's Screen
35 figures -- 8 Orcs, 6 goblins, 3 Fimirs, 4 Chaos Warriors, 1 sorcerer, 1 Gargoyle, 4 Skeletons, 2 Zombies, 2 mummies, 1 wizard, 1 Barbarian, 1 Elf and 1 Dwarf.

15 Pieces of furniture -- 2 Tables, 1 Throne, 1 Alchemists bench, 3 treasure Chests, 1 Tomb, 1 Altar, 2 Book Cases, 1 Rack, 1 Fireplace, 1 weapons Rack, and 1 Cupboard.

Pad of Character sheets

64 Playing Cards

4 Character boards
2 Normal Dice
4 Special Dice

8 Single markers
2 double markers
6 pit traps
1 stair tile
4 Secret doors

Classic Citadel miniature game.

A full battalion of sets arrayed on the battle board.                     

Dark Angels rumours

I'm not a fan of rumours and am just as content to have the new release stumble on my lap whilst visiting the local hobby store. Currently 40K is really grabbing me so I thought I'd visit the rumour mill to see what's in store for the latest upcoming release which is Dark Angels. Here's what I found floating around the net whilst on hobby exile holidaying for the merry season.

New Vehicles: New variant Landspeeder , the Tempest. New Variant Predator with Plasma. Raven claw air

                       superiority fighter. 

New Characters: Three new characters Belial, Namaan, and Asmodai. All in a new codex and not a WD

                       update.

Lots of Plasma and new weapons. Dark Angels get a reroll save against gets hot. New special weapons 

                       Dark swords and Dark Claws.

Let's see if these have any merit after GW put gel seals on the pre-release goss wagon. With only a week or so to go before the next big release, I'm actually super excited to see Dark angels and I play High elves, not Dwarves though.

Edit: You ask and you shall receive. More info has come out about the new release, thanks to Faeit 212. You can find it here http://natfka.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/dark-angels-units-details-from-wd.html.

Out and about & New Releases

Holidays have started early this year and I'm already in the Hawkes Bay. For those from Auckland who are a little fuzzy about geography south of the Bombays don't worry I've included a map. This of course means that there will be minimal hobby over the xmas break. In fact with only one piece of luggage on the flight the only thing I have hobby related with me is a laptop. I've been given a contact in Hastings and have been assured there is a club in sunny Hawkes bay, where Nicon will be held next year. Once I get all the family visits out of the way I'll definitely have a look around and I'll post here if I find some thing.  

So that time of the year where everyone is on holiday and making the most of some free time to get in some extra games, I'm a little stranded without an army on hand. That's okay as I've used the time to do some reading around the web. I stumbled on some interesting planned release schedules for GW and one of the more interesting armies due is the High Elf release possibly middle next year.

High elves has always been an elite army fielding small forces on the battlefield and having a tendency to be out numbered often in any engagement. I've played them from 6th edition and they have always seemed a little overpriced for a T3 army with little or no armour save, relying on their speed of attack to even the odds. Even saying that I've always liked their design and Adam Troke definitely got the right feel in terms of design I feel and it has always been one of my favourite WHFB armies. With the introduction of 8th edition and the 'step up' rule there has been a little muddying the waters of the clear cut design of 'the speed of Asuryan'. Hopefully with a new rule set this will be tweaked a little and I'm very interested in seeing what this will be. There's already talks of monstrous cavalry and possibly some more monstrous beasts to add to the menagerie.

Possible releases that interest me next year.

Dark Angels  first quarter
High Elves     second quarter
Eldar             Last half

Just a 3hr drive from Middle Earth (Wellington) is the Twin cities of sunny Hawkes Bay.

Black Hawk down...

A memorable Ridley Scott movie for me. It was a favourite of mine and I owned the DVD 24hrs into its release. I enjoyed the movie for what it was a veritable action packed war movie with gritty imagery and lasting impressions. So no surprise that I was after three of these bad boys.

  

Why just have one when you can have a whole Squadron!

They've had a hard war of it and have been to the body shop a few times. Big thanks to Aaron for providing them and it was a great hobby afternoon to get them together from bog in the cup board for a few years, to some what fixed ready for paint. From repositioning the Typhoon laucher as it was glued into place wrong. Remodelling the gun rails as it had none (things number 101 what you can do with a skellie warriors bow) and sourcing some heavy bolters from  some old terrain bits. It was actually really fun

 The working parts I got needed some TLC.

Felt the need to also base my Bikes. Made some home made specials for them and I think they don't look too bad. Also after a few goes really like the 2nd Company paint scheme and will keep them for the rest of the force except the Land speeders which will be destined to be Dark angels once the new book is out.

Good chance to get in some free hand on the shoulder pads as well. Painting WH40k really does let you personalise your guys a lot more. Even if it's only a white helmet here or a red for a sargent it adds a real personal touch, I like.

Tactical Squad IV Gaimedes, destined for war and a quick bit of flock.

when the world is bringing 30k, 40k is for me.

Wrap up of 'That High Elf list'.

Had a great read of the tactica that Peter W took to the Masters this year with his High elf army. He also answers some of the harsher questions from his critics. A time not long ago cheesy filth players had to answer for their misdemeanour's. Times have changed and  if you don't take filth you have to answer for using a bit of nouse and anticipating your opposition and using unconventional choice in lore. The synergy in out of the square lists I like and applaud. You can find his High Elf writings on a Skaven blog here.

Board Game of the Week: Mystery of the Abbey.

Cluedo like game where you solve a murder at the Abbey. Good dynamic where you have to deduce from a select number of suspects and via elimination proclaim who you think the killer is. Your investigation can be sped up by visiting various locations on the board that provide you with addition bonuses to tip the balance against your opponents. the best part of the game is it's interactive phase where you can ask whoever is in your location a question. Great with a large pot of tean and bikkies.

3 and a 1/2 stars just, out of 5.

Masters 2012 Batreps: That High Elf Batrep Pt2

Right on cue we have the last instalment of "That High Elf list", phenomena. Thanks to Peter for being so prompt and great that he could take the time to guest on the blog. He's told me that he'll be keen to post his thoughts on the list on Pete Dunn's blog here. in the next couple of days as well so keep an eye out. An High Elf advertising billboard on a Skaven blog, who would've thunk!

What that list came 2nd? – part 2

So I’m sitting roughly in the middle of the field with 27/60 points. Not bad, but not great either!

Game 4 – Empire (Joel)

First couple of turns sees both my chariots taking cannon balls and dying predictably, and in return I kill a cannon and the flying captain and a couple demi-gryphs, also saw a first, Reavers charge through a wood to take out some chaff knights, didn't kill them ran over them but it threw a spanner into his plan.

Joel then Charges my White Lions whilst I had Shield up, This saw a bloody fight ensue, however it was never going to end up well for the knights since the another charge failed to connect with some dragon princes allowing them to slam into the flank on my turn. Reavers were mopping the mages and back field units along with the bolts/magic.

The other (full strength) unit of demi-gryphs, were in between two units of spears, meaning they couldn't advance without exposing a flank to one of them. They finally managed to break out when one unit of spears got distracted. They picked off an eagle and archers, however, died to a ranked unit of spears making a longish charge on the final turn with shield breaking them in combat and running them down. 20-0

Game 5 – Skaven (Locky)

I really don’t like playing Skaven with elves, it’s always asking for trouble. Reavers sacrificed themselves so that a unit of Spears + Lord could take the flank of the Furnace unit, took 4 turns to mow down the plague furnace plus its entourage.

The Abom got within an inch of my dragon princes + BSB on the first turn, seeing this, the BSB and a chariot charged the grey seers unit. Chariot failed so BSB went alone (not good…) and died when some clan rats went into the flank… Grey seer had skitter leaped out. The chariot redeemed itself by charging the new seer unit and sniped him out, with a horse kicking it in chest.

Final turns saw an eagle roosting in watchtower, with the warp lightning cannon staying true to form failing to kill the eagle and then his warlord + bsb decided to try and reclaim the building that they had just left ( Flames of the phoenix hurts so much when in a building). Eagle with only 1 wound remaining (stupid 6 slaves exploding doing 2 wounds in the combat before) and a 5+ ward wasn’t having it, Warlord hit 3 times but failed to wound, BSB fluffed and missed. Guess we will never know if that 5+ ward would have saved the game. Giving me the tower … 17-3

Game 6 – Vampire Counts (Rory)

Well my list actually has a mistake in it. I didn’t take the amulet of light… There wasn’t supposed to be a vampire count army there so I didn’t bother to waste 15 points. This hurt me so badly, I also didn’t roll Flames (which would eat the wraiths), so I was buggered dealing with one unit of Skeletons + Wraiths.

Turn 2 saw my attempt to charge the Knight bus with my lord and white lions on a 7. Promptly failed this meaning a chariot went in by itself. Chariot survived and killed a couple of knights, pinning his knights in place for a turn. However I couldn’t recreate the charge due to the wraith bus.

So on Turn 3 I took my BSB and Lord out of there units + 20 spears into the front of the knight bus. The lord isn’t so bad when it doesn’t have re-rolls, and I did have shield up on the spears and were stubborn along with the BSB due to Anaerion. Killed the champion and we drew combat.

Turn 4 saw that blasted champion come back, because I couldn’t dispel everything (I even burnt my scroll this turn) meaning my lord was stuck fighting that champion once again and him dieing AGAIN. Didn’t matter though, BSB stepped up and attacked the Lord, 3 hits, 3 wounds, 3 failed 5+ armour, 3 failed wards = One dead vampire ** (I lost and lord buggered off, a few inches)

My turn 4 saw my BSB step up again this time killing the other vampire, this BSB is truly god! (Though I don’t think it would of really mattered if I hadn’t of killed this one.) 17-3 to me

** I read somewhere I was going to lose 20-0 if it wasn’t for this happening. This was really not the case at all. I was going down 13-7 or 14-6 (losing a BSB + unit of spears does not equal 20-0). Also even if I didn’t kill the vampire in one round, it wasn’t going to heal back up as it was my turn next, so there was the additional possibility that I would have killed it over 2 rounds. Happening in one round just made it that much more epic.

Anyways that landed me on 81 points, few points short of Tom, who seriously must be congratulated for taking out the field. Well done Tom.

NZ Masters 2012 pt4 Batreps

We've got a distinguished guest on the blog and current High Elven Masters general Peter Williamson. I know that you are all looking forward to seeing how he handled what has been termed 'that list'.  Here's his first days account of Batreps.

What that list came 2^nd? – part 1

Well with all the pre tournament hype, my list had been written off. I had no shot, basically everyone (bar a few) thought it would come last. Even English media thought I would be the kicking ball, (something in the voice of the way he kept stating there are High Elves). Anyways­ I had nothing to lose, everything to gain, the pressure was completely off me.

Game 1 – Daemons of Chaos (Tom)

Tom got to go first and moved up. My first turn was plagued with doing sweet FA. I killed 3 furies total with magic and shooting. Due to this my White Lions are bogged down with Chaff and are till the last turn.

Dragon Princes charge the front of a fiend and crusher, and I bounce hard… was looking to put pressure on the Horrors. Well that went down a treat…

I managed to charge one block blood letters in the flank with spears, a pillow fight ensured, and blood letters refused to fail a leadership test to pop! I lose eventually when a fiend slams in the side. The other block gets charged by a chariot in the flank and spears/lord in the front. Chariot rolls a 1 on impact hits and chariot dies, damn.

We fought for a while and then Papa nurgle finally got around to doing something in game, and slammed into the back of my lord. He rolls 3 hits, I die horribly losing spears and BSB.

Final couple turns see me trying to kill Papa, He survives with 1 wound….Gutting and White Lions killing the herald BSB unit, but when it comes down to finishing the BSB, deciding he is better off alive. Failing to put the remaining wound on him and fleeing and getting run down. Lol…

This game was full of good/bad luck at inappropriate times, meaning my dice were all over the place in this game. Oh well Tom played it well enough to pick up a 16-4.

Game 2 – Warriors of Chaos, (Neil - Pops)

Scary list, but it was Blood and Glory so it meant I could deploy further up than normal. I also got to go first.

Shooting saw me remove 2 of the light unit of cavalry. He moved up and Hell cannons shot, removing 20 odd spears they pass there panic test, and sub sequentially moving to the back of the table.

He left his blood crushers a little too close so the White Lions charged into them killing them outright and overrunning into a Hell Cannon. Feeling the pressure he made a gutsy move to and moved his level 4 into the centre of my army to force a panic test on half my army through Hell Shriek. He unfortunately cast doom and darkness irresistibly thus losing all his dice. Hell Cannon shot off another 20 spearmen meaning I was left with 1 spear and Arch mage, needing a 4 on leadership, needless to say they ran off the board.

The Level 4 ate two bolts to the face! failed a 4+ ward to die. The rest of the game ended with my White Lions taking out the knights, Dragon Princes + BSB killing the other Hell Cannon and foot marauders. People looking at the board thought it looked very close because my army was much depleted however I only lost my Arch mage and its posse. He only had his BSB left cowering behind a forest, which I couldn’t shoot off 20-0

Game 3 – Tomb Kings (Tim)

I made a mistake this game. Not deploying my Arch Mage in the Archers. I picked up 4 dice for flames rolled a double 6, blowing up half a unit of spears and my level 4 dropped down a hole. Arse. This basically allowed his Necro Sphinx to come out and play, to ram in the face of White Lions.

Tim made a small mistake this game in charging my spears with the BSB, with his depleted necro knights ( overrun from an eagle) Allowing my Dragon Princes to charge the Flank of them and pop them in one round. That same Spear unit failed a panic test when Dragon princes fled through them, meaning I lost any chance of sniping his Level 4 off. (Sad Face).

The game was mostly dominated with my Level 4 dropping down a hole, and taking the unit with it (that unit managed to get into his lines too). So I went down 17-3, Tim played it well and apart from losing his knights, he did well to pull out the big win.

Day 2 to come.

NZ Masters 2012 Pt3 Results

So another year ends with a thrilling finish at the masters. Some top games saw the old powers in WHFB coming back to dominate and one army to confuse them all doing very well. Amongst the field there were three previous Masters winners competing with Ray, Pete and Antony all packing alot of caps and experience against the young guns of the field. Pre-tournament I had already included two of these three stalwarts to podium with only the little favoured Beastmen not making my picks. It was to be proved that Bretonnians just weren't cut to be culinary gouda this edition either. Congrats to Tom for his first Masters title.

Having a talk with day one dominating Vampire general Rory last night about his games the unusual High Elf list is still not rated. It's good reassuring words for all High Elf generals out there that no longer are the Asur over powered like I've been harangued by so many critics over the years they are only deserving of success if played by a competent general. Some thing that is very encouraging to build my interest back in running the army. There's already post tournament spin at the Bad dice pocast and if you visit episode 141 you'll also see that Peter W's High Elves is the talk of the town at the moment. Hopefully we'll have some batreps and a few words from him to follow in the next few days. I think most Elven generals saw what his list was capable of and I'll be enjoying quite a few complimentary beers from wide sources backing his list. He does have to let me know what happened against the Daemons as they are the perfect matchup for High Elves.

Results:

Charlie St Clair continues to dominate the 40k scene in NZ reclaiming the Masters title this year. Big ups to Daniel and having looked at his list for masters he really got the meta right for a good solid second place. Who can go past Ivan's french bakery for sheer flyer spam. WE'll see if we can get some batreps from the guys later in the week too.

Results:

Running alongside our event was also the Australian Masters. Congrats to Chris and also an Auckland City Guard old boy Simon for taking out 3rd with his first soft score surf. How was the ride Simon and good stuff guys.

NZ Masters 2012 Pt 2

So end of day one we have the third rounds results.

Round 3

Rory 20       vs Joel 0
Tom 19        vs Sam 1
Antony 17    vs Neil 3
Tim 17         vs Peter 3
Locky 17     vs Ray 3
Peter 16       vs Mike 4

Absolute thumping scores at the Masters this year, which I had expected would be a lot closer. My favourite and wild card for the tournament the High Elves coming back with a strong 16-4. Everyone has rated the High Elf army as a bottom of the table list. I think it was designed beautifully for the match ups it was going up against, lets see how it fairs with it's worst match up tomorrow against the shooty Tomb Kings.

As expected the Tomb Kings did a number on the High Elves as T3 is just not tough against that much shooting. I've been out and about so haven't had time to update much but I do have the Final standings going into the championship final round. I'll leave the results for the tournament organisers to post but here is the Round 5 standings and Matchups going into the 6th and final round.

Tom D     72

Rory F     68

Peter W   64  High Elves

Peter D    59 

Tim J       59

Ant K      50

Ray D      49

Mike K    45

Locky R   44

Sam W     37

Joel V       31

Neil          22  

Match ups

These three matches will decide the title.

Bretonnians  vs Daemons
High Elves    vs Vampires
Skaven         vs Beastmen

Tightly packed but not enough to get near the podiums

Empire         vs O&G
Skaven         vs Warriors
Lizards         vs Tomb Kings    

Potentially the top 5 still have a chance to take it out. I'll be catching all the batreps that are bound to be around from the contestants all week and will post them up if I get the chance.

NZ Masters 2012 Live

Straight from the Wellywood stadium we have the Latest on NZ Masters Action. (I'm not actually there but by the power of the internets here's the coverage)

First round

Mike Lizards 18     vs Ant Brets 2
Rory Vampires16   vs Ray Beasts 4
Tim Tomb Kings16 vs Neil Warriors 4
Tom Daemons   16 vs Peter High Elves 4
Joel Empire 15       vs  Locky Skaven 5
Pete Skaven14       vs Sam  O&G 6

Highlights. Brets find out Slaans don't break. Beasts Lvl 4 runs off in Turn 1. Tomb King shooting gallery works on high armour as well, shock. High Elves can lose to Daemons, omg. Chocobo's snack on rats. Old rat keeps on trucking.

Second round

Peter W High Elves 20 V Neil 0 Warriors
Rory Vampires 20       V Mike 0 Lizards
Tim Tomb Kings 14    V Tom 6 Daemons
Joel Empire 16            V Pete 4 Skaven
Sam O&G 16             V Locky 4 Skaven
Ray Beasts 14            V Ant 6 Brets

15 Whitelions enough to chop through 3 BloodCrushers, 5 Knights and a Lvl 4. Yes that Vampire will make your Slaan run. Shooting gallery overcomes Daemon saves as well! Empire does a doozie on the the second Rat army, Chocobooooo's!! Tin Cans having a sorry run, need to look at retirement sooooon ;)

Reports of copious Rats being consumed by Chokoboos in the Wellington region.

Will have the final round of the day up soon so tune back if ya into this kinda stuff...

Cheese Grater NZ Masters 2012 edition

The NZ Masters is almost upon us and will feature a dozen of the top WHFB players duking it out this weekend in classic style. In the home pad of Hobbitses, Wellywood there won't be any friendly hairy feet but contestants hobnailed boots ready to Orc stomp with some very robust lists. Every one has brought a contender list and even though there has been talk of the Elves bringing tooth picks to a gun fight I think there will be very little chance of lop sided results this year, bar a choke or two. Lists can be found here.

I'm going to split the twelve competitors into three Categories for my take on how the lists and generals will do this weekend. From the guys who just came for the pies and coke, the guys who brought their iron underwear but just missed with the last sword thrust, to the Glory getters who proved that the dice gods were with them and rolling double 6's is a breeze.

So with no further ado let's get down to the chess grater. We'll start with the marshmallow centre and the potential podiums in no particular order.

Skaven ( the Pete edition). With the prescribed grumbling about the best warhammer army aside this list is a cheese connoisseurs dream. Packed with the tools to do the business and with a seasoned general to run the back line. Already with heaped expectation from around the world on Skaven performance, I can't see this army not doing well. With one well documented choking incident already, I'd assume that this Skaven general has spared no expense and would be seeing the same sports psyche the AB's went to pre 2011. Hiccups aside this will be the army and general to beat if you want the Masters crown.

High Elves (Peter W.) This army has been written off already from the masses. I'm a little astounded as I play Elves and can see exactly how this army has been designed to do. As long as the general remembers the battle plan I can see that this list will be up there for the awards. Just because it doesn't have the internet double Whitelions, it's got the punch where it needs it. I've already backed this army with a few rounds of xmas ale.

Bretonnians (Antony Gouda Master). The reining NZ Master has forgotten to bring the cheese and instead has brought a whole lot of tin cans. Don't let this fool you as Bretonnians are another internet underrated army. The list is tough as nails and as long as the 5's & 6's keep on getting rolled expect to see the Bret list prove IT warriors wrong again and again. Not a genuine block of prime Gouda but I'll pick this to make the podiums even if I'm bias and have leant the army its second trebuchet.

Vampires (Rory). Having seen the results first hand of this in your face list, it's sure got the impetuous to do well. The army has done it's extensive field testing, so no situation should be a surprise. I would rate this amongst one of the top lists coming for head on exchanges. It however does have a disadvantage that maybe exposed from the experienced field at the event. As long as it just smashes face it should do fine.

And now we go to the section "Steel drawers were not quite enough". On another battlefield these armies would of had an easy run to the podium but this is the Masters. An unexpected roll of a 1 or a stubbed finger nail could swing results. These are the armies that will come close and on their day will sneak up to the top quadrant.

Orc & Gob  (Sam). Really fun party time list to play and field I'd imagine. With that mob it will be hard to handle for most armies backed up by the Gobbo artillery and warmachines. Everything to handle all the phases but still at the back of my mind it's just a tad behind from some of the lists in the combined field. Will be happy to be proved wrong and if anyone Sam will be the general to do it. So wildcard but currently just on the outskirts.

Tomb Kings (Tim). Tomb kings have taken the silverware in quite a few events in NZ by Tim. The army should be very familiar by now and the shooting gallery will be hard work for low T and AS armies. Having a look at the list I can't help but notice that there is a few easy points left for people to get and even though it's solid I think having just the one casket may have released too much pressure on his opponents.

Warriors (Neil). Thats one potentially tough as nails list. Bar getting every shot in from the Hell Cannons and not having any unusual mishaps this list should find it's way to the top half of the field easily. Even without a gateway... oh wait it doesn't have gateway. It ends up second teir unfortunately in this tough testing environment.

Skaven (the Locky edition). You can't write off any Skaven list at any event with a seasoned general and this army is in no doubt that it has a chance to win. I can only guess by it's design that it'll miscast once too often and even the warlord's leadership won'y hold off a couple of close games. Still with the potential to cause a few surprises and even top the other skaven list in the results.

So having finally found out it's on this weekend I thought I'd wish everyone good luck and great fun. I had originally thought it was the second weekend of December so had to declined my invite. I would have been able to make the 1st weekend of December, doh! For all those lists that I didn't mention, take no offence. I would have enjoyed catching a few cokes and pies with you too if I was in Welly this weekend.

Snippets from the Interweb

Not having the luxury of much spare time recently I've been filling in the odd moments where I get to hobby to catch up on the goings on in the NZ wargaming community. Whether it be recent tournaments, upcoming Masters tournaments, planned events and wildly semi-humorous going ons, here's my take on the current affairs of recent times.

Tournaments:

NZ Masters is being held 2nd weekend of December in Wellington and will be hosted by it's progenitor Pete Dunn. Even though I snuck into the invite list for WHFB this year I can't free up the time to attend. It looks to be a super competitive bunch of fine Warhammer players gathered for the event. You can find a list of the people attending here. There's no talk of baby seals as all the lists look pretty solid and it'll be a hard prediction to pick the podiums and the also rans. You can also find the WHFB lists here.

With the past weekend it saw a good new initiative in wargaming tournaments. The rise of the One-dayer in Warhammer. We already saw something similar with WHFB500, WH40K Combat Patrol and Vermintide the 1200pt event with 5 rounds in one day in Wellington could open another chapter of wargaming for the hobbyist finding it hard to free up both days of the weekend. With 5 rounds and a good bite of 1200pts, it qualifies for Ranking points and also means that it will feel like a full tournament. Keep an eye on this space as I've already heard good chatter to get a few of these off the ground here in Auckland. Expect them to begin mid next year and I'll have all the details as soon as they are confirmed. Vermintide results can also be found here.

Chatter:

There's always some talk about the relevance of sports/comp in tournaments. I know that most experienced wargamers are adverse talking about sports and comp as it's an old tired horse and my efforts to get a conversation going recently only managed to attract the new comers to the hobby as they hadn't been aware that there already exists a vast collection of converstation on the subject interweb wide. I picked up a classic example of the old crop beating the old horse and also a seasoned rider horse whispering.

Young buccaneer whips his tired horse:-

"I am curious to see how the sportmanship was done. It seems a bit silly to me that people pretty much always get max sports points. It kind of defeats the purpose apart from acting as a deterrent for people who might otherwise have been dick like in their game play.

I would like to sportmanship somehow done in a way so that there is a clear winner."

Old sage horse whispers:-

"The objectives of the tournament are for players to have a good time playing Warhammer against like minded people, and to encourage new players into the hobby and into tournament play. In order to meet these objectives it is important that the boundaries and expectations of behaviour / sporstmanship are set.

The scoring system, the briefing prep talk, and the player pack are designed to establish the expectations.
To me this is a Warhammer tournament and not a competition in sportsmanship. The sporstmanship criteria is a mechanism by which the worst elements of competitive play can be held in check. Everybody receiving maximum sports score, far from being silly, is a win for the tournament and for the players attending and met my hopes and expectations."

It's always been a red tie vs blue tie conversation, so which point of view do you believe in.

Computer Games:

Grew up playing UFO and have never got tired of the turn based old skool game. It no longer loads on my computer  as it's a bit ancient so I haven't played it in yonks. All classic pc game goodies are getting a revamp and bringing back the vintage game is Firaxis and it's looking pretty sweet. Here is X-Com: Enemy Unknown.

Web Series:

Stumbled onto the new Battlestar Galactica Ten ep series. About time they did more BSG and this is pretty high quality production from syfy channel. Well worth a check if you got a few spare moments and time to youtube it on the bus.

Glory in the Badlands (Narrative Campaign)

A good bunch of wargamers are starting a narrative campaign and escalation league. We'll be starting from a 500pt basic build and with a view to collecting a much bigger force. With games documenting how your army and Heroic leader impacts on the Old World with every game that's palyed. So let the Warhammer Gods decide the fate of Heroes and warriors as they carve themselves a epic tale into the history of my current wargaming.

I wrote a bit of fluff to get going with my current Wood Elves I'm working on. It'll be good inspiration to get the army finished with a rich back ground to the models as well.

It had been decades since the last bright sail of High Elven patrol boat had graced the shores of The tower of the Stars in distant Cathay. Barely just in his prime the Noble Darrian led his rag tag force of archers amongst what had remained of the raided once serene settlement of the River of stars. It's population routed and scattered by dark clothed cultists. The ruins of the settlement could still be seen a hollow haunting façade of once proud monumental buildings but now ruined husks melting in the molten darkening gloom of the evenings sunset.


Darrian's mind raced back to the night when strange boats but distinctively Elven had been seen on the horizon and the Old Lord Protector had prepared to welcome our visiting cousins to our arms. Our welcoming faces soon quickly turned to shock as these mad antagonists yelled ritualistic taunts behind a hail of barbed poisoned bolts to slay the peaceful citizens of the River of Stars. Driven by the surprise attack and divided from the Protectors Seaguard defensive force Darrian could only reform with his Hunter Archers. They had taken well to the forested expanse of the new colony and it's every tree and rock for miles around were know to them. So began the rearguard action to save what few of the populace that had narrowly found themselves on the edge of the invasion. Darrians Bow sang a vicious song of revenge as his few comrades fought to save their people. Out numbered but not daunted his arrows found a vital mark more often than not and the invaders paid a large toll when they pursued the Eagle eyed band. Even in the evening night amongst the glow of still rutted burning buildings the clear song of Elven long bow reaped a toll on the Dark Elf ravagers.


Separated from his people, his trusted spear and shield, Darrian stood amongst his few left archer cadre. The garb had subtly changed from the Ulthuan formal to a more utilitarian skirmish. Everyone of his bowmen now carried their great hunting bows that they had escaped that first night of slaughter with and powerful were these in comparison to the standard bow of the Seaguard. The years that they had fought to rid themselves of their invaders had toughened the Warband and only the strongest and most skilled had lasted the long campaign. Tonight Darrian thought, as he plucked his finely crafted well used arrow from his defeated foe, 'We have rid us of the last of the vermin from our shores'. For some reason the main force of ravagers had left and the score or two of the remaining Dark Elves left as a garrison were easily humbled by the Shining Eagles, Darrians archer warband.


The victory was accomplished without the help of the force of nature of the surrounding forest which had rallied around the Elven archers from the wood. The powers of branch and thorn were granted to the fledgling lord from his innate mystical matriarchal line descended directly from Caledor himself. Although he displayed no abilities with spell or scroll he could communicate with the forest in times of dire need and the spirits of the wood would aid him at his desperate call. From graceful Dryads to titanic manifestations of forest spirits of brooding gnarled Oaks his allies were swift to ally vengeance and were not easily quelled. The forest spirits help had established the Shiny Eagles a home within the wood for these past decades and provided for their small community. As the years past the symbiotic relationship could be seen subtly overlapping between the two entities of Elf and Wood. Surely they gained strength from each other as Dryads gained the gracefulness of Elf and Elf gained the hardness of bearing of Oak.


With the last of the Invaders on shore laid low by Elven bow his thoughts went to his people. The settlement had slowly started to rebuild within the forest. The remnants of the Tower of stars eventually finding the scattered bands from the night of the invasion. Although small it was beginning to slowly rebuild and the more commonly used of the communities name had changed from the Tower of Stars to the Stary Wood. Named after the favourite mystic weapons favoured by it's warrior scion sons the 'Starfire arrow' . Forever changed but strengthened by the experiences that affected them. His people were precious to him and their new home was precious to him. Darrians mind traced it's tract to the remaining long boats beached nearby. No longer will we be the hunted we will take the fight to these invaders and they shall know the fear of vengeance...


The Shining Eagles:


Darrian Starfire (Noble, Starfire arrows, /lt Armour, Shield)
11 Glade Guard (Muso, Lords Bowman)
11 Dryads
5 Waywatchers


I've left my background during the time of Tethlis the Slayer where most of the Elven colonies had started to head back to Ulthuan. The distant Settlements slowly lost touch with the homeland and the regular Seaguard patrol boats visited less and less the far reached settlements of the once proud Elven nation. My Army is essentially a High elf army that had to develop its own military tactics as it was cruelly separated from it's main body of arms. This is why most of my Gladeguard are a meld of High Elven archers and Wood Elf bows and cloaks. I think as further along we go on the escalation ladder I will be using my fluff to either continue to explore finding more Wood elf allies (GW models) in Darrians search for revenge or with his High Elf roots and possible scattered settlements that he might stumble on in his voyage. He could enlist aid from a number of sources and I can have a huge variety of models from different ranges factored into my new army.

This is the link to the official link of the league here.

Discovering the game again

Managed to get a game in after a hectic week. Me old High Elf army pits itself against Logan's butchertastic Ogre army.‎


2400pts vs Logan at the Hammer club of good times. Ogres get first turn and High Elves look for fresh undies as fatties 12" away and packing double unit big guns. Slaughter Master shows off what 'The Maw' which has often been referred to as the poor mans Pit of Shades. Elves being I5 naturally wasn't quite that worried until it landed full face ontop of a spear unit and then quickly found out that you still took str3 hits if you passed the test. Cue half the unit swallowed down a chomping big hole, lols for initiative lots and it's better than pit in so many ways. For his troubles Slaughter Master discovers guy fawlkes and cascades in a brilliant cacophony of sparks into the warp. The remaining battle ensues with mass combat across the table as Swordmasters chop at bunched Mournfang, Bsb's face off amongst Whitelions Ironguts melee, Spears charge a post fire works display Ironguts unit and Dragon princes skewer some Leadbelchers. Whitelions apparently are so good but Ironguts quickly Str6 and stomp little Lion killers to mush and crowd around the challenge of flag wavers. Depleted Elf toothpicks decide that Ogres aren't that tough when reduced to strength 1 and prove wearing skirts and Str3 poke in the eye is alright. Victorious Swormasters then discover that 4 leadbelchers is enough to make them into a mist of mince pie, so what if you can do great things with a sword. High Elf Bsb after pants in rolling first up proves how broken rerolls to hit and armour saves are and quickly chop ogre BSB in the final round of the game and Logan after only making one leadership test the whole entire game fails his stubborn and the Ogre audience flee to discover that all High Elves are issued with Nikes this game and one little mad Elf with an Ax watched American Physco pre-bat. Phew, so much carnage, such a close game, top match, top opponent it was. Disclaimer: Mindrazor was not used once all game. No real Ogres or Pointy ears was hurt in the making of this batrep, just lots of Warhammer good fashion fun times.

Whose up for some High Elf touching you up at a battlefield near you soon??

Johnny was proficient with an Ax...

WHFB500 Batreps & Results

So with my slightly leaky boat that I call my Wood Elf army I was amped for some good Hammer times. Was going into it with a fun list and it went something like this 11 Gladeguard, 11 Dryads, 5 Waywatchers and a Noble with Starfire Arrows. The Starfire arrows was the one trick in the list and at Str3 it was going to be a hail Mary just the way Wood elves should be.

GAME 1: I expected to play three new faces but the first round had me up against John with his Bretonnians a familiar club member and a good general. He had three blocks of Errants, Yeoman and a Paladin with a magic weapon. A lot of knights to deal with with minimal twangers at my disposal. We were on a table with a big hill on the 4x4 and including my free wood it was three forests for me to give it a good go. Not being a familiar with the WE I deployed a bit more aggressively with the Waywatchers  on his right flank as he had his knights lined across his deployment with yeoman protecting his flank. Waywatchers went scouting on his deployment and was to tie up a couple of his units to let my Gladeguard and Dryads a chance to hold up the Bret Lance charge.

The 500 point format is excellent to develop your understanding of a new army and Wood Elves for me is still a bit of a mystery so thinking back it was good tatical knowledge learnt from the game. I knew that my Dryads would be important for their stubborn in forests and that short range shooting at str4 is insane so tried to marry these two factors... it didn't quite pay off. The Brets had to hang on the hill to get a decent charge off and that allowed me to charge his Paladin in Errant block with the Dryads, risky I know as if I didn't break them first round it would have been flank charge by the other block and oblivion. The Dryads won combat by 2 and testing on a 6 for the game the Brets rolled exactly 6. Great game and proving that at 500 pts it's still warhammer with all the tactical questions asked of your generalship, GG.

Loss 0-3

One more round of shooting and there would have been bleeding Bret hearts. Time was up turn 3.

GAME2. Nick.M Skaven

One scary list it had two big blocks of Clanrats, a big block of plague monks, Lightning Cannon and a Plague Casting Engineer. Nick is a great guy and with a fantastically well painted army. He was also genuinely (mistakenly) scared that his army was understrength for the tournament which was the only advantage I had going into the game.  My plan here was to starfire his rats off the table and avoid the Plague block and minimise damage by the lightning cannon and his magic. My first turn, so it was the Starfire arrow into the Clanrats on his left deployment which was just out of the generals bubble. They ran but curiously for rats they only ran 4 inches and stayed on the board. The waywatchers that was placed to intercept and delay that flank ran towards his Lightning Cannon hoping to engage it in combat as T3 Elves don't like Str Lightning. This was the point in the game that Nick's Skaven came right as his Fleeing unit rallied and the lightning Cannon popped 2 archers and the plague cast on 5 dice ran rampant through my army. Plague basically is a Toughness test on everyone in your unit and then if you roll 5-6 it passes to a unit within 6 inches. This basically meant that almost half my army died to Toughness tests. Big odds for me from here with my units too small to do much in the battle. To rub salt into injury the funniest moment in the game was in the 2nd turn where his Lightning cannon misfired and rolling on the mishap table it spun around in a random direction with a large blast template landing a random 5D6 on the Board. Nick taking a punt said his bet would be on my Waywatchers as they were pesky and almost impossible for him to get otherwise. As the foreboding doom of ambushers was sounded the best Skirmishers in the game exploded in a ball of green ratty lightning, how Elf mothers cried that moment.
Highlight for me was the amazing effectiveness of the Str3 Starfire arrow as it picked up his other unit of Clanrats. Also Waywatchers won't play Russian roulette again.
Loss 3-0

Imagine Waywatchers in the middle of that cloud...

Continued

GAME3 Daves Goblins

Dave brought along a really themed army. I say themed as it was meant to be used, with Goblins abound, and not the internet usage which seems to have deteriorated to meaning filthy these days. As soon as he placed two units of Goblins, a Goblin warboss (ruby ring) on a wolf with Wolfrider escorts and a Doom diver it was going to be a hard ask against even my limited shooting Wood Elves. His first turn with the Ruby ring wiping out my Waywatcher unit did have me very concerned as my T3 elves weren't up to taking too much more of that punishment but with a irresistible and the lost of the ring the game evened up again . It's my pleasure to say that Dave is from good solid warhammer stock and is a hobbyist through and through with a superbly painted army and he decide to come up to Aucks for a few good games and get into the spirit of the hobby.  Suffice it to say that my Str3 Starfire arrow and 11 bows decided to come good on the last game and with above average dice all the way T3 troops were not happy under that barrage and Goblins got pin cushioned.

Win 3-0

Fact: Goblins turn into pumpkins when pin cushioned.

Superb little 500pt tournament and with good solid interest we will likely have a few more of these throughout the year.

James Cardno 1
Henry P 2
Paul C 3
Logan Harris 4
Dan Bloomfield 5
Graeme F 6
Tom V R 7
Joel M8
Ryan H9
Paul 10
Aaron Cue 11
Phil W 12
Mike Youngs 13
Barry C 14
John W 15
Nick Munn 16
Ross Collet 17
Chris E 18
Derick W19
Aaron Peters 20
Glenn T 21
Hayden C 22
Nick I 23
Dave Hart 24

40k Combat Patrol this weekend

Dusting off the Space Marines for this weekend. 500pts of combat patrol at the club on Sunday and looking at getting a few games in against a few new faces. 6th Editon is looking pretty sweet and this will be a prelude to me starting the DA's once their new book is out. Would have brought the Dark Angels out but they are still in unpainted limbo. The marines were my first army and haven't seen much action for quite a while. The temptation was to take terminators but it's just not really in the theme of combat patrol. This list looked a lot more punchy.

Librarian                            Quixus                      

10 Man Tactical Squad    Gaimedes                

            Plasma Cannon 

            Flamer

5 Man Scout Squad          Delta                        

            Heavy bolter 

            2 Sniper Rifles

3 Man Bike Squad            Omega                  

            Melta                                

Attack Bike                         Epsilon                    

I'll also have my batreps of the WHFB500 up soon too.

Tournament scoring, Generalship vs Paint/Sports?

We are having a good discussion about tournament scoring currently up here in the Auckland wargaming community.There is definitely one camp more in favour of the Painting side of the hobby and the Sports component in tournaments. It's been argued that there should be a definitive winner of the Painting and Sports at the event and these points should count significantly 50/50 in comparison to the generalship in tournaments.
It would be great to get everyone's constructive critic on the subject and at the same time give me a chance to be educated with another point of view. My ideas and opinion is below. Comp is also mentioned if you care to resuscitate its carcase, your ideas would also be appreciated.

*Comp has had its day and has proven itself unreliable and inconsistent regardless of peer or panel systems. Even if comp is 10% it's going to have a significant bearing on the results which imo is just plain unacceptable. In this day and age of tournaments comp is just an antique cassette tape in an age of igadgets.

Currently I think people go to tournaments to test their metal against every other general and also to see how the game is understood and how armies are manoeuvred by your peers and if you've got a better understanding of the nuances and tactics. I totally agree with the generalship deciding tournaments and soft scores having less focus as it's a tournament where you are exploring the tactical play of the game. If it was a painting workshop and I was gathering to learn techniques and sit down and paint with like minded individuals then it should definitely be decided if my painting was the most advanced at the end. In saying this I also agree with painting being a major focus in the tournaments as well and a separate painting prize should be on offer. An appropriate much smaller overall percentage that should be easily reachable by all should be applied to encourage a good standard of painting too as it's a hobby after all.  If you look at most of the tournaments recently you will see that the players packs reflect this quite clearly.

One of the main things that I think is forgotten about this hobby is that tournaments should be a gathering to encourage new and vets alike to come and play and encourage a community to build. Without new players systems slowly stagnate. The 3 minimum colours at present are to discourage unpainted forces but also give everyone a chance to try their hand at tournaments. Sports is a definite requirement to encourage good behaviour and perfect behaviour scores for all which is expected should be the norm. Having a mister popular contest would only encourage buddy boosting, which has been discussed at length in many other threads and forums and shouldn't have a place in tournaments.

New Warriors of Chaos

Some bad boys are out on advance order. Some of them are way nicer than I had originally thought. The xmas shopping list is going to be quite big this year.

Will definitely take some of these and see how they stack up with the demo-chooks.

 This shiny new ride is going to be finecast. I do suspect my Lord will be right-handed this edition.

I am going to like the Warshrine after all. Those extra bits on it look mint.

     

Star Wars & X-wing

Flicking through youtube and found this little gem.

Which segways nicely to the new X-wing game with a tut if anyone's interested in learning how to play. This just looks too good not to buy.

WHFB500 this weekend

We've got a quick fire 500pt one dayer tournament at the club this weekend. Really looking forward to it as there's 20+ confirmed. Great chance for a few of the guys picking up the game again after a break. It's also the perfect opportunity to bring out my wood elves. There's still places if anyone has Sunday free and is up in the big smoke.

Got to do some more painting on the army and going forward I'd be keen to do a 1000pt tournament just to get the painting mojo back. It's about time I finished an entire army of these guys and escalation seems to really get your painting done. This 500pts was a great change up from the daunting task of an entire 2400pt force.

 Angry trees and my first try at highlighting to white. Also trying out simple skirmish trays.

I always like to make something new & unique for every event that I attend. So slapped up some unit fillers at 500pts. The slight restrictions really makes you take a few odd choices in your list, so it was a good distraction making up some unit fillers.

Good chance to add some bright colours to the palate.

 A bit of kitbash is the best.

So I've forgone magic and taken a Noble to lead the force since Bsb's are not allowed. The list I'm taking is below. Nice and simple and really squishy. It should be a good list to play and a good chance to meet new opponents and have some good yarns through the day.

Noble - Starfire Arrows
11 Gladeguard
5 Waywatchers
11 Dryads

Solid block of Twangers, the backbone of the army...maybe.

Always the favourite, the Bear in the woods.

Board Game: King of Tokyo.

I haven't done too many board games recently so here's a little goodie. Easiest way to describe this is that it's yahtzee with Monsters. If you like the old skool Godzrrrillla films this will be your piece of cake. Comes with some cool graphics, nice and quick if you want to bash out a few games with mates (30min). The dynamic is good and the monsters are all pretty equal for destruction, you should give it a go for sure.

3 1/2 out of 5 Stars. Monssster sssmmaaassshh!