Equinox Tournament WFB Results

Brilliant weekend and really proud to have hosted all the fine wargamers that made this the biggest tournament by far I've been involved in hosting. Although we have a big base of wargamers in Auckland the great response from the community all around the country made this tournament the big success that it was. A big thank you goes out to those of you who flew or travelled those extra miles to making the great atmosphere that a big tournament makes. So without further delay here is the results.

	Name	Army	Paint	Total	Tie Break	Adj Battle	Total Overall
1	Pete Dunn	Ogr	15	87		76.125	91.125
2	Ross Hiller- Jones	WoC	14	81		70.875	84.875
3	Tim Joss	TK	15	77		67.375	82.375
4	Rob Sadler	Emp	15	76	0.1	66.5	81.6
5	Peter Williamson	TK	15	76		66.5	81.5
6	Raymond Dick	Beasts	15	75	0.1	65.625	80.725
7	Dan Butler	Skaven	15	75		65.625	80.625
8	James Page	DE	15	73		63.875	78.875
9	John Mathews	Emp	15	72		63	78
10	Al Raynor	WoC	15	71		62.125	77.125
11	John Willenbruch	Brets	14	72		63	77
12	Thom V	Dwf	15	68	0.1	59.5	74.6
13	Reid Pittams	DE	15	68		59.5	74.5
14	Henry Poor	WE	14	69		60.375	74.375
15	Kyran Henry	Emp	15	67		58.625	73.625
16	Glen Tibbles	WoC	15	65		56.875	71.875
17	Neil Williamson	Brets	15	64		56	71
18	Rory Finnemore	Emp	15	63	0.1	55.125	70.225
19	Hamish Forbes	O&G	15	63		55.125	70.125
20	Antony Kitson	Dwf	15	59	0.1	51.625	66.725
21	Richard Barby	CD	15	59		51.625	66.625
22	Jeremy Brown	VC	10	64		56	66
23	James Brown	WE	14	59		51.625	65.625
24	Paul Clark	TK	14	58		50.75	64.75
25	Mike Vercoe	VC	15	56	0.1	49	64.1
26	Derick Williams	Skaven	15	56		49	64
27	Michael King	Liz	15	55		48.125	63.125
28	Geoff Fletcher	Ogr	8	61		53.375	61.375
29	Paul Dalton	Ogr	5	63	0.1	55.125	60.225
30	Sam Peters	Brets	12	55		48.125	60.125
31	Basil Moskovis	VC	15	50	0.11	43.75	58.86
32	Patrick Crockett	WE	15	50	0.1	43.75	58.85
33	Michael Fenner	WoC	15	50		43.75	58.75
34	Noel Tobin	O&G	14	51		44.625	58.625
35	Graeme Fry	HE	15	47		41.125	56.125
36	Damon Quaid	WoC	15	42		36.75	51.75
37	Russ Simister	VC	15	40		35	50
38	Chris Ellis	TK	13	40		35	48
39	Darren Butler	O&G	15	36		31.5	46.5
40	Michael Stewart	Emp	12	39		34.125	46.125
41	Jake Griffiths	VC	12	36		31.5	43.5
42	Phil Petry	DE	15	32		28	43
43	Amy Tanabe	Ogr	15	26		22.75	37.75
44	Daniel Blomfield	O&G	8	5		4.375	12.375
45	Jorin Duncan	O&G	0	5		4.375	4.375
46	Jordan Rees	WoC	0	5		4.375	4.375
47	Antony Nobs	WoC	0	5		4.375	4.375
48	Aaron Cue	WoC	0	5		4.375	4.375

Best Sports:                Glen Tibbles

Best Paint:                  Graeme Fry, can be found Here

Best Emerging Player: Michael Fenner

Well played to the veteran of the community Pete Dunn who showed that Ogres are the new black. A special mention has to go to Ross Hiller- Jones and Tim Joss, whom collected the other podiums for such a tight finish. The Podium finishers all played each other and with Pete beating Tim, Tim beating Ross and Ross beating Pete in their match ups, it proved there was very little in it duking it out at the top of the field. This is also the first tournament that I've had the pleasure of meeting Ross and it seems that Tauranga is going from strengths to strengths with a second place finish this time around.

Edit:

Strengths in NZ Wargaming:

With Wellington, Tauranga and Invercargill taking the podiums for the WFB tournament it bodes very well for the health of the hobby in NZ. Even though Auckland may boast the greatest population in terms of player base only one Aucklander managed a top ten finish in the tournament.

The tournament had well over 60 contestants interested in the 50 WFB spots in the competition, with late withdraws due to work or family reasons the tournament was reduced to 48. Further withdraws during the week meant that come tournament day there were contestants not participating that were on the tournament list. With this kind of response and no last minute timing conflicts I don't see why we can't steadily work towards my goal over the past year or so of developing the hobby and N.Z's wargaming participation. This being my last tournament as TO I'd like to thank all competitors and fellow organisers who have shared my common goal and volunteered their time to building the New Zealand tournament and wargaming scene. With the huge participation of all the systems at Equinox I'm sure you as the competitor will continue to support the guys who will be running tournaments in the future. The Next big tournament in Auckland will be Nicon and details can be found here Here.


Playing with Stats:

With Equinox hosting the largest 8th ed tournament in NZ it's great to see some of the internets not so fancied armies also sharing space with the top ten finishers. No Surprises with Ogres, WoC or Empire, but TK and Beasts the more unfancied cousins in the current edition of the game makes a surprise appearance in the top ten at Equinox. Tournament performance often comes down to List design and your overall performance rather than luck so I thought I'd look at some of the stats taking into account the 3 most recent tournaments in NZ. I've used the average Army placing and by eliminating the last result where I could to stabilise as much statistical bias due to small a sample size. This is what I got which makes for interesting reading.

Army	Average Tournament Finish	Average Batt Pts
Warriors	3	77.5
Lizardmen	3.5	78.5
Empire	4	84
Tomb Kings	4	76.5
Ogres	4	74.5
High Elves	4.5	74
Dark Elves	5	79.5
Skaven	5.5	75.5
Brettonians	6	80
Beasts	7	73.5
Daemons	7	66.5
Dwarves	9	71
Wood Elves	12	59

So statistically speaking in this country the top three armies are far removed from the big two countries of warhammer the UK & US. I would agree with the results some what as Warriors and Lizards tend to be able to get solid points in a tournament which they are favoured in and Empire if run right and maximise their shooting all six turns could very much also maximise their battle points. Lower on the table Wood Elves are still a good army but struggle to get maximum battle points due to the nature of the army and hence are not so good at tournament finishes.

Nb: Sample size is small and top 10 results were the only data used where able to minimise conflicting data. Statistical analysis is for snapshot trend only.

Equinox Musings

With 14 of  the NZ top 25 players in attendance for WFB at Equinox and with a field of 48 it makes me very pleased to see an ever growing community of Wargamers. With this continued interest in the hobby it can only be good for everyone and if we can get the other dozen or so of the top 25 and others we'd be on track for 100+ for a singular system. With four systems we could reach 400 ppl a huge achievement for wargaming if we can get it in Aoteroa. So with such a large resurgence in the hobby should I arrange for a bigger venue next year.

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Warhammer Fantasy 8th ed did have a slow start in it's evolution but by the gathered army lists for Equinox, NZ is still a great country to play the game. Obviously there are some hints at internet list building but by the gathered spread of armies the tournament community is still content to play their favoured army and not head on any band wagons GW or forum cheddar building throws in at ever opportunity of a new release. So be prepared to face some very rounded and unique lists at the tournament, and it goes a long way to dispelling the myth that hard caps generate mono style type of lists. I'm really proud to say that the 3 Wood elf armies in attendance are from Auckland and so it'll be a convenient stroll for me to get some advice on my budding Wood elf army in future regardless of every IT warrior on the block saying that WE are a dead army.

For all those attending and assuming the worst list possible from everyone, it's simply not so and there will be huge sighs of amazement on the Saturday morning when you realise that most of your fellow wargamers have taken up the positive premise of  tournaments and that is to have fun and meet new people. One of the great principles that has attracted good numbers of new players coming into the hobby. I've heard the rumour mill grinding and suggesting Gobbo warmachine, puppet factories and the gathered mass of Auckland Chaos warrior scene. It simply isn't the case and for all those naysayer's I hope you guys hook a large fish with that one ;)

Gordon the Naysayer says 'Neeeah ...'.

So Just a reminder for everyone who is coming to Equinox this is the please remember to bring list.

1. Your Army complete with Army Book, BRB, and relevant printed updated faqs.

2. Dice, Templates, Tape measure, Markers etc.

3. A printed army list for yourself as a check-list. A printed army list will be supplied at the tournament that you can present to your opponent each game as this tournament is open list.

4. There will be a Cafe offering Drinks etc but there will not be eftpos. Please bring cash if you are intending to use the facility.

Amped for the tournament and looking forward to seeing all attending. Watch out for tournament reports in the next few days and some gathered battle reports.

Equinox Armies in Attendance

Equinox coming up this weekend and here is the break down of the Warhammer Fantasy Armies attending.

Beastman 1
Bretonnian 3
Dark Elves 3
Ch Doofs 1
Doofs 2
Empire 5
High Elves 3
Vampires 4
Tomb Kings 4
Skaven 2
Orc & Goblin 3
Ogre 4
Wood Elves 3
Warriors 9
Lizardmen 1

Massive incursion from the Chaos wastes and by the looks of things the Daemons have stayed home this tournament. A good solid distribution of armies to what looks like a very interesting contest come game day. We'll be having warm up games from the Friday night on and it should be good.

Whips and Daemon wings on holiday this weekend.

Warriors of Chaos. Part 6 Final day

Game 4 vs Raymond, Brets.

Top of day 2 and I've got first up top of the table Raymond with Bret's. This will be the first time game against him and with a reputation as the 2010 NZ Masters champion, this will no doubt be a very hard game. Pulled the socks up brought a energy drink to shake last nights beers and we're off...

Pretty solid list from Raymond which was pushing a 1.5-2 on the scale out of 5. He had three buses of Knights one with the Errantry banner and another with General and BSB, supported by a Pegasus entourage. The two large blocks of Men at Arms was my worry which was led by a Knight on foot along with a Trebuchet. The great thing about this army was that it also had a Damsel with the prayer Icon to give the peasants the Lady's blesssing and supported with a block of archers and some scouting archers this was going to be a very hard game.

Setup was going to be the middle of the board for me so I could get a clear indication on where he was going to deploy his Knight buses and then place redirecters (hounds, and Fast cav) to let me clear out the weakest flank and perhaps get a minor win if I could hold his advance on the other. I was surprised that he obliged and went for a double flank advance instead of the strong push up the middle that Brets are so good at and for this tournament probably an unstoppable deployment. The more surprising thing was that the Bsb had moved with Two of the Knight blocks plus the Pegasus blocks and was placed ready to take my right flank. This left the other Knight block protecting the centre and the two blocks of Men at Arms pushing my Left flank out of the BsB bubble which I was very keen to take advantage of.

With the Bret's praying for the blessing it was first turn to me and after the vanguard roll off I had made the Yeoman retreat back onto his board edge right next to his first block of Men at Arms. Never seen many people shoot the Hell Cannon so I had to risk it and send a shot into his furthermost block of Men at Arms and with close to 40 in the unit it had to be a good shot to make him test on leadership 7. The Hell Cannon decided to play good and landed bang on the middle. With half the peasants dead the Leadership test was failed and Raymond proceeded to roll 11 five times in a row for his tests for all the Blocks and flee distances. This meant that both his Men at Arms blocks and the Yeoman ran off the table before his first turn and that gave me the big swing I needed in otherwise a very hard game for the Warriors.

Still with Three blocks of Knights, Pegasus Knights and a whole lot of shooting the Brettonian lance hadn't been blunted just yet. I moved my army as a solid block forward and redirected his Knights as much as possible with Hounds and throw away marauder Cav. He had to engage otherwise I would have flanked the knights and that's one of the big downfalls of a Bret army, it's manoeuvrability. With the inevitable combat where I managed to get a flank the game favoured the WoC and Brets were chopped down to a man with only peasants left to lament the lost of armoured Buses.
20-0 Win

Game 5 vs Mike Lizardmen. Another first time game and great Wellingtonian.

I always had a huge respect for the Lizarmen army book and it's solid what ever build you can bring to the table so I walked into this game a little too confident for my own good. Mike had two large blocks of Saurus, Saurus Cav, Kroxigors, a million Skink blowpipes in three units, supported by Razordons and Salamanders. I looked at my army and breathed a sign of relief with its Toughness 4, if it had been a toughness 3 army I'm sure a large box of band aids wouldn't help me outta the funeral home to be this encounter would have re-enacted. So thinking that my army would have a bit of a upper hand I lost the first turn and preceeded to knuckle down to see how much a million skinks could do to toughness 4, which was surprisingly little but Salamanders made up for it on the Marauders.

The Game was all about who controlled the flanks and having to leave the BsB in the Chaos Knights to ensure I won the flank left my army taking a lot of panic tests where it shouldn't have but it was a risk I had to take. The Hell Cannon rampaged 1st round and without its support my main blocks of infantry couldn't get a favourable engage and was forced to manoeuvre for 2 more turns to get the charge I wanted. It really showed how fragile the WoC army is and perhaps the weakness of a mounted Bsb  with so many expensive units. If I had failed any of the leadership tests on a 8 the two Saurus blocks would have ripped up the middle and it would have been game over turn 3 but with the Knights winning the flank and rolling around to help the massed combat in the middle the Warriors were looking good for a solid win. Best moment of the game was end of turn 5 and after casting Comet irresistibly the Skink priest perishes in combat along with the main Lizard army. My complete army is below the howling ball of meteorite and proceeds to run as fast as it can away from the middle before the catastrophic detonation, and it's good that they build good legs in the Chaos wastes ...
19-1 win

Game 6 Jorin, O&G, good mate.

Jorin and I have had a couple of practice games at our local club before this match up and O&G have always been my bogey army and I never seem to do well against them. With Jorins army it was going to look like either I play very defensive and take a draw or play all out and risk getting slaughtered as he had in my opinion a solid army list to the tournament which I would have given 1.5-2 for realistically. Unit on unit it would have matched my army and then he had the Doom Diver which would have and should have taken out my trump unit the Chaos knights and given him a comfortable win. His army was infantry heavy with Black Orks, Large unit of Orc Big'un's, a Large unit of Gobo netters, Arachnarok and assorted accompanying Chariots, pump wagons and wolf riders.

Now I would have said that the new animosity rules for O&G have improved markedly since 7th and it doesn't become as much of a liability now since you only stall if you roll 1's in a row,  and I was to be proven wrong. With Jorin placed top table he decided to use his deployment and placed his army in a defensive refuse flank with a building on his left. He left all the fast stuff to harry my force and protected his Doom diver, which was behind his main army to get maximum points as I advanced. Awesome battle plan in theory but the dice gods proceeded to make this solid tactic a no contest unfortunately for him.

The Game was won by my aggressive moving of my Marauder Cav into the face of his Wolf riders on his right flank. With animosity making the wolf riders charge into their imminent doom it gave me a fresh charge on my turn to engage all his fast stuff with one unit of Marauder fast Cav. This in turn let me move my entire army to flank his army as the Doom Diver misfired first turn and exploded so with a series of 3 important roll's of a 1 the game swung fully to me. Thoroughly a great guy and also a solid warhammer exponent but having some bad luck with his dice this game.
18-2 Win

Fantastic fully relaxing tournament where I enjoyed meeting the new and chattering to old friends. Thanks to all the good natured guys who made the tournament a great event to attend. It's good to be back into tournament scene as a player again and the whole building and painting the Warriors army for this tournament has really made me get back into the hobby in a big way. I'm looking forward to finally finishing my Wood Elf army and possible taking it out for a spin in a tournament soon. Not too much time before I have to TO Equinox and with around 130 competitors coming it's going to be a big tournament and I'll be blogging it right here. We've got a field of ~50 for Fantasy alone and also on the Saturday night we'll have 8 teams competing for the 'Team challenge trophy' for some good ol' fashioned friendly rivalry.

FluffyCon results.
1st Me              Warriors
2nd Raymond    Brettonians
3rd Andy           Wood Elves

Best Painted : CSS Nick
Best Sports  : Jorin
Slaughterer   : Me.

Chaos Sorcerer and BsB survived every game of the tournament.

Wood Elves WIP Part 4

Some test colours and giving the centaurs a lick of paint to see if they will suit the army. They are looking the part, just a few more coats of paint and they be finished. Haven't decided what kind of flock and foliage I'm going to use for the army, that's for a later stage.

Not sure if this will be the final colour scheme for the Glade Guard. I initially thought winter and was going to add more ice blue to the palate but may end up going for a more spring theme. I have a mate whose taken the colour orange for his Wood Elves and he owns it, I'd best pick another season other than autumn :)

Will work in some freehand detail on the robes for more customisation.

Pre - Tournament Musings, Equinox 2012

Only two weeks to go before Equinox 2012 hits the shelves and a large contingent of Wargamers will descend into Auckland for one of the most recognised Tournaments in New Zealand. I'm delighted to have the honour of running the event this year with it's packed turnout. Response was on a all time high for Equinox and the tournament was full for Warhammer Fantasy, 40K and Warmachine 5 months before the start of the tournament. With over 130 competitors ready to bring their gaming to the event it's going to be a over flowing venue at Mt Eden on the weekend of the 17th & 18th this month.

I'm currently sitting at the Computer waiting in anticipation of all those 50 odd army lists for the Warhammer Fantasy competition which were due yesterday. I have so far just received over half of the lists, which puzzles me some what as penalties have been stated on the players pack, forum posts, tournament official threads and reminder emails. With the very close nature of 8th ed WFB amongst the top players, tournament points are definitely not a commodity I would like to trade with a bit of tardiness if I was attending. I must admit that I've been very understanding and with the dozen or so tournaments I've run previously I have been exceptionally generous and as I can recall I've only ever marked one person for a tardy list but that was needed since I received it on the day of the tournament (no names mentioned but you know who you are :) ). Having put aside a perfectly good Saturday and a weekend night to mark lists and finding that I may be required to set aside some more time I'm also having second thoughts about being that nice guy with penalties. Fair warning is fair warning given and I guess I have to come good on some tournament penalties this time around. So if you are one of those individuals that still haven't submitted your list, I'm mid way painting my Centaurs (WIP in a previous thread) and when I'm finished Penalties will begin to be handed out. I think that's amply fair as I'm a pretty slow painter.

One of the Greatest things I've seen in tournaments recently is the great many new armies GW has released for fantasy in the recent year or so. The varieties are all very well balanced for the first set of new army books and they have seen some victories at prestigious events namely the NZ Masters where the New Ogres took the title. I look forward to GW remaining on this track with their imminent releases and with this frame of mind I decided it would be a great idea to let the new Forge World Chaos Dwarves into the tournament this year. Chaos Dwarves have suffered tempestuously over the last few years and it's great to see that it hadn't been forgotten by GW after all. Also with the solid backing of some pretty awesome models from FW. The Indie books had never really been up to par for tournaments and unfinished Faq's and design from fan based books left TO's the only option of using a decade old rule book for 8th ed play in the past. I am very keen to use Throne of Tamurkhan at Equinox to test it viability with one controversial change and that is to keep the 8th ed premise of always wounding on a roll of a 6 which I didn't agree with the FW designers vision of a -1 modifier on to wound hits on their Kadaii destroyer and Bale Taurus. The dynamic of letting one FW designed Monstrous mount being unkillable to str4 or below isn't what I view fair when every other Monstrous creature were susceptible to even Str1. So after careful thought to make it fair for Equinox The 'Burning body rule' would be replaced with a +1 to it's toughness instead.

Spring Equinox

Back to painting Centaurs.