Moving Forward: Changes & Times Ahead

As a small handle of you know, the past few months for me have been tough. There have been a lot of things occur, and a lot of life decisions being made. Along with this, my business is about 8 weeks out of production (well, it will be if the council doesn't give us too many more issues), and so spare time has been short. Hobby time has been minimal. I believe that these things, along with watching all of my favourite game slowly getting packed in boxes to move, have contributed to hobby burnout for me. On both the gaming table and the painting table.

However, the wheels of life continue to spin, and with it there are some important announcements that I have neglected to make, and now that I am getting my act together, I though it was time to make them, along with let you know of some new and awesome projects I have lined up!

PlagueBearers: The End of an Era
As many know, we set up PlagueBearers over three years ago. PB was a small team of us with the sole purpose of building and growing our local gaming community, and in turn, the national scene. Well, in a way, we were successful. Not only did we utilise Facebook to run our own platform for promotion, we were able to set up a strong War Gamer's Online Garage Sale group, and be the team behind the 9th Age NZ Facebook page, alongside Phil W (Auckland City Guard). We also set up Napier Executioners Club, a free wargames and boardgames club in Napier. We ran numerous events, competitions, campaigns and tournaments, all designed to draw in new players in our region, both casual and competitive. We were able to sponsor many other events also, such as the T9A tournament at NiCon, and the LotR/Hobbit event at GuardCon. It has been an exciting time for us, and we have enjoyed every aspect of it.

However, everything must come to an end, and it is time for PlagueBearers to disband. For the team, a lot of new things and challenges in life have come up, and time is not something spare. With this, I have ended up carrying the majority of what PlagueBearers was doing, and its an additional time constraint I do not have going forward either.

PB will be disbanded at the end of October 2016. The following things will continue to run, but under the An Empire Fallen instead:
-WarBanner Tournament
-Hawkes Bay Regional Championship
-Annual Campaign
-War Gamer's Online Garage Sale
-9th Age NZ Facebook
Other things that PB ran, have slowly been dissolved or bought to an end. Its a sad time, but at the end of the day, sometimes something has to give.

T9A & the first NZ Invitational Tournament
On a happier note, T9A is going through some massive changes! I am not going to delve into these, as I could easily ramble on and on, but they are all changes designed for the betterment of the game. As per usual, there will be rules and changes that as players we disagree with, and as a whole, I have no doubt that there will be some rants and some rage quitting from players, but change is good. The reason behind these changes are to talk a massive step further away from gaming systems we used to know, while solidifying T9A as a solid independent game system, along with creating an improved and balanced game system that we can all enjoy! Now I will be honest, with everything going on, I have been slack keeping up with these updates, and am now scrambling to get my head around all the releases before they launch in a few days, but I am very excited by what I have seen!

The challenge is, however, these changes will be adopted for the first NZ Invitational Tournament, which is only 4 weeks away! That doesn't give for a lot of time to really wrap my head around these changes, both in rules and army composition, and I am unsure on what my Beast Herds will look like on the table once the changes have occurred! The unknown is an exciting facet in life, but the idea of having to hurried paint up more miniatures whilst I am trying to pack them up, is a little daunting.

It will be a fantastic weekend away regardless, and a great way to end the tournament year. Now, if only I can walk away with this year's crown......

NZ Wargaming Awards
In one of my previous blog posts, I talked about a new initiative called the New Zealand Wargaming Awards. Now I am not going to go into detail as to what this is (you may look back if interested), however I spent time discussing this with a gentleman in the community who I call my 'Yoda'. With so many time constraints holding back my ability to execute this exactly as it deserves, alongside other things, he advised me that this is not the year. Next year, yes, but not this year. As boneheaded as I am, I disagreed, with every intention to make it happen this year. However, as time has gone by, I have seen reason in his advise.

NZWA will not be kicking off this year. It is an important project, one that I truely believe will have a important place in our community, but its execution and promotion is vital, and it is not ready.

The first NZWA will be held in 2017.

Cthulhu Raiders: A New Project
Now that I have bored you with the nitty gritty changes and disappointments, lets talk about something really really exciting! As most know, I started Beast Herds purely for T9A, and it has to honestly be one of the most enjoyable armies I have ever played on any gaming platform in my entire gaming career.....okay okay, yes most of you old farts have decades on me, but still!

However, now that I am content with its tabletop standard, and the fact that I have played it to the ground this year at tournaments, it is time for a new project. A big project. One that will take years to complete.....lol complete, it will never be finished. This will not be an army, but a collection.

So, what is it may you ask? Its Chicken.

Yep, I fell from grace, and may the Dark Omen shun the name of An Empire Fallen as I betray all I know and believe.

Huh? Oh, you don't know what it is I speak of (unless your name is Phil, in which case you know very well)

I have started a Dread Elves (Elves = Chicken) collection. I have felt a draw to both Sylvan Elves and Dread Elves for a while, like an unseen rope tugging at my inner conscious, but have resisted thus far. Well, I finally gave in. I chose DE over SE, based on play style and feel. As much as I love the fluff side to SE far more, the way it plays on the table is not for me. It isn't to my strength, whereas I feel DE suits it far more.

So I mentally started building this army with the concept of using Corsair parts across the whole lot, and creating a Black Ark theme. Well, then I tapped into the brain of another amazing painter, and that idea led into hours of concepts and designs. It led me, to a Cthulhu or Drowned God theme.

Just a little snippet on what is to hit my painting station, will keep you posted as progress starts




With that my friends, I do not feel that there is anymore that I need to share.

Peace!

Hobby Update July 2016

Hello. Yes, I know, I haven't been around. Yes I know I promised a post a few weeks ago, and never did. I've been busy. Life takes time. And so does having heaps of hobby fun!

So first and foremost, Panzershrek! Panzer was held in Palmerston North over the weekend, and this long time running event had a new Tournament Organiser, a huge 9th Age supporter, who pulled off a great weekend for all.
However, my game play was not great. I started the weekend rough, and went down hill from there, making many mistakes and misplaying my army on numerous occasions. If I am honest with you, it would have been one of my worst tournament performances in a while, yet I managed to land my best placing, taking 6th and sitting nice and squarely in the mid-pack. How this happened I guess I will never know.
I did manage however, to pull one thing off. It was close, very very tight on points, but I guess my Blood Hunt Beast Herds army pulled through, yet again......

Yep, that's right. I snuck by taking out Best Paint again, and the votes were extremely close between myself and a beautifully painted Warriors of the Dark Gods army, owned by the player who took out Best Overall.

This puts me at 3 Best Painted and 1 Best Painted Single Character (won by a commission I did) this year.

I guess I found what I am good at!

So speaking of painting, I also have finished doing some. I needed a couple new units for my Beast Herds for Panzer, so it was straight to the painting table. I took a unit of Feral Hounds, which I used the Space Wolves Fenrisan Wolves models for, as they are really great sculpts. I also needed a unit of Gargoyles, so picked up some Kings of War Gargoyle models. I will post photos up of these soon.

On top of my own painting, I picked up a commission, which players at Panzer would have seen. 8 Ogre Tribesmen and a Ogre Shaman, all converted out to be packed full of a Pestillence theme. It was definately a fun commission, and didn't come without its challenges, but I feel I managed to pull it off how I had expected. I will post photos of those soon too!

So next up on the panting station. Well, I have a new commission of about 10 Ogre Tuskor Cavalry to do, which will be a good bit of fun. I also am working on getting my Bronze Legion of Pestillence Warriors of the Dark Gods army ready for Guardcon in September, as I believe they will b seeing the table there. To prepare for that, I need to paint up 8 Knights, 1 Lord on Daemonic Mount, 1 Mounted Sorcerer Lord and 5 War Hounds, along with touching up and finishing off a Chimera and a Mauler Chariot. Lots to do, but plenty of time, and I am looking forward to putting the Beast Herds away for a little while.

But I don't just paint models, I play with them too! Outside of Panzer, the Hawkes Bay Regional Championships have begun, and so far I have played two out of my four Heat matches. I took a suprising 10/10 draw with my Empire against an Ogre Khans opponent, only to be shattered by a 19/1 loss to Undying Dynasties (I guess the skeletons of the Empire are better then the living of the Empire!). This puts me at a very low position, with only 11 points out of a possible 40 half way into the heats, and I really need to pull off two decent sized wins in my next matches if I am to have the chance of proceeding to the next round.

In light of the HBRC, I have decided it is time to start creating my Video Battle Reports. This is something I have wanted to do for a while now, but just haven't had the time, or had too many issues doing. So, I plan to start carving out time to do so, and what better place to start then the HBRC games I play. Its small points, which should make it easier for me to finding my feet in the world of Battle Reporters.

Well its almost midnight, and between more HBRC games and painting tomorrow, I should head off and get some much needed shuteye. May the Gods of the Empire be with me tomorrow and I seek to fend off against the Warriors of the Dark Gods, and the cold-hearted Saurians.

Peace!

Hobby Update June 2016: So What's Next?

Kia Ora,

It feels like ages since I sat down and seriously painted, yet it was only just over a week ago that I finally put down my paintbrush with a completed force ready for NiCon 2016. As I write this, I am looking at my painting station only 5 metres away and thinking I really should get some painting done, however I am nice and warmly wrapped up under blankets trying to defend myself from Winter's frost...

...but anyways. What has happened in the week since NiCon? And what is next?

Well, firstly, lets talk tournaments. I have just confirmed registration to Panzershriek in July, and will be playing in 9th Age. I am excited to get away to another tournament so soon, and to watch the 9th Age tournament scene grow!
We have also confirmed that WarBanner in October will be on the 8-9, and that its main event will be 9th Age!......
.......did you see the key word? Main event....that's right! This year's WarBanner is planned to be able to hold more then just one event. We currently have a high chance of having a Flames of War tournament there, and have a few other game systems we are trying to pull in! If you want to run an event at WarBanner, let me know! The more the merrier!
Regarding future NiCon's, the 2017 event will be held in Auckland, and I have been accepted to run 9th Age there. Furthermore, I managed to secure NiCon making its way to Napier in 2018!!! Yahoooo!

So that's tournaments, what about whats happening locally?
Firstly, we are bringing out T9A Tribal Warfare campaign to an early end, with next Tuesday being its final night. This is due to several reasons, inclusive of people wanting to try new things. The campaign met its goal of bringing players in and helping them learn, so I am happy.
With this in mind, and my impending move to Tauranga, we have decided to bring the Hawkes Bay Regional Championship for 2016 forward, and will begin it in just a few weeks. This will be a 1500pt 9th Age tournament list competition, and is a knock out event. Last year was a great lot of fun, and I have no doubt this year will be too!

So down to the painting station. Between now and Panzershriek, I have to get 10 models painted for my Beast Herds army, as I have decided to bring them back out with some minor tweaks to the list. I have also started to work on my Empire of Sonnstahl army, as it needs some loving, and after playing an EoS army at NiCon, its really made me want to have them ready to take to a tournament.

So that is where I am at, a lot of things coming up in the future, some coming to an end, and even more miniatures to paint!

So for now,

Peace!

NiCon 2016: My First 9th Age Tournament

This past weekend I attended my first Fantasy Battles The 9th Age tournament, which was held at NiCon 2016 and hosted by the Hamilton Immortals. This was only the second 9th Age tournament in New Zealand, with the first one being Mini-Guardcon, which was held the weekend prior in Auckland by the Auckland City Guard.

NiCon's The 9th Age tournament originally was to sport 14 competitors, all of which had travelled from across the North Island to compete. Sadly, at the final moment, one competitor had to withdraw, forcing the tournament organiser to also pull out to keep numbers even.

The calibre of players on the tables was strong, with a vast age group in attendance. Most if not all of the players were former Warhammer Fantasy players, and ranged from casual garage players to high end competitors.

My first match saw me face what was to be the first of three elven armies I fought over the weekend, as a young lad bought out his Highborn Elves cavalry bus list. As many may know, I have a certain hatred towards facing Highborn Elves, as I seem to alway play against them. This game was a great first game to the tournament for me, was fast paced, and my opponent was a really enjoyable person to play against. As it happens, this game landed me a massive win, which put me right onto table one for my next game.

Table one was a scarey place to be so early on, and my opponent definitely proved why. It was here that I fought one of the ETC NZ Team players from last year's trip to Prague, as he took me on with his version of a Highborn Elves cavalry bus. My opponent here was extremely knowledgable, and I managed to learn a lot from him, as I barely managed to avoid being completely tabled by him.

Round three saw me move away from Elves, as I went up against Empire of Sonnstahl, an army that in 8th ed Fantasy I only ever played as, never against. This was an interesting game, and was very close. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish the game in time, which I feel hurt my end result from that game, giving me only a minor victory.

My relief from facing Elves was not long lived, as my final game on day one was against a very strong Sylvan Elves player, who had this time bought along an almost full forest spirit army. It was great to get a game against a different style of SA army, and although I was so tired, it was a good way to end the first day. I cannot recall entirely, but I believe I secured either a draw or minor win in this match.

Day two saw me up against one of the local boys, and up against a Saurian Ancient list that I had helped design. Before heading into this match, both myself an my opponent believed I had the game, and it was just a case of how many points could he get out of it. We were wrong. From the get go, my dice completely turned on me, and after a lot of failed leadership checks and charge rolls, along with poor impact hit rolls, I stormed off to the store on site to buy some new dice. But by this stage it was too late, and my opponent managed to get a major win out of me.

The final game for the tournament saw me face the brother in law of the Empire player, and my Beast Herds got to battle it out against the armour cavalry of the Kingdom of Equitaine. This game, again, saw my luck turn sour early on, with failed leadership checks, poor to wound rolls, and a cavalry bus that charged through with Curse of the Wild Wood on them, and didn't even fail ONE dangerous terrain check on a 1 or a 2. But in the end, I was able to bring the game back into my favor, leaving my opponent which just a unit of peasants on the board. By this point however, I had bled too much, bringing us to a draw.

It was a great weekend and Brian, the TO, did an amazing job. I was disappointed with my final standing as I feel I could have played a lot better, and placed a lot better, but that is the joys of playing a game that involves relying on dice.

So to the final scores:

1. Tom C      102BP
2. McCrae L  98BP
3. James B     96BP
4. Nick I        90BP
5.Basil L       86BP
6.Simeon H   80BP
7.Tom D        79BP
8.Richard B   75BP
9. Ethan P      69BP
10. Luke E     64BP
11. Chris S     42BP
12. Curtis T    18BP

And the awards were as follows:
1st:              Tom C
2nd              McCrae L
3rd:              James B
Best Paint.:  Ethan P
Sports:         James B

Yep, you read that right. 4 weeks of none stop painting, late nights, and nearly throwing paint pots at walls, I walked away with this:

All in all it has been a great weekend. I shall post photos of the army in my next blog case.

Until then,

Peace

Hobby Update May 2016 (Campaign, Paint, and Sleepless Nights)

It has been a crazy few weeks, and it is only getting more and more crazy!!!

As you know from my other blog posts, we have been running a 1500pt campaign for 9th Age over the past few months, and it has been going really well. However, today is the end of turn 4, and only one game out of the potential 15 have been played! With everyother turn sporting an average of 9 games played, this was a big drop. Why may you ask? Well, 4 out of 5 of us are off to NiCon 2016 to compete in the second NZ 9th Age tournament! Yahoo! Road trip time!!!!!! Because of this, many of us have been playing tournament prep games as we try to work out our lists. We are also taking a break for two weeks, to give everyone more time to focus on NiCon without trying to fit in campaign games too.
Because of this, I won't be doing a post for turn 4, but will add it as a joint blog post with turn 5 once we have completed that turn. But as a little spoiler, this is what the map looks like at the end of this turn.....

Tribal Warfare Campaign Map at the end of Turn Four

So, you may ask, how has only playing one campaign game and a handful of tournament prep games made the past few weeks extremely busy? Its quite simple really. 

Three weeks ago there was very little to no paint on my Beast Herds army. Half of it wasn't even here yet and I was waiting for the orders to arrive. And with only two weeks from now until NiCon 2016, where my Beast Herds are making their tournament début, it has only given me five weeks to paint this 2500pt army from scratch! It has been a lot of very late nights followed by early morning rises to get to work, but progress has been made!

At this point, I have only 3 characters, a gortack, a jabberwock, 20 mongrel raiders and 8 charioteers to paint (the charioteers I need to finish converting too). That may seem like a lot, but in comparison to what I have already completed, it isn't.

I am yet to base any of these miniatures, as I am waiting until my display board for them is ready to base, and I will do it all in one go. I also need to make a lot of scratch built trees for the display and unit fillers, so there is a lot of things left to keep me busy!

Over the weekend of NiCon, I will keep a regular update on the PlagueBearers Facebook page of the team and their game results. You will be able to find this at:

www.facebook.com/plaguebearers

And with that, I now must get back to my paint station, where I shall attempt to start the next series of models! I leave you now with photos of my progress, and what is left.

Peace!

 An overview of it all

 The unpainted section, minus a mage who is currently soaking in simply green

 The painted side of the table..

 My Centaur Chieftain, "Philly", sporting his almighty Impaler

 The line up of Impact Hits, with three raiding chariots and one razortusk chariot

 The Battle Standard

 A horde of blood-thirsty Wildhorns

The Giants

Tribal Warfare Campaign: End of Turn Three

First and foremost, many apologies! We are over half way into Turn 4 and I am only now finally getting a chance to sit down and write this. In a few days time I will have another blog post up, which will show you why.

Things have started to slow down a bit as everyone here preps for NICon 2016, where I alongside an amazing gamer and hobbyist, will be running the second New Zealand 9th Age tournament. However, the nine games played were very intense, as everyone struggles to take control of the south east territories.

Map at the Start of Turn 3

Games Played:

Tom attacked Chris (Tom Won) T25

Tom: Forest Goblins gained Immune to Psych

Chris: May not use Winged Reapers in next game

Chris attacked Ethan (Ethan Won) T12

Results had no changing effect

Ethan attacked Chris (Ethan Won) T22

Ethan: Wildhorns gained Immune to Psych

Chris: General and unit gained Hatred and Immune to Psych against Ethan in next battle

Basil attacked Tom (Tom Won) T25

Basil: May not use General's Leadership in next game

Tom: Iron Orcs gained +1S

Tom attacked Basil (Tom Won) T30)

Tom: General gained Plate Armour

Basil: General and unit gained Hatred and Immune to Psych against Tom in their next game

Chris attacked Ethan (Ethan Won) T25

Chris: -1Ld against Ethan in their next game

Ethan: General gained a piece of Mundane Equipment, but is already maxed out

Ethan attacked Chris (Ethan Won) T15

Ethan: Wildhorns gained +1 Toughness

Chris: -1Ld against Ethan in their next game

Ethan attacked Tom (Ethan Won) T25

Ethan: Minotaurs gained +1 Toughness

Tom: -1Ld against Ethan in their next game

Tom attacked Ethan (Tom Won) T25

Tom: Gained Fear against Ethan in next game

Ethan: -1Ld against Tom in their next game

Map at End of Turn Three

That brings us to the end of Turn Three, and as you can see, its been a hard battled corner of the map.

The Vermin has made no moves in a long time...has the Under-Empire been deserted? Or are they up to their usual sneaky plans?

The Greenskins are looking for blood, and have smelt it in the south. The question is, is this the same horde? Or a completely different tribe?

The Undead are being pushed from their land, their bones thrown across the map like ashes in the wind. But we all know what happens when a Necromancer appears to a field of bones....

The Vampires have tasted blood, and they are angry. Can they bring a red tide of Death over us all?

The Beasts are hungry, and will kill anyone who gets in their way. Is it time to stem this tide of frenzied goats?

Tribal Warfare Campaign: End of Turn Two

Turn two was slightly slower then the first, with 8 games played. However, even with the less battles, the games were still just as intense as they were in the first round.
Caleb and his Vermin Swarms stayed dormant this turn, pondering their next move as they watched their foes numbers drop from the continual battles. The other three forces, were locked in a continuous combat, and the Beast Herds bought out their Reinforcements this turn to help out...

Map at start of Turn 2

Games Played:

Ethan attacked Tom (Draw) T10

Ethan: Wildhorns gained +1 Iniative

Tom: General gained +1 Movement

Tom attacked Ethan (Ethan Won) T12

Tom: General and his unit gains Hatred and IoP against Beast Herds in next game

Ethan: General gained a piece of mundane equipment (shield)

Tom attacked Chris (Chris Won) T15

Tom: General and his unit gains Hatred and IoP against Undying Dynasties in next game

Chris: Necropolis Guard gained +1 Strength

Ethan attacked Chris (Ethan Won) T19

Ethan: General gained a piece of mundane equipment (heavy armour)

Chris: General and his unit gains Hatred and IoP against Beast Herds in next game

Tom attacked Ethan (Ethan Won) T4

Tom: General and his unit gains Hatred and IoP against Beast Herds in next game

Ethan: Wildhorns gained +1 Movement

Ethan attacked Tom (Ethan Won) T10

Ethan: Causes Fear against Orcs and Goblins in our next game

Tom: May not use his 'Spider' in his next game

Chris attacked Ethan (Ethan Won) T12

Chris: May not use his 'Kitty' in his next game

Ethan: General gained 25pts worth of magical items (Talisman of Supreme Shielding)

Map at the end of Turn 2

I'm not going to go into detail this time in regards to the games, as they were all very bloody and for the most part, very very close games. What I will say is we all had a lot of fun, and it has been great to get all of these games happening. 1500pts is a great size, as it is big enough to enjoy the game, but small enough that it doesn't take a huge chunk of time out of your day.

"As the High Elves sailed away from the lands, a chill darkness filled with death plagued their vessels. And as the few whom survived the attack of the Darkness escaped, they realised that the land that they had been in was now all but dead...."

 Map at the start of Turn 3

After Matthew left the campaign, a certain element left with him. It was an element of diversity in armies and options in games (nothing wrong with the four of us, but the more players, the more excitement).

So from the east enters Basil and his Vampiric Coven, ready to lay death across the land, just to raise those dead to bolster their forces. I had a quick non-campaign game with Basil at the Napier Executioners Club meeting the other night, and one thing is for sure, my Beast Herds do not like zombies....

Until next time, ciao!

Tribal Warfare Campaign: End of Turn One

What a great first start to the campaign. A fair number of games were played, and they really showed the calibre of players we have in our local area, both on the table and in the list building. The sheer number of defences that were won, mixed in with draws, caused minimal change to the map, with only Caleb successfully conquering any territories.

 Map at start of the campaign

Games Played:
Caleb attacked Tom (Caleb Won)
Caleb: General gains +1 Toughness
Tom: General Captured!

Chris attacked Ethan (Ethan Won)
Chris: May not use Ushabati in next game
Ethan: Causes Fear against Undying Dynasties in next game against them

Caleb attacked Ethan (Caleb Won)
Caleb: Causes Fear against Beast Herds in next game against them
Ethan: General Captured!

Tom attacked Ethan (Ethan Won)
Tom: General and his unit gain Hatred and IoP against Ethan in next game (if he has recaptured his            general
Ethan: General would have increased a stat except he cannot as he is currently captured

Ethan attacked Chris (Draw)
Chris: General gained +1 Movement
Ethan: Causes Fear against Undying Dynasties in the next game against them

Tom attacked Ethan (Ethan Won)
Bonuses had no effect

Tom attacked Caleb (Draw)
Tom: Regained his General, who gained 25pts worth of magic items
Caleb: His Vermin Guard gain Immune to Psychology

Caleb wasn't able to make the game where Ethan attacked. An agreement was made, and Ethan's General was released from captivity

Map at the end of Turn One

Game One (Undying Dynasties vs Beast Herds)
To kick off the campaign, Chris's Undying Dynasties attempted to take control of one of my territories (T12). The living dead lined up ready to take out the Beasts, but the blood hungry animals were out for blood, and quickly crushed the skeleton assault. This was the only one-way landslide game of the entire turn.


Game Two (Vermin Swarm vs Beast Herds)
Although distracted by the rise of the dead in the South, the Beast Herds quickly swelled to their northern lands to defend against an attack from Caleb's Vermin Swarms (T8). This was a bloody battle, with many creatures from both sides falling to the bloodied blades of their foes. However, the tides of Vermin were too many for the Beasts to handle, and their defence eventually fell apart, and the herd fled from their water way territory. In their flee, the general tripped, fell, and was jumped by a bunch of rats! They quickly tied him up, and rushed him off to sacrifice to the Vermin gods!


Game Three (Orcs and Goblins vs Beast Herds)
Having also just lost land to the Vermin, Tom's Greenskins were enraged, and threw themselves in an assault against me (T12) in an attempt to break free from the surrounding forces. Tom bought out an almost all out gunline style of Orc army, forcing the Beasts to do what they do best, and charge forward to the enemy! It didn't take us long to engage, but even then, this shooty greenskin army put up a good fight, and the game ended with a minor win to the Beasts.

Game Four (Beast Herds vs Undying Dynasties)
Still outraged at the insult from the Undying Dynasties, my Beast Herds assailed southward (T19) in an attempt to draw them closer to the Living Dead Settlement. Although the game started heavily in the favour of the Beasts, the late game went in the favour of the Undying Dynasties, who managed to bring the game back to a draw with the work of his War Kitty and a unit of hard hitting armoured dead men!!! (cannot recall the name of the unit).

This was to draw the first turn to a close, however, before the new turn started, our Highborn Elves player made the decision to pull out due to time constraints...So a Skeleton, a Rat, an Orc, and a Minotaur, all stood their in silence, hands held, and watched the graceful ships of the pointy eared elves sail away to distant........yeah no, they just went and took claim to the elves previously owned lands instead!

Map at the start of Turn Two

Matthew's departure from the campaign was unfortunate but fully understandable. Although we have filled the territories, we are still looking for other players to join into the campaign, in which case we will give them the average number in territories and points, and increase the map size.

A great start to the campaign, and hopefully we will see even more games played in Turn Two!

Tribal Warfare Campaign: The Rundown

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, we have just kicked off or Tribal Warfare 9th Age Campaign. I will be posting End of Campaign Turn reports every fortnight, with details on the progress of the campaign, on my own battles, and of my thoughts on the campaign itself.

However, as I will be posting these reports via this blog, I thought it only right that I firstly explain the way the campaign works. I will include a copy of the player pack in a link below if anyone wishes to read the full details of the campaign, and as the event organiser give the rights for any other group who wish to run a 9th Age campaign to use the player pack.

A campaign turn runs for a two week period. We are going from Tuesday night to Tuesday night, using the Napier Executioner's Club meeting night as the turn start time.
In that two week period you may attack up to three territories that are either adjacent to one of your own territories, or adjacent to a waterway if you too control a waterway. You may not attack the same person more than twice in one campaign turn. Games are arranged amongst players either at the club meeting or in their own time across the period.
All games played are 1500pts, following all the rules for writing a list as per the rule manual, except for regarding your general, and with no Lord level characters allowed. Your General's points cost does not come from your points, and is free.
Your general is either a level 2 wizard, or a character from your Heroes list that would be allowed to carry a Battle Standard (obviously he is not your BSB). You may select ONE item from your mundane items for free to add to him, and that is it. After that, he can gain additional items and stats by winnning games. You may give him a mount, in which case the mounts cost comes from your points cost. Once he has been mounted for one game, he must always be mounted on the same mount, unless upgraded to ride an even more expensive mount.

Pre Campaign Turn One Map

At the end of the battle, both players roll on separate tables, one for the winner and one for the loser, and apply the effects. Some of these may increase a unit or your general's stats, give your general more gear, or cause your general to be captured by the enemy!

The points are as follows: Win:5pts; Draw:3pts; Lose:1pts; Capture Settlement:+4pts.

You also get three plots across the campaign. You may not play them more then once, and no more then one may be played per turn.

The first one, Ambush allows you to attack a tile you normally would not be able to. The second, Reinforcements allows you to in one game have an additional 150pts in your list. The third, Forced Truce, is played against a player at the start of the campaign turn, and neither you nor that player may attack each other over the course of the campaign turn.

This is the basics of how it works. Here's a sneak peak of the map halfway through the first campaign turn.....

Tom: Orcs & Goblins

Caleb: Vermin Swarm

Chris: Undying Dynasties

Ethan (Me): Beast Herds

Matthew: Highborn Elves

Player's Pack:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NeX8tZDbFtaH6YI_iBBNGmX-uRR1FWZVwZlyeQhBXCk/edit

Goats, Cows and Broken Farm Fences

I suddenly came to a realisation the other day, that my Beast Herds is made up of goats, cows and horses.....I should just play FarmVille, would be much cheaper!

I haven't been able to make much progress on my Beast Herds army recently, which isn't a good thing as I have an entire army that needs to be painted and converted and based in preparation for Nicon 2016 in June, but I will get there (a LOT of sleepless nights ahead!). Truthfully, I just haven't had the time, between work and studying for my General Manager's Certificate, and business planning and meetings, it doesn't leave a lot of hobby time. To make it worse, well, I need new paintbrushes! I did manage to pick up a giant model and assemble it, now to just do the conversion work to it!

However, gaming wise is a different story, as I have managed to get a fair number of 1500pt games in with a good mate of mine, and have managed to pull off victories in a good portion of those games. Why 1500pts and not a bigger game you might ask? Well, we are preparing for two campaigns that kick off this week!

The lesser of the two campaigns, which kicks off tomorrow, is Around New Zealand in 16 Battles. This campaign was designed around encouraging people to play more games, and play against or with a variety of different armies. It's open to all New Zealanders too! Although it kicks off tomorrow, anyone can join it later on, which is great as new players come to the table.
Basically, the goal is to cross off a list every single army in 9th Age, whether you won or lost. To do so, you either have to play against that army, or play with that army. It's that simple!
You can get the player pack here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2HkCXLSe9TUdmNQV0JCZFJ0WmM
If you are interested in jumping in, register at plaguebearersnz@gmail.com . Oh, and its free!
The only catch is, you have to provide a battle report of the game as proof it was had! This can either be in a bunch of story time pictures with a description, a blog post, or a YouTube video. So long as it is open or all to view and enjoy, it works. For this, I am electing to kick off my own Channel on YouTube! Fun times ahead!

The second campaign, which kicks off this evening, is a local campaign called Tribal Warfare. It is a 1500pt campaign battled across a portion of the 9th Age World:

My Beast Herds own the Brown territories. The other territories are owned by the following; Green: Orcs & Goblins; Blue: Highborn Elves; Purple: Vermin Swarm; Yellow: Undying Dynasties

Each campaign turn lasts two weeks, and in that turn you may make up to 3 attacks on territories you are either connected to by a waterway, or by an adjacent territory that you own. You also have to play out as many defence games as you are attacked.

There are three special one use only plots that you can declare you will use at the start of a turn. The first one allows you to make an attack on any tile that you normally wouldn't be able to attack because you do not have an adjacent territory or aren't connected by a waterway. The second is like a forced truce, where once declared against a player, they may not attack you during this turn, nor you attack them. The third one allows you to in one game have an additional 10% worth of points.

Your general is also free, but must be used in every game. You start the campaign giving him one piece of mundane equipment from your list, and as the battles rage, he can get upgraded. You may purchase him a mount, but if you do, the mount's cost comes out of your 1500pts, and he must always ride that mount in every game henceforth (unless you trade him up to a more expensive mount).

For this campaign, I have decided I will post blog updates at the end of the turn, with details on my own games, where my general is at, and what's happening on the map, along with any thoughts on the campaign itself. I will probably also use some of these games to knock off armies in the Around New Zealand in 16 Battles campaign.

All in all, a busy time a head, and I cannot wait to kick these campaigns off!

Hobby Update: March 2016 (Where on Earth have I been?!?!)

Sorry guys! I went AWOL. Well, not really, but I haven't been giving you anything to read!

I don't have any excuses, but I do have a few reasons. Since OTT at the start of February, I have been so busy between work and real life, that the hobby time I have gotten mostly was away from the screen!

In saying this, I have been relatively productive with the time I had. I picked up a box of LotR Haradrim Warriors and Easterling Warriors, along with a box of Ogre Khans bulls. I have just finished painting up the Haradrim, hence why I am now sitting down enjoying a much deserved beer and spending time on my blog.
I have started converting (when I say started, I mean done very little but pretending like I have done heaps) the Ogre Bulls into Hold Guardians for my Dwarven Holds army. This is both exciting and challenging, as to accomplish the look I want, I have to do a lot (I mean a lot) of greenstuff work. The idea behind it is similar to that of the Animated Statues units for Tomb Kings in WHFB, that the Hold Guardians are Dwarven statues that a Rune Priest has bought to reality. The final product will look like heavily armoured Dwarves/Dwarven Statues, with raw magical energies pulsing through them.
I also picked up with some of my prize vouchers for OTT, another Daemon Prince kit. From this kit I am creating two Daemon princes. The first one, which I have only just started converting, is using the wings head arms and body of from the kit, and with a mix of wire and greenstuff, his bottom half will be made like a closed off cloak. The second Daemon Prince, which I have finished (at this stage anyways) the converting of, is combining the Daemon Prince legs and one of the weapon arms, with the body and wings of a Rot fly from the Plague Drones kit.
I have also started work on my Beast Herds army, in preparation for upcoming tournaments, but have reached a stand still very quickly into the project, as I am still struggling to settle on what colours and basing I really want to use to fit in the theme, which is based around the Three Eyed Raven from The Game of Thrones series. I really want to include a lot of blacks and greys, to keep with the dark idea of the theme, but at the same time love the way red comes off on these models. It's also a hard decision, that if I do go with blacks and greys, I need to keep the skin tonnes lighter to balance the colours and make the models stand out, but I'm not sure I am a big fan of the lighter colour tones on them.

Completed unit of Haradrim Warriors

Speaking of tournament armies, I have two tournaments coming up! Both of them are 9th Age, and both of them are in June (okay, not still a little while away I guess).

First and foremost, is NiCon in Hamilton, which is being run by Hamilton Immortals this year. Brian S, who is the main organiser for 9th Age at NiCon, has asked me to help as an organiser as this is the first 9th Age tournament to be run in New Zealand, which is exciting! NiCon is being held over Queen's Birthday weekend at the start of June.

And then, at the end of June (dates to be cofirmed), is Equinox is Auckland! Last year at Equinox, under WHFB, I had a very poor final standing, so this year I plan to make a come back from it and show the very talented Auckland crowd that us Napiertonnians have what it takes! This tournament is run by Phil W, and I will also be aiding him in making it happen to bring out the second 9th Age tournament in New Zealand,

I haven't managed to get in as many games recently as I would have liked, only playing two games of 9th since I got home from OTT. This I am okay about, because I was waiting on the release of the final Beta version of the game, which came out today. We are expecting the full version to come out end of April.

In the first game I played, I took a Beast Herds list against Tom's Ogre Khans. This BH list was one that I was considering as a possible tournament list. I messed up quite a bit in this game, but did learn the value of a kitted out Minotaur Beastlord when he holds up a decent size unit of Ogre Mercenaries with a Great Khan in it for over half the game, but I don't think I will be running the list as a whole.

The second game was again against Tom's OK, but this time I bought out my Dwarven Holds. This game was different. My list was designed around the concept of inpenatrable armour, and shooting. And it worked, to a point. Based on my set up, I was able to avoid just about all combats that I didn't want to get into (and against the sheer number of Ogres charging down on my position, that was most combats). I pulled off a small win, and liked the list that I ran, though would make many changes to improve it. Although it was a very avoidance-played game on my part, it was still a lot of fun.

As for events and groups over the past month, Napier Executioners Club started up again for the month (very very late start to the year) and in the two meetings I have managed to get in some games of WHFB, 40k, and a lot of games of Settlers of Catan!

I also had my application to become a member of the newly set up NZ Hobbit League Committee accepted, and am running the merchandise part of this group (when I say newly set up, I mean we are having our first meet and greet/brainstorm/shit talk chat at 9pm tonight). I am really excited about this, and very appreciative of being given the chance to be able to work alongside some incredible hobbyists and gamers.

Anyways, time to get back into it. Would love to hear about what you guys have been up to and see some photos of your WIPs.

Until next time, Peace!

OTT 2016: The War of the Legions and the Three Elves

This past weekend saw the annual Over the Top tournament in Hamilton. This year, it hosted WH40k, LotR/SBG, AoS and Warhammer 8th. There were about 40 competitors across the mix of games, and was a great weekend.

I took my Legions of Nurgle to the fold, led by the one and only Glottkin in what was an End Times based Warhammer 8th tournament. Prior to deciding on a list, I had really been weighing up if I wanted to bring out my Legions or my Dwarfs. After the lists were released, I really wished I had gone with my Dwarfs. Of the 8 competitors, 3 were mixed Elven lists, and the other 5 were Legion of Chaos lists. In those Legion lists, 3 contained Skull Cannons, which when your running a list based off of regeneration, hurts. So, here's the list I ran:

-The Glottkin
-Festus, The Leechlord
-Exalted Hero: BSB, Palaquin, Nurgle, Talisman of Endurance, Enchanted Shield
-22 Warriors of Chaos: Nurgle, Halberds, F/C, Shields, BoSwiftness
-Chaos Chariot: Nurgle
-Chimera: Regeneration, Flaming Breath
-5 Plague Drones, Banner, Musician

This list was very compact, and I enjoyed the writing and playing of it. However, it has a lot of hard counters that did hurt over the course of the tournament. With out further ado, lets have a brief recap of  the games.

Game One (Brian S)
My first game was against Brian, a good mate from the Hamilton area who I had only ever played against once, which was on the day I met him at WarBanner 2014. He opted for this tournament not to bring out his Dark Elves, but a Legions list he had been working on for a long time.
I think going into this game, we both believed I would win, even with his flaming Skull Cannons. However, whether by lack of sleep or poor judgement, I went against my instincts in deployment and instead of deploying to overwhelm one flank as I should have, I spread my force out. Due to this, he was able to pick off my units one by one, and it wasn't long until I had nothing left.
Brian is a great guy, and awesome player, and he really worked my poor choice to his benefit. Even taking a loss first game, it as great fun.

Unfortunately due to charger issues, Brian's army is the only one I was able to take a photo of.

Game Two (Adam R)
My second game saw me in a game against Adam and his legions list. This list didn't contain any Skull Cannons, but was based around the concept of speed and hard hitting. It contained 3-4 chariots, 2 units of Skullcrushers, 2 Chimera, and several lone characters running rampart on the battlefield. This game swung a bit, and we both had a lot of failed chargers across it. I really think Curse of the Lepar spell on my Warriors is what won me the game, as when 2 chariots, a chimera and a unit of 'Crushers come charging in, and are unable to do any wounds, they bounce. By the end of the game however, I am not sure either of us cared who won, as we were just having so much fun. The game was almost musical!

Game Three (Nick Munn)
This was the game that took me out of any contention of placing IMO. My competitor was a great dude, and really know how to work his list to its full potential. However, a few bad dice rolls on my part caused everything to unfold very quickly for me, and I was tabled with very little points gained. I must admit, I felt very dismayed by this game and knew that I wasn't likely to place after that.

Game Four (Nick Jebson)
And then this game happened. It was our final game on Saturday night, and I was matched against a Dark Elf player with a fairly balanced list, which is always nice to play against. Nick was an awesome dude, one of those people you would happily play again and again, because he made the game quite comic and fun. This game swung back and forwards quite a bit, and I really expected not to win. However, after some luck turned my way, and my tank of a BSB who had won out about 3 challenges against a mix of generic and named characters, he turned into a Daemon Prince who ran rampart on the board. Although I ended up sucking Glottkin into the warp in the final turn, and I didn't manage to table Nick, I picked up a decent amount of points on what was the bloodiest board I had played on yet.

Game Five (Andy H)
Game Five was on Sunday morning, and after a very big night of drinking, I was faced of against Andy and his awesome looking Nurgle army. There isn't much I can say about the game itself, as it was extremely uneventful in the fact that neither of us could really kill any of our opponents units. To be honest, I think the few points we both got were based more of secondary scenarios then our opponents losses. Andy was yet another great player, with a very competitive mindset. I do believe if we had not both been playing Nurgle, I would have been very hard pressed to pull of a victory against someone so tactical.

Game Six (Tom D)
In typical tournament fashion, I ended the tournament against my close mate and travel buddy, Tom. He was running a 1000pt Malekith led Elven host, a list that I had helped him write and had always miserably been crushed by it. Tom was sitting high up there in points, and there was not a lot of difference in standings between the top 4-5 players. This scenario allowed us to cast the End Times spell related to our lore, and after Malekith failed to land Pit of Shades onto Glottkin in top of turn one, the Brothers Three cast the Nurgle End times Spell at the Eternity King, and turned him into a Daemon Prince. It was the beginning of the end, and both of us were stunned as I managed to table him and claim max points by turn three. Unfortunately, this took Tom out of the running to place in the tournament overall.


It was a fantastic weekend, and we all had a lot of fun. McCrae L went on to take out the Best General award with his Wood Elves, which he was quite happy with.
As part of the tournament, we had to provide a paint 'Hero of the End Times' miniature to purpose in the secondary scenarios. There was an award for this model as well, which Tom won. However, Tom made the decision after we returned home that as I had actually painted the miniature as part of a commission for him, that he wanted me to take the award. This was really kind and unexpected, and I have so much respect for this guy as both a player and a friend.
The final award, Best Paint overall, which was the prize I had been aiming to get, just managed to land into my hands, with another player sitting just one vote behind me. I am very estatic to have pulled this off, and humbled all the same that other players felt it was worth voting for. To those who did vote for it, thankyou, it is much appreciate.

 Teclis, Tom's Hero of the End Times Winnning Miniature

The Bronze Legion of Nurgle, my OTT Best Painted Army and Award

It was a great weekend away, with lots of laughs and excitement, and was definitely worth the trip. I look forward to returning next year to hopefully compete in either 9th Age (should this system become adopted) or Lord of the Rings/Hobbit SBG.

Thanks again for taking the time to read my blog, and I should hopefully have another hobby post up soon!

Twelve Days into the Deep End! (Studio Update January 2016)

It suddenly hit me today: we are almost two weeks into the new year! How time has flown already, and so much has happened already! I'm not exactly sure where to begin...

Firstly, let's talk about the models. As many of you now know, I have just handed in my list for the Over the Top WHFB 8th Ed: The End Times 2400pt tournament over Waitangi weekend in February. I am taking the Bronze Host, which shall be led by The Glottkin himself. So, as per my usual tournament hussle, I have purchased a few more models! I picked up two boxes of Plague Drones, courtesy of Elven Glades blogger (link to his blog at the bottom of this page), and will be on Thursday picking up the Festus the Leechlord and Gutrot Spume models. Although I am trying to avoid purchasing models around 8th Ed, and focusing on 9th, these are some pretty cool miniatures that I have wanted to own for a long time, so am glad to finall get my hands on them. I also managed to build a new BSB miniature, this one on a Palaquin. The conversion took me some time, and the painting side took longer while I tried to work out what colours I wanted to use, but I am impressed with the final product. I have shown pictures in a previous blog post while it was a WIP, but here's some pics of the final product:

I also took on a new army, and this one, is purely for 9th Age! It just so happened I was scrolling along TradeMe, and discovered some Beastmen models going for cheap. And then I found more. And then more. And all of them were the models that I would need for some lists I was writing for fun for Beastmen. So I hit BUY! So now I am sitting here frantically waiting to see a courier turn up with a big box of blood hungry beasts for me to paint! So, if you don't see me around soon, I am either head down painting up more models (the backlog ever grows) or my wife has finally had enough of my hobby, and set it on fire, or just killed me instead! lol.

I also purchased (yes I know, a lot of hobby buying this month!) an airbrush and compressor as an early birthday present for myself. The catch now is, to get it set up and going so I can use it to get my army finished for OTT in February!

Outside of the hobbing, painting and gaming side of things, the community side has just started getting busy as well!

At PlagueBearers, we have finalised the player pack and rules for the first of our events this year, The Reign of Fire WHFB Campaign, and are hard at work getting our 40k campaign set up and ready to follow. We haven't yet been able to set dates, however I do not believe the WHFB campaign will start any later then the first week of February. We also havem't kicked back into club yet, which should happen soon, and are still on the hunt for a potential new premise.

I also applied to become a part of the 9th Age Team. My application was accepted, and I was offered two positions to chose from. The first, was working as Armybook Support. This position didn't have a hand in the work on the army books themselves, the rules or the balancing, but was designed to work with the players to help communication regarding the books, answering questions and clarifying things where needed, and to collect data from the community. The second position, which was the one I accepted, was as Tournament Support. In this role I am to be the intermediary between The 9th Age Team and tournament organisers, help organisers with there events, and collect data based on tournaments and events. As it happens, I am the sole Tournament Support for New Zealand, and will potentially in time take on part of Australia also to help whoever takes on that region. There is a lot of other things that both of these roles also entailed, but those are the main points

If I wasn't busy enough, I have just applied this evening to join the New Zealand Hobbit League committee, that is in the process of being set up. There are four main positions available in this committee, being Hobbyists, Gamers, Painters and Organisers/Community. I am hoping to be able to fill the community role. Along with this, they are looking for a person/people, to head up and run the NZHL Merchandise team. As this sort of thing is something I have wanted to do for other hobby and non-hobby related areas of my life, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me that I would excel in.

Its a busy time of the year, and I do not see it slowing down anytime soon. What is it that they say? Grab the Rhinox by the balls and.........




My dear friend, the Elven Glades:
http://elvenglades.blogspot.co.nz/