Tournament: Sheep of the Dark Ages?

As you now know, I recently attended my first tournament for this year, Panzershrek.
It was a fantastic event and a lot of fun, and it was great to get back onto the competitive scene.

The tournament was run as a generic tournament template, and its new TO did a fantastic job of it. However across the weekend, and later, him and I discussed how sportsmanship and paint scores effect the scoring, and if there is both an easier and more efficient way of doing it. This then got me thinking.....

The standardisation of Ninth Age tournaments (along with many other platforms competed in its like), run a scoring of Best Paint and Best Sports. Both of these are then calculated into percentages, added to the battle points, to give you the positions of Best Overall. Most events do not have a separate award for purely Best General based on battle points, so the impact of your sportsmanship and your painting skill effects how you will place.
You may be the top scoring player in an event when it comes to battle points, but maybe your ability to paint is terrible, or is not the reason you are in this hobby, and because of this, your placing in the event can be effected.

Alongside of this, apart from knowing what time you need to be at the venue, player packs have become almost copycat pieces of paper that do not require any attention. I say this, as apart from the randomisation of what game type is played in each game (something I no longer pay attention to until just before the game itself), there is no difference between them.

In a sense, I feel as tournament goers and tournament organisers, we have become stagnant.

Have we become sheep? Has creativity in ideas become unwanted? Are we sitting in the Dark Ages of tournaments? Have we given up looking into the progression of how to evolve events?

Four years ago when I set out to establish Warbanner, which in its first year saw only 6 players, I opted to aim for difference. Every tournament in the country, and almost across the world, was using the standardised 20-0 system for Warhammer Fantasy.
However, a major USA event called Brawler Bash, was using a different scoring system called Carnage. This system threw out the 20-0 scoring, based your tournament points on your victory points per game, and the end results were not effected by sports and paint. It also utilised very creative and different scenarios, which were designed by the TO to force players to think differently.
Although in its first year this was frowned upon, and the second it was somewhat questioned, by adopting this style of tournament, Warbanner was able to create a major point of difference in the tournament scene.

Okay, so now you are sitting there thinking, "Oh so he thinks the tournament he runs is better then the others?" "This is just pride and vanity talking".

The answer, is no.

Warbanner's design was a needed stepping stone away from standardisation, and to hope move stagnant waters. But it is not perfect, and as each year goes on, I work hard to tweak and amend its systems and style to better create the event.

What I am saying, is for tournament play to progress, we need more creatively designed events.
I am not saying that every event needs to move away from the 20-0 out of the book style format. That still has an integral part in the tournament scene.
What I am seeing is that we do need to see change.

When a great painter but poor player gets ranked higher then a slightly better player because he has been painting for 10 years and the other player on a matter of months, there is an issue.
When a player amicably questions or disputes a rule issue, and is right, but gets knocked down in placings due to a poor sports score by his opponent, there is an issue.
When the venue time is all that really matters in every single player pack, there is an issue.

Do I have the answers? Absolutely not. I wish I did. Warbanner for me was the start of change, but by no means, the end all.
For real change, it requires those who wish to see the evolution of the tournament scene take the time and energy to work to develop new systems in how they run events.

My intention is to run a new Napier event alongside Warbanner. This event is yet to be named and will likely be held at the end of next year's April holidays. Although I have no idea as of yet how to break the tournament wheel with something else that is different yet competitive, I aim to work tiresly to do so.

I know this blog may annoy some competitors, and in particular, tournament organisers.
But I also know that change does not occur without the ruffling of feathers.

Until next time,
Peace

Hobby Update July'17: Let's Roll

It seems like forever ago already since Panzershrek, yet this time last week I was being dragged down to the Irish Pub just a block from our Palmerston North accommodation. So much has happened since then, both in the business world and the plastic world.

But we are only here to talk about Plasti-crack.....

Since leaving Palmy, things have gotten really full on on the painting table.
I have picked up another commission, well, sort of the end of an old commission so to speak. My tournament partner has decided that it is time his frozen Ogre Khans collection was complete, not just as a single army but in a way that he can take anything off the shelf and put it on the table, and it is painted.
So to kick it off, I have 45 gnoblars to paint with stand out unit fillers. How do we make frozen gnoblars? Well, really they are Eskimos, though politically correct we must call them Inuits, like it is politically correct to call these miniatures cave goblins, but really they are gnoblars......#mindblown
I have also picked up a secret little project that involves a High Elf, an Orc and a Beastmen (no this is not a poor reenactment of the Three Hunters of Middle Earth!).
This little side project has me excited, as it will allow me to explore more techniques, and increase my experience on freehand.
To top it off, my Empire have returned to the painting table (Sound the horns, beat the drums!), as I get working on the army of the Queen of Promissa Terra. As many of you may know, I started this collection back in WHFB, but never really got far with painting it, minus a little bit here and there. It follows in the paint style of the old Altdorf of WHFB, but will not be designed around the typical war-stricken fantasy army.
I am looking forward to posting photos of these many works in progress.

The local scene is about to light up again, as I have opened registrations for the 3rd year running of the Hawkes Bay Regional Championship! This year 9th Age is back in the event as the main stay, and we are working towards involving Flames of War too!
However on the 9th side, it runs as a 3000 pt open list event, with a few list restrictions over the course of five weeks. The first four weeks see you face off in heats against 4 randomly selected opponents. Following this, in a one night event, the top 4 face off in a single death match semi final, followed directly by a death match final! It's intense!
For the past two years, my Empire have succeeded in taking second place. Let us see if this year is their year to shine!

Although I do not wish to go into too much detail on this, I have also opened up registrations for the 4th annual WarBanner event, a multi-platform event held on the 14/15 October.
This year sees the return of Flames of War, who joined the event for the first time last year, The 9th Age, which has became the fantasy tournament after we switched it from WHFB, along with a newcomer, Napoleonics.
As per usual, I am really excited for the weekend, and am working hard to make it as stand out of an event as possible. For more details or to register for any of these tournaments (or the HBRC above), email anempirefallennz@gmail.com

On a final note, before I put the keyboard to rest tonight and get myself lost in reading the mystery that Elon Musk is, it is time to touch on something that I have promised many times before....

.....I am starting a YouTube channel.....

Previously, although inspired, the motivated lacked for me when it came down to the crunch of doing it. Maybe not only that, but a mix of self consciousnesses and perfectionism got in the way.
Recently, I gave a good friend some advice on a written battle report he had created, and pushed him to do them as videos for various reasons. This got us talking further, which reignited my interest in doing it myself.
I have now lined up with him a very awesome and special series of videos that we will be doing post ETC, which gives me the inspiration to commit more.
However, I feel a lot of it will come down to what the community wants. It is all good and well to put in the effort to do this, but is wasted if people do not want it.
So, what would you wish to see? Battle reports from a known NZ player/tournament goer? Pantisodes as the troll-king Malorian once called them, bring a space of addressing recent topics whilst painting? Interviews with NZ and world recognised players? Tactica and Paint tutorials? What would grab your interest? What would make you watch? We all know it has to be a little more then just my good looks and charm right........okay, stomach hurts from too much laughing now.
But please, have your say in the comments! I really want to know.

With that said, it is time to get these weary eyes away from the screen and to the pages.

Until next time, Peace!

From Last Place to Podium: Three Years at Panzershrek

They were warned. The were told to run. The Blood Hunt returned, and boy were they hungry....

This past weekend saw the annual Panzershrek tournament, a FoW and T9A event in Palmerston North.

My tournament travel partner and best friend, who also turns out to be the guy who manages to get me to drink faaaar too much over tournament weekend, decided it was time to get back onto the scene, after having nine months off after Invitationals at the end of last year.

So, going to a tournament, what does this mean? Well, it means cramming in some last minute painting! I managed to get the paintbrush down at 8pm on the Friday night, after sitting down and doing a solid nine hour stint of painting to complete a few unfinished models, and paint from scratch my beautiful new Gortach model from Mierce Miniatures.

So, with the Blood Hunt packed and ready, and the roads thankfully open, Saturday morning we hit the tournament scene once again...

My first game I had dubbed prior as likely to be the most enjoyable game I have all weekend. My opponent, a very talented player and painter, was the last person I played on tournament, handing me a crushing defeat at Invitationals which cost me the podium. It seemed only fitting to come back to the scene and face him again!
He didn't make it easy though did he. His MSU style Sauian Ancients are got a little "race-confused", dancing around my army and running away like pesky wood elves. I remember at one point in the game looking at the board and couldnt believe how much of a cluster-fucked mess board the table was, with no clear vision of who was where.....everything was just so spread out.
This game landed me a 16-4, and as I had assumed prior to the game, was the most enjoyment I had all weekend. My opponent isn't just an awesome player, but a real good guy to throw dice around with.

Landing on table two, I was up against my first ever T9A tournament opponent, and his flying circus of chicken...okay okay, Highborn Elves. Although confident I could secure a victory in this game, the idea of double phoenix and double sky sloop running circles around me, was a concern going in. I mean, the Blood Hunt is fast, but these Elves had their share of Red Bull, as they had wings!
So with some fast moving up turn one, and punishing magic rolls, by turn two we could see where the game was heading. I think had it not been so early in the game we would have just called it there, however finding things to do for 3 hours waiting on the next game, would have been boring.
I took out a 20/0 victory in this game. My opponent is a great young player, with a real obvious thirst to learn as much as he can, both in battlefield tactics and in hobby, and I really hope I was able to pass on a few tips to him.

Sitting at 36/40 points going into the final game of the day, I was on table one against my arch-rival (yep, you have claimed that title now 😛), a player who takes out just about every event he goes to, and whom I have yet to defeat.
Going in there with confidence that I could beat him, even just slightly, held my play together for a while. Up until the start of turn four, it was still easily anyone's game. However, the long march to get to the stunty dwarfs hiding in their corner bore down on my herds, and thinks quickly fell apart after that.
I walked away from this game crushed 1/19, and was ready to settle for a mid pack placing.
We had dinner and beers with my opponent again, and as per usual, he was more then willing to share ideas on some really out there but quite effective list ideas for different armies....looks like my Blood Hunt will be getting a few new units added....and all of them centaurs.....

After my defeat game three, Sunday morning saw my hangover up against my favourite Sylvan Elves player. You have to realise, that games one, three and four, were against three of the top players in the country, and although I have played a lot of tournaments, I have never faced a collaboration of them all.
Going into this game, I knew it would be hard, as although my ETC team opponent's list did not look hard on paper, it had one secret weapon that would tear my army to pieces. But turn two saw tragedy strike my opponent, in what was the biggest upset game of the weekend, as my two-wound remaining Gortach failed a frenzy check, charging his lord's unit of sisters, who failed to add to my wounds with their stand and shoot. Adding salt to the wound, the strength 6 or 7, 5 or  6 attacks lord, flubbed. The sisters managed to get one more wound off, and then the Gortach went to town. At this moment of horror, my opponent accepted that the game wasn't to end his way, and I left the table sitting on 55/80pts, taking a 18/2 victory against the chicken.
My opponent in this game is a really great guy, and that loss was crushing. Although I still currently stand as one of two players he has never beaten, the games I play against him are usually some of the most hands on intense games, and I love it. Another fantastic opponent!

Heading into game five I knew I was sitting first equal to the player who crushed me at the end of Saturday, and needed to score well. But of course, my opponent ad best friend, wasn't going to make that easy for me!
Taking on his ogres once again, I went into the game with the confidence that he had never beaten my Blood Hunt, a confidence that quickly dissipated into nothing as my first three turns saw my army collapse and perish to immense shooting. After a quick smoke and accepting my fate, I returned to the table to face the Khan's Judgement.
And that was when the game turned....
With major failed charges, and his inability to roll high to pursue, his army was left extremely vulnerable. I was able to take out the remainder of his army with just a wounded Gortach, my general and bsb, and a lone razortusk that had done nothing all game, and swung the game back to a 20/0 victory.

Panzershrek '17 was yet another great weekend that just went way too fast, and our TO, did an amazing job running the tournament for the first time. Everyone had an absolute blast.
And then this happened...

Not only was I able to take best painted two years in a row at Panzershrek, with last year's being the last time I took a tournament paint award (I @BlametheDice......get it slishy? #insidejokes), but I was able to not only podium after nine months off the scene, but take the gold!!!!
It was interesting reflecting back on Panzershrek over the years. in 2015, I remember walking away gutted with a last place result, and last year sitting comfortable with mid-pack. To turn my original last place to a gold result seemed quite fitting.

There are a lot of things in the works, and I will be sure to do a Hobby update very very soon, but until then, some eye candy for you of what was apparently the best painted army 😝

Peace

Saying Goodbye and Looking Ahead

Well, that title sounds frighteningly sad. I bet you are all sitting there thinking, how can AEF truely be leaving us? What's happened? How on earth can this be true? What would make him say goodbye to wargaming and leave it all behind??

Well my friends, the answer is quite simple: nothing!
I'm not going anywhere, but I sure as hell got your attention!

However, over the past few weeks I have had to say a few goodbyes. Firstly, I watched as my Tau collection was packaged and shipped to a new and happy owner. This was my final tie to the 40k World, a place which I am unsure if I will go to again, and most definitely not anytime soon.
But the hardest of all, was saying farewell to a collection that was very dear to me...

Twelve years ago, when my uncle drew my attention to the world of miniatures and wargaming, I spent hours rereading the same two white dwarf magazines he had. And one army in particular grabbed my interest of all three Games Workshop worlds. Not only that, my Space Marine loving uncle then went on to buy me my first miniatures from the range. And so, my mighty Dwarf throng begun.

Not only was this collection what got me into wargaming as a whole, a collection I spent many a thousand on and plenty of hours with a brush, but it was also my first tournament army, and the collection that opened my gateway into commission painting. It held the most sentimental value of all the miniatures I have ever owned.

So why say goodbye? Times change. Over the past few months I have gone through a walk of understanding and letting go of sentimental value on all materialist items, and this was the final step in the journey. Since the beginning of 9th Age, my Dwarfs have stayed on the shelf, as my interest in their game mechanics under the rules of the game were not there. I did not like it nor enjoy it in the way I once did. Not only this, but dusty spaces have other priorities to be filled by. And to crate space for new major projects, I needed to clear this place. So alas my stumpy friends, I do bid you a dear farewell, and I hope your new home is one where you will be enjoyed.

*sniffles sniffles* Oh, a tissue? Why thankyou, you shouldn't have....

Okay okay, enough sarcastic sentimental shit. It's getting depressing. Let us look at what is next.....

Firstly, it dawned on me today as I poured probably the hundredth coffee for the day (for perspective, I have only been at work about an hour and half at this point), that Panzersheik is just over a month away! That is crazy!
I pulled out of NiCon this year due to work pressure, meaning that Panzer will be my first tournament back this year, and I have a tonne of catching up to do if I even want a chance of sneaking into Invitationals at year's end! With this in mind, it is time for me to start playtesting a few list ideas I have had up my sleeve, and whipping into shape those extra miniatures needed. As it stands, it looks as though the Beast Herds will be making the tables again, as I attempt to retain my much coveted crown as the top BH player in the country.

On the line of tournaments and events, the WarBanner 4.0 player pack has been released and registrations are open, with the first applicants pouring in! This is fantastic, and I am really looking forward to seeing my baby run in its fourth year.
Alongside this, its drawing close to the time for the annual Hawkes Bay Regional Championship to run for another year, with more information coming very soon!

Well, it is now 8.26pm, and old age seems to be kicking in, and it is time for me to find some much needed beauty sleep.

Until next time my children of darkness....

Peace

February 2017: An Empire Rising

Hello, it's me
I've been wondering if after all these........

Yeah yeah yeah, I know. Hey guess what, shock horror.....I'm back!

Well, not really, but I am, but I am not...

As you all know, I have taken the past few months away from the hobby. In truth, I had mentally stepped away from it back in September of last year. As promised, here is why..

The past few months has been a rollercoaster ride for me. As some of you are now aware, I separated from my wife back in late September, and the moved in with my best friend and his family early November.
We then had Invitationals (which all things considered, I am content with where I placed, even though I know I could have placed far better). Following that was Christmas, New Years, my birthday etc etc.
Oh, and did I mention, I finally set up my business! In contradiction to my blogger tag, the Empire Rose, with Empire Coffee Roasters "officially" going into operation. This has been a long term dream for me, and it has finally come into fruition. But with anything, it is only the start, with several more businesses in the works to begin over the next 3 years.

All of these things contributed to a massive hobby burnout. This also included the sheer amount of gaming that I had done, the pressure I had put on myself in regards to tournaments (I have a very competitive streak) and the high volume of painting that I had completed in small amounts of time. This cost me my interest and my heart in the game and the hobby, and I knew that if I didn't step away when I did, I would end up hating it, and throwing it all in the bag completely.

So last night, I finally sat down with my friend and we decided to have a game. To add icing to the cake of my tag, I took Empire of Sonnstahl into my first game of 2017, throwing together a list that looked the way I would like to play them. Faced off against Ogres in a similar list to what as seen in tournaments last year by this player, I was quite impressed with the synergies and the way my army worked, and we had an absolute blast! It was great to throw dice again and some rowdy banter, and enjoy the game.

Does this mean that I am going to be seen at every tournament for the rest of the year, or that I am going to completely paint another 5 armies this year? Absolutely fucking not!

From the painting side, I need to find myself a house as I am currently still living in other people's spare rooms. I need a quiet space to set up, and slowly work my way back into painting. I will be putting all other projects on hold, and starting back slowly painting up my Empire.
As for the tournament scene (which I miss heaps!) I will not be reentering until probably NiCon or Panzer. This comes down to the youth of my business, as this needs to be my main focus at the moment, along with the added financial burden of the travelling.

I am going to leave it at that. Please do not fear, I will return!

Or maybe, that is reason to fear..........

Invitationals & My Dilemma

It is currently 6.30am as I start writing this, with my first hot brew of the day in hand. Why so early you may ask? Well that is a mystery even I want answered after a sleepless night!

In just under four weeks, the physical journey begins again for the final time this year, as we make the drive to Auckland for the first ever New Zealand Invitationals tournament. And with such a long drive, I am glad I have great travel company to go with me!

But the adventure to a tournament is never just the drive there and the weekend whilst away rolling dice and drinking more then planned, but it should be the weeks leading up to an event, as you play around with list ideas and play test your army and tweak the list whilst madly rushing around to finish painting that half a dozen miniatures you need in your list because of those tweaks.

My journey to Invitational almost came to an end before it had really began. With the release of Version 1.2 to the rule set last week, between the change in rules and points itself, along with Invitationals adopting the recommended points level of 4500pts, I was absolutely stumped.

Now, do not get me wrong, I am not complaining one moment about the new rules or recommended points system. I do agree with everything that has changed, but I do believe it is for the betterment of the game as it progresses and comes into its own.

Adopting a new rules system so close to the most prestigious event in the year was not a call I would have wanted to make, and I do not feel it was the right one either. In saying this, it was driven by the competitors for the event, and now as many are in the same boat I was in up until late last night, I think many are regretting that choice.

With the changes, I was finding it almost impossible to create a list that I could easily adapt to the play style, that I had the miniatures for without having to spend excess amounts of money, and the time to paint only a few handfuls of models. Even with the list I finally compiled and am happy with, there is more work to be done.

I argued with the decision to take my WDG (which was the easiest to flip my V1 list into something workable with V1.2), and finally decided against it, as I wasn't enjoying playing the list and it was hugely designed around the way a Path of Magic could influence the list, a Path which now in V1. no longer exists.

I also play tested my new Dread Elves list. I pulled off a major victory with this list, in my first time ever playing Elves, and enjoyed every moment of the game. The synergy of the list worked well, and with  change in the Path of Magic used, I feel the list could easily become a standard style list I would take to tournaments. The issue was, I do not have the extra money to drop into getting all the models needed, nor the time to paint an entire army within 3.5 weeks.

The biggest struggle of them all, was a moral struggle. I have played my Beast Herds in every event I have been to since T9A hit the tournament scene, and I love them. But morally, how could I leave t home the army that helped me get to 9th place on the New Zealand rankings? That wouldn't be right!

So I tossed around a few lists, screwed up a lot of paper, and walked away from the list building to relax whist enjoying a cancerous habit. And as my alcohol infused brain was pretending I was being Smaug and blowing smoke, it hit me. And I started mentally drawing a list, watching the mechanics of the list, and seeing what it looked like on the table.

The list is written. My toys are ready.

The Beast Herds have heard the Call. The Blood Hunt is coming to Play.
Run and Hide, Run and Hide. For come the Break of Day,
Blood will run as we catch our Prey.....

WarBanner 2016: The Third Year

This past weekend saw the third year running of the WarBanner tournament in Napier. For the past few years WarBanner has been my baby and main event that I run, and each year we have worked at growing it.

The past two years, WarBanner was a sole WHFB tournament, starting in 2014 with 6 competitors and tripling its attendance in 2015 with 18 players.

This year was a huge year for us. Not only were we located at a new venue (Old Boys Marist Rugby Club), but our gaming platforms had progressed. Fantasy Battles: the 9th Age has quickly proven to be the natural successor on the New Zealand tournament scene for WHFB, after its change over to Age of Sigmar last year. We also took on Flames of War as a new platform at WarBanner, which is the first time in many years that FoW has seen a new tournament.

Due to the changes and growth, we also took on new sponsorship. Jambo Hobbies & Games, an amazing Napier hobby store that has sponsored us in our previous years, offered an amazing generic sponsorship packet for both T9A and FoW. We also recieved speciic sponsorship from Battlefront for FoW and from ShieldWolf Miniatures, an up and coming Kickstarter based fantasy miniatures company in Greece, for the T9A tournament.

The weekend as a whole was fantastic. Sadly, due to the way numbers were, I didn't have the opportunity to compete in the 9th Age side, but the contenders all seemed to enjoy themselves.

I am already planning on next year and what we can do to improve this event, and continue to increase its size.

Until next time,
Peace!

New Zealand Wargaming Awards: The Birth of a New Era

For a long time now I have been thinking about the time and effort that so many unsung heroes in our gaming communities put in to growing the community and providing great support for these communities, along with awesome events and places for people to game.

As someone who has put a fair amount into my local community, along with running events of my own and helping to drive 9th Age on a competitive level in NZ, I have learnt how much hard work is put into this....and I know I do a hell a lot less work at it then many others!

So I decided that it was time that these hard working people were recognised for their contribution to the NZ gaming scene....

....and in comes the first annual New Zealand Wargaming Awards (NZWA)!!!

This will be a People's Choice awards, with the votes fully in your hands! How will it work? Once voting opens, a link to the voting for will be made available on the blog. It will cover areas including game specific tournament organisers, to clubs, regional support and even local hobby stores! You will be able to vote on whatever areas you wish, and then email the form back!
Voting will open November 1st and close on November 30th, with the results being tallied and announced on Saturday 3rd of December.

How will these be announced might you ask? We will hold an online awards night! You will be able to tune in to a Google Hangouts and watch it all unfold, as I host the event with two great guest hosts (this year's have already been invited!).
Award winners will be emailed a signed Award Certificate, which they can do with as they wish.

This is about supporting those who work for us, those who make our gaming community work, and so the more voters the better!

I will post another blog regarding it once voting is open.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

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 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: 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!

[RANT] If you don't like it, there's the door, but don't break my toys on the way out!

If you don't like it, there's the door, but don't break my toys on the way out! 

Last night, in my not so sober state, I listened to a video on YouTube by a wargamer who I have followed since I started watching YouTube videos. This gent has been a solid brick in the foundation of the Warhammer YouTubers Collective over the past many years, and I have just about always enjoyed his content.

However, last night, he posted a video that really threw me back. It was about the major reason he will not be playing The 9th Age. Now I am not going to get into the reason, as that is not the part that threw me, but if you wish to watch the video you can here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2NzT2nztLU

After watching, I commented on it, listed my opinion in regards to what he had to say. And was about to leave it at that, until I read the other comments on the video by other subscribers, and saw an issue that has been happening for a long time. Just this time, it got too far under my skin.

We all play games, whether board, video or table top wargames because we enjoy it. No one is forcing us to do so, we do it because we enjoy certain or many aspects of the game. Basically, it's because it makes us happy. But we aren't going to dedicate the same amount of time to a game we don't enjoy, that doesn't excite us or give us a fun time. And that's fine. Maybe we will try it out, watch videos about it, read up about it, and make a decision based on information and experience that the game is just not for us. If we don't like the game, "then there's the door". Take it. Don't spend anymore time on it, and find something that you enjoy.

"...but don't break my toys on your way out!"

Why is it, as a global community, that when we do not like a game, or a gaming company, we feel the need to dedicate time in 'bashing' the game, in making negative sentiments towards the game, and making anyone who has a part of the game either as a gamer or developer, feel like you are targeting your negative feelings at them.

It's quite simple. If you do not like something, walk away, and leave it at that.

Over the past several months I have spent a lot of time in the 9th Age forum, reading posts from various levels of gamers. And on numerous occasions, I have watched people who have felt that their entitlement to the game means they have a say in the way things happen, or what should happen, and when it doesn't, they call the creators "delusional" and spell out the doom and darkness of the game. Purely because they didn't get what they wanted.

Its that sense of entitlement that people have that makes them feel that a game should be the way they want it to be, and that they have a right to bash games they don't like. Since when did we as gamers become so self righteous as to think we can tell others that their games are crap? To tell game developers they are delusional? To tell people that this is the way it should be, and if we think otherwise, we are stupid? And when did we become so self entitled that we feel we can dictate the way a game is developed or played.

9th Age is an interesting concept in this, as it isn't company built but community driven. But even though that is one of its biggest strengths, the weakness that comes with this is it increases the amount people feel they can have their say and that their say should be listened to and, obeyed.

We are stakeholders, not shareholders.

The decisions made relating to a game effect us as we have an invested interest in the game. But we do not own the game, we do not have shares in the company, we are not its developer, design team, executive board of directors. We are just the people at the end of the chain holding onto it for the ride, whatever it shall be.

The 9th Age is Community Driven, not Community owned.

It's a game being designed and built by many hard working volunteers for a community of wargamers wanting to see the complexity of WHFB continued on in a balanced and competitive game. But just because we are the reason it is being built, we don't own it. We don't have a controlling power invested in it. We are not financially entwined in the organisation. We just have an invested interest, even financial based invested interest based on the fact we own the miniatures to play the game, but we do not own the game.

Is someone wants to play AoS, that's cool. You don't have a right to tell them their game is shit.
Is someone wants to play KoW, that's cool. You don't have a right to tell them their game is shit.
Is someone wants to play Warmachine, that's cool. You don't have a right to tell them their game is shit.
Is someone wants to play 40k, that's cool. You don't have a right to tell them their game is shit.
Is someone wants to play 9th Age, that's cool. You don't have a right to tell them their game is shit.

Let's stop being self righteous and entitled. Let's just play the game we enjoy, and leave others to play the games they want to. Because, "if you don't like it, then there's the door, but don't break my toys on your way out!".

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!