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!

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!