This was the long Goodbye

"This is the long goodbye, somebody tell me why....."

Blah blah blah. Thanks Ronan for the blog title :D

Several months ago I did a blog with a similar title, it made everyone think I was quitting until they actually read the blog. I got a lot of sighs of relief once they had read it and realised I wasn't.

This time, I am.

Like, legit.

Ish......

A good friend said to me recently that I am not active enough in my blog posts on here, and I need to drum more content into it. And in essence, he was correct.

But it got me thinking. Not just about the blog, but all of the different media outlets I use for my hobby.

And I realised, sitting down and writing a blog just is not me. I don't enjoy it and it isn't time efficient. Nor does it create the response I am looking for.

To top it off, I am in the process of reshaping and defining what An Empire Fallen is, and the way it is portrayed. I am not quite ready yet to reveal the new plans, but they are coming.

Between Facebook and youtube, along with a currently dormant Istagram that I plan to revitalise, and a website that is in the process of being built for AEF, I have decided that I just don't have time nor the need for this space as well.

<insert tears here>

Okay, so of what I can share, what can you expect going into 2018.

Facebook will continue to grow as a standard page platform. I expect little to no changes here.

Youtube will hopefully see a growth in battle reports as I free up time for more games.
I will also be introducing something called a "Paintisode", based off the old videos MrMalorian used to make back in the far ago days of WHFB. Basically, it is 45minutes to an hour or me rambling on whilst painting.......hhmmm how many headaches can I cause? lol

Instagram will be revitalised, showcasing the works I do for both myself and my commission work.

And the website, well, thats a secret to stay tuned for.

Anyways, that was a very skeleton style blog without any real flair, as I am yet again on the run with no time to beef it out......who wants meat anyways right?

Thanks to everyone over the past two years who have followed me here. The blog will remain live for the indefinate furture, and who knows, maybe one day I will pick up the long winded written rants that is me again.....or maybe I will save everyone from migraines!

See you on the other side!!!

Stay in touch:
www.facebook.com/anempirefallen
@anempirefallen

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!

GuardCon '16: Thoughts & Review

Good morning,

This past weekend saw the annual GuardCon Event hosted by the Auckland City Guard, which sported a vast number of players over  variety of different games.

I attended the 9th Age event, which is my second to last qualifying tournament this year to secure my place at Invitational, and had a blast. It was great to see such interest in the game, with it being the largest T9A tournament in NZ to date.
As far as I am aware, it was also the TO's first time running an event, and its inspirational to see so many new TO's coming through, with both NiCon and Panzershrek earlier in the year being running by competitors who hadn't hosted a tournament before.

I bought out my Beast Herds again, running with the same list that I had taken to a tournament earlier in the year, with the full intention of taking a podium position in a elf heavy tournament. I knew that I was very unlikely to take Best Paint (bringing my streak to an end) with the return of the Master himself, blogger Blame the Dice, but felt that I could land that place in the top three.

So a break down of the games:

Game One (Blame the Dice)
This was the battle of the bloggers, as I grudged Blame the Dice to this match and he readily accepted. And so the Beast Herds took on the Lust Daemons, in what turned out to be quite an interesting battle.
I rushed a flank with monsters and chariots, looking at the Daemon Engine and a small unit of Sirens as easy pickings. Although the I made short work of the Sirens, the Engine turned out to not be as movable as I had first expected, and took two chariots and three monsters to handle (granted, the Engine made some spectaular saves).
Whilst this was happening, my Minotaurs made a long charge bottom of turn one into the main combat brick of Sirens that sported his General, and made very short work of it. To be honest, they took on most of that flank, and met their end after about 6 rounds of combat against his Courtesan (which they managed to get down to two wounds remaining, but wasn't enough even for half points).
My Wildhorns took a triple charge towards the end, as I has mispositioned them, and the Lust Daemons tried to make a comeback (and almost obliterated the unit). However, with some help from the gargoyles, we were able to stand until the end, with the unit surviving the onslaught.

This match was a glorious battle and a load of fun, and was a fantastic way for me to start the tournament, landing me a 16/4 result.

Game Two (A Battle of Grudges)
Game two saw me face off against the player who ended up winning the event, and has taken over the position in NZ as the #1 tournament competitor. He ended the tournament with an outstanding 97/100 possible Battle Points!
There isn't much that I can say about this game, except that I made two mistakes, once in my deployment and the second in going against my plan and better judgement (a plan I had made before even leaving home for the trip). It was a white wash tabling. If I am honest, had I not gone against my plan, I still do not believe I would have won the game, but I may have landed some points on the table as opposed to walking away with 0 points.

Game Three (The TO)
The next game saw me up against the Tournament Organiser and his Saurian Ancients. This match up on paper was probably my most favourable, as it had minimal poison, which is the bane of my army. In saying this, it had two major infantry blocks and an extremely killy lord, so it was still formidable and I did have to be careful with some things I did. However, after being tabled in my previous game, I may have thrown caution to the wind a little, and it paid off. I rushed my army into his, and with so much in his face so fast, there was little he could do to counter it (which is the same with anyone who faces a list that's designed to be in combat by the end of turn one start of turn two). There were some worrying moments, like watching Caimans charge my Gortack, and had they made the 4" charge, would have been able to take my right flank out, however the dice stayed in my favour, and I was able to walk away from this game with a full 20-0, having tabled the lizards. The opponent was definitely an enjoyable guy to play, and I would love to get another game in with him soon, though I think he maybe inclined to bring more poison against me after that match!

Game Four (A Bloodbath)
As we were leaving Saturday, I was informed of my next opponent for the first game of Sunday. I was to take on the Sylvan Elves player I had barely scraped a win against at Panzershrek, and we were to play the same game type and same scenario as we did there. It was the rematch!
This SE player is very skilled, and landed himself 3rd place at GuardCon. He has had a great tournament showing this year, podiuming at the majority of the tournaments he has attended.
After my huge win against the SA in my previous game after playing uber aggressive, I decide to continue with that. My opponent and I deployed on the line, and by the end of turn one, my army was sitting just inches from his combat style SE force. Personally, I believe this is what put him on the back foot.
This game was an absolute bloodbath, with my opponent only having his Shapeshifter lord, his mage and the mage's bunker remaining, whilst I had very little left as well. This was the game where I made a critical error, that ended up costing me 3rd place overall. As opposed to rushing my minotaurs straight over to an objective, I tried to charge with them, which I then failed, and by the time I realised I needed them on the otherside of the board, it was too late. This made my 15/5 victory turn into a 12/8.
This game was the best game I played all weekend, and my opponent is one of the most enjoyable players to game with. I look forward to the next time I see him on the field (maybe Warbanner?).

Game Five (Battle of the Masters)
My final matchup was against another blogger, Elven Glades, who alongside myself is a driving force behind the rankings and invitational tournament for NZ. He bought out his Highborn Elves for the weekend, and this game turned out to be yet another bloodbath.
After chaffing my Minotaurs at the top of the game so that they wandered off onto the other side of the board, my opponents Ancient Dragon, Knights and Phoenix did a solid job of making short work of the rest of my force. With Curse of the Wildwood managing to sneak a few wounds onto the Dragon Lord, my Gortach and Jabberwock made a desperate attempt to finish off the wounded Dragon, but to no avail, with my Jabber being torn to shreds and my Gortach ran away just to become a pincushion. At this stage however, my wayward Minos had returned to the fight, and my opponent threw his Dragon into their flank in a last ditch attempt to save his quickly dying knights. It was here that I had the highlight of my tournament, as I watched a single Mino turn around and slap the Ancient Dragon silly, taking the final two wounds off it.
It was a brilliant game, and a load of fun, and I was able to walk away with a 12/8 victory.


All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and I was very happy winning four out of my five games. I landed myself in 5th place, just a hairbreadth away from 3rd, and my best tournament result yet.
Overall I was happy with the way I played, with only a few errors that cost me, and I feel that I have really grown a strong understand on the synergies and cogs that make both my list and Beast Herds as a whole turn.
At the end of the day, it was my Minotaurs that pulled me through to 5th place, proving at how well they can handle a flank on their own, and in the case of my final game, a whole army apparently.

I am putting away the Herd for this next tournament, as I bring out my Warriors of the Pestilent God to WarBanner (even if they are unpainted/unfinished), and will look and bringing them back out for the Invitational tournament in November, where the top 12 players from across the year battle it out to determine who is NZ's T9A Player of 2016.

Until next time,
Peace!

Hobby Update September 2016

Wassup!!

Yet again, I have been absent. I know I know, I am a slacker.  But I'm here now, siting outside in the sunshine enjoying a beautiful brew of  single origin coffee.....yeah yeah okay, I know you don't care about the coffee lol.

So firstly, I want to talk about some tournaments and events!
WarBanner is  coming up on 8/9 October, and I am the Event Organiser for it, and am also running The 9th Age tournament for it. T9A and FoW have been confirmed as running, and AoS will either be confirmed or cancelled at the end of this week, depending on numbers registered. You can find out all the information you need under my Events tab, along with registration forms. It will be a great weekend, having fun in the sun rolling dice and drinking brews while hanging out with awesome peeps!
So, here's just a lil teaser for you....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU5qqI2jJ1g
I have also managed to become the TO for T9A at Over the Top in Hamilton over Waitangi weekend starting next year, and am co-TO for T9A at NiCon 2017 in Auckland! So many events!
We also have the NZ Invitational for T9A in late November, which I am running alongside my good friend, The Elven Glades (http://elvenglades.blogspot.co.nz/). Hopefully, depending on how WarBanner and GuardCon goes, I will also be competing!
Oh yeah, but before all of this happens, is GuardCon at the end of this month! This Auckland tournament is hosting T9A, and you know that mean's I will be there! I am debating at the moment if I will be bringing out my Beast Herds again, or if it will be time for my Warriors of Pestillence to debut on the 9th Age tournament scene, but we will see. It all comes down to how much spare time I have to paint my own army....

In local news, we held the Hawkes Bay Regional Championship: T9A finals a few weeks ago, and I managed to pull off Second place for my second year in  a row, losing my final match to McCrae L, who took out the gold. As with last year it was a great event, and these competitive yet low point games are a lot of fun. PlagueBearers are in the process of setting up the X-Wing and FoW versions for HBRC, so more games to come!

I also got asked the other day to jump in on a Mordheim campaign! What a blast from the past! I am looking forward to building up my warband, and getting some games in! Now just to work out what to take....

On the painting station at the moment is a very fun commission, a full 2500pts worth of Ogre Khans! This time, we are taking a step away from the Chaos themed Ogres, and are creating an icy feel to this Mountain Tribe.

I love doing commission work for this client as he gives me a lot of creative license on what I can do, which allows me to try techniques and styles that don't normally fit with my own paint schemes. 

This commission is due to be on the table at Guardcon, so a lot of work still do be done.

Here's a sneak peak....

Lastly, I am about to start writing a series of fluff, which will be called Memoirs, starting with the Memoirs of an Empire. Basically, with T9A being an open platform with no storyline yet created, I will be creating a background for my own armies, starting with my Empire of Sonnstahl (hopefully this will be an incentive to get them painted!). I will create a series of narritive campaign style games that I will play out with friends, and use the results and the things that occur during the games to help create the story. These games will be a mix of standard matches, unbalanced games, small skirmish battles using a converted Regiments of Reknown ruleset, Siege battles and City Streets battles.
It will be all written in the views of a single warrior in the army, as if it was a diary entry after each event and battle occured.
I intend to post these as each section is done, to hopefully inspire you to create your own story behdin your forces!

Anyways, back to the painting table I go! 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!

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!".

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/

Hard Choices: Letting go of the Despair

'In the burning embers of a world almost lost, a land lain asunder by the fires of chaos, in the end of the end, the darkest of days, when all hope had been lost, rose a warrior from the darkness, and in the grim steel of his resolve, took the step towards the resurrection of all that was lost'.

Since I have known about the release of the 9th Age, a player/community based continuation of Warhammer Fantasy, developed and updated by the teams behind ETC and Swedish Comp, I have fully supported the idea. Age of Sigmar and Kings of War both failed to grab my attention, whereas the 9th Age still held the flavour and complexity that I enjoyed from WHFB.

The only concern that I had, which I knew many players had about it, was how well a community based game that did not have a gaming company who produced models to back it and drive it, was going to be a sustainable gaming system that would not only hold the interest of players, but flourish and grow. But as time went on and I followed updates from the 9th Age team, and read blogs of other supporters of the community built game, this concern grew less and less, and my love of the idea for a game that was all about us as gamers grew.

Grimm Burlocksson leading the Dwarven Throng at the Battle of Panzershriek 2015

And then today happened. A day of mixed feelings of despair and dread.

The 9th Age Ruleset and Army books were released into Beta, not yet confirmed rulesets, but a good idea of what we are to expect. So I sat down to look at what had been produced for my favourite army, my Dwarfs, which was the army that drew me into this game so many years ago, and I have loved and 'mained' ever since.

At first, I was quite mixed in my feelings towards what I saw. The huge change and drops I saw the runes available suprised me. Many of the were the same or similar, but with less versatility. In particular, I was a bit distraught in the drop to 3 runic banners the dwarfs could take, all adaptations of what the 8th edition Dwarf rulebook had. Now all 3 of these are standards that I would happily use, but not the ones I would most commonly use. I also started to worry that some of the feel and fluff was forgotten about for Dwarfs when I noticed that you could take magical standards from the common magic items section of the main ruleset. I also felt a little worried when I noticed that Dwarfs only had +1 to dispel as opposed to their current +2. However, I pushed this aside and carried on reading.

In the next areas, covering unit entries and capabilities, my hopes started to rise. Points costs of units seemed to be very similar, or in the aspects of units that were previously overpriced, had been dropped. The new version of Slayers gained a much needed (however still only token) 6+ ward save, and the new Hammerers went from having a 5+ armour save to a 4+, which made so much more sense with the fluff around the unit (Games Workshop let us down in this area). The cost of warmachines and copters had also dropped, making taking some of those once more expensive warmachines (ie, flame cannon) more viable.

A Dwarf Slayer preparing to fulfil his oath against The Glottkin

The I decided to look more indepth at the new version of the Gyrocopter, the SteamCopter. And my heart dropped lower then ever. It was not long ago I really found a love for this flier, and had invested a lot of money and time to be able to run 5 in a list. But reading the new rules, I realised that this dream had come to an end. The SteamCopter are a base of 80pts for a single model. This is fine. You may now take them in a unit up to a max of 3 at 70pts per model extra. This is kind of cool. However, the Steamcopter is not armed with a steam gun using a flame template anymore as standard kit out, and you may only upgrade a gyrocopter to do so (which is a free upgrade) if the gyropcopter is running as a solo model and not in a unit. Okay so that's fine. However, you no longer have the ability to run up to 6 of them, and now follow the standard 3 Special Choices cap. This was where my dreams of running a flier list was dashed.

At this point I had seen enough, and needed to walk away and think for a while. As I was doing a load of dishes, I was listening to a youtube video from a guy whose name I cannot remember, but he was talking about whether the game was dead or not, and what the term dead meant in context with this game. And it was then that it all suddenly dawned on me....

3 of my completed Gyrocopters ready to rain fire 

It's a new day. It's a new dawn. It's a new challenge. It is the same as when changing book editions and the things we once loved not being as good as things that were once worse. A time to come up with new plans and ideas, new strategies and synergies. A time for revival in the game. And yes, maybe your Gyrocopters too have been made less effective, but now those Slayers you have had sitting there collecting dust have just become that much better. It is a time not to despair over what we see and read, over changes in rules that we may or may not like, but a time to find new rules and concepts that we do like, and to use them to the best advantages we can for our forces.

It is a time to find new excitement and thrill in the game that we all love and play.....

WarBanner 2015

A few weekends ago, I got the honour to host the second PlagueBearers WarBanner tournament in Napier, a 2400pt WHFB 8th edition tournament. And what a great weekend it was!

The sun came out for us, as 16 competitors took to the tables at the Taradale Club to fight it out for the top title. With using the FOB-Lite Comp, with a few additions, we saw some interesting lists come out. Glottkin, Malekith, Helebron, Elthorian and Caradryl lists were only a few of what the players presented. And these lists did not disappoint!

However, there could only be one victor, so here are the results:

1st Best General: Kelly Gragg

2nd Best General: Richard Barby

3rd Best General: Tom Hale

Best Paint: Phil Comins

Best Sports: Brian Smith

1. Kelly Gragg (LoC)

2. Richard Barby (WE)

3. Tom Hale (DE)

4. Brian Smith (DE)

5. McCrae Loudon (CD)

6. Peter Williamson (TK)

7. Phil Comins (DoC)

8. Tom Davis (HE)

9. Caleb Chandler (DE)

10. Adam Richards (WoC)

11. Alex Powrie (WoC)

12. Neil Williamson (O&G)

13. Ethan Phillips (EMP)

14. Erdem Oguz (HE)

15. Chris Stewart (UL)

16. Aaron Paul (OGR)

A huge thanks to all of our competitors for making it such a great weekend, and to our sponsor Jambo Hobbies and Games for providing support and prizes.

Here's some photos for your pleasure:

 The calm before the storm