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!
Showing posts with label Warhammer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warhammer. Show all posts
Monday, 10 October 2016
Sunday, 20 March 2016
[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!".
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!".
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
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.
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!
Monday, 8 February 2016
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.
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!
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
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/
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/
Thursday, 31 December 2015
Mirrors and Resolutions
It has come to the end of yet another year, and what a year it as been! It has been full of many ups and some lows, but a good year all round.
I decided today that I needed to put all of my Legion of Nurgle down on one table, and see how much is there. Well, as you can see from above (with many WIPs and some fixes to be done) my Legion has far grown from just an army but to a collection. And it's nowhere near finished!! There is a fair amount yet to be painted, and from a collection point of view, I plan to convert some chosen and forsaken for it, along with getting more plaguebearers too. The small additional with the Cygor (or its counterpart, cannot remember) was due to a prize I won in Auckland, and was never intentional to be apart of this, however, now I would like to add some Minotaur to this collection too, and maybe a few other Beastmen models!
High point for me this year would have had to be how WarBanner turned out. It was my second year running this WHFB event, and after the release of Age of Sigmar, I was concerned about how much attention I could draw to the tournament. Nevertheless, we hosted 16 players. It was a great event, filled with laughter and drinking, and a lot of poor dice rolls by everyone. I am really looking forward to hosting it again next year, and expanding it to cover at least one other platform.
The low point for me this year was a difficult one. At first while thinking about it, I really felt that AoS coming out and taking WHFB place as a GW game would be it. But we have all had our rage fits and dice-throwing-tantrums at GW about that, and I realised that there was one thing that bugged me more. My first tournament this year, Equinox, was a great tournament. However, food in South Auckland is not so much, and after having a questionable pie purchased at a store there on the Saturday, I was up all night sick, and missed most of Sunday's games. This was really disappointing, as I was really looking forward to the games.
Nevertheless, the past is the past, and we must look towards the future....
So what has 2016 got in store for me? Well lots!
First and foremost, we are moving to Tauranga about mid year! Time for a new scene and new adventure. What this means is I will be changing club, meeting new players, and rolling more dice! It also puts me in a more central position to other centres, making games more accessible.
As for game wise, I will really be looking at continuing to push Ninth Age as it comes out of Beta into a fully fledge game, and will hopefully be able to promote more events for it. I am also really enjoying 40k at the moment, and have just started toying around with some X-Wing (Yep, the Star Wars buzz has hit me too!). I would like to look into Maulifaux and Saga, but that is dependant on time. I am also set for at least 3 tournaments already for next year, with the plan to get to as many as time and money will allow
In regards to hobby, well there is lots to do! Firstly, I have my Legion of Nurgle I would like to have completed by the end of the year. Secondly, My Tau all need to be striped and repainted. But I also have a 300 themed Warriors of the Dark Gods army to convert and paint for The Ninth Age, and Dwarfs that need........oh look! Something shiney!
But seriously, as every hobbyist knows, there is always something to build or paint or convert, and always many new and cool ideas floating around in your head.
So that is me for the new year. I can't believe it is that time again already, I really can't.
Have a very happy New Years guys and gals, and safe travels on your holidays. Eat heaps. Drink heaps. Laugh heaps. Cry heaps. And throw lots of dice!
An Empire Fallen, over and out for the last time in 2016!
Friday, 11 December 2015
Hobby Update December 2015
Hey hey!
So, I know I have been quiet on the blog front for the past month, so I decided I needed to spend a few minutes and tell you what I've been up to!
First things first, they released the Beta version for The 9th Age! This was a massive step towards the continuation of Warhammer 8th Ed, and contains an incredible ruleset. So, I have been nose deep in the rules, trying to learn them as quickly as I can, and try out a few different list combinations, and snuck a game or two in also!
Then there was the Hawkes Bay Regional Warhammer Championship 2015. I managed to come out of the heats with the most points out of all the competitors, only losing on game with a 9/11 loss. After the heats, the top four proceeded to the semis, with the winners of each pair proceeding to the finals. My semi final game was quite tough, with my Dwarf list not being optimal against his Warriors of Chaos. However, after a very rough start to the game, and me not expecting to make a come back, I managed to turn the tables by surrounding his main units and crushing them, while picking everything else off one by one. A close victory, but a victory none the less. Then came the finals, and what do you know, I was up against my best friend and his Dark Elves, the player who I lost my only heat game to. His list was the list my Dwarfs were designed to handle, and I went in there ready to take the glory. Well, lets just say, the dice gods had decided that first place was not for me. With a lot of extremely bad rolling, and a few bad judgement calls, I took out second place over all. Lets just say I am not complaining, it's nice to have a shiny thing hanging on the wall!
So, I know I have been quiet on the blog front for the past month, so I decided I needed to spend a few minutes and tell you what I've been up to!
First things first, they released the Beta version for The 9th Age! This was a massive step towards the continuation of Warhammer 8th Ed, and contains an incredible ruleset. So, I have been nose deep in the rules, trying to learn them as quickly as I can, and try out a few different list combinations, and snuck a game or two in also!
Then there was the Hawkes Bay Regional Warhammer Championship 2015. I managed to come out of the heats with the most points out of all the competitors, only losing on game with a 9/11 loss. After the heats, the top four proceeded to the semis, with the winners of each pair proceeding to the finals. My semi final game was quite tough, with my Dwarf list not being optimal against his Warriors of Chaos. However, after a very rough start to the game, and me not expecting to make a come back, I managed to turn the tables by surrounding his main units and crushing them, while picking everything else off one by one. A close victory, but a victory none the less. Then came the finals, and what do you know, I was up against my best friend and his Dark Elves, the player who I lost my only heat game to. His list was the list my Dwarfs were designed to handle, and I went in there ready to take the glory. Well, lets just say, the dice gods had decided that first place was not for me. With a lot of extremely bad rolling, and a few bad judgement calls, I took out second place over all. Lets just say I am not complaining, it's nice to have a shiny thing hanging on the wall!
Now, going back to the 9th Age, Equinox tournament in Auckland in April has said that it is most likely going to be 9th Age. This is great! If they do go with 9th Age, they will be at the forefront of bringing 9th Age to the competitive scene in New Zealand. So, what does this mean? I have an army to prep! However, it also coincided with me wanting to create a new Warriors of Chaos army based around 9th Age rules, with a full Spartan theme (and yes, the inspiration is mostly from the 300 movie!). What this means, is I now have 4-5 months to build an army from scratch, an to convert a lot of marauder models into Spartans!
Oh, and talk of tournaments? Let's talk about what's happening on Waitangi Weekend! Over the Top tournament is on again, and this time it is taking a full on End Times spin with Warhammer 8th ed. Now, I will neither agree nor disagree that writing a list that I am happy with for this tournament was easy, or that I lost 4-5 nights sleep with ideas and lists running rampart through my sleepy brain, however I finally settled on a list that I felt was not only competitive, but kept with the End Times feeling for the tournament. Hey Glott, ready to take your Bronze Legions to war?
This also meant that I have work to do, and with only 2 months to go, got right on it. While waiting on some Plague Drones and special character models to arrive, I started with my BSB on Palaquin conversion. Here is the work in progress photos, with a lil bit of paint as I figure out how I want it to look.
And to top it all off, because of OTT, I picked up a commission from a friend of mine who I painted a unit of Phoenix Guard for earlier in the year. Only this time, it's Teclis and 30 odd Lothern Sea guard.
Teclis has been completed, and I have started working on the seaguard which I will hopefully have finished by mid next week (more sleepless nights!).
So that's a little bit from on what has been up as I gear for a huge year a head, both in my personal life and in my world of wargaming, and a lot of changes are instore for both, and for the PlagueBearers team. But change is always good, almost as good as a holiday. ALMOST.
So if you do not hear from me before the new year, I am sorry, but I shall be drinking and eating and festing my way around a very full on painting station. Christmas? What's Christmas? I don't have time for that!!!!!
Merry Christmas to you all, and have a happy holiday!
Bye for now.
Saturday, 21 November 2015
The 9th Age: We Played a Game!
As many of you know I have been fully supportive of the progression to the Ninth Age for Warhammer Fantasy. Well with the rules out in Beta, it was time to give it a go. It took a lil for my mate and I to be able to juggle the time to get the game in, especially as we knew it would take longer to play then normal, but tonight we finally managed to do so.
And it was interesting.
Firstly, we both took the list writing part in a different direction, and this yielded some interesting results for us both. We wrote 2100pt lists, which was a weird number, but worked for this playtest.
My mate (who played Ogres 'Khan') took the style list that he was used to playing in 8th edition, ad re-worked it into Ninth, making changes here and there. The biggest of these changes was he took the Mark of Rage (Khorne) all across the board on his Ogres (this was awesome!). He was really happy with what he was still able to fit in at that points level and with the change of armybook.
I wanted to try out a wide range of new and different things (I was played my Dwarven 'Holds'). Keeping my units smaller to be able to fit in more of this and that, I was able to learn the new units and some of the new army rules. And although the list was not competitive, I was not disappointed with the result (even though I lost the game in the long run).
The game took us longer then expected/planned. Now this was to be expected, being the fact that we were learning as we went and there were all these new rules and changes. For me personally, I think I got quite frustrated with the pace of the game. I realised that although my mindset was that this is a game I know, I have to look at it as learning a completely different game, because in a way it is. Its something new and something fresh.
Overall, the game was a bloodbath with very little left on the table (this is what happens when you put an almost full combat built dwarf list against an ogre list), and it was glorious (the Dark Gods would have been gleeful). Although it took a while to play, we both really enjoyed it, and most importantly, the rule set felt natural in its progression.
It is still in Beta, and I do believe there is still room for improvement, in both the rules and points cost, and a few areas of balancing that needs to still happen, but all in all I am quite impressed and more than ready to give it another round.
Later in the week I will do a section purely on my beloved Dwarfs, and on their rulebook for the Ninth Age. I do not know yet if this will be in written or video format, but we will find out!
Thanks again for reading!
And it was interesting.
Firstly, we both took the list writing part in a different direction, and this yielded some interesting results for us both. We wrote 2100pt lists, which was a weird number, but worked for this playtest.
My mate (who played Ogres 'Khan') took the style list that he was used to playing in 8th edition, ad re-worked it into Ninth, making changes here and there. The biggest of these changes was he took the Mark of Rage (Khorne) all across the board on his Ogres (this was awesome!). He was really happy with what he was still able to fit in at that points level and with the change of armybook.
I wanted to try out a wide range of new and different things (I was played my Dwarven 'Holds'). Keeping my units smaller to be able to fit in more of this and that, I was able to learn the new units and some of the new army rules. And although the list was not competitive, I was not disappointed with the result (even though I lost the game in the long run).
The game took us longer then expected/planned. Now this was to be expected, being the fact that we were learning as we went and there were all these new rules and changes. For me personally, I think I got quite frustrated with the pace of the game. I realised that although my mindset was that this is a game I know, I have to look at it as learning a completely different game, because in a way it is. Its something new and something fresh.
Overall, the game was a bloodbath with very little left on the table (this is what happens when you put an almost full combat built dwarf list against an ogre list), and it was glorious (the Dark Gods would have been gleeful). Although it took a while to play, we both really enjoyed it, and most importantly, the rule set felt natural in its progression.
It is still in Beta, and I do believe there is still room for improvement, in both the rules and points cost, and a few areas of balancing that needs to still happen, but all in all I am quite impressed and more than ready to give it another round.
Later in the week I will do a section purely on my beloved Dwarfs, and on their rulebook for the Ninth Age. I do not know yet if this will be in written or video format, but we will find out!
Thanks again for reading!
Monday, 2 November 2015
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.....
Monday, 26 October 2015
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:
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
Wednesday, 29 July 2015
The 9th Age of Terra
Age of Sigmar has now had a month to settle in, and in that time has created a very large rift in the WHFB scene, rippling out and affecting other tabletop platforms. The immense amount of chatter in local club pages and across global forums is intense. Many players are jumping ship to other games, others are saying they will stay with 8th edition, and others yet are trying out and enjoying AoS. A change such as this release could not have created a bigger rift in the Warhammer community.
In light of all of the changes, a new edition of the game is currently being developed by the ETC and Swedish Comp teams who have in the past written and released solid comps for WHFB tournament play. Although this is not a Games Workshop support edition, this new rule set, known as the 9th Age, could possibly be a good go to for the future. It has the promise of solid rules, frequent rule and army book updates, and FAQs that are actually Frequently answered. It also has the potential for new variation in units, with new units being released for armies also. No, they aren't going to go into the business of making models for these (though it gives the opportunity for an existing business to do so, or a new business to be born), but let's be honest. There are enough miniatures from across many platforms and companies that players will be able to utilise and convert to fit as these new units. I mean, we do that with current units anyways don't we?
Although the 9th Age will not have the same strength in following as 8th has due to it not being supported by an Offical company producing official books and miniatures, it really has the potential to become a solid and well founded game that can be enjoyed on both a casual and competitive scene. I am all for sticking with 8th should nothing better arise, but the 9th Age might just be that better thing, and something that the global community will grow in and enjoy.
Thursday, 16 July 2015
Age of Sigmar: the rationality
The recent release of Age of Signar has caused a massive disturbance in the warhammer fantasy community. If your an active part of this community, you would have seen it.
I got into a discussion with someone from up North last night who fully supported Age of Sigmar, and as someone who had played WHFB for the past 2 decades, he had perspective on the change of the game.
Now for those of you who know me personally, you know I am very opionated and passionate, and am more stubborn then the dwarfs I play. For me personally, Age of Sigmar has taken away from Fantasy, the, well, fantasy of it. It's like giving a child a 3 scoop ice cream come, then taking it back, eating the ice cream, and just leaving the kid the cone.
Now don't get me wrong, by all means I am all for change, but there is a difference between changing up an edition and releasing an entirely knew gaming system, which lets be honest, is what AoS is.
The person I spoke with asked people not to 'bemoan' the game as it will put others off from trying it, and to just speak about the games that we do enjoy. Does this mean I am not entitled to civilly voice my opinion on a game that 10years ago became a huge part of my life, and has now been torn from me?
It seems Games Workshop has a thing for aggravating their customers on a global proportion, a model that any other same business person wouldn't go for, yet it seems to work for GW.
All I can say about GW, is they are the iceberg, and we the consumers are the Titanic, and this movie is on fucking repeat.
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