So that was Battlecry 2015

Well the first event of the year is been and gone and I am bushed. Been a while since I knocked out 8 games in two days and I am feeling it.

Upstairs rubbing elbows

Battlecry this year was at a new venue and whilst it was pretty nice, it was quite a bit smaller than the previous one leading to some compromises. On the positive side it was light, airy, in a rather fancy suburb of Auckland (which meant that there were nice places to hang out and have lunch etc, or go for a "between games wander". On the down side though itmissed a lot of the atmosphere of the previous venue where the larger space meant that there were plenty of non-wargaming things to check out. There was also a hiccup in the layout that meant that the upstairs (where I was all weekend) was a bit cramped and really noisy with that many gamers. Day two was not so bad as the Roleplayers moved downstairs and the 1 day Malifaux event had run its course.

On day one I played X-Wing in a 60/90/120/150 point escalation event. Dash and the B-Wings turned up with Dash Rendar leading the charge, and then at each points escalation another B-Wing joined the squadron.

Dash Rendar (57) YT-2400 Freighter (36), Push the Limit (3), Heavy Laser Cannon (7), Lando Calrissian (3), Outrider (5), Hull Upgrade (3)

Blue Squadron Pilot (31) x 3
B-Wing (22), Fire-Control System (2), Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

On day two we had more space upstairs than day one

In the couple of playtest games I had the list seemed really good but as it turned out I think I invested some of my points a bit poorly. Dash is excellent, and Lando is a fantastic (if slightly random) upgrade and I am tossing up between Lando crewing a ship, and Lando piloting a ship...

In the end the shortcomings of my list were found out a couple of times, and I ended up down the end of the rankings. Talking with Andrew and Victor after the event I found myself wishing I had taken a Decimator build. Ironically Victor was wishing he went with the YT-2400. I guess the grass is always greener!

Day two and I ended up taking a very low stress 'jack heavy Kara Sloan list to the 50 point Warmachine event.


Captain Kara Sloan - WJ: +6
- Squire (2)
- Defender (9)
- Stormwall (19)
- Thunderhead (12)
- Minuteman (5)
- Minuteman (5)

Journeyman Warcaster (3)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1)

With no units I knew I would not have to think too hard about placement and if I could get some good matchups I would just shoot my opponents off the table. As it happened I managed to shoot one off the table (pXerxis) whilst two others outshot me (Legion beasts and Retribution Mage Hunters), whilst one ground me down (after I dropped his caster down to 3 health and missed 3 boosted RAT 6 or 8, Pow 15 or 12 weapon master shots!).

Downstairs luxury

Kara is fun and it was great to really try out the Minuteman 'jack. Not convinced that I am a good enough player to get the most out of them, or that Kara is the best caster for them, but damn the look cool (love the Hunter chassis) and I really do have the urge to paint them now! On the downside I am less interested in painting up Bradigus as every man and his dog had a freshly assembled or painted Brad force. Whilst I need every crutch I can get my hands on I am not sure I want to be one of "those guys" running the new broken toy... If I wanted to do that I could just run Banes of Legion beast spam :)


Next event up on the calender is Ides Of March, the big 50 point, 40+ players, all the hard men coming out to play. In theory I will be running my Circle as I have the most options that are fully painted (yep Ides is a fully painted event) but I am really struggling to pin myself down. I have a week to ponder it so I guess I better find some inspiration fast.

I'm Back... and I've been busy!

I've been a bit slack (I say that a lot) on the blog front over the past few months. Between work, home, hobby time... and some World of Tanks I have found it difficult to get act together.

Hopefully over the next few weeks I am going to get caught up as I have a pile of photos on my camera and a quickly fading memory of what I have been up to over the past few months. But to help jog my memory here is the short version:

• June - The Tauranga Open Warhammer Tournament with my Orcs and Goblins.
• July - Panzerschreck Flames Of War Doubles Tournament in Palmerston North with Jagdtigers and friends.
• August - no tournament but a lot of painting for a web Dust Battle Report (my intro, part 1, part 2).
• September - Lords of Ruin Warmachine Tournament in Wellington with pMorvahna.
• September - Wayne-Con - the Battlefront Staff Early War Tournament and my French infantry.
• October - FlamesCon (okay so this one has not been yet but I am painting for it...).
• And... we have been playing quite a bit of X-Wing at lunch recently.

First up will be the Tauranga Open and my first Warhammer game in probably five years, but in the meantime here are a few photos from the past couple of months...

Tauranga Open - high tables, no post event sore back!

Stopping at the Army Museum on the way to Panzerschreck

Road tripping in the big van to Palmerston North

Sean Lincoln (Lords Of Ruin organiser) and some seriously cool trophies!

Work in progress Somua tanks for FlamesCon

Portable Light Box

Late last year one of the guys at work came across a project on Kickstarter called the Foldio - The 1st foldable studio. For a start, who knew that Kickstarter was for anything except Tabletop and Computer games??? Anyway, the concept behind Foldio was that it was allowed anybody with a smartphone to easily take high quality pictures by providing a small light box. The light box itself was compact and (thanks to some magnets) able to be folded up when not in use, or easily packed away and carried around.

I am at best a barely competent photographer but I do like playing around a little. I've also been cleaning out the cupboards of excess miniatures so I figured that a small investment was worth it if it would mean that I could start taking some photos at home more easily. My primary use would be for work in progress shots etc because I could use the white table at work for anything more serious, or for taking shots for ebay.

The Foldio turned up on time, which must be a record for any Kickstarter product! Packed nicely, with a functional but pretty boring little carry bag. It was a little bigger than expected at around 28cm-ish square, meaning I could easily fit a Colossal in there. My version came with two little LED light strips and after watching the assembly video (which was not really necessary) I was up and running.

Foldio on the bookcase by the computer.

Picture, straight out of the camera, with no Photoshop wizardry (other than re-sizing etc).

Same photo with a little bit of Photoshop work (as you can tell, barely competent with Photoshop either!)

Same figures on the bookshelf, where the Foldio now sits.

So, thoughts? In life you can have things fast, cheap, or good - pick two. 

• Foldio is in my opinion quite cheap given that it was around $40 (delivered, with different coloured background sheets, with an extra LED light strip).
• It is fast - lets substitute quick and easy to use.
• As for the last one lets say that it is definitely okay, and it is definitely much much better than what I had (which was nothing). The one thing I do not like about it is that it does not provide particularly great source lighting, but what was I expecting for the price. Also I've spent all of 20 minutes playing around with so probably a ways to go yet. I do have a second LED light strip so I thought I would play around with the placement of that to see if I could introduce a little more light.

Closing thoughts - definitely a well design lead project that looks cool and is easy to use. It was never going to be as good as a "proper" (read more expensive) light box solution, but it sits on my shelf out of the way and with a little practice will become a nice addition to the blog toolbox.

As for buying one, in the short term you cannot as they are still shipping out orders from their Kickstarter campaign but you can always jump on their website to find out more about when they will begin production and distribution through conventional channels.

Ides of March 2014

Time once again seems to be flying by thanks to work and home, so I have failed to do a follow up to Ideas of March till now. IOM was a great Warmachine weekend with 40 players turning up from all over the country to duel it out. I took my Circle out for a run, using it as an opportunity to get my Woldwrath (pictured below) painted, along with a Druid Wilder and Gnarlhorn Satyr.

List 1:
Baldur the Stonesoul
- Woldwrath
- Megalith
- Woldwyrd

Druids of Orboros (full unit)
Shifting Stones
 - Stone Keeper

List 2:
Kaya the Wildborne
- Druid Wilder
- Feral Warpwolf
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr

Druids of Orboros (full unit)
Shifting Stones
 - Stone Keeper

The weekend went..... even worse than expected on the gaming front! I had played a couple of practice games leading up to the weekend so I thought I had an idea of how to play eBaldur, but I knew Kaya was going to be a little more difficult. In the end though my usual lack of match fitness really cost me. I did however have some truly epic moments with Kaya Spirit Door'ing into pButcher, flailing away, popping her feat and needing to roll up on a couple of attacks, failing badly and dying to his big choppy axe! eBaldur took on a Stormwall and learnt that those bad boys are bad for a reason - also realising that I started that turn with a plan and then threw it out the window a couple of minutes into it. On the positive side the guys that play at the lower end of the table are a great bunch, we all want to win but we also want to have a good time so the games were played in good spirits.

I leave my final placing till after the pictures of the Woldwrath to build the suspense!

So yeah.... highpoint was finishing the Woldwrath, coming 35th (out of 40) was not so great (in the context that we all want to win some games!) but this was evened out by bringing home the Best Sport Trophy - apparently having fun even when you are being curb stomped by a Cryx eGasphy list pays off.

So, great weekend, great organisation, great players.... shame it is 12 months till we get to do it all over again. Maybe I should start thinking about what I want to take and playing a game or two before then!

One Sided Games, Fun For All?

I managed to get in a couple of games over the last week of my Christmas / New Years break and both of which felt like really one sided affairs...

Pushing up and popping my Feat

First up was a game of WarmaHordes vs Tony. Vod (as he is locally known) is a playtester for Flames Of War and an exceptionally good wargamer (better than me to be sure), known for playing hard, knowing his opponents and finding holes to exploit both in terms of the their army and the rules!

I took the opportunity to roll out eBaldur to help me prepare for Ides of March (in March...), with Megalith, Wold Guardian, Woldwatcher, Woldwyrd, Druids and Shifting Stones. Tony took eVayl, a host of heavy Warbeasts, Spawning Vessel, Martyrs and Shepherd. We were playing under some time pressure so we opted to go straight assassination rather than digging out SR2013 and picking a scenario. We both pushed up the table, Tony used his range to deal out some damage, I ran up and popped my feat hoping that he would take the bait and rush in. Tony used his speed and powerful ranged game to deal out some more damage whilst keeping his distance. By this point I controlled 3/4 of the board and realised that by not playing a scenario we had stacked the deck completely in Tony's favour (he could maneuver and trade board space for time, whilst I had to have an engagement to try to win) so I went for the hail Mary and threw my Wold Guardian and eBaldur into combat - too little and too late as even though they were able to deal out a lot of damage and kill two of the three heavies, Tony was able to finish the game next turn with his assassination.

Given the one sided nature, was the game worth playing? Absolutely! Not every game goes your way and it is important to play games where you are on the back foot because it lets you work out things with your army that you otherwise may not try. I also realised that I need to get a lot of practice games in before Ides because I have forgotten how eBaldur plays after not taking him out of the box in 18 months.

The German/Finnish first turn

On Friday Wayne and I headed round to the American Embassy (otherwise known as Steven and Andrew's place) for a doubles match up - Kiwis vs Americans and 1000 points per person.

Wayne took two heavy KV-1e companies and a Motorstrelk company, whilst I took a pair of T-34 85 companies and a small platoon of BA-64s. On the other side of the table Andrew took his new Finnish Winter troops with a pile of infantry and a captured SU-152, whilst Steve took three Jagdtigers, Wirbelwinds and 37mm AA guns. For the mission we rolled up Surrounded which resulted in our tanks stuck in the middle, Andrew and Steven opted to deploy in one corner with a forest anchoring their line and advancing out from there.

T-34s pile in to the forrest trying to score some points

Steven and Andrew moved the Jagdtigers forward to be able to shoot at both the T-34s and KVs, perfectly maneuvering them through a combination of "turning to face" when shooting, and Stormtrooper moves to not only hit their pick of targets but also keep their (relatively) soft side armour safe. Wayne pushed the KVs up as a distraction whilst I moved the T-34s around the side. I managed to get to the forest in their deployment area and knock out the defending SU-152 with only a couple of casualties. Andrew had dug his infantry in realising that as long as they did their job of stopping the T-34s from flanking the Jagdtigers the game would be theirs. I knew that I would never get to the Jagdtigers and that my only option was to try and break either Andrew or Steven'companies so where I could I picked off (or tried to pick off) the smaller platoons and eventually threw my tanks into a desperate assault trying destroy and infantry and AA platoon defending the forest - sadly 3 out of the 5 T-34s bogged and that was essentially all that she wrote. A follow up assault from the second company did a little more than kill a couple of teams and my company left the field with only the 4 BA-64s remaining.

I think we all knew how the game was going to pan out with Steven's Jagdtigers being basically unkillable given the forces we opted to take (guess Wayne or I need to paint some 152mm artillery!) so I asked myself the same question though - "was the game worth playing once we rolled up the mission?" and my thoughts were yes. Partially for the same reason as my game vs Tony that you do not always have a fair fight on your hands and the challenge makes you think outside the box, but also because of a few other reasons
1. I have only played Surrounded a handful of times so any exposure to how other players tackle the mission is good.
2. I have four Jagdtigers somewhere deep in the painting queue and it is always nice to see something you want to paint in action to help inspire you to move it up.
3. Since it was a relaxed afternoon game we were just throwing dice, talking smack and discussing rules (i.e. the game was a backdrop to a social few hours!)

With a couple of social games to start off the year hopefully this will set the tone for more to come over the next 12 months. I might even manage to win a couple.

Woldwrath... Oh My!

I have been wanting to assemble a Colossal or Gargantuan for some time, but never seemed to get round to it so over the last few days I decided to get my act together and give it a go, after all they are just big 'jacks or beasts right?... hmmm not so much!

First up let me say that this is a fantastic model and was a joy to put together (once I figured out the assembly instructions) and looks great once finished. I still have a few metal pieces to glue on but it is otherwise complete and I am really happy with the entire look and feel of the model. If you have not seen Sean Bullough's shots of the master, it is worth checking out here...

I did break one of my rules (avoid pinning at all cost) and broke out the brass rod and GF9 pinning kit as I was worried about the size of the model and the effect of gravity over time. Almost every joint on this model is pinned (and in the case of the right arm, pinned twice!) to just give it a little more strength. The upside is that the PP resin/plastic is really easy to drill  because some of the components are hollow (as my initial suspicions suggested when I held some of the components) to reduce weight and resin, all of which equals reduced production costs and, in my opinion, a better model. 

As you can see I opted to leave the arms off as I have no idea how I would paint it otherwise. Unfortunately for me I have a few projects competing for painting time at the moment so I am not sure when I will start putting some paint on, but I did notice that I have a Woldwyrd,Woldwarden, a partially complete Woldwatcher and a unit of Woldstalkers that also require some painting and assembly so I might have a "Wold Month" later in the year..

Looking at the big fella next to Megalith and eBaldur though I can tell you that I am looking forward to putting some paint on him!.

NiCon Teams Tournament & Baldur

A couple of weeks ago, Victor, Sean and myself played in the Warmachine Teams Tournament at NiCon. After last years poor showing we thought we would try and come up with some more competitive lists and perhaps even get some practice games in. Needless to say we only ended up getting a couple of games in but I think we all learnt a lot from it. Victor had his Zaal list packed full of annoying infantry and Ancestral Guardians, Sean had Blindwater list with Maelok and friends.

I took Baldur the Stonesoul and his Tier list

Baldur the Stonesoul

Baldur the Stonesoul (again)

The Wolds

Blackclad Wayfarer

Shifting Stones and Stonekeeper

Druids of Orboros

The entire army was painted (as a few of the other posts on the blog will tell you) over the weeks prior to the event and I am really happy with how the entire force turned out. I would like to have a go at re-doing Baldur's face as I know I can do better, but as a large cohesive army I think it looks great.

One of the things (at least in my mind) that really set it off is the foliage I added to the Wolds. This is the same stuff that I am planning on using on some of my Late War Germans (when I get around to doing them) and is made by a company called Silflor (same people that do the tufts). It was a little annoying to glue on and it is not really something that will last forever if you are doing a lot of gaming with it, but it really made these big wood and stone constructs "pop" on the tabletop.

Silflor Leaf Foliage on Megalith

As for the weekends gaming... it was great fun and our performance on the tabletop was definitely better than last year with a total of 5 individual wins and 2 team wins. For me the most amusing win was a balls to the wall, do or die effort where I knew I had moved badly in my first turn and Xerxis was up in my face too quickly - so the Shifting Stones and Baldur combined for a sweet assassination run. The Blackclad charged in first, hit and managed to knock a few boxes off, then Baldur appeared next to him and said - I have a full load of Fury, you have a few transfers, lets get it on! Xerxis transferred 2 or 3 hits, which killed an Archidon and badly wounded a Titan, however the last attack cleaned him out letting me claw out a victory. It was glorious!

Now to work out what my next WarmaHordes project will be....

Wold Week: Megalith...SMASH

Wold Week has finished, I am just being slack in terms of getting the final thoughts on the blog! It was a good week, got a pile of stuff done (not as much as I hoped) but I am back on painting T-26s at full speed for another week now, so there is no chance to finish the Circle boys off. Of course they need to be ready in three weeks so I am sure there will be another update shortly on the Wolds.

In the meantime, here is the modified Megalith. I changed him from the standard pose and dropped the arms to make him a little easier to store and carry. The only part that I could not make my mind up on were the "shoulder pads". In the end I decided to remove them and rotate them in line with the arms - my logic was that these should be articulated so that he can more easily drop the shoulder whilst charging and put stone to face!

I'll have some more photos of the entire force up "soon"...

Wold Week: Wold Guardian

Wold Week continues... (Its like Shark Week on Discovery but with more stone and less teeth!)

This morning I finished up my Wold Guardian. I am happy on the whole with how he turned out, although I wished I spent a little more time practicing how to paint stone before tackling this guy as I think I could have done a better job. However the finished look is cool and once I add my secret ingrediant (more info coming soon) and finish the basing I think he will really pop on the tabletop.

Next on the list is Megalith, I have decided that I will convert his pose from the traditional hands up, to a something a little easier to transport! 

I've already put a little paint on him, but it is only the base colour for the stone and wood so no great loss if I end up having to redo a little of that work, especially if I have a nicer looking model at the end of the process. I expect to have some photos of him tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm off for my first game with eBaldur and the Wold boys. Going to give Victor a game later today and with a bit of luck I'll confirm that I have a workable list for NiCon... Mike has even promised to show me how Saga works, so it will be be a good day of gaming!

Wold Family...

Wold Week: The Woldwyrd

Been busy on the brushes again, this time finishing off a Woldwyrd. Very satisfied with how his “eye” turned out, definitely think it finishes off the figure nicely. Had a bit of a painting fail last night with my Wold Guardian – just too big to finish in one night, although I did managed to get the green glowy bits done and started work on the stone. With a bit of luck I’ll have him finished tomorrow (a lot of luck), leaving Megalith as my last Warbeast to finish up for the NiCon teams tournament. Next week I’ll be returning to Flames Of War, trying to get those 21 T-26s ready for the Mid War GT in a couple of weeks…

Wold Week: Woldwatcher Done(?)

Finished my test Woldwatcher with a little help first thing this morning before work, still needs basing and my secret final additional touch (more on that later in the week). Not 100% happy with the stonework, the face especially... might have a play with that later in the week once I have the other three completed. Victor suggesting trying some of the new GW washes to help build up some contrast... always looking for an excuse to buy new paints so I might have to go and have a look at them!

Also got distracted last night by having to do some more work on my Soviet Mid War GT army... finished the assembly of 21 T-26 tanks! Not a bad nights work I thought.

Tonight I will work on my Woldwyrd, leaving me a Woldguardian and Megalith to try to knock out over Wednesday and Friday nights... I sence a failure about to happen as the new Avengers movie is calling pretty hard as a much better way to spend Friday night!

Wold WIP Week Challenge!

Its been a little quite round here over the past few weeks, coming off some serious painting time for the NZ Nationals. Unfortunately that just results in more pressure for the next two tournaments (my final two before taking a 5 month break). I have a Mid War Soviet Tankovy list that I am working on for the Mid War GT that I'll have pictures of in the coming weeks, but I am also working on my eBaldur list for the Teams Tournament in about 4 or 5 weeks. I've come up with a style that I am happy with for the wood and stone, that is quick and fairly effective, the next challenge is to try and complete 4 Wolds over the course of the next 5 nights... Technically I think I can do it, but to help make sure of it lets call this a Wold WIP Week Challenge!

Tonights job - finish the Woldwatcher that I used as a painting test (now that I look at it, some of the painting looks a bit dodgy at 200-300% of its real size...)

Tournaments Galore...

The first half of 2012 is a very busy one on the tournament front, three tournaments down and 3 or 4 more to go.. Why 3 OR 4 you ask? I have permission to go to Panzerschreck 2012 this year but I feel that my leave pass might get revoked since my first child is due two weeks afterwards!

In a little over two weeks time we have the NZ Nationals, with two separate tournaments - a one day 25 point Highlander event, and a two day 35 point SR2012 event (with 7 points of reinforcements). 

25pt Highlander - my plan was to go with a very simple plan, using painted figures (so I don't have to get anything new painted)...

Karchev the Terrible

Destroyer

Juggernaut (x2)

Man-O-War Demo Corps (x3)

Reinholdt

This gives me a force that I am well used to using, with the added benefit of having Reinholdt for a bit of pre-measuring fun, as well as letting him get off a pair of shots with the SP10 "gun". Just need to get confirmation that I am allowed duplicate 'jacks.

As for the 35 point SR2012 event

Karchev the Terrible

Wardog

Destroyer

Juggernaut (x2)

Iron Fang Uhlans (x3)

Man-O-War Demo Corps (x5)

Reinforcements:

Manhunters (x2)

Yuri the Axe

Once again I am working on the theory that I know how the core of the army works having taken the same force (without the IFU) at an event last year. I've never used cavalry before, nor have I gotten them painted yet so I need to get a shake on!

As for the rest of the year we the Flames of War Mid War GT, which I am meant to be painting up an entirely new army... And finally the North Island Convention (NiCon) where Sean, Victor and I are teaming up to defend out title of Swamp Gobblers (from last years teams event). For this event I have a 35 point eBaldur list on the painting table.

Finally, I realised that I had not put any photos of Kaya and her Wolves on the the blog yet. I borrowed the camera this morning and managed to take a few photos. With a bit of luck I'll have some WIP images of the Uhlans next week!

Kaya and the 'real' Wolfpack!

Equinox 2012 - Day 2

Day 2 of Equinox started with high hopes after a good nights sleep and a pretty average performance the day before. Of course this means nothing in the world of tournament gaming...

Round Five vs Chris "the master of all things Cryx" Otton. Chris is one of the "top blokes" I mentioned in the previous post, the last time we meant he went to great pains to explain how his army was going to beat me... before then proceeding to beat me in that exact way  :)  This yeas he is taking time away from Cryx to move to Circle and was running an eKaya list, packing plenty of big wolves, shifting stones and druids (pretty much the list I should have been running if I could have gotten the extra bits painted in time. This was one of the most memorable games I have ever had as I felt outclassed by a superior player, made plenty of dumb mistakes, and then watched as the dice tried valiantly to assassinate his chances of winning, combined with a few silly mistakes in his part. In the end the classier player won as he managed to get me away from the flags and pull off a 3-1 Control Point win!

Round Six was verses Dan's beautifully painted Skorne (which won best painted) - this was another memorable games with eHexeris. I used my speed to my advantage and managed to pick away at his force, whilst he expended alot of firepower trying to destroy one of the objectives. In our final turn I managed to get him down to a pair of Cetrati and a single Titan, but through some stupidity of my own left Kaya without any Fury (burnt it off stopping the Titan from being able to charge thanks to a Spirit Fang). Dan started his turn, moved the Titan in and basically did nothing, then said "oops, I forgot to cut myself for Fury", I let him grab the two Fury anyway but said... "If you win this turn....". Looking at the situation he decided that the only way to go was a Page 5 mentality, moved Hexeris into the open and threw a Hellfire at Kaya...boost to hit, boost to damage... Kaya falls over. As it happened he still had the two extra Fury left so it did not matter... not that it made me feel much better  :D

Round Seven... needed a win for some self respect. Found myself facing a big Blindwater list with Maelok in charge. This was one of those games where by the end of turn 2 I pretty much knew I could not pull it off and just tried to get a few points. Managed to duck and dive, picking off points for about 5 or 6 turns before Maelok popped his feat and a gang of angry Gators ate Kara - it did take the entire unit with re roll misses, but they managed it!

So, 7 games down, 2 wins (one of them rather dubious...), so not a good weekend on the pitch. However plenty of fun and lots of good spirits amongst the competitors and a pile of nicely painted armies. What more could a players want?

As it turns out, they might want a nice trophy... The rather interesting specimen on the right was (as the plaque said) the Equinox Warmachine Trophy. Looking like that I can see why the organisers of Equinox had to put such an obvious name on it, as otherwise someone might think that their grandmother left a Sherry glass laying round the hall? Either way there was some pretty impressive prize and trophy/medal support (just to be clear I am being facetious!) for a 30+ player event that should have brought in enough entry fees to almost cover the hall hire. Luckily Chris and the Thrallblacks guys who were organising the Warmachine part of the event really went to town (check out the trophies from the last post). 

In the final wind up Scott Avery took out the top spot, literally standing head and shoulders above the rest of the competition. I managed to not take out the rather coveted wooden spoon award (I was not far off though!). However my fellow competitors were kind enough to give me the Best Sport award (letting people have extra Fury to kill me had to pay off some time) proving that those that can, Win, and those that cannot should go for the Sports Award  :D

Now that is what I call a TROPHY (check out the sweet Thrallblacks shot glass)

Thanks to all the competitors, especially Chris and the Thrallblacks for putting it all together and I will see some of you in three weeks for the NZ Nationals. Looking at what I need to paint for that I am in deep trouble - but whats life if you are not painting the night before an event anyway!

Equinox 2012 - Day 1

The Hall

As expected, day one of Equinox was a blast - four games down, 2 wins and 2 losses. We ended up with 28 players after a couple of guys had to drop out at the last minute, and across all the competitions (FoW, WHFB and 40K) there were well over a hundred sweaty bodies in hall  :)  Best of all we had a great turn-out from the "Out-of-Towners" (all of whom are great blokes to play!) with the Hamilton and Wellington boys turning out in force.

The day did not start off too well as I slept in, luckily my first round opponent had a few issues with his arrival time and we were able to get started in the nick of time. I played a fellow Circle player who was running a Morvana + Tharn list and it was running circles round me - I really wish I owned some except for the fact I really do not like the models. We ended up timing out and I won on the first tie breaker (having a fully painted army.... yes, you read correctly... check out the rules for Equinox).

Round two was up against a Troll player that had just rolled Victor - he had a wall of Fennblades that when combined with Borka's spells made them particularly useful, getting a string of knockdowns on my beasts. I put in a valiant effort but made a couple of stupid mistakes which meant I had no chance in pulling off a lucky Pureblood spray attack + couple of magic attacks from Kaya one-in-a-million shot win

Round three saw me sitting near the bottom of the table, playing a list very similar to mine - drop the Argus and a Wolf for Druids, Blackclad and Wilder essentially. This started out badly when one of my Ferals was quickly dropped by his Stalker (which his Kaya teleported back to safety). However he seemed to forget about the scenario and I managed to win on Control Points - I'd also dropped much of his army thanks to a few cunning strikes by my surviving Pureblood and Stalker.... I also used the Argus' spray attack for possibly the first time (it even stopped his remaining beast from contesting the control point).

The last round was a bit ugly - Durgen and waves of infantry that managed to nibble at by beasts and then in a couple of turns drop all of them. I was able to make a good account of myself, but really missed having a unit of infantry to screen me beasts.

I did manage to take a few photos, but the camera was not great... as you can see below.

Random Draw Prize - super schweeeet engraved beer mug!

The Trophies

First Place Trophy (and thats about as close as I would be getting to holding it!)

I'll have a wrap up tomorrow (Assuming I survive another 3 rounds)