Showing posts with label IABN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IABN. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Secret Weapon Town Square Bases

Earlier this year I took a look at some of the resin bases that are available to wargamers in this post here. A couple of weeks ago the good guys at Slave To Painting had a nice sale and I purchased some of the Secret Weapon Miniatures Town Square bases. I’ve been eyeing these up for a few months but been reluctant to commit thus far, so with the option of a discount I finally weakened! Below are some sample images from their range.



30mm Bases (10 different designs)
40mm Bases (5 different designs)
50mm Bases (4 different designs)
120mm Bases (2 different designs)
For those of you that have never heard of Secret Weapon Miniatures, it was started a few years ago by Justin "misterjustin" McCoy and has grown to have quite a range of cool products including bases, pigments and washes. They also ran a very successful Kickstarter (who isn’t these days) for injection molded plastic table tiles which just look fantastic and I cannot wait to get my hands on the Urban Streets set!

After seeing the quality of these first bases I am seriously tempted to head back to pick up some of their Trench Works and use them for either my Khador or Rhulic army.

Monday, September 30, 2013

Choptober - The List Playtesting!



With Choptober only a few days away, Victor and I finally managed to schedule in a game last week so we could have a practice with our armies. My Theory-Machine skills are sadly lacking so I need to put figures on the table to see if I can actually use their synergies. I also find that my first game or two of a tournament is marred by serious memory lapses resulting is missed shots during Kara’s Feat turn, so a warm-up game is essential for remembering how the list works.

I took:
Captain Kara Sloan
- Stormwall
- Defender
- Hunter
- Hunter

Journeyman Warcaster
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Gobber Tinker

Greygore Boomhowler & Co.
- Captain Jonas Murdoch

Facing off against me was Ashlynn D'Elyse with a Nomad and Vanguard, Gun Mages with a Mule, Forge Guard, Nyss Hunters, Eiryss, Gorman, Lanyssa and Rhupert.

I took the centre of the battlefield, with Boomhowlers getting an Assault charge off on the Forge Guard, killing a few of them (damn Rhupert and his pipe!). The FG then counter charged and over the next couple of turns we ground each other out. I popped my feat and managed to achieve very little as I had placed Kara too far back and not planned out my moves particularly well, resulting in some lost shots. The Hunters skirmished on the right flank, trading shots with the Mule and Gun Mages, whilst the Journeyman took out Eiryss. Killing Eiryss was worth it, but two turns later (since I got cocky) the Journeyman was dead and the Stormwall lost the Arcane Shield (ultimately resulting in its death and the loss of the game). 

On the left flank the Nyss took up field position and peppered the Stormwall with arrows, and then the Nomad charged in and killed the Defender. The Stormwall killed the Nomad but lost time doing so thanks to Eiryss shooting it before her death. With the Arcane Shield down the Nyss charged in and knocked out the left side, then risked the free strikes to walk around to Kara and club her to death… If the Journeyman had retreated after killing Eiryss and survived (and by extension the Arcane Shield would have still been on the Stormwall) then the Stormwall would have been fully operation and capable of knocking out the last of Victors models, opening the door for Kara to safely shoot Ashlynn.

On the positive I learnt a few things and will (hopefully) get to try a slightly different list before this weekend:
Captain Kara Sloan
- Stormwall
- Hunter
- Hunter

Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Journeyman Warcaster
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Greygore Boomhowler & Co.
- Captain Jonas Murdoch

Dropping the Defender and Tinker I get Arlan and a full unit of ATGM. Arlan is more reliable when it comes to repairing the Stormwall, and has a few tricks of his own. The loss of the Defender feels like a big hit given how good it’s gun is, however the ATGM will give me more flexibility (I feel) and can really benefit from Kara’s feat (with Crit Brutal shots) and her spell that gives them an extra dice for their first shot.

Either way I have a few days to get in a 2nd practice game in….  Luckily for me there are no painting requirements for Choptober (other than arc markings) since I am still painting stuff for work, so I’ll break my “no unpainted figures” rule and use this as an opportunity to get excited about Boomhowlers and hopefully make them a Christmas painting project.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

IKRPG: Cairnholm Campaign

Our office Iron Kingdoms RPG game kicked off a couple of weeks ago, with Sean running us through the "Fools Rush In" adventure which then spring boarded into his own campaign based around the city of Cairnholm in Ord. You can follow the antics here on Sean's website.

In the meantime I have largely abandoned my plans to have much of anything painted in time for Choptober, instead spending my time painting up my RPG figure (a wise choice since I never finished my figure for Sean's last 4th Ed D&D campaign). I started off with the IKRPG figure "Valeria Alvaro", cut away her hair, added part of a Warcaster backpack, re sculpted the hair and part of her scarf. The sculpting was not flash (definitely not one of my skills) but looked good enough once painted to turn the figure into Alexis, the Llaelese Warcaster/Pistolier. I also added the banner from the alternate sculpt of Ashlynn D'Elyse (which Victor had spare) to give her a distinctive look, as well as making it abundantly clear where her allegiance lies.

Next up I have a Vanguard that I bought for Zerkova's tier list that I will paint up for when/if Alexis acquires a 'jack of her own. My plan is to use the same airbrushing technique that I used on the flag, but then give it a good working over with some of the MiG and AK Interactive washes to give it a real battle worn look. Although that might have to wait a little while as I have some work painting that needs to be much higher up on the priority list!

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Choptober 2013 - the planning

Recently a new event was added to the Auckland gaming calender with the announcement of Choptober - a 50 point, two list SR2013 WarmaHordes tournament in early October. Thanks to an important family event (my son's first birthday party) I pulled out of Call To Arms in Wellington - typically my last WarmaHordes event of the year - so I am keen to head along and get something new painted.

Digging through my piles of stuff I have picked a list that will require a fair amount of painting (bit of a worry since I have Israelis to paint for work as well as a Late War army for FlamesCon in late October) and still need to work out if I will field a second list.

The current plan is to stick with Kara Sloan as it easy and requires the least amount of painting compared with any other option.
Looks like Strangeways might be taking a break...

Captain Kara Sloan
Defender
Hunter
Hunter
Stormwall
Gobber Tinker (1 point of Stormwall repair seems too good to pass up on)

Journeyman Warcaster
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Greygore Boomhowler & Co. - Boomhowler and 9 Grunts

with Captain Jonas Murdoch

The Negatives - The Stormwall, Tinker, Boomhowler and Murdoch are all unpainted (and in some cases unassembled!) and I have a grand total of six painting sessions to get them done. My plan is to keep it as simple as possible and accept that the lot will not be finished (breaking one of my Warmachine painting rules!) and instead just get the base colours on everything if possible and finish them off at my leisure some time next (?) year.

The Positives - once these figures are assembled I will have one Cygnar unit and one light jack to assemble and I will be 100% built with no models sitting in blisters or boxes, making it much simpler to add new things for any events in 2014. The other big one is that adding Boomhowler and his boys will make the list much harder as good players get in close and disassemble my regular Kara force, so having a big mob of 4+ Tough Trolls will help no end. Plus I get to have a go at painting Trollkin skin (in preparation of 2014: The Year of the Troll!)

The Twist - two lists eh.... maybe I should have a go at running eHaley... I've heard she is pretty legit  :D


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

High Command first look

One of the product releases I have been keeping an eye out for this year is High Command, the "collectible" Warmachine card game. This is one of the new Living Card Games (like the Star Wars and Netrunner) that all the cool kids seem to be putting on sale. I say "cool kids" as am an old school card gamer that started playing Magic back in the early 90's and enjoys the idea of buying boxes of outers and opening pack after pack looking for "rares" so this idea of buying a single booster pack every couple of months seems odd!

Victor and I sat down and had a look at the game last week. We had a quick read through of the rules which seemed surprisingly straight forward, with a lot of the complexity sitting on the cards just like Warmachine itself. If you have the PPDigital App you can download the rules to have a look. Sorting out the cards was a complete pain the nether regions with so many decks and sub decks! The cards were not sorted in any way that I could quickly discern and it took the two of us quite some time to organise them by faction and then by colour etc.

Decks all sorted out
Once the hard work was done we played through the quick start version in about 40 minutes and did not have any major issues that we could not quickly sort out with a brief look at the rules. We were a little perplexed by the lack of one card, although this has been errata'ed now (nothing like last minute changes in the design process). The game was fun, although Victor did win - he was playing Cryx so it was expected! I wont go into how the game plays etc as there is a great video from PP explaining everything so just watch that.

Once the game was complete I sorted the cards back into their decks. Another time consuming process that is for sure! I do like how the interior of the High Command box is organised though with enough slots to keep all of your mini decks organised and separated. Not sure how useful this is because it does seem like an awful waste of space for both packing/shipping, and for storage. It is still a very cool idea though and I take my hat off to whoever came up with it.


All sleeved up and sorted by colour
The other reason I think it was well planned is that once you put sleeves on the cards (as any self respecting card player would do within moments of opening the box) they fit quite snugly into the slots, making it more stable for transport etc. However I am still not convinced it is a great long term storage solution as it would be easier to buy a $5 card box and just store your decks in there.

There is one word of caution I would give if you are planning on sleeving your cards. The location deck (which you capture over the course of the game) can end up mixed into your Army Deck, which players could use to help with a little deck shuffling shenanigans if you just put a traditional clear card sleeve on. Simple solution... only play with friends and it is not an issue!

So, initial thoughts - game looks fun, plays fast (we have had a second game that took 35 minutes with full decks etc), has some cool mechanics, keen to play a multi player game sooner rather than later, but frustrating at the amount of faffing around tidying up after a game. I'd put this down as a fun diversion when you want to play something Warmachine related, but not Warmachine itself. The Hordes version is on sale later this year and perhaps this is the most telling point about the game, I am not sure I see the point in buying both the Warmachine and Hordes versions - pick whichever one floats your boat and go with that I say!




Saturday, July 6, 2013

Wargaming Resin Bases

Like many gamers my creative streak only runs so far, so since getting in to Warmachine I've been paying a lot of attention to the various companies producing resin bases, with the aim of overcoming some of my own modelling deficiences by drafting in someone elses skills to help give my miniatures a little more "pop" on the tabletop.

Resin bases come in two varieties (for the "rolled shoulder" Privateer Press style that is) - full bases, and inserts. A full base is exactly what is says on the box, you replace your existing plastic PP base with a sculpted resin version. Inserts on the othe rhand are small circles that you glue on to your base before attaching the figure. In both cases you are going to be pinning the figure to the base, rather than using the "slotta-tab".

I've looked at a lot companies online, and bought a few samples along the way. Rather than looking at the manufacturers initially, here are some of the things that I considered whilst assessing the offerings on screen.

1. Quality of the range. We are buying their bases because they have the skills (or time) that we do not have, so they must have a nice enough looking product that it is worth buying.
2. Number of ranges. If you find a company that you like, it is nice if they make more than one range of bases so you can stick with them.
3. Variety of the bases inside the range. A unit including UA can be 12 figures, so having 4 types of 30mm base in the range means a lot of repetition. In a perfect world there would be 3+, 6+ and 8+ base designs (50mm, 40mm and 30mm bases respectively) as this reduces the repetition inside a unit and across heavy Warjacks of Warbeasts (where 2 different designs will become very apparent).
4. Do they make a 120mm base? Chances are you are going to want a Collossal or Gargantuan (or Battle Engine) in your force at some point, nice to have it look the same.
5. Price. This one needs no explaination
6. Layout of the bases. Your figures will generally be standing in the middle of the base so big raised surfaces (such as logs) where you want to stick your figure can be a pain.

Links to manufacturers (not a complete list, just the companies I have been looking at) that make PP style rolled shoulder bases (or inserts).
Back 2 Base-ix
Fenris Games
Kerr and King
Iron Halo
Micro Art Studio
Tabletop-Art

So far I have bought bases from all of these companies with the exception of Micro Art and Tabletop-Art. In the case of Micro Art it is because they do not have something suitable for what I am looking for, and the same more or less goes for Tabletop-Art (although I am interested in having a look at their trench bases for my Khador).

Back 2 Base-ix: I've bought bases from their Slate (for my Rasputina gang), Forest (Kara's Cygnar), Dirt (earmarked for my Cygnar) and Dungeon Stone. I really like their Forest bases, although some of the bases are a challenge to mount the figures if you do not pose them with a specific base in mind. They do have some really nice sculpted detail are are good value for money. I am a little dissapointed that one of the bases (the left one in the picture below) appears to be a 40mm or 30mm base with a little extra added. If you look carefully you can see the extra putty that has been added to the detail starting at "1 o'clock" and going round to "9 o'clock" and it does not quite match the original design.
Back 2 Base-ix Forest bases (50mm)
Fenris Games: I only came across these guys very recently and picked up their Rubble City (planning on using these for my Trolls) and Woodland Path (Circle) bases. They are very competitively priced and have the best quantity of variants in each size that I have seen. They look easy enough to pose figures (have not tried yet) and have enough detail that they should paint up well. Quality of the sculpting is not as good as B2B but still significantly better than I can achieve. They are also the only people (out of the ones I have bought samples from) to make 120mm bases.
Fenris Games: Rubble City bases (50mm)
Fenris Games: Woodland Path bases (50mm)
Kerr and King: I've bought their Flames Of War bases in the past and thought that there were some cool design elements in them so I gave their 28mm bases a shot. They had some of the nice elements that I expected (the sharks fin in the water is a good touch) but were not all I hoped for. They range was also quite small which would lead to a lot of duplication if you have more than a couple of 50mm based models.
Kerr and King: Forest bases (left) and Dockside bases (right) (all 50mm)
I don't have images of my Iron Halo bases as I have only bought square bases from them (for a Warhammer army). Rachel's stuff is nice though, although her painting skills far (far far far) outweigh mine so no surprises that they look good on her website. Plus it is nice to deal with another kiwi. My preference is for full resin bases rather than inserts which is the main reason I have not picked any up.

Going through this process I have managed to (hopefully) nail down my basing style for my Trolls and Circle, my Cygnar were already sorted of course, leaving Khador and Rhulic. I am keen to check out the Tabletop-Art trench range for my Khador but their lack of variation in the 50mm size is a problem for me. So far I am lacking inspiration for my Dwarves, but am contemplating the Back 2 Base-ix Slate bases with a very different colour scheme compared with the dark greys for Rasputina. Of course another option that is open to me is to try my hand at making my own and casting them, but that is another story - assuming I am crazy enough to go down that route!

If you have not looked at the resin bases on the market, or are looking for some non-PP style bases have a look at this article on Dakka Dakka for some more links to manufacturers.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Building a better 'Jack

We are getting closer to starting up our first Iron Kingdoms RPG at work and I am still trying to decide on what to play. I've decided that I want my character to have a warjack at some point so I thought I would construct one to represent whatever I (hopefully) acquire at some point. I had a good look through my left over resin 'jack parts, added a few rare earth magnets, a Mule chassis and came up with these (I still need to work on another couple of options just for fun). This will mean that no matter what equipment load-out I end up with, my 'jack will be ready for battle.
The ghetto Centurion
The budget Destroyer
Nomad says "Where is my buckler!
I have a few painting projects on the go for work that need to take priority, so I will be parking this for a while but I have a cunning plan with plenty of chipping and weathering (which I have never really done so it should be fun to learn).

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

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!.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Minutemen might as well JUMP!

I've had three Minutemen sitting in a blister pack ever since they were released. As this blog makes pretty clear I love the Hunter chassis, so adding a 'jack that could jump, had two nasty little guns and a flak field to that chassis meant I was always going to be getting some for my Kara Sloan list! I was a little disappointed with the models when I received them, not because the 'jack looks anything less that outstanding, more because the pose was so distinct that you had to do some serious work to make them look like individuals. Of course PP probably did not expect people to want to own three of them (I figure I had three Hunters so each one needed a friend!).

The solution was simple and just required a little work with brass rod and GF9 clump foliage. Hope you like the result...
The 'jack on the left is as standard from the blister, the other two have had their legs reposed to appear in-flight.
Close up rear view - the foam needs a few applications of watered down PVA and will be painted black and grey.

As the Van Halen song says... Might as well Jump. Go ahead, jump!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

The Kara Sloan Tactical Fun Line Goes To NiCon

Another year has rolled by and Sean, Victor and myself headed off for another weekend of playing WarmaHordes at the now annual teams tournament, this time in sunny (and rather beautiful in an art deco kind of way) Napier.

Plan was simple - don't do as badly as last year.... Looks rather like my usual Kara Sloan force, but swapping out the Rangers for ATGMs and a Hunter for a Sentinel (sick of Kara dying to a lucky shot!).

The list was...
Captain Kara Sloan
- Squire
- Defender
- Hunter
- Hunter
- Sentinel

Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Journeyman Warcaster
Captain Arlan Strangewayes

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer


Round 1 - Richard from Frozen Nightmare. I said I was not playing either of the two Cryx players and instead faced off against Richard and his Conquest. As usual, round 1 forgetfulness kicked in and my feat turn was a disaster! The Conquest with four mechanics proved too hard to shift and despite shooting up a lot of his army my failure to put the big man down resulted in eSorsha having a good day at the office.


Round 2 - Mark from Grumpy Old Men. Mark is an old school gamer and was running his Menoth eSeverius list. He pushed up the table and decided to not use his Choir to protect his 'jacks. I asked if he was sure.... he said yes... I removed one and badly damaged the other two. His caster spent the rest of the game hiding whilst I tried to push up field to him. In the end I timed out (50 minute death clock) however Mark conceded the game as he only had a couple of models left and was about to time out himself.


Round 3 - Dave from Good Players. Dave is another old school gamer, yet I think I have only played him once before (my Savage Orcs vs his Lizardmen about 6-8 years ago). He picked up WarmaHordes a couple of years ago and has been undergoing intensive tutorials and is one of the better players in NZ (although he does stick to Cryx...). I basically shot a third of his army off the table on my feat turn and left his Kraken on 1 box (which he failed to repair). He valiantly tried to take the game out by control points and did my best to help him, but managed to pull off the win. Lets be honest Dave is a way better player than me, but now that I am up 1-0 I am happy to let the record show that I am "statistically" the better player.... hehe.


Round 4 - Vincent from Mentally Impaired. Vincent was running a Nemo list with lots of units and I cannot remember much of this game other than it went the distance (i.e. he would have run out of time after forgetting to hit the timer at the end of his turn, except we "turned back the clock"). If I remember correctly Nemo was down to a couple of boxes and Kara found herself on the receiving end of a couple of lightning spells resulting in her looking a little crispy!


Round 5 - Graeme from Lobster Magnet. Graeme and I played at the last tournament and I pulled off a lucky win against his eCaine list. Short version... same deal! I shot a lot, he shot a bit less, kept eCaine out of the line of fire whilst we chipped away at each others forces but in the end he ran out of troops and Caine had to put himself out in the open, if he survived he won... thanks to a lucky shot from Kara he did not survive.


Round 6 - Mike from Maximum Compensation. More old school gamers... Mike was handy with his High Elves but has now turned to the Galleon/Bart list. He used the Galleon well, getting some lucky shots knocking out the guns on both Hunters before I could feat. I played poorly in places forgetting small things that would have made a big difference - that is instead of leaving the Galleon on 5 boxes he probably would have been dead (and Kara would have been alive). Came close to buying two Galleons and Bart after the game... but since my wife reads this I thought better of it!


Round 7 - Peter from Angry Birds. Last round, very tired... and playing Peter who I also played at my previous tournament. Peter was teamed up with two of my gaming buddies that have been playing a lot of WarmaHordes over the past few months. He was running a  Morvahna/Tharn Bloodtrackers/Warpborn Skinwalkers list and I remembered my lesson from the last time we played... kill ALL the Bloodtrackers in one turn or don't even bother trying. We spent the entire game trading figures and although he won, he did it with his caster and three Shifting Stones left and I just had Kara.... the Stones pulling off the win on Control Points.


Three wins out of seven games... that is about as good as I can expect at any WarmaHordes event, at least this time around I could honestly say that I had a couple of games where it would not have taken much for them to go my way, and a couple of the the dicey games turned out in my favour. Summary, great games, great opponents, great weekend... already planning for next years teams tournament in Tauranga. The only bad bit was that I failed to take many photos....

Waking up to this beautiful sunrise... but damn it was cold!
The hall

Dave, after loosing the figures on his left flank, failing his repair check and needing a wee break
At the venue there was also a Model Expo with some cool toys, including this awesome model
The Galleon and Bart - turns out that despite most of my force being alive the Galleon was enough to finish the job
Sean's Nemo3 list finally finished and based!


P.S. thanks Chris B for the new name for my list....

Thursday, April 4, 2013

WWPD4Vets Gaming Day (at BF HQ)

Over the weekend we rounded up a few people to spend the day playing games all in the aid of charity. It's a hard life.....! Wayne and Mike organised a large "Return to Budapest" game with 4 generals per side and 1000 points each. I thought this could be a good chance to roll out my T-34s that I had just finished painting

I also dug out some old LOTR Rohan figures that I picked up for a long forgotten project and turned them in to a force for Saga (I am calling them the Ro-Normans or Ro-Bretons) for an intro game with Wayne. Finally I managed to play a couple of games with Warma-Hordes verses Casey and long time Warhammer opponent Reid.

It was great to spend a day gaming, but even more importantly it was nice to help the WWPD guys raise some money for a very worthy charity.

Wayne and Mike set up for the big game
Mike's Strelkovy move up through the factory
The Sturmtigers hold the plaza
My T-34/85s support the advancing IS-2s - The T-34s would be routed from the field but no until we had a commanding lead on Victory Points
The Ro-Normans take the field (and get smashed - probably the lack of paint)
Kara's gun line vs Casey's Legion. Too much shooting for Casey to get his head around
Reid and Gordon have a game (converting them both from Warhammer)
Kara vs Reid, seconds after her Feat and a lot of shooting remove Molik Karn









Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Kara Sloan Artwork

Sean came across a forum post on the PP site earlier in the week where a Hungarian group used some of the images from my blog to make a piece if artwork to promote a tournament. The piece of artwork is outstanding and I am pretty flattered that they used my stuff to create something so cool! I just need to paint up my Squire so that I can field this force.

Original Privateer Press Forum Post

 

Friday, March 22, 2013

Thunderhead!

Took a few photos of the Thunderhead and Journeyman Warcaster that I painted up for Ides of March. I decided to paint the Thunderhead in a bit of a reverse scheme (white with blue accents) to try and make it stand out as something different. When I paint up my Squire I might do the same thing. As for the Journeyman I tried to make her look as much like Kara Sloan as possible - maybe she is a young Kara?


Journeyman Warcaster and Thunderhead


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Ides of March 2013

After much slacking around on my part, I have finally organised a write up for Ides of March 2013...

Ides was one of the biggest events on the Warmachine calender this year, with around 36 attendees coming from all over NZ. It took me until a week before the event to finally work out what I would be taking as my painting time was jam packed thanks to a T-34 battalion that I was painting for a series of articles for work. Taking the easy route I dusted of Kara Sloan and her Hunters, adding in a Thunderhead and Journeyman Warcaster. Rather than a pile of words about the event, here is a pile of photos!


We were split across three gaming rooms - "The Freezer"
"The Frying Pan" (was waiting for Mr Schuster to appear all weekend!)
"The Fire"
Round 1 vs Reid (Makeda) - an old mate of mine who is converting from Warhammer
Pop Feat, blow away the army, leave a gap for Molik... game over!
Round 2 vs Scott (Fiona the Black) - hmmm what is one of the best players in NZ doing playing me....?
Kara almost Kill Boxes herself... whilst Fiona takes the objective and wins.
Round 3 vs Peter (Morvahna) - Blood Trackers + Regrowth! Hate it when you leave one model in the unit! I played badly, Peter definitely played better... no guessing who won!
Round 4 vs Damien (eButcher) - Damien is another old mate of mine. This was one of those games where you pop Feat, shoot everyone, and it actually works!
Painting Competition!









Saturday evening fun at Chris B's place
Men need sausages not salad!

Thunderdome - the highlight of the evening was a match up from round 4 with about 20 of us watching
Can you tell which one is the master and which one is the apprentice?
Under pressure.....
There is always time for a quick game of X-Wing!
Round 5 vs Graeme (eCaine) - Pop feat, shoot everything, move up Thunderhead, pulse and then shoot Caine some more!
Round 6 vs Mike (Vindictus) - Rinse and repeat... although this time the Thunderhead had to weather a lot of free strikes as he walked out of combat to pulse.
Round 7 vs Matt (eSorsha) - Pop feat, kill Conquest in one turn, watch eSorsha pop her feat and a WG Mortar rolls double 6's to land on Sloan's head! Couple of bullets from the WG Rifle Corps and game over...!
The trophies
One of these two people is Victor, can you tell which one?
Overall, a great weekend, plenty of fun. 7 good games, I even played well in a couple of them... that balances a couple where I played really badly right? Looking forward to next years event - maybe I should start painting now?