2015 Gaming Calendar

With January rapidly coming to a close I thought it was worth taking a closer look at the Wargaming Calendar for 2015 and coming up with a bit of a plan. Also I need to clear the plan with the Master Scheduler (in other words, my wife) so that I don’t get into hot water.

Battlecry

Battlecry - Tigers in the mud

Traditionally one of my favourite events of the year as in the past it was hosted in a big gymnasium and it was filled with people playing a wide variety of wargames, as well as board games and card games. It also had the biggest turn out of retailers of any of the events I would normally go to. This resulted in some good games along with a few ways to be parted from my money. This year they are moving to a new (smaller) venue and dividing the event up over a couple of weekends. Hopefully it will still retain the flavour of previous years and luckily I only have a few weeks to wait to find out!

As for the gaming I am taking a slightly unconventional approach (at least by my standards) and dividing the weekend up in to two events – one day of X-Wing and one day or Hordes (first chance to roll out some Trolls).

Ides of March

Yeah, this is the big one! 40-50 Warmahordes players and a chance to get in a bunch of tough games (that I will of course loose). Ideally I will be taking the Trolls along for their second outing but IOM does have a fully painted requirement (which I am really pleased about) so I might have to put down a backup list with eBaldur and/or Bradigus Thorle and lots of constructs. Super excited about this event

Ides Of March - Sweet trophies!

To go to the NZ Nationals or to not go… that is the question?

This year the New Zealand Nationals will be in Auckland (yay!) but I am really struggling to find the time and enthusiasm put a 3 day weekend into gaming these days. Ten years ago I would have gone in a heartbeat but with more responsibilities comes more hard decisions… not going will definitely put a dent in my efforts to take out the Romanian spot in the NZ Flames Of War Rankings though! I might end up just having to put in a days friendly gaming somewhere instead?

NiCon

The North Island Convention is on another long weekend (just like the Nationals) but in this case it is in Thames (which is a short-ish drive away from the in-laws house) which might make it a bit easier to get away for a couple of days. Whilst it is too far away for concrete plans, Flames Of War is definitely on the cards.

Panzerschreck

Panzerschreck - Road Trippin'

Panzerschreck is the ancestral home of Flames Of War tournament gaming and traditionally takes the form of a doubles Late War event. 

Definitely keen on this as we normally hire a big mini-van for a nice team building 9 hour drive! I’ve been chatting to Phil about pairing up for a bit of low stress gaming. 

Assuming I get my act together I’ll either be taking an Atlantik Wall Puma company or Romanian StuGs so that could be quite a lot of fun.

Lords of Ruin - More sweet trophies!

Lords of Ruin

I am working on the assumption that this event is happening again this year as it was an absolute blast last year. Sean Lincoln organised a fantastic event in a local pub (down in Wellington). This is my drop dead target for having the fully painted Trolls in action!

Choptober

Looking forward to this one day W/H event here in Auckland. All the usual suspects will be there, and it will be a low stress event!


FlamesCon

We still need to get out ducks in a row with FlamesCon but my assumption is that it is happening… so much for insider knowledge eh! Either way, Romanians all the way baby! Currently thinking that it would be fun to play Early and Mid War, just not confident that I can get an EW Romanian army painted for it…

Well, there we have it, but 2015 event plan… throw in a few 1 day X-Wing events that pop up over the course of the year and it is feeling pretty solid to me.

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!

2014 Tournament Season

With growing family responsibilities at home as my son gets bigger and starts to throw around the word "daddy" a lot more, 2014 is already panning out to be a big year so I sat down and had a look through the tournament calender to try and plan out the year so there would be no (okay, fewer) surprises on the home front. It also gave me an opportunity to work out what was on the painting schedule.

February: Battlecry and Flames Of War. This will be the first road test for my Desperate Measures Reluctant Trained Tigers.

March: Ides of March and Warmachine. Dusting off my Circle forces and using this to incentivise me to paint up the Woldwrath!

April: Hamilton EW Tournament and FOW. This one is a little up in the air for me right now, but my French are looking for a reason to hit the table and this might be it!

May: NiCon and TBC. Love heading to sunny Tauranga, just need to work out what is on the menu I guess.

July: Panzerschreck and the FOW Doubles Event. It is just easier to give into Evan's nagging and head down. Plus Mike and I have something to make up for after our terrible performance last year.

August: Call to Arms and WarmaHordes. Not sure what I would take, but the WarmaHordes guys in Wellington are great to play so hopefully the timing of this works out.

October: BFGT and FOW. This could be coinciding with my 40th so might be a little challenging, tempted to play in the split 1 day Mid War, 1 day Early War events... wonder how I could convert my '56 Israelis to Mid War?

November: Rallypoint and the WarmaHordes Teams Event. Three man teams and this year it is Ghordson Earthbreakers all round.

So, painting needing to be done for five events this year at minimum, plus some more post war Israeli's for work no doubt.... maybe it is time to start reducing my expectations!

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

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?

You can find me at THE CLEURB!

In New Zealand yesterday it was Waitangi Day, a national holiday where we celebrate having a day off work. There is a bit more behind the celebration but since this is not a blog about NZ politics the less said the better. I managed to convince my wargaming-widow (wife) that since Waitangi Day was midweek we should treat it like any other day and I should head to work (and play games!).

My main objective was to get a couple of games in with my Ides Of March list(s), with both Sean and Victor volunteering to take on the eIrusk and Man-O-War challenge. Wayne and Casey rolled out the Hungarian Assault Guns and T-34/85 Battalions, whilst James strapped on his six-shooter and played a couple of games of Legends Of The Old West as other games finished. 

Both of my games were very enjoyable and have given me a little more reason to get the list painted. I am 100% un-convinced about its lethality, however I cannot see why that should stop me from looking at giving it a run. Part of me is however wondering if I should look for some other options for casters, although eIrusk's ability to let models pass through each other and giving most of my army Tough is pretty damn useful!

Nemo3 with a proxied lightning force (Sean) vs a very unpainted Khador force - 4 weeks till Ides, not a problem!

Both sides close in

Big scrum in the middle - I managed to win leaving Nemo in the sights of a boosted Destroyer

James and Victor setting up for some LotOW action

Another big scrum

Action shot of Casey (and Wayne). Casey's T-34/85 horde running into Wayne's Hungarians

T-34/85 firing line!

Zyrinis holding their own on the left flank

Victors Skorne - this is a really nice looking army up close!

First turn advancing towards each other

It was looking so good for me... and then Victor crushed my Demo Corp freeing his Immortals up to win the game!