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.

Sorsha and Karchev go to NATCON

Over the past weekend we had the New Zealand National Wargaming Convention in sunny Hamilton (and for once I am not being facetious about the sunny part). I had an absolute blast and played about 12 games, many of which were real nail biters. Whilst there was way too much fun to remember everything I actually felt like some of the games were close (i.e. a couple of different dice rolls would have resulted in a reversal), some were completely at the other end of the spectrum, but overall I look back and think that if I made a couple of better decisions I would have done a little better.

Couple of highlights:
eMorghoul running into Karchev and a Juggernaut and hitting Flashing Blade a bunch of times. With 19 and 20 armour respectively you would expect that both Karchev and his friend would get equally damaged... no... the Juggernaut took a total of 2 points whilst the big man himself took around 20 (bear in mind he was not boosting ANY of the damage rolls).

A lone Man O War Demo Corp surviving attacks from a Shredder, Harrier and a ranged attack from an Angelius to contest a scoring zone and give me a scenario win. I actually asked my opponent why he was tying to kill the DC figure as I could not understand his strategy - once he explained it to me I almost apoligised for winning as I never saw his plan coming and if it was not for a string of bad dice he would have probably won.

Couple of lowlights:
Wading through a pile of Fennblades and Warriors to get my hands on eMadrak, only to fall 4 points short of killing him - thats after knocking off a couple of free transfers to nearby warrior models and a pile of transfers to beasts. Given that I was about to lose on the scenario it was my only play but still... sooooo close!

Forgetting to pop Sorsha's feat in my last game.... this was a real lowlight for me. Up against Xerxis and his Cataphract friends I felt like it was going to be a hard matchup for me - then I forgot to pop the feat in turn two and it went from being a bad match up to one where I had no chance. This was one of the few games I have ever played where I was seriously annoyed at myself.

Bottom line:
Did not come last in either of the events, won more games than any previous tournament... thats a great result as far as I am concerned. Had some great games, caught up with some good people and painted some more figures. Speaking of which, here they are!

Iron Fang Uhlans

Kovnik Markov

Sunday Gaming

This coming weekend is the New Zealand National Convention and there will be around 150 people from all over the country coming together for a weekend of gaming, covering everything from Ancients to Napoleonics to Flames of War, Warhammer and Warmachine. Its definitely one of the highlights of the gaming year as you get to catch up with people you have not seen since the last Nationals.

As I mentioned in the last post I am taking Karchev out for a spin, but I realised that my list was not entirely legal for the Highlander event so I have had to make a few amendments. It now looks a little more like this:

Karchev the Terrible

Wardog

Destroyer

Juggernaut

Iron Fang Uhlans (x3)

Kovnik Markov

Not entirely sure that the Wardog is legit but I will worry about that on the day. On Sunday I took the force out for a run against Victor's Skorne list - an Immortals/Zaal force that I have real problems knocking over. This game looked like no exception as I pushed forward across a broad front, he did the same, my Cav charged in a killed a few of the Immortals and then were swamped and killed (along with my Juggernaut). Luckily the dice were on my side as Karchev popped his feat, 'towed' the Destroyer up field and in the process killed one his Cyclops, then the Destroyer charged into Zaal and despite having a couple of transfers managed to put him down.

What did I learn... Tow is awesome (but I knew that already), Cavalry hit hard but don't really like being hit back and that Karchev is still the man! Of course this may be my last win with the list based on previous tournament performance  :D

Ulans Work in Process on Sunday

As for painting the Cav, I've finished the horses and are now working on the riders with two nights to go. Should not be a problem as long as no-one looks too closely at them.

Either way it will be a fun weekend especially since I will have added another finished unit to my Khador army.

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!