Choptober 2013 - the aftermath

Local "organised guy" Dave Stent rolled out a new tournament concept a couple of weeks ago named Choptober. What made it unique was that he had enough players to divide the entrants in to two pools, the Shark Tank (or eChoptober) and the Paddling Pool (or pChoptober). Using Rankings HQ points he divided us up and through the divine hand of fate I ended up in the Paddling Pool. Looking at who was in each field I was very happy - the Shark Tank was filled with some very competitive players, whereas the pool had a way more laid back feeling!

I won't go into the details about the event other than a few key points from each game, suffice to say it was a heap of fun and (spoiler alert) I even managed to go 3/4 and take out 2nd position!

Local 40K 'ard man - Nikola with pVayl, big gribbles, Striders and solos

Boomhowlers in the middle as a tar pit, Stormwall and Gun Mages on the right

(Ignore the Iosan Cav...they are markers...) Hunters dish out the damage, Striders kill Boomy and his boys, Ravagore shoots Kara... and she dies from the Continuous Fire....

Gordon, old WHFB opponent at his first WH event with pKruger

We both rush the objectives, Boomhowlers try to contest while ATGM, Hunters and Stormwall go after the Gatormen on the right flank.

Kara feats, things die... a Totem Hunter gets the middle of the ATGM and causes some concern

pKruger gets down to 1 (yes 1) box for the 2nd (yes 2nd time), before I finally manage to kill him and win on scenario at the same time.

Reid gets his game face on with pMakeda, Molik Karn and lots of Nihilators

Boomhowlers get tar pit duty in the centre, Stormwall and Hunters to take on Warbeasts while ATGM take the scoring zone....

Kara feats, things die...

pMakeda feats, things come back...

Reid pushes up and carves a bloody swathe through my army, compounded by a couple of stupid mistakes by me, luckily for me though he times out before he can get the final blow in. Not a win that I can be proud of, but a win!

Andrew, a visiting American down in NZ to see family and hang at the office playing games. He was packing Gorten, 30 Forge Guard, 10 High Shields, Brun and Lug, Tactical Arcanist Corps and a few jacks

Wall o' Dwarves! Tar pit vs tar pit on the left, ATGM vs more Forge Guard and TAC on the right.

Stormwall and Hunters go to town on the Rhulic 'jacks using their superior range. ATGM go down to a hail of AOEs from the TAC.

Boomhowlers go down fighting (and contesting the scoring zone) whilst I secure the right hand one, eventually taking the win on scenario - 5 points to 4.

Dave look sleepy!

Victor's ATGM in trouble!

Something big this way comes (in the Shark tank)

Cool looking trolls (from the Shark tank)

Looking back at my games I was exceptionally lucky to place where I did, undeserving even. But, I had a pile of fun, learnt a few new rules (never having seriously played with such a big unit of medium base infantry before), and spent an enjoyable day out with the boys!

Thanks to Dave for running everything and thanks to Chris Baker and Victor for supplying me with tokens, objectives, flags and other bits after I suffered a complete brain fade and remembered to bring the army and cards, but nothing else (Chris' Dawnguard Destors have seen more table time as markers than actual models thanks to me!). Now I really must find the enthusiasm to get Boomhowlers, the ATGM and Stormwall painted before they go on another excursion!

New Army Bag for Me!

As I mentioned in my last post, the guys at Slave To Painting held a sale a couple of weeks ago and I weakened and bought a few resin bases. I also made a serious investment and bought a Battlefoam Hordes Bag.

I’ve been keen to buy one of these for some time now as I think the bags are the highest quality (in terms of construction and finishing) of any bags on the market today. I have three or four of the Flames Of War bags and they are a great investment. What stopped me purchasing one before now is the cost – one of the downsides of living in New Zealand is that freighting anything this far to the other side of the world is a wee bit costly. Throw in the fact that you could easily spend the same amount again on foams and it was just not an option for me.

I thought long and hard about buying a competing case, but at the end of the day I wanted something that is rugged and can carry an army plus a pile of other things. I am not looking for a storage solution – the figures will go in the case the day before an event, and in theory come out the day after. I have plenty of document storage cases that are perfect for keeping figures in, however they are terrible when it comes to transporting them on an airplane or when packed in the boot (trunk) of a car. I also wanted something where I could fill half the case with models, and then the other half with a can of deodorant and a couple of days of clothes so that when you fly to a tournament I could take the lot as carry-on.

On to the case itself… it turned up in 3 days which is impressive to say the least. Ordered on Saturday, shipped on Monday and in my hands on Wednesday. It is quite a bit larger than the FOW bag and feels a little more rugged. It has all the usual pockets that you would expect, and came with an assortment of trays.

One of the really cool features is that the back opens up and contains a wealth of pockets for your cards, a set of ring binder clips and a spot for your markers. Disappointingly it does not have a sensible place for your templates.

In terms of trays it contained two each, of three different trays: 

Small base infantry tray

Medium base / light 'jack or beast tray

Large 'jack tray

As you can see from the photos I had no problems fitting my entire Choptober army (minus the Stormwall admittedly) in less than three trays, as well as fitting my Long Gunners, a few extra 'jacks and solos.

As a transport solution I am sold on the Battlefoam bag. I am going to have to save up for a few extra trays, such as a generic 120mm base tray, a couple of Iron Fang Pikemen trays and a couple of others, but the basic ones look like they will do the job nicely!

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.

Britain and Sweden Go To War!

Over the weekend Wayne and I managed to get together for a game of Napoleon at War – a fun set of Napoleonics rules made by a small Spanish company. The rules themselves feel like they have a bit of a Flames Of War influence and are quite fast. Evan and the Palmerston North guys play them a lot and have nothing but good things to say about them (okay, they have a few not so good things to say, but more about that later).

 

I dusted off an old British army that I am in the process of giving a little bit of a tidy up, whilst Wayne brought his Swedes. We had pretty similar forces with a few Brigades of infantry, a Squadron of Cavalry in reserve and some artillery (Wayne had 3 Batteries to my 2, as well as an extra gun in one).

We both deployed centrally, with our reserves to fill in the flanks. The short version of the game is that I managed to grind out in the centre, where my infantry battalions shot the Swedes off the table, but on my left flank Wayne’s extra artillery battery took out my 95^th Rifles and Portugese Cacadores, allowing him to start enveloping me. On the right flank my Cavalry came flying on, only the fail in a series of tests resulting in them standing around in front of another artillery battery. Eventually they got their act together and overran the guns and some of his Cav, but the damage was done and Wayne won the right flank. At that point we called then game a win to the Swedes, a very close win, but a win none the less…

 

The game was fun but one of the biggest frustrations was referencing the rulebook during the game (this being the main complaint that I’ve heard from players) and finding rules at the right time. We’ve downloaded the FAQ and are planning on having another go soon, in the meantime we are both going to need to read the rulebook another couple of times to try and get it to sink in!

Holding the Centre

British Cav sitting in front of the Swedish guns

Before finally getting it together and breaking the Swedish lines

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 2^nd 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.

First Game Of Dust Tactics

I managed to get my first game of Dust Tactics in earlier in the week. Andrew was my designated mentor and with a 2 minute explanation we were up and running, throwing dice and moving units around.

It was a very quick game with a little over 100 points on each side. Basically enough for me to see how the game works without needing to get into too many details. Enough that I can now grab the rulebook and try to get my head around the finer points of Tactics. 

I learnt a few important points - it is fast, and it is very deadly! Just like Warmachine you need to have an understanding of what is facing up against you as a game can quickly turn against you if you let a Flamethrower get a shot off on your walker. The final result was a very marginal win to me, although I think Andrew might have been going soft on the newbie.

Based on what I have seen of the models and a brief chat with Paolo when he was in NZ earlier this year I am definitely excited about having a few more games and then checking out the Warfare rules. I am sure a couple of Pounders would look good in the same 1967 camo as my Flames Of War Israeli tanks!

Walkers keeping an eye on each other

Nothing like a good offence though!

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!

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

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!

Fate Of A Nation - Arab-Israeli Wars

Ever since Pete mentioned the idea of doing a Vietnam game as a Wargames Illustrated "exclusive" all those years ago, I have been quietly hoping and not so quietly agitating for an Arab-Israel version of Flames Of War. Earlier this year I got my wish and so for the past few months Phil has been busily studying every AIW book on my shelf, plus a few more to get his head around a conflict that has kept the attention of the world for so many years.

Best of all, with a lot of guidance from James I was able to paint all the Israeli vehicles in the book (which is one of the reasons I have been a little quiet on the blog since I had so little I could share). I still have a few more to paint for the next Wargames Illustrated deadline in about 3 weeks as Casey and I are going head to head in a battle report (Casey painted all the Egyptians in the book). Really looking forward to putting my Magach and M50/M51 Shermans on the table!

The commercial plug... Fate Of A Nation is coming out FREE with Wargames Illustrated 312, on shelves late September, so tell your retailer you want a copy because once the copies of the mag run out, thats the whole print run of the book gone (as far as I am aware!).

Panzerschreck 2013 Report

I was planning on posting up an event report, but ended up putting on the Flames Of War site (whoops). So here is a copy and paste for posterity...

It seems like only a week ago I was getting ready for Panzerschreck 2013… oh wait a minute it was only a week ago! How time flies when you are having fun. Lets wind back the clock a little then and see what happened.

Wayne, Phil, Mike and myself hit the roads and drove down to Palmerston North. I know for some people being stuck in a car for 7 hours can be painful but for me it is part of the whole experience of the trip, talking about what armies people are working on, other non-Flames Of War games (yes we do play them when we get a chance), and a little bit of “life-in-general” conversation that you never seem to get around too at work. We did of course take a 10 minute break at the National Army Museum.

Turning up at the venue the following day we were greeted by so many new (and some old) faces, with over 40 players at the event. Looking around there were definitely some dangerous combinations of players and armies but Mike and I were feeling confident, after all our combined army had gotten better with the changes in V3 and was capable of dealing with a variety of threats, ticking the Recon, Heavy Artillery, Breakthrough Gun and Whopping Big Tank Gun boxes!    

Round One: Vlad’s Hippo Battery
(Nick and Tim).
A nice way to start the weekend, a couple of old school FOW players with Hungarians (lots of tanks and some heavy artillery) and Romanians (infantry backed up by artillery). This game was to set the tone for the weekend (spoiler alert, the tone was pretty sad!). Turn one, we advance, shoot some stuff, their turn one they drop artillery on a King Tiger… it dies (1 in 10 chance), they drop another battery of artillery on a second King Tiger… it dies (1 in 30 chance). Okay, so that leaves it up to the Hungarians to get the job done..

The rest of the game was dominated by the guys pushing forward in the middle with their infantry and Panthers whilst my Zrínyis pushed around the flanks. In the end we just ran out of time and settled for a 3 all draw. The most notable part of the game was watching a Zrínyi and a Nimrod have a 1-on-1 fight where neither could manage a hit on the other.

Round Two: Arnhem Cycling Club
(Joe and Cameron).
The guys brought along a couple of massive Para armies (one British and one American), backed up with 75mm light howitzers (and 5.5” guns on call). Playing Counterattack we thought we had an advantage as it was going to be a long trip for the infantry across some pretty open terrain. My Zrínyis made a run for the objective whilst Mike tried to pick off the artillery. Joe and Cameron pushed their American infantry across the table as fast as they could whilst the Brits went to ground inside their deployment area (protecting an objective and their artillery). 

The Breakthrough Guns of the Zrínyis took a terrible toll on the US Paras but in the end we timed out and took a heavy loss. Our biggest mistake was underestimating the size of the table (we were playing a 4’x8’ table) and not being able to rain down artillery shells around the objective (very silly mistake).
 
Round Three: Krazy Ivans
(Derek and Josh Forrester).
I’ve played against this father and son combo before and they are great guys. Playing Fighting Withdrawal they spread their army (and it was massive) across the table and kept a T-34/85 Company in ambush. I have a terrible record with Fighting Withdrawal and always feel like if I had one more turn I would have won. This game would be no different as the Zrínyis pushed around a flank shielded by the recon. Derek held back with his ambush meaning that I was reluctant to commit, all the time buying time for his army to withdraw.

The King Tigers skirmished with some ISU-122s but in a continuation of Mike’s terrible dice he failed many of his Firepower tests whilst Derek’s crews were keen to get back into the fight, further holding up the advance of the Zrínyis. In the end we made it to the objective, ISU’s destroyed, T-34/85 Company down to a couple of tanks, infantry company down to a few stands, but they all managed to pass their tests and hold on for a stubborn victory. Sinking like a King Tiger in soft ground we were well out of contention now and we would now be playing for our honor tomorrow rather than a podium place…

One of the traditions of Panzerschreck is the Saturday night BBQ so Derek and Andre (not sure what South Africans know about cooking meat over an open flame…) headed out into the darkness to cool us a meal. Meanwhile Mike and I quizzed Wayne about his day of gaming (playing 28mm Crimean War) thinking that we could raise our spirits with talk of his customary bad dice. Sadly for us Wayne’s dice had been on fire, with his freshly painted Russians doing the business and winning the day.

Day two and after a good nights sleep we were ready to make a comeback!
Round Four: The Silly Hattalion
(Issac and Rob).
This was one of the lists we heard about before the event, Romanian infantry and artillery with Soviet Engineer Sappers. Playing Dust Up we knew that the guys would attempt to push up through the middle (where there was a large town to move through safely) and via the flank with their reserves. This would stretch our ability to defend everything at once. In typical fashion Mike’s King Tigers were keen to leave the heavy lifting to the Hungarians as his Firepower tests failed him once again.

Rob’s Sappers made a push for the center objective but a dashing move by my recon platoon contested the objective. Sadly we timed out before Rob could take the objective and before we could break their armies (both of which were on the cards) resulting in another draw!

Round Five: Kapiti High Rollers
(Paul and Scott)
Final game, our luck would be about to change surely! The guys had a British Para Company (once again supported by those dreaded 5.5” howitzers) and a British Guards Tank Company that would not threaten Mikes King Tigers, however the 17pdrs would cut straight through the armour of a Zrínyi. Cutting to the chase we traded shots for a few turns with both sides rolling terribly before we managed to turn our luck, kill the first Sherman/Firefly platoon and push the Paras off the front objective. A final assault from a platoon of Zrínyis broke the infantry platoon and secured the objective (although the platoon did die in the effort). Finally a win….

In summing up our games it felt like (unlike two years ago) we were missing that little bit of luck to push us over the edge. We also made silly mistakes in each game which cost us dearly. However we did have a lot of fun and got to catch up with some old (and some new) friends making it a very fun weekend! Time to start planning for next years Panzerschreck perhaps!