Skibbcon V: Level 2 - Novice

As promised, here is another post in a series about Skibbcon V's rulespack. Part 1 can be found here.

Last year we implemented a system where before each game, from the 3 armies a team brought, they would randomly determine which 2 armies they would use as a single 2000pt force using the rules as if they were Battle Brothers. This was even if the armies could not even ally with each other. 

This is even in the fluff. Legit.

We decided, as we always do, to change this. As such each of the 5 missions written for the event also have what level of Allies your armies act as for the duration of the game. In two missions you act as Battle Brothers, in two missions you act as Allies of Convenience and in one mission you act as Desperate Allies. This should, hopefully, make for 5 very different games. However, is this is not the case, well, I'll be hammered drunk so it'll be fine.

We are also introducing a new mechanic, Army Picking. Before each game your opponents will choose which 2 armies your team will be using in this round. This is done at the same time to not give an advantage to either team. Once per tournament you get a veto on the Army picking step. If you use a Veto, both your team and the opposing team can pick their own army this round.

Strategic decision making required.

The process works like this:

• Teams find out the Scenario and swap army rosters.
• Players can ask questions about the lists.
• Both players write down whether or not they are going to veto, reveal at the same time (yes it is possible for both teams to use there veto in a single match). If one or both teams vetoed then players choose what armies they are playing, if not then they choose what the opposing team will play.
• Either way they write it down and reveal at the same time. If a veto is used then inform the TO when handing up scores.

This process should mean that is easier for teams to negate any situations where they are at a severe disadvantage before the game even begins. Also you get to have a choice of what kind of armies you want to play against. Which is cool. Ice Cool.

Insert Visual Pun

We've also been playtesting new Secondary Objectives to use in the game. There will be several secondary objectives active during each scenario. These will be different in various scenarios.

First Blood: As explained in the Rulebook
Line Breaker: Whichever team has the MOST scoring or denial units in the opponent Teams deployment zone gains 1VP
Slay the Warlord A: Kill the model nominated as Warlord from Army A for 1 VP.
Slay the Warlord B: Kill the model nominated as Warlord from Army B for 1 VP.
Destroy Support: Whichever team kills more non-scoring, non-warlord units gains 1VP.
Protect the Traitor: After deployment, select one non-dedicated transport unit deployed by the enemy team. If that unit is alive at the end of the game gain 1VP.
That Looks Important: Kill the unit that costs the most Army points for 1VP.
Hold the Fort: 3 objectives, each worth 1 VP. Deployed on the centre line.

Proper Allocation of Resources: At the start of each game, after deployment, before attempts to seize, write down one secondary objective to be worth 2VPs for your team and one to be worth 0VPs for your team. Put this in an envelope, which is provided, along with the name of the unit marked as a traitor. This will be opened after the game.

I hope that you, objectively, find this funny.

The idea is there should be a lot going on in each game, after all each team has two generals. Once again, comments and criticism are encouraged. Next up in the series is an explanation of the custom scenarios created for the event.

Skibbcon V : Level 1 - Beginner

Hello, Internet. Long time no writing on you.

I am posting today to begin a series of articles which, at their end, will hopefully help to hammer out the rules pack and missions for Skibbcon V. We're looking for comments and criticisms to help with mission and basic rules. Before I start I would like to thank all the people who wrote rules packs that we robbed loads of ideas and scoring charts etc from. Ye are fierce sound. The Skibbcons are the SWG's events held every June. It originally started off as a singles event - Report here then we changed to a doubles event, for logistical reasons - Report here.

A couple of things will not change about Skibbcon V. It'll still be an all-inclusive weekend in Russagh Mill, it'll still be a doubles event with each team bringing 3 1000pt armies. Each team will use different combinations of those 3 armies to make a 2000pt armies for each of the 5 games, just like Skibbcon IV. In regards to drinking (aka the important part) there will be, as always, a flagrant disregard for moderation and basic liver health.
 

He's just gearing up for Game 4.

Now outside of necrotic livers, what Skibbcon is known for is coming up with new and different rules. As such this year we will be changing the rules regarding the Force Org chart that we've used in previous years. We had used a system where if you wanted a second Heavy Support you must have taken an Elite and a Fast Attack. We're thinking of using a system that works like this:

1-2 Hqs

2-4 Troops

0-2 Elites

0-2 Fast

0-2 Heavy

0-1 Fortification

As in previous years, no duplicate choices are allowed. All armies must be selected from separate codices. Supplements are allowed but you may not also take the codex for which it is a supplement (e.g. You cannot take Tau and the Farsight Enclave). No dataslates.

A unit takes up 2 slots in the chart if it has a Dedicated Transport and/or costs more than 199 points.

Note: A unit can cost more than 199 points AND have a transport but still takes up only 2 slots. 

If a troops takes up 2 slots it does not count as your mandatory 2 troops choices.

If a unit does not take up a slot on the Force Org Chart (SM Command Squad or Necron Royal Court) then add it's points cost to the points cost of the unit used to unlock it (SM Captain or Necron Overlord) and can cause it to be worth more that 199 points and thus take up two Force Org Chart slots.

As there is only one fortification slot, the fortification cannot exceed 199 points.

As we're dealing with 1000pt armies, no Lords of War or anything with a D weapon.

Squadrons and units of Monstrous Creatures are limited to 1 model.

This year we will also be awarding just as many points for army appearance as we are for how well you do in your games. So to win Skibbcon you'll have to be very good at the game and have a beautiful looking army. The whole package or the Dave Chambers, as it's known. We have assembled a team of judges to rank each team by the appearance of their 3 armies. They will be looking at everything. This includes but is not limited to painting, converting or the fluff you can create if you want. There are no hard rules as to what will get you the points so that a good painter who dislikes converting has as much of a chance as a person who loves converting but may lack painting skill. 

We have tried to vary the judges as much as possible. One is renowned for his painting skill so values painting techniques, one is a player so is looking for fluffy combinations and conversions. One is not a player but enjoys model painting therefor is just looking for things that look cool, whether they are conversions or not etc.

I made an assembling team reference so I had to throw this up.

Also this year we will be adding in new primary and secondary missions. There will be a lot going on in each game but hopefully having two people on each team will allow for proper coordination and cover every base.

The scoring for the SkibbCon Scenarios is done using rulebook VP's. Total the VP's gained from the mission, any secondary missions plus any other way you may have of gaining VP's(Killing Heavy Support in Big Guns Never Tire, Legendary Fighter or similar Warlord traits etc).

Each player counts their mission points and subtracts the opponent's mission points and consults the table bellow:
Difference +0 / -0 Battle points 10 / 10
Difference 1 or 2 / -1 or -2 Battle points 11 / 9
Difference 3 or 4 / -3 or -4 Battle points 12 / 8
Difference 5 or 6 / -5 or -6 Battle points 13 / 7
Difference 7 or 8 / -7 or -8 Battle points 14 / 6
Difference 9 or 10 / -9 or -10 Battle points 15 / 5
Difference 11 or 12 / -11 or -12 Battle points 16 / 4
Difference 13 or more / -13 or less Battle points 17 / 3

Then compute Army Points (APs) difference and augment the score accordingly:

1500-2000 is +3 / -3

1000- 1499 is +2 / -2

500-999 is +1 / -1

0-499 is +0 / -0

This guy knows.

That's the basic idea for the rules at Skibbcon V. I will be making more posts with the primary and secondary mission we've created. The next one, level 2, will contain our ideas for secondary missions. Please do let us know what you think either in the comments or emailing skibbcon(at)gmail.com.

Ravenwing at NWG

So with NWG coming up in September there has been some great impetus to get some newly painted toys ready in time for the event. There are strict painting guidelines in place, with extra points on the table for those who make the extra effort to have more than the standard "3 colour minimum", that most events require. The event also encourages Forge World pieces and is capped at 1650 making the army selection process a very different one from the norm.

I had decided much earlier in the year that this event would be a good opportunity for me to get my Ravenwing army done. I have been collecting bikes for as long as I have toy soldiers and thought that it was about time I got them all painted up to a good standard.

The main issue with this is that I am quite fussy with my miniatures and their multi purpose uses in army Chapters. I have my own chapter of Marines so that I can declare them as any Codex or indeed Chaos chapter I want. With this in mind, I wanted to make the bikes up into squads that I could weapon swap/combat squad etc without much hassle. Marines are one of the easier armies to colour code for squad differentiation but I am a firm believer in the details of squad markings and as such, always make each squad easily identifiable by their chosen equipment, armour and other such details. This meant that I spent a lot of time in my bits box working out what I could do; while begging, borrowing, swapping and stealing anything I could from the lads in my gaming circles.

Having finally gotten this far I decided that I wanted at least one of my units to really stand out on the table. I have already made my own Sammael on a Jetbike (though I have since heavily converted him again for this project) but the idea of a squad of Jetbikes really stood out for me as something achievable, exciting and that would fit with the brief given by the TO for this event.

I spent some time on the Internet looking for ideas of what other people had done and trying to find something within my range without breaking the bank. As it turns out the best option I can across required the use of something I already had in ready supply: Jetpacks.

The idea made a lot of sense as it incorporates other Imperial Technology and would not make the unit seem too alien, which is something I was eager to stay away from.

The article can be found here.

Full credit to this man for the concept though I changed his basic layout slightly, which I think works a little bit better for my purposes.

I began with a basic bike body which I glued together without the wheels in place. I then cut the front wheel off completely. The original idea here had been to invert the mudguard as I had on my version of Sammael but I decided it looked just as good without it.

Using plasti-card I filled in the gap in the rear mudguard at an angle from the top of the rear faring to the bottom of the main bike engine block. I then filled in any gaps with Green Stuff.

I took a Space Marine Jump Pack and cut off the turbines and vents. I then used Instant Mould to cast these and made a bunch of moulds using Green Stuff. The turbines were placed into the rear mudguard onto the plasti-card and the turbines were affixed to the front of the bike. I drilled into the lower of the rear turbines to create a space for the wire that would hold the model in place.

All that was left was for me to paint them up using my standard army colours.

This is achieved by painting the whole model with a grey primer. I then wash the whole miniature in Blue Ink. Once dry, I dry brush with Space Wolf Grey and then White. The effect is simple, but I think effective.

When painting the bikes, I had decided to go with a simple brown for the feathers and wings that are present on Ravenwing Bikes, something I was to use as an additional squad marking aid. The brown really helped the figures to pop. So much so, that I am tempted to revisit some of my existing toys and see if I can somehow include this in my colour scheme.

I also spent some time making little things like the Nartecium.

As I prefer the older models in my list to be MK VI Armour Variant, I went the extra effort to make these lads all MKVI, including the legs, with the rest of the army being MK VII.

 And also Sammy's faring, which was made using a set of wings from the Sanguinary Guard Box.

Lastly for the event, I had to make the display board.

I borrowed a Chapel of Sanctity from SWG President and Perpetual Progenitor, Cian, and worked out the design concept on my kitchen table.

I purchased a 2"x 2" board of MDF and the same in Foam Board. I began by working out where the models would all end up on the board and drew out the lines around the bases. I then cut the holes out and affixed the foam board to the board with pva glue and left it pressed under some books for the night. I then sprayed the whole board brown. Masking this off, I spray painted the road black, then splattered grey. The latter was a bit worrying as my initial reaction to the drops was that I had made a mistake, but I stuck to it and I think it worked well.

Next I masked out the yellow box junction and painted it yellow. I was not really happy with this overall, and I think the excitement got the better of me and I rushed to finish it. Had I the time again, I would have sprayed it white before I put the yellow down and made it cleaner and more contrasting, I was the only bit done with a brush and I think you could tell.

Finally I marked out the central road marking and sprayed it white.

Once dry, I glued the biked to their bases.

Overall I think it worked out well and it was great being able to remove and replace the army here between games.

I am very happy with the end product. I managed to receive the full 50 points available for my army at the event, a score which saved me some face after being out performed on the second day of the event and dropping out of the top 10. Luckily the painting brought me just outside the top 5 on joint 6th with fellow SWG'er Eoin, who's Wrestling inspired Necron Army was simply class.

Hope you enjoyed the blog. I am now in a position to be able to play nearly any marine army I want, and what with the recent boost given to Space Marine bikes, I have no doubt that these boys will be getting plenty of runs out in the near future.

Mech Blood Angels: A 6th Ed review

So 6th Ed has been around for a while now and I have had the pleasure of attending a few tournaments in addition to testing out the new rules at weekly gaming with the WAC lads at WARPS.

Merv over at Touched By Greatness, has asked me to put down my thoughts on mech Blood Angels since I have a bit of experience with them. Also involved in this in-depth look at Blood Angels is "Little Dave", who has his own blog over at The Red Thirst, who has been running Jumper DoA lists and will be writing on them. Merv will fill in gaps in between on his own blog and between us we hope to cover new and old ways of getting the best out of the Codex for use in 6th Ed.

So for the last two years I have been running Mech BA. This all started off mainly because I had the toys and not enough Jump Packs to play the list I wanted. I did however play IG for a weekend and from this experience the penny dropped on how to use multiple tanks.

The army was quite straight forward and worked on redundancy of fire power from multiple fast moving transports, hiding behind solid armour walls.

Libby, Shield, Fear
2 x 5 Marines, Razorback, Dozer, Heavy Flamer
4 x 5 Marines, Razorback, Dozer(x3), Twin Linked Lascannon
3 x Baal Predators, Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolters, Dozer
3 x Predators, Autocannon, Lascannon

This was a formidable list. Though I never won any tournaments with it, I was consistently in the top 5, which I was very happy with. The main problems it came up against at tournaments was mass S6, which considering the amount of Necron out there at present does not bode well for it in 6th Ed. Having said that I feel that it can still be a good list, though it does need some tweaking considering the change in the meta. Though I can only really comment on the Irish scene.

The last list I ran was straight forward enough:

Seth
Priest, Power Axe
10 Assault Marines, 2 Melta, Land Raider Crusader
2 x 5 Assault Marines, Land Raider
2 x Baal, Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolter, Dozer
2 x Predator, Autocannon, Lascannon

I had a lot of fun with this. Seth is a beast. The main problems I faced were Necron with Haywire guns and Guard with 8 Lascannon and Prescience thanks to Space Wolf help. This should not have gone as badly as it did though, with 2 Lone Wolves soaking up the entire gun line fire power for four turns unscathed and every Lascannon managing 5's and 6's against my Armour.

Not that I am bitter or anything!!

While effective, they are still a point sink and losing them hurt a lot, especially since we play with Victory Points brackets determining a large part of the end score. (8 for primary, 6 for secondary(3 secondary worth 2 each is the norm) and 6 split for VP's)

With more and more infantry on the board, the amount of lascannon is overkill. In 5th Ed, a lot of people tried to convince me that I should have taken Las/Plas but my argument is that I would rather have moved 12" away from something and guarantee the hit, than risk closing in to get off a second shot.

Nowadays, it's all about the Assault Cannon.

4 Twin Linked S6, Rending shots is scary, even for flyers. Admittedly the rend is as big a deal since it is not AP2 vs vehicles, but the extra dice makes it more likely to Pen a Land Raider than a Lascannon given the extra dice rolled and the twin linkage.

The only thing better than an Assault Cannon, is a load of them. You could go full spam here and take 6 Assault Cannon Razorbacks and 3 Baals, and still have a lot of points left over for a lot of things. 9 Assault Cannon is likely to terrify a lot of things, but the range can become an issue here, especially in Hammer and Anvil, even with a swing of 36" (move 12"
+24")

I think you need to go with the Predator Annihilator for the fire support. It also means that you can dedicate fire power from the back lines on the stuff is should be killing, before risking the Assault Cannon shots that could be better served shredding infantry. Taking away the choice of targets can help focus the mind on the chalenge. This is a good lesson for target priority, but I should save that for a different post.

Interestingly this means that you end up with even more points, since they run cheaper than their Fast Attack counterparts.

When I looked at this today I noticed that despite the fact that I had a lot of potential AP2 shots, they were not guaranteed. What I would really like to do here is get more of the good things in the Codex into the list. The first of these is FnP. Remember that these tanks are mostly holding 5 Assault Marines. FnP is baus now, since it takes S8+ to stop you getting it.

Rather than put in more Kill points into a list that is already saturated in them, I think you might be better off with something that can also give out a fair amount of firepower and also bring my favourite version of the Razorback in this Codex into the fight. The BA Heavy Flamer upgrade for the Razorback is free! I honestly think that this is too good not to take.

Into this tank I would put Honour Guard. Since this one priest will not have enough of a bubble to affect all of those other Marines, I would take a second unit. This also means taking a second Librarian, but I also think this is a clever thing to do for the following reasons.

One of these Librarians is your Warlord. He stays back field where he makes it difficult to give up a Secondary Objective and gives Shield to the Preds and hangs out with a squad that will claim the home objective. He also takes fear of Darkness since he can force units that take concentrated fire power back into the main part of your army, where it can be either shot or charged, or indeed avoided.

The second Librarian takes Divination and goes forward. The buff from this is just incredible. He can also take Shield too allowing your tanks to survive longer and either S10 to crack tanks or T5 lads, or Lance to hurt stuff your Assault Cannon are finding difficult to pierce.

Equipping the Honour Guard with Plasma gives me the guaranteed AP2 I think I need. Each squad gets 3 Plasma Guns. The plan would be for these to rush forward under cover or taking turns to pop Smoke and hide each other. They also can cover the rest of the Razorbacks. The list ends up like this.

Libby, Shield, Fear, Divination, Warlord
Libby, Shield, Blood Lance, Divination
2 x Honour Guard, 3 Plasma Guns, Razorback, Dozer, Heavy Flamer
5 x 5 Assault Marines, Razorback, Dozer, Assault Cannon
3 x Predator, Autocannon, Lascannon

I would love to hear your thoughts on these lists. The still exist the possibility of running 3 Vindicators, which could be very effective, but I am not convinced they will stay alive very long since they have to advance to facilitate the short range of the gun (24") leaving their side armour open for return fire.

Summer Conclave

With Eoin giving out to me about how he has been writing all of the blog posts of late, I thought it only fair to contribute by posting about the most recent event that I attended.

Conclave is an annual event run by Gary and the lads from The Gathering in Limerick. The event took place in Thomond Park of Munster Rugby fame and it was probably one of the best venues for an event I have been lucky enough to attend.

A large spacious room was provided with generous amounts of room and terrain on each of the tables, upon which games of Warhammer 40K were to be played on the Saturday, with Warhammer Fantasy being provided on the Sunday.

Awesome Prizes including art by Ken Coleman

I went up early Sat morning with Richard Flood driving the pimp-wagon and Daire O Mahony and Hugh Murphy in the back. The trip went nice and quickly as we were all in the mood to discuss our armies for the day, some ETC stuff for Richard and of course 6^th Ed in all of its imminent glory!

This place is grand, but it's not Cork, like

The event was scheduled to begin registration from 9 to 10, with the event due to kick off at half 10. We arrived at 5 past 9 to learn that we were the first there and had to wait until nearly half 11 before the games got underway. While deploying we were then told to rush it since we had little time.

I am a real ball buster about punctuality so this really stuck in my craw, as did the very long breaks in between rounds and being informed that I was not allowed sit at the event, since it was a safety hazard. These issues were all sorted out mainly thanks to Kevin’s Rynn and Stronach, and to be fair to Ryan the event organiser, it was his first time.

Nevertheless an event that I was supposed to be home from for half 8 or 9 ended up with my getting home closer to half 10. This was a long old day and this could have been helped.

The rules pack for the day called for a 2250 list using Imperial Armour rules. No super-heavies but everything else goes: Awesome. I was looking forward to this as I am a poor man and have no Forge World stuff, so the chance to see some in the flesh was great. There were a few bits and pieces around the place but nothing major. Luke did have pretty much a whole IAA force of Eldar but unfortunately I did not get to play him.

How Floody's might look if he had painted it.

My list was:

Mephiston

The Sanguinor

JP Priest

5 Terminators, 3 TH/SS, Claws, Srg (who gets the Sanguinors Blessing) Claws

Furioso dread, Blood Fists, Extra Armour

10 Death Company, BP/CCW, 2 Bolter Fist, Lemartes

2 x Snippy DC Dreads

3 x Storm Ravens, all Extra Armour, all MM, 2 have TLC, other has AssCannon

It is hilarious and a version of a list I had brought to Itzacon, though this time I had no scoring units at a tourney with 2/3 missions involving objectives!

Game one I was drawn against young Eoin and his Ork Horde, and I mean horde.

A Whole lot of Orks

He had:

Ghazghkull and some Nobs in a Truck

Snikrot and some Kommandos

Mega-Nobs in a Truck

Deff Dred

3 Killa Kans

Gretchin

Mob of Boyz (100 boyz)

I later discovered that this is an Apoc formation so was technically illegal, but I had a laugh and was suitably scared looking at this wall of boys across the table. Eoin was a lovely young man and has a good head on his shoulders. He played well and made me work for the first few turns but I eventually got the charge on Gaz and his Nob squad with Sanguinor and Meph, the latter taking Gaz apart and the former inflicting some wounds on the Nobs. They took a few slaps of Power Fists back but still won combat, get surrounded in the process meaning they could not be charged by the approaching Green Tide.

Most of the Armour had been taken down by my Ravens taking turns to move 6” and unload their Blood Strikes, normally bagging a few Orks in the explosion thanks to AP1 and the sheer amount of boys on the table!

I was now able to make the assault on my terms and as Mephi and Sang finished off the Nob squad in his turn, Mephi, his job done jumped back into a Raven to lick his remaining 2 Wounds while the unscathed Sang stood in the middle of the table to ensure everyone got +1A.

The Death Company, Sang, a DC Dread and the Furioso charged the Boys and killed the Warboss and caused 50 Wounds, to none back, with him inflicting 8 Wounds back, I failed 3 and FnP’d them (Including one on Lemartes)

This left him to take 50 fearless Saves, wiping the unit. I next got to run in and kill his Mega Nobs and then had a Raven parked on each objective as we waited for Snickrot and the Gretchen to turn up, at which point I killed them.

20-0 to me as the only damage taken was a Wounded Mephi.

So after a pretty good round I went up against Hugh. I had played him the Thursday prior to the event and was fairly confident that I could take him, but I hadn’t counted on my inability to roll above a 3+ until turn 4!

Pictured: What Hugh Sees in the Mirror

He was running his usual Templars list with a few extra toys.

Marshal, TDA, Claws

Terminator Command Squad, Tank Hunters, 2 x Cyclone

Emperors Champ, AAC

2 x 5 Terminators, Tanks Hunter, 2 Cyclone

5 TH/SS Terminators

3 x 5 Marines, Bolters

3 x 2 Typhoon

3 x Auto Las Preds

He got first turn, forcing me to reserve. My toys turned up one at a time and he easily dispatched them killing the occupants with ease. The Sanguinor managed to get into combat with the TH/SS Termies, where he stayed continuing to roll all 1’s to hit for 3 turns. I eventually managed to do some damage with my Termies joining the Sanguinor to take out the TH/SS Termies and a Squad of Cyclones.

Mephi took out two Preds, the Champ and all of the Troops, the Speeders and Cyclones managed to slag all of my DC with the exception of Lemartes who in turn 6, due to being the only model left was able to use his JP to get into combat with the closest Unit of Speeders, who had closed in on my DC. He managed to kill them both, claiming what I thought was a draw on KP’s.

A hard fought game that I thought I had pulled back, only for Hugh to realise that we had miscounted the KP’s forgetting the Sanguinary Priest.

17-3 to Hugh.

Game 3 was against Kevin Stronach and his Eldar. He had some scary stuff for me to contend with.

Kevin realises that Phil Mitchel has really let himself go

Wraithseer

Farseer, Doom, Guide, Spear, RoW, RoWit

Banshees in a Serpent

Dragons in a Serpent

Pathfinders

10 Wraithguard with Warlock

5 Avengers

5 Warp Spiders

Falcon

2 x Wraithlord

Mission is Dawn of War and I go first, setting up the Sanguinor out of sight in the middle of the board with the rest rolling on in the first turn.

I was cagey with my forces as I was scared he might roll a 6 with any one of his Wraithcannon on my transports removing the Model, and thus the occupants from play!

I turbo on and take some long shots at his Wraithseer who shrugs off all of the Wounds. The Sanguinor moves forward still hiding.

His turn one and his forces arrive but fail to see anything, with my raven all having moved about 20” instead on their full move just in case.

Turn 2 and I used the Gunships to Kill the Wraithseer and the Falcon  pinning the Avengers and the Farseer on that side of the board. Sanguinor moved forward and charged the Wraitguard, dispatching a few with the third Raven containing the Termies Parked on his lines after Turbo Boosting to get into position to rear shot his Dragons, only for him to pass his Boost save.

This left his Dragons free to move over and wreck my DC Raven in the centre of the board, which he did thanks to Crack Shot ignoring my boost, his other shooting bounced off with his Banshees getting into a position to counter charge any further offensive.

Mephi debussed and moved to help out the Sanguinor dispatch the Wraithguard while the Termies moved back to charge the Pathfinders and the Banshee Tank, the Furioso moved to cover them, hoping to kill the Banshee transport and hold up the occupants. The DC and their Dread made light work of the Dragons and their Serpent with the Dread blowing it up with a rear armour shot, killing a few Dragons in the process. This wreck provided a huge piece of dangerous terrain however that my DC would be forced to charge into and having dispatched the Dragons, they were forced to go through and remain in due to them raging at the closest enemy, who was the hapless Farseer and his Avengers bodyguard, who were now the only part of his army left. The Termies and Dread made combat Blowing up the Serpent and a few of the Banshees in it and easily dispatching the Pathfinders.

So began the slow march at the Avengers and Seer.

Kevin unloaded the Avengers with Blade-storm into the DC only for FnP to ruin his day, his Farseer moved bravely forward throwing his Spear and then Charging a DC Dread only to roll 1’s and 2’s on the Chart, both of which are ignored thanks to one of my favourite Special Rule titles “None Shall Stay My Wrath”.

Seriously, none can stay it.

The clean-up was straightforward here and gave me my second 20-0 for the day. It wasn’t until I got home and began preparing this blog entry that I realised we had forgotten the Warp Spiders, which totally gives Kev the moral victory. Great game.

A successful day at the office gave me a respectable 43 points giving me third spot and most importantly finishing above Hugh who finished fourth. Suck it Hugh.

Though I did have some issues with aspect of the organisation as I have already stated, I must say that I had a great day out with some fun and challenging games. My thanks to the organisers and I look forward to returning to the event, especially if it is likely to be in the same venue.

I totally played in Thomond Park!!

I have played here, honest.

King of the Gnoblars 2012

As I wrote about in a previous post, I recently started playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle. My main reason for starting was the fact I signed up to play in a Fantasy tournament run my WAC member and all around handsome man, Rob "Lovely Jumpers" Gleasure. The event was King of the Gnoblars and it was a 2400pt, 5 round Fantasy tournament held on the 3rd and 4th of March in UCC. Here's where you'll find the rulespack. The event was using SCALE a very interesting version of comp, if you'd like to find out what SCALE is then you can read the rulespack, read my previous post, click this link.

I'm not kidding about his jumpers. They're at least 3 times as lovely as this one.

Well the list that I was bringing, thanks to input from the aforementioned Prod Rob and everyone's favourite red name, Nigel "Got tabled by the Child" Kavanagh was:
TEAM FULL COMMAND
High Elves [SCALE SCORE - 0]:
Level 4 ArchMage, life, 4+ ward, scroll
Level 2 Mage, shadow, jewel of the dusk, seerstaff [pit of shades, mindrazor]
Noble with BSB, GW, armour of caledor
28 Lotheran Sea Guard, shields, flaming banner, FULL COMMAND
30 Spearmen, shields, FULL COMMAND
20 Swordmasters, FULL COMMAND
28 White Lions, FULL COMMAND
5 Reavers
5 Reavers
Repeater Bolt Thrower
Eagle
Eagle

For those of you who don't know about/play fantasy here are the main parts of the list: Magic and White Lions. I'm not going to lie, the magic usually bites me in the ass but those White Lions, they win all the things.

Do you want to throw down?

Anyway, after finishing work on the Friday it was time to get some food and head to the pub to meet the lads who were coming down from Dublin and the North. After several pints there, a couple of us headed across town to meet Dan "Bye Buster" Ahern who had been out with some work people. I would give you some kind of a humourous account of what happened here but I was in no state to be remembering what went on. Something, something, shots, true story, something, something. What I do remember was that I had loads of fun and the hangover the next day was totally worth it.

A toast in memory of my liver.

So the next morning I made my way over to UCC to get ready for my first game. This involved recieving serveral different models from various different people. After I had my army it was time for my first game. Game 1 was a challenge against WAC player and fellow 40k-head Hugh "I'm sorry" Murphy and his Chaos Warriors. Thankfully the open lists system means I have easy access to his list which is here:

HUGH*
Warriors [-1(0]):
Kholek (605),
Throgg (175),
Level 2, tzeentch, disc, golden eye, scroll, third eye (235)
BSB, tzeentch, shield, biting blade, 4+ ward (200)
18 Warriors, tzeentch, standard, musician, shields, blasted standard (366)
7 Trolls (315)
5 Dogs (30)
5 Dogs (30)
Shaggoth, ahw (275)
Giant, slaanesh (265)

It could use more cat-lasers. Just saying.

My first tournament game of fantasy. How exciting. Well, Hugh had brought an army of Troll-things including a guy called Kholek Suneater who has 18 wounds is strength 50 and auto kills everything within a 2 mile radius, or something like that. Who could destroy my whole army if he got across the board. So.... I had to stop that. His main weakness is his lowly initiative 1. This makes him a perfect target for a spell called "Pit of Shades" which is a blast template that makes you pass an initiative test or die. Just like Jaws of the World Wolf, yay. So this entire game was basically me trying to pit of shades him while he tries to stop me.

Get it? I love puns.

In my first attempt at the spell I manage to random the random and it both scatters off him and blows my wizard up. In my second attempt I once again randomed the random so it scattered off of Kholek and blew up my wizard again. This time the wizard dies. No more "Pit of Shades". Stupid fantasy.

How do you scatter off him? He's the size of a house.

So without Pit of Shades I was kind of boned. However I still had one tactic left in my arsenal. The tactic that has now become known as fantasy-ing someone. I basically threw some dice at the problem until it went away, randomly. More specifically I cast "The Dwellers Below" at Kholek. The Dwellers Below is like Pit of Shades except it's a Strength test and, thankfully, can't scatter. You might remember from earlier that Kholek has Strength like 1000000 or something. This is where the, in retrospect, best and most balanced part of the fantasy rulebook comes in. You auto-fail all characteristic tests on a roll of a six. Guess what Hugh rolled? A four. Ah no, I'm kidding, this is fantasy, he totally rolled a six and Kholek died a fiery magic death.

It's a bit good.

So with Kholek dead it was just a case of killing things with White Lions until the game was over. With everything counted up it was an 18-2 win to me. Thanks for rolling that 6, Hugh.
Game 2 had me up against an actual fantasy player, John John. I think I heard somewhere that he usually plays Salamanders, I think, anyway this tournament he was playing Orcs and Goblins with this list:
JOHN JOHN
Orcs and Goblins [0]:
Warboss, armour of destiny, warrior bane (170)
BO Big boss BSB, shield (117)
NG level 2, scroll (110)
SO level 2, obsidian amulet (135)
SO level 2, shrunken head (155)
20 Night goblins, standard, bows, 3 fanatics (145)
36 Savage orc big 'uns, musician, standard, ahw (431)
20 Night Goblins, standard, bows (70)
Wolf chariot (50)
11 Trolls (385)
Spear chukka (35)
Spear chukka (35)
1 Troll (35)
1 Troll (35)
24 Squigs, 15 handlers (237)
Rock lobber (85)
Doom diver (80)
Mangler (65)
Mangler (65)
Pump wagon, spiky roller (60)


To be perfectly honest, I have no clue which of those things were which when I played them. However, I have grouped them into 4 different, easily distinguishable categories:
1. Things that killed me with magic
2. Things that killed me from far away
3. Things that killed me close up
4. Things that could have killed me but I was already dead when they got there.

Foolish plan 1: Playing Fantasy

I did have fun though. I got to run my Reavers around. I also got hit with a weapon that involves putting a foot template on my units. Nice. John John went on to get second which I like to think i contributed to with conceded, through various different scenario conditions, about 130% of the victory points I started out with.

Isn't Maths fun?

So that was 0 points for me. Leaving me on 18 total. Class. That amount of points meant I was playing against Chris Mince, who was playing Vampire Counts. He was taking advantage of an apparent loophole in the comp that meant that Manfred Mac Vampirestein was a really good choice as general of your army. There were about 4 or 5 people using this guy at the tournament. His entire list was:

CHRIS
Vampires [0]:
Mannfred (530)
Vampire, vampires, dragonhelm, scroll, seed of rebirth, beguile (177)
Necro, level 2, vampires, cursed book (135)
33 Zombies, standard (104)
34 Zombies, standard (107)
20 Zombies, standard (65)
5 Wolves (40)
30 Ghouls, ghast (310)
Spirit host (45)
2 Bat swarms (70)
Corpsecart, lodestone, spear (121)
29 Grave guard, GWs, champion, standard, barrows (418)
3 Vargheists (138)
Mortis engine, blasphemous tome (240)

It was around this time that I had renamed the Magic Phase, the Random Phase. I also had Ivan "Nudie" Sheehan sit down next to me and help me explain to Chris why his game system was ridiculous, random and stupid. We also explain he should totally come play an actual game, like 40k. All of this happened why Chris was soundly beating me into the ground. I remember one of his things being big and making all the things around it much better. I then tried to kill that thing and failed. Ah well. At least I got a whole zero points out of the game. Chris's toys were really, really beautiful and it was nice to be thrashed by them.

Unfortunately not available in the High Elf Codex.

Well that's enough stupid, random fantasy, on to the drinking. A bunch of us headed over to the Bierhalle, a very nice restuarnat with a large selection of craft beers. For the first time since we first met I was out drinking with Rob so I decided to make him drink a couple of  "craft" beers. "Craft" in this instance is code for 15% alcohol. After 3 or 4 of these and a very nice burger we took off into town. The night was a mixture of shouting, drinking, comparing fantasy to 40k, drinking and towards the end tequila. Oh so much tequila. Rob is a fiend for tequila.

I have no idea where Rob found that hat.

After we finished up all of the tequila in the world we headed for home. Rob was staying at my house and myself, himself and Nick "Nuns with Guns" Meade stopped off to get some food on the way home. Rob, telling us he was okay for food, elected to sit down on the raised footpath for a "breather". Then, while myself and Nick were inside the classy food establishment Rob began to vomit so spectacularly and with such fervor that by the time we came back outside an crowd of more than 10 people had gathered to cheer him on. I felt so proud of him but also understood exactly why his wife had not let him drink with me. Oh well, home to bed.

You can do it, Rob.

I have the feeling that I felt somewhat better than Rob in the morning as we both traveled to UCC for the final 2 games. As we arrived we found that we had all been locked out. Oh no. Apparently no one agreed with me that we should abandon all hope of ever getting in and just go to the pub. Some people *shakes head*. Eventually we managed to make it in. After informing everyone of what had happened to Rob the night before it was time for game 4. I was playing Mike from Limerick, one of the genuinley nicest guys I've ever played against in any game. He was using this list:
MIKE M
Warriors [0]:
Lord, tzeentch, steed, aethersword, 4+ ward, favour of the gods (344)
BSB, nurgle, shield, flaming banner (170)
Level 2, nurgle, spell familiar (155)
Level 2, death, scroll (145)
Level 2, fire, charmed shield (125)
17 Warriors, nurgle, shield, FC, rapturous (352)
35 Marauders, nurgle, FC, flails (225)
29 Marauders, khorne, FC, GWs (195)
19 Marauders, tzeentch, FC, shield, l/armour (154)
5 Dogs (30)
5 Dogs (30)
9 Knights, nurgle, standard, banner of rage (445)
Warshrine (130)

He had some terrible luck in this game but that didn't stop us from having loads of fun. Surprisingly the Swordmasters were the bosses in this game. Winning one combat, overrunning into another combat and then ALSO GETTING TO FIGHT IN THAT COMBAT DURING THAT PHASE. What a silly, silly game. Thanks to Mike's terrible luck the game ended with me having 20 points.

Good job, dice.

So going into the final game I was up against Mal who was playing Vampire Counts. Again with Manfred Von Bite-ur-neck:
MAL
Vampires [0]:
Mannfred, hellsteed (560)
Vampire, vampires, hellsteed, h/armour, lance, shield, dragonhelm, other trickser's, scroll, quickblood (229)
Necro, vampires, cursed book (100)
Wraith (60)
Wraith (60)
40 zombies, FC (130)
40 zombies, FC (130)
40 zombies, FC (130)
22 zombies, FC (76)
5 Wolves (40)
5 Wolves (40)
5 Wolves (40)
5 Wolves (40)
10 Black knights, FC, flaming (300)
27 Grave guard, FC, greatweapons, barrows (404)
2 batswarms (70)
Corpse cart (90)


This game only got to about turn 3 which is mostly likely due to me being a massive newb. It was a little different to Chris's list which was nice. This Manfred was on a horse with some friends(also on horses). Unfortunately for me, Mal cast a spell on the awesome white lions of awesome which reduced their leadership and they ran away. Without enough turns to rally I lost them all. I was sad. But hey, random game is random. Game ended as a 15 - 5 win to Mal.

Okay, that's me deployed. Your turn 1.

So after 5 games I was on a very respectable 43 points. This meant I came 15th out of 22 but much more importantly I came third out of all the 40k players there. Result. Also, surprisingly, I won most sporting opponent. All I can say about that is everyone must agree with my, rather loud, opinion that fantasy is a stupid, silly and random game. It sure is fun though. I'll be looking to play more in the future. Thanks Rob for a great tournament and thanks to all of my opponents for putting up with me.

Next tournament report is about my travels to Galway in "Itzacon: The Revenge of Warpcon"