The Last Chancers Invitational

Last weekend myself and four members of my club, The B*stards of B*stardCon fame made the journey down to Wicklow to play some friendly games of warhammer with the TLC - The Last Chancers, at The Hobby Shack. A big thanks must be given to Nigel for organising the TLC end, and to Ian who let us take over his shop all day. Also to all the TLC players who were a sterling bunch of gentlemen. Also, Elliot of the TLC was kind enough to bring treats of epic proportions (the brownies...) courtesy of his better half.

Foam cases disgorge their hosts.

It's safe to say now that all kinds of fun was had would be a reasonable statement. We had two rounds lined up using the King of the Gnoblars rules pack and the mood was relaxed in the extreme. The morning session was:

(TB) Paul C's Warriors of Chaos vs (TLC)Dave L's Spider themed goblins. (TB win)
(TB) Dave S's Chaos Dwarves vs (TLC) Paul Q's Bretonnians. (TLC win)
(TB) John's Lizards vs (TLC) Nigel's Warriors of Chaos (TLC win)
(TB) Tom's Dwarves vs (TLC) Eliiot's Wood Elves (TB win)
(TB) Craig's Dwarves vs (TLC) Ian's Ogres (TB win)
(TB - TLC turncoat) Dave H's (TLC) Dark Elves vs Lloyd's High Elves (TLC win)

I won't be going into an exhaustive reports, but just he highlights as I recall them. Paul C and Dave L's game was by far the prettiest, with a gloriously converted goblin army. Giant spiders with howdahs as chariots, featuring bait goblins hanging from the howdah as movement incentives. All manner of rickety spider driven goblin vehicles, like a pump wagon on a spring, a battery operated fanatic that actually spun(!) and all sorts of manic and genius conversions. To my shame I have no pictures. (Dave L also presented me, awesomely, with a pile of savage orc sprues which contain some very useful bits for my next fimm unit.)

Yep. Double hellcannon.

Paul Q gave me a good hiding (curse my filthy scale 4 list) with his brets, but my first outing with the new chaos dwarves was very educational. Love that K'daai destroyer. LOVE those hobgoblin bowmen. LOVE those shriekers. Not so crazy about the magma cannon.

I didn't see much of Nigel and John's game, but it was a 20-0, the most tragic event I recall being a purple sun cast by John which about turned and wiped out a hefty chunk of his own army. Again, Tom and Elliot's game passed without much chance to see it, but the elves were running for the hills by turn six. Finally, The book of Hoeth and mindrazor did for the Dark elves in Lloyd and Dave H's game.

After a break, some food and light mockery, round 2 kicked off. A few of the TLC lads had to head off, so there were only 4 games. VERY soon into round 2 a prodigious amount of alcohol arrived, so bear with me a I attempt to remember these games:

(TB) Paul's Warriors of Chaos vs (TLC) Elliot's Wood Elves (TB win)
(TB) Dave S's Chaos Dwarves vs (TLC) Ian's Ogres (TB win)
(TB) John's Lizards vs (TLC - TB turncoat) Tom's Dwarves (TLC win)
(TB) Craig's Dwarves vs (TLC) Dave H's Dark Elves (TB win)

Again, Elliot's elves weren't having a great day. In my own game, despite some pretty big tactical whoopsies, I managed to overcome Ian's ogres. This was a hugely fun game, and my first against the new ogre list. Mournfang are scary.

John was spanked raw by Tom's dwarves, and Craig, in an epic six and a half hour game, yes, you read right, eventually emerged victorious over Dave H's dark elves. This in spite of moaning for half the game about his inevitable defeat.

Strange things happen to a man after six hour of Warhammer.

At this juncture many were rather, ah, merry, with one notable casualty, who shall remain nameless...

As for the rest, it was off to the pub to declare the event a success. It appears The B*stards came away victorious, but I didn't see the final points on that one. More importantly the day was great fun. The TLC were magnificent hosts, and we're looking forward to returning the favour in the not too distant future!

Now, on a final note, there were some potential converts among the TLC to the church of Hashut (praise him) and to that end I mentioned some useful sites for up and coming chaos dwarf generals. Warhammer Forge chaos dwarf models are very pretty, but boy are the pricey. There are some alternate ranges. They are:

Ramshackle Games: The brass coffin makes for a fine Iron Daemon.
Scotia Grendel: The Leviathan dwarf range has all sorts of useful models.
Mantic Games: The abyssal dwarves are, well, pretty much chaos dwarves.

Now, time for tea.