NWG - Post Tournament Report

100+ zombie unit from a very nice vampires army

The dust has settled, the boards have been taken down and the shouting has subsided. NWG 2013 is a wrap. As I wearily sip my morning coffee the highlights of a great weekend still give me a chuckle. It was a great event, full to the rafters and with a great vibe. Ian of The Hobby Shack fame, Nigel, Matt and all the lads did a fantastic job once again, so hats off to them.

I played in the 2,000 point WHFB tournament. It was no comp, so full on warhammer. I hadn't played in a good while, and never with the list I took, so I was expecting a pounding. Game one didn't fail to deliver.

Game 1 - Mick Wendel - Ogres
This was watchtower, not my favourite. Mick (who went on to win the tournament) had a terrifying gutstar worth over 1,300 points, supplemented by four mournfang, an ironblaster and various chaff. Mick gave me a polite but definitive kicking, though he did have to make a couple of rolls to see if his gutstar and mournfang would break from combat. In the end, with the star in the tower, it was a 20-0.

These gnoblars are like, totes in my way.

Game 2 - Craig McInnes - Dwarves
Craig is in my club, but as we don't get to play too often I was very happy to meet him for meeting engagement. The dwarf army had two big slayer blocks, 2 cannon, a gyro and lots of quarrellers and thunderers. My battle standard bearer failed to show, so slogged behind the army until and errant dragonslayer challenged him and met his end at last. The wyrm riders (crushers) made a long charge into the slayers and spent the rest of the game chopping them up. The meargh (daemon prince) avoided some cannon fire until they both misfired, though a 2+ ward against flaming helped against the rune of burning on one cannon. The half-dead (forsaken) went down fighting another slayer block. A 12-8 to the fimir in the end.

Folks.

Game 3 - Dave Russel - Daemons
Dave was playing a pretty scary daemon list, a great unclean one, block of plaguebearers, skull cannon, soul grinder, two units of horrors and two of beasts of Nurgle. I've learned to fear beasts of Nurgle. Dawn attack was the scenario. Even with the meargh taking down the skull cannon and the plague bearer block, the beasts tore me up. A great game all the same, with Dave winning 18-2.

Game 4 - Mark Moloney - High Elves
Mark was fielding a unit of dragon princes with all the trimmings, including a lord with all the saves and the giant blade and a tooled up bsb. Some silver helms, archers, reavers and two forstheart phoenixes filled out the army. Blood and glory was the scenario. My wrym riders spent the game taking down one frostheart while my half-dead and fimm (warriors) ground out the dragon princes after the half dead withstood the initial charge due to rolling four attacks each and armour piercing for the first round of combat. The lord broke on turn six ending the game. A 19-1 to the fimir.

Game 5 - Evion Grisewood - Beastmen
Battleline. Evion had a doombull, big block of gor, two razorgor chariots, level three mage on beasts and all the chaff. Evion also brought a toad dragon, which I could not stop getting into my fimm. Double thunderstomp is nasty. Despite beating the doombull the meargh was not in place to help the rest of the army for much of the game. We actually ended up in with nearly all our armies in each other's deployment zone on turn four.The beast army was beautiful though, a real joy to play. Evion pipped me for an 11-9 win.

You wouldn't hit an old lady, would you?

The fimm eye up the toad dragon before the storm hits.

Wait for it....wait for it...see it yet?

At this juncture I was pretty pooped. Pooped but happy. All my opponents were top blokes, and the social side of things was rather splendid, including Mr Paul Quigley's 30th birthday hoolie, sailor suits and all. Drinks were taken, stories were told, flouncy shirts were worn.

In the end I placed 15th out of 26, which I regard as extremely respectable considering my lack of preparation and experience with the list.

Sunday afternoon brought prizes. The full results should soon be up on Wargaming Ireland. The emerald daemon had it's first year, with a superb level of entries for the categories, providing some conundrums for the judges. I was delighted to pick up best painted army for warhammer and best command group in the emerald daemons.

Forgive me as I get my trumpet out.

The higher focus on hobby for the tournament yielded a high level of painting including some truly great armies and display boards, especially among the WH40k players. More of that I say. Here are some of the armies.

All in all a true highlight of the wargaming calendar and I'll certainly be signing up for next year.

Now. More coffee.