NWG Coverage

John O'Connor of the Witchblade blog has some great coverage of NWG including a ten minute video, worth a look! Catch it here.

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.

The Fir Domhan March

Right, I'm off to NWG. Post tourney report Monday. Hopefully my cyclopean bog dwellers will acquit themselves adequately!

Later folks.

NWG 2012 - Post Mortem

So, NWG 2012 is all wrapped up. A great event, well run and lots of fun. It's the first event I've attended in my return to the tournament scene, and I had a ball. I was completely exhausted by Sunday, but it was a happy exhausted.

I'd been working up to this event for a while, getting my meargh ready with a day or so to spare. There's still an awful lot of work to be done on the fimir, (an awful lot) but this was their first outing and I was eager to see how the list functioned. So here's how the games went. This won't be blow for blow, more the highlights and things I can actually remember. We were using the SCALE system, with my list being SCALE 1.

On Friday night there were demo games of Malifaux, Hordes, Warmachine and such going on, as well as some Warhammer. There was a rather entertaining pub quiz which our team, team sparkleparty, managed to win. Go us.

A nice ease into the weekend ahead.

What IS that big metal fellow?

Game 1: Gareth Lombard's Dwarves (SCALE ?).
The first scenario was Dawn Attack. Most of the dwarf units ended up either centre or on the dwarf left flank, with most of mine centre or my left flank. Pretty much a classic dwarf castle, with dwarf units backing away from combat as unerringly accurate artillery complete with the rune of no misfire for dwarves pounded my poor fimir. There was not much more to the game, I eventually got to the dwarf lines in turn four, and as turn five rolled up we had to call it just as my half-dead (chosen) were preparing to give the anvil a good beating and hopefully overrun into all his toys. Sigh.

There was a little bit of a hoo-ha with Gareth's scale, so I'm not entirely sure of the final result, but I believe it was in the region of 13-7 to him after SCALE. Not the best start, but at least not a total tabling.

Hot dwarf on dwarf action.

Game 2: Dave Leahy's  Warriors of Chaos (SCALE 0)
Ah, the mirrormatch. This was probably my favourite game of the weekend. Dave is a combination of great hobbyist, great player and fun bloke to boot, a winning combo. We were playing Blood and Glory. Dave's warrior list was very different from my own, with Slaanesh units and the dreaded doom totem making my worry about leadership tests. His army was beautiful too, and most of the models were female.

Dave was running Galruach, who refused to die despite my best efforts. We then settled into an infernal gateway barrage on each other's armies, and eventually the eleven rolled up and Dave's bsb and her unit were sucked into the realm of chaos. My joy was short lived, as his pandemonium spell with puppet (we both had the puppet, it was quite the duel) sent my meargh after the unfortunate bsb. Dave broke me about turn three, but the game gave victory points rather than an outright win, and we played on, with me breaking him a turn or so later. Another nice moment was Dave's Slaanesh girls charging down the hill into my fimm (warriors of Tzeentch with halberds) and giving them a good hiding. Galruach was the man of the match though, keeping me on the back foot but still keeping close enough to the bsb to pass his mad two headed dragon tests. A crackingly good game, despite an 18 - 2 rollicking with SCALE. It was not looking good for the Fir Domhan...

Galruach - he crazy

Game 3: Dave Holohan's Dark Elves (SCALE 0)
I'd played Dave once before using my chaos dwarves and lost to him in the watchtower scenario. This time it was straight up Battleline. It was a bloody affair, with my half dead (chosen) and  fimm (warriors) butchering his corsairs and executioners while the meargh killed scores of elves with infernal gateway. Meanwhile Crom (hellcannon) held up the black dragon long enough to keep it out of the game. The hydra piled into my large block of human shearl (Khorne marauders with great weapons) and utterly destroyed them. Fecking hydras. Still, after the red mist had cleared it was the fimir who had won the day. Another top game with a great opponent, finishing 16 - 4 to me after SCALE.

At this juncture I was rather weary and in need of food urgently, having utterly forgotten about lunch. This was remedied, though I had to pretty much beg the waiter for another glass of water at the Indian we went to. Strange how the beer arrived with no delay though. Some drinks were had, but nowt too crazy, as I still had a fear of gin from two weeks ago. Sunday morning we were only a little late...

The ogres that won best painted. Lovely.

Game 4: Eoin Lennon's Vampire Counts (SCALE 0)
Watchtower, my least favourite scenario. My opponent, Eoin, was an utter gent, who put up with my slightly tired/hungover meanderings. This may have come across as my being a bit gamey, but was actually to do with me just forgetting to do everything. My hat goes off to you Eoin. As a vampire counts player, I was very interested in seeing the new units in action as I haven't played vampires much since the new book came out.

My half-dead (chosen) got an early charge in against the grave guard holding the tower and smashed them into bonemeal, allowing me to garrison the building. By the end of the game (we were forced to call it at the end of turn three) the terrorgheist had screamed them down to one chosen. I got a lucky strike in on his ghoul king as it ploughed into my fimm (warriors) and my Flaithmor (exalted hero) with the sword of anti-heroes and the other trickster's shard took off his head thanks to a ward save re-roll. The vargheists were fed hounds until they butted up against Crom (hellcannon) and stuck there. Crom had also managed to pin the hexwraith's.

Another fun game, Eoin was very magnanimous and I look forward to meeting him on the field of battle another day. Result was a 17-3 to me after SCALE.


Game 5: Kevin Rynne's Dark Elves (SCALE 0)
Finally game five, Meeting Engagement. After two wins, Kevin put me right back in my place. He had a stubborn pegasus lord with the pendant of Khaeleth, that bloody hydra, tooled up assassins, corsairs, spearmen, two bolt throwers and two mages, a level four and level two. He also had some hardcore harpies, who beat my hounds to death even when outnumbered.

After Crom (hellcannon) was sent down a hole with an irresistible pit of shades in turn two, I had a bad feeling. I felt better after my fimm (warriors) murdered a crossbow unit and caused his big spearman block containing his level four to flee off the field. The hydra then managed a double six charge into the rear of the fimm and sent them packing. Despite having no shooting or magic by turn four, Kevin used his pegaus lord masterfully to tie up the half-dead (chosen) while his corsairs mowed down my shearl (marauders). A really fun game against a very good opponent. Final score, 19 - 1 after SCALE to Kevin.

I'm not a 40k player, but wow.

Onto the closing ceremony and some very nice trophies and prizes were handed out. I came 18th out of 28, which I was happy with, considering I had had just two games with the warriors of chaos before the tournament. Utterly spent, we packed up and headed for home. I'll certainly be attending next year, with even more fimiry goodness.

NWG practice games & the dangers of gin

Last weekend two long time pals of mine called down for a few practice games for the upcoming NWG tournament in Wicklow. I needed this badly, as I've played not a single game with the warriors of chaos list, the list I am using for my fimir clan. In fact, I've not played warriors in at least two editions. I was to learn some things. Painful things.

After many years playing pretty much only my beloved vampire counts, I've embraces both the sons of Hashut and the fimir in the last while. The fimir in particular are a project I had been mulling over a long time. However, with this change I now have to consider things like panic, break tests, battle standard bearers and all the other paraphernalia of living troops. It's like a new game. And what better way to ease into a new army than bring it to a competitive tournament against folks who live only to drink the tears of their broken and weeping foes. (Not at all lads, yer all lovely, but the tears thing I stand behind.) In at the deep end, I guess. With all this in mind, I thought I better at least know the rules for my own army so as not to take even longer to complete a turn. I believe my surname has even become synonymous in certain circles with taking an age to take your turn. 'Come on mate, you're Staffording the hell out of this magic phase.'

Lovely.

So we set to it. I played against John's lizards and Craig of Blog of Grudges fame and his dwarves. Against Craig, I learned to mind my meargh (sorcerer Lord on disc) from getting cannoned off in turn 1. This is an elementary lesson I apparently needed to re-learn. I also developed a deep affection for the Infernal Gateway spell. My fimm (warriors with halberds and mark of Tzeentch) are super resilient, taking a rear charge from a block of thirty miners and not only surviving the impact, but turning about and pounding the little fellows back into the ground. Ultimately though, the anvil Craig was packing allowed some dwarf units to pull off some sneaky charges, and though it was close,  Craig did me in 14-6.

John's lizards taught me other things, things like don't get suckered into charging a unit that won't break, thereby pulling it out of the battle line and subsequently getting mullered by 3 counter charges. Chosen are good (my half-dead, bog mummies, essentially) but not that good. The Tuatha Taiden (marauders with mark of Khorne and great weapons ) did very well, holding the line against all, due in great part to the chieftain (exalted hero with sword of anti-heroes & other trickster's shard) who killed the lizard general, battle standard and a stegadon single-handedly, and he didn't think it too many. Poor deployment on my part, plus a general lack of experience cost me, but John's dice mocked him relentlessly, almost resulting in him losing his last Kroxigor and ancient stegadon to an overrun directly under his own Comet of Casandora spell. It would have been very funny indeed had they died as it ploughed down directly on top of them. In the end, a draw, which got pulled to an 11-9 to John due to my SCALE 1 list.

I'm enjoying the fimir, it's a new play style, and I'm having a blast putting the army together. The meargh is half done. I now have two weeks to finish her, which for me is cutting it close.

After the warhammer we gave Blood Bowl - Team Manager a go, and I have to say, all the positive reviews were bang on the money. What a great game. It is reminiscent enough of the actual game to seem familiar, but has plenty of it's own pleasant quirky rules. At this stage however, we were into our second bottle of gin, so my review is tainted somewhat by severe inebriation. And boy, how I paid for it the next day. Gin is the tipple of the devil himself, there can be no doubt.

So, after a most pleasant couple of days gaming I can safely say I am totally unprepared for the unlawful pounding I will receive at NWG.

BLOOD AND THUNDER!

On a side note, it seems I suck all the ass at Blood Bowl online. All of it. After another 4-0 defeat tonight I think I need to reconsider my future playing this game. How terrible to love a game and be truly awful at playing it.