One for the little guys

May in the UK for Blood Bowl types means the NAF Championship up in Nottingham. It's one of the highlights of the calendar, an impressively run event which regularly sees 180+ coaches battling it out for one of Blood Bowl majors.

It's especially good because it takes place in the East Midlands Conference Centre, with a discounted rate on the attached lovely hotel, and it attracts plenty of European coaches. It's a chance to meet up with friends from Italy, Belgium, France, Spain that you may only see once or twice a year, play some nerd games and have a few beers. You can even roll out of bed on a hangover and stumble over the road to your table. Get on it, you won't regret coming!

Anyhoo, I've only ever taken tier 1 teams to the event in the past, and as I'm not making many Blood Bowl tournaments at the moment I decided it was time for a challenge. The NAFC has a lot of stunty coaches (playing halflings, ogres and goblins, they're not particularly short. Well some of them are). The stunty cup is a prestigious event as a result, so I thought I'd have a stab at it.

I settled on halflings. I last played them in a tournament in 2011, so what better excuse to pick them up again!

The NAFC is a TW110 event, so you get a bit to play with and can field a star or two to help out the weaker teams. They also get a couple of extra skills to make up for their squishiness and slowness, so here's what I came up with.

2 treemen (both block)
9 halflings (3 x side step, 2 x diving tackle, 1 x sprint)
Zara the Slayer
Puggy Baconbreath
1 RR
2 FF
Halfling Masterchef

Many coaches have been taking Zara and Karla (basically Zara, without stab and stakes). You have no rerolls with that roster though, and it therefore relies too much for me on the masterchef working.

Zara is golden, but a strength 3 block fling in Puggy is also so useful. My roster was sorted!

I travelled up on Friday, meeting with some @welwynwargamers members at Warhammer World and heading out to the amazing Annie's Burger Shack for dinner (something of a Nottingham ritual for me).

After a few beers on the Friday night and some Underworlds, 191 coaches settled down for six games over two days. Here's how it went:


Game 1: vs Skaven


I was playing James Smith, who I've faced a couple of times before. His roster was all speed, and pretty frightening for the slow old halflings.

Rat Ogre
2 Blitzers
Thrower (leader)
4 Gutter Runners (1 wrestle)
4 Linemen (1 kick)
Skitter Stab-Stab
1 RR
1 FF

Yikes. At least if I hit stuff it would stay dead, but still. I'd have to be on my (hairy) toes.

James received and immediately scored in 2, although I stole his rerolls. My drive went relatively smoothly as Puggy had the ball and I employed a cage and loose screen to deter the gutter runners from trying anything ratty.

My trees did not root, and I made decent progress up the field before equalising in turn 8. I had killed a couple of gutter runners during the drive, as strength 7 trees with mighty blow often leaves a mark, and if it doesn't a 5 player gang foul might make up for it.

When James rolled a blitz at the start of the second half, he was in a real quandry. Again I'd taken 2 rerolls, so he only had leader, and with rats leaving the pitch he decided it was now or never. Unfortunately, it was never as the blitz through didn't knock over the fling and he couldn't catch the ball.

The rats never saw it again, as I removed more and fouled the remaining players off as the halflings waddled up the pitch. A 1 turner with 6 rats is tricky, even more so against two stand firm trees and a side stepping halfling. Not to be.

2-1 win, 2-0 CAS


Game 2: vs Wood Elves

This time I was up against Jason Thornton, of Tritex Games fame, along with his unique dice throwing style. Wood Elves are even more agile than rats, oh dear.

2 Wardancers (Strip Ball, Frenzy)
Thrower
Treeman
3 Catchers (1 x block)
4 Linemen
2 RR

I won the toss this time, and put the wood elves in to receive hoping to force them to score early again. I only took one reroll for the first half, but did force the turn 2 score.

This gave me a long time to try and hold on to the ball against the strip ball wardancer, but I secured it from the kick off and proceeded to attempt to bait that wardancer in. My opponent obliged, and the leap failed. And a gang foul dealt with that problem.

I could breathe a sigh of relief as with Puggy on the ball, even the tackler was on half dice if he made it into the cage and he'd be surfed/fouled to oblivion hopefully if he did. The drive went smoothly enough, and it was 1-1 at the half.

Second half, the chef kicked into gear and I had 4 rerolls. Jason leaped in as often as he could, and with only 1 reroll it did not pay off. It's only a 3+, but I think he failed it virtually every time, although he had a half dice blitz to roll if he did. When he failed, the wardancer was fouled, but only for a stun each time.

Eventually I was up by his endzone, merrily fouling catchers and lineelves off the pitch. His only shot was a multi-dodging block catcher, who did finally get there but couldn't sack Puggy and then got surfed for his troubles.

I scored in turn 16, and the wood elf one turner met a side step fling and that was that. 2 wins!

2-1 win, 2-1 CAS


Game 3: vs Lizards

Giovanni Torre and his lizards was my reward for a second win. This was going to be tough, lizards are faster and much stronger. The Kroxigor is a big pain too. Hmmm.

6 Saurus (2 x block, 1 x break tackle)
6 Skinks
Krox
2 RR

Formidable indeed. I stole one reroll and decided to receive this time, hoping to kill a skink or two with Zara and possibly chip a saurus with so little block.

My drive was a little tricky, as skinks are so fast they can get round you and an early failed pick up didn't help me. One of my trees rooted early which made progress tricky, but I had the ball safe enough.

I had done little damage and was losing players, and eventually having not been able to force any way through I used my rooted tree to hurl the fling over the top. He stuck the landing, and it was 1-0.

A lizardman one turner is a thing of beauty, but it didn't happen because of stand firm and side step. So 1-0 at the half.

Second half and halflings got splatted good and proper. A riot at the start meant though that Giovanni didn't fancy scoring too early and it was meandering to a draw as thrown flings didn't find their target in the cage and treeman were too far away to cause damage.

I had a one turner attempt with the throw team mate, but a deep kick left me too many dice and I failed the landing for what would have been an undeserved winner.

1-1, 2-3 CAS


Game 4: vs Humans

They're still faster, they have better armour, and they're stronger. And they have an ogre. I was up on table 7 for this one, could the flings pull off another shock?

Ogre (block)
4 blitzers (2 guard, tackle, frenzy)
2 catchers (2 block)
Thrower
4 linemen
3 RR
Apo
1 FF

Not 100% on the roster, but I think it's correct.

I stole all 3 rerolls and decided to receive and get in amongst them. An early double skull from Zara wasn't great, but I did manage to recover the kick off and get it into a cage. Again early rooted trees cost me rerolls, but a timely CAS on a blitzer, followed by a lineman, allowed the flings to surge (roll?) through and I was in position to score.

Gordon had played the first half without rerolls, managing manfully as he took few risks and put them in his favour when he had to roll dice. Good coaching! However, it did bite him when he went for 1 block too many in turn 7, and to make matters worse he didn't break armour on my fling.

That allowed Puggy to get a 2 dice blitz, and he shuffled into the endzone for a nervy TD.

Again no one turner, so on to the second half. Gordon had some rerolls this time, but with hefty pressure on went for a couple of GFIs (burning a reroll) to hand off to a catcher and decided to put it in in turn 2.

It was the halfling turn to start rolling skulls as I tried for the winner, with Zara failing and a tree rooting despite a reroll. I was struggling to make progress although had secured the ball and Gordon went in with everything, marking all available flings and leaving me with dice to roll.

When Puggy inevitably failed the dodge away it was looking grim for the flings, although the ball had tackle zones on it. It was no reroll time for the humans however, and a crucial block was a double skull and the flings could recover again.

I was just over halfway, and sent a runner up ahead to distract the humans. The ball wasn't safe to advance, and Zara had been knocked out by now so I had to offer the fling up the pitch as a tempter and resort back to a throw teammate if needed.

It was needed as I burned my penultimate reroll in turn 6 or 7, but thankfully having cleared the treeman he made the pass and the halfling aced the landing to win it!

2-1 win, 2-2 CAS


Game 5: vs Amazons

I was again on table 7, with top Italian coach Francesco Panicucci facing me. He had Karla too, this was going to be tricky

4 Blitzers (3 guard, mighty blow)
7 Linewomen (tackle)
Thrower (leader)
Karla von Kill
2 RR

A strength 4 blodger on the opposing team was going to be a problem I felt. This was the best game of the tournament for me, so tense on both sides.

I played Francesco in the German Team Bowl last year, and that was another cracker, so this was played in a great spirit.

I received, and managed to get a couple of ladies off the pitch thanks to the trees. I stole all Francesco's rerolls, and he wasn't able to cause any damage despite mighty blow as flings stayed on their feet.

Thanks to the rerolls I had, the trees remained mobile and I eventually forced my way through to score in turn 8.

Second half I had plenty of flings, but grabbed just the one reroll this time and finally the amazons could break some armour and remove my players. Wisely, knowing we had to win if we wanted to get into the final (there's a final for the top two placed coaches after round 5), Francesco put it in hoping to turn me over and get the second.

So followed 4 or 5 turns of too-and-fro Blood Bowl. It was tense, it was looking good for me, then a great turn for Francesco and it was looking bad, and then it would flip again.

Zara was key for me, blitzing people away from my flings or stabbing them if they got too close as I desperately tried to cling on to the ball.

Finally he had enough in turn 6 and made a 6+ dodge into the cage and got the ball loose. Uff, but he'd had some poor rolls for GFIs especially.

Then it was Zara's turn to hit back and POW the ball carrier. Again I could recover, and made a cheeky hand off to Puggy (nerves of steel FTW) and a dodge back inside the pocket. However, I couldn't protect him from Karla, who would need a dodge to get out and hit him. She made it with the reroll and hit the POW, knocking him out.

The ball was loose, and I felt it was curtains, but I had diving tackle in key places and thankfully it worked enough to prevent the amazons getting the ball in turn 8.

But I still had a turn... I needed many dice, including dodges through tackle, a pick up in tackle zones, GFIs, a handoff in tacklezones, pass by the tree and a landing.

I proceeded to make the dodges with the first fling, and my opponent got more and more pale. I made the GFIs. I failed the handoff, but I had a reroll! I passed the handoff....

And the tree failed his root roll to move over and throw him! What an epic finish. A draw was the right result, but with a growing crowd cheering on the flings I came pretty close. Great game.

1-1, 1-2 CAS


Game 6: vs Wood Elves

Now on table 5, dizzying heights for my flings. I was in with a good chance of the stunty cup, as my third round opponent made the final against Kfoged's dark elves. I was playing great friend David Downes, this would be fun whatever happened.

2 Wardancers (tackle, strip ball)
4 Catchers (2 block, 2 side step)
5 linemen
2 RR
Apo

Again I think this is correct. Definitely 4 catchers.

I stole the rerolls, but Dave chose to receive. I felt I had a chance.

The wood elves danced around as they do, and my previously decent dice decided now was the time to take a break. An early double skull with Zara again cost me position, and then a tree rooted and I couldn't reroll.

It was plain sailing for the wood elves as two thrown flings splatted and didn't hit the ball carrier. 0-1, but a throw team mate chance.

The kick was ok, but I failed the landing for the fling for the one turner.

Second half, and I'd only removed one elf and lost a few of my own. Dave blitzed with his tackle every turn as he should, knocked over a fling but I don't think he broke armour until turn 7 or 8.

I burned rerolls pretty quickly, and eventually as my numbers dwindled was forced to go for a TTM to at least get on the board and force him to win it. That worked (with final reroll), but he had 3 to win it.

And although a deep kick gave me some hope, my lack of rerolls was telling. Puggy had a chance of a 1 dice blitz for glory on a wardancer, but that went south and the wood elves needed either a simple dodge and GFI or a dodge and hand off to win.

The first dodge roll was a 1, but the second was a 3 and that, as they say, was that.

1-2 loss, 1-0 CAS

I was delighted to go 3/2/1, having played just tier 1 teams and all the speed that was more than I could hope for. I knew it would likely be close for the Stunty Cup with Purplegoo - current world number one (not with goblins) also in the hunt.

In the end, first tie breaker was strength of schedule, and my 4 games on the top 10 tables earned me the trophy. I was pretty pleased with that!!!

Congratulations to Jawa who won the final after extra time, and special mention to Thomas W who won the up and coming coach - he's only 10 and was up in the top 10 tables on day two. Amazing!

Til next time, thanks for reading!

Branching out...

April was a pretty busy month for me workwise and hobbywise as it turned out. There's a fair bit to cover, so bear with me...


New horizons


I had a cheeky trip up to Warhammer World with my son and a friend earlier in April, and having looked at it for a while I splashed out on Underworld: Nighthaunt as there's a few players at the club (@welwynwargamers, follow us!) and the models look good.

I bought the boxed set and the Gitz (?) because, well, goblins. I've played a few games so far, and it's pretty decent.

Having built a rudimentary deck from what came in the box, I can see there's a few weaknesses to my cards, but I'm happy enough while I learn how to play.

I have been using just the Nighthaunt gang so far, not a far of the Stormcast models as a whole and haven't built the gobbos yet. It's intriguing enough, and very fast which is perfect for the evening at a tournament or as a second game.

Age of Sigmar has also entered my lexicon. I played a game with a new member of the club a few week's back. Now I like many hated the way the Old World ended (was killed off). I didn't vow not to get into AoS as a result, but I have found I don't like the aesthetic of some of the factions.

I still have 4 8th edition fantasy armies - ogres, skaven, daemons and tomb kings - and I still play 8th now and again. I have no intention of rebasing them, one is custom resin bases and the other is lava bases done by me, and to be honest I still love the ranked up feel of Warhammer.

However, I tried out my ogres into Blades of Khorne and it was pretty fun.

There was a fair bit of interest at the club in running an escalation league, with the Path to Glory rules added where as you accumulate glory and experience your heroes and units can gain upgrades. So much so that 11 or so are planning forces for the league to begin end of June/early July.

To that end, and because I always wanted an orc army for fantasy but already had skaven so didn't want another horde force, I've gone for Bonesplitterz. The Orruks are too armoured/mega-armour looking for me, and savage orcs look great. As usual, I picked the force because of the models, no idea if they're any good.

I big order of that is due to arrive, although I have got the Malign Portents thing for some spells, the book, the core rule book and some savage orc heroes to be getting on with.

Painting monkey

April also saw me get my second guild for Guild Ball painted up - the farmers.

A mate from Welwyn Wargamers (again, @welwynwargamers) agreed to do them for me, and he's done an epic job. Pics without a white box don't ever do models justice, but they still look fantastic and I can't wait to play a few more games of them.

I had the best part of a month off Guild Ball after the Hemel event (see earlier blog), and will be returning with Blacksmiths in the near future. Farmers will be in the bag for a change up now and again, however.

Look at these models!

Hobby progress

I have so nearly finished off another 12 termagants for my Hive Fleet Gorgon. I say nearly as much putting off has delayed their completion. I've got another 8 genestealers to do after this lot, but that's the troops for the preliminary force done and I can move on to the bigger critters.

April also saw me dust off and paint up an old Blood Bowl star player - halfling legend Puggy Baconbreath. Why you might ask? Well, that will become clear in the next blog...

HHWC - Guild Ball tournament

It's time for a tournament update!

On Saturday I attended the HHWC Guild Ball tournament in nearby Hemel Hempstead.

Two other members of Welwyn Wargamers (check us out on Facebook and Twitter @welwynwargamers) were among the field of 30 hoping to score some goals and takeouts.

Since getting in to the game at the end of 2017, I have largely played Masons. I'd been building up to this event for a few months after season 4 came out and had set it as a goal to get to and then put the Masons on the shelf for a bit as I've played them exclusively.

This was to be a 5-round one-day event, which is pretty intense. That said, I like the fact Guild Ball has a lot of one-day tournaments, which are easier to swing with family/work time pressures.

Anyway, I had whittled my Masons down to the 12 players needed for a roster. They were:

Hammer, Honour, Marbles, Wrecker, Chisel, Vet Chisel, Vet Harmony, Mallet, Tower, Flint, Granite, Snakeskin

They look something like this. I've posted these pictures before, apologies, but I didn't take any at the event due to time pressures etc so they'll have to do for now!

I was hoping to avoid butchers if I could, as their new captain Veteran Boar is hard to deal with. I was also a little nervous of the new Miners guild, which has created a buzz in the game chat. There were a few of both so that was going to be tricky!

Round 1 - vs Order

I drew the football maestros Order in round 1, and was playing Matthew Swann and his beautifully painted team.

A couple of weeks ago I got a few games against Order (thanks Ritch) so had an idea what I needed to do. You have to accept they are likely to score against you, probably after kicking, but you need to protect the ball and put that off for as long as you can whilst removing a few players.

Here's the line-ups:

MASONS: Honour, Marbles, Tower, Flint, Chisel, Mallet
ORDER: S Brisket, Pride, Vet Fangtooth, S Spigot, Mist, Grace

I lost the roll off and the Order kicked. This was a really close, fun game which saw Mist kick off and nip in and score first. Honour and Chisel then removed Mist and the Order captain, but in about turn 3 Spigot scored a second goal and it was 4-8 to the Order.

I removed S Brisket again, but lost Marbles and Tower shortly afterwards and was sitting at 6-11, although up on clock (you play Guild Ball on the clock at tournaments, it's great fun and really improves your play!).

However, I had Honour in a good place, Flint on the ball by the Order goal, and was confident I could get the remaining points needed. Honour killed the Order mascot, then captain for the third time and it was at this stage (9-11 down) that my opponent ran out of clock and I could hang on for a 12-11 win, with Flint holding the ball in front of the opponent's goal.

Phew!

Round 2 - vs Brewers

I was matched up against Mark Rickell, who is a GB pundit from down in Bristol. This was going to be a tough game!

Here's the line-ups:

MASONS: Hammer, Wrecker, Tower, Flint, Vet Harmony, Granite
BREWERS: Tapper, Quaff, Stave, Hooper, Friday, Spigot

Again I lost the roll off and the ball was kicked to me. My opponent dominated the early proceedings and I lost captain Hammer early on.

Flint did score a goal for me though and I was able to stymie the brewers for a while using Veteran Harmony's Team Player trait, but eventually the damage told and I lost Granite (twice), Tower and my mascot. This meant it was 4-9 and I needed to get my finger out.

By this stage Flint had got the ball again and was in a position to score, and Hooper was strung out having taken out Granite for the second time. I was fairly sure I could get myself to 10 reasonably quickly, but I'd need another takeout from somewhere.

A combination of Hammer and Tower killed off Hooper, although I lost Veteran Harmony in the process so I was 6-11 down but about to score. Having used two players to take out Hooper I had to spend the momentum to heal up a couple of players and Mark had moved Friday up which I felt gave me the final take out target.

Flint tapped in the goal, and it was a screamer giving me 2 momentum. We both had 3 momentum, but I had a 7 momentum game plan card so knew I would be going first in the deciding turn.

Here is where I made a mistake. I played that card, but it means the first person you activate is at -1 TAC (attack dice).

I forgot this, but went first with Hammer and walked up to Friday to attack. Hammer is TAC7, and we both had a crowd out. I should have been rolling 6 dice, but was rolling 7. Hammer spiked his first roll (needs 4s, Friday has 1 armour, and rolled 5 hits) and got a 2 damage KD. Then I rolled only momentous 1 damage, but I bonus timed each one after that.

Because I'd forgotten the -1 TAC I didn't bother pushing her away from Tapper so that I wouldn't be crowded out. As it was, I spiked once more to get I think 3 damage double push and then hit the momentous 2 damage I needed on the remaining rolls to take out Friday and win the game.

5 minutes later we both realised the error. I was annoyed at myself at forgetting it, although Mark pointed out he didn't realise either. Having run it through again, I think it's still more likely that Hammer gets the take out, as he gets a 1" push from every successful hit and would soon have been out of crowd out from Tapper an into two gang ups. I needed 3 hits each time and having got the KD early (it's on 2 hits anyway), I think Friday was dead either way.

Still, I'd rather have rolled the right dice to make sure. It finished a 12-11 win to the Masons.

Round 3: vs Order

Another Order game - although there were 5 in the field so it wasn't unlikely. This time I was playing Conor Rooney who I'm in a London GB chat with, although I hadn't played him before. He's a bit good too...

MASONS: Honour, Marbles, Tower, Flint, Chisel, Mallet
ORDER: S Brisket, Pride, S Spigot, V Fangtooth, Harry 'The Hat', Mist

So I took the same team this time and lost the roll off again. I was getting the ball for the third time!

I wanted to get the ball early to Mallet, as he has smashed shins as a character play which can really ruin a striker/goal scorer's day.

Turn 1 I played more or less spot on as Conor commented, not allowing him a realistic chance at the ball.

Conor did go in turn 2 after I'd been overly-aggressive with Chisel, and I hit the smashed shins on the counter attack. I had moved Mallet too far away from my goal so S Brisket was out of range. She had to attack twice needed 4 of 5 dice to hit (crowded out but bonus timed), and got them both. And scored. Ugh.

Having overextended myself, I got caught out and although S Spigot missed a goal to give me a chance, I didn't really take it and Mist did get a second, followed quickly by Vet Fangtooth killing Chisel.

I took revenge on Mist, but Spigot could kill off a knocked down Tower and that was that. A 4-12 loss.

This was a good game to learn from. Having played well in turn 1, I kind of handed it back to Conor in turn 3 after he had to go for the goal that was there with S Brisket. Never mind!

Round 4: vs Hunters

I haven't had a great deal of playing against Hunters as no one local to me uses them really, so I was looking forward to this one. My opponent was Paul Sutton.

MASONS: Hammer, Wrecker, Flint, Granite, Tower, Chisel
HUNTERS: Skatha, Snow, Ulfr, Vet Minx, Zarola, Egret

Initial thoughts was that I felt reasonably confident. I had expected Theron and Seenah the bear, and I felt I could deal with this lineup, albeit I'd be under goal pressure.

I won the roll and chose to receive the ball this time, thinking I could get Hammer stuck in to the Hunters early on.

Skatha had other ideas as she flew in and tackled the ball, dodged away and scored. I consoled myself with beating her up a bit and leaving her close to a takeout so I could remove her at the start of the next turn.

That's what I did and as Paul had overextended a little with Ulfr, Chisel took the opportunity to take him out before he could activate. 4-4 and not looking too bad.

I parked the ball on Hammer in the corner, but Skatha came in again and used her legendary this time to get all the dodges and score again. 4-8.

I wasn't too disheartened though as I could now really kill the ball in the opposite corner, knowing the Hunters would have to spend a couple of turns to get to it and were not in a position to get any takeouts.

Hammer beat up Skatha again leaving her on little health so she could die the next turn. Tower also stepped up and removed Vet Minx. I'd moved Wrecker back towards the ball because of his speed, and also because if any Hunters did get close he can push them off the pitch.

I was going first again at 6-8, and with time approaching and me up on clock was feeling in a good position. Wrecker surfed Egret to make it 8-8 and although Skatha had healed a bit, I knocked her down to 1 health again and would be going first to remove her at the start of the next turn with a team on virtually full health and with the ball. My opponent realised he would just lose on clock if I didn't kill another player, so called it there. 12-8 win.

Round 5: vs Butchers

The inevitable matchup with the Butchers! I was playing Jon Clemens, who is one of the local opponents from London I play relatively frequently and he's a lovely guy so this was a great way to end the event!

We were on table 3, both on 3-1 and in with a chance of the podium. GB events always have a final, so the winner is always undefeated, so we weren't taking the title but a top 3 finish would be great in this field!

MASONS: Hammer, Marbles, Tower, Flint, Chisel, Vet Harmony
BUTCHERS: Vet Boar, Princess, Boiler, Meathook, Shank, Cinnamon

I was up against it. Vet Boar is very strong, and Masons struggle to deal with Butchers at the best of times. I won the roll and chose to receive, Flint eyeing up a goal early on.

As it was, I think I saved my best performance until last.

I played very defensive turn 1, passing the ball around a bit but instead of running off with Flint I kept him back and was able to pass the ball back to Tower to move him out of Vet Boar's threat. Vet Boar didn't manage to do anything in turn 1, and I resigned myself to losing initiative and healed up any damage.

In went Vet Boar into Hammer, but I'd left Vet Harmony nearby and I managed to keep him alive just about. Vet Boar's legendary Chop Chop went up, but Hammer then deleted Shank before he could activate and I healed up the captain and Vet Harmony.

Flint wandered off with the ball and I backed off with others. I left Tower engaging Vet Boar so even though he went first again, Tower was not dead due to Vet Harmony's proximity and Boar not being able to charge. Vet Harmony then went into Cinnamon and used her Field Medic ability to stand up Tower, and heal them both.

At one stage I used Marbles to goad Boiler in such a way that he had to run into his own player and couldn't really use his influence.

In turn 3 Vet Boar killed off Chisel pretty quick, but allowed Hammer away to takeout Boiler before he could activate, and start on Meathook too. Flint scored as well, putting me up 8-2.

In the penultimate turn, Vet Boar whaled on Hammer a bit, but thanks to the irrepressible Vet Harmony he lived.

Jon knew he had to deal with Vet Harmony because she'd healed herself a bit again, and knocked down Hammer and moved around to finally finish her off. She'd done her job though! 8-4

Hammer gets up, knocks Boar away, walks into Meathook and tackles her and knocks her down. He whales on her for a bit as I pushed her towards Flint and the goal, where the striker was lurking...

Again Boar was going first, but Hammer was reasonably healthy still, and he couldn't do the damage with a bucket load of ones on some hits. The ball had gone loose from a knockdown though so my plan of surfing Meathook up the pitch and passing to Flint for the tap in winner wasn't on just yet.

Instead I realised Hammer could kill off Meathook, and then smash up Cinnamon getting enough momentum to probably go first and kill her in the next turn.

It had been a really cagey game for me, and at this stage dice down was called with me having about 6 minutes left on the clock and Jon about 3 or so. 8-4 victory, somehow!



So I finished off 4-1, which put me in 4th place in the final standings. I was delighted tbh, especially with the way I played in games 1, 2 and 5. Coming back from 11-4 down against the Brewers was probably the highlight, although forgetting the -TAC spoilt it for me a little.

Five games in a day is extremely tiring, and I was burnt out. That will probably be my last Guild Ball for a couple of weeks while I recharge my batteries.

Masons are going on the shelf, despite their new 'ace striker' captain Corbelli coming out in a week or so.

I'm moving on to Blacksmiths as my main focus, but I think I'll dabble in some Order and Fishermen now and again for a change of flavour.

Thanks for reading!

The swarm is growing...

Little hobby update, although not a lot as you’ll see.

I’ve been working towards a 750pt Tyranid list for 40k. Initially when we started Welwyn Wargamers - check us out on Facebook and Twitter (shameless, I know) - we began with a 750pt escalation league to get us all building and painting new armies.

I started with Crimson Fists as they’d been sat in my garage for years, but found painting and playing them pretty uninspiring.

So when I began the nids, I decided I’d paint stuff before playing it, so that’s what I’ve been doing so far. I have played a few games of Kill Team with them, and they seem pretty fun. Very much looking forward to seeing them on the table!

Anyway, that initial 750pt list had to be revised with the GW points alteration a few months ago and that meant I need more of the little guys! I’m not the fastest painter, so that means more time off the table, but never mind.

Here’s the progress on my second batch of termagants. Base and first layer and washes done. Now comes all the fiddly detail work!

My list is this:

Broodlord

20 genestealers (3 acid maws, 5 scything talons)

20 termagants (4 devourers)

3 Hive Guard (impaler cannons)

Tervigon

Pretty straightforward, mostly coming from the start collecting set and a couple extras.

It’s all Hive Fleet Gorgon, and I have no idea if it’s any good (don’t care either!) but hopefully it’s a useful core for when the army grows over 1,000pts.

Tell me what you think!

Snakeskin

Snakeskin

I’ve done some hobby!

So as mentioned in a previous entry I have my second Guild Ball tournament later this month in not far away Hemel Hempstead.

I’m taking my Masons again, and have been getting a few games in with them against some more experienced and crucially tournament savvy players.

Recently the OPD (organised play document) for Guild Ball changed to bump up guild rosters to 12

players. For Masons that means you need to drop two standard players to fit in the 12.

However, since S4 started I have whittled down the players I use and there are 3 that don’t make the cut for me. Others will have other opinions, but for me oHarmony, Brick and Lucky never see the field. In fairness, I was a Brick hipster even in S3 as I found him too easy for my opponent to farm momentum off and a good player wasn’t bothered by his counter charge threat.

Harmony is an odd one as with linked and her synergy with Honour, by far my favourite Masons captain, she can be great. She is so so fragile though, and that linked shtick only really works imo to win a game. So she doesn’t make the cut sadly.

Lucky is an interesting player but I can’t really work out what he brings to the team. I’d need to play him more, for now though he’s not in.

So for my 12th player I’ve gone for a Union option, while I still can! I’ve had a fair bit of success with Decimate and I very nearly opted for her. She does plenty of work and is very efficient with her inf>momentum. I’ve chatted to a few in the London meta, and they convinced me to give Snakeskin a go.

What I’ve found is she’s a handy choice in particular matchups - Alchemists, Engineers, Obulus Morts for example. I’d usually opt for Flint, but she’s a useful player to have around.

On that note, I painted her up so I can use her at Hemel and she’s the only Guild Ball model I’ve painted so far! (I got the Masons painted for me)

I also built a tournament tray to carry the team and widgets etc at events. Here’s some pics:

40k/Kill Team

40k/Kill Team

Here's my other major hobby project at the moment, my Tyranids.

My first 40k army as a teenager was the old lead/metal nids, and I had about 1,000pts I think. After getting back into hobby stuff, I wasn't sure my painting skills are up to doing them justice (still not sure tbh) and at the club we started an escalation league as many of us were rediscovering the game.

I had a cupboard full of marines ready for a Crimson Fist army. That front page of Rogue Trader all those years ago has a lot to answer for!

That said, I built 2,000pts or so of the marines, but I really did not enjoy playing them and least of all painting them. It was a real struggle.

So, when the Tyranid codex came out it wasn't hard for me to switch projects. This time, however, I'm building a unit and painting it with a view to getting to 750pts before I play a game.

I've only done troops so far, as with a chunk of them done I can mix and match the force once it's on the table. It's focused around genestealers, because you know, aliens. Other than that, I plan on a mix of all sorts as I don't know what stuff does and I'm not bothered about net lists etc.

I have painted up 16 genestealers and 12 termagants as it stands. Not a great deal, and it's taken me a while even using the airbrush for the initial two layers. One thing I'm not is a fast painter, but I'm fairly happy with how my fledgling Hive Fleet Gorgon looks.

Here they are:

For now any games I get in with them will be in Kill Team, where they're pretty fun if fragile!

Cheers

Guild Ball

Guild Ball

I was introduced to Guild Ball a while back by a friend, but began playing at the start of 2018 as season 3 was in full swing.

Initially I just played Masons as I learned the game - and there's plenty to learn - having been given the Honour box by the friend. I quickly picked up the second box, and have since obtained a number of the teams including: Blacksmiths, Brewers, Butchers, Falconers, Farmers, Fishermen, Hunters, Order and Union.

Anyway, early doors I had my Masons painted up for me and they're still my 'main' guild at the moment. They look a bit like this:

I'm a big fan of the Masons' flexibility, and I've focused on them as I got in to Season 4.

Next month, I will be taking them to a 32-player event in Hemel Hempstead - my second Guild Ball tournament - which is a great chance to test myself against much more experienced players and different guilds.

As well as games at Welwyn Wargamers - where we set up an escalation league which has enthused a number of new players thankfully - I occasionally pop down to Thor's in Borehamwood to test myself against some tournament-goers.

Anyway, I'm in the process of painting up Snakeskin to go in my tournament 12 for next month. Pictures to follow, she's had some basecoats on at the moment, but plenty more to go.

I'm also working on painting up my butchers. Here's their bases - all by Broken Toad:

I have a number of projects on the table at the moment - don't we all - but hopefully by March I will start to get some paint on the players themselves so I can field my second painted guild!

Cheers for reading.